Evil - Chapter 19
Okay, so I was on a different planet for sure, possibly in a different reality, and improbably in another plane of existence.
This is a portal fantasy series with mythological roots and action-adventure tendencies. You can search through all my work on my website.
It's not easy being the Antichrist.
Anjelica’s mother never told her that she was a demon. Now, all she wants is her old life back, but that’s not possible for her. Not after what she’s seen.
Anjelica used to be a popular cheerleader with an awesome life, but that was before an evil cult of demons tried to use her blood to open a portal to Hell and start the Apocalypse.
She was rescued from that fate, barely, and because of the imminent threat to her life, her saviors ripped her from Los Angeles and brought her to a safe house in the middle of nowhere.
They said it was for her own good, but she would rather be dead than stuck in boring, old Bronard, Missouri. She was from the big city, so a sleepy, rural life wasn’t for her.
She longed for excitement.
So, when she met a young witch with a mysterious past who promised to show her everything she knew about opening portals and traveling between distant lands, they bonded immediately
I mean, what’s the worst that could happen, right?
It’s not like they would open an intergalactic gateway to another planet and get thrown into a brand, new world with no way to get back to Earth, right?
Join Anjelica in her own solo adventure and find out what happened to her immediately after the events in Magic.
Cool. That’s cool. Don’t freak out, Anjelica. Just breathe. Breathe. In—and out. In—and out. In—holy crap, I’m on another planet. I need to get home. How? Probably something with magic, yeah? I mean, this sounds like the kind of thing that magic could do for you.
How do you find magic? Maybe there was, like, an occult store that I could find and then petition. Maybe magic wasn’t so underground here. What if there isn’t any magic here? No, that didn’t make sense. Why wo—
My palms started to sweat as my eyes tracked across the street and settled on a police officer moving through the crowd. She was tall, blonde, and broad—broader than I thought possible for a woman, honestly, and the crowd parted as she stepped through, like an ocean liner leaving the harbor, partially because she was humongous, but also because she swung her baton at her side as she strolled. She hadn’t seen me, but it was just a matter of time if I didn’t make a hard move soon.
I sat down on a bench in a small park off the main street, pulling out my map to cover the bloodstains on my pants, and waited for her to pass. I studied the map to find out where I was, but the city looked completely foreign to me. I wasn’t a great traveler to begin with. Any time I found myself in a new place, I relied on other people to know where we were going. I looked up and found the name of the park. “Thirgal the Third Memorial Park” a plaque said in the middle of the rocky walking path.
This might be another planet, but these people still had to get places, which meant they needed maps. Like math, maps should be universal. Sure enough, the map worked just like the ones on my Earth, and I traced my hand until I found the park at the bottom of the map.
“That’s a start, Anjelica. Now, you walked what, five blocks south and three blocks east since you left that coffee shop?” I traced my finger up. “Or was that six blocks south and five east?” Why was I so bad with directions?
A wave of frustration washed over me, and I crumpled up the map in my hands. “What does it matter? None of this helps me get home!” I slumped back on the bench and started to cry. Full-body heaves jerked me from my core. They seemed like they would never stop.
“Are you okay?” I heard a soft voice ask. A shadow cast over me, and I looked up to see the blonde policewoman, baton now stowed in her belt holster, looking at me. “It’s too nice a day to be so sad.”
The tears stopped immediately, and fear replaced my frustration. My mind clouded, and when my mouth opened, I only managed a small squeak. I tried again, with the same result.
The police officer gestured to the bench. “You mind if I sit down?”
I shook my head. I didn’t know what else to do, and when she sat next to me, every muscle in my body tensed. I made sure the map covered my blood-splattered pants.
“Tourist?” she asked, gesturing towards the map. When I nodded, she smiled. “I can always spot a tourist. Get lost from your family or something? This city is not the easiest to navigate.”
“Y-y-yes. I lost them.”
“Do you remember where you were when you last saw them?”
I shook my head. “I turned around, and they were gone. I’ve been walking everywhere trying to find them.”
“All right, let’s try to envision where you were. Close your eyes, okay?” I really didn’t want to, but I also didn’t want to act suspicious. The more I cooperated, the faster she would be out of my life. “Good. Now, try to recall anything from where you were when you lost them.”
Nothing came for a second, but I really did want to find out where I had come from, and so I tried. “There was a coffee shop.”
“We’ve got about a thousand of those. Anything else?”
I squeezed my eyes tightly, trying to imagine anything that I missed. And then I remembered something. A really ugly sculpture. “Yes, there was a bird, a big, ugly, blue metallic one.”
The officer laughed. There was a carefree energy to her, and I had to fight against loosening my inhibitions around her. “Yeah, that’s the Bragimis Building. The owner has the worst taste in art in the history of the world.”
The world…but not my world.
She traced her hand on the nap. “Wow, you walked a far way.”
Her radio crackled to life. “We have a suspect description from the stabbing at 321 North Filsteen. Suspect has bright red hair, blue jeans, and a puffy, pink coat. Please be advised she is armed, dangerous, and suspected as being a witch.”
She stood up and pulled a gun out of its holster. It looked like the kind we had on Earth, except it was golden, and the barrel was swirled like a soft-serve ice cream cone.
“I’m going to need you to drop the map and put your hands up, ma’am.”
Dammit. I did what she asked and revealed the bloodstains on my pants. “It’s not what you th—”
“Don’t say another word.” She reached to her belt again, this time pulling out a pair of golden handcuffs. “You need to come with me. You’re under arrest.”
***
I tried to convince the police officer that I was innocent, but it didn’t matter. She was a beat cop. She couldn’t let me go even if she wanted to, and she certainly didn’t want to. It was amazing how fast her face hardened when it was time to arrest me. Gone was the gentleness in her voice and the softness in her face. Her grip was vicelike when she pulled me up, and she nearly pulled my arm out of my socket when she spun me around to put on the cuffs, even though I was cooperating.
She didn’t have a cruiser, so we walked down the streets of Lambzen, my head hung low so that everyone passing could see that I was a criminal—except I wasn’t a criminal. It was all a misunderstanding.
When we got to the station, she threw me in a cell and slammed it closed behind me. I was happy to be out of the tight cuffs that chafed my wrists, but I couldn’t help feeling like I was in a worse spot now that I couldn’t even see the sun.
“What are you in for?” a middle-aged man with a long beard asked. He was sitting on the floor, head resting against the back of the cage.
“They think I stabbed two people.”
“Did ya? No shame in it,” he replied. “I stabbed a man once. Sometimes, you got no choice.”
“Did you have a choice?” I asked.
“Shoot, yeah, I did. Could’ve died instead.” He collected himself. “It was him or me, and I got too much spite in me to die before I get some manner of vengeance.”
“Spite is as good a motivator to stay alive as anything, I suppose.”
“You got that right, sister,” the man said. He turned and eyed me. “You look a right bit too pretty to be a killer, though.”
“Only one of them died…I think,” I said. “And you don’t know me. If you did, you’d know under this innocent exterior, I am a demon.”
“Me too, sister.”
“Metaphorically…or really?” I asked. “Because I’m serious.”
He furrowed his brow. “I wouldn’t go around telling too many people that, especially here. Humans don’t take kindly to magic folks around here, especially ones they deem evil.”
“Noted. Are you magic, then?”
He shook his head. “No, but I have a fondness for magic folk. Might have a magic kid or two out there somewhere. Maybe I’ll meet them one day when I need a kidney or something.”
“People don’t talk about magic where I’m from. Unless they’re crazy.”
He leaned in and gave a devilish smirk. “Who’s to say I’m not crazy?”
Before I could answer, a tall man with a trim goatee and trimmer frame walked into the room with a manila folder.
He looked through the bars, then snapped his fingers and pointed at me. “You. Come with me.”
A slight woman opened the door to the cell, and I walked outside. Before I followed him down the hall, I turned to the bearded man in the cage. “It was nice to meet you.”
“It was a pleasure to meet you. Keep your head down, girl. It’ll all be okay. Worst case, you die, and then, at least it will all be over…and my, won’t that be sweet.”
The man with a goatee led me down a long hallway into a small room with a metal desk and two awfully uncomfortable chairs on either side.
“Sit,” he said, motioning to the far chair. He slapped the folder down on the table. “I’m Detective Wharez, and who are you? I’m sorry for asking such a simple question upfront. Usually, I have all sorts of information on my subjects, but with you…well, you don’t seem to have a past, which is troubling…as is the nature of your crimes.”
“I didn’t commit any crimes,” I replied. “I didn’t stab that man. I didn’t hurt my friend…I’m not even supposed to be here.”
He scratched his eyebrow with his finger as he shook his head. “Oh, I believe that.”
“How is she? Margaret?”
He looked up at me. “She’s a little worse for wear, as can be expected. The other gentleman—well, this is where things get interesting because we have information on him, and we figured out about Margaret pretty quickly. But there’s literally nothing on you like you appeared out of thin air, and since you did appear out of thin air, I have to ask…where are you from? Cuz it sure ain’t here.”
I scratched my head. “I don’t know how to answer that question.”
“The truth would be a good start.”
“I’m afraid you’re going to think I’m crazy.”
“Right now, I think you’re a murderer, so crazy would be an improvement.”
“Good point…okay, so I’m from a place called Missouri, in a country called the United States…on a planet called Earth.”
“Hm. So you’re really not from around here.”
I had just unloaded a heaping bowl of crazy onto this police officer, and yet, he hadn’t even blinked to what even I, the person saying them, thought sounded like absolutely bonkers claims. If I hadn’t lived it, I never would have believed me, and yet, he seemed to do so without question.
“I have to say, you’re taking this pretty well, considering,” I said.
He leaned forward. “Would you believe this is not my first rodeo? I’ve been walking this beat for a long time, and I’ve seen a lot of things, intergalactic visitors being one of them. I’ve been doing this awhile, and I figure this wouldn’t be a big deal…except…”
“Except what?”
“Except you came here with a dead man…and the princess of this here country.”
“What?” I gasped. “Margaret…a princess? But how?”
“That’s a good question, and I’m sure the king will want to hear all about it when you meet with him.”
“The king? I’m meeting with a king?”
Wharez stood up and nodded. “Of course. The king insists on meeting with everyone before he executes them.”
Oh, nerds. This was not good. I was very attached to my head and my life. “Execute me for what?”
“Kidnapping, murder, witchcraft.” The detective stepped back from the table. “You have to understand. This is a monarchy, and the king has complete control here. So, you better come up with better answers for him than you have for me, because if he doesn’t like your response…you’ll lose your head before noon tomorrow.”
This is a portal fantasy series with mythological roots and action-adventure tendencies. You can search through all my work on my website.