by Kim Cormack
“Tell me I didn’t just hear that.” Lexy stated.
Grey looked directly at Kayn and Melody and barked, “Go upstairs! Check underneath mom! We need to know which child’s missing!”
Kayn’s heart leapt in her chest. One of the children might still be alive. There was hope. She darted towards the basement door and was roughly blocked by Lexy.
She ominously said, “Oh sweetie, trust me on this one. You do not want to go down there.”
“It might be one of the children down there.” Kayn asserted. They had lost her. Why were they not running down the stairs to help?
Grey dramatically rolled his eyes while exclaiming, “Skin coat Brighton. Do you want to be a skin coat?”
“I’d honestly like to skip the whole skin coat thing if that’s at all possible,” Kayn replied. She got it. Something had moved in the basement but that didn’t necessarily mean that something was alive.
Grey calmly repeated his order, “Please, go upstairs and check the bodies so when you come back down, you can tell us the size of what we’re dealing with.”
Zach couldn’t help himself as he piped in, “I thought size didn’t matter?”
“Anyone that foolishly allowed you to believe that size doesn’t matter is a dirty liar,” Lexy proclaimed. She chuckled as she opened the fridge.
The fridge was full of meat. Crazy full of raw meat and nothing else. The lights flickered ominously once again as they stood there staring into the open fridge.
The crimson-haired Dragon of Ankh said, “Shit.”
Oh, that’s just lovely…The hitman is concerned. Kayn gawked at the creepy display of red meat.
Zach blurted out, “Who needs this much red meat?”
Grey shoved past him and peered into the fridge. He repeated Lexy’s one word statement, “Shit.” He placed his hand against the fridge door and closed it.
On that note both Kayn and Melody decided to go upstairs and check the bodies…
Grey and Lexy looked towards the now super ominous pastel blue rough-looking wooden door that led to the basement. Somebody had carved that same symbol on the door.
“What does that symbol mean?” Zach asked as he ran his fingers along the grooves in the wood tracing the symbol.
Lexy smacked his hand away and scolded, “I don’t have a frigging clue. All I know is it’s not a clan symbol. That’s an Abaddon symbol. Never…Ever… Trace a symbol with your finger. Something epically bad will happen.”
Zach probed, “So... Neither one of you know what that symbol means?”
Grey slowly nodded his head as he answered, “I know it’s an Abaddon symbol and that someone in this house was preparing to feed something that requires a crazy amount of raw meat. That’s all I need to know to want to get the hell out of here.”
Lexy grinned as she added, “There’s one of those symbols inside the closet with the bodies and another one by the kitchen window.” She strolled across the kitchen and pulled the frilly white curtains aside to reveal the symbol. “I’m starting to think our clan’s Oracle’s reading was not entirely accurate. We may have walked into a trap.”
Grey grimaced as he began his rant, “Are you kidding? Isn’t it obvious that we walked into a trap? Look in the fridge! We are the damn fresh meat delivery service!” The livid immortal opened the door to the basement again. The two immortals stood there staring into the darkness together.
With glorious comic timing Lexy sparred, “Well, they’ve ordered from the wrong place now, haven’t they? They aren’t going to like us very much. There should be a light switch or something at the top of the stairs. It could be one of those in the kitchen on the other side of the door.” She walked over and flicked them, nothing happened.
Zach added his two cents, “Maybe the light bulbs are just burnt out?”
The light flickered and came on. It gave a touch of brightness to the stairway for all of one second before it flickered and went out.
“Of course,” Grey sighed. He stretched up to mess with the light bulb itself. It was tightly in there; nobody had loosened it. They heard the pitter patter of tiny steps run across the room in the darkness. Grey quickly jumped off the staircase and slammed the door.
Lexy commanded, “Don’t go down there until I get back. I’m going to go and check on the girls.”
Grey chuckled, “No problem, I’m completely willing to put off having to attempt to catch whatever that is until I have a clue what we are dealing with.”
Rabid Little Angels
Kayn and Melody raced up the stairs, down the hall and directly into the parents’ bedroom. After seeing that thing on the stairs earlier, neither of them planned to waste a second climbing them. Mel opened the closet door to reveal the brave mother’s corpse huddled in the corner of the closet. Kayn’s mind whispered, you left the group...That was stupid. Kayn was visibly shaken this time by the imagery. It was as though without the putrid scent the visual itself became ten times more disturbing. There was no need for bravado in this moment. Melody had the ability of an Empath, as well as a Healer and Kayn knew she wasn’t going to be able to hide her feelings from her. They were alone and there was no one else to block the flow of emotion. Kayn’s eyes filled with tears against her will.
Her friend was not a newbie as she was in certain ways and she protectively asserted, “I’ll do it.” Mel reached over and gently attempted to shift the mother's body but it was rigid as stone.
This was rigor mortise. That’s what it was…She’d heard about it but never seen it. She wanted to bend over and help Melody but her body just wouldn’t budge. It felt wrong to move this body. It felt as though they were defiling a sacred resting place. The mother’s right to protect her young. In death, she was still protecting her offspring’s remains. Melody tried to move her again with a little more force and the corpse would not budge an inch.
Mel whispered, “You’re going to have to help me do this. I’m sorry Kayn. I was hoping to involve you as little as possible.”
Kayn knelt before the mother. Her heart ached. The last moments of her life must have been horrible. The desperation she must have felt as she covered her offspring with her own body. Kayn shuddered as tears began to flow without restraint. Shut it down. She had to shut her emotions down. Kayn followed Melody’s lead. She’d never intentionally touched a dead body before. She slowly moved her finger towards the mother’s neck expecting to feel her skin. Her fingers touched a neck wound from the blade. It was mushy and cold. She yanked her hand away and then decided to try to shift her by moving her arms. It was also her first experience at touching a body with rigor mortis. There was a strange, unnatural stiffness and resistance to movement. They had to forcibly move the mother's body. The lifeless body of the five-year-old was curled up in the fetal position. Her tiny torso had been brutalized by the blade. Kayn moved the matted hair out of her open eyes that seemed to stare through her, past her and into oblivion. Tears streamed down her face as Mel gently touched her shoulder.
With her heart breaking Kayn whispered, “Can you imagine the kind of evil it would take to kill a child this tiny… This defenseless.”
Mel replied, “I was forced to be a party to ending a young life. I was in Trinity at the time and I couldn’t do it. Someone else was forced to do it for me. I understood then that sometimes, terrible things must happen for the right reasons. It’s all in your perception of right and wrong.”
How could something like this ever be anything but wrong? Kayn shuddered with emotion as she thought of the little girl’s smiling face in the picture on the stairs. How? It was then that they noticed something bundled in the mother’s arms. She’d died clinging to a blanket. Mel managed to pry it from death's grasp. There was something in it. Kayn was plagued by an ominous feeling. Oh, no…It wasn’t…A stiff newborn lay wrapped in the blanket. They gasped in unison. The infant’s eyes were glassy and wide open and in the center of the newborn’s forehead was a distinct smear of blood.
Lexy’s voice c
ame from behind her, “Is there a crescent shaped birthmark behind the infant’s left ear?”
Mel looked and whispered, “There is a birthmark. What does it mean?”
Lexy answered, “The baby was a demonic vessel. It means that the father going crazy and killing them all may have had a just purpose. He may have been possessed from either side, meant to help or to stop the birth of this child. I need to go grab something. I’ll be right back.” Lexy disappeared from the bedroom.
Kayn felt sick to her stomach, “I have a crescent shaped birthmark behind my ear.”
Melody looked and replied, “I don’t think you have to worry. Your birthmark is on the other side.”
Kayn gave a sigh of relief. Chloe had a birth mark on the opposite side and she was a part of her now. What did that mean?
Melody observed the tiny deceased being, “There doesn’t seem to be any physical signs of violence. Maybe it was stillborn. It’s possible the mother smothered it accidentally while trying to keep it quiet.”
Kayn took the infant’s tiny rigid hand. She touched its tiny stiff fingers, “Please stop calling the baby… It.”
Lexy appeared in the bedroom doorway. She walked towards the closet and got down on her knees beside them and declared, “Grey and Zach are blocking the stairs so whatever is in the basement doesn’t get out. We’ll deal with whatever is down there after we’ve dealt with what is going on up here.”
She had the knife from the kitchen sink in her hands. That is what she needed to go and get.
The lights flickered again in protest as Lexy cut the palm of her own hand with the blade and began to mark each of the deceased foreheads with her blood. After taking a moment to double check behind the infant’s left ear Lexy said, “I hate it when our Oracle misses something this crucial. It can happen when dealing with dark things. The symbols around the house blocked what was actually going on inside of it.”
Lexy shut the mother’s vacant eyes with her hand. She whispered in Greek. “Ἑγώ ἱερός ἄμβροτος αἳμα νόστος.” The lights began to flicker again in the hallway.
Kayn leaned towards Melody and whispered, “Those words Lexy said. What do they mean?”
Melody answered, “She said something along the lines of, my sacred immortal blood return home”
Lexy moved closer to the child. She closed the little girl’s eyes and whispered the exotic sounding words once again. The color returned to the little girl’s cheeks. She became limp instead of stiff and in the blink of an eye her vessel was empty.
Kayn was blown away by what she was seeing. It was a whole new duty that she had never seen them fulfill. She had been a party to forcefully making sure the living passed on but she’d never been a party to making sure a spirit had. She’d been expecting one of them to put up a fight and go all Amityville horror on them. Yes, she’d seen horrible things. She’d been threatened by two spirits but they had gone willingly to the other side.
With creepy timing, Lexy remarked, “The toddler’s missing.”
The boys stood in front of the closed basement door. They could hear the pitter patter of little feet this was usually a cute sound but not today. Children’s laughter was usually a beautiful sound but not this time, not tonight coming from a dark basement. Grey stood up and frantically began searching the kitchen cupboards for salt. There was nothing. “I just know it’s going to be the toddler,” Grey complained as he slid down to the floor in front of the door, putting the full weight of his body against it.
Zach smirked as he declared, “Toddlers are small. Open the door. We can just go and get her.”
Grey chuckled and said, “You have obviously never fought an amped up evil child, have you? They have a low center of gravity and they’re a hard-core pain in the ass to catch. Then there’s that pesky guilt factor. They are so tiny and cute. Just because they are little that doesn’t mean they are not psychotic carnivorous depraved little fiends. Lexy needs to be the one to kill it. If a little kid kicks my ass again, I may never live it down.”
Zach slid down to sit beside Grey, a smile firmly planted on his face. He said, “Oh for heaven’s sake Grey, it’s a small child that can barely walk. Are you seriously that concerned that a baby is going to kick your ass?”
Grey turned to look at him, rolled his eyes and shook his head. He said, “This is going to be bloody humiliating. Somehow Triad always finds out about this kind of embarrassing shit. It’s a baby possessed by a demon. It’s not a cute cuddly kitten. It is surprisingly hard to fight back when your humanity and your instincts are screaming, don’t hurt the baby!”
On the other side of the door, they heard a little soft knock. A child’s voice sobbed, “I have to go pee. I don’t want to hide here anymore, it’s too dark mommy, I’m scared.”
They both shifted quickly away from the door. They leapt to their feet. Grey dove in front of the door as Zach tried to get past him. Grey wasn’t going to budge an inch.
Zach blurted out, “Open the door! What’s wrong with you? The mother obviously hid the toddler in the basement!”
“Oh, you can’t possibly be this frigging stupid. You were in Triad.” Grey groaned.
Zach hissed, “My instincts say this is just a scared child. Isn’t part of your duty to teach us life lessons through cause and effect? I’m willing to take the chance on this one.”
The toddler began to sob on the other side of the door, “Daddy, don’t hurt me. I just have to go pee.”
Zach spoke sweetly from the other side of the door, “Sweetie, are you okay? Is someone else down there with you?”
“My Daddy’s down here with me. He fell down the stairs. Can I go pee? Where’s my mommy?” There was a thumping sound like the child had fallen down the stairs.
Zach got in Grey’s face and hissed, “Open the bloody door right now! I will kick your ass and a baby will be the least of you worries!”
“All right kiddo. Go be the hero. You just let me know when you’ve had enough,” Grey stepped out of the way.
Zach unlocked the door and ran blindly down the stairs into the darkness. Grey stood at the top of the stairs and listened to Zach as he called out sweetly for the child.
A tiny sweet demonic voice answered Zach in the darkness, “I know how your skin comes off.”
Zach yelped, “Oh! Shit!” There were a few loud thumps, followed by high pitched psychotic laughter and shrieks of intense pain.
Zach started shrieking, “Burn it! Kill it!”
“What was that you were screaming?” Grey sang from the top of the stairs.
Zach screamed, “Enough! I’ve had enough!” There was a loud smashing sound, followed by the rattling of chains.
Grey stood at the top of the stairs smiling for a moment before saying, “Oh hell kid.” He began to make his way down the pitch-black staircase.
He was about halfway down the stairs when a child’s voice whispered, “I made something for you Mr. Grey.”
Something moist was placed in the palm of his hand. Crap…Grey lit up a small flame with his free hand and looked at what had been placed in the other one. It was a large slice of Zach’s skin. When a demonic toddler skins your friend alive and places his flesh in your hand, I don’t care who you are, it’s bloody difficult to keep your shit together. In his peripheral vision, Grey saw the father’s skinless corpse and the pathetic tiny flame he’d created puffed out. He only had time to say, “Oh crap...How do you know my name?” Before the rabid demonic toddler began mercilessly attacking him. After being clubbed by something large, he was launched into the cement basement wall. He couldn’t see anything. It was pitch black. He struggled to his feet and the tiny rabid demonic beast began gnawing at his shin.
It tore a large mouthful of flesh from his lower leg, cackled and spit it out, “Too salty your flesh is… Mr. Grey.”
Grey booted the child away with one of his feet, swung around in a circle while hearing scampering feet. He dropped to the cement as the toddler bound his legs.
He tried to ready himself for the agony of being consumed but lost it as he usually did while experiencing the torture of his flesh being torn clear off in long people jerky strips. After strip ten he became groggy as glorious shock set in, the pain dulled and all he could hear was the heavy breathing of an excited predator. Light flashed at the top of the stairs. Grey faded in and out of the intense agony. His ears filled with the screams and gasps of his clan member’s torture. There was a high-pitched squeal and the room exploded with blinding light.
Lexy stayed upstairs to finish the job and sent Kayn and Melody down to tell them what they’d be up against. She gently closed the newborns eyes with her fingertips. As she chanted the words meant to draw the spirit back in, its tiny heart began to beat. The infant’s skin became pink and its open empty eyes returned to dark blue liquid pools of innocence and she turned to a puddle of mush. The problem with this part was a newly born infant came all the way back once the soul had returned to the body. There was no grace period in which to send them forward to the next life. There was no possible way to see human innocence in its purest form and not die a little inside at what must come next. Lexy checked behind the infant’s ear, needing to be certain she was doing the right thing. The brand of the damned was there. This was not a choice. She held the baby close as its tiny heart began to flutter. She stifled a sob. She wrapped it back into the blanket knowing something had possessed the father to make sure this child would never inhale its first breath. She contemplated placing it up in the attic and then remembered that starvation was a horrible way to die. Lexy knew she needed to cover its tiny mouth and nose but she couldn’t do it. The infant grasped her finger with its tiny hand and squeezed. It’s trusting eyes bore into her soul and she pulled her hand away. There are some dark acts even a Dragon can’t do. Lexy looked above her and whispered, “Please, don’t make me do this.” Her emotions wouldn’t turn off. They always turned off. She pleaded, “Please… I can’t.” She was given an answer as she was blinded by an incapacitating white light. The world went dark.
