Kill of the night – Gina Wigmore
Kill of the night – Gina Wigmore
Chapter 5
Normal people run from creepy looking schools shrouded in shadows, with flashes of movements behind windows and doors that rattled. Not Abe or Fay. From unseen places they were watched. Death radiated off Fay, simultaneously drawing them in and frightening them away. She was their salvation and their doom, their final resting place but removal of their earthly existence. She led Abe on to the gymnasium, waiting patiently at the door as he unlocked it. He knelt down and fished out a lock picking kit, digging out several small tools. In a minute the door clicked and he pushed it open with an audible screech that snaked down Fay’s spine. She glanced around involuntarily as she stepped in and moved to one side, shedding her jacket and draped it on the front row of the bleachers.
“I detected three when I came in. Might take a bit to draw them in,” she said. “Did you bring any lures?”
He lifted a small talisman from his bag. “Naturally. You should shift. See if you can drive them down this way, then I can use the talisman and lure them here. We can trap all three and be done before three am. Sound good?”
She nodded and shed her clothes, layer by layer. Abe kept his back turned and worked studiously on his spell circles, drawing them out in low, intricate patterns. Fay glanced over her shoulder and frowned, a little scornful. When she turned back and shed the last vestiges of clothing she closed her eyes and drew on the change. Her bones shattered in an instant but there was no pain. Darkness overcame her but beckoned her with a spindly, welcoming hand. She took that hand and felt her body double over, her new form stretching out comfortably. In a blink she was on all fours, her jet-black paws stretching on the vinyl flooring. The smell of polished flooring, sweat and years of gathered dust in unseen nooks filled her lungs. With it, came another smell, rancid and sour, that slowly crept in and pierced her thick fur, burrowing deep into her skin, soaking her. She lifted her head and with new eyes saw through the thick shadows, watched as tendrils of black energy floated by the door, passing and out intermittently.
Abe stood, having finished his circles and moved the bags over to where her clothes was. He folded her stuff neatly in a pile, then stood and glanced over her. It seemed every time she shifted he looked at her, searching for something, though she wasn’t sure what. Ironically, in her shifted form she nearly matched his height with her long, muscled limbs and long, pronounced snout, white fangs peeking out. Her mouth curled back with a low, warning snarl and she turned away, nudging the door open with her nose. Behind her, Abe laughed.
Out in the hallway she followed the tendrils along the shadowed hallway, drawn by doors and lockers that rattled before her. Every so often a locker jolted loudly, the clattering ruckus resounding down the hall. Each feeble attempt to scare her off, as if such petty tricks would work. She drew closer, deep, guttural growls rumbling from her snout. As she rounded a corner, venturing deep into the south wing, the rattling thundered and rose, a crescendo that fell dead into silence. She stopped and felt the ghosts draw closer involuntarily. They hovered at the edge of her vision, fighting the pull. One crumpled and drifted forward; a semi-transparent figure, a woman in a ripped 80’s dress with a badly mangled arm. Her face contorted into an ugly snarl.
Fay stepped closer.
An inhuman scream tore from the woman’s mouth, her lips parting to an inhuman degree. The sound sharpened to a screech. Fay lunged but the woman dissolved and set off on a run, as did the other two; both women, both badly crippled. Fay shot off, darting through shadows as she corralled them. She quickened her pace to cut their routes off, herding them down the hall, and not through walls. They knew it but couldn’t fight when she jumped in front of their escape routes, snarling with dripping fangs and icy eyes.
They stopped suddenly, as did Fay behind them, a few feet away. She watched them cautiously, her muscles poised. After a second she realised she’d gotten them in front of the gymnasium doors. They stared at it, enraptured, like bugs to a light, bees to a flower. Prey to a trap. Yet, after a minute of the staring she wondered when they’d go in. Their minds were caught but their bodies didn’t obey to go in. As if their purpose on the earthly plane was more important than them passing on in peace. Someone had bound them but who and why? Was it the missing girl, Amanda? Or some other shadowy figure?
The doors flung open suddenly and held there. Compelled forward they floated inside, their expressions vacant. Fay followed at a short distance behind them, stopping in the doorway. Beyond the ghosts Fay saw Abe standing in the middle of the three circles, one hand holding an open grimoire. He was already incanting, his focus elsewhere, so Fay moved then behind the ghosts. She felt like a sheepdog, corralling errant sheep. The thought sent a scornful flicker of fire in her chest. She shoved it away as the ghosts stepped into their circles – and began to scream. Fay lunged to the closest as the ghost buckled to her knees, clawing at her chest. A light flared beneath her fingers. She dug her fingers into rotten flesh, as if trying to tear something out. The others seemed to mirror her.
Fay lunged into the circle and let out a howl of agony as the binding circle tore at her demon flesh. Abe fell to his knees, crying out.
“Fay, get out of there! Something’s gone wrong with the spell. It’ll tear you apart!” Abe shouted.
But she was trapped within. She surged forward and sunk her fangs into the ghost’s neck, and into the soul. Something only her teeth could touch. Then she dragged herself back, fighting the crushing weight of the circle, like she was playing tug-o-war at the same time. Her back legs pierced the edge of the circle, powering surging through them, granting her enough to tear the soul free, disintegrating the summoned poltergeist form. She burst free and staggered, wobbling a little on her feet, the soul flickering in her both like a flickering fire. She kept her mouth shut as she looked to the other circles, watching as the ghosts exploded, their souls turning to dust – not to return to the Underworld.
They simply ceased to be.
Abe was on the ground, not moving. Panic surged through her. She shot over to him and nudged him with her snout. He groaned and rolled over, looking up at her with bleary eyes.
“I’m fine. Go.”
She hesitated but an old fear rose within her, dragging her away. Turning from him she trotted to the edge, ignoring the strange silver dust in the circles where the ghosts had been. Cursed Divinity. With a shake her head she continued on and, from within, summoned a sphere of darkness. It swelled before her. She stepped in and let the darkness carry her down.
When she emerged, she stood in human form, clad in a black leather tunic and pants, a polished obsidian belt cinched around her waist. She looked down at her hand and saw the usual iron cage, containing a small floating blue fire. It hovered calmly within it’s cage. She felt it’s peace. With a deep breath she set off down the stone path, flanked by a lush forest and dense undergrowth. Shadows of movement flashed in the corner of her eye; demons, she supposed. They wouldn’t bother her. They never did. She was the one to be feared. They were only drawn by the prospect of a new soul, especially one taken in by the literal side door into the Underworld.
She followed the snaking path for what felt like an eternity, another side effect of the Underworld – the strange passage of time. So, she sang her time away on the walk. Silly little songs for children that, in such a place, with her husky voice, sounded like an ominous warning. A threat of sorts. It didn’t dispel the small demons that trailed at a distance behind her. In fact, it seemed to draw them closer, and in greater numbers. By the time the forest gave way to a brief clearing she’d amassed a small army of hissing demons. They held to the forest as she stepped up to the colossal black gate. The gate opened as she reached for it and a great, broad-shouldered figure filled the space. For a moment he was obscured by shadow; then, he moved into the glow of the torches suspended above.
“Thanatos,” she greeted with barely disguised scorn.
The God of Death grinned charmingly. “Hello, Fay. Another soul for collection?”
He held his hand out expectantly but she held back, arching her brow at him. “I want to speak to her. Properly.”
“Such a strange request. You’ve never cared what the dead have had to say before,” he remarked airily. “That means you’d have to pass beyond the gates and you swore never to do that, again. Given how it went last time.”
“I know.”
“You’re not a hellhound of Hades,” he said with an exaggerated sigh. “Which means-“
“I need permission. Now, are you going to give it? What do you want in exchange? Besides my soul and/or my allegiance to your boss?”
He leant in with a dangerous smile. “You’ve never been one to make deals with me before. Something about me being a worm not worth the oxygen I use or the space I occupy.”
She flashed him a frosty smile. “Oh, that still stands.”
He loosed a long whistle as he leant back on the stone wall. “You must be desperate.”
A laugh erupted from her mouth, stunning him. He frowned as she doubled over, the effort of maintaining the façade too much. When she sobered and straightened up she wiped the tears from her eyes. “Oh, Thanatos. You didn’t think I’d come empty handed? That’d I’d actually offer my soul? No offence but that’s my trump card – the most sought-after soul right now – and there’s no way I’d waste it on you.”
Anger seethed in his eyes. “What’s your offer?”
“Information and a very curious soul. What if I told you someone on the earthly realm, a mortal, had found a way to destroy souls? Permanently and, that’s not all.”
He was silent for a moment. As a God of Death, he knew the gravity of what she told him, of the greater implications. He mulled it over for a second, then lifted his dark gaze to her.
“What else?”
“That’s not how the deal works. Admittance to the scrying pools and the rest of what I have to say is yours,” she said sweetly. “No more, no less.”
He snorted derisively. “You’re conning me.”
“I swear on the River Styx that I will uphold my end of the deal. The information is yours,” she said, wincing as a light blazed over her heart with a fiery sting. A brand formed over her heart.
At the sight of the brand he fell silent. He hadn’t expected her to swear on something so…permanent. Something that bound even the greatest of deities, which was so few swore on it. The fact that she did it so easily seemed to assure him. With a nod he snapped his fingers and the Gates opened again, then he held out a hand. Without skipping a beat she took his hand and passed beyond the threshold, straight into the Palace of Hades.
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