by N. P. Martin
I grabbed Dalia in an uncoordinated rush, and consequently lost my balance as I went reeling back, ending up on the floor with her on top of me. Amelia stood there for a second, smiling like some black-eyed demon as the hatchet in her hand dripped Dalia’s blood. God, I thought. What had she become? What had the Dark One done to her to make her like this?
All excellent questions, but I didn’t have time to figure out any answers just yet, for Amelia was already closing in, not a trace of mercy or even recognition in her face as she raised the hatched for the killing blow on Dalia. But there was no way I was about to let that happen. "Impedio!" I shouted as the hatchet started to come down toward Dalia, who did her best to use her powers to keep Amelia away, but she was so weakened by the hatchet blow that she was unable to put much force behind her dark energy. Not that it mattered, for as soon as I said the word to the spell, a portal opened up right underneath me and I fell into it as I took Dalia with me. The last thing I saw before the portal closed up was the hatchet blade as it sliced through the empty air where Dalia’s head had been only a split second before, and Amelia’s face, which I will never forget.
The face of pure evil.
Chapter 16
As I didn’t have much time to think about where the portal would take us, I ended up landing inside some random room of the house, the back of my head hitting off the carpeted floor as Dalia’s weight came down on top of me. When I took my hands from around her, I saw they were covered in blood. She squealed in pain as I did my best to roll her off me gently, which was difficult given the adrenaline charging through my body, not to mention the pain in my thigh from my own cut, which seemed a lot more superficial than Dalia’s wound. "Dalia! Oh, Jesus…"
The slice across her stomach went deeper than I thought it did. Her innards weren’t exposed, thank god, but I could still see the fat and muscles sliced open like a joint of beef on a butcher’s block. "That bitch cut me!" she said as she looked at her hands, which were dripping with blood, and then at the damage done to her abdomen. "God it hurts!"
"Can you heal it?" I asked her.
She winced in pain as she shook her head. "I don’t know, I’ll try."
I watched as she shut her eyes and tried to focus on her powers. I knew she had healing abilities, but I wasn’t sure how strong those abilities were. When it became clear that they weren’t strong enough, I did a Healing Spell of my own and transferred some of my magic into her, which went some way toward closing up the wound, though not completely. The cut was still half an inch deep, and still leaking blood. "Maybe you should stay here," I said as I looked around the room we were in. It seemed to be a bedroom, with a large four poster bed that had black slime dripping off it. The sheets were also severely bloodstained, as if someone had been massacred as they slept.
"No!" Dalia said as she tried to get up. "I’m not letting you face Amelia and her parents alone." But as she sat up, she nearly screamed in pain as a fresh wave of blood left her wound.
"Jesus, D, you’re in no state to go anywhere."
"Goddamn it!" She lay back on the floor with her hands over her wound. "What’s she doing with fucking hatchets anyway? Is she like her parents now or something?"
I shook my head. "If she is, I can change her back."
"How? She seems pretty far gone to me."
"I don’t know, but I’ll have to try and get through to her somehow. It’s my fault she’s here in the first place."
"You didn’t force her to come here," Dalia said. "This isn’t on you."
"Yes, it is, and it’s also on me to fix it."
"And how are you going to do that on your own?"
"With your help," I said, placing my right hand on her chest. "I need to borrow your powers."
"I forgot you could do that."
"I did it on Constantine and it worked, but it’s only temporary."
She put her bloody hand over mine. "Take what you need."
Nodding, I focused on my hand until a bright light began to glow underneath it. Then seconds later, I felt Dalia’s power flow into me, taking my breath away as her dark energy entered me all at once. Dalia too arched her back as her powers were replicated and transferred into me. "Are you okay?" I asked her.
She nodded, slightly breathless. "Are you? My powers can be hard to contain."
She wasn’t wrong. As I stood up, I felt a mass of energy spinning around inside me like a tornado, as if it was trying to escape from the prison of my body. As an experiment, I willed some of the dark energy to the surface of my hand, expecting only a small amount to come forth. But instead, a huge amount of energy burst forth from my hand and began to twist and move erratically like a headless snake, lashing out at the pictures on the walls, snapping the posts on the bed and putting holes in the ceiling. "Jesus…" I hissed as I tried to contain this wholly unfamiliar power.
"Take control of it!" Dalia ordered. "Reign it in!"
I concentrated hard on drawing the dark energy back inside myself, and after a few seconds I was able to get some control over it as I willed it back into my hand. Once it was back inside me, I stood for a moment as if in shock. "It’s like trying to control a coked-up Anaconda."
Dalia laughed slightly. "You’ll get used to it."
"I’m going to go and find Amelia now. Stay here until you’re healed enough to leave."
She nodded, knowing she didn’t have a choice. "I’m sorry, Corvin. I let you down."
"What? No…" I knelt down beside her, taking her hand tightly in mine as I looked into her dark eyes. "You could never let me down, D. Ever."
Her eyes seemed wet as she nodded and smiled. "Be careful. Save Amelia."
I just nodded as I said nothing.
Then I left the room to go in search of Amelia.
I stepped out into a wide hallway that seemed to stretch on forever, every surface a picture of decay, made worse by the ever-present black mold. Gaslamps on the walls flickered on and off as I started walking down the hallway, having no idea in which part of the house I was in. It felt like upstairs, but given the amount of floors, it was impossible to tell which one I was on. I kept moving forward anyway, hoping to come across a landing that would lead to the staircase and a way back down to the entrance hallway again. Assuming of course that Amelia was still down there. She could be anywhere, and it was just as likely that she was hunting me as much as I was looking for her. The floorboards creaked underfoot as I moved carefully, both hands raised slightly and ready to use my magic. Dalia’s dark energy was still going crazy inside me, as if all it wanted was to be unleashed upon the world. Was it like this all the time? I wondered. If so, how did Dalia stick it, the constant motion of it inside her? Perhaps it behaved differently in her. There was a chance the energy was just reacting to my magic, or the fact that it had somehow been replicated and shoved inside a strange body. Whatever the case, it wasn’t something I wanted inside me for very long. But if I was going to face Amelia and the Dark One alone, I would need all the power I could get.
As I passed door after door along the hallway, I sometimes thought I could hear noises coming from the rooms, noises that I had no wish to know the source of, given how strange and unearthly many of them were. Even in the hallway itself, dark shapes seemed to shift along the walls ahead of me, crawling over the ceiling and along the floor. Some of those shapes had eyes that burned bright and stared right at me. I assumed they were dark spirits, and a few times I used the dark energy within me to lash out at them, gaining more control over the power as I did so. I was also rather unsettled to discover that the strange, otherworldly energy inside of me had a connection of some sort to all the dark things in the house. I could feel it putting out invisible probes as it felt around, testing the energy in the air, even seeming to taste it, and gaining a perverse sort of pleasure from doing so; a pleasure that I couldn’t help but feel myself as well, which unsettled me even more.
After lashing out at a dark spirit that had been stalking me for the last five minutes
, I turned around again to see that there was a wall not ten feet in front of me. A minute ago, there had been nothing, and the hallway had seemed to stretch on as it had been. "What the hell?"
Clearly, the house had a mind of its own, or else someone was directing it, changing things for their own benefit or amusement. Shaking my head, I turned around, only to find another wall about twenty feet in front of me. All the doors had disappeared too, I noticed, as I walked back down the hallway. There was nowhere for me to go.
"It’s just us now."
I spun around at the sound of the voice to see that Amelia had appeared in the hallway. She was standing near the far end, partially covered in shadow that the flickering gaslamps did little to banish, as if the darkness itself was impenetrable. "Amelia," I said, somewhat surprised to see her, even though I knew it was only a matter of time before she found me.
Amelia stepped out of the shadows, her once beautiful face now just a mask of grotesque darkness. Not only were her eyes still as black as eight-balls, but the mold-like substance that seemed to be the lifeblood of the house moved over her face and neck like some disgusting parasite. Whatever it was, it was clearly controlling her. "You didn’t think you could run from me, did you?"
"That stuff is controlling you, whatever it is," I said. "You have to fight it."
She smiled her new malevolent smile as she took a few steps forward, and I noticed she had a hatchet in each hand. "The only thing I have to fight is you. Or rather…kill you!"
With lightning speed she raised one of the hatchets and threw it at me. Her attack was so fast that I had no chance of reacting in time. But Dalia’s dark energy inside me did. As the hatchet came hurtling toward me, dark energy erupted from my chest and formed a shield in front of me, which the hatchet hit before dropping harmlessly to the floor.
"I see you have some new powers," Amelia said, seeming to relish the challenge. "Did you steal them from your little Fae friend? Is she dead?"
"She’s not dead, and I only borrowed her powers." I took a few daring steps toward her, more confident now that I knew Dalia’s powers would protect me. "This isn’t you, Amelia. The Dark One has turned you, infected you with its evil."
"Don’t you know? It runs in the family." She laughed at that, a sound that chilled my blood. I often wondered just how bad Amelia would be if she gave in completely to her darker urges. Now I knew, and she was even scarier than I imagined.
"Amelia, please. I don’t want to hurt you…"
"Hurt me?" She laughed as if the idea was ridiculous. "Nothing can hurt me here. I’m home, where I was always meant to be."
"It’s my fault you’re like this," I said. "I should’ve saved you."
Her face darkened further, if that was even possible. "Yes, you should have, but you didn’t, did you? Not that it matters, for it all worked out in the end."
"No! You have to fight the darkness, Amelia, please—"
She cut me off with a bloodcurdling scream before running at me with her remaining hatchet held high, covering the distance between us seemingly in the blink of an eye. I had just enough time to turn myself to vapor as the hatchet came down on top of my head, passing right through my vaporous body. My shift in form took her by surprise a little, allowing me time to ghost right through her, turning solid again as I took her back. Tendrils of dark energy burst from my ribcage and wrapped themselves around Amelia’s body, securing her to me, pinning her arms and forcing her to drop the hatchet.
"Let me go!" she screamed as she tried to use her magic to break free from the dark bonds, but all credit to Dalia’s powers, they managed to absorb whatever magic Amelia was expending.
"Listen to me, Amelia!"
"Fuck you!" With her magic neutralized, she resorted to old school tactics, driving the back of her head into my face, her skull almost breaking my nose, causing me to cry out involuntarily in pain as blood gushed from my nostrils. Instinctively, I wanted to release her so she couldn’t butt me again, but the dark energy holding her didn’t care about my pain, and held on tighter. "Release me!" She butted me again, this time on the eye socket as I did my best to lean my head away from her. The dark bonds were so tight that my own arms were partially trapped as well, preventing me from raising them in defense.
She kept butting me with her head until I finally commanded the dark energy to relinquish its hold, which it then did immediately, as if it was just waiting for me to forcefully take control of it. When the dark energy retracted, Amelia predictably spun around and resumed her attack by elbowing me in the face, and then using one of her long legs to plant a push kick on my chest, the force of which sent me flying back until I crash-landed onto the floor. Struggling to get my breath, I saw Amelia bend down and pick up the hatchet before coming toward me with it. "Time to join the ranks of the spirits, Corvin," she said. "You’ll be just another damned, pathetic soul forever trapped within the walls of this house. You’ll be…just…another…victim."
Sorry, Amelia, but I don’t think so.
Before she could reach me, I sent out a tentacle of dark energy that attached itself like a leech to her chest, stopping her in her tracks, and even though she chopped at it with the hatchet, it did her no good, for it was like chopping at smoke, the energy seeming to be solid and insubstantial at the same time. Then, as she raised the hatchet to throw it at me, I said the words, "Fiat fulgur!" and a current of pure electricity was conducted via the dark tentacle from my body to hers. The electrified energy was harmless to me, of course, but not to her. As soon as it hit her, she immediately dropped the hatchet, her body stiffening as she began to convulse on the spot. It’s not a pleasant thing, having to electrocute your girlfriend and watch as her body began to fry up, but it was necessary. I maintained the current for as long as I could without killing her, and when I ended the spell, Amelia was unconscious, the black tentacle still attached to her chest the only thing holding her limp body up.
After gently setting her down on the floor, I retracted the tentacle and stood up, immediately walking over to her as I prayed I hadn’t killed her. As I crouched down beside her, I could see that she was still breathing, and I released a sigh of relief. The dark, ectoplasmic substance was also still moving over her face and beneath her skin. Now what? I thought. I still had to get that darkness out of her somehow, but I had no idea how. I was half hoping the electricity would have driven it out, but no such luck.
As I stayed squatted beside her, I wracked my brain for a solution to the problem, but I didn’t get very far before Amelia’s eyelids flung open to reveal her still black orbs. The fact that she was awake so quick after being electrocuted took me by surprise, and before I knew it, her hand had shot up and gripped my throat. She then used her body as leverage to turn me, slamming me onto the floor. In seconds, she was on top of me and reaching for the hatchet nearby, which her fingers soon found. I tried to summon the dark energy within me to protect myself, but it wasn’t responding the way it had before. It felt slow and sluggish within me now, like it was beginning to fade.
Amelia now had the hatchet in her hand, so I tried to use my own magic instead, but disturbingly, found that I couldn’t. "Don’t bother trying to use your magic this time," she said, her malevolent grin returning as though she thought she had won. "I’m using a Blocking Spell on you."
"Amelia," I said helplessly. "You don’t have to do this…"
She laughed slightly like I was some kind of crazy person for even mentioning it. "Don’t be stupid." She raised the hatchet above her head with both hands, her eyes wide with murderous glee. "Of course I do."
"You said you loved me! Do you remember that?"
She paused with the hatchet still raised. "What?"
A glimmer of hope entered me as I saw I was getting through to her at last. "Before you fell into the Shadow, you said you loved me."
Her head shook in confusion now, as if she was struggling to maintain her malice. "I…I…"
"Think back," I said, with renewed conviction. "
As your fingers slipped from mine, you said you loved me." The blackness in her eyes began to slip as her face seemed to twist up in pain. "Fight the darkness, Amelia! Fight it!"
She clenched her teeth as she struggled with whatever was inside her, and fought with the part of her that still wanted to bring the hatchet down on my skull. Tendrils of darkness moved rapidly around her face as her eyes switched from full black to their normal, beautiful blue with every blink. "Corvin," she said, sounding like her old self for the first time. "I can’t fight it…it wants to kill you…"
"Don’t let it!" I said, then blurted out: "I love you too, Amelia, think about that. Fight it!"
She dropped the hatchet as a scream of agony erupted from her mouth and her hands clamped onto her head as if she was trying to stop it from exploding. "GET…OUT…OF MY…HEAD!"
Suddenly she stood up and staggered back a few steps before dropping to her knees, leaning over with her hands still gripping her skull. Then in one explosive movement she reared back and screamed, and I watched in horror as whatever foul, evil substance was within her suddenly started pouring from her mouth, splashing on the floor like tar, forming a disgusting puddle between us before somehow scurrying away and up the wall like an exposed rat.
In shock, I stared at Amelia, her face back to normal as she smiled. "Corvin," she said, then promptly collapsed back onto the floor, where she remained, completely unmoving, her eyes shut.
"Amelia!"
I scrambled over to her and lifted her head onto my lap, beginning to panic when I noticed she was barely breathing. "No, no, no…" I whispered as I put my hand on her cheek shook her head gently. "Amelia? Amelia? Shit!" Raising my head to the ceiling for a second, I let out a breath and then tried again to resuscitate her, but to no avail. Her eyes remained closed, her body stayed limp. Whatever had been inside her had obviously fed off her life-force, to the point where she was now dangerously depleted. There was no doubt in my mind that if I didn’t do something, she was going to die. So I used my healing magic on her, hoping it would kickstart her system again, which at first it didn’t seem to at all. It felt, horribly, that I was trying to bring somebody back who was already dead.
