by Gwen Hayes
I panicked and struggled vainly in his viselike hold. “Let go of me!”
He released me and looked surprised at my vehemence. “I’m sorry, Theia. I got you all wet. I shouldn’t have grabbed you like that.” He shook his head, chastising himself. “You’re shivering. I’ll make a fire, okay?”
Something was so wrong with his presence, but I didn’t know where to begin. “What are you doing here?”
He went about laying kindling in the ancient woodstove. “I came to save you.”
My arms erupted in goose bumps. “Save me? Save me from what?”
He didn’t answer me. He methodically built a fire, as if we’d been in this situation a thousand times.
I wrapped my arms around myself, but my chill went further than my damp skin. “Mike, what is going on? You’re acting so strangely. How did you even know I was here?”
“You don’t need to worry anymore. It’s all taken care of.” He sat back on his haunches. “That should warm you up in a few minutes.” He looked up and pinned me with his gaze. His eyes were filled with an earnest fervor that I’d never seen him express before. Not even for French fries. “There is still hope for us all, Theia. But you need to turn away from the evil that has infected you.”
I stared back, the hairs on my neck standing up like a porcupine’s quills. “Mike, what are you talking about?”
He stood and stepped towards me, not seeming to care that I backed away. “He’s used the powers of evil to turn you from your true nature. Renounce the evil demon and all will be won.” Mike’s vehemence shone in his eyes. “He’s brainwashed you, Theia. Just like he’s done to everyone. But you know, deep inside, that staying with him is wrong. You’re holding the hand of the devil, but it’s not too late.”
“Too late for what, Mike? Who are you talking about?”
“Haden is a scourge, a plague, on earth. We must unite and defeat his evil. We must wipe him off our world. He is a demon and must be killed.”
My knees turned to jelly. He sounded like he was on a street corner citing Bible verses at random passersby. Not the easygoing wrestler I was used to, the one with a huge appetite and very little to say. What had happened to him? “Mike, you don’t understand.”
“Theia,” Mike pleaded, “you know the right path. He’s led you astray, but you know the truth. You know what you must do. It’s not too late. I forgive you.”
“Forgive me?” He kept moving slowly towards me, so I moved away, putting a chair between us. I aimed my voice for cheerfulness, but it came out sounding thin and reedy. “Where did you get the idea that Haden is a demon? Surely you know that sounds crazy.”
“I know all about Haden. I know how he’s tricked everyone into thinking he’s such a great guy. I know he’s an evil incubus. It’s disgusting.” Instead of closing the distance between us, Mike crossed the room and threw the bolt on the door, locking us in. “We’ll wait until the rain lets up, okay?”
My heart pounded dangerously. My natural instincts warned me that I was in some kind of peril, but I couldn’t afford to lose control of my emotions. The last thing this situation needed was my demon side making an appearance. I had to keep myself calm; I had to keep Mike calm. I thought to play along. “What will we do then, Mike? When the rain lets up?”
He took off his jacket and laid it over the back of a chair near the fire. Not answering my question, he said, “I tried to warn you about Haden. The notes . . .”
“I didn’t realize that was you.” Had he been putting some kind of plan in motion? “Why did you—”
“You’re wearing the bracelet I gave you.”
I looked down at my wrist. I’d forgotten it was there. “Mike, I have to go. My father is at the hospital, remember? I have to go to him.”
“You can’t go right now. The roads are terrible. It’s my job to keep you safe now.”
He stood in front of a window and looked into the dark, though I was sure he couldn’t see anything. I felt his craziness coming off him in waves.
“Just the same, I think I’ll go. I’d feel better if I were closer to my father.”
He stepped in front of me, blocking my path. “He’s coming for you, you know.”
“My father?”
Mike smiled, but his eyes were serious. Deadly so. “No, of course not. Haden.”
“Haden doesn’t know I’m here.”
The door shook from a sudden pounding and I jumped. Mike just smiled at my reaction. “I told you.”
“Theia!” Haden yelled through the door.
Mike clapped his hand over my mouth and turned me so my back was to his chest. I stopped struggling when he flashed a knife in his other hand. “Not a word, Theia. You just let me handle this. It ends tonight.”
Haden banged on the door a few more times and then he crashed through it, dead bolt and all. It didn’t take him long to assess the situation. “Let her go, Matheny,” he growled.
I could smell Mike’s fear and agitation. “You should have let her go a long time ago. You’re an abomination.”
Haden spread his hands to show he was unarmed. “You’re not wrong about that. But let Theia go and we can settle this between ourselves. She’s an innocent girl.”
Mike squeezed me tighter. “She used to be innocent until you ruined her. But once you’re gone, I can save her. I will save her.”
“We both know you’re not going to use the knife on Theia, so let her go.”
Haden sent me a look that told me more than words could ever have said. It was comforting, but more, it reached down to my very soul.
I needed to find a way to distract Mike. I wasn’t helpless and the situation needed to be defused quickly before anyone got hurt. Mike wasn’t thinking clearly, if he was thinking at all. He was so unlike himself that it was frightening.
The windows. I’d been making glass explode for a while without thinking about it. I wondered whether I could do it on purpose. I concentrated very hard on one across the room. At first nothing happened. I let myself absorb some of the tension in the room, and something broke free deep inside me. It felt like a warm ball of light gathering around my breastbone, and then it funneled into a stream directed by my will and burst out of me.
The window began to shift in its casement. I had no idea what I was doing, but I kept thinking about it shattering. I saw it over and over in my mind. The pressure built inside me and I tuned out the argument between Haden and Mike. A final push, and several windows shattered, spraying shards of glass into the room, like water from a hose nozzle.
Everyone instinctively ducked to avoid the spray and I used the distraction to wrench out of Mike’s arms. Haden leaped on him, yelling, “Theia, get out of here. Now. The keys are still in the ignition.”
I started to run, making it all the way to his truck before I remembered that I didn’t know how to drive a stick shift. The keys to Muriel’s car were still in the cabin. As I started to go back, the boys rolled out onto the porch and then into the grass. I knew Haden was holding back because he didn’t want to kill Mike, but Mike was an all-star wrestler and he wasn’t holding back.
The rain came down in sheets, soaking us all. Haden and Mike continued grappling and a glint of silver slashed into the air. “Watch out for the knife, Haden!”
I grabbed a nearby stick and got up, holding it like a baseball bat. It was a sturdy branch but I wasn’t sure how much damage I could really do with it. I held the stick firmly, feeling the bark roughen the skin on my palms.
Time rearranged itself, playing the scene in slow motion and yet somehow, at the same time, very quickly. The knife gouged into Haden’s side. Haden gasped once and stopped moving, but Mike continued to pummel him with his fist. He kept grunting and yelling out nonsensical words. When he raised his arm to stab Haden again, I swung with all my might. I’d never hit anyone before. I wasn’t prepared for the give of his skin or the sound of bone meeting wood.
Mike collapsed on top of Haden. I fell to my knees and rolled him off.
They were both lying so still. This can’t be happening. I began trembling from head to toe, my teeth chattering, my heart stuttering. The rain poured over me as if dumped from a bucket.
I leaned over Haden’s mouth and felt his breath on my ear. “Thank God. Please wake up.”
I pulled off my hoodie and held it to his side to stanch the blood. I had to get him to the car, unless my phone got magical cellular reception.
The sound of gravel crunching under the wheels of a car preceded the headlights on the dirt drive leading to the cabin. Now who was here? “Haden, please wake up.”
I recognized the car to be Donny’s and relief flooded through me. “It’s going to be okay, Haden. We’ll get you to the hospital.”
Donny, Ame, Gabe, and Varnie ran to us and stopped short when they saw the boys on the ground.
“What the hell happened?” Donny asked, and then looked at the other unconscious boy. “Mike?”
As soon as Amelia saw Mike, she squeaked and collapsed. Varnie scooped her into his arms before she hit the ground. “We need to dial 911. Donny, can you—?”
“There’s no cell service. What the hell happened?” Gabe asked, echoing Donny.
“Mike stabbed Haden, so I hit him and knocked him unconscious.”
“I’m taking Amelia inside,” Varnie said. “She’s unconscious too.”
“What is going on?” asked Donny.
“I don’t know exactly. We need to get Haden to the hospital.” There were far too many unconscious people in my life. “How did you know I was here?”
“Varnie had a vision right in the middle of the American Idol finale,” Donny answered.
Haden groaned. “Theia.”
I touched his face. “I’m right here.”
“It’s raining, you’ll catch cold,” he mumbled.
I laughed a little. The sniffles weren’t high on my priority list. “We need to get you to the emergency room. Do you remember what happened?”
“Matheny.” He blinked. “Where is he?”
“I hit him. Our friends are here. We’re going to take you both to the hospital.” I didn’t tell him about Amelia.
“I don’t need a hospital. I’m already healing. It’s just going to take a little longer. He must have used a pure silver blade.”
“You’re bleeding from a knife wound. You need a doctor.”
He winced as he sat up very slowly. “I’ll be fine.”
He obviously wasn’t going to agree with me. Donny and Gabe were carrying Mike into the cabin, though I’m not sure if we should have moved him. I helped Haden up. He leaned on me but was able to walk back inside.
“What happened to Amelia?” I asked.
Varnie sat on a chair with Ame curled like a small child in his lap. She whimpered while he reassured her, stroking her hair and lying to her that everything would be fine. “I wish I knew. She’s awake, but she’s not all there.”
I settled Haden into a chair, trying not to panic at all the blood on his shirt, and went to find the first-aid kit, crunching across all the glass. The place was a mess.
“We need to tie him up,” Haden directed the others, pointing to Mike’s prone body on the couch.
“Dude,” Gabe said, “he’s unconscious. We need to get him a doctor.”
“When I got here, he was holding a knife on Theia.” Haden’s voice was deceptively calm. “He’s lucky I didn’t kill him.”
Ame began sobbing inconsolably. It was actually more than a little strange. Donny and I looked at each other. We didn’t know where to go first. Ame? Mike? Haden? They all needed help.
Donny sent me an exasperated sigh and then rolled up her sleeves. “Okay, English. Give us the short-story version so we can fix this.”
Where to begin? She took the kit and held it open while I pulled out some bandages and antiseptic. “You and Gabe check out Mike, I’ll look at Haden’s wound, and Varnie can take care of Ame,” I said. “We’ll get Mike to a doctor as soon as I know Haden isn’t going to die on the way. The short story is that Mike somehow knows Haden is a demon and wants to save me by killing him. He also kept me here against my will.” I snapped the box closed. “He stabbed Haden and I knocked him unconscious.” I looked at Haden to fill him in. “Oh, and my father is being tortured by Mara in Under, so I have to go back as soon as possible.” Returning my gaze to a wide-eyed Donny, I said, “I don’t know the rest of the story.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Why is Ame having a meltdown?”
“I don’t know that either.”
“All righty then.”
The wind blew rain in through the open windows. Our shelter wasn’t much of one anymore.
Haden tried to take the bandages from me, but I just pushed him towards the small bathroom. “You’re not going to Under,” he said as I closed the door behind us.
“Just take your shirt off,” I answered.
He paused, blinking at me, and then he began unbuttoning. As he stretched his arms back to remove the sleeves, he doubled over. “Son of a—”
“Easy,” I murmured, and eased the shirt past his shoulders. The intimacy of removing his clothes painted a hot stroke of embarrassment over my face, but it was quickly replaced by a flush of cold horror. “Oh, Haden.”
He looked down at the wound. “I do believe that is going to leave a scar.”
I didn’t appreciate his sarcasm. The wound was festering and mottled. Dried blood, as well as fresh, covered the purplish mass. I saw his aura flare around him. Where his wound was, however, there was an absence of its glow. The gap was alarming, though I couldn’t say for certain why I knew it was a bad thing. The knife had broken his spirit, literally. It reminded me of an unfinished bridge, a breach that shouldn’t be.
I took a deep breath and wet down a cloth with warm water. I longed for a good old-fashioned fainting spell, but there was no getting out of this. “You’re probably going to hate me for a few minutes. This is going to hurt.”
He didn’t answer, so I met his eyes with mine. They were fathomless. I ached with how much I’d missed him.
“I don’t think I could ever hate you,” he said simply. He looked at my arm and wrinkled his forehead. “He bruised you.”
I brought my arm up and inspected the blue and purple skin. “It’s nothing.”
He took my hand. “You have such fragile skin.” He pressed a kiss to the inside of my wrist.
I shivered. Why was he making this so hard? “I’m not fragile, Haden.”
“No, you’re not. You certainly proved that today.”
I looked away, but he gently cupped my chin and brought my gaze back to his. “We need to talk about what happened in Under. How did you get there?”
Looking into his eyes hurt too much, so I avoided the contact and inspected his injury. “I don’t know, really.” I began pressing the cloth to the outside of the stab wound, getting most of the dried blood worked away so I had a better idea of the damage. His abdominal muscles twitched and tensed under my hand. I dabbed around the wound and then rinsed the cloth. “I played the song . . . the one from the first night in Under. The one they played in the labyrinth. Somehow I knew it would work. I was trying to find my father.”
“You should have come to me.”
I pressed too hard and his face screwed up in pain. “You weren’t around.”
“Theia . . .”
“Nobody had seen you since you left the party with Brittany.” I paused. “I know I shouldn’t be jealous. I’m the one that broke up with you. I just didn’t expect you to replace me so quickly.”
“Replace you? Now I am angry. I didn’t replace you. How could you even think that? I went home shortly after you left the party on Saturday night, but a few hours later Brittany called me. She was drunk. She told me she’d been having nightmares about you every night.”
“Me?”
Haden hissed as the cloth got closer to the open wound. “She said the weird part was that several other people at the party said they’d been ha
ving the same dream. The last few nights, just as they began to fall asleep, you would show up with glowing red eyes. They couldn’t move or breathe or wake up. Brittany was getting more and more agitated, so I drove back to the party, which had moved to Noelle’s.”
His voice got tighter the closer I got to the wound. “She was already mostly unconscious when I arrived. She’d been so sick, it didn’t take much booze to put her over the edge. I offered to take her home, hoping to get the rest of the story. People saw us leaving. She was belligerent and out of it, so I carried her. I suppose they assumed we were hooking up.”
“Where did you take her?” My own voice was tight as well. The wound was angry and ugly. It made me queasy and lightheaded.
“I took her home. Jesus, that stings.”
“I’m sorry. I’m being as gentle as I can.” I bit my lip and concentrated on not showing my revulsion. “What happened then?”
Haden dropped his head back and stared at the ceiling. His chest rose and fell heavily. “Her parents were still out of town, so I carried her all the way into the house. I tried talking to her, but most of what she said was gibberish.”
“Did she say anything more about me?” Was I really making nocturnal visits to the sneetches?
“No. Not a word. I even tried to bring you up. She was too far gone. I put her to bed.” He paused. “Fully clothed, mind you. And then I left. That was the last time I saw Brittany.” He lifted his head and fixed me with a look that reminded me he was still a demon, albeit a very charismatic one. “Are you satisfied?”
“I believe you,” was all I’d admit to.
“And then I went to Under.”
“Why?”
“I’ve been forming an army.” Before I could ask, he continued. “We’re staging a coup. I didn’t tell you about it because . . . well, you wouldn’t like it. I’m going back, Theia. I’ve been planning this for a while, actually.”
“Haden, no.” All the reasons that was a bad idea began ricocheting through my head. I’d broken my heart so he could have a normal human life and all the while he’d been planning to return to Under? “Why didn’t you tell me? Were you just going to disappear?”
