Page 9 of Monsters of Mayhem

“I will do the same to you,” I shouted. “If you do not return to the rift now.”

It seemed to work. A few turned back at first and then the masses followed. That was one thing about monsters. They were vicious and they were cruel and they were chaos incarnate, but true monsters were like sheep. They would follow the one in front of them.

They headed back toward the rift, muttering and complaining but going nonetheless, until finally the last of the monsters was down in the rift. I pulled out some coins from my pouch and threw them into the rift, muttering a magic spell under my breath to seal it closed.

I grabbed Ratchet, knowing he was fading fast. The flames stopped the minute the rift closed. I sailed down to the ground.

“You okay, buddy?” I asked, but I knew he wasn’t. His skin was red and covered with blisters. His eyes were closed and he was groaning pitifully as I held him against my chest. He was a demon. He was going to be okay. He had to be. He was my best friend.

“We got the rift closed, buddy,” I said, encouragingly.

He nodded briefly.

“Can you get us out of here?” I asked, looking around at barren wasteland.

“No way,” Ratchet said. “It’s going to take a little bit of time before I can get the portal open, but I know some frost giants around here. You’re just going to have to carry me.”

My gut wrenched. As embarrassing as it was, though, it wasn’t worrying about Ratchet that made my stomach turn.

It was not being able to get back to Caroline.

We were in a position where I couldn’t even communicate with the DGC to find out what they had done. I was a monster. I was a demigod of monsters. I could convince the monsters I was their God but I couldn’t do a damn thing other than fight them and outthink them and out power them. I needed Ratchet. I needed a demon and the magic the demons possessed to be truly effective in this world. Right now, I had just used it all up to stop the monsters from coming through. I’d done my task but had it cost me Caroline?

Chapter 6

I was back up in the tower again. The satyrs wouldn’t let me out with Bales at my feet. Bales. That’s what I had named the hellhound. I didn’t know if it was his name or not, but it was what my head said whenever I looked at him.

I stroked the short dark fur at the top of his head. The mottled brown and black coat made him really quite beautiful if I ignored the gaping maw and the three rows of razor-sharp, pointed teeth.

He had killed someone. I couldn’t ignore it, but I tried to. It was self-defense after all. The satyrs were out for blood. They wanted to get rid of the hellhound and send it back to Undirheim but I wasn’t having it. Right now, he was my only friend and honestly the only protector I felt like I had in this world. The hellhound had taken a liking to me and I had taken a liking to him. When Furlan had come to take him, I had threatened to sic the beast on him. It had been enough to make him stop and back down.

It had not been enough to get him to give me a phone.

I had to get out of here. I knew I was a banshee, but I didn’t know what that did for me. I didn’t know how to use my powers for anything other than letting people know somebody was going to die. Right now, I was struggling with the idea I had started singing and then somebody had died.

I wanted my old life back desperately.

Maybe, just maybe, Bales was the way to get it. The door to the tower was now locked. Furlan said if I was keeping the beast I was going to be locked in here. I had agreed, but only because I figured I would have a way out. Somehow, some way.

My thoughts went to Laney. She had said she was on her way out here with Magnus, I was pretty sure that was a bad idea. Now, well, now maybe they were my ticket out of here. Maybe they were the way I needed to go. The only way I had contact with Laney, though, was through Sofie‘s cell phone, and Sofie wasn’t around. It had been a day since she had gone to the witch shop and she hadn’t returned. I knew where the shop was. It was down on the main street near Furlan’s bar. My chances of getting there during the daylight were slim to none, but maybe, just maybe, there was a way out.

I set about searching the tower. This was an old house. There had to be ways to get into the attic or a crawlspace or somewhere under the roof or through a window. I might have to hang on the edge of a building, but at least I would be outside of the realms of this prison. A most beautiful prison it might be, but it was still a prison, nonetheless.

The room was large, but it didn’t take me long. Just after midnight I found the entrance to the crawlspace was in small part of the closet. I looked down at Bales. “Do you think you can make it?” I asked.

He nodded at me as if he understood, even though, how could that be possible? He was a dumb dog. Although maybe hellhounds weren’t as dumb as dumb dogs. I still wasn’t sure. The opening looked pretty small, but if it could fit me, the hound should be able to get through. I crawled up in all sorts of contortions on the shelves in the closet, finally squeezing my way up. I knew I had to be quiet. I knew there were satyrs asleep in the house, ready to jump up and be on guard. There was probably one awake right outside my door even as I was sneaking out.

The crawlspace was small and dark. I couldn’t see very well, but I could feel fresh air coming at me. There had to be a gap somewhere where I could get out of this place from the attic. That is, if I could find the attic from this crawlspace. I moved forward in the dark, feeling with my hands the beams and hoping I wouldn’t fall through the ceiling and land on top of a satyr.

A loud scrambling noise alerted me to the fact Bales was following me.

“You’ve gotta keep it down, boy,” I said. “We can’t let the satyrs know we’re getting out of here.”

My mind was racing even as I made my way through the dark wood eaves. The smell of cedar filled my nostrils as I crawled in the blackness. Only the feeling of fresh air on my face drew me forward. Finally, I found exactly what I was looking for. It was a picture window set in the crawlspace for aesthetic purposes. From the outside it looked like it was a window into a room but from the inside it only faced a crawlspace. There was a crack in the window allowing the fresh air through. When I reached down to enlarge it, I found it had already been fixed. How the hell was I going to get out of a fixed window without breaking it?

I stared at it in consternation, the streetlight giving it just enough glow for me to tell where the edges of the window were.

“What are we going to do with that?” I asked Bales. He smiled as if he understood what I was asking and with his head nudged me to the side.

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