I don’t know what is happening with the other demons, but Abandon is transfixed in front of me. His mouth is open as he screams, but otherwise, he is motionless. His skin is starting to flake away, floating away from him like ashes in a storm. His eyes are glowing, but the glow is starting to be pulled from the corpse’s eye sockets towards my outstretched hand.
“No!” the demon shrieks. “Please, no! Not this! I will leave! You will never see me again! Please!”
Abandon’s stolen body crumbles completely to dust. A blazing glow of energy streams from his formless eyes towards the trap. It gets sucked inside the box, slamming the lid shut behind it. The crash of the lid sounds like a building slamming into the earth. My ears are ringing, and I slump to the ground, dizzy and exhausted.
The trap blazes with cold. I have to peel my hands off it. The glow from the symbols dims, and my awareness of my surroundings starts to return. Greystone is hovering near me, she came into the house at some point. Marsh is crouched over me, snapping his fingers in front of my face and calling my name. Finally, I nod to him. “I’m OK.”
Kim and Armstrong stagger into the room from the back. They are both battered and leaning on each other for support.
“Let me guess,” Armstrong growls. “It went sideways.”
Marsh taps the trap on the ground with the toe of his boot. The lid is shut, and the box looks the same as it did before, but I can tell something is different. I pick it up and feel it is buzzing with angry, restless energy. The box jolts in my hand, and I can feel something hitting against the insides. But that isn’t the strangest thing.
There are no hinges on the box. In fact, as I turn it over and around in my hands, I can’t see which side used to be the lid. It is completely sealed.
In my mind, I think I can hear the demon screaming from inside. I set the box down, suddenly disgusted by touching it. The other two demons are gone. Not trapped in the box, just no longer here. The corpses that remain, both those intact or in pieces, are devoid of life.
“C’mon,” Marsh says. “We’ve got work to do. Let’s get a crew out here to clean this place up. We’ve got to get back to the precinct and drop this bastard into the Pit.”
He smiles grimly. “And then we need to build a couple more traps.”
Chapter 43
The next morning, I walk through the door of Warner’s with Marsh right behind me. With the other demons still on the loose once again, I can’t go anywhere without an escort. I’ve got to figure out a way to keep myself safe without constantly requiring the protection of a babysitter. First, it was Finnegan, then that doorman Smith, now two demons. Since I remain the only one that seems to be able to recognize them, everyone on the squad has finally come to accept that it’s important to keep me alive. That’s a nice change from even a week ago.
A couple of guys are sitting at the bar, downing their drinks in silent, solitary companionship. Day and night don’t seem to make too much of a difference to the inhabitants here. Most of them don’t sleep, the days are permanently a cloud-covered gray, except when it storms, and it is even darker.
It doesn’t much matter when they start their drinking. Actually, now that I think about it, I’m not sure what most of them do at all. Some have jobs, obviously. No escape from that, even after death. But whatever they do, normally there are more people here, no matter what the hour. Even though we’ve been trying to keep a lid on what’s going on, I’m guessing that word has gotten out, and people are staying home.
Frank isn’t in his room, so we just wave to Warner and head back there. He acknowledges us in that patented glowering stare he’s worked on for countless years. We file into Frank’s room and close the door behind us. It is empty.
“Frank?” I call out. I wait. No response. I look questioningly at Marsh. He just shrugs.
I call out again, a little louder. “Frank? You here?”
His voice sounds right behind us. “What do you want, Detectives?”
I jump nearly a foot in the air, but Marsh barely blinks; he just turns around to face Frank.
“We need to ask you a few questions.”
“Of course, you do,” Frank responds, frowning and leaning around Marsh to look at me. “I have already helped you a great deal, Jacob. What more do you need from me?”
“Hey, pal!” Marsh interrupts angrily. “Don’t pretend you haven’t made out like a king from this deal. We’ve got some questions. You cough up some answers!”
“Or what?” he smiles. “What will you do to me, Detective? Trap me?”
I step between them, attempting to defuse this before it escalates beyond my control. “Frank, we have a few simple questions; then we’ll get out of your hair.”
He nods and spreads his arms open wide. “Of course. For you, Jacob. Ask away.”
“The trap worked. We captured the demon.”
Frank’s eyes sparkle with delight. “Truly? That is good news.”
“Did you know that the demon wasn’t alone?” I search his eyes for any clue of deceit.
“Oh, dear. I hope that did not cause any complications.” I don’t have to put any effort into searching his expression, Frank’s grin trumpets my answer. Oh, he knew.
“You don’t think you could have mentioned that?” I snap.
Frank shrugs. “Why worry you with unnecessary details? Is this all you wished to know?”
Marsh is glowering, clearly wishing he had some way of getting Frank’s neck in his grasp. I continue on before Marsh says something to chase Frank away.
“No, it’s not. We’re going to build more traps. I would like to know how many to build. Do you know how many demons we’re dealing with here?”
Frank ponders for a moment. “I will admit, I do not know exactly which demons you are dealing with. I knew some had come to town. Those people you asked me about who had gone missing, some of them had started asking me questions about the existence of demons not knowing I was one. But that is what gave me a hint that some of them had arrived. And then when those people started to disappear, it became obvious to me. But I did not seek them out. I tend to keep my own company. Other demons are not much for socializing.”
Marsh snorts, but Frank ignores him and continues, “Did you happen to get their names?”
“Obviously not, they are not going to use their real names,” I say like I’ve known all along that true names are a thing. “They just said names like Abandon, Carrion, Misery.”
“Oh, those assholes,” Frank shakes his head in disgust. “It should not surprise me they were the ones to come up with this scheme. They have been trying to game the system for millennia.”
He leans closer to me and whispers conspiratorially, “There are only three of them.”
“Three? You’re sure?” Marsh asks.
Frank nods. “Yes. No one else would bother spending any time with them. And they always scheme and plot and connive together. You can trust me on this one. Which did you trap, by the way?”
“The one who called himself Abandon,” I answer. “I think.”
“Yes!” Frank giggles in delight. “And you cast the trap into the Pit? Oh, this is excellent news. I have hated that bastard ever since Gomorrah. He is intolerable!”
He turns to me again, still chuckling. “Are those all of the questions you had for me, Jacob?”
I nod slowly. “Yeah, that’s it, basically.”
“Very well then,” he smiles, and he is gone.
“Great,” Marsh grumbles. “Fat lot of good that does us.”
I shrug, trying to put a positive spin on it. “At least we know we need to build two more traps.”
Marsh marches out the door, calling back over his shoulder, “If that chump is telling the truth. If we have enough stuff to build the traps.”
I can’t respond. I have nothing worth saying. He’s right on both cou
nts. It’s going to be a long day while we get these things built.
It turns out, I was wrong on that point at least. It took us a few days last time to round up everything we needed to build one of these demon traps. After we set out to trap the first demon, Captain Radu started gathering materials to make more. It looks like we should have enough for a dozen or so with the stockpile the captain has going. Of course, he put the materials under lock and key, in some place where only he has access. Any time we need to build one, we’ll have to go through him to do it.
I get volunteered to go ask him to begin the next traps. I walk confidently out of our office, but once I’m out of sight, I slow down. I don’t like seeing the captain alone. I’m never quite sure whether he feels like keeping me alive or not on any given day.
I knock hesitantly on his office door. There is no verbal response, but the door swings open on its own, tendrils of roiling black fog spilling out from the opening. I take that as an invitation.
“Captain?” I ask, searching the shadows of the room for him. The door closes behind me. I glance behind me, verify he isn’t there, then turn back to see him standing two feet directly in front of me.
“I need to speak to you, Detective Green,” he says, his deep voice slithering into my brain.
“Of course, Captain, but we need to build two more traps and—”
He waves my words away. His eyes glow fiercely and bore directly into me.
“I have concerns about these traps, Detective.” He doesn’t move and doesn’t indicate I should move, but I don’t want to backpedal from him. That would make it look like I’m as scared as I feel. I stay where I am, uncomfortably close to Radu.
“What kind of concerns, Captain? The first one we made worked fairly well.”
“Yes.” I wait for him to continue. He is staring at me, measuring me, weighing me somehow. I’m confused, not really sure what’s going on this time. Finally, he appears to come to some sort of decision.
“I only want these traps built when we have a specific entity to capture. I do not want them assembled, poised to capture.”
I look at him questioningly.
He whispers to me. “They call to me, Detective Green. When you built the first one, I could hear it whispering to me. It was all I could do to remain in my office and ignore its cry. I fear if we assembled several and stored them complete, ready to use, they could eventually lure me to them as well. And if they affect me, they may affect others. And as I have a body, I know not what it would do to me.”
He is staring past me, his mind elsewhere. I nod, but he doesn’t notice. Eventually, I mumble, “Yessir.”
“Do not speak of this to anyone. I want this kept between us for now. Until we can learn more. We are not demons, Detective. I am not a demon. This I know for certain. So, it should have no power over me. That it does says there is more to them than we know. I will stay away while you build the traps you need.”
He helps me gather the necessary materials. In the end, it doesn’t take us long at all to build two more. By the next morning, we have them assembled.
I’m tired. I’ve had a disturbing lack of sleep lately. I’m sitting on my office chair, wearily sipping at what passes for coffee, staring through half-lidded eyes as Burchard and Meints put the finishing touches on the last trap. I can’t stop yawning.
Marsh is going over the plan for our assault on Goldman’s place with Armstrong and Kim. Captain Radu and Greystone left hours ago and have been out on surveillance, keeping an eye on the warehouse we’ve identified as Goldman’s location. Greystone has been checking in with me hourly, giving me an account of anyone that may happen to enter or leave the building. So far, it’s been pretty boring.
Right on time, I hear from her.
“Still nothing, Detective Green. It’s quiet and appears empty here.”
I nod, remember she can’t see that, then think, OK. Thanks, Ms. Greystone.
“Are we sure this is where he is?” She asks.
I sip more coffee while responding, As far as we know, yes. Just like the last dozen times you’ve asked.
I can hear her sniff of disapproval.
Sighing, I apologize. Ms. Greystone, I’m sorry. That came out rude. You know I don’t—
“Detective! Someone is attempting to leave the warehouse. Captain Radu is . . . Oh, my God.”
What? Ms. Greystone, are you OK?
“The captain is preventing them from leaving. You need to hurry.”
“We’ve got to roll!” I shout to the room. “The captain is holding them in.”
Marsh swears, Meints and Burchard grab the traps while the rest of us grab guns, and we stampede out to the waiting coaches. We were still about an hour away from being ready, but we have two waiting to go. We make a mad dash for the huge black coffins on wheels, the horses straining in excitement and being held back by struggling drivers. I barely manage to get inside one of the coaches before it rolls out.
I hear the drivers shout a command in unison and I swear g-forces slam me back into the seat. The horses that pull the coaches launch out at an ungodly speed. I think I finally realize why the coaches are covered, enclosed with no windows. If they weren’t, the wind shear might rip limbs off. I’ve never felt horses move this fast. The other detectives are nonchalant about the danger, loading their guns, sliding knives into sheaths. I’m white-knuckling an armrest, praying we don’t go rolling as we round a corner at Mach 4. I hear a scream, and the coach swerves, but there isn’t a bone-crunching crash, so I can assume we narrowly avoided a collision. I don’t know if it would be worse to see what is happening or to just remain ignorant in my closed box.
The trip to the warehouse takes years off my life. My stomach is doing flips from the lurching and careening of the coach. I have no idea what to expect when we get there, but I bet the demons will be waiting for us. I don’t know if we’ll have to chase them down, or if they are spoiling for a fight. This is going to be it, one way or another. Either our traps will work, or the demons will flee. I’m sure they won’t attempt to stick around if they know we can both see them and trap them. The end result might be the same for the people here. The demons would be gone. But that would only mean they would escape back to the real world. My world. And I don’t want demon-possessed corpses wreaking havoc back home. Especially if they know who I am and try to track down family or friends.
Burchard slaps one of the traps into my hand. “Don’t screw this up, Green.”
He and Marsh are with me in the coach. I look at both of these men, looming over me in the dim confines we share, and it just seems so surreal that these two monsters, animated corpses, are my comrades. They’re not exactly friends, but I know they are going to do their best to try and protect me and keep me alive. And they’re relying on me to do the same for them, to protect them and to capture a creature even they are afraid of. And despite the fact that I’m marching towards what could be my death, I feel like I have value, I’m part of a team. I’m one of the good guys, dammit.
The ride ends all too quickly. The coaches come screeching to a halt right as Greystone screams into my mind, “Quickly, Detective!”
I hop out of the coach with the rest of the detectives in my squad, and my jaw drops at the scene before me. We’re at a building covered in rusting corrugated metal. It’s not huge as far as warehouses go, but it is missing most of its roof; bare steel girders are exposed to the sky. The few windows that exist are on the second story, and the glass has been broken out and boarded over. A large loading dock takes up the front of the building, and there is a concrete ramp leading down to it. Crumbling asphalt surrounds the building, piled with stacks of rotting palettes, heaps of rusting metal detritus and debris. A limp chain-link fence encircles the place about one hundred feet out on all sides, but there are so many holes and gaps that it can’t possibly serve to keep anything out or in.
&nb
sp; I take all that in with a glance because what holds my attention is the swarm of hundreds of bats, shrieking and screaming in clouds above us. Did I say hundreds? Maybe thousands of bats. None of them are large, but they are swirling in spiraling waves, swooping down to attack a couple of men trying to run out of the main doors to the loading dock. I’ve never seen anything like it. The sound is deafening, high-pitched squeaks from thousands of little throats, ebbing and diving in concentrated packs at the men.
The ground is littered with hundreds of bat corpses already, and a dozen or so human bodies are strewn near the doors. One of the bodies staggers up, and I recognize it as Captain Radu. He is streaked with blood, and he is swaying as he attempts to stand.
“Captain!” Marsh yells. He grips the chain link fence in front of him with both hands and, with a single motion tears the metal barrier in two, hurling sections of it to either side of him. We all draw our weapons and run in. My heart feels like it’s going to burst from my chest; the captain might scare the crap out of me, but something that can take him out scares me worse. One of the two men had made it past Radu, but he skids to a stop as he sees us closing in. I recognize him from the photo; it’s Goldman.
A chorus of gunshots explodes from nearby, mine joining in. The man’s body is torn apart and flung in various directions. If that was one of the demons, then I know all we’ve done is cause him to run to another host body. We have to get close enough to use one of the traps.
A voice sounds out above the din. It is so low in pitch I feel my teeth vibrate as it rumbles out a phrase in a language I don’t understand. The other man, the one who hung back as we unloaded on Goldman’s body, he smiles savagely. He punches towards the sky, and a blast of force explodes upward from his upraised fist, disintegrating a swath of bats as it pierces the cloud cover above, and for the first time since I’ve arrived here, I see sunlight shine down in a beam.
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