Page 3 of Death Trap

Every so often, I would glance over at the Halfling to make sure he was still on the ground. My gun stayed in my dominant hand the entire time, so my squiggles were a little extra squiggly in my left one.

“What is that thing, anyway?” Stephanie asked, watching me the entire time.

“A Hell-dwelling creature,” I said. There was no need to get into all the details, such as the whole “These ugly bastards used to be living people—half demons, like Cole—who had been fully corrupted by their Hellfire power by overusing it. Now, they worked for full-blooded demons as their soulless, mindless minions living in Hell and becoming more and more mangled as time went by.”

Yeah, that was a little much to tell a stranger.

“Hell-dwelling?” She blinked, taking my words in. “Then why’s it on the living plane?”

I shrugged to answer her question, but really, I was wondering the same thing. Xaver was dead. Unless these Halflings were looking for some kind of vengeance, they should be leaving me alone. But having three of them find me randomly whenever I crossed over for work? Highly unlikely. These monsters followed orders. Someone must’ve been calling the shots behind the scenes. But who?

I connected the outside chalk circle, and instantly, the lines glowed orange. The door was open.

“Go on through,” I said to her. “I’ll be right behind you.”

She nodded and took the final step through the circle.

After she disappeared, I stood, dusted off my hands, and put away my chalk. Thank goodness Stephanie was one of the easier spirits to track down and put back. Not like some where I had to sometimes literally drag them through the door with me.

Minus the whole Halfling attack thing.

Speaking of…

I spun around to find the spot where the demon creature had fallen now empty.

My stomach sank. It was gone.

Oh shit. Shit. Shit.Shit.

I whirled around, gaze bouncing to every nearby shadowy place for the missing Halfling. My finger remained on the trigger of my gun, and I pointed it as I scanned the area.

Where are you, you sneaky bastard.

A growl vibrated above my head.

Slowly, I looked up. There it was, perched on the top of the gas lamppost, all four of its dangly legs perfectly balanced on the tippy top like some kind of deranged bird.

Before I could aim properly, the Halfling screeched so loud, my ears rang, and then it leaped at me. Claws sank into my chest. The sudden pain had me gasping, and together, we fell backward.

Orange light folded in all around me, telling me we had passed through the spirit door together.

I tried to hold the Halfling at a safe distance, but as we passed through the veil and everything melded and twisted around us, it continued to swipe at me with its oversized hands, slashing into my stomach and arms.

I bit back a cry as spiking pain sliced through me.

As we tumbled through nothingness, I fired the gun blindly. The Halfling buckled as the bullets hit it in the chest several times, but even as it burned with the iron and holy water, it didn’t slow down. The thing was relentless.

Teeth chomped down on my wrist, and I screamed, but my voice was lost to the vacuum between worlds.

I kicked out, landing another hard blow to my hitchhiker’s stomach. I hoped I wouldn’t be bringing this thing with me to the afterlife. A half-demon monster running around? We didn’t need that kind of havoc there.

My stomach roiled from the energy passing all around and through us as we changed dimensions. But as I continued to struggle with the Halfling and focus on keeping its talons away from my face, it was suddenly ripped away from me by an invisible force. With its mouth open, like it was screeching but with no sound, it was thrown backward into the nothingness.

When it vanished, I thanked whoever had designed this part of the transition between worlds. The way crossing over via spirit door normally worked was that all spirits were thrown into wherever they belonged. So, if you were a newly dead soul, you went to your orientation or judgement, then to your chosen afterlife. If you were a previously deceased soul, like Stephanie or me, then you went back to your afterlife dimension. Your home.

For the Halfling? Well, I could bet money that the bastard had been capitulated back to Hell, where it would hopefully stay forever.

Before I could think too much about everything, my ass hit the ground on the other side of the veil so hard, I gasped. The rest of the landscape fell into place around me, including a façade of the harbor, with waveless water that was so smooth it could be confused with glass. Unlike real Fairport, no ships were parked in the dock, but a few spirits were strolling by, enjoying the near perfect atmosphere.

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