by N. P. Martin
“We get it,” Hannah said.
“Anyway, the demon’s agent was waiting in the wings, so to speak,” she said. “Once we’d eaten the boy, and it was clear he was still alive and conscious, the demon’s agent possessed what was left of the boy, taking over his body, turning his eyes as black as coal. The boy had become a drencher.”
“A drencher?” I said.
“That’s what Gretchen called it, that thing.”
“Then what happened?” Hannah asked.
“Then we lay on the floor and waited our turn.”
“For what?”
“For the drencher to come and drench us with its seed,” she said, staring at the table as if she was remembering every gruesome detail in her mind. “It would walk around on its two arms, blood dripping from its exposed ribcage, trailing entrails behind it. Then it would hold itself up over the top of us, dripping blood onto us as it leaned its head down and—and put its mouth over ours and then—” She paused. We waited. “Then it vomited its vile seed into our mouths, and we swallowed it all down so it could somehow make its way into our wombs.”
“Christ,” I said, looking at Hannah. Even she seemed disgusted.
“And the result of all that,” Clare said, “is this evil growing inside me, supposedly half-human, half-demon. That’s what the whole thing is about, building an army that Gretchen will command. That she does command.” She looked up at us. “You believe me, don’t you?”
“Yes,” Hannah said. “We believe you, Clare.”
“How long has this been going on?” I asked her. “Do you know?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. What I know is that this thing inside me, once it’s born, it will age five years for every year it’s alive, stopping when it gets to twenty.”
“So in four years,” Hannah said, “that baby inside you will be twenty years old?”
“That’s what I heard anyway,” Clare said. “I heard a lot of stuff. I’m not sure how much of it is true. Either way, once this thing is out of me, I never want to see it. They can fucking burn it for all I care.”
“These…hybrids,” I said. “They look human?”
“Yes,” Clare said. “They’re all over the school.”
“The school?”
“The old boarding school. That’s where all this happened. That’s where Gretchen lives.”
“You know the school’s location?” I said.
“I have a rough idea,” Clare said. “I was in a state when I drove away from the place, so I wasn’t exactly paying attention.”
“Just give us a rough idea,” I said, just as my phone vibrated in my pocket. “We’ll soon find it.”
Taking out my phone, I saw I had a text from an unknown number, a text which read:
COME PICK ME UP. JANE WICK.
Shaking my head and smiling slightly at the phone, I put it back in my pocket and looked at Hannah. “I have to go,” I told her as I stood up. “Get a location for the boarding school from Clare here and then drive her to the hospital. And run Gretchen Carmichael’s name through the system, see what comes up.”
“Okay,” Hannah said. “I’ll call you when I’m done.”
I looked at Clare before I left the room. “Thank you for coming in,” I said to her. “What you did took guts.” I stopped when I realized my choice of words might have been a little inappropriate, and going by Clare’s face, so did she. “Anyway. We’ll take this Gretchen woman down, along with her whole cult. You have my word on that.”
Clare nodded but said, “I think it might be too late, Detective.” She looked down at her pregnant belly. “Too late for some, anyway.”
7
“Those two are hard work,” Scarlet said as she got into the Dodge and sat in the passenger seat. “They never shut up. Did you know hummingbirds are insects? Apparently, this has been covered up for years.” She puffed her cheeks out and shook her head at me. “I mean, Jesus. I’m exhausted from just being with them.”
“Did you at least get what you needed?” I asked her as I pulled off, my arms heavy as I turned the steering wheel. I would have to sleep soon, I realized. I would fall off my feet if I didn’t.
“Yes and no.”
“Meaning?”
“Pan Demic and Artemis got a bead on the camper van,” she said, pulling on her seat belt, even though I was driving at a slow pace compared to earlier. “But they could only track it to about ten miles from the city limits. After that, it disappeared, probably onto the back roads where there were no cameras.”
“Were you able to see your sister in any of the footage?”
She reached behind her and pulled out a picture from her back pocket, handing it to me. It was a still from the camera footage. It showed two people in a Volkswagen camper van. The driver, of slim build, wore dark glasses and a baseball cap, so it was impossible to make out who it was, especially since the image was so grainy. Next to the man in the passenger seat was a girl with short blond hair, wearing a plaid shirt. “Is this your sister?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said. “That’s Charlotte.”
I glanced at the photo again as I went to turn a corner. “She doesn’t seem to be restrained or in any kind of distress. She seems…relaxed.”
“I know. I don’t understand it.”
“Do you recognize the driver?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Okay,” I said. “I’m going to take you someplace where we can talk. When we get there, you will tell me everything. That’s the only way we’ll figure out what’s going on here.”
“Where are we going?”
“The scrap yard.”
After opening the gates to Cal’s place, I drove inside and made my way slowly through the mountains of scrap until I reached my trailer. As I parked the car, I wasn’t surprised to see Haedemus hanging around outside.
“Well,” he said, standing tall outside the trailer. “Look who decided to show up.”
“I wasn’t aware I was supposed to,” I said, suppressing a yawn, even the coke not doing much to keep the tiredness at bay now.
“You weren’t,” Haedemus said. “I just thought I’d say that. I’m bored hanging around this place.”
“What did you do with the bodies?” I asked him.
“I stashed them as far back in the yard as I could,” he said. “Hopefully those two mutts won’t find them.”
“Did Cal see you?”
“No.”
“Good.”
Scarlet approached Haedemus then and put her hand on his snout and started stroking him. “You’re a fearsome beast, aren’t you?” she said. “When you’re not masturbating outside churches.”
“That was your fault,” Haedemus said, enjoying the gentle stroking motion of Scarlet’s hand. “You forced me to prove myself.”
“I’m not sure that I did,” Scarlet said. “But anyway.”
“Come on,” I said to her. “Let’s go inside. I don’t know how much longer I can stay awake.”
“Not yet,” Haedemus blurted. “Keep stroking. It’s nice.” Scarlet seemed unsure but kept stroking his head, anyway. “I’m starved of attention in this place. My Mistress brings me here and then ignores me, leaves me to fend for myself. And Ethan over there isn’t exactly the world’s greatest BFF either, are you, Ethan?”
I was about to reply when I noticed his penis had dropped. “Oh, for fuck’s sake,” I said.
“What?” Scarlet said, following my gaze. “Oh, right.” She stopped stroking Haedemus’ head and stepped back away from him.
“I can’t help it,” Haedemus said. “I get so easily aroused here, and I don’t know why. I think it must be the fresh air or—”
“Or because you’re a fucking pervert,” I said. “Shall I tell Scarlet how you ended up in Hell?”
“Don’t you dare, Ethan Drake,” he said. “Don’t embarrass me.”
“You’ve already embarrassed yourself,” I said. “Let’s go, Scarlet.”
“
Going inside to have filthy human sex, are we?” Haedemus asked, following along behind Scarlet as if he was going inside. “Can I join in?”
Scarlet threw him a disgusted look. “No one is having sex.”
“Tell me about it,” Haedemus said, then looked at me. “I’ve decided I want a pony, Ethan. I’d like you to get me one.”
“Sure,” I said. “I’ll run out now and get one from the store.”
“Isn’t a pony a little small for you?” Scarlet asked.
“Oh, I don’t want it for sex. Just to cuddle. Like a human child cuddles a teddy bear. Though perhaps it could lick my member the odd time too.”
“Eww, stop it,” Scarlet said.
“He doesn’t know how,” I said, holding the trailer door open for Scarlet as she stepped inside.
“Fine then, leave me,” Haedemus said.
“I will,” I said.
As I was closing the door, he shouted, “If I hear sex noises I’m coming in. You’ve been warned!”
Once inside, Scarlet and I just looked at each other and laughed. It was the only reasonable response to the Hellicorn’s randy behavior. “He’s hard work,” she said.
“Tell me about it,” I said as I planked myself down on the couch and sighed, glad to take the weight off.
“Though oddly endearing at the same time.” She sat down on the couch next to me.
“I don’t know about that.”
“Admit it. You like him. You wouldn’t keep him around otherwise.”
“He’s come in useful. He helped save my life.”
“There you go then. Who’s his Mistress?”
“My partner, Hannah. She’s a fallen angel.”
Scarlet raised her eyebrows. “For real?”
“You’ve never met a demon?”
“Not personally, no.”
“Most of them are cunts. I’d stay clear.”
“Your partner isn’t.”
“She’s different.”
“How?”
I felt my eyes close as oblivion reached out to grab me. “She…just is. I…”
“Ethan? Ethan?” She reached out and punched me on the arm. “Don’t you fall asleep on me.”
I snapped my eyes open and shook my head as if to clear it. “Fuck,” I said. “I need coffee. You want one?”
“Sure,” she said. “Though I doubt there are any clean cups in here. What is this place, your secret hideout?”
“Something like that.” I managed to find a jar of instant coffee, which I proceeded to spoon into the cups after I’d put the electric kettle on to boil. A few minutes later, I brought the cups over to the couch and handed one to Scarlet, who regarded the tarry substance inside with suspicion.
“You sure this is coffee and not tar?” she said.
“I like it strong.” I took a sip and tried not to wince, for it tasted disgusting. It would have to do, though. “So tell me about your sister while I’m still awake enough to listen.”
“Charlotte is not my sister by blood,” she said, placing her cup on the floor as she sat back on the couch and crossed her legs. “My parents adopted her when I was fifteen. They’d been trying for years to have another baby ever since I came along, but there were complications I won’t go into. Anyway, they adopted, since that was the only way they could have another child. They got Charlotte when she was just a few months old.”
“Interesting,” I said.
“What?”
“Nothing. Carry on.”
“Well, everything was great for a while,” she went on. “My parents had good jobs. We lived in a big house. I went to an expensive school where I did well, had lots of friends, excelled at sports. We had a good life.”
“So what happened?”
“My parents were killed in a car crash.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, so was I.” She went silent for a moment before continuing. “Anyway, Charlotte and I, we had no other family except my grandmother on my father’s side. I’d only met her a few times and didn’t like her. I thought she was harsh and weird in her ways. But since I couldn’t exactly raise Charlotte alone, we were forced to go live with Doris, our grandmother. That’s her cottage you were at in the forest. She—”
That’s as much as I heard before oblivion reached out and pulled me into its sweet embrace.
“Ethan! Wake up!”
I awoke with a start, unsure of where I was for a moment until I saw Scarlet standing by the window. “Fuck,” I said, shielding my eyes. “Why’s it so bright in here?”
“It’s coming from outside,” Scarlet said, a sense of urgency in her voice, though I didn’t know why.
“What the fuck’s going on?”
“I think your friends have turned up again.” She was standing by the side of the window, pistol already in hand.
“What?” I hauled myself off the couch and went to the window, squinting out at the blinding lights beaming through the glass. Outside, there appeared to be three vehicles about ten yards from the trailer, beaming their headlights on full power. “Shit.”
“You think it’s Martinez?” Scarlet asked.
“I know it is. Motherfucker must’ve had me followed.”
Scarlet pulled the slide back on her gun. “What do you want to do? Is there another way out of this trailer?”
“Just the front door,” I said, taking out my gun as I stepped to the side of the window.
“Do you have a shotgun here?”
“No.”
“What do you have?”
“The gun in my hand.”
“That’s it? I thought you’d be more prepared than this.”
“Gimme a break. I hardly even stay here anymore. Plus, you can’t just go out there with guns blazing. They’ll cut you down before you even get a shot off. I don’t care how good you are.”
“So what do you suggest? I’m not waiting here for those guys out there to open fire on this trailer. You could spit through these damn walls they’re so thin.”
“Just let me think,” I said, but a second later there was a voice from outside.
“I know you’re in there, Ethan.” It was Carlito. “Why don’t you come out so we can talk?”
“What do you want, Carlito?” I shouted back.
“You know what I want, Ethan. I know that bitch Scarlet Hood is in there with you. Send her out, and I might let you live.”
“Fuck you, Carlito.”
“That’s how you want to play this?” he shouted back. “Okay.”
I squinted through the window to try to make out the Cuban gangster, but the headlights were so bright it was impossible to see.
Then I heard another voice that made me feel sick to my stomach, a voice that was young and afraid. “Ethan?”
“Fuck me,” I said, looking at Scarlet. “He has Daisy.”
“Who’s Daisy?” she asked.
“The girl from my apartment building.”
“Great,” Scarlet said. “You had to be friends with her, didn’t you?”
I threw her an angry look. “Hey, we wouldn’t be in this position if you hadn’t killed Carlito’s fucking cousin. Couldn’t you have just talked to him? You had to kill him?”
“He left me no choice.”
“I’m sure he didn’t.”
“You hear that, Ethan?” Carlito shouted. “I have your little friend here. You didn’t think I knew about her, did you? I know everything, Ethan. I also know that if you don’t send Hood out here, I’m gonna blow this girl’s brains out. You know I’ll do it. You gotta ask yourself, Ethan: Whose life is worth more? Hood’s or the girl’s? You got five seconds.”
Scarlet and I stared at each other as Carlito started to count down from five. When he got to three, I said, “Fuck,” and rushed to the door, pulling it open and then raising both hands as I squinted against the brightness of the headlights. “Don’t shoot.”
“Where’s Hood?” Carlito asked. “I said to send her out.”
He was stan
ding by the front of a black SUV, dressed in a white suit. Two other identical vehicles flanked the middle one. Men with automatic weapons stood around the cars, most of whom had their guns trained on me.
“God damn it, Carlito,” I said, looking over at him as he stood behind a terrified Daisy, one hand on her shoulder, the other hand holding a gold-plated pistol to her head. Motherfucker had no morals, holding a fucking gun to a kid’s head like that. “Let the girl go.”
“After you get Hood out here,” he said. “Otherwise, I’m just gonna kill all of you. You hear that, Hood? You better get out here now!”
I was about to say to Carlito that we could talk about this, when some of his men suddenly swung their weapons to the right. A second later, Cal came into view, shouldering a mag-fed Mossberg shotgun. “What the fuck’s going on here?” he demanded, stopping by the side of the trailer.
“Stand down, Cal,” I said.
“Like fuck, I will,” he said, topless, wearing only jeans, his feet bare. “This is my yard, and these Latino motherfuckers ain’t got no right to be here.”
“Go back inside, old man,” Carlito said. “Before you end up dead.”
“Listen to him, Cal,” I said. “I got this handled. Go back to your trailer.”
“Doesn’t look to me like you got anything handled,” he said. “What the fuck is that little girl doing here?”
“Jesus Christ, Cal, just listen to me for once,” I shouted. “I said I got this!”
Cal glanced at me, his hard gray eyes boring into me. “I ain’t going nowhere.”
Stubborn bastard, I thought as I looked back at Carlito, dropping my gaze down to Daisy for a second, hardly able to look at her fear-stricken face, though despite her terror, she appeared to be holding it together, for which I had to give her credit. Plenty of grown adults would’ve crumbled by now. “Carlito—”
“No more talking, Ethan,” Carlito barked, pressing the gun harder against Daisy’s temple, causing her to squeal in fear. “Get that fucking bitch out here, or I swear to—”
