With the best effort he could make, Justin crossed the threshold to the ninth floor. To his right, halfway down the hallway, was the evidence room. A guard was stationed there, casually leaned up against the wall with a mobile phone in his grip and completely captivated by the LCD screen. Justin quietly turned left and entered the restroom without much notice. Locking himself in a stall, he cleared his mind and worked to catch his breath from the lengthy climb. The stroke that he thought was coming earlier thankfully never materialized as he rested his head against the stall.
Two gunshots cracked, followed shortly by an alarm that rang out in the hallway of every floor. The alarm itself was not a fire alarm, but a steady buzzing signal as if to indicate a police emergency. He opened the stall and went directly to the restroom door where he peered down the hallway to the evidence room.
**********
As the door flew open, Crush tightened his finger on the trigger in preparation for the assault. Before he could fire, two shots rang out from somewhere else inside the building. The door slowly closed under its own volition, and no demon ever entered the room. In fact, an alarm blared out, and Crush heard the heavy footsteps pace back down to the side stairwell where they disappeared.
“What the crap is happening?” Crush mumbled as he got to his feet and made his way out to the hallway where he had two choices for his next move. Without hesitation he ran back to the side stairwell and cracked the door to listen for the demon’s direction. “Up. Great,” he thought, and he carefully ascended the steps so as not to draw any attention to himself. That was when he heard the door two stories below open, and the footsteps from above came to a stop.
**********
The guard put away his mobile phone and stepped out toward the open stairwell in the center of the building where he waited for a moment. Then he gazed down both ends of the hallway, and when he was certain no one would enter the evidence room, he descended the stairs and disappeared below.
Quickly Justin paced over to the evidence room and found that the door was unlocked. With luck on his side, he entered the room and began searching the boxes stacked to the ceiling. Realizing he would never find the artifact in time if he had to go through every box manually, he decided to try reading the files for a description and location. To his dismay, there was no longer a written record book in the room. All of the data was switched over to an electronic system that was protected by a password.
“Where would they put an ancient artifact?” he asked himself as he leaned back on the computer desk. Scrutinizing the possibilities and gazing out the window into the night sky, a shooting star streaked across the panorama. When Justin walked over to get a better view, an owl flew up onto the ledge, nearly scaring the older fellow off his feet. Grabbing his chest and leaning forward on a table to calm his nerves, he stared at the strange bird that now blocked his view outside.
“Hello there, big fella. What are you doing downtown?”
The owl blinked once as if in reply and then pecked the window panes repeatedly in an erratic chatter. Justin turned his back to the noise, and began searching the room once again until he began to recognize the pecking had an organization to it. In fact, the pecking was repetitive, the kind of repetition that he had heard before when he was younger and in the army. The pecking, if applied to morse code, was actually spelling out his name.
“J-U-S-T-I-N . . . J-U-S-T-I-N . . .”
Justin turned back around to look out the window, and the bird stopped and returned his gaze, blinking just once.
“That’s crazy!” he thought to himself, and the owl pecked once more and waited for Justin to open the window. “I’m not drunk enough to do anything like lettin’ you in, big eyes,” he said to the owl.
The owl tilted its head, and a whisper came in out of the air.
“Let me in.”
“I’ve got to quit drinkin’ moonshine,” he said to himself, and then he unlatched the window. When he pressed the pane outward, the great owl hopped through the opening, flew to the top cabinet in the corner of the room, and pecked the cabinet door. “Now I’ve done it,” Justin murmured and tried to swat the bird away. When he did, the cabinet came open, and there, wrapped in plastic, was the Staff of Helios.
“I’ll be darned!”
“Hoo!”
“Me! That’s who! Thanks a lot,” Justin nodded to the bird and stepped over to the door. After checking to see if the hall was clear, he stepped out into the hallway with the Staff safely tucked in under Crush’s coat. Before he could close the door to the evidence room, the owl flew out into the hallway and down the open staircase.
“Crap! That’s gonna cause problems,” Justin surmised with a sigh as he followed the bird down one level, through the hallway, and to the side stairwell where the owl roosted next to the door. The owl seemed to know the way Justin was headed, and within seconds, Justin joined the bird at the door. He leaned against the handle of the door and entered the stairwell, leaving enough room for the owl to fly through and roost once again on the rail.
As he descended the closed in space of the stairwell, Justin began to sense a bit of fear creeping over himself. When he stopped to catch his breath on the seventh floor landing, he caught sight of an officer coming his way up the stairs with a grin on his face and the heaviest treads he had ever heard.
“Evenin’,” Justin greeted him. The man did not reply, he just kept climbing, and it was then that Justin realized that the hand holding the stair rail was not a hand after all. It was a claw. That was when everything seemed to happen at once.
The owl swooped down from above with talons bared and struck the guard across the face. A shout came up from below, and Justin recognized the voice that belonged to Crush.
“Justin! Run! That’s the demon!” Crush exclaimed while leaning his head out from below.
“Crush! I got it!” Justin yelled down to him. The he held the coat and Staff out over the center ledge and added, “Catch!” Justin dropped the coat and Staff down the center gap of the wide stairwell, just out of the grasp of the demon who reached out snatch the Staff as it fell. Crush remembered the prophecy that he would have to go over the precipice to get the Staff. Without wavering, Crush leaped over the railing and into the air to meet the Staff with arms wide open. Realizing he had jumped upward and not outward, Crush caught the Staff and coat, but fell down through the center of the riser. As he passed the second floor landing a hand reached out and grabbed his wrist, pulling him to the railing where he latched on with his other arm. Crush instantly recognized the man from the papers as he climbed over the railing.
“Bat Jackson? You’re a sight for sore eyes.”
“Never mind that now. That thing up there?! What is it?!”
“I don’t exactly know, but I believe it to be a demon that passed through from another dimension,” explained Crush. “And a friend of mine is up there with it.”
“That’s not good, but from the sounds of it, one of my friends may be up there, too,” Bat asserted after hearing the echoing screech of the owl. With all their speed, Crush and Bat raced up the stairs, and when they reached the sixth floor, they found Justin pinned to the floor under the ravening madness of the scratched and tattered demon. The owl had clearly fought a good fight, but it was knocked senseless against the wall, and was using its wings to attempt to get to its feet.
“Let him go, you creep! It’s me you want!” screamed Crush in anger. The demon held Justin’s head in his hands and answered.
“I’m the one who is in control, Crush. You will give me the Staff, or I will take his life,” the demon seethed.
Not daring to push the situation any further out, Crush grasped the Staff in his hand and held it out as an offering.
“Here it is, big boy. But you have to let my friend go if you want it,” Crush bargained. Bat watched the events once again unfold, and he dreaded the outcome. The demon released Justin and reached out to take
the Staff. It was then that Crush closed his eyes and prayed for the best as he struck downward with the Staff. A flash of light enveloped them, and an instant later when the stars and spots had disappeared from their vision, Crush, Bat, Justin, the owl, and the demon were surrounded in the darkness by a league of green-eyed monsters.
Chapter 3
*
Battle in the Dark
*
“Where are we?” asked Justin as he got to his feet. Bat and Crush looked at each other first in acknowledgement, and then they both began the melee against the demons that were closing into their small circle. The demon who had stalked Crush on earth was called Bantish, and he put his arm around Crush’s neck in an ever tightening death grip. Crush in turn rolled forward and threw Bantish into two more demons, knocking them out of the lit perimeter of the glowing Staff.
Bat and the owl held their own slinging fists and talons into the many jumbled bodies. If Justin had not fallen and been captured so easily, the group may have stood a chance of winning the short-lived battle.
“Surrender, Crush,” sneered a command in the dark as two demons held Justin from behind. They dragged Justin into the muck of darkness where he disappeared from their sight. Seconds later Bantish strolled back into the dim light of the Staff, a filthy grin of delight upon his visage.
“You will give the Staff to me, or you will never see your friend again,” he croaked. Soon, four other demons surrounded Crush and collapsed upon him in anticipation of the bargain he must make.
“I cannot give you the Staff, chowder head,” Crush replied as he handed one end out to Bantish as a baton being passed from one runner to the next. “Try,” he coaxed as he released his grip and let the Staff balance on his palm. Bantish motioned for one of the lesser demons to go forward, and when the imp laid his grimy paws on the Staff, a sizzle of righteousness followed. Still yet, the imp tugged with all his weight to no avail. Crush then laughed aloud at the failure of the subordinate to do his master’s bidding.
“Maybe you should try yourself,” Crush goaded.
“I think not. Take them to the hole,” growled Bantish. Seeing he had some advantage, Crush struck the Staff to the ground with no better result than a dimly lit lantern. A shove from behind forced him to march behind his comrades who were now bound, and Crush feared that despite his past success in escaping the dark dimension, he may have fallen into a final fatal trap. That was when he realized that the owl was nowhere to be found.
**********
The group of demons and humans slogged through the murk for the better part of an hour when Bantish, who was in the lead, stopped abruptly. With a whisk of his hands, a moldy blanket of leafy material rustled away to reveal a cavern in the ground.
“Place the prisoners,” commanded Bantish, and the three humans were marched to the edge. With a careless kick, each of the prisoners was flung forward into the gaping chasm. Not to be outdone, Crush reached the now gnarled and crooked Staff around the ankle of a particularly small and wretched demon, and when the shove came from behind, he managed to drag the imp down with him into the free fall.
“Dratted squealer,” Bantish cursed at the incompetence of the miniature demon known only as Possum. “Leave him!” he barked to the others as they listened to the faint and withering cries of the lesser demon rise over the lip of the circle.
**********
Crush plummeted to the bottom and landed face first in the ground, yet the fall did not kill him as he thought it would. Gravity, as he understood it, seemed to have a different effect upon him in this hole, and the landing was actually more of a touch down to another surface. He felt as if he were a feather falling upon a quilt. He rolled over to fin Justin, Bat, and two other people staring at each other in amazement. The imp Possum lay quiet at the edge of the light.
“Are we alive?” asked Justin as he pinched himself to check for feeling. Wincing with pain, he seemed to answer his own question.
“We are in the dark dimension, quite alive and soon to be in great hunger and thirst, if memory serves me,” answered Bat.
“That’s cheerful,” Crush quipped. “Who are they?” he asked.
“Let me introduce you to Senator Fromage, friend of Drakthos and the reason we are all here,” announced Bat as he pointed to a human couple who had walked into the edge of the light. “Good to see you, sir,” he said and saluted the dingy and filthy bearded man.
The Senator gave no reply as he simply sat crouched down with his head on his knees in despair.
“Are you Carol?” asked Bat in a voice of genuine concern.
“Yes,” she replied and then turned her gaze to the Staff in Crush’s hand. “Are you here to free us?” she asked.
“Ma’am,” Crush chuckled. “It would give me great pleasure to be free and clear of this adventure. However, Bantish and Drakthos may have other thoughts on the matter.” Crush studied the young lady for a moment, and a question that had been gnawing at him came to mind. “Carol, how did you get trapped here?” he asked. Crush sensed a fear come over her, a fear he could not altogether place, but fear nonetheless. Before she could answer, her father snapped a reaction.
“How dare you question her! After all she’s been through!”
“Settle down, Senator. You have more to answer for than anyone here,” retorted Bat in anger. “It was your folly that started this whole affair.” Senator Fromage jumped to his feet at the accusation.
“Now see here, you two bit gumshoe! You’ve no proof that I had anything to do with this fiasco! When we get back to Durham, you’ll pay for your disrespect,” threatened Fromage with a finger pointed at Bat.
“A few days in here with me, and you’ll wish you were back in Durham!” scolded Bat as his thirst began to rise.
“Gentlemen, please,” said Crush in a calming voice, almost like a purr. “If you two want to fight, there are plenty of others around that you can take your frustrations out on.”
“You’re right,” agreed Bat as he turned and paced off to the edge of the light. “I shouldn’t have lost my cool. I’m sorry.”
“Well, I’m not,” yelled the Senator. “And if you think . . .”
“Shh!” Crush ordered the dingy, bearded member of Congress. He had not forgotten Sherry’s recollection of the circumstances in the Senator’s office, and he was not about to let him take the upper hand. “How you ever won a ‘popular’ election is beyond me, but if you want to leave with us, then shut your trap.” Crush waited for a moment to see if the Senator could follow orders or not, and the extended silence spoke for itself. “Now, where’d that imp go?” he asked and sniffed at the air. As if following a scent he stalked out toward the wall of the pit where he found the lesser demon trying to scratch his way up the face of the pit. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“Nowhere,” answered the gargoyle-like figure as he turned to face Crush with a frown. “We’re all going nowhere. Forever,” he said as he fixed his eyes upon Carol. She seemed surprised by his attention, and she broke the stare by turning away from him.
“Come on, little guy,” coaxed Crush, and he placed his hand gently on his shoulder. “Come on back over with the others. You’re in the same pickle we are now.” Bat stood by Crush’s side, and he offered his hand out as a greeting.
“My name is Bat,” he said as he waited for a handshake. “What’s yours?”
“Possum. They call me Possum,” he replied and took Bat’s hand.
“Can you tell us about this world, Possum?” asked Bat softly. Before he could answer, Possum glanced back over at the Senator and Carol.
“No, no,” he shook his head. “We’re not going anywhere if they have anything to say about it.”
“All right, all right. You don’t have to talk now if don’t want,” replied Crush as he sized up the unspoken communication that was happening between Possum, the Senator, and Carol.
“The Staff . . . it brings hea
ling to his world, yet it bothers me so. I need to stay here out of the light until this world is healed, and I am returned to my former self.” Crush could not physically let go of the Staff due to its magic, but he placed it behind his back to block the dim glow from Possum’s eyes. Then Crush and Bat released the imp and began to back away from him at his request.
“Possum, we don’t know why we’re here, but we have no need to harm anybody here,” said Crush. “We only wish to go home and to close off the portals between our worlds.”
“I know,” the green eyes replied. “They will not let you.”
“Who?” asked Bat. No reply came as they walked back to join the others.
“Curious fellow,” surmised Justin.
“Demonic oaf,” grunted the Senator. His daughter Carol stayed silent, and several times Crush caught her staring at the Staff. The Fromages were a strange people, and they projected an even stranger aura which sent alarm bells off for Crush.
“How have you survived here since your disappearance?” asked Crush with curiosity.
“The demons have kept us fed and brought us water,” replied Carol. “May I see the Staff closer, please?”
“I haven’t been able to let go of it since I got it, but you can look at it,” he said as he lifted it up closer to her. Her eyes grew wide as she examined it, yet she did not touch it.
“It’s beautiful,” she noted. “I believe it will help us,” she continued, almost mesmerized in the dim glow.
“We can only hope,” replied Crush. The time was late evening, and most of the group had grown tired. “Perhaps, after some rest, we can try to use it,” he said with a yawn.
“I’ll keep watch. While I can,” Bat offered. He knew his cravings would begin to grow, yet he was accustomed to sleeping a different shift and could watch for one night. Crush laid down on his side and purred himself to sleep.
**********
“Wake up!” the voice yelled, followed by a kick to the hamstrings. Crush opened his eyes just in time to see the booted foot coming at his head. The force of the blow caused him to roll onto his back where his legs and arms were then pinned to the ground by the demons.