Burning Road

The Price of Friendship- Part VI

"Seriously, do you know how hard?  Not very!"

She tossed the shotgun aside and drew a chrome revolver, it's shine reflecting her car's rear lights.  She fired once before Khouri mowed her down.  Prince inched forward unsure of the number of rounds he had left.  He'd fired six times, a standard clip could hold seventeen.  He stopped five feet away with the pistol sight leveled at the woman's head.  He watched her for any sign of movement.  She was clearly possessed, so a headshot might not kill the monster riding her but he didn't have any gold readily available.  When he heard movement behind him he didn't bother to turn around.

"Cali, is that you?"

"Yeah, you bruised my knee but I'm okay," she responded.  Her usually high spirits were a bit diminished.  "We have to get out of here.  Someone has called the cops by now, and it's never a good time to be a 'black guy with a gun'."

"You're probably right.  Where's Mimi?"

"I am over here," the goblin girl replied.

He was relieved to find them both okay.

"Good.  We're leaving righ-"

The woman's body bucked and he fired two rounds into her head before the gun clicked empty.  A smoking black pool of blood spread beneath her.  The gun was spent, but the body didn't stop moving.  Her arms bent backwards at an impossible angle accompanied by the sound of bones breaking.  She rose up on her legs and skittered away like a crab, her head dangling wildly in a grotesque imitation of a tail.  Raindrops turned to steam as they hit her deformed body.

"It's time to go home, Miminda," the possessed woman hissed, her voice seemingly coming from between her legs.  "The Countess of Wails has offered riches to any imp who brings you back within the fortnight, human time."

"What does this Countess want with Mimi, demon," Khouri growled.  He was weaponless but would not let the monster take Mimi without a fight.  The melancholia had passed and was replaced by an overriding need to protect those close to him.

"She wants the stone and the goblin, hunter.  Now step aside before I drag you down with her."  The demon started to scrape at the floor like a bull preparing to charge.  "Maybe I'll just torture you until you beg me to ride your body."

Prince was prepared for the attack, but caught off guard by how fast the contorted body could move.  He crouched low and braced himself to toss the monster but his footing was wrong.  She hit him and they toppled over in a pile of clawing limbs.  The demon laughed maniacally as Khouri punched at whatever body part his fist could hit while avoiding the gnashing teeth of the ruined head.  The stink of rotting eggs was powerful enough to bring up his lunch, and the heat of her flesh burned his fingers.  His eyes were filling with tears and he was choking, but he never relented.

Prince's knuckles were raw and his arm bled freely when something small added its weight to the fight.  The woman screamed from both ends, a loud outburst that reverberated in Khouri's teeth.  Her body grew rigid and the weight doubled, possibly tripled.  Suddenly he was pinned.  Cold air as frigid as the breath of winter rushed outward from the body.  Prince had only a moment to shut his eyes and mouth, and attempt to squeeze out from beneath it before black ichor spilled onto the ground in globs which froze an instant later.  The blood on his arm burned with the lancing pain of frostbite as shards of ice dug into his flesh.  The puddle had become a spiky field of ice chunks and the rain in the immediate area turned to snow.

Khouri got to his feet and beat furiously at the ice on his arm.  On top of the creature was Mimi, in her hand a small golden blade.  Cali shouted and Mimi cartwheeled off of the monster.  Cali ran forward and smashed the frozen body with her pipe.  The ice suddenly became a mass of reaching inky black hands, all grabbing for the trio.  Then there came the sound of released flatulence.  The black ichor receded into the ground, and presumably back to hell where the demon belonged.  There was no time to wonder where the woman's remains went.  Like Wally, she was likely damned.

"Is everyone alright?" Khouri asked slowly.  He was taking deep breaths in hopes of suppressing the pain that was becoming an all too common thing.

"Nope, something is wrong with Mimi," Cali replied, she sounded worried.

Prince looked down at the goblin girl, who had lost a few inches since their time back at his apartment.  She was shaking, but not in a way any living thing should.  She looked like an old video feed moving in and out of focus. In her hand was a stone of black marble criss-crossed with white and blue lines.  It had to be the stone that everyone seemed to be looking for.  An energy radiated from it unlike anything he'd ever felt.  He wanted to touch it but self preservation stayed his hand.

"Do you hear that?" Cali asked, and he did.  Sirens in the distance, the police were coming.  Faintly he heard the familiar blaring of trumpets.

"Yeah.  Fuck, what do we do?"

"No time to play smart," Cali replied.  "No guts, no glory!"

"Cali, wait!" he shouted but it was too late.  Cali swatted at the stone in Mimi's hand and interfered with whatever magics were swirling.  Mimi was no longer flickering out of focus, she was back and breathing heavy.  Cali caught her under the arms as she collapsed.

"I got the cute one, we can figure out how badly I messed up on the road.  Let's go!"  The sirens were growing louder.

"I'm getting Sully," he said as he ran over to the bound hunter's body.  Sullivan was quiet, motionless, in a small pool of his own blood.  His clothes were growing wet from the increasing downpour.  To Prince's dismay the young man was dead, his neck crushed by the wheels of the demon's car.

"Hurry!"

Unwilling to leave him behind like he'd done to Charlie, Khouri tossed Sully over his shoulder and carried him to the van.  He wished he'd been more open with him.  If he'd known about The Prince Curse, about the price of his friendship, maybe he would have run the other way.

A/N: The Prince Curse strikes again! Charlie, Sully, Khouri's parents, anyone close to him seems to be fair game. How would you deal with such a dark cloud hanging over your head?

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