***
Jinx listened to the instructions the cell phone gave him. "Keep going. I haven't found the perfect location yet. We need somewhere that's ripe for disorder."
"Of course." Jinx kept his responses curt and clipped. He hated how Dad made him jump through hoops just to earn approval, but it was better than feeling orphaned like he so often did. Besides, he couldn't be sure Dad wouldn't come down on his friends, too, if he didn't fulfill his part of the bargain. And he didn't want the others to suffer because of him.
"There!" The cell phone jiggled and turned in his hand, pointing to a gas station/convenience store across a wide, empty parking lot. Neon white and red glowed from a towering sign above, showing the place was open twenty-four hours. It was located at the end of a long strip mall.
"Jinx!" Isaac came around the corner, Nikki following close behind. "Whatever he wants you to do, don't do it!"
The cell phone laughed and began to morph in his hand. Soon the sleek, red design bled to steely grey, and a small gun rested in Jinx's palm. He swallowed hard.
"Hold the place up," Dad whispered through the weapon. "Make me proud, son."
With one last look over his shoulder at his friends, Jinx whispered, "I'm sorry," and disappeared into a border of bushes. He heard Nikki shout, "Jinx, wait," as he did, but he ignored them. He skulked across the parking lot, trying to look nonchalant, but not sure if he was pulling it off. As he did so, he studied the inside of the small convenience store. Only one person besides the clerk hovered about the aisles. He'd wait until the customer left, then he'd go in.
But as said customer walked out of the place, Nikki and Isaac burst through the bushes at the other end of the parking lot.
"Jinx." Isaac ran toward him full tilt, shoulders hunkered and eyes determined. "Resist him. Whatever it is, you don't need to do it."
"I do," Jinx whispered. "For you, for Nikki."
"Go inside," the gun hissed. "I'll cover you. Just get rid of the big dumbass and his sister."
Isaac reached out and knocked the gun from Jinx's hand. It clattered over the pavement, letting out a spray of bullets.
"Yikes!" Nikki skipped up and down as zipping pellets of lead aimed straight for her feet.
"Knock it off, Dad," Jinx growled. Messing with him was one thing. Messing with his friends was entirely different.
Isaac danced around some bullets and pulled Jinx with him. "Come on, let's get out of here."
"Not so fast," the gun boomed.
The three turned in time to see the gun bulge and bend this way and that. A column of smoke rose from the weapon, boiling out in an angry scarlet hue.
"Oh crap," Jinx said. "Now he's really mad."
"You've disappointed me, son," the column of smoke bellowed. "And for that there will be repercussions."
It rose up and widened until it brushed the corner of the strip mall. The center of the column writhed and parted, revealing massive red eyes that glowered down at them all. A great head of smoke formed and lowered toward them. Its roiling mouth opened wide, ready to gobble them up.
But as it lowered, a shrill shriek filtered up into the night. Nikki collapsed to the concrete and began to shiver and shake.
Isaac dropped to his knees beside her. "No, Sis. Not again."
Jinx joined them. "Nikki, fight her off."
"No," Nikki growled before Nix took over completely, turning her eyes black. "We need her now. We need her to fight him..."
Shadows writhed out of the tiny girl. They covered her in a squirming mass, and soon she disappeared under their inky covering. Another piercing scream rang out, and then the shadows flew up in a flurry as Nix emerged from the change. Black-winged and fierce, she rose up into the night. Jinx and Isaac looked up, watching her swoop in loose circles before she straightened out in mid-air and faced the giant head of smoke.
It let out a wrathful cry as Nix flew straight for it, ready to do battle with Satan himself.
To be continued in:
ANTI-HEROES
Book II
BAD BOY
***
About the Authors:
Louise Bohmer is a freelance editor and writer based in Sussex, New Brunswick, Canada. She edits for Permuted Press, and is an associate editor with KHP Publishers, Inc. Her debut novel–The Black Act–was released by Library of Horror in 2009, but is now out of print. You can read her short fiction in Detritus, Old School, The Red Penny Papers, and Courting Morpheus. She writes in a variety of genres, including dark fantasy, horror, speculative, and romance. Visit her site at https://www.louisebohmer.com.
K. H. Koehler is the author of various novels and novellas in the genres of horror, SF, dark fantasy, steampunk and young adult. She is a freelance editor, a cover designer, an associate editor at KHP Publishers, and owner of K. H. Koehler Books. Her short work has been featured on Horror World, Literary Mayhem, and in the Bram Stoker Award-winning anthology Demons, edited by John Skipp. She lives in the beautiful wilds of Northeast Pennsylvania with two very large and opinionated Rottweilers. Visit her site at https://khkoehlerbooks.wordpress.com.
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