Reckoning

by R. S. Broadhead

  I heard a shrill scream from outside the door, and I gently pulled it open, wide enough for me to peek out. The sight nearly brought me to my knees. The guys had changed. Their skin was scaly and shiny, their faces were pointed with silted pupils, sharp pointed teeth, and their nose was flush against their face.

  “I’ll be glad when we eat. This shit is gettin’ old!” yelled a guy a few feet from my door. He pulled a layer of skin off and flung it to the floor. The girl sitting behind him in a chair stared straight ahead, acting as if nothing happened.

  “What the hell is goin’ on here?” I asked myself as I shut the door. I called Reese’s phone, praying she would answer.

  “Hello?” she answered on the fifth ring.

  “Everyone, get your guests ready. The moon is at its highest point. It’s feeding time, boys,” a deep voice yelled from outside before I could answer her.

  “Hello? Shayla?”

  “Reese … I need help! I’m at Devil’s Den, and I have no idea what’s goin’ on, but I need you to get here,” I shouted into the phone as someone started beating on the door. Why did I ever trust him enough to go somewhere without my guns?

  “Shayla! Open the damn door, bitch!” came Zane’s voice from the other side. I backed away from it, shoving my phone into my purse as he kicked it in. I shielded my face as pieces of rotten wood hurled toward me. “Why wouldn’t you open the door?” he asked. I couldn’t speak. His face wasn’t the one I had daydreamed about the past several days. It was distorted, like the others I saw, only now that I could get a closer look, I knew what they resembled … snakes. I felt sick to my stomach as I thought about letting him touch me, his lips on mine, and him inside me. It was taking everything I could not to blow chunks everywhere.

  “Sorry, I just … wasn’t feeling well, Zane. Can I have a few minutes? I think I’m gettin’ sick,” I asked while keeping my eyes on the floor. I needed to give my friends at least a little bit of time.

  “Fine, but I’m standin’ in here with you.” I nodded and bent over near the dirty toilet that smelled of old pee. I almost didn’t have to pretend to gag the smell was so bad. “We’ve wasted enough time,” he said after about fifteen minutes.

  “Sorry,” I replied in a small voice. He grunted at me as he pulled my arm, forcing me out the doorway. I would have tried to fight my way out of this situation, but as I walked through the party assessing my options, I really didn’t see a hope for me. They were everywhere, and even if I did manage to get outside, they were there too. My only hope was for some back up to show, but was that likely? There was no telling how long it was going to take for Reese to get here, and I had no idea what was about to happen. The girls that sat around dazed were now being held by whatever guy brought them. They were still unaware of what these things looked like, obviously from their clouded expressions.

  Zane pulled me into the back area he went to get the drink. The liquid in the cups didn’t look like alcohol. It was glowing bright, neon green. A large guy opened his mouth and venom dripped from his pointy tooth into the cup he was holding. He handed it to his girl, and she drank it eagerly, making me once again choke back my gag. Zane looked down at me with an aggravated expression.

  “Where’s your drink?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. I must’ve left it in the bathroom.” He pulled me over to the tap and filled a cup. I watched him do the same as the other guy. He shoved it toward me.

  “Drink up,” he exclaimed, watching me intently. I stared down at the neon green liquid I held.

  “I really don’t feel like drinkin’ anything tonight, Zane.” As soon as the words came out of my mouth, he slapped me across the face. The taste of blood filled my mouth.

  “Told you that one was a handful, Zane,” Asher said as he walked by laughing.

  “She won’t be for much longer,” he replied. “Now drink!” My hand shook as I raised my cup very slowly to my lips. I looked past Zane at a platform. Sitting in a large chair was the biggest one of these things I had seen. He wore a long, dark robe that hung to his muscles. In front of him was a large table, the legs made of moving, carved snakes with the girl from the couch laying on it. Neko slithered across her body. Once reaching her neck, he ripped her throat out. He arched back, a deep growl escaping his bloody mouth as her body jerked in spasms until it lay unmoving. Others then came forward, taking turns ripping her apart. I screamed and threw my cup down. My actions were met by shocked stares from the creatures around me.

  “What is the meaning of this, Zane?” the large one from the chair asked as he stared at me so hard I thought my heart was going to explode. “Did you not give her your venom so she would be oblivious to this?”

  “She’s had an abundance of my venom earlier during intercourse. I don’t know how she sees the reality of what’s going on.”

  “Are you sure she is of pure human blood?”

  “Yes, I’ve checked. She is nothing more than human,” he replied, reaching for me. I backed away, trying to push him away. He snatched my hand, and pain went through my arm. “This is the problem … a protection charm,” he said as he held up Jace’s necklace. The cloudiness started to return.

  “Nooo … please, I don’t wanna die,” I tried to scream. They all chuckled, and the large one sat back down.

  “Bring her forward, I want to watch her death next,” he said. Without protest, I let him guide me to the front. The large one smiled menacingly at me. I gazed over figures standing to his right and left in long black robes, evidently his guards. As my head hit the table, my eye caught a light from the sleeve of one of the guards. The tip of a blade peaked out, causing a reflection of light. Zane let out a scream as the knife embedded into his shoulder, making him drop my necklace on my chest. My sight cleared once again as Reese ran over to me. She jumped on the table, kicking Zane in the face, knocking him back onto the floor.

  “I thought you might need these,” she said, winking at me as she threw down my guns. “Now, get your ass up, and let’s get rid of these things.”

  “Gladly,” I replied, snatching my guns like some old friends I hadn’t seen in forever. She disappeared, slicing as she ran into the chaos.

  “You’re not goin’ anywhere. I brought you here to feed on, and that’s what I’m gonna do,” Zane said as he stood up from the floor. He stared at me as he pulled the knife from this shoulder, and it healed.

  “You’re not touchin’ her again,” came Jace’s voice from behind him. Zane smiled and turned around to face him.

  “How did I know this day would come? So, you think you’re gonna kill me, huh?”

  “Well, I don’t know about killing you, but I’m gonna beat the shit outta you for hurtin’ her. I think it’s time me and you dance, you snaky lookin’ prick.” I wanted to watch so badly. Nothing would have been hotter than to see Jace beat this thing down, but I needed to help. I jumped off the table and started firing my way around the room. Reese was surrounded, so I started picking them off one by one.

  “Thanks for the help, glad to have you back,” she said while thrusting her sword into one’s head.

  “Girls, I think we have a problem,” Steele said, running up to us.

  “What?” Reese asked. “We’ve just about taken care of all of them.”

  “They’re not stayin’ dead though. They’re healin’ themselves and comin’ back. Look …” he replied as he pointed at the one she stabbed in the head. His wounds did exactly the way Zane’s did.

  “Shit … ” I said as we all looked around the room. The creatures we had slain started to stand. We were surrounded, and I was extremely low on ammo. “Sorry I got us into this, guys.”

  “I guess we need to get Jace and run. We don’t know how to kill these things,” Steele whispered. A loud sound from the roof made everything in the room stop and look up. There was a large crash as parts of the ceiling caved into the room.

  “Looks like we got to the party just in time,” someone from the dust said.

  �
�It’s yo’ party and I’ll crash if I want to….crash if I want tooo,” came another, singing.

  “Smell that boys … demons … it’s gonna be a fun night tonight,” came the third.

  “Dude, you don’t know that smell could be comin’ from these fish pussies they were plannin’ on eatin’ in here. Sometimes they make the demons smell better,” came another. The other three started laughing. The demons and us stood anxiously waiting on the dust to settle so we could see our new arrivals.

  “You!” Reese shouted as Zeke’s face became clear.

  “What the hell are y’all doin’ here?” he replied. He looked back and forth between me and Reese. I recognized Hollywood and Harley, but the other tall, stockier guy, I had never seen before.

  “Shayla was almost one of those fish pussies y’all just referred to,” Reese replied.

  “Hey!” I protested. “My junk smells awesome, and if you don’t believe me you can ask Jace or my ex-snake demon boyfriend over there.

  “You dated one of these things? Wow, I just lost all kinds of respect for you. Oh wait, I didn’t have any to begin with,” Hollywood said.

  “Hollywood! We came here to handle business, not to associate with a couple of skirts thinkin’ they can save the world. Now, yeah, they fucked our plan like I’m sure they would their first cousin, but that just means we have to take it back old school,” Harley said. He pulled out a bow and arrow from a bag strapped to his back. He sent a shot whizzing through the air without looking, which penetrated a demon in between the eyes.

  “What the balls? This ain’t your family reunion, bitch,” I replied, shooting him a nasty look over his comment. Each of them pulled out their weapons that included axes and some old looking swords.

  “It’s a waste of time. They just get right back up when they heal themselves,” Ollie said while slitting one’s throat with his knife. Harley started laughing as he sent another arrow flying.

  “Let me guess, your grand plan was to run away and leave a nest of Serpent Demons livid because you ruined their feedin’ time. Can you even begin to imagine what they’d do to this town?” Harley asked Steele.

  “How do you kill somethin’ that won’t stay dead then, dick?” Steele replied heatedly while taking his frustrations out on another demon.

  “First, don’t give up tryin’ and run like a girl. For these beasts here, if you have to use weaponry, it has to be dosed with angel tears.” He pulled out a couple of vials and tossed one to each of us. “Rub it across your weapons if you wanna kill somethin’ and it stay down.” We did as we were instructed and once again started cutting the mob of demons down with the help of our new fighting partners.

  “Shayla, you better take some to Jace. I’m sure he’s enjoying the prolonged beatin’ on Zane,” Reese yelled to me. I forgot about them in my attempt to take some of these things out myself. I ran through the mass hysteria and found Jace, pouring sweat, still trading licks with Zane.

  “Babe, if you wanna make that damage permanent, pour this on your fists!” Jace gave me a grateful smile and quickly rubbed it over his hands. We managed to kill the last few, finally letting us catch a breath.

  “You guys aren’t bad, of course you’re not as good as us, but you’re not bad,” Harley said. A door behind him burst open, and the one that was sitting in the chair came charging at his back with a large machete. Before Harley had a moment to react, Reese used him as leverage and jumped over his head bringing her knife into the demon’s skull. His body hit the ground hard, making the floor shake.

  “Nice,” he said, looking down at the dead demon and back up at Reese as if seeing her for the first time.

  “Don’t mention it. Just don’t ever accuse us of screwin’ our cousins again, or I might do the same to you,” she replied, smiling at him. My brows rose at the obvious flirtation. Steele let out a cough that seemed to break the awkward tension in the room.

  “That was well worth me leavin’ my Call of Duty game for!” Jace shouted as he rounded the corner covered in his blood and Zane’s. “Now for my prize … ” He pulled me to him. His arms felt so good after what I had been through.

  “I’ve missed you. It’s because of you I didn’t die tonight,” I told him quietly, looking into his eyes. Out of the corner of my eye, Reese was trying to shove everyone out the door to give us a moment alone.

  “How?” he asked confused.

  “I found your necklace. It did somethin’ to me. It made whatever mind games he was playin’ vanish. They said it was a protection charm.”

  “I’m glad Fuzz let me buy it for you. It was his, but I had it engraved on the back. I don’t know what I would’ve done if I would’ve lost you. I’m gonna need you to promise me we’ll be together forever,” he said.

  “I promise, Jace. Now, can I have a kiss?” He leaned in and placed his lips on mine.

  “There’s more comin’ later on, but we need to get your ex-boyfriend’s funk off of us first. Hmmmm, the things you do to me,” he yelled, pulling my hand and leading me outside.

  “How did you know what kills those things?” Steele asked Harley.

  “When you’ve been huntin’ for as long as we have you know what can kill pretty much anything.” How long could they have hunted? They looked a few years older than us, but I didn’t say anything.

  “Sorry guys, I was a little occupied handling some long overdue business in there, but I’m Jace,” he said as he stuck out a hand to Hollywood. He looked down at Jace’s hand and smirked.

  “I didn’t say I wanted to meet you, did I?” Jace’s face went from shocked to pissed off.

  “Dang, sounds like someone hasn’t gotten laid in so long they got cobwebs wrapped up in that dick bush,” he replied. Everyone started laughing except for Hollywood.

  “Fuck this. I’m goin’ back up to the bikes. I got better things to do then hang out with some … ” He was struggling not to finish his sentence.

  “Hollywood … don’t,” the guy I didn’t know said. “Maybe you do need to go up there and clean those cobwebs. It might improve your attitude.” Hollywood didn’t say another word but shoved past me and disappeared into the thick woods.

  “Freeman, he’s just tired of waitin’, like the rest of us, and you know that,” Harley said.

  “Yeah, but the rest of us have better ways to cope with the waitin’,” Zeke replied, pulling a joint from his pocket and lighting it up.

  “Hell yeah, let me hit that,” I said. This was the perfect thing to help take the edge off after what I just went through. He handed it to me, and I took a deep drag.

  Zeke started coughing uncontrollably and pointed up at the sky. “Harley, Freeman … look at that. It looks like … I must be so high right now. I’ma have to tell Mo’ Sack that was great shit to get me this high after one hit.” Wait a minute; I thought he said he didn’t know Eight Ball. I knew he was lying! They both looked up and their faces went eerily ghost white.

  “Let’s go, guys. That’s the sign. Do you think y’all can get this place cleaned up? All you have to do is burn the bodies with wood wet with holy water,” Harley said. Hollywood burst through the woods.

  “Harley, did you see? It’s about damn time,” he screamed.

  “Yeah, Zeke’s high ass was the first to see it. We’re comin’. Nice workin’ with you. Maybe we’ll meet again one day,” he told us. They followed Hollywood and vanished into the trees.

  “Are we actually gonna burn all these bodies?” I asked, feeling exhausted all of a sudden.

  “I’m voting Savannah, Dax, and the others come do it. Hell, we’re the ones that had to fight all these things, twice at that. They didn’t bother pickin’ up the phone when I called,” Reese said.

  “Agreed, now let’s go home and have some cuddle time,” Steele said. We started walking toward the beat up little road Zane took down here, but Jace and I were stopped short by Steele’s voice. “Are you comin’, Reese?” Looking back, I caught sight of Reese standing alone, looking up at the sky.<
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  “Huh? Yeah, I’m comin’.”

  “Do you know what they were lookin’ at up there?” I asked.

  “No … no idea … we should think about takin’ some of these bikes because no one is gonna be using them now,” she replied as if trying to change the subject. I laughed at her, agreeing, but I couldn’t help thinking she was hiding something from us.

  MY EYES FLUTTERED OPENED as I stretched the stiffness from last night’s fight. My body ached. I stared up at the ceiling trying to become fully functional, but it seemed to morph into the vision from last night. The way the stars were a lined made an image that sent shivers throughout my body. Up until last night, I had only seen it in my dreams … the dreams that had her in them. All I saw was the blue tattoo on the inside of the wrists belonging to the woman. It had been quite a while since I dreamed of her. Those guys seemed to know exactly what it was we were looking at. I needed to talk to them if I was going to get to the bottom of this conundrum.

  I eased up the fluffy comforter and started to slide out of the bed. A grunt from Steele, who lay shirtless sleeping, made me stop in my tracks. He looked so peaceful. I didn’t want to wake him. Once I was sure he was still sound asleep, I crept across the floor until I stood at the foot of the bed. I couldn’t help but to smile at the way his hair was an absolute gorgeous mess. I headed to the bathroom in the hall, only pausing briefly at my closet to grab my sneakers. I dressed quickly before anyone else woke up.

  Silently, I tip toed through the apartment, making sure to avoid the squeaky parts of the floor. Jace and Shayla decided to stay the night since it was so late, and Shayla acted too shaken up to leave. I gently opened the door, glancing at the two of them curled together on the sofa pull out. I sprinted down to my Civic and drove to the bike shop we visited months before. I honestly had no idea what my plan was when I got there. These dudes were going to think I was a head case driving here to ask them about something in the sky, but I knew they saw it too. No matter what they said, there was no way to deny that. I hoped they would be more open since I came alone.