Nightmare (40 page)

The invisible barrier keeping us out fell away.

Demon.

It was the only word that entered my mind, and the only adequate description of what Jordin and I stared at across the darkened room, beyond the endless aisles of gurney-filled cubicles.

A real demon was living, breathing, moving, and killing in
the mortal realm. Which was impossible, because angels, demons,
and spirits were the inhabitants of the spirit realm. As a rule, they
didn't get to cross the veil into our world. They could interact
with the mortal world, but they couldn't live in it.

But then, I was a disembodied soul, so I guess most rules
didn't seem to be holding at the moment. And I was fast coming to understand that there was a lot about this I didn't know. Not
as much as I thought I did.

The room quaked when the beast's enormous feet slammed
into the floor, leaving indentations in the white cement. It continued to grind the last remaining vestiges of Howell Durham into
the pavement, and it let out a half growl, half laugh as it did.

Now that we were inside, we moved closer, and I turned my
full attention to this grisly creature, getting my first good look
at it. It was black all over, and my first thought was that it was
covered in tar. But then I examined it closer and saw that its coarse
leathery hide was burned. Charred and ruined, it was impossible
to see what it might have once looked like.

Its obsidian hide was some kind of hard, scaly substance,
but there were black craggy bits of burned carcass in every crevice, hanging from its hands, ears, even its chin. It was a hulking
mammoth, standing more than ten feet tall upon its two feet.
Its frame was more like an ox or plow horse than a man. Yet its
movements were agile and fast.

Its head was defined by sharp angles, like a skull. It had beady
eyes glowing the color of fire, and they showed only contempt
and hatred. Its one inhuman facial feature was its nose, which
had enormous nostrils that flared every time it let out a breath.
It reminded me of a bull's nose, mostly because it was constantly
spewing air so hot that you could see the steam. I wasn't sure
if the creature was truly breathing or if this was just its way of
expelling the volcanic heat that seemed to constantly burn under
its smoldering skin.

"Derek!" Jordin shrieked.

I saw him, too. Derek was stepping out from behind the
last cubicle partition separating him from the demon, and now took a bold stride forward. The distance between them was less
than thirty feet.

The demon noticed him immediately, shifting its gigantic
frame around to face him. Amazingly, Derek didn't flinch-not
at the sickening attention now focused on him from the demon
nor at his proximity to the incredible amount of heat pouring
off the creature.

I was sure that if I'd still had a stomach, in Derek's place right
now I would have thrown up.

"What is your name, demon?" Derek asked. "In the name of
the Most High God, I command you to tell me."

The demon looked at him for a long moment, considering
this.

"He's challenging it?" I asked, incredulous. "What's he expecting to happen?! It's not like he can cast it out. It's on the mortal
plane now-it's a physical being, not a spiritual one!"

"He can't face it alone!" cried jordin in a panic. "We have to
help him!"

I wondered if she'd heard me but didn't get the chance to
ask. She was already moving toward her fiance and the abomination.

A thought struck me. If the demon was tangible now, then
that meant it had no purchase on this side of the veil, where Jordin
and I were. Which could give us an advantage. At the very least, it
meant the creature probably wouldn't be able to see or hear us.

"I see the light of faith in your eyes," the demon said to Derek,
its voice deep and hollow, yet silky smooth. "Come closer so I can
pluck them out. I could use a snack, and there is nothing tastier
or more satisfying to devour than a believer."

I took special note of what it had said. Why would the demon
need Derek to come closer to it, in order to harm him?

Did the symbols around and throughout the building affect
more than just the apparitions inside it?

Derek stood his ground, the picture of restrained strength.
"You are nothing but a servant to a pathetic poser with delusions
of superiority. I serve He who is greater. And in His name ... I
command you to leave this place."

The demon bared its black opal teeth. "Where should you
like me to go?" it asked.

"Crawl back in the hole you came out ofl" Derek shouted.

"No," replied the demon, and its simple refusal was like a
punch to Derek's stomach. "I have no desire to leave."

Derek took a small step backward, saying nothing.

"You and your God have no control over me," gloated the
demon. "Not here, where you cowardly mortals live in your precious flesh. Durham thought he could control me, too. He had
such vision, such intellect. But his mistake was believing he could
contain me."

I looked behind the creature at the boxlike object behind it,
and saw now that it was some kind of large, complicated cage.

"You don't belong here, demon," Derek said again, glaring at
the monster with stern disgust. His eyes never blinked or wavered
as he stared it down. "I command you to tell me: how did you
get here?"

"Save your commands," the demon replied. "I seek answers
myself. It was three ofyour years ago. Something punched a hole
in the veil, the fabric that separates our realities. It's a very rare
occurrence, and it was only for an instant. The tear started to
collapse almost as soon as it appeared. So I went through it."

Jordin and I moved closer, slowly, carefully, watching the
creature.

Derek appeared skeptical, and I saw him take a quick glance
at the rubble from the shaking building at his feet. Was he looking for something?

"What could possibly punch through the veil?" Derek asked.
"Who but the one true God, Jehovah, has that kind of power?"

The demon flinched when Derek said the name Jehovah.

"Who, indeed?" the demon said. "It is the greatest of mysteries. Minuscule tears have punctured the veil a handful of times in
recent times, and will likely do so again in the future. We know
only that some profound event happened that has created a slight
instability in the veil.

"Almost as soon as I emerged into this world, I could feel my
side trying to pull me back. The sensation grew in strength over
time, the tugging becoming stronger and stronger, and I knew
I wouldn't be able to resist it for long. So I used certain ... elements ... from this side to fashion a way to keep myself anchored
to this reality." The demon reached back inside its broken holding
cell and pulled out a small metal cube, less than six inches across,
and held it in the palm of its beefy, charred hand. It looked like
a child's toy block in his enormous hand.

I broke away from Jordin, who continued on her careful path
toward Derek. I moved closer to get a good look at the demon and
this cube it had produced. I wondered now if I was wrong before
about the creature's ability to sense me. It was still a supernatural
being, regardless of where it was currently located. Did it already
know I was there? Would it turn on me any second?

The cube it held in its hand was a solid, thick thing. It had
been sloppily hammered together, or maybe it had been poured into a mold as a liquid and cooled. I couldn't tell, but it was crude
and imperfect. There was a raised mark on just one ofits six sides.
A small, roundish but highly detailed symbol ...

Derek had taken in everything about the cube, just as I had.
"That's how you do it? You mark these people with that? Or DHI
does?" Derek gestured at the bodies throughout the chamber.

"I did not construct the cube for their benefit," the creature
replied. "Not at first. As I said, I made it to tether myself to this
reality. To keep the other side from pulling me back."

The demon bared its barrel-like chest, and for the first time
I noticed-as I'm sure Derek did-that right in the center, where
a human's breast-bone would be, was the same glyph thatJordin
and I bore on the back of our necks. Or rather, our physical
bodies did.

Seeing it there, I had the best idea ever.

But Derek was revolted. "But you have no soul to bind,
demon," he seethed.

The creature bared its teeth again. "No, He did not see fit to
imbue us, His first creations, with souls. Nonetheless, I required
something to keep me from being pulled back to the other side.
Howell Durham was the one to see the potential for a different
use for my little trinket."

Derek took another bold step forward, and I pulled up less
than ten feet from the demon, waiting to see if it would notice or
acknowledge me. I thought I heard something scraping on the
ground as Derek shuffled closer, like he was pushing at something with his toe.

"You were partners in this?" Derek asked. "Why did you kill
him?"

The demon's body language suggested that it desperately wanted to take a step forward, toward Derek, but it couldn't
seem to move far beyond what was left of the cage it had broken
out of.

I got the impression that it was freely relating its story to
Derek the same way a fisherman lures a fish to his rod. Derek
must have thought that by continuing to inch forward, he was
demonstrating a lack of fear in the face of this grisly beast. But
I was suddenly afraid that the demon was playing him, working
him carefully with its truthful words in order to reel him in. It
was a seduction, a dance, taking place between the two of them,
and the demon was winning.

"Howell Durham was a world-class game hunter," the demon
said, like a storyteller settling in to tell a good yarn. "He was following a game trail in the Amazon valley when he came upon
me, wandering across this hard, cold rock you call home, trying
to find my way to civilization. He assumed I was some previously
undiscovered animal, some leftover from an ancient era, like a
rediscovered ape or dinosaur. So he used his fancy equipment to
capture me. That's what I let him believe, anyway.

"He took me in my little cage to Copenhagen, where he was
shocked to discover that I was intelligent and could speak to
him. And I was no mortal animal. I was from the other side of
existence. He sensed an opportunity, so he proceeded to `use' me
to his profit. It took years of trial and error on the part of his
scientists-working off of metaphysical concepts I gave themto construct the device he wanted. Durham wanted two things:
a device that could free a soul from the confines of its pathetic
human body, and a means of keeping that body from reaching
what you call the afterlife. I already had that second item, in the
form of my little cube here. But the extractor device took a great deal of time to perfect, because Durham insisted on being in
full control of it every step of the way. Our agreement was that
I would maintain control of the cube, while Durham kept his
machine. One would be useless without the other.

"But Durham never understood me well enough to know
the depths of his own arrogance. Those of us on my side of the
veil are infinitely patient beings. We have existed since before the
beginning of what you call time, so I had no difficulty watching
as Durham worked, waiting in that accursed cell for my chance to
be rid of him and enact a plan of my own. Something far grander
than anything even a visionary like Durham could think up."

" `The nightmare is coming,' " Derek suggested, taking
another step forward and glancing at his feet.

The demon had tendrils of something resembling saliva
dripping out of its mouth in nauseating strings, and they flew
everywhere when it spoke.

"I. Am. Coming!" the demon thundered.

Derek held fast, though a roaring hot wind escaped from
the vile creature's mouth and blasted into him like a super-hot
furnace.

"You pathetic humans believe yourselves to be the indigenous species on this planet. But my kind was here first, and we
want it back. We are at war against the ones who still follow ...
Him ... and the prize is the one thing He treasures most: you.
The eternal, undying souls of man, His most precious creations.
The other side fights to protect you, we fight to defile you. But
there is only one way to life everlasting. Only one. Just as there is
only one way for a soul's path to end in hell. It's a choice between
two possibilities. Believe, or don't believe. Surrender yourself, or live in selfishness. But that time is over. I have finally found a
way to cheat the game.

"I will use the technology in this room to circumvent that
human choice, and physically drag every soul on this planet
straight to hell. And once there are no souls left for either side
to fight over ... we win the war."

The demon ended his story with a flourish, carefully depositing the cube on a metal table off to one side of its damaged
cage.