The Demon Conspiracy (12 page)

Anton stopped laughing. “He’s all yours,
boys!” The demons surged forward, slowly at first. Then they came
in a rush.

Jon stood utterly motionless until the first
demon reached for his throat with six-inch claws. Before the demon
could react he whipped out the elvish knives and sliced off the
creature’s hand. The hand dropped to the floor. Black blood spurted
from the stump. The demon—a big Blue one—cried out in agony. A Red
demon next to it snatched up the hand and gulped it down. Jon
winced at the grotesque sight. But he wasted no time worrying about
it. His knives flashed silver. He hacked up the Red and left it
bleeding on the floor. Then he went after the others. Black blood
splashed about the cave. In seconds Jon had literally carved them
all up. Dead and wounded demons lay all around him.

Jon’s eyes were wild and alert. He breathed
heavily as he wiped the blood from the sword on his pants. It left
ugly, black stripes in the material. He started after the creature
pretending to be Anton. Demon Anton shook his head and retreated
down the path. Jon let him go. He had to find Chris, so he turned
to go the other way. What he next saw stopped him cold.

The path ahead was blocked by dozens of
horrid demons of all sizes, shapes and colors. They flowed in from
dark side tunnels like streams of massive ants. Jon shook his head
and spat. There was no way he’d get through them all. He looked
behind him. Down the path it was even worse. An endless sea of
monsters raced his way.

“This could have been easy
for you!” cried Anton from a safe distance. The monsters rushed by
him, closing in on Jon. “Now it’s gonna hurt so
bad
!”

Jon thought quickly. Chris had given up his
life for Kelly and Travis. That took some serious guts. Maybe Jon
could buy them some time. He twirled the long knives adroitly. His
eyes flashed coldhearted rage. He spoke in a low, icy voice.

“That depends on who’s inflicting the
pain.”

Jon yelled maniacally as he charged straight
into the horde.

10

ESCAPE

KELLY

The demon that held Travis was big and
strong. Travis pulled on the hand that covered his mouth, but it
wouldn’t budge.

“Shhh,” it said softly. “Keep it down. The
place might cave in.”

I knew that voice. Travis recognized it too
and quit struggling. The “creature” let him go. I lit another
match.

“Dr. Parrish!” We both ignored the man’s
warning to keep quiet. We jumped into his arms and hugged him
fiercely. I mean I hardly knew the guy, but I was so glad to see
him, well there just weren’t any words for it. Having an adult with
us made everything seem more hopeful.

Parrish was obviously relieved too because
he hugged us right back. I dropped the match and the cave went
black again. I couldn’t believe it. Parrish was alive!

“How’dja get here?” asked Travis, as Parrish
set us down. “Do you have a flashlight?”

“Lost it in the quake,” said Parrish. “So I
crawled here.”

“You crawled all this way in total
darkness?” I struck another match. “That’s almost impossible.”

“Almost,” he admitted. “But I lost my
glasses, so it didn’t matter if I had a light. I can barely see you
now.”

“I found your glasses,” said Travis,
watching my match burn down. “But they were smashed. Kelly, the
match.”

I looked at the flame. It nearly touched my
fingers. I quickly lit my candle and dropped the match, but not
before it burned me.

“Ow!” I sucked on my stinging fingertip.

Parrish shushed me again.
He looked up nervously, as if he thought something was crawling on
the ceiling. Travis lit his candle from mine and cupped his hand
around it as a windshield. “No loud noises,
please
,” Parrish said
softly.

“You’re right,” said Travis. “We don’t want
the demons to hear us. You’ve seen ‘em too?”

“I don’t know about any demons, but the
noise could cause another cave-in. That’s why I covered your mouth,
Travis. In case you yelled when you saw me.”

“Why do you think it’ll cause a cave-in?” I
asked.

“Because right after the quake when I called
out to find you guys, half the ceiling fell on my head! It was not
a pleasant experience.”

“Good point.” I raised the candle for a
better look at Parrish’s face. He had streaks of blood running down
both sides of his head and neck. Most of it had dried, but it still
looked bad enough.

“You’re hurt!” cried Travis, disregarding
the warning to be quiet. “You got blood all over ya!”

“With
my
face it might be an improvement.
Really kids, it’s not as bad as it looks. Just a few small
cuts.”

“You wouldn’t say that if you could see it.”
I frowned. “But we left the first aid kit with Jon and Chris.
Otherwise, Travis could fix you right up.”

Travis disagreed. “I never learned nothing
about cuts.”

“You never learned
anything
about cuts,” I
corrected. “I guess it’s a good thing Chris only broke his
leg.”

“Chris broke his leg?” said Parrish. “What
about Jon and Anton?”

“Jon’s fine,” said Travis. “But Mr. Edwards
got grabbed by demons. I think they ate him.”

Parrish raised his head. “Do what?”

“Travis!” I couldn’t believe he said such a
thing. “You don’t know that!”

“What else would they do with ‘im?”

“What are you kids talking about?”

I sent Travis a mental
message.
Parrish is confused. He doesn’t
believe about the demons
. I changed the
subject.

“Do you want a candle? I’ve got a bunch in
my pack.”

“No, thanks, Kelly,” said Parrish. “Can’t
see anyway. I left my spare glasses at home. I knew I should have
brought them. What do you mean by demons? Do you mean like wild
animals? Are there bears in here?”

“Not animals,” said
Travis. “Demons!” I flashed him a warning, but he clearly had to
tell somebody. “Thousands of ‘em! They had a big meeting and the
salesman told ‘em they were gonna conquer people and make
us
live in
caves!”

“The salesman? What?”

“At first the demons wanted to eat him, too,
but the big red demon stopped ‘em!”

“He was the Boss,” I said, chiming in. “He
was huge! Look, we don’t have time to talk about it now. We’ve got
to get help for Jon and Chris. We’ll tell you everything when we
get outside. Let’s go, Travis.”

Travis pulled Parrish’s arm. “Grab my
shoulder. I know the way.”

We went forward against a steady breeze that
rushed through the cave. Travis carried the candle with one hand,
and shielded it from the wind with the other. Parrish followed,
keeping a grip on his shoulder. He walked stooped over and tried
not to trip on anybody’s feet.

I could tell we were close to the opening.
The path was familiar and the air smelled fresher.

Travis led us into the narrow tunnel. “I
thought you were a demon when you grabbed me.”

“That’s what everybody says,” joked
Parrish.

Suddenly, an intense feeling of jagged pain
shot through me. It felt like I’d been electrocuted. I dropped to
my knees, shuddering.

“Oh, my God!”

“What’s wrong, Kelly?” asked Parrish. “Did I
step on your foot?”

I could hardly speak. Tears welled up in my
eyes. “No…much worse…Jon… Chris….”

Then I flashed a terrible, burning message
into Travis’ head.

RUN, KELLY! RUN, TRAVIS! DON’T COME BACK!
RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!

It startled Travis so badly he staggered
against the wall. Parrish caught him by the shirt before he
fell.

“What’s going on?” Parrish looked from
Travis to me, confused and concerned. “Are you two sick?”

I began to sob. It wasn’t the best time for
it, but I couldn’t help it. “Demons got Chris! Jon fought ‘em, but
they got him, too!”

Travis’ grief overwhelmed him. It was all he
could do just to nod.

Suddenly, all my grief
changed to terror. “They’re coming after
us
!”

Travis felt the back of
his neck tingle, which usually meant danger was near—he had a
special name for the feeling. “
Ghost
fingers!
”

Once again Parrish was confused. “What?” But
he didn’t have time to find out what ghost fingers meant. Travis
tried to run, but he only moved as fast as Parrish would let him.
With every step I could feel the demons closing in. I cried so hard
I was nearly as blind as Parrish. I dropped my candle and grabbed
Parrish by the shirttail. I stumbled after him, terribly wounded by
the deep pain in my heart.

I knew Travis felt every bit of it. Jon was
gone. Chris was gone. There was nothing that could be done for them
now.

The creatures were gaining
on us. I heard the clicking of their claws on the cold stone floor.
There were
lots
of them, getting closer with every step. I moved as fast as I
could but the cave was pitch-black. I was blind as a post and
apparently those things could see in the dark! I glanced back,
choked with fear.

They’re right behind
us!
The terror in my thoughts made it
clear. Travis ran.

“Slow down!” said Parrish. “I can’t run in
here!”

Travis didn’t give him a choice. The back of
his neck must have been icy cold by now. The demons were close.

“Light!” he said excitedly. “The exit!” He
picked up the pace.

“Travis, take it easy,” said Parrish. “I
don’t want to hit my head again.”

“High ceiling!” Travis tossed the candle
aside. “We’re here!”

I pushed Parrish from behind. “GO!”

The cave opened up a little. I rubbed my
eyes on my forearms and saw gray outlines of rock formations. A few
scraggly plants grew in the corners. A low snakelike voice hissed
from behind us.

“
Pretty girl. Waits for us, pretty girl
….”

The blood in my veins
turned to ice. The creature was so close I could almost feel its
hot breath on the back of my neck. And it was talking to
me
! I pushed Parrish
harder to make him hurry.

“
Pretty girl!
”

“Who’s that?” said Parrish. “Who’s
there?”

“JUST RUN!”

I glanced over my
shoulder. A host of evil glowing eyes appeared in the darkness
beyond. Red, yellow, blue, green…so
many
eyes. They came at me
fast.

Darkness became twilight. Freedom was only a
few steps away. But the groping horrors were close. I could almost
feel their nightmare of clutching hands pulling me back into
darkness.

“
Pretty girl!
”

I stumbled. Then Parrish stumbled, which
made Travis stumble.

The cave opened up a little. I rounded the
last turn and saw a shaft of sunlight on the farthest wall.

I began to have doubts. What if they came
after us out of the cave? What if sunlight didn’t really bother
them? How could we fight them?

All at once a clammy hand caught my ankle. I
tripped and landed hard on my face. One of the creatures came
beside me. I could see its squat gray form in the dim light.

“Help me!”

Parrish stopped. He squinted mightily.
“Kelly? Where are you?”

“Here! Help!”

The thing gripped my leg like a vise. It
dragged me back into the cave. I dug my fingernails into the smooth
rock floor, but it didn’t help. I kicked and fought like a wildcat.
No! I didn’t want to be eaten alive! Why did I ever come into this
stupid cave?

Parrish groped for me like a blind man. He
kept missing my outstretched hands. I cried out again.

“Help!”

“Oh, hell!” Parrish squinted really hard to
see. He dove blindly toward the sound of my screams.

DR. LeBARR

Dr. Clara LeBarr put the last of the picnic
food into the wicker basket and wiped the jelly stripe off her
youngest daughter’s cheek. They had come to Crystal Creek Park for
a family picnic and things had gone rather well. As an
emergency-room doctor and single parent she didn’t often spend all
the time she should with her girls. Taking the day off and coming
to the park had been just what they needed.

“You really like PBJs, don’t you, Katie?”
said Clara to the little girl.

“I love ‘em, mommy,” said Katie. “I could
eat ‘em all day.”

“You probably could,” said her older sister
sarcastically, taking up the basket for her mother. “You’re such a
little oink.”

“Am not!”

“Are to!”

Clara cut them off.
“Girls, stop it! We just had a great picnic and I will
not
listen to any
bickering. Mandy, stop calling your sister a pig. If I hear it
again, you’ll be grounded for a week.”

“I didn’t call her a pig. I said she was an
oink.”

“You know exactly what I mean.”

They got to the parking lot and set the
basket and blanket on top of her white Mercedes sedan. Clara took
out the keys from her purse. All at once she heard a scream. Her
blood turned cold, but she looked up alertly.

“What was that, mommy?” said Katie. The
little girl fearfully gripped the pocket on her mother’s blue
jeans.

“Somebody screamed,” said Mandy. “It was in
the cave.”

“Mandy, take your sister
to the ranger station and tell them what we heard. But do not, I
repeat, do
not
come out until I come to get you, okay?”