by N. P. Martin
I tried not to think about that, though, as I went about helping Frank and Eva set everything up for the summoning. Using a can of red spray paint, Frank drew a large circle about ten feet in diameter on the ground. Then, in the center of the circle, he drew a pentagram.
"This is our circle of protection," Eva said as she handed me a large jar filled with iron filings. "Spread those around the circle. I’ll follow with the salt."
As I began to pour the iron filings over the circle that Frank had drawn, Eva went behind me and poured salt over the iron filings. I already knew from the lore books that demons couldn’t cross over a line made from salt or iron. As long as we were inside the circle, and that the lines remained unbroken, Abigor shouldn’t be able to touch us. Not having stood inside such a circle before, I didn’t have much faith in its ability to keep Abigor at bay, but we would soon see.
Once the circle was done, Eva put a large candle at each point of the pentagram, explaining as she did that the candles were inscribed with runic symbols that represented the four Watchtowers and the four elements of earth, wind, fire and water. "These will enhance the protection of the circle," she said.
"What about the fifth point?" I asked her.
"An Elven Crystal will go there." Her eyes seemed to dance in the moonlight, as if she were in her element dealing with all the magic stuff.
"What does it do?"
"It magnifies whatever power is passed through it. In this case, grace."
"Is that how we’re going to trap Abigor?"
"That’s the plan," Frank said. He had just completed another smaller circle a few feet in front of the bigger one. The smaller circle contained a pentagram as well, but no candles. Instead, Frank had used the red spray can to make runic symbols around the outer edge of the circle. "We use our combined grace to hold Abigor."
"Then I step in," Lucas said, having been strangely absent for the last hour. "And open the portal to an unnamed dimension on the edge of the great Abyss, a dimension that is made up off nothing but darkness. Nothing has ever escaped from it."
"Where have you been?" Frank asked. "You afraid of dirtying your suit or something?"
Lucas smiled and shook his head at Frank. "I had some calls to make. Even though we may be nearing an apocalypse, business still continues."
Even I shook my head at that. "Jesus, Lucas. Seriously?"
"Actually," said Lucas, "I was still on the case, so to speak. One of my sources reported that the dead had somehow risen from their graves at a town not too far from here."
"Abigor has broken another seal," Eva said straight away.
Lucas nodded. "It would certainly seem that way. But don’t worry, I’ve sent some people in to clean up the mess."
"What?" Frank said.
"Well, I thought I would save you, or your compatriots, the trouble." He smiled. "It’s being taken care of."
Frank stared at Lucas for a moment, then at me, then back to Lucas. "I suppose we have Leia to thank for your sudden philanthropy."
I shook my head at Frank’s snarky comment, but said nothing.
Lucas examined the two circles we had formed on the ground, nodding his approval a moment later. "These are good. I just hope they are good enough."
"Why don’t you level with us," Frank said. "You know what this Abigor is capable of. Do we stand a chance here or not?"
Lucas turned to look at Frank. "Would it matter if I said we had no chance at all? You would still try."
Frank shrugged, but said nothing.
"So we’re fucked then," I stated bluntly.
Lucas shook his head. "Not necessarily. It’s a good plan, so it stands a good chance of working."
Everyone looked at him to see if he was bullshitting, then we shook our heads almost at the same time. He was right in what he said. Regardless of our chances, we were still going to try.
"Room for two more?"
Everyone turned to see a man and woman standing by the cabin, both in their late forties or so, the man tall and stout, the woman small and well…stout.
"Guy’s, glad you could make it," Eva said walking over to the two strangers, both of whom looked like they were on the road a lot, in a weirdly disheveled sort of way. Eva shook the man’s hand, and hugged the woman, then Frank joined them and shook their hands, while Lucas and I hung back.
"We’re almost ready to begin," Eva said to the newcomers.
"Y’all hear about the dead rising in Oakleaf?" the man said.
"Has to be your demon guy," the woman said, her ginger hair tied back in a ponytail to reveal her large, round face. She wore a tattered green army coat with faded blue jeans, and didn’t look like a woman to be fucked with in any way.
"We’ve already established that it is," Lucas said, smiling as he walked toward the others, while I continued to hang back.
"I see you brought your demon friend, Frank," the woman said, eyeing Lucas with mistrust.
"Lucas," Lucas said as he offered his hand, first to the man, who shook it loosely, then to the woman, who refused to shake it all. Not that Lucas was too offended by this show of ignorance, as it must’ve seemed to him. If anything, he appeared to relish in their discomfort.
Their eyes then went to me. "Well, this has to be Rachel’s girl," the woman said, her eyes on me. "Jeez, it’s like we’ve gone back twenty years to the old Warren days."
"We knew your mother," Patrick said. "Obviously." He wore a red checked shirt and sported a thick beard, looking like he had just walked in from the woods after a year-long stint there.
I just smiled and nodded as I shook his hand, then did the same as I also shook Letty’s hand.
"I gotta say, your mother was a fucking bitch at times," Letty said, shocking everyone but her husband, who just tutted and shook his head. "But there was no one I would rather have my back, present company excluded."
I didn’t even hear the last part of her sentence, because all of a sudden I was filled with rage that she would disrespect my mother in that way, that she would disrespect me in that way. Maybe, under other circumstances, I would’ve let it go. But I was so on edge anyway, that I just couldn’t. Without even thinking about, I conjured a small ball of grace in my hand and went to throw it at this Letty woman. The only reason I didn’t blast her in the chest was because Frank caught my wrist as I raised my arm.
"Stop, Leia!" Frank said.
My eyes were wide and glaring as they bored into Letty, who seemed somewhat shocked, not only by my aggressive action, but also by the powerball I had in my hand. She clearly thought I was some dumb neophyte who she could abuse at will. Now she knew different.
Relaxing my hand, I allowed the grace to get drawn back into my hand, then I pulled free from Frank’s grip.
"Steady on there, girl," Letty said. "You seem a bit tense."
I had to fight to keep my anger from rising again.
"She means she’s sorry," Patrick said, throwing his wife a look.
I shook my head. "Whatever."
A long, awkward silence happened after that, which was finally broken by Frank.
"Okay, so we need five people for the trap to work," Frank said to me, as if he felt the need to explain Patrick and Letty’s sudden presence. "That’s why Letty and Patrick are here."
Letty chuckled as if the whole thing was funny. "We couldn’t let you guys have all the fun, now could we?"
"Definitely not," Patrick said as he smiled at his wife like they were there for some fun adventure that was going to end with kinky sex.
I pretended to smile as I nodded, thinking, Jesus, these two have been on the road for too long…or been on something too long.
"All right," Frank said. "Everything is set up. If no one has any objections, I say we do this thing."
No one objected, but the fear in my belly certainly did.
The sky was clear and the full moon was bright and close as we all took our places inside the protective circle. I didn’t know about anyone else, but my adrenaline was pu
mping madly, which barely did anything to mask the fear I was feeling. I jumped slightly when Letty slammed her large hand down on my shoulder.
"Don’t worry," she said, as if nothing had happened between us earlier. "This demon bastard won’t know what hit him."
I just nodded, wondering how the hell she could be so confident in the face of such insurmountable odds.
Looking around, I spotted Lucas standing several feet away just on the edge of the woods. He was shrouded in shadow, but I could just make out his eyes. Knowing he was there made me less afraid. At least if things went tits up, Lucas could teleport us all out of here. That was the backup plan anyway.
Eva had already placed the Elven Crystal at the apex of the pentagram. The crystal was a rough obelisk shape, and was a dull blue color. It didn’t look like anything special to me, more like something you would find in one of those New Age shops in the city. But Eva assured me the crystal was not only very rare, but also very powerful. Without it, she said, our combined power wouldn’t stand a chance against Abigor’s.
"All right," Frank said eventually as we all stood in a rough semicircle, with me on the end, Letty to my left, Patrick beside her and Frank next to him. Eva stood slightly forward in the middle. "We ready to do this?"
"Ready," both Letty and Patrick said at the same time, neither of them seeming in the least bit afraid by what was about to take place.
I nodded at Frank. "Ready," I said, trying not to let my fear come through in my voice.
"Okay," Frank said, then looked at Eva. "Take it away, Eva."
With a focused, darkly serious look on her face, Eva nodded and began to recite the Summoning Spell, just as a dark cloud settled over the moon.
31
The plan was to let Eva complete most of the Summoning Spell before we all directed our grace into the Elven Crystal. Our grace was obviously finite, so leaving it until the last minute before using seemed like the best idea. Once the grace hit the crystal, Eva would then direct the combined power into trapping Abigor as soon as he appeared in the second circle. From there, Lucas would open the portal and send Abigor through it to a predetermined dimension that would act as Abigor’s prison, a dimension that apparently renewed and recreated itself on a regular basis, as well as changing its position in time and space, all of which would make it impossible for Abigor, or anyone else that was already there, to escape.
As Eva spoke the ancient words to the Summoning Spell in a deep voice full of conviction, I noticed the sky cloud over, blocking out the moon completely, and plunging our surroundings into almost total darkness. At the same time, a wind stirred up that threatened to extinguish the candles that were still burning despite the strong gusts. When lightning stabbed out of the sky and split a tree in half at the end of the clearing, I couldn’t help but jump back in shock. Beside me, Letty was grinning like a mad woman.
"The son of a bitch is coming!" she shouted over the noise of the wind, and the thunder which had begun to crash overhead.
I knew she was right, but I wasn’t as comfortable with the fact as she clearly was. Yes, I wanted to trap Abigor and save Josh, but I was also terrified of seeing Abigor himself. The memory of seeing him that night in the street was still fresh in my mind, as was the abject terror I felt at his presence. Suddenly, I felt claustrophobic, as if the darkness itself was closing in on me. If it wasn’t for Frank, I may have fled out of the circle. His loud voice jarred me back into reality.
"NOW!" he shouted just as Eva finished casting the Summoning Spell, and the noise all around seemed to coalesce into a single, ear-splitting buzzing sound.
Patrick and Letty both shot their right arms out and started directing their grace at the Elven Crystal, quickly followed by Frank and Eva. Then I did the same, my grace exploding from my hand in a long, steady stream of brilliant white light that seemed to disappear into the crystal.
Then everything went silent for long seconds, and I wondered if the spell had failed. But a second later, a figure appeared inside the second circle, standing several feet in front of us.
My heart almost stopped when I immediately felt that cloying, evil presence that seemed like it would surely drive me insane if I was continually subjected to it. Everyone else felt it too. Letty visibly flinched beside me. I hardly knew Letty, but I knew that if Letty fucking flinched at something, that something must be bad fucking news indeed.
Which of course it was.
It was Abigor, one of the first of the Fallen, and the demon who all but kicked Lucifer’s ass into another dimension.
He didn’t look at us at first, but instead just stood there, dressed in dark clothes and a long leather coat, his hands clasped behind his back like some military general. He didn’t look up until Eva began to direct the amplified grace from the Elven Crystal, positioning it around Abigor until the demon was completely surrounded by it.
Even through the bright light of the grace, I could see his face clearly. He looked middle-aged, his features perhaps soft once when he was still an angel, but not now. Now his face was pinched and severe, his chin covered by a goatee beard that was smoothed into a point, as if he was trying to look devilish. His wide eyes glowed a bright amber, giving off an intimidating stare which fell upon every one of us in turn, and which filled my already brimming heart with fear.
In my peripheral vision, I caught sight of Lucas stepping forth out of the trees several feet behind where Abigor stood within his trap. I watched as Lucas raised both hands into the air and started speaking some incomprehensible language as he went to work opening the portal.
When I looked back at Abigor, I froze when I realized he was looking right at me, his eyes seeming to burn through the grace that surrounded him. I also got the sense he was smiling at me, which chilled my blood, but not as much as what he did next.
Moving his arms away from his sides slightly, Abigor suddenly began to direct a reddish-black energy toward the ground. The dark energy seemed thick, and almost liquid in form, as it immediately began to cancel out the light, consuming or extinguishing the grace that was keeping him trapped.
"What the fuck is he doing?" Patrick shouted.
"What the fuck do you think he’s doing?" Letty screamed back.
"We can’t let this fucker escape!" Frank said.
The five of us doubled our efforts to try and put more power into the crystal. Eva was practically screaming as she fought to keep back the darkness Abigor was unleashing, and to keep our grace around him. In the background of my vision, I was vaguely aware of a bright light seeming to appear in the sky. Lucas was opening the portal, but we still had to get Abigor into it, which was becoming more of an impossibility with each passing second.
The demon’s dark energy managed to cancel out the grace surrounding him at shocking speed. One minute it seemed like the trap was there, the next it was gone, replaced by a cloud of swirling darkness. We continued to direct our rapidly depleting grace at the Eleven Crystal, but Abigor’s unleashed darkness soon penetrated the crystal, and a second later the relic exploded into pieces.
The four of us pulled back our grace stream at the same time, and as if by instinct, every one of us went for our guns at the same time as well.
"Hurry up, Lucas!" Frank screamed as we all started to fire upon Abigor. I didn’t know about Patrick and Letty, but Frank, Eva and I were firing rune engraved bullets that were meant to seriously hurt, if not kill, demons. But none of the dozens of bullets we fired at Abigor seemed to have any effect on him. In fact, the bullets appeared to stop dead in the air about six inches away from him, to just hang there as if telekinetic energy had stopped them before they hit.
Behind Abigor, it looked as if Lucas had created the portal, if the swirling dark vortex in the sky was anything to go by, a vortex that created a powerful wind that wanted to suck everything into it.
Lucas had turned to face Abigor, and I knew it would all be up to him. He was the only one there capable of fighting Abigor. At least, that’s what I though
t anyway.
Abigor shot a hand out toward us as the darkness continued to swirl around him. When he did so, I felt myself freeze up, to the point where I couldn’t move a muscle. In my peripheral vision, I was aware that the others had been frozen in place as well. No matter how hard I tried, no matter how much of my diminished grace I tried to direct around my body, I wasn’t able to move at all. Which was frankly terrifying, considering the monster whose mercy we were now at.
So much for the circle of protection, I thought.
Frozen stiff, I watched as Abigor turned to face Lucas. Lucas’s eyes glowing a deep purple, and if he was afraid of facing Abigor, he hid it well.
"Lucreceous," Abigor said in a supremely confident voice. "I thought I smelled a rat. A king rat, actually."
Lucreceous? Is that his real name or something? Or his Hellion name maybe?
"You don’t belong here, Abigor," Lucas said. "This isn’t your world."
"No, but it soon will be." Abigor glanced over his shoulder at us, his eyes amber and glowing, standing out against the darkness surrounding him like black vapor. "It doesn’t surprise me that you would fight alongside the enemy, against your own kind."
Lucas scowled at that as he raised his hand. "I’m nothing like you, Abigor. You’re a fucking tyrant, and always were. I work to maintain balance in this world and the universe at large, while you work to cause imbalance, and to destroy."
Something like red lightning shot out of Lucas’ hand then, and into Abigor, whose arms were flung out as he was forced back a few steps by the force of the energy.
Hope dared to rise up in me for a second, as I thought Lucas was going to kick Abigor’s ass, but unfortunately, that’s not what happened.
What happened was, Abigor roared in anger and shot back a burst of energy of his own, in the form of a spear that seemed fashioned from pure dark energy. The black spear penetrated Lucas’s chest, and Lucas immediately stopped his attack on Abigor as he looked down at what was piercing his chest.
