Alice Isn't Well (Death Herself Book 1) (21 page)

“You're going to be open when I need you to be open,” he'd told her, “and closed when I need you to be closed.”

With that, he'd pulled the wire tighter through her lips, sealing them shut even as she tried again to scream. And then a few hours later – or had it been days? – she'd heard the police officer calling out from downstairs, and she'd desperately tried to get to him in time, to warn him not to come upstairs. She remembered pulling the wires free from her mouth and eyes, and seeing the officer's horrified face as he was approached from behind. And then...

“
You
killed him,” she whispered now as she watched the figure stepping toward her, edging closer to the shopping mall's balcony. Reaching into a pocket, the figure pulled out a dark length of wire.

“Right now,” his echoing voice hissed, “I need you to be closed again. So that you're ready the next time I need to enter you. We can ride between lives together.”

Frozen with fear, Alice watched as he stepped closer. She wanted to run, but at the same time she was too scared to move an inch, even as the figure reached out to her. Now that he was closer, she could see that it wasn't just his voice that echoed constantly: his entire body seemed to be constantly shifting fractions of an inch in every direction, as if two of him were fighting for one space. His face was bare and pale, save for two dark eyes that stared at her and a torn mouth with scraps of damaged skin trailing down.

“Outtatheway!” Hannah shouted suddenly, bundling into Alice at the last moment and knocking her against the wall, before grabbing her hand and pulling her toward the escalator. “What the hell's wrong with you? Lost the use of your legs?”

Stumbling, Alice turned back just as the figure turned to look at her, and she saw a flicker of anger in his eyes.

“When a demon is trying to grab your face,” Hannah continued, pulling Alice around the next corner and then stopping, “you don't just stand there and let him!”

“I couldn't help it,” Alice stammered. “I just... I couldn't move.”

“Yeah, well...” Peering around the corner, Hannah looked for some sign of the demon. “Come on, big boy, where are you?”

“What's your plan?” Alice asked.

“Plan?”

“You've got a plan, right?”

“I've got a concept!”

“A concept?”

Hannah turned to her. “The demon was more or less harmless floating above the city seventy years ago, right?”

“If you say so.”

“He was happy just watching human conflict and soaking up the bad vibes,” she continued. “He's only become a pain since he got brought down here and started hatching other plans. He's getting ambitious, and it doesn't suit him.”

“So?”

“So what comes down, must go up.”

“Meaning?”

“We put him back up there,” Hannah explained, hurrying past her and looking around the next corner, still without spotting any sign of the dark figure. “Like I told you, demons are very single-minded and focused. Most of them, including this guy, aren't so hot when it comes to complex plans. If we get him back up there high above the city, he'll just be happy to slip back into his old ways and watch the carnage again. It's while he's down here that he's dangerous, because now he doesn't know what to do, so he's trying to come up with something.” She turned back to Alice. “He's a like a -”

She stopped suddenly, wide-eyed with shock as she stared at something directly over Alice's shoulder.

“What is it?” Alice asked, feeling a jolt of fear running through her spine. “He's right behind me, isn't he?”

“Not quite.”

Alice turned, just in time to see a vast fireball bursting through the air. Ducking down around the next corner, she felt the entire floor shudder with the force of the explosion.

“He's panicking,” Hannah muttered, dropping down next to her as debris rained down all around them. “This is what demons do when they panic, they resort to their base urges, and this guy's a fire demon so... Not very imaginative, huh?” She peered around the corner and saw that a large section of the building was already burning. “We're high up, yeah?” she continued, turning back to Alice. “Third or fourth floor?”

Alice nodded.

“You know,” Hannah continued with a frown, “I think maybe I could have anticipated -”

Before she could finish, there was another loud explosion nearby. The floor shook again as a larger fireball burst along the next corridor and then blossomed out into the atrium, filling the air with debris.

“So he's just going to burn everything down?” Alice asked, her heart pounding in her chest.

“He's new to this,” Hannah replied, staring wide-eyed straight ahead as she tried to turn her concept into a fully-formed plan. “When in doubt, rip stuff up. It's the demon way. He's experimenting, he's not used to having a body. Hell, he's not very used to having a mind. He's the kind of demon who usually floats along following his instincts. I doubt he's had to think much at all. If he did, he might realize that he doesn't actually
need
you, Alice. He's just a little slow on the uptake, in the -”

The whole building shook as another explosion rocked the floor, and this time there was a distant, ominous grinding sound, as if the structure was starting to collapse.

“So what's the plan?” Alice asked. “Please tell me you know how to stop a demon.”

“There are two main options,” Hannah replied, peering around the corner again and watching as the figure edged closer, trailing fire in his wake. “One is to travel to a far-off castle named Abscotchia and fight three troll sisters for possession of the Arridian sword. We'd have to get there by boat, but I'm sure we could bribe some salty pirates to take us at least half of the way, maybe even to the edge of the haunted forest. After that, we'd have to face a tribe of Grodlings, creatures that take your deepest fears and bring them to life. It's all very Freudian.” She frowned. “Of course, that would take months.”

“So what's the other option?”

“The other option?” Hannah sighed, before getting to her feet. Grabbing hold of her belt, she adjusted her trousers. “The other option is that I go and beat the living daylights out of this creep. After all, he's not very used to having a fleshy body, so he can't be
that
hard to bring down. In theory.” She looked around the corner again, and although most of the balconies were on fire, she could see the figure still making its way closer. “I guess this is it then,” she muttered, turning back to Alice. “Get out of here, okay? I can take care of myself, but I can't take care of you too, we've already proved that. So get out of here.”

“I'm not leaving you,” Alice stammered.

“Oh, give it a rest,” Hannah replied, stepping out into full view of the demon. “This isn't the time to prove that you're brave, just go. Your job was to get his attention, and you've done that. I'll catch up with you. If you stick around, you'll just give him an opportunity to jump back into your body.” With that, she stepped forward, keeping her eyes fixed firmly on the demon. “You don't belong down here,” she told him firmly. “You're not the kind of demon who strides the world and gets up to shenanigans. That's not your strength. You're the kind of demon who drifts around, feeding off the misery and pain that gets stirred up down here. You're a parasite. That's fine, it's your life-cycle, it works for you. Go back to it, instead of trying to walk around and do stuff on your own.”

The demon stared at her for a moment, before slowly tilting his head to one side and offering a broad smile filled with rows of stained, sharp teeth.

“You're really
not
going to be smart and take my advice, are you?” Hannah continued with a sigh, before glancing back toward the nearest corner. “Alice! You're not still there, are you?”

She waited.

Nothing.

“Good,” she muttered, turning back to the demon. “At least this time, I don't have to worry about -”

Before she could finish, the demon lunged at her, slamming her hard into the wall and knocking chunks of plaster down as they both tumbled to the edge of the balcony. Gasping for air, Hannah tried to twist free, before her hair was tugged back and then her face was slammed into the railing. She dropped down for a moment before hauling herself up and spinning around, just as the demon reached out to grab her throat. Ducking out of the way, she threw her weight into his chest and knocked him back toward the nearby flames, finally forcing him down and letting out a gasp of frustration as she climbed onto his chest.

“Do you even know who you're dealing with here?” she snarled, staring down at him. “
Do you
?” she shouted, leaning closer. “Do you know what kind of a mess you're in right now?”

Roaring with anger, he reached up and grabbed her neck.

“Oh, you're really smart,” Hannah continued. “You really know how to pick your fights, don't you? Not only are you starting to really irritate me, but you hurt a friend of mine in her previous life and now you're trying to use her again in
this
life. I don't have many friends, but a few -” She gasped as she felt his grip tightening around her throat. “Really?” she spluttered. “Are you
this
stupid? Can't you -”

Suddenly he rose up and threw her back, sending her tumbling through the air until she slammed into a column and then slumped to the ground. Winded, she began to pick herself up as he stepped closer.

“I like it down here,” the demon said firmly, his voice echoing against the roar of the advancing flames. “Watching the carnage was fun, but now I wish to add to it myself. I wish to be in its fiery heart.”

“By burning everything down?” she asked, struggling to her feet.

“There are worse ways to announce my presence.”

In the distance, sirens could be heard approaching.

“Hear that?” she asked. “Human emergency teams, coming here to put out the fire. What are you gonna do when they get here? Burn them too?”

“If it pleases me to do so,” he replied with a smile, “then yes.”

“And then what? Burn more and more? Just keep on burning your way around the world until there's nothing left?”

“Maybe the wise ones will bow down before me,” he told her. “If they do, I might let them live if they turn out to be sufficiently entertaining. I have time to come up with a full plan. For now, I'm just enjoying myself.” Holding his arms out, he smiled as more flames burst through the air, crashing into an old elevator shaft.

“You can't wipe them all out,” Alice replied, still trying to get her breath back. “If there are no more humans, who's going to fight for your entertainment?”

“The gods, perhaps?” He smiled again. “And then the angels. And then the other demons. And then...” His smile broadened as he stepped closer. “Even Death herself.”

“Fat chance,” she said firmly, as the floor beneath her feet began to creak and shift.

“I've heard about you,” the demon continued. “I know what you are.”

“Then you should know I have dominion over all creatures,” she pointed out, “dead or alive. Even the ugly pyromaniacs. In fact -” Checking her watch, she paused for a moment. “Okay, that gave Alice more than enough time to get out of the building,” she continued, limping toward the demon. “Now it's time to get this over with, even if -”

She stepped aside as the demon suddenly lunged at her. Grabbing his shoulders, she pushed him against the balcony and then slammed all her weight against his back.

“Go on,” she hissed, “let's see your light show. It was so entertaining before, but this time I don't have to protect anyone, so I don't need to hold back.”

Before she could react, the demon's body began to burn. Fighting the urge to let go, she held on tighter than ever, grimacing as the flames built until finally she couldn't see anything beyond the brilliant white light filling her eyes. Turning, she looked back and realized she was at the heart of a huge inferno that was roaring from the demon's body, and a moment later she heard glass shattering above. Looking up, she saw that the shopping mall's domed roof had broken, showering the atrium with glass, but she had no time to take cover. A vast explosion burst up from below, sending Hannah crashing through the ceiling and onto the next floor as the entire mall began to collapse. She twisted in mid-air, trying to grab hold of something, but instead she began to fall, tumbling down into the flames as the building's broken walls fell all around her.

Finally, she landed hard against the ground and then hauled herself up as the shopping mall continued to collapse. Staring straight ahead, she saw the source of the flames and took a few steps forward, until she found herself standing over the damaged, burned body that the demon had left behind.

“You all done?” Hannah asked. “Finished your petulant little tantrum, have you?” Looking around, she saw that at least half of the building had been completely destroyed, leaving the other half standing but burning, with flames spreading from one abandoned old shop to the next. Sirens were still getting closer, and flashing blue lights could be seen in the distance.

“You...” the demon whispered, struggling to raise his tattered body off the ground. “You have no fear...”

“I have lots of fear,” Hannah said, stepping closer until she was towering over him. “Why else do you think I get out of bed in the morning?”