Anomaly Flats (22 page)

Mallory raised an eyebrow. “Cut you?”

“Cut me,” he nodded. “Anywhere you’d like.”

She tapped her teeth together, thinking. It was almost
certainly
a trick…but then again, if he was telling the truth, she needed to know. A collapsing dungeon might change the game a bit. And besides, slicing open a hell-demon could only win her a few karma points. Quickly, before she could change her mind, she slashed the Spear of Rad across his arm. A long trickle of blood welled up and began dripping onto the floor.

Something above her head shifted, and the entire room groaned.

Little puffs of dust filtered down through the ceiling. Tiny pebbles tumbled to the floor.

The dungeon shuddered like an old barn in a windstorm.

“You see? Not that I think it should necessarily change your mind. I believe a person’s own destiny should always be fulfilled. If you’re meant to end my existence, then postponing that end is fruitless. I just want you to know what you’re in for when it happens. I want you to have all the information.”

Mallory glanced nervously over her shoulder at the staircase. It wasn’t really
that
far away. “I can make it,” she said aloud.

“Maybe,” he agreed. “I suppose we’ll find out.”

“I suppose so,” Mallory said. But there was no mistaking the uncertainty in her voice. It was a perfect match for the uncertainty in her brain.

The ancient evil surely heard it, and he seized his opportunity. “Would you permit me a bit of theatre before the end? If I’m destined to die, I won’t fight it, but we do all have our parts to play and our scripts to read. Do you mind?”

Mallory groaned. She hated actors, and allusions to theatre. But she wasn’t necessarily opposed to postponing the self-sacrificial slaughtering of a demon. “Sure, Shakespeare. Knock yourself out.”

He nodded, pleased. “I assume you’ve noticed the stakes that hold me here?” He gazed fondly at the huge nail above his left shoulder. “You see how it sparkles? Have you considered why it does that?”

Mallory shrugged. “It was born that way?”

An amused little smile played across Chad’s lips. “You’re correct, in a sense. There are rules, Mallory, about demons and angels and what can hold them and what can set them free. That,” he said, nodding down at the Spear of Rad, “is one of the things that can set us free. In a manner of speaking. And this,” he said, indicating the glistening stake over his shoulder, “is one of the things that can hold us. Take a closer look. Can you not see what the stakes are made of?”

Mallory brought her eyes closer to the spike, but not so close that she was within reach of the man’s fettered hand. The nail was monstrous—the head alone was three inches in diameter, at least—and it was clear, but faceted, so the light played off its surface and sparkled like sunlight on a river. “Cubic zirconia?”

Chad laughed out loud. “Close,” he said. “Each one is a solid diamond, fashioned into a stake many years ago.”

“Solid diamond?” Mallory asked. A warm flush crept up the back of her neck, and the edges of her vision blurred a bit, so that all that remained in focus was the gleaming head of the spike. She lowered the spear and felt herself being helplessly drawn to its light. She reached out and brushed her fingertips against the smooth surface.

It was cool to the touch.

“I wonder if you know the monetary value of a diamond of that size, in today’s market,” Chad said. The hushed tone of his voice couldn’t quite conceal his mirth.

The truth was, Mallory didn’t know the value of a diamond that was probably at least a foot in length. But she knew the value of the tiny diamonds in her backpack, and it wasn’t very hard to extrapolate the figures to such an incredible degree.

A diamond like that would be worth hundreds of millions, she knew. Probably more. It was, quite possibly, a billion-dollar diamond.

And there were four of them down here, just sticking out of the wall, collecting dust.

Mallory realized she wasn’t breathing. She instructed her lungs to work, but they refused. So she just stood there, breathless.

“I’ll tell you how the rules are written,” Chad said. He eased himself back against the wall, and his iron chains rattled, startling Mallory from her reverie. She found her breath again and drew herself back, once again out of reach…but her eyes remained focused on the diamond. “One diamond anchor is enough to hold even the most powerful demon. Some people might use two, just to be on the safe side, which I don’t really fault them for. A third anchor is redundant, though, to say the least. And a fourth…well, a fourth is just overkill, if you ask me.”

Mallory snorted. “So in other words, who would miss one little diamond stake?”

“Now that you mention it, I’m not sure anyone would know the difference,” he said with a grin. “Except for me, of course. And you.”

“So, what—I pull a pin, become rich beyond my wildest dreams, and you remain here, locked up for all eternity?”

“Eternity is a long time,” Chad pointed out. “All I need is three other would-be slayers who understand the value of an extremely precious gem. I estimate that in another six thousand years or so, I’ll be free.”

“And I’ll be long gone.”

“In every way imaginable.”

Mallory considered his words. She glanced uneasily between the diamond, which gleamed, and the demon, who flickered. “You’re telling me that I could free one of your chains, and you’d still be trapped down here? I think you’re lying,” she said.

“No you don’t. Nor should you. I don’t find much point in prevarication, Mallory. The truth is easier, and almost always more convincing.”

“And what’s to stop me from pulling a pin,
then
killing you? And getting out before it all comes crumbling down?” She wondered if she sounded as tough as she meant to. Probably not.

Almost
certainly
not.

“That is definitely an option,” Chad agreed. “You’re welcome to try to outrun the destruction.”

Mallory blinked hard. She tried to reason with her brain, but the more she thought about the proposal, the more sense it seemed to make. Reason was losing by winning. “And how am I supposed to get it out? Just give it a good yank?”

“Well, you
are
sturdy, aren’t you?” he teased. Mallory glowered, and he held up his hands defensively. “I apologize,” he said with a laugh, “You
could
try to pull them out with your bare hands, though I doubt you’d have much luck. If only you had some sort of mystical tool of great power that could pull a stake from a stone as easily as a plum from a pudding…”

Mallory looked down at the Spear of Rad. In truth, she had almost forgotten that she was holding it. Now she snorted out a little laugh. “The thing that kills you is also the thing that can set you free? That’s a little convenient, don’t you think?”

“Is it?” the ancient evil asked, raising an eyebrow. “I find that the things that set us free are quite often the same as the things that cause our demise. I’m sure if you think about it long enough, you’ll agree…”

Mallory shook her head slowly. She ran a hand through her tangled hair and pushed it back from her face. “If I let you live, you’ll eventually destroy the town. And all of the people in it.”

“And, most likely, the entire planet,” he added. “I’ll turn the whole thing into a literal hell on Earth, if I can.”

“Anguish, pain, torture, fire—all that?”

“Oh, certainly. For starters, anyway.”

“But that won’t be until long after I’m gone,” she said quietly, almost to herself.

Chad nodded slowly. “I can’t guarantee the timeline, but the odds are in your favor.”

Mallory chewed her bottom lip as she thought. “What would I tell Lewis?” she said.

The ancient evil shrugged. “Lies aren’t really my purview, as I’ve said. But I suppose you could tell him you completed the task.” He lowered his eyes to the rusty point of the spear. “My blood
is
on the blade, after all.”

Mallory couldn’t even comprehend the type of life she could have with that much money in the bank. Forget Lenore’s safe house. Hell, forget
Canada
. She could buy her own
island
. Fencing a diamond spike the size of her arm might be tricky, but surely Lenore would know somebody. You didn’t become an international source of awe in the business of providing safe houses for criminals if you didn’t have a few good contacts in your Rolodex. And even at an exorbitant handling fee—and there would
surely
be one—just
a single stake
from the demon represented more money than Mallory could possibly have hoped to spend in her lifetime.

She clapped a hand to her head and tried to let a little bit of reason into there, because surely this was nothing but madness…wasn’t it? Who in their right mind would sentence all of mankind to excruciating torture and eternal, flesh-stripping damnation? The image of the naked men impaled upon the glowing hot iron rods burned before her eyes. That would only be the beginning, she knew. No matter how well-mannered and easy-going he portrayed himself, that’s how he would warm up…by playing with an unlucky few, using them as an example of why it was pointless to even try to stand up to his hateful, barbaric omnipotence.

Anomaly Flats would be the epicenter; the murder and chaos would start here, then gleefully spread across the state. The nuclear power plant in Callaway would have a meltdown and spread radiation through the entire country; the Mississippi would boil over and flow red with blood; the Ozark Mountains would crack and split wide open, and the meth-addicted hill people would fall into the eternal swirling darkness of the chasm, and that would be just about the only upside to the whole ordeal.

The rest of the Midwest would follow; acid would rain down upon the plains, and peoples’ skin would slough right off their flesh. Temperatures would rise, and eyeballs would roast and pop in their sockets. Children would split right down the middle, and their organs would fall out of their bodies and writhe, steaming, in the dust. Unfathomable creatures would emerge from beneath the ground—huge, stinking monsters with the gigantic heads of wolves or tarantulas or cuttlefish, and they’d scoop up the survivors with their tentacles or spindles or whatever they had attached to their monstrous torsos and crunch them down their gullets.

Then the entire country would be plunged into darkness. The earth would shake and tear itself apart. The Grand Canyon would fill with boiling tar. Water would transmute into venom, fruit would rot and bear swarms of locusts, and scorpions would spill forth from every corner of every home. The oceans would rise, skyscrapers would collapse; liquid fire would gush from every sidewalk crack.

And after that...the people. The world’s population would melt, burn, shrivel, decay, but they would be kept alive, every single human being; they would, each and every one of them, experience the sheer excruciating pain of decimation, and when humans had been reduced to simpering puddles and wailing cinders and breathing piles of ash, the demons would descent upon the world, and then the pain would truly begin.

The full power of Chad would be unleashed, and misery and pain didn’t come close to describing what awaited those future generations if Mallory pulled the diamond stake from the wall.

And she could not be responsible for that.

“Yes I could,” she said softly.

Of
course
she could. She didn’t have much of a choice, really. She had already made her decision two days ago, when she took the cash and diamonds from the safe. She meant to amass a small fortune, trample every person who stood in her way, and live her life on her own terms, independently, and without regret. What
wouldn’t
she do to secure that future for herself?

Of
course
she would take the diamond.

“A deal with the devil,” she whispered.

“Yes,” Chad admitted. “But you have to admit, it’s a pretty good
deal.”

It was most certainly that.

Mallory spun the Spear of Rad in her hand and jammed the forked end beneath the head of the nail. She forced it in as far as she could, then pushed at the spear shaft with all the strength she could muster. As it turned out, the spear was mystical enough to do all of the work on its own; the diamond spike slid out easily, and her force took her into a face-first collision with the stone wall.

“Son of a bitch!” she cried, feeling her face for bruises.

“I may have forgotten to mention that particular rule. Mystical tools are usually overly-effective. Sorry about the lip. Worth it, though, I think.” He nodded down at the loosened diamond, which now lay glittering and flawless on the dungeon floor. Then he hitched up his shoulder and sighed happily as he swung his arm freely in a circle for the first time in centuries. “For both of us.”

Mallory suddenly realized she was within easy grabbing distance of the demon, and she slipped backward, out of reach. Chad grinned as he flexed his wrist and wriggled his fingers. “Smart girl,” he said, every bit of his constantly-changing face gleaming with victory. “It wouldn’t do for either of us if I ripped out your throat; it’d bring all the wrong sorts of attention. But an evil being does have its urges.”

Mallory reached down and picked up the diamond. It was perfectly clear, and somehow polished, despite having spent the last several centuries buried in stone. It glittered and gleamed in the orange glow, casting dizzying refractions about the room. The light sparkled in Mallory’s eyes, and she was so hungry for the precious gem in her hands that her stomach actually rumbled at the sight of it.

I wonder if there’s something wrong with me…
she thought.

If there was, it wasn’t anything a few hundred million dollars couldn’t fix.

“Don’t break free for at least a thousand years,” she warned him, giving the spear a little jab in his direction. “Or I’ll come back and finish the job.”

Chad smiled. “Sure.”

The air in the chamber suddenly felt hot, and a little thin. It was time to go. Mallory tucked the diamond stake into her back pocket and fluffed her shirttail over the top to hide it. There were no mirrors in the dungeon, but a quick assessment with her hands told her that the overall effect was something less than covert. But she decided it probably didn’t matter. For a scientist, Lewis was shockingly unobservant.

She backed away from Chad, holding the Spear of Rad before her, ready to strike. But the demon didn’t move; he just flexed his wrist and watched her go, his face filled with a flicking amusement, his smile presenting itself in an ever-changing series of lips.

She reached the staircase and set her foot on the bottom step. The torches still flickered, and she could see a watery wash of light coming in from the Walmart doorway above. She turned and gave the demon one last look. The blood of billions would someday be on her hands. Some people, she knew, would lose a little sleep over that. But she took a grave comfort in the knowledge that the ancient evil’s face wouldn’t haunt her dreams.

She didn’t even know what his face really looked like.

She hurried up the stairs, leaving Chad alone to his patient and gruesome plans.

“Mallory!” Lewis cried as she emerged through the doorway at the top of the stairs. “You’re alive!”

“Try not to sound so surprised,” she said irritably.

“I’m sorry!” he gasped. His eyes grew wide, and they were coated over by a film of tears. “It’s just—I didn’t—the ancient evil, and—I’m just…” He removed his glasses and wiped his eyes on his sleeve. “Just…welcome back.” He limped forward with his arms out, aiming for a joyful embrace.

Mallory put out her hand and stopped him with a palm to the forehead. “Personal space, Lewis,” she said, gesturing in a general circle around herself with the spear.

“Right,” he said, clearing his throat uncomfortably as his cheeks flushed red. “Sorry. So what happened? Did you…you know?”

Mallory skirted sideways down the aisle to keep the poorly-hidden diamond stake out of his view. “It’s done,” she said.

“You killed it?” he asked, his voice quiet with wonder.

“Yep. Right through the heart, as instructed.” Mallory held out the tip of the spear as she crept backward so that Lewis could see the drying blood.

Lewis shook his head in wonder. “Mallory,” he said. His voice caught in his throat, and he cleared it a few times. He didn’t want to choke up in front of her, but honestly, after all that had happened, how could he not? “I don’t know how to thank you. For coming back. For finishing it. For…for saving Anomaly Flats.”

“Yep. I did it. I saved the town and all its weird, carnival-sideshow people. I’m a hero.” She reached the end of aisle 8 and backed out of it, stepping over the exploded canned goods, the ruined shelving, and the lifeless body of Lewis’ evil clone. “And I think I’d like to go now.”

“Just like that?” Lewis’ face fell. “Not even a goodbye drink? We could stop by the Dive Inn—”

But Mallory cut him off. “I’m not really a goodbye kind of gal, Lewis.” She set the Spear of Rad on its hilt and leaned it against the end cap. “Let’s just call it good, and maybe I’ll see you later.”

He gave her a sad little smile. “No you won’t,” he said.