Evil - Chapter 45
Gunshots sprayed over me as I dropped down to the floor. Kimberly screamed. The monitors blew up in a shower of sparks.
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.
Gunshots sprayed over me as I dropped down to the floor. Kimberly screamed. The monitors blew up in a shower of sparks.
“We have to get out of here!” Kimberly said, grabbing my hand.
“No,” I yelled. “Take Margaret. I have to find the director. Get as many people as you can to safety, and then come back to me!”
“Like hell, I will!”
I was already gone, ducking under a desk in my rush toward the back of the room where the director stood just moments ago. There was a flash of pink and purple smoke as Kimberly disappeared.
“Spare no one,” Prince Yimnit called out, “except my brat of a sister! She should be easy to spot in her wheelchair!”
Bodies fell to the left and right of me as I crawled through the desks. The group of Jackboots walked slowly, methodically spraying bullets across the ground.
“Anj—Angie—” a voice gasped. I turned to see Madam Fantasmo bleeding out of her chest, face white as a sheet. Her hand flopped toward me. “Save—”
“No, no, no, no, no,” I said as I wrapped her in my arms. “Don’t die. It’s going to be okay. Kimberly is coming back for you. Just hang on. Please, please hang on.”
“—them.” It was the last word she said before she shuddered in my arms and fell limp. My tears fell as I placed her back on the floor. Behind her, Volkim looked at me with dead eyes, a pool of blood under her. “No, god no.”
My hands shook with fear and rage as I looked at my two friends, the ones who had saved me from execution and led me through this world. Dead at the hands of the Jackboots.
“Sindra!” I shouted. “Sindra!”
It was a bad idea to draw attention to my position. I barely ducked away from a hail of bullets. If Sindra was dead—no, I couldn’t think like that. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a puff of pink smoke, and then, in an instant, it vanished again. It followed me through the room, popping in and out every few seconds.
“Anjelica,” the director whispered when I reached her. She was bleeding from her stomach and leg. “Get out of here. You can’t—my gods—I really thought we stood a chance.”
“We still do,” I replied, sliding down next to her. “I’m going to finish this. I swear to you that the king and his prick son will pay for what they’ve done here tonight.” I squeezed her arm. “Don’t you dare die. You’re going to live to see the end of this.”
She winced as she touched her stomach. “That would be my penance, huh? To be stuck remembering everyone I let down. Everyone that I sent to their deaths.”
The puff of smoke appeared in front of me; Kimberly took my hand. “I got everyone I could.” She turned to the director. “Now, let’s get you out of here.”
We faded into the ether. Somehow, in the chaos, I slipped from Kimberly’s grip. I fell from her, into the darkness below, until I disappeared into the nothingness and bounced back into a folding chair surrounded in blackness.
“This is not going well,” Araphel said from the other side of the table. “Honestly, it’s hard to imagine how it could go any worse.”
“I can still fix this,” I said, panting. “I can still save everyone.”
“Ah yes, there it is,” he said.
“There what is?”
“The optimism. The assurance. The belief that you can’t be defeated, that even when all hope is lost, you must hope harder. It’s at the heart of every great hero.”
“I don’t know if I’m a hero, but I’m all this planet has right now,” I replied, sucking in a deep breath. “Will you make sure they are taken care of, the dead?”
He nodded. “I will see to it personally.”
“And will you tell them, Volkim—Sindra—Madam Fantasmo—” I choked back my tears. “Tell them that I love them—and that I’m sorry.”
“I will,” he said.
Out of the darkness, white lights began to shine. Hundreds of them appeared from the nothing, and I recognized them. They were my friends and colleagues from the rebellion, staring out, looking down at their glowing hands, trying to come to terms with their fates.
“Can I—can I talk to them?”
Araphel shook his head. “They wouldn’t be able to understand you. This is better. I promised to take good care of them, and I stand by that.”
“Thank you.” I pounded my chest twice. “We live as one. We die as one.”
Araphel snapped his fingers, and I whizzed through the darkness, crashing through the abyss, and back into Kimberly’s arms. We fell to the ground together.
“Shit,” she said. “I thought I lost you.”
“So did I.”
Sindra stood next to me, crying. She dropped to her knees and embraced both of us, and there for a time, we cried for those that we’d lost.
***
Nineteen of us was all that remained of the rebellion. Sindra, Kimberly, Margaret, Director Frente, four SWAT members, three intelligence officers, two maintenance workers, and six support staff. A television glowed in the back of a veterinary clinic where we took Director Frente to tend to her injuries. Risyl had been wiped off the face of the map, leaving only a crater. Millions of citizens vaporized in a single instant, giving King Ulthar ultimate power in the world.
“It’s over,” Director Frente grabbed her rib as a medical tech moved her to clean her wounds. “Everything we worked for, over.”
I shook my head. “No, it’s not. I will not accept that Madam Fantasmo, Commander Bivnol, Volkim, and everyone else died in vain. There has to be something we can do.”
“The Jackboots are combing through our files right now. Even if they can’t beat our encryption, it would have taken every member of our organization to carry out that plan. In case you haven’t noticed, we’re at about two percent capacity right now.”
“We were working on a plan,” Kimberly said, rubbing her face with her hands. “A covert plan to save Anjelica in case you all failed. I think we can adapt it to kill the king instead, or in addition to what we had already planned. If we add in your troops as a diversion, then maybe Anjelica and I could get inside and execute him once and for all.”
“You want me to risk everything we have left for a daft plan concocted by two teenagers that has almost no chance of succeeding?”
Kimberly nodded. “Yes, that’s exactly what I want, actually. I’m glad that came across. I know it’s an imperfect plan, but we have no allies left. We don’t have enough support to do this right. The king thinks he’s won, which will make him cocky.”
“Well, cockier,” Margaret added.
Director Frente looked around at her remaining troops. “I can’t ask them to risk their lives for this.”
“They risked their lives just being part of this rebellion,” I said. “If tonight taught us anything, it’s that. If we don’t stop the king, they’ll be running for the rest of their lives. We have this one chance to make a final stand, this one night before the rest of the world capitulates.”
“And if they won’t follow? If this is too far a bridge for them?”
“Then we’ll do this without them,” Margaret said. “I won’t sit back and watch my father win. Not while I still draw breath.”
Director Frente’s eyes ping-ponged between the three of us. “You realize you’re all going to die, right?”
“I’ve met Death,” I said. “He’s pretty nice.”
“And I’ve been to Hell,” Kimberly added. “I do not fear death.”
“I do,” Margaret said. “But I’m doing it anyway.”
Director Frente nodded. “I’ll ask the remaining agents for their help, but if they refuse, I can’t force them, even if I wanted to.”
This is a portal fantasy series with mythological roots and action-adventure tendencies. You can search through all my work on my website.