by Justin Sloan
“Radio’s saying you were a wanted man overseas, even added to some terrorist groups for something that went down in Central Asia—Turkmenistan, I heard. But before all that, you were nothing but a cheap magician. All that true?”
Ouch. Rohan had indeed made a living with magic tricks before he lost Senna, but he’d never considered himself a ‘cheap magician.’ And now the world was talking about him like he was some criminal to be handed over to terrorists, it was just that the terrorists happened to be from Hell. Literally.
He considered fighting, but there were four of them. But their powers wouldn’t do them any good. Souls couldn’t overpower bullets.
“Where do we take ‘em, Alby?” the man with a shotgun asked.
“Down to the station,” Alby said. “Then we figure out how to make a trade to get them to leave. Now we know that if we call ‘em, the demons’ll come.”
“Is this really… part of God’s plan?” a stocky man next to Alby asked. He glanced around at everyone nervously. “I mean, I’ve seen what these demon things do to people, and handing a man over like this…?”
“It’s in God’s plan,” Alby said. When they all turned to him in confusion, he added, “You think this isn’t all how it’s meant to be? These things come down from the Heavens and demand this man, and what, we resist? I don’t think so.”
“Yeah, but—”
Alby backhanded the man who’d tried to talk back.
Rohan held out a hand. “Enough, I’ll go without a fight.”
“What?” Nora said, looking at him like he was insane. “We’ve fought worse than these fart-wipes. You can’t be serious.”
He gave her a look that said, trust me, and then nodded to Alby. The men took him and quickly tied his hands, and before he knew it he was being shoved into a car.
Chapter 12: Citizen's Arrest
Rohan and Nora rode in silence in the back of the pickup. It was a long drive to the police station, but when they arrived, several spirits hung in the air in the parking lot and followed the truck as it pulled in front of the severe, brown masonry building.
Alby jerked Rohan and Nora out of the truck and led them up the steps to the station at gunpoint.
The front desk clerk, an officer in a blue uniform, looked on with surprise.
“Put your weapons away,” he cried. “Now!”
The men set their weapons on the floor. Alby grabbed Rohan and another man grabbed Nora and pulled them close.
“What’s going on here?” the officer asked.
“Citizen’s arrest, ma’am,” Alby said.
“For what?”
“Manipulatin’ the dead.”
The officer cocked her head at them. Alby told him everything they saw, as the officer listened incredulously.
“We’ve got better things to do than this,” he said. “If you haven’t noticed, the entire city is under attack.”
“You gonna take him or not?” Alby asked.
“I’ll call the sergeant.”
“Tell the cap’n I got someone here named Rohan. Yeah, a man named Alby brought him in, said—”
With a flash of red in his eyes, the cop stumbled back as a spirit entered his body. He looked up, only it wasn’t him—a look of recognition crossed his face and he smiled.
“Ah, Rohan,” came Altemus’s voice. “At last we are together again.”
He pulled his pistol and aimed, but just then the windows shattered inward and two demons flew in, flowing like mists without form, followed by a mass of people breaking through the front doors and following through the shattered windows.
Altemus shot, but the bullet went wild and ricocheted to take down a large man. Cursing, Altemus turned to the demons and said, “Stop it, he’s mine!”
But the demons laughed amid the chaos as cops ran out to fight off the mob.
“Any control you had here is gone, little man,” one of the demons said as he began to form into his demonic being. Tendrils of mist formed long horns, and his demonic partner beside him grew tall, his skin smoking and red.
Meanwhile, the crowd reached Rohan and was trying to claw at him, but he and Nora had managed to push their way back and into one of the cells.
Nora ran back, snatched car keys off Altemus’s belt, and narrowly dodged one of the possessed bodies leaping for her.
Altemus screamed and struck the possessed body in the face, wrestling it to the ground.
Altemus and the demons were fighting, and the crowd had him distracted. But it was not enough to keep their attention for long.
One of the demons turned and spotted Rohan.
“Hurry!” Rohan said, and kicked at one of the mob who had managed to push the cell door back.
“RAGGH!” The demon disappeared, and then with a flash of fire that sent the mob back like an explosion, he was there with Rohan, flaming hands on his lapels so that Rohan felt the skin around his neck sizzling.
He had no idea how he was getting out of this one.
Or he didn’t have an idea, until he remembered Altemus’s stray shot. There was at least one dead body in here. He closed his eyes and focused on the spirit, pulling it and throwing it like a whip to slash across the demon’s arms, so that it dropped him.
Free, Rohan ran for the window as behind him the demon cursed and came after him.
Sure, fighting the demon head-on wouldn’t do, but if he could use the spirits to get out of here there’d be more room to escape, to run… and hide.
He pushed off with a burst of energy from the spirits and went flying forward and through the window. Nora helped him up as the demon roared out of the prison and sent bricks and cement flying into nearby cars.
“Still got the keys?” Rohan asked.
Nora smiled and ran for the cop car. She tossed him the keys and they both piled in as the demon sent a fire ball at them, but Nora was fast—she’d pulled out and was spinning down the street before Rohan had even found a seatbelt.
Chapter 13: On the Road
Rohan sped down country roads, no idea where to go except that they needed to leave Tess and Beverly far behind and out of harm’s way, and find James Fletcher.
However, finding a man in a world gone to Hell wasn’t exactly easy—phones weren’t working, Internet was out, and their only way of knowing what was happening in the world was the radio.
“This is so messed up,” Nora said, switching the channels on the cop car radio. For the last hour, all they’d heard was story after story of people freaking out, talking about cities reported to have fallen, and worse. But many of the stations were simply static.
“It doesn’t help that we’re almost out of gas,” Rohan said, tapping the dash. “You see a gas station that’s not up in flames, let me know.”
Nora sighed and leaned back, staring out the window and leaving Rohan to his thoughts.
Unfortunately, all he could think about was all the horrible stuff he’d seen in the last twenty-four hours, so he said, “Tell me a story.”
“What?” She didn’t even look over.
“A story,” he repeated. “I want to know about you, your childhood. Favorite movie?”
She turned to him with a frown, but when he glanced over and shrugged with what he hoped was an encouraging smile, then quickly looked back at the road to avoid a toppled tree, she said, “Okay.”
“Okay, you’ll tell me a story?”
“I’m not good at making stuff up, but my favorite movie as a child?” She thought about it, then said, “The Muppet Christmas Carol, for sure.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“Hell yes I am. Michael Caine, are you kidding me? I don’t know, it was really the essence of Dicken’s story, but conveyed in that silly, fun way. It struck a chord. And that song the lady sings, you know?”
“There were a lot of songs.” He tried racking his brain, but nothing specific stood out.
“Come on, you hear that song, your whole life’s meaning changes.” She looked at him, waiting, t
hen scoffed when he shrugged. “The love is gone,” she started singing, and her voice was sweet, though unpracticed. “The love is gone…. Nothing?”
He shook his head. “I really don’t remember that part of it. But, I don’t think I saw the movie until I was an adult, on Netflix.”
“Oh, damn. Yeah, you got ripped off. The Netflix version didn’t even have that song. Producers took it out or something, thinking it didn’t resonate with children. Stupidest decision in filmmaking ever, you ask me.”
“Stupider than making the Hobbit into three movies?”
She laughed. “Oh, God, don’t get me started.”
“So, somehow that Muppet movie made you are who you are today?” He meant it as a joke, but she nodded.
“It made me want to never miss an opportunity, to live life to its fullest, yeah.” She frowned, then added, “So I’m not sure it’s a good thing. I mean, that’s why I pursued the adventurous lifestyle that got me cursed, and in a way brought about all of this.”
“But you met me,” he said, somewhat jokingly.
“Yes, that’s true. Though, if you’re saying meeting you offsets all the loss of lives and chaos that has erupted in this world… that’s going to be a toughie.”
“Ooh, good point.”
She put a hand on his leg and smiled. “Still, all things aside, I’m glad I met you.”
He furrowed his brow. “Thanks, I think.”
She leaned over and rested her head on his shoulder, and was starting to fall asleep when she sat up with a jolt and said, “There! Try that one!”
He followed her gaze and saw a sign for a gas station off to the side of the highway, and then even saw it through the trees. It wasn’t blown up or on fire, so that was a good sign.
The exit came and they pulled off, glad to see no one attending the gas station. A few cars were crashed into light poles nearby, but otherwise the area looked fine. Rohan found himself a little giddy with excitement even when he pumped gas and it worked.
“I’ll be back,” Rohan said, and Nora nodded, taking over the pump. The restroom door was knocked clean off, and Rohan did his best to not think about what could have caused that.
He went to the bathroom, washed his hands and turned to exit just as Nora came running around the doorway.
“Damn,” she said, looking at the door on the ground. “I was hoping…”
“I think you’ll be safe, but just in case, I’ll stand guard.”
She gave him a skeptical look, to which he scoffed. “Promise, no peeking.”
“If I catch you misbehaving, you’ll be sorry,” she said with a smile that showed she was mostly joking, and she walked in to use the bathroom.
Not wanting to listen in, he walked a bit away. A glance up and down the nearby road showed there was certainly nothing to worry about, but after everything they’d been through, there was no way he was going to let his guard down.
The trees blew in a gentle breeze and he smiled to himself. This was like a little haven among the chaos that the world had devolved into. A run-down gas station made him smile, and he hated that fact.
He heard the toilet flush. After Nora washed her hands, they walked back to the car. She nodded and said, “Okay, I’ll admit it. You were the perfect gentleman.”
“Some old dude came by and tried to sneak a peek, but I chased him off.”
Her look of confusion and annoyance showed she wasn’t sure if he was serious, so he held up both hands and said, “Joking, joking!”
“Given the fact that we’re on our way to confront demons, I’d say it’s not the right time for jokes.”
Rohan poked into the gas station and found a map. He felt bad about stealing it, but he didn’t have much of a choice. Nora waited for him at the car and he returned, with the map tucked in his back pocket.
He got into the driver’s seat and turned on the car. “I think if we both stayed serious amidst all this, I’d lose my mind. Hell, for all I know I already did and this is all an illusion. Even you.” He gave her a suspicious look and then poked her in the arm.
“Ouch!” she said with a laugh.
“I had to be sure.” He smiled and pulled back onto the road, gas tank full. As he drove, trying to figure if they were for sure headed in the right direction, Nora turned back on the radio.
At first Rohan wasn’t paying any attention, but when she said, “Holy crap,” and turned up the volume, he perked up.
The feminine radio voice was excited as it said, “Am I reading this right, Troy?”
A man’s voice replied, “That’s what they’re saying. Reports of several individuals throughout the world rising up to fight back. Some of the ghosts or spirits, or demons, are on the run.”
“Where’d they come from?” the woman said. “Who are they?”
“Hell if I know!” the man said. “But listeners, stay hopeful! There is a resistance, of sorts. We can still survive this.”
“Wait, don’t sign off yet,” the woman said. “Here—thank you, Jim—it says, in this new report, that one’s some sort of known sorcerer, another a young girl named Allie Strom, a mere teenager with a fiery sword, and… That can’t be right.”
“What?”
“What?” Rohan found himself saying, getting totally wrapped up in this. There were others out there fighting, and that gave his fight a new meaning. Nora glanced over with a humored expression, but she just nodded. She wanted to know as much as he did.
“It says here,” the woman’s voice returned, “that there were reports of a woman with golden, glowing eyes last night. Not killing people, but saving them, protecting them from the demons that landed.”
“You’re telling me a teenage girl and some lady with glowing eyes are saving our butts like some modern-day superheroes?”
“That’s what I’m reading, Troy. I don’t know whether it’s really happening, but you know what? I damn sure hope it is.”
At this, Nora turned the knob to lower the volume, and stared at Rohan in disbelief. He had to pull over to process this, and then turned in his seat to look at her, taking her hands in his.
“It’s not only necromancers out there fighting to save us,” Nora said. “I… I’m floored.”
Rohan shook his head in disbelief. “I mean, I guess if we have this ability, who knows what else exists out there. But come on.”
“Could be someone playing a prank?”
“In this current predicament, I’d hope not.”
For another minute, they just sat there in silence, both thinking this over.
“Does it change our plans?” Nora asked. “I mean, we still have to find this James guy, and we wouldn’t know where to find these others.”
“True… You’re right.” He put the car back into drive, and then turned back onto the road. “Thing is, they’re out there, so this isn’t entirely on us, right?”
“But that doesn’t mean we can ignore it. Who knows how many might die out here if we don’t stop these demons as quick as possible?”
“I’m not saying we run away or something.” He looked out of the corner of his eye to see a car approaching in the distance, so pulled off onto the next side road, hoping they hadn’t been spotted. “But it feels damn good to know we’re not alone in this fight.”
“It does,” she agreed. With a glance back out to the main road, just as the car passed, she asked, “What’re you doing?”
“Just being cautious.”
She laughed. “We’re sitting here talking about how we can maybe trust others, and you’re purposefully avoiding the only people we’ve seen in miles!”
He smiled sheepishly. “Good point, but still…. I think a bit of caution isn’t a bad thing right now.”
“….Rohan, Rohan Evans. He escaped police custody…. That’s what the police reports are saying,” the voice on the radio said, and suddenly the two were focused back on the radio. “Add that name to a growing list of people to watch out for.”
“If we had to count the
number of murderers and worse today,” the other radio voice said, “we’d run out of numbers.”
Rohan turned the radio off, hands tight on the wheel. Even if this was all taken care of, his name was now out there. A stream of silver mist glided past, but if it was spirits, they didn’t seem to notice the car. Soon Rohan had pulled back onto the road, and doing his best to orient himself with the map.
Chapter 14: Finding Fletcher
They’d driven around, lost for a bit once they’d reached the Friendship Heights metro station, haven taken the roundabout way to avoid D.C. and the Beltway. But finally, after circling out from the metro area and taking a few turns at spots Nora was certain she’d passed the last time she’d come here, she pointed and tapped Rohan on the shoulder. They turned into a subdivision and followed a winding street.
“There, the big brown one!” she said, pointing to a house with brown shingles for siding. “That’s the address.”
“Cozy,” Rohan said with a laugh, feeling the giddiness of finally making progress in this depressing world. “I guess it’s open to interpretation.”
“So… what do we do?” she asked. “Just walk in and say, ‘Hey, we need your help defeating these demons,’ or… what?”
What to do once they actually found the place hadn’t actually occurred to Rohan. He was sitting there, debating how to answer the question, when he noticed a curtain move.
“He knows we’re here, at least.” Rohan motioned to the window, and Nora nodded. “So, might as well introduce ourselves. Just tell him the situation, and see if he’ll help.”
“And if he’s just full of B.S., like most authors?”
“Have some negative experiences with authors, have you?”
She blushed and looked away. “Just an ex…. A real tool who never left the pages of his books. Not even when I’d—well, you don’t need the details.”
He took her hand and squeezed. “You’ll always be the focus of my attention.”
