by C R Langille
Doyle joked, but he knew what Mike meant.
“You’ve always had His attention, Special Agent, but no, not Fiji. You know where.”
“What about wingnut over there?” Doyle asked and nodded to the ruckus nearby.
“It will break free and do what it is it does.”
“Will it kill the child?”
Mike shrugged his shoulders. The dust at the man’s feet swirled away with the movement.
“The child’s fate isn’t ours to decide.”
“What if I refuse?” Doyle asked.
“You will probably die in glorious combat with this creature. It will be a violent death. But it will be honorable. However, I can’t guarantee where you will go when you transition. This is your opportunity.”
Doyle considered it for a moment. He even put a hand up under his chin to act the part.
“No guarantee huh? That’s my thanks I suppose?”
“Special Agent Johnson, you’ve experimented with forbidden magic. This,” Mike nodded toward the hole in the roof. “This isn’t the first time, although I must admit this was probably the most egregious example. Really, the tendrils of Yog? I thought you knew better.”
Doyle shrugged his shoulders.
“You know me, Mike. Go big or go home.”
“Will you allow me to escort you out of this realm and into the next?” Mike asked.
Doyle didn’t even hesitate. “I’m afraid not. I can’t leave the poor boy alone. These things will do more than tear his soul from his body. You know it, and I know it. Gotta roll the dice and take my chances.”
“I see,” Mike said. The man turned and walked toward the edge of the roof. “Just like your father. I hope we meet again.”
Mike stepped off the edge of the roof and disappeared. There was a whoosh of air and nothing more.
“Me too.”
The euniphrite broke free and wasted no time. It charged forward, and Doyle broke into a run of his own. The door to the hotel wasn’t too far away. He thanked God the thing’s wings were broken, or it would have already overtaken him.
The door was within reach. Doyle grabbed for the handle. The chill from before grabbed at his arm, and this time he embraced it, threw his own power into it, and opened the door. The dark stairwell of the hotel wasn’t there in front him.
Dead air leaked out from the open doorway and crawled across his face. A ground of grey mush lay just beyond the threshold. The euniphrite barreled toward him, so Doyle spun and faced the creature with a smile on his face.
It jumped at him with its one good arm outstretched. Doyle rolled under and let it sail overhead. It went through the doorway and straight into the In-between. The sizzle of flesh and the roar of pain told Doyle the grey waste liked euniphrite as much as it did other beings.
The creature tried to get away, but as it stood, something bigger than a bus reached out with a clawed seven-fingered hand and pulled the euniphrite into the darkness. Doyle rushed to shut the portal between the two worlds. He whispered an old incantation, and the view of the In-between started to blur and shake. The portal crumbled inward and collapsed. Yet, before it shut completely, several hands shot out and grabbed onto Doyle’s duct tape coat. He tried to shrug it off, but it was too late. Special Agent Doyle L. Johnson, ID Hopper-Papa-Lima 3-15-3, disappeared into the In-between. The portal crashed closed, and the darkness swallowed him.
Chapter Thirty-One
Evard planted his feet and cracked his back. He didn’t look forward to what he was about to do, but there wasn’t much choice. They couldn’t outrun the things. There were too many. The old man sent feelers out and probed for any semblance of life.
Toby and Sebastian blazed hot nearby, their life force strong and accented with the gift. Linda’s life energy was strong as well, but it was a different kind of strength, the kind mothers owned.
He pushed his senses outward toward the oncoming rush of twisted people. As he expected, they weren’t alive anymore. Their life energy was almost nonexistent. But, as they say, almost didn’t mean all the way. A small flicker of life left burned in each one, enough for him to use.
Evard lashed out and pulled the spark out of the closest creature. It burst into a cloud of ash mid-sprint. He grabbed the next one. It too followed suit. Evard continued to grab more and more, and they exploded one by one as he leeched their power.
It was a great plan, but he couldn’t pull their life quick enough. Each time he stole one’s energy, another took its place and moved closer. The horde would overrun them soon. So, he switched tactics.
Evard channeled the stolen power into a wall of golden light. He erected a barrier between the creatures and his family. As each one of the creatures touched the fiery wall, they burst into flame.
The wall took a constant flow of energy. Something he didn’t consider before. Sweat poured from his body, and his knees wobbled under the pressure. Evard didn’t know how long he could hold it together, and the onslaught of people didn’t look like it would slow down anytime soon.
***
Toby drew all the energy he could into himself. Evard stood nearby and gathered a power of his own. His father’s power was different, and it was a strange sensation. There was an aged quality to it, unlike Toby’s, which was raw, commanding, but unharnessed. He gathered more and more to him.
He tried to grab the same pinpoints of life from the creatures his father did, but he wasn’t fast enough. By the time he got his ethereal feelers around one, Evard had already snatched it up. Then, when the wall went up, the creatures burned up before he could grab any.
Search elsewhere, Love. Don’t get tunnel vision. The old man isn’t going to be able to hold the wall up for much longer.
Sebastian pulled at his leg. The boy’s eyes were wide and full of need.
“Come on, Daddy, we need to go.”
Linda grabbed him by the arm and pulled as well.
“We need to get out of here,” she said.
They were right. There were too many of the things. Even now the wall of fire diminished. A couple of the creatures slipped past by crawling up on the ceiling. Toby gathered the rest of his stored energy and blasted them to pieces. But it was too late. Monkey see, monkey do, and the rest crawled up and over the fire.
The wall flared high and burned those twisted beings on the ceiling into ash. Strands of golden light lashed out and caught the ones who slipped past and stopped them in their tracks.
Evard let out a grunt of pain. Blood ran out of both nostrils, and tears ran freely from the old man eyes.
“Father, you’ve got to stop,” Toby said.
“Just go, I can buy you a minute.”
“Bloody hell, we all leave together.”
Not possible. Go, or you and your family are dead.
“Damn it, son, go! You have got—”
Toby didn’t move. He couldn’t. His father’s body started to deteriorate before his eyes. The wrinkles carved into his aged face deepened. The blood flowed harder from his nostrils and then from his ears. Evard’s frame shook with violent tremors and almost put him to the ground.
“Dad, no.”
“It’s already too late, son. Take your boy and your wife. Go.”
Sebastian pulled at Toby’s pant leg. The look in the boy’s eyes sealed it. Toby nodded and gave Evard a hug. The power coursing through his father’s body was tremendous, unlike anything Toby thought possible.
“Dad, come on you gob shite,” Toby said.
“Go!”
Toby gathered Sebastian up in his arms. Tears streamed down the boy’s face and cut clear paths through the dirt crusted on his cheeks. Toby hugged him tight. Linda rushed forward and embraced Evard in a hug.
“Thank you,” she said.
Toby transferred the boy over to Linda. She ran down the hall toward the exit.
Toby hesitated and cast a glance back to Evard. Evard smiled and then turned his attention back to the hallway. More of the creatures were past the flames and rushed toward them.
“Go, Tobias. Quick!”
Toby ran after his family. As he turned the corner, the hallway behind him lit up and washed the hotel in white light. There was an intake of air, and for a moment, Toby couldn’t breathe. The release of air came with a violent push and flung him to the ground. Golden fire washed over his body. The heat was uncomfortable, but it didn’t burn him. Toby knew it was the last of his father, and when the explosion dissipated, his father was no more.
Toby’s ears rang, and everything was white. Something grabbed his arm. He instinctively pulled away and scrambled back on all fours. Water rained down from above and further disoriented him.
“Toby.” It was Linda’s voice. “Toby, are you okay?”
His vision came back, but it took some time. The outlines of Linda and Sebastian formed in the wall of white. The ringing started to subside, replaced by the crackle of fire and the spray of sprinklers from the emergency system.
“I’m okay. What happened?” he said.
“Daddy?”
“Sebastian, get back here!”
The boy stood at the intersection of the hallway and looked to where Evard used to be. Toby got up. Almost all the white disappeared from his vision, but what he could see swirled in circles when he stood up. He braced himself on the wall and stumbled over to Sebastian.
The hall was a mess. Evard was gone, but where he had stood was a blackened scorch mark. The creatures closest to the old man were nothing but shadows on the floor and wall. The explosion burned the others further away beyond recognition. There was a buzz of power in the air, latent energy still active from Evard’s explosion.
That’s the risk of overextending yourself, Love.
“Father?” Toby said.
His vision blurred, and tears streamed down his cheeks. A few of the charred creatures dragged themselves along the floor closer to Toby and his family.
They had to pay. There were no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Vengeance for what they drove his father to do was the only answer. Toby gathered the buzz of energy that floated around him and willed it to coalesce in his hands. The power flew toward him and rolled into a ball. It burned his skin and drove an ice pick through his head before it dissipated into thin air. He growled took a step forward.
This isn’t a good idea!
“Shut your bloody mouth, Love” he said.
“Daddy? Don’t!”
“Toby? We need to go,” Linda said.
“Go then!”
He needed to avenge his father. The only thing important was the destruction of every last one of those pieces of shit in the hallway, nothing else.
Toby took a deep breath and tried again. He centered himself and focused the rage that burned through his psyche. Jezebel pleaded with him to stop and even tried to use pain to coerce him, but Toby used the pain to feed the fire. The power grew in his hands, and an orb started to swirl and form with a pale red glow. Distantly, he was aware Sebastian and Linda tried to stop him, but he ignored their pleas. Whenever Sebastian came close, the boy’s energy washed over Toby and helped him focus, but it was a constant fight not to soak up the boy’s life force and add it to the fire. Thankfully, Linda grabbed Sebastian and pulled him away.
The heat was almost unbearable. The stink of burnt flesh slapped him in the face. With the smell came the agony. The skin on his hands blackened and blistered with the burn, and he couldn’t take it anymore. Toby growled and lobbed the ball of energy toward the remaining creatures.
It floated away from him in a slow arc. As it sailed across the hall, the energy pulled at him as if still connected by a tether. His feet lifted from the floor, and the nauseating sense of weightlessness overcame him.
The ball descended down upon the creatures until the last second when it slammed into the hallway floor. The blast sucked Toby forward and then flung him back into the wall. His wife and child huddled around the corner of the wall, which shielded them from the brunt of the explosion.
It hurt to breathe, it hurt to move, and it even hurt to think. It was as if Toby’s body reset itself and he was still booting up. He tried to roll over, but his body didn’t respond.
“Daddy, are you okay?”
Small hands grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. Each tremor sent razor blades through his nerves. He tried to say stop, but even the thought brought its own punishments. Migraines could learn a thing or two from what he felt.
“Toby, say something,” his wife said.
The proximity of his family helped soothe him, but the pain was too much. Sebastian’s aura washed over him and eased a smidgen of the suffering. After a moment, his voice came back.
“Didn’t think that would happen,” he said.
Warned you, you gob shite. You nearly killed us all.
“What’s a gob shite, Daddy?”
“What happened?” his wife asked.
“Not sure, Love,” Toby said.
“Daddy didn’t listen to the funny lady.”
No, he didn’t, and now he reaped the consequences of his choice. At least the creatures took the lion’s share of it. The hall was empty of all the people. The blast burned the walls and obliterated the nearby room doors to splinters. Something told him they weren’t out of the fire yet.
The ceiling bulged in above where the energy had exploded. The walls groaned in protest under the weight until the ceiling split and what looked like overgrown spaghetti fell through onto the floor. The “noodles” whipped around and searched along the walls.
Bloody hell, Love.
Toby knew what the tendrils searched for; all of them crawled closer and closer to him and his family.
“Run!” he said.
Sebastian grabbed on to his mother’s hand, but one of the tendrils wrapped around his leg and pulled him to the ground. His wife grunted in exertion as she tried to keep Sebastian close. Two more tendrils grabbed onto the boy and pulled Linda to the ground with him. The thing dragged mother and son along the floor toward the mass.
“No!” Toby said.
He got to his feet but fell back to his knees. Exhaustion filtered all of his movements. Evard’s gun lay next to his feet. Toby snatched it up and emptied the cylinder into the mass of tendrils. The shots hit the creature with a dull whap. A couple of the rope-like appendages whipped out and slapped the gun out of his hand, as well as latched on to his arm. It pulled him to the ground and reeled him as if it caught a fish. He tried to fight back, but he didn’t have the strength.
Toby reached into his reserves of energy, but it was gone, bone dry. Sebastian’s cry cut through the air and hit his heart hard. He needed to save him; Daddy would to do it this time.
Don’t do it, Love.
Toby focused and brought the energy to life. For a moment, his vision slipped away from his body, and he floated above the entire scene. His wife and Sebastian were almost next to the mound of tendrils, his own body not too far behind. Golden light flared from his eyes and crackled across his fingertips. Then, as fast as it happened, he was back in his body again. Toby sent an arc of light from his free hand. The arc flew across the hall and hit the mass of tendrils latched on to his wife and son. When the energy hit the thing, the tendrils burned away. The grip of the creature loosened, and he ripped away from its grasp. Sebastian and—for the life of him, he couldn’t remember his own wife’s name—ran back towards him.
“Get behind me,” he said.
Already, the tendrils crawled along the ceiling and walls toward them. If the blast of energy hurt the thing, it didn’t show.
“Any suggestions?” Toby asked.
Run.
“Good plan. Run!”
Sebastian and his mom turned to run tow
ard the other exit but stopped. Another mass of tendrils broke through the floor between them and the stairwell.
“Toby!” his wife screamed.
The tendrils shot forward and grabbed on to her around the waist. They pulled her into the air and slammed her body into the ceiling. A crack formed in the hall where she hit and sent a rain cloud of dust to the floor. Toby gathered another piece of his own life force and burned the attacking appendages to cinder. His wife fell to the ground in a heap. Sebastian huddled over his mother’s body. Toby sent out feelers and let out a sigh when he discovered she still lived. Her life energy was weak but there.
“Daddy, do something.”
He wasn’t sure how much more of his own life he could siphon. There wasn’t much else he could do though. Time was almost out for his family. He traveled so far and had gone through so much to get here. Toby couldn’t accept he was about to watch them die. Hell, he even suffered through possession to make it here. He was still possessed. Toby got an idea and ran with it.
“Watch out, buddy. It’s going to get crazy,” Toby said.
I can’t let you do this, Love. You’ll kill us both if you pull much more energy. Didn’t you see what happened to your father?
“There isn’t going to be an us,” Toby said.
Toby reached deep inside his psyche. He was amazed it was so easy to find the prize. He found the source of Jezebel’s power and latched onto it; however, as soon as he did, she threw a wall up to block him.
You aren’t going to like what happens next.
He pulled harder. The energy trickled into his hands, slow but steady. Bit by bit, he took the demon’s power.
I warned you.
Toby’s head split as a figurative rock bashed him from the inside. Jezebel’s energy slipped from his feelers and disappeared behind the shield she put up. Stars burst from behind his eyes and his vision blurred. He fell to his hands and knees.
“Daddy!”
It was Sebastian’s voice, but it became hard to hear. He couldn’t see, but he knew one of the tendrils had his boy.
“Toby, hurry.” His wife’s voice.
