by Justin Sloan
“It’s another demon. I thought the first one we saw was a fluke. But then we saw another one possessing that pastor and I didn’t think about it too much because we were fighting for our lives. But now I’m certain—the Six are behind this.”
“Six what?” Rohan asked.
“The Six demons of the apocalypse,” Nora said.
He gulped, not wanting to believe it, but she seemed to read his mind.
“Remember when we were with the Lich King and we encountered the demons in the afterlife?” she asked.
Rohan remembered the demon’s angry voice. “Azrael, right? He’s the one we saw last night.”
“There are five others. Legend has it that they were so evil that the Lich King banished them to the lowest levels of the afterlife, where they could never escape. He signed a pact with Death, that he’d keep all souls from inhabiting our world if Death used the worst of those souls to bind the demons. One interpretation of Hell. But all of the recent disturbances with Altemus must have given them an opportunity to escape. This is much worse than I thought.”
He smiled at the use of the name they’d decided to call him, until this was all sorted out. “Well, how do we beat them? Because we could use a little help right now.”
The demon roared as it passed over a glass office building, leaving the windows to shake as if there had been an earthquake.
Nora sighed. “There’s only one way,” she said.
“Don’t be shy,” Rohan said, speeding past several angry-looking souls. “We’ve got all the time in the world.”
“Remember how I mentioned that there could be others with our powers out there?” Nora looked at him with fear in her eyes. “The only way I can think to beat these demons is to enlist the power of other necromancers.”
Chapter 6: Traffic Jam
The drive was gut-wrenching, as fires raged in the distance and people ran screaming, but Rohan knew that the fastest way to stop it all was to keep going and reach their goal. Stopping to try to fight every spirit would take too much time, and likely lead to failure and the end of the world as they knew it.
But those chances didn’t seem all that great anyway when they ran into another major traffic jam.
This time, the cars stewed in the morning sun, honking and beeping as thick exhaust fumes rose into the air, smothering the orange sky.
“Aside from finding ourselves a helicopter or airplane,” Rohan said, thumping the wheel softly, “any great ideas?”
“Count me out of anything that flies in the sky,” Beverly said. “Forever.”
Rohan had to nod in agreement with that, after surviving the plane crash, and then barely saving her life.
Nora squinted as she studied the traffic. “At least people are in their cars. People aren’t walking.”
“And why is that a good sign?” Tess asked, her voice heavy with frustration.
“If there was imminent danger, people would be abandoning their cars,” Nora said. “The fact that they’re not is good. It means whatever is causing the blockage can be resolved... hopefully.”
Rohan shifted the car into park and settled into his seat. He might as well get comfortable because they were going to be here a while. “Any takers want to venture out there to find out what’s going on?”
“Not me,” Beverly said, massaging her wrist. Rohan could tell it was hurting her badly. He wished he could get her medical attention. His own bandaged hands pulsed with dull pain as if to remind him that he had to take care of himself, too.
“How about we stay in here for a while and figure out what to do?” Tess asked.
No sooner than she finished her sentence then Nora jumped out and slammed the door, rocking the van.
“It’s dangerous out there,” Tess said, rolling down her window. “What are you doing?”
Nora rolled her eyes. “If you haven’t noticed, we’re in a world crisis. Very little decisions we make won’t be dangerous.” She turned and squeezed between several cars, and was gone.
“What are the chances she comes back?” Beverly asked, concern in her voice.
Rohan leaned his head back against his headrest and closed his eyes. “I don’t even want to guess, sis.”
They waited in silence, listening to the sound of idling engines, birdsong, and people shouting unintelligible threats every now and again.
Rohan must have drifted off because he woke to a rap on his window.
It was Nora.
“What is it?” he asked, cracking his window.
“About half a mile up the road. It’s a three-car accident. Fortunately, a tow truck happened to be in traffic, so the guy is moving them. We should be clear in a few minutes. That’s the good news.”
“Great. What’s the bad news?”
“None,” Nora said, smiling as she climbed into the van. “For once, there is no bad news.”
They heard the sound of screeching tires and then a crunch.
A car had rear-ended the car in the lane next to them. The front car was a sedan, and a female driver climbed out, screaming.
But the at-fault driver lay over his steering wheel. The woman continued screaming at him, but when she arrived at his car, her face turned to shock. “Oh my god, I think this guy just had a heart attack!”
Several people got out of their cars and surrounded the man’s vehicle.
Beverly started to get out of the car but Rohan stopped her, telling her to wait. He didn’t take his eyes off the car.
The woman opened the car and felt the man’s neck. “He has a pulse. Thank god!”
“If he has a pulse then it wasn’t a heart attack,” Rohan said quietly. “Something’s wrong.”
The man’s head snapped upward and his eyes glowed yellow. He grabbed the woman by the neck and snapped it, then let her fall to the floor like a toy doll.
Everyone around the car screamed as the possessed man crawled out, yelling like a beast.
Rohan and Nora jumped out of the car.
“You won’t hurt anyone else,” Rohan said, holding out his hands to the man. He imagined controlling the spirit inside the man, and he flung it out, far into the sky. The man fell to his knees and then passed out. The spirit did circles and disappeared over a rooftop.
“That tow truck can’t move fast enough,” Rohan said.
“No kidding,” Nora said, pointing to the sky. The spirit was returning, but this time it had an army behind it. Hundreds of souls filled the sky.
People started to exit their cars and run.
“So now is the time when we freak out, right?” Tess asked. “People are kind of fleeing now.”
“Get your prayers ready,” Nora said, facing the spirits.
They watched as the spirits rolled over the area, filling it with unnatural silver and yellow light. They screamed and roared as they came out from all directions, like thunderclouds in the middle of the summer.
They fell upon the bridge like rain, possessing every person they could find.
Rohan and Nora stood back-to-back.
“Ready?” Nora asked.
Together, they held out their hands as the possessed ran toward them. Spinning in a circle, they pulled out spirits and flung them into the air. They worked relentlessly until people were piled up all around them, lying unconscious on the bridge.
Rohan wiped his hands together. “Where’s that tow truck?”
“What does it matter now?” Nora asked.
“We’ve got to clear this blockage and get the hell out of here, now!”
A child’s voice caught Rohan’s ear. “Help!”
He turned and saw a young boy in a dinosaur t-shirt and shorts hanging from the bridge. He dangled over the Potomac River, and he looked as if he were going to lose his grip at any moment. Judging from the angle, Rohan figured the kid must have tried to run in the struggle and gotten knocked over.
Rohan stumbled toward the boy.
“Help me!” the boy yelled.
“I’m coming, kid! Hang on!”
&nb
sp; “I’m losing my grip!”
Rohan jumped onto the hood of a car and then dove toward the edge of the bridge. He slid off, rolled on the ground, and then jumped up, reaching for the boy’s hand. The boy grabbed his arm, smiling in relief.
Rohan started to pull him up, but then his arm began to burn. He looked down.
He stared in horror as his arm burst into flames.
A quick glance back at the boy revealed a smile on his face. The boy’s body had turned red as it too exploded into flames.
Rohan let go, desperately beating at his arm to put the flames out as the boy fell, laughing. Just before he hit the water, lightning struck him, turning him into the red demon that they had seen flying over the rooftops earlier.
The demon rocketed into the sky, vanishing into a circle of spirits. Then the circle hollowed out and he descended, sword glowing in his hand. His red skin moved like it was made from fiery snakes, and he had two curved black horns on his head.
The demon swiped the air with its burning hands, sending a wave of fire down onto the cars. The wave threw shards of glass as it traveled toward Rohan, but then dissipated just before connecting. Rohan felt the searing heat on his face, sweat dripping down his back.
“Welcome, necromancers,” the demon said, his voice rippling through the area as he descended from the sky. “It is time I finally face someone who can fight back.”
Chapter 7: Another Demon
Rohan was starting to come to grips with the idea that he’d be fighting multiple demons in the coming days, and that thought filled him with rage. It was hard enough trying to figure out how to set things right with these super-powerful creatures of Hell hunting him down.
Without another moment’s hesitation, he stepped forward and screamed, “You want me, come and get me!” Holding out both hands, he focused on the spirits floating through the air and began pulling them to him so that they circled around the group like a force-field.
“That will hardly help you,” the demon said with a cackle.
“Try us!” Rohan said. He threw a line of spirits at the demon, but the demon waved a hand and the spirits vanished.
Nora threw more spirits at him, but the demon waved his hand and made them disappear.
“How is he doing that?” Rohan shouted.
“My turn,” the demon said. He screamed, and a ring of souls flew down. Rohan and Nora put their hands up, trying to control them, but the spirits were too strong and knocked them back into the side of the van.
Rohan twisted down, hitting his head on the asphalt.
“Why do you resist the new way of the world?” the demon asked. “We have waited all eternity for this moment, and we will not be denied our pleasure.”
Rohan and Nora concentrated and grabbed more souls, trying to hit him, but the demon stopped them at every turn.
“Throwing souls won’t save you,” the demon said. He hit them again with a wave of souls, knocking them backward.
“What do we do?” Rohan asked.
“No idea,” Nora said. She struggled up but fell onto the asphalt, panting.
The demon floated down and held up his sword. “By the grace of darkness, it will be my pleasure to rid this world of more of these false necromancers.”
The demon laughed as he raised his sword. Flames burst from the blade.
Rohan looked away. So this was how it was going to end. He had so much more to fight for, and he was going to die at the hands of this demon, this evil being that deserved eternal damnation.
As the sword drew nearer Rohan could feel the heat of the blade, and knew the end was near.
All of a sudden, a loud boom resounded through the heavens and the heat disappeared.
Rohan looked up and saw a group of fighter jets zooming through the sky over the bridge.
The demon was on fire, but this time a different kind of fire—a rocket had connected from one of the jets, knocking the demon back.
Machine-gun fire rattled the bridge as orange bursts erupted from the bottom of the jets.
“Come on!” Nora said, grabbing Rohan. They started running down the bridge as the fighter jets unleashed more weapons at the demon.
The demon roared and flew up toward the planes, sending fire and spirits at them. With a slash of his sword, he cut one of the planes in half and roared with laughter at the explosion.
“Look out!” Rohan screamed as they picked up the pace.
The plane crashed down on the bridge behind them, causing a massive quake and explosion.
“We’ve got to keep moving!” Rohan cried. He made sure that Nora, Tess, and Beverly ran in front of him and he brought up the rear, grabbing a few nearby spirits and running with them to use as protection.
More gunfire erupted from the jets. They hit the demon and explosions of lava erupted from his skin, causing him to stumble, and then fall backward. The ground shook as he landed in front of Rohan and crew.
“That’s what I’m talking about!” Rohan shouted triumphantly.
But then the demon started to move, pushing itself up again.
A jet flew over them, raining gunfire down on it, and with a massive silver explosion, the demon screamed and focused on flying after the jets.
“That was close,” Rohan said. “Thank God for the Air Force.” He saluted the planes as they made a final pass over the bridge and then ascended into the night clouds.
There was still chaos on the bridge. People were running and screaming, and spirits were still flying overhead, trying to possess them.
“The threat is far from over,” Rohan said. “We have to keep moving.”
Chapter 8: New Friends
Each thud of Rohan’s feet hitting the pavement as he ran sent spasms of pain through his legs and body. Damn, fighting that demon had sucked. Losing the fight had sucked even worse.
He checked over his shoulder to ensure Nora was still at his side. She was slightly behind, holding her stomach in pain and bent over as she did her best to keep up.
For the moment, all they cared about was survival. Rohan had grown complacent, he decided—all of the battles they’d won had gone to his head, but nothing had ever been like this.
“There,” Nora said, pointing to what looked to be a community center. A small, cozy building that looked like it was built in the 1970s, with gray panel siding and wooden window frames. “Maybe we can rest there,” Nora said.
It was in the middle of a half-empty parking lot, surrounded by what would have once been lush trees.
“We have to keep moving,” he said, and he continued on for a few steps before realizing that Nora had stopped.
“I can’t,” she said. “It hurts too much.”
Well that pulled at his core. Damn it. “Okay, we lie low, check out your wound. But… then we get the hell out of here.”
He took her by the hand, wrapping his other arm around her, and they hobbled off to the community center while smoke billowed behind them and more screams were intermixed with the sound of sirens.
Rohan had to break the glass panel window in the rear of the building. Luckily, there was no alarm. They darted into the mostly darkened hallways, the only light coming from a skylight at the far end. He checked the door to ensure they hadn’t been seen, and then motioned her away from the doors and windows. It was definitely a community center, with offices upon offices full of paperwork.
“They might have a little kitchen,” she said, with a nod toward the main doors. “I mean, if it’s a community center, it makes sense, right?”
“Smart thinking.”
They tried the first set of doors, but they were locked. Rohan suddenly realized how incredibly hungry and exhausted he was, and he just wanted to get in there and find some food.
When he tried the second set of doors only to find them locked as well, he rammed his shoulder against the door and cursed. He pulled back to do it again, and then flung himself at the door—only, this time the door flew open and he went stumbling into open air. Someone
tripped him and he landed on his back.
Everything was a blur of darkness, and then when he opened his eyes he was surprised to see three men with guns, two pistols and a shotgun, aimed at him. They wore thick jackets, as if they’d thrown on multiple layers in a rush to get out of the house without leaving too much behind.
“Who the hell are you?” one of them said.
“The Hell part’s right,” Rohan said. “But, before we go getting all friendly, do you mind?”
They lowered their guns, and a few more people showed themselves, walking forward from the shadows.
“My name’s Rohan, and my friend here,” he glanced around, surprised to see no sign of her. “Well, wherever she is, her name’s Nora. And there’s also…”
Tess and Beverly weren’t behind him. They were probably hiding, too.
“Two others are with me…”
“I was trying to stay out of it,” Nora said, stepping out from a hiding spot near the door. Beverly and Tess also emerged from the hallway.
One of the men swiveled, raising his gun, but a woman from the group said, “That’s enough. They’re okay.”
The others looked at her for a moment, and then all backed off.
The woman gave them a weird look and then motioned them to follow her. “Come. There isn’t much, but we’ve been gathering up a stockpile.”
Rohan gave them all another glance, and then figured it was better to take their chances here than outside with the craziness going on there. He took Nora by the hand and they followed their new hosts into the back room, where they found several more people, some reclining on cots with injuries, others gathering bottles of water and snacks that must have come from a vending machine.
“It’ll have to do, for now,” the woman said. “My name’s Lorna. If you need anything, let me know.”
They found themselves some potato chips, a bag of nuts, and some water, then took a seat in the corner.
“You really think this is going to work out?” Nora asked, resting her head on his shoulder.
“I don’t know.” He wrapped an arm around her, then took a swig of water with his free arm. “But what I do know is that if we don’t get back out there and figure out a way to defeat those demons and return Hell to its place, we’re all doomed.”