City Infernal

by Edward Lee

  The three of them began to jog up the trail and disappeared into more malformed woods.

  “What were they doing?” Cassie asked.

  “They throw the guts on the ground and the Extipicists analyze them. It’s an ancient art that goes back to Mesopotamian times, the most accurate form of telling the future,” Via explained. “We’re safe for now and because we’ll be through the Deadpass by the time they make their reading, they won’t know we were ever here. In other words, they won’t be waiting for us when we come back.”

  This at least sounded heartening.

  They were approaching the Rive, Cassie could sense it now, her Ethereal perceptions ever sharpening. Via blew the tiny flames out on the fingertips of the Hand of Glory. She gave it to Hush. “Here’s your hand back. Put it in your pocket.”

  Hush silently mouthed a sarcastic Thanks a lot!

  Cassie went first. She wasn’t afraid this time, she was eager. The Rive sucked against her, bringing its variants of temperature and pressure. The red twilight behind her turned momentarily black. She felt gritty friction against her skin, and suddenly—

  Home at last ...

  Via and Hush emerged behind her. Now they stood back in the Living World, amid its normal forest, and its normal moon and night sky.

  Just up ahead stood the house, Cassie’s home.

  “Wait a minute,” Via said. “Do you see that? What’s—”

  But Cassie had already noticed, and she was already running up the hill. In a side window, she spotted the licking orange light.

  The house was on fire.

  PART THREE

  MACHINATIONS

  Chapter Thirteen

  (I)

  Smoke billowed from an open window on the lower level, and when Cassie barged into the house through the side door, the kitchen wall was being rapidly eaten by flame.

  “Fire!” she screamed. “Dad! Wake up!”

  Smoke stung her eyes. The fire was crackling, crawling noisily up the wall and moving outward. Desperate, she feebly filled a pot with water from the sink and threw it at the flames.

  There was just a faint sizzle, and the fire kept moving.

  “Cassie, you’ve got to put this fire out!” Via yelled. “They did this!”

  Cassie hurled another useless bucket of water. “Who!”

  “Lucifer! He sent someone to do this. If the Deadpass burns down, you’ll never be able to get back to the city!”

  Unfortunately, there was nothing Via and Hush could do to help; back in the Living World, they were discorporeals.

  Or were they?

  “There!” Via said. “Cut yourself!”

  She was pointing to the set of kitchen knifes in a block holder.

  “What?”

  “Just nick your hand with a knife, then we’ll be able to help!”

  The fire was growing before her eyes; it wouldn’t take long before it consumed the room, and even if she called the fire department right now, there was no way they could get here before the house was gone.

  Having no idea what she was doing, she took a steak knife and flinched as she made a half-inch cut on the top of her hand. Via immediately licked some blood off the cut, then so did Hush.

  Then they too were hurling buckets of water at the fire.

  There was no time to ponder the details. As her friends cycled pots of water from the sink, Cassie rushed into the utility room and returned with a small fire extinguisher. Within a few minutes, the three of them managed to douse the fire.

  “We did it!” Via celebrated.

  “Damn,” Cassie said. She opened several doors and windows, to vent out the smoke, then sat down on the kitchen table, exhausted. “I thought you were just spirits on this side, can’t touch anything.”

  “Blood from an Etheress gives us a temporary incarnation,” Via explained. “But it only lasts for a few minutes.” She held up a pot, and after a few more seconds, it fell through her hand. “But one thing I’m sure of—there’s been a full incarnation here tonight.”

  Hush tugged on Via’s leather jacket, pointed to the small pouch that hung from her belt.

  “Good idea,” Via said. She dug her fingers into the pouch and retrieved a small purplish gemstone. “This is a Delueze Stone. If anyone from Hell has been here, this’ll prove it.” She leaned over, walking slowly around the kitchen, the stone thrust out between her fingers. It was as if she were wielding an ultraviolet light. The stone itself didn’t glow, but the marks on the floor did.

  “See? Footprints?”

  Cassie squinted down. On the kitchen floor, a line of bare footprints led out. Each print gave off a faint purple glow.

  “How do you know they’re not my footprints?” Cassie questioned.

  “You have six toes?”

  Another squint. Via was right. Someone with six toes on each foot had been walking around in here....

  “A succubus,” Via muttered.

  Cassie looked at her.

  Hush was nodding grimly. “Lucifer sent a succubus here, to try to incarnate herself,” Via went on. “It’s rare but it can be done. That’s one of the things they do at the Lilith Conservatory. And the incarnation obviously worked. Succubi are demonic sex spirits that invade the dreams of men.” Suddenly Via broke from her stance. “Shit! Where’s your father?”

  “My father?”

  “Hurry! Take us to him!”

  Cassie rushed to the only logical place her father could be at this hour: his bedroom.

  Via explained as she followed: “The only way a succubus can achieve a full incarnation ... is to kill a man during a possession! Hush! Check the rest of the house!”

  Hush ran off. Meanwhile, Cassie’s heart felt like it would explode at the information.

  Then it sunk when she rushed into the bedroom and switched on the light.

  Her father lay sprawled on the floor, perfectly still.

  “Dad!” She knelt, pressed her hand to his chest. “There’s no heartbeat!”

  “Do CPR!” Via yelled back.

  Cassie’s emotions spiraled downward. All she knew of CPR was what she’d seen on TV. Nevertheless, she performed the procedure as best she could, alternately blowing breaths into his mouth and compressing his chest.

  “Keep doing it!”

  Cassie did, not knowing if it did any good. Tears welled in her eyes. No, please, Dad! Don’t be dead!

  “Oh, but he is,” a bizarre, hissing voice flowed into the room.

  Via’s face paled with dread when she looked at the sleek, hairless woman who’d entered the room. Her naked skin shined, the color of human lips. Her eyes seemed a thousand colors at once.

  “Lilith,” Via muttered. “In the flesh....”

  The demonness grinned, then—

  SLAM!

  —grabbed Via by the collar and threw her clear across the room. Her body hit the wall so hard, the wall cracked. In a pink blur, Lilith straddled Via, pinning her to the floor, grinning, ever grinning.

  “This will be so sweet.”

  Via fought back, to no avail. As the hands of the Whore of Revelation encircled her throat, she managed to croak out: “Cassie! Keep doing it....”

  “I think I’ll eat your face off,” Lilith remarked. “But, look. Poor Cassie, the poor little Etheress. She’s got no company while we play....”

  Then the beatific monster called out: “Acolyte! Serve me now!”

  Cassie didn’t notice the shadow behind her until it was too late.

  Rough hands grabbed her hair, yanked her away from her father. She squealed and looked up.

  It was Jervis Conner.

  He towered over her, shirtless, his jeans unbuckled. He looked down at her through an insane grin.

  “I been peepin’ on you,” he drawled. “Pretty little virgin.” Then he pounced on Cassie. “Ain’t gonna be a virgin much longer, not after I tear up that little cherry you got.”

  Cassie threw the most violent thought at him ... but nothing happened. Her Ethereal p
owers seemed only valid in Hell. She screamed, pushing up against his clammy chest, punched at his face, clawed at him, but all her possessed attacker did was chuckle. He lay between her flailing legs; he was pulling his jeans down.

  “Don’t let him!” Via croaked from the other side of the room. “If you lose your virginity, you won’t be an Etheress anymore.”

  But this fact escaped her. Cassie knew that she wasn’t fighting for her powers—she was fighting for her life. A mindless glance aside showed Lilith’s jaw coming unhinged, lowering to Via’s face, the rows of petite glasslike teeth shimmering.

  At the same time, Jervis was pawing at Cassie with a dirty hand, trying to tear off her panties—

  But then another shadow seemed to appear. Hush!

  But what could Hush do against a corporeal? Cassie shoved her hand out—the hand she’d previously cut with the knife. Hush sucked at the still-wet wound and—

  THWACK!

  —kicked Jervis so hard between the legs he literally launched off of Cassie. Jervis wailed, clutching his groin. He blubbered like a baby.

  “Help Via!” Cassie shouted at her and crawled back to her father. She blew more air into his mouth, beat her hands against his chest. “Go help Via!” she screamed at Hush again, but Hush just shook her head. She began pressing down hard on Mr. Heydon’s chest, and mouthed to Cassie, Keep giving him air!

  Cassie did so, nearly insane herself after all this. Then they began working together....

  Behind them, though, Jervis was recovering. “Now I’m really mad,” he growled. “I’m gonna have me a good old time, yes sir. Think ya can mess with me? I’m gonna fuck both you bitches up real good.”

  He lurched forward, hauled Cassie back and grabbed her throat. Cassie gagged. The grip felt tight as a tourniquet. Either her neck would crack or she’d be strangled. As the blood to her brain was shut off, the room darkened quickly.

  “Ain’t gonna be no Etheress no more. Not when you’re dead....”

  Cassie’s struggles turned limp. She could barely move. All she could do was lie there and be murdered by this possessed redneck.

  “Yeah, lights out, bitch. And after you’re dead, I’m still gonna—”

  But then the guttural voice ceased. The hands came off Cassie’s throat, and he collapsed to the floor. Hush had thwocked him in the back of the head with a lamp.

  It took several moments for Cassie to regain her senses.

  I’m ... I’m still alive, she realized.

  Jervis lay unconscious now, and Hush had returned to pushing away on Mr. Heydon’s chest.

  Via was screaming.

  Cassie’s gaze shot across the room. Lilith’s razor-toothed mouth was just about to close over Via’s face and peel it all off but then—

  It was Lilith who was screaming.

  The demonness jumped up, outraged. “You BITCH!” she exploded at Cassie. “No one humiliates me in front of Lucifer!”

  “Yeah, well we just did, you bubble-gum-pink tramp,” Via said, leaning up on her elbows.

  The house began to shake, and Lilith ... began to disappear.

  “Bye-bye, asshole,” Via grinned. “Go find some other house to haunt, and do yourself a favor. Get a wig.”

  Now the monstress’ voice was fading. “I’ll see you back in Hell very soon, and I shan’t forget this....”

  “Just shut up and shan’t your ass out of here. Lucifer’s gonna have you turning five-dollar tricks on the street when he finds out you fucked up.”

  A sound like the wind whipped through the room, and then Lilith was gone.

  Via smiled at Cassie. “Did we kick ass or what?”

  Cassie didn’t understand. The parliament clock on the wall caught her eyes, its hands frozen at a few minutes after midnight, the exact moment that Cassie had initially left the Deadpass.

  But as she stared, the clock suddenly began ticking again.

  Then she turned. “Dad!”

  Her father was leaning up, coughing.

  “It worked!”

  “Lilith’s incarnation fell apart the second your father was revived.” Via stood back up. She pointed to Mrs. Conner, who lay naked and unconscious on the floor not too far from her son. “She obviously put a Machination Hex on the woman—that’s how she got to your father in the first place. And after the incarnation, she threw an enchantment on the redneck. That’s why she came here—to burn the house down and trap you in Hell forever. But she had no way of knowing that you’d come back when you did.”

  Cassie dismissed the details. She was overjoyed just to see her father alive. His eyes blinked a few times and he coughed some more. Then he fell unconscious.

  “He’ll be all right, and so will the woman and the redneck kid,” Via assured. “They’ll just be unconscious for a while. Come on, let’s go.”

  “Let me at least put him to bed, or cover him up or something.” Only then did it occur to her that they were all looking at her stark naked father.

  “No time for that. They’ll be fine where they are.

  We’ve got work to do.”

  Cassie, Via, and Hush began to file out of the room, but Via took one more peek back at Mr. Heydon.

  “Hey, Cassie. Tell your father to lose some weight. Jesus.”

  “So where do we go now?” Cassie asked in the ornate foyer.

  “Well, the first place we’re going is the garage,” Via answered.

  “The garage? For what?”

  “For a shovel, that’s what.”

  (II)

  Cassie carried the shovel as they loped down the moonlit hill. This was no doubt the strangest task she’d ever been charged with.

  I’m on my way to dig up a psychopath’s bones....

  Of course, she had no idea where Blackwell had been buried after his execution, and she only knew one person to ask.

  “How far is this place?” Via asked. “If it’s more than a couple miles, Hush and I will have to stop. The energy of the Deadpass only goes so far.”

  “It’s about two miles away, but if we cut through the next hill it’s a lot shorter.” She was taking them to town. She only hoped the place was still open.

  The next hill was steep and heavily wooded. Cassie could barely see. But eventually they stalked all the way down and found themselves on Main Street in good old downtown Ryan’s Comer.

  “What kind of a shit-pit town is this?” Via asked.

  “A redneck shit-pit. But we lucked out.”

  She pointed across the street to a run-down tavern whose neon sign spelled THE CROSSROADS. BILLIARDS! DARTS! BEER!

  “I’ve seen better looking outhouses. How come we’re going into this dive?”

  “There’s this guy I know,” Cassie said. “And that looks like his pickup truck right there. He said he hangs out here. And he knows all about the Blackwell stuff; he’s the one who told me about it in the first place.”

  Via shrugged. “All right. Let’s check it out.”

  Cassie wasn’t surprised when the few cowboy-looking dopes in the bar stared at her. The place was long and dark. Some dismal song by The Judds twanged from the juke box.

  “An intellectual mecca!” Via proclaimed.

  Cassie laughed but then caught herself. She had to remember that Via and Hush couldn’t be seen or heard by anyone else.

  “Ooo-doggie!” some rube whooped from the bar. “Looky what we got here!”

  “A jen-you-ine city hippie!” someone else called out.

  “Hippies haven’t existed since the seventies, Tex,” Cassie said. “Nice overalls, by the way. You do all your shopping at K-Mart?”

  The guy didn’t get the joke. “Why ... yeah.”

  She could sense herself being felt up by their stares but she didn’t care. She walked right up to the bar and addressed a barrel-chested keep with a Red Man cap. “You know a guy named Roy?”

  “One-armed Roy? Shore,” the barkeep said. “He’s in back playin’ pool.” His gaze poured over her scant, black attire. “But ... wh
o the hail are you?”

  “The fairy godmother,” Cassie said. She looked around. “Hail of a nice place you got here.”

  The keep seemed taken aback. “Well ... thanks.”

  Cassie kept drawing stares as she flipflopped to the back of the bar. A line of women on bar stools grimaced at her—obviously the girlfriends of several patrons— and they didn’t exactly look like members of fine society. They all wore cut-off shorts and cowboy boots, trashy tops, and all sported dark roots in their platinum-dyed hair. Where’s the rodeo, girls?

  Cassie could see Roy awkwardly leaning over the well-lit pool table. Another guy in overalls chuckled, chalking his cue. “Miss this shot,” the guy said, “and you lose. Again. You leave me the eight-ball wide open.”

  “I know, Chester,” Roy said. He drew the cuestick one-armed across the inside table edge, lining up a difficult bank-shot.

  “That’s your friend,” Via asked. “The one-armed guy?”

  Cassie nodded.

  Chester was chuckling. “You know, Roy, you might wanna take up somethin’ you’d be better at. Like archery.”

  The whole bar laughed.

  “ ’S’shame, you know. First ya get whupped by Saddam Hoo-sane, and now you’re gettin’ whupped by me.”

  “I didn’t see you in Kuwait, Chester.”

  “Naw, ya didn’t. And ya didn’t see me gettin‘my arm blowed off by a bunch’a ragheads neither. Shee-it, Roy. You ain’t gonna make that shot, so why don’t’cha just pay me my fifty right now?”

  “No way. I’ll make it.”

  “Shee-it, Roy. Another fifty says ya don’t. lf ya got the balls to take me up on it, but then I guess you let Saddam blow them off too.”

  “No, just the game, like we started,” Roy said, not very confident himself.

  Chester chuckled again. “Shee-it. If ya won, ya just might walk away with enough to buy yerself one‘a them rubber arms, ya know? Then we all wouldn’t have to look at that skinny stump no more. ’Course, if ya ain’t got the balls to make the bet, it wouldn’t surprise me none....”