Divine Vices (32 page)

Water
trickled from afar, and the overwhelming scent of moss woke me. I was laying
flat on my stomach, sprawled across a stone pathway. It was hardly visible with
the exception of tiny glimmering lights that twinkled in the distance over the
night sky. It was also cold. I realized where I was. In the woods. I didn’t
think to call out, still uncertain as to who else could be out there. There
were ruined stone fences on each side of me. Rising to my feet, I headed
cautiously down the trail towards the lights where a veil of weeping willow
branches covered the opening. I put my hand through, feeling a tug on the other
side. Suddenly, I was ripped across the threshold.

Stagnant
air swallowed me back up as the yank on my hand wrenched me down the school
hallway. At first, I put the brakes on, unsure as to what the hell had just
happened, but my eyes trailed to my hand where my fingers were interlocked with
Ian’s. I turned to look behind me, and bits of papers still whirled about the
hall.

“Did
you just see that?” I muttered.

“No,
I experienced it,” said Ian, pulling me away to the nearest stairwell.

“You
didn’t see the forest?”

“What?”

Another
low rumble coursed through the air, and I dropped the subject as we bolted
away.

Galloping
down the grand staircase, Ian and I limply reached the ground floor. We tried
all the exterior doors, but everything was locked.

“Break
the glass,” I said, pointing at the full-length sheet windows beside the main
doors.

We
grabbed a steel trash bin from the office, but just as we were about to fling
it through, Ian stopped.

“What
are you doing?” I bellowed.

“We
have to make a stand.”

“Are
you crazy?! No!” I said, motioning for him to help me.

“Cassie,
this may be the only chance we have at him. After this, there’ll be no knowing
who that thing will turn into next.”

“We
can’t hurt it, not while it’s possessing Jack. Besides, we don’t even know what
we’re up against here.”

Ian
dropped his end of the garbage bin. “I have a pretty good idea.”

“And
if you’re wrong?”

“Only
one way to find out. But we need some things first. Check the computers.
Hopefully, we still have the internet.”

Groans
echoed down the hallway, doors repeatedly prying open and hammering shut again
as Jack came stumbling down to the main entrance by the gymnasium. I remained
ducked behind a pillar in the main cafeteria, slowly sliding my way around the
bulk of the column to avoid him seeing me as he headed straight across the
lunchroom. The entire floor was doused in layers of loose confetti, and banners
hanged droopingly overhead. I had turned off most of the lights to ensure the
best coverage, but it did little to soften my nerves.

Halfway
across the room, Jack froze right on mark. He turned to see me stepping out
from the corner of his vision. “What did you do?”

“Don’t
look at me,” I said, just as a growing drone ignited in the far end of the
room.

“Having
a little trouble moving there?” called out Ian, walking out from behind another
pillar beside an industrial fan.

As
the massive propeller blades reached full force, all the bits of confetti blew
across the floor, revealing what Jack feared most.

“Seems
you figured it out,” he said, looking down around himself.

“Wasn’t
easy, but the eyes were a bit of a giveaway,” replied Ian, heading closer to
him with a piece of paper in his hands.

“And
you’ve gone old-school.”

“Yep,
good ole Devil’s Trap, from the Lesser Key of Solomon,” Ian replied, admiring
the star contained pentagram drawn across the floor in which Jack was now
ensnared in the middle of. “Ideal for confining demons.”

“You
need to release me, now!” Jack sneered.

“No,
we
need answers,” I said, taking several steps forward.

“Cassie,
listen to me. If you don’t let me go, you could die. You’re in danger.”

“Thank
you, Einstein. As if I hadn’t already figured that one out myself,” I rebutted.
“But as far as I can see, you’re the only threat here. So if I let you out now,
it’ll only be a matter of time before you come back to finish the job. If I’m
going to die, I at least deserve to know why you wish me that way.”

“This
isn’t a negotiation, Cassie. You have to break the line!” Jack barked, looking
down at the illustration.

“I
don’t have to do shit. Now, talk.”

“No,
not until you release me.”

“Fine,
have it your way,” said Ian. He unfolded the paper in his hands and started
reciting a prayer.

“Oh,
how cute,” Jack scoffed. “Where’d you get that from? Google? It’s gonna take
more than that to exorcise me, and even then, I will be back. I don’t belong in
Hell. All that little incantation there would do at best is waste my time in
forcing me to climb all the way back up out of the pit, not to mention losing
possession of this fine specimen.”

“All
the more reason,” I said, nodding to Ian for him to continue.

Jack’s
eyelids began to sink, and he looked faint as he mumbled, “Sorry for this,
Callaghan, but my options are running kind of low here.”

“You
don’t have any power inside that,” said Ian, calling his bluff.

Jack
scoffed exhaustedly. “See, that’s where you’d be wrong. I may be confined in
here, but that still doesn’t stop me from doing this.”

I
panicked the instant he snapped his fingers, but there Ian stood, unaffected.

“Huh...”
Jack huffed. “That’s... strange.”

“Performance
problems?” Ian satirized.

“No,
this should still work, unless...” Jack actually chuckled with a sickly
expression as he looked Ian over. “You’ve got to be joking. My, my, I really
did underestimate you, Callaghan. Oh well, there’s still other means to divest
myself of you.”

He
waved his hand forward and Ian suddenly hurtled across the dining hall,
slamming hard against the brick wall at the other end.

“Ian!”
I cried out, running over to him.

“Break
the line, Cassie!” demanded Jack.

“No!”
coughed Ian. “Finish him!”

“Yes,
Cassie. Please do. Perhaps Callaghan, here, won’t suffocate to death
beforehand,” replied Jack, closing his fist.

Ian
began gasping for air as Jack lifted his clenched hand, dragging Ian’s frame up
the wall as if the ties to an invisible noose were slowly strangling him up
from the ceiling.

“Stop!”
I screamed.

“You
already know what you have to do,” said Jack, his breathing suddenly stifled.

He
clutched his head again with his free hand, and the remaining confetti on the floor
started to sweep about the room by rapid cyclonic gusts of wind. All the folded
lunch tables pulled up against the other wall rattled as the banners above
ripped off their hooks and flew away.

“You
better make up your mind here, because Callaghan hasn’t much time left,” said
Jack wincingly.

I
looked up at Ian hopelessly, his hands clenching at his throat in desperation.
No, I still had one play left in me.

“Put
him down, or this demonstration will be the last thing you ever do in that
body!” I demanded, charging over to Jack.

I
headed right into the Devil’s Trap and tackled him. He didn’t budge, but that
wasn’t my intention.

“Do
you have it in you, Cassie?” said Jack tensely, taking notice to his own pocket
knife now pressed firmly against his throat. “Can you take another’s life?”

“Spare
Ian,” I hissed, “or we’ll just have to find out, won’t we?”

He
studied me for a few seconds and then unclenched his fist. As soon as Ian’s
body dropped back to the floor, I lowered the blade and prepared to run over to
him.

“He’s
fine,” said Jack, grabbing hold of my wrist. “Just unconscious. Like everyone
in the gym over there.”

I
tried to wrestle out of his hold, but he secured me in before I could manage to
leave the pentagram as he pried the knife away.

“You
really would have done it,” he finally said, studying my eyes. “He’s a lucky
guy, to have someone so dedicated to him that she’d kill on his behalf.”

“How
did you do it?” I said. “Brian Hanover and Justin Tither were both rendered
unconscious when they were possessed. How did you get to Jack?”

“Severe
trauma.”

“What
did you do to him?!”

“Me,
nothing. Blame the drunkard who broadsided him at fifty miles an hour.”

My
heart dropped. “How long have you been possessing him?”

“Let’s
see,” he said calculatingly. “Today’s Thursday, so... one year, three weeks,
and six days.”

I
couldn’t move. I simply gawked at him in utter disbelief.

“This
whole time...” I muttered.

I
felt sick. No, not sick. Disgusted. Violated. Damned.

“Oh,
sweetheart, you actually thought you were talking with the real him?” he huffed
exhaustedly, letting me go. “Sorry, love, but he’s been out of commission for a
while. Can’t say that’s too great of a loss though. He was a bit of a dick
actually. You would’ve hated him.”

“He
was a dick? He was?!” My body sprang back to life, and I ran at him with the
fists of fury. I started hitting him as hard as I could, as many times as I
could. At first, he took the beating, but he eventually grabbed hold of my arms
and pulled them away once I nailed him in the face.

“You
son of a bitch!” I cried out, thrashing about. “So how does this work? You get
to go along wearing this poor guy like a glove, doing God only knows what,
defiling him... only to toss him like a drained battery once you’ve finished
having your fun?!”

“Firstly,
I haven’t done anything to this ‘poor guy’ that he hadn’t already done himself.
Take my word for it; he wasn’t exactly an altar boy.”

“That's
rich coming from one of Satan’s spawn,” I interjected spitefully.

“Secondly,
dear old Jack hasn’t come back a-knockin’. If he was still conscious in here,
I’d know about it. Also, if I hadn’t come along when I had, he would have been
six feet under in Arlington’s local cemetery since last fall.”

“Well,
if he’s not dead, then where is he?”

“Think
of it as limbo, a permanent dream state if you would. At least until this body
dies anyway. Then his soul can go knock on the Pearly Gates, or to the place
downstairs, which I’m guessing is more likely.”

“And
you think that’s fair, to hold him hostage until then?”

“He’s
in a coma. He doesn’t know what’s going on. And trust me, a sixty-some year nap
is still far more kind than the hell others have to endure in this life.”

“Like
those poor girls you murdered?!”

“You’re
still on that?” Jack huffed, releasing his grip on my arms. “No, I didn’t kill
them.”

“But
one of your
kind
did.”

“Annalisa
and Veronica? I seriously doubt that.”

“You
really expect me to buy into that? Oh, of course, a satanic serial killer
coincidentally happens to strike wherever you settle down. How convenient.”

“Again,
if you had done your homework, you would have realized that those symbols were
part of a resurrection ceremony,” he replied. “Yeah, Cassie, we needed those
girls alive. None of us were out to kill any of you. We were sent to protect to
you. Unfortunately, my co-conspirators were too late to recover the others.”

“What
do you mean by ‘any of you’?”

His
features went frigid.

“What
the hell have you gotten me involved in here?” I bellowed.

“Nothing
that you weren’t already part of.”

“Cut
it with the wordplay! What aren’t you telling me?”

“All
in good time, dearie. As I said before, I’m not a fan of clichés. So if you’re
expecting me to be the hackneyed villain here and divulge my master plan to
you, you’re gonna be waiting quite a while.”

“Just
as well. I wouldn’t be able believe you anyway, given the fact that you’ve lied
about everything else.”

“I
didn’t lie. Not about everything. Just about my past.”

“So
just everything that garnered you any of my sympathy,” I scorned.

“I
didn’t need your sympathy for you to like me.”

“Is
that a fact? So my liking you had nothing to do with the supposed loss of your
parents, or the humility found in you having dyslexia-”

“The
dyslexia thing is an unfortunate truth. See, when one of us takes over a body,
we still inherit their faults. Granted, our surplus in strength makes these
traits weaker, but I do still suffer from his vulnerabilities.”

“Like
a skull fracture,” I sneered.

“Yeah,
like that,” he chuckled with a low growl. “Remind me to thank Callaghan for
that little souvenir back there.”

“Should
I be afraid of another one of your
outbursts
?”

“Not
as long as you don’t hit me there again. I can’t control the reaction it would
have. Your friend’s blunt interference upstairs kind of exposed my Achilles
heel, but unfortunately as you just witnessed, it also has some external
rebound effects. Not particularly good for anybody nearby.”

“That’s
comforting. So you’re an unstable bomb?”

“Only
at the time of the initial impact.”

“Forgive
me for not finding much comfort in the sentiment, because you look like shit.”

“Yeah,
well, throwing people around like sock monkeys does come with a price. I’m not
nearly as strong as I once was, and this vessel isn’t exactly fit for the
expense of energy it takes to do such things. But I’ll be fine.”

“I
wouldn’t be so sure of that. The police are going to be here any moment, and I
doubt you’ll have an explanation for the peculiar state you find yourself in,”
I said.

He
laughed. “The police, huh?”

“That’s
right. We called them when we were in the library.”

“And
the call went through?”

I
nodded.

“Well,
either your message wasn’t received, or they’re a bit more occupied at the
moment, because they’d otherwise be here by now.”

I
looked at the clock on the wall. He was right. Too much time had already
passed, and it was only a couple minutes after five. The officers who were
supposed to be shadowing me weren’t anywhere close to coming back.

“You
said before that you were sent to protect me. Protect me from what?”

“That’s
for me to know,” he replied.

“Tell
me,” I said, strolling right up to him. “Was seducing me part of your job
description, or was that extracurricular?”

“As
you just said, you’re my job. So what does it matter?”

“It
matters to me.”

“Why?”

“Because
you kissed me,” I said. “And you have some explaining to do. If you were only
meant to protect me, then why did you kiss me last night in my house? And if
you were supposed to do more, then why did you leave me when you came to the
bar?”