Shifting Problems

by Jason Paul Rice

  “The cops will be here any second. Give it up J.D.”

  “Bring more cops. You see what happened to them. Time to die, Mikey. For real this time.”

  The Jersey Devil started chanting in a language unbeknown to me. I realized this wasn’t good. I heard stomping from behind so I spun around and about twelve shifters were coming after me. They walked like zombies with extremely rigid movements, the exact opposite of the elusive shifter I had encountered in the emergency room.

  They seemed zoned in on the eclipse but the dirty dozen tried to attack me. I quickly sidestepped and knocked one unsteady shifter to the ground with ease.

  The Jersey Devil screamed, “What is going on? Surround him. Rip him to shreds and kill him.” He chanted again in the unknown language, but much faster this time.

  I pointed at his stomach. “Looks like your control sac popped.”

  The Jersey Devil looked down, but his massive chest wouldn’t allow him to even see his bulging gut. He gathered some of the cream in his hand and a look of shock, then horror came over his face when he took a peek. “I don’t need them. It would have made this much easier, but I’ll kill you myself.”

  I had been manipulating pockets of air while our conversation was going on. I condensed three different pockets. The first was to stun the Jersey Devil and the next two were designed to do serious bodily damage. I launched the triple threat at my enemy and the demon easily deflected every invisible attempt.

  He laughed, and his lips started moving again as I tried to think of my next move. Even doing that hurt. Something started tightening around my ankles. It felt like a rope, no chains, and it kept getting tighter. Tighter. Tighter. Uncomfortably tighter.

  The invisible bonds tugged me to the left and I fell. Suddenly, an intense energy picked me up in the air and started swinging me around in a tight circle.

  The chains released, and I flew through the air. As my body rotated, I saw the Jersey Devil trying to push the cream back inside his body. The shifters were still marching around like zombies while the cops were lying on the ground, hopefully alive. Police sirens got closer as I landed on my back, and the wind rushed out of my lungs again.

  It felt like a dull knife was on a stabbing spree inside my chest. Jagged, sharp pains lay in the wake of the invisible blade.

  I struggled to get to my feet and the Jersey Devil lifted his staff over his head again. A ripple, not a bolt, of lightning came down from the lonely cloud in the sky. The energy circulated around his staff in the form of a little blue spark. He pointed the tip of his staff at me just as I made it to my feet.

  I saw the stream of electricity at the last second, too late to defend myself. The pain came in waves and launched my body back about eight feet. I smelled burning flesh. My burning flesh. And it didn’t smell good.

  I opened and closed my jaw, feeling immense pressure in my head, and blew out a cloud of smoke. The stitches in my good/better shoulder split. My thoughts were scattered from the electrocution and probable concussion. I made it to my knees as the Jersey Devil approached. He cocked back and unleashed a powerful right hand that connected with my left cheek, sending rippling shocks of agony through my jaw as my neck snapped to the right from the impact. The world went dark as I fell face first into the grass.

  The smack from mother earth brought me back to consciousness, albeit a delirious state of mind. My high tolerance for pain was being pushed to the limit.

  “It’s going to feel good to get rid of you once and for all.” He kicked me in the side and I rolled onto my back. The Jersey Devil pounced on me, pressing his shin over my neck.

  I used all my strength to try to get this demon off me, but he weighed too much and I was too battered. Oxygen ran low and perhaps even worse than that, the warm, creamy shake that smelled like sour milk dripped onto my face. I struggled to get loose, but the Jersey Devil had too much power. I was finished.

  I wanted to look at the face that was going to kill me, even though it was one ugly mug, but the way he was positioned over me, it would have been impossible.

  Killed on my first case.

  Dead.

  It didn’t matter anyway. Even if I were to defeat the Jersey Devil, the cops and the Golden Chamber were still going to execute me. Hopefully, at least I helped one person. I accepted death as stars streaked in and out of the sides of my vision.

  As I thrashed around, trying to bust loose, I heard the police sirens getting louder and another high-pitched sound in the air. Suddenly, the Jersey Devil stood up. He looked down on me with narrow eyes, confused as to what was pulling him off me. That made two of us. Where was the source coming from? One person popped into my head. Alayna had come to her senses and arrived to help.

  I sucked in some sweet air, and although it hurt, I sprang to my feet, reenergized. A familiar voice said, “I been practicing with those books you lent me. I got him in a lock bubble, Mike. Can only last about a minute though.”

  In shock, awesome, beautiful shock, I turned to see Reg and Colossus projecting the lock bubble on the Jersey Devil. The demon bounced around the small, opaque yellow circle, trying to find a way out. Reg must have been practicing the magic in the books I had been lending him. Of course, Colossus had probably absorbed some of that dark magic from the Jersey Devil’s sex parties up on the hill.

  The combination of pure and dark magic had more power than the Jersey Devil could handle. The demon chanted inside the bubble, but his hold over the shifters seemed to have disappeared. I looked up at the blood moon. The total eclipse was nearing its end, so if I could just detain this beast right now, he would have no chance of locking the gates of hell.

  Although there were only shifters and incapacitated cops around, I still had to be careful of what magic I could use. I couldn’t just start hurling fireballs, even at a stationary target. I couldn’t take the chance of hitting an innocent bystander.

  Anger usually helped to form some powerful magic, but I was so proud of Reg and Colossus, I didn’t have the burning rage inside. I stared at the disgusting demon to get my blood boiling, but it didn’t help. I even thought about my father. That had always worked. The fight had been knocked out of me.

  I finally decided to go with a fireless fireball so the heat would dissipate if I missed the Jersey Devil and not injure anyone else. I took a deep breath. “Ignis, non ignis. Ignis, non ignis.”

  Reg called out, “Hurry up, Mike, it’s starting to fade now.”

  I sent my mind to the center of the earth and started to gather molten lava from the core. I pulled a plume of fire from the surface and stored and galvanized the extreme heat. The lock bubble popped, but I hadn’t built up enough energy to hurt the Jersey Devil.

  The demi-devil sent a wave of magic sprinkled with red dust toward Reg and my dog. The sparkling dust circled around like a tornado and picked up two of my best friends and hurled them ten feet in the air. The sounds of pain coming from my friends ignited the lava, heating it even further.

  I burned from the inside out, and could smell scorching skin again. My body felt like it was about to burst into flames, yet I kept pulling in more heat. I imagined smoke would soon come shooting out of my ears.

  I went to hit the Jersey Devil with the burning heat, but my body wouldn’t move. I wanted to hold my hands out and project my internal heat onto the Jersey Devil, but something was preventing me. I could move my head around, but that was all. The demi-devil must have been using mental magic on me. But how?

  I must have been vulnerable when I had been absorbing all that heat, leaving my mind open to be controlled. The heat remained inside me and I wondered if the Jersey Devil would use it against me. I was like a damn tinderbox and all he had to do was light the mental match.

  Instead, I felt a strange feeling on my neck. An invisible hand or a claw was scratching at the outside of the front of my neck. The powerful hand started to penetrate my skin, finger by finger, followed by a small thumb. It felt like the Jersey Devils hand wrapped around my
trachea.

  I couldn’t move as the hand squeezed, rendering my lungs useless. I tried to fight it but only wasted the effort as the grip tightened.

  I’m sorry Mom. I tried my best. Hope you are proud of me.

  I noticed a purple flash across the sky and a scream came from behind me. I peeked over my shoulder as my eyes bulged, the internal grip continued, and my life ebbed away. Reg had propped himself back up against his chair. He pulled something out of his Ghostbusters suit but I couldn’t figure out what it was. In an instant, he and my dog disappeared. He must have used the potion Alayna and I had made. How did he get up my steps? With Reg, where there’s a will, there’s a way.

  Reg and Colossus hit the Jersey Devil with a pocket of power. He spun around in circles, trying to locate the culprit.

  Reg, you genius. The grip over my mind slowly slipped away as the demi-devil’s attention was diverted. Reg hit him again and the demon yelped in pain. I gasped for air and kept building and building the fire until breathing became labored and my blood flow slowed down. I was full to the brim.

  Just before losing consciousness, I transferred the rolling lava from my chest to my shoulders. I held out my hands and felt the heat cascade through my upper arms, down to my forearms and into my palms before firing out of my fingers to create seven transparent balls of fire. I hurled all the invisible orbs at the demon.

  The first ball hit the Jersey Devil in the shoulder and stunned the demi-devil. He turned to me and got pelted by five more blasts of heat. The seventh ball flew past the powerful demon’s head as he was falling on his back and dissipated into the cool October air.

  A nasty aroma of burning, rancid meat filled the air, and the Jersey Devil rolled around as smoke rose from his body. The police sirens reached a fever pitch as I ran up to the felled demon. I needed trade bait for Stacy and Mabon. I wanted to detain him, but didn’t have anything. I looked for Reg and Colossus, but they were still in a state of invisibility.

  I ran up and dove on top of the Jersey Devil, unleashing wild punches into his steaming face and body. I wound up to throw a haymaker, when two people grabbed me from behind and pulled me off the demon.

  I screamed, “Nnnooo. You don’t understand.”

  The powerful beings threw me aside like a ragdoll and went after the Jersey Devil. I breathed a sigh of relief when I realized who the two huge men were. It was the same people who had dragged me back to the Deep Burrow to stand trial. They tied up the Jersey Devil’s wrists and ankles with a stretchy, space-aged material, scooped him up like a feather, and stole off into the night.

  A shifter in front of me reverted to human form, and as I whirled around, every shifter was following this trend. They must have been released from the mental grip that the Jersey Devil held over them. The people looked confused, stumbling around and staring at their own naked bodies.

  The two cleaners quickly sped up to a sprint, turned the corner behind the food stands and disappeared with the demi-devil. Reg and my dog reappeared. I ran over and scooped up Colossus.

  “Look at you, the magical dog.”

  I helped Reg get back into his chair and gave him a hug. “Thank you, Reg. You saved my life.”

  In typical fashion, Reg tried to downplay the situation. “You would’ve done the same for me.”

  “How did you get the magic mist?”

  He shrugged his shoulders. “You know me. I can’t walk up the steps, but that hasn’t ever stopped me before. I did a little shopping in your lab earlier today. Looks like it came in handy.”

  “I would save your life if the situation was reserved, by the way. And at least we are alive. That’s all that matters. No need to worry about stupid stuff like how your car got towed.” I assumed now was the best time to drop that in.

  Reg’s smile faded. “You got my car towed?”

  “I know, it’s great that we are still alive. We shouldn’t worry about that stuff right now. You been reading those books and practicing, huh?” I coughed, and it hurt my chest.

  “Who knew?” Reg shrugged his shoulders as his eyes widened. “Oh shit. Look out.” Reg yanked Colossus from my hands.

  The call came too late, and an officer drove his shoulder into the middle of my back. My head whiplashed, busting open the werelion cut on my cheek, and I went into the ground face first. I got a mouthful of grass and a busted lip. The officer placed his knee on the back of my head. Another cop came in and drove his knee into the small of my back.

  The second officer wrangled my wrists together and cuffed me, although I wasn’t resisting at all. The cops stood me up and I spit out a mouthful of salty blood, dirt, grass, and I’m pretty sure I tasted a cigarette butt.

  Reg yelled at the cops, “Hey. If it wasn’t for that guy, you all would be dead right now.”

  An officer screamed back, “What about all these slain officers out here?”

  I informed him, “That was the demon.”

  The cop laughed. “Demon? You hear that, Johnson, it was a demon.”

  A familiar voice came from behind me, “It was a demon. A very powerful demon, officers.” Gretchen had come through at the last moment.

  The fallen policemen started waking up from the spell, trying to figure out what happened.

  The officer holding my arm said, “He’s still going downtown so he can pay for those cops he killed.”

  Ambulances and EMT vehicles started to arrive, sirens blaring in the night and echoing through the city. The officers started to walk me back to their squad car. I was pretty much out on my feet from the pain and mental strain. An angelic voice captured my full attention.

  “Mike. I heard there was a big commotion down here and I knew it had to be you,” Satoku said.

  I smiled a true smile. Seeing her face killed the pain better than a six pack of Vicodin. I wanted to slip out of the cuffs and give her a big hug. “So about us hanging out at midnight tonight…”

  Satoku laughed, but Gretchen said, “What the hell are you talking about, Merlino? Only place you’re going is to a hospital, then a jail cell.”

  I must have been delirious to be in such a joking mood. “Oh, about that, there is something I need to discuss with you, G.M.”

  “I knew something was going to happen,” Gretchen muttered, and walked away.

  “Ready for your test?” Satoku asked.

  “We need to make it quick.” I gestured with my aching head toward the two arresting officers.

  She stood right in front of me and held my eyelids open with her soft, delicate fingers. Her pupils prodded me, causing a buzzing sensation in my head. The door to my soul started to slowly open, but I wasn’t opening it.

  I assumed Satoku was a Soulsearcher as she pried at the sacred door until it was wide open. She stared, unfazed by anything I had done in the past. I felt her dip into the valley of my desires. She could see all my intentions, noble and un-pure. I couldn’t hide anything from her.

  She was taking what she wanted to know about me. Had I been in sounder mind, I could have fought against it, but I wanted her to see almost everything except my death match with George. I hoped she hadn’t caught a glimpse of that ugly fight and the resulting event with Emily.

  The thirty seconds ended and I waited for her to render a verdict. “These guys aren’t going to believe me, but you didn’t do it. And here I thought you were a bald-faced liar.”

  I exhaled and couldn’t feel the pain. Even if I were going to be put to death, that meant a lot to me. I wanted to hug her, kiss her, just touch her one time. It seemed so silly to have such strong feelings for a girl I had essentially just met a week ago, but I couldn’t help it. They were overwhelming. “Wait, did you just say bald-faced liar?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  I smirked. “It’s bold-faced liar. Like the lie is bold, not just a normal lie.”

  “Umm, pretty sure it’s bald-faced because when you don’t have hair on your face it’s harder to lie. You don’t have any beard to cover it up. It’s even more
egregious and out in the open.”

  I chuckled as the cops yanked me away. I wrenched my neck trying to maintain eye contact with Satoku as the two officers pushed me toward their vehicle.

  Gretchen approached, and said, “You need to take him to that ambulance over there. He’s going to need some work on that shoulder.”

  They shoved me into the back and I stared at Satoku as the ambulance sirens rang and the vehicle pulled away. I lost sight of her and looked up at the dying eclipse. At least I had stopped the gates of hell from being locked and redirecting demonic souls back to earth. My eyelids became very heavy and I fell asleep on the ride to the hospital.

  24

  A week and a half later, I sat next to Satoku and Reg with my dog on my lap at the 7 a.m. Cancer Support meeting in Oakland. My injuries hadn’t healed completely, but I was lucky to be alive. I smiled and listened to the woman who had just stood up.

  Stacy said, “Most of you know me by now and, I’m sure, you’ve all heard the story of my abduction. I can’t remember anything from the entire experience so I’m not really sure what happened.” She smiled. “I was re-examined by a group of doctors a few days ago and they have upped my chance of survival to ninety percent.”

  The group clapped and Stacy started to cry. The meeting went on as I thought about the recent events.

  Obviously, I’m at the meeting because the cops figured out that I had been set up. All charges were dropped except for the damage at the Emergency Room that was going to come out of my pocket. I’d received a lot less money for solving the case than I had hoped for so even though Alayna had forgiven me, I still owed her a lot of money.

  Without going into too much detail, The Jersey Devil ran the sex clubs to collect and hold sperm that allowed him to exert his will over the donors. Coupled with their hair, the demon had total control over the shifters. Once his fur coat burned and his stomach popped, he lost his grip over the minions and his dream to lock the gates of hell. I had wanted to kill the Jersey Devil at the Point, but I am glad I didn’t. The Celtic Gods traded the demi-devil for Mabon and Stacy.