Demonspawn (21 page)

I glared at Beth. “He's
not
my
father.”

She ignored me. “Either way, I think somehow
you absorbed that demon's energy. Who really knows what power you
have.”

I stood up. I was sweating and didn't even
know it. I felt nauseous. I popped the video tape out of the
VCR.

“I'm taking this.” It wasn't a request.

She nodded. “It's yours.”

I went to move by her. I was more than ready
to leave. She grabbed me by the arm.

“Alex.” She opened her mouth, but didn't say
anything. Her face was streaming with tears. “I'm so sorry.”

I didn't show any emotion at all. “Goodbye,”
was all I said.

I would never see her again.

Cindy was waiting for me outside by her car.
We didn't say a word as we drove back to the hotel. I played that
whole thing over and over again in my mind.

My biological parents were in a cult. They
had me, just to kill me for a ritual. And instead of my biological
father becoming all powerful, apparently I did instead.

A very short summary of something that fucked
with my head a long time.

As soon as Cindy and I got back to the hotel,
she started packing. I sat on the bed and put the tape in the VCR.
Gotta love hotels that haven't upgraded to DVD players yet. Cindy
folded a pair of shorts and shoved them in her traveling bag. She
noticed what I was doing.

“Uh, Alex?” she asked. “You ready to go?”

“Not yet. I want to watch this again.”

“Why?” There was irritation in her voice.

“I just need to.”

“Aren't we done here?”

“Yeah.”

“Then why don't we go home?”

“We will. I want to watch this first.”

“You should burn that tape and forget you
ever watched it.”

Yeah, right. Very easy to say.

“I can't, Cindy. I have to know what
happened.”

“You're starting to obsess over this. You
said we were coming here to find your parents. Well, we did
that.”

I looked at her. “What killed them? Why
didn't it kill me?”

“Watching that disgusting tape isn't gonna
answer that.”

“It might.”

I pressed play. Cindy angrily slammed her
traveling bag closed and went to the door.

“What is your problem?” I asked. “Where you
going?”

“I'm going for a walk.”

She left. I shook my head and studied the
tape as best I could.

I easily watched it for hours. Cindy never
came back. I knew she was really mad at me then. She was right.
Watching that massacre over and over again didn't answer any more
questions. But I did notice a few things.

When Beth got wild with the camera, I paused
it a few times. I could actually see strange shadows on the walls
all around. They looked like they were moving. In one shot, I saw
one of Mark Fuller's followers missing a hand, with blood shooting
out of his arm. They didn't stand a chance to whatever killed
them.

I also noticed that Sarah didn't hold me
once. I went right from the womb to that sacrificial table. They
didn't address me by name. Probably never even thought of one for
me. No need to, when you only plan on having your child alive for
five minutes.

There was one last thing I noticed. As I
watched that video, I thought less of them as my biological
parents, and more as Mark and Sarah Fuller.

The sun was starting to set when I finally
had enough of watching the tape. Cindy hadn't come back yet. I
didn't worry, as this was like her. When she was mad at me, she
just stayed away.

I looked around the hotel room for everything
I'd have to pack. Before I did so, though, there was one more thing
I had to do to put my mind at ease.

I had to see the place. I needed to see it
with my own two eyes, and not on a TV. After that, we would leave,
and I'd never come back.

I went down to the hotel lobby. The same man
who had been working there the night we checked in was back again.
He recognized me and gave a nod.

“Hey. Where's that pretty young lady of
yours?”

I smiled. Everyone loved Cindy. “Probably out
wishing we hadn't come here right about now.”

“Ah. Blossom isn't the most exciting place.
You take care of her.”

“Hey, listen. I hear there's an old church
somewhere around here.”

He looked at me and shook his head. “Everyone
wants to see the old church when they hear about it. Hell, some
people come here just to see the damn place. My advice, don't. A
lot of bad memories there, son.”

“What do you mean?”

“Mark Fuller, everyone liked him. Then the
whole town finds out he was a devil worshiper or whatever, using a
church of all places for his little meetings. People don't like to
talk about it. And they especially don't like seeing tourists
walking around the place.”

“I'm not a tourist.”

“Ah. More personal for you, I take it? Look,
if you need to see the place, it's two streets over. You can't miss
it really. You can walk there from here. But be quick. Besides
getting the stink-eye from the people who live around here, that
place has its own share of ghost stories, as you can guess.”

Just what I needed. More ghost stories.

I nodded. “Thanks a lot.”

“No problem.”

I walked the two streets over, noticing that
Cindy's car was still in the parking lot. It was a nice night for a
walk anyway. When I got to the street, I realized that I didn't
know which way to turn. However, the guy was right, it was hard to
miss. I could see it a little further down.

I stood in front of it for a moment. It
looked exactly like you'd think a twenty-year-old church that no
one wanted would. No glass in the windows. No front door. Grass
that hadn't been mowed. No visible sidewalk of any kind. But I
almost chuckled when I saw there was a gate with a chain and lock
wrapped around it.

I searched the street for anyone at all. No
one out tonight, except for a dog watching me from a neighbor's
yard. Gotta love quiet towns. I did see a few living room lights
on, but no one was looking right at me.

I vanished and walked through the gate
without a problem. Then I appeared right away. An ominous feeling
crept over me as I approached my birthplace, but I pushed it
aside.

That familiar cold chill hit when I stepped
inside. There was just enough light out to let me see without any
problems. It looked like a hurricane had hit the place. There was
graffiti everywhere. Many of the old benches were missing, or just
plain destroyed. I could actually see old yellow police tape on the
ground mixed in with the debris.

This was where I was born. This was where a
lot of people died.

As I walked around, I could see familiar
settings from Beth's recording. The bed where Sarah gave birth to
me was in a heap in the corner. Not too far away, near the front of
the church, stood the table where Mark placed me. It was still
standing after twenty-three years.

I reached a hand out to it.

“Well, hello.”

The voice was right behind me. I spun to see
a man standing ten feet away. His feet were missing. He just kind
of hovered there. He wore a smile on his face, and right away I
knew he, or it, was evil.

There was a blood curdling scream to my left.
I turned to see a skeleton pinning a woman down. He was slowly
sawing at her neck with a knife. Blood shot everywhere, but she
refused to die.

Suddenly, horror surrounded me. The light
from the outside took on an eerie red glow. There was a man on his
back not too far away from me. He was in half, his legs just a few
feet away. He was trying to grab his spilling intestines and shove
them back inside. Near the front was someone missing an arm shoving
a woman's head into a bucket of water, laughing the whole time. The
entire floor of the church was covered in blood. I don't know how
many people, and monsters, were there. I honestly couldn't
count.

“We've got a new one to play with,” the
creature in front of me said.

My first small taste of the demon world.

I ran through the church, stepping on
someone's guts as I did so. I made it to the front door and stopped
in my tracks. The town of Blossom was gone. The only thing beyond
the church's walls was a barren landscape. A red moon was high
overhead. Things that weren't human ran like wild animals, chasing
each other and torturing people as they ran in fear. Screams and
cries of pain filled my ears. This was a scene right out of Hell.
An arm shot from the ground right in front of me. My heart jumped
in my chest and I backed up a step. Some kind of creature pulled
itself out of the ground.

“Where do you think you're going,
spirit?”

I backed up into the church. Sounds that I
would never forget echoed all around me. Blood being spilled, flesh
being eaten, organs being ripped out. Yet the victims weren't
dying. The demons wouldn't let them move on from the demon
world.

I heard a voice behind me that was
familiar.

“Please help me.”

I turned to see Mark Fuller. Something that
looked half-human, half-dog was poking its thumb in and out of
Mark's eye socket. Sarah wasn't too far away. She crawled towards
Mark with her hand out. A demon walked by and cut it off. She
screamed in agony.

I looked around and realized that everyone I
saw was in Mark's cult. I saw a few familiar faces from the
videotape. This was the price they had to pay for trying to
manipulate the demon world.

“We've got a spot picked out for you.”

The demon tried to reach out and touch me. It
stopped when a new voice echoed around us.

“Alex? Are you in here?”

I turned to see Cindy walking into the
church. She was almost completely invisible. It was obvious she
wasn't seeing into the demon world, but only the living, as she
didn't react in horror. She was just beyond us, and for that I was
thankful.

The ghastly voices of the demons spoke around
us.

“Another human!”

“She looks delicious.”

“I want to taste her!”

“Let me touch her.”

One of the demons approached her, its claw
stretched out. All of the fear, all of the terror that was inside
me disappeared. There was only rage. I don't know where it came
from. I ran forward and grabbed the demon by the neck with one
hand. It was missing half its face. A maggot fell from its mouth to
my arm. I ignored it. It snarled and raked my arm with its claws. I
felt nothing. In fact, it seemed to hurt the demon.

“You won't get near her,” I said. My voice
was different.

It hissed at me.

I tossed the demon like a softball into
another that was eating someone's arm. That had everyone's
attention, demon and otherwise.

“Listen!” I shouted.

Everyone and everything froze. My voice
echoed all across the church. I suddenly felt stronger than ever
before. They were afraid of me, and I was feeding off their
fear.

Like a demon.

“If you get near that woman,” I pointed to
Cindy. She continued to study the church, unaware of what was going
on in a world over top of our own. “I will punish you.”

A demon decided to test me. It ran toward
her. I extended my hand and the demon stopped, in pain. I somehow
pulled it toward me, with just my mind. It thrashed as I grabbed it
in my hands. The demon was about my size, but I lifted it over my
head easily and snapped its back over my knee. I didn't kill it. I
don't think you can kill a demon. But it cried on the floor in
pain.

They dropped their focus on Cindy and all
eyes were on me.

“It's
him
!”

“The one with our power!”

The once living people who gave their hearts
to a cult stared at me as well. I can only imagine what was going
through their minds.

I smiled. Just a minute ago, I was terrified
out of my mind. Now the only thing that scared me was the fact that
I wasn't afraid, if that makes any sense.

I spoke once again. I was different. I don't
exactly know what the demon world is about, but I'm in charge
there. I knew it.
They
knew it.

“I'm guessing everything here is surprised to
see me.”

There were a few hisses and snarls. Another
demon ran at me. This one was naked with a gaping whole in its
chest. I didn't even have to do anything. It swiped at my face, but
it didn't hurt at all or leave a wound of any kind. It fell to the
ground, holding its claw.

I was surprised when every demon knelt and
lowered its head. The less human looking ones did the same
thing.

“Master,” one of them said.

“I'm not your fuckin' master.”

“But we're inside you.” That thought scared
me. “What do you want from us?”

I gestured around the room. “These people
you're holding on to. Let them go. Let them move on.”

“Master-”

“Do it.”

There were some groans of protest. Then
slowly the mutilated spirits started to vanish. Where they went, I
have no idea. I bent down in front of Mark Fuller. He was still
missing an eye. Sarah held on to him with her one good arm. They
were laying in a pool of blood. I felt nothing for them. That also
scared me.

“That...was...
my
power,” he
muttered.

I was angry. Even after twenty years of
torture in the demon world, he was still the same evil person I
only saw glimpses of on that video tape.

“You're welcome. And fuck you.”

He and Sarah vanished.

I did more for them than they ever did for
me.

The demons still bowed before me.

“You'll be back,” a demon said with a
smile.

“You won't be able to resist. You're part of
us.”

I said nothing. I willed myself to vanish
from the demon world. It wasn't any different than moving between
the living and the spirit. Of course, with the exception of the
pleasant scenery.