There was nothing more to say and William got them moving. "Father, please push me. Boys, pick up your charges." As the priest wheeled him to the door, he continued to issue instructions, "Don't be slow on those stairs, and don't look back. Remember, do not freeze in place. Keep moving or you may not be able to start again. Good luck everyone."
4
Will heaved Henny up on his shoulder like a rolled up carpet and followed Brian around to the back of the house. The boy's eyes were wide and fearful as he looked up at the tall brick home. "How are we shuposhe to she in there? It's sho dark," he said blurring his words around the breathing tube.
Will glanced up and saw the windows were so dark they could have been made of coal.
"There'll be enough light; enough to do what has to be done," Adrina said.
"What abou va vemon?" Brian asked.
"It'll be upstairs. It will want us all the way into the house before..." Adrina took a huge breath, her hands shook as she reached out for the doorknob. "...before it comes after us. It won't want us to be able to run away." She pushed open the door and Will, who was just behind her, was physically assaulted by the cold. It was worse than it had been before. He felt the sweat of his fear freezing on him and he was glad for the warmth of Henny and hugged her to him, as if she were an animal pelt.
Adrina clutched herself despite her heavy coat and stepped into the kitchen. "The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want," she proclaimed loudly. Will felt Brian give him a push from behind and he stepped inside. Immediately, the cold invaded his lungs, searing them, it slipped beneath his thin clothes. His skin contracted in goose bumps, his testicles retreated from the dreadful cold as far up as they could go; despite this Will barely gave the cold a second thought. He was too busy being afraid.
The kitchen was impossibly dark and Adrina was already little more than a moving shadow.
"He maketh me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters." By the time she said the word 'waters', she was completely invisible to Will. Another nudge and Will realized he had frozen in fear already and he was just two feet into the blackness of the kitchen. He started shuffling forward, seconds later, he hit the kitchen table.
"Ooh!" he gave a soft cry of fear and pulled his hand back. The table seemed to be made of ice and for a second he thought the demon had slid from its hiding place and was standing right next to him and that he had touched it.
"What was that?" Brian whispered in a voice that was an octave away from panic.
"It was me...I hit something. The table I think," Will said. He heard the fear in Brian's voice, but instead of it giving him a boost, this time it only made him even more unnerved.
"He restoreth my soul," came Adrina's old panting voice. She was practically at the stairs and Will hurried forward so as not to leave her alone. As he came up he saw her then, a small figure dressed in the color of the night. Despite her age, she wasn't waiting on the men and was already five steps up. Will bent his back against his burden and headed up after her. "He leadeth me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake."
What was she talking about? It seemed to be some sort of prayer, but she was way off. The path they were taking was certainly not one of righteousness. It was a wicked path that would either lead to his death or to his becoming a murderer. It was created in sin, and sin was where it would lead. He paused looking up to get his bearings and saw the silhouette of Adrina. She had stopped and he could hear her heavy breathing in the darkness.
It was then that the Horror of the Shade looked upon him.
The demon, in the unused bedroom in the attic, sent out a casual look that nearly had Will tumbling back down the stairs. His mind became a sudden wreck and he reeled against the wall. Putting his free hand out blindly, it struck the railing, but even so he would have fallen down the stairs had the demon not moved on. He panted like a dog, while his brain scrambled to right itself. The demon was only being curious, it could have attacked in a much more powerful way, but it was only browsing through his mind, checking on their intentions.
In the darkness below him, he heard, "Uhhhhh!" And he knew Brian had been looked upon. Will tried to turn in that direction in the narrow stair, but before he could, he heard Brian say, "Oh my God!" Brian had been released as quickly as Will had been. William was next and let out a long harsh gasp.
Brian shouted, "Oh my God! It looked into me! It knows why we're here."
"Hold it together!" William growled. His voice floated up out of the shadows, sounding like it came from a very old man and he followed his words with a dry hacking cough, so that Will imagined his dad as wizened and wrinkled as Adrina. "It doesn't know or it would have stopped us already. Now get moving," the Commander ordered.
"It's just toying with us. We gotta go back," Brian cried. The boy's fear was infectious and Will began to shake in terror. Henny Harris started to shake too and then she screamed out. She was face down over his right shoulder and the scream was abrupt and without any warning and he staggered again, nearly dropping her. This was partly because he was off balance and partly because the sound tearing from her throat was so unnatural.
"H-elp me, F-ath-er Al-ba!" Henny's voice started low but went through the scale as if she were tuning it. It was an inhuman horrible sound as if she weren't alive at all—as if she was just the demon's sock puppet. Will's skin flashed from the inside out as adrenaline hit his system and he twisted in fright to look at Henny. He was in a near panic, thinking he would see her with long curved fangs in her mouth and great sharp horns upon her head, but try as he might it was impossible to see her. "The-ay are ra-ping me!" She screeched in a voice that was a poor imitation of a human's.
Above him on the stairs Adrina yelled, "Don't let the priest come in the house!"
"It's a trick, Father," William called out in his old man voice. "It's the demon. Don't come in."
"No! The-ay arrre real-ee ra-ping me!" the demon cried out.
Will was so horrifically repulsed by the infested body on his shoulder that he swung Henny slowly back and then accelerated her hard forward so that she crashed, thumping head first into the wall of the stairwell.
Undaunted the demon screamed out of Henny's lips, "The-ay arrre kil-ling me!"
Revulsion so complete had Will smashing her head a second time, uncaring that it was a person's head he was crushing.
Now there was silence both in the kitchen and on the stairs. The body hung limp on Will's shoulder, yet he waited, afraid. After a few seconds it became apparent that the priest wasn't going to come in and Adrina whispered back to them, "Let's go!"
Will started up the stairs and that's when the body on his shoulders began to increase in weight. Henny seemed unchanged in appearance still she grew heavier and heavier. In seconds, his load doubled and he bent straining at it, pushing his legs painfully through the motions of climbing the stairs.
The extra weight slowed him, but Will was very strong and he did not stop. Gasping for breath, he continued. However, the demon wasn't done. Henny twitched a little and then suddenly straightened on his shoulder. Her back leveled out and her arms and legs shot up so she appeared to be trying to fly like a cartoon superman. This unbalanced Will and again he came close to dropping her and was forced to throw her weight against the wall to keep her supported on his shoulder.
"What's wrong?" Adrina demanded. Will was surprised he could see her so well, that he was as close as he was to her.
"She's having a seizure, I think." Will squirmed beneath her to get a better grip on the ungainly body.
"Then throw her down and drag her the rest of the way," Adrina suggested. This seemed like a plan, but just then, Henny went limp and her weight returned to normal.
"I'm good, go on," Will whispered breathlessly. He turned to see that Brian, whose eyes were as big as saucers, was only a few steps behind him. His father, only just visible in the gloom, was still slowly making his way up the stairs. Will straightened to press on, only to feel Henny's weight in
crease rapidly again, and the same routine repeated itself. Even knowing it was coming, he almost went down in a heap, and he had a feeling that was exactly what the demon was looking for, so he toiled on. His muscles were burning and trembling even before he passed the second floor landing and the final flight up was pure hell on his back.
Just four steps from the top Adrina stood staring into the darkness of the attic hall and Will was forced to stop.
"Go," he said.
Adrina coughed her wet cough and refused to move. After a few seconds, Will's burden became desperately heavy, and he tried again, "Move! Go forward!" However, Adrina didn't budge and Will was forced to dump Henny roughly onto the stairs. He went up the last few, "Go," he said, as quietly as he could directly into her ear, but Adrina stood unmoving save for a constant shivering.
"I can't...I can't do this. I thought I could but I can't," she whispered.
Will was at a complete loss. She was the one with the plan, the knowledge, and the visions. "But the vision, remember? This will be worse for all of us if you don't go in there," he said looking down the darkened hall.
Now he could feel the baleful presence of the demon in the room not thirty feet away. It was there, he knew it was there, like a great black spider patiently waiting for its next meal. Will's heart had been beating rapidly before, but now it beat in a painful disjointed fashion and he felt each beat distinctly. He was very nearly paralyzed with fear, just as Adrina was and he remembered his father's warning about not stopping and how it would be difficult to get moving again. Suddenly Will needed his father, badly. He turned to look down into the gloom.
William was much further down the stairs than he had expected. The Commander stood slightly bent over, leaning on the rail, holding his chest. Brian was much closer and after the long climb he looked ready to drop from exhaustion.
Will realized the demon had them right where he wanted them.
If they ran now, only he or Brian would have any chance at getting out and Will didn't think it was much of a chance at all. This meant there was only one direction left to them, forward, but the thought drained the will out of him.
There was supposed to be an adult in charge, there was supposed to be someone he could rely on, someone to protect him. He had honestly thought that either Adrina or his father would confront the demon and that he would only be in charge of tying the stole. He was not even sure he could do that much. His mind suddenly started visualizing knots...slipknots, square knots, granny knots...and he shook his head, wanting to scream at the stupidity of coming up there.
"Move her. I can't get by."
Will heard whispered from behind him.
Brian, with his arms sagging and his back bent under his load, stood very close to Henny's outstretched legs. Will, in the beginning state of panic, had been close to screaming and jumping past his friend to run away, but he had been given an order—Move her. An order was exactly what Will had been looking for. It kick-started his body and he dropped down, grabbed Henny's hand, and made to haul her up.
She was heavy again but this was a good thing.
On the trek up the stairs with Henny's body weighing him down, he had been so focused on his exertions that his fear had taken a back seat. When he bent down now, he strained to move her great weight, and she came up very slowly. The exertion worked for him and his mind discarded its panic with each thump of Henny's head on the stairs.
Finally, he was directly behind Adrina and he knew she would have to get out of the way for him to continue. There was only one place to go: down the hall.
Will put an arm around her shoulders. She jumped, but the terror-stricken look on her face never changed. Her eyes were huge and round, her skin deathly white, and her overly large dentures made her face appear almost exactly like that of a skeleton's. With one hand pulling the limp body of Henny, and the other around Adrina's shoulders, he gently guided them forward to the deep black doorway at the end of the hall.
"Noooo, please" Adrina moaned softly. "I can't." She pushed back into him, but she was feather-light and he pushed her tenderly forward to her death.
As they neared the doorway, Will felt an arctic wind picking up from behind him and at first it blew gently but then it grew to a gale. It was a noiseless wind or so it seemed. Just as the other time he was close to the demon, his hearing became severely compromised. It was similar to being submerged underwater, and everything came to him muffled.
Still the words, "Not like this. No please, not like this," seemed to cut through to him like a knife.
5
They gained the doorway and Will didn't bother to look in. He knew what lay waiting for him inside. Instead, he gave Adrina a final push, one, that in his fear, was greater than he meant and it sent her reeling into the room and she disappeared from sight. Putting his back to the horror, he turned and used both hands to pull Henny forward. Her weight had grown so enormous that it took all the power of his young body just to slide the unconscious woman a few feet into the room. The second he entered a great terror-filled buzzing swamped his mind, it distorted all mental activity, and it became so overwhelming that he stopped and shook his head rapidly in a poor attempt to clear it.
The demon then reached out with its tremendous power and made to crush Will. The boy's mind was suddenly engulfed with insane unearthly Evil and even though he was far more prepared this time, his body still convulsed and he pitched forward over Henny. He lay in agony, uncontrollably twitching as the demon tortured him. For how long the waves of pain wracked him he never knew, but it did stop eventually. Brian staggered into the room after having borne Talitha's weight up the three stories of the house. The boy's chest heaved and he gasped mutedly, with eyes grown huge. He made to put his burden down in a gentle fashion but the demon looked away from Will at that moment and looked upon him instead.
Dimly, Will felt a weight fall over his legs. The retreating pain ravaging him was still too much and he didn't care what it was. Nor did he care about the demon, or his sister, or the witch whose head he had beaten against the wall.
All he cared about was the pain. Savagely he slapped at the skin of his arms, which only a second before had been burning like torches. The flames had been vibrant orange, the smoke a nasty smelling cruelty and the sound of his skin popping and sizzling had been unearthly.
Yet—just like that— the flames were gone and the pain was like a fleeing echo chasing itself to hide in some insane part of him. A semblance of thought came back, and with it came the knowledge he was going to die and die in the worst possible way. He would die after endless torture with his fingers charred down to nubs and his toes beaten with hammers. In a frenzy he fought to get up from whatever was holding him down, and his only clear thought was to run away as fast as he could.
He thrashed around in a panic before he realized that he was struggling under the comatose body of his sister. This knowledge didn't change his urgent need to flee; running away was the only thing occupying his mind. He had to get out of the house.
But suddenly his father appeared in the doorway.
The strain of climbing the stairs showed clearly on the man's grey face. Even though he looked to be seconds from another heart attack he was a gallant figure—every inch Commander Jern—and it rallied Will to see such courage.
His spirits were crushed a moment later, however, when the demon released Brian from its power and struck the Commander. He fell back from the doorway and Will could only see the man's powerful legs writhing and kicking.
Defeat entered Will's mind.
The demon could crush each of them in turn, without effort. There was no way it would allow him to tie the stole about the two women, let alone stab Henny to death. Nor would it allow him to run away and he knew that he would be tortured next if he tried. He pried his eyes from his father's agony and swept the room in a glance. Adrina stood just feet from the fiend. She was hunched over and seemed terribly small compared to the great swirling black mass. Her back was to him
, but he could see that, like a child, she held her hands in front of her face as if that could in some way protect her.
She was supposed to confront the demon!
He suddenly felt bitterly angry—the feeling cleared a small part of his brain of the all-encompassing fear. How could she just stand there while we all suffer? He raged. The anger was good. It festered and boiled away at his fear and in seconds Will was in a fury.
Near to him, Brian struggled to stand, his eyes were wild with pain. "Brian!" Will roared out the name as his father would have and the boy looked over at him. "Kill the witch, now!"
Then, hoping he would last long enough, Will stood up and strode with enraged purpose toward the demon. "Come on!" Will bellowed at it with all the strength left in him. Amazingly, the demon recognized the challenge and released William from its torturous glare.
Will knew nothing of demons and their hierarchy, or of the titanic battles of will that establish their pecking order. All he knew was that he needed to give Brian enough time to stab the witch.
He wasn't even close.
When the demon turned to him, it was like the room in the attic fell away and Will was alone in a vast black world and there was nothing to it but him and the Shade's horrible, fell presence.
Before he even had a chance to get his bearings the demon's great will, formed eons ago, crushed his mind down to the size of a pea. The beast then did what it always did to a conquered foe. First it devoured its opponent and then it commenced to shred the pathetic being. It had barely begun to enjoy itself in this sport when a fresh challenge stood forth.
"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil." Will heard this through the demon's great mind, as if he were seeing and feeling what the beast sensed.
There had been nothing to him only a moment before. His soul was the demon's and his face, stretching in cosmic pain had been added to the thousands of others arranged in a grotesque monument to the beast. But now his entire being came rushing back into the living embodiment of his soul and he suddenly felt new to his body, as if he were trying it on for the first time.
The Trilogy of the Void: The Complete Boxed Set Page 34