The New Kid (24 page)

“Stay away from her!”

A fireball slammed into Silver Mohawk’s face and the force sent him blasting backward into the wall of the cave where he shrieked in pain until his head fell off. Another demonteen attacked and Will twist-kicked him so hard he slammed upward and was impaled on a stalactite. Will saw the fear on Natalie’s face and yelled at her.

“Natalie, run! Get out of here!”

But she stood as still as a statue. If she wasn’t going to run. . . .

“Use the boltdriver!” shouted Will.

She was in a trance, paralyzed with fear, but when a flying demonteen zipped by and raked at her with a four-fingered claw and sliced off a lock of her hair she was jolted into action, grabbing the boltdriver from her belt and cocking it. Her hands shook but she held the weapon steady and fired. The shot hit the offending demonteen square on the side of the head and took it cleanly off, leaving his body to drop to the ground where it wriggled, headless, until it disintegrated in an explosion of tiny bloody sparks.

“Good shot!” yelled Will.

They were making progress against the swarming demonteens. Torches flickered and again Will saw his father Edward in the tunnel opening, his eyes looking sad, as though he knew his future held nothing but tragedy. The tunnel entrance went dark and then suddenly there stood Rage, blood dripping from his scalp.

“What have you done?” yelled Will.

“Your destiny is sealed!” screamed Rage. The lights flickered and Edward appeared in another, different tunnel opening. And Rage was gone, surely in pursuit, perhaps to finish Edward off, to kill him for good.

“Dad! You’re coming with me!” shouted Will to Edward.

But then the tunnels and the cave filled with a horrible keening sound, the sound of a beast being sacrificed, slaughtered, and disemboweled. And it was growing louder as the creature, whatever it was, came closer.

Rage closed his eyes and used his huge strong hands to crack his own neck like a chiropractor would. He appeared to be in pain, as though he was harboring inner, conflicting demons, demons who were telling him to do two different things.

“Run, Will! Get out of here!” shouted Rage.

Will’s brain flooded with confusion. Why was Rage urging him to flee? It didn’t make sense. One minute the guy’s trying to kill him and the next he’s yelling at him to vacate the premises? But there was no time to figure out what was going on. Will heard thundering footsteps that might as well have come from Godzilla’s big brother, they were so deafening. A lull, and then something unseen blew into the cave. It was a feeling more than a being or spirit and it surrounded Will and Natalie, gently caressing their skin. Suddenly, Natalie was ten years old. Her grandmother, who was in poor health, was sleeping on her parents’ couch. Young Natalie entered the room and went to the old woman’s purse. She took folded money from it and went out and bought candy at the 7-Eleven on the corner. Later that day she saw how her grandmother had fixed her broken glasses using a bandage and felt a surge of guilt rise up in her, a feeling that worsened when her grandmother opened her purse and, instead of becoming angry at the missing money, took the coins that remained and gifted them to Natalie. Natalie flushed with humiliation at the memory and her thoughts went dark as she wondered what kind of human being she really was inside.

While she was raking herself over the coals, Will, too, was led into a shameful corner of his memory. He was six years old and his older neighbor had just gotten a new Labrador puppy. Inside Will was so jealous he could hardly contain himself and begged to tag along when the boy took the puppy for a walk. The older boy agreed. Will longed for the puppy, wanted it so much for his very own. He felt laughter inside as he watched the young gangly dog lope around foolishly, full of the simple joy of being alive. Will became angry that he himself had no puppy. All he could think about were ways to make the puppy his; surely he deserved the puppy more than his neighbor, who came from a large family whose father was a banker and bought his children lavish gifts. As Will and the older boy reached the highway Will heard the car and lunged for the puppy with fingers outstretched. Was he trying to save the dog? He told himself he was. But his motion frightened the young pup, herding him into the street where the driver of the car tried to veer but could not. The car’s front bumper connected with the puppy, sending it skyward for thirty feet, and then it landed in the ditch where it drew a few last breaths. Even though it was an accident Will had never truly forgiven himself.

Will pressed a finger into his temple, trying to urge the bad memories and feelings of hopelessness out of his mind. Why was he thinking such things now of all times? And then he understood. The Black Spirit was present. This was his doing. He fed on fear and shame and hopelessness. The massive footfalls started up again and the cave shook until the sound was so loud Will and Natalie had to cover their ears.

And then a section of the cave wall collapsed and in the middle of a swirling cloud of fog there stood a ten-foot-tall monster. With so much fog and debris swirling in the air Will couldn’t see the creature clearly. But he knew perfectly well who it was. The Dark Lord. The beast howled. The walls vibrated. The remaining demonteens launched one more attack and Will feinted and dodged and used his
power rod’s double saber to cut them to ribbons. The walls of the caves soon splashed with their shimmering droplets of blood, but the Dark Lord just stood calmly and watched, his powerful chest heaving, his glowing eye holes narrowing with every death.

“Killing is in your blood,” said the beast. “A few more kills and you shall be free of your earthly curse.”

“Give me my father!” shouted Will.

“And . . . Emily. . . .” said Natalie bravely.

“Your . . . father. . . .” muttered the beast. He looked like he’d just swallowed something that disagreed with him and he belched a sulfuric cloud that smelled of rotten eggs. Will and Natalie’s stomachs turned and they instinctively covered their mouths. But Will didn’t back down.

“Release my father! SHOW him to me NOW!” shouted Will.

The anger swelled inside him until he felt he might burst from it. He shot a fireball that sank into the creature’s neck and then bounced around inside. It exploded and buckets of the Dark Lord’s monster blood and guts splattered all over the cave walls. But he seemed almost amused by Will’s blatant attack as his wounded areas swiftly regenerated.

The Dark Lord said, “Your eyes have seen what you so desperately seek! Believe them!”

“I have seen nothing of what I wish to see!” countered Will.

He was about to switch his power rod over to double saber mode again when the massive beast flew forward and bowled him over. Will tumbled backward as though he’d been slung out of a catapult and the back of his head cracked into the cave wall. He was losing consciousness but was still alert enough to plunge the tip of his power rod saber into an oncoming demonteen, eviscerating him.

“Excellent!” cried the beast.

Another demonteen leapt upon Will and they rolled across the cave floor, the creature’s claws scraping Will’s back and drawing blood. With a snarl the demonteen sunk its teeth into Will’s arm.
Pain shot through him like a thousand volts of electricity and Will dropped his power rod. Another demonteen banged into Natalie, knocking her over, and the boltdriver skidded across the floor of the cave. Will rolled over, grabbed it, and fired two shots, hitting Natalie’s attacker in the gut and the other in the forehead. Both beasts wailed in agony and disintegrated.

“Death comes easy to you!” howled the Lord of Darkness. “You have achieved greatness!”

The beast’s fetid breath warmed the cave. Will wasn’t sure if he was seeing things correctly but it sure seemed like the huge demonic monster was smiling.

“You’ll never find the third power rod!” screamed Will. “And you will release my father!” To punctuate his words Will shot a volley of fireballs at the creature, who was hit by a couple and deflected the others, his anger growing swiftly.

“Do not try my patience, boy!” shouted the beast.

“If you don’t hand over my father I’ll kill you!” Will shouted back.

The creature absorbed Will’s threat and closed its eyes. And as it breathed in it grew another two feet, expanding, its hide becoming thicker, barbs forming on its shoulders and face. And then it opened its eyes.

“Just one more kill, William, just one more,” rattled the beast.

“What are you talking about? Explain yourself!” cried Will.

“Your destiny will become clear to you! Soon I shall own all who are dear to your heart and then you shall bow down to me as it is written!” yelled the beast.

“I bow to no demon!” shouted Will.

He grabbed and fired up his power rod and attacked but the beast was swift and strong and not only eluded Will’s masterful strokes but dealt a few punishing blows to him in the process. Now Will’s swipes with the power rod were defensive as the beast raked at him with massive claws and kept on coming. No matter how smart
and fast and strong Will was, the fiend was relentless. Will tried to anticipate the creature’s next move but guessed wrong and Natalie screamed as she saw the beast’s claws tear into Will’s chest and neck. He was losing blood and his arm grew weak, his strikes with the power rod lame and unsteady.

“Give the rod to me!” shouted the beast.

Knowing he was falling off the ledge Will did the only thing he could: he used his last bit of strength to throw his power rod as hard as he could up the tunnel they’d come down. The rod sang through the air and disappeared in the darkness, eventually finding its way out of the catacombs and soaring up into the sky to hover until called upon again. Then Will keeled over, his face hitting the dirt hard, tiny pebbles imbedding themselves into his forehead. The Dark Lord advanced on Will, snorting, muscles tensing, ready to deliver the death blow.

Natalie found Will’s backpack and dug around inside for something—anything to use in their defense. As a slew of fresh deadly demonteens flooded into the cavern, Will’s mind started going soft, his world getting fuzzy. All he saw were vague shapes, and the sounds he heard were garbled like a tape played at half speed. He and Natalie were surrounded, outnumbered, doomed. And then the cave exploded into the whitest radiance Will could imagine and he was dead certain he was going into the light for the final time.

N
atalie had her arm around Will’s waist and his arm pulled over her shoulder and she was stumbling up a tunnel with every ounce of energy her body had to give. She pulled another incendiary flare ball from the backpack and threw it behind her. It exploded on impact and saturated the tunnel with a blinding phosphorescent light that held for six seconds before dissipating, buying her a few more precious moments in which to flee with her wounded warrior. She looked at Will and her heart ached; he’d already lost way too much blood and was looking pale.

“Hang in there, Will, I’m going to get you home.”

Will could hear her but could not summon the strength to speak. He wanted to tell her to just leave him, to go on and save herself, that his own life was not worth it since he’d failed so utterly. But his eyes wouldn’t open, his lips wouldn’t move. He was halfway to the land of corpses. Even with the head start created by her brilliant diversion Natalie was in danger of losing the race because with Will’s weight holding her back she could only shamble along like some awkward ape, not the kind of creature that had any hope of outrunning superhuman flying demonteens. And onward they came.
Natalie could see the light of the tunnel entrance even as she heard the demonteens’ shrill keening echoing off the slick tunnel walls as they moved in for the kill. With their talon-like claws extended and their mouths agape thirsting for blood they were almost upon them when Natalie’s hand in Will’s backpack found the trigger switch for the micronic ultra-high frequency speakers Will had hammered into the walls on their way in. She pushed the button to activate it.

The tunnel vibrated with supersonic sound waves and the demonteens went berserk, their brains spinning in their heads, synapses exploding as they flew defiant in their final throes and then dropped like moths aflame. They retreated in a wounded pack back into the darkness as Natalie exploded from the tunnel opening with Will. Wasting no time she loaded him into the EVO and sped off into the black night. Will had just enough strength and consciousness to smile up at her from where he was flopped on his seat. He shook his head slowly.

“Okay, so I broke a few rules,” said Natalie.

Will closed his eyes and sank into the inky darkness.

 

Natalie pulled the EVO into Will’s driveway and helped him out of the car. He clung to her like a child as she half-dragged him into his house through the kitchen door. In the living room April and Gerald had a card table set up and were playing Trivial Pursuit with their neighbors Fred and Belinda Halvorson, a portly and pleasant-looking couple who appeared to favor wine over Gerald’s homemade beer. Natalie did her best to keep quiet but under Will’s weight her foot hit a stool and alerted April.

“Will, is that you?” she asked.

Natalie looked at Will with panic in her eyes, but he’d passed out again. What should she do? She tried her best to impersonate him and answered with a raspy voice that she hoped just sounded tired.

“Yeah. G’night . . .”

April cocked her head quizzically.

“Sweetie, are you okay?”

Natalie shook Will, who opened his eyes as he briefly regained consciousness and swiftly took stock of the situation.

“I’m fine. Just going to bed,” he croaked.

Will motioned to the stairs leading to the basement and Natalie nodded and helped him through the doorway. What neither of them realized was that all four adults could see their reflection in the mirror and got a panoramic view of Will, looking out of it, with his arm around Natalie’s shoulders.