Devil's Nightmare: Premonitions (Devil's Nightmare, Book 2)

by Robert Pruneda

  “Cody!” Maria yelled. “What are you doing? Get back inside!”

  Before Maria could reach Cody, six of the vultures had surrounded him, their wings outspread, trapping him in a feathered wall of hissing raptors.

  Maria grabbed a broom and rushed towards them. “Shoo! Get away from him!”

  As soon as she got within a few yards of them, the rest of the vultures took flight towards her.

  “Mom!” Samantha screamed.

  Maria tripped backwards over a solar garden light and disappeared under a blanket of grunting and hissing black vultures.

  †

  “Would you please hand me my bag?” Agent Kramer asked Aaron, while she unrolled the aged scroll. “Yes! This is precisely what I was looking for.”

  Aaron reiterated his concern while he handed the duffel bag to Agent Kramer.

  “Don’t worry,” she said. “This will change everything. Have a little faith, Lieutenant. I promise, you will never have to deal with that chimera again.” She twitched the scroll in her hand. “The spell written here has the power to send that beast back to hell where it belongs. We just need to make sure we perform the ritual properly, and—”

  Aaron furrowed his brow. “And what exactly is that ritual?”

  Agent Hirsch set his hand on Aaron’s shoulder. “Don’t worry. We’re not sacrificing pigs or anything.”

  “We will, however, need to shed a small amount of your blood,” Agent Kramer explained. “But you must offer it yourself.”

  “Oh, great. No pigs, but I’m fair game? Son of a…” Aaron rubbed his forehead and heaved a nervous breath.

  She pulled a small dagger from the duffel bag and held it out to him. “Take this. When the time is right—”

  “Trust me, lady, there is no right time for this.”

  She smiled. “Of course not. But if we’re going to stop this curse, we need to follow the ritual precisely. Do you understand?”

  “No, I don’t, but…” Aaron breathed out another sigh. She glared at him. “Yeah, okay, I get it. So what do I do?”

  “When we tell you, cut the palm of your hand just enough to offer blood into the middle of the pentagram.” She used the blade to point at the chiseled markings on the floor.

  Aaron stared at the sharp edge of the steel and shifted his eyes to Agent Hirsch. “Why does there always have to be blood involved in this ritual shit?”

  “The blood is necessary to—”

  “It was a rhetorical question. I don’t need a history lesson.” He took the dagger from Agent Kramer. “All right, let’s get this over with before I change my mind.”

  †

  Maria covered her face with her arms, screaming while the vultures landed all around her and created an umbrella of wings. None of them attacked. Her heart pounded. The blood in her temples pulsated. Her eyes filled with terror. She didn’t dare move in fear that the birds would attack.

  “Cody?” she asked, her voice trembling. “Are you okay?”

  He didn’t respond.

  “Mom, what should I do?” Samantha asked.

  “Stay inside, Sam! Can you see Cody?”

  “Yeah. He’s just standing there with all those birds around him.”

  Maria tried to get up, but the vultures hissed and tightened their makeshift umbrella. There was a soft thump, as if something had fallen. “What was that?”

  “Cody fainted!” yelled Samantha over an increasing amount of wind. “Those birds are covering him now.”

  A loud crackling explosion startled Maria as a bolt of lightning struck the ground in the nearby field. She heard footsteps on the porch.

  “Mom! I’m coming to get you.”

  “No, Sam! Get back inside and shut the door.”

  Maria and Cody both remained underneath domes of vulture wings while the skies opened up with a light rain. Some of the birds grunted, but most of them remained silent. It was the silence of the birds that made the hairs on the back of Maria’s neck rise, but she had an odd sense of relief and safety from the large raptors that also kept her dry. Her relief soon returned to fear and desperation when Samantha screamed.

  †

  Agent Kramer read from the scroll in a language Aaron could not understand. It sounded like Latin, but he wasn’t certain. He and Agent Hirsch sat on the stone floor next to the pentagram. Black votive candles were arranged around the perimeter.

  “Do you understand what she’s saying?” Aaron asked.

  “Quiet,” he ordered. “Get ready to cut your hand.”

  “Accipite Aaron Sanders hoc sanguis pro redemptione,” Agent Kramer said in an authoritative voice.

  “Now. Cut the palm of your hand.”

  Aaron ran the blade across his palm and grimaced from the pain. Agent Hirsch placed the locks of Cody’s hair in Aaron’s bleeding hand and instructed him to close it and squeeze the blood over the center of the pentagram. He did, and watched the blood ooze from his clenched hand. As soon as his blood made contact with the stone, flames shot up from the candles.

  “Et peccata nostra super eum Enlil vocamus. Ora pro nobis, vobis auctoribus ac veniam peto tollere damno.”

  Blood spread throughout every crevice. At the exact moment the blood filled the pentagram, a muffled explosion shook the chandelier. It then swayed above them.

  Agent Hirsch took the dagger and cut a piece of Cody’s shirt. “Open your hand.”

  “I don’t know about you,” Aaron said, while unfolding his hand, “but I’m getting one hell of a chill up my spine.”

  The agent glanced at Aaron before wrapping the rag around his bleeding hand, and then unwrapped it. After confirming that Cody’s hair had stuck to the bloody rag, he held it over one of the candles.

  “O princeps, ab aeterna damnatione nos chimaera, maledictum ab alio conmoniti recognoscimus, remoto.” Agent Kramer nodded to Agent Hirsch, who then lowered the shirt. When the shirt caught fire, a strong wind snuffed out every candle in the room, leaving only the flame from the shirt to light the area around the pentagram. Agent Hirsch dropped the burning rag onto the center of the pentagram and handed Aaron another piece of Cody’s shirt.

  “Now what?” Aaron asked, while wrapping his bleeding hand with the cloth.

  “Now we wait.”

  “For what?”

  Agent Kramer tossed the ancient scroll onto the flame, which exploded with a loud pop. It burned with a bright blue flame. Within seconds, the room darkened to pitch black. Whispers of what sounded like a thousand children filled the room. Something banged in rapid succession on the wooden door, the sound echoing off the walls and floors.

  Aaron reached into his pocket for his phone and pressed a button. For a split second, the glow from his phone revealed the face of a child inches in front of him. It had hollow sockets and charred skin. It shrieked and disappeared as quickly as he’d seen it. Aaron fell backwards, dropping the phone on the floor. The screen faced downward, giving a slight glow around the edges of the plastic casing for a few seconds before going dark.

  The pounding on the door stopped. Another muffled explosion shook the still-swaying chandelier. The wooden door creaked open and slammed shut.

  “You guys still here?” Aaron patted on the ground for his phone.

  “Quiet.” Agent Hirsch said in a hushed voice nearby.

  A deep and hollow laughter filled the room. Flames shot up from the candles on the chandelier and around the pentagram. The sudden burst of light revealed Agent Kramer lying face down on the floor.

  “No!” Agent Hirsch yelled. He rushed over to his partner and turned her over. He pressed the heels of his hands against his temples as he stared at Agent Kramer’s pale face, her gray eyes filled with blood. She had no other visible injuries.

  “I don’t understand. We did everything the way we were supposed to.”

  Aaron stepped up to Agent Hirsch and examined the body. He leaned closer and discovered a piece of cloth in Agent Kramer’s mouth, soaked in blood.

  †


  “Samantha!” Maria yelled from underneath the dome of vultures. She tried to break free from them, but two of the birds clamped down on her wrists with impressive strength. All the birds hissed at once, burning fear into her. “Let me go!”

  Adrenaline gave Maria enough strength to finally break free from her entrapment, creating a frenzy of flapping wings, grunting, and hissing. Then she saw it. The chimera. The massive beast stepped towards her daughter, its leathery wings folded backwards. It stopped short of reaching the porch before the lion head growled and showed its teeth. The dragon head quivered the corner of its mouth and flicked its forked tongue in and out like a snake. The ram head snorted and let out a loud bleat, while the beast’s cobra-headed tail hissed.

  Samantha stood on the porch, frozen in fear. Thunder and lightning shook the stiffness in her body, and instincts of survival stepped in. She yelled for her mother and stepped back towards the front door.

  “Hey!” Maria yelled.

  The chimera’s dragon head turned toward her and let out a high-pitched roar while the other two heads remained focused on the young girl on the porch.

  Maria grabbed a rock and threw it at the creature, missing it by a foot. She switched her focus on the vultures that continued to surround Cody like a shield. She glanced at her daughter and then at the chimera before grabbing her broom out of a puddle of water. Heavy sheets of rain poured down on them as she swung the broom at the birds, hitting one on the body. It screeched and flew away. “Get away from him!” she yelled, striking one bird after another. They finally took flight, but remained nearby.

  Cody was unconscious. The chimera turned and rushed towards them. It roared and knocked Maria several feet away with its ram head. Then it roared again and spread its leathery wings around Cody, as it had done at Saint Hedwig. The dragon head hissed while it showed its uncanny protective behavior towards the boy.

  “Samantha! Get inside!” Maria yelled, while she had the chimera’s attention.

  Her daughter retreated back inside the house and observed from the kitchen window, tears flowing.

  “Leave us alone!” Maria yelled at the chimera. “Damn you! Leave my family alone!”

  Dozens of vultures flew in from every direction and attacked the chimera like a swarm of bees. They pecked, clawed, grunted, and hissed. The chimera caught one of the vultures in midflight with its lion mouth, killing the bird instantly. It tossed it aside while the dragon head sucked in a breath of air. It shot a short burst of fire upwards, incinerating three more raptors. The charred birds tumbled to the wet ground, but several more took their place with increasing aggression. The chimera finally moved away from Cody, backing into the field. It roared and clawed at its winged assailants with its huge paws. It also defended itself with its venomous tail, landing deadly strikes into several birds.

  With the hell beast distracted by those birds of salvation, Maria lifted Cody and carried him to the porch. Samantha opened the door and helped bring him inside. The monster out in the field shrieked angry cries as it defended itself from the surprise attack.

  “Wake up, Cody!” Maria shook him.

  “Mom, look,” Samantha said, pointing out towards the field. “It’s leaving.”

  Maria stared out the window to see the chimera taking flight into the darkened skies.

  Cody grabbed her arm. “Aaron is in trouble.”

  †

  Agent Hirsch removed the cloth from his partner’s mouth and held her in his arms. He closed his eyes and tossed the cloth aside. They’d had a closer relationship than Aaron had realized. He breathed a sympathetic sigh. He could relate.

  Aaron picked up the cloth and examined it. It had a single word written on it in blood. “Redeemed,” he whispered.

  “We’ve got to fix this,” Agent Hirsch said.

  Aaron folded the cloth and slipped it in his pocket. “What the hell just happened?”

  He frowned and clenched his jaw. “We fucked up,” he said, as he stood. Aaron watched the man’s movements carefully and unbuttoned his holster. “We improvised. Cody should have been here. It should have been his blood… and now…” Agent Hirsch skimmed through the titles of several books on one of the bookshelves lining the wall. He pulled one and flipped through the pages. “By not following the ritual exactly, I think we did more than offer up an offering to that demon prince, the one that Cody accidentally summoned. But there may be something…” He ran his finger down the pages.

  “What? What are you saying?” Aaron took a peak at the book that Agent Hirsch was skimming. It was written in Latin. “What happened to Agent Kramer?”

  “This is what happens when you piss off a demon and don’t follow the guidelines written for each spell recited. You’re cursed, or if you’re lucky, you simply die.” He glanced at his partner and closed his eyes for a moment. “It was the spirits that took her life.”

  “Ghosts?”

  “Lesser demons, trapped in this…” He jerked his hand upward. “…sacred dwelling. They should be bound here, though. That’s what that pentacle on the door is for.” He flipped through several more pages of the book and then stopped. He ran a hand over his face and gazed at Aaron. “Son of a bitch.”

  “What?”

  “Oh, God. We are so fucked.” Agent Hirsch sat against the bookshelf and set the book on the ground beside him. Aaron glanced at the title. It was the 666 Rites of Demon Summoning. “Why? What did you find?”

  “You should leave. I’ll take care of it.”

  “No.” Aaron grabbed the man’s arm and pulled. “We’re both getting out of here.”

  Agent Hirsch pulled away and stared at his dead partner. “Just get out of here.” He handed Aaron the keys to the rented Terrain. “Go back to your family.”

  “Look, man, I know she meant a lot to you. I realize that more than ever now, but you don’t have to do this. We’ve got to get out of here.”

  “Just go!” Agent Hirsch yelled, a tear dropping from each eye.

  Aaron hesitated, and then headed towards the only door in the room. He pulled on the handle several times and hit the door with the flat of his fist. Locked. “Well, shit. That’s not good.” Aaron sat next to the agent. “So, what do we do now?”

  Agent Hirsch handed Aaron the book and pointed to the text.

  “I can’t read this,” Aaron said. He did recognize the markings on the pentacle drawn on the page. It was identical to the one on the floor. “Care to translate?”

  “A bunch of technical information, history, some ritual instructions… and a spell.”

  “Uh-huh. And?”

  “Simply put, it says we’re fucked.” Agent Hirsch rested his head against a row of dusty books.

  “Yeah, I think we’ve already established that little detail.” Aaron also rested his head against the books and stared at the flickering candles on the chandelier. “Just out of curiosity, how exactly are we fucked? Other than being trapped in this place.”

  Agent Hirsch grabbed the 666 Rites of Demon Summoning, carried it to the desk, and lowered his head. “It calls for a human sacrifice,” he said, while resting both hands on the desk.

  “Of course it does,” Aaron said, and ran a hand through his hair. “Because that’s just how this satanic crap works.”

  Agent Hirsch turned around and leaned back against the table. “There is another alternative.”

  “Great!” Aaron said, while pushing himself from the cold floor. “What is it?”

  “You’re aren’t going to like it.”

  “Yeah, well, I’d rather not rot in this godforsaken hellhole. So, tell me.”

  Agent Hirsch rubbed the back of his neck and hesitated before he spoke. “We would have to release another demon.”

  “Wait, what?” Aaron jerked his head to face the agent.

  “One of Enl—I mean, the Lord of the Storm’s choosing. That’s the only option to send the chimera back to hell. At least without a human sacrifice, specifically the originator of the initial curse.”
/>   “You mean Cody.”

  “Yes… unfortunately. Without sacrificing him, it’s the only other way this demon prince will grant forgiveness… according to what it says in the manuscript.”

  Aaron placed his hands on his hips and looked up in defeat. “So now we’re back to being fucked. Get rid of one fleabag from hell for another? That’s just great.”

  Agent Hirsch grabbed the demon summoning book and the dagger they had used in the initial ritual. He stood over the center of the pentagram within the pentacle on the floor and offered the dagger to Aaron.

  “What are you doing?”

  “We have to do this, Aaron. Sacrifice me. It’s the only way you’re going to get out of here alive.”

  Aaron gazed at the blade and shook his head. “Are you crazy? I’m not murdering you because of a damned curse. You said it yourself. Cody is the only human sacrifice this demon will accept.”

  “Take the dagger,” Agent Hirsch insisted.

  Aaron refused.

  Agent Hirsch turned away and sighed in frustration. He dropped the dagger half a foot outside of the pentacle. The sound of the steel blade hitting the stone floor echoed throughout the chamber. He peered at the open pages of the book. “I’m going to read this spell and offer myself as the demon’s host.”

  “What? That’s insane!”

  “Listen to me, damn it!”

  Aaron clenched his jaw as his heart rate rose and the blood in his veins rushed to his brain. His head pounded. “I can’t believe this shit,” he said, more to himself than to Agent Hirsch.

  “This pentacle is a demon trap,” Agent Hirsch explained. “It should hold me and whatever demon that enters my—”

  “Should?” Aaron widened his eyes and raised his eyebrows. “We’ve already screwed up once. Now is not the time to be guessing.”

  “This will work. There’s nothing that says we can’t send that demon right back to hell after summoning it. As evil and ruthless as these demons are, they are bound by their own laws.” He motioned towards the duffel bag. “You’ll need holy water and the recitation book inside that bag.”