The Cost_An Introduction to Demonology, Part 1

by R. W. Holmes

  The building in the distance shook, and a black mass of writhing, gooey tendrils leaped from its roof in a great, arching bound. Its body stretched with the leap, and maintained contact with the building as it propelled itself outward several dozen feet, before finally releasing its former perch and soaring out into the air and towards The Colonnade.

  Cries of horror and disbelief erupted among Enterprise Island's security forces, before the great, blob-like creature crushed an entire SWAT team in a great, resounding crash!

  The blob shook for a moment, as if lurching to scoop up the flattened SWAT team into its swaths of biomass that stretched a dozen feet across and two dozen feet long. Then, with a second lurch, hundreds of eyes of all shapes and sizes bubbled up to the surface of its black, amorphous body and blinked at the surrounding area.

  “OH MY GOD!” Jacky shrieked as the security officers opened fire, their bullets having no effect. “IT'S A SHOGGOTH!”

  Pseudopods erupted from the blobby mass, grabbing officers dozens at a time and hurling them away, or withdrawing them into its inky, black body. When it had wiped clean the section of The Colonnade it had landed at, it leaped to another one with startling ease and speed, and the unnervingly efficient process of mass destruction started all over again.

  “We need to run” said Zinerva.

  “Yes, thank you!” Emily screamed as she grabbed hold of Gael and Kennedy and started dragging them away. “I don't think security is going to bother stopping us anymore.”

  “What the hell though!?” Kennedy exclaimed helplessly. “Can't we do something? Shouldn't we? Maybe-,”

  “Come on!” Zinerva said as she hopped from Gael's shoulders to Kennedy's. “Cypress already played hero, so do him a favor and keep yourself alive, for his sake.”

  “Also, that's a shoggoth” Jacky said as she and Ginger hurried after the others. “You need heavy duty military ordnance to kill that, or extremely powerful fae. Maybe Shay could slow it down with another decade or two under her belt.”

  “Or I could learn to make Zinerva stronger?” Gael suggested feebly. “I've been studying it, and if she's using fire from just one circle, and there's eight other-,”

  “Shut up!” snapped Ginger. “Look at it!”

  Gael did as he was told, and immediately found any thoughts of fighting back dashed by the sight of the shoggoth batting a poorly tossed grenade back at the officer who threw it.

  “Okay” he said as an explosion sounded in the distance. “Where are we going then? Invisibility doesn't work against them, right? We should find shelter and form a new plan.”

  “That... actually makes sense” Jacky acquiesced.

  “Nice one, bro!” Kennedy said as he backed up and gave Gael a high five.

  “Okay okay, hold on, I have an idea” said Emily. “I always make a list of places other summoners will stay away from for situations like this. Come on.”

  Gael, Kennedy, and Zinerva exchanged concerned looks as Emily darted to the right and led everyone down a side alley.

  “I don't like this” Ginger said as Jacky carried her along after Emily. “Why is everyone trusting her anyway? We don't know what she and the rest of the outcasts want. There are some R'lyehans with the outcasts! How do we know this isn't all her doing?”

  Shay growled and spun around so that she was hanging precariously backwards on Emily's right shoulder and said, “Two. We have two R'lyehans. One of them is in exile, and the other was born with a shoggoth following him around. He's about as much of a R'lyehan as Gael is an agent of Hell, and the outcasts would've died a long time ago if it weren't for everything he's done.”

  “I'm pretty sure even War isn't an agent of Hell” Zinerva offered wryly. “He's just depressed, from all the boredom.”

  “Yeah, but even so I'd still trust one of the horsemen of the apocalypse over any R'lyehan!” exclaimed Jacky.

  Kennedy hurried out to the front of the group and threw his hands out to stop everyone.

  “Listen up!” he snapped with unexpected authority. “Jacky, shut your trap, we're not idiots. You came to us, so we're not about to fall for letting you split us away from Emily. And when we get to this safe place of Emily's, she's going to sit down and tell us everything. Everything. No more crap off the table, alright? Enterprise Island is a war zone! We don't have room for secrets anymore, and while you're telling us yours, that guy back there with the huge brain is going to talk to that tiny demon girl with the huge brain, and they're going to come up with a way for us to sneak by these R'lyehan fools.”

  “I'm not-,” Jacky started.

  “I don't owe you any explanations!” snapped Emily.

  “Okay” Gael said as he and Zinerva stepped over to Kennedy. “You four can stay here then while Kennedy and I go on to the church. That's the place, right? Because I get the feeling the Fae and the R'lyehans have some pretty deep superstitions about messing with hallowed ground. Also, its walls are stone, they're at least a meter thick, and the place has a basement that descends right into the foundation steel of the island. It's practically a fortress.”

  Jacky scowled, but already her mind was calculating how best she could take advantage of getting the split she wanted, until...

  “Okay” Emily said suddenly, her animosity gone. “Come on, Shay.”

  “What!? Why!?” Shay exclaimed as Emily carried her forward.

  “He figured it out” Emily replied with a shrug. “And I don't know what we're going to do. Maybe he can figure out how to get out of here, too.”

  Jacky stared on, a deep grimace on her face, but a quick tug from the elf she held in her arms gave her pause.

  “She's going to spill secrets” Ginger whispered excitedly. “We should go with them!”

  It was difficult, but Jacky forced herself to see the wisdom in Ginger's words and begrudgingly continued onward with the others.

  Up front, Gael looked to Kennedy now that they were leading the way away from the others' prying ears.

  “That was pretty unexpected” he said to him.

  “Yeah, well, I learned a thing or two playing football” Kennedy replied smartly. “When things aren't going so good, you gotta remind everyone of who they can depend on, especially if the team is new.”

  Gael came to a stop and stared on awkwardly as Kennedy continued forward. He had never been the most sociable person in the world, and seeing someone like Kennedy, who could keep sworn enemies working together, had very quickly outlined just how big a disadvantage not being good with other people could be.

  “What are you thinking about?” asked Zinerva.

  Gael grimaced as Emily and Shay, and then Jacky and Ginger continued on after Kennedy while he stood and thought.

  “I'm thinking about how terrible I am with people” said Gael.

  “Okay, what are you really thinking about?” Zinerva asked instead.

  “If it weren't for Kennedy and Cypress, if Angelica were still alive and we'd merely gotten her demon under control instead...” Gael started uneasily. “We'd be dead. We'd have left my dorm early and gotten shot by Jacky.”

  Zinerva nodded sympathetically from Gael's shoulder. “And then the R'lyehans never would have came, and all the people who have died because of them would still be okay.”

  Gael smirked bitterly and shifted the shoulder that Zinerva sat on. “Don't tell me you feel that way, too.”

  “I don't know” said Zinerva, her expression growing slightly vacant at the thought. “The only emotions we have in Hell are manic and depressed. First you're manic for a few centuries, then you're depressed for another, and then you waste away.”

  Gael nodded as he started forward after the others again. “And how old are you?”

  “Oh I'm really young” Zinerva said reassuringly. “Like, fifty? I don't know, maybe less...” She paused for a moment, with nothing but the chaos in the background and the sound of Gael's footsteps for company, before asking, “So, I always know what other people dislike, or are afraid of. Do y
ou know what I'm afraid of?”

  “I imagine wasting away is high on the list” replied Gael.

  “Yes” said Zinerva. “But sometimes, the older demons, they talk about demons who die really young. They just... realize how empty everything is super early on in their existence.”

  “Are you one of those demons, Zinerva?” asked Gael, despite knowing full well what the answer would be.

  Zinerva sighed shakily and looked down at the cold, asphalt ground. “It was really easy to hear the music when you summoned me” she replied somberly. “Because I was already looking for something different than what we had. It was never enough.”

  Gael smirked. “And is my world enough?”

  “Does it go on forever?” asked Zinerva.

  “Yes” said Gael.

  “Then it's enough.”

  Chapter 10

  Standoff

  It had been almost twenty minutes since Cypress had left the rest of the group. His chase, droll as it was, came to an abrupt end when the officers in pursuit received a call of something far more serious happening elsewhere.

  When Cypress moved further into the city, he happened upon the The Colonnade, albeit from traveling down a different road than Gael and the others. He found what had called the officers away waiting for him there, the great beast that was the shoggoth, and with it a very important realization. And it bothered him.

  Watching from the street corner he'd stopped at as the shoggoth ripped through The Colonnade and ended the lives of Enterprise Island's finest by the dozen, Cypress then finally understood why that same realization bothered him.

  “Everyone on Enterprise Island is going to die” he said aloud, before looking aside and grimacing. “I am surprisingly annoyed by this...” he said next. “But what am I, a mere incubus, supposed to do about it?”

  Cypress's gaze fell to the contingents of security officers that had gathered at the street corner opposite his to join in watching the carnage from afar. They weren't doing anything either, but he could tell they'd remained organized, and that was more than he could say for anyone else in The Colonnade.

  “I just shot someone” Cypress muttered to himself as he began making his way over. “No matter how direct I am in explaining my relative innocence, this situation might become complicated.”

  Cypress then made the bold decision to hold his gun straight up, so as to advertise that he had it, as he made his way over.

  “SUSPECT SPOTTED!” one of the officers shouted.

  Cypress managed not to smirk as dozens of officers pulled their guns from their sides and aimed them at him.

  “That's enough” he called out. “I'm not here to cause problems. I'd have started shooting already if I was.”

  One of the officers, this one more decorated, stepped forward. His hair was graying, and his face wore a grizzled expression that cemented a superior authority among the security officers.

  “I am Captain O'Houlihan, of The Enterprise Island Police Department” he shouted to Cypress. “What are you doing?”

  “I'm here to tell you the truth” replied Cypress.

  “Captain!” another of the officers cried out. “He's the shooter! He killed the man at the fountain where that horse appeared!”

  “There are lots of strange things happening around here lately, aren't there?” Cypress called out quickly.

  “Yeah. There are” the captain called back suspiciously.

  “The man I shot, he was with the people who brought the monster” continued Cypress.

  “Monsters” replied the captain.

  Cypress cocked his brow confusedly. “Excuse me?”

  “As in plural” replied the captain. “We've got reports of three of the things here on Enterprise Island.”

  “You do realize you can't fight them, yes?” Cypress said next. “You have to run.”

  The captain scoffed aloud derisively and shook his head. “Listen, I don't know who you think you are, but there aren't enough ships to get everyone off Enterprise Island. Unless you know how to get communications open, I'm going to have to ask you to turn over your weapon and surrender yourself.”

  A frown slowly spread over Cypress's face. “There will be enough ships by the time you get the survivors to the Starport” he said grimly. “And I can assure you, your 'communications' will not reopen. This blackout is by design, and it exists to keep what happens here secret.”

  The captain scowled back at Cypress and asked, “How do I know I can trust you?”

  “Because, Mr. O'Houlihan, I am also a monster” replied Cypress.

  The security officers gasped and tightened their grip on their weapons as Cypress lowered his pistol and pressed the barrel to his head.

  “Holy shit” the captain muttered as Cypress shot himself.

  Then, Cypress's limp body burst into flames, and reduced itself to a pile of ash.

  “Uh, captain?” another of the officers queried worriedly.

  The captain stared at the pile of clothes and ash before him and grimaced.

  “Get everyone together that you can” he said somberly. “Half of you work on pulling our people away from that thing tearing up The Colonnade, while the other half rounds up the civilians. We're going to make a run for the Starport.”

  “But, the ships-,” started another of the officers.

  “Everyone, shut the hell up!” the captain bellowed in frustration. “That guy killed himself just to make it clear he knew what he was talking about. I've never seen anyone with a self-cremating body, so I'm inclined to believe him. Now shut up, get organized, and follow your fucking orders!”

  “Whoa... I just got the willies” said Kennedy.

  Gael looked to his friend concernedly, and then up ahead to the large, castle-esque cathedral that Emily, Jacky, and their fae were already rapidly approaching.

  “It's probably Cypress” he said to Kennedy. “You haven't had him die on you yet, have you?”

  “No” Kennedy admitted concerned. “Is this what it's like for you?”

  “Not really” Gael acquiesced. “I just have a feeling about it, and my feelings about this summoning stuff are usually spot on.”

  “That's good” Kennedy said as he, Gael, and Zinerva climbed the front steps of the cathedral. “Because none of this makes sense to me.”

  “Oh look at that” Jacky said as she and Ginger arrived first. “A wooden door. Aren't they fancy?”

  “Ugh... I hate wood” Emily added in disgust. “I can't understand why people still use it all when we have metal, let alone prefer it.”

  “You do know that in Fairyland-,” started Shay.

  “Yes! Shut up!” snapped Emily.

  Gael sneered and hissed, “Everyone shut up!” as he, Kennedy, and Zinerva stepped up to the door alongside Jacky and Emily. “Think for a moment. This is the absolute worst time for us to be seen.”

  “Right, right” Jacky said as she pushed the cathedral door open, which groaned horribly under its own weight.

  “See, a metal door would've been quiet” Emily muttered through her scowl.

  The chamber beyond the cathedral's great front door was spacious, if not a little musty. Thick carpeting ran across the most walked segments of a stone floor that was, admittedly, too perfect for anything made by man. Despite an overly faithful choice of materials, the cathedral was clearly a modern creation, and made with modern tools.

  Lights hung on sconces along the walls of the entryway, and expanded back to a great, pillar-lined central chamber, rows upon rows of which led up to a great, and vacant, pulpit.

  “Churches have always kind of creeped me out” Jacky remarked nonchalantly. “Even before I met the Fae.”

  Gael and the others followed Jacky's gaze to the stained glass windows lining the walls of the church, and the stations of the cross depicted on them.

  “Only a very guilty person would feel wary of churches after coming face to face with actual demons” said Zinerva.

  “More than half of
the people in this room have killed someone” replied Jacky. “We are all very guilty.”

  “Except for me” said Kennedy.

  “I like to think I'm only a little guilty” added Gael. “After all, I spared someone. No one else has done that.”

  “Yeah, but you spared Jacky” said Shay. “That's like killing five more people.”

  Gael frowned as the solemn, empty cathedral offered a more foreboding atmosphere than he had initially expected.

  “There's no one here” he said sadly. “It might be the safest place in the city, and there's not a single soul hiding here.”

  “Oh, calm down” said Ginger. “People still think they have a chance. When that chance is gone, that's when they'll come to the church.”

  “Please don't joke around about this” Gael replied drearily. “Every person that dies dies because of something I did.”

  “Yeah, you should totally kill yourself” Jacky said encouragingly. “Or let me do it.”

  “No! No no no no no!” exclaimed Emily. “You did not kill a bunch of people. The R'lyehans did! They made that choice, not you.”

  “But I could have stopped it” said Gael.

  “Not really” Kennedy murmured awkwardly. “It's not like you knew any of this was going to happen.”

  “Of course, right” Gael replied sarcastically. “That's why the longer I live, the crazier things are becoming around me, right? It's not like I realized that was happening after people with fairies started showing up.”

  “I mean, if you're going to be that way then you really could just kill yourself” said Zinerva. “Isn't that great? You can just die. No big deal. Except for me, it would really suck for me, because I just got here, but at least you'd feel better for something that wasn't actually your fault, right?”

  Gael scowled and slumped down into one of the pews away from the others, with no one but Zinerva on his shoulder for company. The others, meanwhile, resigned to giving the sulking summoner his space and resigned themselves to their own sections of pews.

  “Hey, Zinerva” he murmured tiredly. “You ever get so stressed you just want to do something stupid?”