“Looks like there’s nothing here.” She announced with a sigh. “We’ve got no way of knowing what he was doing here or if this was even his work.”
Aerin leaned against the desk and stuffed her hands in her hoodie’s pocket and closed her eyes, somewhat agitated. The possibility that the lab belonged to Holland had clearly gotten to her; coupled with the fact that there was no way to know and it only made it worse. John leaned back in the chair and thought for a moment before speaking.
“Let’s grab the hard drive.” He suddenly proposed. “We can take it back to Meredith; she might be able to recover something off of it.”
“Yeah!” Aerin snapped to attention. “That’s a good idea.”
She stepped out of the way as John slid the office chair backwards. He stood up before opening the side of the nearest computer tower up. Inside was a neat bundle of wires that ran to and fro to each component of the computer. John scanned over the insides quickly before finding what he was looking for. The hard drive was no larger than the cellphone he had in his pocket and was held in place by two small screws that he easily removed with a twist. He pulled the drive from the computer and examined it.
“You sure that’s the one?” Aerin asked.
“No idea.” John replied before stuffing the drive into his back pocket. “We can always come back again, right?”
“Right.” Aerin nodded.
“By the way,” John remembered. “What about the barrier?” He asked.
“While you were off on your own earlier, I found it.” Aerin answered with a smile. “Come on.” She nodded toward the center of the room. “It’s over here.”
John followed Aerin to the, more or less, center of the lab. There was a space he hadn’t noticed on his way in, a circular area with no tables or instruments. Aerin kneeled down and pressed the tips of her fingers against the cold tile floor. Blue lines emerged from the tile, forming a large Cypher on the floor in front of her. Aerin pulled her hands away from the ground before slapping them down flat on the barrier. The large glyph began to crack until it shattered completely. The pressing feeling John had felt in his chest suddenly vanished with the destruction of the anchor.
“One barrier: destroyed.” Aerin smiled proudly as she stood.
“Not bad, not bad.” John praised. “Now we just need to head back up top and-“
His words were cut off as he was suddenly broadsided. The impact was so sudden that it nearly knocked the wind out of him. He staggered backwards from the shock and looked down to find Emily firmly gripping his waist. He looked over at Aerin, who was equally as surprised as he was, albeit less winded.
“Emily?” John rested his hand on her head. “What’s wrong?”
Her grip tightened at his words, and with his hand atop her head he could feel that she was trembling. Something had scared the poor girl enough to make her run down a nearly pitch black staircase to find John. He attempted to pry her loose in order to kneel down beside her, but she wouldn’t let go.
“The black thing…” She muttered through John’s shirt.
“The black thing?” John repeated. The words sent a strange tingle down the back of his neck that he didn’t like.
“What’s the black thing?” Aerin asked.
As if on cue, there was a disturbance above. The floor shook, ever so slightly as if something hard had been set down on the ground above them. John remembered how far down they had gone underground, and the prospect of feeling something that heavy didn’t set right with him. He looked over at Aerin and could tell she thought the same as him. She brought her finger up to her mouth in a shushing motion, as if John needed to be told. They stood there, motionless, for what felt like forever, waiting for something, anything, but nothing happened. Aerin motioned for John to follow behind her as she headed for the stairs.
John shushed Emily before hoisting her up into his arms. He caught up to Aerin near the stairs just as there was another loud rumble above them. Dust fell from the ceiling in thick clouds as Aerin held up her hand for John to stop. They stood there frozen, waiting for another thud, but nothing happened. Slowly, Aerin moved over beside John.
“John.” She whispered. “I need you to suppress your spirit.”
“How?” John asked as quietly as he could manage.
“See what Emily is doing?” Aerin motioned to the small girl clinging tightly to his chest. “Make yourself as small as you can in your mind.”
John closed his eyes and attempted to give a visual to the thought. So far, everything spiritual had been accomplished with visualization, and so he followed suit once more. He saw himself standing in the hallway beside Aerin and he tried to picture himself there as small as he could. Just as Emily had hidden under the bed earlier, John was hiding his spirit, and from the look on Aerin’s face he saw when he opened his eyes he could tell he had done right.
“Perfect!” Aerin whispered with praise. “Stick close.”
John followed behind Aerin while he continued to stroke Emily’s head in order to calm the small girl. The stairs were still as dimly lit as they were before, and it was best that they were moving up them as stealthily as possible because attempting to walk up them at a pace faster than a crawl would have resulted in sure injury. Soon, the light of the room above began to trickle down as they neared the exit; and John’s heart beat with anticipation and dread. Just before they crested the top of the stairs, Aerin held out her hand for John to stop once more. From the look on her face, just like him, he could tell that she didn’t sense a thing. The concern and aggravation mixed well on her face at the fact. There was definitely something up there, but she couldn’t sense it.
Finally, she motioned for him to follow once more. Waiting around forever in an awkward position on the staircase wasn’t going to accomplish anything and they needed to know exactly what was up top. The room above was as barren as they had left it earlier. The sun was still high in the sky above the old building, casting deep shadows into the room before them. John’s heartbeat began to normalize as he surveyed the room around him. There were no signs of disturbance, at least on this level, that he could see. The only thing strange was how eerily quiet it was. It was an odd sort of quiet that didn’t bode well within him. Suddenly, he felt his heart skip a beat.
As if his body had sensed the impending danger, his instincts quickly sprang to life. Gripping Emily tightly with his right arm, John reached out as he rushed forward and took hold of Aerin. The sudden action caught the angel off guard as he pulled her forward. The room behind them exploded into chunks of concrete and metal as something tore its way through. Just out of harm’s way, John reeled around to see the aggressor.
It was a mighty creature with skin as black as the night. At what looked like a good seven or so foot tall, it stood on four muscular legs with long claws on each paw. A long, thick tail waved around behind the beast, occasionally slapping the ground with a heavy thud. The creature’s head was slender, with perky ears and blood red eyes that peered around the room frantically. The creature’s mouth opened up to reveal a large set of razor sharp teeth. A slimy grey liquid dripped from the monster's fangs and pooled on the floor below as its hot breath left its mouth like a fog.
John could tell it was a demon just from the horrific presence that it was giving off, but it wasn’t any demon that he had encountered before. It gave off an air of literal bloodlust, like that of some savage creature. The monster’s gaze moved around the room until it finally found its prey directly in front of it. John could feel the eyes lock with his, and as it did something strange happened. A name stuck out inside of his mind, one that he could not recall ever hearing. Hellhound. Almost like a moment of clarity, it was like John had remembered something he had forgotten. Unfortunately, his revelation ran short as he felt a pressure on his arm. Aerin had taken hold of it and jerked him quickly out of the room. The space he, Emily, and Aerin had just occupied was quickly shredded by the Hellhound’s sharp claws. The demon’s long claws dug into the
concrete, leaving long, busted tracks in their wake. It pulled itself forward like an angry dog before letting out a bloodcurdling roar that reverberated far down the hall.
John’s heart beat faster as he ran. With Aerin’s hand still tightly clutching his arm, she led them down as many winding corridors as they could manage to put between them and the beast. Once she surmised that they had reached a safe distance, they hid inside a dark room and waited. Aerin stood near the threshold of the door listening for any signs of movement in the hallway as John did his best to calm Emily. At this point she was so scared that she had begun to shake in his arms. Her eyes were glossy and bloodshot from the intense stress that she was going through. John pressed her against his chest and stroked her hair as he listened to the deafening silence. Seconds seemed to drag on for hours as the beat of his heart became the only thing he could hear.
“What was that thing?” John asked in a whisper.
“A Hellhound.” Aerin answered.
John’s heart skipped a beat at the sound of the name.
“Something isn’t right about it though.” She stated. “It’s more aggressive than they usually are.” She paused to think for a moment before speaking again. “And it knew exactly where we were.”
“It could sense our spirits?”
“No.” Aerin said. “We were all suppressed. It shouldn’t have found us.”
Suddenly there was another heavy thud nearby. The sound made Emily jump in John’s arms. He continued to stroke her hair as he stood up next to Aerin, who was already in a defensive stance. His breathing slowed and became heavy. The room was deathly silent, almost to the point that he could hear Aerin’s heartbeat beside him. And then it happened.
The wall behind John exploded. There was no time to avoid it. All John could do was grip Emily tighter as he was propelled forward. He managed to turn his body as he fell in order to keep from landing on Emily. His head slapped the concrete floor as he impacted, knocking him out cold.
John couldn’t feel his body. It felt weightless, like he was floating in a large body of water. He felt suspended, motionless. There was a sense of impending danger on the horizon, but John couldn’t move. His body wouldn’t respond to his commands, instead he continued to float within the void. There was a voice in the distance that he could hear occasionally. It called out to him, but he could barely make out the words. The more it called out, the more he could understand. The voice was female, that he had discerned, but he wasn’t sure whose voice it was. It sounded familiar, but he couldn’t place it. Suddenly, the voice rang out as clear as day.
“Get up!”
John’s eyes flew open as he snapped to attention. The Hellhound was right behind him with its claws raised to attack. He quickly rolled as fast as he could to the side and watched as the two claws dug in and shredded the concrete where he had just been, missing him by mere inches. He scrambled to his feet as his right hand flew behind him instinctively. Taking hold of his power, a whirlwind of fire spewed forth around him as he drew his sword from its resting place.
He raised the sword up just in time to shield himself from another of the Hellhound’s attacks. It bore down on him with both of its claws in an attempt to crush him. The weight behind the attack was immense and John had to brace the blade with his left hand in order to hold off the beast. He could feel his knees buckling below him as sweat beaded up on his neck. He looked left and right quickly for a way out when suddenly the roof came down around them. The Hellhound’s large tail had swung around violently and caught a load bearing column behind it. The large fleshy appendage had easily torn through the concrete pillar, causing the ceiling that it had supported to come crashing down.
John stumbled back away from the pile of rubble in front of him. A thick cloud of dust filled the room, choking him and severely limiting his vision. For a moment, the room was silent. There was no sign of Aerin or the Hellhound. A heavy stillness fell upon the room that was almost welcomed, but was quickly broken as the rubble shifted. One of the Hellhound’s huge claws shot out from beneath the concrete. It grabbed and clawed around frantically as it pulled itself free from the rocky tomb it had brought down upon itself. John quickly scrambled to his feet and retreated as fast as he could as the monster gave chase.
John blinked his eyes rapidly to clear the dust from them as he ran. The Hellhound was hot on his heels, and just before it got him, he made a sharp turn down another hall. This only bought him a few seconds of time, as the Hellhound quickly corrected its course, tearing through anything that stood in its path. Soon, John found himself face to face with a dead end and the Hellhound was right behind him.
In a spilt second John made the only choice he could figure was viable at the moment. He ran as hard as he could toward the window at the far corner of the room. At the last possible second, he jumped into the air and pulled himself into as tight a ball as he could. The glass window shattered with ease and he fell onto the gravel below. His leather armor had protected his body from the many glass shards that rained down around him, but he was still a little disoriented from the fall.
The wall in front of him exploded outward as the Hellhound tore through it. Busted blocks of concrete and metal fell down onto the gravel as the beast slowly walked outside into the afternoon sun. It growled as it surveyed the area before clenching its teeth together at the sight of the Slayer before it. It lowered its body down as if to pounce and dug its claws into the ground. John was still lying on the ground, not yet fully recovered from his jump through the window. The Hellhound suddenly lunged forward with one claw raised to strike, and John’s body tensed up.
A magical bolt exploded into the Hellhound’s side, sending it away from John. Quickly, he looked over to where the bolt had come from, Aerin was standing twenty feet away with both of her hands raised toward the demon.
“Aerin!” John called out as he jumped to his feet. He had never been so happy to see her.
“Where’s Emily?!” She shouted back.
The question was almost like a slap in the face. John had been so caught up in trying to survive that he had completely lost sight of Emily. A horrible sense of dread filled his heart as the Hellhound charged right beside him. It was now fixated on Aerin. Knowing that she could handle herself, he took the opportunity to run back inside the building to look for the little girl he had left behind.
He ran through the large hole in the wall and retraced his steps through the gaping holes the Hellhound had left in its wake. He went left, and then right, until finally John came to where the roof had collapsed moments before. He closed his eyes in an attempt to feel any sort of presence, but then remembered how Emily had been concealing her spirit before. Suddenly he could hear her voice.
“John!” Emily cried out.
“Emily?” He answered, looking around frantically for the source of the voice. “Emily where are you?”
“It’s dark and I’m scared!” She shouted on the verge of tears.
John sheathed his sword and dropped to his knees. He began sifting through the large pile of rubble before him. He lifted huge chunks of concrete and tossed them to the side as fast as he could as he dug deeper into the pile.
“Emily! I’m coming for you!” He shouted.
“Please hurry!”
John overturned the last bit of concrete he could manage, only to find the floor beneath it. There was no blood, no scraps of clothing, no signs of the small girl. As he heard her crying a realization began to creep into his mind. Emily’s voice hadn’t been coming from below; it had been coming from within. Another sinking feeling filled John as he closed his eyes and gazed into himself. His soul came into view, just as it had many times before. It was still the same sphere with two halves that it had always been, but this time something was different. There was something else there that hadn’t been before. Along with all the other souls he had collected in his journey, a small blue sphere orbited around his own. He focused in on the small soul and felt Emily trembling at his touch.<
br />
His revelation was cut short as the rooms behind him exploded once more. John dove down and rolled to the side as the Hellhound tore into the ground he had just occupied. In one swift motion he jumped to his feet and ran as hard as he could toward the outside once more.
“Did you find her?!” Aerin questioned as John appeared again.
“Yeah!” He answered. “She’s inside of me!”
“She’s what?!”
“No time to explain!” John shouted before he started to run away from the building. “Distract it for me, I’ve got an idea!”
Aerin shook her head and immediately took flight again. She circled overhead and watched as the Hellhound clawed at her, desperate to rip her to shreds. She clapped her hands together loudly and fired multiple blasts down at the beast, all of which seemed to just bounce off of its black flesh. The Hellhound arched its back and let out a terrible howl as it grew more aggravated by the airborne assault. Suddenly there was a loud metal sound coming from where John had run off to. Aerin, and the Hellhound, looked over to where it was coming from. John stood next to a large rusted tank of some kind, which he was repeated slapping his sword up against.
“Hey!” He shouted as loud as he could. “Over here! Come get me!”
John’s taunts seemed to reach the Hellhound. It cut into the ground beneath it with its large claws as it struggled to get traction before charging toward the Slayer.
“That’s right.” John muttered under his breath. “Come get me.”
John ran toward the beast as fast as he could. Aerin could only watch from above as she witnessed what appeared to be suicide. The Hellhound raised its right claw into the air to crush the Slayer, but John had another plan in mind. At the last possible second, he dropped down onto the loose gravel and slid beneath the beast on his knees. His momentum carried him forward, and he lifted his blade up and made contact with the Hellhound’s chin. The sword cut the beast from one end to the other as John slid beneath it, effectively gutting it in one move. John jumped up to his feet clumsily behind the monster and ran a few more paces to be safe before turning around. He slung his blade beside him, dispelling the black blood that had covered it.
Slayer: A Demon Hunter's Tale Page 26
