Better off Dead Book Three Page 8

  I struggled until I couldn’t anymore. My body became as heavy as a sack of bricks. Meanwhile I heard my castle being destroyed around my very ears. There were bangs and thumps and the tinkling of broken glass. Sweat beaded down my brow, and my heart hammered, but it couldn’t change anything.

  “Who... who the hell are you? Hilliker?” I hissed.

  The creature behind me grunted. That’s when I realized it was a creature and not a man. I thought I saw something scurrying just out of the corner of my vision. It moved too quickly to be a rat. And God knows it wouldn’t be one of the wolves from outside. Though my magic still would not work, my senses were absolutely fine. Somehow I had carried over their acuity from the pocket space. I started to detect dark shadowy energy in my castle. This wasn’t Hilliker’s priests. No – this was something a lot scarier. This was an army of possessed.

  Obviously they’d moved on from Sato to my house.

  I began to struggle all the harder for what good it did me. I ended up wriggling in the chair, but that was it. I could not fight against these restraints.

  The creature holding me suddenly stiffened. Then it yanked its head forward. I felt its long teeth settling by my ear. Rather than wrench the flesh off, it took in a deep breath. I knew what was happening long before I heard Hilliker’s specific throaty laugh. “You made it so easy, Eve. Thank you for returning the box to me.”

  I jerked my gaze to the side and watched as the box disappeared as magic took hold of it. It slipped down through a black hole in the floor never to be seen again.

  I didn’t know if I had seen everything important in that true memory. Technically, I could’ve gone in there thousands upon thousands of times and learned new information with every single entry. That was the thing about a true memory. I could follow anybody. I could’ve gone into any room. There would’ve been so much more to find out. But now the opportunity was gone.

  I struggled again as that creature’s long teeth settled by my ear. “I will be out soon. You do not have to wait much longer. The Banished is coming for you. Feel him reach out across eternity.” As he said that, something happened to the room. It became darker. Everything pinched in. It looked as if my expansive castle suddenly became no larger than a matchbox.

  “Bastard,” I hissed. “I will find a way to fight you.”

  “How? You’re on your own now, Eve. Sonos is gone. He will never meddle in my affairs again.”

  That was like... it was like being punched and kicked, stabbed and beaten. It was like Hilliker had just pressed a gun against my head and fired until he’d emptied a whole clip into my skull.

  “Sonos is not... Sonos is not dead,” I hissed as tears trailed down my cheeks.

  I didn’t know why I was fighting that fact – it went against everything I’d already assumed. But the memory of how Sonos had fought for me all those years ago at the orphanage rose in me.

  I’d never find out exactly how it had felt for his hand to lock around mine and for him to save me from Hilliker.

  Because he was gone.

  I stopped again, my racking cries forcing my chest forward against the restraints. I thought I heard them straining – but it didn’t last. That creature thrust forward and locked its hand over my chest. I looked down to see that it was absolutely bone-white. It looked like plastic wrap come to life. It pushed in and in until I suddenly stopped breathing.

  “How easy it would be to kill you right here, Eve. But unfortunately that would not further my plan. So just hold on – just a little longer.”

  Though terror should’ve gripped me and prevented me from thinking about what he’d said, my curiosity always got the better of me. Even now as I became crushed under the weight of grief, I realized that made no sense. Hilliker had promised me that I only had five lives left. Surely it wouldn’t matter how or where they were taken? Hadn’t he established some kind of remote connection between me and the Banished? Wouldn’t that mean that, regardless of where I was killed, my resurrection light would flow through to the Banished?

  Maybe I was reading too much into this – or maybe Hilliker had just let something exceptionally important slip.

  I saw more scurrying shadows. I caught sight of rats – monstrously large ones. Possessed ones, too. One came to a stop right in front of me, reared up, and screamed. It shot me a flash of these yellow, jagged teeth that were intertwined with this black web. I saw a spider climbing across the web. It glowed this distinct blue-white.

  As if that image wasn’t disgusting enough, I watched half a monkey crawl down the wall then punch through the plaster. And I meant that – it was only half a monkey. It looked like a real monkey had been sheared right down the middle. Blood and guts and bone and even the contents of its skull were visible. It was only being kept together by another spiderweb.

  I’d seen a lot of possessions in my time – and to a T, they were all disgusting. It came hand-in-hand with the energy of using magic to completely control something else’s body and mind. But I’d never seen something like this – glowing spider webs that were controlling dark creatures. Though the sight of them turned my stomach, I still paid more and more attention to them as I tried to figure out if it had something to do with how Hilliker was controlling them.

  “Just a little longer, Eve,” the creature behind me hissed once more, Hilliker’s voice like a knife by my throat. “Without Sonos, there is nothing much that can keep me in Hell. It will be minutes – and nothing more. Then,” he took in a shaking breath that sounded like he was a junkie who’d just gotten a hit, “it will be time to end this world once and for all.”

  The words once and for all echoed, not just through my mind, but through the room.

  I started to see more and more possessed creatures. They pulled themselves out of the holes in the floor – or they just plain created them as they punched their way in from outside.

  Terror gripped me. It leaked into my gut then spread like fire. It reminded me of the orphanage – and that just reminded me of chaos magic. Though I should be in no state whatsoever to pay attention to my environment, I tried to hone my magical senses. It was absolute hell to control my fear. But I managed it – long enough to realize that the sense of chaos was thick in the air. It clung to everything – every possessed and every frigging dust mote. It did not, however, linger in my actual house.

  The dust... he couldn’t be coming in via the dust, could he? The thought struck me, and though I wanted to discount it as impossible, I couldn’t.

  It was very clear that Sonos had magical abilities that went beyond an ordinary practitioner and far beyond most things I’d seen in my practice.

  While technically anything could be spelled, some things were very hard to gain complete control of. The more diffuse they were by nature, the more complex it would be to spell them all at once. Yes, environmental spells absolutely existed. But to take control of the dust throughout someone’s house would require a heck of a lot of energy. And concentration.

  So it was time to mess with that very concentration.

  “It won’t work,” I hissed. I tried to ensure my voice was strong. I didn’t let the fear and grief at what was happening to Sonos blast through me. I tried to make it sound as if I was just stating the obvious.

  Hilliker laughed. “Stupidity will get you nowhere. Open your eyes to reality – while it lasts,” he snickered.

  “You won’t win, you know,” I said conversationally again. Don’t ask me how I managed to control my tone despite the fact I was still restrained and that white plastic arm was pressed against my chest. I just... I channeled strength – the same strength I’d seen both Sister Mary and Sonos show in the orphanage. I let it pulse through me as I realized how much people had sacrificed to keep me safe.

  “And why do you think that is?” Hilliker hissed.

  “Because I’ve seen it.”

  “What? Your end? I’m sure you have.”

  “No. The thing you were always after.”

  He laugh
ed, but there was an edge to it. “Do you mean to say that you have looked in the mirror and glimpsed yourself? For you have been my only target—”

  “I saw the symbol of the Deep,” I said, and I forced my voice to rumble down low. I pushed as much energy and gravitas into it until it would’ve sounded like a horn heralding the first battle of some heavenly war.

  Hilliker froze – or at least, the creature he was possessing froze.

  Silence spread out.

  I smiled. I’d affected Hilliker. But I’d also played my trump card.

  Hilliker suddenly snapped back into the possessed creature, and that arm tightened across my chest. “Do not play with me. There is no way for you to have seen that symbol.”

  “It was in the true memory of the orphanage fire.”

  “No, it was not. I went over that memory thousands upon thousands of times. I never found a thing. Do not lie,” he hissed, real anger pounding through his voice as if I was a student and he was some disappointed principal.

  I just laughed. I ensured it was as light and unaffected as it could be. “I’m not lying – it was in the memory. I saw through it because I am more powerful than you.”

  This drew just the kind of laugh it should. “You have precious little magic left. And when I kill you next time, you’ll have hardly any. By the time you only have one life left, you will be like a normal person. You are not more powerful than me,” he hissed, those saliva-slicked teeth dragging past my ear. “You are nothing more than a weak child. The same weak child I have been waiting for all my damn life. You are finally ready. So lie no more.”

  I clenched my teeth. All I could do was think of my parents. My father, his brow bloodied and bruised, terror in his eyes. My mother as she sat there giving birth to me, the resurrection mark burning above her.

  It solidified my will – and it burned, burned right through my resolve. It made my anger rise up and become more powerful than anything else.

  “I’ve seen it,” I spat, spittle flying over my chin. “I’ve seen the symbol of the Deep. And I’m going to use it to rip you right out of reality. I’m going to use it to bring my power back. I’m going to use it to crush you – and your Banished, Hilliker. You’re not going to have a damn chance.”

  There was another pause. I’d clearly shocked Hilliker enough that he had lost his connection with the possessed. This time it did not last as long. He thrust back into the creature, and its grip on my chest doubled. It practically chewed off my ear now, its jagged teeth slicing past it and cutting it. “No more lies. You have no strength. You are weaker than you have ever been—”

  I closed my eyes. I’d already unsettled Hilliker. Now it was time to see if there was any truth behind what I’d said.

  Yes, I’d seen that mark. The question was, could I do anything with it?

  I desperately wanted to clutch my cross. I knew if I could only lock my fingers around it, I could use the hope inherent in its form. But I couldn’t. As for clutching it with my mind – I didn’t have that power anymore, did I?

  “I’m getting stronger – stronger with every second. It will only be a minute or two now until I break free. I’ll come directly to you.” Hilliker continued to taunt me. He did so quickly and with a biting tone that suggested he was almost worried. Maybe he knew what I was doing right now. He certainly tried to tighten his grip on my chest to distract me. He also brought his possessed before me. He lined them up – the disgusting forms cramming closer as they tried to stop me from concentrating.

  They touched and climbed up my knees and sat on my lap. They did not try to kill me, though.

  I’d managed to put up with a lot of various distractions in my life. I had the patience of a saint. I’d worked for Sato, after all. Beyond that, I’d seen everything this horrendous world could throw at me. I somehow tuned out the half a monkey and the monster rat. I stopped paying attention to the other possessed. I closed my eyes, and I resisted even as they tried to open them. I turned my attention within. I tried to trace that Deep mark in my mind. It certainly had an effect on me, but it wasn’t strong enough that I suddenly blasted out of my restraints and fought off this army.

  There were tingles in my stomach, and they raced down into my hands, but that was it.

  Come on, I thought to myself. Hilliker is right. He’ll be here soon. I can’t... I can’t let Sonos’s sacrifice be for nothing.

  At the thought of Sonos, all I wanted to do was scream and cry.

  I could remember our kiss – more than that the way he’d stared at me and told me I was more than a mission to him. I needed to explore that fact – I needed to find out why. But I’d never get that opportunity again because Hilliker had taken it from me. He’d taken the orphanage from me. He’d taken my family from me. He’d controlled my whole life without me being aware of it.

  Enough was enough.

  “I’m right here, Eve. I’m coming for you,” Hilliker hissed.

  I no longer tried to bait him back. I kept tracing that symbol of the Deep over and over in my mind, but while it made my body tingle, that was it.

  I could not give up.

  Too many people were riding on this. Without Sonos, it was down to me to save the whole damn world.

  For a long time, I’d tried to decide whether I was good or bad. I’d attempted to find out if I was a child of Heaven or Hell – and I had hung my conclusion on discovering that fact. For everything that came from Hell was bad and everything that came from Heaven was good, right?

  I had disabused myself of that notion. I now understood I came from something beyond.

  But where I came from did not matter, did it? Just as where Sonos came from did not matter. Just as where Hilliker came from did not matter.

  The cloth you are cut from is irrelevant – it is what you do that matters.

  I would rise to this occasion. I would do what I had to and sacrifice what I needed to to save everyone. And that... that made me good.

  That should not have been the startling conclusion that it was, but I could not deny its effect on me. I opened my eyes. I ignored the truly gruesome creatures on my lap, climbing over me, trying to distract me as they opened their mouths and made me look at the spider webs clinging to their teeth and throats and tongues.

  I stared right past them.

  They now kept my eyelids open, pressing them against my skull.

  I stared beyond.

  I was trying to connect to the Deep through its symbol. But I was doing it wrong, wasn’t I?

  How do you go deep? By going beyond the surface.

  By traveling down, by pushing past the obvious. By never giving up.

  Reality has a way of making you think that there is nothing underneath it. Chairs and tables and apples and pears all look solid enough until you cut through them. Molecules and atoms have their own solidity, too, but if you keep dividing them, you’ll find more and more.

  And that right there was the secret of the Deep, wasn’t it? I wasn’t heading toward a single state, because you could divide and divide and divide and keep going. And that was the point. It was traveling within – the actual journey that counted. For there was no ultimate destination.

  “I’m almost out,” Hilliker hissed, true joy arcing through his tone.

  “So am I,” I said in a far-off voice. Ostensibly, it had no power – and that just meant it had all the power in the world. I did not need to force myself to reveal what was going on with me – it shone out of every damn pore. Literally. As I finally understood the path of the Deep and I internalized that symbol until it flashed within me, I connected to my true birthright.

  “No,” Hilliker hissed. Fear blasted through his voice. It also shot across the faces of his army of possessed. That monkey screamed. The rat shrieked until I thought it would break through its own lungs.

  They amassed upon me, trying to pin me down, but I attuned to myself and kept going deeper and deeper, knowing there was never a destination to find in the first place. My magic ret
urned. No – I had never had access to this kind of magic. My destiny flowed through me instead.

  At first it just lit up my skin, but the more I paid attention to it and the more I tried to hold it in the palm of my hands, the more it concentrated. It sunk into me, then started to swirl around my body.

  Hilliker’s army tried to hold on to me tighter, but they were already losing their grips despite the fact I hadn’t actively tried to fight them yet.

  I felt the restraints around me crack. They shattered as sparks cascaded across my chest.

  The white plastic-like creature that Hilliker was possessing screeched right in my ear. Without magic to protect me it would’ve blasted through my eardrum.

  I pushed forward. With barely any effort, I stood. The creatures tried to screech and keep hold of me, but they couldn’t. They fell away. My light was starting to burn them.

  I turned slowly. I faced the creature that Hilliker had been speaking through. It looked like gelatinous white liquid that somebody had spelled to come to life. While its arms were relatively solid, the rest of it wasn’t. Gobs of white skin fell off it and smeared across the floor.

  I considered it. I had no beef with this creature. Its apparently disgusting features meant nothing to me. What was on the surface of someone was irrelevant – that was a lesson I would never forget. I still punched a hand forward and forced it right through the creature’s chest. Its gelatinous body simply expanded around my move. I grabbed hold of the glowing white blue spider that was stuck in its sternum. It was Hilliker’s spell. I heard him screech as I crushed it and yanked it out. Then I turned. That army of possessed was no longer trying to crawl over me. They jerked back.

  I said nothing. I cleaned up my house. It was something I never usually got around to. Why bother to clean what’s destined to rot around your ears? But a bit of mold and a few leaves of ivy weren’t nearly as offensive as an entire army of Hell creatures.

  I tracked down every monster. I was quick, I was effective, and I was utterly unstoppable. Hilliker had some pretty strong creatures under his control, but he was losing strength with every single one I fought.