by N. P. Martin
But then she suddenly moved as she took in a sharp intake of breath, her eyes finally opening again as she stared up at me, disorientated at first, as if she didn’t know where she was. "Thank god," I whispered as a huge sense of relief went through me. "I thought I’d lost you."
"Hey," she said, smiling weakly up at me. "You came back for me."
Tears gathered in my eyes. "What, you thought I was just going to abandon you?"
She shook her head. "No. I knew you would come. It was the only thing that allowed me to fight the darkness here."
"It’s out of you now, don’t worry."
"My parents," she said, seeming suddenly worried. "Where are they? They’ll be coming for us…the Dark One will."
"I know," I said, glancing around for a moment, half expecting the Dark One to appear at any second. To be honest, I’m surprised it hadn’t down so yet. I was sure it wouldn’t be happy now that Amelia was not under its control anymore. "That’s why you have to get out of here."
"With you," she said as she gingerly sat up.
I shook my head. "No. I’m staying to finish this."
"Then so am I."
I shook my head again, more emphatically this time as we both got to our feet, Amelia more unsteadily than I. "No way, you’re getting out of here with Dalia."
She frowned. "Dalia is here?"
I stared at her a moment. "You don’t remember?"
"What?" She seemed worried about what I was going to say.
"You cut her with a hatchet." Amelia’s hand went over mouth. "She’s okay, I think. I left her in one of the rooms."
She started shaking her head, her eyes wet now. "I think…I think I’ve done terrible things, Corvin…things I can’t fully remember…"
"Hey." I her firmly by the arms as I looked into her eyes. "Whatever happened in this place, it wasn’t you, all right? You were infected with evil, and that’s all there is to it. None of this is on you, you hear me?"
She stared back at me a moment and then nodded, though she was clearly still traumatized by the thought of what she had done. "I could’ve killed Dalia…and you, Corvin…I’m sorry."
I squeezed both her arms firmly. "Listen to me, okay? I need you to forget about what happened here and focus on getting out instead. You’re the most badass person I know, Amelia, and I need you to be that person right now. Can you do that for me?"
She nodded, if slightly unsurely. "I’m trying."
"I know you are," I said. "Now, I need you to go and find Dalia and get her out of here. She knows where the gateway is to exit the Shadow."
"What about you? You can’t take the Dark One on alone. It will kill you, or worse, trap you here like it did me."
"Don’t worry, I have a few tricks up my sleeve. It won’t win this time. Speaking of which…" I placed my right hand on her chest. "I need some of your power."
Her breath sucked in for a moment as my hand glowed on her chest and her power poured into me, immediately making me feel stronger than I’ve ever felt, even as a vampire. "What did you do?" she asked.
"Just an ability I picked up. I’ll explain it later, when we’re sitting in the pub getting pissed."
"You don’t have to do this, Corvin. Let’s all leave together."
I shook my head. "You know better than that. That thing has to be taken care of. Besides, it would never let us leave anyway. Someone has to distract it so you and Dalia can make your escape."
She came forward and hugged me tight, and then kissed me, her lips so deliciously soft I didn’t want her to stop, but of course she had to. "You better come back to me," she said.
"There’s not enough evil spirits in the world to keep me away from you."
She shook her head and smiled somewhat plaintively as she began to move away from me down the hallway. I watched her go for a moment, and then turned and walked in the opposite direction, ready now to confront the Dark One.
Chapter 17
Rather than aimlessly walk around looking for a staircase—probably getting trapped by the house in the process as it continued to shift its walls—I simply decided to use my new favorite spell, which was a Portal Spell. Done right, it was as good as teleporting, and I soon found myself back in the entrance hallway. I stood in the middle of the floor for a moment as fear threatened to overwhelm me, but I wouldn’t let it. I just kept telling myself that all I had to do was use the poison on the Dark One, and then that would be it. No more Dark One. Despite me telling myself this, though, there was still a niggling doubt in the back of my mind, and a small insistent voice that kept saying, What if the poison doesn’t work? What then? The Dark One will kill you…
Perhaps, but there was no going back now. "If you’re going to die," I said aloud. "Die with your fucking boots on."
I began to walk around the hallway, acting like a man who wasn’t afraid, and who didn’t give a fuck. "Where are you?" I shouted loudly. "You want me, come and get me!"
Despite my bravado, I got nothing but silence in return, and no sign whatever of the Dark One.
Then a terrifying thought hit me. What if the Dark One had gone after Amelia and Dalia? They were in no fit state to defend themselves against such a powerful entity. It would kill them, or at least Dalia, before proceeding to warp Amelia’s mind all over again.
"Shit," I said, grinding my teeth out of anxiety. I stared intensely at the floor for a minute, then decided to go and find the two girls, who I should never have left in the first place. I should have gotten them out first.
But just as I created a portal to walk into, a familiar voice piped up from the staircase. "Going somewhere?"
I looked up to see Faelyn and Shaerra standing on the stairs, once again looking like they were about to head out to some fancy ball somewhere. "Me?" I said, closing the portal, feeling as I did so that I was closing off my means of escape, or perhaps sealing my intentions, making it clear I wasn’t going to run from the two ghouls staring balefully at me. "I’m not going anywhere."
"That’s foolish of you," Shaerra said. "You wizards are all the same, always thinking you have everything in hand, when in fact…"
"You don’t," Faelyn finished as they started to move down the stairs toward me, pausing again after a just a few steps, as though they were in no hurry to get to me.
I stood my ground in the middle of the hallway as I stared defiantly up at them. "You’ll be glad to know that Amelia has gone." Or at least I hoped she had. "She’s left this place, and she won’t be coming back. In fact, when I’m done, there won’t be any place to come back to, because I’m burning this house of pain down to the ground."
"Are you now?" Faelyn said, looking at me like I was nothing more than a child who was shouting his mouth of, and thus no threat to him.
"Silly little boy," Shaerra said. "Where do they get you from?"
"I don’t know how you managed to remove the darkness from Amelia," Faelyn said. "But it doesn’t matter. We’ll get her back soon enough, along with your other little friend, the Fae. As for you…" He looked at his wife. "What do you think, darling? Endless torment in the Pit of Souls?"
Shaerra smiled as if the idea appealed to her very much. "Yes, dear," she said. "I can think of nowhere else for a wretched wizard like this one."
"The Pit of Souls?" I said as I felt around in my jacket pocket for the vial of poison, trying to conceal my panic when I realized the small bottle wasn’t were it was supposed to be.
"A place we made under the house," Faelyn said. "A place to dispose of souls such as yours once we’re done with them. If you listen carefully, you can hear their screams. They never stop screaming." He looked at his wife and smiled. "Music to our ears darling, eh?"
"Oh yes, music indeed, dear."
"I can’t hear a damn thing except two twisted psychos who won’t be around for much longer," I said as I continued to search my jacket for the bottle of poison as surreptitiously as I could, trying to keep the consternation from my face as I still couldn’t find the damn t
hing.
Shaerra shook her head at me in disgust. "The insolence of him, Faelyn, thinking he can destroy us."
"Perhaps we need to destroy him instead, dear," Faelyn said. "Soul and all."
"It’s the only fit punishment for a scruffy wizard who thinks he has more right to our daughter than we do, Faelyn."
"Agreed, dear, agreed."
"At least let me get a smoke before you destroy my soul," I said, taking out a pack of cigarettes and popping one into my mouth.
"Is he serious, Faelyn?" Shaerra asked.
"I believe he is, dear," Faelyn replied.
"Just let me find my lighter," I said, searching through my jacket, looking not for the lighter, but for the damn bottle which seemed to have…aha! Finally, you bastard. I didn’t realize there was a hole in my inside pocket, and the bottle had fallen down into the lining of my coat. I took the bottle out and held it concealed in my hand, taking a lighter out of my pocket with the other hand. Fuck it. Might as well get a smoke before things kick off.
"You wizards are all common as muck," Shaerra said. "I have no idea why my daughter would want to associate with someone so…help me out here, Faelyn."
"Witless, dear?" he offered. "Uncouth?"
"I prefer rough around the edges myself," I said, blowing a stream of smoke in their direction.
"Whatever," Shaerra said, dismissively swiping her hair to one side. "The point is, Amelia shouldn’t be with a lowly hedge-witch. She’s an elf. Humans are beneath her."
"So who should she be with?" I asked, getting a little angry now as I stabbed my cigarette at them. "You two? Two bloodthirsty psychopaths who want to turn her into the same? Not only that, but trapping her here in this hell house forever?" I shook my head in disgust. "I don’t fucking think so."
Shaerra pursed her lips together as she glared at me, and I noticed the darkness writhe under the skin of her face, as if one half of the Dark One was eager to come out and play, which is exactly what I wanted, of course. Well, maybe not exactly what I wanted. I really wanted to be in a warm bed with Amelia, but unfortunately, that would have to wait. "We’re getting bored with you now, wizard," Shaerra said. "Your minuscule entertainment value has run its course."
"Indeed it has," Faelyn said, the darkness moving around under his skin now as well.
"Let’s destroy this imp, Faelyn," Shaerra said.
"Yes, dear, lets."
As I took a final drag of my cigarette and tossed the butt away, the Tasars suddenly turned completely black, the darkness seeming to almost consume them as they became nothing but obsidian shapes which then merged into one.
Into the Dark One.
Chapter 18
Unlike before, the Dark One was not simply a shapeless black form of energy. This time it had a definite shape, a humanoid shape that stood over six feet tall, with thick arms and legs, its whole body seeming to pulse and flex in anticipation of devouring me. Eyes like burning embers were set into its coal black face, and its mouth was just a gaping dark hole. There was no doubt the bastard was intimidating, but I tried not let my fear get the better of me as I held my ground in the center of the hallway, at the same time using my thumb to uncork the bottle of poison in my hand.
The Dark One seemed to growl at me as it came down the stairs, its burning eyes glaring fiercely in my direction. "You will know pain like none you’ve ever experienced," it said, surprising me by talking this time, its voice deep and gravelly.
"We’ll see about that," I said, and suddenly launched a magic blast at it, hitting it square in the chest, amber sparks flying everywhere as the Dark One staggered back slightly, but otherwise seemed unaffected by the blast.
"You’ll have to do better than that," it growled, just before it rushed toward me, arms out like it intended to grab me. For such a hulking creature, it moved fast. But thanks to Amelia’s elven power flowing through me, I was able to move faster, and I easily sidestepped the Dark One’s attack, causing it to pause almost in surprise that I could move so swiftly. The creature paused for barely a second, but it was all the time I needed to throw the contents of the bottle at it, before taking a few steps back as I waited on the shimmering magical dust to take effect.
The Dark One went to move toward me again, but then stopped suddenly as if something was wrong. The sparkling poison was still coming down around it, floating in the air like motes of dust as it began to sink into the body of the Dark One, which suddenly began to gag and clutch at its throat. "What…have you…done?" the creature rasped as it began to lose its humanoid form, the dark material it was made from beginning to bulge and stretch in all directions as if it was having severe trouble in maintaining any kind of form.
A smile crossed my face as I watched the spirit writhe in agony. "Poison motherfucker," I said. "Breath it in deep now, won’t you?"
A horrible screeching noise soon filled the hallway as the Dark One continued to writhe in the air, looking like a lump of dark putty that was being pulled in every direction at once, until finally it slapped down onto the floor, reduced to nothing more than a dark, bubbling puddle of black goo. The only thing missing was the Dark One screaming, "I’m melting, I’m melting!" but that would’ve been too much to ask.
I didn’t move from where I was for a few minutes, wanting to make sure the thing was really dead. It certainly seemed to be, and when I touched the puddle of goo with my boot, it didn’t react at all. "Sayonara, shitheads," I said as I allowed myself to relax somewhat, even lighting up a cigarette as I headed toward the front door, thinking I could maybe catch up with Dalia and Amelia, who couldn’t have gotten far at this point.
But as I was about to put my hand on the door handle, I heard a noise from behind me. I froze as adrenaline stabbed at my stomach, knowing all too well what the noise meant, even though I couldn’t see anything yet.
At least not until I turned around slowly and saw the Dark One emerge from the puddle of goo on the floor, rising out of the watery blackness like some godforsaken demon that had just been summoned from the bowels of Hell.
"No…" I said shaking my head as the cigarette slipped from my fingers onto the floor.
The Dark One had fully emerged, seeming to stand taller than even before. Its eyes burned with a new intensity as it stood glaring at me, mightily pissed off that I had tried to poison it to death with magical dust. It didn’t even say anything this time. Instead, it roared like the monster it was and charged at me with frightening speed and ferocity. In a panic, I tried to sidestep the creature’s attack like I did before, but the power I had got from Amelia had already faded to almost nothing, which meant I wasn’t able to draw on her lightning speed. Dropped down a few gears, I wasn’t able to move quick enough this time, and the Dark One was able to throw its thick arm across my chest and pull me into itself, bear-hugging me so tight that within seconds I could hardly breathe at all. Soon, I was down to my last breath as the Dark One kept squeezing, and then began to move its mouth toward me, which had increased in size to massive proportions, becoming a maw big enough to fit my head into.
But before that gaping maw could consume me, I managed to utter the words, "Vapor sum!"
In a split second, my body transformed into vapor and I fell right through the Dark One, quickly floating away from it as I moved at speed up the stairs before turning myself solid again. When I turned around, so did the Dark One as it angrily shook its arms and roared, knowing it had me near death just a second ago.
Speaking of near death, I could see no way to defeat the Dark One using conventional magic, which left me no choice but to try the spell I had hurriedly learned back at Davey’s. It was a spell I had really hoped I wouldn’t have to use, sort of like the nuclear option—or perhaps even the suicide option— only I had no idea if it would even work, nor indeed what the consequences of the spell would be. The only thing I knew was that the spell was not only designed to trap a spirit, but to trap it within one’s self.
Within me, that is.
Not so
mething I was happy about, but what choice did I have?
So as the Dark One started stomping toward the stairs, I reached inside my jacket and took out the Druidic Dagger. The spell required a particular glyph to be carved into my body, so I ripped open my shirt and began to cut into the flesh of my chest, carving the glyph with the point of knife.
"More foolish magic," the Dark One growled as it started up the stairs, coming toward me like an obsidian Hulk. "It will do you know good, wizard."
I said nothing as I focused my attention on finishing carving the glyph, thankful there was so much adrenaline running though me, otherwise I would’ve surely screamed like a bitch as I painfully disfigured myself. As I was drawing from memory, I couldn’t be completely sure if I’d got the symbol right or not. In any case, I just had to trust that I did as I finished carving it, leaving rivulets of blood to run down my chest and stomach. Dropping the knife on the stairs, I then thrust out my right hand to focus my magic as I began to recite the words to the spell in Latin. "Spiritus tenebris, ut vos take vestri in me contra voluntatem…"
The Dark One laughed as it reached the middle of the stairs, now only a few feet away from me. To give myself more time, I backed up onto the edge of the landing. "You will choke on those words as you die," the Dark One said.
I ignored the taunt, keeping every ounce of my focus on completing the spell, aware of the sense of fear in the background; a fear born out of not knowing what was going to happen. "Tenebris spiritus, ego te mihi in tenebris…"
