In the House of the Wicked rc-5

by Thomas E. Sniegoski

  But it was not only the people on the streets who faced danger from the shadows.

  A beast of black flowed out from beneath a section of rubble, hungry for the taste of angel. Surprised by the attack, Remy fell backward to the ground as the shadow monster pounced on him. Its claws were like ice, sinking into the exposed flesh of his arms. He saw from the right corner of his vision the hobgoblin coming to his aid, leaving Ashley alone.

  “No,” he cried out, attempting to heave the thrashing animal from atop him. “I’ve got this… Don’t leave her side.”

  The goblin warrior obliged him, backing away to stand before his charge, as Remy attempted to thwart this latest attack on him from the realm of shadows.

  And if something was not done about the opening in the sky above, it would be far from the last.

  He got the flat of his forearm beneath the slathering animal’s throat, holding its snapping, black jaws at bay, and was forcing it from him when there came an explosion of gunfire, and its head temporarily transformed into a Rorschach pattern before rolling off of him to the ground, where its mass was swallowed up by yet another bottomless pool of darkness.

  Remy jumped to his feet in time to see Francis and Angus coming across the wreckage of the rooftop toward him.

  The passage above their heads had grown larger still, expanding across the sky, the shadow realm now pouring into this reality.

  “You know that isn’t good, right?” Angus said to him, pointing up into the sky. Francis and the sorcerer had now joined the hobgoblin and Ashley.

  “Is there anything you can do?” Remy asked the sorcerer, hoping for a quick fix but already knowing the answer.

  “I’ve got nothing,” Angus said grimly over the sound of the shrieking anomaly in the sky above.

  Remy peered up into the eye of the unnatural storm, shielding his vision from the flying dust and debris, and looked into the heart of darkness.

  He felt a stirring at the center of his being, the reality of what he was-where he had come from-roused to act.

  He was the embodiment of God’s light-which drove away the darkness-and he knew what he must do.

  As if sensing the realization he had come to, the center of the vortex grew suddenly larger. With an ear-piercing cry like a living thing, the whorl of the gyre became faster.

  Larger pieces of stone and glass were now being sucked up from the rooftop, and he could see that his friends were having difficulty staying on their feet.

  There was no more time for hesitation.

  “It’s time for you all to go,” Remy yelled over the storm.

  They all began to balk, and he spread his wings and began to flap them furiously, adding to the winds and driving them back.

  Francis was the only one who did not move, standing his ground, gun still in hand.

  “What do you think you’re doing?” he asked Remy.

  “I’m ending this before it’s too late.”

  “Is there anything that I can do?”

  “Get them out of here,” Remy said. “Keep them safe until it’s over.”

  Francis knew what he had to do; they’d always had an understanding about these things. Remy turned away from his friend, knowing full well that he would do what Remy had asked of him.

  Remy couldn’t think of them anymore, only of what needed to be done. Springing off the rooftop, his wings beat the air, propelling him skyward, fighting the insane winds as he allowed himself to be sucked up into the cyclonic force.

  He did not fight it as he was spun around and around, inexorably pulled toward the center of the widening gyre. This was what his life had felt like of late-slowly being pulled toward the eye of storm, no matter how much he fought, inevitably being dragged toward the center.

  But he wasn’t going to fight it anymore.

  For at the center was solution.

  Remy felt the cold of the mouth as it yawned wider to accept him, and for the first time in a long while, he was completely at peace. His natures-his human and angelic-were as one, knowing what needed to be done.

  What the Almighty would want them to do.

  And as the darkness took him, he heard the words so often attributed to his Heavenly Father.

  Let there be light.

  And there was light.

  An old woman pushing a shopping cart filled with bottles and cans was coming toward him, terror in her eyes. Something was after her, something that jumped from one patch of shadow to the next as it stalked its prey.

  Mulvehill saw this and acted, guessing where the beast would next appear and aiming his pistol accordingly. He smiled at the fact that he had been right as the lionlike monster sprang out of a shadow cast by the overhanging sign of an Indian restaurant that he frequented.

  His pistol barked twice, the shots hitting the unearthly animal in its muscular side, sending it thrashing to the ground in death. Mulvehill ran to the old woman, who had fallen. Her brimming cart had tipped over, spilling its contents onto the sidewalk.

  The shadow beast had crawled onto its feet, considering them with hungry eyes as it bled darkness onto the sidewalk.

  “C’mon, then,” Mulvehill said in defiance of the monster. “I’m not afraid of you.”

  As if accepting his challenge, the monstrous thing sprang across the expanse of sidewalk, as Mulvehill raised his weapon once more to fire.

  And that was when the sky became filled with a sudden brilliance and the threat of the beast was gone like the passing of a nightmare with the coming of dawn.

  The light was like nothing he had ever experienced before, permeating every crack, crevice, and corner of the city where the darkness could hide.

  He could feel it even inside himself, burning away any despair and fear that still remained and filling him up with fire.

  Filling him up with hope.

  Eyes watering from the intensity of the flare, Mulvehill’s vision cleared and he found himself making his way into the center of the street across from Hermes Plaza, where he gazed up to the desolated top floor of the building.

  But the sky above it was as blue as the sea and twice as calm, and the shadows around him were just shadows.

  He didn’t know where the words came from. They just came, bubbling up from one of those places locked inside the brain where things like that were stored away.

  And God saw the light, and it was good. And God divided the light from the darkness.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Remy knew where he was even before he opened his eyes.

  He could hear the sound of the crashing surf, the smell of the ocean invigorating him as it came into his lungs.

  It was a Cape Cod beach that didn’t really exist, an amalgam of many of the Cape beaches and other seaside places that he and Madeline had enjoyed in her lifetime.

  He had created this place in his mind as a kind of tribute to her after she had died, and would come here often when things were tough and he wanted- needed — to see her again.

  It was foggy here today, heavy, moist air cutting visibility down to mere feet. Despite the gloominess of it all, Madeline and he had always loved these days, walking for hours hand in hand, never knowing what was in front of them in the shifting haze.

  Never knowing what was ahead.

  Now he walked the shore alone, searching for the one that would make this piece of life he had carved away for himself complete.

  A cool gust blew off the water, stirring the miasma of gray that filled the air, and he could just about make out a shape there in the distance, and moved toward it.

  He found it a little strange that she hadn’t been there waiting for him when he’d first arrived, but really didn’t think all that much about it. When they finally found each other, he would ask where she had been, and she would likely say something fresh, like it was good that he had to wait until he found her, that absence makes the heart grow fonder, or one of those things she liked to say.

  And he would tell her that he had no patience when it came to thin
gs involving her, and he would take her into his arms, remembering all the times he had done just that.

  Holding on and never wanting to let go.

  The shape was becoming more defined and Remy was just about to call out to her when he came to a most startling realization.

  It wasn’t Madeline.

  A spark of anger flared within him as he approached the male figure standing with his back to him in the rolling surf. The man was dressed in a dark suit, his slacks rolled up to his knees as the water surged up to greet him like an excited dog before receding in play. This was his special place, his and Madeline’s; there shouldn’t have been anybody else here.

  He didn’t want anybody else here.

  “What are you doing here?” Remy asked the man’s back.

  “Which name do you prefer?” the man spoke over the roar of the tumbling waves.

  Remy was confused by the question.

  “What? What do you mean?”

  “Which do you prefer, Remiel or Remy?” the man asked, slowly turning his back on the ocean to face him. “I think I’d like to call you Remy,” he said, and smiled.

  There was no mistaking who this man was, and Remy felt the air sucked from his lungs as he dropped to one knee in the sand, head bowed, eyes averted.

  “Oh, stop that,” the man said. “Stand up and look at me. I didn’t come here to make you grovel.”

  But why did you come? Remy thought, his mind in turmoil. Why did He come?

  Remy rose ever so slowly, eyes gradually drifting to the older gentleman’s kindly visage, wondering if there was any reason why He had chosen to appear like this…as if He needed a reason.

  “You’d once seen this man walking the boardwalk of Coney Island with his wife, his grown children and their wives, and their children,” He said, answering Remy’s question before it was asked. “Then you believed him to be the embodiment of a happy existence-everything that you wished for yourself, the things that you would strive for.”

  Remy recalled the moment suddenly; it had happened not too long after he’d decided to live among humanity-to live as one of them.

  “I thought it might make it easier for you to accept why I have come to you,” He said.

  The implication hit Remy like a sledge to the heart.

  “Am I dead?”

  The man turned His gaze back to the fog-enshrouded sea.

  “You could have been,” He said. “But I preferred that that you were not.”

  As did Remy.

  “Why are you…” Remy began, stopping as He again turned His attention to him.

  “I need your help, Remy,” He said. “The Kingdom of Heaven needs your help.” The surf grew suddenly angry as winds began to howl off the restless water. “The world of man needs your help.”

  Particles of sand hurled by the wind stung his face, and he raised a hand to shield himself from the onslaught.

  The man had again turned away from him, gazing out into the fog and the unknown that existed beyond it. There came a low rumble of thunder; the ominous growl of uncertainty.

  “There is a war coming, Remy Chandler,” He said. “And I need you to stop it.”

  The smell of coffee had replaced that of the sea.

  Remy groaned as he opened his eyes, looking up at the white tin ceiling. It took only a few seconds to figure out where he was; coffee beans grown and harvested in Hell had a very specific aroma when brewed.

  He was reclining upon the leather sofa, covered with a heavy afghan, in Francis’ basement apartment. Remy sat up, peering across the living room into the kitchen, where Francis, the hobgoblin, and Angus were sitting around the kitchen table, having coffee.

  “How did I end up here?” Remy asked, pulling the afghan off.

  “Hey, look who’s awake,” Francis said. He rose from his chair, going to the cabinet and reaching for a mug. “Coffee?”

  “Sure,” Remy said, noticing that he was wearing a turquoise sweat suit. “What the fuck am I wearing?”

  “Your clothes were pretty much nonexistent after you fell from the sky,” Francis said as he poured a steaming cup from the carafe. He crossed the room and handed Remy the cup.

  “How did you all get in here?” Remy asked, ready to take a sip, desperate for the taste and the jolt the Hell-grown beans would bring. “Thought I had the only keys.”

  When Francis had disappeared and was believed dead, Remy had been left the Newbury Street brownstone. He thought he was the only one who could get inside.

  “I left a key under the mat,” Francis said, returning to the kitchen.

  “What mat?” Remy asked after his first sip of the rejuvenating brew.

  “There’s got to be a mat around here somewhere,” the former Guardian said, filling his own cup again.

  “There’s always a mat,” Angus agreed with a nod.

  “A dime a dozen,” the hobgoblin added.

  Remy left the living room and approached them, coffee in hand.

  “Anybody care to fill me in on what happened out there?” he asked. “I’m guessing that the outcome was favorable?”

  Francis shrugged. “All depends on how you define favorable.”

  “The shadow realm didn’t flood the earth, so that’s good,” the hobgoblin stated.

  Remy eyed the small, ugly creature.

  “You dragged me out of there-the shadow realm-with Ashley,” Remy said.

  “Yeah,” the hobgoblin said, rising from his chair with a wince. He was wearing a yellowed wifebeater stained with blood, and Remy could see that his shoulder was heavily bandaged.

  “The name’s Squire,” the goblin said, reaching across the table to take Remy’s hand in a powerful grip. “Sorry that I didn’t bring back the real girl on the first try.”

  Remy shook Squire’s hand. “Thank you,” he said. “I didn’t even know.”

  “Golems can be tricky,” the sorcerer Angus added, chubby hands wrapped around his coffee mug.

  “Where is she?” Remy then asked. “Is she all right?”

  Francis lowered his mug, silent for longer than Remy cared for.

  “She’s up in one of the apartments on the first floor,” Francis answered. “I said that she could use it to get herself cleaned up. Get her shit together.”

  “Is she all right?” Remy asked again.

  “Yeah, I guess,” he said. The others were nodding in agreement. “She’s been through a lot…seen some things that somebody like her…”

  Francis seemed as if he wanted to say something else, but stopped and had some more to drink.

  “Not just her,” Angus spoke up, turning his coffee mug in his hands. “As of tonight, the entire world has seen things the likes of which have never been witnessed on such a grand scale.” The sorcerer got up from his chair, going to the coffeepot for a refill. “Little girls promising a message from God, things emerging from the shadows, a swirling black hole in the sky…”

  Angus looked directly at him as he poured.

  “An angel flying into that hole and exploding in a flash of heavenly light.”

  He set the carafe back down and took a quick sip from his cup as he returned to his seat.

  “As of tonight…I would say the whole goddamned planet has changed.”

  Remy had hoped that maybe, somehow, the rational, thinking minds of the world would have explained it all away as some sort of mass hallucination brought on by…he didn’t know exactly. He expected those same rational brains to fill in the blanks.

  Didn’t sound like that was in the cards this time.

  “That bad?” Remy asked.

  “Pretty bad,” Francis said. “More than two thousand dead, and that was just a result of the television broadcast. We haven’t even gotten a number yet on how many as a result of what happened on the plaza.”

  Remy felt the weight of the world push down even further on his shoulders as he remembered the message given to him in his subconscious.

  There’s a war coming.

  “Did A
shley get in touch with her folks?” Remy asked, needing to change the subject.

  “I gave her my phone,” Francis said. “But she said that she wanted to wait until you woke up…to talk with you before…”

  Remy understood what he needed to do. Nodding, he finished his cup and set it down on the table. As much as he’d rather not, he needed to speak with Ashley, to explain to her how sorry he was for getting her involved in his insane world.

  “I guess I should get up there,” Remy said, motioning toward the door. “What room is she in?”

  “Maybe you should take it easy for a little while longer,” Francis suggested. “Give her some more time to wrap her brain around everything that she’s gone through.”

  “I think she needs an explanation now,” Remy said.

  “Angus and Squire are going to be hanging out for a while. Why don’t we get some Chinese and…”

  “What room?”

  “Gave her the key to 1G,” Francis said, resigned to the fact that he was going.

  Remy headed toward the stairs that would take him up to the lobby and was halfway up when Francis called up to him from below.

  Standing on the stairs, Remy turned to see what he wanted.

  “Can I talk to you about something?” Francis asked.

  “Can it wait until…”

  “It’s about Ashley,” Francis spoke out, his features frighteningly still. “And what I could do to help her.”

  The discussion he’d had with Francis lingered like a bad smell in his thoughts as he stopped before the door to apartment 1G.

  He looked toward the stairs to see Francis reach the first floor.

  “I’ll wait out here,” he said. “If she says yes.”

  Remy nodded, chilled by Francis’ suggestion, but also feeling a twisted sort of relief that the option he was going to present to her even existed.

  It would be up to her to decide.

  Remy knocked lightly upon the door and waited.

  “Yeah?” called a tiny voice from behind the door.

  “It’s me,” Remy answered.

  “Come in.”

  Remy opened the door and stepped into the apartment, closing the door gently behind him. He noticed that every bit of lighting had been turned on, making the barren walls of the empty apartment seem to glow. Ashley was sitting at the far end of the living room, up against the wall, beneath the open window. It was raining softly outside, and a gentle breeze that carried the smell of fire and magick wafted into the apartment.