by Palvi Sharma
Mark gave her an amused glance and then sat down across her. “I never intended to join this school.” He said, pouring water into her glass.
Melissa took a small sip of water and twirled it around her mouth before swallowing the cool liquid. “What do you mean? When we graduated you did express your desire to join this very school.”
“I only picked this because I thought you wouldn’t follow me here.” Mark said as he put ketchup into his plate. “I was trying to protect you from all this.”
Melissa put down her bun and reached for a napkin. “You were trying to break up with me in High School?” Her heart beat faster as she waited for his answer.
Mark put his hand gently over hers. “I had to come here to do this. This is my calling; I was the only one who could stop this. I was hoping like crazy that you would refuse to come with me or that your parents would be successful in stopping you, but you were persistent.”
“Your calling?” And then she frowned at him as the rest of his words settled in. “Are you trying to say that I’m clingy?” Melissa asked and tried to pull her hand away, but Mark held on.
“I love you.” Mark said earnestly. “And yes, this is my calling.” He hesitated and Melissa could see him struggling to say something else. His eyes flickered away as if he was lost in thought and she saw the worry lines deepening over his forehead. And then suddenly his face softened and he gave her a weak smile.
“I would never forgive myself if anything happened to you. After the semester was over, I thought you would go back for the summer to visit your parents so that you wouldn’t be here when all this came down, but when you told me your plans and I decided to pretend to cheat with another girl so that you would leave.”
“I did leave the dorms.” Melissa said and took a deep breath. “Jennifer joined a school in this city too, so we were going to find an apartment together and get jobs.”
“If I’d known that you hadn’t left...”Mark looked down.
“You can still help me.” Melissa said. “All you have to do is explain everything to the Sheriff and let me and Jennifer go.” She remembered Jennifer wasn’t with her and massaged her head, feeling it pound severely. “When I find her.”
“It’s not that easy.” Mark said and gulped down water from his glass. “The demons are fixated on you and Jennifer. If we keep their focus on you, it will be easier to catch them.”
Melissa pulled out her hand angrily and got up from her chair. “So what? I’m bait now?”
Mark quickly got up from his seat. “No! I mean...I really didn’t think it was going to be you.” He said sheepishly.
“Even if it were someone else, would you have still thrown a complete stranger in front of the demons?”
“This is the way it is now.” Mark said. “It took me years to figure out who they were and what they’re up to. It took me months to find their graves and burn them, even though they had already been damaged by the construction machine! I thought I had it in under control and that it wouldn’t come to this. But it did!”
Melissa pushed away her plate. Her appetite had vanished as soon as Mark told her that he had been studying up on the demons. How could she have been oblivious to all this while they were dating? She swallowed and felt tears prick her eyes. She blinked them away and glared at him. “I don’t want to be part of this terrible plan. I want to leave this very instant!” Melissa said and crossed her arms.
“I would never in a million years ask you for such a favor, but I have to end this. On the night of the new moon, the demons will escape and until and unless I don’t end this, they will return year after year to terrorize the citizens of this city. I have to stop this and you’re the only one who can help me.” Mark said desperately.
“No!” Melissa said. “I want to go back home!”
“Fine.” Mark said exasperatedly and thrust a hand into his hair. “I’ll talk to the sheriff and he’ll let you out and then you can go home. Without Jennifer.”
Melissa clutched at the corner of the table. How could she forget all about her friend? How would she face her parents and tell them that she could have tried to save their daughter, but that she was too much of a coward.
“I won’t let anything ever hurt you.” Isn’t that what she had promised her best friend?
Mark had her cornered. She had no choice but to give in to his wishes. How could he be so cruel as to dangle Jennifer’s safety in front of her? “Do you know where she is?” Melissa asked, biting back a sob.
“Only that they have her.” Mark said quietly.
“What do they want with her?”
Mark looked at her with a frown. “I’m pretty sure they want to kill her and turn her into one of them.”
Melissa felt her eyes tearing up and leaned back trying to compose herself. “Why would they do that to her?”
Mark shrugged and sat back down. “They are evil, Melissa. They want to inflict misery on all of us and the more of them the better right?”
Melissa took a deep breath. “Rafe told me about this too, you know.” Mark’s eyes widened with shock as she told him. “He said the five riders died in a fire and that the people here think that by offering us…” her voice broke and she took another deep breath. She had to keep her tears in control; she just had to. “Offering us as sacrifice the demons would go away.” Her bottom lip started to tremble and she bit down on it. “And now Jennifer is somewhere with the demons and I should have done...something!”
He came over to her side and put an arm around her shoulders, bring her gently closer towards him. “We’ll try to save her. I promise.” Mark said softly.
She wiped away the single tear that had rolled down her face. “I’m in.” Melissa said determinedly. “We have to save her.”
Mark almost looked half disappointed and half relieved, and Melissa wondered which look she cared for more.
“So what’s the plan?” she asked.
Mark stroked her cheek. “If they can get to you too, it would make them more powerful. So theoretically, they will try to capture you by all means.”
Melissa nodded. “All I have to do is draw them out. Then what?”
“We’ll be ready for him.” Mark stated. “And this time we’ll get them!”
Chapter Fifteen
As they walked out the restaurant, Melissa turned towards the burnt down grocery store. “Was this necessary?” she asked. “Why did you guys have to burn this down?”
“We’ve been tracing their patterns over the past few months.” Mark explained. “Witnesses said they saw the Demons emerge from somewhere around or inside the grocery. We thought that was a gate or portal of some sort, and when we couldn’t find any sort of passage or tunnel, we decided to burn it down. But we were wrong.”
Melissa frowned. “It’s just…”
“The grocer has insurance.” He smiled at her. “Plus, he was compensated beforehand by the Mayor. Now come on.”
The Mayor? Melissa couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The whole city was involved in this and as much as she could try to understand that the citizens just wanted to be rid of the demons, didn’t it matter to them even a little bit that they had just trapped innocents in a cage and used them as bait? Her thoughts went back to Jennifer and she desperately prayed for her safety.
Mark led her into an alley and helped her put on a jacket he had found in the wardrobe. The jacket was large for her but contained many pockets that would help her hold some things.
“I’ve packed a flashlight, an army knife, a few granola bars and tiny bottle of water, tissues and...”Mark started to look up and check things off his imaginary list that brought a small smile to her face.
“What about a cell phone?” she asked. “A walkie-talkie? Laptop with internet connection? A bug of some kind so that you can find me in case...things don’t go as planned?”
Mark grew serious and hugged her. “We’ll be right here. I’ve performed exorcisms before. Besides, demons interfere with all sorts of signals. No techn
ology could ever overcome their presences.”
“What about your friends?” Melissa asked.
“Friends?” He raised an eyebrow. “Actually, we barely know each other.” Mark said and stepped back. “Butch, Arnold and Harley are from the North. Kevin is from the East. We just happened to share a common goal.”
“You mean they all thought slaying demons were their calling too?” Melissa asked, unable to keep the hint of cynicism from her voice. Even now, the whole situation seemed too surreal. Was this really happening to her? She had come to this city to study and continue her relationship with Mark, instead a whole new world of demons and slayers had been thrust onto her.
Mark frowned at her. “I know this is still too much for you to take in, but this is the truth Mel. There are demons in this world and there are people like us who have to stop them. It just happened out of the blue for me too.” He said and put his hands in his pockets as the cold began to set. “One minute I was studying for my finals, the next minute I receive a message asking me to come here.”
“How were you found?”
Mark hesitated. “I’ll explain all this later. Right now we have to focus on this.” He put a hand on her cheek. “You trust me?”
Melissa nodded. “So, can we go over the plan again?”
Mark nodded and inserted another army knife into her pocket. “We’ll let you stand near the grocery store, because apparently that’s where he emerged from the last night, although we still couldn’t find any entrance, secret or otherwise.” Mark stared at the ruins of the store and sniffed. It was getting even colder and Melissa was glad she had clothes to keep her warm. The jacket especially was snug. She rubbed her gloved hands and blew on them as Mark gestured to one of his friends to get to their positions.
“Getting back to our plan, when Rafe emerges, we’ll read the exorcism, but only half way so that we could torture him into giving us Jennifer’s location. In the instance, our plan backfires and he manages to grab you...”
Mark looked away again and took a deep breath. “I wouldn’t let it come to that, I promise.” He said determinedly. “But if it does, I want you to drop the contents of this bottle that would help pinpoint your location to us.”
Melissa took the bottle from his freezing hands and put it up. “What is this? Some kind of potion?”
Mark gave a short laugh. “No, nothing as magical as that. It’s just a special luminous dye that would leave a trail for us.” He took it from her hands and placed it into her shoes. “If Rafe manages to grab you, just stamp real hard on this and...”
“The glass would shatter and stab my foot. Great plan.” Melissa said as she saw the sun going down.
Mark quickly took it out and stared at it. “I guess I didn’t think that through.”
Melissa shook her head as the sky started to darken. For Mark it would have been one mistake, for her it would have cost her life…and Jennifer’s too. Nevertheless it was too late to do anything. She could only hope Mark hadn’t overlooked anything else.
Mark quickly pulled out a small balloon and filled it with the thick dye. He wrapped the neck of the half-deflated balloon around her ring finger. “Now all you have to do is prick this with your nail and voila!”
“Mark!” Kevin called. “Come over here for a sec and check the plans.”
As Mark walked away, Melissa looked at the balloon wound around the inside of her finger. She turned over her hand and saw that it formed a rubber band around her ring finger. She smiled to herself then and wished Mark had given her a real ring when they were in the city. They had never really discussed marriage, but right here and now, she knew that she wanted to spend the rest of her life with him.
She stared at him as he talked to the others and spotted them holding onto books with strange letterings on the cover and wondered if that was where they were going to read the exorcism from.
Melissa felt a shudder go through her suddenly and she turned back when she felt a movement behind her.
Nothing. Not even a bird or a cricket. The street was completely deserted except for the six of them. But she still felt a little safer. Mark was there, his experienced friends were there and most importantly, they were well armed and ready.
She smiled to herself and turned back towards them and gasped. Standing right before her was Rafe, taller and stronger than when she had first seen him. He wore a sadistic smile and stared at her with a daunting gaze.
“Mark!” Melissa thought she had screamed, but what came out was a barely audible whisper.
Rafe gripped her wrist with his strong arms and pulled her towards him.
“Mark!” Melissa said, finally finding her voice. “Help me!”
“Melissa!” Mark cried and his friends rushed to his side with their books.
“Don’t!” Rafe said, putting up his hand. “Or I’ll snap her neck.”
Melissa started to struggle and her fingers brushed against the small balloon. Her fingers started to scratch at it when she told herself that this wasn’t the right time.
“Leave her!” Mark said. “Tell us what you really want.”
Rafe sneered at him. “Don’t you know?” he said sardonically.
Before anyone had a chance to act, Rafe ran away quickly, dragging her with him. Melissa yelled with pain and pulled back her finger and brought it down on her other hand. She yowled with pain when she realized that she had hurt her hand and looked down to see that the balloon had fallen off.
“Let me go!” she wailed.
“This is for your own good.” Rafe said and ran through dark streets. Melissa whimpered when she couldn’t see anything. How would Mark find her now if even she couldn’t see where she was going? She reached for her army knife in her pocket and closed her eyes. Her hand travelled to Rafe’s neck and she considered stabbing him with it. But Mark had insistently told her that he was a demon. He wouldn’t die, but only get madder. If her plan failed, Rafe would kill her on the spot.
Melissa gripped the knife tight in her hand and brought it down on the side of her thigh. She bit down on the slice of pain that shivered through her thigh and up to her stomach. She threw the knife away and felt for her wound, wincing as she felt the warm wetness on her leg.
Melissa felt herself getting weaker and she started to lean against Rafe’s arm, when suddenly, he pushed her and she felt herself falling.
“No!” she cried and found herself in foul smelling water. “Where are we?”
Rafe grabbed her roughly by her shoulder and pulled her through the murky waters and onto a ledge.
“The sewers?” Melissa said, “That’s where you’ve been hiding? Where’s Jen?”
Rafe leaned closer to her and Melissa could smell evil on his breath. Her hands reached out to grab the second army knife.
“All in good time.” Rafe said. “But let me begin by telling you that everything Mark has told you about me...is completely untrue.”
Chapter Sixteen
“What are you talking about?” Melissa asked. She had to stall, give Mark some time to track her down. But how could she stop him?
Rafe chuckled and sat down next to her. Melissa cringed but refrained herself from moving further away. The last thing she wanted to do was infuriate Rafe and end up dead.
“What did Mark really tell you?” Rafe asked.
Melissa bit down on her lip as the pain from her wound sent waves of agony up her abdomen. “That, you were a ghost- a demon!”
Rafe laughed harder for several seconds before getting up. “That’s a lie.” He turned towards her so suddenly that Melissa pushed herself against the wall. “I’m much worse.” he growled and swung his fist at her.
Melissa let out a groan and fell sideways and blinked twice before closing her eyes. The last thought she had before she plunged into darkness was a silent prayer that Jennifer be alright and that Mark find them.
*****
Her hands touched something hot and powdery and before she had even opened her eyes, Melissa kn
ew that it was morning again. The sun was hot and the heat was pricking at her skin. She opened her eyes, tiredly and gasped when she saw that she was lying face down on sand.
She coughed out the sand that had entered her mouth and dusted off her clothes as she rested on her knees. She looked around her and blinked. Surely, this couldn’t be right could it? There were trees around her and exactly in front of her were the tombstones she had tripped over two nights ago.
Melissa pulled herself up slowly and looked all around her. There was water all around her and she could spot the street from where she was standing.
“Surprised?” Rafe asked.
Melissa turned around to see him standing in the shadows of the trees. She couldn’t see his features; only a dark silhouette of him.
“How did I end up here?” she asked and brushed off more sand from her hair.