“Mason! Did you take my keys again?” someone calls out in the hallway.
The answer is inaudible, but heavy footsteps and the jingling of keys tell us they are coming.
Vicky rubs her hands together and breathes out slowly.
There’s the sound of a key being turned in the lock and the door swings open.
“Go on in,” the officer says. “I’ll be watching, so don’t do anything stupid. No touching each other.” He gives Kale a stern look, too. “Understood?”
Without waiting for an answer, he steps aside.
Vicky tenses as Craig steps into the cell. He’s in full human form and if I hadn’t recognized his voice just now, I wouldn’t have known it was him. His nose looks a little swollen and has some blue spots. His chest looks solid and his arms are huge. His head is still big, but without the orange glow, he just looks like a wrestler.
He flexes his fingers and as a precaution, I conjure a lightning bolt in my hand. If that guy tries to harm Vicky, he’ll get what he deserves. I’m not sure why we’re keeping him alive anyway. It’s obvious that he’s working for the Devil.
As the door closes behind the Snapper, his gaze turns to Kale. Vicky takes a step to the left to catch his eye.
“What do you want?” Kale says in an indifferent tone.
The crab hybrid doesn’t answer.
“Did you come here to gloat?” Kale continues.
Craig’s mouth pulls into a straight line. His hands tremble.
“Well?” Kale pushes. He crosses his arms. “If you don’t have anything to say, you’d better leave.”
“I should,” Craig says. “This isn’t right. I’m sorry, Kale. I’ll drop the charges.”
Kale bends forward on the bed. “What?”
Craig is still staring into Vicky’s invisible eyes. “I said I’ll drop the charges.”
“Are you messing with me? Because I should tell you, I’m not in the mood for jokes.”
“Not messing,” Craig says. “I’ll go now.”
He turns around and knocks on the door. It swings open immediately. Without a word, the police officer closes it again. But just before it falls back into the lock, there is another voice. “Hang on, something’s not right here.”
“What do you mean?” The door opens again. “In there?” The officer peers inside and shrugs. “Looks fine to me.”
The tall man that steps into the doorway gives me the chills. It looks like someone has gone crazy on him with a blowtorch. The smell of burnt skin lingers around him. Large flaps of ragged, red flesh cover his face, arms and lower legs, while his torn, scorched clothes are melted into the rest of his body. His unnatural fiery red hair makes his head look like it’s still on fire.
He sniffs the air.
“Something’s not right,” he repeats.
We all stand very still. I’m afraid that if I take another breath, this guy will hear me.
He turns and raises his arm. “Hey, Craig? Where are you going?”
“To drop the charges,” the Snapper calls back from further along the hallway.
“What? Why?” The burnt man takes off, while the officer – apparently oblivious to the man’s creepy looks - watches with interest.
I quietly walk through the open door so I can see what happens, pulling Vicky along with me.
Craig’s friend stops him before he can walk back to the lobby. “Look at me.”
The crab man turns to face him.
“Just what I thought. Someone has been messing with your mind.”
“I feel so guilty,” Craig mumbles.
“I know, but not for long.”
While my heart pounds in my chest, the burnt man hits Craig between the eyes.
“Hey!” the officer yells as he grabs his baton.
The Snapper staggers back and blinks wildly.
“Wow,” he breathes. His hand shoots up to his forehead and rubs it hard.
“Are you okay?” his friend asks.
Craig’s skin turns bright red. “Did someone just use my own power against me?”
Burnt man scratches the flap on his cheek. “Kale is not capable of that, is he?”
Craig slowly moves his head from left to right. “No, he’s not.”
His friend straightens up. “So there’s someone in the cell with him.”
Finally I snap out of my daze. I point at Kale. “Get him and yourselves out of here. Now!”
Realizing they still can’t hear or see me, I yank Vicky’s arm while I dive back into the cell and pull out my weapons.
D’Maeo and Jeep haul Kale onto his feet and push him to the door.
“Hey!” the officer yells again, louder this time.
But his further objections and actions are cut off when Maël hits him in the head with her staff.
“Sorry,” she says, before turning her attention to Craig and his friend, who are watching the scene before them with expressions of astonishment mixed with anger.
“I’ll slow time so you can get Kale out of here,” she says, slamming down her wand.
As we file out of the cell, the burnt man raises both arms, mumbles something and slams his mutilated hands together hard.
We’re blown back and land in a heap at the end of the hallway.
Kale struggles to get me off of him.
“You’re that guy from the dressing room!” he yells. “Who the heck are you?”
“I’m Dante.” As soon as I am on my feet again, I hold out my hand and pull him up.
“Nice to meet you,” he says, while I pick up my athame and Morningstar. Then he points down the hallway at Vicky and Maël. “Are those friends of yours?”
Vicky takes out her sword. “He made us all visible.”
Kale rolls up his sleeves. “Don’t worry, I’ll take care of him.”
“No!” Vicky and I hold up our hands to him at the same time.
“You try to stay calm. Don’t do anything violent,” Vicky pleads.
He drops his arms. “Fine. I’ll just blend into the shadows.”
I stick up my thumb. “Great idea.”
While he disappears, Vicky and I turn to the approaching men with our weapons raised.
Meanwhile, D’Maeo, Taylar and Jeep appear in the doorway of the cell.
I wonder what happened to Charlie, but as the three ghosts slide onto the floor, several large gel balls fly through the air. They hit the burnt man in the face and he tumbles to the ground. Maël’s wand slips from his hand. How he got a hold of it, I don’t know, but I have a feeling that this man is very powerful.
“Keep hitting him!” I yell at Charlie, as he moves around the corner of the cell with his hands in front of him.
He throws more balls, but Craig, back in his hybrid form, moves in front of his friend and shields himself with his mouth hands.
“Well well,” he snarls, “if it isn’t the notorious chosen one with his friends.” With one swift move of his arms, he tosses Charlie’s goo back to him. “Such a sad bunch. Did you really think you could use my own power against me?”
I shoot him my meanest grin. “We didn’t just think it, we did it.”
His face contorts with anger.
“Don’t move your nose too much,” I warn him, “or it might fall off.”
As predicted, he charges. With my eyes on him, I fling my Morningstar as hard as I can.
The spiked ball hits his crab torso and bounces off without causing any harm. With a curse, I roll sideways to avoid the giant body. Thankfully, Charlie is building a wall of grease between me and Craig. When the Snapper turns, he walks right into it. For a moment his head is stuck.
“Vicky!” I yell, hoping she’ll understand I want her to stab him.
She’s already next to him, swinging her sword. But before the blade hits Craig, a large brick knocks Vicky down.
With a startled cry, I dive past the wall of grease. Vicky lies on the floor several feet a
way, knocked out. But that’s not what stops me in my tracks. It’s the green eyes that stare at me. Although there’s bricks attached to them, instead of a body, I recognize them immediately. “Paul.”
CHAPTER 36
More bricks zoom through the air above my head and Paul, in his brick form, rises up before me.
“I wish I could tell you it’s good to see you, Paul,” I say, meanwhile reaching for my power core.
“Me too,” he answers.
With one arm, and without taking his eyes off me, he grabs Craig by the neck and pulls him out of the grease wall. “That’s what you get when you lose your temper.”
The Snapper shakes him off and grumbles angrily.
“You’re not the one who has to lose his temper, Craig. Don’t forget that,” Paul continues.
“I know. But these ghosts were getting on my nerves.” He lifts his finger to his cheek and flicks some grease off.
“Yes, they’re very good at that,” I mock. “I actually train them to be as annoying as possible.”
Paul narrows his green eyes. His brick face protests loudly. “When did you become so witty?”
With a smile, I haul myself up. “Just around the time when I discovered some of my friends had gone mad.”
He snorts. “We’re not mad, Dante, we’re smart. I thought you’d know the difference, considering your mother is mad as a hatter.”
It takes several deep breaths for me to stay calm. “I think your head has taken too many hits with a basketball, Paul.”
He flexes his brick arms and cracks his neck. “Okay, enough of this useless talking. Back to business.”
Bricks zoom through the air before I can conjure lightning. But they’re not aimed at me. Not yet.
Charlie ducks and shoots grease blindly.
Paul just steps aside to avoid the balls and speeds up his stream of bricks. They are smaller now, but he releases them faster than Robin Hood can shoot his arrows.
Charlie moves, but there are stones everywhere.
I crash one with a lightning bolt, but another one hits my best friend in the head.
He goes down and I aim my next bolt at Paul.
Thoughts tumble through my head at an alarming rate. Is Charlie okay? Why did I never see Paul for who he really was? Where is my Shield? Why aren’t they helping? Can I beat Paul? Should I call Quinn for help?
It’s such a mess in my mind, that the reason why my Shield isn’t helping hits me in the back before I realize what it is.
As I crumble to the ground, the creepy guy with the red hair looms over me. “I sent your friends home. They can’t do much without you, so once you’re out of the way…” He grins manically, which I take as a cue to get up.
But I can’t. No matter how hard I try to move my arms and legs, they’re not working. It feels like they’re stuck.
Paul strolls leisurely toward us, with a smug look on his face.
“You know, I finally see the problem with your triangular shaped head,” I say, mocking the insecurity he used to tell us about.
His grin fades. “Really?”
“Yes. It doesn’t suit that nasty grin. You have the face of a choir boy.”
He looks down on me, while I command all my muscles to move and poke my power core as hard as I can. Nothing happens. Except that Paul takes a giant brick out of his stomach and raises it above me.
“I’m sorry about this, Dante. We did have some good times together. But if you won’t join us, I have to deactivate you.”
Deactivate me? What am I, a robot?
I struggle to hold up my hand, but only my fingers move. “Wait.”
“No stalling, Dante. You’ve lost. Accept it.”
“Paul, please. Don’t you remember all the things we talked about? That we wanted to do good in this world? Together? We can still do that.”
His eyes search my face. “Sure, but I’ve chosen my way to do it. And you’ve chosen another way.”
Energy courses through my body. It’s a slow stream, and a bit faint, but it’s there. If I send it all to my hand, I can hit him right in the heart.
“Your way will kill almost every human on Earth. Maybe even the Earth itself.”
He shrugs. “Well, sometimes it’s better to start over.”
I shoot him some of my charm. You never know what will work. “That’s not what you used to think.”
He tosses his head a bit back in an attempt to get a stray lock of hair out of his eye. “Well, what can I tell you, I changed my mind.” He sighs. “It was nice knowing you, Dante. Have fun in Heaven.”
With all my might, I force my power through my arm. Nothing more than a pathetic spark shoots up. It doesn’t even reach Paul. It extinguishes mid-air and my arm barely moves.
Paul raises his giant brick higher.
Fear clutches at my chest and my mind screams. Quinn! Help me!
I know it’s too late. Even if Quinn responds immediately, he’ll never be able to stop this brick from crushing me. My last seconds on Earth are ticking away.
I wish I could tell you I’m brave. That I look him in the eye or give him one last snide remark.
But I squeeze my eyes shut and hold my breath.
Then there’s a loud “Noooo!” followed by an even louder crash.
I open my eyes. Kale is on top of Paul, hitting him in the face so fast that my former friend doesn’t have time to change his whole body into stone.
“That’s my boy!”
When I turn my head, I see Craig getting to his feet. “Smash his face in!” he yells.
It takes me a few seconds to realize why he’s egging Kale on. This is exactly the kind of violence he has been looking for in the boxer. I have to stop him!
Thankfully, with everything going on in front of us, the burnt man is distracted. Suddenly I can move all my limbs again. I immediately conjure two bolts and hit him and Craig at the same time.
Apparently the burnt man was the reason that none of the police officers came in here during our fight, because as soon as he goes down, several officers round the corner with their weapons raised. “Hold it right there! Get off him!”
Kale doesn’t seem to hear them. He keeps pounding on Paul, who has stopped moving.
Six officers close in on him and when he doesn’t react to their orders, they send fifty thousand volts through his body.
He collapses on the floor and while four officers rush to his side to make sure he isn’t getting up, the other two check on Paul.
More police file into the hallway. The whole precinct is probably here right now.
Someone points a gun at me, and another bends over the burnt man, who is still out cold. Craig is sitting up again, in his human form.
I barely notice any of it. My eyes are fixed on Paul. Even though I know he works for the Devil, I hope he’s okay. I don’t want another one of my friends to die, even if he wasn’t really my friend. I can’t help remembering the good times we had. He can’t be all bad.
The officer next to me is shouting something and it takes me a few seconds to understand he wants me to hold out my hands. Hand cuffs dangle from his free hand. The thought of ending up in prison finally shakes me awake. I can’t get arrested! Kale committed his sin of violence. The demons will be here any minute to kill him and take his soul. I can’t let that happen.
“Lie on the floor with your hands behind your back, please,” the officer says.
I have to distract him.
With a trembling hand I point at Paul. “Is he okay? He’s my friend.”
Just like I hoped, the officer follows my gaze before answering.
With one swift move of my hand, I release a lightning bolt at the far wall and burn a hole right through it.
“What the heck was that?” I yell.
The officer instantly forgets about me and walks to the wall to investigate. Several of his colleagues follow him.
Craig and I exchange a warni
ng look that says ‘Don’t attack me, or else’.
“Dante?”
Quinn’s voice pops into my head.
I get straight to the point. The demons will be here to collect Kale’s soul soon.
“I know, your armies won’t hold them for long anymore.”
They’ve been holding a lot longer than I anticipated.
“We need a way to get Kale out of here. I could daze the policemen, if you take out Craig and…”
He stays silent for so long, that I start to worry. What? What is it?
There’s no response, and Craig is on the move. He’s slowly getting closer to Kale, who is waking up moaning softly.
Quinn? Are you still there?
“Yes, I’m here.”
What is it? What happened?
“That red-haired man…”
I turn my head so fast, everything starts to spin. But the burnt man is still on the floor. He is awake, but still a bit dazed.
What about him?
“Be very careful with him. He is powerful. You cannot defeat him and the demons at the same time.”
Why? Who is he?
“He is the Red Horseman. Bringer of war.”
CHAPTER 37
He is what?
“The Red Horseman.”
Of the apocalypse?
“That’s the one.”
How do I defeat him?
“I don’t know. You must have caught him by surprise somehow, or he wouldn’t have gone down. You’ll need your Shield.”
That Horseman sent them home.
“Yes, but you’ve got a way to summon them now, don’t you?”
Hope flares up in my chest. Of course! The spell is in my book. But there’s no time for a spell now, with all these policemen around and Craig and that Horseman preparing to jump me and Kale.
“I’ll distract them for as long as I can. And you’ve still got Charlie.”
He’s silent for a moment again, before adding, “I’ve filled him in. He’ll help me distract everyone, so you can cast the spell.”
Good luck. Be careful.
“Always.”
I jump to my feet and pull out my Book of Spells. As I take out the piece of paper with the spell on it, everything around me gets incredibly light. Everyone, except for Charlie and I, shields their eyes. Charlie hits the Red Horseman with as much gel as he can, and continues with Craig as soon as he’s trapped. The officers are flailing around blindly, yelling and tripping over each other’s legs.
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