by Leo Romero
I shook my head. “We’re not stuck here. I know a trekker nearby who doubles as a merchant.” Trekkers were hardened and experienced adventurers who searched for lost artifacts and hunted monsters in the Netherworld. They were useful for me for two reasons. First, they found legendary weapons and monsters for me to put in my Deck of Death. Secondly, trekkers could create portals. The monsters in my Deck of Death were stored in the Void. As there was no link to the Void from the Netherworld, I relied on trekkers to sedate the monsters and transfer them to a plane that overlapped with the Void. “Krane can whip up a portal for us,” I told Draxil. “Take us back to a safer part of Chicago. If there is such a thing.”
Draxil shot me a wry grin. “You speak as if your home is Hell itself.”
I gave him a grim nod. “In a way, it is. What with all the demons running around and all the other paranormals, you got the gangbangers, the organized crime, not to mention the Dark Suits surveilling everything. Whatever pleasantness may have once existed has been replaced by bullets, CCTV, and chaos.”
Draxil nodded. “The times of high technology. In any case, we must return and find the Dark Bearer so we can locate Lothar.”
I cocked my head to the side. “Follow me.” I marched toward Krane’s store. On the way, I remembered something from Bone Tower. “What was that thing you did back there?” I asked Draxil. “Clapping your hands together?”
“The etchings on each of my arms serve different purposes,” he answered. He lifted his left arm. “This arm is infused with fire.” He lowered it and raised his right. “And this with globules. Clasping my hands combines the powers, creating a dark energy blast. A very powerful weapon. But it has a draining effect if used excessively. It is a last resort.”
“Yeah, it looked like it took a lot out of you.”
He nodded. “It does. I’ll need time to recover before I can use it again.”
“Let’s hope we don’t run into any more bone monsters,” I said as I stopped outside a store with goodies in the windows. Armor, swords, guns, and daggers greeted us. The words ‘Krane’s Korner’ had been scratched into the glass. “Here we are.” I led Draxil inside, and we found ourselves surrounded by all manner of crap. My eyes moved from the rotating lanterns on the walls, each giving off a different colored glow, to the swords pinned to the walls, to the shelves lined with guns, and to the tables pushed against the walls sporting pieces of armor and smaller weaponry. The aroma of incense permeated the air, making me light-headed.
As we breached the threshold, a tiny bell rang, alerting Krane. Krane was a mantis man, a tough as nails creature that walked on its hind legs like a human. Mantis creatures were very adaptable to all kinds of conditions, which is what made them good trekkers. Krane popped out from the back room, fixing his giant, red bug eyes on us. “Ah, StoneAngel, my favorite customer,” he hissed.
“Bet you say that to everyone, Krane.”
Krane fluttered his wings and hovered over to us. “You are in luck,” he said in an excited tone as he went.
“Really? And there was me thinking it couldn’t get worse.”
“Indeed. I am fresh off the back of a trek through an unchartered part of the Netherworld.”
Oh boy, he was trying to sell me something. I sighed. “All right, Krane. What did you find?”
He raised a finger on the end of his front mantis hand. “Follow me.” He shuffled off toward the back of the store. We went past old lamps, broken cutlasses, and even old hubcaps until we reached the backroom. That’s where Krane kept all the good stuff. Old chests were scattered around like a bonus room in a video game. He stepped over to one and opened it up. A bright glow emanated from inside, turning Krane’s green skin yellow. Intrigued, I stepped up behind him and gazed down to check the contents of the chest. Inside was a golden mass of what appeared to be sheepskin. It glittered and gleamed with gorgeous radiance even in the darkened room, giving off an almost angelic glow.
“Is that what I think it is?” I asked in a breathless voice, fixated with that golden splendor.
“Indeed,” buzzed Krane. “The Golden Fleece.”
“Whoa,” I said, glancing at Draxil, who just stared down at it, his face hard and mean. “Where did you get it?”
“On a trek beyond the Dust, in a cave deep in Nightmare Forest.”
“Nice work.”
“Care to buy?” Krane asked, rubbing his hands.
“How much is it?”
“For you? Three bags of pixie dust.”
I puffed my cheeks. “Man, that’s way over my budget. I don’t have anything on me right now.”
Krane lowered his head. “Oh.”
I stood upright. “I actually came here to ask a favor. I need a portal to Chicago.”
“A portal will be no trouble, StoneAngel. A shame about the Fleece.”
I bit my bottom lip as I gazed longingly back at that golden grandeur. The way it glittered and gleamed, man, I could just picture it lying on the floor of my apartment, brightening the place up. But three bags? That was a lot. And I had more important things to take care of.
Krane closed the chest up, killing that golden glow. A slight dejection overcame me.
“We need to get back to Earth, Stone,” Draxil said to me in a low growl. He didn’t seem too impressed by the Fleece.
“It’s true, Krane,” I said. “We really need to go.”
“As you wish,” said Krane. “Anywhere in particular?”
“Somewhere near the Angel Guild.”
Krane bowed his head before he began twisting and twirling his mantis arms on the air. Sparks of energy clumped together to form a portal ahead of him. A dirty sidewalk was visible beyond.
“Come on,” I said to Draxil as I stepped toward the portal. “Thanks, Krane,” I said as I walked through.
“Until next time, StoneAngel,” said Krane behind me. “Remember, if you find yourself backed into a corner, come visit Krane’s Korner, for all your weaponry needs.”
*****
We found ourselves back in a Chicago alley with the skies a hazy blue. I took a look around. At the head of the alley was the Gas Guzzler gas station, telling me we were in Greektown, just a few blocks away from the Angel Guild. The portal closed behind us. I stared at my big demon companion, thinking what kind of trick of the light masking spell would work well on him. The thought of turning him into a poodle had time to flash in my mind before a deep rumble played across the air. By the time I rolled my eyes upward, the hazy, blue sky had been swarmed with oppressive, dark-gray clouds. A streak of lightning split that shit in two, and a hard crack of thunder echoed through the alley.
“They are coming,” Draxil told me.
Oh boy.
“They know I’m here,” he feared. “As long as I walk the Earth, they’ll keep coming to face me.”
I growled under my breath. “Well, what do we do?” I couldn’t keep running, and I couldn’t face the horsemen either.
“Let me in, Stone,” Draxil said.
I narrowed my eyes. “Excuse me?”
“Let me into your body. It’s the only way.”
My face contorted. “You mean possess me? You?”
“Yes.”
“No way!”
“We don’t have time, Stone. I’m a demon. I can turn my physical form spectral.”
“Then just do that.”
“I can only hold that form for a brief moment. I’ll need a vehicle. I need your body.”
“I’m not letting a demon possess me!” I sneered. “I’ve seen what that crap does. It sends people batshit!”
Another clap of thunder erupted in the sky, which was now even darker. Draxil gazed up at it. “Then we face them.” He shook his wrists, causing his broken chains to rattle. The etchings running up his arms flared into life. “Ready to fight?”
The alley lit up neon blue as lightning forked through the sky. My mind worked hard. What choice did I have? It was either believe and trust the demon or face the immortal ho
rsemen who’ll trigger the apocalypse. And I had seconds to make a decision. My mind caved under the pressure.
“Oh God, I’m gonna regret this!”
“It shall be a temporary arrangement until we find the Dark Bearer and my brothers in arms.”
I jabbed a finger at him. “It better be, or you’ll find Father Karras performing an exorcism on your ass!” Another crack of thunder ruptured the sky. “Okay. What do we do?”
“Open yourself to me.”
“Open myself to you? How do you mean? Like open my mouth or something else?”
“Open your body and soul, Stone.”
I shook my head. “I don’t—”
A strange sound like a combination of the sizzle of water hitting a searing hot griddle pan intermixed with the vwoop! of a laser gun stopped me mid-sentence. Draxil had shifted into a transparent, spectral form. Before I had a chance to move, he rushed toward me. I threw up my hands in protest, but it was useless. He leaped up and over me, pouncing on me like a cat. In the next instant, a tearing pain ripped down my shoulders.
“Son of a—” I shouted.
“Open yourself to me, Stone!” Draxil demanded.
I rolled my head skyward to meet his twisted face. His claws were dug into my shoulders, and he was hovering over me like the Grim Reaper about to claim another victim.
“Open your soul!” he hissed. My mind went blank. My eyes rolled up into my head, and I drowned in a sea of darkness. My body was numb. Paralyzed. Like I was made of clay. Somewhere at the back of my fugue, I could feel my body being wrenched open like someone trying to snatch a pearl from an oyster. I was powerless to stop it. Or was it a willing powerlessness? I couldn’t answer right then. It must have been the latter because that had been the aim. To let the demon in and send the horsemen on their way.
Draxil slid into me, and I was a puppet without any strings. Something was violating me, entering my flesh, mind, and soul, and I was unable to stop it. It seeped into my blood, wore my body like a suit, its claws slipping into my hands like a glove, its feet jabbing into my own, wearing them like boots. I was being overtaken, consumed, and it was too late to turn back.
A final burst of pain forced me to stagger out of my daze, and I almost hit the alley wall. My head swam with dizziness. I turned my face up to the sky. To my relief, the almost-black clouds were receding. A rumble of thunder petered off into the distance as that hazy, blue sky returned. I used the alley wall to steady myself. My bleary eyes focused in on the graffitied bricks. I was alone. And everything was calm.
“I’m in.” Draxil’s grainy voice spoke in my mind. “It worked. The horsemen have fled. But they’ll be back.” I gave my head a brisk shake, allowing my mind a second to adjust. But my guts couldn’t get over the nausea of having a demonic entity residing inside me. My stomach churned. I plastered a hand over my mouth. When I took it away, I threw up all over the alley wall.
I stared down at the mess in disdain. “Oh man, that’s disgusting.”
Draxil chuckled. “You’ll get used to me being in here.”
“How long you planning on staying?”
“Until we defeat those horsemen. Trust me, it’s not particularly pleasant being in this mind of yours. I can already feel my intelligence level dropping.”
“Hey!”
“Why am I getting this incessant need to lounge around on a plush, elongated chair to eat fried, desiccated vegetables whilst staring at a flickering rectangle displaying random images?”
“’Cause I like sitting on a couch and eating potato chips while watching the poker on TV,” I said between big breaths as I tried to control my tender stomach. “You should try it sometime; it’s therapeutic.”
“Sounds like the leisure of fools and sloths!”
“You really know how to party don’t you, Drax?”
“You want a party? I’ll take you to the Third Circle of Hell, and you will know party. There you’ll witness fields of naked bodies locked in ecstatic orgy.”
My bleary eyes lit up. “Hey, that sounds great!”
“It is. For the Princes of Hell. For anyone else, the joy is forsaken. The uninitiated are forced to watch the Princes indulge in their worldly pleasures until their eyes melt out of their skulls.”
“Party poopers. Why can’t they share the love?”
“They’ve long forgotten what love is. They’re rotten husks, deriving a perverted pleasure from the suffering of human filth.”
“You really hold people in high regard, don’tcha?”
“Pah, just find the Dark Bearer!”
I groggily pulled out my smartphone and sent Aurora a text, telling her to meet me at the Guild asap.
“Ah, the wonder of the technological age,” Draxil said. “I still cannot fathom it all.”
“Naturally, you’ve been asleep for how long? Two thousand years?”
“Not exactly. Even though I was gutted and chopped to pieces, I was still able to see and feel things. You wouldn’t believe some of the assholes that have worn pieces of me over the centuries. There’s that word again. Asshole. It keeps jumping into my mind from yours. What is it? What does it mean?”
“It just means a nasty person.”
“Heh, well Hell is full of assholes then.”
“I would hope so, or it would kinda defeat the purpose.”
“So where is the Dark Bearer?”
“I don’t know. I sent her a message to meet me at the Angel Guild.”
“The Angel Guild? I don’t want to be around angels, Stone.”
“I’m an Enforcer. I have to show my face up there, or the others will get worried. Everyone’s a little sensitive right now about missing angels after that business with the gargoyles.”
“What gargoyles?”
“It doesn’t matter. I don’t want to think about it. We won’t be in there long. Just long enough for Aurora to show up. Then we’ll go and open the portal.”
“Good. Go.”
I went to leave the alley when I got another head rush, and my stomach did somersaults again. I had to stop and steady myself until it passed. Man, being possessed wasn’t all it was cracked up to be.
When my bout of dizziness passed, I got moving. I just hoped I wasn’t about to start spraying pea soup everywhere.
Chapter 5
I staggered to the Guild, horribly conscious of the fact that I was possessed. I prayed that none of the other half-angels had any kind of demonic entity radar. If they did, I’d be screwed. I got there, and Brutus was on the door. As I approached, he just stood there gazing at me, his arms crossed tight over his chest. I gave him a suspicious stare as I went by. Brutus watched me pass, only his eyeballs moving. It was like we were facing off and neither one of us wanted to make the first move. I didn’t want Brutus to notice anything untoward and no doubt he was waiting for me to bait him somehow. I made it level with him and faced him, sidestepping toward the entrance. He kept a beady eye on me. It suddenly occurred to me that it might look weird if I didn’t try and trick him somehow. I found myself caught in two minds. Should I say something or keep my trap shut?
I reached the door, and my mind rippled with paranoia. “Good afternoon,” I said, hardly realizing I’d said it.
Brutus’ mouth scrunched up. He looked around him, then met my stare. “Afternoon?”
My eyes darted left and right. “Yeah, you know, good afternoon. It’s a common formal greeting between twelve-oh-one pm and around three-ish.”
Brutus scrutinized me hard. “You feeling all right, Stone?”
I put on a grin. “Never better! Why?”
“You seem...off.”
“Off?” Man, could he see something was up? If I couldn’t get past Brutus, what would I do once I came up against people who actually had a brain in their head? “I’m top of the world!” I blurted.
Brutus recoiled.
“Get inside, Stone!” Draxil growled. I hopped into life.
I threw the door open. “Bye!” I said to Brut
us and jumped inside. The door closed behind me, and I took a moment to steady myself.
“Well, that went well,” I said.
“Get a grip of yourself, Stone,” Draxil said.
“I’m trying. It isn’t easy knowing I’ve got a demonic entity inside me!”
“Concealment is an art in itself.”
“Yeah, one I’m not so good at.”
“Act natural.”
“That’s easy for you to say!”
Someone entered the stairwell from the club area. I whirled to meet them. It was Belinda. She noticed me loitering at the top of the stairs. “Ah, Gabe, there you are. We were wondering where you’d got to.”
I put on another of those awkward grins. “Belinda, my man! How are you?” My mind was truly scrambled.
Belinda gave me a sideways stare. “Fine.” She looked me up and down. “You okay, Gabe?”
I wiped the sweat from my brow. “Amazing!” I answered with a chuckle while shaking my head. Man, I was all over the place. “How are you?”
“I said I’m fine.”
I pointed at her. “Yes. You did.” I sucked in a big breath. “You know, I’ve had a crazy morning. Like ‘whoa’ crazy.”
Belinda rolled her eyes. “When isn’t it crazy around here?”
I burst into uncontrollable cackles. “You can say that again!”
Belinda narrowed her eyes, giving me a strange stare. “Jerome’s looking for you.”
I frowned. “Yeah? What about?”
Belinda shrugged. “Beats me. Go ask him.” She started up the steps toward me. My heart skipped a beat. I pressed my back up against the wall to let her pass. As she went by, I seized up, being so close to another half-angel sending me into a weird spasm like I was face-to-face with some kind of tentacled HP Lovecraft nightmare.
Belinda stopped and faced me. “You sure you’re all right?”
I locked eyes with her for a moment, and I diverted my stare. Didn’t want her staring into my soul.
“Better than ever!” I said, my eyes darting everywhere. “Go kill some demons!”
Belinda frowned. “Will do,” she said in an unsure voice and left the building, shaking her head.
