Count to Ten

by Mark Ayre

  At the foot of the stairs was a woman neither of them recognised. This newcomer’s claim that Will had sent her convinced no one. They asked her to leave. In response, she bounded so fast that she was with them before they knew she was moving.

  Kayla began to scream. In one swift motion, the newcomer took the daughter and rendered the mother unconscious. To Edie, she introduced herself as Heidi, and when she shushed Xyla, the baby went quiet so fast she might have been struck mute. Paralysed by terror, afraid for the baby, Edie did nothing to stop Heidi. To the contrary, when this dangerous woman started down the stairs with Xyla and bade Edie follow, Edie did. Every step she descended, she felt more of a failure.

  “But you’re not,” said Will, interrupting his retelling of the story. Liz wondered why he included her thoughts of failure at all, but he must have looked at Mercury and Amira. “Is she?”

  “Not even a bit,” said Mercury.

  “You succeeded in not dying,” said Amira. “That’s the main thing.”

  Liz nodded, though she was behind a wall. Having finished her whiskey she moved to the gin.

  Heidi had taken Edie to the kitchen and told her to stand by the fridge or die. She had gone into the garage and closed the door. Edie might have fled, but terror for herself and Xyla, who Heidi still held, fixed her to the spot.

  “She would have killed you if you moved,” said Amira.

  “You did the right thing,” said Mercury.

  Liz decided she liked the gin less than the whiskey.

  Leon rejoiced at Heidi’s arrival. Soon, he began to scream. Minutes later, Heidi returned, closing the garage door behind her, and led Edie to the upstairs landing where Kayla still lay.

  Here she threw the unconscious mother over her shoulder and told Edie what she had planned for the baby.

  When Will said this, Edie spoke for the first time.

  Liz was about to pour herself a white wine but paused to listen to the bereft girl.

  “She said she was a God, but people thought she was a demon. She said my dad would return with some women and that I was to ask which one was Mercury.”

  “I am,” said Mercury.

  Unable to see the participants in the living room, Liz could only imagine the wrought expressions, especially on the teenager.

  She poured the wine.

  “You don’t have to, Sweetie,” said Will.

  “I want to.”

  Another long silence. Liz clutched the stem of her wine glass but did not drink.

  “She said the baby would become a God, or a demon, depending on your point of view. She said I should tell Mercury that if the woods were good enough for her, they would be good enough for Xyla. Then she asked where were the closest woods.”

  Liz drank her wine. She was running out of drinks to try. She’d never liked red. Now might be the time to acquire a taste. Collecting a beer, she poured herself a pint and stepped into the living room.

  “What are the closest woods?” asked Mercury.

  “Taverstock,” said Will. “Is that what you said, Sweetie?”

  Edie nodded, her eyes red. “She said she would do it today. Then she took Kayla and the baby and left me to wait for you.”

  Looking at the crying girl, thinking of the missing baby and her mother, any tipsiness Liz had accrued, even over so many drinks, vanished. Unable to face another drop, she placed her beer on the side and looked to Amira and Mercury.

  “We need to go now.” She turned to Will. “How far are these woods?”

  “Not far,” he said. “Ten-minute drive.”

  “Fine, look after your daughter. Amira, Mercury, and I will save the baby.”

  “I’m coming with you,” said Will as Amira said. “We can’t rush off half-cocked.”

  Liz groaned. To Will, she said, “Who will look after your daughter if you come? Remember what happened last time? You should. It was recent.” To Amira, “We don’t have time to plot a million scenarios before taking this on.”

  They spoke at once. Liz raised a palm to each of them, pausing their run on speech.

  “One at a time,” she said. “William, you first.”

  “I have to come. There’s somewhere I can drop Edie on the way—”

  “Dad, no, you’re not leaving me again.”

  “Sweetie, I have to.”

  “No. No, I won’t.”

  “Okay,” said Liz, “maybe discuss that between yourselves. Amira now, why don’t you explain why you hate babies?”

  Amira sighed. “I don’t hate babies. I’m being practical. This is a trap. Heidi wants to lure us into the woods so that we’re out of the way while she conducts her grand plan. If we don’t stop this mega demon thing, all babies will be finished. I know that sounds hard, and I don’t want not to save a baby, but we can’t let Heidi go ahead with her ritual.”

  “Maybe she’s going to put the mega demon into the baby,” suggested Liz.

  “Don’t be stupid. For that, Heidi wanted Mercury, right? But she lost Mercury, so what does she do?”

  “Kidnaps a baby,” said Will.

  “And takes Kayla,” said Mercury. “She’ll use the baby to lure us into the woods, and take Kayla elsewhere to perform her mega ritual. By now, she’ll have called her followers. That’s her plan.”

  “Exactly,” said Amria.

  “We still have to save the baby,” said Mercury.

  “What?”

  Mercury gave her best friend a long look. “I shouldn’t have to tell you that.”

  Huffing, pissed off, Amira turned to Will. “What about you? I thought you wanted to save your wife?”

  “Your wife?” said Edie, a little desperately, “what’s wrong with mum?”

  Glaring at Amira, Will said, “Nothing. She’s caught up with this Heidi person but only because she doesn’t know what Heidi is. We’re going to save her, but only after we’ve saved Xyla and Kayla. They’re the priorities. I didn’t think I’d have to get anyone to agree to that.”

  Everyone looked to Amira, who seemed about ready to blow her lid.

  “You’d all sacrifice the world to save one baby, and I’m the bad guy? Whatever.” She rose, starting for the door. “You save the kid. I’ll go for the far less noble aim of saving the world.”

  It seemed such a ridiculous thing to say, and even madder than none of them treated it as absurd. They believed the world needed saving.

  “What’s your plan?” said Liz to Amira’s departing back.

  At the door, she stopped. Without looking at them, she said, “I spent untold hours researching these rituals. I’m sure I have something which will tell us how we can stop this ultimate one, or at least where it’s due to take place.”

  They mulled this over. Liz looked to her pint but resisted the urge to grab the glass. This moment needed focus and decisive action. Had she not been a leading investigator of the police force for many years? Should this not be her moment to shine?

  “We’ll split up,” she said at last, which wasn't as inspiring as she had hoped. “Will and I will save the baby. Amira and Mercury will return to the warehouse. I know,” she said, cutting off any argument, “it seems like Amira can go alone, as the Xyla saving project will need the most resource. Still, you don’t know for sure getting Amira’s research will be safe. It’s at the warehouse and Heidi may have left people there as guards. I say we go two and two, and keep in touch. If you find where the mega demon is going to rise, call us. We can discuss whether we need to go there. If we reach the woods and there are hundreds of infected, we can tell you we need help. How does that sound to everyone?”

  At first, no one seemed ready to speak. Then Amira said, “Not bad. For a drunk.”

  “I’m not a drunk,” said Liz, collecting her glass. “I’m an attempted alcoholic. Now, shall we get going?”

  Forty-Six

  Since meeting in their early thirties, Amira and Mercury had been the closest of friends, as inseparable as twelve year old besties. Both cold, independent and
prone to throwing up walls against the people who cared most about them, they had never discussed their mutal fondness. It had never been an issue.

  Some events cannot help but affect a friendship. Amira had almost died to save Mercury from her demon invader. This didn’t change how Amira felt about her friend, but she wondered about Mercury’s state of mind. Presumably, before his possession and subsequent saving, Richard had been a normal, sweet boy. Over the years, the residue of that monster had warped him into something cruel. He had become addicted to the feeling of the demon’s power and had lived in perpetual cold turkey without recovering. The moment the opportunity to relapse presented itself, he had jumped.

  There was also the issue of age. Mercury knew she was free of Heidi but had no idea what the long term consequences would be. Sitting beside her friend, Amria felt like a parent preparing to have a conversation about responsibility and the birds and the bees, when the daughter was pregnant, but only the mother knew. It was unprecedented.

  “I’ll never be able to repay you for what you’ve done,” said Mercury. “Risking everything to save my life. I don’t even know how to tell you how much it means.”

  Mercury couldn’t read Amira’s mind, or she would have started raving about long lifespans and internal scars. Perhaps, though, she had caught a mental whiff of what Amira had been pondering.

  “You would have done the same for me,” said Amira. “That’s all that matters.”

  “Well, I would have tried. Of course, I wouldn’t have found out about Richard and therefore never would have uncovered how to save you. After a couple of weeks, I probably would have given up and gone back to work.”

  “No,” said Amira. “You wouldn’t.”

  “No,” said Mercury. “I wouldn’t.”

  “We need to talk about what happens next. It might feel normal at the moment but removing a demon leaves scars. It… I’m not sure how to explain it but—”

  “Left, left, left,” said Mercury, and Amira swung into the turn almost too late and broke hard.

  Ahead of them, the path was black and steaming from the remaining blood recently spilt. Across the pavement were scattered the four followers whose wounds had put them beyond recovery. Thankfully, none were moving.

  “We’d better walk,” said Mercury. The pools of blood were avoidable if you could jump between them. But the car wouldn’t get through without the rubber of the tires burning and, eventually, popping.

  Amira wanted to stop Mercury so they could talk about the aftereffects of her exorcism. She knew, if she told her to wait, Mercury would give some lecture about how they should get on because a lot of lives were at stake. This made sense, but Amira wanted to get the conversation out of the way.

  Mercury was already out of the car and moving towards the gate. When Amira was out, the door closed and the car locked, she decided there was a way to handle this delicately. She just had to jog after Mercury and, as they walked towards her research, suggest they discuss something important.

  She took a deep breath. Her legs didn’t work. She shouted, “Richard was nearly a hundred.”

  Mercury stopped, looked back, nodded. “Can we talk and walk?”

  Having had their fun, Amira’s legs decided to go again. She caught up with Mercury, and together they entered the industrial estate. Ahead, the hospital on wheels and Richard’s car were unmoved from their escape earlier. All was quiet. Heidi might have left guards in the warehouse, but Amira doubted it. She might also have taken Amira’s research. This, too, seemed unlikely. She had left in a hurry to reach Kayla and Xyla and to kill Leon. By the time she had achieved all of this, she would have forgotten Amira’s research, if she knew it existed in the first place.

  “So Richard was possessed,” Mercury prompted as they approached the car. “And, as a result, his lifespan was greatly expanded.”

  “Pretty much.”

  “Right, and do we know if Richard was always handsome, or if his handsomeness was a result of the demon? Can I expect to become hotter is what I’m asking? That would be a perk.”

  Amira smiled at her friend. Mercury made light, but Amira could see past the façade.

  “I know you know you’re not responsible for what happened to Fran and Dom,” she said. “An extended life might not mean two hundred years of guilt. It might mean enough time to learn to forgive yourself.”

  “Yeah,” she Mercury. “Also, you’ll have to get old and grey while I stay young and beautiful.”

  “I’ll never look old, and I’ll never be grey,” said Amira. “And using humour to dodge important issues is my thing. You’re supposed to deflect with a subject change or grow all moody and ignore the issue completely.”

  “Oh yeah, my bad.”

  They reached Richard’s car and found it unlocked. Amira grabbed her phone and laptop. Each had more than enough battery.

  Opening the computer on Richard’s bonnet, she logged in and began searching through her files. As she opened her demon research folder, the file list appeared. Over Amira’s shoulder, Mercury watched it stretch on and on.

  “Wow,” she said. “You are incredible.”

  “I know, now hush while I find what I’m looking for.”

  She began searching the files. She knew there was nothing specific, but was sure she had seen something relevant. Something which might hold the key to finding where Heidi was going to perform her ultimate ritual.

  “Living the next 200 years in a state of constant guilt is a real fear,” Mercury admitted distractingly. “I’m guessing that isn’t all either. Was Richard always crazy? Did he always want to be possessed?”

  “Don’t think so,” said Amira, discarding a file and scrolling until she had another likely lad. “Demon residue left him with superhuman strength and speed, though nowhere near as great as during his possession. It increased his life span, and it made him feel empty, like a piece of him was missing. That’s why he was desperate to be possessed again, even if it meant giving himself entirely to the beast, rather than sharing bodies as before.”

  “Sounds awful,” said Mercury. “Don’t think it will be an issue with me, though.”

  Amira didn’t answer. She discarded another file and scrolled and scrolled and, was this it?

  “I think I’ll die when we take on Heidi. Maybe that’s for the best.”

  “I think Liz thinks the same about her,” said Amira.

  “Why?”

  “I don’t know, and I don’t care. But you’re not allowed.”

  “To die?”

  “To die.”

  “Course. I wouldn’t want to waste all the time you spent trying to save me,” said Mercury.

  “Shut up, that’s not why,” said Amira. “I couldn’t go on without you.”

  Amira focused on her screen. This was an awkward moment. She could almost feel the power of Mercury’s stare on her back. Partway down the latest article, she struck gold.

  “Amira,” said Mercury.

  “I knew there was no mention of this mega demon,” said Amira. “But someone had to have tried to rise it before, right? And if they did, there’d be a record, and if there were it would stand out because the ritual would probably be different. See, in every properly set up ritual, there have been three chanters and one host. But look at this.”

  “Look at me,” said Mercury.

  Amira tried to put the screen in front of Mercury. Mercury took it from Amira and placed it on the car bonnet. She took her friend’s shoulders in her hands.

  “I loved Dom and, fucked up as my relationship with my mum was, she was still my mum,” said Mercury. “But no one in this world has ever meant to me what you do. I love you, Amira. I couldn’t do without you either.”

  “Better die together, then,” said Amira.

  “Or live together.”

  “Yeah, and I’ll use so much anti-ageing cream I’ll live as long as you.”

  They smiled. They hugged. After a minute or more of holding each other, Mercury said, “I
bet you’re feeling awkward about now.”

  “I am a shutdown individual. I wasn’t built for this much affection.”

  “Okay, come on.”

  Mercury pulled away and grabbed the laptop. She stared at the screen, at the picture on it.

  “Cripes.”

  “Mega demon takes a mega ritual,” said “Rather than three chanters they use forty-five. Three surrounded by six surrounded by twelve surrounded by twenty-four. Which explains why Heidi wasn’t ready until now.”

  “Wow, did you do that sum in your head?”

  “Shut up.”

  Nodding, Mercury said, “You think she has enough?” She looked to the four dead followers.

  “I think she’ll have contingency,” said Amira. “I think she has enough.”

  “Well, it’s not happening in the woods,” said Mercury. “There won’t be enough room. It has to be somewhere they can fit almost fifty people. Probably a public space. A garden isn’t going to be big enough. I don’t know about—What?”

  Amira had grabbed her arm. She turned to Mercury with widening eyes.

  “No need to hypothesise. I know exactly where it’s going down.”

  “How?”

  “Richard almost killed me there.”

  Forty-Seven

  Bookish, skinny and lacking in confidence, Trey should have been a prime candidate for bullying in his early years. Because of his father, no one dared touch him. Nor talk to him, nor so much as smile at him. From a young age, Trey got used to being alone.

  When he was eight, he took a loose brick from the school wall and used it to crack a far bigger boy’s skull. The big boy had been bullying a little boy. In another life, where Trey was part of an ordinary family, he would have suffered alongside the smaller boy. They would have been friends.

  The brick was the result of a build-up of anger. Some at the bully, most at his situation. His loneliness, the abuse he suffered at the hands of Vicious and Carl and his father. The contempt he received from his sister and mother. He regretted it immediately, but the damage was done.