by N. P. Martin
“Partners?” I offered.
She smiled. “Yes, partners. I mean, what do you think about that?”
“I think you’re fucking crazy if you want to keep being partners with me. But you don’t die easy, so there’s that.” When she just stared at me, I said, “Relax, I’m just fucking with you. Sort of. We can stay partners, yeah. Why the fuck not?”
“Why the fuck not,” she repeated, holding her fist out toward me.
“Seriously?” I said. “Fist bump? Okay…” I bumped fists with her and she smiled.
“It’s a done deal then,” she said.
Shaking my head, I started the engine. “Why does it feel like I just got married?”
We were going to hit the cult at the boarding school. It was on, despite some shoddy deal that I made with Pike in bad faith, and despite what the captain said back at the precinct. The cult, led by Gretchen Carmichael and backed by Blackstar it seemed, had claimed the lives of who knew how many innocent women and men—including poor Clare Jenkins—and so the cult, along with Carmichael, had to be stopped.
More than that, they had to pay. They weren’t going to face justice any other way, were they? And was this not the reason I had agreed to head up Lewellyn’s two-man unit in the first place? To stride into the darkness where no one else would go and extract justice from it? More importantly, to get at least some justice for the victims that nobody cared about? Fucking-A-right it was.
As we needed to gear up, I thought it might be easier to visit Scarlet’s storage unit rather than drive all the way to my apartment. Besides, I didn’t want to risk bumping into Daisy again and then having to explain to her what I was doing just so she could worry about me all over again. I wanted to keep Daisy out of the madness, and as such, I was even considering moving out of my apartment so Daisy would never have to see me again. So I could never put her in danger again.
It was a sombre experience visiting Scarlet’s storage unit. Just seeing her outfits and all of her gear was enough to fill me with sadness, and yes, even guilt. Hannah sensed this as she squeezed my arm and asked me if I was okay. Nodding, I told her I would be. “Take whatever you need,” I said to her, and when she started eyeing up the outfits, I told her no. “That’s too much. Leave them.”
A short time later, we left the storage unit with a duffel bag full of guns and several flash grenades which I put into the trunk of the Dodge, having to slam the lid three times since the lock wasn’t working properly.
“What about Haedemus?” Hannah asked. “Since we have no backup, maybe we could use him.”
“It’s a long way for him to gallop,” I said as we got into the car.
“Maybe I can summon him.”
“Well, you summoned him from Hell, so I don’t see why not.”
“I’ll try when we get there.”
“I’m sure he’ll be thrilled.”
It was a good hour and a half’s drive to the location of the old boarding school, which was nestled deep in the countryside, far from the city and any surrounding residential dwellings. The cult couldn’t have picked a better spot in terms of privacy and isolation.
All the way out here, no one could hear the screams.
We were parked halfway down a grassy lane and about fifty yards up ahead was a set of wrought-iron gates that stood about ten feet high. Beyond the gates was a road that led to the old boarding school building. Under the light of the cold moon, the building looked ominous perched up there on a hill, the clock tower and spires stretching up into the dark sky like grasping fingers, the white paint on the building’s plaster surface long since faded to a sickly yellow color. If it weren’t for the few lights shining from inside, you would think the building had been abandoned and left to rot, just like the body of Clare Jenkins had been.
“How many do you think are in there?” Hannah asked as she stared through the window toward the old school building.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”
“So what’s the plan?”
“We go in, save who we can and take down anyone who gets in our way.”
“And the leader?”
“We kill her.”
Hannah nodded. “Slowly?”
I threw her a look. “Keep your demon in check there, killer.”
“I just mean she deserves it, considering what she’s done here to all those girls.”
“You wanting to get your hands bloody again?”
“I’m getting that either way.”
“I suppose,” I said. “There’s something else you should know, by the way.”
“What?”
“Blackstar is involved with this cult. Don’t be surprised if they show up once we move in.”
“Blackstar? The company you used to work for?”
“Yeah. They’ve already warned me off this place. I told them I’d stay away. They’re gonna be pissed when they find out we’re here.”
“Will they try to kill us?”
“I’m not sure.”
“Do you want to pull out?”
I turned my head to look at her. “No.”
She smiled. “Let’s do it then.”
About twenty minutes later, Hannah and I were standing outside by the car. Above us, the sky had darkened considerably as thick clouds formed, covering the moon and bringing the threat of rain as the distant rumble of thunder could be heard. Hannah and I both held Heckler & Koch MP5K’s, our pockets filled with extra clips. My trench pockets also held four flash grenades. Standing next to Hannah was Haedemus, having been successfully summoned.
“I can’t tell you what this means to me,” Haedemus said. “It means so much that you would summon me here to help out. If I had a beating heart, it would be bursting from my chest with gratitude right now.”
“So basically,” I said, checking my weapon. “You were bored shitless until we summoned you here.”
“Yes, that’s about right,” Haedemus said.
“Maybe you should get a human body,” Hannah said. “So you can engage with this world more.”
Haedemus stared at her for a moment. “I’m not sure how I feel about that. I like my massive cock. Downgrading to something of Ethan’s size would be a considerable shock to my system.”
“I’m not sure I want you in a human body either,” I said. “You’re annoying enough as it is.”
“Yeah, fuck you, Ethan. You weren’t saying that when I saved your ass from that hybrid guy who jumped you on the way to the beach.”
“I had it handled.”
“He had you pinned to the ground, and you were wincing like a baby.”
“You’ll be wincing like a baby soon if you don’t shut it,” I said.
“See, he’s defensive,” he said to Hannah. “He knows I’m right.”
“Alright, Haedemus, enough,” Hannah said, just as I summoned the Hellbastards. The five of them appeared beside me, still looking stoned, gazing around them like they didn’t know where they were, which I guess they didn’t.
“Hello, boys,” I said. “I hope you’re up for some mayhem.”
“Mayhem, boss?” Scroteface said in a flat voice, staring at me with glassy eyes.
“How much more did you holy terrors smoke?” I asked them.
“Few more joints, boss,” Reggie said. “We’re good, though.”
“Yeah,” I said. “You all look it too. Cracka’s eyes are like two piss holes in the snow.”
Haedemus guffawed. “Two piss holes in the snow. Good one, Ethan. You’re funny…sometimes.”
Ignoring Haedemus, I said to Scroteface, “Can you handle this or do I have to send you all back?”
Snot Skull, wearing a little girl’s flowery dress and red lipstick for some reason, started dancing about like a boxer, throwing sloppy punches in the air like he was warming up for the battle to come. “We got this, boss. Don’t worry.”
“We have the power, boss,” Cracka said, raising his fist without much enthusiasm.
>
I shook my head at the state of them all. “What kind of fucking team have I got around me? Five Hellbastards who barely know what day it is, a Hellicorn with a superiority complex and—” I stopped when I looked at Hannah.
“Yes?” Hannah said, smiling. “You were saying?”
“Rules of engagement,” I said, changing the subject. “Let’s go over them. Only engage if necessary. We’re here to free the girls that have been kidnapped, and the boys if there are any. Everyone else is fair game. There’ll probably be hybrids in there too. Watch out for them. They’re strong.”
“As you know already, Ethan,” Haedemus said.
“Yeah,” I said. “Feel free to kill them. We don’t need their kind running around.”
“What if Blackstar shows up?” Hannah said. “Do we engage?”
“Not unless you have to,” I said. “Blackstar is not be underestimated. Their operatives are well-trained and know their shit. They won’t hesitate to kill you if they have to. All of you. They have weapons that can do serious damage.”
“So do we, boss,” Cracka said, holding his over-sized penis in one hand.
As Haedemus burst out laughing, I told Cracka to shut up and get it together. “Alright, you’s fucking degenerates, I’m just wasting my fucking breath here, aren’t I?”
“Yes, you are, Ethan,” Haedemus said.
“Well,” I said. “In that case, let’s get on with it. Lock and load, motherfuckers.”
“Lock and load!” Cracka cheered.
21
There seemed to be very little in the way of security around the old boarding school building. As we climbed over the wall surrounding the place—Haedemus leaping clean over it—I saw no cameras or even any guards out on patrol. It seemed like the cult thought themselves safe in their isolation, an assumption we would soon fuck up the ass good and proper.
“We stick together as much as possible,” I said as we made our way up a grassy slope toward the front door of the building, just as the first drops of rain started to fall from the sky. “Our objective is to locate the cult leader first. Once we take care of her, the rest should be easy. Try not to hurt any of the cult members. Most of them are probably brainwashed. The hybrids you can kill.”
I was expecting some resistance before we made it to the front door, but we encountered none. No one appeared to spot us from inside, and no hybrids came running to meet us.
At least they didn’t until Haedemus let out a massive fart that cracked the air like thunder. I’d never heard a noise like it. “What the fuck?” I said, shocked at the ongoing sound coming out of the Hellicorn’s ass.
“I’m sorry,” Haedemus said as he bent over slightly. “I…ate…something that …didn’t agree with me.”
“A fucking hot-air balloon?” I said.
The Hellbastards thought the whole thing was hilarious and were practically rolling on the grass as they laughed uncontrollably, the blast of stinking gas escaping from Haedemus’ asshole filling the air with an infernal stink.
With all the noise, I wasn’t surprised to see a curtain twitch inside the school building, and a few seconds later, the front door opened as half a dozen men came running out, all dressed in dark robes.
“Contact!” I shouted, and immediately opened fire on who I assumed were hybrids. My initial burst with the HK downed one hybrid straight away, but the others moved so fast it was impossible to get a bead on them.
In seconds, they were on us. Five hybrids, all looking the same with smooth, bald heads and similar faces. Two of them started attacking me, flanking me on each side, both of them delivering punches and kicks at the same time.
With the HK hanging across my chest, I did my best to block the onslaught of blows coming at me at shocking speed, until that is, one of the hybrids kicked my leg out and I hit the deck. But as I fell, my hand immediately went to my sidearm, which I pulled out at speed and pointed at the nearest hybrid, shooting him three times in the chest before the other hybrid kicked the gun out of my hand. Using the same leg, he lifted it and was about to stamp it down on my face before Cracka leapt at him, clinging to the hybrid’s face like an alien Face-Hugger, scratching at the hybrid’s eyes as the hybrid tried to pry the little demon off him.
To help matters along, I took hold of the HK from my prone position and fired a burst that peppered the hybrid’s legs, immediately causing him to fall. Cracka held on tight, and when the hybrid hit the ground, Cracka went to work on the guy’s face, scratching and clawing and biting until the hybrid eventually started to scream, his face a bloody mess, his eyeballs scooped from their sockets and dangling against his cheeks.
Cracka laughed. “He ain’t pretty no more, boss,” he said gleefully, echoing the line from Raging Bull, a movie we all watched together one night.
When I got up, I saw that Haedemus had impaled one of the other hybrids on his razor-sharp horn. The hybrid was doing his best to pull himself off the bony protrusion, but his hands were so slick with blood that he couldn’t do it, much to Haedemus’ amusement. “You look like a stupid fuck hanging there,” Haedemus taunted. “Here, let me help you.”
With a sharp flick of his massive head, Haedemus drove the sharp edge of his horn up through the hybrid’s chest and then through his skull, splitting the hybrid almost in two before he finally slipped off the horn and onto the blood-drenched grass.
A few feet away, Snot Skull was busy vomiting acid over the face of one of the other hybrids, while Toast shot fire at the guy’s balls. Scroteface had his hand in the hybrid’s chest as he appeared to try to rip out the guy’s heart.
Reggie, meanwhile, stood to the side smoking a joint as he watched on. When he saw me looking, he raised a hand in half salute and said, “Boss,” like he was the supervisor on some factory floor inspecting the work of his men.
That only left one more hybrid, and Hannah was taking care of him. She seemed to have tapped into her demon self as she stood up the hill a little, using her telekinetic powers to hold the remaining hybrid high in the air in front of her. With her back to me—her Visage looming darkly behind her—she had her hands out in front of her as she appeared to be slowly moving them apart like she was trying to stretch some invisible force.
When the hybrid started screaming, and his body began to stretch horizontally, I realized what she was doing. She was trying to tear the hybrid apart, and a few seconds later, she succeeded. With a final agonized scream, the hybrid’s body ripped in half in mid-air, showering blood everywhere. As the two halves of his body hit the grass with a wet slapping sound—steam rising from the innards—Hannah relaxed her hands and turned around, her face dripping with hybrid blood. In her eyes, I saw the presence of Xaglath, who appeared to smile knowingly at me. “I thought you said these hybrids were strong?” she said.
Unsure of whether I was talking to Hannah or Xaglath or a combination of both, I said, “Clearly not to you.”
She smiled again as she licked the blood from her mouth. “Clearly not.”
After that, we wasted no more time and made our way into the school building. Stepping into the entrance hall, I expected to be met by more hybrid soldiers, but the hall was empty. Wood panels and old pictures decked the walls, giving the impression that you were stepping back in time. You could almost imagine the snot-nosed kids and strict school teachers who once frequented these hallways.
“Oh, very posh,” Haedemus said as he stomped across the wood floor. “I wonder if they keep ponies out the back.”
I shook my head at him. “Why don’t you go around and see? Take your time. We’ll wait.”
“I think I’ll just hang around here,” he said. “Since I can’t open doors, and since I don’t do stairs either.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Good idea.”
As the Hellbastards hung with Haedemus in the entrance hallway, Hannah and I checked the ground floor, opening doors and looking inside various rooms, finding no one.
After covering most of the ground floor, we head
ed upstairs to the first floor and started checking rooms there as well, only most of them were secured with electronic locks. “The girls that Clare talked about must be inside these rooms,” Hannah said. “Drugged up, no doubt.”
“I think you might be right,” I said. “We’ll come back for them later. Let’s find Gretchen Carmichael first. Once we take her out, we’ll come back and free whoever needs freeing.”
Above us, we could hear muted footsteps and voices coming from what must have been an attic room. “Maybe they’re all hiding because they know we’re here,” Hannah said in a hushed voice.
“Maybe,” I said as the Hellbastards fell in behind me.
We soon found the staircase leading up to the attic room. Halfway up, we were met by two hybrids, both of whom had long daggers in their hands. Reacting quickly, Hannah shot both her hands out and used her power to stop the hybrids in their tracks, lifting them both up in the air. As she did, I raised my HK and fired a burst into each of their chests. When Hannah let them go, they both fell on the stairs in a heap. “That was easy,” Hannah said smiling, enjoying herself.
I was about to agree when I heard the Hellbastards shouting behind us. When we turned, we saw two of the hybrids that had attacked us outside. One of them had bullet holes in his chest; the other had half his face missing thanks to Cracka.
“What the fuck?” I said, raising my gun. “Don’t these fucks die?” I opened fire on the two of them, hitting them both, the bullets driving them back down the stairs, but not killing them.
“We got this, boss!” Scroteface shouted, back in the swing of things as he led his crew toward the damaged hybrids, who were getting up again, now joined by two more of their kind, including the one whose head was melted by Snot Skull’s acid vomit. How the hell he was still standing, I’ll never know. The Hellbastards attacked with their usual gusto, holding the hybrids off as Hannah and I fired a few more bursts at them.
“Upstairs,” I told Hannah when we’d finished firing. “We need to get to Carmichael before she fucks off on us.”
