I take a deep breath and close my eyes to push through my condition.
“Unfortunately, she can’t… Your friend is blissfully unaware, unlike you. Why is that?”
When the time is right, kill them all. Second chances are by no means a practical option. I trust that you know this. You’re smart. Vartal chuckles in delight. Rip them limb from limb. Make them regret ever meeting you.
I wince. Not so much at the thought, but at the growing desire I feel in the pit in my stomach—the desire to kill them all with no remorse. A burning fire only growing with the passage of time.
It’s only natural, Sailor. You and your friend’s lives are at stake. Kill them and live to see another day. Mercy is a luxury you simply can’t afford.
“Helen…whatever they plan on doing, you can stop them. You can stop it all…just let us go,” I rasp.
Her hands are stained just like the others. Don’t waste your words.
“You know I can’t do that.” Helen walks towards me in a cold, calculated manner, a straight face replacing her normally inviting features. “I tried to make things as good as they could for you before your time came, but you ruined it for yourself. You should have stayed asleep. You wouldn’t have to witness any of this.”
“Helen…please. You don’t have to do this.”
Moments after I finish my sentence, the basement door creaks open and I direct my gaze towards the set of old, wooden, stairs in the corner.
“I can put you back under, but letting you go isn’t an option. This has to be done. We’ve worked too hard.”
“The hell you are. No way she’s getting the easy way out.” Frank saunters down the stairs and walks towards his wife once he reaches the basement floor. “She’s a hunter. I was digging through her shit and found a Beretta. Thought the bitch was paranoid, but I checked the bullets. She even had water and a syringe…I dumped it,” he says and places one hand on his hips and balances his weight on the table near his wife. “Other one came out clean. I’ll go through the car once we’re through. There’s probably more shit in there. Kind of makes what we’re doing a little bit more worthwhile.”
“If you guys lay a finger on either one of us, I promise, none of you will make it to morning.”
“Oh yeah?” Frank scoffs. Frank breaks away from his wife and positions himself in front of me with an arrogant grin. “Boop.” He taps my nose with his finger and retracts it, haughtily. “Guess I have until morning, right?” He smirks.
I thrash against my restraints, but with Valerie still unconscious, I hold off on making my move until I can guarantee her safety. There’s at least four people to consider I have to get through Bruce, Trent, Frank, and Helen…possibly more upstairs.
“I think I’ll take my chances.” Frank confidently takes a few steps back and laughs. “I honestly don’t think it’s possible, but you’re more than welcome to try. We have your car, your cell phones are fucking jammed, you’ve been stabbed, and we have this.” Frank reaches behind him and picks up a revolver from the table.
I know you see it. I know you feel it too. The altar.
Of course, I do. It didn’t take me long to put two and two together. On the opposite side of the table, there’s a circle intricately outlined with bowls and candles. It’s active but incomplete. I can feel it’s power…a pulsing wave of energy slowly feeding into me through Vartal. It’s comforting, but I know it’s wrong. It’s evil. Unfortunately, it just might be our only ticket out of here.
You can dispose of them with no problem at all. Your bindings are loose, but most importantly, your will is strong. Why are you holding back?
“You’re making a mistake.”
“That’s a bold assumption considering we’ve been planning this for some time now. You two were the only variables. Stumbling across a pair of hunters wasn’t what we had in mind, but all things considered, it’s safe to say that it turned out okay. Dealing with you two was way easier than kidnapping that fucking kid. Raised the little shit for two years.”
“Bastard!”
“Humph. Keep talking like that, and we’ll sick Bruce on you, buttercup. You haven’t been awake for more than five minutes, and I’m already tired of your shit. Why don’t you be a good girl like your friend and play dead.”
“And you chose this piece of shit for a husband? Great choice. I’m sure he treats you just swell.” I smile.
“You little…” Frank walks up to me launches a brutal hook at my face. My head juts back and twists, causing my skull to ricochet against the wall. I feel a river of blood begin to leak from my head, warming the side of my face as it begins to travel down to my jaw.
Such fools.
“Looks like you’ve had a lot of practice.”
Franks snarls and walks away. In the brief moment that he turns his back to me, I stare into Helen’s eyes.
“Helen, go check on Trent upstairs. Bring the boy, too.”
“You heard the man, get to it,” I say mockingly.
“Don’t let her get to you. Stick to the plan, babe.”
Helen pauses but eventually breaks away from her husband’s side and makes her way towards the stairs. The smile on my face widens as I shift my gaze to Frank.
I love it when you play with your food.
“Docile—like a well-trained dog.”
“If you don’t shut your fucking mouth, I’m going to beat the hell out of your friend once this thing is done.”
The incantation used must have a correlation with your life force.
Yeah, I figured that. No other reason they wouldn’t have killed us before. Outside of the incision on my side, we’re good. I’m good.
Valerie’s lost a lot of blood and so have I. The only difference is that I have Vartal. Maybe that’s why they need two people. Having just one person to pull from could possibly mess with the success rate. Or maybe, they just need two because of the design. Regardless, I’m not going to let her die on my watch. That’s just something I can’t afford.
“I’m going to have fun killing you.”
“We really lucked out with this one, eh, Frank?” Bruce chuckles.
“You really like to talk shit, huh? You think it’s funny or something?”
“I’m going to die anyway, right? Might as well go out with a bang.” I shrug.
Frank snarls at me and cuts his eyes towards the stairs. “Helen, you coming?” he yells. “This girl is starting to get on my nerves,” he forces out between clenched teeth, his voice, only slightly above a whisper. A few seconds later, I hear the door to the basement open and a parade of feet move down the steps until I’m able to match the names to the sounds. Helen walks behind Nathan with her hands resting on his shoulders, guiding him as he walks towards his captor in a pacified state. “Looks like the drugs are finally kicking in on him, too.”
He’s like a zombie, a far cry from when I first met him. Trent follows behind them and stops a foot or so away from his mom. He gazes at my bound body, and I do the same to him.
Don’t… Now isn’t the time. Wait for another window.
“Is he good to go?” Frank asks. Helen removes one of her hands from Nathan’s shoulder and places it across Nathan’s forehead. Nathan rolls his head back as his eyes recede into his skull. He stumbles from being off-balance, but Helen is quick to reinforce his posture. Despite her grounding hand, Nathan’s body shakes at random intervals. It’s unsettling.
“Sure, we can start. We have to do it quick though, he’s burning up. He won’t last too much longer. He’s young.”
“Great. Sit him down in the circle.” Helen pushes Nathan towards the middle of the circle and forces him down to his knees. Helen, Bruce, and Trent disperse to the outer ring of the ritual site and align themselves between the lit candles, leaving the section in front of Nathan open for Frank.
“What did you do to him?” I growl. Frank walks towards me with an arrogant smirk and grabs the bowl filled with our blood, the revolver armed in his opposite hand.
&
nbsp; “It’s called Sphinx…ever heard of it? Nasty stuff. Does a number on the mind, but it gets the job done. The little fucker is on cloud nine. He probably doesn’t even realize what’s going on.” He laughs as he raises the bowl in front of me. “Thanks for this, by the way. Couldn’t have done it without you two.”
I jut my body forward and snarl, causing the bindings on my wrist to slightly budge from my strength. I continue to push on them, slowly creating wiggle-room despite the immense pressure it puts on my arms. I don’t think I can break my restraints without causing a scene, but I can pull them off the wall enough to slip through. There’s an art to it. A dislocated thumb or shoulder is the least of my worries. I can recover from that fairly quickly. The only thing is I have to make sure Valerie or Nathan don’t get caught up in the crossfire once things pop off.
I’d rather him not shoot at all if I can help it.
I just need Frank to drop his guard so I can put an end to this. They want the three of us alive for the time being. With that being the case, a gun is more of a deterrent rather than a means to an end.
“You couldn’t have used your own? There’s four of you here.”
“I don’t think this is something I’d want to be on the receiving end of as you’ll find out soon enough. The blood creates a bond…a link, if you will.”
Frank smirks and turns his back to me. It’s not the perfect situation, but it’s my only window. I can’t let him start something that I don’t know how to stop. I brace myself for the coming moment and feel Vartal’s excitement well inside me.
You can do this. Precision is the key.
I know.
The other’s may have weapons on their own, but you have a portion of my power. Gain the upper hand and force theirs. Show them why hunters are to be feared. Make them regret their folly. Kill them.
With Frank’s back still turned to me, I force my wrist forward while squinching my fingers and jerk my arms down in an attempt to free myself from the wall. The bones in my left hand crunch, but I’m able to slip through. “What are yo—?” I use my unbound hand to wrestle my other hand free by yanking downward, ignoring the onslaught of pain caused by my hand being squeezed through an iron cuff. Pushing my pain aside, I rush Frank and close the gap between us before he can manage to fire a shot.
He hesitated out of fear and didn’t shoot when he had the chance. His mistake.
The blood for the ritual falls to the ground and washes over the cement floor of the basement.
Well done.
I launch an elbow across the bridge of his nose, and grab his revolver with my opposite hand, swiftly disarming him. I follow up by swinging the barrel of the gun against his face, knocking him to the floor. With Frank stunned, Bruce reaches for something in one of his socks, but I shoot him in the head before he can get whatever he’s trying to grab. Helen tries to make a run for it, but I shoot her in the back of her neck. She limply falls to the ground, and I shoot her again for good measure. I then direct my gaze to Trent. He begins to shuffle backward in fear, and a smirk runs across my lips. I squeeze the trigger without a second thought, and my bullet finds its mark, piercing through the center of his skull, killing him instantly. I look down and notice Frank attempting to scoot away from my side, still dazed from the blows I dealt to his face.
I point the revolver at the side of his head.
“You really did luck out when you picked me, huh? I told you I wasn’t going to let you live.” I step closer to him. “You should be thankful that I’m letting you off the hook easy. You sure as hell don’t deserve it…on your feet. Hands behind your back. Don’t try anything stupid.” Frank slowly rises with his hands behind him as instructed. As soon as he’s done, I press my gun against the side of his head and pull the trigger at point-blank range. Frank’s body drops to the ground, and his blood begins to pool with Valerie’s and my own.
I breathe deeply and shake my head as I exhale.
The child…he’s not going to make it.
“Yeah… I know.” I line up my shot and shoot Nathan from across the other side of the basement. His head recoils back, and he collapses dead-center in the middle of the ritual site. I wrap my fingers around the barrel of the gun and grip the base with the hem of my shirt. I then clean the body of the gun as thoroughly as I can before rubbing the barrel across my chest, further distorting my prints. After I’m done, I place the revolver a foot or so from Frank’s dead body. “Congratulations, you just killed everyone in this room and then, yourself.”
I don’t bother cleaning up any of the mess. The candles, the ritual markings, the archaic book, the bowl of splattered blood…whenever the cops get the call to check this place out, I’ll let them make of it when they will. It’s not my problem. Without any leads, they’ll be forced to go with what they have on the scene and run into a dead end.
Excellent work.
No need to pat me on the back. It had to be done. Nothing else to it.
I turn and make my way to Valerie, who’s still shackled and incapacitated. “Val, wake up,” I say as I tap her cheek. “Valerie!” Nothing…figures. I just emptied a clip less than twenty feet away from her, and she didn’t budge. Why would calling her name do the trick? I run my hand over her side and align my thumb over her frayed shirt that covers the wound made from her incision. And then, I press my thumb into her wound, forcing it in. “Come on, Valerie.” I press harder and feel my thumb budge. “Val!”
“Ah!” Valerie cries in pain, but at least she’s awake. It doesn’t take her but about half a second to remember what’s going on. “Sailor! Sailor, wha…Frank? Helen? How…?”
“Valerie, I know this is a shock to you, but there really isn’t any other way to put it…I’m a hunter…I hunt the supernatural…demons and the like.” Valerie’s jaw begins to tremble, but I don’t break our steady flow of eye contact. “I can tell you’re starting to put two and two together, but let me bring you up to speed and fill in the gaps.” I wrap my hands around the cuff on her left wrist and place one foot against the wall. “Frank and Helen were trying to summon something. A demon.” I pull against the restraint, and with some effort, it budges just enough for her to slip her hand through. “They drugged us and were planning to use us as a sacrifice.” I grip her right cuff and switch my position on the wall. “If you haven’t noticed it yet, you’ve been stabbed. I was nicked, but they really did a number on you. That bowl on the ground over there was filled with our blood. It was the fuel, so to speak, for whatever they had planned. You’ve lost a lot of blood, I have too, but we can’t die here, understand?” Valerie nods slowly but doesn’t say a word. “Of course, we’re still alive. I stopped it. I had to kill them…for us.” I budge the second cuff forward, and Valerie’s right hand is released. Her hand immediately goes to her side, and she falls against the wall. “I was able to slide from underneath my cuffs and rush Frank. I got the jump on him, but Bruce and the other’s didn’t like that. Became a firefight. I got the upper hand, but Nathan died in the process…he was good…he was kidnapped by Frank and Helen a couple years ago. They were going to use him as a vessel—the person who the demon would inhabit.”
“Wait, what?” Valerie asks weakly. “The baby?” I nod solemnly.
“Yeah, it’s as twisted as it sounds. I only found out because Frank took the time to brag on it. I hate to say it, but he’s better off now. At least now he can be in peace. He…wasn’t right when they brought him down here. He wasn’t himself.” I pause. “Valerie…I’m going to need you to do something for me.”
“What?”
“I’m going to need for you to stay put.”
“You’re leaving me? Please, don’t go.” Valerie groans.
“Listen, Val, you’ve been drugged, and you’re bleeding. Trust me on this, okay. You’re safer down here. I’m going to do a sweep of the house to make sure that no one else is around. If they’re more people involved, I don’t want you getting caught on the wrong side of things. These kinds of people tend to
roll in packs. The rest might already be on their way...we were out for a bit. It’s hard to tell. I’m just hoping they were alone on this one. The only outsider seems to be Bruce. Don’t move from here until I come back for you. Once I finish my sweep, I’m going to get our stuff and make sure we’re not leaving anything behind. Then, we’re leaving. Someone is going to find the bodies. It’s a long-shot, but I don’t want them to be able to link us to them. If you hear anything, don’t panic. I can handle myself. It’s you I’m worried for. Conserve your strength…we’re going to get through this, together.” I run my hand down the length of her shoulder, but it does nothing to stop her shaking. She’s terrified, but she trusts me. Amidst her fear, she nods her head as she leans against the wall, giving me a ‘farewell.' “If anyone tries to do anything to you, they have to get through me, and that’s tough as shit. I do Krav Maga, remember?” Valerie tries to laugh, but her pain morphs her chuckle into a suppressed groan. I provide my body as a support while I slide her down the wall she was bound to. “I’ll be back.” I rise from beside her and turn my back to look at the steep set of wooden stairs. I can feel the weight of Valerie’s eyes on my shoulders, but I refuse to look her way.
…So I leave her, broken and alone, the four dead bodies I laid waste to as her only friends.
Chapter 10: Sailor Ray and the Beautiful Lie
I make my way upstairs and carefully open the door to the basement. It’s quiet. The kind of quiet you get when something surreal happens, and you somehow manage to get frozen in time. The calm in the midst of the storm.
I believe we are alone.
Sailor Ray and the Beautiful Lie (The Pact Book 3) Page 12