Chained in the Demon's Lair (Hellfire Circus) (3 page)

“I… I don’t know.”

“Well you better try,” Baptiste said,
“because time’s running out and I’ve got a feeling Samuel could
really use my help up there.”

“Samuel!” Cassandra exclaimed, “Is he
alright?”

“What do you care?”

Cassandra lowered her head again. “I
care,” she said. “Just tell him that I’m sorry.”

“If I get a chance I will,” Baptiste said,
“now stop feeling sorry for yourself and stand up. Go down to that
mainframe room and try to undo what Mephistopheles started before
this whole place blows sky-high.” He beckoned to the others. “Come
on, we’ve got to get up there before that creep turns Samuel into
dog-food.”

Julie stood up and ran to his side and, as
she passed her, Cassandra reached up and snatched her wrist. “Here
she said, “take my jacket and boots. I won’t need them
anymore.”

“Thank you,” Julie replied, taking the
garments and putting them on.

“Come on!” Baptiste commanded, “we don’t have
much time.”

As he and Julie ran to the steel staircase
that led back to the mainframe room and on to the elevators out of
the silo, Francois paused. He placed his hand on Cassandra’s
shoulder.

“I’m staying here,” he said, “maybe I can
help. Maybe we’ll see you on the other side.”

Julie glanced back with vital emotion but
Baptiste snatched her wrist and led her away. They were nearly out
of time.

***

“Why did you do it?” Francois asked as he
fondled Cassandra’s cheek, “my sweet Cassandra, why?”

He waited for his friend to collect
herself as he stood by her side. He had known Cassandra for many,
many years and though she had always been volatile, even given to
spite when she felt she’d been bested, she had never been an evil
woman. Whatever it was that had made her betray the circus that she
loved and the people who occupied it, it must have been something
big.

“Francois,” she whispered finally, “I did
something terrible. In Chicago, the night of the storm, when the
circus was down…”

“I remember.”

“There was a boy. An accident. Things got out
of control and a young man died. I killed him Francois and by the
time I realized what I’d done it was too late to take back.”

Francois held his tongue. Grim-faced, he
continued to caress the cheek of his old friend. She was beyond his
judgment now, she knew that herself. All he could do was comfort
her.

“He told me he could undo it,” Cassandra
said, “Mephistopheles, he told me he could bring the boy back to
life. I felt so guilty Francois, I would have done anything to
reverse what I’d done.”

As he stroked her temple, Cassandra collapsed
into tears again. She had done wrong but now maybe she had a chance
in some small way to redeem herself.

“Come,” Francois said, “take me to the
mainframe room. Let’s try to stop this mess from getting any
worse.”

***

Bright white light and the absence of all
thought. Then the pain returned with electric ferocity. Samuel hit
the ground and rolled. He wasn’t sure how many more times he’d be
able to endure this. He only hoped Baptiste and Francois had found
the others.

“
I’m getting bored with this Samuel!”
Mephistopheles called from across the dust, “can’t you mount any
more of a challenge? If you don’t do something to pique my interest
I’ll just have to crush you like a bug and be done with it.
I’m
bored
Samuel!”

Samuel winced and pushed his torso up from
the cold sand once more. He’d only managed to get one shot at the
demon so far and Mephistopheles had dodged it effortlessly. If he
was ever going to stand a chance he needed Baptiste by his side.
The voodoo priest was equal in skill if not better than he himself
and together they could give Mephistopheles a run for his money.
Without him, he’d be lucky to last another ten minutes.

“A disappointment Samuel! Really. After all
these years of searching is this what it finally amounts to?
Shooting a fish in a barrel? What happened to everything I taught
you?”

“You were a poor teacher,” Samuel said,
rising to his feet, “that’s true. But I learnt a few things myself
since.”

He slammed his fists together and then turned
them on the demon as a blast of glowing green energy shot from his
arms and hurtled like a laser towards Mephistopheles. This time he
didn’t miss. The blast hit the demon square in the hip and the
force was almost, but not quite, enough to knock him to the
ground.

Mephistopheles jerked back as the shot hit
him and then straightened up again. For just a second Samuel
descried a look of surprise on his face before the demon subdued it
beneath his usual contemptuous sneer.

“That’s more like it,” he said, “pathetic,
still, but a little more interesting at least.”

And the demon was right, Samuel realized,
alone he’d never be enough to beat him. Samuel wasn’t the only one
who’d gotten stronger over the past couple of centuries.

“Hey Samuel, is this creep bothering
you?”

It was Baptiste! They’d gotten back to the
surface then.

As Samuel turned to quickly greet his friends
his relief turned instantly to icy confusion. Only Julie and
Baptiste had returned. Of the others there was no sign.

“Cassandra and Francois? Where are they?”

Baptiste quickly jogged to his side and
hissed in his ear. “The bastard has the whole place rigged to blow.
Cassandra and Francois stayed behind to disarm the bombs.”

“And what if they can’t?” Samuel asked.

Silence was the only answer Baptiste could
offer and it told Samuel everything he needed to know.

“
Is that the infamous Baptiste Saint Jean,
I see?” Mephistopheles called. If he was surprised he wasn’t
showing it. “And what the fuck is he doing here, Samuel? How
delightful indeed, you brought a friend. Do you boys need a moment
to confer before I destroy you both?”

The two men ignored him, just smiled in a way
that assured him they were ready for the worst of whatever he had
to offer. Mephistopheles’ own smile faltered for a second.

“And is that your little bitch, I see?” he
called, “My, oh my, I’d been planning to save that little snack for
later. Oh well, you can have her. I already had a taste
anyway.”

Samuel’s brow furrowed but Julie quickly put
his mind at ease.

“It’s not true Samuel,” she called, “he
wanted to but Cassandra tricked him into leaving me be! Don’t
listen to his lies!”

A flash of anger as black as the pits of hell
darkened Mephistopheles face. He was a being that despised being
fooled above all else. As far as he was concerned the only
trickster in town should be he himself.

Samuel relished the anger and uncertainty now
showing on his enemy’s face. Now that Baptiste and Julie were here
he felt stronger than he had been even to start with. “Well how
about that Mephistopheles,” he called, “outsmarted by a couple of
mortal ladies. You might have gotten stronger but you’re still just
as dumb as you ever were.”

“CUNT!” Mephistopheles snarled with a voice
that no longer contained one single iota of human affect.

He fired a blast of lightning at the trio.
Between them, Baptiste and Samuel were able to mount an instant
defense and deflect it into the sky. Now at last, they had him on
the run.

***

“I’m going to do what I should have done two
hundred years ago,” Samuel said, “I’m going to wipe you off the
face of this earth and make sure you never come back.”

The two men sent a double blast of energy at
the demon and this time it did knock him off his feet. Now the
expression twisting his face wasn’t contempt or anger. It was
fear.

“Bastards!” he hissed, fighting his way back
to his feet.

The magicians knocked him down again with a
quick blast of power. Behind them Julie whooped with delight.

Samuel and Baptiste approached the demon,
bearing down like muscular jungle lions closing in on what had once
been a particularly challenging foe but was now little more than a
nutritious meal to be devoured.

“Do you really think we can destroy him for
good?” Baptiste whispered to his friend as they approached.

“I don’t know,” Samuel replied, “but I
certainly intend to try.”

They came to where the demon lay on the sand,
trying to back away from them in jerky, panicked motions.

“Please,” he begged, “fellas, let’s not be so
hasty. Think about what we could achieve together. Me with the
whole forces of Hell behind me and you with all that sexy style and
panache. We could rule the world.”

“
Ha,” Samuel snorted, “but you don’t
really
have the forces of Hell behind
you, do you Mephistopheles? Come on, tell the truth for once in
your diseased existence. You fell out of the unholy graces of Hell
a long time ago, didn’t you? Isn’t that why you spend so much time
walking the earth? You’re just as much a fugitive as I ever was,
the only difference is that I’m finally facing up to my pursuer. I
wonder what will happen if we make you face up to
yours?”

By the look on the demon’s face Samuel knew
he’d struck a chord.

“Samuel, please,” Mephistopheles begged,
“think about all I’ve done for you. Without me you’d have died more
than two hundred years ago, a poor street-rat never rising above
the scum-line of poverty. Everything you’ve done since, everything
you’ve gained, you owe it all to me.”

“I owe you something,” Samuel said, “you’re
right about that. And now I’m going to give it to you.”

In his pocket the radio transmitter switched
on and Francois’s crackly voice emerged.

“Master,” he called, “can you hear me? We
can’t disable the bombs, the system is too complicated. They’re set
to go off in thirty seconds, can you mount some kind of force-field
up there?”

For just a second Samuel closed his eyes in
what was only mourning, a very weary sadness, before he opened them
again and his expression returned to one of rigid
determination.

“Yes Francois,” he said, “we will do our
best. You have been a true and honored friend for all these years.
I know we will meet again in some distant realm.”

The radio returned only the crackle of white
noise, whether Francois had heard him or not was impossible to
tell.

Samuel glanced at Baptiste and smiled. “Are
you thinking what I’m thinking?” he said.

Baptiste narrowed his eyes in a way that told
his friend he was thinking exactly what he was thinking.

“Guys,” Mephistopheles began, “guys,
wait…”

A flash of bright white light lit up the
whole desert sky.

***

Mephistopheles opened his eyes and for just a
moment he could not remember where he was or what was going on. And
then as he looked around himself he realized that he was no longer
where he had been just a moment earlier. Up on the surface of the
desert with those two ungrateful Charlatans.

No, now he was back under the ground.
Quite far below as it so happened, though thankfully not nearly as
far below as that other place. Thank Scum for that, he
thought.

And then in an instant he understood just
what they had done to him and he almost laughed at the genius of
it. He began to slide down the red surface of the huge nuclear
warhead’s nozzle, gaining speed as he approached the edge before
finally slipping over into the dark abyss and falling the few
hundred feet to the floor of the silo below.

Bastards.

He hit the ground with a crunch as his human
limbs shattered beneath the force of the fall. There was no point
now in even trying to repair them. In a few more seconds they’d be
torn apart with far more force than he himself would ever be able
to mend. And where would that leave him?

“Oh shit,” he whispered, “oh no.”

From here there was only one place to go
and he had a feeling the high dukes of Hell were not going to let
him come back to earth again anytime soon. No, they’d probably have
other plans in store for the demon who’d betrayed their rule and
gone out on his own as a renegade. It looked like the gig was
finally up.

Or was it? Maybe there was something he could
do, anything? As Mephistopheles wracked his brain for the quick fix
that would get him out of this mess he was in, the warheads above
him turned white hot and beyond in the space of mere milliseconds
and his earthly body was obliterated in an instant. Mephistopheles
went back to Hell.

***

Julie watched with grave concern as Samuel
and Baptiste used all their strength to try to subdue the terrible
force that was surely reverberating through the whole silo below.
How long she wondered, would they have to hold the force at bay?
Would they be strong enough?

After what seemed like an eternity, every
second drawn out to its taut, intense limit, the worst of the
explosion seemed to subside and the huge glow that surrounded the
magicians began to falter.

After another few seconds the sky was dark
again and it was almost as though nothing at all of interest had
ever taken place on that patch of earth, not even civilization
itself. The desert was bare and empty, indifferent to the plights
of men and demons alike.

“My darling!” Samuel shouted as he ran
towards her, “you’re alright!”

He wrapped his strong arms around her and
Julie collapsed into the security of his grasp.

“Is it over?” she asked, “is it really
over?”

“Yes, my love,” Samuel replied, “It’s
over.”

He pressed his warm lips over hers and in an
instant all the pain and suffering of the ordeal was wiped away,
replaced with only love, joy and hope. The Ringmaster was a magic
kisser.