The Nephilim: Book One (6 page)

"Yeah, do that,” Mona’s voice
was fading away, and Sophie lost herself in the darkness, “I can take care of
this on my own."

Chapter 5

Sophie woke in a panic. She had to
get away from him, run, go. She made a swift movement, but was immediately
stopped by pain searing across her back. The sensation shot through her
shoulder blades to her chest, forcing her back down onto the bed. The moment
her body touched the sheets she screamed and rolled onto her side. It were as
if thousands of needles were stabbing at her flesh from the inside and even the
slightest bit of pressure increased the pain tenfold.  There had to be
something there, something that had been plunged into her, and she reached back
in spite of the pain to feel, but she found only the material of her shirt,
drenched with sweat. Then Sophie brought her hand back to her face, soaked, and
could see, even in the dark, that it was covered in blood.

Her bedroom door swung open then
and Mona entered from the shadowed hallway. She rushed to the bedside, grabbing
Sophie’s bloodied hand and looking her over with knitted brow. She didn’t seem
alarmed, but was clearly on edge. Sophie felt her place a finger near her spine
and could not stifle the shriek that escaped her lips.

"Sorry," Mona pulled her
hand back and stepped away from the bed. She began to pace and ran her clean
hand through her hair.

"What’s going on?" Sophie
choked out between heavy breaths, "What’s happening to me?"

"Shh," her cousin
chastised gently, "Just let me think."

The answer wasn’t good enough, and
Sophie decided if she wasn’t going to get any help from her, she’d have to help
herself. She nudged a leg to the edge of the bed and tried to follow with the
second one, but Mona saw and dropped down onto her knees at the bedside,
“Please, be still.”

Sophie looked at her, "It
really hurts."

"I know, it’s just—" Mona
stopped as a buzzing sounded. She fished her phone from her pocket and, noting
the caller, sighed and looked back to Sophie, clearly pained, "I’m sorry
in advance for this."

Mona slapped her hand over Sophie’s
mouth. The force with which she held her down was far beyond that of a petite,
fifteen year old girl, and despite struggling, Sophie could not get away.

Mona, meanwhile, absently turned
away from Sophie, leaving her hand against her mouth, and spoke into the phone,
"No...no, nothing yet...yes, I’m aware, but it doesn’t look like it’s
taking...of course I’ll keep checking...no, he left...I don’t know, impulse
maybe...I just don’t think...fine." She released Sophie as she hung up.

"Was that Naomi?" Sophie
shouted, taking a full breath, "Why didn’t you tell her?" She could
feel tears brimming over and sliding down the side of her face.

Mona stared down at her phone, then
moved to put it in her pocket, but stopped.  She gripped it tightly then tossed
it onto the nightstand, turning her attention to Sophie completely, "Can
you get up?"

Sophie stared up at her, the girl’s
dark eyes determined, yet soft. The anger that had been brewing in her
dissipated, "I...I’m not sure." She pulled her other leg over the
edge and braced an arm against the bed. The needles stabbed at her furiously,
and Mona quickly moved in and helped her to sit up. When she glanced back at
the bed she could see the sheets, previously white, were stained red in the
outline of her body and had begun to spread to the edges. She felt her stomach
churn and panic again took her.

"No," Mona put her hands
against either side of Sophie’s face and turned her away, "Don’t think
about it. Here," she reached around Sophie and pulled her shirt off of her
then threw it, heavy with blood, onto the bed. It landed with an awful, wet
sound. Quickly, Mona retrieved a different shirt and dressed her.

Sophie felt much like a doll, limp
and unresponsive, and found she couldn’t object, even if she had wanted. She
attempted to help Mona by lifting her legs, but in hushed, calm tones Mona only
told her to relax. Sophie muffled her anguished cries and found that after a
moment she could stand on her own.

"Come on," Mona slipped
herself under Sophie’s arm and began to lead her to the hall.

"Where are we going?" she
shuffled along beside her cousin, each step driving pain up through her back.

"No time to explain now,"
Mona guided her down the hall a little quicker than Sophie’s legs could manage,
"We just need to go.”

Sophie tripped, but before she
could fall, Mona caught her with little effort. She decided to focus on making
it safely out the door, but when they got to the lobby, she stopped.
"Mona, what is all this? Don’t you think we should go to the
hospital?"

Her cousin shook her head,
"Listen, we don’t have much time. You’re just going to have to trust me,
okay?"

She stared back at her, the young
girl looking desperate and anxious, and simply nodded. There was little she
could do on her own, and at least Mona was doing something, whatever that was.

They continued out onto the street
and rushed to a bus stop where passengers were already disembarking. Mona
helped push her up the stairs and they stood pressed in amongst the others as
the vehicle made its crawl across the city. Sophie held onto the rail with a
tight fist, squeezing her eyes shut. The pain was lessening, but still there.

When they disembarked, they were in
an area Sophie did not recognize. It was dingier than the streets around the
apartment and Lamia, but what was more distressing was the lack of people; it
seemed to be completely vacant. But as Mona led Sophie across the street from
where the bus had dropped them, and only them, off, she seemed unaffected. They
came up to a small, darkened shop between two much taller, and even darker,
buildings.

Mona hesitated at the door then
pushed at it.  When it swung open, she looked a bit alarmed, but quickly
regained herself. Inside, the tiny space was crowded with tables and shelves,
each filled with layers of mismatched items. "Sybil?" she called out,
but no answer came. There was little room to maneuver between the array of
ill-assorted surfaces, and Mona guided Sophie to a chair and sat her down.

"What is this place?"
Sophie couldn’t focus on one single thing as she looked about, but there seemed
to be no real congruence between its content. Only the dim street lights helped
to illuminate the place, but Sophie could see bundles of dried flowers hanging
from the ceiling, jars, many too filmy to see what was contained, lining each shelf
with scribbled pictures and symbols for labels, and containers of all sizes,
tied with colored twine, in a range of little piles all over, looking as if
they’d topple with the slightest touch.

Mona carefully made her way across
the room, examining the tables closely, searching for something, "It’s
a...a shop."

"I can see that," Sophie
was intrigued particularly by one large jar on the table opposite her. Within,
there seemed to be some sort of organic matter suspended in a yellowed liquid. 
Beside it, a large, half melted candle and convenient box of matches sat. The
pain in her back had become more of a constant ache, still severe, but
manageable, and she was able to reach out and light the candle.

Unfortunately, she did not hear
when Mona turned at the sound of her striking the match and yelled for her to
stop. She threw herself backward as the smoke from the candle suddenly welled
up and loomed above her. The gray wisps slithered around one another, growing
up to the ceiling, until they formed an angry, monstrous, fanged face. The
apparition flew at Sophie, enveloping her in a hazy cloud and she cried out,
but it was gone just as quickly as it had appeared.

Mona stood in front of her, holding
the candle, having just snuffed it out, "It’s a very special shop."

Sophie flinched as she lifted
herself off the back of the chair, "What in the world was that?

"Flame of fears," Mona
said simply, setting the object in question in its original spot, "You
light it, it shows you something frightening."

"That was like," Sophie
searched for the word, "Like magic."

Mona stared her down for a long
moment, then turned, "Don’t touch anything else."

She watched her cousin root through
the piles again and silently deliberated what she had said, or rather not said.
There was something strange about this place, even otherworldly, and Mona knew
more than she seemed.

"Aha!" Mona lifted a box
from the ground and unlatched it. When she saw its contents, however, her face
fell. Shrugging, she removed a small vial from inside and threw the empty box
back onto the ground. "Just one more thing."

She took a deep breath and ventured
deeper into the shop to the counter then through a door behind it.
"No!" Mona's shriek bellowed through the small shop.

Sophie jumped up, and, against the
pain searing through her, hobbled to the back. Sprawled on the floor, a woman's
body lay in a pool of her own blood. Her face was contorted with pain and a
faint stench hung in the air amidst the smell of spices and dried flowers. Mona
was at her side, inspecting the long gash running down the woman’s neck,
"They've been here."

"Who?" Sophie gripped the
door frame for balance, going weak from the effort as well as the sight.

"But they must not have
seen," Mona ignored her question as she picked up a small knife lying near
the woman’s hand. She surveyed its elaborate handle and touched her fingertip
to its point then looked up to Sophie, "We have less time than I thought.
I hate to do this to you, but we have to leave now."

Sophie nodded vigorously, the
corpse urging her more than Mona ever could, but when her cousin stood she did
not go for the door. Instead, she grabbed a pen and scrap of paper from the
back room’s desk and began to draw. She pressed the pen to the paper and
paused, shutting her eyes and screwing up her face. She made a circle and then
a smaller one inside it as well as a few crisscrossing lines. Below that she
created another circle in which she placed a few dots but with much difficulty.
She grunted loudly then scratched out the whole thing, flipping the paper over
and starting again.

The symbols looked vaguely
familiar, and then Sophie remembered. She dug into her pocket and pulled out
the scrap she had found inside the book at the library and thoughtlessly
squirreled away. "Is this what you’re trying to do?"

Mona took the paper from her and
her jaw dropped, "Where did you get this?"

"Found it at the
library," she blurted out.

Mona looked from it to her and then
back, "It’s not what I’m going for, but it could work. I’ve never heard of
this place, but we can’t really afford to wait." She groaned a little in
the back of her throat, "We can figure it out when we get there, I
guess." Mona stepped around the woman on the floor and came up to Sophie,
"This is going to be strange, okay?"

“You mean it gets stranger?”

Mona shrugged and, instead of
leading her out of the shop, Mona stood beside Sophie and planted her feet. She
held the strip of paper at arm’s length in front of them with her left hand,
and in the other she held the knife. With great concentration, she brought the
knife up level with the paper and, in a quick motion, stabbed at the center of
the symbols, releasing the paper and using both hands to control the dagger.
Light burst forth from the tear she had created and she struggled holding onto
the blade as she cut into the suspended scrap, tearing through it entirely and
continuing on into the air itself.

The gash lengthened, spilling forth
more light from which Sophie had to shield her eyes. It filled up the darkened
little room they stood in, its source an impossible crack in space. Mona pulled
on the dagger until she had almost reached the ground, then jerked it back and
tucked it into her belt. She heaved a sigh and glanced at Sophie who was
wide-eyed and speechless. "That’s about what I expected."

Sophie forgot about the pain
pulsing through her body in that moment and reached for the break. Her fingers
slipped into the path of the light, scattering it, and she quickly pulled her
hand back, though she felt nothing, "What in the world?"

"Funny you should say,"
Mona then reached into the crack and grasped its side, pulling away at it and
revealing only brighter illumination, "since it’s not." She ducked
down and stuck her leg through the hole she had made. It was swallowed up in
the light.

Sophie hurried around to the back
of where the tear had been made, but found nothing there, Mona’s form
completely hidden. The light was even gone. "What the hell?"

"Not exactly," Mona
snorted then gestured to her, "Come on, it will only be open a few minutes,
tops.” When Sophie didn’t move, Mona grabbed her wrist and pulled her with the
same abnormal strength she’d shown before, and Sophie found herself falling
headlong into the light.

For a moment, she was blind,
stumbling indiscriminately forward with only Mona’s firm grip around her wrist.
She blinked and rubbed at her eyes as they adjusted, but could not understand
why they would not focus. The light about her slowly dimmed from its brilliant
white and settled into a sort of dull gray, like that of unpolished silver or
an old stone, and her vision clouded, making the sky and ground
indistinguishable.

Mona popped up before her then, her
face a sharp contrast against the mottled color of the world around them.
"So, where have you brought us?"

"Me?" Sophie focused on
the girl and realized her sight was not to blame, but it indeed was this place
they’d entered that seemed to made entirely of mist.

Mona pointed off to their right and
Sophie followed her finger to see a building in the distance. It looked to be
hovering there in the wispiness, its brick facade bold and bright against the
muted grays of this world. The little place was perfectly symmetrical with two
windows on either side, flanked themselves with wooden shutters and matching
flower boxes with tiny pink blooms, though there was no sign of flora
elsewhere. It had a high-peaked roof with dark shingles and she knew, somehow,
it would have a chimney poking out from its very center. It was so familiar but
so ill-placed. "Where is the mailbox?" she asked herself quietly,
"And the big tree and tire swing?"