Demons LLC (Damned and Cursed Book 7)

by Glenn Bullion

  "I know you're here," she said.

  Her desire, along with the Ouija board, were pulling the demon back into the world. A taloned, dark hand reached out from the closet.

  Alex could barely control his anger. In what universe did playing with a Ouija board lead to good things?

  The demon reacted fast, surprising Alex and Kim both. It lunged from the closet and landed on top of her, knocking out the candles. The demon's head smacked the bed and pushed it back several feet. The smile vanished from her face quickly. It pinned her wrists down and licked the side of her face, growling the entire time.

  Only then did Kim scream.

  Alex left the spirit world behind and ran across the room. Lowering his shoulder, he tackled the demon and forced it off of Kim. They landed in a heap against the wall. She was a hysterical mess as she jumped to her feet.

  He found it hard to be angry at the demon. It wasn't entirely its fault that it was there.

  It writhed in pain in Alex's grip. Clamping one hand down on its wrist, he placed the other on its cheek.

  "Go home," he said. "And don't come back."

  The demon vanished with one last roar of frustration.

  He looked up in time to see Kim throwing the bedroom door open and escaping, screaming the entire time. She nearly bumped into her parents and brother on the way out, who were on their way in, all wearing pajamas. Jason flipped on the lights.

  "Kimberly!" Donna called. "What's going on? What's wrong?"

  She didn't answer. Her frantic footsteps were all they heard, running downstairs, followed by the front door opening.

  Donna, Jason, and Keith stepped into her room. They didn't see Alex, as he'd vanished into the spirit realm. They did see the Ouija board and candles. Jason approached the board and held one of the candles between his fingers.

  "Oh my God," he said. "What is Kim in to?"

  "Mom," Keith said. "Where did she go?"

  Donna and Jason looked to each other before she turned back into the hallway.

  "Kim!" Donna called, her voice panicked and agitated. "Kimberly!"

  Everyone left the room, leaving Alex alone. He tried to imagine the next steps. A call to the police probably wasn't out of the question. Maybe even a search. It was out of his hands now.

  But he wouldn't forgive himself if he just left.

  Getting a running start, he ran and jumped through Kimberly's outside wall. Gravity worked differently for ghosts. He drifted downward to the ground, as if a parachute slowed his fall. Lights came on, one by one, in the Felder home behind him. They shouted as they searched for her. It would only be a matter of moments before it sank in that she ran off.

  "Alex! Dude!" It was Nate, jumping up and down and waving his arms in the middle of the street. "She ran that way!" he said, pointing. "She just took off, man!" He trotted away a few steps. "Get in your truck! I'll run ahead and try to spot her."

  None of that was necessary.

  The familiar sharp, quick pain ripped through his back. His shirt tore, and his wings unfurled to their full length, nearly twelve feet from tip to tip. It felt good to stretch, like waking from a long nap. The cool air tickled the tiny hairs on his wings, which resembled a bat's. He folded them behind him to shake the sensation.

  It only took three powerful movements to lift him high into the air. He hovered in place just above the Felder home. Flying was always amazing. Even something as simple and mundane as a suburb street took on new life from up in the sky. He could see things from an angle no human could.

  "Another one for the pile," he muttered, mourning the loss of yet another shirt. He looked down at Nate below. "Hey, Nate!" Alex tried to keep his voice down and pointed. "You said she went that way?"

  For the first time since they'd met earlier in the evening, Nate was truly speechless. He stared up at Alex with his mouth hanging open, watching his wings beat against the dark night. Jason ran out of the house and stood on the lawn. He searched for his daughter and called her name, looking up and down the street.

  Alex flew back a few feet and landed on the Felder roof. He wanted to question Nate again, but Jason would hear him. The caring father had learned enough about the supernatural for one night. Alex folded his wings and stretched his arms, trying to get his point across with body language. Nate finally got the message and pointed once again.

  Rising off the roof, Alex gave a thumbs-up and resumed his flight. His wings kept him aloft easily. The wind was just strong enough to give him an occasional break. He held his wings outright, gliding on the breeze. He rose up higher, to get a better view of the neighborhood. One of the many advantages of flying was he didn't have to follow the road. He angled over the houses while keeping his eyes open. Kim was nowhere to be seen. The suburbs were full of trees, blocking much of his view. Maybe Kim was simply catching her breath under a tree. She was on foot, so she couldn't have gotten far.

  He was nearly to the adjacent street when he spotted her.

  Kim was small from the height he maintained, but it was her. It was impossible to mistake the pink pajamas for anyone else. Kim didn't use the street, but instead ran through neighbors' yards. She hopped fences and cut across lots. A dog sleeping outside erupted with barking as she sprinted past its house outside. It narrowly missed her foot as she scaled the fence.

  Alex descended, but not enough to be seen. He was close enough to hear her now, breathing hard as she ran. Keeping up wasn't a problem. He could keep up with vehicles speeding on the highway. Maintaining pace with a teenage girl was easy in comparison.

  Kim rested a moment, leaning against a fire hydrant. Alex hovered in place above her. When she was ready, she took off again. Her pace had slowed; she was no longer sprinting. But she kept a steady jog. She definitely had a destination in mind.

  "Kim," Alex whispered. "Where are you going?"

  He followed her for another five minutes. She hid alongside a house as a police car drove slowly in the road. It was a mystery as to whether the police were looking for her, but Kim wasn't taking any chances. After the car left, Kim moved once again.

  Alex was surprised when Kim ran through the back door of a house. She didn't knock, didn't check to see if anyone was home. The door apparently was unlocked. She simply disappeared inside.

  He circled the house several times while picking out details. There was only so much to see from above, but the house was in the middle of a neighborhood. The lawn was unkempt, neglected. There were no cars in front. The lights were off, but that didn't tell him much. Given the hour, the entire neighborhood was dark.

  It was time for a closer look. Instead of recklessly landing in the backyard, for anyone possibly watching to see, Alex settled on top of a tree. He worked his way down, slowly and carefully. He stole the technique from a documentary he watched on bats. They often used their wings for climbing, and Alex discovered he could do the same. Each wing had a talon near the tip. When he folded his wings behind him, they could almost act as an extra set of arms. He hooked into the tree bark easily and lowered himself from limb to limb.

  Sitting on the lowest tree limb, he studied the house through the leaves.

  The reason Kim didn't knock on the back door was because there wasn't a back door. Most of the windows were also missing. Pieces of siding were torn away, revealing pink insulation. There were no drain gutters, and the water damage the house had absorbed was apparent. The property was one inspection away from being condemned.

  Despite all of that, Alex saw movement in the house. Two teens passed by the window of what used to be the kitchen. A boy and girl, they didn't look much older than Kim. They carried candles for light, and engaged in light conversation. The boy must have told a joke. The girl laughed and playfully pushed him before they disappeared deeper into the house.

  Alex sighed as he jumped down and willed his wings to shrink into his back. The familiar pain came and went, followed by the wind blowing through the holes in his shirt. The holes were so large nearly his entire back was
exposed to the chilly night. He missed the days of spring and summer, when a tank top with a thin back was all he needed.

  Anxiety needled him as he approached the back door. He'd seen enough in his short time investigating the paranormal to know that a condemned house was seldom a good thing. He somehow doubted the teenage couple he just saw were serving tea and donuts. He remembered the last time a case involved an abandoned house. He was helping his vampire best friend, Victoria, investigate a missing person. That missing person was kidnapped by a group of nut-balls that wanted to resurrect Joseph Stalin.

  Alex felt relief as he drew near the house. Not only could he hear conversation and laughing, but he also thought he smelled tacos and marijuana. He stayed away from drugs and alcohol. He'd seen enough crazy things even without external influence. But if he was getting ready to step inside a house full of smoke and snacks, it wouldn't be the worst thing he'd seen.

  Turning on his night vision, he poked his head through the back door, into the kitchen. The inside of the house was just as torn up as the outside. There was still a refrigerator, but it'd probably been years since the house saw power. Parts of the walls were missing, with nothing but rotting studs to ever suggest there were ever walls present. Pipes jutted out of the floor where the sink used to be.

  To the left was the dining room, apparently the source of all the activity. Teens were scattered about. Alex entered the kitchen and stood in the doorway to get a better view. He turned off his night vision so they wouldn't see him and riot in all directions. The thought crossed his mind to simply fade from view, become a ghost, search the house sight unseen. He decided against it. Things would probably go smoother if he simply used words.

  The teenagers were totally oblivious to his presence. Five of them were in the dining room, three girls and two boys. There was no table. Sleeping bags were spread about the room, along with bags of fast food and candles. A trio were in one corner, all gathered around a cell phone watching videos. A duo was in the opposite corner, a boy and girl partially in a sleeping bag. They made out and groped each other, and hopefully nothing more than that. The mix of laughter from the one group, with moaning and lip smacking from the other, didn't mesh well in Alex's mind. When Alex and Cindy tore at each other they preferred for there to be no prying eyes.

  "Uh, excuse me," Alex said.

  The laughing and kissing stopped. The couple in the sleeping bag covered up as best they could, which told Alex they may have had less clothes than originally thought. Averting his eyes, he focused on the trio. They were quiet as they stared at Alex in surprise. The only sounds were of whatever goofy video they were watching.

  "I'm looking for Kim. I thought I saw her run in here. Is she around?"

  The boy with the phone handed it off to one of the young ladies next to him. He huffed as he dramatically stood up, an arrogant smirk on his face. One girl was concerned, while the other giggled. Alex tried not to laugh as the teen approached. He couldn't believe his night was ending like this.

  "Who wants to know?"

  The laugh escaped anyway. Alex lowered his head to conceal his amusement. It wasn't that a fifteen-year-old couldn't be dangerous, it was just that one slap from a wing would send him crashing into the wall. With the condition of the house, the poor kid would probably sail through it.

  "C'mon, man," Alex said. "Let's not do this. I just want to talk to Kim."

  "Mike," the concerned girl said. "Stop. He looks like he could break you in half."

  That wasn't too far from the truth.

  Mike flinched, but he still tried to keep his tough guy facade. He nodded over his shoulder.

  "She's in the living room."

  "Thank you."

  Alex nodded in farewell. The couple exploring each other resumed their journey as he crossed the dining room. Mike rejoined his lady friends, keeping an angry eye on Alex the entire time. The floor creaked as he walked, and he wondered if it was safe for five teens to be in one room at the same time.

  The living room was bathed in darkness, unlike the dining room. The candles from the dining room granted little light, and from what Alex could see, it was no less messy. The conditions were the same. Dank, dirty smell. Holes in the walls. The living room had the added bonus of holes in the ceiling, revealing a view of an upstairs bedroom, and graffiti as well.

  A figure sat on the floor in the far corner. The only thing visible was the bottom half of a pair of pink pajamas, and bare, dirt-covered feet. Alex said nothing as he slowly approached and sat next to her, making sure to keep his distance. He leaned forward, not wanting to put his bare back against the wall.

  They said nothing for several minutes, and he didn't push. He wondered if she was awake, but then she shifted and sniffled a bit. Her silhouetted hand reached up to wipe her face, and she hugged her knees. Alex didn't have to be a first-rate detective to know Kim was crying.

  Finally, she spoke.

  "You knew, didn't you?" Her voice was full of barely-contained emotion. "About me?"

  He cleared his throat. "No, not really. Hell, I still don't know what's going on. But your house has been in the family a long time. No murders, no violent deaths. There haven't been any recent renovations to free any trapped spirits. So either something was brought into the house, or invited. And your room was so cold I almost became a woman in there."

  Kim laughed, a most pleasant sound. But her laugh morphed into crying. She leaned her head on her forearms. Her entire body shook as she sobbed. Alex, not knowing what to do, put a hand on hers. She squeezed it tight. Mike, from the dining room, leaned into the living room with a candle, curious as to the commotion. Alex waved him away, and Mike went back to flirting with his friends.

  "Your friends are worried about you."

  Kim shook her head and wiped her eyes again.

  "They're not my friends. I don't have a lot of friends." She gestured around her to indicate the house. "We just come here to get away from everything."

  "Damn. What happened to hanging out at the mall?"

  "Yeah. This place could use a coat of paint."

  It was Alex's turn to laugh. Kim was quiet a moment, then took a deep breath.

  "Almost a year ago, I went to this place with some old buds of mine. It was a hospital, empty and all tore up, just like you see in the movies. It was supposed to be haunted."

  Alex nodded. It wasn't difficult to imagine where the rest of the story was going.

  "We spent the night in there, had a good old time telling ghost stories. It didn't turn into a slasher movie. Nothing happened."

  She paused for a break. Alex figured he'd take a stab at the next part.

  "But something did happen. Something followed you home."

  She nodded. "Yeah. A few months later, weird things start happening in the house. I figured a ghost followed me from the hospital. So I got a Ouija board to talk to it. It told me it was a girl, named Sandra, who died in that hospital, and she just wanted to be friends."

  Demons loved to lie, to get into a person's head. Kim found that out the hard way.

  "I asked her if she pushed my mom down the stairs, but she said she didn't." Kim tried to fight back tears. "And I believed her. She…it possessed me! It fucking possessed me!"

  Kim broke down again. Alex didn't need to hear any more. All the elements were there for a demon to terrorize a family. Deception, desire, conflict. The demon gained strength in the Felder household, using Kim as a conduit.

  He simply wished he knew what to say to make her feel better. A counselor, he wasn't.

  "My parents are going to kill me, aren't they?" she said, some sense finally returning to her. "Oh my God, they probably called the cops!"

  "I'm sure they did, but I doubt they'll kill you. They love you."

  "Should I burn the Ouija board?"

  "Oh, no. No no," Alex said. "Worst thing you can do. That board's got some charge now. Think of it as a little pinhole into a not-so-nice place. You burn it, and it becomes a window, a beacon
. The best thing to do is hide it, never use it again. After it cools off, say in a year, then burn it all you want."

  She leaned forward, her face finally out of the shadows.

  "How do you know all this stuff?"

  Alex merely winked. A terrifying thought dawned on him.

  "Holy crap. We'd better go. I don't want your parents thinking about burning that board." He stood up and held out a hand. "You ready to go home?"

  "Nope. Not at all." She sighed as she took his hand. "But let's go."

  "Good. I'll let you lead the way. Because, to be honest, I'm lost as shit."

  *****

  The walk back to Kim's home took twenty minutes. Her spirits seemed to lift a little during the trek, but it was apparent she dreaded the inevitable reunion with her parents. Kim told Alex all about how her first year of high school was going. She was lonely, and didn't enjoy being a freshman at all. That was part of why she ultimately reached out to the supernatural world. Alex tried to keep the clichés to himself. He didn't tell her how it would get better, or people would like her for who she was. There were no words he could say to take away her pain. All he could do was hope she'd learned from her mistakes, that the living realm wasn't so bad after all.

  He did his part. Now it was up to her parents to get her whatever help and love she needed.

  He had the feeling she'd be okay.

  Kim was even telling jokes, all the way up until they turned the corner to her street. There were two police cars parked in front of the house. Every light was on. Alex was refreshed at the sight of normalcy. There were no demons or ghosts pouring out of her house. She hesitated as they drew closer.

  "God, I don't want to do this," she said.

  "You'll be okay."

  She stopped in the middle of the street, one house away. They could see Jason and Donna in the living room, sitting across from three policemen. Jason kept an arm around Donna as she cried.

  "Thank you," Kim said. "I know my parents already paid you. But you stayed anyway, didn't you?"

  Alex nodded. "You're welcome. My pleasure."