Amanda stared up at the big, stone building. It was a typical building, if not a little tall and completely isolated. Troy had explained that there wasn’t a lick of civilization for about five miles. It rose a full twenty-five stories in height and the top of the building slanted downward at a forty-five degree angle, like someone had sliced it with an upward swipe of a sharp blade. Troy had also said that the building was completely abandoned and that he floors of the building should be completely empty.

More room to fight in, Amanda thought. There was that feeling again. From time to time, lately, Amanda felt… well, bloodthirsty. The very idea made her cringe, so she would always force the feeling back into a very secret recess of her mind. But it always came back. Now, more than ever she could feel this coldness sitting in the pit of her stomach, waiting to spread.

“Let’s try one of the windows,” Troy said, heading toward one of the panes. Troy wrestled with the latch and then had trouble squeezing his big, 6’5” body through the small opening. Troy didn’t want to risk opening one of the larger windows for fear of attracting attention. Attention of what, Troy had no clue, he just wanted to be clever.

He strained against his shoulders, pulling the upper part of his torso in. His hands flailed around, looking for something to grab to pull the rest of his body in.

Amanda grabbed his hands and yanked him the rest of the way.

“Thanks,” Troy said, “Hey, how did you get in?”

“It’s called a door and it comes in handy when entering a place,” Amanda said, not even trying to be sarcastic; the remark was sufficient to humiliate him in itself.

Troy scowled, “So what if I wanted to be covert?”

“Honey, I don’t think anyone cares,” Amanda said, “So, this is it?” she said, surveying the wide, empty first floor. The walls were plain gray and there was no carpeting on the floor. Water leaked from a pipe somewhere in the darkness, and there were discarded fluorescent pipe-bulbs piled up on one side of the room. Obviously, not in good repair.

“Yeah,” Troy said. “Sam’s dad sold it like two years ago; I helped them empty out the place. There might be one or two desks left around and maybe some boxes, but nothing really big.”

“Got your cell-phone?” Amanda asked, pulling hers out.

“Yeah,” Troy said, showing her the small black receiver.

“Punch in my number, and if there’s trouble, hit send. I’ll do the same,” Amanda said, punching in the number of Troy’s phone into her blue phone.

“Okay, I’ll check this floor, you go up to the top and work your way down,” Troy said. “We should me halfway.”

“Thanks Einstein, I’ll let you know if the plan works,” Amanda said as she headed for the stairs, while Troy carefully made his way into the back rooms.

Amanda trudged up flight after flight of stairs. Her own labored breath bounced eerily off the concrete walls. Her footsteps seemed painfully loud in her own ears. Fear clamped itself on her heart and would not be chased away.

“I’m getting paranoid…” she said to herself.

Something jumped from the top of the stairwell and fell past the level that Amanda was on. She froze on the landing of the second floor and braced herself. Long, spindly claws hooked themselves over the metal guardrails and a hideous head rose over the rail to grin menacingly at her, displaying many, pointed teeth.

“Oh, good, I’m not paranoid,” Amanda said as much to herself as to the demon. She tucked her phone safely in her back pocket, smiling right back at the demon. Bring it on, she said silently.

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“God damn that sneaky bastard!” Austin growled, “I knew he was up to something. And he calls himself a priest!”

“Calm down Austin, we can fix this,” Crystal was saying while trying to detach Daniel from the Victoria’s Secret mannequin. He had been scared stiff by all of the demons and Troy’s crashing car. He clung tightly to the bust of the mannequin, shaking. He wouldn’t let go, and in the interest of saving time, they had just taken the mannequin with them on their way to help Sam, Troy, and Amanda.

“Yeah, but what are we going to do about that guy? We can’t trust him…And you just left him in the parking lot?” Austin said, his face turning redder and redder with rage, which he took out on fellow motorists as they sped down the freeway.

“I know that! I left him, because the sooner we get to Amanda, the safer she’ll be,” Crystal said, prying at Daniel fingers.

“You believe that guy?”

“I don’t want to risk Amanda’s life on it,” Crystal said, sharply.

Austin grunted and fell silent.

“Daniel let go!” Daniel snapped at Crystal’s fingers and she slapped him upside the head.

Crystal gave up and let him be. She tried to get a grip on her frustration. Everything was getting so far out of hand! This was ridiculous and Crystal had been a fool to ever get into it in the first place. But crying about it now would serve her no purpose. Crying about it now wouldn’t save a life.

Troy tripped over something in the darkness and fell. He cursed and crawled over to what it was. The light switch for this room didn’t work at all, and Troy could swear that he’d heard something moving about in the depths of the darkened room. Whatever it had been was gone now, but Troy just wanted to make sure.

He picked up the heavy case he found on the floor and brought it close to his face. In the dim light that came from the corridor he’d just been in, Troy could see that this was a laptop. Sam’s laptop…and there was a little blood on the corner of it. Troy gulped and set the laptop down. Something was wrong.

From down the hall, Troy heard a clang and a skittering noise that was too big to be rats.

No…something was very wrong.

Amanda had made a critical error. She’d circled the demon too far and now the demon was safe on the landing and she was backed against the guardrail. Amanda scowled; and they always said turnabout was fair play…

This demon was unusually strong. He could even manufacture his own energy blasts. Amanda rubbed her forearm where one had nicked her before. No, this wasn’t pure energy. Pure energy burned, and all this did was leave a dull aching tingle that made Amanda’s arm move slower.

The demon rushed her again, this time Amanda feinted right and tried to break left, but the demon had closed the distance too fast and she received a knee to her gut. Amanda tried to get on the ground but the demon caught her hair and tried to snap it back so her neck would break. Amanda moved with his hand, but that made her flip over the edge of the guardrail. She gripped the demon’s arm in an effort to pull herself back up, but her was jerking away. Amanda managed to singe his arm with energy before he was gone and the demon jumped up in the air with pain. Amanda gripped the metal bars of the railing and dangled over the side.

The demon landed on its feet and smiled nastily at her again. It screeched its pleasure and began to snap at Amanda’s fingers. Amanda could easily let go with one hand and hold on with the other to avoid the snapping teeth. The demon realized this and raised his foot from the ground. Coiling its leg like a spring, it unleashed a violent kick. Amanda moved her hand just in time, but the creature’s kick had enough power to bend the bar. The jolt went deep into Amanda’s bones and threw her off guard when the demon kicked at her again. Amanda could feel as much as hear the fingers of her left hand snap as the demon’s kick hit home. She had already let go with her right hand and it was obvious that her broken left hand could no longer hold on. She fell.

Amanda landed on the ground level concrete with a thud. Fortunately, Amanda was able to soften the blow by stretching her body out and landing on her back. The impact still hurt, but she was sure that nothing had been broken. Except her phone…

Amanda groaned as she pulled the shattered remains of the cell phone from her pocket. Oh, damn…Her parents were going to kill her for that. That made two phones in one month; they had already been irritated enough when they replaced the phone in her room. She had a few seconds to picture their faces, when the demon leapt down the gap between the staircases and landed only a few centimeters in front of her.

Without thought, she smacked the crushed and jagged remains of her cell phone into the demon’s face. The broken pieces held and tore through the demon’s skin. It howled and pulled back. Amanda drew back her good arm and without thinking let fly an intense burst of energy. She could feel the heat of her own attack in such an enclosed area, but she was too wild with pain, anger, and a little bit of that bloodlust she had been feeling lately. What was left of the demon wasn’t even a smear on the cold, hard floor.