Don't Read After Dark: Keep the lights on while reading these! (A McCray Horror Collection)

by McCray, Carolyn

  But the effect slowed until it plateaued, leaving the sides a good ten yards apart. This would not do. They needed to be touching for him to seal the realms.

  Worse, each side must have realized Rook’s plan as they redoubled their efforts to cross the barrier before he could complete the incantation.

  “Beauty, help me out here. Why isn’t the spell reaching completion?”

  * * *

  How was she supposed to know? But Beauty let poor Chad slip back into unconsciousness as she reached in her purse, grabbing her phone. Quickly, she scrolled down to the “Cs.”

  “Cajun gumbo,” she mumbled. “No, but that was a great recipe.”

  She scrolled down to where “Cataclysmic” should have been, but it wasn’t there. Crap. It must have been under Incantations. In the future, she would list everything in both places.

  Beauty dragged her finger quickly down to the “Is,” and read from her notes. “The spell must be invoked with abject fear.” She yelled against the Armageddon warm-up show. “You must be totally and mind-numbingly afraid.”

  Down at the nexus, Rook frowned. “I think I’m pretty freaking afraid.”

  As thunder echoed off the walls of the canyon and Chad’s symbols began sparking a menacing red, Beauty shouted back, “Well, obviously not enough!” Then she muttered, “He should’ve let me invoke the damn spell.”

  * * *

  “I should’ve let Beauty do the damn incantation,” Rook mumbled as he tried to dig deep for some abject fear. But when your day job involves beheading Medusas and duking it out with possessed wolverines, the clash between good and evil just didn’t really move him to terror.

  He had to try, though. It would be downright stupid if they all died and the earth became a barren wasteland because he just wasn’t scared enough. Rook tried to shake off his confidence. This spell really might not work.

  “I’m terrified!” he shouted to the wind, but the two forces came no closer together. Rook tried to be startled by the demons underfoot. “Horrified, I tell ya! Downright petrified!”

  The incantation was unimpressed, though.

  “Rook! Look out!” Beauty screamed.

  Rook turned as Sheli, on wing and looking ready for revenge, dove toward him. He felt his gut tighten and his jaw clench. So that was what real fear felt like. Clearly, it was, as the light whirling around him brightened and heaven and hell inched closer and closer together.

  “You really shouldn’t have scared me like that,” Rook commented.

  Sheli slammed into Rook, knocking him to the ground. She sprang up raising a knife, his knife, high above her head. Rook rolled just in time as it arced in the air and gained his feet. Sheli sliced and cut at Rook, who barely stayed an inch ahead of the blade. Her Goth clothes were a tattered mess and stained with blood, which wouldn’t have been so bad except for the glint of murder in her eye.

  “You will pay,” she promised.

  Rook felt the fire of the protection circle at his leg. “If I cross this line before the spell is completely cast, Armageddon will be unleashed.”

  “Do I look like I care?” Sheli growled, arcing the knife up once again.

  No, she certainly did not.

  * * *

  Angela clutched her midriff as she climbed the steep trail. The ground shook beneath her, though, making the ascent all the more difficult.

  Finally she stumbled forward, onto the small ledge where they had left Tomahawk and Fanny. But neither of them could be found. She glanced down to the nexus where Rook battled Sheli. It did not look like it was going well.

  At all.

  But Angela knew she could do nothing for Rook except deliver his message and get Fanny as far away as possible.

  Searching the ground she found a set of footprints going down a side path. Dear Gawd. More hiking? Pushing herself to her feet, Angela set out.

  “I’m never leaving home without Midol again…”

  * * *

  Tomahawk practically carried Fanny down the narrow game trail.

  “How much farther?” he asked, as the Seeker’s eyes drifted from right to left, and then snapped back to the right. “This is getting us dangerously close to the action, sweetie.”

  “Closer,” Fanny mumbled.

  Tomahawk slowed, though. “Rook left us up there for a reason, Fanny.”

  “Closer!” she shouted.

  Despite his better judgment, Tomahawk continued down toward the valley floor. Tomahawk could only imagine the turmoil within Fanny. He had learned long ago that when your Seeker told you to do something… you did it.

  * * *

  Rook’s arm shook as he held Sheli’s wrist, keeping the blade from slicing his head clean off. With the other hand he grabbed the banana from his pocket and whacked her across the temple with it.

  The angel knocked the banana away, and then squashed it under her bare foot.

  “Was that supposed to be a joke? Fighting with fruit?”

  “No, it was just a perfect unblemished banana,” Rook noted. “Do you know how hard those are to come by this time of year?”

  At the edge of his vision, Rook noticed the barriers to the two realms touch and repel, then touch again. He only needed a few more seconds.

  Sheli must have noticed the same thing. “Never!” she sneered.

  The angel launched at him, knocking him back several steps. That damn knife was up and down, then cutting across his arm. He had no business thinking he could fight an angel unarmed. But then Sheli missed widely with a blow, tripping on the follow-through.

  Luckily, Rook was never without some form of a weapon.

  Staggering, Sheli looked at him. “What have you done?”

  “What any great strategist does,” Rook explained, kicking the banana peel away with his boot. “I prepare for all contingencies.”

  “With a banana?” Sheli slurred.

  “Genius comes in all forms, babe,” Rook said, as Sheli nearly toppled over. “That banana was spiked with M-99, the most powerful sedative known to man. Powerful enough to knock an angel on her ass.” He sidestepped as she lurched forward. “Now back off, and we might survive.”

  But Sheli did the freaking exact opposite of backing off. With the last of her strength, she lunged at him. Her momentum carried them both over the protective circle. The energy currents caught Sheli’s wings and tore them from her back. As her screams pierced through the thunder, the currents tossed her high into the air, and then she was gone.

  Just gone. Vaporized.

  Rook tried to make for the hills, but the currents lashed into him as well, his body trapped in their vise.

  “Beauty, open Chad!”

  “But—”

  “Now!” Rook yelled as the energy tendrils dug into his flesh, insinuating themselves into his very being.

  * * *

  Angela ran up as Tomahawk dropped to one knee. Fanny’s body spasmed. Tears streamed from the girl’s eyes.

  “We have got to get her away!” Angela yelled over the chaos.

  “She won’t let me.”

  Fanny clutched Tomahawk’s sleeve. “They’re so close. There are so many!”

  Angela knelt next to the girl. “Fanny, you’ve got to pull back.”

  “I can’t,” she groaned. “They won’t let him go.”

  Tomahawk’s eyes found Angela’s. “Damn it! Where’s Rook?”

  The sky crackled with white, yellow, orange, and red, illuminating a lone figure buffeted by forces unseen.

  Tomahawk held Fanny closer to his chest. “Never mind.”

  * * *

  Beauty prodded Chad again, even slapping his face. But the guy just wouldn’t wake up.

  “Beauty, now would be a great time!”

  Rook’s clothes were nearly ripped off, and his body was nicked and cut in a hundred different places. He wasn’t going to make it much longer. This was it. Beauty needed to pull something out of her hat.

  Hat. Hair. Pins.

  She pulled one out
of her weave, and with her teeth pulled off the protective rubber tip. Using the sharp end, she stuck it into Chad’s nose.

  “Acupuncture to the rescue!”

  Sure enough, Chad startled awake, and the Hellgate seemed more than eager to spring into action, opening immediately. The fiery vortex shot out from Chad’s chest and hit the energy currents, pulling them into its maw.

  “Should I close it?” she yelled.

  * * *

  “Not until they both withdraw!” Rook shouted over the churning of the most powerful forces in the universe.

  Neither heaven nor hell was backing down. The host risked being sucked into the pit, and hell risked being caught in an unending current, yet both dug deeper into his flesh, wanting him to experience their pain. Rook fought against them, trying to untangle himself from their clutches.

  Then a fractured and distorted figure appeared before him. He barely recognized the form as Fanny. Her skin cracked along her facial planes, and her eyes were bloodshot. Her spirit flickered before him, barely tangible.

  “Stop fighting,” Fanny whispered, yet he heard her clearly above the snapping and snarling of the energy currents. “Let go,” she said, before she disappeared altogether.

  That made no sense. Not fight? When did he not fight?

  But struggling was not helping, either.

  Could he really trust Fanny?

  Rook closed his eyes and let his muscles go slack. He expected to get bucked amongst the ravaging winds. However, the air stilled around him, and the only sound was the Hellgate churning away.

  He had become the point of connection between the two forces. Without his resistance, the barriers began to seal themselves.

  Without warning, the two energy streams collapsed. Heaven and hell retreated to lick their wounds. Which was great, except now the Hellgate had a head of steam, dragging Rook into the vortex.

  Okay, this… this he could fight.

  * * *

  “Now!” Rook screamed at Beauty.

  She grabbed the bobby pin and yanked it from Chad’s nose. He crumpled like a doll, and the Hellgate sucked back into his chest.

  She leapt to her feet as Rook plummeted from the sky. Arms flailing, he was about to crash into the earth, when he suddenly flipped over and his freefall slowed to a gentle descent.

  The “light as a feather” spell. Nice.

  He would have floated there for an eternity, but he must have reversed the spell as he slammed into the ground. Rook rose, rumpled but not mortally wounded.

  “Get Chad to the rendezvous point!”

  Beauty got the student up and stumbling, but Rook did not follow. Instead, he looked toward the east. Was that Angela’s scream Beauty heard?

  * * *

  Rook climbed the slope using weeds and branches as his handholds.

  “Help!” Angela screamed again.

  Even though the battle for this plane was over, that did not mean that heaven and hell could not vent their frustrations upon this valley. Lightning struck all around them, lancing the earth with its searing heat.

  Finally, he made it to the crest of a hill to find Tomahawk knocked out under a fallen tree and Angela trying to rouse a limp Fanny. Rook rushed over, sinking to his knees by Fanny and checking her vital signs. There were none.

  Angela’s hands flew to her face, trying to contain her sobs. “I didn’t get here soon enough. She was caught between them.”

  “No,” Rook said, so stunned that he had a hard time breathing. His lungs suddenly went on strike. “She sacrificed herself for me.”

  A lightning bolt struck not inches from them. The charred grass burned his nostrils. He turned to Angela. “Get Tommi out of here.”

  “But—”

  Rook shoved Angela hard toward Tomahawk. “I am not going to lose anyone else. Now go!”

  The force of his words must have tapped into something deep within Angela, as she jumped to her feet and got Tomahawk moving up the trail.

  Rook turned back to Fanny, stroking her cheek with the back of his hand. “Fanny, baby, you can’t do this to me.” His voice cracked. “Not now.”

  Still nothing. He gave her a breath, but no pulse. He laced his fingers together performing CPR, but her heart did not beat. He couldn’t stop. How could he? It was Fanny.

  “You can’t die. You’re the only one who—”

  A lightning bolt struck so close that Rook smelled ozone, and the hairs on his arm stood straight up. Rook jumped to his feet.

  “You want me?” he screamed to the sky. “You want me? Come and get me!”

  Rook raised his arms to the sky, and the storm clouds were kind enough to oblige his request, striking him with lightning in the arm. As the electricity surged through his body, wracking it to the marrow, Rook fell to his knees and placed his other hand on Fanny’s chest. Her limp form arced, lifting Fanny from the ground.

  He held his hand there until the bolt threw him backward, and he landed hard into a shrub. Using his burnt hand, he fanned away the smoke from his singed hair. Crawling, he made his way to Fanny. But she lay still on the ground.

  Rook cradled her head in his lap. He fought the tears, possibly harder than he fought the vortex, but still they spilled over, splashing onto Fanny’s face.

  A gasp rocked her frame.

  “That’s it, Fanny. If anyone can find the way back, it’s you.”

  She gasped a few more times as her face flushed. Fanny’s eyelids fluttered as she smiled up sweetly at him. “New hairdo?” She coughed, then finished. “Looks good.”

  Rook pulled her into a hug as lightning danced all around them. The earth rumbled its discontent. He urged her up. “Sweetie, we kind of need to go.”

  “I’m sleepy,” Fanny said, yawning.

  “Hon, we’re in the middle of a lightning storm.”

  Fanny giggled. “You should have said so, silly!”

  Rook helped her up as the strikes intensified.

  They were alive, but for how long?

  * * *

  Each footfall jarred Tomahawk’s skull, creating bright bursts of light, obscuring his vision. Or was that just all the lightning? It took him a moment to realize that it was Angela supporting him as Beauty dragged Chad up the ravine. They made it to the rendezvous point, the top of the foothills, but no one else was there.

  “I thought we were supposed to have an escape vehicle?” he asked.

  Beauty tossed up a hand. “I did not arrange this, that is for sure.”

  Tomahawk squinted against the glare, both inside and outside of his head. Was that something approaching? Angela strained to see as well.

  “I think it’s a helicopter!” she announced.

  But it wasn’t flying like any helicopter Tomahawk was used to. As a matter of fact, it swooped in so erratically that it seemed more like a child’s remote-control toy—like one belonging to a very young child, on his or her very first day of practice.

  But no one complained as it made an awkward, triple-bounce landing. Everyone loaded it, glad to be out of the maelstrom of wind and debris. Tomahawk searched outside for Rook and Fanny. As the clouds above seemed near to bursting and the Earth bounced and rolled under the struts, how much longer could they wait?

  Then on the far side of the ridgeline, Rook and Fanny ran headlong toward them.

  “Go!” Rook shouted.

  “Move it!” Tomahawk screamed against the gale-force winds.

  But Rook shook his head. “Lift off!”

  That made no sense. Until Tomahawk realized that lightning wasn’t just striking around Rook and Fanny, it was hounding them, cracking at their feet like a white whip.

  “Get us in the air,” Tomahawk directed the pilot as he revved the rotors.

  “But—” Beauty stated until she took in the scene, then encouraged the pilot. “You heard the man.”

  CHAPTER 10

  Rook veered away from the chopper as it lifted off, a bit wobbly. He didn’t exactly have time to worry about the errant helicopt
er, as the lightning seemed eager to taste both of their flesh again. Instead, Rook headed to a huge oak tree towering over the landscape.

  Winded, but protected by the tree’s huge branches, they pulled to a stop. He indicated to Fanny. “Get up there.”

  Her eyes dilated. “Really? I mean, I really get to climb this?”

  “You know it.”

  The girl was scrambling up the branches in seconds flat. Good thing she majored in tree climbing. Rook, on the other hand, still had the wounds of electrocution, plus all the punishment Sheli had dealt out. And—oh yeah—that whole thing about being torn in two by the forces of good and evil.

  His bones creaked as he made his way up behind Fanny. She was already at the top, waving at the helicopter. It banked over, and Tomahawk helped Fanny into the chopper.

  Just a few more branches. Just a few more feet. Rook could feel the rotor wash and hear Tomahawk yelling for him to hurry.

  Puffing, Rook made it to the top and reached his arm out for Tomahawk when the lightning took out its frustrations on the tree. With a loud crack, the giant oak split down the middle. As the branches began their descent, Rook threw himself from the doomed tree.

  He totally missed the door, but his midriff hit a strut. His arms wrapped around the metal rail as the helicopter dipped from the sky, barely skimming the ground. Getting his feet under him, Rook let go of the rail and hopped into the chopper.

  “Head west!” Rook yelled at the pilot as he turned to Tomahawk. “Weapons!”

  Tomahawk tossed him an assault rifle. Rook caught it in midair and pointed out the door as those freaking winged demons caught up with them. Tomahawk joined him, firing into the horde.

  If it wasn’t vengeful lightning, it was always something else.

  * * *

  Beauty tried to keep Chad calm as Fanny put her fingers in her ears to block out the sound of automatic fire… that didn’t seem to be making much of a dent in the demons.

  “Can I shoot something?” Fanny asked, but Beauty shook her head.

  “No, honey. Leave it to the boys.”

  “But I’m really, really, really good at it!” Fanny insisted, wringing her hands.

  Before Beauty could remind Fanny that then she was inside a video game, the helicopter pitched to the left, making a steep and scary descent. Beauty searched up front to find the pilot slumped over.