DEMON DOOR (#2 GHOST PORTAL series)

SEVEN

"I need a minute," said Avery, hurrying away from the basement's hole-like entrance, shivering. "Can I have a minute, is that allowed?"

Ada followed him, but her gaze remained focused on the hole. "One minute, and no more. We must move this along."

Move this along, she says; as if it were some random task in her list of things to do?

Was that what Avery was—a task? Something to do? Something to get over with?

Grimacing, he marched up to Jamie and grabbed him by the arm, dragging him towards the car. "We need to talk," he mouthed, not slowing down when Jamie tried to rip from his grasp. "If I'm doing this, we need to prepare."

"Prepare?" Jamie did free himself eventually, stumbling in direction of the vehicle. He proceeded onward and once arrived at the car, he leaned against it. Redness spread from his chin covered by his beard, up to his forehead. "Prepare for what? For you to talk to demons? Dude, I'm not okay with this. I get that it has to be done, but why does it always have to be you?"

"You think I fucking know?" Avery stopped a few feet away from him, boiling on the inside. Rage and fear weren't mixing well in his gut. Rage from Ada's constant twists and turns, and fear from what those twists were pointing at him to do. "I don't want to do this either, but we came to help, didn't we? And this is it. This is how we help. This is how she wants us to help, and she won't give us any other opportunities."

"Fine, this is it, as you say. So how does this work?" Jamie tipped sideways, glancing to where the basement was, and Ada pacing back and forth in the air, in front of it. "We go down, we open the door, and then what?"

"I go down and open the door." Avery jammed a thumb to his chest. "You stay up here. I have to go down, but not you. You're not even going near that door, not if I can help it."

Jamie's eyes narrowed and his lips slitted. "No. I'm coming. What if you—"

"—if I don't survive?" Avery blew out a breath. "Exactly. If I don't make it out, or if I do, but I'm in pieces, you need to be around to finish this shit in my place." He winced as he reached out and set a hand to his friend's shoulder. "I don't want those things getting into your head. With what they did to Jessamine, what they're doing to her... no. Not you, too."

"So, what," Jamie moved out of Avery's grip, "I just sit up here in the meantime, waiting? What the fuck am I supposed to do?"

Avery turned sideways, glimpsing Ada as she floated about, muttering something to herself. "You talk to her," he signaled towards the blue being, "and get as much information out of her as you can. You and I both know she hasn't told us everything she knows."

"Ha," Jamie snorted, "like she'll tell me anything else. She's a sneaky one for sure. But... yeah, fine, I'll try. If it passes the time and I'm not sitting around worrying about you."

"And if I take too long, if a few hours pass and I'm not back..." Avery pinched his lips as he looked at Jamie.

"I'm not going anywhere or doing anything until you come out of there, Avery." Jamie shook his head. "Not until I have proof that you're dead, or fighting your way out. There's no way I'm going after Jessamine on my own, not unless I'm positive you won't be able to. She's... she's your girl, and it's on you to finish what you started, not me."

Avery couldn't help but scowl at him. "But if I don't get out, then you might not have a choice. You and Ada will need to come up with a new strategy. One that doesn't involve sneaking into a demonic realm to talk to demons."

"Fine, but I'm not revising our strategy until you, your body," Jamie pressed a finger into Avery's torso, "is recovered. Alive or dead. You hear me?" He took Avery by the shoulders and shook him. "Do you hear me? I'm not letting you die in some weird world surrounded by demons, and leaving your body there to be picked apart by them. I'm willing to bet that they're carnivorous pieces of shit, and if I'm burying you, I'm burying you in one piece, do you understand me?" He sniffled; Avery couldn't believe it, but there were sparkles in his eyes. Tears. Not that Jamie was the type of man to hide his feelings, but he rarely cried so openly. "Amy, then Jessamine, then you? Don't put that all on me to handle, man. Don't. Go down there and do everything you fucking can to come back."