by Michael Todd
Yeah. Katie chuckled.
The team hunched as they made their way through the field toward the house.
As they approached the barn they slowed, and as they were about to pass it Korbin raised his fist and pointed at the back of the building.
In the shadows stood a young boy no older than eleven or twelve. He looked scared, and his eyes were big as saucers. Katie nodded and took the lead, knowing that a female presence wouldn’t be quite as scary as two grown men approaching.
He’s hiding, but he’s not possessed, Pandora told her. Go easy. I can smell his fear from here.
Got it, Katie replied, turning to Korbin. “Wait here just a second. We don’t want to rush the poor kid. He’s scared, not possessed.”
Korbin and Damian nodded and Katie put her knives into their sheaths and slowly walked forward.
The boy stepped sideways and pressed his shoulder against the barn, clasping his hands in front of him. Katie paused for a moment, then started toward him again. When she reached him she knelt so they were eye to eye.
She looked into his eyes just to double-check and smiled sweetly at him.
“Hi there. My name is Katie. What’s yours?”
“Thomas,” he said carefully.
“Well, Thomas, it’s nice to meet you,” she replied. “Are you hiding out here?”
“Yes,” he whimpered.
“It’s all right,” she assured him. “I’m here to help, and those two men behind me—they’re here to help too. One of them is a priest. Do you go to church?”
“Yes,” he responded. “And Sunday school.”
“Good for you.” She smiled. “Can you tell me what is happening inside?”
“They’re sick,” he told her quietly. “I was supposed to get help, but then I got scared and you landed in that big helicopter.”
“Yeah, it helped us to get to you as fast as we possibly could,” she replied. “It’s actually a lot of fun to ride in, you go really fast. So who is inside?”
“My mom and dad,” he stated. “And my sister and brother. They’re older than me.”
“Okay, and are they all sick?”
“No, just my sister and brother. They got sick out of nowhere. My mom and dad aren’t sick though, or at least they weren’t when they sent me out here.”
Katie could only assume that by “sick” he meant they were possessed, and she immediately feared for the safety of the parents. She had no idea how dangerous these demons were, or if they had already done the damage she most feared. This young boy was out here all alone. He reminded her of all the children who had been lost to demons in the past. No matter what happened to his family, she had to make sure he got out of there safely.
“Can you tell me what happened?” Katie asked.
He nodded. “We were just playin’ a game, me and my sister and brother. Then out of nowhere Isadora started screaming at the top of her lungs. It was so loud! I had to cover my ears with my hands. I turned and there was Benjamin clucking like a chicken, only both of their eyes were tomato-red. My mom and dad grabbed me and told me to get out of the house.”
“So that’s why you are out here now?”
“Yeah.” He shook his head. “My mom and dad have been fighting Isadora and Benjamin, trying to keep them in the house. They told me to get help, so I grabbed my momma’s cell phone and called the police.”
Thomas handed Katie the cell phone and she looked down at the ended call. Although the boy tried to dial 911, in his panic he had accidentally dialed 666 instead.
Katie shook her head in confusion and looked down at the number again. How the hell did dialing 666 get him an immediate phone connection to the demon-busters?
She knew nerves had caused him to misdial, but good lord, it couldn’t have worked out better.
“Okay.” Katie handed the phone back to him. “I bet you know a whole lot of places to hide in this barn.”
“Yeah.”
“I want you to find the best one—the sneakiest one—and stay hidden no matter what,” Katie told him. “I want you to stay hidden until I come to get you. When you hear my voice, you will know that it’s safe to come out. Can you do that for me?”
“Yep,” he agreed, nodding.
“Good! Go ahead, and remember—no matter what you hear, if it’s not me calling for you, stay hidden.”
Thomas nodded and ran into the barn, shutting the big squeaking doors behind him. Katie walked back to the guys and explained exactly what he had said to her. Damian looked at the house and sighed, pulling out his cross.
Slowly they crept to the house and peeked in the windows off the porch. There were four people in the living room and Katie could see the red eyes even from there. The mother and father weren’t possessed, but their daughter and son were.
They were trying to keep them inside.
Damian nodded and the three entered slowly. Katie stared at the kids, whose demons snarled in anger. She looked at the parents and sighed, shaking her head.
“My name is Katie. We found Thomas and sent him to a safe place, and we are here to help you.”
The parents nodded. “Thank you.”
Damian slowly walked toward the boy, Benjamin, who growled as thick black goo dripped out of his mouth and down his chin. Damian recited excerpts from his exorcism ritual as he approached, holding his cross up. He took one swipe at Damian, then backed away, screaming and hissing at the cross.
“A ludum, ludum speculum aliquis stultus. Vocaverunt eos et daemonis nesciunt. Modicum et iam non ego scio quod non reliquit, ut domum palatum parum onto eam moratum atque meam.”
This one is weak, but not the other, Pandora warned.
Damian grabbed the boy by the shoulder and repeated his words, holding the cross in front of his face. Finally the boy quieted and his eyes rolled into the back of his head.
Damian pushed the demon down farther and farther until he was able to damn the demon back to hell.
The boy fell into Damian’s arms and he laid him on the couch, watching the girl the whole time. Isadora jumped onto a table by the wall, where she squatted and watched in excitement as her demon rolled around inside of her.
Damian fought to push the demon out of the girl. It was stubborn and strong, and the more forceful Damian was the angrier the demon got.
Nothing seemed to work, and Damian even went as far as placing the cross on the girl’s forearm. Smoke rose from it, but the girl didn’t budge. She just glared at him angrily.
This was not going to be as simple as saying lines from the bible and casting it out.
Let me have a go at her, Pandora growled. The bitch is mine.
All right, Katie replied. But I want you to keep her alive. No killing.
Katie walked over to Korbin, knowing it was time for her to step in.
“I need you to get everyone but Damian, me, and the girl out of this house,” Katie told him. “This is a stronger demon, and I don’t want bystanders hurt.”
“I can do that,” Korbin replied.
He lifted the boy off the couch and cradled him in his arms as he turned to the parents.
“Come with me. I’m going to get you to safety.”
The mom looked between her son and Damian. “What about our daughter?”
“She will be fine. She is in good hands,” Korbin answered, heading toward the door.
He led them out to the yard, closing the door behind him.
Katie cracked her neck back and forth as she prepared herself for Pandora to take over. She needed to help this girl before it was too late. A demon of that size could have easily taken over her mind, body, and soul and left nothing but a body for them to dispose of, but the girl was fighting. That was a good sign.
Hold on tight, Pandora warned. This won’t be pretty.
Katie groaned softly. She hated it when Pandora took over her vocal cords.
Pandora moved Katie’s body toward the girl and put her hand up to Damian. Damian nodded and stepped aside.
Katie opened her mouth, but Pandora took over.
She spoke with authority, her voice deeper than normal. It echoed through every corner of the place and immediately the demon became restless. Katie could sense its fear.
“Rae, esaeu yorraeq edoes sabbia,” Pandora began. “Gae esaeu trael s'ae I oz? I oz ya ziedabbi aem ya knaoq T'Chezz oth I lizz xa zaena yor soddes qae zota zuna esaeu zummabbi ir torture maen or eternity.”
What language is that? Katie asked.
Mine, Pandora replied. It’s demon.
Pandora growled louder. “I oz lizing zes patience, beast.”
Without warning, the girl started to scream again. She held her ears and fell to her knees. The sound was almost deafening, and it didn’t resemble any scream Katie had heard before. The demon pulled itself from the girl’s chest and dissipated into thin air. Its face bore an expression of complete horror, as though panicked by the words Pandora had spoken.
The demon went back to hell, too frightened to even try to explain through his human.
He was absolutely terrified of Pandora, which seemed to be a common trend from demon to demon.
You’ve never spoken this way to any demon before, Katie mused. I didn’t know you’d learned a new language.
Trust me, it isn’t new, Pandora said. It’s been around longer than humans. I just tend to not use it unless it is really serious.
What did you say to it? Katie asked.
Oh, you know, the whole spiel about it killing the girl and me threatening its life, and that’s about it.
Katie stepped forward, catching the girl as she passed out and fell off the table.
Katie considered that not only had Pandora spoken demon, she had done it in a way that was beyond commanding. It was almost frightening how she had pushed that demon around, and Katie wondered how long she had known she could do something like that.
It definitely would have been nice to have had that ability earlier in the game.
Damian rushed over and took the girl over to the couch, where he brushed her hair back from her face and searched her eyes. He locked eyes with Katie and nodded, but his face was fearful.
If Katie had never heard anything like that come from Pandora, neither had Damian and it shook him up. Katie couldn’t remember Damian ever looking at her like that before. He had always been curious, but not afraid.
At least since the house…
Chapter 10
Colonel Jehovivich stood quietly in the lobby of Gibbons Games, the company that produced Mirror, Mirror. She was waiting for the CEO, and had given him five minutes.
She stared around the waiting room at the pictures of happy little girls and boys playing the game. She shook her head, thinking about what could come out of those things and what exactly it did to those happy little faces.
“Colonel,” a deep voice in front of her said.
There was a tall chubby man walking toward her with his hand out. His hair was combed to the side, and his lips were dry and pasty. She held back her disgust and shook his hand, trying to stall a bit to see if she could get him to cooperate.
“They tell me you have some questions about our newest game.” He smiled. “Come on back to my office. The vice-president is here as well to help answer your inquiries.”
“Thank you,” Jehovivich replied.
She followed him to his office, where another tall man—this one thin and younger, presumedly the VP—waited. The CEO sat down behind his desk and motioned to the chair, but the colonel shook her head politely.
“What can we help you with?”
“I want to find out the history behind your Mirror Mirror game,” she said, cutting right to the chase.
“Well, we bought the rights from some academic fellow,” he replied. “He told us he made it up, but that it was based on historical documents he had found during an excavation that dated back to the 1600s.”
“Have you played the game?”
“Of course.” He smiled. “Several of us have, and we have had rave reviews on it. It’s fun to play with friends. Old and young alike love it, and there are special made-up incantations in the instruction manual. Our VP actually was very hands-on with this one.”
Jehovivich continued, “And what is the premise of this game?”
“It is said you can contact the dead, and use the spells to have them do things,” he replied. “You have to speak an old language to bespell the opponents back to the dungeon.”
“I’m going to make this short and sweet,” the colonel said. “We need you to immediately stop production and sales of this product and recall whatever you can from the companies you have sold it to.”
“Uh, that’s an interesting request.” He chuckled. “May I ask why?”
“That information is classified,” she said with a straight face.
“Classified…right. A classified shutdown of a children’s game. Well, I will need a court order before I’ll pull anything.”
The colonel’s phone rang; it was the general. “Excuse me, it’s the boss.”
She picked up the phone and walked to the back of the room. She talked quietly, yet still loud enough for the CEO and VP to hear what she was saying. She wanted them to understand she was not there to play games.
“Yes, sir, the game was created based on a swath of papers and documents from hundreds of years ago,” she repeated.
“And what did they say about pulling the game?” Brushwood asked.
“They are stating that they will require a court order to stop production or distribution,” she replied. “They are not taking me seriously in the least.”
“We can’t let this continue,” Brushwood growled. “They must consent to stop the game immediately or I am afraid we are going to have a rash of new demons spawning, only this time they will be an army of children.”
“Understood sir, though I can’t really come out and tell them that,” she replied.
“You can be rather persuasive when you want to be. I trust that you will come up with the perfect solution for this issue. They don’t want to lose money, and they don’t understand that they could lose their lives too.”
“No, they don’t seem to get the seriousness of it, sir,” she replied.
“Do whatever you need to, and if I have to get involved, let me know, I will fly right out there and let them know who is controlling things,” Brushwood told her.
“Can I just pull my weapon under the operational guidelines of our mission?”
As Jehovivich said that she looked at the CEO. His eyes were nervous and he licked his dry lips and glanced at the VP. The vice-president put his hand up, shook his head, and tried to calm the president down.
He didn’t think there was any way that she could do that, but then again, the world was a little bit different than it used to be.
The colonel hid a smirk and glanced at the VP as he took off his glasses and rubbed the crease in his nose. As he looked up a red ring flashed in the light and Jehovivich quickly dropped her phone, pulled her pistol, and pointed it at the VP.
The president gasped. Other office personnel had stopped in the doorway when they noticed her weapon. She steadied her hand and circled toward the door, keeping her gun pointed at the vice-president’s head.
She should have known that someone close to the president or even the president himself was in on this kind of conspiracy.
The words weren’t fake at all, and the vice-president knew it. He had inserted incantations into a children’s game to create the perfect scenario for demons to infect them.
The vice-president leaned against the wall with a smirk and arrogantly crossed his ankles. He wasn’t about to let this go, even if it meant a full-on fight.
Jehovivich could tell he was cocky, but she couldn’t tell if that trait belonged to the human or his demon.
Probably a bit of both.
Either way, she now knew that not only was there a demon behind the creation, the game was a real and sincere threat—one that
needed to be taken care of before things got any worse. First, though, she needed to take care of the demon in front of her.
“This is absolutely insane,” the CEO cried, standing up in a huff. “You can’t just walk into our office and demand things. And then you pull a gun? What kind of mission are you on?”
“Shut up,” Jehovivich commanded. “And sit the fuck down.”
A deep demon laugh blew through the room, surprising the CEO and the gaggle of onlookers. The voice no longer belonged to the VP; it was that of his demon. The CEO plopped down in his chair and gaped at the man in disbelief. The colonel continued to aim her gun at his head.
“You stupid bitch,” the demon growled. “I am going to eat you alive. First, though, I am going to hang you upside down, strip you, and run my bladed fingernails down your body. I will make sure you stay alive long enough to feel every inch of pain. Only when I think you have had enough will I stop.”
“Uh, you do realize that I am holding a gun and you are holding a fountain pen?” the colonel asked.
“That pathetic piece of metal?” The demon laughed. “It is barely strong enough to penetrate my first layer. You think that you can scare me with that.” He jerked a thumb at the door. “Get the fuck out of here. You and your general can forget about the bigger game. It isn’t going anywhere, and the game is key to our world’s revival. I can tell you right now, though—if that is what you are bringing to the party I have already accomplished my goal, sweet cheeks.”
The colonel smirked and pulled the trigger, shooting him right between the eyes. The demon dropped to the floor, screaming in pain as his hands covered his forehead.
She smiled down at her gun—which held the special bullets—and walked toward him. He grumbled, groaned, and cursed.
His face was a bit worse for wear and blood pulsed out of the wound with his heartbeat.
“You tricky fucking human,” he spat, his eyes red and his voice guttural. “You will pay for this, bitch! I will kill you and string your intestines out like a clothesline for all your little friends to lick while I stab them in the ass with a pipe.”
