by N. P. Martin
No…Lucas…
"It was foolish of you to think that you would be any sort of match for me, Lucreceous," Abigor said as he walked slowly toward him. "You know I am Fallen, General of Legion, where you'd be no more than a platoon or regiment leader at most. How dare you think to attack me!"
Lucas had his hands wrapped around the now solidified shard of darkness in his chest, but try as he might, he couldn’t pull it out. Choking and gagging, he fell to his knees.
Tears ran down my paralyzed face as I raged inside at the sight of Lucas dying in front of my eyes, and I was powerless to stop it.
Abigor held both hands out toward the portal, uttering a few words that soon closed it in an instant, leaving nothing but blank sky behind as if it were never there to begin with.
"Really, Lucreceous," Abigor said, standing over Lucas. "I can’t believe you thought this plan would work. Now you are going to pay for your foolishness as my darkness poisons you slowly. It’s a painful process, I hear."
Abigor turned and walked away then, stopping by the edge of the protection circle to look at us. I felt sure then that he was just going to click his fingers and we would all explode in a burst of blood and gore. The hate in his face would’ve been enough to make me turn away immediately, but of course I couldn’t. None of us could. We were forced to look upon that face of pure evil as those eyes burned right through us.
"Fucking hybrid specimens," he snarled. "Why are you even in existence? To fight against the Darkness?" He laughed to himself as if that was funny. "When are you pathetic beings going to realize there is no stopping the Darkness. The Darkness is the most powerful force in the multiverse. It always was and always will be. I intend to make sure that remains the case, at least in this loathsome world."
Suddenly, and without warning, Abigor shot out a hand and made a grasping motion. A split second later, Letty was pulled off her feet and into the air, where she hovered about six feet off the ground. Abigor then made a rapid twisting motion with his outstretched hand, an action that resulted in Letty tearing into a dozen pieces that fell to the ground with a wet slap.
Fuck me, I thought in a panic, hardly able to believe what had just happened.
But before I could even dwell on it, Abigor rushed forward with supernatural speed. All I saw was a streak of darkness flying toward Patrick. With my eyes still frozen, it was difficult to see what was happening.
Then, in a flash, Abigor was standing right in front of me, holding up a freshly plucked heart in his hand, which he then crushed into mush before lathering it over my face. Warm blood and flesh found their way into my partially open mouth, and there was nothing I could do about it. The blood soon stung my eyes as well, turning the world blurry red.
Abigor’s face was just a dark shadow in front of me. "Hello, Leia," he said quietly, almost seductively in a sick sort of way. "Josh has told me much about you, though I have to say, his descriptions don’t do you justice."
Overwhelming terror flooded my paralyzed body as Abigor reached out and ran his cold fingers lightly over my face.
"Josh tells me you won’t stop on your little crusade to save him," Abigor said. "While that is very sweet and all, you are wasting your time. Josh is home at last, with his real family."
Rage ignited in me when he said that, and I thought about punching him so hard in the face that my fist came out the back of his skull. Along with the thought came a burst of grace down my right arm, and I was shocked that I was somehow able to start the punch on its trajectory toward Abigor’s face before I became paralyzed again.
"My, my." Abigor’s face came close to mine, to where I could smell his rancid breath. "Impressive power for a hybrid. Josh has understated you indeed." That hand on my face again, wetly caressing. "You shouldn’t be here, Leia. You should be with Josh, and all the rest of my loyal soldiers."
My vision had cleared slightly, and I glared back at him.
"Yes," he smiled. "That’s what I thought. Just a quick FYI, though." He came close as he lowered his voice to a whisper. "You can kill me, Leia, you know that? There’s a weapon that exists in Hell—the Demon Blade—that can kill me. But to get it, you would have to trade your soul. Would you be willing to do that, Leia? Would you give up your immortal soul for a chance to kill me, and who knows, maybe save Josh as well?" He paused as if waiting for an answer. "Let us see…"
Abigor’s dark form disappeared then, as did his heavy presence. A second later, I fell to the ground as my body suddenly became my own again. As my mouth opened and closed, I tasted the blood in it, and I couldn’t keep from vomiting as I thought about where it had come from.
On my hands and knees, I looked around to see Frank and Eva coming toward me, Frank helping me to my feet. My eyes immediately fell upon the body of Patrick Sullivan, a large hole in his chest where Abigor had ripped his heart out. Then I looked at the pile of flesh that used to be Letty Sullivan. Whilst still unclear on my sentiments toward her, she did not deserve the painful murder she'd experienced.
"…Jesus…"
"Are you all right?" Frank asked me. "What did Abigor say?"
I didn’t care about what Abigor said at that point, because my eyes were searching for Lucas, finding him lying at the end of the clearing, a black shard sticking out of his chest.
He didn’t appear to be moving.
32
I felt sick as I ran toward Lucas. Why wasn’t he moving? Was he dead?
He was lying on his side when I reached him, his hands still wrapped around the black shard in his chest, the end of which exited from his back.
"Lucas," I gasped. "Oh Jesus…"
His skin was pallid and gray, as if all his life force were being drained out of him by the crystalized dark energy.
I put a hand on his shoulder and said his name, but he didn’t respond. It didn’t even look like he was breathing.
He’s dead.
I refused to believe that. He’d been around too long just to die now…not when we’d just found each other.
When Eva approached, she crouched over Lucas to examine him. As I stood up to give her room, I realized Frank was standing beside me.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
I didn’t even know where to begin to answer that, so I just shook my head at him and looked down at Lucas again. "Is he dead?" I asked her.
Eva didn’t answer for an interminable minute as she continued to examine Lucas, and the black shard that impaled him. When she looked at me, I didn’t see much in the way of hope in her eyes. Then she shook her head. "He’s not dead yet, but he will be soon if we don’t get this…darkness out of him."
"What do you need, Eva?" Frank asked.
"It’s going to take more than surgery to remove this thing," Eva said. "It will take magic, powerful magic. Most of what I need is at home, which means we either need to take Lucas there, or someone goes to my house to get what we need before bringing it back here."
"Will it be safe to move him?" I asked Eva, but with my eyes still on Lucas.
Eva shrugged. "I’ve never had to deal with magic as strong as this before. It’s slowly poisoning him. Moving him might speed up that process."
"We keep him here then," Frank said. "Make me a list of what you need, Eva, and I’ll go get the stuff. In the meantime, we should probably bring him inside."
"We can use my room," I said. "We can lay him on the bed."
My hands shook as I bent down to help pick Lucas up. Then I felt Frank’s hand on my shoulder. "Leia," he said. "Me and Eva can carry him. Why don’t you get the doors?"
I stared at Frank for a moment as I considered telling him no, but I could see he was just trying to do me a favor, so I nodded. "Be careful with him."
Frank seemed taken aback for a second by whatever emotion he glimpsed in my eyes, which was perhaps the depth of my feelings for Lucas, and how much I cared about him already.
Or perhaps it was just the sight of his friend’s blood all over my face.
Either
way, he nodded, then said, "We will."
After Frank had left for Eva’s house in the city, I helped Eva remove Lucas’s shirt and jacket as he lay motionless on his side in my bed. A gasp left my mouth as Eva cut off his shirt with scissors, revealing the full extent of the damage that had been done to him. The jagged black shard still stuck in his chest was about the thickness of my forearm, and it seemed to have penetrated right through Lucas’ sternum, exiting out from between his shoulder blades. As if that wasn’t bad enough, whatever poison was in him was making its way throughout his whole body, spreading like internal black vines all the way up to his neck.
"Jesus Christ," I whispered. "I’ve never seen anything like this."
"I have," Eva said. "Though nowhere near as bad as this, I have to say. This is…" She shook her head. "Something else."
"Can you get this thing out of him, and the poison or whatever it is running through him?"
"There are never any guarantees with this stuff," she said bluntly, her large eyes on me. "I’m not going to tell you that there is. However, I will tell you that I will do all I can to save him." Her expression changed then. "You seem to care about him quite a bit."
I stared back at her and gave a slight sigh. "It just happened. What do you want me to say?"
Eva shook her head. "You don’t have to explain."
I sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed my hands over my face, which served to remind me that I was still covered in blood. Christ, I must look a damn sight. Not that it mattered, especially when there were two dead bodies outside.
"I’m sorry about your friends," I said after a long silence.
Eva crouched down and leaned her elbow on the bed. "I’m sorry too. They were good people."
"They didn’t deserve to die the way they did."
"They were Watchers; they knew the risks."
I shook my head, suddenly realizing something. "I’ll probably die like that someday."
Eva placed a hand on my knee. "We all die, Leia. It’s how you live in the meantime that matters."
"Are you not afraid of death?"
"Of course," she said. "Everyone is, but you can’t let that fear hold you back. Besides, death is not the end."
"No," I said. "There’s Hell after that."
"Hell is just one place. The afterlife is more complicated than you think."
"Tell that to my mom."
Eva removed her hand from my knee and stood up. "Why don’t you go and get cleaned up?"
"What about Patrick and Letty? Shouldn’t I…"
"No, you shouldn’t have to do that. Frank and I will do it."
I nodded and then stood. "I’ll go and clean myself up then."
Before I left the room, I looked down at Lucas, and thought, Please don’t die, hoping he would somehow hear me.
In Frank’s tiny bathroom, I plucked up the courage to look at myself in the mirror, and when I did, I wished I hadn’t. It wasn’t just the dried blood matted to my face and hair, although that was bad enough. It was more the haunted look in my eyes; a look that said I’d been pushed so far beyond the boundaries of what could be considered "normal" experience, that I hardly recognized myself anymore. The only thing I kept wondering as I stared back at myself was: Do I have the strength to see this thing through to the end? Do I have the strength to save my brother?
At that point, I wasn’t sure that I did.
I felt slightly better after I had been under the hot shower for a few minutes, until my mind inevitably turned to Abigor (if it ever left him in the first place), and the words he had said to me. Why would he tell me how to kill him, and how to get the so-called "Demon Blade" that would supposedly do the job?
Perhaps he was lying, I thought.
But why would he lie? Just so I would trade my soul away for nothing? Or because he wanted to know if I had it in me to take him on? That didn’t seem very likely, given how insignificant I surely was to him.
I closed my eyes as water cascaded over my face. Abigor had left me feeling fucked with. If the Demon Blade did exist, and it really could kill him, then the question remained: Was I prepared to do what it took to get the weapon, and then to use it on Abigor?
As I stepped out of the shower, I began to dry myself absentmindedly. All I could think about was that there was a possible way to end all of this, to finish Abigor and save Josh. I also knew there was no point in mentioning the Demon Blade to Frank or Eva. Even if they did think it was real, I doubted either of them would want to trade their souls for it. Why should I push the responsibility onto others anyway? I was the one Abigor had singled out, so it was up to me to shoulder that burden alone. Though, there was also the question of why Abigor should single me out in the first place, and also mention the Demon Blade. There was a chance he desired the weapon for himself, and just needed some hapless shill to retrieve it for him. Thinking about it, though, I didn’t think that was the case. He was powerful enough without needing a weapon like the Demon Blade. It was also unlikely that he couldn’t just retrieve the weapon himself if he so desired. It seemed more likely that he just enjoyed taunting me, knowing I would never do as he suggested.
"Or maybe he just liked my tits," I said aloud, almost laughing as I shook my head at the insanity of it all.
One thing I did know for sure was that if I did decide to go after the Demon Blade, it would be easier if no one else knew about it. Frank would only try to stop me. He would insist on taking my place, and I couldn’t have that. I carried enough guilt around with me without taking on more.
With a towel wrapped around me, I walked to my bedroom to get some fresh clothes. Eva was leaning over Lucas as she seemed to sprinkle a powdered substance around the black shard in his chest.
"What is that?" I asked her.
"Something to slow the spread of the poison," she said.
"Is it working?" It didn’t look like it was. The darkness in Lucas was spreading into his face.
"I think so." Eva placed the small jar she was holding on the bedside table, next to a few others she had obviously gotten from Frank’s cellar. "Frank will be back soon, then I can begin to remove the shard and hopefully cleanse Lucas of this poison."
I nodded absently, my heart breaking as I stared down at him.
"Are you okay?" Eva asked me, placing a hand on my shoulder.
I took a breath and forced a smile. "I’m okay."
Eva smiled back, no doubt unconvinced. "I know this is hard on you, but we’ll save him."
Was she talking about Lucas or Josh? Not that it mattered, for in that moment, they were just words to me.
I hadn’t long dressed and went to the kitchen to make myself a coffee when Frank arrived back with a cardboard box filled with stuff from Eva’s house.
"How’s the patient?" he asked as he walked in and saw me.
I shrugged. "Not good."
Frank nodded. "I’ll get this stuff to Eva."
While Frank went to the bedroom, I sat at the reading table with my coffee. A few minutes later, he came back in, poured himself some coffee and sat opposite me at the table.
"What’s Eva doing?" I asked.
"What she does best," Frank said. "Which is working miracles."
"Shouldn’t we be in there helping?"
Frank shook his head. "She needs to be alone to work the initial magic, after which I’ll help her if she needs it."
"How long will it take to heal him?"
"As long as it takes. You can’t really put a timeframe on these things."
"So we just sit here and do nothing?" I sighed as I shook my head in annoyance.
"Not nothing. I have to go outside and take care of Patrick and Letty."
"I’m sorry, Frank. It was horrible what happened to them. It could so easily have been…"
"All of us?"
"Yes."
Frank sipped from his cup. "I guess we got lucky."
I nodded. "I guess so."
"What did he say to you?"
"Who?" I
asked, playing dumb.
"Abigor. I saw him say something to you, but it was too low to hear."
I shook my head as if it was nothing. "He was just talking shit about Josh, trying to mess with my head, that’s all."
Frank looked at me a moment, and I maintained his stare. "Another seal has been broken," he said.
"How do you know?"
"Because dozens of people inexplicably killed themselves in the city tonight. I’m pretty certain that’s down to another seal being broken. Did Abigor mention anything about that?"
I shook my head. "No."
Frank sighed. "This fucking guy. He’s hard to get ahead of."
"Be honest, Frank," I said, my tone serious enough for him to give me his full attention. "What are our chances of stopping Abigor?"
Frank looked away for a moment as he took another drink from his cup, then looked back at me. "You want the truth?"
I swallowed, then nodded. "Yes."
"I don’t fancy our chances. You saw how powerful Abigor is. Christ, he even made Lucas look like a…" He stopped himself then. "You know what I mean. Lucas is no walk over."
"So what you are saying is, we’re fucked?"
Frank raised his hand in a supplicating gesture. "Unless we can somehow find something that’s going to give us a fighting chance against this guy, then yeah, I’d say we’re fucked."
In a way, it was the answer I needed to hear. In that moment, all of my indecision was gone, leaving me with one certainty.
I had to trade my soul for the Demon Blade.
33
I didn’t know much about summoning demons, except for what I’d read in the books Frank had given me. From what I’d read, though, when it came to summoning you could either summon a particular demon like we did Abigor, or you could just sort of put a call out into the aether and wait to see which demon answered. As I didn’t have time to research particular demons and their respective traits and personalities, I decided to cast my net wide instead. For my needs, basically any mid to high-level demon would do, as long as they had the power to do as I asked of them. It was risky and probably reckless, what I was intending to do— reaching out to unknown and unpredictable entities—but it had to be done.