by Irene Ferris
Jenn squeezed Marcus’ hand before dropping it and walking to the South. Marcus followed suit and stood on the North.
Chapter Forty - Three
Marcus took a deep breath and collected himself. He could feel a buzzing sensation in the soles of his feet and knew it was from the power they were summoning. He looked around the circle, checking with all of his senses that everyone was prepared and ready for the working. All of them slid into harmony easily, and the feeling in his feet intensified.
Any other time he would have reveled in the feeling, but now all he felt was a sense of trepidation about what going to happen next. It was with this in his mind that he rolled back his shoulders, straightened his spine and spoke, “Gaap, I summon you in the name of Gabriel, prince of angels. We summon you to come forth and return to us what you’ve taken.”
“Gaap, we bind you in the name of Uriel, prince of angels. We bind you to this world and reality. We bind you to our purpose.” Jenn’s voice grew louder as she spoke.
“Gaap, we call you forth in the name of Michael, prince of angels. We call you forth to answer to our charges and bend to our will.” Eddie spoke calmly and then looked over to Susan.
Susan raised an eyebrow back at Eddie as she spoke. “Gaap, we compel you in the name of Raphael, prince of angels. We compel you to come forth and serve us.”
“Come forth, Gaap. Come forth in the name of Adonai Melech who rules all above and below and face us.” All of them intoned at once as they poured their strength into the spell and the circle before them.
The inside of the circle roiled with smoke and light before resolving into two distinct figures.
“Well, what do you little parasites want now? I’m fresh out of ponies.” Gaap strode forward out of the smoke to glare at Marcus. “And out of patience, as well.”
“You know what we want.” Marcus stared back at Gaap before stepping backwards to place his hand on the basement wall. “Give us back what you’ve taken or we’ll trap you here again.”
Gaap cocked its head and looked at Marcus. “You want this?” It gestured and the smoke cleared from the circle. Mathieu stood there, his posture limp as a marionette with cut strings. “I don’t think so.”
“I think so,” Marcus answered. He tried not to look at the figure in the circle but his eyes were drawn back again. Mathieu stood there, his clothing shredded and covered in bloodstains. His skin was pale and mottled with bruises. Some wounds were still raw and bleeding.
But the worst was the eyes. Eyes that before had been brown and warm, changeable in light—amber in firelight, deepest brown in sunlight, black in darkness—now were simply flat and dead. There was no life left in those eyes, no soul, nothing but emptiness.
“What would you give me for such a valuable possession?” Gaap asked the question as it moved to stand in front of Marcus, arms crossed. “After all, he gave himself to me willingly. There was no force or coercion involved.”
“I will give you your freedom.” Marcus tapped the spell on the wall again. “I can bind you to this place for eternity if you don’t give him back.”
Gaap looked at the wall and shrugged, its scales fluttering and then lying flat. “Once bitten, twice shy. I’ve already been trapped by that once. Do you honestly think I’d allow myself to be trapped by it again?”
Amanda’s voice rang out from outside the containment circle. “Master, if I give you these humans will you erase your taint from my soul? Will you make it as though you’d never touched me?” Her voice was thick, as if filled with tears.
Gaap swiveled towards her voice and smiled sharply, every scale tightly flattened. “Done,” it said. “Give them to me and I will take away every thought and every memory you have of me.”
“Done.” Amanda’s voice rang out as she stepped forward into the outer circle and activated it with her personal strength.
“Not good. Not good. So fucking not fucking good.” Dwayne’s voice rang out as he tried to push Amanda away but was repelled by the circle of which they were all now inside. “Fuck. Not good,” he repeated.
“No. Not good at all.” Gaap repeated as it gestured towards Mathieu. Mathieu straightened a little as power was drawn from him and focused on the inner containment circle. “Actually, not good for you. Quite good for me, though.”
Marcus, pushed forward by the activation of the outer circle, threw himself towards the red containment circle, placing his hands on the border and pumping in all of his strength to reinforce the barrier between Gaap and the rest of them.
Gaap cocked its head and smiled, the scales now back to their gentle fluttering rhythm. “I will admit a detached admiration for your bravery and pluck, but I don’t think you realize how much stronger your friend has made me.” As he spoke the pulsing barrier of light rippled and then flared brightly. The light subsided and the barrier had moved outwards several inches.
Marcus yelped and drew his hands back, shaking them in pain.
Jenn had been transfixed in horror, watching everything play out in front of her. Her husband’s cry of pain cut though her senses even as she was pushed back from the south cardinal. She shook her head and yelled over her shoulder, “Dwayne, Carol. Get that circle down, damn it!”
“I can’t.” Dwayne wailed as he pushed against the curtain of light blocking off their escape. “I don’t know what she did, but I can’t get to it.”
Amanda smirked at him as she walked forward to touch the scintillating sheet of light that separated Demon from human. “I learned a few tricks, didn’t I, Master?”
“So it seems.” Gaap gestured at Mathieu again, and the circle holding them grew and then dimmed, larger again. The space between two circles had shrunk in half.
Eddie pushed physically back on the new barrier and gritted out, “This is not going to happen. You are so not going to do this, you son of a bitch.” He closed his eyes, sweat beading on his brow as the wall of light stopped shifting and then slowly began moving back, inch by slow inch.
Gaap watched this display with a bemused expression before gesturing, causing the circle to expand again. Eddie shrieked with pain as the barrier under his hands flared brightly and then threw him backwards. He landed against the protective barrier behind them and cried out softly as he slid down to the ground.
Susan wailed, “No, Eddie!” She ran around to kneel at his side. “Come on, honey. Get up. Get up. This isn’t going to happen. We’re dying in bed, remember? Making love?”
Eddie groaned as Gaap laughed brightly, scales lifting and smoothing in time with the sounds of his mirth. “Oh, but my dear, that hasn’t changed. It’ll just be a change in partners.” It gestured again and the circle expanded again, leaving nothing but a body’s length in between the two areas. “And I can already feel your terror at losing control of your body again, my dear. I’m not going to be the first one force you to another’s will, but I will be the one who ends your pain.”
Marcus and Dwayne came over and helped wrestle Eddie to his feet, pulling him away as the barrier expanded again, cutting the area left in half. Susan, pale and shaking, tried to help but she was trembling so hard she could barely stand.
“We need to punch a hole through and activate that spell.” Marcus looked over his shoulder at the paint that wetly gleamed in the shimmering light. “If we all pool together, we can break through.”
“Right.” Jenn reached forward without hesitation and grabbed his hand. “Right,” she repeated as she squeezed it with every ounce of strength she had, trying to convey everything she might not ever have time to say with that one motion.
“Right.” Dwayne grasped both their hands in his large one. Carol laid hers under their entwined hands Susan helped Eddie put his shaky hand in the middle by wrapping her fingers through his and putting their hands on top.
“Right,” Marcus repeated as he drew all their separate threads of power into himself and directed it at the barrier, using his other hand to aim it.
There was a feeling of dis
tortion, then the air pressure in their little area changed as the shimmering sheet of transparent light suddenly revealed an opening little bigger than a man’s fist.
“I’ve got it. One more push, people. One more and we’ve got the bastard.” Marcus threw his weight forward, thrusting his arm through the hole and across the six inches between their prison and the spell on the wall.
The paint was still slick under his fingers as he pushed onto the sigil and focused all the strength they had left into activating the spell
There was a deep hum as the sigils lit up one after another in a spiral of power. Glowing red, green and gold, they shone brightly enough to force him to look away, eyes watering. On the opposite side of the room, the matching symbols suddenly lit up and then spread to the adjacent walls and then to the ceiling. After a few seconds of shining brightly the red containment circle on the floor began to shine with an intensity that caused a palpable pressure on human eyes.
Marcus drew his hand back and sighed in relief. “We’ve got him. We’ve got him.”
Gaap watched casually in the middle of the red circle as the light brightened and the air grew heavy with power. A flash of what appeared to be lightning danced from wall to wall, to ceiling and down to the floor, tracing out Gaap’s name with power before bouncing back up to hit the Demon square in the chest.
Gaap grunted, stepping back at the impact before making a strange gesture. The lightning then flashed from Gaap to hit Mathieu.
Mathieu made a strangled sound at the impact and then fell to his knees, a smoldering circle suddenly appearing on the rags that covered his chest.
The Demon shook its head as it walked over to Mathieu and negligently inspected him before turning back to the group of humans huddled together in between the circles. “I told you that I wasn’t going to let that trap me again. Didn’t you believe me?” The inner circle glowed again, pushing forward and forcing the humans to break apart
“Your type aren’t exactly known for their honesty.” Carol’s voice was fatigued as she freed her hand from the group and staggered forward to glare at the creature through the barrier between them.
“You do have a point there.” Gaap smiled slowly and spoke again, “You were responsible for the little twist at the end. I tasted your flavor on it. I look forward to raping your mind while I take your body. I suspect the knowledge gained will be most profitable for me.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Carol sighed as her face hardened. “You don’t have to do this, you know.”
Gaap bowed slightly. “But I do. I’m not the wasteful type.”
“I was afraid of that,” she said as Dwayne reached over and touched her shoulder. She leaned back into his hand and sighed.
The circle grew one last time, now pinning them single-file between the two shimmering curtains of light. Gaap stood in front of them and preened as it strutted from one to the other, peering deeply into each person’s eyes in turn and smiling wider as it did so.
“Master,” a strangled voice came from behind. Gaap’s smile melted and then reformed, this time hard and sharp.
“Ah, yes. My faithful servant.” The Demon turned and walked across the circle to where Amanda was pinned. With a flippant gesture of its hand, it reached over and through the inner barrier and pulled her through to stand next to him.
Amanda yanked her hand away, wiping it on the front of her dress with a curled lip. “Our agreement.”
“Of course.” Gaap bowed its head to her and continued. “I believe our terms were that you were to give them over and in return I would take away every thought and memory of me.”
“Yes.” Amanda sighed the word as she leaned forward. “Yes, take it all away.”
Gaap’s smile turned even harder. “All of it?”
“Everything,” Amanda answered.
“Everything,” Gaap agreed as it placed a hand almost gently on her forehead, scales fluttering as if in a gentle breeze. She closed her eyes and shuddered at its touch. “Everything it is.”
They stood like that for several seconds while Gaap’s smile grew wider. Light traced the outline of fingers on her face, illuminating all the gaunt hollows of her face.
It was then that her eyes flew open and she spoke one, long tortured word. “Noooooooo.”
“You said ‘everything’.” Gaap’s fingers dug into her temples, twisting cruelly.
Amanda’s eyes grew wide and a whining noise came from back of her throat. She began to convulse but not enough to wrest her away from the hand on her forehead. Tears flowed down her cheeks and the keening sound grew higher and sharper before suddenly stopping.
Gaap drew its hand away, pausing to wipe the tears from her cheeks and lick them off its fingers before pushing her.
She collapsed bonelessly to the floor, eyes blank and hollow. Tears still traced down her face and pooled on the floor under her gaunt cheek.
“You said ‘everything’,” Gaap repeated to her, squatting down and twining a lock of her hair around one finger as it spoke. “You are made anew. As man was born into this world--Tabla Rasa--so are you once again.” It shifted and looked up to its captives and smiled coldly. “Am I not merciful? All her pain, all her fear, all her failings—gone.”
“That’s not the word I’d choose, “Carol answered.
“Probably not,” Gaap agreed. “Not yet, at least. Give it time.”
“Shit.” Dwayne muttered the word under his breath as Gaap smoothly rose and approached them once more, leaving Amanda’s shell limp and empty-eyed on the floor.
The Demon gave a tight-lipped smile as it surveyed them, scales pulsing gently in contentment. “Done properly, it could take you all days to die.” It cocked its head over to one side. “I am nothing if not a perfectionist.”
Chapter Forty - Four
Deliberately Gaap reached through the circle, grabbed Marcus by the neck and dragged him through the shimmering veil of light. “We have business to conclude, do we not?” The circle contracted further against the rest of them, pinning them immobile.
Marcus’ nerves burned as if he’d been plunged into a vat of boiling acid. There was a reason that circles weren’t to be crossed and they had a tendency of letting one know why with a deep and piercing pain.
As quickly as the pain came, it was gone, as was the floor beneath his feet. And the air in his lungs.
He instinctively grabbed at the hand around his neck, scrabbled at it as he was held a few inches off the floor. The hand at his neck didn’t loosen in the least at his struggles. If anything it grew incrementally tighter.
He could hear his wife’s screams at the very edge of perception, but his attention was focused on the Demon’s face, the scales ever so slightly lifting and flattening in the visual equivalent of a cat’s purr of contentment.
Something small and sharp sliced open his scrabbling hand and he hissed breathlessly in pain.
Gaap cocked its head and with a flip of its wrist, tossed Marcus to the floor.
What had looked to be just a small toss actually carried him several feet into the center of the circle. He slid on his back and landed near Mathieu.
Shaking his head as he coughed and gagged, Marcus struggled to his knees and tried to brace himself to rise to his feet. “Mathieu. Wake up. Little help here?”
Mathieu’s face remained slack and dead-eyed. There was no sign of recognition, no sign of life.
Marcus took a deep breath and braced for pain before reaching over and shoving Mathieu. The body rocked back on its knees before returning back to rest in its normal position.
“He can’t hear you, you know.” Gaap’s voice came from behind Marcus’ left ear. The blow came from behind his right.
The force of the strike spun Marcus around and he hit the floor hard. He shook his head, trying to clear his vision. Gaap straddled Marcus’ chest, reaching forward and putting its hand on his throat again. “He can’t hear anything. Can’t feel anything either,” Gaap continued in a conversational
tone. “I drove him so deep that his own mother couldn’t find him in there.”
Marcus writhed, trying to dislodge the creature perched on his chest but Gaap stayed put. “I’ll be happy to show you how I did it, too. I think that would be splendid, don’t you?” Gaap’s smile faded a little. “I don’t think you’ll last nearly as long as he did, though. Or endure the pain nearly as well. You’re softer.”
“Fuck. You.” Marcus gasped the words out with the last bit of air in his lungs. His ears began to ring, the sound growing louder and louder as Gaap’s voice grew more distant. He could hear Jenn screaming his name but it was indistinct.
The grasp around his neck loosened enough for him to take a breath. “Of course you will. But just not at this moment. We have other things to do first. Grand things. After all, I have to get as much out of you all as I can, don’t I?”
Marcus shuddered as Gaap leaned forward, the scales fluttering faster now, as if with excitement. A fetid odor came from beneath them, fanned into his face in waves. “Are you afraid yet?”
“Terrified,” Marcus gasped back.
“I know.” It jerked its head in Mathieu’s direction. The Familiar was bathed in a red aura, pulsing with power. “Your fear, their despair, soon all of your pain—it’s delicious and it makes me stronger by the moment.” It leaned in even closer and whispered, “I wonder, would you be as afraid if you couldn’t see? The pain of ripping out your eyes would be sublime, but I wonder if your terror would be lessened.”
Marcus shuddered before answering, “Not a question I’ve ever asked myself.”
“Only one way to find out, isn’t there?” The scales on Gaap’s face lifted, revealing the white, hungry mouths filled with razor sharp teeth. “Now where did I put that pony?”
The mouths strained forward, teeth clicking furiously as they tried to bridge the few inches to Marcus’ face.
Marcus screamed. He screamed longer and louder than he had ever screamed in his life. He struggled and writhed and bucked and fought but there was no give in the creature that held him.
