Marcy remembered she had to pick up her brother from soccer practice, so we parted ways from Manuel’s around six. Now I was alone with my hectic thoughts.
I had tons of schoolwork, which meant I needed to stop in town to get me a vanilla latte to wake up, ASAP, before I risked passing out and falling behind again with my school assignments.
On the richer side of Pleasant Valley, there was a popular road called Station Street, the yellow brick road to my favorite coffee shop. I didn’t visit Main Street often because it was always crowded and hard to park, but whenever I needed art supplies or a real good cup o’ joe, I endured the social anxiety and headed into town.
Lined up on either side of Station Street were beautifully decorated stores. Each building stood apart from the other, colorful and unique, with window displays that made you stop and stare. This month’s theme? Halloween, of course. As soon as I caught a glimpse of the decorations in the coffee shop, a sense of nostalgia brought a smile to my face. Aunt Sarah would always take me here around Christmas for new clothes. We’d check out all the festive holiday window displays and marvel at the strings of rainbow Christmas lights twinkling along streetlamps and stores.
As I approached the cozy shop, I felt like I’d made the right choice in coming here to reboot. I stopped for a moment to view the window display with various carved pumpkins and snapped a photo for Aunt Sarah. Satisfied, I started to walk away, when in the reflection of the window, a motionless figure standing across the street caught my eye.
I spun around and saw a man in all black. He stood apart from everyone else, dark hair, pale skin, beady black eyes. His sharp, unnatural features and malicious stare reminded me of Malphas’s raven demons. I froze so stiffly that I couldn’t breathe.
A bus rolled by, momentarily blocking my view of the man, and when it passed, he was gone.
A violent chill darted down my spine. Turning away from the coffee shop, I rushed down the sidewalk without a destination in mind. I’d parked my car too far away. I kept looking across the street, checking for the demon. I was so frantic, and neither I nor the person walking toward me on the sidewalk were paying attention to where we were going.
I smacked into a hard chest and a tiny bit of scalding hot liquid sloshed onto my flannel.
“Hot! Hot!” I pinched the wet fabric away from my skin.
“Shoot,” a familiar voice mumbled. “I’m so—”
I locked eyes with Thomas Gregory.
“Sorry,” Thomas finished with a sheepish smile. “Hey, Faith.
What are the odds?”
“Even money,” I said coldly. “I live in the same town as you.”
Thomas laughed and scratched the back of his blond curls.
“Listen, I um . . . ”
I brushed past him. “See ya.”
“Wait,” he said, blocking my retreat. “I know you hate me. If it’s any consolation at all, Marcy and I, we’re just friends now.”
“Do you think I’m stupid?”
He choked on his drink. “No, not at all. I just—”
“Is she your second choice or your thirtieth? I’ve seen you with other girls at school, and I saw you with Marcy at your party.”
“What happened at the party was a mistake,” he explained. “We were both drunk.”
“I see right through you, Thomas. All you care about is yourself.
You think you can toy with whatever girl you want without consequences, and if you think I’m going to let that happen to her again, you’ve got another thing coming, pool boy. Don’t talk to her or me ever again. Got it? Good. Have a nice life.”
He jogged to catch up to me. “Faith, hold on. Faith, wait—” I felt his hand grip my wrist, and my surroundings washed away.
I was elsewhere—standing on the sidewalk of Main Street, but in a different location, in front of a different store. Confused, I turned my head to the left, and I saw myself racing toward me down the sidewalk, dragging Thomas Gregory behind her. The two of them ran right through me, as if I were a ghost, before turning a corner past a popular sandwich shop. They headed to a patio with seating arrangements for a pizzeria and reached a dead end. An awful sensation settled in my gut, and I ran after them. When I reached the patio area and spotted them, chaos erupted. Ahead of them, two raven demons dropped down from the pizzeria and landed on the pavement.
I watched myself snap into action and grab Thomas by the arm, trying to tug him away from the demons. Terror washed over Thomas’s face, but instead of escaping, he shunted me behind him, like he was protecting me. The smaller demon laughed in a chilling way and vanished. He reappeared right in front of Thomas and punched toward his chest. I couldn’t see what had happened, until Thomas let out a wet gurgling noise and fell backward onto the pavement. The demon held a clump of bloody, gory flesh in his clawed hand. A heart. The one he’d ripped from Thomas’s chest cavity . . .
I wrenched myself free from the vision.
“Oh my God!” Gasping for air, I gaped wide-eyed at Thomas Gregory. There was no wound on his chest. “Oh my God!”
I tore my hand free from his and rushed to the nearest trash can, retching my brains out. I was handed a napkin and cleaned myself off as best I could.
Thomas lightly touched my back. “Are you all right?”
“Stay back!” I gasped, stumbling away from him. It was dramatic, I knew, but the last thing I wanted to do was somehow make this situation worse. “Don’t come near me!”
Thomas showed me his palms. “Whoa, chill out. Just making sure you’re okay. I mean, shit, did I really make you physically ill?”
My mind surged with thoughts. He’d touched me, and I’d gone somewhere else, just like I had with Death. But this time, I’d been in the future. I’d seen him die. I’d seen those raven demons pursuing us. Thomas might have broken my best friend’s heart, but I’d never hope for him or anyone else to die. Had I really seen the future? Was there a way to change his fate?
I had to act; I had to act now. My hands shook as I tried to dial David’s number for help. Although it was impossible to reach his contact number on my cracked screen, I managed it by a miracle.
The call went through, right as my luck ran out and my phone died.
“What’s going on?” Thomas asked, finally figuring out I wasn’t upset about him and Marcy.
I debated whether or not to tell him the truth. I had no way of proving that vision would even come true, but I’d seen what those demons were capable of outside of the D&S Tower. Telling him I had seen his death meant potentially dragging him into a world I wished I were oblivious to. Or it meant damning myself to the psych ward. Walking away after what I’d seen wasn’t an option. If Thomas died because of those demons, and I didn’t at least warn him, I would never forgive myself. I had the chance to save his life. That was the most important thing.
“Your life is in danger,” I rushed out. “We have to go somewhere safe. Right now. They might have seen you with me.” I pulled Thomas forward by the sleeve of his sweatshirt, but he resisted.
“What do you mean, my life is in danger?” He jerked away from my grasp, his expression a blend of you’ve lost your marbles and pure terror. “Who are they?”
Behind Thomas, a clearing opened up amongst people walking down the sidewalk. There, I saw a tall raven demon sauntering toward us with his hands in his pockets. If these demons could manifest like Death could, then running wouldn’t help, but it was the only option I had at the moment.
Frantically, I turned back to Thomas. “I’ll explain later, you have to trust me! Come on!” I yanked hard on his hand, and he finally obliged. “Across the street!”
The cars didn’t move very fast on Station Street, but one nearly hit us. They swerved and laid on their horn as I hauled Thomas across the way and down the other sidewalk.
I turned over my shoulder and wished I hadn’t. Two raven demons were close on our trail. And when I looked forward, another demon appeared directly in front of us. Thomas and I came to a halt.
Suddenly two cloaked figures with shorter and smaller frames than Death emerged, dropping to the ground around us with blades in their hands. Seething, the demons both let out a frightening hiss.
“This way!” I yanked Thomas with me back across the street.
“What the fuck was that?” Thomas shouted.
No friggin’ clue! “Just keep running!”
Creatures manifested ahead of us, crawling down the buildings and striking pedestrians to the ground. Thomas and I were forced to make another sharp turn, corralled into the very place I had been trying to avoid. The patio where I’d seen Thomas murdered.
Someone familiar was already there, waiting for us.
“Good evening, Faith,” Malphas said.
He wore a sleek black shirt and silky black pants. Clean-shaven, his jaw was sharp and his cheeks were slightly hallowed in. Midnight hair twisted back into Viking braids, tied away from his face. He diffused a toxic type of attraction, as if I had no other choice but to consider him beautiful, and something about that feeling oddly reminded me of Death.
“If you come quietly, your friend will leave here unharmed,”
Malphas continued in that deep, hoarse voice. “If not, well . . . ” He looked pointedly at Thomas, and then back at me. “One of you is disposable.”
“All right, what is going on?” Thomas exclaimed. “Who is this creep, Faith?”
“Mind your business, Chad,” Malphas seethed.
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I said, and the raven demigod switched his intense onyx eyes back to mine. I was pretty much done with this supernatural shit for today. I split my focus between Malphas’s composed body language and the hyper, rabid-looking henchman demon standing beside him, who was focused on Thomas.
He was the one I’d seen rip Thomas’s heart out. “And if you’re smart,”
I continued, discreetly wrapping my fingers around my pepper spray bottle in my pocket, “you’ll leave both of us alone. Before Death arrives and rips you in half.”
Malphas apparently didn’t find Death too threatening since his only response was to lift a dark brow.
I acted fast, unleashing half the bottle of spray into the eyes of Malphas’s henchman demon, who had been slowly advancing toward Thomas. Screeching, he dropped to his knees. Thomas and I watched in horror as the demon’s face began to burn away beneath his fingers.
“Ouch,” Thomas and I said in unison.
I turned the bottle on Malphas next, but suddenly my hand was empty, and the bottle was clutched in his dexterous fingers. “Smart girl.” He laughed in a low way, inspecting the canister with black nails. “A pepper spray bottle filled with blessed water?”
“Five bucks on Amazon,” I muttered, wishing I’d gotten the six-pack.
“Impressive.” Malphas disposed of the container and grinned.
“However, your little weapon would not have worked on me. I’m not a newborn demon. I’m a demigod.” He glided toward me, and my thoughts darted around my skull. Where was he going to take me?
“Don’t touch her!”
Surprised, Malphas switched his attention to Thomas. Thomas’s chest heaved with adrenaline as he held out a glass bottle, which I suppose he’d found from the overflowing trash can at his side.
Smashing the bottle’s top, he threatened the raven demigod with the jagged edges. “Yeah, I’m talking to you, you ugly piece of shit. Ever hear of self-tanner?”
Malphas lifted his lip up in a snarl. “To think I almost spared you. Kill him. I don’t want mortal blood on my Louis Vuittons.” Two raven demons manifested behind Thomas. They grabbed him with their clawed hands.
“Get away from him!” I screamed.
Thomas writhed against the demons. “Get out of here, Faith!”
I watched in horror as the demon’s claws dug into his arms. “Go!”
“I’ll go with you!” I cried to Malphas. Adrenaline spiked through my veins. Without warning, my fingertips were singed with fire, and
I winced from the violent migraine now hammering at my skull.
“Just let him go!”
Malphas regarded me with a cold smile. “You’ll leave with me either way.” He gestured toward the demons to continue.
And I snapped.
“I said, get away from him!”
Out of instinct, I raised my hand toward Malphas’s demons, and a surge of energy poured out of me like liquid fire racing down my arm. There was a flash of light, so blinding I had to turn my eyes away, and a noise that could only be described as a sonic boom. The stench of burning flesh filled the air, bringing tears to my eyes. Acid rose up my throat.
The light burned out. The migraine dissipated. Ashes piled thickly on the ground where Malphas’s demons once stood. With an unsteady step backward, I gazed down at my hands and black splotches filled my vision. I stumbled, leaning against a patio table to keep myself up, my breathing shallow and quick. Panic made passing out that much more likely, so I tried to calm myself down. Through the gaps of consciousness, I saw Thomas. He had dropped to his knees in the ash, his entire body quaking as if he had an unending chill. Blood ran down both of his arms from the nails of those demons, mingled with a thick black substance.
He’d been poisoned, just like I’d been in the alleyway.
Thomas fell over on his side, his expression tightening into pure agony, and that’s when I saw Malphas manifest ahead of me. He looked down at the piles of ash with a docile expression, then flicked those coal eyes back to me. I watched him make the decision to leave me or take me.
Malphas snatched Thomas by the varsity jacket instead and evaporated with him.
“NO!”
I stared at the now empty spot with widening eyes. Shadows danced across the ground from above. I forced myself to run, run far away from this never-ending nightmare. The world around me swirled. I stumbled, my fingers smacking against the pavement several times to keep myself from falling, until I regained control over my equilibrium and took off.
I ran as hard as I could, my will to survive fueling my body past every limit I thought I had. When I felt I’d run far enough, I hunkered down into a random store. The Crossroads was the name of the little shop, according to its Ouija board–looking sign at the front of the building. It had an antique door with various bells on strings hanging on the entryway that chimed when I entered. I slammed the door behind me, my ears popping like crazy, as if I’d entered a pressurized room.
Fatigue hit me hard. I collapsed behind a mannequin by a front display window. I tried to make sense of what had just happened, but there was too much to process. I’d turned those demons to ash. And with what? What the hell had come out of my hands? Those demons had been after me. Me. Not Thomas. He’d tried to sacrifice himself so I could get away. Why? Why had he done that for me? Now he was gone. I’d saved him from the terrible fate I’d foreseen, only for him to suffer a worse one. The slow, agonizing death that I’d once evaded. Was there a chance Thomas could survive? Was there a chance Malphas would let him go? I’d failed. I’d failed Thomas.
My chest felt heavy, constricted. Wrenching gasps for air turned to tears, then uncontrollable sobbing. Crying was the release my body needed to keep going.
I wiped at my eyes with my sleeves and observed my fingers again, flexing them. Forcing myself off the floor, I peered out behind the mannequin and looked out into the street. No demons or cloaked men in sight.
I had to call someone. What would I even tell the police? I couldn’t endanger Marcy or my parents either. Marcy. How would I tell her what happened to Thomas? Could I? In my moment of fear, I’d called David. Now my mind was clearing up and that felt like a mistake. Relying on him was dangerous, especially considering I hadn’t made up my mind about trusting him.
Maybe I’d call my dad, just to hear his voice and gain the confidence to go back to my car. I glanced around the Crossroads store.
There was an empty cashier counter, which didn’t have a phone, and tons of meditation trinkets and paraphernalia. After a few tries at turning on my cell, I gave up and decided to take a look around for an employee’s help. It wasn’t like I was about to go out there.
With wary steps, I walked through an archway ahead and my mouth went slack. Books were everywhere. Thousands and thousands of books. Old books on display in glass cases, thick books with stained bindings, books in various languages with leather covers. This place seemed to grow larger as I craned my neck to take in the towering shelves and the wooden staircases leading to different levels of balconies. A high ceiling curved with a glass dome at the top, arched above the spacious library. My Converse squeaked as I absorbed this quiet, magical place into memory. The more I wandered around, the more I forgot about why I’d entered the store to begin with, how my fingertips tingled from the remnants of that mysterious light, and how, for whatever reason, those demons hadn’t followed me in here.
There was a sound not too far away, a door slamming. A spell shattered and my whole body went into alert mode. Behind a wall of bookshelves, I heard low voices.
With a hand clutching the front of my coffee-stained T-shirt beneath my flannel, I tracked the location of the voices. To my right was a display of pamphlets on a velvet table, advertising a psychic. I picked one up, studying the golden, upside-down palm with a violet eye at the center. A small whooshing sound drew my eyes to a set of thick curtains on the wall that I hadn’t noticed before. The fabric swayed.
Trust me, the last thing I wanted to deal with was more paranormal crap right now. Nevertheless, I’d set my sights on getting to a phone, and this store had an indescribable lure that pulled me farther in. My fingers gripped the velvety fabric of the heavy curtains.
Holding my breath, I yanked them open. Before me was yet another empty room. No axe murderer. My shoulders relaxed a little. At the center of the area sat a circular palm-reading table with a dimly lit, lavish chandelier suspended above it. A crystal ball sat on top of the table. It absorbed any and all light in the room and shimmered with radiance, as if directly beneath the sun.
With my curiosity piqued, I crept farther inside. The room was filled with candles melting at various stages and containers of spices that permeated the air. Jars packed with objects and coins, glass cases displaying lavish jewelry. Scattered here and there were leafy exotic greens, which I thought was odd because there wasn’t any natural sunlight back here. Not that I knew anything about plants; I think I even killed my fake cactus.
I hovered around the ancient-looking artifacts dispersed throughout the room, pausing at a necklace, which gleamed as I glanced over it. The necklace hung on display in a tall, octangular glass box. I had never seen anything so small yet so detailed. It was a dainty gothic cross pendant with a blue gem at the center. The gem was so fascinating I almost didn’t notice the black serpent coiled around the ornament.
Not exactly nunnery fashionwear.
Staring at this pendant, I brushed my fingers against my bare collarbone, where I always wore my communion cross my parents had given me. At the carnival, I’d foolishly thrown it at Death, and now it was never to be seen again. Although I only loosely practiced my Catholic religion, that cross always grounded me, reminding me of my morals and my family.
My family. They were completely in the dark about all of this.
On second thought, maybe it was better I’d lost that necklace; it would have been a constant reminder of the secrets I was keeping from my loved ones. It made me physically ill to keep them in the dark, but I did not want to get them involved in any of this.
The air shifted, and I knew I was no longer alone.
