Daemon

by Doug Dandridge

  The ruler continued to laugh, an insane mirth that did not match his injuries. The red entity began to change yet again, becoming a creature of tentacles that loomed over the platform. Jude glanced at Sarah, who continued to pray, her eyes closed. When he looked back at the entity it had hovered closer, almost over them, and its tentacles were reaching down for them. He cried out as a red tentacle came down on his arm, then sucked in his breath as it moved along his arm and rested over the bindings that held him to the chair. The rope blurred, then dissolved away. The tentacle moved to the other arm, and he saw that another appendage was freeing Sarah. The second rope dissolved and Jude was on his feet, looking down at the smiling ruler who now stood away from his chair on the chamber floor. The pithing arm had been sheared off several feet from the actual spike, which no longer existed. As Jude watched the creature’s head wound closed up, skin growing back to flow over the opening.

  “What are you?” said Jude, his mouth dry from the terror of the moment.

  “I am no more than any of my people,” said the little creature in a high voice.

  “None of the others did this,” said Jude, feeling the hand of Sarah on his shoulder. He glanced over at her. She smiled at him, then looked down at the creature.

  “I am simply a vessel of God,” said the small man thing. “I am a willing subject to his will. Now you should get out of here. This evil building will come down, and you need to be gone.”

  The small creature turned away. The red entity moved upward, hitting the ceiling and melting through the stone and steel. Burning fragments fell into the chamber below, all missing the ruler as he walked toward the exit of the room. Before he got there a glowing portal formed in the air. The ruler stepped in and the portal closed behind him. The building shook and the entity moved through the hole in the ceiling, going up.

  “Let’s get the hell out of here,” said Jude, grabbing Sarah’s arm and guiding her away from the railing.

  “The way we came in?” she asked, her eyes wide as the building shook again.

  “I don’t want to be any place where things above can fall on us,” he answered, looking over at the body of the man who had shot at the ruler. “Hold on a minute.”

  Quick stepping toward the body, Jude kneeled at its side and pulled the automatic from its hand. He rolled the man over and undid the belt, then pulled the magazine pouch and holster from the body. He stood up and undid his belt, slid the holster and pouch on his belt, then rebelted it.

  “Hopefully no one will try to stop us,” he said as he led her to the stairwell. “They should be too busy to care. But I still like to make sure if push comes to shove I can push.”

  Sarah nodded and allowed herself to be led to the door, which opened when Jude pulled. They ran up the stairs, one flight, then another, and a third, while the building shook around them. The lights flickered a couple of times, and Jude felt the fear of darkness come over him, thinking about fighting his way out of the building with Shadows baring the way.

  They exited at the ground floor of the building and walked down an empty hall. Luckily it was night, and the administrative sections of the building were almost deserted. They made haste to the door at the end of the hall while the lights continued to flicker. The door opened again, though Jude was sure it would be locked. The security desk on the other side was deserted, and people were coming out of other halls and stairwells, frightened looks on their faces as they ran to the front entrance of the building.

  The glass doors at the front of the lobby shattered, throwing glass on the people moving toward them. Workers screamed as the lights went out for a moment, then flickered back. A couple of glow globes fell from the ceiling to shatter on the hard lobby floor, each exploding like bombs as they released their stored energy. Workers near to them were thrown from the ground, shredded by flying glass, to land bleeding on the floor.

  Jude held Sarah close, shielding her as best he could. She tried to move toward one of the wounded, a woman lying on the floor with blood pooling beneath her, moaning slightly. Jude pulled her away and hurried her toward the door.

  “We need to get out of here before the whole thing comes down on us,” he said, glancing up at the ceiling, with a large hole in the center and many other glow globes swaying, looking like hornet’s nests ready to fall at any moment.

  “But these people,” she said, looking back at the woman they had passed.

  “We’ll be joining them if we don’t get out of here,” he said, pulling her along to the door. “This whole place is going to come down any moment. I can feel the energies building up. When it blows, it’s not going to be pretty.”

  Sarah looked at him with tearing eyes, nodded her head, and let him continue to lead her along.

  In the plaza in front the night shift that had made it out was gathered, looking at the building. Jude looked back. Blue and red energies were crackling around the building. Windows blew out at random, and fires had started behind some of them, flickering flames in the frames, black smoke rolling out into the night. Jude looked up, far up the building, at the large globe on top. It was still glowing blue, its brilliance waxing and waning. Red tendrils shot through the blue, and the red seemed to be strengthening.

  “Get away from here, you fools,” shouted Jude to the groups. They looked at him with uncomprehending eyes, then turned their attention back to the building. Jude shook his head and moved on into the plaza, away from the building.

  “We need to get to a church,” said Sarah, looking back at the building. “When the grid crashes that might be the only safe place to be.”

  “You show me the way,” said Jude, nodding his head. “I don’t know where the nearest one is.”

  Sarah nodded and led the way, holding his hand as they angled across the plaza and toward the streets. They had almost reached the edge of the plaza, about three hundred yards from the building, when shouts from behind caught their attention. They stopped and looked back. The dome on top of the mile high building had turned completely red, a roiling energy that shot bolts of power into the night. More bolts of power ran up and down the skyscraper, and fires roared from numerous windows.

  Without further warning the great globe blew outwards. The people closest to the building started to run, probably yelling and screaming, not heard over the roar of the blast. The building itself started to crumble, large chunks falling away toward the plaza, other pieces blown out into the night.

  Jude grabbed Sarah and turned her around, just as the blast wave reached them and knocked them face first onto the grassy area on which they were standing. Jude kept his arm over Sarah, and tried to get as much of his body as he could over her while glass and debris rained down from the sky. After a minute or so the rain stopped, and Jude pushed himself up to his knees, his ears still ringing, and helped Sarah up.

  “Are you OK,” he yelled, looking her over in the diminished light. She nodded her head as she brushed glass and small bits of stone off herself. Jude looked over to the building and felt sick. Only a couple of score floors still rose from the plaza. For a hundred yards in every direction stone slabs with girders sticking from them covered the ground. Jude knew that anyone who had been in that area was now buried. He looked back at Sarah, who was also staring at the devastation.

  “We need to move,” he said, scrambling to his feet and helping her up. “We need to get to safety before the lights go out.”

  As he finished saying that a cacophony of smaller explosions sounded from all directions and the glow of the magic globes went out. Fires sprang up here and there, giving some illumination. But the shadows were dark and many, and Jude knew that their chances of making it to safety had diminished substantially.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Stark had been in the lobby of the building, talking with his crew about the next day’s harvest, when all hell broke loose. When the red entity came burning through the floor, tentacles waving, drifting up to the ceiling, and burning its way through on its upward journe
y, he knew it was time to leave. He was out the glass doors before they shattered, running down the steps and into the plaza. Moments later more people ran from the building. They stopped in the plaza and turned to watch what was going to happen.

  Stark had enough of a bad feeling that he continued on into the plaza and walked to his car. If nothing happened he could go home and come back in the morning, when they were supposed to go back to the Eldritch world. But if something bad happened he would be near his vehicle and ready to flee the area. His own skin had always been important to him, more important than anything else in the world, and he would damn sure do what it took to preserve it.

  More people came out of the building and gathered with the rest looking up. Then a couple, a man and a woman, came out and headed away across the plaza. Stark thought they were the only ones who had shown any sense. Then they looked back at the building, and the Secret Police Officer felt a shiver go up his spine. It can’t be, he thought, recognizing the features of the couple who had been tied to a chair in the basement complex of the building. How the hell did they get out? he thought. And were they the cause of this thing? He didn’t think they could have gotten out if Daemon were still in control. Their appearance, and the shuddering of the building, meant that Daemon was no longer in control.

  Then the car shook against his back and he looked up, just in time to see the red dome on the top of the building explode, the building shattering below it in a blast that worked its way down. Many large pieces of the structure fell into the plaza, crushing all those who had stood there staring at the spectacle. Stark fell down and the windows of the car shattered behind him. He landed on his side and watched the building reduce itself to a stub. When the blast subsided he pushed himself up and looked around for Parkinson and the Detective’s woman. The magical glow globes had all gone out or exploded in the area, and several nearby buildings were starting to burn.

  There they are, he thought, as he saw two figures, the largest with his arm around the smallest, moving down the street, illuminated by the many fires that were now burning. He noticed that there were now numerous shadows on the street and between the buildings. He was sure those shadows would soon be home to the dangerous variety. I’ll just have to be careful, he thought, drawing his automatic and starting off after the pair. He wasn’t sure what they had to do with this disaster going on around him. That they had something to do with it he was sure, and he was going to extract payment from them for their part in the fall of the city.

  * * *

  Jude kept moving down the center of the street, trying to stay in the areas that still had some light. Sirens were blaring in the distance, fire engines and emergency signals that were hand cranked or used a local electrical generator. There was screaming and yelling from closer in, people bereft of their veneer of civilization looting, raping or killing. Or perhaps encountering Shadows. Could they have gotten here so fast? he thought, then had the thought confirmed as he saw something dark and monstrous moving on the edge of the illuminated areas. The nightmares were here in the city, and he thought they had better find shelter as soon as they could.

  “How far to the church?” he asked Sarah, feeling her shake under his arm as she too caught sight of the Shadows.

  “Just a couple of blocks further,” she said, glancing around at some people running down the street, one with a shotgun in his hands. The shot gunner turned and fired at a Shadow that was tracking them through the near darkness, then continued on with those he was guarding. “Father Matthews is the Parish Priest. He knew my father.”

  Sarah sobbed as that last word left her mouth. Jude pulled her close to him and gave her a hug, letting her cry on his shoulder for a moment. He grasped her arms and held her away for a moment, looking into her face, then hugged her tight.

  “It’s OK to cry,” said Jude, putting his arm back around her and moving her on. “Just now isn’t the time. We need to get under cover. Your dad would want you to take care of yourself first, then grieve him.”

  Sarah nodded her head and allowed him to move her along. As they reach an intersection she pointed to the north, and Jude turned with her that way, his eyes scanning all the hidden places and shadows on the side of the street.

  “Lieutenant Parkinson,” said a familiar voice, coming from behind, loud enough to be close. Too close. Jude started to reach into his jacket when the voice stopped him.

  “I have a gun pointed at you and the lady,” said Steiner Stark. “I don’t care which of you I hit first, but I will keep firing until I get both of you. Now turn around,” he said in a snarling shout.

  Jude held his hands out in the clear as he turned, Sarah turning with him, a look of fear etched on her face. Stark stood about thirty yards away, a big automatic in his hand, aimed at them. A nasty smile crossed the man’s face as he looked down the barrel of the gun.

  “So what happened down there?” asked Stark. “What did you do?”

  “We didn’t do anything,” said Jude, looking into the barrel that appeared like a cannon to his perception. He could feel the cold sweat on his forehead. He wondered when his next word would be his last. “Daemon played with something he shouldn’t have, and it bit him in the ass.”

  “I always thought he was too smart for his own good,” said the Magara Lieutenant. “But how did you get away? Did you make a deal with whatever he unleashed? Or were you always in its power?”

  “We did nothing but pray to the Good God,” said Sarah, sticking her chin out in defiance. “And God delivered us.”

  “You are just as delusional as the rest of your ilk,” said Stark with a barked laugh. “There is no Good God. There is only the power of the Universe, and the power of those who wield that power.”

  “The Good God is with us now,” said Sarah, glaring at the man. “You are only too foolish to see it.”

  Stark’s eyes took on a hard aspect, and he stared at Sarah. He shrugged his shoulders and shifted the aim of the gun, cocking the hammer, then pulling the trigger. The gun roared and spurted flame. Sarah grunted and grabbed her stomach with both hands. Jude looked in horror as a dark stain spread across the front of her shirt.

  Jude started to reach for power, for something to throw at the monster that stood there laughing, waving the pistol in Jude’s direction.

  “No magic,” said Sarah in a hushed voice. Her eyes pleaded with his, and Jude backed away from the spell.

  “There’s no power out here anyway,” he said with a sad smile. “I need to get you to the church.”

  “You need to shut up and die,” said Stark, taking aim at Jude with the pistol.

  Jude looked back defiantly at the Magara agent. He made ready to go for the pistol on his belt, his only chance, if not a great one. Then something moved behind Stark, slinking out of the darkness and into the dim light. Jude looked at it with surprise, wondering why a Shadow would go into the light, even the wan light of the nearby fires. The creature seemed to shudder under exposure to the faint light, but it continued on.

  “Are you ready to die, Parkinson?” asked Stark, his finger beginning to squeeze the trigger.

  Jude looked at the man who was about to take his life, then at the creature that threatened the life of the man, wondering which would strike first. The large snake Shadow reared up into the air and let out a hiss, spreading a wide hood at the head. Stark glanced back and let out a yell, then tried to shift his gun around to the Shadow. Too late. The wide mouthed head came down on Stark, fangs sinking into his upper chest. The creature jerked back, pulling Stark off his feet. The Magara agent continued to yell. The yell turned into a scream. The scream faded into a faint gurgle, and then to silence. The snake Shadow slithered back, pulling Stark with it. Stark’s feet jerked and pounded on the pavement for a moment, then shook and went still. The Shadow continued to drag the corpse of Stark off into the darkness. Jude looked down at the gun laying on the pavement, and the gleam of the Secret Policeman’s blood trailing away.

  Sarah coughed an
d Jude turned a worried eye toward her. He knelt down and put a hand on her abdomen. He moved her hands and tore at the fabric, exposing the wound that oozed blood from her intestinal area. His expert eye could tell that it was a bad wound, even as his lover’s mind tried to minimize it, to tell him that it wasn’t as bad as it looked, and that it would be OK.

  “I’m going to die, aren’t I?” said Sarah, her eyes wide, lip trembling.

  “You’re going to be alright,” said Jude, taking off his jacket, then his shirt, and ripping the thinner garment into a bandage.

  “Liar,” she said with a cough.

  Jude worked as quick as he could to keep his word. He pressed a large piece of cloth into place over the wound, then wrapped Sarah with the other strips. He put her hands back over it.

  “Hold that in place as tight as you can,” he said. He drew his gun and held it in his right hand, then reached down and picked her up in his arms, cradling her close.

  “How far is that church?” he asked, starting down the street.

  “Three or four blocks,” she said in a soft voice. Jude looked into her pale face and felt the sick feeling in his stomach. He nodded, forced a smile, and kept moving down the street.