by Lincoln Cole
His arms ached from swinging the sword, and his feet throbbed where the broken glass had cut into his bare skin. Each step he took left a bloody trail on the floor, but he didn’t mind the pain. Loved it, in fact, and let it wash over him. Just feeling the pain brought joy because that meant he could feel something. So much time had passed since he’d experienced any senses at all.
Arthur looked out at the approaching demons. Many of them he knew personally. Knew how dangerous those ones were, and even with his sword in hand, the Hunters wouldn’t stand up long against them when they attacked.
The trio had bottlenecked the demons to the window with decent effectiveness, but as they became wearier, it would become more and more difficult to hold them at bay.
Worse still, the ground of the shop had split apart under their feet. He stepped back, avoiding one such rift, and turned to face Frieda. “What’s going on?”
“The portal created the rifts,” Frieda said. “But it has closed now.”
“What does that mean?”
Frieda hesitated, chewing her lips, and then said, “The ground will collapse like a giant sinkhole.”
“That sounds bad,” Dominick said. “Is that bad?”
Neither of them responded.
Across the street, the town hall building crumbled as entire sections fell into the rifts. It made a shuddering roar as it fell apart and disappeared into the world below.
“We need to move,” Frieda said. “It won’t take long before this building falls too.”
“What about Abigail?” Arthur asked. “Where is she?”
“We don’t know,” Dominick said. “But it’s over. There is no going back.”
Arthur didn’t want to believe that. Even if the demon had taken control of her, no way could she have gone, gone.
Right?
“No, she can’t.”
“It’s over.” Frieda stood behind them and helped the other man to his feet. “We lost, Arthur. I’m sorry. Abigail has gone. If we don’t try to leave right now, we’ll go too. The portal closing gave us a chance, and we can’t afford to miss it.”
Arthur didn’t have a good response but knew in his heart that Frieda had called it right. Even if Abigail overcame the demon, if they didn’t leave immediately, then they would die regardless. He felt fine with dying, and in fact, had experienced death for a long time already, but he didn’t want the other three to share the same fate fighting for a lost cause.
Arthur nodded his agreement. “We should go and, at least, make the attempt.”
“We can leave out the back. Our car is parked nearby.”
They edged toward the back of the shop, attacking any demon that came close, and moved in a line. The door, though locked, proved no obstacle for Dominick, who broke it open with the hilt of his knife.
The street behind the shop stood empty, which came as a relief. Frieda and the other man—Arthur assumed that was the man who had saved him—headed out toward the car. She half-carried the guy as they went, and he seemed thoroughly rundown and beat up. Arthur didn’t know if he was a new Hunter or someone else, but he felt grateful that the man stood with them.
Behind them, the demonic horde moved into the shop, making a lot of noise as they went. Arthur waited until Dominick got outside before following. He pushed the door closed and ran over to the car.
“Let’s go.” Dominick ran toward the car and climbed into the driver’s seat. He turned on the engine, bringing the car to life. Arthur jumped into the passenger seat, and Frieda climbed into the back.
The other man, however, hesitated before getting in, glancing behind.
“What is it, Haatim?” Frieda asked.
“Abigail.”
Arthur followed his gaze but couldn’t see anything. Only the demonic horde. “I don’t see her.”
Haatim shook his head. “Neither do I, but I can sense her. Abigail needs our help.”
Just hearing her name filled Arthur with raw emotion that he hadn’t experienced in what felt like forever. His adrenaline rush had worn off now, and things had settled, and so he only just started to understand how much he had lost. Those years in prison and his time in hell, it seemed like multiple lifetimes away from his daughter.
“Abigail,” Arthur whispered.
“Haatim, come on!” Frieda shouted.
“She needs our help,” Haatim said.
“We can’t help her anymore. We can’t do anything. It’s over. We need to get out of here.”
Haatim stood firm. “No,” he said. “There is nothing you can do.”
***
Abigail fought for her life. The void surrounded them, a vast and incomprehensible emptiness for their final showdown. It all came down to this moment. She had nowhere to run anymore, no chance to retreat and regroup. This was it, and she fought like a cornered animal who understood that survival depended on this instant.
The demon saw that the end had come, too. Whoever won this showdown would gain control of Abigail’s body. Even though she knew its name and had power over it, the beast refused to give up. It thrashed and struck at her, trying to break her will with brute force.
It felt like their fight went on for hours, but time had no meaning in this place. It probably lasted mere seconds, or maybe no time at all. They simply floated in this place of unreality.
At first, it seemed as if they fought evenly matched. She pushed against the demon, and it pushed back against her, and nothing changed. They both fought to break through the other’s defense and crush their will, and nothing concrete happened. However, finally, they each recognized a pattern in the fight.
The demon had more strength.
Slowly, and though only a centimeter at a time, they both realized that Abigail faltered. Inexorably, it crushed her, demoralized her, and it would only prove a matter of time before the demon won complete control and wiped her out.
Simply coming to that realization made the fight that much more desperate for Abigail. She would lose, which made continuing the fight at all significantly more difficult. Only delaying the inevitable, no matter how hard she tried to convince herself, she couldn’t win.
The demon gloated and redoubled its efforts. It wouldn’t take long now before it had consumed her soul.
Chapter 43
“We need to go,” Frieda grabbed Haatim’s arm and tried to draw him back into the car. “It’s over.”
He refused to believe that; it couldn’t end like this. Somewhere in the horde of demons, he could feel Abigail. She trembled with weakness. The fight raged inside her, like two titans battling for survival where one of them would, eventually, get destroyed. They clashed against one another for control and domination.
He could also sense that Abigail stood on the losing end.
“She’s still in there.” He pulled his arm loose and took a step toward the demons. The ground shook underfoot, but not from the portal. Now, the cracks in the pavement expanded, and the entire town neared collapse. It became difficult to keep his balance while the rifts collapsed in on themselves. “She needs my help.”
“She’s gone,” Frieda said. “It’s over; we need to go. Before it’s too late.”
“We can’t leave her!”
“She’s right,” Arthur said, with heaviness in his voice, and eyes full of pain. “Abigail has gone.”
Frieda grabbed his arm once more and dragged him toward the car. Haatim glanced behind. Dominick sat in the driver’s seat, frowning at him. He didn’t say anything, but Haatim could tell by his eyes that he, too, had given up.
He didn’t have any hope. He believed, like Frieda and Arthur, that Abigail had become lost to them. They all believed that the demon had control now and that the integration had completed. They couldn’t imagine a way in which they might help her, and they remained right that it had come time to leave.
Not for him, though. He refused to accept that Abigail would lose this fight and her identity. Though this could only stay as her fight, he wouldn’t let her
face it alone. He could help her, if only by offering support and encouragement. After everything that had happened, everything they had been through, it couldn’t end this way.
It wouldn’t.
Haatim jerked free once more and rushed forward, running to the throng of demons and Abigail. Frieda called something behind him, stepping out of the vehicle and trying to follow.
“Go,” he shouted. “Leave me.”
He recited a sutra chant, something that had always made him feel calm and relaxed, and focused on the words. Haatim drew strength from them, using them to focus what remained of his energy and tapping deep into his reserves. The chant made him feel stronger.
The rift expanded, and the ground tore asunder as the Earth weakened and collapsed. It acted as a giant sinkhole, and everything fell into it. Already, jagged cracks had split apart and now widened and expanded. At this rate, in no time at all, it would have swallowed the entire town.
Haatim rushed toward the demons, and they parted before him. They fled from him, climbing over each other to get away, and the ones that proved too slow disintegrated when they reached about a meter from him. They let out cries of pain and lost their hold on this world, collapsing to the ground.
Coldness stole over him, but he couldn’t stop. Determined, he continued to force his way through the horde. They closed in behind him, cutting him off from his friends. As soon as his barrier fell, they would attack and rip him to shreds.
That didn’t stop him, though, and he kept going, pushing to the center. Abigail stood right in the middle of it all, near one of the rifts. Her open eyes glowed red, and her face bore a mask of pain and rage.
Haatim stumbled toward her, not sure of his plan. He doubted he could drag her away. Doubted he could even hold the barrier for more than few seconds. Out of ideas, he continued chanting, finishing the sutra.
Surgat wouldn’t let him get close to her. Most probably, it would kill him just for trying. Still, he had to make the attempt.
A violent shudder rocked the ground, and he tripped, falling forward and landing hard on his chest. He hit his head on the pavement and lost focus on his chant. Dazed, he forced himself to sit up. The demons hadn’t approached yet, still afraid, but he wouldn’t manage to recreate the barrier. Once they realized it, they would eat him alive.
He stood and hurried toward Abigail. She spun, staring at him, face contorting violently.
The demon had control of her body once more. Whatever remained of Abigail had almost lost the fight and would soon get snuffed out. He could barely sense her anymore, and the internal battle wound down. Haatim would find it difficult to reach her.
However, he had to try.
“Abigail.” He took a step toward her. The ground continued to shake, and he had to raise his voice. “Abigail, please. I know you’re in there.”
“The girl has gone,” Abigail said, her voice deep and guttural. The piercing red eyes bored into him, digging through his soul. The sheer confidence and evil of the demonic presence made Haatim quiver. “This body is mine.”
“Not so. I can feel her in there, fighting. Please, Abigail, I know you can hear me.”
“You know nothing. Not yet, at least. Soon, though.”
Abigail stood next to one of the rifts, and it went further down than the light could reach.
“I know you’re in there, Abigail,” Haatim said. “I don’t want to speak to this demon. I want to speak to you.”
It took a step toward him, and he fought down the urge to flinch.
“I told you; she’s dead.”
“Then, so am I. If Abigail has gone, then just kill me. You should find it easy, right? I won’t even try to stop you.”
The demon took another step, then hesitated midstride. A confused expression crossed Abigail’s face. A flash of fear came from the demon, quickly replaced by rage.
“I knew she remained in there,” Haatim whispered. “Abigail, please. If you can hear me, you have to fight this.”
A moment passed. The ground continued to shudder. The cracks in the pavement widened. It sounded like thunder in the distance as different sections of the town fell into the rifts. They expanded near him, and all too soon, this section of the town would collapse as well.
Time had all but run out.
“You can do it, Abigail. I know you can. You can push it back.”
“I can’t,” she said, panic in her voice. And it had become her voice once more; the demon forced aside temporarily. “Please, run, Haatim. Don’t make me kill you.”
“I won’t go anywhere. I know you can do this. You can gain control.”
“It’s too much. I tried and lost. The demon has won.”
“It hasn’t won while you remain.”
“I don’t have strength enough.”
“No, I refuse to believe that.”
“It’s inevitable,” the demon said, regaining control. It took another step toward Haatim, only a few meters away. “She will fall to me.”
“You won’t fail,” Haatim said, still speaking only to Abigail. “Don’t listen to the demon; focus on my voice. Only on my voice.”
Another step from the demon, but this one wavering. It held a knife, which looked jagged. Haatim imagined it ripping into his stomach, cutting him open. He envisioned himself, lying on the pavement and bleeding out only moments before the town collapsed, and he disappeared into the world below.
He thought to try and channel again, to call upon whatever power coursed through him to help Abigail. Maybe he could help her push back the demon.
However, something inside him knew that as untrue. For one thing, he felt too weak to channel right now. And trying it again would prove dangerous, if not deadly, to him. More importantly, it would be wrong to try and interfere. Whatever this battle was, he couldn’t help with it. This had to remain Abigail’s fight, and hers alone.
“I … can’t … Haatim. Please, I beg you. Run!”
“No,” he said, speaking softer now. “I shan’t go anywhere. Either you’ll win this, or the demon will kill me. You have to choose.”
“Not a choice! I can’t stop it. The last time Surgat came to Earth, they tried everything possible to control him, but nothing worked. What chance do I have?”
“The difference between last time and this time.” Haatim stepped forward and put his hand on Abigail’s arm. The muscles tensed, but she didn’t pull away. “You. Abigail, you are strong enough to handle this. When we first met, you saved my life, and you didn’t even have to. You are the most amazing, selfless, and caring person I’ve ever come across, and if anyone can overcome this and win, you can.”
The hand holding the knife moved up, shaking, and stopped an inch from Haatim’s throat. He refused to move or flinch, staring straight into Abigail’s eyes. They remained red, but now flecks of brown had mixed in as she tried to regain control.
A crack spread near them, only a few meters away. The ground under his feet became unsteady, soon to fall, and Haatim doubted he could get away from it even if he tried. The building to his right ripped apart, fragmenting from the foundation up to the roof, and collapsed into the nothingness below.
The crevices seemed to go on forever. He imagined falling into one of the holes and held no doubt it would take a long time for him to reach the bottom. Abigail had more strength, but they’d run out of time. He needed to reach her and convince her that she could do this.
“You risked your future to try and save Arthur from hell, and then you risked your life saving the people of Raven’s Peak from a demonic threat that you didn’t even have responsibility for. You didn’t know those people. You didn’t owe them anything, and yet you still felt willing to give up your life to save them.”
“That doesn’t make you intelligent,” the demon said. “It makes you a fool.”
“It makes you brave,” Haatim said. “It meant you had the willingness to stand up to any threat and protect anyone no matter what the cost. It makes you a hero. You don’t thin
k you can beat this demon, but I know you can because you are the most selfless and courageous person I’ve ever met. If anyone in the world can deal with this, it’s you.”
“I failed once already.”
“You hadn’t readied for it then. This time, you have.”
The eyes grew unfocused while the battle raged inside Abigail’s body. Next to them, the crack came dangerously close, but Haatim didn’t move. The rift had cut him off from his only avenue of escape and made it impossible to get away.
“If I have it wrong, Abigail, then just let go. Let the demon kill me. If I have it wrong, then just give up and stop fighting.”
“Haatim, please, leave. I don’t want to kill you.”
He closed his eyes, sure that death reached for him, no matter what happened. The ground shuddered, the crevice expanded, and he had just a few centimeters of solid ground left on which to stand.
“I know,” he said. “But, will you save me?”
He took a step back, to the edge of the crevice, and let go of Abigail’s arm. Then, with a sad smile, he fell back into the rift.
The darkness swallowed him.
Chapter 44
Abigail watched in horror when Haatim disappeared into the crevice. It seemed like watching through a blurry window, as she remained only vaguely aware of her surroundings. Still locked in mortal combat with the demon, it tried to finish crushing her.
All of her focus on the fight flew away at that moment. Her fear and worry that she couldn’t defeat Surgat took a backseat to her worry that would lose Haatim forever.
With all her strength, she lashed out and reached for him through the black void. She wouldn’t let him die. Not after losing Arthur. No, she refused to lose anyone else, and least of all Haatim.
The demon roared in her mind, trying to crush and push her back. Instead of engaging it, though, she forced her way past it and disregarded Surgat totally. Abigail found reserves of strength she hadn’t even known existed and focused on one simple idea …
She wouldn’t allow Haatim to die.
Angry and determined, she seized control of her body and forced the demon into submission. Then she reached toward Haatim through the darkness.
