by N. Phillips
“These two delinquents were causing a disturbance on this floor, so we had to—”
A loud bang followed by an explosive sound came from one of the floors below, and a thick, purple fog of negativity began to form inside the building. My assumption was that Tyler’s rage attracted the demons here, but perhaps they found other hosts in the hospital to leech off of.
A doctor approached Alvin, who stepped out the elevator. “S-sir, t-two of them have g-gone mad.” He tried to mumble through his stuttering voice, but I heard him loud and clear.
Alvin stared at the officers, showing no facial reaction to what the doctor had said. “It would seem that you three are needed elsewhere, yes? Why don’t you disregard the trivial antics of children and concern yourselves with more important matters.”
The officers muttered to each other before sitting me and Tyler against a wall and getting on the elevator. When the doors closed, Maylene kneeled down to speak to me.
“I can burn those cuffs off you easily, but we have to get somewhere private,” she said, glancing at everyone around us. She helped me to stand as Alvin walked up to me.
“It would appear you have a job to do as well, Miss Dawn,” he said with a grin. “Unless your incapable of saving us all without the ability to use your hands.”
Giving him a look of disgust couldn’t remove the smile off his face. “I’ll be fine. Just keep everyone on this floor until I come back.”
“I’m going too,” Maylene said, shooting me a quick wink.
Alvin rubbed his chin hairs and observed her. “I see. Very well.”
We walked to the elevator and waited for the doors to open. Lucas grabbed my arm, but I brushed him off.
“Ali, let me come with you. You have to believe me when I say there’s more to the story than what Tyler said.”
“No. I actually thought I needed you, but after hearing that, I’m done. Leave me alone.”
I got on the elevator with Maylene and turned my head to avoid seeing his face. A sigh escaped my lips when the doors closed and the elevator began to move.
“That was intense,” Maylene said behind me. I could feel the heat from her flames on my skin. “Hold on. I’m almost done torching these cuffs.”
The elevator doors opened just as my hands were freed. There was no time to take a breather. The enemy was down the hall in clear sight.
“Hold on.” Maylene stopped me from walking further after we stepped out the elevator. “I don’t like being recorded.”
The cameras in the top corners of the room exploded into flames, causing mechanical parts to fall on the floor where injured doctors and nurses laid unconscious. It was smart of her to destroy any potential evidence of our abilities, but the explosions alerted the man down the hall, who had his back turned before the cameras were destroyed.
“I’m guessing that’s our possessed guy?” Maylene asked with a raised brow. I nodded, not keeping my eyes off him. He wore a hospital robe and was bald with enough muscle to make a bodybuilder jealous.
He shot us a crazed smile, and I could sense the demon controlling him even more despite how hard it tried to hide behind his massive build. The man lifted the receptionist desk off the ground and flung it at us with ease, causing it to smash through the elevator door after we dived out the way.
“Holy shit. This guy’s a monster,” Maylene exclaimed. She was right. His desire couldn’t have been anything else but superhuman strength.
He made his way over to us with giant stomps. “Check it out,” Maylene said with a smirk. “I got this trick straight from an anime.”
With the snap of her fingers, the man’s body was engulfed in flames. He panicked and so did I. “Maylene, don’t kill him,” I yelled. “I just need to free his mind and get rid of the demon controlling him.”
“Relax, I only gave you an opening. I know how to control the temperature of the fire, and the flames aren’t hot enough right now to kill him, but you better make your move before he loses his skin.”
I rushed into action after her words, getting behind the man and slaying the Shadow with my chakram. A blinding flash was emitted from my palm afterwards that made him collapse on the floor with a hard thud. The situation at the hospital wasn’t over with yet, as I could see a shadow current leading downstairs to our next encounter.
I took the stairwell and followed the negative energy, with Maylene behind me destroying any cameras along the way. When we reached the second floor, we were confronted by a woman in a hospital robe with short, platinum blonde hair and tattoos on her arms.
“She’s under the influence too, huh?”
“Yeah, and more than you know,” I replied to Maylene, sensing the woman’s strong negativity and observing the demon levitating above her.
“Alright. I’ll do what I did last time and—”
In the blink of an eye, Maylene was pushed to the ground and my back was forced against a wall from a hard hit to my chest. Before I could even rationalize what had happened, the woman retreated a short distance away from us.
“She’s fast,” I coughed out, squeezing my breast from the pain. Maylene stood up and glared at the woman.
“If she can run faster than I can snap my fingers, I’ll have to—”
Again the woman dashed too quick for my eyes to follow, striking Maylene and I in the face before we could react. She tried to continue her assault against me, but was stopped in her tracks by a circle of flames surrounding her feet.
“She’s trapped. Aliyah, do it now.”
My chakram was thrown at the Shadow hovering over the woman’s head, piercing one of its eyes and destroying the creature. All that was left to do was free her mind, and I did so by emitting a gleam that caused her to fall to the ground. Finally, the nightmare was over.
Or, at least I thought it was.
“They’re coming.” My words were spoken low with apprehension. Looking down the hallway, not only did I see the lifeless bodies of the three cops from earlier, but a legion of demons stampeding through the glass doors that separated the two sections of the floor.
I wasn’t sure if we’d win against that many, unless the idea I had been wanting to try actually worked.
“Maylene, create a huge fireball. I’m gonna generate enough light energy to match it, and we’ll combine our powers to take the whole group out in one shot. Just make sure to put out the flames if they spread, okay?”
“Got it.”
The giant, fiery orb she conjured was both astonishing and terrifying. I took a few steps back and shouted, “Let’em have it,” while pointing in the direction of the mob.
When she released the bomb, I infused it with my light energy, creating a shining sphere around the fireball that engulfed the horde of demons and annihilated them within seconds. Only embers veiled in a white crystal glow remained.
“Did we get’em?” she asked as the sprinklers activated from the flames rained down on us.
“We sure did,” I confirmed. “That was amazing.”
“Right? Okay, we totally have to name that attack,” she joked, or at least I had hoped so. Though the thought of coming up with stylish names for our moves was kinda cool. “How about, purity bomb?”
I smiled and wiped off the water on my face until a surge of dark aura began to fill the air. My senses detected that it was coming from one of the floors above.
“Something’s going on upstairs. We have to get back up there.”
We climbed up a nearby stairwell with haste, unaware of what we’d face once we reach the fifth floor. The closer we got, the stronger the negativity became. It was overwhelming to say the least, and nothing could prepare me for what, or who, was the source of it all.
“Oh my God. Valeria?”
There stood my best friend, with a grimace I had never seen expressed on her face. On the floor were the dead bodies of the hospital staff and her foster parents, who’s blood covered her robe and the pair of scissors in her hand. Shaking in fear was Tyler, who may ha
ve been the person responsible for this bloodbath. He turned to me and spoke.
“A-Aliyah, who is that? T-that’s not Valeria. This isn’t what I wanted."
“Oh, it’s me,” Valeria assured in a demonic voice. “Or do you not recognize me when I’m finally standing up for myself?”
Lucas walked over to me from a small group of terrified survivors huddled in a corner. “Ali, it’s good you’re safe. You’re not hurt, are you?”
“I’m fine. Can you and Maylene get these people out of here? I have a feeling this is going to get nasty, and only I can get through to Tyler.”
“I can hear you, you know,” Valeria voiced with a freakish smile, licking the blood off the scissors. “Who said I was done killing these pathetic souls? It’s typical you’d do whatever you want, Aliyah, and not worry about how I’d feel. Is it because you had a secret friend all along in that blonde over there?”
“I am not the one you wanna mess with,” Maylene retorted. “Trust me, demon bitch, I’ll—”
“Maylene, stop,” I interrupted her. “Please, just work with Lucas and get everyone out of the building.”
She grumbled before persuading the remaining hospital staff to run down the stairwell. Lucas assisted, but failed to convince Alvin to leave.
“You don’t have to worry about me,” Alvin said to him. “Go on, boy. Before you get yourself killed.”
“Just go, Lucas,” I told him. He approached and kissed me on the lips without warning. There were so many thoughts running through my mind that I didn’t know how to respond.
“If there’s anyone who can fix this, it’s you, Ali. I love you. Make it out of here alive.”
He followed Maylene and the staff down the stairs, leaving me, Tyler, and Alvin alone with a cackling Valeria. Her demonic tongue mixed with laughter made for an unsettling sound that should never be heard by anyone.
“Oh look, I’m actually the center of your attention for once. It only took the loss of about ten people to get it.”
“She’s always cared about you,” Tyler said in my defense. “Val, if you’re really in there, please come back to me. This isn’t you. You’re not a murderer.”
I wasn’t sure how to tell him, or if I’d even have a chance to, but the Valeria he fell in love with was gone. The only power keeping her alive was his desire that finally manifested with assistance from the demons. All that remained was her anger toward the both of us for not being there when she needed us the most.
“You two are so fake, it’s insulting,” she hissed. “You’re just like the rest of the world; you only care after something happens. You ignore any signs of a problem because you think it’ll just go away and everything will be fine. Well, that clearly didn’t happen, did it? No. I killed myself because neither of you were there for me.”
“Val, I tried to—”
“Shut up,” she cut me off. “You tried to do what? Stop me from jumping off a roof the morning after I was taken advantage of? I called you the night before it happened, but let me guess, you didn’t answer because you put Lucas in front of me, like always. Maybe it’s him I need to kill.”
Her eyes shifted to the staircase Lucas had gone down. The second she made her way toward it, I released a ray of light in hopes of freeing her from demonic influence. What happened instead was something I should have expected: my power had no effect. It had no effect because she wasn’t the source of negativity.
Tyler was.
“What was that?” Valeria giggled. “Was that the incredible light you always talked about? Those demons you fight must be weak as shit if they go down from such a simple sparkle.”
I turned to Tyler, who’s eyes were ready to pop out of their sockets. He still couldn’t believe what was going on.
“Tyler, I can’t stop her. But you can,” I told him. “You need to let go of her and accept that she’s not coming back. I’m sorry, but our Val is gone.”
“How can you tell me not to want her back? I love her. I need her. You can’t force me to never miss her again.”
A sinister growl escaped Valeria’s lips as she approached me with evil intent. She attempted to jab me with the scissors in her hand, but I grabbed her arm and we began tussling over the weapon.
Her strength was increased by the evil energy controlling her, and I was soon knocked off my feet by a hard swing of her arm. The pressure of her weight now on top of me made it difficult to stand, and my hands were preoccupied with preventing her from stabbing me in the chest.
“Tyler, please,” I pleaded, gripping on to Valeria’s wrist and praying that the scissors didn’t penetrate me. “If you really love her, you’ll free her from this curse. Stop wanting her back. Let her rest in peace.”
“I... I can’t.”
I knew he couldn’t do it. It was to be expected, and I didn’t know how I could ask something like that of him. Maybe because I was going to die if he didn’t. But what happened next did surprise me: he grabbed Valeria from behind and pulled her off me.
“How dare you protect her,” she hollered as he tried to contain her in a choke hold. She broke free and the worst thing that could happen, happened: she stabbed Tyler in the gut.
I screamed in response and unleashed a beam of light. It did little to Valeria, but it was enough to separate her from him. He fell to his knees with blood painting his white shirt.
Rushing to his side, I covered his wound with my hands. “Tyler, please be okay. Don’t die.”
Valeria’s eerie giggling made me look up at her with a scowl. “Aw how cute,” she uttered through her laughter. “Are you sure you two are just friends? You could’ve fooled me.”
“A-Aliyah,” Tyler managed to cough out. “I’m sorry. All I wanted was to have her b-back. I never meant for t-this to happen.”
“I know. I’m not mad, Tyler. But sometimes, when you love someone, you have to let them go. So I’m gonna do something to end this, alright? We won’t have to suffer anymore.”
He smiled, confirming he knew what I was going to do, and that he was okay with it. He closed his eyes and let my light into his body, freeing him from the darkness that had influenced and enhanced his manifested desire at the cost of forgetting everything that happened.
Valeria charged at me with the scissors in her hand raised, but it was too late. She convulsed until her body stood as stiff as a board, eventually collapsing on the ground with no signs of life. Without medical support or a desire to keep her alive, my best friend was truly gone.
“Can someone help me?” I yelled, applying pressure to Tyler’s wound. It was then that Alvin reinserted himself into the picture.
“That was quite the spectacle. As a reward for entertaining me, I’ll be sure your friend stays alive.”
“You thought all of that was a game?” I stood up and glowered at him. “My friend is dying.”
“I can see that, which is why I’m offering my services. I’ll see to it that he’s transported to the finest hospital in the city with just one call. All I ask of you is to depart this building without anyone seeing you. I’m certain you can hear the SWAT team making their way up here.”
He was right. Heavy stomps were coming in our direction. But why wouldn’t he want me to be seen? And did he really think I’d leave Tyler alone with him?
Just who was this guy, really?
“You’d best be going by exiting through the emergency door down the hall. Trust me when I say that everything will work in our favor if I’m the only one being asked the questions.”
Something about the way he spoke was convincing, like this whole evening was set up just the way he planned. I didn’t trust him, but not being interrogated was a good idea. I would hate for my mom and dad to know I was involved in something else.
“Fine. You’ll take care of him, right?”
“You have my word, Miss Dawn.”
Confused, scared, and disheartened, I pushed open the emergency door and ran downstairs, leaving out the back door of the hospital. I was
certain that today I had lost a boyfriend, a best friend, and maybe even someone I considered a brother.
CHAPTER 14
Your friends will be in my prayers.
Several days had passed before Bruce and Jerome’s funeral. I replied to Maylene’s text with a simple thank you before locking my necklace around my neck and stepping out the bathroom in a black dress. Thoughts of Tyler came to mind as I walked downstairs, thankful that he had survived and didn’t hate me after I told him what happened in the hospital.
In the kitchen was my mom, who was scrubbing wet dishes in the sink with a sponge. “Mom, I’m about to leave. Lucas is picking me up.”
“Oh, is he?” she asked, turning the faucet off. “I was under the impression that your father and I were bringing you, since you’ve been ignoring all of Lucas’s calls to the house for the past four days. Actually, you’ve been avoiding everyone since the school incident.”
It was true. I had been keeping to myself for the past few days, but only because I needed a break from my daily life of chaos and misery. My mind needed to be cleared, free from constant worry and intrusive thoughts. You’d think she’d understand; parents always complain about how stressful life is.
But then again, how could she get it? She didn’t know what was going on in my life, and probably never will.
“Mom, you haven’t been the easiest person to talk to after what happened,” I told her, leaning against the fridge with my arms crossed. “Every time I come downstairs for dinner or whenever we walk past each other in the living room, there’s always some tension in the air. I know you’ve been upset with me these past couple of days for not coming straight home that day and for sneaking out the house to save my friend, but—”
“No, I’m not upset about that. I’m glad you helped her. What I am upset about is that you took your father’s car and drove on your own instead of telling us what was going on. And yes, I’m very bothered that you disobeyed my orders and stayed after school instead of coming straight home like I told you to.”