Falter (20 page)

I attempted to clear my mind, which seemed unfathomable. Surprisingly, though, the blob of darkness began to waver in its shape. It began to reach a solid black tendril out across the wall, stretching its dark limb onto the floor. Inch by inch, it slithered towards George.

Stunned, my mouth gaped open. My soppy eyes followed the phantom’s movement across the hardwoods.
 

“No, No…Get me away from it,” George pleaded in terror, breaking my concentration.

I jerked back to coherence, realizing how close the thing was getting to George. “I can’t do this! Help me get him out of here, please,” I begged Gavyn.

“They will come no matter where he is. We can’t stop them. Now focus!” he demanded again.

I closed my eyes and cupped my ears to muffle the sound of George’s whimpering. Numbness spread through my heart, deadening the too soft emotions I had exposed. When I was ready, I opened my eyes.
 

A red glow radiated from the corner. It illuminated the entire room. The light ebbed and flowed in its intensity. Tinges of orange and yellow flickered through the red like electric currents. I looked at Gavyn in disbelief.
 

He nodded, knowing that I now saw what he saw.

An awful odor filled the room, smacking me in the face as my awareness of this alternate reality grew. I gagged and leaned over the table, my fingers curling tight around the edges, trying to get my bearings. My stomach swam with waves of nausea.
 

Gavyn stepped closer and clasped my hand in his, raising me out of my bent position. His presence calmed me, unexplainably relieving the nausea and dizziness I felt.

“They are coming. You need to focus just a little longer.” The sympathy lingering in his voice did little to release the coil of dread twisting in my gut.

“What is this? Who’s coming?”

“I can’t explain it right now. You have to be ready for what’s about to happen. Whatever you see, understand that I can’t do anything to change it, and if I could, I would.”

 
My fear and worry heightened to a new level as he spoke. He let me go then knelt back down, placing one hand on George’s chest, and whispered, “I’m sorry, friend. I can’t keep this from happening. All I have to offer is a little comfort while we wait.”

George looked at him gratefully and relaxed against the hard floor. Instant peace smoothed the creases of terror contorting his features. “Thank you,” he muttered to Gavyn with relief. He reached a tired hand out to me, and I gladly took it. “I love you, Nevaeh, no matter what you choose.”
 

George closed his eyes and exhaled a soft, shallow breath. His last breath.
 

Gavyn removed his hand from George’s chest and leaned back on his heels. I couldn’t move. The shock of everything was too overwhelming.
 

George was dead.
 

I barely felt my knees hit the floor when I fell beside his limp body. I latched onto his hand, my knuckles turning white, my thumb mindlessly rubbing back and forth over the smooth band of gold encircling his left ring finger.

Loud screeches and moans echoed from the center of the red glow, diverting our attention from George. The wall appeared to weaken and stretch against something pushing from behind it. The plaster groaned and creaked as it bent around what looked like the shape of a long leg pressing out from the other side. A torso and two arms appeared above the leg, straining to break through. The figure shoved and pushed violently, determined to puncture the barrier keeping it wherever it was, manipulating the wall as if it were nothing more than a thin sheet of latex.
 

With panic wrapping a tight fist around my throat, I observed the once solid surface giving and stretching like rubber. How was this possible? Whatever was trying to get through was large and determined.

There was an abrupt tear in the wall and the dark figure erupted out into Gavyn’s apartment. It’s wickedly intent gaze scanned over the room, a predator hunting its prey.
 

It was there for one thing and one thing only.
 

I pushed myself up, weak-kneed, and studied the dark head slowly swiveling around, casing the room for its victim.
 

The monster reeked so badly I could taste it. This time there was no stopping the vomit climbing to my throat. I doubled over and retched on the floor. My legs couldn’t hold my weight any longer. My eyes rolled back, then blackness came.
 

I woke up moments later seated between Gavyn’s legs, my back snuggly pressed into his chest, secured in his embrace. He had dragged us into the end of the hallway, away from the monster exploring his apartment, away from George’s body. I looked over at the troubled face resting on my shoulder, watching the scene playing out in his living room.

I cringed when a loud screech bounced off the walls and pierced my ears. My eyes shifted to the corpse on the floor and the monster closing in on it. The disabling heartbreak flooded back in when I recalled the moments before my black-out.

I shoved forward, fully intending to protect George, but Gavyn’s fingertips dug into my biceps, gripping me so tight it hurt. My legs kicked in front of me, and I thrashed from side to side, struggling to gain some leverage against his restraints. I didn’t care what that thing was, I just wanted to save George from it.
 

“Why aren’t you doing something?!” I screamed at Gavyn, pounding my fists into his thighs. Hot tears flowed from my eyes.

The being lowered onto its knobby knees and prowled toward George. Its hungry eyes zoned in on me and the ruckus I was creating, daring me to come closer—to invade its precious territory. I stopped fighting Gavyn’s hold on me and retreated back against his body, winded by my failed attempts to reach George. I scowled at the monster from afar, relaying the hate I caged for it.

Gavyn cautiously loosened his grip on me and whispered in my ear, “Don’t move.”
 

I couldn’t move if I wanted to; I was frozen in a haze of fear and anger. My thoughts suddenly connected, and I realized the monster staring at me now was familiar.
 

Impossible.
 

I saw this demon in the vision I had in Gavyn’s stairwell. Every burnt piece of flesh and melded feature shuffled forward from the forgotten place in the back of my mind. The mouthless face, the black eyes, and the lean skeletal body. It was all the same.
 

I should be happy to know I’m not insane, that Gavyn was experiencing this too, but instead terror sunk its fangs deeper into my emotions. My entire existence was only part of a greater, scarier, and more complicated truth that refused to stay hidden from me anymore.

The demon lowered, its marred, angular face less than an inch from George’s skin, and sniffed. It grunted and moaned with each inhalation. I was disgusted, yet I couldn’t bring myself to do anything about it.
 

My jaw clamped down in anger. My fists clenched against my thighs. Every muscle in my body tightened, eager to hurl me towards this thing and take it down fighting. I couldn’t let the evil of such a creature contaminate George. Yet, shock, or maybe fear, wouldn’t allow me to satisfy my urges.
 

“What is it going to do?” I asked quietly. Even a whisper couldn’t hide the fright and grief in my voice.

“I don’t know. I think it’s here for George’s soul,” Gavyn explained, waiting for me to react. “It’s an Animus Demon. That’s what it does. It harvests souls.” He leaned his head against the wall, evading my scared eyes, and stared at the ceiling. He knew that whatever was about to occur wasn’t going to be good. The regret was clear in his pinched brow, tight lips, and twitching jaw.

“Harvests them for what, Gavyn?” I whined, forcing the words out. Somehow, I already knew the answer, but I needed him to say it.

“It harvests for him. The King of Hell.” His head dropped down and he fixed his gaze to where my hand was flattened over his leg.

Instinct kicked in. Before I realized it, I was sprinting towards George—and toward the demon. Gavyn yelled my name as he lunged up and chased after me. Even if I knew how, there was nothing around to fend this thing off. I didn’t care though. My focus was on George. He didn’t deserve damnation. I wasn’t about to let him go without some sort of battle, no matter how little competition I was for the monster.

Before I reached George’s lifeless body, Gavyn’s arms hooked around me, yanking me to a halt. My vision blurred from the tears welling in my eyes. “No. Don’t,” I screamed. I dug my nails into Gavyn’s arm, clawing for freedom from his grasp and crying uncontrollably.

“We can’t change this part, Nevaeh. I’m so sorry.” He hugged me from behind and kissed the back of my head while I wrestled to get away, my hands and legs fisting and kicking the air.

A strange sense of serenity overtook my emotions, and that wave of numbness magically rolled in again. I didn’t want to be numb from this. I needed the pain to help me defend George.

The monster’s black eyes honed in on me. I sensed the demented satisfaction it experienced from my anger. It climbed over George’s body like a wolf guarding its meal and begged me to engage. There was an almost recognizable disappointment in its unnatural expression when I finally quit resisting Gavyn.
 

We stood powerless and defeated, allowing this thing to hover over George. It sluggishly lowered its face to his, hesitating so it could savor the moment. Everything went stale. The red glow faded, its screeches muted, and the room felt empty—void of anything human. The monster’s crooked ribs expanded under its burnt flesh, inhaling a deep breath. It snorted the breath back out its bony nostrils, choking on the air it had unrightfully stolen from the room.
 

It breathed in again, deeper this time. Then, I saw it. A translucent substance snaked upward, streaming from George’s mouth into the demon’s boney nose. The substance leaving George resembled fluid, but it moved like smoke—weightless against gravity.
 

The demon continued to inhale and exhale deeply, choking between extractions, stealing more of George’s essence each time. George’s body began to tremble and convulse beneath the monster, but the animation of his corpse was still unmistakably lifeless and empty.

An unnerving bundle of emotions lashed at me again. “Is he okay? I thought he couldn’t feel anything anymore,” I questioned Gavyn, sobbing around my words.

“His body is dead, Nevaeh, but his soul isn’t. He’s resisting. The soul struggles with the demons when they come. And the demons struggle with the fact that they have to transport a human’s soul inside them.”
 

“So George is hurting?” I whimpered.

Gavyn nodded. “This way is not an easy way to go. It’s not what God intended.” He spoke the words in a sad whisper. “The human soul is a pollutant to their kind. That’s why they look like that. What they really want is to devour human flesh, not the souls they are forced to gather and carry into Hell for their master. He has taken their mouths to deprive them of what they want most. They’ve become the epitome of envy and desperation.” Gavyn’s tone was almost sad for the demon feasting before us. “Their once human form has burned and melted away from the evil they have binged on over such long periods of time. They are the worst of the worst.”

“George doesn’t deserve this,” I pleaded. I was mad at myself for accepting defeat so readily, but I didn’t understand what was going on. I wasn’t sure how to change it. I had to trust Gavyn. The outcome of this couldn’t change, regardless of my heart breaking into a million pieces.

The demon emptied George of any last essence it could muster, his precious vapor lessening with each breath the demon took. His body’s convulsions quieted to shivers.

“I can’t watch this anymore.” I spun around and buried my face into Gavyn’s chest, listening for the last wheezy inhalation from the demon.

A loud rumble shook the room. When I jerked my head up to see if the “taking” was finished, I noticed Gavyn staring at the ceiling instead. A grin, so slight that it was barely there, showed an ounce of new hope on his face. My heart beat faster in response to Gavyn’s change of expression. Anticipation exploded within me. Maybe he saw something that could stop this. The few seconds that passed were unbearable as I waited for him to let me in on his secret.

“What’s going on? Can we free George?”

“Look.” He nudged his chin upwards.

The walls began to ripple around us like jelly. The rumble echoed throughout the apartment, growing steadily louder and more intense; even my bones vibrated. A gust of wind swirled through the room, propelling my hair in every direction. My skin puckered, and a shiver rose up my spine from the coolness of the wind whipping around us. The strength of the gust increased in speed and strength, carrying Gavyn’s magazines into the air and lifting George’s blankets off the futon, nearly sending them into flight.

The ceiling’s smooth plaster surface blurred and began to shine like a watery reflection above us. Small waves undulated from a center point outward, pulsing from the thunderous booms. I searched Gavyn for any sign or gesture that could explain the pool developing in his living room, but he stood calm and confident with a knowing smile tugging at his mouth.