9. Something far More Interesting Than A Round Shot of Lead
Marie found it hard to do anything other than gawp at the torchlit castle plonked in the middle of the swamp. “Do you have a feeling we might be in over our heads?” Even from the relative safety of their definitely-not-a-tank airboat, Marie was uneasy looking at the place.
“Who builds a castle in the middle of the swamp?” Shirley leaned over the steering wheel, craning her neck to get a good look at it. They were stopped about a half mile away from the structure, bobbing gently in calm swamp water.
“Gods of trickery?” The aesthetic didn’t seem in keeping with Baron Samedi’s traditional fare, but she wouldn’t have put it past him. Stranger things happened.
“You think Baron Samedi would have something better to do with his time and power.”
As Shirley talked, one of the orange lights on the edge of the castle broke away and floated down toward the swamp. It flickered with fire light. “You see that?” asked Marie pointing to the object. The light was level with the swamp and growing larger.
“Yeah, I see it, but what is it?” Shirley put her hands back on the wheel.
“I don’t want to be here long enough to find out.” As the light approached, Marie saw it was a shimmering sphere. A skeletal hand reached out from the middle and a piercing cry cut across the calm water.
“Yeah, I was starting to think the same thing.” Shirley pushed a button, and the air ship began to turn all too slowly.
Before they made it even a few feet, the sphere hit them. Marie looked at it in the last few moments and saw the silhouette of a raging specter inside, consumed by flames. Its hands constantly pushed at the edges, trying to escape. Then, in the seconds before it collided with the side of the vehicle, glittering malice lit up in the creature’s black eye sockets and its mouth spread into a yawning scream. The sound was worse than anything else. High-pitched warbling cut through the vehicle as if they were already outside.
“What the f—” started Shirley, but a gout of flame leaped up from where the spirit ball collided. A rumbling explosion shook the side of the car, tipping them onto their side.
Marie tried to move but felt paralyzed as fiery, skeletal hands snaked across the center console. Wherever they touched, electricity arced, and computer screens fuzzed out. In the distance, another ball detached from the castle. “Shirley, I don’t know what this one is doing, but there’s another on the way.” She spoke the words through gritted teeth that she couldn’t unclench. The creature’s wail was still ever-present, filling the air with its maddening cacophony.
“Yeah, bad news, this is going to hurt.” With great effort, Shirley raised her fist and brought it slamming down on a button in the center console.
Before Marie had a chance to process, the roof of the car was gone and she was airborne. She floated above the fiery inferno that was the car and watched as their gear was ejected out the back. Beneath her, she felt the sudden source of thrust gutter out. Her brief flight ended around fifty feet in the air and quickly turned into a staggering descent. A half-hearted parachute shot up above her, trying to open, but it didn’t take long to realize she hadn’t gone high enough. To her right, she saw Shirley in a similar chair. The second ghost light was making the descent from the castle. Below, the vehicle spun in chaotic flame as whatever creature had been in the sphere ripped it apart.
Marie fell hard. The parachute managed to slow her descent some, but she understood what Shirley’s early warning meant. When she hit the swamp water, all the wind went out of her and horrible pressure filled her spine. She lost consciousness. The world flickered back to life like old film. Warm water lapped at everything below her neck. Marie reached down and unbuckled her seatbelt. She floated upward and gently tried moving her limbs one by one.
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Pain lanced through her spine, but it was nothing world-ending. Somehow, she had survived the fall.
Doctors are going to have something to say about that later, came the dusty voice from inside her head.
I’m a little busy, she replied, trying to get her footing. Let’s talk about this later.
You’re close to the staff. Maybe we can have this conversation in person. The voice abruptly disappeared, letting the sounds of the swamp rush back in. A mad, cackling laughter filled the gloom as the second ghost light glided towards them. Marie looked around and saw Shirley rummaging through bags and dumping the contents of a flask onto a length of wood.
“Over here, asshole,” she shouted at the light.
The orange fire zigged and zagged, eventually finding its way in a straight line towards Shirley. Through the swirling ball of flame, a skull poked its way out, staying just beneath the leading edge of the fire. Its jaw clacked up and down rapidly in time with the suicidal laughter.
Shirley did not move and instead hefted the chunk of wood which Marie now clearly saw as a baseball bat. In the instant before the flames hit her, Shirley sidestepped and swung the bat with incredible speed. A loud crack split the swamp as the wood collided with the skull and blue-white flame spread from the point of impact. The ghost light was consumed and shot back toward the castle with the force of Shirley’s swing. It screamed before colliding with the castle wall and erupting in a column of blue flame.
Marie ran her hands through her swamp-sodden hair and tied it back. She approached Shirley, feeling the ginger nature of each step.
“Looks like we lost the element of surprise. You alright?” Shirley asked. She had one cut on her forehead that dripped a steady trickle of blood but otherwise looked unscathed.
“I don’t know how I look, but I can’t imagine it’s worse than I feel.”
“Hitting the ground on your ass from that high up will do that.” Shirley reached down into the bag that floated in front of her. Small pontoons inflated on either side of it and the material on top was entirely dry. “Here, take one of these. It’s not going to help with tomorrow, but it’s going to do a lot for right now.” Shirley handed her a small package of pills.
Marie didn’t question it, ripped open the package, and swallowed both pills dry. “What are they?”
“Extra strength pain relievers,” chuckled Shirley. “Only, the kind the government usually won’t let you get your hands on.”
Marie pushed her neck to one side and the other, feeling profound soreness radiating down into her spine. Her right hand twitched, moving briefly toward the castle, reminding her of why they had come. “Two ghost lights don’t seem like much of a welcome party.”
“No, they don’t. You still armed?” Shirley patted her own pistols, double checking.
Marie looked down and found it a miracle that the pistol on her hip had stayed exactly where it was. “Yeah, how do these things function when wet?”
Shirley pulled out one of her pistols, pulled the slide back and fired a round out toward the castle. “Like a charm. Let’s get moving.”
Despite her pain, Marie felt resolute. They had come this far, and weren’t turning around. Besides, looking back at the smoldering heap of their vehicle, she suspected they didn’t have much of a choice.
“Toby in tech is going to have a field day over that.” Shirley jabbed a thumb back at the vehicle. “That thing is supposed to be indestructible. The way he told it, the force of whatever tried to kill it would have turned you and me into goo long before it breached the hull.”
“Guess they never accounted for paranormal elementals that could walk through the armor.”
“Weirdly they did, but I guess no one listened to me when I suggested we put chalk in the paint.” Shirley put the baseball bat in a sling on her back.
“That was quick thinking.”
Shirley chuckled. “No, that was Nick thinking. He is a lot of things, but there’s a reason he’s alive. Teaching me to carry holy water, chalk and matches at all times has saved my life more than once. I also managed to find another one of these.” Shirley pulled out a thin metal rod like the one Marie had used in the cemetery. “Heard you did quite a bit of damage with this.”
Marie took the rod gently, making sure not to depress the buttons on the side. “It’s not bad at keeping the bad things at bay.” Marie held it in her hand and felt herself wishing that it had been her staff instead.
Nothing will ever be the same, came the rasping voice in her head.
Not talking to you. “So, what do we do? Knock?”
Shirley shrugged and walked toward the castle.
The swamp was shallow but by no means easy passage. Beneath the water, miles of mud, roots, and decomposition spread out for miles. Every step tried to suck them down making progress slow. Marie tried not to think about gators, but was unsuccessful. The water was dark, it was nighttime, they were out there somewhere. Despite her fear, they covered the distance to the castle unscathed and found themselves at a drawbridge leading to a massive set of wooden double doors.
“I’ll be honest, I didn’t think we were going to find a castle out here. I thought it was going to be something closer to a hut made of twigs.”
“More necromancer stereo—” movement glinted from the water to their right. Marie turned just in time to see a pair of red eyes atop a reptilian frame launching toward her.