Here Be Monsters - an Anthology of Monster Tales (12 page)

I looked up and saw them: twenty pairs of red eyes watching us. The rain and wind still spread chaos, but over it all I could hear the snarling. In that moment I realized
Tyler
had been right. I let go of Jamie and turned to run, but he grabbed my ankle.

“Two of four, three of three, five of one!” Jamie yelled trying to pull me back to him.

“No! Jamie let go of me.” I kicked, my foot landing in his stomach, sending him sprawling.
 
I scrambled inside through the door I’d come out of. My heart was hammering in my chest as I ran through the halls trying to get back to my room. I could hear Jamie and I could hear the hounds, all trying to get to me.

Rounding a corner, I crashed into someone who grabbed me and I screamed.

“Rajani it’s okay, it’s okay,”
Tyler
’s voice said soothingly, his arms holding me. Everything but the storm outside fell silent around us. No more hounds, no more Jamie. I held on to
Tyler
tighter, ignoring that strange burning in my stomach I got every time I touched him.

“Let her go in the name of the Father,” Jamie said, speaking perfectly clearly. I jumped at the intrusion.
 

“Your instructions don’t work here, my brother,”
Tyler
smirked and I tried to pull away but he held me tightly to him. “You should at least know that.”

“I figured I would give you the option,” Jamie said, his blue eyes looking to me. “Be vigilant and faithful, they are coming.”

“They? They who?” I asked, panic filling my voice.

“The angels. They have been trying to find you but Mammon here has kept you very well hidden.”

“Mammon?”

“I believe you know him as
Tyler
,” Jamie said calmly. “His demonic name is Mammon, he’s a prince of hell.”

“B-but he’s an angel Jamie, you’re the demon,” I said less than convincingly. Jamie stared at me neither confirming or denying what I believed.
 

“Rajani don’t listen to him. I don’t expect you to remember the things you learned when you were such a young child,”
Tyler
said softly next to my ear. “But you know I would never harm you, I’m here to help you and save you from him. There are always false prophets, the ones that try to sway your faith in what you believe.”

“Jani, do you know of your heritage?” Jamie asked.

“What does my heritage have to do with anything?”

“Everything. It’s the only reason they would have accepted the deal they did. It was why, regrettably, Elijah had to come to you and get you to make the deal. It ends and begins with you because of your heritage.”

“Rajani he is trying to fill your head with nonsense,”
Tyler
said. “You cannot listen to him. You have to be stronger than this.”

“What am I supposed to do?”

Tyler
handed me a gun. “Shoot him.”

“What?!” My hands started to shake at the feeling of metal seeming very heaving in my palms

“He’s a demon Rajani,”
Tyler
’s voice was like smooth velvet against my ear, calm and soothing. “He’s trying to take your soul to Hell. Kill him.”

“I-I can’t.”

“Jani look at me,” Jamie said calmly. “Your heritage, think of your name, the origins of your names. Your grandmother told you when you five what they meant.”

I stiffened at Jamie’s words. He spoke of a memory of my family that I had buried with so many others: The parents that had abandoned me to my grandmother, the grandmother who had died when I was fifteen and the drug addictions that had come as a result.

“She said Rajani was Hindi for death and I was cursed,” I said, my voice shaking slightly.

“It means dark one, but your grandmother was a bit too superstitious,” Jamie said. “Your middle name?

“Eve.”

“Eve means Life or mother of all that lives,” Jamie said. “And then when you were eighteen you had your last name legally changed to what?”

“Aspara.”

“Why?”

“Because it means Goddess.”

“Yes, and all of these things mean what,
Tyler
?” Jamie asked, his eyes finally lifting to meet
Tyler
’s gaze.

Tyler
didn’t answer. He just snatched the gun from my hands. He took me by the arm and started to lead me away.

Jamie called after us, “The demons come out of hell today, coming to take a soul. They will drag you kicking and screaming down the big, black hole. Are you just going to let him take you away, Jani?”

“Stop,
Tyler
,” I said, trying to pull my arm away, but he pulled harder. “
Tyler
, stop. You’re hurting me!”

“I don’t care, shut your mouth or I will cut out your tongue!” he spat. His normally calm, gray eyes turned red as he hissed at me.
 
I froze in place, realizing I had made the worst mistake of my life.

“Then just take me now,” I hissed back at him.

 
He laughed. “I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“He knows why,”
Tyler
said motioning behind us to Jamie.

“Why not?” I demanded again.

“Yea
Tyler
, why not?” Jamie asked.
 

Tyler
stopped. “Her time isn’t up yet, not for another nineteen hours. If I try to take her now, you’ll take her. You’re an apostle. I know that they’ve given you the juice to harvest her soul if needed. It’s not mine to take yet.”

“Well for a demon you’re not that dumb, I think I’ve been fooled about you guys,” Jamie chuckled. “So what now?”

“Now we wait. I keep her under my watch until your brothers show up, watch the bloodbath that my four-legged friends are going to make of them, and then I take her with me.”

Jamie nodded as he spoke. “You still think you’ll win?”

“Oh, I’m banking on it,”
Tyler
growled and we started walking again.

“I don’t even get a say in this?” I asked.

“You had a say in this ten years ago. You made your deal and you got clean. Now it’s time to pay up. Lucifer says, ‘hi,’ by the way, can’t wait to see you.”

Tyler
’s words made my stomach drop.
 
I was beginning to think I really wasn’t going to get out of this alive. We got to my room and I was pushed inside, Jamie shoved in next.
Tyler
came in and pulled a small blade out of his pocket and slit open his palm. Using the blood he drew symbols all over the door and the window as Jamie and I sat and watched. Watching
Tyler
draw his symbols triggered a memory for me. I remembered something a minister had shouted during a sermon he was giving on a street corner.

“The mark of the beast!” I exclaimed.

“What?”
Tyler
asked and Jamie chuckled.

“
Two of four, three of three, five of one
. That’s what it meant didn’t it?” I asked Jamie and he nodded. I felt like I should have gotten to that realization sooner and I nodded apologetically.
Tyler
glared at us and went back to drawing his symbols. After he was done he sat down in the corner with his head laid back, his eyes closed.

My eyes looked from
Tyler
to the door and I gauged how fast I could sprint for it and be down the hall.

“Do it and the hounds will start tearing you to shreds,”
Tyler
said. As if on cue, the growling started to ripple through the deserted halls of the hospital.

“We got you into this, and I’m sorry,” Jamie said as we sat down on the bed next to each other.

“You didn’t do it.”

“No, but the angels convinced you.”

“A prophet did, but I was higher than a kite at the time. Hell, I think he could have convinced me he really did have Lucky Charms and they really were magically delicious and I would have believed him.”

Jamie laughed and so did I.
 
It made things calmer somehow to talk to him.

“Doesn’t matter anyway. I was dying then, just a slower death. If I die now, I die now.”

“I still think we could have won this without the hounds, but that was my opinion. I’m a messenger at best, nothing I say really matters to them. It only matters down here,” Jamie said.

“So they aren’t just demon dogs are they?” I asked.

“No,” Jamie answered. “They are hounds of hell, specially created from demons and Lucifer himself.”

“Why do you need them?” I asked.

“It’s like taking two armies, one has swords and the other has tanks. Who do you think is going to win?” Jamie asked solemnly.

I didn’t want to think about it. I didn’t want to think about heaven or hell, winning or losing wars, any of it. I chose to drift off to sleep occasionally, never staying out for long, always waking up to the same scene.

“Shouldn’t the sun be up soon?” I asked after sleeping for what felt like a few minutes and
Tyler
chuckled.

“The storm has blackened the sky,” Jamie said flatly.

“What time is it?” I asked in a panic, not realizing that time was slipping away faster than I’d thought.

“It’s three in the afternoon,” Jamie said softly.

The information made me sick and I felt the whole room spin. Jamie touched my face, his eyes intently looking at mine. I was sure I was imagining it, but in his eyes looked like endless skies of blue. The power I felt from his touch was like nothing I’d ever experienced.

“Shhh,” Jamie said. His lips turned into a small grin and I felt peace come over me and I slept.

I knew when I awoke that the storm had come full force to our little inlet of Louisiana. I also knew that the war was beginning. My time was up.
Tyler
stood and went to the window, whispering something I couldn’t understand. Then he stepped back, his face sweeping into a satisfied grin. I heard the hounds snarling, heard ripping and biting and clawing from outside. I tried not to imagine the sight I would see if I chose to look.

The window blew out first.
 
The wind was fierce beyond the window, the sound of metal scraping against metal, branches creaking and breaking from nearby trees. The sound of the power of the storm had my full attention, but Jamie seemed to be listening intently to something else.

“What is going on?” I asked over the noise as the pressure in my head grew painfully strong. Jamie gripped my arms and pulled me to the corner.

“Whatever happens, we will lay say siege to Hell to get to you, I promise.” His words hit me like a brick wall as he was yanked from me by an unseen force. All I saw were his blue eyes flying into the black as he was pulled out of the window and I screamed after him.

Tyler
grabbed me and tossed me to the floor. He started babbling words in a language I didn’t understand. I struggled, trying to force myself up.

“No, my Father I have not failed you. She is the chosen,”
Tyler
pleaded to someone unseen. All I heard was more snarling and wind. He dropped his head as if he were about to be struck.

“Please take her, the time is nigh and she is ready. I am yours and am ready as well. Please bring me home,” he begged and dropped to one knee. The snarling grew louder and blood started running from his ears as he screamed. I watched in horror as he crumbled to a pile on the floor clutching at his head.

Blood poured from his ears and his nose, forming a snake on the ground. The bloody monstrosity slithered towards me and I screamed, unable to move. I could hear the creaking of boards and the rushing of water as the storm came inland even more, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the sight of this blood snake that was attempting its way to me. The head of the beast formed, black eyes opened and stared straight at me.

I heard the explosion a moment before the sensation of flying registered and everything went dark.

* * * * *

“Just about done,” the tattooist said. He was quite the talker while he did his art. His name was Earl and he had a wife who was a seamstress and four children.