Dungeons and Demons

by Kayla Krantz

  “Where to now?” Shawn asked, catching the look on Jack’s face.

  “Hard to say,” Jack replied. “The cemetery was obviously a mistake.”

  “You’re telling me.” Shawn looked at the road over his shoulder. “I don’t know about you, but I’d rather not stay in the cemetery filled with bloodsucking women.”

  “Fair enough,” Jack said. Without his blindfold, he felt even more vulnerable.

  They were quiet as they walked out to the road. At the junction where the path to the cemetery met the concrete of the street beyond, Jack hesitated. Shawn didn’t seem to be in the same state of mind, and he wondered if he was overthinking things. Shawn’s hand was raised to the side of his neck, covering the holes. Jack padded at his side, hopeful the wound would get better though the coppery aroma of his blood hung in the air.

  Jack again had the unsettling thought that he might go unconscious, and the pressure of their two-man group instead of three weighed him down. His stomach churned, and he didn’t know if it was nerves or his body trying to purge the rest of the questionable fluid.

  “There’s a car,” Shawn said, breaking Jack out of his thoughts.

  Jack didn’t believe him until he saw the shadow in the distance. It was small and dark, blue or black maybe. The doors sat open, revealing the darkness of the interior. Jack and Shawn exchanged glances but didn’t approach it right away.

  “Trap?” Jack asked.

  “Trap,” Shawn agreed.

  They split away from one another to search the side of the road for anything that could work as a weapon. Jack didn’t find much, sticks and dried leaves. There was a sizeable chunk of concrete broken on the edge of the road that he eventually settled on. The car might look innocent enough, but it would be just like Rhys to have a monster hiding in wait when they least suspected it.

  Jack squeezed the rock until his fingertips hurt and approached it. The blackness inside the car yawned wider and wider, and at last, he worked the nerve to peek his head inside, rock raised. Nothing jumped at him, and he relaxed.

  “All clear,” he called to Shawn.

  Shawn nodded, wiping his hand on the fabric of his exposed sleeve. He looked the car over from trunk to hood before he asked, “Should we get in?”

  “It beats walking,” Jack replied. “And I’m willing to bet money that Rhys put this here for a reason.”

  “Just like the cemetery?”

  Jack wasn’t so sure about the car either. There were a lot of things that could go wrong with it. A lot of ways that Rhys could use it to doom both of them. However, one glance at Shawn wiped all those away. His friend grew paler and paler. Collapse was inevitable. At least in the car, Jack would be able to get them wherever it was they needed to go.

  “I don’t know how to drive,” Shawn admitted, and Jack couldn’t tell if that was just another excuse to avoid getting into the car or if he thought Jack was waiting for him to offer.

  Jack opened the driver’s door the rest of the way, peering inside at the controls. “I can do it. I know a bit from practicing with Dad’s car.”

  “If you’re sure,” Shawn said and slid into the passenger seat without arguing.

  Jack gave one final look to the backseat before taking his place in the driver’s seat. Part of him still had the unsettling feeling that a demon would rise from the shadows the second the car started to move. Too many horror movies drilled that exact scene into his brain.

  “What is it?” Shawn asked, peering at him from the corner of his eye.

  Jack flinched. So much for appearing strong and unmoving. “I’m just making sure that we’re really alone. No last minute surprises.”

  Shawn dropped his bloody hand to his lap, and Jack was more than sure that he could understand.

  “Think you can do it?” Shawn asked after a minute.

  “Yeah, it’s not too bad,” Jack said and closed his door. Somehow, he managed to lace his words with confidence that he didn’t feel. He ran his finger over the slot beside the steering wheel. There was no key in his sight. “Check the glovebox.”

  Shawn obeyed, pulling out a shiny silver key that looked too big for the car. “Is this the right one?”

  Jack shrugged and stuck it into the spot. It slid in with ease, and Jack let out a relieved breath as the engine purred to life. He set his hand on the gearshift and switched the car to drive.

  “Put your seatbelt on,” Jack warned and began to ease the car down the road.

  As he grew comfortable with the controls, he moved faster. The woods outside whipped past, and Shawn relaxed, resting against his seat as he stared out the window.

  “I wonder where it is that we’re supposed to go next,” Shawn said.

  “I don’t know, but for Rhys to give us a car must mean it’s far.”

  “Or he just wants us to get there faster.”

  It was definitely a possibility. “How do you think Asmodeus factors into this entire scene?”

  Shawn had a contemplative frown on his face. “So far Rhys has been honest about the dungeons, but I’ve been thinking that he doesn’t have to be. He can tell us anything he wants to get our guards down, and we won’t even know he lied until the actual demon comes along.”

  “You don’t think this is Asmodeus’ dungeon?” Jack asked. The scene in the cemetery fit the theme of the demons of lust, but other than that, he was thrown.

  “No,” Shawn said honestly. “I don’t know where we are exactly, but what if Rhys is just playing with us? What if this isn’t a dungeon at all, but a little cutscene, an interlude to something bigger?”

  Jack could believe that. Every time he thought things were as complicated as it could get, they only got worse. “Look, we don’t know any of that,” he said. “Let’s just focus on what’s around us. We have to find something eventually.”

  “I’d rather just keep driving right on out of this dungeon and back to our lives.”

  Me too, Jack thought, but Rhys would never allow it.

  The car had been a blessing from him, but what did a blessing from a demon really mean?

  24.

  JACK SQUINTED, TRYING to better see through the windshield. The darkness outside grew heavier, and he slowed the car, worried that more of the white gowned creatures from the cemetery would appear. Shawn gazed lackadaisically out the window before his gaze moved to Jack.

  Unnerved, Jack glanced at him from the corner of his eye. The wound on his friend’s neck had stopped bleeding, but there was a look on his face. One that hadn’t been there before. It was as if someone else was looking out of those brown eyes, studying him, and he shivered. He didn’t know what the demon had done to Shawn, but he was sure there would be repercussions.

  As if he could hear his thoughts, Shawn said, “They’re beautiful, you know. Those demons. They look like angels on Earth. Even when they break your skin and drink your blood, you’re just so happy to have them near you that you don’t mind.”

  Jack didn’t know what to say so he stayed silent, focusing on the road.

  Shawn’s gaze moved back to the windshield, the tiniest of smiles gracing his lips. “I miss her.”

  “You miss...” Jack trailed off, shooting his friend a quick glance. “The demon?”

  Shawn didn’t move, that same content expression focused out the window, and Jack had the feeling that they were in the exact dungeon that Rhys had promised. Whatever the creature had been, it had gotten into Shawn’s head. And it had done so with a kiss.

  Great, Jack thought. The only thing worse than Shawn passing out would be a friend who went willingly traipsing after demons.

  “Speak of the devil,” Shawn said, eyes focused on something just beyond the windshield.

  Jack drew his eyes away from the bundle of shadows even though he wanted to study it more. Whatever it was, it didn’t glow like the other creature had, but Jack wasn’t willing to take any more chances.

  “Shawn, don’t look at it,” he said, lump in his throat.

 
; Shawn didn’t move, head still angled in the perfect way to view whatever it was.

  “Damn it,” Jack cursed and pressed his foot harder on the gas pedal. If he couldn’t get Shawn to look away, all he could do was try to get past the thing and hope the spell would be broken by distance. The shadows moved in front of the car, and he swerved, taking the car right past. Jack was ready to laugh in triumph.

  When Shawn turned to look at him, dark eyes glassy.

  “Go back,” he said so softly that Jack wasn’t sure if he heard him right at first.

  “What?”

  “Go back!” Shawn roared and lunged forward, grabbing the steering wheel.

  Jack screamed and tried to fight free from his friend’s grip. The car did eccentric fishtails one way and the other as the boys wrestled for control of the vehicle. Tears streamed down Jack’s face, and he considered his options before at last he cocked his fist back and landed a blow right into Shawn’s cheekbone. A loud crack filled the car, and Shawn’s head went backward with the impact. His fingers held tight, but with the distraction, Jack was able to pry them free. Shawn groaned and cradled his face in his hands.

  “I’m sorry. So sorry,” Jack said, heart pounding as he evened out the car’s journey. “I had to do it.”

  Shawn said nothing, face still hidden behind his hands so Jack couldn’t see the emotion there. The creature disappeared from sight of the rearview mirror, and Jack wondered if the odd mood that had overtaken Shawn had gone with it.

  Jack was about to ask Shawn if he was okay when the car started to slow. Jack blinked, trying to make sense of it. His foot was still pressing down as hard as he could on the gas, but it made no difference. Desperately, he picked his foot up and slammed down again. The car did not accelerate.

  “Wh-what’s happening?” Shawn asked, voice groggy. He moved his hands from his face, but he looked out of it as if he were recovering from laughing gas after a trip to the dentist.

  There wasn’t time to figure him and the car out so he tuned Shawn out, messing with the dials and controls in the car, trying everything he could to get it moving again. The car stopped completely, and Jack lifted his hands to his head, grasping handfuls of his own hair. “No, no, no,” he said and looked over his shoulder to see through the back windshield. The shadows were growing closer.

  Flustered, Jack pulled out the key and tried to turn it again, but the engine didn’t come to life. Shawn sat up to look outside, and Jack swallowed, certain Shawn would throw himself out of the car to approach the demon.

  The shadows were close enough to knock on the back window, and even though every nerve in Jack’s body instinctively wanted to turn and look, he refused. A glance at Shawn from the corner of his eye showed that Shawn was staring straight ahead as well. He hoped that was a sign that his friend had come back, the spell gone.

  “Yoohoo!” a female voice called from the glass on the other side of Shawn.

  It sounded familiar.

  Tap, tap, tap, came the pounding of her fists against the window. Jack ignored it, twisting the key in the ignition over and over. The engine flooded again and again, getting Jack’s hopes up each time. At last, the car purred to life, and Jack cheered, stomping on the gas.

  The car didn’t move.

  “Let me in,” the girl whined, voice now on the other side of Jack’s window. His fear vanished, and he reached for the nearest lock button.

  No! he screamed inside his head, but his arm disobeyed.

  Shawn snatched his hand before he could let her in. Jack turned to Shawn but everything moved slowly as if he were underwater. He blinked and saw his friend’s ears were stuffed with something indiscernible. Shawn pointed to Jack’s ears, but Jack was too far gone to understand what his friend was telling him to do.

  The tapping came from the window again, and Jack tried to turn his head in her direction. Shawn reached out and grabbed his face, keeping his eyes away from the creature looming there. Jack could feel its presence. A deep evil that perforated down to his bones. Shawn tore a strip off cloth away from the bottom of Jack’s shirt and jammed the pieces into each ear.

  “Please help me,” the girl’s voice said, but it was muffled.

  Jack reached up to cover his hands over his ears. The weaker her voice came through, the easier it was to ignore her. Part of him was still entranced though, still tempted to obey her. If he cut off the sound of her voice completely, it would fade.

  At least he hoped so.

  “Please,” she whispered.

  Jack and Shawn stayed in place, staring down at the floor of the car rather than the window. At the cemetery, it had been easy to get the creature to leave, but what could they do here? Unless this thing had been buried on the side of the road, they were nowhere near its resting place. Nowhere near anything that could help them make it go away.

  Shawn must’ve sensed Jack’s unease because he tilted his face in Jack’s direction, enough to show his lips but not enough to look at the window. “If we keep this up, she can’t hurt us.”

  Jack understood him only by reading his lips.

  The girl let out an ethereal shriek, its fists pounding against the glass harder and harder. Jack winced, wondering if it had the strength to break through. The engine roared, and the car started to move. Shawn looked over to Jack, eyes sparkling with hope, but when he realized that Jack’s eyes were wide with horror, his expression morphed to match it.

  The car started to pick up speed, and Jack stomped on the brake, doing all he could think of, but the car didn’t respond.

  “I’m...I’m not doing this,” Jack said frantically, hoping that Shawn would have some kind of solution he did not.

  The speedometer went up to 15 mph then 20. Jack tried to pull the emergency brake, but it wouldn’t budge. 30 then 35. Jack screamed and stomped both feet onto the brake at once.

  It made no difference.

  “Make it stop!” Shawn demanded.

  His eyes were bigger than Jack had ever seen them. Jack tried to pull they key out of the engine, but it wouldn’t budge. “The girl. She’s doing this.”

  Shawn stared straight ahead, but it wasn’t clear if he really understood what was happening.

  “We’re gonna have to leap for it!” Jack howled, turning for the door as the car reached 40 mph.

  He glanced at his friend. At least he was clad in armor. It was thin, gone in a few places along his arms, but it would help him. More than Jack’s thin clothes anyway. Just as Jack’s fingers closed around the handle, the locks clicked into place. Jack blinked, unsure of what he’d just seen. With as much force as he could muster, he pulled the handle anyway, again and again. 50 mph. Jack pulled until he thought the thin strip of metal would cut directly into his skin.

  Shawn copied him, fists pounding against the window and the spot in the door where the lock was as if he hoped it would jiggle loose. His pale skin flushed red with exertion.

  Jack dared another glance to the speedometer. 70 mph.

  In the darkness came the most unwelcome sight. Trees. That meant the road would curve. Desperately, Jack gripped the steering wheel, trying to turn the car. It didn’t work.

  “Hold on!” he screamed, just as the car hit something hard enough to jostle every bone in his body.

  25.

  JACK HAD A moment of absolute stillness. Everything moved around him, most of it at hyper speed, but in his head, the world was paused. He was a baby again, and then a series of memories floated through his head: elementary school dodgeball, water gun fights with his older brother, the first time he’d met Shawn and Milo. He sucked in a breath, tears bubbling in his eyes as the most recent ones came. The memory of Milo’s death and then he and Shawn at the oasis.

  Then he came back to the present with a startling thought: I’m so dead.

  Unpleasant ripping sounded from beneath the car, and Jack didn’t know if it was them hitting something else or if it was the result of the original crash. As the car flipped over and over in midair,
the seatbelt cut into Jack, knocking the air from his lungs. He reached out, gripping onto anything in reach. He realized then that what he’d thought to be a curb had actually been a guardrail to a bridge.

  They were going over.

  As the car stopped flipping, Jack could see the rocky shoreline below. Dizziness swirling through him, he turned his head enough to see Shawn. His face and panicked eyes were the last thing Jack saw as the car made impact, landing upside down. Jack screamed out with the little bit of air left in his lungs, but over the sounds of everything else, it was lost.

  When the car settled, Jack groaned, surprised to find that he was still alive. He had been sure that the drop would be enough to kill him and Shawn as well as destroy the car. Lights blinked sporadically from the dashboard, and the air smelt of blood and gasoline. Jack tried to move, but he couldn’t. Pain shot through his leg, and he was positive it was broken. Desperate to get out before the car could explode, he turned to his seatbelt. That was when he noticed the chunk of metal impaling his thigh. His leg wasn’t broken, it had been mangled. Through the haze of his adrenaline, the pain was dulled, and he couldn’t imagine what it would feel like once that numbness went away.

  Tears in his eyes, he finished the task of undoing the seatbelt and toppled to the grounded roof with a sharp exhale of breath. The pain in his leg was intense, and he looked at it again. At least the silver that had speared him was disconnected from the rest of the car. The thought of pulling it out had his stomach rioting with nausea. Doing what he could to ignore it, he pulled himself across the roof toward his friend.

  Shawn was a frenzy of arms and limbs. He hadn’t buckled his seatbelt after all, and his body was stretched out, a trickle of blood running from his mouth. Jack ran his eyes over his body, trying to determine any other injuries. Beneath the suit of armor, it was impossible, and part of him wondered if it had helped to protect him or intensified his damage.