Demon Hunters (6 page)

He held me up to the priest and he began to
speak. With every word, I felt safer. I could feel something good
enter my body and I let it, but the world turned so quickly when
the first scream erupted from the people. My father turned to see
one of the parishioners leaping from her seat, her head ablaze.
This caused the whole congregation to break into panic.

There were small fires exploding everywhere
and soon a wall of flame was swallowing the whole church. My father
rushed me to my mother but as we came together, the ceiling came
crashing down. I landed on the carpeted floor, but I lost sight of
my father. I turned and saw my mother pinned under a beam that had
caught fire. I crawled to her, unaware of the danger around me. I
came as close as I could before she urged me to stay away. She was
crying. I had never seen her cry before. That was when I realized
something was wrong. I tried to go to her, but she pushed me away.
She then looked back at me. She reached out and opened her hand to
me. I took it in my small baby hand. I felt the life drain from her
flesh and soon after that, I fell asleep.

“Jake!” I suddenly came out of my memory. I
looked around and saw myself standing in the middle of the ruins of
my life.

“Sorry. How did you know where this place
was?”

“I didn’t. It was just on the route I found
on the map.”

“I swore I’d never come back here. I can
still feel everything. I can see it all.”

“I’m sorry.” I walked over to some old stone
pillars that had survived the fire. They were singed and cracked,
but as solid as ever.

“It’s fine. I guess I had to come back
eventually. It’s hard to believe it all happened here. I was just a
baby,” My voice catching in my throat. “What was so important about
my soul that this demon had to kill all those innocent people to
take it? Why did it kill my parents? Why did any of this have to
happen to me?” I felt my normal composure melting away and tears
began to pour from my eyes. It was like a train of some bottled up
emotions was shooting through the walls I had spent so many years
of my life building up. My legs became numb and I fell to my knees
in the ash and dirt and the rage in my heart was growing so quickly
all I could do to vent it was to beat the ground with my fists. I
pounded down on the hard Earth with all the strength I could
generate. I felt the rocks and sticks buried under the dirt cut
into my hands and I saw the blood trickling down my arms, but even
then I didn’t stop. I couldn’t. I kept clawing at the ground in
some vain attempt to exact revenge on something. I just wanted to
force my pain on something else, but as I did I began to realize my
pain wasn’t going away. I let out a howl of frustration just as
Ivar came up behind me and put his hands on my shoulders. I
suddenly felt the same security I remembered from my mother. I felt
his strength pour into me and the storm within me faded.

“We need to go.”

“Yeah.”

Ivar helped me up, but as we headed back to
the car, the ground began to shake. I stopped, frozen and an
explosion blasted a mountain of dirt and rocks into the air. When
the dust settled, I saw a giant rotted worm with a huge gaping
mouth complete with razor sharp teeth towering over us. It thrust
forward suddenly and smashed against the stone pillars, breaking
them and sending dust and debris all around. Ivar and I bolted away
as quickly as we could, but the worm dug into the ground and
burrowed across the field and popped back up before we could get
clear of the church. The worm seemed to ignore Ivar and lurched
toward me.

“Jake!” I looked to him as he tossed me two
big silver guns. I fell back as I caught them. They fell into my
hands and almost without thinking I squeezed off a smooth round
right into the worm’s head. Blood and flesh rained down from above
and the worm fell to the ground and slid back into the darkness
from where it came.

“What the Hell was that? Was that the
demon?”

“No. That was a death worm. They’re
scavengers that hunt along ruins and dead cities,” I held Ivar’s
guns back to him. “Keep them. I think you’ll need them more than I
will.” We headed back to the car and as I slid into my seat, I
noticed Ivar looking at me oddly.

“What?”

“You do care.”

“Excuse me?”

“You bluster a lot about how you don’t care
about your family, but you do.”

“If anything, that whole mess proves my
point! A giant worm almost swallowed me because of this stupid
family legacy.”

“I saw your tears.” I could detect a slight
smugness to his tone. I shot him a dirty look and he started the
car and drove back to the highway.

As we continued, I was plagued by images I
had seen back at the church. Ghosts of my mind that I thought were
buried deep were screaming back at me. I wasn’t even totally sure
about what I recalled. They were just flashes and impressions. I
couldn’t for the life of me actually remember holding my mother’s
hand as she died. Another reason I spurned the past. I could never
get a straight story out of it. I noticed the car slowing down and
then it stopped.

“What now?”

“Breakfast.” I looked forward and saw that
we had stopped in front of a little roadside diner called
‘Snootch’s’. We got out and I noticed how quiet it was. I checked
my watch and it was just a little past five. Way past the lunch
rush.

I followed Ivar into Snootch’s and the warm
air wrapped around me like a fist. I could smell cinnamon in the
air and hear eggs frying in the kitchen. The place was real down
home. Flowery wallpaper with folksy art crafts hung around the
dining room and handmade centerpieces on the tables with the gentle
twang of country music playing over the speakers. We walked up to
the hostess who greeted us with a cheery bright smile.

“Good morning to you. Welcome to Snootch’s.
How many?”

“Just the two of us.” Ivar said.

“All righty. Follow me,” She plucked two
laminated menus out of a wooden box behind her. She led us to a
small booth in the back and as we slid in, she set the menus down
in front of us. “May I get you something to drink? Coffee? Orange
juice?”

“Coffee.” We both said together. Our hostess
nodded happily and trotted off.

“How long were we driving?”

“A few hours. You seemed pretty deep in
thought. Not that I blame you.”

“Where are we?” Ivar leaned aside and pulled
out his map and laid it down on the table.

“We’re still in California. A few miles
outside of Needles.”

“Where are we headed?”

“The Nevada desert.”

“Could you be more specific? Are we going to
Vegas?”

“This isn’t GPS. I’m following where the
energy guides me. When we get closer to our destination, I’m sure
it will become clearer.”

Our hostess returned with two steaming cups
of coffee and she set them down with a smile and returned to her
post. I noticed the front door swing open and I felt my heart skip
a beat but it was just a large trucker lumbering in. I turned back
to Ivar.

“You think it’s following us?”

“I’m positive of it. It knows where we are.
It was a part of you for a long time. Can’t you still feel it?”

“A little, I guess. If it knows where we
are, why the Hell are we even running?”

“Would you rather just stop and allow it to
crush you?”

“Why doesn’t it attack?”

“The demon is too weak. Even if Sam is
helping it, the demon simply doesn’t have the strength yet to come
after you like it wants to. How are you feeling?”

“Fine. A little stiff, I guess, but other
than that I’m cool,” Ivar sat back, but his eyes were worried. They
darted around nervously across the room. “So when we finish here,
what’s our next stop?”

“That’s what I’m working on. I need to make
a call. If the waitress comes before I get back, order me the
vegetable omelet.” He slid out and headed to the pay phones in
back. I picked up my cup and looked down at the dark fluid inside.
The slight shimmer of the light shining above me reflected back up
into my face. More people came filing in and the noise level began
to grow. It seemed almost everyone looked like a truck driver. A
few more waitresses appeared and they were busy buzzing from table
to table. I looked up and nearly jumped in my seat as I saw Sam
sitting across from me.

“Hello, Jake,” He said. “Before you freak,
you should know I’m not really here. This is merely a projection
I’m sending to your mind, courtesy of your demon friend.”

“You are helping it.”

“A deal was made, true. That was the plan
all along.”

“Excuse me?”

“I could smell the power on you the minute
you walked into that jail cell. You had something incredible inside
you and I had to have it. You were all too willing to offer it to
me. After I extracted it and it realized how weak it was, I was
able to offer it my help in tracking you in exchange for certain
considerations.”

“Power?” Sam let out a sharp laugh.

“Hardly. Once the demon destroys you and
assumes its full power, it will be able to lay waste to this entire
planet. You were lucky enough to be bonded to an Armageddon level
demon. It’s lost so much power trapped within your flesh and it’s
built a big head of steam. I help it, and I shall be given Earth as
my own realm, to rule over as I see fit.” I drank in his words and
they settled on my brain for a good five minutes. Finally, an
abrupt giggle escaped my lips and soon evolved into a full on
hearty laugh. As my eyes began tearing up, I saw Sam looking back
at me with a dark gaze, but I couldn’t stop.

“Sorry, man. Really. It’s scary. You’re
going to rule the world!”

“Your ignorance aside, I will attain the
power I need to make this world mine.”

“Seriously? I mean, why would you even want
to? Seems to me ruling the whole world would just be one giant
headache. All those people. If I were you, I’d just take the
cash.”

“It’s hardly a consideration as I will have
the strength to bend the minds of every living creature to my own
will. I get the idea you don’t really appreciate the gravity of the
situation.” He was right, to an extent. I just couldn’t see that
misfire ruling over a colony of ants much less the whole
planet.

“You read a lot of comic books as a child,
right?”

“I won’t just rule this world. I will be
given the power of a true demon! I will finally be the being I knew
I was destined to be and when I am, I will crush humanity under my
heel! Satan will call me brother!” His face was twisted in a
hideous smile as his eyes burned like yellow flames. He dug his
nails into the table and clawed at it like an animal.

“So you came here to warn me about all of
this?”

“I just felt you deserved to know
everything, and by sitting here, I’m giving the demon a chance to
zero in on you. I’ll see you soon.” He then vanished into nothing.
I waved my arm around the air where Sam had been.

“Hey,” Ivar said as he came up behind me. “I
just called a friend of mine at a nearby airfield. It took some
convincing, but he agreed to take us to our final location.”

“That’s great. Could we go now?”

“We haven’t even eaten.”

“I know, but I think this is a bad place to
be.”

“Why? What happened?” Before I was able to
tell him about Sam, the sound of wood breaking shot out. A large,
black tentacle whipped up and snagged one of the customers around
the neck. Soon, other tentacles started sprouting up and with great
force. We dove from our booth and soon Snootch’s had transformed
into a jungle of wild, snapping tendrils.

People tried to get away, but their panic
prevented them from acting fast enough to escape. Ivar and I weaved
through the chaos to the front door, but as I reached it, a pang of
conscience came over me. I pulled out Ivar’s guns and I turned to
see people pleading and screaming for help. I aimed quickly and
blasted. Black flesh flew up onto the walls and as one tendril
fell, its victim was freed and dropped to the floor and scrambled
toward me.

“Thank you!” The woman uttered as she passed
by. The tendrils started to shift and move. I heard more cries from
others in the back and despite every instinct of self-preservation
I had, I forged ahead, tearing at the dark growths that were
writhing all around me. I pulled at them; freeing one person at a
time.

I fought my way to the back of the dining
room and began wrestling with two tentacles that had an older woman
cocooned. I pulled one bit free to expose her mouth. Her eyes were
terrified but before I could say anything she screamed.

“There!” She called out and turned her head
to the right. I followed her eyes and saw a little baby crawling
along the floor, seemingly invisible to the tentacles, at the other
side of the room. “Save her! Save my baby!” I finished tearing
through to release her.

“Run,” I said as I pointed toward the front
door. More tendrils began breaking through the walls. She looked
over to her baby and I saw a pain and yearning in her. “I said
go!”

“I can’t leave her!”

“I’ll get her!” After only a moment of
hesitation, the woman hurried out. I turned around and saw the
tendrils begin to swirl around the little baby. I leapt up and
landed hard on one particular tendril and flattened it. It seemed
they knew what I was doing. The dark things began darting and
jabbing at me like spears. As I tumbled forward crushing several
tables and chairs on my way, I landed before the baby, who was then
being held up by a long tentacle. Others began to form around it
and soon it began to cry. I never paid much attention to baby
cries, but I could tell that one was a cry of pure fear. I jumped
up and tore away at the dark flesh and pulled the baby out and held
it tightly to my chest. The tendrils all began moving toward me. I
stooped down and charged forward with the baby held tightly in my
arms. I bulldozed through the oncoming hostiles and pushed through
and out to the parking lot where I was greeted by a very grateful
crowd of diners. I delivered the baby back to her mother and as I
did, it stopped crying.