by Tracy Sharp
She had arrived.
She opened her eyes, and looked around. Everything was fire. She stood on a rock of some kind. One that could withstand the blasting heat of the lava that bubbled below.
She heard whistling, and looked up. A strange looking boat was coming her way, both ends of it reaching high and curled inward. A young girl with hair the color of lava floating around her head in the heat, with pointed ears and glowing yellow eyes was coming her way. The girl looked to be no more than ten years old, but she was steering the boat with her thoughts, pointing a finger toward Candace.
Her tiny, little girl voice said. “Get in. I know where you’re going.”
“How do you know that when I don’t even know where I’m going?”
“I know why you’re here. I’ll take you.” She looked like a child, with eyes hiding a soul that was ancient.
Candace carefully stepped into the boat, taking the child’s small offered hand. She didn’t want to think about what would happen if she fell into the bubbling lava beneath.
“How does this boat not melt?” Candace asked her.
The child grinned. “The lava is mostly for effect. Go ahead and touch it.”
Determined not to show her fear to a ten year old, Candace slowly reached over the boat and touched the lava with the tip of her pointer finger. There was no real lava there. Her finger moved through the boiling bubbles as if it were going through air.
The kid giggled. “Lucifer likes to mess with the minds of the newbies.”
Awesome. “I might be a newbie, but I’m not planning on staying long.”
The girl gave her a knowing smile. “That’s what they all say.”
A jab of panic pierced her chest at the thought of being stuck down here. “No, really. I’m not staying long.”
“No, really. That’s what they all say.” The kid shook her head, clearly having heard it before.
Brat. But the thought that she might know something about her stay that Candace didn’t sent a shiver through her. “Who are you?”
“I’m Charon. I take the newly dead across the River to their destination.”
“The phony river?” Candace smiled.
“The river is real. The lava isn’t. Look at your finger.”
Candace lifted her finger and frowned at the red liquid dribbling down her skin toward her palm. “Blood?”
“Yes. And that isn’t a special effect.” Charon gave her a smile that sent fear through her.
“Well, I appreciate the ride.” Wasn’t she supposed to pay her? Candace dug into her jeans pocket and found nothing. Her wallet was back up in the real world, somewhere. “I’m sorry. I can’t pay you.”
Charon’s gaze flicked to the belt Candace wore. “I’ll take a bottle of the angel’s breath.”
“But I only have two.”
“Do you want to make it to your destination?”
Candace threw her a look. The kid had her. Damn. “Yes.”
“For a bottle of angel’s breath, I will also take you back to the land of the living, if you manage to come back this way.”
“I have a way out.” Candace hoped Strummer could pull her back out.
“Your conjurer friend. He might not be able to help you.” Charon wore a secret smile as she looked over what now was a crimson river, no lava.
Fear clenched Candace’s stomach. “What do you mean? He pulled me out before.”
“Yes, and Lucifer wasn’t happy about that. When your friend unsealed the portal for you to come back, Lucifer sent up a very nasty demon to distract him.” Charon gave Candace a mock sad face. “Your chances of escaping without me are slim to none.”
Candace felt panic trying to claw its way through her chest. She shoved it down. “Fine. A bottle of angel’s breath. But you realize you might be killing me.”
Charon giggled, the sound high and sweet. “Oh, child. Don’t you know? You’re already dead.”
20
Ezra
“Strummer, how long has she been down there?” I paced a stretch of the old wooden bridge, staring at the place in the River below where Candace went twisting down into hell.
“A minute and a half,” Strummer said. “I’ll pull her up when it’s been ten minutes.”
I was hectic and frantic inside, feeling like I wanted to jump out of my skin. “What if that’s too late?”
“It won’t be. She needs time for Charon to bring her to the other side, and then to have a chat with whatever devil won’t leave her alone.”
“Isn’t it, like, the devil? Satan, Lucifer, or whatever other names there are for him?” My nerves jangled with each passing second.
“Not likely. It is one of his minions. Although nothing is done without Lucifer knowing about it. Think of it like a huge company with many asshole managers and then supervisors. There is a hierarchy.”
“So, she’s pissed off a manager?” Rather than asking Strummer the time again, I dug out the old pocket watch my adopted mother gave me many years ago and glanced at it.
“Likely, yes. Probably because she was sucked into hell, which was his plan, but was able to make it back out again. He’s lost face and he is pissed. Demons are not known for having a high level of emotional intelligence.”
“Right.” I kept pacing. “So, she needs to make a deal with him.”
“Yes.” Strummer said, looking at the water. “Now stop talking. I need to concentrate so that I hear her call.”
“Right,” I said. “Good.”
My sneakers were eerily silent on the old wood planks that made up the bridge. It seemed that my steps should make some noise. Even if I was wearing sneakers. But there was nothing. No thuds. No creaks. Nothing.
I frowned as I stared down at it, then jumped on it. Still, nothing. Hmm. Freaky.
Rae said, “What are you doing?”
“This bridge makes no sound. Why?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Does it matter?”
“It’s old as hell, shouldn’t it make some noise? Squeaking, creaking, something?”
Rae wore Doc Martens, which wouldn’t make much noise either, but were heavier than my sneakers. She stomped on the bridge, and still, no sound came from it. She frowned. “That is weird.”
Fiona wandered over, her ghosts thick around her, and swirling faster, as if agitated. She opened her mouth to speak, but then looked somewhere behind me, toward the dirt road beyond. “We have company.”
I turned to see the police car come to a stop near the bridge. Great.
Two officers climbed out of their car. I’d seen both at the police station. One of them was McKay, the one Candace punched in the mouth. His lips were still scabbed over. Wow. She’d done a number on him. I tried to suppress my smirk, but didn’t quite made it.
Strummer turned to them, looking as unfazed and expressionless as usual, but for the first time, I saw something in his eyes and it made the blood in my veins run cold.
It was worry. Had he heard Candace call just as the cops showed up?
“Officers?” He said, the tone of his voice casual, but again, I heard the hint of strain.
Fiona vanished in her ghosts. All the cops would see was mist and fog.
Rae had backed into the ghosts and then shifted, flying onto the bridge’s railing a little farther away, where she perched, only a dark silhouette of a large bird, watching.
McKay gave a nod of his head as he approached. He had a shifty, mean look in his eyes that I didn’t like. “What are you doing here?”
“Just enjoying the view,” I said, my eyes flicked from the river to the cops. The other had come up beside him, and they were now on the bridge in front of Strummer.
“It’s a strange place to be at night. We don’t get many visitors hanging around this bridge after dark.” The other cop said.
“At any time, really,” McKay said, trying to grin through swollen, scabbed lips.
“No, I don’t guess you do,” I said. “But this is public property, isn’t it? Pe
ople are free to enjoy the view.”
Scabby lips glared. His jaw tightened. “You’re loitering.”
“With respect, officer, how is it loitering if it’s public property?” I raised my brows, and tried to keep my tone neutral. I had to get these cops out of here. But if I stayed here and argued with them all night, Candy would be stuck in hell. We may never get her back out. The longer she was down there, the less likely it was that she’d make it out alive.
McKay wasn’t used to people arguing with him. He was used to instant respect. And given the way he’d treated Candy before she knocked his tooth out, it was safe to assume he was likely a dick to everyone.
The other cop, who looked like he was just out of the academy, said, “We’ll need you to move along, please.”
This conversation was going nowhere. Best to just let them think we were leaving and then come back. I gave them a nod and raised my hands in surrender. “Okay.”
Strummer, who had been watching McKay with those expressionless eyes, finally spoke. “We’ll move along.”
McKay eyed Strummer with obvious suspicion. “I haven’t seen you around here before. Where you from?”
Shit.
Strummer said, “Idaho.”
I didn’t know if that was true or not. He seemed like he was from another planet.
“What are you doing here?” McKay continued staring at him, clearly hoping to trip him up.
“I’m visiting my cousin.” Strummer looked easily at me, then back at McKay. “I haven’t seen him in a couple of years.”
“Really.” McKay looked at me. “You look familiar.”
“I’m from Halfmoon. I’m sure you’ve seen me around.” Halfmoon and Saint’s Hallow were close enough that there was one police department for both. Saint’s Hallow has a small little satellite station for emergencies, but only a few police worked out of that station.
I didn’t bring Candace up, because it would just make things a whole lot worse.
“Well, move along, then. This bridge isn’t safe. It’s old. Rickety. It’s not used by the public anymore.” The younger cop could see where this was going. McKay was feeling mean. Probably still smarting from Candy kicking his ass. He wanted to take us in. For anything. He’d make something up if he had to. The darkness moving across his eyes was getting darker by the second.
“Yeah. We’d hate to see either of you have an accident on the bridge.” McKay narrowed his eyes. Somewhere in my mind I heard a Cuckoo clock chiming.
I was pretty sure that was a threat.
“Thanks, officers,” Strummer said, his voice sounding easy. But I heard the slight edge to it that the cops wouldn’t. Also, he used contractions with them, where he didn’t normally. “We appreciate you looking out for us.”
McKay stepped sideways, blocking Strummer’s path.
Oh, snap.
The young cop placed a hand on McKay’s arm. McKay jerked his arm away.
A loud, static blast sounded from inside the police cruiser, and the voice of the dispatcher came through, calling for car 13.
I leaned sideways, peering at the side of the cruiser. “That’s you guys. Sounds like you’re needed.”
McKay’s eyes seemed to widen a little and clear, like he was coming to his senses. “Stay off that bridge.”
“Will do.” I shoved my hands my pockets and rocked back and then forward on my heels, smiling. “Thanks again.”
McKay threw me a look that said we were lucky their radio went off.
For show, Strummer began walking toward his bike, and I toward my car. Fiona must’ve come on Strummer’s bike, and Raven must’ve flown, because there weren’t any other vehicles around.
I glanced back to see the thickening fog, and the contrast of darker and lighter moving shapes as Fiona’s ghosts hid her. Raven still perched on the bridge’s railing, her black head twitching to follow the officers’ exit.
I climbed into my car and Strummer threw a leg over his bike.
McKay stood beside the cruiser, watching us, while the young cop opened the passenger door and was just about to climb into the cruiser when something froze us all in place.
Loud splashing sounds, as if something huge were coming out of the River.
Raven shrieked out a warning and took flight, her wings flapping frantically as she flew away from the bridge.
Fiona’s mist moved away, jerking and jittering, agitated as she took off running with them around her.
“What the hell is that?” McKay walked toward the bridge.
Strummer stepped toward him. “Officer, I don’t think you should––”
Scabby spun around and pointed a finger at Strummer. “Shut your trap.”
Strummer raised his hands. “Okay, then.”
“Yeah. That’s right.” McKay turned back toward the bridge, and then stepped onto the bank next to it, striding toward the sound, his chest puffed out. “Who the hell is in there?”
Something was coming out of the water. But it was too dark to see what it was in the long shadows cast by the old bridge.
The younger cop cautiously walked toward McKay.
McKay called over his shoulder, “It’s gotta be kids, drinking and drugging.”
But then he seemed to jut his neck forward, like he wasn’t sure what he was seeing. “What––”
A thundering roar ripped through the air, and a grayish green shape scrambled forward, long snout snapping enormous teeth.
I peered into the murky light as McKay turned, screaming, trying to run away. The tough guy act was totally gone.
The thing came out of the shadows, huge, scaly, and muscular, with the head of a crocodile, the body of some prehistoric creature. Its arms and legs were thickly muscled as it ran on all fours, dwarfing McKay as it came up fast behind him.
As the thing tilted its strange head and its mouth yawned open, McKay risked a glance backward and had time for one last, high pitched shriek as jaws clamped onto his torso and chomped down.
“Holy shit,” I breathed, every hair on my body standing on end. “What the hell is that?”
Strummer stepped forward, heading toward it. “That is a demon, sent to distract us from pulling Candace out of hell.”
“Distract us how? By eating us?” Watching the thing bite McKay in half made my stomach turn. I wouldn’t lie and say that a small part of me wasn’t happy to see it happen to him, but I’d admit that while I felt he had something bad coming to him, he might not quite deserve to be torn apart by the jaws of a reptilian demon.
But then again, maybe he did. I didn’t know what shenanigans he’d been up to. Who could say, really? Maybe the demon knew more than we did.
Either way, now wasn’t the time to philosophize about it.
I moved forward, beside Strummer. He raised his hands and chanted, pulling up an invisible wall.
“With respect, Strum, the wall isn’t going to stop that thing from turning in another direction and chomping its way through town, leaving a trail of body parts in its wake before munching its way to the next town, and the next, and so on.”
“I realize that,” Strummer said. “I’m just trying to buy a few seconds to figure out how to kill it. Summoning devils won’t work with this thing. He’d just eat them.”
The creature scrambled toward us, huge, clawed feet digging into the earth and throwing sand and dirt in every direction. Its huge jaws stretched wide, showcasing bloody teeth as big as railroad spikes. Several of the teeth still had bits of McKay clinging to them.
I couldn’t help the instinctive step backward, imagining those teeth sinking into me. What a horrible way to die.
Strummer kept his hands raised, holding up the wall, and the thing crashed into it, a furious roar tearing from its throat. It didn’t give up; pushing against the wall, its feet digging deeper into the earth as it shoved against it.
The demon snapped at the invisible barrier as it tried to bulldoze its way through it. The snout pushed steadily forward, forcing the wall b
ack and thinning it with each passing second, turning it gray against its scaled nose. McKay’s blood and gore smeared on the surface of the invisible barrier around the snout, where the wall was starting to look like plastic wrap about to puncture.
“Strummer, you’d better think quick. That thing is going to push right through your wall.”
Strummer the expressionless, stared with a look of shock and awe on his face. “I’ve never seen anything do that before. That’s really interesting.”
“Yes, fascinating. But I’d rather admire its strength and capability later, at a safe distance, rather than while caught in its jaws waiting to be shredded, if it’s all the same to you.”
“Well, what have you got Ezra? Now is your time to shine.”
That’s right. I had magic. In all the excitement, I’d forgotten. I raised both hands and thought of Candace, alone in hell, fighting God knew what horrors. She needed us to bring her back up. She was counting on us.
I focused all of my will, my fear, and my rage against this hellion monster, and felt a tiny ball of energy begin in my belly, and then burn as it grew.
The creature’s snout jammed against the wall that was now so thin I could see the tiny spot it would tear through, turning transparent around the gray, stretched portion around its snout.
Razor sharp teeth jammed against the wall, the points pushing steadily; seconds from breaking through. If we didn’t do something soon, we’d be demon food.
“Come on, come on,” I whispered, focusing all my fury on the monster.
And then I felt a burning, electric energy blast through me, racing through my veins and pulsing up my arms and into my hands. Jagged blue and silver lightning bolts shot through my fingertips toward the reptilian demon as its snout and teeth broke through the wall with a loud POP!
I blasted the creature as it shoved its head through the torn wall, hitting it in the face and frying its eyes, leaving smoking, black sockets where the eyes had been. A howl of pain and rage, and then it smashed through the rest of the wall, which dissolved into glittering shards around it.