The Window

by Glenn Rolfe

  The woman licked a trail of dark liquid from her fingertips, and said, “Come with me and I’ll show you to them.”

  She reached forward and grabbed Hank’s arm. He flung her hand away.

  “Get the fuck off me,” he said.

  The naked woman’s grin tightened. She latched onto Hank’s shirt and pulled him to her. He began to raise the bat, but she knocked it from his hand sending it clattering against the wall.

  Carrie fell back scanning James’s room for another weapon as Hank was yanked from the room and slammed into the hallway wall.

  The naked thing crouched over him. “Wait for me?” She leaned forward and kissed his mouth.

  Hank moaned, and then fell into a far-off gaze.

  Carrie found the bat on the floor. Before she could chicken out, she ran and wrapped her hands around the handle. Sharp nails burned into the flesh of her shoulder and turned her around. She spun with the wooden bat, swinging with all the strength she could muster at the creature attacking her. The thing drew its hand back and screamed as the bat slammed into its head. Acting on pure adrenaline and fear, Carrie reared back and with a second, more focused swing, struck the arm protecting the she-demon’s head. The creature’s forearm snapped with an audible crack and hung in a sharp, ugly angle.

  “Hank! Get up!” Carried yelled.

  The big lug looked catatonic.

  Carrie prepared to swing again when the thing released a high-pitched, blood curdling shriek. Its eyes blazed like twin hell holes.

  “Oh my God.” Mesmerized, bat still raised over her shoulder, she saw the thing for what it was: a demon in human flesh. The burning eyes, dark orange pits of flame, stopped her cold. As the thing with the broken arm rushed her, still screeching, teeth bared, all the madness of hell in its eyes, Carrie screamed.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  He heard Carrie cry out and balled his hands into fists. The monster in his father’s flesh laughed. James snatched the porcelain toothbrush holder from the sink and shattered the image of Kyrus’ black-eyed soul.

  Domineus’s laughter came to an abrupt halt.

  James turned, bent and launched with his hands shoving Domineus before the demon could figure out what happened. The demon came off its feet and crumpled backwards into the bathtub, the shower curtain and curtain rod fell upon him.

  Darting from the room, James hurried toward the screams and shrieks coming from his bedroom. Someone was climbing to their feet in the hallway just outside his door. Not taking any chances, James lowered his shoulder and rammed the figure out of the way.

  “Uhh…”

  “Carrie!” he cried.

  Sanikus, now in full demon form, leered at him behind eyes of flame.

  “Get away from her!” James charged in and collided with the she-demon.

  Sanikus leaned back away from Carrie, welcomed him with open arms, and wrapped its legs around him as they collided.

  “Hello again, James,” she said, reaching into the front of his jeans. “Come back for more?”

  “Carrie,” he said. “Get out of here.”

  “You going to tell her about us? About how you fucked me? Or how I sucked your—”

  James reared back from her and came down with his fist across her mouth.

  “Shut up, you lying, murderous bitch!” he yelled.

  “Oh, hit me, baby. Hit me!” Sanikus growled and grinded against him.

  She was far too strong for him to fend off, let alone stop.

  “You can’t bring Kyrus back,” he shouted.

  “You know nothing of my boy.”

  “I know Domineus is planning on destroying him for good.”

  “Ha! You’re not fooling anyone,” it said. “And you’re not getting out of this.”

  She rolled him over, and his back hit the floor knocking the wind out of him.

  “Look in my eyes,” she demanded, straddling him.

  He tried to turn away, but she gripped his face, and he felt her nails tear into his flesh, forcing him to gaze upon her horrible face. Globs of ruined flesh swung and fell from her cheeks. One splatted against his chin. The smell of rot turned his stomach.

  James pushed the grotesqueness aside and continued his attempt to get through to the demon.

  “He wants to stay this way. He wants to kill Kyrus for good for the pain losing him has caused you.”

  “You…. you…” The flames in her eyes fluttered and dimmed.

  “Kyrus deserves peace,” James said. “You need to help him.”

  A loud, wet smack sent more deteriorating blackened lumps of skin and blood splashing down upon his face. James tasted the thick, coppery fluid on his lips. He blinked the hot wetness from his eye. Sanikus fell to the side and lay motionless. A black shadow lifted from Alison’s bruised and ruined body. The spirit hovered briefly before exploding outward, disappearing before his eyes.

  Hank Jacobs stood panting, holding James’s baseball bat like a Samurai sword.

  “Hank?” James said.

  “Yeah, your girlfriend brought me in here. What. the. fuck?”

  James freed himself from Alison’s body and crawled toward Carrie who sat with her back against the wall, hugging her knees.

  “We have to hurry,” he said.

  “Well, well, well.”

  Hank turned and joined Carrie and James against the wall. Domineus filled the doorway. The demon turned its gaze upon Carrie. “And who is this lovely young creature?”

  “Don’t even think about it,” James said, jumping to his feet, placing himself between Carrie and the demon.

  “Come now, James, haven’t we learned anything? You may have knocked my Sanikus out of her vessel, but surely you know that you can’t stop me.”

  “Maybe he can’t, but I bet this will shut you up,” Hank said, stepping forward and swinging the bat toward the demon’s face.

  Domineus caught the fat end of the bat in his hand, ripped it from Hank’s grasp, and swung it back in one blurred and fluid motion. Hank’s forward momentum brought him face first into the strike and dropped him at the monster’s feet.

  Domineus dropped the bat and brushed his hands together. “Now, where were we?”

  “Let her go,” James said. “You only need me.”

  “Ah, but need and want are not mutually exclusive, are they?” The demon’s eyes came alive as he stepped over Hank’s motionless body and snatched James by the throat, lifting him from the ground with one hand.

  James legs flailed; he gripped the demon’s wrists to breathe.

  Domineus slammed him against the wall, pinning him in place, and said, “And we’re back where we started.”

  Carrie tried to slide away to the side. The demon reached down with his other hand, snatching up a handful of her hair, and slammed her head against the wall.

  “No,” James growled as she slumped to the floor.

  “I’ll come back to play with her. First, you and I have some unfinished business.”

  James tightened his grip on the thing’s wrist as his feet dragged across the floor, bumping over Carrie’s legs.

  She’s just knocked out. And as soon as I get my chance, I’ll vanquish this son of a bitch.

  They passed Hank Jacobs.

  Where the hell had he come from?

  Hank lay on his stomach, blood oozing from a large gash on his forehead. James didn’t think Hank would be so lucky.

  Domineus dragged him down the hall and through the living room. Kevin lay in a broken heap on the floor where the demon left him. Tears rolled down James’s cheeks. He had brought his friends into this. He had gotten them all killed. He couldn’t let it happen to Carrie, too.

  Domineus brought him through the kitchen shoving the couch and coffee table, hurling them with ease back into the stripped living room, as they reached the big window at the end of the trailer where it all began.

  Staring at the creature, more and more of his father’s flesh had come away around his cheeks, his arms, and his skeletal ha
nds.

  “You see this, young James?” Domineus flipped on the kitchen light. The blackness on the other side of the window disappeared and was replaced by their reflections.

  “This is where I met your father. This is where I showed him the promise.”

  “You lied,” James said.

  “Ah, but did I?”

  “Your promises aren’t worth a pile of dog crap. You showed him a lie. You tricked him. You knew he was having a hard time and you took advantage of him.”

  “So smart, aren’t we.”

  “You’re a liar. A cheat. A fraud. My dad is twice the man you ever were.”

  The demon’s spine-like, bony fingers sunk into the sides of his neck. He felt them puncture his skin slightly, felt the warm trickle of blood drop like tears down his flesh.

  “You’d be wise to watch your tone with me, boy. Your pathetic little life is quite literally in my hands.”

  “When did you give up?” James asked.

  “What?”

  “When did you stop caring, stop believing? When did you give up on your soul?”

  “You know nothing, boy. You know nothing about the pain and the treachery I’ve endured. You have a bad hour? A bad day? I’ve had centuries of misery!”

  James turned his gaze to the skeletal hands and saw the flesh crawling its way up toward the demon’s elbow.

  “Have you tried asking for forgiveness?”

  He saw the orange flames blossom into blinding lights in the reflection.

  Domineus clutched him harder. James cried out.

  “Forgiveness?” the demon said. “From the ultimate lie? I think not.”

  “What…” James’s knees were like rubber. “What about…Kyrus? What about Sanikus? What about all those things you used to love? Sometimes God gives us a pile of crap to test us.”

  He was pulled back. His father’s flesh was nearly gone from the blackened gore-covered skull now hovering over him as it held him in a mock rendition of a lover’s embrace, something he’d seen on the trashy romance book covers his mother sometimes read.

  “They are dead! Your God is the murdering monster.”

  “He is all powerful, and all forgiving. All…you need…to do is ask.”

  James felt a strange warmth in his heart guiding his words. He felt a presence.

  “I…” the demon said. He could feel it shaking. Something was happening.

  “Ask Him,” James said. “Ask Him for forgiveness. He loves—”

  “NNNNOOOOO!” Domineus raged.

  The demon clutched him and hurled him forward. It happened so fast, James wasn’t able to get his arms up to protect his face as his forehead smashed into the kitchen window, knocking a pane of glass free. Blood seeped down into his eyes as he hit the floor.

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Carrie stepped into the room just in time to see James smash into the window and crumple to the floor.

  “James!”

  The thing standing before her spun at her cry.

  She didn’t hesitate to swing the bat in her hands with every ounce of her being, with every particle of her soul. The bat smashed into the shaking monstrosity’s skull sending it into the wall. A surge of warmth, strength, rage, conviction, and a sense of duty rose in her in one swallowing wave. She swung again.

  The demonic thing flopped backwards, hit the kitchen floor, and began convulsing.

  It raised a hand toward her as it attempted to speak, only able to make a mix of horrible shrieks and wet gurgling noises from its hanging jaw.

  It was dying.

  She looked at James and saw the blood running over his nose and off his chin.

  “This is for James,” she said.

  She gripped the bat and brought it down upon the demon’s skull.

  A light brighter than any she’d ever bared witness to in her short life burst from its insides. The force of it sent her off her feet. The screech from the demon grew to a crescendo. She pulled herself into a fetal position, cupped her hands over her ears, and shut her eyes tight.

  Its voice was many.

  All the sorrow, rage, and hatred within burst outward.

  “Noo! Nooo! I…won’t…I …cannot…”

  She opened her eyes, straining to bear witness. The demon’s flesh—or what remained of Mr. Curry’s flesh—began to crack and split open. Red-orange light burst through the seams. Slowly, impossibly, the thing climbed to its feet.

  Its scream of agony and rage suddenly fell silent.

  Carrie couldn’t swallow. She watched in terror as the skin fell from the creature plopping to the linoleum floor in burning piles that flickered and smoldered out, turning to blackened lumps.

  She forced herself to her feet as the floor shook beneath her. Knick-knacks and picture frames hit the floor, some shattered, some just thudded to the ground. She could feel every hair on her body lift in response to the energy now present.

  The thing continued its impossible march toward her, reaching out with its skeletal arms.

  A flash of brilliant orange light lit the room. She shielded her eyes and gasped in amazement as the demon spirit freed itself from James’s dad’s ruined body and returned to the window. Its fiery eyes were reduced to barely simmering coals.

  Richie Curry’s lifeless body collapsed to the floor.

  Silence filled the empty spaces.

  The trailer was perfectly still.

  “James,” she said.

  She hurried forward, carefully stepping around the blackened lumps on the floor, keeping an eye on the fading reflection in the window, and rushed to James’s crumpled body. She knelt before him and clutched his face in her hands. Blood gushed from the wound in his forehead.

  “James, please, please, please, stay with me,” she said, slapping his cheeks.

  “Uhhhh…” he moaned.

  “James.”

  She glanced up at the movement in the window.

  “Carrie?” a voice behind her croaked.

  She turned around and saw Kevin crawling on his hands and knees, his head bobbing, one eye a horrible, blackish purple mess.

  “Kevin?”

  “You…have… to break…window…” he said.

  “Child,” the demon spoke to her from the fractured window.

  She looked up and felt the world around her fade away. Her head suddenly heavy, her thoughts foggy like when she had to take nighttime cold medicine. She saw herself and James as they were at Denise’s pool party. She was wearing her red bathing suit, James with no shirt, smiling his gorgeous smile. It was like she’d fallen into a dream. Her thoughts swam as she watched herself pull James close and engage him with a kiss.

  …..

  It felt like there was something rammed into his forehead. Dizzy and sick to his stomach James opened his eyes. Carrie was holding his face in her hands, but her eyes were glazed over and staring up at the window.

  “No, Carrie, don’t,” he said.

  He took Carrie by the wrists and struggled to sit up. There was blood, his blood, all over her hands and all over the front of his shirt.

  “Jamey Boy…”

  Kevin.

  Across the room, his best friend was trying to get to his feet. He lost his shaky grip on the countertop and fell with a loud thump to the floor and let out a whimper. He was in horrible shape, but he was alive.

  Thank you, God.

  “Kevin don’t move,” he said.

  “James… break the window… do it now…don’t let it…get my sister.” Kevin’s head dropped back to the floor.

  Carrie looked like a statue. She was here, but she wasn’t. Domineus had her. James had to move, and he had to move fast.

  He let Carrie’s hands drop to her sides and slid over to the row of tarnished drawer handles lined up at his back. A wave of nausea roiled up from within as he started to get to his feet. Holding onto the counter, he threw up. He wiped his mouth, smearing the blood from his hand across his lips as he continued down the length of the counter, hol
ding on for support, his head pounding, the candlelight from the living room illuminating the way. He stepped to one of the chairs from the kitchen table. He dropped down to his knees placing a hand on Kevin’s back. He was still breathing.

  I have to stop this.

  Reaching over, he grabbed the chair and used it to get back to his feet. He swayed again, but this time his stomach behaved itself. Carrie sat before the window, her head tilted up.

  James raised his chin and saw the twin fiery globes now burning in Carrie’s reflection.

  “You son of bitch,” he seethed.

  Are you willing, young James? Domineus voice appeared in his head.

  “Let her go. Let them all go.”

  Or what?

  He glanced at the chair before him.

  You do it, James, and your friends, your father…they all go with me.

  “You lie. You’ve already killed my father. I won’t let you take Carrie, too.”

  Have I killed him?

  James heart skipped. His father’s image appeared next to the demon.

  “James,” his father said. “Listen to him. He’s our only hope.”

  James’s head swam in confusion. His grip in the chair weakened. Exhaustion and doubt crept through him. What if he could get them all back? What would it take?

  Your body for their souls, the demon answered.

  He stepped forward.

  You, one way or another, brought them all into this, brought them to me.

  It was right. James had been the reason. The reason his dad was so depressed. The reason Kevin, Carrie, and Eric followed him here. It was all his fault. The reason Alison…

  Then he saw his father’s dead body on the linoleum floor.

  “No,” James said.

  Yes. Your father felt like such a failure in your eyes that he sought me out. He couldn’t keep his marriage, his business, his son. He couldn’t even satisfy his new lover. He was a sorry excuse for a man.

  “My father needed me.” James gripped the back of the chair. “And you took him away with your lies and your tricks.”

  The reflection of his father in the window faded away.

  Domineus eyes blazed.

  James started toward the window and stopped.