Hell's Army

Chapter Twenty-three- The Monster in the Closet

Beelzebub whined from underneath Holly's foot in a pitiful attempt to tell her how displeased he was at having a restrained vampire in the house. She poked him in the eye with her toe, and he squealed in distress.

Garrett looked grimly down at his bound ankles. "I'm a monster."

"I know," Holly said. "You told me, like, five times." Why did she have to get vampire duty? It was Abner's fault he was here. He should be forced to sit in a room for hours with him instead of running off doing God knows what.

"What am I going to do now?" he continued miserably. "I can't have friends, I can't have family. I'm toxic. Everywhere I go, evil will follow me."

"Welcome to my world, mate," she muttered.

"I wanted to eat him, you know," he whispered. "Your friend. I wanted to rip his throat out. What kind of creature wants that? What am I?"

"A vampire," Holly said.

He winced like she'd hit him. "Please don't say that word."

"It's true."

"But I don't want to be!" he cried, voice cracking as if it were causing him physical pain to say the words. "I want to be human. I want to meet people and see the world and grow old. I want to be around people and not be afraid they'll get killed. That I'll kill them. There's this thing inside me and it whispers to me, and it's crushing me, and-and I don't know if I can ignore it anymore."

Holly sighed. She slowly swivelled her body round so she was facing them. "I'm going to tell you something," she said, not sure if it was because she felt sorry for him or just to get him to shut up, "and if you tell another living soul, I will not hesitate to burn you alive." She took a deep breath. "When I was eighteen, I was possessed by a demon."

"Oh my God," he said.

"Yeah. And that demon- it made me do things. Bad things. And every night, I see the faces of the people I hurt. Every one of them. I lost everything- my family, my friends. All that was left was this thing inside me telling me I was no better than her. That I never had been. And everyday, I wanted to give into it. To let it overcome me. Because anything beat how I was feeling."

"So, how did you keep going?" he asked. There was no panic in his eyes now. Just a heaviness well beyond his years.

She shrugged. "I had something to prove to that wench. That I wasn't what she made me. So, I did. I helped people. I proved her wrong. And that feeling- it didn't go away. But now I have something more." She looked up at him. "You're living with darkness inside of you, Garrett? Big woop. Welcome to how everyone else in the world feels. But you know what you have to do? You have to wrap a dog collar around it and make it your bitch. You have to control it. Because otherwise, what's the point?"

"I don't know if I can," he whispered.

"Then you've already failed." She stood up and made her way to the kitchen, Beelzebub scurrying along in her wake.

"Do you believe I can do it?" he asked suddenly. She stopped. "Do you believe I can be human again?"

She stared into those old, heavy eyes. "No," she said. "So prove me wrong."

Her phone buzzed as she slipped inside. "Yeah?" she said, pressing it to her ear.

"Hey," Ingleseid said. "I need your help. Are you up for casting a spell?"

"I'm always up for casting a spell."

"Great," he said. "We need to have a word with Dr Lacere."

****

Holly and Tatters arrived at the warehouse fifteen minutes later with the ingredients and began setting up the spell . She'd explained to Ingleseid that since Dr Lacere had died on Earth and not the Underplane, part of his soul was still in limbo and could be called upon. Ingleseid had to admit, he felt bad for him. Purgatory was no walk in the park, just ask him. Then he thought about all the people lying in those hospital beds, the life slowly draining out of them, and suddenly felt better.