by Cassandra
“Good. So you can stop talking my ears off. I need some shut-eye.”
He dusted the food crumbs off his bed and dived back into his nest of blankets.
Jessica shook her head. She had to admit, it had been an eventful day and she felt rather tired herself. Tempted by the thought of the warm covers, she slipped her shoes off and climbed into the second bunk-bed.
She expected her racing thoughts to keep her awake for quite some time. Instead, with the help of the sounds of the storm outside, she was asleep in no time.
A shrill buzzing woke her. She cracked her eyes open but her surroundings were dark and blurry. She blinked and tried to get her eyes to adjust to the darkness. The first thing she saw was a tiny head hovering above her, upside down.
“What in the devil is that?” Frank growled. “Make it stop.”
After she had managed to shake away her grogginess, Jessica realized her phone was ringing. She stumbled to the table where she had left it. The light from the screen made her eyes water.
“Hello?” she croaked into her phone.
“Sorry to wake you,” Chad said. He sounded bright and alert and not particularly sorry at all. “You said you wanted to come along. Word just came in that there’s a demon close by. I’m going to check it out now. Do you still want to go?”
Jessica’s sleepiness instantly vanished. “Yes! Where should I meet you?”
“Stay where you are. I’ll come get you.”
“Okay.”
She shoved her phone in her pocket and hurried to put on her shoes. “Frank!” she hollered.
“What?” he responded in a clipped tone.
“That was Chad.”
“Yippie for you. But I’d feel irresponsible if I didn’t at least let you know he’s too old for you and your parents would probably never approve.”
“Oh, stop it. He called to ask if I wanted to go on a demon hunt with him.”
He blinked. “Judging from the fact that you’re putting on your shoes at three o’clock in the morning, my guess is that you were dumb enough to say yes.”
Jessica rolled her eyes. “I’m starting to understand now that your name calling is really a form of endearment, right?”
“Believe what you want.”
“Do you want to come along?”
“Pardon me?”
“Do you want to come along?” she repeated.
“Have you lost your mind?” Frank stood in the middle of the top bunk-bed and placed his hands on his hips. “Hell no, I don’t want to go. You know what? I’ve had enough of this. I’ll meet you back at home.”
With a loud popping sound, Frank was gone.
Jessica stared at the spot he had just occupied.
Home? What did he mean by that, exactly? Grandma Ethel’s house?
She sighed and hoped her grandma didn’t mind that the imp seemed to believe he’d moved in with them. Then again, as her familiar, she supposed he was expected to live wherever she was.
Her phone chimed again. She had a new message from Chad. I’m here. Come down to the front of the school.
“Jessica!” Todd greeted her as she climbed into the backseat of Chad’s car. She squeezed in beside his duffle bag of supplies.
“Hey, Todd. How’s it going?”
“Good. What about you? How did you like things at the academy?”
“I love it.”
“Does that mean what I think it means?” He twisted in his seat to look her at, his eyebrows raised.
She laughed. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.”
“Don’t worry. I think she’ll come around.” Chad looked at her through the rearview mirror.
“Where are we going?” she asked to change the subject.
“An abandoned building in town,” Chad answered. “Many calls have come into the police station from the locals. People claim they hear suspicious activity and such. I know one of the officers. I taught him to recognize possible demonic trouble, so he calls me when things get too intense for the police. Todd was on call with me tonight, so here we are.”
The drive to the building in question was short. Jessica wondered if she was prepared to face whatever was inside. She had initially been excited, but she now hoped it would be a false alarm. Suddenly nervous, she looked out the window at the building. Tall, looming, and dark, it looked like it would collapse if the wind blew too hard. Even though the storm had passed, Jessica wondered how the building had managed to stay standing through the night.
“This place looks like every haunted house in every movie,” she pointed out.
“Haunted isn’t quite the right word. Possessed is more like it,” Todd explained.
“Enough arguing over semantics. Let’s get to work,” Chad interjected.
“Arguing what?” the other man asked.
“Nothing.” Chad shook his head. “Let’s go. We don’t want to be here all night. We may be needed elsewhere.” He opened his car door and quickly retrieved the duffle bag.
They approached the building together. Jessica felt nervous and excited all at the same time. She had encountered demons by chance before and only survived by the skin of her teeth. Those were some rather harrowing experiences, to say the least. There was something different about being part of a team, though, and about hunting demons intentionally. It made her feel like she had the upper hand.
It gave her a strange but appealing rush of adrenaline.
“Stay close and stay quiet,” Chad cautioned. He scrabbled in his duffle bag and produced a flashlight. Jessica’s heart stuttered for a moment when he handed actual guns out—one for her and one for Todd. She exhaled a relieved breath when she realized they were simply water guns filled with water.
“Holy water. Courtesy of Pastor Norman.” Chad must have read her mind.
“Is this a regular demon, or is it the Aquiel?” Jessica asked.
“Regular run-of-the-mill demon is my guess,” Chad responded. “Are you guys ready?”
Both Todd and Jessica nodded silently.
He pushed the front door open and it swung slowly on its hinges with a loud creak. The three of them froze in their tracks. Nothing jumped out at them, though.
“All right. Let’s go,” he whispered.
They stepped carefully into the abandoned building. The old floorboards creaked beneath their slow footfalls. The air smelled stale and musty, like mold and mildew. Jessica swallowed. She tried not to think about how soft the wooden floor beneath them felt and hoped none of them wore heavy shoes. They might fall straight through.
Chad angled his flashlight in front of them, then upward. The light struck a mass of glistening cobwebs. The whole ceiling was covered in the stuff.
“Shit!” Todd swore.
“What?” the other two demanded at the same time.
Todd ran his hands frantically through his hair. “Spiders,” he muttered and sounded utterly disgusted.
“We’re hunting demons, and you’re worried about a spider?” Chad scoffed.
Jessica laughed but was grateful her jacket had a hood. She pulled it on. Her skin broke out in goosebumps at the mere thought of a spider entangling itself in her hair.
“We have three floors to cover.” Chad led them to a stairway with his flashlight.
“Should we each take one?” Todd suggested.
“No,” his companions snapped.
He grinned at Jessica. “Kidding.”
“That would make things more efficient, though.” Chad smiled wryly. She shot him a look and he winked at her. “When you’re official, that is,” he added. “For now, you’re here as a guest of the academy. You’re under my supervision so you’ll have to stick with me. We all know Ms. Ethel would kill me if I let you wander off alone, especially here.”
“You have that right,” Todd agreed.
“Hey, I’ve faced a fair number on my own, remember?”
“True,” Chad conceded. “But there’s something about demons who dare to show up so close to where witc
hes are known to gather. Like a witch’s academy, for instance.”
“Oh yeah? And what’s that?”
“That they tend to be a little tougher than other demons. Maybe a little braver, too. And definitely a lot crazier.”
Jessica gulped. “When you put it that way, I see your point.”
“Right. Like I said, stay close behind me. And Todd? You stay behind her. I’ll watch from the front, you watch from the back. Holler if you see any movement. That goes for you too, Jess.”
“There,” she croaked. She had already seen movement.
“What?” Chad directed the flashlight at her but she pointed at a spot in the corner of the room. He turned the flashlight in that direction and swore as a hissing noise filled the air.
She gripped her water gun and took aim. Her fist clenched as she pulled the trigger and a spray of water arced across the room. The screeching increased and a pair of bright yellow eyes looked at them.
“Whoa, hold your fire, Jess. Dammit. It’s only a raccoon.” He shook his head. Still, he jumped when the creature scurried passed them and darted out the door. “I’ll need you two to stay focused from now on. No more freaking out over anything that’s not a demon.”
“So there’s no need to tell you about the rat dangling above your head?” Todd asked.
Chad jumped and bolted across the room.
Jessica covered her mouth to stifle a giggle, and Todd leaned forward, doubled-over in silent laughter.
“You two will make me regret bringing you.”
“Sorry. We’ll be good from now on,” Todd said.
“Right,” she agreed with a smirk.
They didn’t find anything on the first floor. As they headed up a creaky stairway, however, a familiar smell hit them. Sulfur.
“Bingo,” Todd whispered.
Chad looked at them both and nodded. He pressed a finger to his lips to warn them to be as quiet as possible.
When they reached the second-floor landing, Jessica’s heart was racing. She gripped her water gun tightly and followed hot on Chad’s heels. The smell of sulfur grew so strong she had to clench her jaws tightly to fight against a rising wave of nausea.
Their leader crept forward and beamed the flashlight steadily ahead of him to scan the room. A laugh drifted through the air. It sounded as if it came from every possible direction and the trio froze.
Jessica heard Todd shift behind her. She saw shadows move across the floor despite the fact that all of them now stood still. From the corner of her eye, she could see Chad reach into his pocket. He withdrew a knife and the blade glinted in the gleam of his flashlight.
Something dragged across the floor.
“Keep steady,” Chad whispered. “Aim ahead. Todd, do you see anything back there? Todd? Todd?”
Chad and Jessica turned to peer back at him.
“Sorry, sorry,” Todd blurted. “I thought I saw something coming up the stairs. A trick of the light, I guess.”
His companions looked at the steps to see for themselves what he was talking about. In the instant it took for them to look, the demon’s laughter stopped. The scraping they’d heard seconds before halted completely.
A swooping sensation lurched in her stomach and she felt as though the floor had dropped out from beneath her feet. Her hair blew across her face. The awful stench of sulfur intensified.
A bone-chilling growl drifted to them, much too close. The air around them chilled and their collective breaths fogged before them.
As one, the three demon hunters turned.
The monster stood before them. It was at least seven feet tall with blazing red eyes.
“Aim and shoot!” Chad bellowed.
They didn’t need to be told twice. Before the demon could make a move, all three of them sent streams of holy water aimed at its face. The creature roared in pain as its skin burned and sizzled as if the guns were full of flames rather than liquid.
Their good luck could only last for so long, however.
Even as it burned, the demon’s width increased. In no time, it had become twice its original size. A ripping sound punctuated the screams. Horrified, Jessica realized that it was somehow splitting itself in two.
“Holy shit,” Todd whispered.
“Evil shit,” Chad corrected him grimly. He shouted something like a war cry and charged forward, aiming for the demon closest to him. The two became a blur as they fought. She could hardly tell who fared better but gasped when Chad was catapulted backward by a powerful blow from the beast.
He landed with a crash but managed to keep hold of his gun and his knife. As he rose from the floor, he caught sight of Jessica. “Run!” he cried. “Get out of here!”
Jessica realized that she now stood out in the open, an easy target. She had been so preoccupied watching Chad that she hadn’t seen Todd engage in battle with the other half of the demon. Run, she thought. It sounded like a good plan. After all, the last thing she wanted was for the monster to split again and create a third one to come after her.
Before she could move, things went terribly wrong.
Like Chad, Todd had also produced a knife. He slashed with one hand and sprayed holy water with the other. The demon ducked and dodged and moved methodically in a way that had the man inching closer and closer to the stairwell.
“Todd!” Jessica yelled, but she knew it was too little, too late. When the moment was right, the monster swiped at him. It knocked him off his feet and tumbled him down the stairs. He barely had time to scream on the way down.
His body thudded heavily as it fell and rolled down the steps, and to Jessica’s horror, the demon gleefully leaped down after him.
“No!” she cried and ran to the stairwell.
“Jessica, watch out!” Chad yelled from somewhere across the room.
She felt the ground shake beneath her feet and turned to see the other demon land almost on top of her. Chad followed it closely with his gun and knife out. She moved out of the way as the two of them engaged once more. Black blood sprayed when Chad managed to slash the leathery hide with his knife. He shot holy water into the wound and the creature roared and sizzled, but it continued.
Meanwhile, Todd lay motionless at the bottom of the stairs. The other demon hovered over him.
“Hey!” Jessica yelled, her scream so loud that she thought her throat would bleed.
The demon gazed up momentarily and she took her chance. Adrenaline overpowered her fear and she raced down the stairs with her water gun aimed. She pulled its trigger as hard as she could and managed to reach the demon in the same moment that it emitted a savage roar in her direction. The stream of water poured into its mouth. The beast began to choke and its red eyes bulged as it staggered away from Todd.
Jessica spotted the knife on the floor. As the demon retreated a little, Jessica leapt forward to snatch the blade from the ground. Without thinking, she threw it at their adversary. Although she had never been known to have the best aim, the knife struck the creature right in its left eye.
It wailed and fell backward. The huge body landed heavily on the rickety floor, which cracked and splintered under its weight. The demon fell right through it.
She stared at the gaping hole it had created. While she couldn’t see into the dark aperture, she heard a tale-tell sizzling. The monster was disintegrating into a pile of ashes.
Numb and frozen now that the worst was over, she wasn’t aware that the commotion from above had ceased until Chad called her name.
“Jessica?”
“Down here,” she answered in a shaky voice. “But Todd is hurt.”
He ran down the stairs and came to his friend’s side in an instant. His face stony, he pressed his fingers into the wounded man’s neck, then to his wrist to check for a pulse. “He’s alive.”
She breathed a sigh of relief.
“Good job down here. You saved his life, you know that, right?”
Jessica blinked. She’d heard Chad but still had a hard time comprehending
what he’d said.
With a grunt, he hoisted the wounded man over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. “It was definitely a blessing that you agreed to come to the academy today. I don’t know what we would have done if you weren’t here. Come on. We need to get him to the medical wing. Grab my duffle bag, will you?”
“Did you get the demon upstairs?”
“Yeah. But you got the nastier half of it.”
My sheer dumb luck strikes again, she thought wearily. She followed Chad out the building as he carried Todd to his car.
“Can I ask you something?” Jessica watched Chad pace the waiting room. When they had arrived at the academy, they immediately delivered Todd to the hospital wing. The nurses there took him under their care. That left the other two in the waiting room.
“Go for it.”
“Have there always been these many demons? Is this normal?” She began to count on her fingers. “I mean, this week alone, there was one outside when I was babysitting, then there’s the Aquiel, then the woman who was possessed and Pastor Norman performed the exorcism on, and now this.” As she spoke, something about the Aquiel, in particular, stood out in her mind. It irked her for some reason. She’d first encountered the thing at the church and then again with Kacey. The last time she’d seen it—or at least heard it’s strange whistling—had been when Kacey walked down the hall at school.
She swallowed as a shiver traced her spine. Was it really a coincidence that the last two times she’d encountered the Aquiel, Kacey had been around? Was it a coincidence that she hadn’t seen or heard the thing ever since he went missing in action?
No, it can’t be, she thought. She simply did not want to believe it. Yet now that the seed was planted in her head, she couldn’t let it go. She wanted to call Pastor Norman right then and there to tell him of her suspicions but managed to resist. Without a doubt, she knew that if she did call, the pastor would probably pick her up and immediately head for Kacey’s. Jessica needed to be certain first. If she and Pastor Norman showed up unceremoniously on Kacey’s doorstep and nothing was wrong. it would scare him half to death. Then, he would certainly never talk to her again.
