The Eons: Book Two

Chapter Nine

The Eons Book Two-Chapter Nine:

(FYI: Due to a glitch, this chapter and all the ones after it say they are rated R; however, only Chapter 8 is actually rated R: all of the other chapters are PG-13.)

Waseem walked up to us and told us to gather everyone in the cafe downstairs. I went around knocking on doors, saving my room for last, hoping Ash would go away. Bane was taking a shower, so I went in alone and knocked on the bathroom door.

    “What?” She asked. Apparently I wasn’t the only one with a hangover.

    “Waseem wants us all downstairs for breakfast in the cafe. Just come on whenever,” I said leaving the room. Ash knocked on Calypso and Alec’s door. Alec answered. Looking inside quickly I saw a blow up mattress on the floor and Calypso asleep in bed.

“Waseem wants you guys at breakfast in the cafe,” Ash said. Alec smiled and said okay. He was certainly chipper. Alec always had been a morning person, and I don’t recall him having an alcohol earlier this morning. I walked up the hall towards my room.

“Ash I think I’ve got it from here, thanks,” I said hoping he would just walk away. He nodded and turned back towards his room. I didn’t knock, just slid the key card in the door and walked in. Ari was in the process of finding a shirt. I leaned on the doorway and he turned around. “Waseem wants us for breakfast.” He slid a worn green shirt over his head and we left. The seven of us conjoined in the hallway and squeezed into the elevator. Waseem was waiting for us at an eight seater table, which he sat at the head of. We sat down to an uncomfortable breakfast. Waseem was beginning to catch on.

“We must be sitting too close to the bar, I smell an awful lot of alcohol.” Ash’s face turned an odd shade of red. Breakfast was finished in silence. “We are going to the old mines just outside of Vegas in the desert. That would be where the Demons live. I’m going to be honest with you here, we don’t have a fighting chance. However you beat the Horrors without a chance. I will lead you into battle. It’s time to load up and check out. Get your things.” With that we were dismissed to our rooms. I grabbed all my stuff from by the door and we reloaded the van, keeping our weapons up front with us. The desert was empty of all texture or the vivid colors of Vegas. I saw the opening to the mine in the sunset.

“Welcome to Hell,” Ari smirked. I wasn’t sure how Vlad would take that but I nodded my head anyway. I watched the mercedes stop and Ash climb out. The van threw up dust as we screeched to a halt. Looking over our group of crazy friends I watched Alec give Calypso a gift, wrapped in shining gold paper. I walked a little closer and saw what he had given her: Jypsie’s ninja stars. The look on her face was priceless. I knew it had to be hard for him to give up a part of his sister. Waseem called us all together and we listened as he spoke. Several people had been kidnapped while on vacation in Nevada. I watched the color drain  from Alec’s face. It was then we heard the pounding of feet on the solid Nevada soil.

“Here they come,” Calypso said drawing a ninja star. She looked wicked cool with those things. I grabbed a knife. Ari drew his Xiphos and Alec grabbed his Khopesh. Waseem grabbed his okinawa and the Demons pushed through the darkness and their skeletal forms looked pallid in the sun. I hated these things. How do you kill something that’s practically dead? Exactly 45 young Demons emerged from the mouth of the mine. They rushed at us in one, huge hoard. Ari and I rushed into it beside Calypso and Bane. I tried slicing through the vertebrae, but nothing could kill these guys. I thought back to the first night we fought them. The only thing that seemed to phase them at all was fire. Of course, fire. I cut my way to Ash. We needed a plan and he was typically good at those, but I was worried about the effects of alcohol on his brain.

“We have to cremate them,”I screamed. He nodded. “If you have any of your infinite wisdom to share now would be the time.” The Demons were pushing in closer.

“Gasoline. Coal. Spark. Fire. That’s what you need for this to work. The rest of this is up to you.” Ash went back to smacking and spearing Demons. I took to the sky. Unfortunately one of the Demons followed me. I tried to slice him enough to get him to give up but some people are too persistent for their own good. I took a new approach. I tried to land on top of the van, but I lost my footing and slid off the roof just behind it. Pull myself out of the dust I saw the boy try to fly around the van, so I threw open the left back door and knocked him out. He had a set of dog tags rattling around his neck. Always curious, I looked at them. The first name was smudged but the last name was visible: Xander. This was a relative of Alec’s. I opened my bag looking for anything that would get gasoline out of a car, not finding anything I slipped the dog tags inside. Sitting in the floorboard of the van was a singular book of matches. I grabbed the spare bucket from the back and pulled the hose out. Syphoning gas is not technically illegal if you aren’t syphoning it from someone else. I wrapped the hose in a loop, stuck the other end into the tank and syphoned a gallon of gas into our spare bucket. Grabbing the matches, I snuck to where Bane was standing. I explained to her quickly what the plan was, handed her the matches and flew towards the mine opening. I left a trail of gasoline to the opening of the mine circling the Demons as best I could.

“Now Bane!” I screamed to her as she lit a single arrow on fire and released. It hit the target perfectly. The gas sparked and the fire was raging sooner than expected. “Retreat.” I said as loudly as possible. The Demons fled to the mine and the flame edged closer. Ash dove behind the mercedes just as the flames and coal impacted and the mine exploded. We stood up and I screamed. There laid Waseem’s body, mangled and burned. His body was wrapped and placed into the back of the van. He would be buried back in Canada. We drove all 21 hours in silence. Border patrol questioned us thoroughly about the body in the back of our vehicle. The story Ari had made up on the drive back to Washington worked, and they let us pass right through. Once we were back at the safe house Ash and Alec picked up shovels and started heaving up soil. We buried my mentor that night. I went to my room and unpacked my bags. I found the dog tags tucked away in the pocket of the bag. I took them in my hand and walked down the stairs to find Alec sitting in the kitchen. I placed the metal reminders of the death of his family into his hand, rolled his fingers closed over it, and brought it close to his heart. He nodded his thanks and I left him to his sad memories. I ran into Vlad on the stairs.

“You want Waseem back? Let’s take a drive,” Vlad moved down the stairs remorsefully. Something was on his mind and I knew what it was.

“Vlad. You don’t have to do this.” He opened the front door for me and we climbed into the van. Once we were there, staring at the metal plates, I was nervous. Vlad had some kind of power over this place. He moved the plates with no problem, walked into his own personal hell, and out walked Waseem. I hugged him tightly. “You know, we don’t have another willing soul to get you back.” He laughed and climbed in the van. It was late morning when we got back. I hoped everyone slept through most of this. Ari ran out to the yard to meet us.

“You left here with Vlad. Alec told me. He went back didn’t he?” I shook my head yes and Ari hugged me.”Don’t scare me like that ever again or I might just have to hurt you.” So everything was back to normal.