Amber
Page 21
“Stoney, come down. There’s a demon up there.”
Chapter Twenty-one
Demon Horde
Stoney looked down at me from the tower and shouted back, “Hey, I’m fine. I met someone. You remember Kelly. He’s here and says once the concert is over, he’ll never leave the commune again. In fact, Kelly’s coming back with us when the concert is over.”
The foul demon repeatedly licked Stoney’s face and stretched the fleshy bars spanning the cavernous mouth. Behind the restraining strips of flesh, it gnashed its teeth together, barely missing the flicking tongues.
“Stoney, look out,” I screamed. “Look beside you. It’s not Kelly, it’s a demon.”
By the stage, the crowd all turned toward me. They parted, making a path for a security guard who climbed down from the stage and hurdled over the security railing. His knees popped, and I heard bones breaking. He fell forward and glared at me on all fours. Claws for hands and spikes protruding from his arms and legs, he crept toward me. Reaching up, he ripped the human face away, exposing its six eyes and fangs. The demon roared. I froze.
“Move! Run away.” Dark commanded.
I turned and stumbled into the crowd of people behind me. They didn’t budge. They glared at me. Their heads vibrated, blurring their features. When the motion stopped, they all had the same gaping teeth-filled maws. I cringed.
“Draw yourself into me.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Remember what Phoenix said, I’m not completely separate from you yet. Draw yourself into me.”
“Can I do that?”
“You can try.”
I concentrated on Mr. Dark, but it became difficult to think of him while my parents stared at me from the staging area. I gasped as I watched them change slowly from human to demon form. I heard the cracking of bone as they snapped their knee joints backward. All around me, one person at a time fell forward onto all fours and crept toward me. Others climbed the tower-like cockroaches heading toward Stoney.
“Try harder.”
I closed my eyes and willed myself to merge with Mr. Dark.
“Hurry!”
I opened my eyes in time to see a clawed hand drawback and swipe directly at my face. It passed through me. I glanced down, and there I stood, a shadow version of me.
“I did it. We merged.”
“Don’t get cocky. This is serious.”
The demon creature roared, but something muted the blaring. Everything around me appeared dim. I stood in a shadowy fold somewhere between light and utter darkness. It made me feel small and distant. The demon repeatedly clawed at me, but not one of the powerful blows made contact.
“Now climb up the metal bars.”
I reached for the railing and my hand passed through it.
“No. Glide up. Will yourself up the scaffolding.”
I leaned over onto the metal and focused on moving upward. I skittered up the bars similar to the way Dark dashed into a corner. When I reached Stoney, I had no idea what to do.
“Give him a glimpse of what you’re seeing.”
“How?” I asked.
“Reach into his mind.”
I stretched my hand out to him. As I expected, it literally passed through his skull. I willed my vision of this place through my arm and into his head.
“What’s this supposed to do? Nothing is happening.”
“Now, look inside your mind. Explore all the recessive corners you usually ignore.”
While reaching out to Stoney, I searched my mind like Mr. Dark said. My mental scan, like psionic fingers, felt through my consciousness for something out of place. Flashes of memory—places, events, smells, and sensations flooded over me as I floated through the synapses of my mind. I rummaged through the aether that made up who I am. In the center of my consciousness, stood a framed photo of me. I paused admiring it; I had never looked better. The image was exactly what I thought I should look like. Nothing sent up warning signals.
“Go deeper into your psyche. Use the photo, your self-image, as a doorway to a deeper part of your mind. Hurry, you don’t want to fail Stony like you did Mr. Carter.”
I focused my thoughts on my self-image and stepped through the photo, passing through to my subconscious. There I resumed my search. I had somehow found the ability to create a mental-pass: my mind touching, searching, and exploring the hidden resources of my secret-self; the person I am, but don’t want to face. This mental-pass moved over a sensitive corner. I flinched. There in my subconsciousness existed a fragile, tender recess—too painful for my psychic touch to put pressure upon.
“Bingo, you found it. Press on that part of your mind.”
“No. It hurts. It feels raw; it feels like a wound.”
“Press it. Don’t wait. Do it now.”
I did, and Stoney blinked before vanishing. “Where did he go?” I asked.
“He’s okay for now. These creatures can’t harm him where he went.”
Did you send him away?
“No Arland, you did. Now find the others.”
I scurried through the crowd as easily as I had glided up the scaffold. Demon after demon tried to gnaw at me. Each jab and bite passing through my shadowy form. Across the field, the demons piled one on top of the other and merged into one gigantic demonic monster. With each demon it absorbed the thing bulked up. It mutated into a bald, three-eyed mountain from hell, fifteen-feet tall. Its arms reached to the ground, where it lumbered along on its knuckles. Fingernails like broken glass tipped each digit. Its mouth slightly extended into a mock-muzzle, and its jaw could dislocate far enough to swallow half a man. The resulting beast stood fifteen feet tall and turned dark as night. It started running toward me, passing through people just as Mr. Dark and I had done.
“Oh no, we’re in trouble now. The big one can rip us both to shreds. Hurry, find Roger.”
I ran toward the hill where I left Jimmy and Rose. Off to my left, Roger sat playing in a puddle, covered with mud and slime from head to toe. He stood laughing before he ran and slid through the muck and crashed into other people like bumper cars at a fun park.
The giant shadow beast reached for me.
“Merge and melt.”
“I can’t. I don’t know how.”
“Think about melting like a hot stick of butter and give over to me. Hurry, kid!”
I instantly sank into the blob shape, and for a moment, even I had no idea where Dark had taken me. The giant demon-beast looked one way and another, searching for me. My shadowy-self ascended from the blob shape, appearing beside Roger. I reached out to him, and with my fingers through his skull, I forced my vision of the demons through my arm and into his mind. Roger went wide-eyed and gaped. Twisting in one direction and then another, a horrific expression on his face. Then I dived deep into my own mind for the tender place in my subconscious.
“That’s it. That’s the trigger we’re needing. Press on it.”
I pressed on the hurtful part. He vanished.
“Now for Jimmy.”
“And, Rose too.”
“Arland, Rose is still being held captive by the Sheriff’s men.”
“Then who is—”
“It’s a demon.”
“Can you take me there faster in the melted form?”
“Do you trust me?”
“Now is not the time to talk about trust.”
“Then, focus, melt, and merge.”
Instantly, Dark and I became one. When I resurfaced, the first thing I saw was Jimmy biting into a worm-filled sandwich. I blinked and for a moment the thing sitting next to him was some kind of insect and woman hybrid with five arms and no legs. It turned toward me and hissed through its tooth-ladened mandibles. Without hesitation, I reached into Jimmy’s head and meditated—searching within—I found the same trigger that had revealed my vision and touched it. Instantly Jimmy disappeared. The creature sitting on the blanket went insane, thrashing and clawing at me. One claw made contact before Dark dem
aterialized my form; every other raking blow passed through without connecting, but not this one. My left arm ached, but there was no time to hesitate. The shadow beast crested the hill.
“Dark, take me to Flower.” In my excitement, I think I yelled.
The next instant, I arose from the blob shape standing between Flower and the bearded man. Reaching up to her head, I stood in shock. My hand didn’t go through her like it did with everyone else. All I managed was to slap her forehead.
“What’s happening to me? I need to reach into her mind.”
The insect creature leaped at me, clawing at my arm.
I jerked back. The claws didn’t pass through but grazed my flesh. I jerked away from the searing pain flooding across my left forearm. Blood ran from four-inch-long scratches and dripped blood onto my shiny shirt and vest. Totally unarmed, I turned toward the mauling creature, and bravely screamed, “Back off.”
To my surprise, the thing stepped back, inhaled deeply, and hissed a gale of demon spit in my face—Its breath foul enough to raise the dead. Maybe my unexpected bravado caught it off guard, but for whatever reason, it hesitated enough for me to refocus.
“Concentrate harder. They know I’m here and they are trying to separate us.”
Flower kept dancing, totally unaware of the supernatural havoc playing out amidst the crowd of hippies. She turned to me. “Why did you hit me in the head?” She took my hands. “Dance with me.”
Making physical contact with Flower rejuvenated me slightly. The gashes on my arm began to heal. Then I looked up as the creature drew back two of its five arms. With flared claws, it prepared to hammer down on me.
I closed my eyes and concentrated. Flower’s hands passed through mine and I reached out to her head. Focusing my vision clearly in my mind, again I forced the image of the demons through my arm and into her mind. It was time I found the trigger deep inside myself. With each pressing, it became more painful than before. I gritted my teeth and when I touched it; she vanished.
Futilely, the creature continued to rip at me. The giant demon lumbered up and materialized. It towered over me while the spider-demon went ape-crazy, flaying and clawing everything in reach. Its claws gashed into the legs of the giant demon-creature, making it bellow in pain. In a frenzy, the demons began ripping each other apart. Blood and pieces of rotting flesh splattered on my shirt, vest, and face.
Behind the gory skirmish, more demons advanced. With a roar, the giant pierced the insect-demon in the chest. Its massive claws opened cavernous wounds, and the five armed hellspawn fell limp. A horde of tiny bugs emerged from the wounds and scurried up the giant’s legs and torso. They found their way into its mouth and slowly crawled down its gullet. The victorious demon’s eyes flamed with yellow fire, and a deafening roar erupted from its gaping mouth. It shook like a wet hound before turning on me.
There I stood in solid form, with no idea where my friends had gone—all alone facing this fortified giant from hell.
Chapter Twenty-two
Purgatory
There I stood. I had followed Dark’s instructions and sent my friends away. Where didn’t matter. Anywhere was better than them being ripped apart by the berserk minions of Ishtar. I felt Mr. Dark’s presence fading. I pleaded, “Don’t leave. This thing will kill us.”
“I can’t keep the connection. They are pulling me away. Do something.”
The giant shadow demon picked us both up and squeezed. I could hardly breathe.
I reached into my consciousness and found the painful trigger. I didn’t have anyone to reach out to, so I focused only on the trigger. The pain became intense, so sensitive my mental-pass caused me agony. I hesitated, not knowing what would happen if I touched it without reaching out to someone.
“You better make it quick. Remember, you die and I die too. If they drag me away, then I can’t protect you. I feel our connection tearing. They’re ripping me apart.”
Before Dark finished talking, I pressed the trigger, and the world shook. My vision blurred. I closed my eyes. The clatter of the crowd and the roar of the demons faded to silence.
I felt like something tore me apart, and while I was still conscious, it glued me back together. A hot, searing pain ran over my skin and I found myself gripping the edge of the van’s middle seat and staring at a road sign. It read: Welcome to Blue Eye, Mo. Population one hundred and twenty.
I glanced around. Everyone was accounted for and in the van exactly where they were supposed to be. Stoney had it pulled over onto the side of the road. He leaned over onto the steering column and Flower sat wide-eyed in the shotgun seat. Roger, covered in mud, sat beside me and Jimmy huddled, legs to his chest, in the far back. An eerie silence filled the car.
I quietly focused my thoughts, “Dark, are you there?”
No reply—silence echoed from the recess of my mind where his voice usually came from.
Finally, I spoke, “I think I had another vision, but this one was—” I stopped short as I looked at Roger, then down at my arm. Three scratches, not yet completely healed by Flower’s touch, seeped blood from my ripped flesh. I looked from person to person who sat staring back at me. I glanced down at my stained clothes splattered with demon guts. “I thought it was a dream.”
Flower spoke up, “I don’t exactly know what it was, but it wasn’t a dream. We all experienced the same things.”
“No dream—I’d compare it with a visit to purgatory,” Stoney said.
“Where?” I asked.
Stoney replied, “It’s a place neither in Heaven nor Hell. Some people, like the writer Dante, consider it a spiritual mountain with ten levels or towns, each noted for a specific sin, but no one knows where it exists. Still, I seriously think we were there.”
I insisted, “It felt like one of my dreams.”
Roger pulled a piece of demon meat off my fringed leather vest, and said, “No, it actually happened. Don’t ask me how, but it did.”
Jimmy had the most horrified expression on his face. “Dude, I kissed a demon. A butt ugly, French kissing demon with two tongues.”
Stoney replied, “Buck up. You survived and surviving is everything right now.”
Jimmy’s eyes were wide and scared. “I’ve seen some freaky shit in the last couple of days, but that was sick.”
Flower said, “The power of minions or demons didn’t make us experience a physical realm. This took nothing less than high angelic prowess, possibly an archangel.”
“You’re right,” Stoney agreed. “Even though she is very capable of wreaking death and destruction on this mortal plain, transfiguring us to an alternate reality is beyond anything I’ve ever heard of. Ishtar couldn’t do something like that on her own. She must have channeled her master Lucifer to perform a superior kind of supernatural phenomenon.”
“It didn’t have to be Lucifer,” I said. “It could have been another angel—two or three, maybe.”
Flower got a faraway look, “Ishtar really doesn’t want us to get to Blue Eye. We must be on the right track.”
“It doesn’t matter what the winged witch wants, it’s too late—we’re here,” I said.
“Okay, we’re here. But where do we start?” Jimmy asked.
Stoney suggested, “How about the library. It’s as good a place as any to look for something, and they should have maps of the town going back generations.”
Flower agreed, “Then the library it is.”
I stripped off my shirt and vest before tossing them under the seat. Thankfully, I was wearing my Bruce Lee T-shirt underneath the shiny one and my pants weren’t too gross. I certainly looked more presentable than muddy Roger. There was nothing he could do without a good sink and some clean water. I moved to the edge of the seat to keep from getting slimed; if Roger didn’t get antsy, I’d be fine.
Stoney must have been freaked out by what happened just as bad as the rest of us, but he bravely put the van in gear and pulled out into the meager traffic heading into Blue Eye.
Our brig
htly painted VW van wasn’t exactly inconspicuous. It screamed the hippies are in town as it rolled down the streets of little Blue Eye, and we got more than a few stares. Stoney drove it into the county library’s gravel parking lot. It was an old red brick building with a dozen steep, concrete steps leading up to the front door. I had no idea what era it came from, for all I knew they could have built it before the Civil War. Out front, a recently added sign read: Temporary Residence of the Stone County Public Library - Our New Location will be here in Blue Eye at 138 State Highway EE.
He put the van in park and no one attempted to get out. I think we were all too shaken up and needed a few minutes to come to terms with what happened to us. Even Roger who sat beside me dripping with wet mud appeared content to do nothing but ponder and stare at the old building.
Flower eventually asked, “How did you bring us back? Exactly how did you know what to do to send us back to our reality?”
“I didn’t. Mr. Dark knew. He shook me enough to see what was going on around me,” I replied.
Stoney spoke up, “the only one of us who had the vision to see through the enchantment was Arland. If it wasn’t for him, and Mr. Dark, then we would be enjoying the Woodstock concert until Ishtar spread death across the planet.
Roger replied, “And, that would be the end.”
“I’m sure, Dark watched out more for himself than for us.” Flower’s statement sounded a lot like a question.
“No, actually, he surprised me,” I admitted. “It was his idea to snap you guys back from the wherever.”
Flower pulled her eyebrows together and showed concern over my answer. I let it go. What was there to say? For once, Dark did the right thing.
Roger said, “Next time you talk to your dark side, tell him thank you for me.”
“Can we talk about something else, please?” Jimmy insisted. “This is freaking me out. I want to forget the whole thing ever happened.”