Rangers

by Chloe Garner

  “I do too,” Jason said. “Agreed?”

  “Yeah,” Sam said.

  “So let’s get to know the terrain,” she said. There was a barking noise from nearby and all three of them turned, on alert.

  “Sounds angry,” Jason said.

  “That’s his laugh,” Samantha said.

  There was a stir of air behind him and Jason swung back around to see a shadow go past. Sam grunted as he hit the wall.

  “Out of the hallway,” Jason said, pointing the flashlight down the hall after the motion. “You okay?”

  “Yeah.”

  They clustered down the hallway and into a side room where Sam rubbed the back of his head.

  “Where were you?” Jason asked Samantha. “Supposed to be watching out for him.”

  “He’s the psychic, not me. And he’s fine.”

  “What next?” Sam asked.

  “Back downstairs, try to lure it into a more open space? Too many corners around here,” Jason said.

  “This is his territory. He’ll know every nook and cranny of it,” Samantha said.

  “You’ve hunted demons like this before, I guess?” Sam asked her.

  “Not really. I kinda got promoted past this too quickly to ever hunt them.”

  “I’m sorry we’re boring you,” Jason said. She grinned at him.

  “Do I look bored?”

  “It killed a pair of teenagers,” Sam said.

  “Screaming puddle of warm blood,” Samantha added, leaning against the door with her ear to it.

  “She’s taking this seriously.”

  “Fine. Downstairs?”

  “I like it,” Samantha said.

  “And if Sammykins likes it, it’s obviously a good plan,” Jason said, tweaking her just because it amused him. He pointed his flashlight at her face again, and she attempted to wither him.

  “Set?” he asked, pleased.

  “Set,” Sam answered. She nodded, then pulled the door open again. They moved with well-practiced efficiency back down the hallway toward the stairs. There was a snuffling noise behind them, then that violent, barking laugh again. It charged them on the stairs, from below, and Jason shot at it, still not able to get a light on it to see what he was shooting at, but it howled and made a string of sharp noises that made the hair on the back of Jason’s neck stand up.

  “Did I get him?” he asked.

  “No. Those are vows,” Samantha said.

  “You understand that gibberish?” Jason asked. There was a pause.

  “Yeah.”

  They reached the first floor and it came at them from upstairs again. This time Sam fired up the stairs at a shadow that jumped straight up and caught the railing of the flight of stairs above, pulling itself out of sight again.

  They made it back to the cafeteria, and the demon rattled a set of doors at the far end, laughing.

  “He’s everywhere,” Jason said.

  “I don’t think he’s strong enough to glitch,” Samantha said. She sighed. “He’s a blood demon, and he can smell me. I’m broadcasting exactly where we are, all the time.”

  “Blood demon?”

  “Glitch?”

  “Smell you.”

  “What the hell?”

  “That’s what that is.”

  Jason pointed his flashlight at Sam, who looked a bit ill.

  “What?”

  “I’m putting down a scent trail of blood a mile wide, and Sam just figured out what cramps are. Geez. You guys will do anything to avoid knowing about this stuff.”

  Jason looked back and forth between Sam and Samantha for a second, not knowing how to answer that.

  “I’ve got a different idea,” Samantha said.

  “Go,” Jason said, willing to do anything to put them back on a track where he knew how to deal with it.

  “He’s going to follow me. No question in my mind. You two go upstairs somewhere and pick the best ambush point you can find, then Sam can tell me that you’re ready, and I’ll lead him right to you.”

  “No,” Sam said.

  “We’re not leaving you alone in this maze of a building,” Jason said. “You’d never find us.”

  “Pick a simple path. I’ll find Sam.”

  There was more howling at another door.

  “No,” Sam said again.

  “You could do that? You’re sure?”

  “Certain.” She looked at Sam. “Am I certain?”

  “I don’t care.”

  She grinned.

  “You’re cute. I can take care of myself.” She slung the hatchet through her belt and switched the hunting knife over to her left hand.

  “This is the best way. He gorges on fear. I’ll lead him on a merry chase through the building and he’ll forget all about you two. By the time we get to you, he’ll be hearing dinner bells, and you put a bunch of iron shot through his brain. Simple.”

  She handed him her backpack and Sam’s eyes got wide. He shook his head. Even Jason was uncomfortable with her giving up her backpack so easily.

  “I need to be able to move fast. And I’m never actually afraid when I’ve got that with me. I need to be convincing.”

  She did some quick stretches then nodded at them.

  “Go. This is going to be more fun than I’ve had in a while.”

  Sam and Jason looked at each other, then Jason started the count. Sam didn’t join in until three, but he was in. Jason pointed his own flashlight at his face and looked at Samantha’s shadow.

  “Be safe,” he said. The shape nodded and ghosted away. He and Sam picked a door that hadn’t had sounds behind it recently and headed out, scanning the front hallway.

  “All the way up?” he asked. Sam nodded.

  “I guess.”

  They heard barking noises again.

  “It’s toying with her,” Sam said. “She’s amused.”

  “Has she really got this?” Jason asked.

  “I’m afraid, either way,” Sam said. “If she doesn’t know what she’s doing, she’s a lunatic. And if she does… Jason, she may be a really, really scary person, if she’s as good as she is confident.”

  “Is that so bad?” Jason asked. Sam laughed.

  “You tell me. What would you do if she’s the best we’ve ever seen?”

  “Learn from her,” Jason said. Sam snorted.

  “You called her Miss Thing when she told you that your gun wouldn’t work on it.”

  “It does make some things make sense, doesn’t it?” Jason asked. Sam nodded, pulling open the door for the first set of steps. They headed up.

  “Wish we’d known that years ago,” Sam said.

  “Wish everyone knew that,” Jason answered.

  “What would we have done, if she hadn’t been here?” Sam asked.

  “Chase it around, shoot at it a bunch. Either get lucky or get dead.”

  “I figured, too.”

  Sam paused.

  “She’s moving. Finding a place to hide. We should hurry, before it gets bored.”

  They jogged up three flights of stairs and found a gridded office floor.

  “Supply room,” Jason said, opening a door. There was a window up high, and the rest of the room had cinderblock walls and no other contents. “You like it?”

  Sam stuck his head in the room and nodded.

  “This will work.”

  They settled on either side of the door, holding shotguns ready. Sam put Samantha’s backpack in front of him on the floor.

  “So how do you tell her we’re ready?”

  “I’m not sure. Just be confident. Ready. I think she’ll know.”

  Sam laughed softly.

  “She’s trying to brace me, like I’m the one who’s going to do the hard part. She’s going to go, soon.”

  Jason nodded, and Sam laughed again.

  “She really is worried about me.”

  <><><>

  Samantha sat tucked underneath one of the tables in the kitchen, sitting on a shelf that would have been ful
l of bowls or plates, many years ago. Sam and Jason were ready. The demon was wandering the kitchen, chattering at her. She tightened her chest once more, trying to let Sam know that she really was okay, then she took a series of very short, very shallow breaths and gripped the table, abandoning herself to panic. She opened her eyes wide, felt her heart rate spike. The demon in the next room growled. It could feel her fear growing, like quarry about to flush. She swallowed, tasting bile, and then took a deep breath and screamed.

  <><><>

  The scream echoed through the building.

  “She’s got good lungs,” Jason said, then realized that Sam had sagged against the wall.

  “You okay, man?” Jason whispered. For a moment Sam was still, eyes open but unseeing as he tried to follow what was happening to Samantha, then he cringed and nearly fell over.

  “What?”

  “She just hit a wall, hard. He threw her. He’s going to get her.”

  Sam stood and Jason ducked his head around the doorway, then pushed Sam back into his corner.

  “Ambush, remember?”

  Sam slid down along the wall as another scream echoed through the empty building, louder, and more raw.

  “She’s never going to get here,” Sam said. He shuddered again.

  “Where is she?” Jason asked.

  “Second floor, maybe. I don’t know. Underneath us.”

  “She didn’t take the stairs all the way up?” Jason asked. Sam shook his head. Moaned.

  “It’s going to kill her.”

  Something thudded hard enough to shake the walls audibly and Sam lunged away from the door.

  “And then it’s going to kill us.”

  “Sam. Sam, keep it together.”

  There was another scream, more muffled, and Jason looked over. Sam’s mouth was open like it was his scream. Jason had never seen Sam afraid like this. Visceral. They’d been in tight corners where they were certain they were going to die, but there had always been a hard sense of, well, we knew it was coming. Now Sam crawled on the floor, abandoning his gun and Samantha’s backpack, pulling his knees underneath him as he wormed back against the back wall. Samantha screamed again and a door slammed.

  “Where is she?” Jason asked through clenched teeth.

  “Downstairs.”

  Sam sounded like he was shaking.

  “Sam,” Jason tried again, sharp and commanding as he knew how to be, but Sam only huddled further into the corner. His brother was in the middle of the wall, right in front of the door, which was a straight shot down the hallway from the stairwell. If the demon could see in the dark at all, he would be able to see Sam.

  “Sam, move. You can’t just sit there.”

  There was another loud scream, this one on the fourth floor with them, and Sam whimpered. Jason could hear footsteps as Samantha sprinted down the hallway toward them. It was too late to do anything else. He braced his back against the wall and held the shotgun barrel against his shoulder, ready to aim. Samantha flew into the room and collapsed over Sam, crying. A massive hulk of demon followed her into the room at an easier pace, blowing air with each step menacingly. This was the moment that Sam was supposed to shoot it in the back and Jason was supposed to shoot it in the head. Jason heard sobbing from the back wall of the room as he leveled his gun and shot. The demon turned and bellowed at him, a giant, almost featureless black shape in the vague moonlight. Jason shot again. It grabbed him and slammed him into the wall, fingernails digging trenches in his arms. He looked over at Sam and Samantha, and saw Samantha laying across the floor.

  “Oy,” she said sharply. The demon turned its head and she shot it in the face with Sam’s shotgun. It ashed, and Jason dropped the two inches to where his feet found the floor.

  “You okay?” she asked him.

  “Yeah.”

  She returned to Sam, curling him up against her chest.

  “I’m sorry,” she murmured to him. “Just breathe. It won’t be as bad, next time.”

  “What happened?” Jason asked. “He was certain you were going to die.”

  “It threw you into a wall. It had you,” Sam said.

  “I ran into a wall turning too fast. On purpose. I told you,” she said. Sam looked up at her.

  “It was all fake?”

  “Yes. I told you.”

  “I’ve never seen him like that. Sam doesn’t get afraid,” Jason said.

  “It wasn’t his fear. It was mine.”

  “You were afraid?” Jason asked. She looked up and shrugged.

  “Yeah. Fear is something you can control, if you know what you’re doing. Demons feed on it. It makes them drunk, near as anything else is true, and it makes them make bad decisions. If you don’t have an innocent to be afraid for you, you have to know how to do it yourself.”

  She stood.

  “You ready?”

  Sam stood and looked over at Jason.

  “Don’t say a word,” he said. Jason held his hands up.

  “Did I even open my mouth? I mean, apart from the shaking and crying like a little girl, thing, I think that went pretty well.”

  “Shut up.”

  Samantha smiled sheepishly and picked up her backpack.

  “I was armed, Sam. If it had actually come at me, you’d have at least found it in pieces. This was just the safest way.”

  “Yeah. I’m the only one who got hurt,” Jason said. Samantha led the way out of the supply closet. Jason probed his arms with his fingertips and sucked air through his teeth.

  “Geez that hurts,” he said.

  “That’s what she said,” Samantha answered. Then stopped walking. Jason cocked his head to the side and looked at her, stunned.

  “I have no idea where that just came from,” she said, then visibly shook herself. “Old habits.”

  Jason wondered if there was any way to get her to tell him exactly what those old habits were, when blue lights reflecting down the hallway caught his attention. Samantha gasped and started to run down the hallway.

  “Stop,” Jason called urgently. “Be careful. That’s an innocent woman,” he said, seeing the white dress the spirit wore. Samantha turned back and looked at him, mouth open with laughter.

  “No, she isn’t. Besides, even if she were, she couldn’t touch me. I’m a virgin.” She turned back to the ghost and nodded to the dancing woman.

  “Show him your other form,” she said. The ghost swayed sideways for a moment, then blinked, reappearing as an old woman in rags, stooped over.

  “The grieving widow,” Jason said. He looked at Sam. “How did she know?”

  Sam opened his mouth to answer, laughed, then opened his mouth again.

  “She’s a sponge. A couple of nights ago she asked for some stuff to read. We’ve been talking about spirits ever since.”

  The grieving widow transformed back into the widow redeemed and danced a circle around Samantha. Samantha stood with her back to Sam and Jason.

  “You aren’t done yet, are you?” Samantha asked. The woman paused in front of her, eyes happy but urgent.

  “You are welcome, friend. There is no barrier. Do what you must do.”

  The woman looked down at Samantha’s feet and slowly scanned the length of her body, then nodded. And stepped into her. Jason ran forward, pulling his knife.

  “Get out of her,” he yelled. Samantha turned.

  “Air,” she said. “Breath.” Her eyes lifted and she looked at the hallway. “Lips.” She pushed her lips out and wiggled them, making popping noises. “Oh, feet. Feet feet feet feet feet.” She squatted. “Shoes. Shoooooooooes.”

  “Out!” Jason yelled, standing over her. Sam caught up and pulled Jason back. Samantha stood, her face eased and distant.

  “Your friend says that you worry like a scared little girl. I am here by invitation. She wants to set me free.”

  “I’ll set you free, you spook,” Jason said, palming the handle of his knife hard.

  “She’s okay,” Sam said. “I can still feel her.”<
br />
  “You’re okay with this?” Jason asked.

  “She volunteered, and she’s okay. Just take it easy.”

  The woman in Samantha’s body tipped to one side, running lightly into the wall.

  “Walls.” She looked over at them in glee. “Walls.” She bent double and put her hands on the floor, feeling it with flat palms. “Floor. Oh, feet.”

  “What’s going on?” Jason asked.

  “I have no idea,” Sam said. The woman stood and hugged herself.

  “Oh, thank you. Thank you,” she said, then stood still for a moment. “End it,” she finally said, softly, in a deep, husky voice. “Let us go.”

  Samantha’s body rolled and she put a hand out against the wall to steady herself. Sam stepped forward.

  “Are you okay?”

  She nodded.

  “Wow, is she cold. And so lost…”

  “What was that all about?” Jason asked.

  “There’s a demon altar in the basement. We need to go down and burn it to let everyone go. He has them trapped here. Fear forever.”

  Jason nodded.

  “Okay, sure, but the… shooooooooes… thing.”

  Samantha smiled, turning as though she would see the spirit down the hallway again, but the woman was gone.

  “Being a spirit isn’t easy. Time kind of leaps and bounds in strange ways, and space doesn’t feel continuous. They only exist for little bits of time, and then they exist again later, and they don’t remember what happened in the middle. Possessing me, she actually got steady, continuous time. And touch. She missed touch.”

  “That’s what you did? You let her possess you?” Sam asked. She nodded.

  “Let’s go burn that altar and get out of here, shall we?”

  “Hey, Sam?” Jason called. She turned and looked back at him. “That virgin thing.”

  She rocked her head to the side, then walked all the way up to him, resting her elbows up on his shoulders and her chin on her fingers.

  “Yes? What about it?”

  He grinned in her face.

  “We can take care of that, if you want.”

  She made a rolling noise in her throat that was halfway between a growl and a grunt. Suddenly she leaned in toward him, then jerked away. She spun her head to look at Sam.