The Cost

by R. W. Holmes

  Suddenly and without warning, the pink-haired woman slammed on the gas and rammed the front gate with her SUV.

  “This is exciting!” Zinerva cried as Emily and the other vehicles filed onto the lot behind the SUV.

  'I should be terrified' Gael thought to himself. 'Why aren't I terrified?'

  Emily slammed on the brakes, coming to a halt a mere ten feet from the warehouse's enormous, rusted iron sliding doors. The other vehicles did the same a moment later, and everyone filed out of their cars so that they could take cover behind them.

  'Everyone's very organized' thought Gael. 'I don't even know where to stand...'

  “Gael!” snapped Emily. “Where the hell is your head right now?”

  “Honestly at this point, I'm thinking I should just have Zinerva blow the door down” replied Gael. “But you all might want to be quiet, and-,”

  “BLOW IT UP!” the pink haired woman screamed madly.

  “HELL YEAH!” Zinerva cried as she leaped up on Emily's car.

  “Hey! That's a rental!” snapped Emily.

  “I don't know what that means!” bellowed Zinerva.

  The 'group', diverse as it was, looked on in stark amazement as Zinerva burst into a myriad of multicolored flames and hovered up a foot over the vehicle.

  “Someone gonna explain what's happenin' here?” asked the businessman.

  Zinerva tensed up, every muscle in her body flexing as she reached out to flex all nine fires of Hell. Then, she threw her small, unassuming arms forward and willed the fire and fury of Hell itself down upon the woefully unprepared door before her.

  “YEAH!” shrieked the pink haired girl, her hands raised in worship of the torrent of multicolored flame that spilled forth from Zinerva's arms.

  The door never got a chance to be blown off its hinges, because Zinerva's gout of flame seared a hole straight through the two inches of iron that comprised it. Cries could be heard from within the warehouse as Zinerva maneuvered the beam around and carved out a large, square hole one foot at a time.

  “DEMONOLOGIST!” the pink haired woman screamed at Gael. “TEACH ME TO SUMMON A DEMON!”

  The troll beside the woman growled indignantly and lightly smacked the back of his summoner's head.

  “So, uh, little monstrous flame girl creature...” the leprechaun said shakily. “How's it looking inside the warehouse now?”

  Zinerva frowned as the smoke cleared and a few pairs of shoes and melted remains could be seen laying before a large, red-hot, and slightly warped steel shipping container.

  “There's a giant metal box in the way” said Zinerva. “But, uh, the door guards aren't anymore.”

  “Aren't what?” asked Emily.

  “Anything” said Zinerva. “They're gone.”

  The businessman stood up from behind his car to take a peek and chuckled to himself. “Oh geeze, it's like a cartoon in there!” he said in amazement. “There's just shoes!”

  “Come on” Emily said as Shay made the two of them invisible. “I'll go first, watch for my signals.”

  The pink-haired woman and the businessman signaled for their fae to follow as they charged in after the sound of Emily's footsteps, while Oscar and Dover hurried over to Gael expectantly.

  “What are you doing?” asked Dover.

  “I think we're supposed to keep watch for their backup” replied Gael. “Zinerva's best in a big, open area, you know? No friendly fire. Also, I have no idea what I'm doing.”

  “It's true” said Oscar. “They're too fresh for this kind of work. One poorly placed shot could put Grim out of business. Come on, Dover. At least we know our rear is in good hands.”

  Zinerva snickered violently to herself as Oscar and Dover went after Emily and the others, leaving Gael to turn to her in complete bewilderment.

  “His rear!” she blurted out giddily. “It's in our hands!”

  “You have an exceptional gift for not taking things seriously” mused Gael.

  “I mean, yeah, but I don't think you take things seriously either” replied Zinerva. “Everyone always acts 'different' when things get crazy, but we're always the same. Do you think there's something wrong with us?”

  Gael frowned. “Yes” he said plainly.

  “Well stop!” snapped Zinerva. “This is a human thing, isn't it? Worry about not having a problem.”

  “People are different from the majority for a reason, Zinerva” said Gael. “And I'm... really not afraid of the consequences.”

  “What, you mean dying?” asked Zinerva.

  “Yes.”

  “Okay” Zinerva said with a shrug. “I'm not afraid of oblivion, and that's way scarier than what happens to you. I was ready to go before you called me up from Hell, and I'll be ready to go when all of this ends.”

  Gael's frown intensified as he slumped down to sit on the cold, hard gravel comprising the ground. “Shouldn't I worry for other reasons though?” he muttered aloud. “So I'm okay with whatever happens to me, fine. Shouldn't I care about what happens to Emily then? Or you?”

  “Uh, the most 'good' thing that could ever happen to me has already happened because of you” said Zinerva. “And, uh... Okay, I'm going to be a little blunt with this, but you don't really 'like' Emily yet.”

  “You don't know that” said Gael.

  “But I do” insisted Zinerva. “I'm the smartest person you know, and I think about things too, okay? I think about all of them, Gael. All of the things. You said you thought of me as family, but why? And then it hit me: I'll keep coming back.”

  “That's not-,” started Gael.

  “Don't insult me” hissed Zinerva. “I see things from every side, even if I don't make it obvious. You only ever had your grandma, and your abandonment issues broke new ground when you found that someone dying was just as legitimate a way to leave you as any other. You're the type of nut who thinks that defending his grandmother from the people of your shitty hometown will somehow make her come back.”

  Gael suddenly rounded on Zinerva and wrapped his hands around her neck, a crazed look taking root in his eye.

  “No! No, stop!” Zinerva gasped. “It's my nature! I got carried away!”

  Gael's hate-fueled scowl intensified, but his grip loosened nonetheless.

  “You see?” Zinerva added hoarsely. “That's a problem. We should-,”

  “Someone's coming” said Gael, before the realization hit him. “We were supposed to check in with Argyle exactly for this...”

  Zinerva hopped up atop Emily's rental and scanned the road they'd come in on. A pair of black SUVs, their windows heavily tinted, were rolling down the road towards the warehouse at an incredible speed.

  “What if they're ours?” said Zinerva.

  “Then someone should have come out and told us there would be more backup” replied Gael. “Take a shot the moment you think they're too close to swerve.”

  Zinerva nodded and willed her mantle of multicolored flames back into existence. The two SUVs were still moving far too fast for her to take a confident shot, but she knew where they'd be driving in from, she knew they'd be turning, and she knew getting out of the way wouldn't be an option.

  “Here we go!” Zinerva cried out excitedly. “Anger and Violence, Big salvo!”

  Twin orbs of yellow and purple flame rocketed up along Zinerva's back, before leaping off of her shoulders and soaring at the opening in the warehouse's surrounding fence. The first SUV swerved, but slowed when it struck the still-standing fence near the already busted gate and was consumed in a fiery explosion.

  The second vehicle stopped, its driver evidently kicking things into reverse, but not moving fast enough when Zinerva seized the moment and fired another salvo.

  Moments before the explosion, the back of the SUV opened up, and a creature neither Gael nor Zinerva had ever seen or heard of rocketed out of the back to safety.

  It was roughly six feet tall, and had a bizarre, tube-like body that tapered down to a foot wide at each end, but was almost three feet
wide at the center. All manner of appendages splayed out from this body, from several fleshy, insectoid-shaped legs at its base, to equally insectoid-arms and leather wings at its center, and up to a series of tubes and stalks at its top, some of which sported eyes, and others that did things Gael's future nightmares could only guess at.

  “I'm not okay with that” said Zinerva.

  The creature spread its wings, proudly presenting its seven foot wingspan, and took to the air.

  “I'M NOT OKAY WITH THAT!” Zinerva screamed.

  Gael grimaced as Zinerva focused for the power of all nine flames, and then fired at the creature.

  It didn't move. Instead, the creature merely stopped midair and let Zinerva strike it with her brilliantly devastating nine-flame fireball. But nothing happened, the explosion came and went, and only an ominous blue flash revealed any information about what kept the creature from sustaining absolutely no damage at all.

  “That's a forcefield!” Gael exclaimed knowingly.

  “How do we beat a forcefield?” asked Zinerva.

  “Zinerva, no” Gael said in horror. “You don't understand, we haven't invented personal forcefields yet. That thing is more advanced than we are!”

  Zinerva stared up at the flying eldritch horror and frowned. “That doesn't tell me how to beat a forcefield.”

  “Run!”

  Zinerva scowled and started to say, “I can beat-, AH!” before being yanked off the car by her arm and unceremoniously dragged towards, and then into the warehouse.

  “What the hell are we doing!?” Zinerva cried out in alarm. “WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO BREAK MY ARM!?”

  “Only space ships have forcefields, Zinerva” Gael stammered feverishly. “The bigger the flash on impact, the stronger the forcefield, and that one was as strong as the ones we power with nuclear reactors on militarized spaceships!”

  “GAH! STOP!” Zinerva cried out, finally wrenching herself away and looking around herself long enough to realize that they were in the center of the warehouse and surrounded by dead R'lyehans. “I still don't know what that means” she continued, ignoring the bodies around her.

  “It means a laser strong enough to reduce this whole fucking warehouse to ashes might be enough to pop it” said Gael. “Can you do that, Zinerva? Can you reduce the whole building to ashes?”

  Zinerva frowned. “I mean, I could try...” she said uncertainly. “I'm pretty sure it would kill me, but that's never really stopped one of my plans before.”

  The businessman and his leprechaun came around to investigate the noise then, and spotted Gael and Zinerva arguing in the middle of the warehouse.

  “What the hell are you lot doin'!?” screamed the leprechaun. “What if someone comes!?”

  “SOMEONE HAS COME!” Gael and Zinerva bellowed back wildly.

  “There's a spindly flesh barrel forcefield monster outside!” added Zinerva.

  The leprechaun narrowed his eyes in bewilderment at Zinerva, but the businessman knew better.

  “That sounds like an elder thing” he said fearfully. “Come on, we need to call the others.”

  Gael and Zinerva nodded and began running over, but a mere second before they reached the businessman's side, the elder thing barreled in from a nearby window and crushed the businessman beneath it.

  “ROGER!” the leprechaun screamed in horror.

  The elder thing rounded on Gael, Zinerva, and the leprechaun then, its five eye-stalks peering over them quizzically. Then, it extended its wings again and prepared to charge.

  “STOP!” screamed Gael, the palm of his freshly cut hand thrust out at the elder thing in desperation.

  The elder thing froze, and each of its five eyes narrowed angrily at Gael.

  “Sh-Shit!” the leprechaun hissed fearfully. “Emily! Debra! Grim! SOMEONE, PLEASE!”

  The elder thing audibly growled a slippery, gurgling, whining growl at Gael as it shook in place and tried to break free of whatever bizarre force Gael had used to restrain it.

  Emily and Shay rounded a shipping container then. “The area is clear, what's wr-,” she started, before setting eyes on the elder thing for the first time.

  “Oh my God...” Shay muttered in horror.

  “Gael, do not let that thing go!” snapped Emily.

  Gael said nothing, his mind too focused on holding down a creature so ancient and powerful that it threatened to fry his brain for trying too hard.

  “Look at what he did to Roger!” the leprechaun exclaimed in horror.

  The pink-haired woman, her troll, Oscar, and Dover all rounded the shipping container Emily and Shay had a moment earlier and joined the others in the slightly more spacious center of the warehouse.

  “Holy shit! He's got an elder pinned!” the pink-haired woman, Debra, exclaimed excitedly.

  “This isn't good” said Oscar. “We're all dead the moment that thing gets free.”

  “Maybe all of us together can break its forcefield?” said Zinerva.

  “No, it's impossible without nuclear ordnance” said Emily. “The R'lyehans have six of the things with them, and we figured that out back when they had seven.”

  “How is the demonologist even doing that?” Grim, the troll, said gruffly.

  “Ugh... I don't know!” Emily mumbled fretfully. “Damn it, we need an elf. With one of these held in place, teleporting inside the forcefield might have been an option.”

  “No, that's been tried” said Debra. “Elder thing forcefields keep out everything.”

  “Deactivate...” Gael managed.

  “Gael, no!” snapped Emily. “Don't push yourself yet, we haven't finished thinking about this.”

  Gael slowly, agonizingly, craned his head to look at Emily. “Run.”

  “Gael, what are you-,” started Emily.

  “Zinerva” Gael sputtered next. “Carry me with you. Wait for the call.”

  Zinerva grinned and hopped up and over onto Grim's shoulder, before whispering something into the troll's ear.

  “What?” Grim queried confusedly.

  “Elder... thing” Gael rasped. “Deactivate... your... forcefield!”

  The elder thing slopped, gurgled, and sputtered spittle as it audibly fought the command thrust upon it, and in the end, its ancient biology and superior mind won out.

  Gael collapsed, dead on the spot as the strain ripped his soul from his body, but Zinerva and Grim were ready. Like a bullet, the troll scooped up Debra in one arm, Gael's body in the other, and leaped atop a nearby shipping container and fled for dear life.

  “Remember!” Zinerva shouted at the troll. “When I disappear, you have to st-, I ACCEPT!”

  The troll stopped as Zinerva vanished, content with their hiding place, but also because he was supposed to when Zinerva disappeared.

  Meanwhile, Oscar and Dover ran off in the same direction Grim had, whilst Shay, Emily, and the leprechaun went the opposite way. The elder chose to pursue Shay, Emily, and the leprechaun, but when it rounded the next corner, it saw only the leprechaun, and quickly lost sight of him a moment after.

  Back on the other side of the warehouse, Debra looked to her troll for answers.

  “What are we doing, big guy?” asked Debra. “Walsh bit it, didn't he?”

  “The imp told me he was probably going to die” replied Grim. “She seemed unworried.”

  Cries erupted in the distance as the leprechaun, Emily, and Shay were left to fend for themselves. Shipping containers were knocked about, and the leprechaun's maddened, Irish voice called out angry, unintelligible obscenities at the elder thing.

  Zinerva soared back into reality then, her body colliding with the warehouse wall as she failed to maintain her balance.

  “Move!” she screamed as she hopped atop Gael's body and thrust a small, white, warmly glowing orb back into his chest.

  Gael's eyes snapped open, and the familiar pain of his lungs' ignored cries for air prompted him to inhale in a sharp and dramatic fashion.

  “Shit...” he muttered with
a wince. “I need a moment to rest for before trying that again. What's happening?”

  “No idea” replied Debra. “But can you teach me how to do that?”

  Fifty feet back the way they'd come, the leprechaun was busy distracting the elder thing by making himself appear everywhere at once. To the elder thing, every inch of its three hundred and sixty degrees of vision was filled with images of the leprechaun taunting it and then ducking out of sight.

  In reality, the leprechaun was actually hiding just over a 'wall' that was three shipping containers thick with Emily and Shay.

  “He'll just start ignoring my illusions soon” said the leprechaun. “If we're going to run for it, we need all the time we can get. It's a long way from here to the cars.”

  “I don't think we should run” replied Emily. “Gael is going to try again, and-,”

  “Gael!?” the leprechaun exclaimed quietly. “That loon is dead!”

  Emily and Shay exchanged uncomfortable glances, before Shay cleared her throat and said, “He's done this before.”

  The leprechaun glared at Shay unamusedly and asked, “Are you telling Seamus O'Hara that your friend does in a few seconds what took Jesus Fucking Christ three days?”

  “Okay hold on, that language is not appropriate!” snapped Emily. “And... it's not the same. It's-,”

  “No no, forget it!” snapped Seamus. “Tell me what we do when that walking pile of sick decides I'm not worth chasing? How do we distract it then?”

  Emily and Shay exchanged looks once more, this time nervous and unsure, until a familiar call to battle saved them from their complete absence of ideas.

  “NOW!” Gael bellowed. “BACK TO THE CENTER!”

  Seamus grimaced and focused, his vision projected through every illusory image of himself that he'd created. He meticulously went through and made every single one vanish, save for one, which he had trip in the elder thing's line of sight before sprinting out into the relatively open center of the warehouse.