by R. W. Holmes
Artemis joined Jacobs in the living room a moment later with a bowl of fruit salad he'd found in the fridge.
“Is it right to eat our hosts' food while they're away?” asked Jacobs.
“We're about to fight with them” replied Artemis. “It's better if we don't do it on an empty stomach.”
Jacobs frowned, but scooted over by Artemis so he could help pick at the bowl's contents.
“Alright, alright” Kiki said as she exited one of the two bedrooms adjoined to the living room and kitchen. “There was a note, I've got an address, Glen and Petyr already had eyes on the R'lyehans, and they've gone to take a closer look now that the alarm bells are being rung. We need to meet up with them as soon as possible.”
“Right, of course” Jacobs said as he stood up. “And then Sauriel and I can finally be forgiven for being so lax with Artemis.”
“That would be nice, yes” Sauriel called from the foyer.
“Where's the note?” asked Artemis.
“Back in the room, pinned to the computer” replied Kiki. “We can't take it with us, obviously. Other Fae might need the directions if they show up to help.”
Artemis sighed and nodded as he stood up, the fruit salad still in his arms. “I'm taking this with us.”
“You just had a hot dog” said Kiki.
“This is the first time I've ever had any of this” replied Artemis. “What is it?”
“It's fruit, you goof” snapped Kiki. “How have you never had fruit? Were you born yesterday?”
“Practically” Artemis said with a shrug.
“Are we done talking?” Sauriel called from the foyer. “We have things to do. Places to be. There's no telling what awaits us if we fail to completely our Holy mission!”
“Whoa, tone it down fella” Kiki said quickly. “He's a demon, I'm a spriggan, you're now a rogue angel, and the priest is in the same boat. What do you think we are, the good guys or something?”
Chapter 18
Or Something...
“Attention passengers: this is your captain speaking. We've just entered Mars's atmosphere, and are beginning our approach to Eiffel. It's currently seventy-nine degrees Fahrenheit, or twenty-six degrees Celsius, and partly cloudy. Atmosphere descent and docking times are brisk, so our ETA has been updated to one hour. Your steward or stewardess will be by to fill up your drink one last time in just a moment, and we'd like to thank you for choosing Enterprise Air, where four percent of every ticket purchase is donated to the relief effort for the families affected by the tragedy at Enterprise Island.”
Gael looked up as a loud 'Ping!' echoed throughout the cabin and the 'seat belt' icon in the panel overhead lit up with it. With a contented sigh, he quickly fastened himself in.
“Yay...” Zinerva groaned groggily. “I never want to sit still for nine hours ever again.”
A bitter and miserable “Hmph” escaped Debra as the pouting look on her face intensified. “I had to sit here for the last three hours and listen to nothing but complete nonsense.”
“I can assure you, the facts were there” replied Gael. “Just, you know, with a lot of stuff that was complete bullshit.”
Zinerva smiled meekly to herself and stretched, before looking around Gael and Debra to where Grim sat across the aisle. “What about you, big guy?” she called out. “How was the nap?”
“About seven hours shorter than I'd like” Grim replied with a smile. “Still, gonna be a beautiful day down there. Should be nice.”
“I'm going to be sick” said Father Jacobs.
“This is totally fucked” agreed Kiki.
“Artemis” said Sauriel.
“Yes?” Artemis queried grimly.
“When we find who did this, I want you rest assured that I will not stand in your way” replied Sauriel. “They deserve every cruelty you were born to conjure up, and more.”
Standing in a warehouse located roughly three-quarters of the way up a large, somewhat dilapidated building at the address Kiki had gotten from the empty, subterranean Fae complex, 'the good guys' looked on in horror, disgust, and outright trepidation at the scene before them.
The yaksha, Petyr, sat slumped against the far wall. His head, the beautifully painted amalgamation of blues, whites, and blacks that it used to be, had been cleaved in half from the top of his skull to the base of his neck. The swirls of color on his chin, nose, cheeks, and forehead were caked with blood that had long since dried, and its tusk-like teeth were either chipped or cast about the floor around it from the force of the blow that felled it.
“W-Where's Glen?” Father Jacobs wondered hopefully. “Perhaps we can still-,”
“No” Kiki said as she looked at the blood, guts, and gore plastered on the walls, floor, and ceiling around them. “It would take at least two people to decorate a room like this. Glen is less savable than Petyr at this point.”
Father Jacobs dropped to his knees and clutched at his rosary to pray, which prompted Sauriel to do the same.
“What in the R'lyehans arsenal could do something like this?” asked Artemis.
“I don't know” replied Kiki. “It's shoggoth level destruction, but there's too much mess. Whatever did this wanted to leave the room looking like this. It probably enjoyed it, and I'd wager it's less obvious than a shoggoth too.” Kiki paused and looked away to collect herself. “Whatever did this, no one has lived to see it, and whatever Petyr and Glen knew is lost.”
“So what do we do?” asked Jacobs. “Giving up isn't an option.”
“We go back to where The Fae have a base here and inform them of what we found” replied Kiki. “And then we ask them to allow us to pick up where Petyr and Glen left off.”
Father Jacobs opened his eyes as he finished his prayer, and almost immediately wished he hadn't. The smell of copious amounts of blood and violently disturbed flesh reeked so intensely that it stung his eyes, but he'd begun to get used to it. The sight of the carnage splayed out before him, though, was something he simply could not deal with.
“Sauriel” he managed. “Heaven won't tell you what to do. Will they tell you what happened to Glen?”
Sauriel shrugged. “He was Fae. He didn't care for God. Now, he's in Fairyland.”
Father Jacobs nodded. “Good” he said unexpectedly. “I won't challenge Heaven's greatness, but forgetting this ever happened to him will be a close second.”
“Right, let's not dwell on this any more than we have to” said Artemis. “Our path is clear, even if it is back the way we came.”
Far across Eiffel, a spaceship finally finished its long journey from Earth. Four of its fliers; a young man, a young woman, a troll, and an imp; departed it, and the starport. The group rented a vehicle and, with Debra's direction, headed downtown in search of The Fae's local, woefully unpopulated headquarters.
They arrived an hour later...
At The Fae headquarters, Kiki sat idly in what was the summoner Glen's old bedroom, staring at a surveillance feed of the goings on just outside the building.
Jacobs, Sauriel, and Artemis sat idly in the apartment, continuing to pilfer the fridge and distracting themselves from the grim sights of earlier with whatever they could find on TV.
“Whoa! Hold up, we've got company!” Kiki called excitedly.
“What?” Artemis said in alarm. “The R'lyehans?”
“No” Kiki said as she sprinted out of the bedroom and then the apartment's front door. “Good company. Gael and Zinerva just pulled up in a car, and they came with friends. It's not Emily and Shay, which is weird, but I think they're more Fae.”
The others followed Kiki in silence as they exited the apartment and hurried down the long, quiet corridor to the exit at the end. She hurled it open as quickly as she could, and found Debra in the process of stepping up to the receiver.
“Hi we're Gael's friends, Glen and Petyr were killed by the R'lyehans, please call your boss and find out what he knew because he didn't write any of it down here” Kiki said quickly.
&n
bsp; Debra blinked. “Oh!” she said awkwardly. “That's great, and bad, and sure I'll get right on that. Also, is that an angel?”
Kiki looked back to see Sauriel, wings full on display and sword cautiously drawn, waiting nervously to see how things would play out.
“Gael has very weird friends.”
Artemis pushed past Kiki, and then Debra and grim as well. “Where's Emily and Shay?” he asked Gael.
Gael frowned and shook his head. “She went off with Shay to help their friend... The R'lyehans kind of got the better of us on Earth, and she decided it would be best if we split up and try to deal with both problems at once.”
“Well Emily is a cockroach” said Kiki. “And I meant that as a compliment; she's basically impossible to kill. Like The Chosen. It's us we need to worry about.”
“Yes, you should come inside” Father Jacobs chimed in gravely. There's, uh... Well, we've taken pictures of what happened to Glen and Petyr. You should know what we're up against.”
“I am extremely confused” Grim said as everyone else headed inside.
Zinerva ran back and grabbed hold of one of Grim's oversized hands in a playful attempt to pull him inside after them. “That's normal” she said as he gave in. “I was first summoned just days ago, and I have never not been extremely confused.”
Back inside, Debra decided against opening the facility's other many door and followed Kiki to the back apartment, and then into Glen's room. There, with her phone hooked up to Glen's computer, Kiki pulled up the nightmarish images of the room where Glen and Petyr had been slaughtered. Father Jacobs and Sauriel looked away immediately, and Gael and Zinerva did so as well shortly afterward.
“Oh my God...” Debra groaned in dismay. “Is that Glen all over the walls?”
“Yes” Artemis muttered in disgust.
“He was cute” Debra murmured unhappily. “And my booty call for Mars.”
“Sorry, your what?” Jacobs queried confusedly.
“My booty call, old man!” snapped Debra. “I got a guy to call on every habitable planet and moon in the solar system. What do you expect me to do, sleep with people I don't know? That's how you catch something.”
Father Jacobs shook his head and left the room then, as did Sauriel a moment later for exactly the same reasons.
“Full disclosure: I have an address” Debra announced to everyone. “That's it. Glen and Petyr reported that there was R'lyehan activity shortly after Emily contacted us, so we had him keep an eye on them. Where were they killed at?”
“201822 Phillips Street” replied Kiki. “Why?”
“201890 Phillips is the address” said Debra. “But The Fae do their surveillance at street level. You know, where there are witnesses. They must have been lured into a nearby building...”
“No, I found 201822 written down here” said Kiki. “Why would he give The Fae one address, and then write down another?”
“That makes things worse” said Grim. “He'd decided observation at street level was too dangerous, and picked the building you found for cover. If he was found like that, then it means the R'lyehans are very actively looking for our people.”
“If they don't know we were there, they might try that trick again” said Gael. “Maybe we can use it to get the jump on them.”
“Right, I really wanna raid the fridge while you're all talking about this, but aren't we short on time?” asked Zinerva. “Or was talking about how much time Allen wasted pointless?”
“We are short of time” Gael acquiesced. “And you're right, we need to get going right away.”
“We should have a plan first” said Debra.
“I do have a plan” said Gael. “It's brilliant, too. We get up, we hop in the car, we drive over, and then we kick down the door and kill everyone.”
“Whoa, hold on-,” Jacobs said as he came running back into the room.
“No, not hold on” snapped Gael. “Every time I do the smart thing, the R'lyehans are prepared for it. The only thing that ever seems to catch them off guard is that they don't actually know what I'm capable of, because I don't know what I'm capable of. I think I can make it happen, though.”
“And what about the rest of us?” asked Debra. “Because I can't stop an elder thing with my mind.”
Gael said nothing, choosing instead to turn and go.
“Come and help, don't come and help, do things your own way; I don't care” he said as he left. “Come on Zinerva, we're gonna go set some R'lyehans on fire.”
Zinerva looked to the others with a frown and said, “He's having a rough few days. I'd stay and tell you about it, but I really like setting people on fire.”
The door slammed shut behind Gael and Zinerva, leaving the others still standing in the late Glen's bedroom.
“Okay” Debra murmured awkwardly. “I don't know any of you, and the guy who we all knew together just walked out the door. Do we know anyone else who fits that bill?”
“Me, technically” said Artemis. “Or rather, I know everyone but you and your friend.”
“Name's Grim” Grim announced politely. “My apologies for not saying anything before, we've simply had more important topics at hand.”
“Of course, Grim. Thank you” Jacobs said with a smile. “But we can all agree we have the same goal for now, yes? I saw what Gael did in the church back on Enterprise Island, and I watched those... R'lyehans, assume it would kill him. It didn't, which is why I understand his point. Maybe the thing that's best for us to do is shadow him and step in when he needs the help.”
“I mean... sure” said Debra. “Just as long as we're not standing next to him. Trust me, you don't want that. He's crazy.”
“You adored that craziness up until now” Grim chided.
“And then I saw the photos” replied Debra. “Gael will walk right up to whatever did that, and he might even be okay. But me? I would like to die in one piece, minimum four.”
“So...” Gael said as he and Zinerva stepped out onto the sidewalk. “Do you think they noticed that I have the rental's keys?”
“No, I think Grim is still too scared to say anything” Zinerva said as she followed Gael over to the car and hopped in it beside him. “But they're going to.”
The car started up, and Gael immediately sped off.
“What was the address again?” he wondered aloud.
“201890 something” replied Zinerva.
“Phillips Street” finished Gael. “Great, let's go do something stupid.”
Zinerva frowned in her seat and looked over at Gael as he signaled his way through traffic to the opposite side of the street.
“Are you okay?” she asked him. “You used to be careful about this stuff.”
“I will never be okay, Zinerva” Gael replied levelly. “I'm in a car with a demon and going to mess with some of the most dangerous people in the solar system purely because we think they're up to something extremely bad. Do we know? Of course not, no one knows. Does it matter? No, the point is that The Fae are off my back and they're really not that bad when they're not overreacting to someone summoning a demon.”
“That has nothing to with you not being careful though” said Zinerva.
“Right, sorry, I'm desensitized” said Gael. “It's been nothing but near-death experiences since I met you, not that that's your fault or anything. It's everyone else's fault for not leaving us the fuck alone, but what do you expect? For the first time since all of this began, I really just want to go in there and mess them up.”
“Oh, well that's completely understandable” said Zinerva. “I thought you had a death wish or something.”
“I do have a death wish” replied Gael. “Just, you know, for them.”
Back at The Fae base, everyone else had just stepped outside and realized their predicament.
“Oh my God! He took the fricken car!” exclaimed Debra. “I drove! When did he even get the keys from me?”
“He pulled them out of your purse as we all got out of the car” replie
d Grim.
“What!? Why didn't you say something?” Debra demanded angrily.
Grim frowned and looked away. “He threatened to teach you how to summon a demon.”
“THAT IS NOT A BAD THING!” Debra screamed.
“Enough!” Jacobs chimed in angrily. “Kiki has a vehicle. It's parked right near here.”
“We agreed it wouldn't go near the action, though” said Kiki.
“Well you can drive it, or I can send you back to Fairyland and I'll drive it” said Debra. “Your choice.”
“Oh man... Kiki groaned as she started leading everyone in the direction of the parking garage her 'baby' was waiting for them in. “Working with The Fae again. It's just so good to be back.”
“Here we are” Gael said as he drove the car up onto the sidewalk.
“I don't think this is how parking works” Zinerva said as she joined Gael in getting out of the car.
“It's in Debra's name, and it was stolen” replied Gael. “Unless we get caught, no one's getting into any trouble.”
Several pedestrians looked on in confusion as Gael and Zinerva departed the rental and made their way over a maintenance stairwell on the corner of the enormous skyscraper beside them.
“Zinerva, this door is locked” said Gael. “And everyone in this building is convinced that it'll keep us out.”
“No one tells me what to do” Zinerva said as she reached up and touched her hand to the door knob. “I'm easily manipulated, though.”
Fire erupted from Zinerva's hands, and the entire section of door connected to the doorknob melted away.
“Oh look at that” Zinerva said as she gently pushed the door open. “There's no more lock.”
The two entered the stairwell and began their ascension, but both knew full well that the R'lyehans could be on any one of the hundreds of floors it sported. With a silent look to one another, they simultaneously decided to tackle that problem as they climbed.