Evil - Chapter 24
Enger cleared our dishes as we finished them, and when we were done with our food, it was like we had never even eaten.
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.
Enger cleared our dishes as we finished them, and when we were done with our food, it was like we had never even eaten. In fact, it was like we never even stepped foot in the house at all.
“I must say, Enger,” I said, turning to the kitchen. “You are the more fastidiou—”
Madam Fantasmo clasped her hand over my mouth as a key jingled in the door. Enger caught her eyes and nodded. He scooted across the hallway and opened the basement door. Madam Fantasmo made a circle with her hand, and the other girls stood silently. She nodded at me, and I nodded back to indicate I understood and followed them to the door. Enger slid behind us and pushed our chairs in, scooping the last of the crumbs up into his hand and stuffing them into his pocket. Then, he pushed the basement door closed just as the front one opened.
“Good afternoon, Master Sern,” Enger said through the door. “You’re home early.”
There was the sound of footsteps entering the room. “They closed the consulate after the bombing.”
“Bombing?” Enger said, aghast. “My word. What is this world coming to?”
A woman at the door laughed. “You really do not keep up on the events of the day. I love that about you.” Two more feet stepped inside the house. “I believe Captain Temble is hungry. Could you fix him up a spot of lunch?”
“Of course, mum,” Enger replied.
“I do so love your cucumber sandwiches, old boy,” a gruff voice said, and more feet made their way across the floor toward the dining room where just moments ago we had sat, enjoying those exact same finger sandwiches.
“Meanwhile, I’m going upstairs to change,” the woman said. I heard footsteps lope on the stairs above me, and Madam Fantasmo pulled me down to the bottom of the stairs.
“This is bad. This is very bad. Mistress Revil was supposed to be at the consulate until five, giving us plenty of time to get out of this house and meet up with the others.”
“What are we going to do now?” Quince asked, nearly hysterical. “If the captain is here, that means there are at least four Jackboots outside.”
“We wait them out,” Madam Fantasmo said. “The mistress never comes down here, and as long as there’s nothing suspicious in the house, which there isn’t, then we should be fine. Let’s cross our fingers they’ll be gone soon.”
I took a deep breath, trying to steady my beating heart. I had almost died too many times in my young life, and I had learned from those experiences that calm heads generally prevail.
“I’ll go up and listen,” I said. “That way, in case—you know—stuff goes down, we’ll be ready.” I crawled up the stairs just as Enger set a plate on the table.
“Marvelous, good boy,” the captain tutted between bites of sandwich. “Just marvelous.”
Loud footsteps skittered down the stairs. “Enger! What do you make of this? I found a pair of pink underwear in my bedroom, and it’s quite too small to be mine.”
“I don’t know, ma’am. Maybe one of your—”
“Don’t lie to me, Enger,” Mistress Revil spat. “Is somebody in this house? Are you using my room as your own little sex dungeon?”
“No, ma’am, nothing untoward as that.”
“Then what?”
There was a long silence, and my hands began to shake. Then, the sounds of a chair pushing out, and the captain cleared his throat. “No worries. I’m sure Enger isn’t hiding anything, but if it will make you feel any better, I’ll have my men do a sweep of the premises.”
“Yes, Captain. I think that would be best.”
Enger stepped forward. “I’m afraid I can’t do that, ma’am.”
Oh no. I ran down the stairs. “We have to go. They’re going to search the place. It’s all going to pot.”
“By the gods,” Madam Fantasmo grumbled. “We need to—”
A gunshot rang out, and we all rushed up the stairs and pushed open the door to see Enger standing over the captain, who had a knife in his throat. A smoking hole from a gunshot had been made in the ceiling, and blood pooled under Mistress Revil where she lay on the floor, a serving fork buried in her eye.
“I’m sorry, ma’am,” Enger said, locking the door to the house as the guards slammed against it. “I tried to keep this quiet. Out the back. I will fend them off for as long as I can.”
“Thank you, but—”
Enger pulled out one of our machine guns from behind the counter. “No buts. I believe goodbyes are in order.”
Madam Fantasmo nodded sadly. “Goodbye, Enger.”
“We live as one.” He pounded his chest.
“We die as one.” Madam Fantasmo pounded her chest and then rushed to the back of the house. We followed behind. Behind me, I heard the front door break open, and four gunshots fire in succession.
“Come on,” Madam Fantasmo whispered as we crossed the quad. She squeezed into a narrow alley on the opposite side, and we all did the same. “Hurry.”
I disappeared into the alley just as one of the Jackboots threw open the back door of the house. I thought I was silent, but the guard must have heard something. He looked in our direction. “Guards! It’s them!”
“Well, shit,” Madam Fantasmo said. “Split up. Volkim, Sindra, take Anjelica left. Quince and I will go right and try to guide them away. Meet where we said, and if we don’t—”
She pointed to her chest twice, and so did the others. I didn’t know what it meant, but I did it as well. Then, Volkim and Sindra each took one of my hands and pulled me along.
“What is she doing?” I said as we rushed away.
“She’s going to cause a distraction, I hope,” Volkim answered.
I watched Madam Fantasmo and Quince disappear one way down the street and then quickly take off in the other direction, two Jackboots rushing behind them. Meanwhile, Sindra, Volkim, and I reached the corner and began to cross. From the end of the street, another Jackboot ran toward us. Up close, I could see they were dressed much like the black suits, except with thick black metal helmets and black balaclavas to cover their mouths, along with goggles. The one following me pulled a long rifle up toward us.
“Stop!” he shouted.
The hairs on my head stood on end as a shot of blue electricity crackled past my head. A scream erupted from my body against my will, but we kept charging forward through a park where two men picnicked and a couple walked their dog.
The ruckus caused more Jackboots to descend on the park. These were different from the police officer we’d just met, and they were quite a bit more deadly, pulling their weapons before even screaming for us to stop.
“This goes without saying but DO NOT STOP!” Sindra called to me. We sprinted through the park and through an intersection where cars blared their horns at us. More electrical charges fired from behind, crackling through the cars as we slid behind them.
“There!” Volkim pointed at a man getting into a small, red convertible. As he turned the ignition, she kicked him in the face and threw him out of the car. I didn’t even think; I slid into the back seat as Sindra jumped into the front, and Volkim took off into the road.
“That was a whole lot of effort on our wardrobes for nothing!” Sindra said. She was still shouting. “They’ll have our faces everywhere now!”
“I know! I know!” Volkim didn’t take her eyes off the road. “Just let me think.”
“Think about what? How screwed we are?” I asked.
Sindra looked back at the Jackboots, who were busy helping the man off the ground. “They’ll be in the system in a minute and shut this car down.”
Volkim scanned the road. “There!” She skidded to a stop in front of a bike rack and leaped out, leaving the idling car in the middle of the street. She kicked the bikes off the rack and pushed one to me. “You know how to ride?”
I nodded. “Of course.”
We pedaled through the throngs of pedestrians. At least with our new faces, we weren’t recognizable to the average person. We weaved through the city for three blocks and then spun left and went for another two before Volkim came to a stop and kicked the bike to the ground.
“We go the rest of the way on foot.”
Sindra nodded. “If you think that’s best.”
“Be inconspicuous.” Volkim placed the bike against the side of the building and shoved through the crowd. She reached into her pocket and pulled out three face masks. I had seen a few other people wearing them before, and she handed them back to us. “If anyone asks, you’re sick.”
I put on my face mask, a black one to match my skirt, and we disappeared into an alley. We turned left when we were through and continued through another crowded intersection. We crossed another street and passed a tall steepled building with a full moon at the top. Volkim stopped.
“Please, please, please,” she whispered. Several seconds later, a bell rung and a throng of students began to stream out of the building, all dressed in the same dark colors and holding school bags. They cut in every which way, and we moved through them. Volkim mocked their gait as she rushed forward, knocking into one and taking their red bag.
Sindra did the same with a girl who had a brown leather satchel. They moved too quickly for the girls to find them, but I knew what to look for. We followed a different group of schoolchildren for a few blocks, then stole into a big building with gold-trimmed glass doors. We didn’t stay inside long, just enough to use it as a thoroughfare to get from one side to the other, and when we came out again, a city bus pulled up. Volkim got on, handing the driver enough money for all of us.
We sat down in the middle of the bus, and Sindra’s shoulders slumped down. Volkim let out a sigh of relief as the bus pulled away. “Next stop, Incarta.”
This is a portal fantasy series with mythological roots and action-adventure tendencies. You can search through all my work on my website.
"Are you using my room as your own little sex dungeon?” "The room's not big enough for that, ma'am. Besides, you should know that I'm a virgin..."