by Lincoln Cole
She turned and ran down the hallway away from him. She went past the little emergency beds with their curtains pulled closed. She passed one that was only partly closed and inside she saw what looked to be a dead woman lying on the hospital bed.
Debra was running harder than she had in her last fifty years and her muscles strained under the effort.
And then suddenly she wasn’t moving.
It felt as though she was were running through thick water, and then the water changed form to ice. She froze in place, and it felt as though her entire body was encased in some hard substance. She couldn’t feel anything on her skin, but that didn’t change the fact that she couldn’t move.
Her body was still midstride, she was just no longer in control of it.
A little girl, maybe twelve years old, stepped out of one of the emergency bays in front of her. Like the boy, she as dirty and disheveled and maybe a few years his junior. If she cleaned up she would have been quite pretty with a round face and blue eyes.
She stared up at Debra, frowning, and then glanced past her to where Jeremy was standing.
Debra struggled. The grip on her was like iron, and it surrounded her completely. She couldn’t do anything except strain her muscles, and the helplessness of her situation caused her to sob once more.
She heard footsteps walking up behind her, and then Jeremy stepped past. He was eyeing Debra’s frozen form midstride. He stood next to the little girl.
“I’m impressed. Well done, sis.”
“The cops are arriving,” the little girl whispered, still staring at Debra. She looked scared and worried, almost on the verge of crying herself. “I think someone called them.”
“Of course they are. I called them.”
“What?”
“That was the plan. Let me know when news vans start arriving and we can get this show on the road. How are the others coming along?”
“It’s taking some time for the new ones to adjust, but many are up and moving already. Only one lost control of its vessel.”
“Did you…?”
She winced. “Yes. I took care of it.”
“Perfect,” Jeremy said, smiling up at Debra. “Lucky for us, we now have another vessel to try out. We’re almost ready to start the main event, sis: time to get this show on the road!”
Chapter 14
“What on earth is happening here?” Niccolo asked, leaning across his seat to look out Arthur’s window.
They drove up the road slowly toward the emergency entrance of the hospital. Arthur stopped well short of the parking lot which had been quarantined off by police vehicles. Officers were milling around and talking to one another.
There were four police cars and a swat van blocking the parking lot entrance. A television crew was also parked nearby, though the police had strung up crime scene tape to keep them at bay.
A tall blonde woman stood just outside the barricade on the far side of the parking lot with a microphone in hand. She was speaking into a camera and broadcasting the story out to doubtless many different sources. An event like this, it wouldn’t be long before her coverage of the events went national.
If it hadn’t already.
“Judging by the police response, some sort of attack. It looks like we’ve come to the right place,” Arthur said.
“You think Jeremy is in there?”
Arthur drove off the road onto a grass knoll and turned the car off.
“I would bet anything on it. This is his endgame.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s been collecting organs to be used in a summoning ritual, and this is where he plans to use them. The perfect place to punish the hospital that turned Leopold into an outcast.”
“That makes no sense,” Niccolo said, shaking his head. “None of the people inside there would have been involved in what happened to the Bishop.”
“I doubt that Jeremy cares,” Arthur said. “There’s only one way to find out, though. Let’s go.”
“How are we going to get inside?” Niccolo asked. “The police have the place on a complete lockdown. You don’t think they’ll just let us in, do you?”
“Leave that to me.”
He climbed out of the car into the cool winter air, mind working through the situation and prioritizing options. There weren’t a lot of them.
“We need to deal with the reporters,” Arthur said, pointing at the blonde woman. “If she manages to send out a live feed it will make this a lot harder to keep hidden.”
“The truck is broadcasting,” Desiree said. “See that tower on the top? That’s what forms the uplink and sends the signal.”
“What are you thinking?” he asked, glancing at her.
“I bet if I cut the right wires it’ll shut down the uplink.”
“How will you know which ones are the right ones?”
She shrugged. “When I run out of wires, I’ll know I cut the right one.”
He laughed. “Do you think you can get close to it?”
She nodded toward the police cars and officers. “I am guessing that right now they have other things on their minds.”
“Alright then. Nothing dangerous, though. Got it?”
“Got it.”
“Do you need my help?” Niccolo asked.
She shook her head. “Nah, this will be easy-peasy. I will borrow a knife if you guys have one?”
Arthur slipped a pocket knife loose and tossed it to her. She deftly caught it.
“Don’t electrocute yourself.”
“I’ll do my best.”
She walked away from the hospital, circling around to come up behind the van and out of sight.
“Ready?”
Niccolo let out a shuddering breath and nodded.
“As I’ll ever be.”
They walked across the freshly cut grass toward the crime scene tape.
Arthur slid his badge free again as he headed to the barricade. He recognized one of the officers from the church a few days earlier and whistled to get his attention. The officer noticed him after a few seconds and came over to the yellow tape to talk.
“Wait here,” Arthur said, heading over to speak with the officer.
The officer was overwhelmed by the entire situation. Arthur felt for him, though he was pretty sure that things would just get worse for this poor kid before the night was over.
“The FBI got called in for this?”
“Yeah.”
“You don’t think it’s related to what happened at the church, do you?”
“We don’t know anything yet, but we haven’t ruled anything out,” Arthur said. “What’s going on here?”
“We honestly don’t know. A hostage situation, though it’s impossible to tell exactly what is going on inside. A kid called about fifteen minutes ago and said that someone was holding them hostage inside. He said that it was an older man and he had a gun.”
“No identity of the suspect?”
“No. Right now we’re being cautious and waiting for orders. Is the FBI bringing in a hostage negotiator? Are you taking this situation over?”
“Not yet. Is your CO planning to breach?”
“Not right now. We have swat on standby and all of the entrances are covered, but so far we haven’t been able to make contact by calling inside. No one in the hospital is talking.”
“No one?”
He shook his head. “We called twenty different phones. No answers.”
“How many hostages are inside?”
“Best estimate is around twenty people total, give or take. No one has reached out with demands yet, though, so it’s all just speculation at this point.”
“Thank you,” Arthur said.
He nodded at the officer and then walked back over to where Niccolo was waiting.
“What’s going on?” Niccolo asked. “Is it Jeremy?”
“It has to be. He said a kid called them. Twenty bucks says he called the news station, too.”
“What is he doing
?”
“Right now he is biding his time. This is exactly what he wants: a standoff. The longer the police wait to breach, the more people are going to see what happens. We really need for Desiree to cut that feed.”
“You think he’s summing more demons?”
“I think he has twenty civilians inside who are being turned as we speak.”
“He will use them to attack the police.”
“The police will have no choice but to use deadly force, and the entire incident will get international attention. It’ll be impossible to completely cover this up.”
“They can just call it a shooting or an explosion,” Niccolo argued, shaking his head.
“Not when they see what the little girl can do. Enough people will see that to force them to ask questions. Jeremy’s plan is to get enough eyeballs that we can’t cover this up.”
“So, what do we do?”
“I don’t know,” Arthur said. “We need to find a way inside and put an end to this. Do you think this place has an unlocked side door?”
Niccolo didn’t answer him. He stared over Arthur’s shoulder, frowning. “I think we’re too late.”
Arthur followed his gaze toward the emergency room entrance of the hospital and saw that the sliding door was opening. The cops exploded into motion, hiding behind their cars with guns trained on the doorway.
“Hands up!” one of the officers shouted. “Come out slowly and keep those hands in the air.”
For a long while, nothing happened. The doorway stood open and waiting. Soft waiting room music spilled out into the cold night air. Occasionally one of the officers would fidget.
Nothing about this was right. He beckoned for Niccolo to follow and started walking over toward the police cars. They ducked under the yellow tape.
After about two minutes of silence a man crept into sight just inside the entrance, hands raised up above his head.
“We’re unarmed,” the man shouted. “Civilians!”
“Keep your hands up!” the officer shouted again. “How many are with you?”
“Fifteen!”
“Walk toward us. Slow and steady. Where is the kidnapper?”
“Still inside. He’s injured.”
The man started walking out of the hospital toward the police cars, hands held squarely up in the air. Behind him came a stream of other people.
Fifteen demons against ten unassuming and unprepared police.
“Crap, “Arthur said.
“Do you think…?” Niccolo started to ask. “Did Jeremy turn them?”
Arthur headed quickly over toward the barricade, scanning the group. They moved like civilians, but they were too organized. In the middle of the group, he saw, were Jeremy and a little girl.
Arthur slipped his tranquilizer gun free just as the first of the civilians made it to the line of police cars. One of the officers moved around the front of his car. He slid his gun away and patted the man down.
“Where is the man who took you all hostage? Is this everyone?”
“This is all of us,” the man said. He kept his hands in the air while the cop moved from one leg to the other.
After a few seconds, the officer cleared him and moved on to the next woman in line. That first man went past the barricade and was met by a paramedic and brought to an ambulance to be checked out.
The rest of the officers kept their guns trained on the group, but Arthur could see that many of them were relaxing. Two swat team members had a quick conversation and then headed into the hospital.
Niccolo stepped up beside Arthur.
“What is Jeremy doing?”
“Spreading them out,” Arthur said. “Lulling them into a false sense of security. Six cops now and two swat. They are outnumbered and don’t even know they are under attack.”
“We need to stop this.”
“We do,” Arthur said. “Ideally without getting shot. The last thing we need is to be the distraction that starts the attack.”
“Then what do we do?” he whispered.
Jeremy was studying two swat team members who were huddled behind a police car and carrying heavy weapons.
Jeremy was digging his way into the mind of one of the men. Both officers were holding shotguns aimed over the back of the car and wearing full body armor. The civilians were being scattered around and directed to various ambulances, mixed into the group of first responders.
Suddenly, Jeremy smiled. He burst out laughing.
“Showtime!”
“Oh no,” Arthur muttered.
Arthur raised his tranquilizer gun up. One of the officers shouted when he spotted the gun in Arthur’s hand, and several other people turned to look his way.
Including the little girl.
It didn’t matter though, they were all too late: Arthur squeezed the trigger.
Or, at least, he tried to.
He suddenly couldn’t move his finger. Or his hand, or arm, or any other part of his body. He was just locked in place, like he was paralyzed. He fought against it, struggling to squeeze the trigger and fire the dart. He could feel his muscles straining and his hand started shaking under the pressure. He put everything he had into it. He moved his finger just enough to squeeze the trigger. He heard the twang of the dart as it fired out of the barrel of his gun, heading directly for Jeremy’s neck.
Arthur let out a hiss of satisfaction. It was over.
Only…
The dart stopped moving. About ten feet in front of Arthur’s outstretched gun it simply stopped flying, hovering in midair and frozen.
Then, it dropped to the ground.
“Uh oh.”
Suddenly his feet were no longer on the ground.
◆◆◆
Niccolo watched Arthur go flying through the night air. He flew about four feet off the ground careening across the parking lot and slammed into a nearby car, hard, and then fell onto his side. Niccolo couldn’t even tell if he was still conscious.
Or alive.
Everyone in the area stopped when Arthur went flying, frozen in place in shock. Everyone that was, except for one of the swat team members. Jeremy was staring at him, a smile on his young face. Suddenly, that armored man swung his gun to the right and pointed the barrel at the face of the swat member standing next to him.
The man pulled the trigger and the gunshot echoed across the parking lot. At that range, even with the face mask covering him, the man’s head exploded into bits of brain, blood, and skull fragments. The gunshot rang echoed into the silence.
And then chaos erupted.
Jeremy’s demons attacked the nearest target. Some went after police officers, screaming and snarling as they punched and kicked. Others went after civilians, scratching and clawing at their faces.
The police tried to respond to the sudden onslaught with batons and pepper spray, but there were only six officers left. The swat team member that Jeremy was controlling chambered another round, turned, and blew one of the remaining officers away.
More shooting erupted. An officer drew a baton and swung it at a civilian. His hit landed, but the woman just kept coming, snarling and vicious. She dove at the officer, clawing at his face, and he screamed in panic.
Another man bit the arm of another officer and blood ran down his chin. The officer screamed and tried to pull loose, and a chunk of arm fell to the ground.
Jeremy stood in the center of it, smiling as he surveyed the devastation. He spotted Arthur’s prone form, and his smile only grew.
“Glad you could make it!” he said, walking over and kicking Arthur’s shoe. Arthur didn’t budge.
Seconds passed, though to Niccolo it felt like hours. He couldn’t see Desiree, Arthur was down, people were screaming and shouting and punching each other.
Suddenly, a police car lifted off the ground. It flew about thirty feet through the air before smashing into an ambulance, knocking both vehicles on their sides and creating huge dents and rifts in both.
People screamed and scattere
d, panicking. The officers watched the car in awe, but the possessed civilians didn’t even notice. They were hyper-focused only on doing as much damage to the police as they could. A man wrestled the gun free of an officer and began firing wildly.
Niccolo saw the little girl waving her hands in the air. Her face was a mask of concentration as she turned her attention to another car. More gunshots started to bark in the area as desperate police officers finally turned their guns on the civilians.
All of it was being caught on the news crew’s camera.
Niccolo slipped his tranquilizer gun out of his pocket. He only had three shots, but he realized he had to do something. The remaining darts were in the car behind them, which felt like a million miles away. He didn’t know what to do or who to shoot. He didn’t know how he could stop this madness.
“Her!” one of the officer’s screamed, his voice ripping through the onslaught. “She’s doing it! Shoot her!”
Niccolo glanced over and saw the man crouching behind his police car. Two civilians were lying on the ground around him.
This was the officer who had started shooting them instead of continuing to subdue them, he realized.
Blood was streaming down his face from a cut and his eyes were full of fear and confusion. They were also, Niccolo saw, focused squarely on the little girl standing next to Jeremy.
She was focusing on another car. It was only a few inches off of the ground. When she heard the shout and saw the officer staring at her she lost focus and the vehicle collapsed back down to the ground with a loud thud.
The officer’s pistol came up.
Jeremy tried to stop him.
Niccolo raised his tranquilizer gun.
They were both too slow.
The officer pulled the trigger and his shot rang through the night.
Chapter 15
Jeremy sized the cop mentally when he saw him aiming his gun at Megyn. He lashed out viciously, ordering him to drop the gun. It fell to the ground with a clang. Just as suddenly as Jeremy took control, though the connection was severed. The cop slumped over, a dart sticking out of his forehead. When Jeremy glanced over to where the dart had come from, he saw that the priest had been the one to shoot it.
