Eve of Redemption

by Tom Mohan

  Burke stepped away from the noose and the shadows. The temperature in the room was rising fast now. He looked to the corner where Red had been, but she’d disappeared. He spun around, needing to see her, to know she was still with him. “Red,” he yelled. “Where are you? Don’t leave me here alone!” Despair rose within him as he backed farther away from the pulsing shadows.

  You are not alone.

  Burke felt something lift in him at the words. “Father?” Burke had never thought of God as his father before, but at that moment it felt right. His own father had killed his mother and sister when Burke was just a kid, so the idea of a loving father had never held much allure to him. Right now, however, a loving father was just what he needed.

  As quickly as the voice had come, it was gone. Burke felt a pang of disappointment but he no longer felt alone and helpless. It wasn’t much, but it would have to do.

  Burke heard a clamor outside the cell as footsteps raced in his direction. Even the shadows turned their attention to the cell door.

  “This way,” Burke heard someone say. He could have sworn it was Martinez. Something heavy slammed into the other side of the cell door. There was pounding, then, “It’s locked. Just a cell. We’ve hit a dead end.”

  “Martinez? Is that you?”

  “John?”

  “In here. In the cell.”

  “Hey, I found keys.” Raquel’s voice.

  Burke heard a key in the door, then a click. “Be careful, I’m not alone in here.” Burke had no idea if the shadows could physically harm a person, but they had felt real enough when they impersonated his family.

  “We aren’t exactly alone out here, either.” Burke recognized Tiny’s distinct growl.

  The cell door flew open, and Tiny, Martinez, and Raquel spilled into the room. The shadows swelled and shrunk erratically, but otherwise huddled in a corner.

  “What are you doing?” Burke asked. “We’ll all be trapped in here.”

  “Better that than the alternative,” Tiny said as he leaned his bulk against the door.

  “Been running from some really nasty creatures for quite a while now. Already trapped.” Sweat dripped from Martinez’s bald head as he joined his considerable mass with Tiny’s.

  Raquel pointed toward the corner. “What’s that?” Her voice showed curiosity but little fear or surprise.

  “They were the specters of my wife and daughter. It was just a sham, though. This whole thing is a sham. I don’t know what’s real anymore.”

  “One of those things behind us licked Throttle’s head right off his shoulders,” Raquel said. “That was real enough for me.”

  Burke felt the hair on his arms and neck rise as if a charge of electricity was being injected into the room. The shadows became more agitated before melting through the wall. “Something’s up.”

  “Yeah? What else is new?” Tiny said.

  Burke almost smiled at the sarcasm in Tiny’s voice.

  “Well now, Johnny, I see you’ve found some friends to share your little world with.”

  “Who’s that?” Tiny asked.

  Burke shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t think it’s the same guy that was in here with me earlier. The voice isn’t right, but I don’t know if they always sound the same or not.”

  “They? And just who are they?” The look on Tiny’s face told Burke he had better not be holding out on him.

  “I think they’re demons or something. Some of them want something that the others are trying to stop. I have no idea what, though.”

  “A house divided cannot stand,” Martinez said.

  “Are you saying we’re in hell?” Raquel asked.

  “The demons aren’t in hell, yet,” Martinez said.

  Tiny turned to the big cop. “Say what?”

  Martinez struggled to gather his thoughts. “There is a battle raging all around us, all the time. Good versus evil. We don’t see it because most of the action takes place in the spirit world. We see the results, the carnage—and the good—that comes from it.”

  “It’s a bit late for a Bible study, don’t you think, Johnny?” The voice from outside the cell held a hint of impatience. Burke felt the electricity in the air grow stronger, more alive.

  “So we’re in the spirit world, then?” Raquel asked, ignoring the voice.

  Martinez shrugged. “Just a guess, but it ain’t Kansas, that’s for sure.”

  Tiny grunted. “You’ve obviously never been to Kansas.”

  Something hit the door. The solid piece of wood tore away from its hinges, striking Tiny in the back and sending him headfirst into the far wall. He groaned as he sagged to the floor.

  A tall man stepped through the hole where the door had been, flanked by two creatures out of a nightmare. “Hello, Johnny. How have you been?”

  Burke stared, wide-eyed. He knew this man, though he had not seen him in decades and then only in pictures. Caleb Burke was supposed to be long dead. “Grandfather?”

  “So glad you recognize me. It’s been a long time.”

  Burke could only nod. Long time or not, the man Burke supposed to be his grandfather looked almost exactly the same as he had in the pictures—in his forties, not the eighty years old he would be by now. “What are you doing here?”

  “This is my world, boy. My kingdom, you might say.” Caleb spread his arms wide, as though showing off his empire. Beside him, the two creatures’ tongues licked the air like serpents. “And I welcome you, Johnny. I welcome you with open arms. I’ve been waiting a long time for you to come visit me, and now that you’re finally here, it’s time to rock this joint.” He laughed at his own words and tilted his head back, arms still spread wide.

  Around Burke, the world seemed to slip into slow motion. He heard Tiny groan and saw the huge man struggle to sit up. Caleb Burke held his majestic stance, eyes wide as he gazed heavenward. Burke glimpsed movement to his other side as Martinez lunged for the man, taking advantage of Caleb’s apparent lack of attention.

  As fast as lightning, Caleb lashed out. His long fingers hit Martinez in the chest before sinking deep inside. Burke stood frozen as Martinez’s huge, strong body stiffened, eyes wide, before blood gushed from his mouth. It all happened in a moment, but for Burke it seemed like a lifetime. When Caleb pulled his hand from Martinez’s chest, he squeezed the cop’s heart in his bloody fist. Time fell back to normal as the lifeless body of David Martinez slumped to the ground.

  Caleb held up his fist, and the heart clenched within burst into flames. “That wasn’t very intelligent of him, now was it?”

  Cold anger surged through Burke. His mind fell into an unnatural stillness as another presence joined with him. Father.

  Caleb must have sensed something as well. An unmistakable look of fear crossed his face, replaced after a moment by loathing.

  “You have no business here!” Caleb shouted and lashed out with the fist holding the heart, propelling a burst of flame that hit Tiny square in the face. The gang leader screamed and flung himself backward, huge hands pawing at the flames dancing from his beard.

  Burke took in the chaos with a sense of detachment. His spirit screamed that enough was enough. He was tired of all the games, the deception—the death. As in the cabin on the lake, Burke felt an incredible power unleash itself from deep within him. The power grew until he thought he would explode. Caleb’s eyes grew huge, and he backed away from Burke.

  “You better back off,” Burke said, his voice so calm it surprised even him. “You better run, because this ends now.”

  The doorway opened onto a stone staircase that spiraled up to the right and down to the left, shimmering with the same light crystals that illuminated the room behind them. The crystals glowed with a bluish tint and were evenly spaced along the wall of the stairwell, much like the familiar torches in the Keep. Hot, putrid air from below tossed Sara’s hair around her face. She pulled a long strand away from her eyes and peered both ways into the gloom. Thick spiderwebs hung from the wooden ceilin
g supports, forming a gray-white veil along the spiral. Sara wondered what spiders were doing under the lake but saw no reason to pursue the thought. It made as much sense as anything else that had happened over the last, what…? Had it been only yesterday that she had awoken in the clinic after experiencing the vision of her parents’ murder? A sudden wave of exhaustion hit her.

  “If this doesn’t end soon, we’re going to need to find somewhere safe to get some sleep. I’m dead on my feet.”

  “I was thinking the same thing,” Kyle said. “We’ve taken a serious beating over the last couple days.” He squeezed by her. “Up or down?”

  Sara thought for a moment. “Up will probably only take us to one of those towers that were sticking up out of the water. That seems too easy.”

  “What’s wrong with easy?”

  “Nothing, but so far everything’s been hard—and down.” Sara considered the events since this nightmare had begun. The passageway from Master Caleb’s apartments, the tunnel under the library, the dungeons, the cellar in the cabin, and the waterfall to the bowels of the castle. Everything had been about going down.

  Kyle sighed. “I guess you’re right, but I wouldn’t mind trying easy for a change.”

  Sara managed a weak smile. “So would I, but I have a feeling we’d just be wasting our time.”

  “All right, but let me lead this time. My male ego is taking a beating following you everywhere.’’ He turned and leered at her. “The view’s pretty good, though.” He laughed, and Sara turned away to hide her blush.

  “Lead on, then,” she said. “I hate having spiderwebs all over me anyway.”

  They descended for what seemed hours. As with all the other tunnels they had traveled, this one stretched for an impossible length. No lake could be this deep. They must have passed through the mud bottom and into the earth itself. Finally, Kyle stopped at a small alcove set back in the stone. Only two crystals lit the space, which otherwise sat empty.

  “This looks like a good place to rest,” Kyle said. “Why don’t you make yourself comfortable, and I’ll keep watch?” Sara wanted to argue that he should rest first, but she had no energy for it, so she nodded and sat down against the back wall. Kyle sat at the mouth of the room, where he would hear anyone coming up or down the stairs. Her stomach rumbled, and she wished she had something to snack on.

  “Yeah, me too,” Kyle said, hearing her stomach from across the room.

  Sara closed her eyes. “Do you think we can actually win this thing?”

  “What do you mean?”

  Sara shrugged. “I don’t know. It just doesn’t seem possible that we’re down here trying to find some ancient legend that will save the human race.” She pried her heavy eyes open and looked at him. “It all just seems like something out of a story, out of a…”

  “Out of a what?”

  Sara struggled to follow the thought that had slipped out of her mind like smoke through a keyhole. “I don’t know. I’m too tired to think straight.”

  “Get some rest. I’ll need some shut-eye myself when you wake up.”

  Sara pulled her knees up and laid her forehead on them. The aches and pains that tortured her battered body made it difficult to get comfortable, but within moments her exhausted mind slipped into a deep sleep.

  KYLE SAT IN the near-dark, listening to the sound of Sara’s steady breathing. Every now and then he would glance her way, then force himself to tear his gaze away, only to find it wandering to her again. She was so pretty, even covered in dirt and sweat. He had known she was special from the first moment he saw her. She didn’t carry her prettiness like the others, with her nose stuck up in the air like she was better than him. And she was strong, too. He found strong girls so sexy. She was almost as good as he was in battle, and she knew it. He liked the challenge she gave him, yet she always knew in the back of her pretty little head that he would conquer her every time. It was obvious that they were made for each other.

  Then Ryan Hunter came along and messed everything up. Kyle couldn’t figure out what Sara found so appealing about Ryan. True, the boy had speed, though nothing like Sara or himself, and he was smart enough to pick up the tactics quickly, but he lacked the killer instinct that made Kyle such a great warrior. So far Ryan and his scrawny sister had been nothing but distractions on this little adventure.

  Now, they were gone, and he and Sara were alone.

  He glanced again at Sara. Soon after slipping into dreamland, she had unconsciously moved from her sitting position to a more comfortable position on her side, facing him. A strand of dark hair hung across her closed eyes, and his fingers itched to move it out of the way.

  A movement pulled Kyle’s attention from the sleeping girl. He cocked his head and listened but only heard Sara’s light breathing. He turned his head, allowing his peripheral vision to see what he might otherwise miss. Yes, there it was. The light on the stairs was bobbing ever so slightly, like the flame of a candle. The crystals embedded in the walls didn’t flicker, so what was this new threat?

  Kyle pulled himself up so that he squatted just inside the opening. He couldn’t tell for sure if the flicker came from above or below. If from above, he was hidden until the threat passed. If from below, at least he would see what was coming. Though the air was still warm, he felt a chill, like when Sister Maggie opened the ice closet in the kitchen of the Keep. The sensation rolled through the door of the small room like a living entity. Kyle slid his knife from the sheath behind his back and tensed, waiting to spring.

  The air grew colder as a shadow passed before the door. That was all it was, a shadow. It slipped by, muting—but not blocking—the light crystals. Clutching the knife tight in his hand, Kyle peered around the wall and watched as it continued down the staircase until it moved out of sight around the bend. The temperature warmed back up.

  Kyle looked toward Sara, who still slept peacefully, then back out at the deserted stairway. He hated to leave her, but something about the shadow compelled him to follow and find out what it was. Sara can take care of herself. She had proven that time and time again. The shadow hadn’t felt threatening, and he wouldn’t be gone long. Sara would be just fine until he returned. She would never even know he had left.

  He crept down the stairs until he felt the chill in the air warning him he was getting close. He noted that the spiderwebs were still intact, a sign that the shadow was as disembodied as it appeared. He slowed down, using the air temperature to keep pace with the specter. He had traveled about sixty feet from the room in which he and Sara had been resting when the stairs ended at a long passageway. He peered around the final bend in the spiral stairway and watched as the shadow moved steadily away from him. The entity itself had no defined shape or form and changed like a cloud of inky smoke. He waited until it had moved a good distance down the passageway before slipping from his hiding place and following it. As far as he could see, the stone passage left no place for him to hide if the shadow turned, but it appeared intent on its mission. He took a moment to gaze at the walls. Except for the crystals, he detected no irregularities in the smooth stones.

  Kyle realized he no longer saw the shadow in front of him. He squinted into the gloom. The air felt warmer as well. He increased his pace, the soles of his soft boots making no sound on the dusty floor. He reached the end of the hall, expecting it to fork off in one or both directions, but it proved a dead end. He stopped at the wall that blocked any further progress. Where had it gone? Had it passed through the wall? He ran his hands across the stones, hoping to find a secret latch or something. If the wall held secrets, it kept them to itself.

  Disgusted with himself for losing his quarry so easily, Kyle spun around and started back the way he had come. His footprints were easy enough to see in the thick dust. Wait, he thought, what is that? He squatted and studied the footprints. They were his—there was no question of that. A chill that had nothing to do with the ambient air pricked goose bumps on his skin. In the center of each of his own footprints
was another set, much smaller, like a child’s.

  He knew the dust had been undisturbed when he’d come through. Whoever did this had been behind him. Standing straight, he peered into the gloom. The foot of the staircase should have been visible, but it was lost in the distance. Nothing else moved. He was alone down here, so who could have made the other set of prints?

  Kyle felt the now-familiar chill in the air and froze, every nerve and muscle on alert. The chill became an almost painful cold, and he knew without any doubt that something was creeping up behind him. Stifling a terror-filled scream that a day earlier he would never have admitted he had in him, Kyle spun, knife flashing. The knife met no resistance, but he had been right.

  Something had been creeping up on him.

  TINGLING IN SARA’S nearly numb right arm brought her back to a pain-filled consciousness. She pried open sticky, bleary eyes and looked around. Confusion wafted through her fogged mind before recognition set in. We’re in the castle. Eve’s castle. Where’s Kyle?

  Sara pulled herself to her feet. She put one hand against the wall to steady herself as a wave of dizziness hit her, but it passed after a moment. She blinked and looked around again. She saw no sign of Kyle, but that didn’t alarm her. He was prone to instinctive action, letting his curiosity as much as common sense, drive him. It was one of the things that had caused her to distance herself from him. He probably got bored or sleepy and went out to look around while she slept.

  For a moment, she only sat there, staring into the gloom. Her entire body ached. She was alone and scared. Sam’s dead. Master Casius is probably dead. What about Dana? Ryan? Tears flooded her eyes. She just wanted her parents back. She wanted her life back. For a brief moment, a memory tickled the edge of her consciousness, a memory of a happier time she couldn’t quite remember. “This is stupid,” she chided herself as she wiped the tears from her eyes. “I’m here now and have to keep focused.”