Demonic

by Karl Morgan

  The demon on the throne pulled the dagger from the stone, but still stuck in his wrist and used his other arm to pull on the three levers, releasing the chains to drop toward the lava. Bill grabbed the chains and struggled to hold them up. Faith had joined the people in the corral and was holding off the two demons with her blade.

  Bill was desperate to save her, but was unwilling to let his mother die. A surge of anger filled him and he pulled the chains and headed away from the magma pool. The demon who had been on the throne was still trying to extract the dagger from his wrist when the chains and panel were wrenched out of the wall by Bill’s motion. The hapless demon was lifted in the air and began to scream. He grasped the dagger one final time and pulled it out. He fell out of the sky and landed in the lava and sank out of sight.

  “Angels should not be here, you know?” one of the demons said.

  “Stay back, I’m warning you!” Faith shouted.

  After setting the three cages down on the floor of the chamber, Bill extracted the chain and flew toward the other demons. He swung the chain over his head faster and faster and then swung downward. The chain struck the two demons and knocked them into the lava. Panting and exhausted, Bill fell out of the sky and landed on the rocky floor of the cavern with a thud. He groaned in pain as he slowly changed back into a man. His entire body was aching and he wanted only to sleep.

  “Bill, some friends want to thank you,” Faith said.

  He opened his eyes to find himself surrounded by the mass of people each now dressed in a simple tunic. They began to applaud and cheer. Two men helped him to stand and others shook his hands and patted him on the back. He caught sight of Faith in the corner of his eye and turned to see her motioning him toward the cages. “You are all very welcome and we’ll get out of here soon. Excuse me a moment.” Bill pushed his way through the throng and joined Faith by the cages. Two were empty. A very thin and frail woman sat in the last, crying. Bill fumbled with the mechanism and then ripped it off and opened the door. “Are you the angel Prudence? Are you my mother?” She smiled and nodded, tears filling her eyes.

  Mary stopped washing dishes in the princess’s kitchen and a knowing look crossed her face. “Mary, what’s wrong?” Cassie asked.

  “My mother is alive!” she smiled.

  “What are you talking about?”

  Mary scrubbed the dish again and smiled at her friend who was drying and putting the dishes away. “Cassie, do you know your mother?”

  “Of course, everyone does!”

  “Not everyone, Cassie, as least where I come from. I never met my father until a few days ago. I lived with my mom until I was five years old, and then one day they told me she died in an automobile accident.”

  “What’s an automobile?”

  “Kind of like that thing that took us from the restaurant to here. Anyway, she didn’t really die. Now I know she is nearby and still alive.”

  “I’m happy for you, but how does that change anything for us? We’re still slaves in the house of the princess, right?”

  “For now.”

  The door to the kitchen opened and Princess Maggie walked in and sat on a stool on the far side of a breakfast bar. “What are you two gabbing about?”

  “Just small talk, mistress,” Cassie replied.

  “Mistress, tell us about your mother, if I may ask,” Mary interjected.

  “There isn’t much to tell, Mary. My brother and I were born to simple folk, living on a small farm not far from here. Gee, come to think of it, I haven’t thought of them for years. Does that make me a bad person?”

  “Of course not, mistress,” Mary replied. “I was just telling Cassie that I was orphaned at five years old. I have no memory of my father and my mother died when I was just a child.”

  “I am so sorry for your loss. Well, to be totally honest, I must admit that I thought I might be adopted most of my life,” the princess acknowledged. “Now, I don’t want to admonish my parents, but it is odd that my brother and I have so much power when we come from such humble origins.”

  “Mary just said that she thinks her mother is still alive, mistress,” Cassie interjected. Mary frowned at her, and Cassie looked down.

  “That’s wonderful, Mary. How did you find out?”

  Mary looked at the floor and said, “Majesty, I don’t really know. It’s just a feeling, you know?”

  Princess Maggie walked over to a cabinet and removed a snifter and bottle of cognac, filling the glass half full and then sat again. “Don’t be ashamed, Mary. I feel the same way. Sometimes I imagine my father being the lord of the underworld, and somehow my mother was an angel. Isn’t that funny?”

  Beads of sweat formed on Mary’s brow and she wiped them away. “Believe me, mistress; I know exactly how you feel. All of us see the good and evil in the world and wonder how we connect to that. Now I am just a humble farm girl, but sometimes I think the same thoughts.”

  The expression on the princess’s face turned to one of shock and anger. “What is your full birth name, Mary?”

  Unconsciously, she began to back away until her back reached the counters. “Mary Margaret Stewart, mistress.”

  “Shit!” Princess Maggie shouted. She hopped down from the stool and headed toward her, grabbing a long chef’s knife along the way. “And what is your brother’s name?”

  “I, I just met a man claiming to be my brother, but he is probably lying, mistress,” Mary cried as she backed away.

  “Slave, I asked you a direct question! Now answer or your life ends here and now!”

  “Bill Watson, ma’am,” Mary admitted.

  Princess Maggie doubled over and began to laugh. She dropped the knife and laughed out loud. “Oh my gracious, I can’t believe I almost went crazy there. I’m so sorry to you both. I honestly thought you were going to say William Claude Stewart. Shit, I can’t believe I was stupid enough to think you were the one.” She picked up the glass of cognac and drank it down. “Good night you two.” She set down the glass and walked out of the room.

  “My God, Mary, I thought we were both dead!” Cassie blurted.

  “Me too,” Mary agreed.

  After Faith took her sister and the people from the cavern back to her universe, she returned to find Bill trying to climb back up through the tomb into the mausoleum. “Bill, what are you doing?”

  “It’s over now, right? We need to tell Jim and Irene so they know their lives are safe.”

  “You always try to do things the hard way, you know. Come over here and hold my hand.” He came over to her. “Now close your eyes.”

  The smell of the cave was gone and a light breeze brushed his cheeks. He opened his eyes to see the small cottage a few hundred feet in front of them. “Iguazu Falls, right?”

  She started walking toward the cottage, pulling him along by the hand. “Bill, I’m surprised you didn’t want to talk more to Prudence, or ask if she could stay here with us.”

  “Well, it’s kind of difficult. Mary lived with our mother for five years. I have no memory of her at all. I guess it was too much to process so quickly for me. Once this whole thing is over, I know we’ll get to know each other better.”

  “I understand completely. But I want you to know that she thought of you often after you were given to the Watsons. It was the agony of giving you up that convinced her to stay with Mary after she was born. I suppose that was her way of making up for letting you go.”

  Bill climbed up the three steps onto the porch and tapped on the door. Irene opened the door and moved aside so they could come in. Irene and her husband sat on two chairs while Bill and Faith sat on the small sofa. “The mausoleum should be safe now,” Bill said.

  “Were the rumors true?” Jim asked.

  “Yes, they were true,” Faith reported. “It was my sister Prudence, but there was much more than that.”

  “But we’re not going to go into details. It was pretty horrifying up there, but it’s over now,” Bill finished.

  “Thank you
both for that.”

  Faith said, “Irene, when we first met, you told me that I was the angel who came to you and told you your lives could be normal again.” The other woman smiled and nodded. “It wasn’t me. I don’t recall seeing you until Bill and I walked back to this cottage.”

  “It sure looked like you.”

  “Faith,” Bill interjected, “perhaps it was the Angel Faith from this universe?”

  “I hadn’t thought of that, but it must be true. I assumed she must have been killed by the emperor along with the others.”

  Irene cut in, saying, “I’m sorry, but I’m confused. This universe? Killing angels? That all sounds like a fantasy of some kind.”

  Faith replied, “We’re not really sure how it’s happening either. As I told Jim earlier, the emperor has destroyed the balance between good and evil in this universe. Whether the angels are imprisoned like Prudence or dead, we really can’t tell yet. And yes, there are many universes, and somehow this one is bumping against the one where Bill and I come from. I know it’s hard to believe, but that’s what’s happening. That sea of crosses shows how evil this place has become and now that evil is trying to bleed over into ours.”

  “Can we sleep here tonight?” Bill interrupted.

  “Huh?”

  “It will be getting dark soon, and we have had a really long day.”

  Irene stood and said, “I’ll set up the bed in the guest room. One of you can sleep there and the other here on the sofa.”

  “And I’ll get us all a nice cup of tea,” Jim noted as he stood and headed for the kitchen.

  Faith leaned over and whispered, “Bill, what’s going on? Are you really that tired?”

  “Faith, do you remember me saying we had to get out of the mausoleum by nightfall?” She nodded. “It wasn’t because something bad would happen there. I see that now. Something bad is going to happen here.”

  “But Irene said the other Faith told her they’d be safe?”

  “I hope she’s right, but what if the emperor or one of his demons put that image into her mind? Or maybe when the bad thing happens, she will come and we can help her? Faith, you said it yourself. You did not bring these people back to life just so they could be murdered again the same day.”

  The sun set while they were having tea on the front porch. Shortly thereafter, Jim and Irene said goodnight and went to their bedroom. Faith sat next to Bill and held his hand. “I’ve been meaning to ask you something, Bill.” He turned his head to face her and smiled. “Why do you always become the demon?”

  “I guess I never thought of it. It never happened until the nuclear explosion in San Diego just days ago. But my father is Lucifer, so why wouldn’t I?”

  “Yes, but your mother is an angel.”

  “Does that make me an angel too?”

  “Well, I suppose that’s a matter of choice. Remember that your father was an angel, but changed his mind, forsook my father and turned to evil. Do you recall what Dom said after you destroyed the soldiers crucifying those men?” Bill shook his head slowly. “He said your violence was excessive.”

  “So, do you think I become the beast by choice? That says something really bad about who I am!”

  “No, I think it comes from your emotions. When I saw those demons casually throwing people into the lava or to those horrid enforcers, my anger level shot up as high as yours. I suppose it was my upbringing, but when I see terrible wrongs being committed, my first instinct to stop it. With you, I think your anger at the perpetrators consumes you and the beast emerges to punish the guilty.”

  “I’m not sure I understand the difference.”

  She leaned over and kissed his cheek. “If I had gone into that cavern alone, I probably would have taken all the people away. That would have ended the ordeal without endangering the defenseless.”

  “But what about the demons and enforcers? Wouldn’t they just get more victims and begin again?”

  She smiled and replied, “Don’t get me wrong. After the people were safe, I would have gone back, but not to make them suffer and die. It would have been to teach them a lesson.”

  “In the end, you still would have kicked their butts, right?”

  “Yes, but I would not have been violently angry. I would have been passing judgment on evil.”

  He squeezed her hand and said, “I’ll see what I can do about anger management then. And thank you for telling me I might be an angel. That’s amazing!”

  Faith stood and picked up their tea cups and said, “I’m very tired now, so I’ll be going to sleep.”

  “You take the bedroom, Faith. I’ll be fine on the couch. Good night.”

  “Good night.”

  Bill sat, quietly enjoying the cool night air. He could hear crickets chirping not far away, and was still stunned by the transformation of this place from the sea of crosses. He wondered if he could actually do something like that one day. He thought about Audrey and Sandi, and wondered where they were. He imagined they were somewhere is that glass-domed city, but after the horrors he had seen already, he knew anything was possible. He slumped down slightly on the bench and closed his eyes. In minutes, he was fast asleep.

  “What do you think you are doing here?” a woman’s voice screamed, waking Bill suddenly. He was still sitting on the front porch of the Stewart home. He could barely make out the outline of a woman standing twenty feet away in the darkness of night. “Did you come back here to shame your parents and take everything else they have? I should have known how sick and twisted you are.”

  “Who are you?” He saw the figure hurrying forward. When she entered the dim light coming from the windows in the house, he saw it was Faith, and she looked furious. “Faith, what’s wrong?”

  She hopped up on the porch and grabbed his arms and flung him out into the yard. He hit the ground hard and rolled several feet. Still screaming angrily, she asked, “How the hell do you know my name, you evil bastard?”

  “Faith, we came here together, don’t you remember?” he said as he tried to move away.

  She jumped from the porch and ran up to him and began kicking him. “Stand up, you worthless piece of shit! I’m going to kill you for sure this time!”

  Bill got on his hands and knees and tried to crawl away from the crazed woman. “Faith, please stop. Don’t you remember Maui and Iguazu Falls? You made me kiss you as an act of faith in you. You have to remember.”

  She jumped in front of him and kicked him in the chest, launching him in the air. His body turned three somersaults and then he landed on his back. Bill groaned in pain and wished this stupid nightmare would end soon. It suddenly became as bright as day and he saw her standing over him in full angelic regalia, holding her sword over her head, ready to strike him dead. “This is the end of the line for you, Emperor.”

  As she raised the sword to strike, another voice shouted, “Stop! For the love of God, stop!” Instantly, Faith was human again, staring in the direction of the voice. Bill turned his head to see the Faith from his universe standing on the porch.

  “What’s going on here and why do you look like me?” asked the Faith standing over him.

  “That man is not Gaius Claudius Caesar. He and I come from another universe. I am you from that universe, and this man, Bill Watson, is the Caesar from that universe. But he is not emperor, he is just an accountant.”

  The second Faith stepped away from Bill and sat on the grass. “None of this can be real. You are making this up. Tell me you’re making it up!”

  Bill sat up and said, “It’s all true. The emperor has started to bring his special kind of evil to my universe. Faith, my sister and I are here to stop it.”

  The second Faith held her head in her hands and replied, “Well, someone is going to have to explain all of this in detail. I just don’t understand.”

  “There’s no time for that now. It is beginning,” Bill noted as he stood.

  She looked up at him and asked, “What is beginning?”

  “The a
ttack.”

  Chapter 10

  A number of flares lit up the sky, illuminating a massive swarm of enforcers headed toward the farmhouse. Bill shouted to the Faith on the porch, “You need to get the Stewarts to safety now! We’ll hold them off.” Faith rushed back into the house. The other Faith was an angel again and Bill quickly morphed into demonic form as the wall of monsters surged over the fence line less than twenty feet away. Deep in the throng of attackers, several other demons were directing their forces and exhorting their comrades to fight.

  “There’s too many of them,” Faith cried as she waved her sword menacingly at the enforcers. “We need to retreat now!”

  Twin battle axes materialized in Bill’s hands. “Not for me, Faith. This ends here and now.” He charged the enemy, screaming and swiping at the throng. He swung his blades wildly and bloody enforcer heads, arms, and legs flew everywhere.

  Faith jumped the front line and landed near the closest demons who immediately charged her with their axes at the ready. One raised its axe to strike, but before it could, she swung her blade and chopped off its head and arms. The beast dissolved into dust. Two more pushed through the mass of enforcers to stop the angel. Dozens of enforcers crawled up her legs and torso, biting and tearing at her flesh. Her body glowed even more brightly, and all the enforcers within five feet burst into flames and began to retreat, only to be crushed by their brothers moving forward.

  Bill was enveloped in a cocoon of enforcers trying to rip him apart. The cocoon moved with the motion of his weapons and severed body parts rained down at his feet. Finally, they pressed so close that he could not move. He opened his mouth and a stream of fire shot out and the entire pile of enforcers was suddenly burning and began to retreat while others rushed in to take their places. The new attackers rushed around behind his back and he turned to face them. He kept fighting and more enforcers eagerly took the place of their fallen comrades. So many enforcers kept coming that he had to keep moving back to avoid being overwhelmed by them.