A Following Of Demons, Page 3

than I imagined, I’m sorry to say. Twenty years is, to be frank, the limit for these entities before they become strong enough to break through your barrier and into the world.” She licked her lips nervously, it looked like she was choosing her words very carefully now. “How long is it exactly until your twenty-fourth birthday?”

  “One week. What exactly do you mean, twenty years is the limit? And what barrier?” I asked, leaning forward. Gwen’s eyes were wide with fear.

  “We’ll have to act quickly, time isn’t on our side. I must delve straight in, I apologise for my bluntness. After twenty years of resting, building strength, learning about human life, the spirits are ready to come forward onto Earth from their other dwelling, from another dimension. No one knows why twenty years, some say it’s because of a certain equinox in their dimension, others speculate that’s how long they can last in their realm, a lifetime.”

  I gritted my jaw and stared her straight in the eyes. “What do we do?”

  “We have to go to wherever it all began. Wait here.” She glided upstairs gracefully.

  “Oh my gosh, Rick. This is serious. I... I don’t know what...” Gwen’s eyes filled up. I hated seeing her like that, so upset. Especially when I knew she was distressed because of me.

  “I know. At best I was hoping for some therapy sessions, at worst a sacrifice.” I said, smiling feebly. She coughed laughter and choked, and cried harder. After a few minutes, she calmed down and looked intensely at me.

  “I love you, we’re going to be married and have a family. I’ll be with you until the end and I’ll never let you be alone.”

  “Thank you.” I kissed her, forgetting where we were until Esther walked back in. She cleared her throat loudly and we parted, embarrassed like teenagers. I noticed Esther held in her hands a map, and she sat down in the next room with it at the table and rolled it out properly. Flowers almost filled the dining room and even under the circumstances I couldn’t help but think that surely having flowers and pollen surrounding where she ate couldn’t be good for her, and in the summer bees and wasps would swarm. I swiped the banal thought from my mind before Gwen took my hand and we joined her at the table.

  “I’ve got this map of the local area I use for historical predictions. I feel from your aura that you were born here. Am I correct?” she pointed to the city’s hospital.

  “Yes, completely correct.” I wasn’t too impressed; anyone could have gotten that information from Google.

  “You said your parents aren’t with us anymore?” I nodded and chewed the inside of my cheek. “Yes, but I can feel them around you. They watch over you, Rick. It’s a good sign; you’ll never be alone, even at your darkest hour when you think there’s no light left in the world. Sally and Lawrence were there names?” I nodded. “I can feel they died in a car accident quite recently. They didn’t leave the world in the right way, they can’t quite move on yet. They’ll be with you for a while, but they’re together and happy.”

  For a while, Esther didn’t say anything. She got out a creamy white stone on a silver chain and swung it slightly over different parts of the map. After a few seconds, I realised something. “I’ve got that exact pendulum. I can’t remember where from, but I have one too! I got it for one of my birthdays and I’ve counted it a lucky charm ever since.” I pulled out my wallet and slid the pendulum out. Esther smiled maternally.

  “It’s more than a lucky charm, dear.” She closed her eyes and puckered her lips in concentration, so I didn’t dare ask what she meant. Eventually she opened her eyes, pointed and said resolutely, “Here. We need to go here.”

  To me, it just looked like a small, residential estate in the posh area of the city. “What is it?”

  “It’s where the demons first clung to you. Where they first got a smell of your blood, where they decided you were to be their next victim.”

  “Their next victim? It’s been twenty years, why haven’t they moved on?” I asked, flabbergasted and frustrated.

  “As I said, twenty years is a lifetime to them. Twenty years in our realm is probably only a few weeks to them.” She paused dramatically. “We need to go back to the old, ruined house there. It’s been abandoned almost ever since you adopted these demons. It’s the only place they’ll properly be rid of, but only if we do it properly. I’ll have to carry out the ritual, I’m the only one in the country experienced enough to know what to do.”

  “How so?” Esther’s familiarity was really bugging me now.

  “I’ve just done it before, that’s all. It’s not every day you meet someone with demons surrounding them, clouding their aura.” She flashed her yellowing teeth at me in a gesture I understood was meant to be pleasant. Gwen looked at the clock and realised we were late for a family meal, which seemed so unimportant under the current circumstances that I didn’t want to leave, but we said our goodbyes anyway and promised to be in touch as soon as the meal was over.

  During the meal, while almost everyone but me got drunk I rang Esther from the men’s toilets. After my running away episode and the fact drinking made me more susceptible to their macabre advances, I refused to touch a drop. So as everyone had a merry time, I thought about my possible impending death in two weeks time. Even thinking of the word “death” made my guts churn, my brain hurt and my throat tighten. Esther suggested the spirits were getting worse by the minute and she could feel the constant atmosphere around me was cold and full of hatred. I told her how isolated I felt, cut off from the rest of the normal world and she paused in a thoughtful silence. She told me the ritual would take place the next Saturday, and she would need a family member related by blood and someone else who I loved to be present to help carry it out.

  Later, I reluctantly asked Seb and Gwen to help but they agreed wholeheartedly, and my regret was deepened when I went back to Esther’s house and informed her of this. She told me I wouldn’t actually be required at the house, due to the extreme levels of danger of what was about to happen.

  “If I’m placing my brother and fiancée in peril the least I can do is be there, too! I’m not leaving them to pick up the pieces of my fragmented mental state!” I scowled, not angry at Esther but at the situation.

  “Rick, my dear, you really don’t understand. Please listen to me when I say it won’t just be you in danger if you decide to come. I can’t stop you, but I highly recommend you do not come!” Esther, even though she was so small, seemed to tower over me. I almost backed down, but then Gwen entered the room after going for a glass of water and seeing her bright green eyes gave me the confidence I needed to say, “No, Esther. I’m sorry, but I’m going. That’s final.”

  After another heated discussion, I was allowed to wait in the car outside. How I wish I had never visited that damned house in the first place.

  The Beginning of the End

  “Rick, I don’t like this. What do I do? They’re getting worse!” Gwen started hyperventilating behind me.

  “Calm down, if they sense your fear or any weaknesses they’ll play on that.” I tried to sound reassuring but even I could hear the shake in my voice. I stared at the iron candlestick and took in every detail so I wouldn’t look away. It had what looked like a hand carved swirling pattern all over its thin, straight frame, with small smatterings of brightly coloured stones. The glittering stones looked striking in this dull, dusty house and appeared to sparkle brightly in rebellion of their unsightly habitat.

  The room we were in was a dusty mess. The fireplace was a vintage, ornate masterpiece that seemed to be wasted in the abandoned house. This particular room smelt of a musky kind of smell although there didn’t seem to be any sign of animal invasion. There wasn’t even a cobweb to be seen, even though no one had lived here for over fifteen years. The surrounding area contained similarly grand houses and I wondered why the building hadn’t been demolished to upkeep the posh estate’s good reputation. It was a stain in the neighbourhood, an obviously decaying corpse in the midst of a family-friendly city. Driving up to the house
on either side of the winding road were small mansions with their perfectly groomed gardens and happy, flushed faced gnomes waving us through. The sense of unease that built in the car as we got closer clogged my lungs like smog and I could hardly breathe knowing what a dangerous task lay ahead. I didn’t know if anyone would make it out alive. I hoped with all my heart if anyone would die it would be me and not Seb, my loyal brother and best friend or Gwen my trusting and loving girlfriend or Esther, the selfless psychic who had agreed to help knowing that if she didn’t, they would take everyone I loved before they took me too.

  Keeping my eyes fixed on the candlestick, it became glaringly obvious that I had never been in such a risky situation. Working as one of the accountants for a popular television network, I had been in tough circumstances before where millions of pounds had ridden on my choices and logic. Here, nothing mattered but my determination to win. The odds were low on us all coming out of this alive but I had to win, or we would all die. If I let them in, we would never get out.

  “Stay strong Gwen, if you don’t concentrate properly none of us will get out of here.” Behind my back so she would see, I curled my thumb and forefinger together and flicked my other three fingers out to make an “okay” sign to her. I knew she’d be smiling, and while she giggled her throat caught, making a choking sound that I knew was the start of her tears. When we’d first started going out, she’d asked me how I was and I’d responded with the typical okay sign known by most people. But she had never seen such a thing before, and assumed I was swearing at her, like a smart fingers up. She almost dumped me before I had the chance to explain things, but since then it only took for one of us to do the hand signal and we’d both be devoured by fits of laughter.

  “I don’t feel anything other than weak. We failed you. If I hadn’t tried to run away...” I heard her sniff away tears.

  “I don’t blame you for running away; it’s what anyone would have done. You were scared, and you’re doing this for reasons even I don’t properly understand. Just try to stay calm because it’s all going to be okay.” I paused, seeing a rush of movement to the left of me. Although all my instincts told me to look and make sure it wasn’t anything dangerous, I knew it was and if I tried to see, the consequences would be fatal. “Esther may not be dead. Or, not entirely. We might still be able to save her, but it’s going to take a lot of guts and concentration and you’ll have to do exactly as I say and don’t look anywhere that can be manipulated by them. From what you’ve told me, that’s what happened to Seb.” A lump caught in my throat. “They tricked him by creating an illusion of our dead parents in that room. Once he let himself in, and his emotions went haywire with seeing them again, it was easy for them to trap him inside.”

  “But that’s what they did with Esther. Why are we only trying to save her? She’s about eighty, and she’s not even family like Sebastian.” Gwen whispered, as if the house had ears. In a way, I suppose it did.

  “Esther was more prepared. She said she’d experienced the same kind of thing in her youth, but I’m not sure to what extent. She had on her a Xenite pendulum, and as far as I could tell from our family’s history, noobody in Lightwater history has survived this house. It’s just me and Esther and we’ve both got Xenite pendulums. So we need to go for Seb first, then Esther.” I tried to think about what to do next, attempting to ignore the people I could see all around me, staring with hate at us. I saw one of them wearing a white robe. It took a step forward and I began to