I’m losing, Steven thought. A couple more swings, and I’ll have lost.
“Should have taken the deal, my friend,” the demon said, standing over Steven, holding the ax in front of him with both hands. “You’d have gotten a few years of pleasure out of it, at least. Now your best hope is oblivion. It’s a place reserved for people like you,” he began raising the ax again, “who don’t know their limits!”
He swung the ax down again, squarely into Steven’s chest. Steven felt he might lose consciousness as the cold numbness spread into his lungs and heart.
I stopped Jason’s heart, he remembered. I used something inside him to stop his heart.
“Pathetic,” the demon said, looking down at him. “No idea how to use the power you have. You just walked in here thinking you’d wing it? What arrogance! You deserve to die, you deserve what’s coming to you when I bury this ax in your skull. Remember as you go, I’m going to bury an ax in your father’s skull, too. He’s next!”
Steven’s anger and frustration at his inability to act focused to a single point of emotion, and he felt something click inside him, some shift from defense. He felt a momentum inside him that seemed like a rapidly building electrical discharge. He watched as the demon raised the ax over his head, swinging with both hands, bringing the blade down toward his face. He reached out with his remaining right hand as the ax descended, then watched as the handle leapt back several inches, repeating the same movement it had conducted just a split second earlier.
The demon’s eyes widened as he realized his jumpcutting had been used against him. Steven grabbed the ax handle with his right hand, pulling the blade away from his face. He heard the blade strike the cold floor just inches from his right ear and slide along the surface. He twisted his grip on the ax’s handle, and it pulled free from Aka Manah’s grip. The demon stumbled back, looking down in surprise. Steven twisted the ax in his hand, aiming the blade toward the body above him. The double diamond pattern on his hand was glowing so strongly he could see it through his skin, and he knew he was doing the right thing, that he should trust his instincts. He summoned everything he could think about the demon’s ability to kill – the cold numbness he felt in his own body acting as a catalyst. He amplified that feeling in his mind, focused it, and cast it toward his markings, feeling it pass through them and sink into the ax blade. Then he summoned the same righteous indignation that had allowed him to swing the ax down on his son, and he let the ax fly toward Aka Manah.
The demon reached up to shield himself from the flying blade. It passed through his hand, severing the fingers, and landed squarely in the demon’s chest.
He saw Aka Manah’s shocked reaction as the demon felt the ax enter his skin and slice through him. Steven focused every part of his mind on the blade and the creature’s power to destroy, and watched as the ax blade sunk inch after inch into the demon’s chest. It seemed to go on forever, until the metal from the blade had disappeared entirely into the creature and only the wooden handle emerged. Then Steven imagined all of the hate he had left for the death of his child and focused it into the blade. The markings on his hand began to hurt, radiating an intense heat that burned so hot he wondered how any living thing could stand it. He saw the handle of the ax radiating that same heat. Then he felt a sharp stab of pain, as though someone had run a sword through his palm. That’s what killed my son, he thought. That’s what stopped his heart.
The demon froze. Steven watched as its eyes glazed over. Whatever death was for a demon, it was happening before him, to Aka Manah. The horned body collapsed, falling to the floor next to him.
Steven dropped from the River, relieved to see his limbs intact. He stood, and looked down. Below him was the still body of Aka Manah. At first he wondered if the demon was lying once more, playing possum. He kicked it, seeing if it would rouse. It didn’t move. He kicked it again, harder. Nothing.
I did it, he thought, staring down at the large dark body, slowly gaining confidence that he’d successfully slaughtered the being who’d tortured him and thousands of others. So that’s how you kill a demon.
Chapter Fourteen
Steven was disturbed to see the body of Aka Manah lying on the floor of his living room. He looked up, and saw Eliza and Roy, who were both staring down at the dark body. Eliza raised a hand over her mouth as though she might scream, and Roy looked petrified.
“My god,” Roy said, turning to Steven. “That’s what you’ve been dealing with? That?!”
Vohuman stood and leaned over the body. “Well done!” he said. “I’ve tried at least a hundred times over the past thousand years,” he turned to look up at Steven, “but it took you to do it. Unbelievable, really.”
“Is it dead?” Eliza asked.
“He is,” Vohuman said, turning to Eliza. “And I’d like to make sure he stays that way. That’s where you come in.”
“Me?” Eliza said, taking a step back.
“He needs to be buried somewhere that no one will disturb him,” Vohuman said. “Somewhere that’s monitored and protected. I think you might know just the place.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Eliza said, staring back at the demon with her best poker face.
The demon let out a half laugh. “Every ancient demon knows exactly what you’re doing in California,” he said. “There’s no need to play dumb with me. I’m all for it. And as long as you inter Aka Manah in your graveyard, I won’t cause you any trouble.”
“There are others I’d have to talk to, first,” Eliza said haltingly. “It’s not just me. There are others who would have to agree.”
“Alright, you work on that,” Vohuman said. “We’ll leave his body here until you sort it out.”
“Oh no,” Steven said, “store it somewhere else. I don’t want that thing in my house.”
“Normally,” Vohuman said, turning back to Steven, “I’d leave it here just to punish you for arguing with me. But since you’ve just executed a rather singular enemy of mine, I’m feeling generous.” He turned back to Eliza. “I’ll move the body elsewhere until you tell me exactly where to bury it, my dear, but don’t take long. If I don’t hear back from you within a few days it might return back here in Steven’s house. Or maybe yours. I’m guessing your little boy wouldn’t enjoy a demon body popping up in his bedroom one night.”
“I’ll talk to them and get back to you,” Eliza said.
“And be persuasive,” Vohuman said. “I’ve got my heart set on your graveyard. I don’t intend to go hunting for a new place.”
“Alright,” Eliza said. “I’ll try.”
Roy walked over to Steven and placed his arm around him. “You did it,” Roy said. “I don’t know how, but you did it. I’m glad you came back. I wasn’t sure you would.”
Steven hugged him as he saw Vohuman’s dark fog envelop the demon corpse and the two of them disappeared from the room. He held onto Roy, not wanting the hug to end. He thought for a moment about the deal Aka Manah had offered him, the chance to erase the past and eliminate the discovery of the River from his life. It would have erased much of his father, too.
“I did it by remembering your advice,” Steven said. “Demons lie.”
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Steven rose from his chair and walked to the large windows that faced Elliott Bay. In the distance was the city of Seattle, twinkling in a clear night, the large Ferris wheel flashing patterns of red and white.
“Isn’t it gorgeous?” Eliza said, stepping up beside him, staring out. “Such a beautiful city. Think of all the little things going on over there, so many personal tragedies and triumphs we’ll never know about.”
“I could do with a few less of those for a while,” Steven said, raising his cocktail to his lips and taking a sip.
“Same here,” Eliza said. She heard Roy walk into the room, and she turned to greet him.
Steven, however, continued to stare out the windows at the view of the city in the distance. Some downtime would be nice, he thought.
Some time to spend at Eximere, with Jason. No demons to obey, no responsibilities to anyone for a while. Not forever, just a while. Some time to grieve.
He turned to walk back to the table. They were in a private room upstairs at Signature, a restaurant on Alki beach. It cost him an extra hundred dollars to get the room so they could have a quiet dinner, separate from the rest of the restaurant, but he didn’t care. Eliza had mentioned her desire to eat over here before she left, and he wanted her to have a nice view. He also wanted to talk to her.
A waiter walked into the room and asked Roy if he’d like a drink.
“An old fashioned, make it a double, and keep ‘em coming!” he said to the waiter, who nodded and left the room. He returned moments later with Roy’s drink.
“I guess maybe one of us should be the designated driver,” Eliza said. “I don’t mind. You’ve both earned it, with what you’ve been through.”
“No designated driver tonight,” Steven said. “We’ll take a taxi home.”
“Alright,” Eliza said, quickly agreeing to Steven’s generosity. “Let’s drink up!” She smiled and raised her mojito. “A toast – to Jason.”
“To Jason,” Steven and Roy repeated, raising their glasses. No one said anything after the toast, everyone dealing with different emotions and reactions. Finally Roy broke the silence.
“Well,” he said, “this is a pretty swanky room, kid. All to ourselves?”
“Yes,” Steven answered, “it’s reserved for private parties. It was available, so I took it.”
“Nice!” Roy said, walking around the room and looking out the windows. “Helluva view.”
“Well, I figured we could let our hair down in here, not have to speak in hushed tones,” Steven said.
“Or have to yell,” Eliza said. “That restaurant is pretty noisy down there.”
The waiter returned and asked about appetizers. Roy and Eliza consulted the menu and ordered a couple of items.
“How’s arrangements for the burial?” Steven asked Eliza, after the waiter had left.
“I called Joe,” Eliza said. “Explained what I could. He’s organizing a group for tomorrow night, after I’m home. I’ll be able to tell them more details at that point, see what they think.”
“Make sure they understand you don’t have a choice,” Roy said. “Vohuman could make a lot of trouble for your work if you don’t grant him this request.”
“I agree,” Eliza said, sitting at the table. The others joined her.
“Can I ask you something personal?” Steven said to Eliza.
“Of course,” she said. “And you don’t have to ask before you ask.”
“I know you teach school, part time,” Steven said.
“Yes,” she replied.
“Is there a mortgage on your place?” Steven asked. “On your house?”
“Of course,” Eliza said. “Who doesn’t have a mortgage?”
“Well, you don’t, anymore,” Steven said.
Eliza had her cocktail raised halfway to her lips when she paused and lowered it. “What?”
“When you get back home,” Steven asked, “will you call me and tell me what the payoff amount is, and the lienholder?”
“No, I won’t,” Eliza said, furrowing her brow at Steven. “Why would I?”
“Because I want to pay it off,” Steven said.
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Eliza said. “You don’t have a job, Steven.”
“I’m going to use funds from my savings,” Steven said.
Eliza put her cocktail down. “No,” she said, looking at Steven and still smiling. “No, you won’t. I won’t have you raid your retirement. You’re not rich, my friend.”
“Yes, I am,” Steven said.
Eliza looked at him again, studying his face. Roy was looking too, amused at the conversation.
“You’re what?” Eliza asked.
“I’m rich,” Steven said. “I woke up this morning to a call from my broker. Never heard from him before. This morning he wants to introduce himself to me, anxious to help me select a growth strategy for the massive amount of uninvested funds in my account.”
“Uninvested funds?” Roy asked.
“So, having never heard from the guy before, I get to wondering, so I check my balances – seems I’ve got over twenty million in my cash account.”
Eliza set her cocktail down on the table.
“Twenty million?” Roy asked. “Must be some mistake.”
“That’s what I thought,” Steven said. “So I called them up, trying to get to the bottom of it. There was a transfer from a foreign bank account to mine, completely legit. Twenty million.”
“Jesus Christ!” Roy said, his eyes dropping to the table and shifting from side to side as he tried to comprehend what Steven was saying.
“And I figured, before I give it over to some broker to invest and lose it all for me, I’d spend a little,” Steven said. “I know your house is paid off, dad. So let’s pay off yours, Eliza.”
Eliza kept shaking her head from side to side, as though she was trying to shake water from her ears. “How?” she asked.
“My guess was Vohuman,” Steven said. “He’s got the resources. So I called Victor. He admitted to me he made money one of the links in the chain. He felt we weren’t thinking straight when we went to him for advice, so he threw it in on his own.”
“That’s an awful lot of money,” Roy said. “Vohuman just handed it over?”
“Victor said it was a drop in the bucket to Vohuman,” Steven said, “especially in light of my having eliminated one of his old enemies. Victor said he probably would have paid ten times that.”
“Two hundred million?” Eliza said. “Crazy!”
“I know,” Steven said. “Even twenty million is insane. Try as I might, I’ll never be able to spend that much money before I go. And I have no heirs. So paying off your mortgage, Eliza, is the least I can do. It will hardly scratch the surface.”
“Well, since you put it that way,” Eliza said. “I won’t say no. I’ll just say thank you.”
“It’s me who feels grateful,” Steven said. “Believe me. You got any debts, Dad?”
“A few, son,” Roy said, “but most of my debts are the personal kind, not the money kind, if you know what I mean.”
“I think I do,” Steven said.
The waiter returned with appetizers, setting them down on the table and giving them a rundown on the various oysters that had been shucked as part of their order. Eliza’s face began to scrunch up as he described each one, her face a completely twisted mess by the time he finished.
“Not so much into oysters?” Roy asked Eliza.
“Eeeeewwww!” she said as her face untwisted. It was funny, and Roy began to laugh.
It was the closest Steven had felt to laughing. The discovery of the money that morning had lightened his mood significantly, but even the comfortable atmosphere with his friends couldn’t coax a full-throated laugh from him. He could smile, and join with them in celebration of their victory over Aka Manah, but he couldn’t yet laugh. Jason’s death stopped the enjoyment before it reached the laughter stage. I wonder if it will ever feel alright, he thought.
Eliza reached across the table and took his hand. “It’ll never feel completely alright,” she said, smiling at him.
“We’ll go out to Eximere tomorrow,” Roy said, “after we drop Eliza at the airport. We’ll visit with him. We’ll stay as long as you like.”
Now that Aka Manah is gone, I’m ready to talk to him, Steven thought. Now I know what happened, and I can explain it to him, if he’s there to listen.
“Yes, let’s go out tomorrow,” Steven said. “I’d like that.”
###
Michael Richan lives in Seattle, Washington. He was born in California and raised in Utah.
You can contact Michael at www.michaelrichan.com.
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> The next adventure awaits!
Barbara's new home overlooks the beautiful, dark waters of Grays Harbor. She and her family live so close to the ocean, they can smell it from the front porch. On the outside, the home seems perfect. But inside, Barbara has called on her third priest, and he’s about to throw in the towel. The chilling apparitions in the house are terrorizing her daughters — and the local clergy! — and Barbara is desperate for help.
Steven has “the gift,” and along with his father, Roy, has offered to investigate — but a hired crew of ghostbusters from Seattle are in the way and making things worse. When Steven discovers a strange object in Barbara’s house, he and Roy realize the ghostbusting outfit are about to unwittingly set in motion a series of events that will heighten the family’s horrors.
Grays Harbor is only minutes from Eximere, and Steven and Roy discover things are not normal there either. Large pieces of the strange underground estate are disappearing, and Steven and Roy are desperate to find out why. They’ll have to dig deeper into the mystery of James Unser and the bizarre world he constructed if they’re to save Eximere from oblivion.
Pick up your copy of The Haunting at Grays Harbor at Amazon today!
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Have you read The Downwinders series?
The mysteries of The River continue downwind, where mutated ghosts and creatures inhabit the many caves and mines of Southern Nevada and Utah. Deem and Winn battle an evil force intent on destruction in Blood Oath, Blood River. Pick up a copy today!
By the author:
The River series:
The Bank of the River
Residual
A Haunting in Oregon
Ghosts of Our Fathers
Eximere
The Suicide Forest
The Diablo Horror (The River Book 7) Page 16
