The Black (45 page)

He looked around at the shattered terminal. "Such an impressive vision," Damon continued. "This marvelous structure was created as a place for travelers to pass through on their way to grand adventures. How fitting that it now holds the portal through which I will initiate the greatest adventure of all time."

"It's no adventure," Ree said through clenched teeth. "It's the end of humanity."

Damon scoffed. "Perhaps. But what has humanity ever done for me?"

He looked to his soldiers, who crowded the landing, and he called out, "What has humanity done for any of us, other than to grind us up and throw us aside like spoiled grain?"

His soldiers grumbled in agreement.

"Not anymore. You have been patient. We have
all
been patient. I promised that your time would come, and with this victory it has."

A cheer went up from the soldiers. The Guardians seemed to shrink even more.

Damon rode his horse to the front of his mass of soldiers as he continued his speech.

"We each have different stories. We come from different places and different times. But we share the common bond of oppression. No more will we have to bow to those who unjustifiably consider themselves superior."

The soldiers cheered.

"Gone are the days when we must grovel so that others may thrive."

And cheered again.

"Kingdoms have been built by the sweat from our backs. The blood from our veins. And yes, by our very deaths. History may not remember us in life, but I promise you, they
will know of us in death. Such a glorious moment as we march triumphantly back into the Light."

The soldiers went wild.

I slowly made my way along the north wall of the concourse, the wall that held the doors to the train tracks. I wanted to get close to Ree and Zoe.

When the soldiers settled down, Damon continued.

"The gift I give you today is a second chance. We are about to re-enter a world that is very different from what most of us remember. It is a world populated by the weak and the privileged. Their slothfulness was inevitable for they are descended from the same arrogant upper class that
tortured us in life. The time has come to even the scales. It is our right—no, it is our duty to push aside the undeserving, the self-entitled, and assume the mantle of power that is rightfully ours."

More huge cheers. They were eating it up because Damon was telling them exactly what they wanted to hear. These soldiers must have been put together by Damon out of the dregs of many generations. They were people who resented those who had more than they did in life and had centuries of built-up animosity. What they didn't realize was that they were being led by a sadistic maniac. It scared me to think what they might do when he let them loose in the Light.

"We shall not inherit the earth!" Damon shouted. "We shall conquer it!"

They went nuts.

Damon motioned to one of his soldiers, who grabbed Ree by the arm and dragged her away from the group. Zoe tried to hold on to her but another soldier wrestled her away. Ree was shoved forward and fell to her knees at the foot of the stairs that held Damon's soldiers.

"There will be no mercy," he shouted to them, "for no mercy was ever shown to us! And to begin, I will personally
execute the leader of the dogs who have stood in our way for so long."

Uh-oh. Was Damon the Butcher back to his old tricks? The Guardians sprang to life, jumping to their feet in protest, but were held back by the soldiers. Damon got off his horse and strode toward Ree. Ree wouldn't bow. Though she was on her knees, she kept her chin up and her eyes focused on Damon.

"First the arrogant Adeipho, and now the leader of the Guardians," Damon announced.

He pulled his black sword from its sheath. He was really going to do it. There was only one person in that terminal who had any chance of saving her.

"This is but a beginning!" Damon shouted. "We will become the avengers of the Light. People will fear us, for we have nothing to lose and we hold the ultimate power . . . the ability to execute them in the Light and then destroy their spirits in the Black."

Damon grasped his sword and raised it high over
Ree's
head.

I took off running.

The Guardians howled in protest. Zoe fought to get away. Damon's back was to me. All eyes were on him. And his sword. And Ree. Nobody saw me coming.

The soldiers cheered Damon on, screaming for the death of the leader of the Guardians.

Ree didn't flinch.

Damon raised his sword higher . . .

And I hit him square in the back. What followed was a jumble of sound and fury. I wrestled Damon for the sword. It was all about the sword. If I could turn it on him, he'd be done and this whole nightmare could end.

Damon got his wits back quickly and kicked me away as several of his soldiers tried to jump in.

"Stay back!" Damon yelled. "I will execute him myself."

I jumped at the guy, launching myself feet
first, and knocked him on his butt. He didn't stand a chance because I was out of my mind. I started punching at his head, his arms, his chest. I hit him so many times that he couldn't gather himself to control his sword.

I sensed more than heard the shouting and boos from the soldiers around me. It was like being in a gladiator pit where I was the underdog. Nobody wanted me to win, except for the Guardians and they couldn't help.

I threw more punches at Damon than I could count. He didn't know how to defend himself and paid the price. Destroying his spirit would be quick and painless but that wasn't good enough for me. I wanted him to hurt.

He struggled to get control but I was too fast. Too relentless. He stumbled backward, trying to stay on his feet but I didn't wait for him to fall. I pounced on him, knees first. When his back hit the ground, my knees drove into his chest. I heard him grunt in pain. It felt good.

His head snapped back and hit the floor. With a low cry he dropped the sword. As it clattered to the floor I went for it . . . and felt a burning pain in my lower leg.

I looked back to see that Damon's mouth was clamped on my calf, his pointed teeth tearing into my flesh. Like a shark attacking its prey his eyes rolled back into his head. My stomach turned. The guy was an animal. I coiled my other leg and drove my heel into his face. The pain was horrible as his teeth raked across my skin, but he let go.

And I grabbed the black sword.

His soldiers didn't stay back any longer. They came at me but I jumped at the still reeling Damon, put my foot on his throat, and held the tip of the sword to his chest.

"Stop!" I shouted to his soldiers.

These guys were vicious, but dumb. Nobody knew what to do. But I did. I had to destroy Damon. If I let
him go, even
if I was able to get Ree and Zoe and the other Guardians out of this vision, he would be back with more vengeance than before. No, it had to end right there.

"Ree!" I shouted. "Go back with the others."

She struggled to her feet. "What are you going to do?"

"Get everybody out of here," I commanded.

"And then what?"

"Yes, Foley," Damon asked. "Then what?"

I looked down to see him licking his lips, as if tasting the blood from having bitten me. But I wasn't bleeding. I was a spirit. He must have been doing it out of habit. Whatever the reason, it disgusted me.

"Do you have the strength to destroy me?" he asked. "That would be unwise, if you wish to regain your life."

"I don't care about my life," I said.

"But you care about Marshall Seaver, don't you? And your family? Destroying me won't end this. I have been grooming loyal followers for centuries. Destroy me and you'll be faced with thousands of angry spirits who would compete for the honor of tearing you apart."

I looked up at the sea of angry faces. I didn't doubt that Damon was right.

"Or we could strike a bargain," he said. "Release me and we both continue. As simple as that. It is wiser to live to fight another day."

All eyes in that terminal were on me. I had the power to finish off this demon forever. But what would happen then? The rest of his soldiers would end me and head for the Rift. I'd win the battle, but
lose a very big war. As I stood poised over Damon, I didn't know what to do.

That's when the rumble began.

"What's that?" I asked, looking to Ree.

She had no idea. I looked at Damon. He was as confused as I was. The rumbling grew, like another train was about to barrel through the wall and make an unscheduled stop at the terminal.

"Look!" Zoe cried.

At the far end of the concourse, the end where the destroyed Kodak sign hung, there were two archways that led to smaller corridors and the street beyond. It was the street I had taken to the edge of
Ree's
vision, where I had encountered the Watchers.

The Watchers. I'd almost forgotten.

A black liquid that looked like oil rolled toward us from each corridor. It was heavy and thick and blacker than night. It stretched from wall to wall and was a few feet deep. It spilled in from the corridors to the main concourse as if it had purpose. The two tides of liquid joined together to form a single wave that kept rolling forward, growing as it moved across the floor.

I was mesmerized, which was a mistake. Damon knocked the sword away and jumped to his feet. I was too dazed to react. In an instant Damon had grabbed another black sword from one of his soldiers. I was afraid he'd go after Ree again, or turn his anger on me, but he was much more concerned about saving his own butt and he went for his horse.

I grabbed Ree by the arm and pulled her over to the other Guardians.

"What is it?" Zoe asked, stunned.

"I'm not sure," I said.

Damon's followers went from confusion to panic. The soldiers on the concourse floor, those closer to the dark oil, reacted first and tried to push their way up the stairs. The soldiers already on top didn't retreat as quickly, which created a confused pileup.

The black entity rolled across the floor toward the center of the concourse. When it hit the Rift, I expected it to pour down into the hole but it traveled over it like it wasn't even there. In seconds the Rift was completely covered by the dark liquid.

Damon pulled himself up onto his horse, but the animal was spooked and Damon had to fight to keep it under control as it bucked up on its hind legs.

"Should we run?" Ree asked calmly.

"To where?" I asked.

The Guardians were all strangely relaxed. They were prepared to accept the inevitable, whatever it was.

The wet, black tide kept coming until the leading edge was directly in front of us. It stopped moving forward, but began to rise up into the air. There was no question, this thing was guided by some form of intelligence. In seconds a slick, dark curtain had been created that was the size of a massive movie screen. Looking into the swirling darkness reminded me of the colorful mist that appeared when we moved through visions in the Black. Only those events were colorful and bright. This dark wall was anything but. As the dense wall grew, I felt as if I was staring at something evil.

Damon's soldiers wanted nothing to do with it. They scrambled over one another to get out of the terminal. Damon himself had finally gotten his horse under control but didn't move from the
bottom of the stairs. He was as mesmerized as I was.

Ree said, "It's like a dark doorway between visions."

"It is, but why does it look like—?" I didn't have to finish the question because I knew the answer.

The center of the dark curtain parted to reveal a sight that made me want to scream. What we saw wasn't a glimpse into another vision, but another world. A dark, evil world. I saw winged creatures and hunched demons. There was no horizon. No sky. No life. At least no life as we knew it. I could hear the tortured screams of thousands. Millions. I didn't know if they were calling out for help or twisting in pain. It was a place of shadows and desperation. It was the final stop along the Morpheus Road.

"The Blood," I said with a gasp.

A vile wind blasted from the opening that smelled like rotten meat. The hot stench blew across us, sending dark grit into our eyes. To see I had to squint. I put my arms around Ree and Zoe, though I can't say if I was protecting them, or myself.

The putrid wind was powerful. It swept past us, swirling toward Damon's soldiers. Their confused cries turned to screams of terror as the wind grabbed them and with demonic force pulled them backward.

"Are you all right?" I screamed above the howling wind.

Ree and Zoe both nodded. Looking around I saw that none of the Guardians were being affected. The wind blew past them harmlessly. They weren't the targets. Neither was I.

Damon's soldiers desperately clung to anything to stop from being pulled into the void. They grabbed onto broken railings and twisted brass banisters and even the army tank. They tried to dig their nails into the hard floor, and into one another. It was useless. The first wave of spirits was lifted off their feet and sucked into the abyss, their screams echoing through the terminal.