by Steve McHugh
Layla looked over at the sink and remembered the last time she’d been Elias’s prisoner and what she’d done to the blood elf to escape.
“There’s nothing there to help you escape this time.”
Elias left her alone, locking the door behind him, and Layla sat on the hard mattress, wondering exactly how long it would take Tommy and his people to find her. He had sworn that they would, she just didn’t know how. She stared out of the window as the smell of burning filled her nostrils.
“Why fire?” she asked Terhal, who was leaning up against the door.
“I like fire. I like that crackle as something burns. It’s cathartic.”
Layla turned around and stared at the drenik. Terhal had changed back into male form, and wore a pair of black jeans and a white t-shirt. “I thought you preferred the female form?”
“I do, I just got bored looking like a woman. I figured I’d change to male for a while.”
“You’re not actually a demon. You know that, right?”
“I like to live up to the image you people imposed on me all those years ago. So, are you ready to have your mind broken?”
“I thought we went through this. I’m not going to let you out.”
“Fight him,” Rosa said, appearing in front of Layla. Unlike her normal appearance, Rosa was translucent.
“Her power is waning while mine increases.” Terhal clicked his fingers and Rosa screamed, vanishing from view. “See how pitiful the spirits are? Once your mind is broken, your body will be mine. I will be free. Or you could just accept me.”
The bodies of her friends appeared piled up in a corner of the cabin, forcing Layla to look down at her feet.
“But we know how that works out, don’t we?”
“Leave, Terhal,” Layla said, fully aware that her voice held no authority, and hating herself for it.
Terhal laughed as the door opened and Masako entered carrying a plate of sandwiches and a pitcher of water. She placed the items on the nearby table and stared at Layla with unknown intent. “Just do as they ask and no harm will befall you.”
Layla couldn’t help but laugh. “You don’t believe that. And where’s Chloe?”
“You will see her soon enough. Elias and his people are concerned about both of your abilities. I do not believe anyone here wants Elias to play the ogre hand again. You saw what that creature did last time.”
“Yes, I was there. Thank you for the food and water.”
“So you understand that until there are certain guarantees about your behavior, you’ll both be kept apart. I’m sure Elias will bring Chloe with him when he asks you to contact your father. Is there anything else you need?”
“Some books to read. I have enough problems with my mind without going crazy through boredom too.”
Masako nodded. “Do not make me regret my charity.”
The second she was gone Terhal reappeared. “Now, back to our alone time.” He walked over and crouched in front of Layla. “Let’s see what happens to your friends one more time.”
Terhal showed Layla horrific acts of barbarity being perpetrated on those she loved. People she cared for were murdered and tortured in front of her, and while a part of her knew it wasn’t real, her mind still reacted as if it were. At the end, when Terhal was finally done, he left her alone.
She opened her eyes. She was lying on the wooden floor, her sweat-drenched clothing clinging to her. Terhal’s visions were becoming ever more real, and even when she closed her eyes she couldn’t see anything but the evil visions.
There was a knock and the cabin door opened. Elias stood there, looking down at Layla. “The demon is beginning to take control.”
“Where is Chloe?”
“I brought her.” Elias stepped back outside, and Layla dragged herself to her feet, staggering toward the door. Just outside, bathed by a spotlight, was a kneeling Chloe. Her lip was bloody and her clothes dirty, but otherwise she appeared to be okay. Reyes stood beside her, holding a length of rope that had been wrapped around Chloe’s neck.
“Chloe!” Layla called out. She took a step forward, but Elias stood in front of her, barring her way.
“First we get what we want.”
“Chloe!” Layla shouted again, ignoring Elias.
“I’m okay, Layla,” Chloe called back. “Tired, and I really need a vodka. These guys don’t really know how to have a good time.”
Layla glared at Elias.
“I can’t say I care much for dirty looks, Ms. Cassidy. I just want you to see your friend, because in the morning you’re going to contact the prison and you’re going to get your father to help us. And if you don’t, we’re going to start hurting Chloe. Or maybe we’ll hurt the survivors from the depot. We’ve got a few of them here—I’m sure you’ll be happy to see them.”
“I can’t be the only one who can help you,” Layla said softly.
“Take Chloe back to her room,” Elias commanded. “Allow me to be honest with you, Layla. No one knows where your father is. He’s in a prison somewhere in North America under Avalon control. There are no human prisoners there, and none of the prisoners have a name; they are merely a number. Not even the agent who took him there knows the number assigned to your father.
“Only four people have ever known how to contact that prison. The agent in charge is one, and their boss, the director of the east coast LOA office, makes two. Frankly, going after either of them is opening a can of worms we can do without. Your mother was another, but she died before we managed to get hold of her. And the last is you. I know you know the prison’s phone number because I’ve seen the list of contact names for your father. It’s the only thing we could find with his name on it that pointed us toward you and your mother.
“So, yes, you are the only person who has these details. You think you don’t know where his prison is because you don’t want to know, but the reality is, even if you did want to know, they wouldn’t tell you. But considering how much your father loves you, I’m sure he’ll be only too eager to help.”
“Why are you so sure of it?”
“I’ve read the transcripts of his interviews with Tabitha—we have people who work in the same LOA office as her, and they kindly passed along anything we needed. He talks about you with great affection. And I think someone threatening his little girl is going to get him motivated to help pretty quickly. And just to give you a little incentive—” He kicked Layla in the chest, knocking her to the floor. The air rushed out of her and pain coursed through her torso.
“I hope you enjoy the fun we have planned. Let’s see if you’re more susceptible after a night of no sleep. Enjoy the current UK top forty chart.” He closed the door as music began blaring into the cabin, forcing Layla to clamp her hands over her ears to stop it from reverberating in her head, but it did little good.
Terhal sat beside Layla on the floor and tutted. “I guess now’s as good a time as any to finally break you.” And the world around Layla turned to blood, fire, and pain. She succumbed to the darkness that encircled her.
31
Hours passed, with Terhal inflicting every kind of painful torture on Layla’s friends. At some point during her time there, Terhal returned to her female form, wearing the exact same outfit as before, and continued to barrage Layla’s mind with insanity.
Layla lay motionless on the floor, the images too much for her to deal with all at once.
“You broken yet?” Terhal asked with a laugh.
Layla concentrated on her breathing. “Why are you like this?”
“Why? Because I want to be. Because I don’t want to be here. I never asked to be torn from my home and placed in a scroll. I never asked to have my soul bounce from human to human. And I didn’t ask to sit in someone’s head, never quite able to be free. This is my prison, and you ask why? Whatever I may have been back in my world, I was free. I hunted, I fed, and I enjoyed my life. So now, with your mind as my new life, I will hunt and feed here instead. And you are my prey.”
>
Layla pushed herself up to a kneeling position and coughed. She looked around at three cages that had appeared close by, each containing one of the spirits. Gyda’s expression was one of terror, while both Rosa and Servius just looked angry.
“They didn’t hurt you,” Layla said, pointing to the cages. “They were as innocent as you were.”
“They hate and fear me. They always have and they always will.” Terhal walked over to the cage with Gyda in it and snarled at her. “You especially. I did awful things when I took over your body. Do you remember them?”
“You murdered my friends.”
“And the same could be said for Servius. Lots of people he cared for died too. I have that effect on people. I wonder who I might kill when I take you, Layla. I mean, your parents are dead, so maybe Harry. He likes you—maybe I could show him a good time.”
Layla didn’t bother telling her to leave Harry alone; it would have done no good. Terhal was going to spout whatever evil she wanted, and Layla had no choice but to listen.
Terhal continued to walk past the cages until she reached Rosa. “You were special, Rosa. You accepted me so quickly, within a few hours. But then you always liked the darkness, didn’t you? Always saw a lot of yourself in me. You fight so hard to conceal it, but we both knows it’s there.”
Rosa opened her mouth to shout, but no sound came out.
“Yeah, sorry about that; I had to turn down the volume. Frankly, your voice bores me, and I could do without having to listen to you try to rouse Layla to fight back. She can’t fight back, or she won’t. Either way means I win.”
“This isn’t a game,” Layla said. “It never was.”
“Of course it’s a game, Layla,” Terhal snapped. “And I win. Or would you rather this?” She waved her hands and the loud pop music streamed into the world around Layla, causing the ground beneath her to shake. She slammed her hands over her ears, but as quickly as it started, the music stopped. “I think this way is more civilized. I like being able to talk to you, Layla. I like seeing the hope drain from you.”
Layla sat up and sighed. “I’m done with this, Terhal. I’m done with you, and with Elias, and frankly with anyone else who wants to try to control me. I’m done.” She got to her feet. “You can’t kill me, and you certainly can’t break me, no matter how much you like to believe you can. This is my mind, not yours. I wonder what your life was like before you were forced to come here. The others showed me, but you haven’t. You’ve just threatened and twisted my mind. I wonder what you’re afraid of.”
“Nothing,” Terhal snapped.
“Show me then.” The world around Layla twisted and changed, the fire and death replaced with rolling valleys and green grass. She stood and felt the grass between her bare toes.
Birds flew high above and close by a ten-foot waterfall fed into a stream that opened up into a large river further along.
“This is where you lived?”
“No!” Terhal screamed. “You can’t do this. You can’t see this.”
“Why?”
“I’m in control here. You don’t have the power to stop me.”
Layla looked over at Terhal, who was on her knees, screaming at the world around her. “This is where you lived? It’s beautiful.”
Layla walked off toward the stream and saw brightly colored frogs sitting in the mud of the bank. A low growl broke the peace, and a large cat-like animal with six legs bounded down the bank toward a larger animal that looked like a deer crossed with a unicorn. The six-legged creature was obviously the predator, a fact that was reinforced when the prey turned and jumped over the stream, running off.
“A deericorn,” Layla said to herself. “I really wish people were here to hear me be clever.”
“They’re called dromath,” Terhal said.
The brown and white dromath skidded to a halt and then turned toward the predator, spearing it in the side with its sharp horn.
“Nothing here is helpless,” Terhal said. “Everything is prey, but everything is dangerous too.”
The predator swiped with one paw, slicing through the side of the other animal’s neck, but the dromath was not only larger, it was also faster, and the fight was soon over as the dromath’s horn pierced the underside of the predator’s throat, killing it.
“The cat-like creature is called a tyori. They’re vicious but stupid creatures.”
The dromath, instead of fleeing, lapped up the blood of its defeated opponent.
“Like I said, everything is dangerous.”
“And you were the apex predator?”
Something that looked a lot like Terhal sprinted from the nearby long grass, colliding with the dromath and knocking it to the floor. It grabbed hold of the horn and yanked it back, ripping it out of the creature’s head and casting it aside, before it set about feasting.
“We were the top of the food chain. Beings who could hunt and kill with a strength and speed that few others matched. Each of us had the ability to transform ourselves depending on our surroundings and needs. It took a few days of being cocooned, but once we emerged, we could grow limbs, wings, and night vision; whatever we needed to survive. We were as close to gods as this land got.”
Layla looked over at Terhal and discovered that her frightening appearance from before had changed. She still had the ridge around her skull, but there was now skin around her mouth. “And then you were taken.”
“We were physical in this world, but in your world we lost that ability; we became spirit-like, bonded to a scroll for all eternity. Those of you who created these scrolls thought nothing of what they did—they just wanted to create power, and damn the consequences.”
“I’m sorry about what happened to you. Did you live in families or alone?”
“Are you asking if I had a family? The answer is no. We were solitary creatures for the most part, only coming together to mate and be on our way. I do not wish to see this anymore.”
“Why?”
“I do not wish to be reminded of what was.”
“Is that why you torture me? Because of your anger at missing this place?”
“I torture you because I cannot torture those responsible for my current circumstances. I torture you because it is survival of the fittest, and you have not proven yourself to be anything close to it. And I torture you because if I’m going to have your hate and disdain, I might as well do something to earn it.”
“Why would you have my hate or disdain?”
“I’ve seen other people when they’ve taken a spirit scroll. I’ve seen the way they speak about the drenik, the fear and loathing they have for them. It does not make me want to help you. And no, not all of the drenik in scrolls are like me; some are kind and sweet, some want to bond with the human to create something better. I’ve listened to my hosts speak to many umbra over the years—the drenik are not a one-size-fits-all kind of species. Just like humanity.”
“Why not work with me?”
“Because you won’t let me out. You’ll keep me in here until you die, and then I get to wait another hundred years or longer until I can go through this whole thing again. The spirits in here hate me, do you know that?”
“Have you ever given them a reason not to? Gyda feared you, and then you murdered her people.”
“It was my first time out. I reacted like a cornered animal would have, and then I realized the more I deliver the evil they expect of me, the harder it is for the human to take control. I get to live outside of this facade so long as I behave in a way that you people would consider evil.”
“Doesn’t sound like much of a life.”
“Rosa was the only one who understood me even slightly, and even she was scared of what I could do if I were ever allowed to take control. Rosa kept me locked down unless it was an emergency, and beyond that, I just sat in my cage and waited.”
“You’re saying that those who took the scroll were wrong about you, that you’re not a cruel, vindictive monster?”
“
I’m drenik. We believe that the strongest survive and the weakest are there to serve us, or be our next meal. Gyda was weak. Rosa was not, but by then she’d heard from Gyda and Servius and distrusted me.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
“Because you are not afraid of me. You challenged me and brought me here; I’ve never had a host able to do that. Rosa sat and spoke to me, but it was more about learning than actual bonding with her. As if she wanted to get to know me just enough so that she could accept me, but never enough to actually go beyond that. She didn’t want to understand me, or where I was from. Gyda and Servius had already imparted their stories to her by then.”
“You murdered people when you took Servius.”
“His emotions were a mess, and they translated to me. Fear, hate, rage, and the need to destroy those who dared to oppose him. He didn’t have a chance to tell me to stop; he just let me out to do whatever I needed to. I can’t tell friend from enemy. For my kind, everyone’s a potential enemy. Even when mating, you get in, get out, and don’t wait around for them to decide whether you’re a nuisance or danger.”
Terhal walked toward several large stones in the center of a fire pit. “This was my camp while I was here. I was about to move to the east. The winters are bad here, and evolving just to survive it is a monumental effort. I preferred the jungles of the east, anyway. But I’m never coming back here now. This is all I have left. Memories and dreams. I hate you, Layla. I hate you and your kind; humanity is a curse that was inflicted on my people when the dwarves dragged us from our realm and put us into those scrolls. When they turned us into weapons. I can’t think of anything else other than to hate you for what happened to me.”
There were no words that could make it better, so Layla just stood silently, watching Terhal.
“I might not be able to break you, but I can never trust you, I can never stop trying to fight. It’s not in my nature. Sooner or later, humanity will betray me. It seems to be all you know how to do. Betray, conquer, and destroy.”