by Adam Dark
‘You think they’ve got a special educational film set up for us?’
Ben snorted. “You’re not as funny as you think you are.”
‘You just wish you could measure up.’
Whatever they were doing at a movie theater, after tonight, they’d at least have one more thing out of the way before Ben had to make any other decisions. He hoped. Now he had to make sure everybody else was good to go.
He pulled up the group text, noticing that Chase was still the only one of them who’d replied to his question about Gorafrim. Fine.
—Set up the project with Rufus. Tonight at 8. Everybody good to come?—
Then he pasted the address on there and sent it out. Again, almost instantly, Chase texted back with a thumbs-up emoji. It made Ben wonder just how much time the guy spent with his phone in his hand, just waiting for anyone to get in touch with him while he sat there behind his giant three-tabled desk with all those monitors and keyboards and stuff Ben didn’t pretend to understand.
‘What, you think he’s just lonely and hoping for somebody to really be his friend?’ Ian asked.
They both laughed.
It took a little longer for April to get back to him, but he figured she was in class on a Monday morning. Just after 9:00, her reply came up in the group text too.
—All good, here. Bad form to bring popcorn?—
Very funny. He was about to reply to that with something that might have been witty when she texted him again on the thread just between the two of them.
—Peter says he’s good too. Made a point of saying he’s only driving himself this time.—
Ben wanted to think that was because of how annoying Chase had been in Peter’s car on the way to Richard Monday’s house. That might have been part of it, but it was safe to assume Peter probably still didn’t want to be trapped in a moving vehicle with Ben and no way to escape beyond jumping out or driving them both into a building. Ben preferred not to test that out, either. At least the guy said he’d make it tonight. Hopefully, no matter how pissed off Peter still was, he wouldn’t let that get in the way of what they’d be meeting Rufus there to do. One way or another, Ben intended to get his answers.
17
Ben had offered to come pick April up and drive her to the Blackthorn Cinemas with him, but she said she had a few errands to run after class and would just meet him there. Despite Chase having driven him around the day before, he didn’t quite feel like hitting the guy up for a carpool, so he got in his car at 5:30 and drove himself. This was the first time that they’d all be showing up separately to face a demon together, and he couldn’t help but think it felt a little wasteful.
‘That’s what you’re worried about right now?’
“I’m not worried about it,” Ben muttered as he started the car. “Just thinking.”
He probably should have thought about rush-hour traffic on a Monday before he’d decided to leave so late, and he started to get a little antsy when he sat at a traffic light for five minutes before all the cars in front of him finally made it through. But he pulled into the movie theater parking lot two minutes before 6:00 and actually felt pretty proud of himself for that accomplishment. Kind of stupid, but still.
Of course April had gotten there early, like she always did. When she saw his car, she jumped out of hers and walked briskly toward him with her hands in her jacket pockets and her shoulders hunched against the evening cold. Then she opened the passenger door and slid into his car right next to him.
“Well, hey,” she said with a grin.
“Hi. How was your day?”
April tried to frown, but her amusement still showed through. “Doesn’t that feel like a pretty arbitrary question right now?”
Ben shrugged and smirked out the windshield. “I mean, we’re sitting in front of a movie theater.”
“Yeah, I guess it’s not any weirder than a playground.”
A navy-blue BMW pulled up just opposite Ben’s car, with Chase behind the wheel. The guy grinned and shot them two thumbs-up. Ben just tipped his head back slowly in acknowledgment, and April snorted. Chase’s unpredictable shifting between excitement and apathy was pretty hard to predict, but the apathy suited him a lot more, Ben thought. Or maybe he just didn’t like having to deal with an overeager Chase following them around like a younger brother ready and way too willing to prove himself to all the bigger kids.
April’s phone buzzed, and she pulled it out of her pocket for maybe thirty seconds before putting it back. “Peter’s here.” She turned to look at Ben, probably expecting him to give some kind of reaction.
“Cool,” he replied, pulling himself away from the sight of Chase bobbing his head to whatever music he had playing in his car, the dumb little curl of blond hair flopping against his forehead under his beanie. Maybe even looking for Peter’s car at this point would have been better than watching that. Honestly, Ben didn’t really have the bandwidth to worry about what Peter was going to think, do, or say. He wanted to get this little trial run over with so he could figure out whether stepping up to join the Sectarian Circle was even worth the effort after this.
“Anything from Rufus?” April asked.
Ben checked his phone and shook his head. “Not since last night.”
“Well, he’s late.”
He turned to look at her, holding back a laugh. “That really bothers you, doesn’t it?”
April’s wince wasn’t entirely genuine, but even the joking of it still couldn’t hide that she was a little bit annoyed. “I just think that if the guy’s gonna set a time for all of us to be here, he should probably hold himself accountable to it, too.”
“Point taken,” Ben said. “I’m making a note right now not to invite you over and be late getting home.”
She laughed. “Invite me over for what?”
“Dinner.” He shrugged, feigning indifference. “Maybe a movie. I heard the theaters around here are having some demon problems.”
“Oh. Well we definitely don’t want that.” April wrinkled her nose with a silent chuckle. “I just hope your apartment doesn’t fall into that same category.”
It was a joke, obviously, but then she seemed to remember Ben’s story about his dream and the sand. And that made him realize that he’d never actually told her about the cold hand on his ankle or his second green blast in forty-eight hours—that her dream and his waking life were starting to come together. “Actually,” he said, “I meant to tell you—”
The squealing of tires cut him off completely as a red Ferrari barreled through the parking lot toward them. It pulled into the parking space next to Chase’s car way too fast before the driver slammed on the breaks. Ben and April both flinched back in their seats with a few exclamations of surprise. For a second, he thought the Ferrari was going to clip his car on its way past. Chase did a double-take through his own passenger-side window, then grinned and started bobbing his head again. Then Ben realized that the man behind the wheel was Rufus.
“You’re kidding me,” he muttered.
“I honestly didn’t expect that at all,” April added, tilting her head to study the car.
“I mean, he works at a car dealership. At least, that’s what his business card said.” It had been weird to find that out the other night, but seeing Rufus now in a brown leather jacket, still looking really short behind the wheel of that Ferrari, took it to a whole different level.
Rufus still hadn’t looked up at any of them yet; he stared down at something in his lap, his arms moving almost like he was putting on cufflinks. That was a weird image, combining Rufus with the memory of Ben’s dad so many years ago getting ready for a fancy night out. He tried to shake it out of his head.
‘I think it’s cute.’ Then Ian laughed at himself.
“Cut it out,” Ben muttered.
“What?”
He turned to April with wide eyes, feeling that shock of anxiety shoot through his gut until he realized she already knew. “Ian,” he explained.
> She raised an eyebrow and looked like she was trying not to laugh at him. Ben wasn’t sure whether or not to be insulted by that. “Okay.” With a shrug, she turned back to watch Rufus through the windshield. “What’s he doing?”
“I have no idea.” In that same moment, Rufus looked up from whatever he’d been so busy doing and met Ben’s gaze immediately, like he didn’t even have to see Ben to know where he was. Just a little off-putting. The man smiled and nodded once at him, so Ben returned the gesture. Just without the smile.
Then Rufus shoved opened his car door, which looked like it should have slammed into Chase’s car but somehow didn’t. Ben took that as their cue. “Ready?” he asked April.
“Always.” She didn’t even look at him before she got out, and both of their doors shut almost at the same time.
Chase all but scrambled out of his car, and when he shut the door, he slammed his hands on the roof of his car and leaned over it. “Nice ride, man.” Ben cringed at the heaping gobs of admiration in the guy’s voice.
“Thank you,” Richard said, turning his head toward Chase but not quite looking at him. “Is Peter—”
A car door slammed across the parking lot, and they all turned to see Peter stalking toward them, his silver demon-catching box nestled in his gloved hand. He’d made that thing after Ben got out of the hospital, after the skin grafts on his hands and the unexplained four-day coma. Moved their tech up a bit from drawing sigils and demon-repelling symbols with homemade ink on scraps of leather and Ben’s t-shirts. Now everything was etched into the box, and so far, it worked pretty well for trapping demons inside empty white crystals. At least when they didn’t screw anything up.
Peter didn’t look particularly pissed off, just tired and pale. But that was beyond normal for him. He stopped just on the other side of Rufus’ Ferrari and didn’t say a word. He didn’t even seem to notice the particularly conspicuous car.
“Peter,” Rufus said with a grin, his deep voice still sounding so strange coming from a man so short and happy-looking. “Glad you could join us.”
“Okay.” Peter just stared at the man and didn’t offer anything else.
“Okay.” Rufus clapped his hands together. “Let’s get going.” He pivoted and all but marched toward the movie theater. Only he cut a diagonal path across the parking lot.
Peter followed him, already on his way when Ben tried to meet his gaze. Okay, still pissed. Ben shrugged at April, and they headed off too. Chase ran his fingers across the hood of the Ferrari and whispered, “Nice.”
When they passed the moment that would have taken them to the front doors of the theater, Ben found himself confused by the fact that they obviously weren’t going inside. In a small way, he’d been really interested to see how a demon wrought havoc on a movie theater—whether it did weird stuff with the movie itself or just kind of stalked through the rows of seats, looking for somebody to mess with while they were completely sucked into the show they’d paid to watch.
‘Just a little weird that you actually wanted to see that, don’t you think?’
Yeah, it was. Ben shook his head a little and kept walking after Peter and Rufus.
“You okay?” April asked softly.
“Yeah,” he said and cleared his throat. “All good.” Probably just anxious to see what the heck was so special about whatever Rufus could do that they couldn’t, and it was starting to mess with his head.
It really looked like Rufus was aiming straight for the dumpsters at the back of the parking lot beside the end of the theater. Ben really hoped there wasn’t any dumpster-diving in their future. The cat-eating spirit in the alley was enough grossness for a lifetime. But Rufus pivoted again, like the man was leading the smallest, most disorganized parade ever, and took them behind the theater building. It was a lot darker back here without the bright marquee lights or the tall lampposts studded throughout the parking lot. Thankfully, the building blocked most of the wind now, too, making it just a little warmer. Ben was really done with the cold.
Rufus slowed down a little until they’d all caught up with him, though he hadn’t once turned back to see who was following or how close they were. Ben finally caught a glimpse of the man’s wrists, and in the darker space behind the theater, what he saw there stood out a lot more than it had in the parking lot.
“What are those?” he asked. The man glanced at him with a confused frown. “On your wrists.” He nodded at the blue glow peeking out from the ends of Rufus’ jacket sleeves, like glowstick bracelets set in metal bands. It looked a heck of a lot like the blue light in Richard Monday’s basement, both lining the ceiling and in the cables running across the giant version of Peter’s demon-stone cabinet.
“Oh,” Rufus said, lifting his wrists in acknowledgment. “Just a minor precaution.”
‘Dude, he’s keeping himself un-possessable.’
Yeah, Ben was thinking the same thing. “Do we get any of those?” He nodded at April and Chase beside him, intending to refer to Peter too, despite his friend having put another few feet between them on Ben’s other side.
Rufus only offered an unenthusiastic smile. “Not yet.”
No, of course not. Not until Ben agreed to be a part of this completely secret society of his. Honestly, he was starting to wonder if anything these people had told him was real at all.
For a minute, Rufus scanned the smaller parking lot and delivery area behind the building, then nodded once and took off again. Only a few yellow lightbulbs placed far apart along the wall lit up the asphalt. They passed through two dimly lit circles of light and one of those cigarette receptacles just outside an exit door. Ben’s nostrils flared at the smell. Then Rufus stopped a few yards in front of a big pile of black trash bags stacked against the wall. Ben and the others spread out beside him, and Ben had no idea what they were supposed to be looking at.
“It’s time,” Rufus said. Ben had a feeling the man wasn’t talking to any of them, but there was no one else there.
Trash demon? he asked Ian, only partially joking.
‘Uh… I mean, I can feel something right here. Just can’t see it.’
That was unexpected. What do you mean you can’t see it?
‘I mean I can’t see it. I feel it, but it’s… hidden…’
In the trash?
The minute that thought formed in Ben’s mind, the pile of trash bags shifted by itself against the wall. Ben jumped a little, April gripped his arm, and Chase let out a startled, “What the…” Whatever Peter’s reaction might have been, Ben didn’t take his eyes away from the moving trash to see what it was.
The smell that gushed out of the shifting bags was so intense, Ben swayed on his feet and had to swallow the nausea rising in his gut. What kind of movie theater manager waited to get the trash into the dumpster so long that it smelled this bad? They might as well have been dumpster-diving. Maybe something even worse.
Then a face emerged from the pile—not a demon, not a spirit, not something made out of rags and black goo. This was a human face. The woman’s cheeks were streaked with mud and pieces of something Ben didn’t even want to try guessing. She was definitely old, maybe in her eighties, though it was hard to tell the difference between so many wrinkles and so much filth. Her eyes rolled around in her head a little, which instantly put him on guard—if the smell hadn’t already. A few strands of dirty gray hair popped free of wherever they’d been to dangle over her forehead, and when her eyes finally stopped moving, he realized they were completely clouded over. Was she totally blind, too?
“Took you long enough,” she croaked. Then she shifted forward a little, and the rest of her form emerged from the pile of trash bags. She was wearing one of them herself, trash-bag sleeves somehow fashioned out of the sides with a black plastic hood to match. She still crouched on the ground between the closed bags, where she’d been perfectly camouflaged in trash. This was definitely different.
Rufus stood there with his legs apart, clasping one wrist with the other hand,
as casually as if he waited in line at the DMV and tried to plant himself into the floor. “You’ve known when this would happen,” he told the woman, for the first time not greeting somebody else with a smile.
The woman’s head twitched to the side. “It always feels longer.”
Nodding, Rufus added, “Your replacement has been found. So now it’s time for you to do your part.”
“Yes, yes.” The woman’s head twitched again, only this time it whipped toward Ben, and her obviously unseeing eyes settled upon his. “This one’s nice.”
“He’s marked,” Rufus told her firmly.
The woman’s lips trembled when she opened her mouth, then she pressed them together over and over, like a horse lipping an apple out of someone’s hand. Ben fought intensely with his stomach, which wanted to heave right there when a piece of whatever it was clinging to the woman’s face dropped onto her lower lip and was sucked quickly into her wrinkled mouth. “Yes,” she said. “I can see that. But not by one of ours, is he?”
‘Okay,’ Ian said in a weak voice. ‘Blind lady can see me now.’
“What about the others?” The woman still stared with her blind eyes at Ben despite clearly referring to his friends. Her nose twitched when she took a few short sniffs of the air. How anyone could smell anything beyond the hideous stink was beyond Ben.
“Under our protection,” Rufus replied. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you’re stalling.” He tilted his head, like he was talking to a disobedient child instead of an old blind woman dressed in trash bags behind a movie theater.
Her milky glaze flicked away from Ben to settle on Rufus. “You know what’s almost upon us, don’t you?” Rufus merely nodded. “They’re coming,” the woman hissed, and her eyes flashed the bright, noxious green of the spirit realm.
Well, that answered that question. The demon was inside this woman, then. April’s grip tightened on Ben’s arm.
‘So why the heck can’t I see it?’ Ian sounded especially frustrated, as being able to see demons and spirits around them was one of the things he’d always been able to do with very little effort. ‘Zero effort, Ben.’
