by E. Van Lowe
“I have to call him out as soon as possible,” I said in a firm tone.
“Why?” she whined. She turned piteous eyes on Maudrina. “I mean, suppose what you told me is true. I could die.” Tears formed in her eyes. “I don’t want to die,” she said, leaning on the word. “Do you hate me so much you want to kill me?” Her teary eyes were now on me.
I was certain it was the demon talking and not Erin because her words pierced my heart like an arrow finding a bull’s-eye, and demons always go after your weaknesses. My own tears began welling up. “I have to do this,” was my tortured response. I took a step toward her, and she recoiled as if I were toxic, and leaped onto the sofa, feet first.
“Don’t touch me! Don’t you dare touch me, you… traitor!”
Maudrina and I were stunned. Erin was standing on the sofa. I signaled with my eyes for Maudrina to get closer. I didn’t want a repeat of what had happened at the castle.
Terror rose in Erin’s eyes as she saw us attempting to cut off her escape route. She again leaped into the air and landed behind the sofa. “She’zzz mines. You can’tsss have her.” The hissing voice coming out of Erin was deep and frightful.
“Erin?”
“Shesss not available,” the demon hissed, and laughed.
“She’s in there. I know she is.”
“Maybe,” the demon replied. “Maybe not. She wassss delociousss,” the demon said, and laughed again, its laughter piercing my heart even more.
“Erin, I know you can hear me. I had a dream about your tenth birthday party. Remember that party?” I asked, my voice trembling.
Her eyes rolled up into the back of her head until nothing but the whites remained. She looked like a creature from a horror show. Her head flipped right-to-left, right-to-left, as if she were being slapped from cheek to cheek.
“What’s happening?” Maudrina’s voice was heavy with distress.
“She’s fighting for control,” I said.
“Call the demon out,” Maudrina whispered loudly.
“Erin, I got you a purse. It was a Blossom from The Power Puff Girls purse. I wrapped it myself.”
“What are you doing?” Maudrina demanded.
“I’m trying to make contact with her.”
“Just call the demon out,” she repeated.
I went on. “It’s where we were going to keep our makeup for our glamover.”
Erin’s eyes drifted back into their sockets. “Yes… Yes, I remember,” came her distant reply. Her eyes opened wide and filled with terror. “What just happened?” she asked, and I could tell what was left of her, what the demon hadn’t devoured, was starting to realize something was seriously wrong.
Then her expression changed, her complexion darkened, as if a shadow had fallen across her face. Frantic, demonic eyes began scanning the room, and I knew the demon within was searching for a way out. She began backing away from us, toward the rear wall.
“For heaven sake, Megan, talking to her isn’t going to work. Call him out,” Maudrina repeated.
“But suppose she’s right, and it—”
“CALL HIM OUT!” she screamed.
“Demon,” I called, pushing past my guilt and fear, and marshaling every ounce of courage in me. “I compel you to show yourself at once.”
When I completed the command, Erin dropped to the floor behind the sofa like an anchor. She hit with a tremendous thud that shook the house, and then lay there, either dead or unconscious.
We raced around the sofa from either side. She began convulsing violently, her body flopping along the floor like a landed fish.
“He’s killing her,” I whispered, my heart trembling with the fear I’d killed my friend. “Demon!” I called again, louder this time, so loud my vocal chords ached, “I command you to come out now!”
The convulsing abruptly stopped, and she lay there. Still. All the hard edges and lines of her face were gone. She was at peace.
“Is she breathing?” Maudrina whispered, her own breath coming in short, anxious gasps.
“I think so,” I whispered back, but I wasn’t sure. It was wishful thinking, because nothing about her seemed alive.
“Let’s get her on the sofa.”
Maudrina began moving toward her head and me her feet. As we stooped to lift her, I noticed her mouth gaping open abnormally wide, wider than a human mouth should be able to stretch. “Look,” I rasped, pointing. Two eyes, like red laser dots, were staring at us from the dark inside.
“Sssilly girlzzz,” the demon hissed, and then the crimson eyeballs began moving up her throat, toward the front of her mouth.
Chapter Twenty-Five
We heard another sound. Amanda was transforming. Our eyes moved between Amanda transforming into a hell cat to the demon emerging from Erin’s throat. Maudrina was doubly wide-eyed because she hadn’t yet experienced the change in Amanda.
In minutes, seven feet of yellow serpent had slithered from Erin’s mouth. It curled up on the floor beside her lifeless body, as if she were a beloved pet. The demon was thick in circumference, like the bicep of a strapping young man. It was beautiful, with tiny black diamond-shaped marks flecked along its shiny yellow flesh. The creature was breath-taking.
“Ahh, yesss,” it said in a hissy voice. It breathed in deeply, taking in the cool air. “Fresssh soulzzz.” The creature locked eyes onto mine. It began sliding in my direction. The swish of it slithering across the floor, like shuffling feet dragging slowly toward me, shattered my nerve. My fear glued my feet to the spot. The soft rumble of a growl emanated from Amanda’s chest.
The demon stopped a few feet in front of me, sniffed, and then recoiled. “You,” it said, its hissy voice filled with wonder, “are the girl who causesss my massster so much consssern. I cannot have you, for he hass claimed you.” The yellow serpent’s eyes moved to Maudrina. “Inocenssse,” it hissed breathily, and then it started for her. Amanda’s growl ceased.
Maudrina began backing away. “Megan?”
“Amanda!” I called. She was lying at the foot of the sofa, her large luminescent eyes on me. She sensed I was in no danger from the demon—He hass claimed you—so she didn’t attack.
The slithering demon pursued Maudrina around the sofa and toward the entryway. She was backing away slowly, “Megan!” but the demon was moving swiftly, and was nearly upon her.
“Amanda, Maudrina is my friend, my dearest friend. Any harm that comes to her, comes to me. You must protect her, as you protect me.” Amanda’s ears perked up. She rose to her feet, and a deeper rumble erupted this time.
The demon was set to pounce on Maudrina, when its attention was drawn to the sound and movement to its right. It stopped, its head whipping toward Amanda. It set its eyes on her for the first time, and again recoiled, this time hopping back several feet. Its red eyes literally bulged. “What’ss thisss?” it hissed in a voice filled with surprise and outrage. “A hell cat!”
Amanda leaped, and before the demon could react, she seized it in her huge jaws, and began shaking her head back and forth. I’d seen her do this with her toy mouse many times before. The word practice came to mind.
I ran through the entryway and flung open the front door. “Take it outside, Amanda. Take it outside and kill it.” I surprised myself with the darkness of my tone, but the demon had threatened the lives of my best friends. It was time to go.
With the shrieking demon grasped tightly in her lips, Amanda bound out the front door. I slammed the door shut behind her and leaned against it heavily. My eyes found Maudrina standing in the entryway, a shocked expression on her face. Neither of us moved.
We stared at each other, our thoughts numbed by the shock of the entire night. My thoughts may have been muddled, but I knew our eyes were communicating, and this wordless, thoughtless communication sealed the bond between us even further.
“Megan?” The broken sound of Erin’s voice beckoned us back to the real world.
We moved into the living room. Erin was sitting up on th
e floor behind the sofa. “What am I doing down here?”
I started to laugh.
“What’s so funny?”
The laughter, like my earlier tears, was a much needed release. Maudrina joined me. She needed the release as much as I did.
“All right, all right! It’s not that funny,” Erin snapped. A small, nearly imperceptible smile pierced her lips. It was like a ray of daylight shining through the one clean spot on a dirty window, and I got the sense that things between us were going to be all right.
*
We sat and talked for hours.
Maudrina and I attempted to keep the conversation light. We talked about school and I caught Erin up on the latest with the Mathletes and AP classes. Erin mostly listened, occasionally asking a question or two.
“Do you think he ever really loved me?” she asked after we’d been talking for a while. The question was a surprise, as we were talking about the Poplarati when she asked it.
“Do you think who really loved you?” I ventured cautiously.
“Danny,” she said, and then she began to weep.
Maudrina slid next to her on the sofa and put an arm around her. “It’s okay. You’re among friends now,” Maudrina said, attempting to console her.
“Answer me!” Erin said, her bleary eyes burning into me. It sounded as though she were angry, but I knew she was hurting, and that this was her pain coming to the surface.
“No,” I replied firmly. “I don’t think Danny ever loved you. I don’t think he’s capable of love. He uses people. He saw that you were young and wounded and he used you.” I didn’t want to hold back. The sooner she accepted the truth about Danny, the sooner she could deal with it.
“You’re right. I know you’re right,” she said, and cried some more.
One moment Erin was crying grateful tears that we had come to her rescue, the next she was hurling angry accusations alternately at me and then Danny Tambor.
“Why are you mad at Megan? She’s the one who rescued you,” said Maudrina, coming to my aid.
“She knows why. Ask her. Go ahead, ask her!” replied Erin, wagging an accusing finger at me, not yet ready to accept the blame for her own actions.
She was right. I did know why she’d fallen so far. Yet all the guilt I’d been carrying for these past months over my hand in it was gone. I felt sympathy for what she’d gone through, for what she’d continue to go through, but I didn’t feel an ounce of guilt anymore. Tonight I’d risked my life for her. I’d risked losing my soul to an eternity with Satan for her. I’d earned the right not to feel guilty anymore, and I didn’t. The guilt that haunted me so powerfully hours earlier seemed to have washed away like sand with the eroding tide.
I empathized with Erin having to adjust to a world where boogeymen really did exist, a world where her boyfriend, Matt, had traded my soul to the devil in exchange for his own. She cried when I told her Matt’s suicide was his way of making things right. I didn’t feel guilty about that either.
Erin was famished, we all were, and around 4 a.m. we went into the kitchen where I scrambled some eggs, griddled some bacon, and served breakfast with toast and coffee.
“It’s nothing like Aunt Jaz, but it’ll do,” I said serving it up.
“No one cooks like Aunt Jaz,” said Maudrina.
“No one in the history of the world,” I added and we laughed.
“Who’s Aunt Jaz?” Erin asked, as she attacked her eggs and bacon.
“Maudrina’s aunt. She’s a fabulous cook. She’s also into the occult. She’s the one who helped me through my problem with Satan.”
“Oh?” was all Erin said, although she shot cautious glances at Maudrina throughout breakfast.
“You two have gotten awfully close,” she said, as she downed her second cup of coffee.
“We’re best friends,” Maudrina offered quickly.
“I… see that,” Erin replied with a condescending smile.
We were coming back into the living room after breakfast when I heard soft meows from outside my front door.
I opened the door and there stood little Amanda. A seven foot serpent/demon lay on the doorstep in front of her. She looked up at me and mewed.
“That’s one heckuva gift she’s giving you there,” said Maudrina, over my shoulder.
“And to think, I was worried about her killing another field mouse.”
The sun was coming up, and pretty soon joggers would be out for their morning runs. We’d need to do something with the corpse. It would be hard to explain a seven foot garter snake. I picked up Amanda and kissed the top of her head. “Thank you, sweetie. You did a good thing. Mommy’s very proud of you.” She started licking my face. Yuk!
“Is that… it?” Erin had come to the door. She eased Maudrina out of the way so she could get a better look at the thing that once lived inside her.
“That’s it,” I replied.
She stared at the thing, her eyes bulging to silver dollars. “Wow. That… was inside me?” The new, real, world was coming at her fast and furious.
“Yup,” I replied, allowing some moments of silence for her to digest it all.
Amanda mewed again, and all of a sudden the creature on my doorstep began to disappear. Like a stop motion video sped up to double time, the thing evaporated and vanished before our eyes. All that was left was a wet spot on the doorstep in the shape of a snake, or a garden hose.
“This is going to take some getting used to,” Erin said.
A whole lot of getting used to,” Maudrina chimed.
We were about to go back inside when a headlight flashed from across the street. It was the light on Orthon’s motorcycle. The bike had sat, abandoned, across from my house for over a week. Orthon was now on the bike. He wore a dark colored hoodie that covered his head and hideous face along with a pair of dark sunglasses. He sat motionless, but I could tell he was hoping I would signal him over.
“Is that…”
“Yes, it’s Orthon,” I replied to Maudrina. I could feel my mood heading for a dark place. “Ignore him.”
“But he helped save our lives.”
I faced Maudrina, looking deep into her eyes so she could see that I was still hurting. “No, he didn’t. We saved ourselves. And even if he did, is that a fair price for lies and betrayal?” I asked. Maudrina appeared conflicted, yet she did what best friends do at times like these.
“No, it isn’t,” she replied.
“Ignore him,” Erin said, echoing my sentiments. She pulled us both back inside, and closed the door on him.
Later that morning, we took Erin home. When Mrs. Chambers saw her daughter standing outside their door, still wearing her mint green wedding dress, she dropped the potted plant she was holding, grabbed Erin, and began planting little kisses all over her face and head. “Thank you, Megan. Thank you, thank you,” she said again and again, her voice cracking, as she was reduced to tearless sobs.
Erin stood there, arms stiff at her sides, like a puppet with no strings. She seemed confused and embarrassed. It’s like she was a prisoner of war, who after many years, had been allowed to return home. Home was going to take some getting used to for Erin. But she was back. Safe.
I said goodbye to Maudrina on my corner. She promised to call Aunt Jaz and tell her the good news. As she was starting away, she turned back and asked: “Still no effects from using your abilities?”
“No. I’m tired, but other than that, I feel the same.”
She dared a cautious smile. “Ya think?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I think. Lucky me.”
“Lucky us,” she said, her relieved smile broadening, then she turned and proceeded down the block.
When I got home I cleaned the kitchen. I put the garlicky leftovers in the trash can outside and plugged in a Glade Plug-In to freshen the air. As I worked, I allowed the evening to play over in my mind. It was the first time I’d gone through the events since they’d happened.
I saved Erin.
I had set out
to save her, and I actually saved her. Only in the privacy of my kitchen did I admit to myself I didn’t think I could do it, not without losing myself to Satan. But with the help of Maudrina, I had.
I moved into the living room and stared at the sofa for several minutes, calling up the image of Erin standing on it, and then the image of her lying on the floor with the demon sitting next to her head.
I moved through the entryway, opened the front door, and stared down at the doorstep. I wanted, needed, some kind of physical proof that the nightmarish images in my mind had actually occurred. But the sun had already erased the wet spot where the demon had lay. There were no physical remains of my event-filled evening. I looked across the street. Orthon and his bike were gone as well. Nothing remained except the images etched into my brain that would be there for a lifetime. They would have to be enough.
I wondered if I’d seen Orthon for the last time. A part of me said “good riddance to bad rubbish.” But another part of me felt a twinge of sadness to see him gone.
As my mind swirled with mixed emotion, I went upstairs, took a long shower, and went to bed, where I slept the sleep of the dead. I woke up several times, thinking I’d heard something in the room. But it was only Amanda watching over me. Thank you, Harrison.
Just after three, I heard voices downstairs. Suze and Tony were back from their Las Vegas weekend. I got up, put on a fresh outfit and a newly minted smile, and went down to greet them. As far as they knew, I’d spent a quiet evening at home.
“How was your birthday, hon?” asked Suze. She looked so beautiful. She had on shorts and a simple top and flip flops. Happiness and beauty radiated off her as though she were the sun, and we were the planets that revolved around her.
“Quiet,” I replied.
The front door was open and Tony entered with two big boxes, one balanced atop the other. That’s when I noticed the two other big boxes on the floor by the door. “Oh, no!” I said and started laughing. “I can’t let you guys go anywhere. Pretty soon we’re going to need another garage, you two.”
“No you won’t,” said Tony, his voice trilling with excitement. “In fact, pretty soon, your garage is going to be empty.”