The Mirrors of Fate (32 page)

“
Maria?”

“
Yes,” Maria said with a hopeful smile.

All of a sudden his full awareness came back. “
What are
...What the hell? What are you doing here!?”

She ignored his fury. “I’ll help you, don’t worry. Just tell me what to do.”

David shook his head angrily. “No! What are you doing here? What are you doing out of your room?!”

“
But...I thought I could help you somehow.”

“
Maria!” he shouted. She was stunned to see his weak arm reach up, grab the neckline of her dress aggressively and yank her face to his. “I told you not to leave your room!”

She felt fear build up inside her all over again. “But I thought it was safe now. David, whatever it is, it’s gone now!”

“
No, you idiot!” His eyes blazed. “It’s still here!”

The wind suddenly started again.

* * * * *

CHAPTER ELEVEN

David sensed it and he knew she sensed it as well. The wind had inexplicably picked up again, returning to its violent, blustery state in a matter of seconds. David looked at Maria’s pale face wrought with worry and confusion.

The Black Harbinger was coming back. He had temporarily wounded it by stabbing it in the shoulder and twisting the blade around in the wound. The foul demon had dripped a puddle of black blood, but that was all. Now it was returning—from where he did not know—to finish the job.

“
What’s happening?” she asked in the peak of fear.

David would have accepted death and let it come for him; he would’ve had to in his state. But now one element forced him to take a different route. Maria. For some reason unknown to him, a rush of adrenaline and a compelling urge came over him to do something
,
anything to protect her.

David gnashed his teeth together and forced his upper body forward until he was sitting fully upright without Maria’s support. “It’s on its way. If you want to get out of this you need to find me a round wooden
device I dropped in this room. Look for it now.”

David didn’t take time to explain or describe the device before he grabbed hold of Mr. Singh’s armchair to pull himself to his feet. He gritted his teeth in pain. His dislocated leg was useless until he could snap it back into place, so he had to put all his weight on the wounded other, tearing already open wounds and causing blood to swim down the skin. He bit back the pain and surveyed the massacred room for the Aligner device he’d gone back to Mr. Singh’s car for when he sent Maria upstairs.

He mustered up as much strength as he could to begin a frantic search among the broken furniture. His slippery bloodstained fingers held nothing long.

“
Where the hell is it?” he roared after several excruciating seconds of no success. He soon came to realize his search was a one-man effort. He looked over his shoulder. Maria was still on the floor but now staring off into the distance. He growled from the back of his throat and staggered over to her, snatching her shoulder in a firm grasp meant to snap her out of the daze.

“
Idiot! What are you doing?”

Maria lifted a trembling hand and pointed. David looked up and saw the tall, black-cloaked figure standing in the air some distance away by the front door.

Though he’d seen it so many times before, each new time chilled his blood all the same when he saw the large, chillingly still form of the Black Harbinger. Square and bulky, the demon’s intimidating frame was enormous like a black refrigerator—thick, boxed, and broad. Its back was hunched abnormally with large and unevenly bumpy armless shoulders, like a tumored surface. The head hung low by its chest, represented only by its hood. The longer back of its black hooded gown brushed the floor but did not hide the absence of legs. Inches from the ground, the demon of fate was unmoving in mid-air.

David shook Maria but her body was still frozen in shock. The limbless black figure started to grow arms. They extended out of empty sleeves, the arms long and disproportionate from each other. One hand had a monstrously large palm with blue veins pulsating rapidly near the skin’s surface, causing the flesh to rise and lower with every pump of blood. The other arm had a smaller, malformed palm but the entire arm itself was thicker from the shoulder down. Feet finally grew by its will and grounded the figure.

Time to move. David limped away from Maria’s side, frantically continuing his search.

The Black Harbinger sauntered slowly toward them with a swaggering walk more frightening than if it had mystically hovered to their position. Maria stared at the dark cloud of evil drawing near. Its massive stature made the path from the front door to the living room arch seem chokingly small.

This was it. This was the thing that had taken Emma’s life. This wasn’t a nightmare. This was reality.

“
David.”

The figure moved closer, coming to a stop under the arch entranceway.

She screamed, freeing herself from paralyzation to make a mad dash for where David was. “It’s coming, David!”

He could very well see that for himself. He tossed a table leg away, and shifted a few more objects until he saw the circular wooden contraption with its small dial, numbers, and carvings. “Yes! The Aligner.” He’d never seen anything more beautiful. Too soon to celebrate—he had to get somewhere safe to activate the device.

David looked toward the arch as the Black Harbinger passed over broken furniture. He couldn’t help but scowl. The thing left him near death and all David could accomplish was a small bloody patch on its shoulder where he had been able to get
one
stab in with his concealed blade.

Maria hid behind him. He instinctively grabbed her waist with his hand and secured her there. Looking toward the living room arch, he backed them both into the farthest back right corner of the room, putting space between them and the demon. With the windows too small to fit through, the only exit was the entrance—the living room arch the demon blocked.

“
Why the hell does it move so slowly?”

“
Oh no, don’t worry,” he said. “The Black Harbinger can move a lot faster than that.” He raised his voice and addressed the creature, “You’re just toying with me, aren’t you?”

A low distorted gurgle of what sounded like laughter came from the figure.

“
Jeeesus!” Maria screamed and buried her face in David’s shoulder.

The Black Harbinger flinched. The small gesticulation caught David’s eye.

You staggered? But why would you—Aah! I see now. So that’s it, you bastard. I can’t believe that’s it,
he thought with a grin.

“
Maria.” He kept his eyes on the approaching figure. “Stay directly behind me. We’re going to pass it and run out.”

“
Nononono please! I don’t want to go near it!”

“
Hey!” he shouted. He turned his head to look back at her. He smiled and winked. “It’ll be all right. Trust me.”

Right then shouldn’t have been the time to notice, but this was the first time she had seen him smile tonight. Alan’s smile, and it was...reassuring. She nodded in acceptance.

David clutched the Aligner in one hand and left his other behind him on Maria’s hip to guide her. David started side-stepping to the left of the room, pressing backward into her, forcing her to travel with her back directly against the wall. The Black Harbinger followed them mindlessly. As they moved against the wall, the demon moved with them, more interested with following their every movement than guarding the entrance they sought.

“
Start praying. Out loud,” David ordered.

“
What?”

“
Pray!”

Her mind spun and grabbed the first prayer she could think of. “T-The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want—”

The thing responded quicker than they could have hoped for. One sharp spasm shocked it when she started, then more attacked the demon’s body intermittently as she kept praying. It staggered for a few moments each time but was able to regain itself quickly. She continued relentlessly, clasping her hands together and raising her voice. She changed prayers in the midst of their escape, filling the word “God” or “Jesus” at every moment she could, even if it made no sense. The black demon could not advance so long as the wall of sanctity stayed manifested.

“
What’s the matter?” David taunted. “Finally found one of your weaknesses, huh? My God, if I had only sent my ass to church!” He laughed maniacally.

Sooner than she had time to realize, they were only a few feet away from the arch. Her teeth sank into her lip. All they had to do was make a mad dash for it. David seemed to be preparing himself to do just that, his hand becoming tenser around her. She wanted to make sure she was ready too.

“
Let’s go now, David!”

“
No you idiot! Don’t stop pray—”

But all it took was that moment of abandoned prayer for the Black Harbinger’s deformed long arm to reach out and separate them.

In that split second David pushed Maria away and he dove in the other direction. He missed the demon’s clutch, but the dive cost him more blood spillage from his already open wounds. The thing went for him, reaching out again and snatching him by the head.

Where her summoned amount of courage came from she didn’t know, but Maria crossed to them and began to pray profusely, loudly, deliberately pronouncing each holy word and name. Soon this became more than prayers; she was preaching.

“
Father in Heaven, help us! Almighty God who is all-powerful, protect us! We know Your strength and nothing,
nothing
, can harm us! The power of Christ protects us from all forms of evil!”

Convulsing, the demon dropped David and turned to her, as she had wanted. It lifted its limp head and she could see into the hood. A large black void where a face should have been oriented directly at her, and she could swear the thing was looking at her with its no eyes and abyss-like face. The Black Harbinger stared at her, a hindrance to its affairs.

David took the moment of distraction and came at the hooded thing with a broken table leg. He stabbed it again in the same wound he had inflicted earlier. The creature grabbed his hand and flung David like a rag doll into a wall.

Nevertheless, the damage had been done. The demon staggered for a long time, fell against the wall and writhed in pain. Maria took the moment to flee with David as he snatched up the Aligner device. Panting heavily, she took him to the front door but David stopped her and pointed a weak hand upstairs. She didn’t understand. Why box themselves in? But no time to think! Just act!

Maria took a fearful second to look up at the physically impossible challenge before her. Their survival depended on her to get this man up these stairs and away from the threat. She threw his arm around her shoulder and scurried up the staircase, urging his useless legs to help her efforts.

The demon was soon coming after them again. David was crying out in pain by the time she reached her bedroom. She slammed the door and locked it.

“
Put me in the middle of the room! Hurry!” he demanded.

She did as she was told and lowered him onto the floor near where her statue-like family and guests were. Maria, not understanding how this small device would help, watched in panic as to her he seemed to be fiddling with a useless toy covered in strange red carvings.

“
What are you doing? How is this gonna help?”

“
Quiet!” His voice was gruff. “Watch the door. Make sure it doesn’t come in.”

Was he being serious? Do that how!? Beat a demon with a stick? He was the one who got her in this mess in the first place! She had no choice but to quickly snatch different objects from her room and block the door with them, but her eyes kept returning to his actions on the floor.

The device he fiddled with had strange red carved words, numbers and letters going all around the circular object. Four compass points and numbers—some larger printed—some small and in decimals—stared him in the face. It all looked so complicated, and in his rush to work it his fingers shook and his brow drenched with sweat. He turned some sort of dial on the device, pointing the dial’s arrow to a sequence of numbers and pressing down on a button in the dial’s center, as if to set the numbers in. The image of a pilot setting coordinates shot into her mind. He moved the dial to a sequence of numbers, pressed the button. Moved it again and again, set more coordinates. He flinched and cursed when he seemed to make a mistake and had to turn the dial three hundred and sixty degrees before selecting anything else. He finally put the dial’s arrow on the letter E, then set it one final time. He took a deep breath and clasped his hands together.

As Maria frantically worked, she heard him chant something low, strange, and alien to her ears. The chanted words seemed to float around the room and fill it as if they had transformed into tangible mist in the air. His lips formed the words quicker and quicker with each moment, sending out the powerful, nonsensical spell into the air.

A loud pounding came at the door. Maria jumped and covered her ears. She began praying aloud, the only form of safety she could rely on now. David’s chant became louder and more concentrated. The wind was picking up intensely. Outside, the clouds were separating and isolated bolts of lightning struck. Loud roars of thunder waved across the White Crest City sky. The Aligner came to life and began shaking and rattling against her bedroom carpet. It started to glow.