by J. S. Bailey
“You think you’re so strong, don’t you?” Carly said with a smile, and flung Kaori away from her like she was tossing a ragdoll.
Kaori struck one of the wooden wall supports so hard that it knocked the beam out of place. The crossbeam supporting that part of the ceiling fell to the ground amid a shower of rocks and other debris.
Carly ran to the next beam and kicked it away from the wall before Bobby could stop her.
The world caved in on them.
MIA HAD been creeping up the old mine tunnel like a cat trying to see what was happening ahead of her when the ceiling and walls started to cave in. She darted back into the large cavern while she waited for it to settle, then cautiously made her way to the rocks and rubble that now obstructed most of the width of the passage.
“Are you guys all right?” she called, worried she wouldn’t hear an answer.
A moan issued from somewhere beyond the rock pile, and she smiled. A moan meant not dead yet. She’d only intended for Thane to die today. She would have felt bad if something happened to anyone else.
“I’m going to get some help, okay?” she said. “I’ll be right back.”
Back in the large cavern, she untied the delirious blond guy from the rock formation and handed him a candy bar from her jacket pocket, instructing him to eat it. Then she stared sadly at Randy, who hadn’t budged a single muscle since falling from the ceiling, and hurried out of the cave.
BOBBY SPLUTTERED and coughed as dust choked his breaths. His faint flashlight beam cut through the darkness to illuminate Kaori moaning on the ground just feet away from him, and Not-Carly standing close by with her arms crossed over her chest in defiance.
“Now the world will lose two Servants,” Carly sneered. “Imagine how lovely that will be.”
“The world isn’t going to lose either of us today,” Bobby said, feeling the Spirit’s strength rejuvenating him after his clunk on the head. “There are two of us, and only one of you, and we know you’re so weak already that miners were able to stick you in a box. Kaori?”
Kaori staggered to her feet, leaving her flashlight on the ground. “Are you ready?” she asked.
Bobby nodded, and in unison he and Kaori said, “In the name of God, we command you to state your name.”
“LUCRUM!” CARLY heard herself cry, only of course it wasn’t her, but the thing that had crawled inside her like a parasite during her moments of anger at Mia and taken over all motor function.
When the ceiling collapsed, rocks the size of tires had fallen upon her leg and chest, but Vance or Lucrum or whoever had hauled them off of herself and stood her back up like it was nothing, and now the most excruciating pains Carly had ever felt shot up her leg and through her middle so badly she knew something must be broken.
Why couldn’t Bobby have taken her out of the cave to a safer place before starting his task?
Why had she weakened herself with so much anger, allowing herself to be possessed in the first place?
Father, please forgive me, she prayed as knifelike pains sliced through her body. Forgive me, please.
“LUCRUM, IN the name of God, I command you to leave this child Carly,” Kaori thundered as Not-Carly shrank back against the mound of fallen debris.
“Lucrum, in the name of God, return to that pit from which you came,” Bobby added, the Spirit continuing to feed him strength.
This had been going on for at least an hour now, and Bobby could tell that Lucrum grew ever weaker, which he knew by the lessening intensity of the thrashing black aura trying to attack his mind. His and Kaori’s combined efforts were clearly having a cumulative effect.
The aura would never be able to harm him; this he knew now. It was all a trick to sow doubts within him, and this time he had no doubts that he and Kaori could heal Carly. He had already healed Bradley. He could heal anyone.
“Lucrum, in the name of God, be gone from her!” he bellowed one last time, for Carly slumped over and the aura vanished.
IT TOOK Bobby and Kaori a good half an hour to clear away the rocks that had blocked the tunnel, and to their surprise, they encountered a team of paramedics just entering the large cavern where Phil had been tied and Randy had fallen.
Mia must have summoned them—what more surprises would this day hold?
“Her leg is hurt,” Kaori said to the nearest paramedic, indicating Carly, whom she and Bobby had carried through the opening together. “She thinks it might be broken.”
As the paramedics moved to attend to Carly, Bobby ran to where Randy lay on the cold stone floor.
Tears blurred his vision at the sight of his motionless friend, whose tan skin held an unhealthy pallor. Another paramedic squatted by Randy’s side, shaking his head. “This one doesn’t have a pulse,” he said to his comrades, then moved toward Phil to assist him.
Bobby knelt down by Randy, hardly wishing to believe the truth that lay before his eyes. After all that had happened to Randy in his twenty-six years, this was how it ended? In a dank cave?
I’m sorry, Randy, he thought. I wish I could have done better for you.
The paramedics instructed Bobby and Kaori to leave the cave, and as they stepped out past Thane’s corpse into the icy night, Kaori broke into a run toward a distant, lumpy shape in the snow where yet another paramedic had kneeled with medical gear.
Bobby’s stomach flipped. Matt.
“Is he going to be okay?” Kaori gasped as she reached Matt’s fallen form. “Tell me he’s going to be okay.”
The look of sorrow in the paramedic’s eyes told them all they needed to know.
CARLY DRUMMED her fingers on her stomach and glared up at the ceiling of her hospital room, trying but failing to keep a peaceful demeanor. Her left leg had shattered in three places and she’d suffered one broken rib when the tunnel caved in. The hospital wanted to keep her a while longer to make sure she showed no signs of internal bleeding.
At least Bobby and Kaori’s combined efforts had driven that creep of a demon out of her before the medics arrived to help. “Lucrum,” it had called itself—according to Kaori, who seemed well-educated in ancient languages, the name meant “greed.” Never before had she felt so mentally violated, and it was an experience she had no intention of repeating.
She would just have to try harder to keep her anger in check. That’s how Lucrum had found a way in—through her unholy rage at the woman who had controlled her.
Her parents had been in to visit earlier that morning (her father had forgiven her for running off with his debit card), and they’d left just a bit ago to go to lunch, so she was surprised when another knock sounded so soon on the door.
She lifted her head and blinked twice to make sure she wasn’t hallucinating. Her three old friends Carmen, Amber, and Julia were poking their heads around the corner beaming at her.
“You’re awake!” Carmen said, rushing into the room with her arms stretched wide in preparation for a hug. “When we heard the news, we just about freaked.”
Carly held up a hand to ward the curvy Carmen off. “No hugs today. Broken rib. If you touch me, I might have to punch you.”
“And I’d probably deserve it for not coming to see you right when I got back from my trip. You have no idea how busy things have been. I—I’m sorry I haven’t been a better friend.” Carmen looked apologetic, and Amber and Julia came up to the foot of the bed holding Christmas gift bags like peace offerings.
“What’s all that for?” Carly asked stupidly.
“We were planning on throwing a Christmas party and surprising you with it since we were all in town for once,” Amber said, tossing her strawberry blond curls over her shoulder. “But then Carmen’s mom said she saw you in the store and blabbed, so we figured hey, we could just have the party in here.”
“You were going to surprise me?” Carly blinked at them again. “But I thought…”
“That we were snubbing you?” Julia, the tallest of the bunch, said with a twinkle in her eye. She wore an ugly red Christ
mas sweater and reindeer antlers that jingled when she moved. “That’s what I told these dummies, but they never did listen. Come on, open your presents.”
Carly slowly and carefully opened gift bags containing a terrycloth bathrobe, a shower gel set, and a brand-new copy of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens—a book she hadn’t gotten around to reading yet during The Conquest of the Stacks at the library. “Thanks,” she said weakly. “You guys are awesome.”
“Now you can sit back and relax while your body puts itself back together,” Julia said as she straightened her antlers. “What were you even doing in that old mine, anyway?”
Carly coughed a few times—like she was going to tell them everything that had happened. “I have no idea.”
An awkward silence ensued before Amber said, “There’s one more thing, and I wanted to ask before I forget. We’re hiring for an office assistant position at my work. I wondered if you’d be interested in applying once you’re all better.”
Carly remained silent for a beat. “But you live in Seattle now. That’s hours from here.”
“So what? We’d get to hang out again like old times. Besides, you like books, and it’s a publishing house, so I thought it might be something you’d be interested in.”
Carly bit her lip. Sitting in an office sounded like a fantasy almost unfit for someone like her. She was the girl who’d thirsted to do the right thing after her twin sister Jackie had met an untimely death—counseling ex-demoniacs, snooping around places with Bobby, and the like—but after nearly being crushed to death in a cave-in and having a demon take a joyride in her body, maybe it was time to sit back and reevaluate a few things for a while.
“I’ll think about it,” she said.
BOBBY SAT on a bench in the hospital waiting room, gripping the velvety jewelry box containing Carly’s necklace, debating on when it might be best to go in and see her. A herd of women about her age had just gone in a few minutes earlier, and he figured he should at least wait until they left.
“I have a present for you.”
Bobby looked up. Mia held out a Styrofoam cup of coffee for him to take.
He didn’t take it.
“I didn’t poison it,” she said. “You look beat. I thought you could use a bit of energy.”
Bobby clenched his jaw and set the necklace box on the chair beside him. It irritated him that she’d even come here to the hospital in the first place, like she was just adding insult to injury. “I’m not interested in your help.”
Color rose in her otherwise pale cheeks. “I saved your ass back there. If it wasn’t for me, Thane would have killed both you and Kaori, and think of the mess we’d all be in then.”
“You took away his free will.”
“So what? He lost his right to have a free will a long time ago. It was kill him, or let you die.”
“There could have been another way. Heroes don’t make people kill themselves.”
“This one does.”
Bobby felt more indignation bubble up within him. “It’s your fault it all happened like this. If you hadn’t been egging Thane on, Randy and Matt might still be alive.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I know enough. Get out of here.”
Mia’s jaw stiffened. “Fine.” She took a sip of the coffee that had been intended for Bobby. “Just remember I did this all for the greater good. Thane told me what you are. I knew what would have happened to the world if you’d died. I can’t help it if you’re not grateful for that.”
She turned away from him and walked out of the waiting room. His shoulders slumped once she’d gone. Maybe she was right. Maybe there hadn’t been another way.
He pocketed the necklace box and peered down the hospital corridor. Carly’s friends hadn’t emerged from the room. He supposed that was okay. Apparently she hadn’t seen them in ages, and he didn’t want to interrupt them catching up on old times.
He rose and took the stairs down to the floor below, then turned down another corridor that led to the room where Phil was being monitored.
Phil’s eyes fluttered open when Bobby entered his room. “Hello, Bobby,” he whispered.
Bobby took a chair beside Phil’s bed. “How are you feeling?”
“A little better. It’s all my fault, I know. I shouldn’t have tried to confront Thane’s parents. I’m not sure what got into me.”
“Hey, don’t worry about that now. You tried to do the right thing.”
A serene look crossed Phil’s face, and Bobby wondered what all the hospital had been giving him other than fluids. “I passed, though. That’s the important thing.”
“Passed?”
“The test. That’s what this was for me. I almost gave in to that demon to save Allison and Ashley…I was so close to saying yes…but I didn’t. I couldn’t. And it feels…good.”
Phil’s eyes closed. Despite the tragedy of losing yet another friend, Bobby didn’t think Phil had ever looked happier.
NEXT BOBBY stopped in at the hospital chapel.
Poking his head inside the pink-hued room containing six white pews, Bobby noted that Kaori still kneeled in the first one, gazing toward a cross hanging on the wall without seeing it.
Her eyes were bloodshot when she glanced his way.
“You’re still here,” Bobby said lamely. He sat down beside her and rested his chin on his hands. He still hadn’t mastered the skill of platitudes. Maybe he never would.
“I don’t have anywhere else to go at the moment,” Kaori said. “My car’s still in long-term parking in Cincinnati, remember?” Pain peeked through the cracks in her solemn demeanor—she’d been heavily bruised when Not-Carly attacked her, though she had not sustained broken bones.
Kaori swallowed and went on. “How’s Carly?”
“I haven’t gone in to see her since they set her leg. A group of her friends just showed up. I thought I’d leave them alone for a while.”
Kaori sighed and returned her attention to the front of the chapel. “I loved him, you know.”
The level of awkwardness Bobby already felt increased tenfold. “You mean Matt? Well, I mean, I kind of wondered. Sorry.”
She closed her eyes and shook her head. “Oh, not like that. He was a father to me, and a friend. All those adventures we had together…I’m going to miss him so much.”
“What are you going to do now?”
Kaori rose from the kneeler and planted herself on the pew. “I suppose I’ll have to find a replacement for myself before some great catastrophe befalls me. I’ve always wanted to go to the UK. I can work a few jobs to save up money. I can register for college over there so I can stay for a while, and maybe I can find my replacement there.”
“Stay here,” Bobby said. “With us. We’d be glad to have you.”
Kaori shook her head. “Don’t get me wrong, it was lovely meeting you, and I wouldn’t have it any different. But we were never meant to be together. We Servants have to spread out so we don’t step on each other’s toes.”
You were never meant to be together, Caleb’s voice whispered in his head.
Bobby shivered. “How many of us do you think are out there?”
“Now that I know you exist, I would hope more than two. You and I have a lot on our plates already. It would be nice to think others are hiding in plain sight out there, fighting the good fight.”
Yes, that definitely would be nice. “Do you think you could visit from time to time? Everyone needs friends.”
Through her sorrow, Kaori managed to smile. “I think I can do that. Maybe it’s high time we did arrange a Servant convention.”
They were silent for a few minutes. Then Kaori said, “Don’t forget about that conference. Your ordeal with Thane may be over, but you still need to stop an assassination.”
Bobby felt his heart sink. In this turmoil, he had forgotten.
“Okay,” he said. “But I want you to come with me.”
BOBBY PATTED his pocket when he left the chapel, ma
king sure that the necklace box hadn’t fallen out of it. Today probably wasn’t the best of days to give it to Carly. It was meant to be a Christmas present; he would give it to her then.
SINCE THE forecasted blizzard had held off thus far, the Interfaith Conference was scheduled to start as planned. Bobby and Kaori set out in a rental car early Saturday morning so they could get to Eugene before it began. They spent the entire journey in silence, each consumed in their own respective griefs.
Bobby couldn’t stop thinking about Randy, the man he’d only known for five short months. His neck had shattered when he fell from the cave ceiling, and he’d died instantly. It seemed entirely too anticlimactic for the man who had dodged death on numerous other occasions, but Bobby supposed that’s the way death worked. It wasn’t like the movies—Randy’s exit from the world hadn’t been enhanced with emotional music and heartfelt flashbacks. He’d simply died, and that was that.
The onslaught of a premonition began to assault Bobby as soon as they turned into the conference center parking lot. He scanned his surroundings and saw Ellen Barkley and her husband Terence getting out of a car, the former carrying a briefcase and the latter yawning like he hadn’t slept right in days.
Bobby parked the rental and pointed. “She’s the target.”
“What do you want me to do?” Kaori asked.
“Stay here and call 911 if things go wrong.”
He scrambled out of the dingy 2006 Ford Focus he’d be forced to drive until he could get a new set of wheels and jogged toward the Barkleys, who halted when they heard his approach.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Ellen said, her nostrils flaring at the sight of him. “I told the place to bump up their security since Preston was killed the other day. I’m going to be fine.”
“That won’t matter if the killer is outside somewhere, will it?” Bobby scanned the largely-empty parking lot. Three cars were parked close to the conference center doors, and a fourth sat farther out toward the road.