by Devin Hanson
I couldn’t fight them all. Ryan was already backing away, still firing into the onrushing horde, heading down the access road we had come in on. If one of the dead closed with Ryan, my brother would be torn to pieces. I had to draw them away.
“Go for the truck!” I shouted at Ryan. “Backup is on its way!” And then I turned and ran.
I didn’t have a plan. I was here to keep the thralls from destroying the bodies and to somehow confront the ghoul. Being chased through the refinery by a horde of corpses wouldn’t have been my first choice of tactics, but it was buying the time I needed.
The laughter and catcalls of the thralls faded behind me as I ran deeper into the refinery. The pounding rain lowered visibility and there was hardly any light. I switched both tonfa to one hand in an awkward grip and got my phone out, spending precious seconds of my lead to turn the flashlight on so I could see.
“Alexandra!” The cry came from behind me, synchronous from a dozen throats at once. “I promised you death. Running only delays the inevitable!”
My skin crawled and I put on another burst of speed. Ahead of me, I saw a tangle of pipes wreathed in a cloak of steam. There was no way I was going to get through those. I swung right, found myself at a dead end with no way out but up a flight of stairs to an overhead catwalk.
A glance behind me showed the dead people were starting to spread out as those with more severe leg injuries lagged behind. There were a handful chasing me still, and they looked more animated than they had earlier. The ghoul was focusing its attention on the bodies most likely to catch me.
I ran up the stairway, my feet banging loudly on the steel stair treads. The catwalk was narrow and suspended above a bewildering array of pipes. On both sides, towering storage tanks soared overhead, three or four stories tall. The only way I could go was forward. I ran down the catwalk, and a moment later heard the clatter of footsteps racing up the stairway.
Did ghouls get tired? My high school biology classes had been four years ago, and most of what I had learned had faded away, leaving only a few tidbits of actually useful data. Mitochondria might be the powerhouse of the cell, but how did that work when the body was already twenty-four hours dead? Not that it mattered. Dead people shouldn’t be able to move at all, and yet here we were.
My breath was starting to come hard. Superhuman strength or not, my lungs were not accustomed to panicked sprints through oil refineries. The ghoul was gaining on me. Every second, the pounding footsteps on the catwalk behind me were growing closer.
There was no way I could outrun the ghoul. I would have to fight. Preferably on my own terms, and not waiting until after the lead body tackled me to the ground.
At intervals, the catwalk had an intersection where a stairway spiraled up the side of one of the storage tanks, and another stairway that led downward. There wasn’t time to peer ahead in the darkness to see where those downward stairways led, but I couldn’t fight on the catwalk. At the next intersection, I bounded down the stairway, phone held high to illuminate what was ahead of me.
A narrow access path opened up at the bottom of the stairway, lined with heavy steel pipes and still too tight to fight in. Up ahead was the yellow glow of streetlights, beckoning me onward. I tucked my head in and ran, trying to ignore the sound of the ghoul’s bodies banging into pipes behind me.
I made it out to the road with my breath burning in my throat. I pocketed my phone and turned, tonfa held at the ready. The rain had lessened a bit, but it was still coming down strong. My boots gritted in gravel. There was a railroad track on the far side of the road, and beyond that the ground dropped away. Over the sound of the rain, I heard rushing water. A canal? That’s right, we had crossed a bridge on the way over here. It wasn’t the LA River, that was further east. This was some other waterway, now flooded from the torrential rain.
The first of the ghoul bodies came out of the path, walking casually and not visibly breathing. That so wasn’t fair. A second, third and fourth followed, and they spread out, closing me in and blocking my retreat down the road.
“What’s your problem anyway?” I called. I was still panting, but my legs didn’t feel tired. I offered a brief thanks to Jason and his lust. Without him, I would have been caught by the ghoul long ago. “Why have you got such a beef with me?”
The ghoul sneered, expression mirrored across all four faces. “Consider it professional pride. You got in the way, Alexandra. It’s been three thousand years since I let a human do that and walk away.”
“What, you’ve been counting? Seems a bit petty.” I took a few steps back out of the tightening circle and railroad gravel crunched underfoot. “I’ve been meaning to ask. Why are you running around LA burning notebooks, anyway? Seems like a menial task.”
“You truly do know nothing.” The ghoul chuckled. One of the bodies had a sucking chest wound, and the laughter made a whistling sound through its perforated lung. “It doesn’t matter. The last organized resistance in this city is all but destroyed. Once I give my masters the word, they will make their move and this land will fall.”
The ghoul had backed me up to the top of the train track. Behind me, steep banks dropped down to a canal frothing with floodwater. The water level was so high the waves were only a few feet lower than the road. There was no way I could swim across that. Maybe if it wasn’t flooding, and I had flippers and a pool noodle or two.
“I don’t suppose I could talk you out of this? Call it a misunderstanding?”
There was hunger in the ghoul’s fractured voice. “Not in this world.”
“Yeah. Well, at least tell me your name so I know who is killing me.”
“You will die with Basemath on your lips!”
The ghoul attacked as the last word left its lips. The two bodies flanking me lunged forward together while the other two hung back. I was ready. I juked to one side, closing the distance to the body to the north and caught its hammering, overhead blow on the tonfa bar. The impact felt like getting hit by a car. I shrugged it off and drove my own blow into the side of the body’s knee.
Ghouls might be able to push the body of their host to the limits of physical strength, but they were still flesh and bone and these were twenty-four hours past their expiration date. The body’s knee sagged sideways as ligaments tore, then I was rolling past.
The ghoul gave a furious roar and before I could find my feet again, something slammed into my side, lifting me off the ground with the force of it and flinging me through the air. I hit the railroad track on the way down and felt ribs crack. Heat pulsed down my side as I rolled to my feet.
I had no opportunity to catch my breath. The ghoul was already on me, swinging devastating, double-fisted blows down on my head and shoulders. I had trained for this. It was an assault that judo had been designed to counter. I caught the sleeve of the ghoul and twisted my hips, turned the ghoul’s momentum against him, and threw it as hard as I could.
The body went tumbling through the air, twisting about like a cat, hands hooked into claws. Then it plunged into the flooding canal and all animation left the body in an instant. It didn’t try to swim or crawl out. It just splashed down, then bobbed up to the surface, limp, nothing but a corpse once more.
I stared at it, and the other three bodies paused, seemingly just as shocked as I was. That was it. That was it! I had had the clues all along, but it had taken me until just now to piece them together. What had Beard said? There were too many rivers and streams that they would have to cross. And Ilyena had flat out told me that being immersed in water negated the power of djinn.
That was how you killed a ghoul. You got it surrounded by water, then you destroyed the body it was in. My mother had told me what would happen next. Surrounded by water, the ghoul couldn’t switch to another body, and without a body to reside in, the ghoul would quickly lose its sense of identity and motivation. It would fade away to nothingness.
The ghoul was split between bodies, though. I would have to kill all of them, and the last o
ne had to be surrounded by water. No wonder they were so damn hard to kill.
I looked at the closest ghoul and met the fogged eyes. It must have read the new understanding in my gaze. A wave of fresh fury rolled over the ghoul’s face.
“Your life is forfeit now, Alexandra! Your death is assured!”
I spun my tonfa and settled into a guard stance. “Well, what are you waiting for? Come and finish me off!”
Taunting the ghoul had probably been a mistake. Two of the bodies collapsed. The remaining one stretched and its neck popped audibly. “Enough playing. Prepare to meet your death.”
The ghoul sprinted at me, railroad gravel flying from under its feet. Gone was the fumbling awkwardness, the stiff movement and arthritic swinging blows. This was the ghoul as I had fought it in my home: fast enough to dodge bullets, stronger than an Olympic athlete. Yesterday I would have been horribly out-classed. Today, even with the lust giving me a superhuman edge, it was all I could do to turn aside the initial charge.
The rattle of blows against my tonfa came lightning fast, but without the crushing force I had expected. The ghoul was beginning to learn its limbs could not hold up to repeated blocks. As fast as I was, the ghoul was simply better at fighting. It had thousands of years of experience on me, and my three months of training was starting to feel pathetically inadequate.
I didn’t even see the strike that finally made it past my defenses. One moment I was turning away a sweeping overhead blow, the next I was rolling through gravel, the wind completely driven from my lungs.
My tonfa were gone somewhere out of reach. I rolled away from the railroad track, wheezing after breath. The ghoul crashed down on top of me, driving its knee into my stomach. Pain exploded through me, sickening in its intensity.
Before I could twist away, the ghoul put his foot on my arm, pinning me into place. Its dead eyes leered down at me, its face twisted in hate. “Are you ready to die, Alexandra?”
“Actually,” I coughed, “why don’t you go fuck yourself?”
“Defiant to the end.” The ghoul grinned at me. Blood was caked between its teeth. “I can see why he liked you.”
“Eh? Who?”
Abruptly the ghoul’s head exploded out over the gravel, spattering me with blood and chips of bone. A fraction of a second later, the flat crack of a gunshot rang out. I shoved the limp corpse off of me, gagging on the fetid stench of old blood.
Ores stepped out of the shadow of the narrow access path, panting and out of breath, his rifle held tight to his shoulder. “Alex!” he cried. “Are you all right?”
I rubbed at the burning sensation in my ribs and managed to gather a smile from somewhere. “Ores, I can’t begin to tell you how happy I am to see you.”
He jogged over and hauled me to my feet. He was panting after breath. “I followed you all the way here. I had no idea you could run so fast.”
“You did just fine, Ores.” I bent over with my hands on my knees, trying to gather my breath back. “Seriously. Thank you. Oh, did you see Ryan?”
Ores shook his head. “I’m sure he’ll be fine. That one is resilient.”
I sighed and rubbed at my bruised ribs. The low burn of my healing crawled up my side, making me wince. “I hope you’re right.”
The rain was starting to pick up again as Ores walked over to the corpses the ghoul had dropped and put a round through the head of each one in turn. I turned away, sickened by the gore but knowing the necessity. At the very least, we had some bodies to show the police when they finally arrived. A little forensic work should link these bodies to the missing massacre at the dock. Sam and Lara would be vindicated.
Not that it would do me any good. The ghoul had escaped before I had had a chance to attempt the containment spell on it.
“There, that should do the trick,” Ores said.
I turned and fixed a smile on my face. “Great. Now we can…” I trailed off and raised a hand to squint into the rain. “Incoming.”
A hunched figure was making its way up the road toward us. Ores trained his rifle on the figure, but as it drew closer, I put a hand on Ores’ arm.
“It’s okay. I recognize him.”
Ores half-lowered his gun, but didn’t put it away as Paul Becker came to a halt ten feet away. He had his arms wrapped about his chest and he was shivering a little. His sweatshirt and pants were soaked through.
“A-Alexandra,” he said. There was a manic smile on his face. “I thought I’d find you out here.”
“Who’s this?” Ores asked suspiciously. “A friend?”
I frowned. “Not exactly.”
“I’ve given everything for you,” Paul said. “My family. My career. My life.” He took a step toward me and Ores snapped his rifle back up.
“That’s far enough.”
Paul ignored him and kept limping closer. “I’ve given everything, Alexandra. Surely that means something.”
“I never asked for that,” I shook my head. “I can’t be held responsible for your mistakes.”
“Steven—your mother. She told me what you are and what happened to me.”
I scowled down at the ground, avoiding Ores’ eyes. Paul kept walking toward me. “I don’t know what you want from me,” I said. “I’m sorry, but you made your own choices.”
“What’s he talking about, Alex?” Ores asked.
“My free will was taken from me,” Paul said grimly. “Does that mean nothing to you?”
I might not know how to deal with a man who had thrown his life away lusting after me, but I did know how to argue theology. “That’s not how free will works,” I protested. “It can’t be taken away. That’s the whole point. No matter the duress, no matter the pressure put on you, the decisions you make are yours alone.”
“Yes. That’s quite true.” He paused, standing next to Ores.
I looked up in surprise and met Paul’s eyes. They were bloodshot, and his face was waxy. “What?”
From the pocket of his sweatshirt, Paul drew a thick-bladed survival knife and slammed it into Ores’ side. I staggered backward, surprised, as Ores roared in surprised pain. Paul shoved Ores over and slapped the rifle from the hinn’s hands. The manic grin was still locked in place on Paul’s face, in stark contrast to the strangled shriek coming from his lips.
I pushed my hand into the satchel at my side and felt the rough ridges of the skull beneath my fingers. I had seen eyes like that before. “Basemath!” I screamed.
Paul’s eyes jerked to my face. His sweater had been pulled to one side as he struggled with Ores and I saw the raw edges of the stab wound high on his chest. He was dead, killed only a few minutes ago.
“Basemath, I command you! You are bound!”
A shudder went through the ghoul and it bared its teeth at me. The bloodshot eyes strained wide. I could feel the ghoul fighting me. I had one shot at this. I couldn’t fail.
I gripped the skull harder. “You are bound!” I shouted again. I fixed in my mind what I wanted. The ghoul pulled into the skull and imprisoned within. “Basemath, you are trapped!”
The skull felt warm beneath my cold fingers. A pressure was building within my head, a pounding, roaring migraine. I gritted my teeth and ignored the pain. Beyond my own future, Ores’ life depended on me. If I failed here, the ghoul would not stop until everyone I knew was dead. Ores’ family, the hinn village, my brother, everyone who might have heard the secret of how to kill a ghoul. Everyone would be hunted down and killed.
The ghoul threw back his head and shrieked. Then, abruptly, Paul Becker’s body fell back against the gravel.
My head felt suddenly empty, like I had stood up too fast, but the stabbing pain of the migraine remained. I fumbled the skull from the satchel. The carved patterns and symbols in the bone glowed a somber red. Lightning flashed directly overhead and deafening thunder crashed.
With abrupt decision I ran up the side of the railroad track and down the far side. Gingerly I waded out into the rushing canal, fighting the buffeting cur
rent to keep my footing. How far did I have to go? The bank was four feet away. Was that far enough?
I worked my way further out. The water was at my waist now. The current was almost strong enough to sweep me off my feet. I needed to go deeper. My feet were slipping on the rounded rocks lining the sides of the canal. I was ten feet from the bank now, the water almost to my armpits. Any further and I would be dragged away by the current.
A rogue wave splashed water into my mouth and I sputtered. This would have to do. Once again, I fixed in my mind what I wanted. It was more difficult this time. Every fiber of my being wanted to just leave the ghoul inside the skull. But that was dangerous. The skull could be broken, or someone could order the ghoul released again. If that happened, I would never see the ghoul coming. It would hunt me down and blindside me when I was least prepared.
I gritted my teeth and fought to keep my balance. “Basemath, I command you to be free!”
There was a rush of air and I felt the sour presence of the ghoul all about me: rage so strong it almost made me choke. In seconds, the fury started to fade, replaced with panic, then terror. Then the emotion softened, grew disoriented and abject.
“Alex!”
I turned my head and saw Ores lying on the railroad track, looking down at me. “I’m fine, Ores! I just need a minute to be sure!”
I brought my attention back to the ghoul and could hardly feel anything. My own thundering headache was drowning out whatever lingering psychic traces remained. The ghoul was gone. I winced and slowly made my way out of the water and climbed up to Ores. I sat down on the railroad track next to him.
“Sorry. I couldn’t wait. Is it bad?”
Ores lifted his hand from his side and blood welled. He frowned and pressed his hand back. “I’ve had worse, I think. I’ll need stitches and I’ll have a scar to impress May. Bastard didn’t penetrate the muscle, though. It’s just a flesh wound.”
I sputtered a disbelieving laugh. “Somehow I doubt she’ll be impressed.” I fished my phone out of my soaked pocket and sighed when it refused to turn on. “Damn it. I don’t suppose you have a phone?”
