by Heath, Joel
Once inside the man closed and
barricaded the door.
“What was in those things?” Vince asked.
“Holy water.” The man replied before he glared mistrustfully at the people he had just saved.
“I just used five of my holy grenades to save your miserable asses; now tell me why I did,” the man said.
“We’re looking for a demon.” Jessie replied.
“you’re too late most of them have left, what few there are mostly underground. Pick one!” the man spat.
“A bigger one than your average hell raiser.” Vince corrected. The man’s face went from not trusting to questioning their sanity.
“The big black one with dark grey scales that came around about six weeks ago?” The man asked testing the level of their insanity.
“That’s the one.” Spencer confirmed.
“I can’t help you.” The man abruptly said before turning to walk away.
“What?” Jessie demanded.
The man stopped.
“Get this into your heads.” The man began, “Everybody that goes near him dies, I lost five men to that damn thing in the last three days, and until you showed up it was just me again. Even if you could get through the hordes of demons he’s just too strong. I really don’t want to be the last human on this earth.”
“Can you at least tell us where he is?” Jessie begged.
“Why? So you can get yourselves killed?” the man scoffed.
“We can handle ourselves.” Vince assured.
“So could my men.” The man retorted before walking away.
“Look! He’s going to come after us sooner or later, how do you want to die, hiding like a coward or fighting?”
The soldier wanted to take a swing at Spencer, but managed to restrain himself.
“Watch your mouth, asshole.” He spat, then he paused and studied Spencer for a couple seconds before conceding, “Fine, he’s in Central Park, but it’ll be damn near impossible to get to him, I’m sure he’ll be glad to see you, before he decapitates you.” The man said.
“We’ve faced him before.” Vince said. The man laughed, his sanity must have been close to breaking. Then he realized that Vince was serious.
“If you can stand a chance against him, what good will that do?”
Spencer smiled,
“What if we get him to come to us?” The man batted an eye at Spencer
“Bring him here?” the man scoffed, “No problem, oh, wait. HE’LL BRING HIS WHOLE DAMNED ARMY WITH HIM!” the man snapped. “And did I forget to mention, he’s too damn strong.”
“Remind me how many of those holy grenades you have left?” Spencer smiled. The man calmed down and reluctantly smiled, he could smell a plan cooking.
“Three dozen. I could have three times that many with your help. Of course it will take a few hours.” The man said before extending his hand. “I’m Captain Merrill, United States Marine Corps.”
Spencer introduced himself and the rest of his group.
Vince noticed a large object lying on a large and sturdy table. “What’s that?” Vince asked, pointing at the object on the table.
Captain Merrill looked at the object, and back at Vince. “My last resort.” He said, “A ten kiloton nuclear bomb. I found her four months ago at JFK; apparently the Air Force was going to nuke the city to contain the demon invasion force, I guess they thought the city was already lost. It could be ready to go in a couple hours if needed.”
“What kind of damage would that thing do?” Jessie asked.
“Everything within a mile would be vaporized. If this thing goes, I wouldn’t want to be in the city or anywhere near it.” Captain Merrill admitted.
Spencer smiled.
“It looks like we have a plan.”
Gretchen sunk to a seated position on the floor and Captain Merrill took notice of it.
“Are you alright?” Captain Merrill asked.
“Yeah, I’m just not feeling that great.” Gretchen admitted.
Captain Merrill checked Gretchen’s vitals and performed a few routine health checks before asking for some privacy.
Spencer, Vince and Jessie left the room and Captain Merrill spoke quietly.
“How long have these feelings
persisted?” Captain Merrill asked.
“Six weeks.” Gretchen admitted.
“You’re pregnant.” Captain Merrill bluntly related.
Gretchen nodded,
“I know.”
“Who’s the father?” Captain Merrill asked.
Gretchen said nothing forcing Captain Merrill to draw a conclusion. “Spencer, isn’t it?”
Gretchen nodded.
“Does he know?” Captain Merrill asked.
“Not yet.” Gretchen replied, “How far would you say I am?”
“I would say about four months, maybe five.” Captain Merrill replied before standing and heading for the door that secluded Spencer, Vince and Jessie.
“You won’t tell him, will you?” Gretchen asked.
“That’s your job.”
Captain Merrill pushed the door open and entered the next room.
“How is she?” Spencer asked.
“She’ll be fine, but we have a lot of prep work ahead of us.”
Captain Merrill lead the group to a table that he had used to construct his ‘holy grenades’ and they quickly got to work building more by using smoke grenades and adding holy water.
As the last of the holy grenades were completed, Captain Merrill stood and approached Vince and Spencer.
“Can you two handle this demon of yours alone?”
“Is everything alright, Captain?” Spencer asked.
“It’s fine. I just need help setting up for the party.” Captain Merrill lied.
Spencer nodded.
“It shouldn’t be a problem, we’ll try and gift wrap him for you.” Spencer promised before heading out on the hunt.
Chapter 6 - Royal Flush Spencer and Vince proceeded down 42nd Street. “So how are we going to find him?” Vince asked.
“If you want honey, follow the bees.” Spencer replied.
“Sounds like a surefire way to get stung.”
Vince objected.
Turning and heading up 8thAvenue
Spencer and Vince headed toward the beast’s
lair: Central Park, only nineteen blocks away. Passing 58thStreet Spencer noticed
several demons were following them.
“We’ve got company.” Spencer quietly
declared.
“I know, they’ve been following us since
47thStreet.” Vince admitted.
“So why haven’t they attacked us yet?”
Spencer wondered.
“I don’t know.” Vince admitted.
Crossing 59thStreet they entered Central Park
and they noticed their tail had increased; it was
now a full blown procession. Many demons
passed by and headed into the park, vanishing
into the foliage. Their entourage remained;
occasionally they would catch a glimpse of a
demon racing by until the Bethesda Terrace came
into view.
Spencer approached the edge of the
terrace and saw the fountain on the lower level,
the hellish prince could not be seen, there was,
however a familiar man standing at the water’s
edge.
“Rodney?” Spencer asked, racing down
the stairs to greet him.
“Spencer, where did you go?” Rodney
asked.
“Rodney, we looked everywhere for
you.” Spencer confessed.
“Don’t lie to me!” Rodney spat “If you
had looked everywhere you would have found
me.”
“What do you want me to say, Rodney?”
Spencer asked.
“Serve me.” A familiar voice ca
lled from
behind.
Spencer and Vince turned to see Lucifer standing
atop the stairs, his feet were about twelve inches
apart and he held his hands behind his back. Releasing his hand to hang at his sides he
strode down the stairs and walked right up to
Spencer. Spencer glanced back to Rodney, and
he was gone.
“Where’s Rodney?” Spencer asked. “Who?” Lucifer asked.
“Don’t play coy, Satan.” Vince seethed. Lucifer bore his teeth and almost
growled, Spencer could tell that Lucifer hated the
name that Vince called him. Lucifer managed to
remain composed.
“Why have you come here, Mr. Garza?”
Lucifer asked.
“We came here for your pet.” Vince
revealed getting right to the point.
“Aren’t you supposed to be in Germany?
What are you doing in my neighborhood?”
Spencer asked as Vince summoned his celestial
sword and pointed it at Lucifer, who casually
glanced at the blade and nonchalantly glanced
back to Vince as though he did not fear the
weapon.
“Mortality has tainted your perception, I
am not bound by the laws of man.”
Vince and Spencer began to circle Lucifer. “What are you going to do with that?”
Lucifer asked.
“What I failed to do in Utah.” Vince
retorted.
“You?” Lucifer mocked keeping his eyes
on Vince, “You can’t defeat me.”
The sound of metal scraping metal crossed
Lucifer’s ears.
“A mortal weapon?” Lucifer asked, then
turned to Spencer and seemed genuinely
concerned, but only for a second.
“So, Michael managed to make use of one
of my weapons.”
“You have two choices, and in both
scenarios: you lose.” Spencer advised.
Lucifer smiled, and permitted himself a cruel
chuckle.
“I consider myself a reasonable man, and
I can see that you’ve made up your mind. But be
warned, I have been sparing you from my
minions. If you will not serve me, you will die.” “We’re not dead yet, and we can still
wound you.” Spencer warned holding up his
weapon.
Lucifer chuckled again.
“You can’t use those if you’re dead.”
Lucifer said, at those words the sound of a roar
echoed from everywhere and nowhere, the roar
sounded like a lion mixed with a Tyrannosaurus
Rex. Spencer and Vince turned their attention to
the pitch-black void under the upper terrace
where a pair of blood red eyes peered out. The beast crawled out from its den and
unfurled its large leathery wings. Turning its
head from one target to the other it flicked a
forked tongue testing the air; it seemed to be
checking whose fear was greater.
Vince and Spencer brought their weapons
to bear against the impending attack, one was
going to live and the other would die.
Vince glanced at where Lucifer stood just a few
moments earlier and noticed that Satan was gone,
he was concerned but there were more pressing
matters to deal with.
“How are we going to get this thing back
to Captain Merrill?” Spencer asked.
“I was kind of hoping you had a plan.”
Vince countered.
The hellish prince moved from all fours
to its hind legs, lifting it head into the air and
stepping forward and brought its clawed hands to
bear, who would make the first move. Spencer
was watching the prince, planning his first strike. “Look for an opening, and take it.”
Spencer said, then looked at Vince. “Don’t let me
down.” Spencer pled.
“I’ll cover you.” Vince promised. “Go for the wings and the legs.” Spencer
directed.
Vince nodded holding his sword out in front of
him.
“Now!” Spencer shouted as he lurched
forward, cutting across the prince’s right side
forcing the demon to follow. Vince saw his
opening and charged, but then noticed the
demonic tail coming in to clothesline Spencer. Spencer leapt over the tail and rolled to a
stop his sword went flying, landing only twelve
feet away.
The hellish prince grinned at the
weakness and struck with his terrible, clawed
hand. Spencer dodged the near fatal attack by
rolling away from the prince and towards his
sword.
Vince tried to attack but the prince flicked
his tail, striking Vince and sending him flying.
Vince landed atop the upper terrace. He wasn’t
moving. For all Spencer knew Vince was dead.
The prince turned to admire his work.
“VINCE, NO!” Spencer shouted drawing
the demons gaze back to Spencer who quickly
scrambled to his feet, and ran to retrieve his
sword.
“You think you can kill me?” the prince
asked, his voice was dark and sinister, but there
was strength behind it.
To his surprise and great relief, he saw
Vince half standing atop the upper terrace, a
glorious sword in his hand.
“Do you think you can kill me?” Spencer
retorted trying keep attention on himself so as not
to reveal Vince until it was too late for their evil
foe.
Vince climbed up on to the railing, and
stood over the hellish prince directly below, then
he leapt ramming his sword into the demon’s
back.
The demon roared in pain.
“You should have killed me when you
had the chance.” Vince said, at the very same
moment Spencer rolled forward and sliced
through the demon’s left leg.
“Fools!” the demon shouted, “I do not die
so easily.”
“Spencer, get his wing.” Vince shouted,
“I can’t keep him down much longer.”
Spencer raised his sword and brought it down on
the leading edge of the prince’s right wing. "Vince, let’s go.” Spencer shouted.
Vince withdrew his weapon and they both
retreated.
“Fools! You will not escape me.” The
prince vowed. He was wounded and not able to
fly, but managed to pursue them with a
sickeningly fast shuffle.
“He’s following us.” Vince announced. “Soon, he’ll wish he hadn’t.”
The prince roared, not to let his quarry
know that he was coming, but to summon other
demons to his aid. Like wasps from a nest, tens
of thousands of demons erupted out of the trees
and headed for Spencer and Vince. All intent on
a grueling dismemberment.
“Spencer, we’re not going to make it.”
Vince admitted before turning to fight.
“Do you want to stand and fight?”
Spencer asked as they crossed 59thStreet. “We have seventeen blocks to go.
They’ll over take us in three.” Vince said.
Spencer noticed something that would cut
through the gridlocked streets and give them a
&
nbsp; fighting chance to get back to 42ndStreet, it was a
2013 Harley. Spencer sheathed his sword and
approached and tried to start it, the bike started
with great effort, Spencer tossed the only helmet
to Vince. Vince released his sword, it dissipated
returned to the light.
“Get your ass on!” Spencer shouted. “Vince strapped the helmet on and took a
seat behind Spencer who then hit the gas and
sped down 7thAvenue leading the prince and his
cronies like a lamb to the slaughter.
As the bike zipped down 8thStreet
between 44thand 43rdthey breathed a sigh of
relief.
“We’re almost there.” Spencer called over
the roar of the wind as they tore down the
sidewalk.
“Do you hear that?” Vince asked too late.
A small flying demon swooped down and pulled
Spencer off the bike and tumbled to the ground
rolling with its prey. The bike swerved. Vince
leaned forward and tried to gain control and stop
the bike but it was no use, the bike careened into
the line of cars on the side of the road.
Spencer lay on his back, the demon
adjusted to a sitting position on top of him,
struggling to rip into human flesh. Spencer
managed to keep the demon far enough away that
his life was not likely to end in the next few
seconds, but that could quickly change.
Spencer could feel the strength leaving
him, within seconds he would be lying dead on
the ground his body dismembered, he looked
over to the crashed Harley. When, he didn’t see
Vince he turned his focus back to his impended
death.
The demon brought his fangs close
enough to rip a gaping hole in Spencer’s neck.
He tensed his body in anticipation and then the
creature just stopped and it slumped over
Spencer. Spencer pushed the demon over and
found Vince standing over them, a glowing
sword in his hand.
“Maybe I should keep this.” Vince said
before offering Spencer a hand.
Vince looked back up 8thAvenue to see a horde
of demons seven blocks away, and leading the
way was the prince class demon.
“It must have been an advanced scout.”
Vince guessed.
“Then why are we still here?” Spencer
asked.
Spencer and Vince turned and ran the remaining
