Autumn's Calling (Book 2): The Battle

by Michelle Weese

  As he whirled me around the platform, I glanced at our undead band and another bout of laughter escaped me when I captured a clear view of the violin player. She wore a raggedy red cocktail dress with beaded sequins around the hem. The material was torn and revealed her withered left breast. Flaccid skin flapped carelessly in the wind as she performed her piece in the number with a fervent passion. I decided to nickname her Boobara, you know, instead of Barbara. Anyways, Boobara also suffered from a missing eyeball along with half of her right cheek. Poor woman was in rough shape. I had the sudden urge to give her a major makeover, but thought better of it.

  Waltzing with Alastor had grown tedious and boring, so I broke away from him and started dancing like a fool who had too many beers. The way Jess and I did at the bar when we didn’t give a damn who saw us. It was the first time I had been out of that room in days and I was going to live it up. I encouraged the band to speed up the music, and they finally gave in. One peek at Alastor allowed me see him ordering them to do so. He stood there with bewilderment etched into his angelic face as I shook my ass and twirled around by myself. He felt he had no control over me in that moment, and I loved it.

  This was the opportunity I needed to consider my options. Figure out which direction I preferred to take in destroying him. I wanted to come out of it alive, so I determined what would be the safest route. If I continued to drink his blood, there was a possibility that it could turn me into some kind of half breed demon, and that is obviously not what I wanted. Although it would provide me sufficient strength to fight him, my humanity just wasn’t worth the risk. The alternative would be to bring him close enough so I could drive the magical dagger into his heart and, in theory, send him back to the world below.

  After some time to think and plot, I moved toward him again. The way he watched me lent the idea that perhaps I could use his lust for me to make him vulnerable enough to sink the blade in his heart. I sashayed over and pressed myself against his chest. His energy throbbed against my body, sending a surge of electricity through my bones. The smoldering look in his eyes let me see he was considering doing very naughty things. He seized my hand, and we began to sway. He twirled me like a true seasoned professional and produced small giggles from me. It was all part of my ruse to convince him I had given over to his charms.

  We danced until my legs ached and turned to rubber, so I finally told him I needed to take a break. He swept me off my feet and carried me to one of the winged-back leather chairs that occupied the fireside. I groaned as my tender feet warmed by the flickering flames. Alastor took the other chair beside of mine. I leaned back and closed my eyes in contentment as the heat relaxed my weary muscles. After a moment, I could sense his eyes penetrating me. I peeked up to catch him gazing at me with such intensity, it actually tugged at something deep inside of my body.

  “No, Autumn. You cannot fall for his enchantment. He is an evil creature and you must send him back to where he belongs,” I told myself over and over. I teetered on that edge of pretended lust and curious desire. How was I able to let him close enough to kill, yet remain level-headed and not cave under the spell of the beast?

  The dull side of the dagger was digging into my thigh, even more so now that I was sitting. The jab I received from the cold steel was enough to snap me out of the cloudy and dangerous section of my mind. I chose to ignore him for a moment and keep him craving more. He became impatient after a few minutes and spoke.

  “You are so beautiful, Autumn. I wish you would realize how much I care for you,” he declared.

  Here we go again.

  “Thank you, Alastor. But I’m already spoken for. I know Leland is out there somewhere searching for me, he will eventually come,” I said with confidence.

  “Oh yes, the knight in shining armor. Well, I cannot say I blame the man for being so devoted to you. Any man within his right mind would fall at your feet and beg for your attentions. That, I am certain of.”

  “Last time I checked, nobody has begged for my hand. Especially you. You’re forcing me to be here, remember?”

  “I am not forcing you. I simply wanted to offer you a safe place to settle after you lost your home. You are meant to be here, Autumn. I wish you could see that,” he pleaded, then rose from his chair to kneel before me. His hands settled on each armrest beside of me. The proximity of him caused my pulse to speed up. My palms were sweating, and I nervously rubbed them down the skirt of my gown.

  “Allow me to show you a piece of my world. Where I come from. The tortures I’ve endured and the reason I am who I am. Maybe I will convince you my allegiance is much greater than anyone else’s.”

  I rolled my eyes and sighed, knowing he would not leave me alone. I wasn’t certain how he intended to “show me” but I needed to keep him close and content for my ultimate plan to succeed.

  So I replied, “Suit yourself.”

  I would forever regret those words.

  He seized my clammy hands in his making me flinch. My immediate response to his touch was to abort my mission and bolt for the hills. But I knew I wouldn’t get far before the rotting army of dead captured and dragged me screaming back to Alastor’s dungeon. I took a deep breath and lifted my gaze to meet his. The firelight flickered inside of those tiger eyes, dancing along the edges of each iris, as if they acquired their own flames. Rich gold swirled around a burnt orange starburst until it dissolved into the abyss of his pupils. His eyes captivated me and the surrounding ballroom vanished.

  My body glided along a gloomy passage for a moment. I could make out a dull gray light at the end. The roar of rushing water filled my ears. As I drew nearer, I realized I was approaching the peak of a waterfall. Panic ensued, and I flailed my arms and legs in effort to push myself backward. To my dismay, the tactic did not work. The bubbling water was below me so I pinched my eyes shut, bracing for the lethal plunge into what awaited me below. Nothing happened. I peeked through one eye to discover myself floating in thin air beside the waterfall. My hand stretched out hesitantly to test the water, curious if it was real or not. I squealed with surprise as the cool liquid gushed over my trembling hand.

  A lush forest surrounded me. Tall pines stretched far up into a dark and dreadful sky. Eerie sounds echoed through the dense woods. An owl hooted from the shadows. Unseen to the naked eye, but lurking in the camouflage of his home. Cicadas chimed loudly at one another in competition to determine who could produce the most noise. Crows cawed as they circled above the rotting carcass of a possum laying on the tree line.

  Twenty-feet below me, the waterfall cascaded into a small pond. White foam gurgled at the bonding point of both liquids. The water appeared darker than I expected it to be. Almost gray with a strange odor to it. My eyes came to rest on a young man sitting beside the pond in the thick underbrush. His legs curled around his body as his face rested between his knees. From my vantage point, it looked as though he was sobbing. Long golden hair trailed down his shoulders, shaking as cries of sorrow wracked his body violently. Concern arose within me as I drifted closer to him.

  “Excuse me. Are you okay?” I asked the young man.

  His head jerked up in surprise, revealing golden tiger eyes. Although rimmed with redness, they were the same eyes Alastor possessed. He looked ten years younger though. No harsh lines appeared on this face, only baby softness and fresh as a polished new penny. Tear-stained cheeks flushed a rosy pink. The cherub cheeks you feel compelled to reach out and give a pinch. I refrained from doing so and waited for him to answer my question.

  “Ye… ye… yes. I am all right,” he sputtered out through the sobbing.

  “Alastor, is that really you?” I whispered, unsure if I would frighten him further, or if he wasn’t actually Alastor.

  “I am sorry, but who are you?” he replied in a bewildered tone.

  “It’s Autumn. You remember bringing me here, right?”

  “No. I do not recall bringing anybody anywhere. No one ever comes here but me. It is a secret place I come to a
lone. Now if you will pardon me, I must go,” he said, then got to his feet and disappeared into the dark forest.

  “Hey! Wait up!” I called to him, but he had already gone.

  A jolt burst through my body and I transported to a different place. Except this time, it wasn’t nearly as pleasant. The waterfall scene peeled away like flecks of old paint and faded into darkness. Light grew from the void and the next place wavered in focus. Soon after, a wasteland stretched before me. Dry cracked soil covered the terrain as far as the eye could see. No lush green trees or even an ounce of water existed to break up the dead desert. Burnt branches were scattered about, but their dry gray appearance hinted that they died a long time ago. A trio of ancient vultures perched on one of those blackened limbs, staring at me with opaque eyes and a fearsome hunger. Oh yay, now we have zombie vultures, too!

  The sky brooded with angry clouds and fits of thunder. The air was oppressive with a humidity that clung to my skin. Heat quivered in the atmosphere, generating a mirage effect. Maybe this place would receive the rain it so desperately needed. I searched the area for any traces of life. Nothing. Not a tree, a house, or a car anywhere. Even a tumbleweed would have given the land at least some kind of company, but only the decrepit scavengers inhabited this patch of the universe. The land of the dead.

  A different kind of heat oozed from the ground beneath me. I noticed a thick orange liquid flowing through the cracks of scorched soil. A long second later, it registered in my brain that I was looking at molten lava, glowing like a firefly at midnight. I attempted a step back from the two-inch crack in front of me, only to find my bare foot melted to the ground. Brainwaves sent the signal to my eyes, and an alarming message to my foot that something was seriously wrong. A gut wrenching pain seared through my extremity as I opened my mouth to deliver a throat tearing scream. I was forced to stand there and watch as the lava disintegrated my flesh and bones, climbing up my leg an agonizing inch at a time. Just when I believed I would pass out from the pain, the scene vanished, along with the suffering. The phenomenon of the transfer between one scene to the next was taking a toll on my body. My energy levels were dropping exponentially. The human body was not created for teleportation.

  I landed on a stone platform in a vast crowd of veiled figures. My balance teetered for a moment, then I regained control. A royal throne rested on a towering slab of rock in front of me. On that throne sat the most frightening presence I ever fixed my sights on. With flaming red eyes and charred ebony flesh, a beast of indescribable evil gazed out over his congregation and spoke in a rumbling intonation.

  “My children. My soldiers. My progenies. We have gathered today for a particular purpose. Another of you pursued their escape from my kingdom. Now we all understand what becomes of those when this futile task is carried out. You left evidence behind from your failed endeavors. I am ordering you to come forth and pay for your transgressions. If you give yourself up, I will consider a lesser penalty. But if I must seek you out, you will receive the worst punishment imaginable. Now is your chance,” he declared with a wave of his staff. Golden snakes coiled up the slender rod to meet a genuine human skull where the beast’s clawed fingers rested.

  The throne he mounted matched the staff, but was much gaudier. Golden scrollwork of foreign symbols and phrases were carved into the backrest and down the arms of the chair. Skulls lined the peak of the headrest horizontally from end to end. Golden snakes weaved throughout each orifice so you couldn’t be sure where the first snake ended and the next one began. The throne must have stood at a minimum of eight-feet tall, which suggested that the beast had to be massive since his spiraling horns reached a few inches above it while sitting down.

  As I continued surveying the master in his elements, my hearing picked up a gurgling raspy voice nearby in the crowd. One figure draped in a black cloak moved forward until he reached the base of the throne above him. It didn’t shuffle or wobble like an ordinary human would when walking. It seemed more like gliding. The cloak fell to a kneeling position. Murmurs vibrated through the space we occupied with curious and shocked responses to the figure giving himself up. I felt the outcome of this would be bad. Really bad.

  “Zerbach, my child. Do you have something you would like to say?” the beast asked with teeth bared in a vicious grin. Although I couldn’t describe them as teeth. Fangs would be the more suitable term for the sharp daggers that filled his mouth. Zerbach spoke again. The sound of gargling rocks came to mind when I listened to that croaky voice.

  “Yes, master. It was I who attempted to enter the portal to the surface. Please forgive me, my dark lord. I will not betray you again.”

  “Hush now, my child. I knew it was you all along. I see everything. I hear everything. I know everything. Do not forget that,” the master chided. He leisurely adjusted himself on his throne, throwing a hooved leg over one armrest. Yes, I said hooved. As in horse feet, but much… much… larger. He grumbled in agitation and the gesture quivered over the anxious crowd like a heat wave. Black cloaks all around me shifted restlessly. The power emitting from the beast made my hair stand on end.

  I did not want to witness the punishment taking place, so I backed up an inch at a time, trying to be as quiet as humanly possible. If this was a dream, or nightmare, I prayed I would wake up soon. Because if that’s not the case, hysteria threatened to erupt from my body at any moment and I would give myself away. Who knows what the savage beast would do if he caught me seeking to escape his audience. He clearly wasn’t a person, or thing, on my bucket list of people to piss off and be captured by. Alastor wouldn’t stand a chance against this brute, much less little ol’ me.

  As I made little progress, retreating a mere inch at a time, my outer surroundings fell into perspective. Rock formations appeared all around me. Some balanced upon one another. Others lingered in space as if gravity didn’t exist around them. Stones of all sizes climbed the walls of the place and receded into a gaping hole encircled by shards of obsidian. It resembled the mouth of the beast. Through the opening I could see a galaxy. But this galaxy did not seem to be the one we are familiar with from earth. Something seemed peculiar about it. No constellations. No moon. Just a black void with mottling of faint stars. Dying stars. Wisps of pale blue vapor drifted here and there but I could not determine what it was. In my sky gazing foolishness, I didn’t watch where I was walking, and brushed one of the veiled figures with my elbow.

  My head snapped around to the person I grazed automatically to apologize. But the words froze on my tongue when the being inside of the black cloak turned to meet my eyes. A hiss escaped as beady red orbs stared at me with vehemence. The thing inside of the hooded robe was not a person at all. There was nothing human about it. No shape of a head or arms filled the facade it hid behind. I was wading through a sea of evil monsters. The master’s little minions. The spirits we cower from when worried they will steal our souls and condemn us to purgatory. We know they exist but don’t talk about them in fear of conjuring one. The fiends that possess the bodies of innocent people every day. Whatever term you identify them with. Whatever was taught in Sunday school. Whatever images you see depicted of what we assume they look like, does not grasp the reality of one staring you directly in the face. My worst fear in true form. Demons.

  Cackling and chatter filled the platform. It echoed from the rock cliffs to the boulders all around me. My feet trembled as the ground vibrated with the uproar. I gawked in horror as the crowd of cloaks all bled together. They were no longer individual entities, but a single growing mass of evil. The black blob of demons climbed higher and louder until they formed a great tidal wave that towered over me. The sounds of bone chilling laughter and high-pitched growling threatened to deafen me. Time stood still as the in-human spirits evolved into a wall of imminent death on the path to swallow me whole. Red beady eyes dappled the smoky mountain as the demons watched me cower below.

  If this was how it ended, I would not give in willingly. My legs felt as heavy as sand
bags when I attempted to turn and run. They had decided to stay put and root to the rock. But I had other plans. I pried them from their preferred spot then forced myself to turn and flee.

  “Stop her!” the master’s voice boomed as I bolted in the opposite direction of the black wave waiting to crash.

  I ran with every ounce of willpower I had left. My breathing gushed in and out of my aching lungs. Dust clouds formed behind me each time my feet slapped the ground. I glanced back to catch the black mass soaring closer. A scream erupted from within when I understood it was mere seconds away from devouring me. I drove my body harder and my feet faster. But by the time I turned back around, it was too late.

  The edge of the platform appeared, and I didn’t have an opportunity to stop before plummeting over. My arms and legs flailed as I fought for purchase, but there was nothing but air. I tumbled head over heels, catching flashes of the ending that awaited me. Blazing orange with unimaginable ferocity, the molten lava welcomed my tender flesh. The mind-numbing agony of burning alive was indescribable. I cried as the skin melted from my bones. My veins exploded from the boiling pressure of the extreme temperature. My final vision was the black cloud of demons gazing down at my ruined remains with absolute satisfaction.

  Chapter 16

  All traces of life ceased within me. Oxygen did not inflate my lungs, for my last breath was trapped in my throat. My thrumming heart beat one final time, then stopped. Brain waves died off gradually until all that remained was a void inside. I had become a hollow shell. My essence ripped from my carcass. I now know what dying is like.

  Darkness surrounded me.

  My spirit cried out for help.