Page 73 of Unbinding the Demon
Oh, shit...
I was in some sort of old, ramshackle basement, presumably under the church, judging by the dusty religious artifacts and broken pews lining the room. But that wasn’t what was terrifying. What was terrifying was the forty or so deranged, snarling zombies, all circling me like a pack of rabid animals. Their dead, blackened eyes were staring menacingly at me, as black, gooey drool dripped from their hungry, disgusting mouths.
Oh, please no! No, no, no!
I tried to scream, but realized someone had gagged my mouth with a cloth and securely taped it shut. I then went to move my arms, only to find that my wrists were bound behind my back. The old wooden chair I sat in creaked as I frantically struggled to free myself, but the ropes held me firmly to it. Fear in its purest form coursed through my veins, and my heart was beating so fast that it could have put an overly enthusiastic hummingbird on cocaine to shame.
Frightened, pitiful tears spilled down my cheeks as a few of the zombies shuffled right in front of me. They snarled and snapped their jaws as if they were eagerly awaiting the chance to sink their foul, rotting teeth into my scrumptious, tender flesh. Their putrid breath fanned across my face, making me feel even more sick and nauseated. I probably would have gagged if I wasn’t actually gagged.
Is this how I’m going to die?
The more they snapped their jaws, the more obvious it became that they weren’t going to bite me just yet. If they were going to, they would have done so by now. In my tied-up, petrified state, I began warily observing their disfigured faces. I recognized a good deal of them as people who had been reported missing. And that’s when it dawned on me…Man, I’m an awful, treacherous bitch.
Guilt gnawed at my spirit, remembering the way I had freaked out, assuming without any reasonable doubt that Ashton was to blame for all these missing people. I didn’t even give him a chance to explain anything before I wrongfully assumed that he was a serial killer. To say that I felt downright terrible would be an understatement. I sat there, helpless and surrounded by snarling zombies, and began to weep. I wished I could somehow turn back the clock and trust Ashton, not break my promise to him.
The harrowing chorus of hisses and snarls got louder, and then they went quiet altogether, pulling me from my remorseful moment. A crack of light appeared along the shadowy dirt floor as the old splintered door across the room creaked open. Low, sibilant whispers murmuring,“Father,”hissed all around. The sound chilled my blood, filling me with suffocating anxiety. Father Adelstein strolled into the room with a bright smile, completely unbothered by the bloodthirsty zombie horde prowling around.
The zombies trembled in his presence and bowed their filthy, matted heads before him, revealing their fear and submission. “Ryan, bring me a chair,” he ordered one of the taller male zombies, waving his hand at him with an air of superiority.
“Yes, Father.”The one apparently named Ryan hissed and seized a random dining room chair from the pile of junk. Then his skeletal body shuffled it over. His ashy-looking, decaying hands placed the chair right in front of me, while his tangled, dark hair fell over his black, veiny eyes. He then scurried into a corner and crouched down creepily to watch. Adelstein dusted his pant leg with his hand, then sat down and looked at me with a loving smile that didn’t match the villainous gleam in his eyes.
His slender hand reached over and ripped the tape from my face, causing it to sting. He then roughly pulled an old red cloth out of my mouth and discarded it onto the nasty dirt floor. I adjusted my stiff, painful jaw and fearfully stared at him, with tears falling down my cheeks. I had so many questions and things I wanted to say racing through my mind. Things like,Where the fuck am I!? What the hell is going on here!?andYou’d better fucking release me right this instant, Bucko!But I was way too terrified of the zombies to form the words. So, I stayed quiet instead as I gathered the courage to give this kidnapping creep a piece of my mind.
Adelstein sighed and ran his hand through his short, dirty-blond comb-over. “Look, I’m terribly sorry about all this, Ms. Gallagher.” His face looked genuinely apologetic, and his voice carried a tone of deep sorrow. “I know you must be frightened, but this has to be done.”
I stared at him, my eyes wide and trembling with fear. “What has to be done? What are you going to do to me? Are you going to turn me into one of those—those things?!” I internally cursed myself for letting my panic and fear be evident in my voice, but I just couldn’t help it.
He chuckled and rubbed his hands together like a nefarious, plotting fly. “Oh no, my dear. You can dry your tears because I have something very special planned for you!” He sounded excited as he bopped my nose with his finger. That broke me out of my fear-stricken state, and I wrinkled my nose in disgust while glaring at him.
“Look it,Father...“ I sneered. “I’m not interested in whatever your grand old plan for me is. People will notice I’m missing and they will come looking for me! In fact, my boyfriend probably already is! And let me tell you, he can be quite the loose cannon! So, you’re better off letting me go now before something bad happens.” I tried to sound tough, even though I was still terrified.
He let out an amused, hearty laugh. “Oh yes, Mrs. Chuong,that idiotic follower of Vietnamese folk religion,” he grumbled with a brief, agitated look, “has already reported that thesatanic beastyou refer to as your boyfriend kicked the door to her classroom off its hinges and tore the whole place apart when he couldn’t find you.” He venomously spat the words, “satanic beast.”
I squished my lips into an annoyed line and scowled at him.Sure, Mrs. Chuong followed a Vietnamese religion, and Ashton was a Satanist, but wow, what a sanctimonious dick. “Yeah, so just imagine what mysatanic beastof a boyfriend will do once he finds me,” I said with confidence. But then a feeling of hopelessness crept over me as I realized that even if he did, he was still no match for forty or so of those zombie things.
Adelstein let out another small chuckle. “Oh, you are so naïve to that devil’s deception, my child. But it doesn’t matter; that abomination will never be able to find you in time.” He reached over and twiddled the sapphire necklace around my neck with a wicked gleam in his eyes. “We have ways to hide you from unholy eyes. In fact, this whole room is enchanted to do just that.” His hand pointed in a circle around the room.
I scoffed at his absurdity. An enchantment? Yeah, flippin’ right. But then again, I was surrounded by actual zombies. So maybe it wasn’t so absurd after all. “So what exactly do you plan to do with me, then?” I snippily demanded.
“Ah yes! That’s what I wanted to explain because I want you to understand that your death will not be in vain!” He clapped his hands with a joyous smile. I stared at him with a blank expression.My death? Of fucking course.“It’s a bit of a long story, but I believe I owe it to Elowynn to at least tell you. I’ll try to keep it quick, though.” He rubbed the back of his neck and adjusted himself in his seat. “You see, my dear, when she was still alive, she became fixated on her blasphemous occult studies and ungodly practices of witchcraft. I loved her and had always tried to steer her in the direction of holiness. However, my efforts were in vain once she obtained a rather unique book from the Sassafras Museum’s annual auction one year. There was little I could do to help save her soul from her wicked ways.” He looked and sounded genuinely remorseful.
“Oh, you’re talking about that creepy occult book that was bound in human skin, aren’t you? I wrote a whole essay on anthropodermic bibliopegy inspired by that thing,” I nonchalantly mentioned.
“Ah, yes! That’s the one! I had a deep love for her and wished to make her a holy woman.” His eyes trailed down to the floor, and a soft smile played on his lips. “I had even wished for her hand—”
“Well, I hate to break it to you, but she was into the mailman,” I interrupted.
“Anyway,” he said through gritted teeth, irritation clear on his face. “I was afraid to let her dabble in such dark energies alone. I felt it was my duty to protect her from the unknown evils she toyed with, and so I joined her in studying the book.” I gave him a slight nod to encourage him to continue. “We discovered that the book was, in fact, a gateway to another dimension. A strange and dark place called The Abyss, to be exact. Together, we tried to make contact with various beings from the mysterious world. However, the few heinous, death-like creatures we managed to contact turned out to be extremely hostile. So, we decided that if we were to continue our work, we would need some sort of safety net.”
“And this imbecilic fable is relevant to you wanting to kill me, how?” I rolled my eyes as I spoke.What a bunch of nonsense.
“I was about to get to that.” His annoyance with my attitude only grew. “Elowynn used her damnable witchcraft to create a,how do I put this, a magical barrier, if you will.” His hand waved up in the air as he continued to explain. “It surrounds the entire mountain range circling this town, and its purpose is to trap inside anything that’s summoned from other worlds.”
Magical barrier? Other worlds?It took all of my strength not to laugh in his face at his far-fetched fantasy and tell him how much of a demented maniac he was. But then I looked around and, once again, was reminded that literal motherfucking zombies surrounded me.
“So you see, I have created my children using power from The Abyss.” He gestured around at all the deranged zombies. “And so, the barrier that surrounds the town is keeping them trapped here. Since you are of the same bloodline as Elowynn, ritualistically spilling your blood should be enough to bring down the barrier. Then I shall unleash my children upon the rest of the world so that they may go and do God’s work for me.” He had a proud smile on his face as if he were some sort of saint, making my stomach churn with disgust.
An image of zombies going door to door while wearing white polo shirts and handing out bibles flashed through my mind. “Your children? You turned these innocent people into monsters and now you’re going to kill me to unleash them into the world!? Do you not realize how much of a fucked-up psychopath you are!?” My chair squeaked as I rocked back and forth with force while yelling at him in distress.
