Bitter Moon

by R. L. Giddings

  There was a crash which made the whole building shake and a shower of glass and masonry fragments flew into the air.

  Kohl had returned to his feet and was about to launch his offensive. Luckily for us, his aim had been off. But he wouldn’t make the same mistake again.

  Anathema stepped up onto the parapet and I grabbed her wrist.

  “What are you doing?”

  She flared her nostrils. “Now that you’ve got his attention it’s the least I can do to distract him.”

  Removing my hand, she turned and dropped off the side of the building.

  I fell back onto the flat roof, trying to make sense of what had just happened. I tried to compose myself. What had just happened? Grasping the brickwork, I levered myself up so that I could look down on Anathema’s body.

  Only there was nothing there.

  Instead, I caught sight of Anathema disappearing between two buildings on the eastern side of the campus. Kohl was giving chase, the surviving demon struggling to keep up.

  *

  When I stumbled out of the Secure Unit clumsy and confused I couldn’t remember how I’d got there. The more I thought about what had just happened, the less sense it seemed to make. Something significant had just happened but it was beyond me to say what it was. My initial animosity towards Anathema had been fuelled largely by her involvement in Silas’ death but now that it transpired that Silas was still alive that had changed. I just wasn’t sure about how I felt. Certainly, I’d been horrified when she’d jumped off the building.

  And what about me? I’d just thrown the most powerful spell I’d ever delivered. I should have been left exhausted by the effort and yet, inexplicably, I felt invigorated. Whilst it was common knowledge that Spoilers like Anathema could absorb a witch’s powers, I’d never heard of one who could revitalise someone in that way. The excess of magical energy she’d transferred to my system was so intoxicating that I found myself nearly overwhelmed. All my limbs seemed to be the wrong length.

  The natural solution would be to discharge some of my energy but to do that would be to advertise my presence and for Anathema’s plan to work it was imperative that I should keep a low profile. No. I was just going to have to get on with as best as I could and hope that my unco-operative legs wouldn’t betray me.

  What worried me now was finding the Novices without bumping into any more demons.

  The walkways looked identical so it took me several attempts to find the right one. Then, suddenly, there it was: the canteen looming over me the moonlight highlighting its roof while the rest of the building was cloaked in darkness.

  I was glad to be away from the Secure Unit and to stand in the cool, anonymous shadows of the walkways. As I stood there I became aware of movement over on my right. I strained to see what looked like two or three dozen dim figures moving back the way I’d come. For a second, I thought that it might be the Novices but then the moonlight caught one and I realised I was looking at a line of hard shells. The demons were on the move.

  I sprinted across to the entrance to the dining hall and then had to stop to catch my breath. The dining hall felt like a huge glass cathedral with long spars of moonlight cutting across the floor. I pushed open the door and stepped inside. There were plenty of dark corners where someone might be lurking but by that point I was beyond caring.

  I ignored the kitchens as a possible hiding place. Hanging all my hopes on what Anathema had told me, I headed straight for the Common Room. It was a big enough space to hold them all plus it only had two entrances; both of which could be barricaded.

  But there was no sign of any barricade when I approached the big double doors.

  It was deathly quiet inside. The chequer-board floor was brightly illuminated by the moonlight coming through the windows. The two pool tables stood apart looked eerily similar to the stone table they’d placed Terence’s coffin on earlier in the day. Over to my right, the various tables and chairs threw myriad shadows across the floor.

  “Hello!” I shouted, my voice cracking. “Anyone here?”

  No answer. I knew that I really should go and explore the dark wedge of shadow over in the far corner, the whole group could have been skulking there, but I hesitated. The thought of one of demons lunging out at me from the darkness was enough to dissuade me. I was starting to have second thoughts about what I was doing. What if the women had already been evacuated and I was just wasting my time? What if they’d been told to stay in their rooms at the first sign of an emergency. Might they all be still sitting up there now?

  All of these things were possible but I was sceptical. Anathema had told me that they’d be here and for some reason I believed her. These women had been through a lot and if experience had taught them anything it was that they could trust no one but themselves. In an emergency, they’d naturally gravitate towards one another so - by that logic - if I found one I’d find them all. I just had to keep looking.

  “Is there anybody here?”

  No reply. I moved over to one of the pool tables, shielding my eyes against the moonlight. There was a dartboard on the wall and next to that a rack for pool cues. Only there were no cues.

  The door to the Student Union was shut and I was wary about opening it on my own. With my heart hammering in my chest, I tip-toed across and listened.

  Nothing.

  I pressed down on the handle.

  A white blur came at me out of the darkness and, as I stepped back, I quickly performed Rite of Protection. There was a flash of purple light followed by the sound of a pool cue clattering across the tiles.

  The blonde woman who had been holding it looked bewildered.

  “Was that a Rite of Protection?” a voice said.

  “Impressive!”

  “It’s alright,” I said, taking a step backwards. “I’m here to help.”

  The blonde woman advanced, her hands raised as fists.

  Then from behind her, “Bronte?”

  There was a sobbing sound and a figure rushed out.

  “Kosi?”

  “Thank God! We thought you were one of them.”

  *

  It took a while for everyone to get over the shock of my arrival. The Student Union offices must have been quite a tight fit to accommodate all of them and I felt the heat coming off them as they flooded out. Their initial sense of relief evaporated when they realised that I was on my own and hadn’t brought a rescue party with me. The women spread out, clearly glad to be out of the office, wafting their skirts and fanning themselves in an effort to cool down. A number eyed me reproachfully. With Kosi’s help, I managed to gather a small group of women who spoke English. Along with these was Nastya, who I’d already met, and the woman who’d come close to fracturing my skull. Turned out her name was Paula.

  “Okay,” she said in her thick Australian accent. “Now you’re here: what’s the plan?”

  “We have to get everyone out of here.”

  “No shit, Sherlock,” Paula leered. “And how do you reckon on doing that? Those little demons are all over the place.”

  “We’re going to make for the west gate”

  “Not going to happen. Nastya here tried to sneak a group out that way earlier.”

  Nastya pursed her lips and shook her head.

  “Ok, but we can’t stay here,” I said.

  “That’s right, if you can track us down then we’re in real trouble,” Paula said. “Looks like we’re gonna have to make a run for it.”

  “What about the East gate? That’s the way I came in.” I said.

  Paula sniffed, “Too far. We’d have to cut across the playing field.”

  “What about the Laundrette?” Nastya said. “We could hide in there. Wait for them to leave.”

  With the mention of the laundrette I felt a twinge of guilt. That’s where I’d left Carlotta.

  “Laundrette’s no good,” Paula said. “You can’t barricade those windows.”

  “Whatever we do we need to get moving,” I said. “We can�
��t stay here.”

  “What about the garage,” Kosi said. “We could hide in there.”

  “What garage,” Paula asked. “I ain’t see no garage.”

  “Right by where we came in.”

  Nastya nodded. “I have seen this also. But the gates – they are locked.”

  They were talking about the Northern entrance; Kinsella had driven past it when we’d first come over. Two big iron gates but I couldn’t remember seeing any garage. Besides, what would be the point of going that far if we then couldn’t get out? We’d just be running into a dead-end.

  “Is there anything in this garage,” Paula asked. “Any tools.”

  Kosi nodded. “There are plenty of tools. I saw them when they were putting the coach away.”

  “There’s a coach?” I asked, incredulous. “Do you mean a mini-bus or, like, a proper coach?”

  “Big bus,” Nastya said, indicating with her hands. “They bring us here in this bus. It is big.”

  *

  Looking back, I’m surprised that we managed to get as far as we did before being detected. Paula decided to lead even though she didn’t know where we were going and I volunteered to bring up the rear. I’d been worried that we’d all have to file back out through the dining hall but someone had discovered a back door leading out of the Student Union offices. It had painted shut but we managed to prise it open.

  Paula tried to get the women to be quiet but with little success. After being cooped up in the offices for so long they were nervous and talkative, trying to assuage their fears. It was understandable, but it was also dangerous. You’d get one of the groups to stop talking only for another group to start. It was starting to annoy me. We had a long way to walk with little idea of what it was that we were likely to encounter on the way. Paula and a stocky African woman both carried pool cues but that was pretty much as far as our defences went.

  I started mentally going through the spells I could call if we were attacked. Luckily for us, the first part of our journey was pretty uneventful. We were walking between two rows of buildings, one of which I thought might be the library. The path was narrow but straight and we should have been making excellent time but we weren’t. The group kept slowing down and stopping for no apparent reason. They had no sense of urgency about them. The women were as noisy as ever and any attempt to shush them into silence was met by even louder counter-shushing so, in the end, I just gave up.

  At the end of this walkway Paula decided to take a right turn and that was when things started to go seriously wrong. Gaps in the line had started to develop primarily because the women were sticking with their friends and so tended to clump together in groups. There was little that I could do about this isolated at the back where I was completely cut off from Paula and had no idea where either Nastya or Kosi were. There was no sense of co-ordination: we could have been walking straight into a trap for all we knew.

  We were walking along a tarmacked road when the group came to a complete standstill. I checked behind me, half expecting to see Kohl step out from behind a parked car but there was nothing. It was only when I heard voices being raised ahead of me that I decided to investigate. Pushing through a knot of women, I saw two African women arguing over a coat. It was cold out and one of them was shouting at the other to take her coat off. Perhaps it had belonged to her initially? I didn’t know and it seemed unlikely that I was about to find out as I couldn’t understand either one of them. They were shouting at one another and then they started to fight over the coat. I tried to get them to calm down but by this time they were past listening.

  As I drew closer, the larger of the two women had grabbed the other one by the lapels and was starting to swing her around. All the time they were screaming at one another. The argument was only resolved when the smaller woman simply slipped the coat over her head. With nothing to pull against the other woman flew backwards into a parked car, setting off its alarm. Then the smaller woman obviously, dis-orientated after being spun around, tripped over a low fence and sprawled across the floor. Everyone started laughing as the tensions of the last few hours began to dissipate.

  It was only when I started to make my way towards the back of the line that I realised that we had a problem. Several people were pointing over at a set of low roofs over to our left. At first I couldn’t see what it was that they were pointing at but then, slowly, figures started to appear. Two demons were pulling themselves up onto the roofs, their thick heads moving backwards and forwards.

  Suddenly, everyone was running towards me and I lost sight of the demons. It was all I could do just to stay on my feet.

  By the time I got clear I could see that one of the demons had leapt into the crowd, pinning a woman to the ground. Its front leg had a complex double shoulder which allowed it to hold her in place while it bit her in the back of the neck. As I ran to help a young girl on my right, was bowled over when a demon crashed into her, the elongated talons of its front legs scrabbling to pin her down.

  My revulsion was so great that I didn’t have time to think. I just blasted it with the first spell that came to hand. A thermidore spell is as nasty a piece of magic as you’ll come across: capable of boiling the blood in your veins. However, because I was rushing, I didn’t get a chance to aim properly and only managed to catch it a glancing blow. That was enough to knock it sideways - releasing the girl - but not enough to kill it. The creature looked stunned with a black scorch mark down one side of its face.

  My attention shifted to the girl on the floor. The demon had hold of her by the neck and was slowly bending her backwards. This time I didn’t want to miss, so I forced myself to take a steady aim.

  I used the breaching spell most often used in blowing open locked doors. And this time it was perfectly targeted: focussing on an area of flesh just under the thorax. It lanced through the creature’s underside and out through its back sending a spurt of yellow fluid arcing into the air. For a moment, it stayed upright but then it let out a squawk and collapsed, a stream of ichor splattering the road.

  The effort of that – two major spells in as many minutes – left me reeling and I could feel my pupils narrowing to pin-pricks. I was out on my feet but I still had the first demon to contend with. I wasn’t sure that I had it in me to conjure a third spell.

  Then, the wounded demon to my left did something I hadn’t anticipated. It ignored the girl on the floor and sidled over to the demon I’d just attacked. It considered its fallen ally for a while, watching as it attempted to right itself. All the time, its head was ticking from side to side as if assessing the situation. In a blur of movement, it flipped the wounded creature onto its back, pinning it down with its fore legs. The attacking creature’s head lanced downwards, shattering the brittle shell of its victim’s underbelly before starting to feed.

  I helped the young girl get to her feet. She took one look at me – her eyes wide with fear – and set off running.

  I sensed the other demons before I saw them. They were congregating at the far end of the road, just beyond the reach of the lights. I didn’t look straight at them, didn’t want to acknowledge them as they slowly started to move toward us. I walked over to the woman. She was wearing a white crew neck stained red with the blood from her neck wound. I took her by elbow and started leading her away. She didn’t look at me, but she was compliant and that’s all that I could hope for. The young girl who’d also been attacked was a long way ahead of us now, racing to catch up with the main body of women who were now some thirty metres ahead of us.

  It may as well have been a million miles. I could hear the chittering sound behind us and couldn’t resist the urge to look.

  The demons were crowding around watching the other demon feeding. One of them edged forward as if to join in but then paused as the one with the one with burn mark across its face crouched to feed. The new demon waited for an opportunity to strike before locking its beak around the scarred creature’s neck. It tried to fight back, attempting to rise up on it
s back legs but its attacker held firm and was quickly joined by three others, all of whom used their beaks to pinion their victim. The demon with the burnt face started to make a peculiar whickering sound and that’s when I decided to turn away.

  I tried to ignore the sounds coming from behind me and concentrate on encouraging the woman I was with to walk a little faster. But, despite my best efforts, she steadfastly refused to increase her pace. By this time, the young girl had been swallowed up by the main group who, if anything, had moved further ahead. I expected to feel something at that point but all that came to me was an icy calm.

  Seconds trickled past.

  The crowd ahead of us undulated then split. It looked at first as if they’d been avoiding a small obstacle but then the thing itself started accelerating towards us.

  I’ve never really tried to picture what Salvation might look like. Turns out, it looks a lot like Carlotta driving a golf cart.

  She approached at speed before veering off and pulling around us in a big, lazy circle.

  “Get in,” she shouted as she drew alongside.

  I clambered into the back with the woman, holding her around the waist. The cart lurched forwards and we were off.

  Carlotta looked back at us and smiled.

  “What happened to you?” I said.

  “I found this round the back of the launderette. Took me a while to get it started. This lot with you?”

  She indicated the crowd we were fast approaching.

  “I’ll explain later.”

  *

  Paula was supervising a group of women who were trying to raise the garage’s shutter when we arrived. Carlotta had zipped past everyone to get us there. The women who’d arrived first were standing around in tight groups and Carlotta had to drive around them. They looked confused and frightened.

  As we pulled up, Paula rounded on us.

  “Where did you get that?” she pointed at the golf cart.

  “Carlotta found it,” I said.

  Nastya and three other women had managed to lift the heavy shutter to waist height but were now stuck. I left the wounded woman in the golf cart and went with Carlotta to give them a hand. The door squealed as we managed to raise it a little higher. Grudgingly, Paula joined us and the thing started to move more freely. Once we were past the half way mark, gravity took over and the shutter flew up. A couple of women sat down on the floor while I stared at the rear of the coach.