The Demon Conspiracy (47 page)

The demons looked from Donnivee to Lipsludge
and back to Donnivee. They all started laughing. Lipsludge stood up
groggily and staggered a few steps. It took him a second to
refocus. When he did, he bared his teeth and claws. He was going to
attack. Donnivee willingly braced herself for the fight.

At that moment the towering lobster demon
stomped back into the room from the other cavern. Donnivee gasped
when she saw it. Somehow it seemed even bigger in the cavern. But
the lobster demon’s head barely reached the shoulder of the
gigantic creature that followed it.

An enormous red demon ducked under the arch
and strutted in from the other cave. It was thick and massive, with
powerfully muscled legs and arms, and a large head with a single
horn growing from the center of its forehead. As it moved it seemed
to be chatting with someone—or something—that was much smaller.

Donnivee nodded slowly.
So
this
was the
creature they were waiting for. This was the one that would kill
her and toss her lifeless body into the soup. Oddly, being ripped
to shreds by such a terrible creature seemed better than boiling
alive.

Then she saw the man. He was tall, dark and
handsome with a touch of gray at the temples, just like in the
movies. He looked important, too, all dressed up in a dark
three-piece suit and tie, with highly polished shoes and a
briefcase that perfectly matched what he wore. Donnivee’s hopes
rose when he looked her way. She smiled at him, hoping to get his
attention. But, again, she forgot about the mask.

The four-armed demon,
Grund, got very excited and ran up to the big red one. He pointed
right at Donnivee. “I got her, Boss! The others were playing in
fire, but
I
did
my job!”

Right away Lipsludge forgot about Donnivee’s
right cross. He scowled at Grund. “Yer gots lucky, Grund! I’ll
makes ya sorry ya saids that!”

“Shut up,” said the Boss in a deep bass
voice that seemed to vibrate right through the stone floor. “You
all did your jobs.”

The demons that had participated in “the
Kelly Bishop” raid stood up tall and proud. But the man in the suit
didn’t seem impressed.

“This is the girl you
brought?” said the man with a tiny hint of doubt. His rich baritone
voice had an almost magical quality to it. “
This
is Kelly Bishop?” He went over
beside Donnivee and studied her. Her heart pounded harder than it
had before. What was he doing? Why did they want Kelly? She noticed
the man’s skin was pale, but all his outstanding features were
dark, almost black. The hair, the neatly trimmed beard and
mustache, the color of his eyes. Even his unbreakable gaze had a
certain darkness about it. But who was he? Why was he here? It
didn’t matter as long as he’d come to rescue her.

“I told you they were crack troops,” said
the Boss with pride.

But the man clearly wasn’t satisfied. He
looked at Donnivee hard, like he knew all the lies she kept hidden
deep inside her heart.

“I’m sure your troops are
as good as you say, your Lordship. But this is
not
the girl.”

Grund disagreed. “But she said she was da
Kelly Bishop! She said it!”

“Dey all saids it,” said Lipsludge. “Dey was
protectins ‘er.”

“She’s demon-kind! Look at da blood on her
shirt! It’s demon blood! She’s got wounded!”

The man rolled his eyes at Grund. His
expression said it all: hopeless. When he looked at Lipsludge,
however, he seemed almost impressed. “Very astute, young demon.
There may be hope for your kind yet. Yes, this one did tell you she
was Kelly Bishop. But the only person she was protecting was
herself.”

He reached down and pulled off the mask.

Donnivee blinked in relief. Cooler air
rushed across her cheeks. She wiped her face on both sleeves in an
effort to clean up.

The demons all let out a simultaneous gasp.
Some changed their position to get a better look at her.

“He pulled her head off!” said Grund.

“But she’s got ‘nother head inside!” said
Tentacles.

“I never seen a human that could change
heads!” said another.

Now that he’d exposed her, she understood he
wasn’t there to help her escape. But how could he have known? Only
one way. He had read her mind. She became nervous and upset.

“Wrong human girl?” said the Boss with a
shrug. “So what’s da problem, Mr. Deel? You got magic. You can take
the real girl any old time you want.”

“I’m afraid my best chance
to get her was ruined by your
crack
troops.” Mr. Deel’s words dripped with heavy
sarcasm. The Boss growled at the slight. Deel went on. “You see,
your Lordship, there are other powers in this game. Unfortunately
the real Kelly Bishop has made a ripple. She’s been noticed. At
this point I’m forced to remain subtle. If she happens to die, my
name cannot be associated with her at all. Do you
understand?”

The Boss nodded. “So
if
we
take her
for the soup,
you
get blamed?”

“Exactly, your Lordship. That was my one
chance to utilize your skills and personnel to acquire her. But
since your death squad failed I’ll need to think of something
else.”

“What do we do with this one?”

The man looked at Donnivee like she was
nothing more than a lowly cockroach. She felt it, too. He brushed
her off with a wave of his hand. “Do what you want.”

The Boss grinned horribly. “Grund. Put her
in the soup!”

Before Donnivee realized it, the four-armed
demon lifted her over his shoulder and held her so tight she could
hardly breathe. Lipsludge came over and unlocked her shackles. The
small demon grinned at her from below.

“I gets her eyes!” said Lipsludge, drooling
with excitement. “Her eyes is mine!” Grund started up the stone
steps to the top of the scaffold.

“I can get her for you!” cried Donnivee
desperately. “I can get Kelly Bishop!”

Grund lifted her over his head. He was about
to drop her into the boiling soup when the Boss stopped him with a
glance.

“You need me!” she said again. “I can bring
Kelly Bishop to you! I know her! We’re friends!”

“No, you’re not friends,” said Mr. Deel,
knowing her thoughts. Grund stood over the pot like a statue,
waiting for his next order.

Donnivee looked down. A
sickly green liquid bubbled below her in the pot. The smell of
vomit and decay rose in the steam. Every so often a human body part
would rise to the top while the demon
chefs
stirred. First a head, then a
hand, then part of a man’s thigh still wrapped in a pantleg. After
that she saw a body part from some other creature, possibly a
demon. Donnivee gulped, terrorized. No, she didn’t want to die like
this. She didn’t want to die at all.

“Ah,” continued the man as if he were still
scanning her thoughts. “But you do have an intense hatred of the
Bishop girl. It’s completely irrational, but you despise her worse
than anyone else on the planet, except for yourself, of course. You
may be useful to us yet. Your Lordship, perhaps you should hold off
on the soup idea. She’s young and healthy. I suggest you put her to
work in the mines. Let her have a glimpse of the future of
mankind.”

The Boss laughed. It sounded like a diesel
locomotive struggling to get moving. “I like the way you think, Mr.
Deel. Evil, like me. Grund, take her to the mines!”

Donivee practically fainted with relief. The
handsome man who dealt bravely and cleverly with demons had saved
her life. Grund dropped her to his shoulder and lugged her back
down the scaffold steps. Donnivee saw Lipsludge running along
beside her like a small boy full of excitement.

“Guess you won’t get my eyes now, will you?”
said Donnivee boldly.

“No, I don’ts,” said Lipsludge back at her.
But she could tell he wasn’t disappointed. “I gets somethin’
better. I gets ta tortures ya every day for the rest of yer life!”
He clapped his hands and danced along as Grund took Donnivee
through the archway into the other cave, into the red place—the
place where people screamed.

41

SLEEPLESSNESS

KELLY

“Nobody beats sleep.” I spoke to an empty
room, to no one there. “Nobody. When you’re sleepy, sleep can knock
you out with one quick punch in-the-you-know-what!”

I laughed at myself. What did that even
mean? I sat at a table in the motel room surrounded by homework,
struggling to stay awake. Somehow I’d fought off sleep for three
days now, but I couldn’t stay awake much longer.

“This no-sleep thing’s makin’ me weird.” I
spoke to my reflection in the mirror. Of course it was. My eyelids
were so heavy I couldn’t see the words on the page of my English
book. More than anything in the world I wanted to close my eyes and
drift away for a nice, long nap. I would have, too.

But since the demon
attack, sleep had been hard to manage. Whenever I tried it I had
terrible nightmares, and they were getting worse every time. I’d
gotten to the point where I was downright
afraid
to sleep. All at once I had
an idea.

What if I dozed off for
just a few minutes
before
the nightmares set in? If it worked I could
repeat the process dozens of times until it all added up and I’d
gotten enough rest. Or maybe I’d get lucky this time and there
wouldn’t be any nightmares. Perhaps I’d fall into a deep,
dreamless
sleep with no
demons to harass me. Thinking about it really didn’t matter because
I was totally exhausted. Dreamless or not, I plopped my head on the
table and fell asleep in an instant.

It felt wonderful to have my eyes blissfully
shut. Everything around me seemed peaceful and calm.

I heard a scratching
sound. I sat up quickly. What was that? Was somebody at the door?
All at once the power went off. The room was instantly dark. I rose
in a deep panic. With demons looking for me, darkness was
the
worst
place
to be. I noticed small bands of light filtering through the closed
blinds. The motel’s exterior lights! I had to get outside. It was
my only hope.

I rushed to the door and opened it.

“Demon Nation!” The creature’s words were
hoarse and deep. At the same instant a huge, scaly hand reached in.
Its long claws caught me by the throat. I screamed as loud as I
could and never made a sound.

I woke up at the table,
gasping for air. I searched the lighted room, wide-eyed and
fearful. I felt awake, but was I
really
? It was getting more and more
difficult to tell. I checked the time on my phone and saw it was
just after six. Angie and Travis should get back soon with the
groceries and some supper.

A car door slammed outside. It startled me
so bad I nearly jumped out of the chair. I got up and peeked
through the blinds. Just some ordinary people moving their things
into the room next door. No demons. How do you spell RELIEF?!

I was definitely awake. Wide awake…again.
But for how long this time?

Okay, I needed the rest,
no doubt about it. That was one reason I’d asked to stay in the
motel while Angie and Travis went to the store. But the other
reason I’d stayed—the
real
reason—was because I needed to know if I could
even
be
alone
anymore. For the last three days all I could think about were those
terrible monsters coming after me. Now I was all by myself. This
was the first test. Would I pass?

Still trembling from the bad dream I spoke
aloud: “Maybe I’ll surprise Angie and put my clothes away. That’ll
keep me awake for a while.”

I had literally been living out of my
suitcase since we got to the motel and by now the piles of dirty
and clean clothes were all mixed up. Angie had asked me to put the
clean clothes in the drawers and the dirty ones someplace else if I
wanted them washed. I hadn’t done it yet because the job seemed too
much like work, but in the end it took me only a few minutes to get
the suitcase emptied.

That was easy
enough
.
Now for
the backpack
.

I set my old pink Barbie
backpack on the bed and unzipped the largest section. Seeing the
backpack reminded me of Pandora’s Cave. It also reminded me of the
promise Dr. Parrish had made a couple days ago. He told me he would
call FBI Special Agent in Charge Smith and ask him to go back into
the cave and look for Brandon’s camcorder. It was a logical and
good idea because the tape in Brandon’s camcorder held plenty of
evidence that the demons existed, even more than Mathew’s cell
phone video. I hoped it showed that Mr. Deel guy too. The camcorder
was the answer to my problems. It was the only thing that would
get
somebody
to
do
something
.

The question was had Parrish made the call
yet? What if he forgot? Would it be rude to remind him?

Something else nagged at me, too. When
Travis and I escaped from the cave that day, the hideous creatures
had threatened us both.

We know where you live, Kelly and Travis.
We’ll grab you in the dark, when the night comes. The dark belongs
to usss!

But they hadn’t threatened
Parrish at all. Why not? He’d been in the cave, too, and he heard
what they said. So why didn’t they want him? And how come they
didn’t try to get Travis the other night? I was certainly glad they
didn’t, but the threat was to get us
both
. Were demons so dumb they could
only capture one kid at a time? Or did it all mean something else?
I didn’t like being singled out.