Authors: Rain Oxford
Mordon knew the kid was afraid of the dark. To be
honest, after seeing what he had on Earth, he couldn’t blame Hail. “More
children will probably go missing if we don’t stop it now,” Mordon argued.
“Besides, we can burn the place down if it gets
ugly,” Dylan said easily. Both Dylan and Ron occasionally had very creepy,
almost psychotic moments.
“Where is Devon?” Ron asked. “He would want to be
here.”
“Well, he’s not. We don’t have time to wait for him,”
Dylan said, opening the door. They went inside. Although the sign said the
store was open, the lights were dimmed. “Anyone here?”
An old man came out of the back, flipped on a light
switch, and smiled. “How can I help you?”
“Are you Sylvester?” Dylan said.
“No, that’s his brother. Sylvester wasn’t here last
time,” Ron said.
The old man smiled kindly at the boys. “Well, hello
again, boys! It’s good to see repeat customers.”
Instinctively, Mordon sniffed at the air. The man was
kind and moral, but someone of great darkness frequented the shop; someone with
a sour, rotting scent, similar to that of the fireproof creature, but it was
more humanoid. Before he could tell Dylan what he smelled, he caught another
scent.
“Devon has been in here.”
“You must be referring to the man who was here about
an hour and a half ago.”
“Big man with brown hair and green eyes? He was
wearing a leather jacket?”
“Yes, and he had a gun,” the man said happily.
Mordon sniffed again, looking for anything suggesting
that the man was unstable, but he couldn’t smell much over the scent of the
death. “Where is he?” Mordon asked.
Something is very wrong here
, Rojan warned
him.
I know
. The last scent, which was growing to
overcome everything else, was gasoline.
“Oh, he asked to speak to Sylvester and decided to
wait for Sylvester to return. When my brother got here, they went out back to
talk.”
Dylan looked at Mordon expectantly. He wanted to know
if the man was telling the truth. “
There is gasoline somewhere and I can’t
smell this guy over it
,” he said in Dylan’s mind.
Dylan turned to the old man. “Your toys are turning
into monsters and kidnapping children. How do we stop them?”
The old man’s eyes widened. “Oh, goodness. That
sounds dangerous. You should speak to Sylvester. I bet he can help you. He
should be back by now. In fact, I believe I heard him go downstairs about ten
minutes ago.”
As the scent of gasoline became strong enough for a
human to detect, Dylan coughed and covered his mouth with the collar of his
black sweater.
“What is that?” Ron asked, mimicking his father.
“Gasoline,” Mordon answered.
“We could just blow the place up,” Dylan suggested.
“It wouldn’t do any good,” the old man said calmly,
as if they weren’t talking about destroying his property. “You should really
talk to Sylvester.”
“Whoa,” Hail said, stumbling. Ron caught him. “We’re
about to get attacked. Also, Devon is downstairs.”
Mordon went around the counter, passed the old man,
and opened the door to the basement marked
private
. Since his senses
were muddled by the gasoline, he didn’t know what was waiting behind the door.
As soon as he opened it, the nonflammable creature he faced before burst out,
slamming him against the wall. Its claws sliced through his chest, but it was
more interested in the getting away than finishing the job.
Except the creature didn’t go for the door; it went
for Dylan. Mordon let Rojan take over as his fingers changed into claws and his
teeth sharpened. He lunged at the creature and threw it to the floor, but he
wasn’t about to bite the foul-smelling beast. Instead, he clawed at it, tearing
into its chest. The creature became slimier until Mordon couldn’t stand
touching it another instant. He pulled away and the creature shot back into the
basement.
Mordon started to go after it, but Hail grabbed his
arm. “We need to go.”
“You said Devon is down there.”
“We lost today. We need to go.”
Mordon wanted to argue, but Dylan picked up Ron and
exited the shop. Mordon wasn’t going to leave his brother alone when he wasn’t
sure that creature wasn’t going to attack again.
* * *
Hail knew his family didn’t understand. Hell,
he
didn’t understand. All he knew was that Devon was like him; a seer. He could
feel Mordon’s eyes on him in the car.
Mordon thinks I’m a coward
. He had
to get them out. More than saving Devon, they had to save the kids, and Devon
had told him what he needed to do. What confused him was that Devon hadn’t
actually said anything. Somehow, his seer powers and Devon’s created some
psychic… future link.
“Sylvester needs a box. Devon doesn’t know what it
does or what it’s for, but Sylvester was very mad that it was gone. Apparently,
he thought someone stole it.”
“You talked to Devon?” Ron asked.
“No. I don’t think so. It’s confusing. The box looks
like a very small gift box. We need to find it. Either that will help us save
the kids, or we can use it to blackmail Sylvester.”
“A very small gift box? Like the one on your desk at
home?”
* * *
Lisa lifted the lid of her large present just enough
to peek inside.
A clown doll? That’s what grandma got me
? She wasn’t
afraid of clowns or dolls, but it was really creepy. Oh, well. It would go in
the closet like all the other weird toys her grandma got her. It wasn’t very
Christmas-y, either.
Her mother entered the room. “Time for bed.”
Lisa groaned and whined, like any ten-year-old would,
before relenting. She knew that the faster she went to sleep, the faster
Christmas would come. Unfortunately, she was too excited to sleep.
After almost an hour, she finally started to nod off,
only to jerk awake when she heard the door creak open. Light spilled across her
bed and she closed her eyes, pretending to sleep. She didn’t want her mother to
know she was still awake. But the door didn’t close, and when she opened her
eyes, it wasn’t her mother watching her.
“You’re the doll from my present,” Lisa said to the
clown in her doorway. The clown was six feet tall and it was frowning, not
smiling, so Lisa was confused. Lethargy clouded her mind and all she wanted to
do was go to sleep, but the clown reached out its hand. Lisa didn’t know why
she sat up and took its hand. She didn’t know why she let the clown lead her
into the living room.
“Do we open it?” Hail asked.
“Toys have been coming alive and attacking kids,”
Mordon said. “I think we should find out what it does first.”
“It can’t be a very big monster,” Ron said,
considering the tiny box as he set a plate of spaghetti in front of Hail.
“Maybe we should step on it.”
Hail shook his head. “It could be the only way we get
everyone back alive.”
“Alive? You don’t think they’re already dead?”
“No, I think they’re stuck somewhere alone in the
dark and they’re going to be eaten.”
“You had a vision?” Dylan asked. Hail nodded. “Do you
know when they’re going to die?”
“Christmas.”
Dylan checked the clock over the door. “That’s in
three hours. I’m going to flash to Devon. Where’s my sword?”
“No, you can’t,” Hail said.
“Why are we leaving him there to die? I thought we
generally tried to save people,” Dylan said, looking at Mordon. “Isn’t that
what we do?”
“We’re too late to save him. We have to find the
kids. Please trust me.”
“I always trust you, honey, but you’re not being very
clear.”
“I know… It’s not a vision. I just
feel
like
we can’t save him. It’s like a vision but I don’t know why.”
“Can’t you just flash to the kids? If they’re alive
like you said, there shouldn’t be a problem.”
Without answering, Dylan focused on Drake. Of all of
Ron and Hail’s friends, Drake was the one he knew the most. Bright light filled
the room and when it cleared, he was in utter darkness. He easily created a
sphere of energy in his hand, something akin to a white flame but more
volatile.
He was alone in a large room with no doors or
windows.
* * *
“Your friends were just here,” Sylvester said, taking
the rag out of Devon’s mouth.
“So I’ve heard,” Devon said calmly, turning his head
towards the sound of the malevolent voice. The stench of gas was giving him a
major headache and his muscles were cramping from his arms being contorted for
hours. “I take it they didn’t have your little box?”
“Not on them, but I know one of you has it somewhere.
I bet one of those kids took it. They’re always taking things that don’t belong
to them.”
“Says the man responsible for stealing toys in order
to force people to buy from you. For that matter, why build toys if you so
obviously hate kids? And what does your brother have to do with it?”
“Children waste their youth on frivolous things and
they’re always so messy. My brother adores them. I am done with him; he will
die when the children do.”
“Well, you’re obviously a man without issues. I
suppose adulthood was too much for you, so you’re trying to stop your own aging
by taking the liveliness of children.” Devon was hit in the face with a book
hard enough to leave a ringing in his ears, but he was expecting the blow. “Why
do you need the box anyway if you already have the kids?”
“You fool. The children are in the box!”
“Ah. So your little ghoul has to steal back the box
before Christmas. Let me guess. You have until the stroke of midnight? I know
it’s not at dawn because that’s a different type of magic altogether. So you
have, what? Three hours left?”
Silence… “How do you know that?”
Devon stood from the chair with a sigh, letting the
cut strips of tape fall to the floor. He took the blindfold off and faced his
assailant. Unfortunately, it was too dark to actually
see
his opponent.
“How…”
“You are a terrible captor.” He let his instincts
guide his aim and struck Sylvester in the face. Before Sylvester could get out
of the way, Devon grabbed him by the back of the neck and slammed him
face-first into the wall. “You took my gun and left a knife in my pocket. You
took my ring and left my healing charm around my neck. But your biggest
mistake— that’s the funny part— was that you made a circle out of chalk and
then poured gasoline over it.” He slammed Sylvester into the wall again before
letting go.
“You’re too late anyway,” Sylvester said. “Your
friends are going to die any minute now.”
“Yeah, yeah. Your little pet is on his way there
now.”
“No one can control him except me.”
“That’s what I’m counting on.” Devon had been aware
of his influence over minds for as long as he could remember, but it wasn’t
until he attended Quintessence that he learned how powerful his ability was. He
wrapped his magic around Sylvester’s mind and seized complete control within an
instant. Sylvester would stop breathing if that was what Devon demanded.
Instead, he forced Sylvester’s will to summon the
beast back. Devon was able to do this without delving into the toymaker’s
memories thanks to many hours of practice with his uncle. Once he felt a
response, he turned his focus on Sylvester.
“How do I save the kids?”
“You die.”
Devon grabbed Sylvester by the hair and slammed the
toymaker’s face into a hard, wooden support beam. “Sorry, I didn’t catch that.
Want to try again?”
“They’re in the box!” Sylvester yelled. His sinister
voice was more nasally with his panic and pain. Well, that and his broken nose.
“Yes, and I want them out of the box. You said the
box was small, so I know you have some kind of magic to make them fit. How do I
get them out?”
“You die. The children are in a place very far from
here, in a cell that absorbs their magic and life energy. The only way out is
through the salominius. You open it here and it becomes a portal to the
dimension where the children are.”
“Did you just say it’s a transdimensional box? As in,
the box is bigger on the inside?”
“Yes, and it was never supposed to be opened. I will
get the salominius back and destroy it in the proper ritual, which will give me
the life-force of everyone in those cells. If you open it, it will take every
ounce of your energy and magic. Whoever opens the box will die.”
The creature Devon had summoned suddenly crashed
through the door, bound down the stairs, and attacked him. He released his
control over Sylvester and reached for the creature’s mind. It turned midway in
its leap and hit the floor in a clumsy heap, but its mind was not entirely
ensnared. It twisted around and struck Devon across the gut with its wing. This
didn’t distract him. Devon used his power again, focusing on fire. He knew
better than to actually create flame with gasoline all over the floor, but he
had learned a lot about mental projection over the three semesters he spent at
Quintessence.
He projected fire into the beast’s mind, causing the
beast to go into a fit of convulsions. After a moment, Devon stopped the attack
and easily took complete control. It was not a mind like that of a person or
animal, but something like a cross between the two. Although the creature was
sentient and capable of understanding things, it was a dependent servant by
nature, as if it were domesticated.
The creature stood on two gangly legs, flapped its
wings a couple of times, and bowed to Devon, its body still twitching from his
attack. “Bring me the box, be gentle with it, and don’t harm anyone.” The beast
took off and Devon pushed his control of the creature to the back of his mind.
He turned back to Sylvester.
“You can’t make me open the box,” the toymaker said,
his voice strong with anger.
“I could, but no, that’s not my plan.”
A loud meow made Devon grin. Only one cat could make
a sound so awful. He turned to the chair he had been tied to and saw the faint
shape of his uncle’s familiar. “Ghost, just who I wanted to see. I need you to
get something for me.”
* * *
Realizing there was no way out, Dylan tried to flash
back. Flashing was basically tearing a hole through the universe to travel from
one place to another. It wasn’t exactly instantaneous; there was a degree of
time lost, but it was usually unnoticeable. If Dylan was near one of the gods
or something equally powerful, more time occurred as he flashed from one place
to another.
This time, nothing happened.
“Are you kidding?” Dylan tried again and achieved the
same lack of success. “
Mordon
?” No answer. They had tested the distance
they could speak to each other telepathically, and so far hadn’t found anything
short of a planet between them that could block it.
A very odd, half meow half growl made him turn. He
expected to see some rabid, hideous beast. He was right. The ugliest cat he had
ever seen in his life was sitting in the corner, glaring at him. The cat had
one blue eye, one gold eye, a long scar down its blue eye, and graying, matted,
patchy fur.
“Are you… here to help?” he asked hesitantly. He
didn’t want to hurt the creature if it was trying to help him, but the only
thing that came to mind was that this was some kind of zombie cat. There was no
way something like that could be---
The cat jumped up and ran to him suddenly. He wanted
to get on top of a table and shriek like a little girl who just saw a rat. When
the cat circled him and rubbed against his pant leg, he shuddered. Now all he
wanted was a bath. He couldn’t have been more surprised when the shadows of the
room grew darker and advanced on them.
The shadows consumed everything until he was in
absolute darkness. He felt the cat push against his calf and he almost tripped.
The ground was uneven and the gravity was heavy. Of course, it was nothing
Dylan couldn’t handle, as he was used to the heavier gravity of Duran.
Instead of letting the cat guide him, he reached out
his hand and formed light. It was the light of the void; a light that was both
divine and ungodly. Really, Dylan didn’t know what it was, or what
he
was for that matter. He regularly controlled aspects of the void, which was
where the demons came from, using his god powers. Light filled the space and
Dylan saw the creatures that surrounded him.
He cursed and killed the light. He would rather be
eaten. In fact, he hoped they ate his eyes first. The image he saw in that
single moment was the most horrifying thing he had ever seen, and he would
rather have been fed on alive by demons than see what he just saw.
And then the darkness cleared, leaving him in his
apartment with Mordon and the boys. “What happened?” Mordon asked immediately.
Dylan shook his head. It wasn’t something he could describe. He was going to
ask Divina to erase it from his mind as soon as he saw her again.
He looked down, wanting to offer the cat something to
eat for helping him, but it was gone. Hail’s eyes glowed and he started to
fall. Dylan caught him in time to stop him from hitting the ground.
“What the hell is that?” Ron asked, looking at the
table. Swiping at the box was the cat that had helped Dylan. Before anyone
could stop the cat, it clawed the binding ribbon and flipped off the lid.
* * *
Blood pooled on the ground, forming an inch-thick
magic circle. In the middle of the blood was a small, colorful box. As a
hissing, malicious voice recited an incantation, the blood began to creep up
the walls of the box. The blood was being absorbed into the box, and as it was,
it stained the box red.
* * *
Hail’s eyes returned to their normal purple, but
everyone was distracted by what had appeared out of the tiny box.
Which was a less tiny box.
Mordon went to the present box, pulled the new
string, and lift the lid. The sides of the box fell away and left a bigger box,
like the reverse of matryoshka dolls. The cat flattened his ears and glared at
it, then vanished.
“Reality is leaking again,” Ron said.
The door slammed open and the flame-proof creature
burst in. Mordon shot fire at it, but the flames just hit the creature and
died. Dylan motioned with his hand, about to attack. “Wait!” Hail exclaimed.
Dylan changed his magic to defensive and instead put a protective shield of
energy around Ron and Hail.
The creature remained at the door, watching them.
“He’s here for the box,” Hail said. “I think Devon
sent him.”
“If Devon is in any condition to send this creature,
he should have come himself,” Mordon argued.
Hail grabbed the box off the table, surprised by how
heavy it had gotten, set it on the floor, and gave it a kick. It slid across
the floor until it reached the creature. The beast picked up the box, spread
its wings, and took off out the door.
“We need to get back to the shop,” Dylan said. “We
have twenty minutes to save the kids.”
* * *
“What would happen if you destroy the box without the
proper rituals?” Devon asked Sylvester as he tied the toymaker to the chair.
“Just like opening it, you’ll die. The doorway would
be sealed forever with the children inside and I wouldn’t get their energy. All
the children would starve to death and die.”
“And there’s absolutely no other way for anyone to go
inside or out?”
“No, there isn’t.”
“Good.”
“You’re not going to make it in time.”
“Of course I will.” He knew the creature was already
bringing him the box and that Hail and his family were also on their way. He
wanted to get done with everything before they arrived, but not too early.
Right on time
, he thought as the creature
entered the basement through the destroyed door and leapt down the steps. The
thing was creepy as hell, but he didn’t care as long as he had full control
over it.