by Cege Smith
“Who?”
“I can’t tell you,” Jake said averting his eyes.
“You need to tell me, Jake!” Ellie said.
“I can’t,” Jake’s voice was strangled. “It’s not that I don’t want to, but if I do, I will die.”
“That’s a bit melodramatic,” Ellie said.
“No,” Jake said. “It’s dark magic that ensures I’ll keep those kinds of things secret. It’s necessary in Hell. There are many dark plots going on all the time.”
“Then why are you telling me everything else?” Ellie asked. “Shouldn’t this dark magic stop you from helping me?”
“I was supposed to return once the Scolosi had you,” Jake said. “I haven’t yet because I think that you may be able to help me break free. I saw that you were able to resist some of the effects of their poison. You’re different, Ellie. I don’t want to be like this forever.”
Ellie was annoyed and frustrated. She thought that Jake did care about her well-being, but it was also obvious that he had self-preservation at the top of his priority list. Which meant that at any point in time, if he saw a shift in power, he could swing his vote to the other side. She had to be careful with what she said to him.
“Okay,” she said. “If I’m going to be able to do anything, I need Lucy.”
“They burned out her power,” Jake said. “She can’t do anything, plus they are immune to magic.”
“So I’ve been told, but her magic can still help us. So we need them to believe that her power hasn’t returned,” Ellie said. “Lucy could be our game-changer. So first, we have to save her. Then, we’ll tackle how to take down three demon children who apparently have the ability to scare even the most steadfast evil things in Hell.”
Jake shivered. “You haven’t seen what they can do, Ellie. They are depraved animals.”
“I’ve seen enough,” Ellie said, shuddering as she remembered how Melissa was peeling Lucy’s skin from her body. She hoped that Lucy had the same kind of recuperating powers as she and Mikel did, she had never thought to ask her. “Look, are you going to help me or not?”
“What do you want me to do?” Jake said with a sigh.
“You are a ghost. Go find out where everyone is,” Ellie said whirling her hand around in the air. “And Jake?”
“Yes?”
“If you turn me in, I swear I will find a way to kill you again,” Ellie said with her most menacing tone. “Get back here as soon as you can.”
Jake faded into the darkness, and Ellie started to think about her options. She could burst out of the closest and find all three Scolosi demons waiting for her, in which case she’d probably end up dead. She had already determined that if they caught her again, she would do whatever she had to do to make them kill her. She had no desire to be taken back to Hell.
Assuming Jake was able to find Lucy, and she was able to get to her, Ellie had to hope that enough time had elapsed for the witch to get her magic back. When they spoke earlier, Lucy had no time frame in mind. Ellie was counting heavily on being able to use Lucy’s powers.
A kind of plan started to form in Ellie’s mind. She knew that when she and Lucy linked, it amplified her own power. She wondered if the same worked in reverse. If she could make herself a kind of power plant for Lucy to draw on, she thought they may be able to break the conjuring spell and send the demons back to Hell. That would buy them the necessary time they needed to regroup and come up with another plan.
Resolved to either option, Ellie was ready when Jake materialized. “So?”
“Bobby almost caught me,” Jake said grimly. He’s in the basement again. Christopher has him guarding the way line down there so that you can’t use that to escape.
“That’s good. That means we only have to worry about Melissa and Christopher,” Ellie said brightly. She was going to take every piece of good news that she could get.
Jake grimaced. “I’d hold off on declaring that a win quite yet. I haven’t told you where Lucy is yet.”
Ellie stilled her mind. Dozens of awful possibilities ran through it, but she willed herself not focus on any one of them in particular for fear it would match what she was about to hear. “Where?”
“They’ve got both her and Mikel in the foyer,” Jake said slowly.
“What aren’t you telling me, Jake?”
“They’re hanging from the chandelier,” Jake said.
In her mind, Ellie saw the thin metal filaments hanging from the chandelier when she crossed the landing earlier. At the time, she had no idea what they were, but now she did. “They’re both alive though?”
“Yes, as far as I could tell, for now,” Jake said. Christopher and Melissa appear to be doing a sweep of the house, but they keep getting…distracted…in the foyer.
Ellie could only imagine what Jake’s words meant, so she decided not to ask. She needed to get down there and save Lucy.
“Okay,” Ellie said. “We need to get them as far away from the foyer as possible. So we’ll have to create a diversion. Do you have any handy tricks up your sleeve?”
“Like what?”
“You are a ghost, Jake. I know you can disappear and reappear at will. You can walk through walls. You can make yourself invisible. Can you do something like look like something else?”
“What do you mean?”
“If they don’t know you are still here, then obviously you can’t show your face. But what if you were able to show mine?” A wild idea grew in her mind. “You could draw them out into the greenhouse.”
“Why the greenhouse?”
“It’s the farthest point from the front foyer,” Ellie said. “If we brought them up here, they’d be able to see the chandelier move when I cut Lucy free. The basement is right below us. You have to draw them all that way. Then I can get Lucy and get out of there.”
“I’m not sure this is going to work, Ellie,” Jake said.
“Try it,” Ellie suggested. “Try looking like me.”
Jake shrugged and closed his eyes. Then his face scrunched up, and he grumbled under his breath. Ellie was shocked, and delighted seconds later to be find herself staring into her own brown eyes. “That is cool and very strange, Jake.”
Jake stood up and made his way to the long mirror at the back of the closet. “Surreal,” he said as he examined himself.
“Are you ready to do this?” Ellie asked.
Jake looked pained again. “As ready as I’ll ever be I guess.”
“Get their attention and then run for the greenhouse. Once you’re inside, get back to the foyer and help me. I’m going to need to move fast.”
Ellie made way to the closet door. She pressed her ear to the door. “Here goes nothing.” She opened the door and stepped outside. She was alone in the huge empty room. She quickly crossed to the closed door that led out to the third floor landing. She looked around the room. Something slipped into her hand, and she looked down to find a pair of wicked looking shears there. She looked up at Jake.
“I found those in the basement. I figured they’d come in handy.”
“Thanks, Jake,” she said. “Can you tell if they are out there?”
Jake made the top half of his body invisible, and then Ellie watched in discomfort as he appeared to push his body through to the other side of the door. His upper half reappeared. “Coast is clear.”
Ellie nodded and then put her finger to her lips. She carefully opened the door a few inches so that she could step out into the darkened hallway. Jake followed her. She stopped just short of the bannister. She could see the glints of the filaments gently swaying and it made her stomach roll knowing that Lucy was at the bottom of one of them. She gave the thumbs up to Jake, and then he was gone.
Goosebumps ran up her arms when she heard Christopher’s voice yell from directly below her, “There she is! Quick! Get her!”
The thumps of their running footsteps covered up her own as she bolted around the landing and took the stairs two at a time to the second floor landing. As she whirled a
round the corner and was able to see down the grand staircase to the foyer below, she bit her lip from screaming as she skidded to a halt.
Mikel and Lucy hung suspended in the air, their feet just a few inches off the ground. A massive pool of blood covered the floor and Ellie felt her chest constrict as her eyes followed the liquid upwards.
At first, the only way she knew who was who was simply based on their size. Otherwise, the rips and tears in their skin obscured all of the other details. Ellie forced her feet down the stairs. Jake said that they were still alive, although she had no idea how he was able to determine that. It was obvious that the Scolosi demons had been enjoying their time with her friends, and it made her ill.
As she reached the bottom step, she whispered, “Lucy?” She reached her hand out, but didn’t know where to touch that wouldn’t cause her friend more pain. “Lucy! Can you hear me?”
Howls of rage came from the back of the house, and Ellie knew that her time was running out. She had to get Lucy down. She glanced at Mikel and found his blue eyes piercing her. Jake materialized next to her. “They will be back here in minutes, once they tear that greenhouse apart.”
“Help me!” Ellie said. “I can’t get over her head.” She handed the shears back to Jake and then reached out just far enough to grasp the edge of Lucy’s shirt. She was able to turn the chandelier so that Lucy was fully in reach without stepping into the blood on the floor. They wouldn’t be able to hide for long if they left a trail of blood behind. Ellie pulled Lucy into her arms and felt her friend’s shuddering breath.
“Run, El, don’t worry about me,” Lucy croaked in her ear.
“Like hell,” Ellie said. “Now, Jake!”
She watched Jake float upwards off the floor and seconds later Ellie felt the full weight of Lucy’s body fall into her arms. Without her supernatural strength, she knew she would have toppled over.
“What about me?” Mikel rasped. “You can’t leave me here.”
Ellie had heard the plea before, but this time, she didn’t have time. “I’m sorry,” she said. “They can’t kill you. Christopher said so himself. Right now, I have to get Lucy out of here. We’ll come back if we can.”
Ellie turned and shot back up the stairs. She felt Jake’s presence keeping pace with her. She was on the third floor when the shrieks ripped through the air. “Where is she?” Christopher howled.
“Put me down,” Lucy choked.
“No, Lucy, we have to hide,” Ellie said.
She felt Lucy kick and was so surprised that she released her grip. Lucy slid down her body and Ellie found herself facing Lucy’s tortured frame. “We’re going to kick those demons’ asses,” Lucy said.
“Your magic is back?”
“Yes. I can feel it. I can piggyback off your energy, just like the house does. It should be enough to break whatever is holding them here and send them straight back to Hell,” Lucy’s voice was strained and her eyes were wild.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Ellie said. She could hear the thumps of footsteps on the steps below.
Lucy didn’t say answer Ellie’s question other than glancing in Jake’s direction. “Unless you want to be fried with your friends, I suggest you disappear somewhere else.”
Jake’s mouth gaped, but he didn’t argue.
Lucy grasped one of Ellie’s hands in her own. “I’m not going to lie, El. This is going to hurt.”
Ellie reached down and picked up the shears that Jake had left on the floor. She put them in Lucy’s other hand. “I trust you.”
“You think you can escape me? No one escapes from me!” Christopher’s voice boomed from the staircase and Ellie saw shadowy movement out of the corner of her eye. Her head whipped toward it, and crawling across the wall toward them, Ellie saw a creature that looked exactly like the one she had seen in Mikel’s cell in Hell.
Then she saw Lucy’s arm come up and then in a hard arc, plunge the shears into Ellie’s upper chest. Ellie screamed as Lucy’s other hand locked down on top of the blood pouring from her. Lucy’s eyes were bloodshot red, and although her mouth was moving, Ellie was in too much pain to hear the words.
She felt the looming presence of dark shadows looming all around them, but it was as if a protective bubble enveloped them. The shadows got closer, and now Ellie could see the faces morphing between child and monster.
“Give it to me, El. Give it all to me,” Lucy’s voice rose.
Ellie had no idea how to do what Lucy asked, but she felt something inside of her respond. A kaleidoscope of red, orange, and black flames exploded all around them, but they were protected inside their bubble. The monster’s howls of outrage turned into shrieks of pain. Ellie felt as if she was about to burst into a thousand pieces.
Then the light was gone, and it was just her and Lucy on the stairs. She smelled burned flesh and then she saw the streaks of blood all over the walls. “What did you do?”
“I blew those damn demons back to Hell,” Lucy said. Then with a sheepish grin she continued, “They may be immune to magic, but I guarantee that trip back was painful. With quite a bit of your blood of course. You okay?”
Ellie yanked the shears out of her chest. The wound immediately closed. “I really hate it when you do that. But yes, I’m fine.”
“Good.” Lucy wobbled, and then fainted.
Ellie cried out and caught her just before she hit the floor. As Ellie gently set her down, she heard a tired voice from below.
“Can someone please come down here and cut me loose now?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Lillian escorted David from Alain’s office. David was surprised that they didn’t re-enter the elevator, but instead the air seemed to shift at the back corner of the room revealing a door. As they stepped through, David found they had entered another long dark hallway.
“This way, David,” she said cocking her head toward the left.
As they walked, David felt the bristles of tension emanating from Lillian’s composed form. “Where are we going? I thought that I was going to take my vow.”
“You are,” Lillian said stiffly. As they rounded the corner of the darkened hallway and the door to Alain’s office was out of sight, she whirled on David, and he found himself slammed against the wall. Lillian’s hand caught him by the neck, and the air in his throat was almost entirely cinched off as she easily raised his body a few inches off the ground.
“What kind of game are you playing, my dear, sweet, little boy?” Her voice was deadly calm.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” David said. He should have known that Lillian would be searching every word he had said thus far, turning them over and weighing them for their ring of truth. He knew that several times he slipped in Alain’s office. He had to turn in the performance of his life. “Don’t you trust me?” He tried to keep his voice light and casual as if Lillian tried to strangle him every day.
“You may be able to fool everyone else, but I’ve known you since the day you were born,” Lillian said. The skin around her eyes tightened, and for just a moment, David saw the decrepit soul hiding beneath Lillian’s carefully made up exterior. “You don’t have a deceptive bone in your body. You’ve always been generous, curious, and empathetic. This turn isn’t in your make-up. There is no way you could be professing your love for that twit Coulter girl, and turning your back on her hours later. What’s your end game, David?”
“Maybe Mikel’s possession rubbed off on me,” David said. “Can you let me go? I’ll try to explain it to you.” He wanted more time to gather his thoughts, but he knew that it was time to play the clincher card.
For a moment, he thought that she was going to go through with strangling him, but then her fingers loosened just enough to allow air back into his throat and then she dropped his feet back onto the floor. David rubbed his neck. He had a feeling if he looked in a mirror, he would be able to see the outline of her perfectly manicured hand still pressed into his skin.
“Talk,
” Lillian said. “We’re expected in the ceremonial chamber in less than ten minutes. This had better be good.”
“It started after I arrived in Purgatory,” David said. “I started to remember things that I didn’t remember before; things that if Ellie knew about me, would surely disgust her.”
Lillian’s foot started tapping the floor. “What kind of things?”
“Do you remember when the art school started using the mansion for its classrooms and student housing back in the 60s?” The line between the Other Side and the Afterlife was particularly thin in the waypoints. Over the years, Lillian had used that to her advantage to siphon energy from those infrequent residents in the mansion who tried to live in the house. Lillian had a possessive streak, and it annoyed her to think that anyone else would ever dare to live in the house she had built.
“Yes,” Lillian said.
“Then you probably remember that I was particularly infatuated with one of the students. Rosalyn.” Although David wasn’t able to interact directly with Rosalyn or any of the people on the Other Side, he could catch occasional glimpses of them when they were in a state that mimicked that of the waypoint, usually while they were asleep. David had grown into maturity in the waypoint, and so it was natural that someone like the young raven-haired art student would catch his attention. He had obsessed over finding a way to reach her on the Other Side. Now that he understood what he was capable of doing, he understood that he was the reason the Other Side was even visible to the residents of the waypoint.
“Oh, yes. I remember Rosalyn,” Lillian said. “You were like a love struck puppy dog.”
“So you remember that Joseph also took a similar interest in her,” David enjoyed the tightening of the skin around Lillian’s mouth. She didn’t like to be reminded that her late husband had a roving eye.
“Joseph was weak,” Lillian said evasively. “So?”
“After a few weeks, Rosalyn was gone. You said that when you checked into it that Rosalyn left the school and went back home. Secretly, I think you thought that Joseph had found a way around you to siphon Rosalyn’s life force. I remember that the two of you had some pretty nasty fights about it.”