CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

The Spirit Realm

For some time Sylvie lay in absolute darkness, unable to see or touch anything. She heard, as if through a locked door on the other side of a hallway or room, voices. They appeared to be quietly talking to one another, or maybe shouting at one another, but far, far away. Not heeding them, she struggled to go back to sleep.

But wait, if she was already asleep, then how could she go back to it? She felt confused, and tried to think logically about it, but nothing would come.

She tried to fall into slumber again, but she had the nagging feeling that something was wrong; it was as if she’d forgotten some important task she’d been assigned and wouldn’t be able to sleep until she’d managed to accomplish it.

But what could it be? She kept asking herself, but nothing came to her.

Dimly she could hear booms and screams, then the sound she was all too familiar with: the sound of guns.

Someone is shooting! She realized, But at who, and why?

Finally roused, she struggled to get up, but found herself anchored by something. She couldn’t know what it was; it was still dark, so perhaps she was in a room somewhere? She wasn’t sure, but thought that might be right.

She struggled, not knowing what the weight was, until she felt something give. With surprising speed, she rocketed to her feet, blinking in disorientation.

Wherever she was, it didn’t feel quite…right. There were four walls, and half-glimpsed pieces of furniture, but none were distinct and sharp; instead they seemed made of smoke, wispy and thin.

She staggered from the room, feeling weak and tingly, but her world refused to come to focus. Abruptly a shape loomed before her, shadowy and human, but with white fire and bright eyes that passed by her without looking, and continued on her way.

“What is this!” She said in terror, “What kind of monster was that!”

She immediately missed her rifle and pistols, but the only place she could think of looking for them was the room she’d been in.

It won’t be any different than what it’s like out here, she urged herself.

Screwing up her courage she walked back into the room with a sense of foreboding.

#
Sylvie opened the door and walked back in. The room still had that wispy, faraway look, but it seemed brighter now, as if a dim light had been switched on. Spaced around the center of the floor were dozens of objects that Sylvie had no name for, made from the same stuff as the walls, it seemed, washed and murky.

“What on earth is going on here?” she whispered. A strange, visceral feeling crawled over her skin as she slowly moved right so she could see what lay in the middle of the room.

The figure lay on a mattress, cold and still. Unlike the other moving shapes she’d seen, this one had no burning eyes. No movement came from the lump of clay. She began to pant as she drew near, her hide began to fleck with foam of fear. She bent over the figure and briefly touched its head. At that moment it snapped into perfect clarity. Her face! The shadow wore her face!

Sylvie fell back, her hearts hammering wildly in her chests. What was going on here?! She shivered and shook, tumbling to the floor where she struggled to crawl away.

Other shapes came in, but not that she looked hard at them, she could see the smoke carried Dr. McMillan’s face, while the others bore kindly faces, two female and one male, wearing nurse smocks that she could now see; but their eyes trailed white from their burning orbs like white fire.

Sylvie lunged for her feet, nearly about to pelt headlong out the door and down the hall when she noticed, as if by accident, a bundle of weapons and clothing sitting on a table near the door.

She hurried over to find her rifle and pistol lying wrapped around her clothes. With a glad cry she reached for them, but stopped and drew her hand back.

Her weapons had started to glow when she’d neared them, and now they were once more cold and silent on the table.

“What was that?” she heard Dr. McMillan say, her muffled voice betraying her surprise.

“I don’t know, doctor.” One of the nurses said. It seemed to come from Sylvie’s…I mean, the patient’s belongings.”

One of the nurses went to the bundle and reached to grab them.

Without thinking, Sylvie snatched them first! No one would handle her weapons but her!

The bundle flared in her hand, the weapons seemed to become real and solid in Sylvie’s hands. A burning warmth crept up her arm, as if the rifle and pistols gave off their own heat, but it was welcome, like slipping on warm gloves on icy fingers and frozen arms.

Sylvie barely noticed Dr. McMillan and the other nurses shouting in surprise and terror; to their eyes it seemed the bundle had flashed out of existence right there.

She looked down at herself and saw that she was dressed in her normal outfit, her cowboy hat tucked low over one eye. She heard roars and screams vibrate the world she inhabited.

“Let’s go hunting.” She said, her fear abruptly gone.

#
Sylvie left the room with its frightened occupants and walked towards the front door, passing many shadows and even passing through some when she couldn’t get out of the way in time. It felt like being doused in ice water and left her with a funny churning in her belly, but nothing more.

The door passed in front of her and she stepped out into Red Leaf, into a scene from hell.

The sky seemed alight, wisps and vapors of steam creating an illuminated roof above her head. The streets were gray and empty, but just at the intersection she could see many shapes, some human and other’s; darker, larger, burning eyes of red and slavering mouths that dripped smoke. In their bellies Sylvie could see white figures trapped, huddled inside the walls of flesh-like smoke.

Not realizing why, she drew her rifle up to her shoulder towards the nearest of these shadow beasts, about a fifty yards away. Her aim was true, the round struck the creature in the head with spectacular results; the beast simply exploded, the black smoke fleeing, freeing the white people inside. They tumbled to the ground first, jolted free, then rose upwards towards the sky.

Sylvie watched them with her mouth open, her mind refusing to register what was happening.

The other creatures turned this way and that, seeking answer to what had happened; seeking her!

Sylvie could see their red eyes bright with malice, hunting her, but they could not see her. She pulled the trigger five more times, bodies spilling to the ground before rising, the final monster fleeing wildly away, yowling in terror.

Sylvie pursued, seeing yet more people trapped inside. She chased him for five blocks before she caught him tearing down a straight lane. She shot him before he could make it around the bend.

The figures inside were hurled to the ground with the monster’s passing. Most started to rise up, but one did not. It stood on shaky legs and looked wildly around, lost and confused.

Sylvie stared, wondering what she should do. At last she approached and,

“Hello?”

The white figure jumped almost a dozen feet into the air, it seemed to claw its way back towards the earth, as if being pulled against its will.

Sylvie ran forward to help, grabbing their arm and pulling down. She found herself nearly lifted off her hooves, the power holding them greater than any she’d ever felt; but she clung stubbornly, bringing the white figure back down to earth.

Once it touched the ground, the will pulling at it seemed to lose interest, and the figure dropped like a heavy sack whose rope has been cut.

Now close, Sylvie could see that the figure was that of a woman dressed in combat fatigues. Her wide, frightened eyes looked up at her.

“Who are you?” her voice was harsh, like the croak of a raven; looking closer Sylvie could see that the voice was coming from a ruined windpipe that had been torn and savaged.

“I’m…Sylvie.” She managed, too amazed and confused to say more.

“Corporal Kellie Velasquez, pleased to meet you.” The soldier reached out; their hands clasped in a shake; her fingers were icy cold.

“How’d you end up…” Sylvie faltered, unsure how to continue.

“I…don’t know.” The other woman said, flustered. She looked down at herself carefully and then back towards the sight of the creature lying dead on the ground.

She walked to it as if in a dream, running her fingers along the flanks as she spoke, half aloud and half to herself.

“I was fighting…near a general store? There were two dozen of us and four of the monsters and we were still losing…Seemed as if they were wearing armor, all over their bodies. Our bullets wouldn’t penetrate…lightning struck nearby…when I realized I was on the ground, it was too late; that manticore was already on top of me…lion head at my NO!” She broke off with a shudder.

Sylvie nodded sympathetically but inside a new worry sprang up. If Kellie had been on the ground, then it didn’t seem possible she could have survived, and now that Sylvie looked again at her torn throat, she realized that Kellie couldn’t have survived. There was just one logical explanation, and her head wanted to explode just thinking about it.

I must have died, trying to get back to the hospital. She reasoned slowly. I’m dead, and this is the spirit world or something.

She supposed she should feel terrified, scared, maybe angry, but she felt…determined. She had the same when she had an important task to do, and she suspected exactly what it had to be; in the distance she could see a roiling, fiery smoke atop a black tower, and she knew it had to be Jacob.

I’ll have to go after him, she knew. Even as she watched, a series of strikes from the bottom of the fiery cloud convinced her. She gripped her rifle and looked at Kellie.

“I think we’re dead.” She announced. Kellie nodded, unsurprised; obviously she’d worked her own way to the conclusion.

“But since we are, or think we are,” she continued, “then we should try to do as much good as we can, no matter what it may cost us.”

She pointed up to Jacob. “He’s apparently visible here, and might even be able to be killed here, maybe. Whether or not that’s right, we’ve got to try. There’s no hope, for the living or, apparently, for the dead, if he wins here.”

Kellie, who’d been looking back up into the sky with speculation, turned to her with a thoughtful look.

“Do you suppose…” she let the question trail off.

“I don’t know.” Sylvie replied. “But I think, maybe, that I pulled you from wherever it is that you were supposed to go. I’m sorry about that.” She apologized. “But I thought you were trying to get back to the ground.”

“I was.” Kellie confirmed. “I’d felt myself go light, when the black cloud exploded…but then I watched the others roll to their feet and then fly off the ground! I was scared, and wanted to stay on the earth, but then you startled me and made me jump, and I felt myself start to fly away, and I panicked and tried to force myself back down.”

“Perhaps you can still try.” Sylvie suggested. “And if you do try, then I suggest you go now. Who knows what is going to happen after this, but I’ll wish you luck and good speed.”

“You aren’t going?” Kellie asked, having started to crouch.

Sylvie shook her head, the ends of her short red hair flying. “No, I’ve still got a job to try and do, remember?” she pointed her hat in Jacob’s general direction.

Kellie looked at where she pointed and shivered. “He looks more solid on this side of death.” She muttered. “And scarier too, with that flaming center, or whatever it is.”

“And I think that’s why I’m here.” Sylvie nodded. “Because here’s the only place I can put rounds in him and put that son-of-a-bitch underground for good.”

Kellie looked once more at the sky, then turned her eyes resolutely away.

“Let’s go get him.” She said with surprising strength.

Sylvie nodded and started to walk further down the street with Kellie on her right, striding slowly and carefully to keep from accidentally launching herself into flight.

“Are you sure you want to go through with this?” Sylvie asked her as they walked. “I don’t know what will happen if he sees us, perhaps he can’t hurt us, but if he can, then there’s a very good chance…” she couldn’t continue, the thought of being blown to bits and perhaps never moving on, or becoming nothing, terrified her.

Kellie’s face reflected that fear, but she nodded.

“He killed my friends,” she said. She fell quiet for a minute, then continued in a subdued tone: “And…I have a little boy; Marley. I wanted to see him grow up, to become the man I know he’s meant to be. If he (she pointed angrily at Jacob) kills everyone in the world, like you say, then what’s to become of my son? I’ve got to stop him, for my son.”

Sylvie nodded sympathetically; she could do a lot worse in companions if she was going to be destroyed utterly. For a moment, she wished she had Stetson with her, but he wasn’t there. She thought she might have seen his shadow at the blockade of the street near the hospital, helping hold back the monsters that strained to pass their frail line of fighters, but she couldn’t be sure. But if there was no one else, then she would have good company.

“Would you like to ride me?” she asked. “I mean,” she said hastily, seeing the blush creep up Kellie’s cheeks and feeling a heating, tingling sensation on her own; “On my back. You can hold onto me as we walk, and maybe you won’t fly off.”

Kellie thought it over and then tentatively climbed onto her back. Sylvie thought she seemed awfully heavy to be able to fly into the air; she actually seemed to weigh as much as a normal person! But then Kellie gasped and sighed, muttering, “It feels like I’m normal again!” in her harsh croak.

#
They passed onward, seeking an open path for the tower, but each way was choked with rubble and neither of them wanted to risk jumping over anything lest they never land again.

“How does he stay down.” Kellie asked balefully as she stared savagely at Jacob. He’d become aware of who was killing his servants and had tried several attacks against them, but only by the skin of their teeth had they escaped.

“I don’t know.” Sylvie replied, trying to keep Jacob in sight while remaining hidden herself; “Perhaps because he’s partly demon now? Or maybe he’s mostly demon with only a scrap of human conscious in there? Who knows? I don’t, and I doubt anyone else will be able to tell either.

“What was that?” Kellie asked suddenly.

“What?” Sylvie asked, her rifle up and turning wildly, trying to determine where the danger was.

“Over there, on that other street. It looks like more spirits, marching along!”

Sylvie twisted to see where she was looking at, searching until she found them. When she did, she gave a gasp of wonder and astonishment.

A monstrous white object rolled resolutely forward, hurling blast after blast at its foes while behind them strode thirty people, their tall, proud faces and keen features more terrible and beautiful than any mortal human she’d ever seen before; but they appeared to walk inside flesh prisons, like Kellie in the belly of the Manticore. Yet she felt that the spirits here weren’t captured or broken, but free. At their head strode a figure; tall, pure, fair to look at and wondrous to behold, she had a shining star around her throat and her shield blazed with thousands of points of lights like a galaxy snatched from the heaven and her spears were burning lances.

“Taryn.” Sylvie whispered in awe.

“That’s Taryn?” Kellie asked quietly.

“Yes.” Sylvie managed. “Though I’ve never seen her like that before. I wonder if she’s always like that, or if it’s just for this fight.”

Kellie didn’t answer and Sylvie didn’t press her. It’d been a rhetorical question anyway.

#
They chased after Taryn’s column, but their movement seemed to bring Jacob’s attention to the fact that Taryn was assaulting his tower as well.

He swelled with rage, or power. From his body shot bolt after bolt of dark energy, forcing Sylvie to run for cover, the bolts striking close to her heels (though to Taryn and the others, Sylvie thought that it would look like Jacob was trying very hard to kill the living soldier that ran next to her and diving for the cover or a ruined building).

“We aren’t going to make it that way.” Sylvie puffed. “I hope Taryn’s got another plan!”

“Perhaps we can help!” Kellie shouted in her ear. She’d been clinging tight to her back lest she get thrown off.

“What are you thinking?” Sylvie asked.

“That we split up!” Kellie suggested, “Force Jacob to counter two different avenues of approach, and he won’t be able to focus on just one of us.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Sylvie gasped.

She took off, circling away from the cowering shapes. Jacob saw, leaving off his assault on Taryn’s position and returning to her. This time his attacks didn’t seem to affect the waking world, but just the spirit world, but more deadly to them for it.

“Come on!” Sylvie yelled.

Kellie didn’t bother answering, clinging to her back as she ran, and Sylvie felt bad for even saying it; she’d gotten caught up in the excitement.

I’ve got to remain cool, can’t lose my head in this game, or it’s all over. She scolded herself.

They continued bobbing and weaving from cover to cover, Sylvie’s agility saving them time and time again.

I really need to thank that tyrant, before I get my hands on her; I’d never have been able to do something like this before! She gasped.

Jacob seemed to get more infuriated with each missed strike, losing track of Taryn’s group, which is just as Sylvie had hoped for.

For endless minutes they played this dangerous game of hide-and-seek, and now Sylvie was in the open trying to get a clear shot, and now she was hiding as a bolt of lightning struck nearby.

“Here, see what you can do with this!” she said, pushing one of her pistols back into Kellie’s hands.

“Right.” Kellie shouted, dropping off her back and hurrying into a building. She wobbled a bit, but stayed on her feet.

Sylvie continued playing the horrible game of dodge the lightning until, with a scream of rage and, could it be, fear!, he started flared a deep red, and at the base of his tower appeared two dozen monsters or more.

“Crap, crap, crap!” she cursed under her breath. She noticed the effort seemed to tire him, and that was something at least, but it wouldn’t do them any good if they were killed by his henchmen anyway!

A star leapt from earth as she debated whether or not to go after the monsters or continue on Jacob. Her eyes tracked its ascent where it struck Jacob dead center.

He screamed! He raged! He hurled the blackened, scorched spear back down the way it came.

“Taryn!” Sylvie shouted at the top of her voice: She knew who had to have thrown that star, and what it had to be.

She ran towards the square, heedless of the danger. Monsters popped up in front of her, roaring at the soldiers and being shot at in return. Her rifle barked, and the monsters fell dead.

When she got to the street, she stopped in horror; it looked exactly like her dream. Bengal stood over Taryn’s prone body, one arm in a sling and firing desperately at the approaching monsters, a spear sticking out of Taryn’s side as she lay unmoving.

“NOOOO!” The anguished cry tore from her throat and made the spirit realm tremble. The monsters cowered and the humans shivered though they didn’t know why.

Sylvie’s rifle barked four times and the last monsters in front of Bengal died, their spirits exploding in shards of smoke. Their prisoners or meals fell to the ground, but at Kellie’s urgent cries did not gain their feet and float away.

Gaining their feet slowly, they looked at Sylvie with silent, white eyes. Waiting.

“Follow me.” Sylvie growled looking high above her. Jacob had sensed the coming of her wrath and withdrew to the tower, marshaling the last of his strength for the final fight, perhaps.

The spirits of dead soldiers followed silently as she strode to the gates of the tower. Raising the butt of her rifle, she hammered on the splintered doors, torn by the rounds from the tank. They shivered and broke inwards.

The host passed through and on, to a great spiral staircase, black as obsidian and polished to the consistency of glass, wide and broad, with carved figures writhing in torment under hideous torture on the banisters. Flanking either handrail were two horrific statues of creatures, red, hairy arms like apes, faces like rats, human eyes radiating with malice and hatred, feet like birds.

The spirits whispered and drew back, but Sylvie passed by on either side, Kellie striding beside her. The statues trembled, a great cry burst from them.

“Daaaaanger! Daaaaaaanger! Master, Daaaanger approaches!”

“Silence!” Sylvie roared, barely heard over the screeching. “You’ve alerted your master, your job is finished, and if you don’t stop that racket, you will be too!”

The statues fell silent.

Continuing up the stairs they advanced to the high chamber, empty save for a crystal throne on a raised dais behind which swirled a black cloud curling around itself. An open window to the outside was on the right. There were no other furnishings or decorations.

“So, you’ve come.” Jacob’s voice sounded from the smoke. It curled around the chair and dropped into the seat, shrinking and firming until there sat, dimly seen, a man. He seemed taller than any other man Sylvie had ever seen, maybe eight feet, but broad and muscular as any athlete, with features that would make any male model leave in despair. Yet the eyes…cruel, vicious, with all the love and warmth of a trapped rat that knows the only way out is to fight.

“Yeah, I’ve come.” Sylvie told him defiantly. “To see you to Hell!”

He chuckled, which turned into a massive belly laugh. The tower trembled and the ghost soldiers covered their ears.

“Take me to Hell! You!” He bellowed in laughter. “You are nothing without your little magician friend, and she is dead!”

His face split into a slow, evil smile. “I should just kill you, but where would be the fun in that? No, I have a better fate for you! I will destroy your friends here, and then I will bring your mother and father, your precious Chief Gardner,” he laughed, “And kill them in front of your eyes, one by one. Until you have nothing left but utter despair. And when you have been utterly broken and beg for death, I will not be merciful.” He promised.

“No worries.” Sylvie shot back. Her rifle appeared in her hands as if by magic and she pointed the muzzle at him. She didn’t speak again, but pulled the trigger. Again. And again.

Jacob had laughed when she’d pointed her weapon at him, but his laughter turned to shocked outrage when the bullets actually pierced him. He bellowed in pain and surprise.

“What sort of weapon is that?!” he shouted incredulously.

“Mine.” Sylvie told him right before she pulled the trigger.

The round struck him where his ghostly head gaped at her. It vanished in a flash of light and a sound like a burst cannon. Sylvie reeled from the blast, her ears ringing.

#
Sylvie shook her head to clear her ears and recover her wits. When she’d recovered sufficiently, she searched immediately for Jacob, but he was nowhere to be found. For a moment, a black terror seized her heart: what if he hadn’t been killed, and had just run away?

She looked round and found the others, the ghost warriors, looking for him as well.

“Did…did we do it?” Kellie asked, her face betraying surprise and…hope.

“Maybe.” Sylvie allowed, “but I don’t think so. He wouldn’t give up just like that.”

“You did shoot him in the head.” Kellie pointed out.

“That was what he wanted us to think.” Sylvie rejoined. “He was made of smoke…does smoke have a head?” she asked dryly. “I shouldn’t have fired reflexively like that; he’d have hidden anything vital far more carefully than that!”

“Oh, how right you are!” Jacob’s voice echoed in the now silent chamber; it seethed with barely suppressed rage. “You shot me!” he accused.

“You threatened my family and killed my friends.” Sylvie snapped. “Seemed justified to me.”

He didn’t have anything to say to that; instead the walls began to darken as he re-coalesced near the throne.

“Now you will die!” he growled ominously.

Sylvie finished reloading her rifle. “Don’t think so.” She grinned. “After all, I’m already dead, and the dead fear nothing, or haven’t you heard?” and she pulled the trigger again, this time aiming for the exact center of the mass.

“The dead have fear.” Jacob retorted, floating away. “They have more cares than the living, just in a different way. Now, stand still!”

Sylvie had begun bouncing around as fast as she could, leaping from spot to spot with the agility of a gazelle; though he hadn’t thrown lightning yet, Sylvie knew it would be a matter of moments and she didn’t want to give him a still target.

Abruptly the door burst open and monsters rushed in, the remaining henchmen, perhaps two dozen.

Sylvie turned to deal with these new intruders but the ghosts streaked to their foes and body slammed into them and through them, each pass taking a little darkness with it.

“Go on!” Kellie shouted at her. “Go on! We can handle his monsters! Deal with Jacob!”

She still had Sylvie’s pistol and she fired it with enthusiasm at least, and some skill, at any monster that tried to get close to Sylvie’s spinning, leaping, dancing hide.

What a friend! Sylvie thought to herself, awed and touched by Kellie’s efforts. She wished, for a moment, that if nothing else came true, Kellie would be able to touch her son again, to hold him, and see him grow up.

Then her duel with Jacob drove all other thought from her mind, and she strove against him, her rifle and single pistol constantly sending powerful rounds through his now formless body as he sought to catch up to her and smother her in him.

It was during one of her spins or jumps, that she noticed a tiny, tiny fragment of cloud that seemed different: it had a purplish glow to it, instead of red and black. It vanished even as she looked at it, and for a split second she wondered what about it was different.

I’ve got nothing else to lose. She told herself.

She hopped around like a toad on a hot plate, adding some side-to-side flair to spoil his aim, hoping that he would show that piece again.

“Rrrrgh!” Jacob growled in frustration.

Around them in the throne room the ghosts and the monsters continued to battle, but the monsters were taking the worst of it, and they now seemed tattered and torn, a few were already thinned to the point of near-transparency.

Jacob snarled and turned his attention away for just the tiniest moment, a fraction of a heartbeat. In his distraction, Sylvie’s probing eyes spotted a patch of cloud with the purplish tinge. Her rifle barked, the round zipped, and the purple vanished in a spray of coruscating color.

A fierce wind sprung up, tugging at her hair and dragging spirit and monster alike towards Jacob as he began to shrink, growing smaller every second until, with a roar and bang, he vanished. This time, Sylvie felt, for good.

#
The room was silent after his defeat, everyone staring at where the cloud had been.

It’s over. It’s finally over. Sylvie thought shakily as she stared at where he had once been. She felt no dread in her soul or even a momentary fear that he was still alive. Jacob was defeated!

Monsters, those few that were left, cried out in dismay and ran to the doorway or out the window, hurling themselves into space and away.

“We’ve got to go after them!” Kellie said urgently. “We can’t let them get away!”

The others, however, shook their head.

“I’m sorry.” One of them said, a big man with part of his skull missing. “I wish we could go with you, but I can feel called, I think…I think it’s time to move on.”

“But what about the monsters?” Kellie nearly stamped in frustration. “They’ll kill civilians, soldiers, innocent people if we don’t stop them!”

“The living can stop them.” He told her. “Can’t you feel the storm? They won’t get away, here they shall die. But not by us.”

And the ghosts thinned, and were gone.

Kellie uttered a groan, then hurled herself at Sylvie, catching her about the waist.

“I can feel them.” She sobbed. “I can feel it pulling at me again. Sylvie, I don’t think I can resist this time!”

“Kellie, I…I don’t know what to say.” Sylvie told her uncomfortably, wrapping her own arms around her. “I can’t feel any different than I did a minute ago, but I won’t let you go if you don’t want to.”

Kellie shook her head. “I want to help.” She said. “And maybe, if possible, see my son again?” she added quietly with little hope.

Sylvie grasped her even more firm. “You will see your son again, Kellie,” she declared. “I promise.”