Hell's Army

Chapter Ten- Flight

Katie and Follows crept down the hall to Mr and Mrs Berkley's room. The moonlight skittered across the wall, melted into the cracks and holes. Wait. Holes?

Katie's hand whipped out, and she stopped Follows in his tracks.

"What?" he whispered.

She pressed a floorboard with her toe tentatively. Something shot from the wall like a bullet and embedded itself on the opposite side with a sickening crack. A thick nail glinted dangerously at them.

"Oh," Follows said.

Someone giggled behind them, high and shrill, like a hyena's cackle.

Katie whipped round, and Kevin's tiny silhouette melted into view.

"Kevin?" Follows said, struggling to keep his voice even. "Is that you?"

That hyena cackle again.

"I just want to talk," Follows said.

Kevin took a step forward, and the light slid off the blade he was holding in a swift, clean stroke.

"I don't think he's in a talking mood," Katie whispered.

"Kevin?" Follows said as the cackle bounced off the walls.

"Follows, he's got a knife," she muttered. "But we can take him, right? There's two of us. He's just a kid."

"That's not a kid."

Kevin shuffled closer.

"What the hell do we do?!" she hissed. Her heart was going to explode. They had to fight, to get out, to do something.

Follows pulled out his cross, held it in front of him. Katie looked back at the corridor as a sickening realization settled in the pit of her stomach.

"Oh, you are not serious," she muttered. "How fast can you run?" she said to Follows.

He didn't take his eyes off Kevin. "Sorry?"

She grabbed his arm, wrenched him through the corridor. Everything exploded around her, the wall tearing itself apart in their wake. Wind smashed past her, chasing her all the way down. She burst down the garage stairs, Follows collapsing to the ground beside her.

The breath rushed out of her body, and she gasped, "You okay?"

"A little warning would have been nice," he choked.

A little cat falling of a clothesline beamed down at them from the wall, 'Hang in there,' written cheerfully beneath it. Katie didn't think she had ever felt such strong hatred towards a picture in her life.

There was a little steel door at the back of the garage. Katie pointed to it.

"Basement," she said.

The tiptoed over, managing to not suffer a painful, hole-ridden death as they crept inside.

She could make out a few cupboards and an empty dryer, but apart from that, the room was empty.

"Where are the traps?" Follows asked slowly.

"I don't think there are any. He mustn't have thought we'd get this far." Her hands scraped against the wall and hit the light switch. Blinking, muted light flooded around them.

"Katie," Follows whispered, pointing, "what is that?"

Something was hanging in the middle of the room. Something big and dark. At first, Katie thought it was slab of meat, the kind they had hanging at butcher's, but realization crept icily across her body.

"That would be Alfie," she said, willing herself to look away.

Follows dragged a hand over his mouth, and she demanded, "What the hell is going on? What do you mean Kevin's not a kid?"

He tore his eyes away from what was left of Alfie and slowly slid down the wall. Katie sat down next to him.

"My job," he said quietly, "it's not like other jobs."

"What does that mean?"

"I sort of travel places," he said, "looking for things. Bad things."

She frowned. "What kind of bad things?"

"Demons."

She snorted. "Good one, mate." He stared at her. "Oh my God," she muttered. "You're serious."

"Come on," he insisted. "You've seen Kevin. You've seen what he can do. What child can do those things?"

"You're trying to tell me he's a demon?"

Follows shook his head. "He's been possessed by one. He's showing all the signs- manipulative, sadistic, mutilating animals-"

"And you," she said, "you stop these...demons?"

"Yes."

She looked down at his cross. "So you're, what, like a reverend?"

"No."

"But you know how to get that thing, that demon, out of Kevin?"

He nodded.

"So," she murmured, "question of the day- How the hell do we do that?"

"I need to get close enough to exorcise him," he said, "which is a bit hard to do without getting impaled by a household appliance."

"So we have to, what, fight our way towards him?"

"But we don't have weapons," he said. "We don't have any way to defend ourselves whatsoever."

She wanted to go home. She wanted to read that stupid 'Horrid Henry' book to her sister. She wanted to kiss Baby on her soft little forehead. She wanted to argue with her mother. She didn't want to die in this crappy little house with its crappy motivational pictures. She stood up slowly and pulled open one of the cupboards. Screw drivers and spanners and oil cans tumbled out in a desperate attempt for freedom. For the first time that night, Katie grinned.

"Wouldn't be so sure."