Council of Peacocks (26 page)

“
Sorry.” Blood
rushed to Josh’s face as he blushed with embarrassment. “Stay
close. Jared, you still there?”

“
Yes.” The voice
was barely audible; the word said quickly, the final “s” clipped
almost to nothing. “Hurry. It just killed another
guard.”

“
Where are you
going?” Garnet pressed close to his ear again. “This isn’t what
Wisdom would have done.”

“
Wisdom isn’t here,
though, is he?” Josh turned the corner and headed further into the
heart of the building. He nearly stumbled when his fingers came
upon something hard, cold and cylindrical. A fire extinguisher. He
came to a sudden stop and lifted the extinguisher off the wall.
Behind him he heard a grunt and a soft thud. It sounded like Jared
had run into Garnet’s back.

“
What is it?”
Garnet asked.

“
A weapon. Not
much, but something. Jared, is it any closer to us
now?”

For a moment there
was no answer. Then the voice slid through the darkness, a sound
like the hissing of a snake. It took Josh several moments to
realize it was Jared’s voice. “Yes. Much closer. It is not taking
the stairs. I can feel it rising. It used to be below us
but…”

Josh tried to lick
his lips but there was no moisture in his mouth. “Jared, how do you
know it’s a demon?”

“
I read minds,
remember? I can’t do much else, but Ms. Ryerson says I have
potential. His mind is crazy. He’s thinking all this really gross
stuff. Way worse than anything Wisdom thinks
of.”

“
So that’s it? You
can’t really tell if it’s a demon, but it just sort of feels like
one?”

“
Is there a
difference?”

Another flurry of
gunshots reverberated through the hallway. Then there was a long
period of silence. Suddenly their footsteps were as loud as
drums.

“
Where are we
going? Don’t make me ask again.”

“
The kitchen. It
should be two floors down, right off the stairwell. We should be
getting pretty close to the stairs if my memory's
right.”

“
My, my, your
memory is pretty good. The door is about twenty feet up on the
left. How did you memorize the layout of this
floor?”

Josh laughed. “Like
I said, part of the wonder of growing up with a father like mine.
He taught me you never know when you have to run. First thing I do
wherever I go is figure out how to leave. How do you know where the
door is? I thought you couldn’t see in the
dark?”

“
I can’t,” she
said. She put her right hand against his side, just above his
waistline. He felt her nails against his abdomen, felt the light
pressure of her thumb against his back as she leaned forward into
him. “I have a good memory, too.”

He walked forwards
twenty feet, then started edging to the left. He kept his left arm
outstretched and wriggled his fingers like tentacles searching for
the wall on the other side of the hall. When they found the solid
cool surface, he released his breath.
‘
Didn’t
realize I was holding it in,’
he thought.

Garnet still had a
hand on his side. He swallowed again. His heart beat loudly in his
ears, making it hard to concentrate on the other sounds around him.
He heard another burst of gunshots and a strange little twist of
sound he thought was a scream.

‘
If I can hear
the screams, that means it's
closer
.’ His fingers
brushed a small bump of wood followed by a number of sharp corners
bending backwards. A doorframe. “Okay, this part will be anything
but fun. Just try not to fall.”

He opened the door
to the stairwell and a million scary movies flashed through his
head. Only stupid people took the stairs when a monster approached.
‘Let’s hope I’m wrong about that.’ He reached out through the
darkness searching for the handrail. His fingers touched nothing
but air.

Then…

“
I’ve got the
handrail,” he said. He heard Jared sigh. He also heard a snap like
someone cracking their knuckles. Step by step they went down the
stairs. With no carpet to dampen sounds, each footstep rumbled like
distant thunder. Josh looked all around him, desperate for some
sign of light, but found nothing. When they hit the first landing
Garnet gave a little yelp of surprise.

“
One more floor to
go,’
he said. Now both
sets of breathing behind him were short and fast. He found it hard
to breathe, himself. It was not until they reached the door on the
next landing that he realized how afraid he was that they would
never make it out of the stairwell.

“
We’re
here.”

He opened the door
to even more darkness. This floor reeked of sulfur and fresh blood.
He walked along the left-hand wall until he hit an edge. He traced
his fingertips around the curve of the doorframe until his knuckles
hit the sharp corner of the door. If someone had closed the door at
that moment his fingers would have been snapped off. The thought
made him jerk his hand back. He reached out with the palm of his
hand, felt the flat surface of the door and used it to guide him
forward. When his fingers hit empty air again, he bent his hand
around the outer edge of the door until he held it in his
grasp.

“
Hurry in here.
I’ll close the door.” Two sets of footsteps passed by him. The only
breathing he heard came from within the kitchen instead of the
hallway. He used his right hand to turn the doorknob all the way to
the right. Then he pressed the door closed and released the
doorknob. It closed without a sound.

“
Now
what?”

“
Find the
silverware. Knives, forks, spoons, anything.”

“
You think a knife
will stop this thing? The guards have guns.”

Josh sighed. “You
have trust issues, don’t you? Just find the silverware
first.”

The hand left his
side. Footsteps moved slowly away from him.

“
Is it safe to turn
on a light?” Jared’s voice was so soft it was barely
audible.

“
What do you mean,
turn on the lights? The power is still out.”

“
Not that kind of
light. Garnet, do your thing.”

“
Do I have to?” Her
voice was no longer throaty or soft. It came through the darkness
flat and icy. “Fine. Whatever.”

Josh turned away as
a flash of orange light appeared. After the long period in the
dark, it was painful. He put the fire extinguisher down and rubbed
his eyes with the balls of his palms until the pain subsided. He
blinked several times more before being able to look back at the
light. Flames danced around a square chopping block. Now it was
just fuel for the fire.

“
Couldn’t you have
done that before?” Halfway through the sentence, he remembered he
was supposed to be whispering and lowered his
voice.

“
And what would I
have set on fire, Josh? The carpet? Even now, it will be a miracle
if we don’t set off the fire alarms. Luckily, the counter’s metal
or we could end up setting the whole building on
fire.”

Now that there was
a little light, Josh could look around the room. It felt sterile.
Like the countertop, the cabinets, fridge and stoves were all
stainless steel. He left the fire extinguisher by the door and
rummaged through the drawers. It did not take him long to find what
he was looking for.

“
Got them.” He
grabbed handfuls of silverware. “Jared, help me out. Grab those
butter knives and follow me.”

“
What are you
doing?” Garnet ran her right hand under a stream of water in the
sink. She hissed in pain as steam rose up from her hand where it
contacted the water.

“
I’m reaching,
that’s what I’m doing.” He placed the forks and spoons in front of
the door. “This thing, demon or not, can probably see in the dark.
Otherwise he wouldn’t have cut the power. Since none of us can,
this should help us know where he is in the dark. If he walks
through that door, he’ll have to cross over the silverware to get
to us. The silverware will make noise and – voila! - homemade
radar. Even if he tries to sneak around it, we’ll still hear
something. That’s right, Jared, put them just like
that.”

Garnet looked over
at the block of fire, bared her teeth like she was hissing and
shook her head. “This is sooo not what Wisdom would have done. It’s
not going to be that easy for me to set him on fire, you
know?”

As Josh stood, his
back cracked loudly. “I wasn’t thinking of you burning him, Garnet.
I didn’t know you could do that. My plan is a little different. I
learned a few things from my dad about fighting dirty. I know a few
things about death.”

***

“
I’m serious,
Josh,” Tommy drew his knees up and hugged them close to his chest.
“They’re real, and if you don’t get away from the closet they’re
going to get you first.”

He
stood beside the closet door while Tommy Delonki sat up in bed
behind him. Tommy wore his
Star Wars
pajamas, the ones with C-3PO and R2-D2. He was only 12, but
he was starting getting grey hairs. Josh watched as Tommy pulled
the blankets up to his chest. He looked cold, shivering against the
headboard even though it was mid-July and the temperature was well
into the 80’s.

Josh,
also 12, felt goosebumps rise on his bare chest. He wore plaid Joe
Boxer pajama bottoms. His mother had bought them for him the last
time they'd gone to New York – a business trip for his father. He
didn’t understand why a mechanic needed to go on business trips at
all. He thought they just fixed cars. Father said it was something
about getting products. He could tell by the way his mother looked
on the flight there and back she didn’t believe him,
either.

“
Maybe,” he
said. Sweat trickled down armpits that had yet to grow any hair.
“Or maybe I’ll get them first.”

***

“
What is it?”
Garnet moved away from the fire and placed her hands on his cheeks.
They felt very warm
–
even the one that was damp from being run under the
tap.

Josh shook his head
and looked down at himself. Somehow he had ended up on the floor.
He pushed Garnet’s hands away and got to his
feet.

“
It’s nothing. I
just remembered something. Let’s find the plates. We can put them
on the floor, too.”

***

On the 13th floor
of a building in London, a thing of darkness walked. Wherever it
walked, it stole the light. The name of this darkness was Paeder
Ferris. He was dressed in a black leather jumpsuit with yellow trim
along the collar and cuffs. It matched his motorcycle parked two
streets over.

As he walked by the
window, he caught his reflection in a wall of glass. Since he was a
teenager, people had said he looked a little like Robert Redford.
His hair was strawberry-blond and he had a well-chiseled face with
freckles and deep blue eyes. He couldn’t see the resemblance. When
he looked at his reflection, all he saw was the same lines and
curves as his brothers.

His
brothers.

He turned away from
the window and spat on the floor. The carpet and the cement
underneath bubbled under his saliva.

Before entering the
building, he had reached into the shadows and sent a blast of
Discord throughout the high-rise. The anti-energy consumed all
electricity and the light was gone. It hurt to expend that amount
of power but he knew it was worth it. Nothing made humans more
irrational than what they could not see. If they could see it, name
it, it gave them a sense of power over it. In the dark, they had no
power.

From behind a
reception desk, two security guards shot at Paeder Ferris. Bullets
bounced off his skin and ricocheted off the painted walls. Before
his transformation, bullets would have killed him easily. Now he
was one step closer to Eyeness. He was much harder to
kill.

He leapt ten feet
forward and slammed his fist into the head of the nearest guard. He
hit him so hard across the chin his neck snapped back, broken
instantly. Even as the body fell, Paeder grabbed the second man by
the throat and lifted him off the ground. He held him there until
he heard bones snap.