Demon Breathing Down My Neck

Chapter Sixteen: The Baby Room

Stumbling backwards, Kayla's face drains of blood. "How do you know-who-what are you?!"

I let go of the Dell's screen as the stretching stars slow down and back away. "Why are you opening a portal?!"

Kayla Two whispers back, "This is the only way Agent Smith could touch his baby boy in the power plant! Want to see? Want to see?"

Everyone falls silent at the cyber spirit's strange words. All of our eyes rivet upon the streaming stars that are rapidly turning into twinkling specks again. A small blue, green, and white ball appears in the distance. The green and brown continents grow larger and larger, then the portal zips down towards North America. The oceans fade out from view, the central portion of the massive landmass blurs closer and closer. Soon, gray, fluffy clouds obscure our view.

The portal emerges high above the muddy, brown Arkansas River as it winds its way through downtown Tulsa. The green subdivisions of the city cover sprawling hills far beyond the banks of the river. Our view soars downwards towards the light brown and gray downtown area. Things become nearer and nearer until we can see the tops of the many buildings.

A gleaming, silver skyscraper becomes the focus of the screen. It towers above all of the other large buildings, like a hybrid-demon giant standing in a crowd of humans. A shining, thick tentacle of light sways slightly in the wind above the skyscraper's roof. The portal flies down along the tentacle, blurs past countless gray windows, and into the concrete of the overcrowded parking lot.

Brown and gray soil surges past our view. The portal rushes into a dark room with a bunch of blinking red lights. The sound of babies crying fills the bedroom so much that it is deafening and overwhelming. It doesn't come from the computer's audio, but from inside the screen itself.

The Smiths hold their ears as their eyes bug out of their heads. The window into another place shifts downwards at a dizzying pace. The sound of babies crying becomes distorted and further away. The red lights stretch out into red lasers. Kiara collapses onto the carpet and clamps her ears as hard as she can.

Gusts of cold, painfully cold, air blow into the room and mess up all of our hair. The chilly wind is heavy with frozen, acrid smoke. All of us begin coughing violently, choking on the nice, warm air that suddenly turned into icy fire. I narrow my eyes as I wrap my buzzing energy around my mouth and nose to filter the air. Only the atmosphere of hells is this horribly real! But this place looks like it's a physical facility under downtown Tulsa!

The interdimensional passageway slows down its descent. We can stare straight into a vast chamber lined with transparent cages. The floor is lost in darkness, so the massive room is just like a bottomless pit trying to suck the whole bedroom into it. The blackness of a frigid, moonless night seems to bend the walls towards the computer screen.

Inside the clear containment units, little bodies squirm and scream. Bathed in half-light, all the babies' hands slapping the glass of their prisons are like tiny, shadowy ghosts reaching for the light far above. The roar of thousands of babies bawling hits my body like energy claws ripping my guts out. The miniature hands slide down the glass and fade into the blackness.

The portal zooms in on one cage in particular. A bloody, naked baby is rolled over facing the glass. What would be beautiful, brown skin is constantly being sliced open by some invisible force, then sewn up again by white strings of light. Sprays of red fruit punch splatter the transparent barrier and trickle down it like droplets of glistening, ruby rain.

The baby's big, curious, brown eyes squeeze and bug out of his head. They are bulging and bloodshot. The small, sensitive veins covering them seem about to burst. His left eye expands, then pops like a cherry tomato. The baby lets out a shriek that sounds inhuman. His little arms flail and spaz. His tiny legs thump against the glass. I stick my fingers in my ears along with everyone else as acid burns up my throat.