She stood as the grotesque figure grew and came to life ahead of her. Never would she have thought it possible but the demon was even more grotesque than their first meeting and it stood before her with all the rage of hell behind it.
“YOU-” the beast growled. “I knew that you would not be fooled,” it growled further then curled one side of its snout, “though I did not believe you to be foolish.”
It took every ounce of strength Jorden had to face the demon, for she knew if she turned her back on it she would give it strength and power over her, and she was not about to let that happen. “How am I being foolish?” she questioned calmly.
“You and your friend should have fled from the island with the others,” the beast hissed.
It stalked around the small mausoleum so close to Jorden that she could smell the rot from it and feel the heat just as she had when she’d contacted it earlier and she had to stop herself from grabbing at her forearms in spite of the pain she felt.
The demon stood close to her though Jorden forced herself to remain calm. “Where is your friend?” it hissed in her ear. “It isn’t the man friend that you are so fond of but another…” it thought a moment and an evil grin twisted its horrific mouth, “…a girl.”
Jorden breathed in and kept her mind focused on a blank page, just as she did every time she felt an intrusion into her thoughts. Of course until she’d arrived on the island she hadn’t realized that that’s what she had done but now that she thought about it, she’d been doing it for years and she was suddenly thankful for her practice.
“Sapphire,” it groaned.
Jorden didn’t get upset…she already knew that the kid wouldn’t be able to hold off the demon’s intrusions.
“Perhaps her body would fit me,” it threatened.
Jorden remained cool; she’d already done all of her worrying about the measures of protection they’d taken long before they’d arrived and it was too late to do more now. “You can’t,” Jorden said evenly.
The demon snorted. “You think that your incense and charms will keep me from coveting your body…” it crept closer yet, “…your soul?”
“Go ahead,” she bluffed convincingly. “You won’t get very far with it.”
The demon’s clawed hand reached out to her though stopped just before it could touch her. “Perhaps not just yet.”
“And why’s that?” she asked.
“I want to have a little fun first.”
She thought that she had the demon beat, though wouldn’t allow herself to feel any victory until she was on a boat heading away with her soul intact and her friends around her. And then it hit her like a bullet between the eyes. She was taken back six years ago and to the day she found out that Eric Ferris had been murdered and his body found. And looking at her with a cocky grin on his face was the boy’s father. “You couldn’t stop me then…do you truly think that you can stop me now? Do you think that you can save your friend? Your love? Your life?” the man questioned her with a sneer.
The unexpected vision from the past had Jorden’s control waning and she knew it. She could feel it slip just slightly though held desperately to it.
“Can you feel me now?” the demon hissed in her ears though the only one she could see was Eric Ferris’s father.
She was in a dream, the demon was in her head and she had to force herself to breathe. But she couldn’t hold it, not with the boy’s father laughing in her face. “You’re not really here,” she said evenly. “You’re only in my head.”
“Is this what you see when you dream?” it asked as it held Eric’s dead body up for her to see and she had to force herself not to give in and look away. The demon dropped the boy as if he were no more than a crumpled up piece of trash and it was immediately at Jorden’s side. “What if I told you that I own his soul? That I’ve always owned his soul.”
Jorden couldn’t believe it and she wouldn’t. “No,” she said evenly, “It isn’t really him. He crossed over long ago.”
“You know that isn’t true,” it scoffed as it circled her, still in the form of Mister Ferris. “He comes to you at night to warn you of evil…to warn you of me. He’s not at rest…he’s here.”
Jorden wanted to continue to deny the demon but it was getting harder by the minute. It was right, if Eric’s soul were at rest then she wouldn’t see him and she knew it. “You stay away from the boy,” she warned.
“Or what?” the demon challenged her.
It was right. She couldn’t threaten it; she had no power to control anything.
“Don’t listen to it Miss Mason,” a familiar voice said to her. “I’m here and my soul is safe. Don’t let it trick you.”
“Eric if your soul is here you must go. You need to be at rest.”
“But he can’t rest,” the demon whispered in her ear with hot, rotted breath that staggered her. “He’s trapped here just like the rest of us.” It circled her until it faced her. “But I will let him go.”
Jorden stared into the face of Mister Ferris and narrowed her eyes. “Why don’t I believe you?”
“Trade places with him,” it hissed. “Trade your soul with his.”
Jorden had expected the proposition but it didn’t make it any easier to contemplate. She couldn’t give her soul to the demon any more than she could sacrifice Eric’s.
“Don’t listen to him Miss Mason. I am safe. I promise you.”
Jorden could barely hear Eric’s whisper and she wasn’t about to believe that Eric was safe, after all, if that were the case then why was he there in the first place.
“Come to me,” the demon beckoned. “Come to me and I’ll let him go.”
Jorden grew weak. She knew that she wouldn’t hold out much longer.
Saph stared with wide eyes at Jorden and the hellish demon as they stood locked in a silent battle. Several times she thought that she could hear whispers of anger, fear and rage, but she couldn’t make out what any of them were saying.
It was getting difficult to remain in place. The eclipse would be over soon and their chance of locking the demon away and getting off the island unscathed was growing slimmer by the moment.
Come on Jorden, she silently urged. It isn’t there yet. It isn’t at the tomb. It needs to be at the tomb. Just a little further.
Saph looked at Jorden and could see the steady control in her face and hoped for all of their sakes that she could maintain it. She had to make certain that the demon felt it was in control, but in doing so Saph worried that Jorden might lose hers. If that was to happen then it could be the death of them both…maybe the rest of them as well.
“What do you mean she’s in the mausoleum?” Matt blasted.
“She and Saph are trying to entomb the demon,” Tony said breathlessly. He’d run the length of the narrow path from the cemetery to the dock and stopped for nothing.
It suddenly didn’t matter just how big Tony was, or strong for that matter, Matt was going to kill him if he got back from the mausoleum alive. “Isis still hasn’t returned from the village and I’m getting worried. Take Jesse and search the path between the dock and the village and if you see the old woman stay clear. She’s a manifestation of the fucking demon!” he blasted then without any further rants or threats he took off for the mausoleum.
On his way to the mausoleum, he realized, he’d never been more scared in his life…not even when he was shot several years back. He knew then if they got off the island he was either going to marry Jorden or kill her…and he knew that he wasn’t going to kill her. He only hoped that the both of them lived long enough for him to scream at her.
Jorden stood in silence and in fear as she looked on and tried to find Eric. She had only heard his voice and she suspected that the demon only used him because he had been on her mind for so long now, but she couldn’t take the chance.
“I can hear your thoughts,” the demon whispered in her ear. “You want to save the boy. You couldn’t do it then, you were too weak, but now you can be strong
and save his soul. The choice is yours.”
Jorden stepped back and deeper into the mausoleum, and closed her eyes and thought of the SCP team and how they’d become her family. She couldn’t let anything happen to them and she surely couldn’t allow anything to happen to Matt. He might hate her for the rest of his life for what she had done and what she was about to do but at least he would be alive to do it. “Deal,” she said silently.
“Deal,” Jorden said quietly, though just loud enough for Saph to hear and that was her cue.
Saph sprung from her hiding place and affixed the crystal on the floor in its place. She then ran to the front and grabbed Jorden just as Jorden herself had instructed her to.
Jorden snapped from the trance with a bit of distance in her eyes, though it didn’t take long for her to see where she was. The mausoleum was unearthly bright with oranges and yellows as if it were lit by flames and ahead of her was the demon.
Immediately Jorden affixed her crystal to the floor and both she and Saph prayed that it would work.
The demon jolted as if it was struck with a bolt of electricity and it raged within his invisible cage. “YOU!” it demanded. “What have you done?”
Jorden smiled and stepped closer to the cage. “You will take no souls on this night.”
“You bitch! You’re a fucking bitch!” the demon cursed. “I will take your soul yet!”
“I don’t think so,” she said evenly as she backed away.
A twisted smile pulled up the corners of the demon’s mouth. “I may not yet possess your soul, but you are going nowhere.”
A guttural grown emanated from the demon that started low but quickly grew to a sustained howl that caused the earth to quake around Jorden and Saph and the stony walls of the mausoleum began to crumble around them.
“Jorden!” Matt called from outside the door. “Jorden! Open the door!”
Jorden and Saph ran to the door and pulled but to no avail. They were trapped.
“Damn it Jorden! Open the fucking door!”
“Matt!” she called. “The door won’t open!”
The demon’s laugh was so insidious that Saph covered her ears and while Jorden wanted to do the same she had to find a way out.
“You will die here and your souls will be mine!” the demon laughed.
Jorden ignored the howls and laughs of the demon as she searched around the mausoleum for either something to pry the door open with or a second entrance. The mausoleum was small and the search was short and yielded nothing.
Panic squeezed at Jorden’s heart as she made it back to the door and started to tug with all the strength she had, all the while the mausoleum crumbled down around them. And strange as it seemed, the stones crumbling around their heads wasn’t what had Jorden the most concerned. The crystals had to remain in the circle in order to hold the demon. If even just one of them were out of place the seal wouldn’t hold and they would be trapped inside with the very powerful demon.
“Damn it!” Jorden cursed when her latest efforts to free the door failed and the ground shook again.
“It’s hopeless,” the demon mocked.
“No,” a soft voice called from the back of the mausoleum.
Jorden felt a sudden calm fall over her as she turned.
Saph continued to pound and pull on the door until her hands and arms were red from bruises and blood but she wasn’t about to give up.
Jorden, on the other hand, was drawn away from the door. She passed the demon, who followed her with its black eyes.
She stopped when she found Eric standing and waiting for her. “There is a way.” He beckoned with his arm for her to follow.
“Saph!” Jorden called. “This way!”
Saph looked back just in time to see Jorden skirt the crystal cage and she hurried to catch up.
“Follow Eric!” Jorden called over the rumbles.
“Who?” Saph questioned as they climbed some collapsed rubble in the back of the mausoleum.
It hadn’t occurred to Jorden that Saph couldn’t see Eric and she shook her head. “Up the rubble! There’s an opening!”
The mausoleum shook again and more stones crumbled down around them. “You can’t be serious!”
Jorden started climbing towards the hole Eric disappeared through. “You want to stay?” her voice cracked as she climbed through the hole.
“Good point!” Saph ceded and scurried up the rubble as the ground shook again. “Jorden!” she called out as the pile of debris began to collapse.
Immediately Jorden jumped back through the hole and grabbed onto Saph. “Hold onto me!” she called.
Saph’s narrow fingers wrapped tightly around Jorden’s hand and Jorden pulled, but her strength was minimal. Between the mental battle with the demon and the escape from the mausoleum she had very little left other than her determination not to let go.
“Jorden!” Saph desperately cried out.
Saph’s fingers started to lose their grip and Jorden grabbed her with her second hand and held on.
Saph’s hand was slipping and Jorden knew that she couldn’t hold on for much longer when she felt a thud on the stone pile that held her weight and a pair of strong hands reached down into the hole. With a couple of grunts Saph was deftly pulled from the hole and hurled to the stone pile as another quake hit.
“Come on!” Matt barked. “We need to leave now!”
Matt grabbed Jorden’s hand and yanked her to her feet then did the same to Saph before he led them out of the upheaval taking place in the cemetery.
On their heels was a strange chant that could only have been the monks that once resided there and there was nothing holy about the sounds they made.
Jorden dared just the slightest glance back where she found the monks standing at their numbered graves glaring back at her with black eyes.
Jorden immediately turned away and increased her speed.
A sudden burst of flame flew from the cemetery and exploded above the treetops.
“Do you think it’s loose?” Saph questioned as they all ran down the hill towards the dock.
Jorden didn’t bother to look back she could feel just how close the danger was to them. “Something is!” she called and picked up her pace once again.
Matt started to limp noticeably and he struggled to keep up with both women and Jorden slowed.
“What are you doing?” Matt questioned.
“Making sure you don’t fall behind!” Jorden yelled as she slipped an arm under his and started to pull.
“Forget it, I’m fine!” Matt barked.
Saph quickly shouldered his other arm and the three of them plowed down the hill.
The ground rumbled again, but this time it didn’t stop, in fact it grew worse and a loud crack sounded behind them.
Jorden felt as though a jet engine had just been strapped to her ass and she pushed forward faster than she ever dreamed she could go and she didn’t stop until they reached the dock and the waiting boat.
“Get us out of here!” Jorden called as they burst through the trees and shrubs and bolted towards the dock.
Explosions followed them and dirt and rock fell down around them.
“What in the hell is going on?” Jonas called from the bow of the boat.
All three of them leapt onto the boat as pieces of the island started to fall into the waters around it.
“The damned island is falling apart!” Matt gasped as he tried to catch his breath. He then desperately looked around the boat. “Where’s Isis?” he questioned.
The boat’s captain steered them away from the island as fast as any speed boat.
“What about Isis?” Jorden asked as she stepped up beside Matt.
“We got separated on our way out of the village,” Ana said. “She jumped into the water. She’s fine.”
“And Nigel?” Jorden asked, almost afraid to. She knew that the demon freed his body, but didn’t know if it had freed his soul.”
“See for yourself,” Ana said and
pointed below deck.
Jorden hurried down the short stairs of the boat and into the only cabin with a cot. Nigel laid on it with Isis at his side.
Isis jumped to her feet and ran to Jorden where they embraced each other.
Jorden was afraid to ask and all she could do was look into Isis’s face.
For a moment Jorden held her breath and she refused to breathe until Isis finally gave her a nod. “He’s here…” she said and breathed deep, “…and he’s alone in there. The demon is gone.”
“And the other souls? Were you able to free them?”
Isis nodded. “I can’t be certain that I got all of them but I think I did,” she said and smiled. “Including Jonas’s mother.”
Jorden collapsed to her knees and buried her face in her hands as she began to sob.
Immediately Isis fell to her knees and grasped her hands. “We made it,” she said.
“And almost died doing it.”
Matt stood at the stern of the boat, however he kept his back to the erupting island behind him. The cracks and rumbles coming from the direction where the island sat told him that it was falling apart, the evidence of which bumped up against the boat in waves and lit up the sky with a deep orange glow.
Eventually the rumbles grew so distant that they could no longer be heard and the sky brightened as the moon finally awoke from its deep sleep and lit up the ocean with its angelic, silvery blue light.
“How long are you going to wait before you speak to her?” Tony asked as he joined him at the rail.
Matt didn’t want to answer. He knew that he couldn’t wait forever but at the same time knew that once he saw Jorden’s face he would break down and that was something he’d never done in his life, not even after his wife walked out on him.
“Not too long I hope,” Jorden said.
Matt gripped the rail of the ferry and continued to look out over the ocean.
“I’m sorry,” she said in a cracked voice. As Tony stepped away and headed back to the bow of the boat to join the others, she took up position beside Matt.
The Haunting of Isola Forte di Lorenzo Page 35
