Crossroads (33 page)

Abruptly it flew towards the table and hovered over the corpse of the young woman. Sachiv was about to step forward and shoo it away but it suddenly plunged down into her body through her chest. The body arched off the table and her rib cage ignited with a bright flash of light under the sheet which was covering her.

Suddenly she inhaled a large noisy breath and her eyes flew open. She sank back to the table her eyes darting around nervously. Sachiv could do nothing but stare in complete disbelief, his mouth hanging open as she sat up slowly, clutching the sheet to her naked body. She looked down at the small tag attached to her toe and then down to her body in confusion. He could tell the moment she realized where she was, her eyes flew to Sachiv and then to the scalpel in his hand… and then she started screaming.

Louisa’s eyes flew open and she shrugged the blanket off, uncurling herself from the uncomfortable chair and stretching the kinks out of her back. Yawning slightly, she stood and checked Jake’s vitals, before resetting the monitors. She smoothed his hair back from his forehead and dropped a kiss against his cool skin. Biting back the tears she pulled in a deep breath, glancing down at her watch. She was about to settle back down in the chair when she turned in surprise. A bright ball of light shot in through the window, straight through the glass as if it weren’t even there. She watched in fascination, her mouth hanging open, as it reared up and plunged into Jake’s chest. His body jolted violently and arched upwards, his torso glowed momentarily beneath his hospital gown and the monitors went nuts. His arms flailed wildly as he tried to drag in a deep breath but couldn’t because of the breathing tube. He began to choke and frantically reached up to pull the tube from his throat.

‘Jake stop!’ Louisa pinned his arms to his waist putting all her weight behind it. God damn it he was strong.

She wrestled with him as he tried to pull himself up.

‘Can I get some help in here?’ she yelled as several nurses and student doctors rushed past the room. It was a pretty safe bet that if Jake had woken up, the other coma patients probably had as well.

A young brown haired nurse ran into the room and helped her to restrain Jake.

‘Jake…’ Louisa grabbed his face and forced his wild blue eyes to meet hers. ‘Jake, calm down its me…’ gradually he slowed his frantic movements and turned to look at her. ‘There that’s it,’ she crooned softly as she stroked his face soothingly, ‘you need to calm down.’

He watched her with quiet eyes as she relaxed her grip on his hands. He raised one hand and touched the tube taped to his mouth.

‘Okay,’ she nodded, glancing across at the monitors, ‘I’m going to take the tube out but you need to remain calm, okay?’

He nodded slowly.

‘Josie,’ she turned to the nurse, ‘can you help me?’

They both tucked a hand under each of his arms and helped him to sit up. Raising the bed and tucking some more pillows behind him, the nurse switched the oxygen off and unhooked the tube. Switching off another machine and moving it out of the way Louisa removed the pieces of tape holding the tube in place and grasped the end firmly.

‘Right, on the count of three I want you to exhale as hard as you can okay?’

Jake nodded.

‘Okay…one…two…three.’

Jake blew out as hard as he could and as she pulled the tube out firmly and handed it to the nurse, he began to cough.

‘I’ll get him some water,’ Josie picked up the discarded tubing.

‘Thanks,’ Louisa turned back to her brother who had fallen back against the cushions.

‘Where’s Roni?’ he croaked in a whisper.

‘Jake,’ Louisa frowned, ‘I don’t think you should be worrying about that right now.’

‘Where…is…she?’ he grabbed her wrist tightly.

‘She’s…,’ Louisa sighed, ‘she went after the Soul Collector with Helga,’ she frowned and shook her head, ‘I mean…Danae.’

‘Damn it’ he croaked, grasping the sheets to push them back.

‘What the hell are you doing?’ she shoved him back against the bed and ripped the sheets from his fingers. ‘You’re not going anywhere yet.’

‘I have to find Roni,’ he pushed himself up again, ‘she’s in danger.’

‘I’m here…I’m here…’

Louisa looked up in relief as Roni rushed through the door, breathing heavily as if she’d been running.

‘Thank God,’ Louisa sucked in a breath.

Roni crossed the room to Jake’s bed and took his hand.

‘I’m here and I’m fine,’ she looked down at him smiling, ‘and you’re okay.’

She stumbled and fell forward as Jake grabbed her hand firmly and yanked her towards him so she fell on the bed and he could wrap his arms around her tightly.

‘You’re okay,’ Roni whispered more to reassure herself than him, her eyes filling with tears.

She pulled back just far enough so she could look into Jake’s eyes.

‘I had the strangest dream,’ he croaked, running her silky hair through his fingers. ‘I dreamed you were shooting bottles with my gun.’

She chuckled lightly and reached back to the waistband of her jeans, pulling out his gun.

‘What, you mean this one?’

‘Why have you got my gun?’ he frowned. ‘What the hell happened.’

‘Your girl is pretty bad ass,’ Danae stepped into the room and leaned up against the door jamb with a cocky smile.

‘What?’

‘We arrived just in time to see you getting your soul ripped out of your chest, when Roni here sprints after the soul stealing demon and flat out tackles him.’

‘What?’ Jake’s face drained of color as he turned to Roni angrily. ‘Are you insane, putting yourself in danger like that? What the hell were you thinking?’

‘To be honest I stopped thinking at that point,’ Roni replied ruefully. ‘I just knew I couldn’t let him escape with your soul.’

‘Jesus Roni,’ he raked his hand shakily through his hair.

‘Look she’s making it sound worse than it was,’ Roni told him. ‘He couldn’t hurt me because I was wearing your amulet.’

‘To be fair,’ Danae interrupted, ‘you didn’t actually know that at the time. It was just sheer dumb luck that thing worked.’

‘Not helping,’ she hissed.

‘We’ll discuss this later,’ Jake threw Roni a look, ‘why don’t you tell me what happened after.’

‘He got away,’ Roni continued, ‘but not before Danae managed to get some of his blood. She used a tracking spell and we managed to track him to the North West woods.’

‘Where the Bachelier place is,’ Danae supplied.

‘Why was he there?’ Jake frowned.

‘It seems he was using the old Hoodoo bottle tree Clea Bachelier put up, to trap the souls he’d stolen so he could feed off them at his leisure.’

Jake suppressed a shudder at the thought of the demon feeding off his soul. ‘So how did you stop him?’

‘We didn’t,’ Roni told him softly. ‘It was Olivia and Theo.’

‘What?’ Louisa piped up, ‘they’re back? Where are they? Are they hurt?’

‘No, they’re not here and I don’t think so,’ Danae answered each of her questions in turn.

‘Where are they then?’ Jake asked.

Danae shrugged.

‘I don’t know,’ she replied, ‘there was some sort of disturbance in the air close to the tree. I’m not a hundred percent certain but I think it may have been a smaller gateway than the one we saw on the lake. Olivia and Theo grabbed the Soul Collector and dragged him through and then they disappeared too.’

‘And the souls?’

‘Released,’ Roni told him, ‘all of them. Those who are able to return to their bodies should be able to, like you did. The others should be able to move on to whichever afterlife they are destined for.’

‘Jesus,’ Jake rubbed his eyes in exhaustion, ‘so we still don’t know where Olivia and Theo are?’

‘No,’ Danae shook her head. ‘I just hope wherever they are that they’re okay.’

Olivia and Theo hit the ground hard and rolled out the reach of the Soul Collector. The wind howled like a hurricane tearing at their hair and clothes, raking their skin with its severity. They scrambled back out of the way as the gateway crumbled and disappeared into the encroaching vortex of blackness. The Soul Collector began to slide across the ground, caught up in the suction of that great black gaping maw. He stopped struggling with the collar glowing at his shredded bloodied throat and rolled over onto his stomach clawing frantically at the earth, trying to stop his inexorable slide backwards toward oblivion. His eyes were wide with madness and his mouth was wide rimmed with frothing spittle.

The wind picked up pace even more until it was like being caught in the path of an approaching tornado. Bridget's feet were pulled out from under her and she slid across the ground towards the Void and the demon desperately trying to claw his way out of its path of destruction.

‘BRIDGET!’ Olivia screamed as she reached out and caught Bridget’s hand.

Theo’s hand snatched out and grabbed the back of Olivia’s backpack to stop her from being dragged forward and he reached back with his other hand so Sam could grab him and anchor him to something.

Bridget cried out in pain as the demon grabbed her ankle and sunk his sharp claw like nails deeply into her flesh. He speared her calf with the claws of his other hand and began to painfully claw his way up her body, tearing her flesh as he went.

‘Olivia let me go,’ Bridget cried in pain as he embedded his claws into her lower back.

‘NO!’ she shook her head.

‘You have to,’ she whispered smiling through the pain, ‘just remember…it was always meant to be you…’

‘NO!’ Olivia screamed and reached out desperately as Bridget ripped her hand from Olivia’s grasp. Rolling over she wrapped her arms and legs around the demon, rolling them both to the edge and over into the darkness.

‘Olivia we have to go,’ Theo dragged her back and hauled her to her feet, as the wall of nothingness inched closer to them. ‘WE HAVE TO GO NOW!’

He grabbed her hand and dragged her away from the edge. She felt Sam grasp her other hand and the chaos around her blurred and shifted. She found herself running, being dragged along by Sam and Theo. In the distance she could see the giant wrought iron archway and the words Mercy Cemetery in elegant spidery letters.

She risked a look behind them and her stomach leapt in fear. Despite them running flat out, the world they knew was disappearing behind them fast, consumed by the roaring black inferno churning up everything in its path. She pushed herself to move faster, her breath was coming in big labored gasps and her heart hammered in her chest. The muscles in her legs screamed in protest and her backpack banged painfully against her spine with every step but she didn’t dare stop or even slow down.

Her palms were sweaty with exertion and she kept losing her grip on Sam and then Theo. Sam allowed her to release his grip and kept pace next to her but Theo wouldn’t let her go. His death like grip on her hand would have been amusing under any other circumstances, but at this particular point she couldn’t be anything other than profoundly grateful. They ran under the huge archway and down the small winding path which ran between rows and rows of gravestones.

Behind them came a loud ominous grinding, the heart stopping sound of metal twisting and bending under great strain, but they didn’t dare turn back to look. If they had they would have seen the great iron archway folding in on itself and disappearing into the wall of blackness. They cut across graves, leaping over decorative borders and urns, trying desperately not to trip and fall. They skirted around smaller Mausoleums and towering statues of Angels but nothing survived. All fell before the destructive might of the Void, they all crumbled into the deep well of forever, never to be seen again.

‘Is it much further?’ Olivia panted as she stumbled from sheer exhaustion.

‘It’s not far,’ Sam turned back in time to see Olivia trip over the decorative edging of an old grave, which had been partially concealed by overgrown weeds.

Olivia felt her foot tangle and she went down, unable to stop herself. She rolled over helpless to do anything but watch the endless Void rushing towards her. She felt strong familiar arms lifting her as Theo pulled her roughly into his arms and began to run once again.

‘Sam, get to the entrance!’ Theo breathed heavily.

Olivia looked up and saw a large rectangular building with pale walls which may have been white once but had faded to light grey. It was surrounded by majestic Greek style columns, small archways lined the walls where windows would have been. There was a pitched roof and on the smooth front gable was the name West deeply etched into the stonework. It was weird, she’d been to the West section of Mercy Cemetery back in the real world. She’d explored it thoroughly with Theo when they were searching for Charlotte West’s grave and she’d never come across a family Mausoleum like this one. They skidded to a halt outside the entrance which was a heavy oak door overlaid with an iron gate.

‘Hurry up and open it,’ Theo dropped Olivia to the ground holding onto her tightly.

‘I’m working on it,’ Sam breathed heavily as he laid his hands against the rusted metal.

Olivia and Theo turned, pressing their backs closer to Sam and shoving him forward as the Void churned up the grounds in front of them. Gravestones were ripped loose and swallowed, trees were yanked roughly out at the roots and devoured. Grass and paths and urns and flowers all toppled helplessly into the Void.

‘SAM!’ Olivia yelled above the noise, ‘ANYTIME NOW WOULD BE GOOD!’

‘YOU’RE NOT HELPING!’ he hissed in frustration.

‘SAM!’ Theo shouted in desperation.

‘Got you,’ Sam breathed as the door swung open inwards and all three of them leapt into the dark entrance to find themselves tumbling into a deep well of blackness like Alice falling down the rabbit hole.

The Underworld

Like Alice, it felt as if they had been falling through the dark silence forever, with no concept of time or distance. Olivia began to wonder idly if the Underworld was so far below the surface it was indeed located at the very center of the Earth, or maybe it wasn’t under the Earth at all but somewhere else entirely. She was so lost in her wandering thoughts it came as a surprise when they finally hit the ground with a collective humph, in a vicious tangle of arms, elbows and bodies.