The Well of Many Worlds

by Luke Metcalf

  On her way to school she couldn’t stop thinking about Mitchell. She wanted to tell him about the treasure before going to the police. She still hadn’t heard from Tom and was feeling deeply guilty and worried. She couldn’t find him at lunchtime either.

  She told herself he was probably just recovering from the shock of all that had happened.

  At lunch Emily was quiet, not sure what to say to any of her friends, especially to Bethany, who she assumed knew nothing of her father’s activities. Thankfully, Chanel’s surprise performance was still all anyone was talking about and, not surprisingly, Chanel was also not at school. Apparently, she had sat in the Main Office for some time, wearing nothing but Mr. North’s jacket, until her father came to pick her up. There were conflicting rumors about the cause of her bizarre behavior, and speculation ran rampant, but most people assumed she must have been drunk or on some kind of drugs.

  “Has anyone seen Tom?” Emily asked the group.

  “No,” Bethany said. “And I haven’t been able to get in touch with him.”

  “Oh yeah?” Emily felt a twinge of jealousy at the thought of Bethany and Tom talking to each other.

  “Yeah,” said Bethany. “Why? Haven’t you been in touch with him? I thought you two were a thing.” She smiled sweetly and Emily wondered if she was gloating, or was she just being paranoid?

  “No, uh, I mean, we’re friends, but, yeah, not sure where he is. Listen, I was with him last night, we went to this warehouse where a friend of my father’s works who I think was involved in his murder. He was there with some gangsters.”

  “Oh my god, I saw it on the news,” Bethany exclaimed. “There was a huge explosion and fire at a warehouse in some kind of gang warfare.”

  “You were there?” exclaimed Cindy.

  “Yeah.” Emily looked at Bethany. “Your father was there too.”

  “What?” Bethany burst out laughing.

  “I’m not joking, Beth, your father is mixed up with some really dangerous people.”

  “Shut your mouth,” Bethany snapped. “Don’t blame me if Tom likes me more than you. It’s really pathetic that you’d stoop so low to go after my family. I thought you were better than that.” She stormed off, leaving her lunch unfinished.

  “Bethany!” Emily shouted after her, but she was gone.

  “What the hell is going on, Emily?” demanded Cindy just as the bell rang.

  “I swear Mr. Denman was at that warehouse!” Emily glanced at the time. “I gotta go to class. We’ll talk later.”

  Walking into biology, Emily was surprised to see Tom at his desk as usual. She approached him slowly.

  “Hey, what’s up? I was trying to get in touch with you.”

  He looked up at her and shrugged. “Yeah, I meant to call but I was busy with some stuff.” He gave her an easy smile, but when Emily looked into his eyes she saw that his pupils were so dilated they had completely consumed his blue irises. She stepped back in shock, stumbling on a classmate’s backpack.

  “Sorry,” she said, still staring at Tom’s eyes.

  Tom reached down and unzipped his gym bag, taking out his Halloween costume, the Crimson Ghost. He placed the mask up to his face.

  “I… I,” she stammered, “Just wanted to make sure you were all right.”

  “Never better.”

  “What’s up with your eyes?”

  “Class, please take your seats.” The teacher, Mrs. Toth, bustled into the classroom.

  “Why are you putting on your Halloween costume?” Emily whispered.

  “Why don’t we get together tonight and pay Mr. Sunner a visit? I’ll knock him out and we can tie him up and torture him to death. I bet that would turn you on…”

  “Mr. Price, Ms. Bliss – please continue your conversation after class.”

  “Excuse me?” Emily asked in shock, ignoring Mrs. Toth’s instruction.

  “Okay, you two, enough socializing!” The teacher raised her voice.

  “Hey!” Tom shouted back angrily. “I’m talking to my girl!”

  “What the hell?” Emily stumbled backward, nearly tripping over more bags on the floor. Their classmates laughed, as Tom turned his attention back to Emily.

  “Tom!” Mrs. Toth slammed her books down on her desk. “How dare you! Get out of my class!” She pointed at the door.

  Tom spun around in his seat, completely transformed by rage. It appeared to everyone in the room that he had lost his mind. He stood and roared at Mrs. Toth. “How dare you even speak to me, you bloated imbecile! You, you, you stupid idiot!”

  He screamed in pain and grabbed his left hand and struggled with it, as though it were about to attack him. Every eye in the classroom was on him as he struggled to master himself. Pulling on his costume, he strode toward Mrs. Toth. A boy with thick glasses caught Tom’s eye as he passed and Tom spun around.

  “What are you looking at, nerdlinger?” he bellowed.

  Before the student could react, Tom slapped him across the face so hard he sent the boy flying out of his chair and into a wall. The force of the impact smashed in a section of the dry wall and the boy fell unconscious. Students started to scream and run for the door. Mrs. Toth tried to join the rush to get out but with one powerful leap, Tom cleared the twenty feet that separated them and grabbed her by the throat with one hand. Everyone froze and watched in horror.

  “I am the Crimson Ghost!” he screamed in her face, tightening his grip and lifting her off the ground as she kicked and struggled helplessly for breath.

  “Tom, stop!” Emily cried.

  Tom’s eyes changed into glowing green orbs and two beams of eerie green light shot from them into Mrs. Toth’s. Her face went blank, her body limp. After a moment, Tom cast her on the floor like a bag of trash. Mrs. Toth came out of her trance a few seconds later and looked blankly around the room, as though she had no idea where she was. She began writhing around on the ground, clawing at the air, babbling incoherently as green rot appeared on her neck, eating away the flesh where Tom’s fingers had been.

  Tom burst out laughing, then turned to the classroom door and walked out. “I’ll call you later, Emily,” he said, without looking back.

  Emily snapped out of her shocked trance. “Tom!” she shouted, running after him. The other kids crowded around their fallen teacher, pulling out their cell phones to dial 911.

  Mercurios appeared on Emily’s shoulder. “No, Emily, you mustn’t! Very dangerous indeed!” he whispered. “Stay where you are.”

  “He’s my friend.”

  “He’s not your friend anymore. I don’t think he’s even human now.”

  Mercurios disappeared, just as she caught up with Tom in the hallway.

  “Tom, wait!”

  He turned to look at her. “You know, Emily, you’re the only one in this whole place I’ve got any respect for. I’ll pick you up later and we’ll go after Cady. I know that skinning him alive is guaranteed to get you all hot and bothered. Oh, and by the way, if I ever see you talking to that guy again, I’ll kill you both.”

  “What?”

  “You heard me. I saw you with him, the guy from the club and the warehouse. I went to your place after and I saw you two talking in your backyard last night. You’re never seeing him again. You’re mine now.”

  Twenty

  Before Emily could reply, a student named Spencer Scott walked by them, fiddling nervously with his cell phone.

  “Hey, Emily.”

  He clumsily dropped the phone on the floor. As he bent down to pick it up, Tom stepped on it, grinding it to powder with his heel.

  “Hey!” Spencer protested. “That’s my phone!” He straightened up and faced Tom.

  “Hey, nerdlinger.” Tom smiled maliciously. “If you ever even look at my girl again, I’ll be crushing your skull, not just your phone.”

  “Dude,” Spencer muttered, holding his hands up in surrender.

  Tom grabbed him, spun him around and picked him up by the back of his boxer shorts.

&
nbsp; “AAAARRRRRGGGHH!” screamed Spencer. “Stop!”

  “Tom, what are you doing?” shouted Emily, grabbing his arm.

  “Giving this nerdlinger a wedgie,” laughed Tom.

  “Stop it!”

  “Yeah,” laughed Tom. “I guess so, for now.” He hurled the kid across the hallway, skidding him along the polished floor.

  Emily knew Tom was strong, but this was something else entirely. Spencer smashed through a classroom door, splintering the wood. She heard people inside the classroom crying out in alarm as they surrounded Spencer’s prone body and yelled for someone to call an ambulance.

  “Stop it right now!” Emily shouted.

  He turned to her. “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stop talking to all these losers. I wouldn’t want to have to take you out on a hike and throw you off a cliff or something.” He chuckled, striding toward the school exit as though nothing had happened.

  Emily stood frozen to the spot, not knowing what to say or do. Obviously, something had happened to him at the warehouse when he was attacked by that demon. What had Mercurios said? That he wasn’t even human anymore? She followed him outside. In front of the school, a student in a wheelchair was just about to go down the ramp. As Tom walked by he grabbed the back of the boy’s chair and pointed it toward the stairs.

  “Hey, Crazylegs, why don’t you take the stairs?” He laughed and shoved the wheelchair straight down the cement steps. The kid screeched and Tom burst out laughing as he watched him tumbling out of his wheelchair and crashing to the ground.

  An elderly woman witnessed the attack and ran up to the fallen boy, crouching to help.

  “Oh, my goodness!” She looked up at Tom in revulsion. “You animal!”

  “Tom, you need to stop!” Emily cried before rushing down the stairs to help the shocked, bruised kid back into his wheelchair. Once the kid was settled the old lady stormed up to Tom and pummeled at his chest with arthritic hands.

  “You terrible, terrible man! To hurt that poor boy!”

  Tom laughed in her face. “You think that’s pain? I’ll show you pain!” He grabbed her brittle arm and began slapping her face again and again, yelling at the top of his lungs in a crazed, sadistic fury. “Yeah! Yeah! Granny gets it good!”

  The old lady’s screams alerted passing kids who ran for help. Emily knew what she had to do. As she took out her wand Mercurios appeared on her shoulder. “No, no, you mustn’t reveal yourself! You’re not powerful enough yet. If you kill him, they will know you have magic and take you away and conduct experiments on you. Better to run away and call the police.”

  Emily hesitated, then put away her wand, and quickly pulled out her cell phone, dialing 911.

  “You’re right, I couldn’t kill him anyways. What’s happened to him?”

  “Demonic possession.”

  Tom stopped slapping the old lady and grabbed her wrist tightly. “You’ve got a rotten personality, old lady,” he chuckled. The old woman cried out as a sickly green glow emanated from her flesh where Tom was holding her. He threw her violently on the ground and smiled at Emily.

  “Tonight’s gonna be fun.”

  With that, he turned and walked away. Emily’s attention snapped back to the old lady as she let out an agonized wail. She was holding up the wrist that Tom had grabbed. It was still glowing green. The flesh rotting like a corpse.

  “Tom!” Emily shouted. “We have to get her to a hospital!”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” he said, turning back. “You’re going waaaaay too fast in this relationship, babe! Since when did your problems become my problems?” He laughed and walked away. “Pick you up at eight, Princess.”

  All the calls from other students’ cell phones had finally produced an ambulance, which came careening into the school parking lot, followed a moment later by a police car. The paramedics attended to the old woman while police talked to various witnesses of the assaults. Not wanting to be interviewed, having no idea how she would explain what she knew, Emily hurried home. The moment she got into her bedroom, she slammed the door.

  “Mercurios!” she whispered frantically.

  The imp appeared. “At your service, my lady.”

  “What’s going on? He’s possessed?”

  Mercurios thought for a moment. “Did you notice the glow coming from Tom’s chest after Mitchell killed the demon at the warehouse?”

  “Yes?”

  “I am almost certain it was caused by a Cambion stone, a most unpleasant weapon indeed. Those demons take small amounts of molten rock from a volcano that stands at the center of their world and, using dark magic, they turn it into a magical weapon. Oh yes, a nasty weapon indeed.”

  “What did it do to Tom?”

  “If they manage to pierce a human’s heart with it, the Cambion stone has the power to transform the person and dominate his mind. It is a demonic possession from within the stone. This possession can also give them… demonic abilities and powers. Yes, Emily, dark powers indeed.”

  “Is that what’s going to happen to me?” Her eyes were wide with horror.

  “Oh no, that’s just Tom’s Id being magnified by the evil magic of the stone until it takes control of his mind. But you are going to be fully possessed by a demon. Far more powerful.”

  “Oh great! Well how do we get it out of him?”

  “Taking out the stone now would surely kill him. Like you he needs an exorcism. We would have to find the Well and go to Magella.”

  For hours Emily wracked her brain, trying to figure out how they could locate either the Well or Mitchell or both. As she climbed into bed, she felt as though her heart was being torn out. She lay there, exhausted but unable to sleep, late into the night. Her mind and emotions were in turmoil. A light tapping on her bedroom window made her heart miss a beat. She sat bolt upright. In the quiet of the night, it sounded disturbingly loud and eerie. What if it was Cady Sunner? Or Tom? This was the kind of thing that happened in horror movies. What if it was the corpse of her father again reanimated as an undead ghoul? A shiver went down her spine. The curtains were closed, and she couldn’t see who, or what, was outside her window. She picked up her wand and held it at the ready as she crept toward the window.

  “Mercurios,” she whispered.

  “Yes,” the imp appeared on her dresser.

  “Did you hear that?”

  “Yes.”

  “Okay go invisible and get ready.”

  The imp disappeared as the knock came again, softly.

  It’s probably just a branch in the wind, Emily thought. With one swift movement she hurled the curtains aside. There was no one there. She leaned forward a little. A face appeared out of the darkness and she jumped back, letting out a shriek before slapping her hand over her mouth. Looking back at her through the window was the face she had been dreaming and obsessing about. Her heart exploded with excitement and she threw her window wide open.

  “It’s you! Am I dreaming?”

  “I thought it might be too late for the front door. May I come in?” Mitchell gave her an irresistibly charming smile.

  “Of course!”

  Emily beamed as he came all the way inside her room and shut the window behind him.

  “How did you get up to my—” She stopped short. Of course, climbing straight up the side of a house was probably nothing for him.

  “There are advantages to being undead,” he said. He looked at her for a moment then looked at her wand. Emily glanced at it and put it down on her desk. “I didn’t know who it was.”

  “So that’s a real wand?”

  “Yes.”

  “Fascinating.”

  Just the sight of him in her bedroom made Emily’s entire body feel hot. Her mouth opened slightly and her throat felt tight as she drew in a deep breath. Her stomach whirled with butterflies. She was so excited and nervous and at the same time a little afraid. She found him incredibly intimidating. But deep down inside a part of her was certain that he would never harm her; that he wa
nted to protect her and take care of her. She blushed and glanced down and noticed her clothes were strewn all about the room.

  “Ummmm, oh…” She began awkwardly grabbing piles of clothing from the floor. “Sorry about the mess. It’s not usually like this…”

  “Don’t change your habits on my account,” he gave her a cocky, sexy smirk.

  Now she was even more embarrassed and excited. She ran to her closet with her armload of dirty clothes, flung everything inside and shut the door before they could come tumbling back out. She then spun around breathlessly.

  “Please… sit down.”

  She pulled up her most comfortable chair and grabbed his hand for a split second to guide him into it. To her surprise, his hand wasn’t all that cold; not as warm as a human’s, but close. Her heart pounded with exhilaration that he was actually sitting in her bedroom.

  “Can I get you anything to eat or drink?” She paused. “Oh wait… vampires drink blood. Never mind.”

  Mitchell crossed his legs and donned a “guilty as charged” smile.

  “So…” Emily sat on the edge of her bed. “Do you raid blood banks?”

  “Don’t worry, I’ve already fed tonight,” he said matter-of-factly.

  A shiver ran through her. She realized that in her infatuation, she had failed to take into account the fact that he murdered people for meals. “So… you raided a blood bank?”

  “Occasionally I raid blood banks or hunt animals when I am starving and desperate, but that only keeps me barely alive, usually I feed on living humans. Emily, you must understand, I only hunt people who repeatedly commit horrendous crimes and are totally unrepentant; murderers, rapists, psychopaths—”

  “But how do you know they’re guilty? How can you just go around judging and condemning and then killing people?”

  “I read minds. I hunt for psychos. I find them. I feed on them. It’s that simple.”

  “Wait, what?” Emily craned her neck forward. Do you mean to tell me that you’ve been reading my mind this whole time?” She was utterly mortified. “Oh no,” she moaned. “Oh no, I can’t believe this…”

  She slapped her hand on her forehead. “The other night, in my mother’s garden… the things I was thinking… Oh, no,” she whispered, remembering the less-than-pure thoughts about Mitchell that had raced through her mind that night. He had probably seen all the fantasies she’d had about him. Could he see what she had just been thinking? She groaned as these thoughts pounded into her, dropping her head into her hands, burning with embarrassment.