Evil - Chapter 46
Director Frente went from table to table, asking for help from the remaining members of the rebellion.
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.
Director Frente went from table to table, asking for help from the remaining members of the rebellion. She didn’t receive a single no, but some of them insisted on tweaking the plan, so it was less of a suicide mission. We ended up with something that wasn’t completely insane, just mostly crazy.
Step one of the plan involved recording a final video to the king, wherein Margaret and I would offer our lives in exchange for the lives of those in the rebellion that still lived. In step two, a team would deliver us to the palace, where we would prostrate ourselves on live TV for the amusement of the king. Kimberly would jump the remaining soldiers into the palace to sit and wait for her sign—that was step three. In step four, Kimberly would use the information she’d gotten from Prince Yimnit to sneak through the palace into the throne room. In the final step, the remaining members of the rebellion would cause a distraction, leaving us alone with the king. That’s when Kimberly would strike the king down and free us so that we could destroy the device.
“I feel like a fool asking you to believe in magic,” Director Frente said to her people before she set us upon our final course. “But you have seen it first-hand. You only live now because of magic. It is our only hope for a better future. So, I ask that you believe in it as I do, and with the help of Kimberly, Margaret, and Anjelica, three magic users from beyond the stars, we will succeed.”
We relocated several miles outside the city, where Director Frente had a small cache of weapons and equipment in a storage locker.
“I have this here in case of emergencies,” she told us as we rode up to a non-descript building. “I kept it off the books, just in case I would ever need it for any reason. Better safe than sorry, I guess. I never thought I would need it.”
She slid open the storage unit, and we all filed in to load up the equipment into vans she procured for us. It wasn’t just weapons and armor. There were also computers and other technology that we could use to rebuild a temporary base of operations. With the gear in tow, she brought us to a small, abandoned house in the nearby woods. Had I not known better, I would have thought it condemned, and yet, several cables ran into the house from the road several miles away.
“None of this is up to code,” Director Frente said without us asking. “I had this built as the final safehouse we would ever need. I called it Plan Z.”
An hour or so later, we were set up inside the house with a makeshift studio built in front of a roaring fire. Director Frente stood next to the camera while one of the techs fiddled with some final checks.
“We’ll only have thirty seconds of access before they find us and shut us down,” the tech said. “They closed down all our other nodes of access. Once I lose this one, it’s all over, so make it count.”
“No pressure,” Margaret said with a smile.
“You’ll do great.” I squeezed her shoulder. “Let’s do this.”
Director Frente nodded and pointed to us as the camera began to roll.
I took a deep breath. “You have won, King Ulthar. The rebellion is effectively dead. Those of us left have scattered to the wind. We do not wish to hide from you. We are still willing to turn ourselves in. However, we demand the safety of our remaining freedom fighters in return—seventeen lives, for the two of ours. If you agree, call the encrypted line embedded in this file in five minutes. Please, we don’t want any more bloodshed.”
The tech drew a line across his neck and the line cut out. “We’re out.”
Margaret exhaled. “Now, we wait.”
We didn’t have to wait for long. A minute later, the phone rang. Director Frente beckoned me over and held up the phone to my ear. A familiar voice growled on the other line. “Your terms are acceptable. Come alone, or I swear we will destroy your rebellion on live television, and if they so much as poke their head up for the rest of their lives…we will end them.”
The line cut and I placed the phone back on the hook. Margaret tugged on my arm. “Well, what did he say?”
“We’re on.” I looked over at Director Frente. “They are definitely tracking our location now.”
“Good thing we won’t be here long.” She tossed me the keys to the van. “You take this. We’ll get the others to Kimberly’s rendezvous location. Once you’re inside, we have no way of communicating with you.”
“You have Kimberly, and that’s all you need. Trust in her like I trust in her.”
“That is a lot of pressure,” Kimberly said, then broke into a smile. “Luckily, I thrive under pressure.”
***
“We’re probably going to die,” I pulled onto the main road toward the palace. I was surprisingly calm. “Definitely.”
“Yeah, this is not how I thought I would be spending my teenage years.”
“Do you forgive her?” I asked.
“Who?”
“Your mother. She was overbearing, yes, but she also tried to protect you from this.”
“She should have told me.” Margaret gritted her teeth. “I’m not a child. If she had just told me, I wouldn’t have hated her so much—I’ll never forgive her for making me hate her.” She was crying hard, her back heaving as she tried to calm herself. “The day—I yelled at her when she locked me in my room—now, I see it as the panic of a frightened woman, someone desperate to make sure I was safe. She should have told me. I could have helped her.”
“Yeah, parents are always saying they know more than you, and they know how to help you as if you’re a baby for your whole life. In the past month, I’ve fought demons and kings, saved myself and been saved, been fired upon by guns and literal fire, and been in mortal peril more times than I can count. I’m stronger than my mother thought when she was trying to shield me from everything.” I bit my cheek. “Still, I wish I had told her I loved her because now I’m probably never going to see her again—I wish I could talk to her one more time.”
“I moved a lot in my life, often in the dead of night, and one thing I can tell you for sure is that you always want one more conversation with the people you miss, no matter what. Even if you had a wonderful last conversation—even if you have a perfect day, you will never not want to talk to them again.” Margaret turned to the window. “Maybe it’s a blessing my mom’s dead because I know I can never see her again. It hurts. It really hurts, but there’s a finality to it.”
I knew better. Death was not the end. Araphel taught me that. He showed me that death was only the beginning—that we have torture and pain to look forward to—or at least people like Margaret did. For me, it was an eternity of servitude if I didn’t kill King Ulthar in the next couple of hours.
***
My chest tightened with every turn of the tires, and I fought my hand’s natural instincts to turn the other way and escape. My rational brain kept trying to remind my gut that we had a plan, and we couldn’t give up now, but my instincts didn’t want to hear it. My whole body screamed to flee my destiny. Even if it meant the death of everyone else, at least I would be alive.
I felt like a coward thinking something so horrible when so many people depended on me to be strong and brave. Then again, maybe brave was doing the stupid thing even when your body burned with the urge to be a coward and save yourself.
“Are we really going to do this?” Margaret asked as we neared the palace gates.
“There’s no turning back now,” I replied.
“That’s not true. We can absolutely turn back. We can go underground. We can save ourselves.”
“What kind of life would we live? You’ve already lived a life full of hiding and fleeing. Is that what you want to go back to? Not me. That’s not living. And after this, I want to live.”
“But you said it yourself. We’re probably—definitely—going to die.”
I gripped the steering wheel. “There are worse things than death.”
Were there? Or was I just trying to convince myself? Baron Samedi was the god of the underworld after all. Perhaps, when King Ulthar captured him, it sent the underworld into chaos. Perhaps if we died and he stayed captured, I would not be forced into servitude.
Last chance, Anjelica, I said to myself as I passed the final checkpoint for the palace. No, I am doing this, even if I die in the process.
I spun the wheel toward the gate at the entrance to the castle and stopped in front of two intimidating Jackboots. The one on my side of the van stepped forward as I rolled down my window.
“Business?” she growled, her dead eyes staring at me menacingly.
“Do you recognize me? I’m Anjelica, and this is Margaret.” I pointed to the passenger seat. “We have a meeting with the king. He should be expecting me.”
The Jackboot pressed a button on the edge of the gate. It swung open, and she walked toward me again. “Go to the entrance. Leave your van with the valet, and the king’s butler will come to escort you inside. On a personal note, I just want to say that I hope you burn in Hell for all eternity for what you have done.”
My eyes narrowed. “Same to you.”
Burn in Hell. Ever since I came here, all I had done was try to defend myself. Yes, some people had died, but the king she defended had destroyed an entire country. She’s telling me to burn in Hell? Breathe, Anjelica. Breathe. People hate what they don’t understand.
I stepped out of the van and grabbed the wheelchair from the back before lowering Margaret into it and pushing her toward the palace, which was, admittedly, spectacular.
Blood money built it, but it was still magnificent. Behind us, a large stone wall blocked us from the streets, and high white stone buildings rose from the other three sides, higher even than the walls, with hundreds of windows glaring down. Every window had a stone gable etched with intricate flowers and angels, and the motif continued to the porticos and columns that buttressed the awning over the door. A familiar face appeared when the door opened. It was no butler that came to collect us. It was Prince Yimnit, pushing a golden wheelchair. He looked at us and smiled.
“You have a terrible habit of staying alive, did you know that?” He wheeled the chair down the ramp on the edge of the stairs. “I’m sure you realize we can’t let anything into the palace, but not to worry, we have provided this wheelchair for you.”
Margaret didn’t argue. It didn’t matter which wheelchair she used. That wasn’t part of the plan. “So, are you going to kill me, brother?”
Prince Yimnit laughed, leaning into her. “How could I? You’re the only way I will become king this night.” He looked over at me. “Is that not so?”
I was shocked into silence for a moment, but I regained myself. “I don’t know what you are talking about.”
Prince Yimnit laughed. “Very well, keep your secrets. I will take you to see my father, who is simply giddy to see you again, sister.”
This is a portal fantasy series with mythological roots and action-adventure tendencies. You can search through all my work on my website.