Slaying demons, p.30
Slaying Demons, page 30
part #2 of Damsel Series
Not that it was going to be her habit. She didn’t have conditioner there, and didn’t want to destroy her hair but it had worked well enough, the one time. So, clean and dry, she moved out, carrying her slightly damp, rather smelly, clothes out with her. Those were put in a black trash bag, since they needed to be washed, but that wasn’t happening there, on the side of the stream. Unless they needed b-roll for the next day.
She felt pretty good when she went to sit by the big fire near one of the trailers. She was hugged by Terry and Lara, then Veronica, who was glared at by Terry, who pretended to cop an attitude.
“Can you believe that her boyfriend got her a role on Kate’s show? It’s a totally power move, I bet. Do you think he’s pushing for his own show, as a producer?”
Hannah nodded.
“No doubt. Still, I hear you actually have talent, Veronica? So that works, this time. I... could use some food. By the way, cattail roots... Not a taste treat. What do we have, or am I making it?” She would and there was no prepared food present, at the moment, just a box and a cooler.
There was a snort then, from Katie.
“I have this. You like your food well burned, right Hannah?”
She didn’t really, but she’d managed to do that herself in the last days, so smiled at the idea, getting it.
“Sounds wonderful. If I don’t have to char it myself. I didn’t know you could cook...”
“Wait until you taste it. You still won’t know...”
That got a laugh, which petered out, as the air... changed.
The sky actually grew dark, though not with clouds. The blue sky actually dimmed, and then, in a flash of light, a thing that wasn’t that at all, an army of black shadows filled the meadow behind them. There had to be at least a thousand of the creatures, some being tall, over nine feet, and almost black enough to seem solid. No more so than the one she’d seen there the week before. There were different shapes in the mix, which was good to see. Multiculturalism was important to Hannah, after all.
Some of them were of the more human seeming sort, but a lot of them were more bestial in shape, like werewolves from a movie, but made of inky blackness. They could be seen through, which wasn’t nearly as impressive as it could have been.
Kate simply cursed, a single, rather profound, word.
“Fuck.”
Everyone else ran toward them, which made perfect sense to Hannah.
~Demons. In the field. A lot of them!~
Alistair was behind them, and Terry squeaked, when the voice spoke in her head. That had to have been on accident. Then, she got the idea that panicking seemed to be in order. No one else was there yet, to protect them, so Hannah stood up and walked forward, facing the army of demons. Understanding that she needed to stall, so that Lash and John could get there. So that the others could run. Even if she died, doing it.
Connie called out then, stealing most of the glory from her brave internal words in one line of her own.
“Get this on camera. If we live, it will be worth millions.”
That if was the salient point, of course. Hannah smiled, and pulled out her gun.
Which had one of the giant beasts of shadow, to move forward. It was more human shaped. Familiar, from the same place, some days before. Which was odd, but certainly felt correct.
“No More. Your weapons will not work here, in this land of men. I have come to do battle with you and your... Army.” There was a gesture at the others there and a disdainful sniff. As if her friends weren’t up to fighting off an army of any sort.
Which was a bit rude, really.
Hannah laughed at the creature. Stalling, trying not to seem like she was about to wet herself.
She really was. Still, pretending not to be afraid was kind of courageous. After a fashion.
“Hello! You know, I was thinking about that, the other day. About the weapons I have here? The one that I killed that Lord of the underworld or whatever he was, with? This one, in my hand, in fact.” She waved the gun, just a bit, to show the matte gray colored thing to the assemble demons. “I get that you’d think it might not work here, since the rules of magic are different... The thing is, it worked in your dimension. The magic I used did, I mean. The others tested that out for me with a healing amulet I made. It lasted for months there, even.”
Almost academically, the creature spoke back to her. In very good English, really.
“So? We are here, now. Not in the land of my people. Not in the land between the mind and death...”
She nodded. It was interesting to hear the Never being called that, but it made a certain amount of sense to her.
“Right... right, only, you see, the magic of this weapon is still on the gun. Even here. It kills demons, rather effectively. Well, I imagine some of you saw that part?” She waited, but no one helpfully nodded to her over that. “Okay, fine, don’t help me out. Still, when the bullet fires, it’s just a bullet here, but when it encounters one of you, who carry the traits of your dimension with you, what will happen? I mean, inside of you? That magic, the stuff in the Nevernever... That’s based on belief. Only, the strongest form of belief isn’t faith, at all. It’s knowledge.”
She shrugged, still trying to buy time for the others to come and rescue her. Even if that was weak.
Not that having friends was a bad thing. A team, maybe, if she did enough to actually earn her place, that day.
“And I know, beyond all doubt, that this weapon kills your kind. So, who wants to go first, and see how easily you all die?” She didn’t sound tough or even mean.
More... Bored, really.
Not that she wasn’t about to have a mental breakdown.
The giant shadow in front moved in on her then, claws forming out of the translucent darkness that made up its being.
“Ha! Lies, to buy you time before your death, No More. You killed the Lord Variel, in single combat. I will now kill you and take his place, among my people. You cannot bluff your way out of your fate. No one here can aid you. You must face me, on your own. Which means you are about to perish. Fear me!”
There was a rush then, and a single shot rang out, as Hannah did the only thing that she could in that moment. Not expecting anything to actually take place at all, despite her brave sounding and confident words, until the round hit the shadow, dead center, causing an explosion that was not, in any way, like what had taken place before. It was smaller, not nearly as loud and instead of blowing half the body into mist, it just made a nice big hole, in the center of the creature. Doing the same to at least five of the others behind it, as the bullet traveled along, not slowing at all.
It wouldn’t. Not due to mere shadows.
The giant creature looked down, and whispered. It sounded bemused, for some reason.
“A... miscalculation on my part, then.” After that, it collapsed, then faded from existence.
She smiled, and holding a good cradle stance, she noticed that the others, finally, had bothered to come to help them out. Still, it was, clearly, her moment. Her trick had, by some miracle, worked. Meaning she could do it again. A thing that she knew now, with no hesitation or doubt being left inside of her mind.
So she yelled.
“I am the Damsel, No More! Which of you chooses to die next? Step forward and die for all time, like your friends did! That, or leave this place and never return to this world. Choose now!”
Interestingly, even if she would have simply left, after the little scene that had just happened, about a hundred of them surged forward, moving quickly. She fired again, several times, the weapon in her hand doing a lot more damage to demon shadows than it ever would have managed against even unarmored human beings. It was enough that, five shots later, with a good twenty of the demons going down, the rest who were rushing stopped, and, rather fearfully, turned to leave.
Most of the rest of their people had already gone, by that point. Otherwise a lot more of them would have probably been hit, being so densely packed together like they had been.
The last one to leave stared at her, with glowing red eyes. It spoke, before it vanished.
“We will meet again, someday, No More. I promise you that.”
Then, not waiting for a clever reply, which was good because she didn’t have one ready to go, it vanished, as if it had never been there. The sky lightened, as the last of them vanished into nothingness.
John, who had been in the woods, walked up beside her. He mustered a lopsided grin and winked at her.
“Well, damn. I didn’t get to do anything at all. I still get paid for this?”
She nodded, since that was probably true, really.
“Sure? If you help get breakfast together? I’m starving. I... Do you think that these things will be back?” She felt uneasy, but Lashondra moved in and gave her a small hug.
“No. We need to discuss some things, later, but they won’t come back. Is there going to be coffee? I could use a cup, if it’s available.”
Then, almost as if nothing had happened, they stood their ground and made food. Some of them pretending it was all fine, better than the others.
Hannah, surprisingly, was one of the ones who seemed more or less fine.
It impressed her, even if no one else got it.
Chapter twenty
Minor demon invasion attempt or not, Hannah still didn’t get to sleep in a trailer at night, for the next two days. Instead she had to dig a pit and turn that into a five-person shelter, half underground, for all of the girls. Max, it seemed, was pushing her to confront her fears. It wasn’t fun to sleep in, but she managed it, with only a few flashbacks. It was carefully done and large enough, barely, to not trigger her too much. She had help on the work, but only from Kate, Terry, Lara and Veronica. That meant they were all sore on a level that meant they were basically crawling around and seeking drugs for the discomfort. Except Veronica, who pretended to be in the same state well enough that no one would catch on that she was superhumanly strong.
Then, the woman really could act, it turned out.
The rest of her friends had to stay, even though both John and Lashondra were incredibly certain that the demons wouldn’t be coming back. Not there, at any rate. What they avoided doing was explaining why they thought that was true. That, naturally had to wait, until they were safely back at Lashondra’s place, in the suburbs, with everyone else.
Well, not everyone, but the core group that made up The Requiem. Lash, Nevernever, Wisp, The Moore, Zip and Luther. John was there, and so were Hannah and Veronica, though it was clear that they weren’t part of the group. It was more of an energy thing, really, than them all wearing name tags or something like that. The interesting person that way was actually Guardia. She was kind of merging, back and forth, between seeming like she was one of the official people there and being on the outside, like Hannah was.
They were all sitting at a big round table though, on rounded stone benches, in the basement. The room had reshaped itself to look like the inside of a medieval castle, in a movie. One about King Arthur and his knights. There were wall hangings in decently bright colors and everything was just a bit too large for Hannah. As if it had been built for large men. Not giants, though.
Sitting at the front of the thing, Lashondra, seeming a bit sad, spread her hands.
“You caught what happened?” That was spoken directly to John, though, interestingly, Veronica nodded and spoke.
“You mean that demon coming to challenge Hannah for the throne of Duke Variel? He lost, as well. In single combat. She has his place, maybe?” Her accent made the words dark.
Hannah didn’t have to shout that she hadn’t picked up on that part, either. It honestly had crossed her mind, of course.
“Except that I can’t really do that, so... They’ll come for me?”
Lashondra nodded, but John, half chuckling, shook his head.
“Doubtful, love. They’ll just have a war over who leads now, among themselves. They know you can’t rule there. No human could. We just aren’t right for that kind of dimension. Really, they don’t fit here any better, which has protected us for the most part. At least from that sort. That was impressive though, working out that you could kill them like that. Guesswork, but still, it did the trick.” He stopped then, with Lash picking the conversation ball up, almost instantly.
“You need to get some new weapons worked up, however. They probably won’t bother with you again, most likely, but we still have to figure out what to do about Tri-D. Do you think you can find a cure for it, using magic?”
Hannah was surprised by the question, but even as everyone looked at her, she had to nod.
“Maybe? The same rules would apply. If it’s demon magic, then we might be able to introduce a counter magic into people that will use that energy against itself? It won’t be easy, since we’ll have to come into contact with the magic for each individual, but... Yes? At least I can try. I mean, if I can get a trip back into the Nevernever, to work on things? I have three days before I have to go and have pine needles stuffed into my... Well, you get the idea there.” She grinned a bit, feeling dark about it. Not certain she could pull that off at all.
Except that she had to be able to. Not just to help save people, but because being certain could well be the only thing that made it work. Doubt was her biggest enemy that way, so it wasn’t going to be allowed, any longer. Not when it came to the idea of magic.
Nevernever, Debbie, stood up then. Her face almost stern seeming.
“We need to eat first. Then, we’ll head over and do what you need. Time is different there, so we need to hurry, as soon as we’re in place. You should plan out what you want, before we go?”
She could see that, so stood up, herself. Wisp stayed seated, as did the others, except for Veronica.
“I’m going with you. You might need help, lifting and carrying things.”
It was a kind offer, so she nodded.
“Thanks, Cry. We’ll try to get that around, so people can be cured. That still doesn’t tell us how to find the people behind this. I mean, I could try that... My abilities that way aren’t strong, though.”
Lashondra grimaced a bit.
“Agreed, that you should try anyway. We’re out of leads, right now. Even with a treatment possibly coming, we’re losing people at an incredible rate. At the same time, they’re sabotaging almost everything, before they go. At this rate... We’ll lose half the population of Earth inside two years. We need to stop this.”
Hannah agreed. Standing, she went up the stone stairs, a winding thing that seemed to take an hour to climb, even if it was more like five minutes, with Debbie.
Who made spaghetti for them all, so they could have food before they went to her strange fantasy realm.
Where she was supposed to come up with a cure for a magical plague, happening in her very non-magical world. She saw the trick for that and knew it worked. She decided that it would anyway, and kept believing that as hard as she could, she ate.
Then, when it was time, she stepped through a rip in space to a fantasy realm. A place between the mind and death, or so she’d heard tell. Where she began to act in earnest.
Which, she understood, was all it really took not to be a victim. Acting, instead of letting things happen to you. She considered that, but only for a moment, before she got to work.
Then she did what was needed. Hoping it would be enough.
P. S. Power, Slaying Demons
