A few days later Levi finally took Liz out again. This time he figured he'd play it safe; nothing fancy, just a movie night on the lawn at the school. They were showing a romantic comedy, not his thing really, but he thought she might like it. That's the sort of thing girls like right? Of course Liz did have some odd tastes.
Things had started fine. He'd met her after her classes and they'd grabbed snacks at the food court before heading over to the show. They'd talked and laughed about their classes, swapping stories about their families, and just had a good time. Levi was starting to think things were going to work out better this time, at least no one was drunk. He'd brought some blankets and they'd found a nice spot on the lawn to watch the show.
Things went great till they were well into the show.
"Beware Surtr."
The voice in his head was mirrored by the burning of his forearm. Gasping, he grasped at the burning mark, burning dully in the dark.
"What is it?" Liz asked, concern in her voice.
"Don't know; the stupid thing just started burning. Who's Surtr?"
"What? Didn't you hear that just now? Someone said beware Surtr."
"Nope, didn't hear a thing, just the movie. You okay?"
"Hey, quiet down,” A kid just in front of them called, glaring. His glare lost any power since he wore a ridiculous jesters hat.
Liz stuck out her tongue.
"We can get out of here if you want."
"No," Levi said, not wanting to miss his date with Liz for some stupid hunter thing.
They settled down again, with her laying in the crook of his arm. He'd finally gotten comfortable when the voice returned, louder this time.
"Beware Surtr."
This time his arm burned with a fury. He grunted with the sudden sensation, clutching his arm up to his chest.
"It happened again?"
He nodded.
"It's probably important, maybe we should get out of here and call someone."
“Maybe it can wait till after the show at least.”
"Will you shut up already." It was the same kid with that stupid hat. Liz tossed an empty soda can at him, bouncing it off his head.
"It could be important, we should probably go," she said.
"Yeah, let's do that,” he quickly agreed. The kid with the jester’s hat was staring at them, murder in his eyes.
Grabbing their stuff they made a quick retreat. Looking up at the clock tower, the time read 10:05, the movie had only been going since 9:30.
"What were you thinking?" Levi asked as they walked. "Throwing that can at that kid. He was pretty scrawny, but some of his friends looked pretty big."
"I know, but you coulda taken them right?" she teased, giving him a wink.
"What?"
"No really," and she suddenly became sober. "Maybe I thought it would get you out of there quicker. Sorry about that, I was having fun too, but something about all this is really off. It kinda worries me, Mom said adjutors rarely do anything unless it’s important. I'm sorry for ruining the date though."
"No, I’m sorry, you’re right. It’s just, I was having a good time. That was stupid, me trying to ignore it."
"You're not upset with me are you?" she asked.
He was startled, he was worried she was mad at him.
"No, of course not, I should have..."
A deep rumbling boom shook the building. Then came the screaming.
The noise came from the lawn where they had just come from. His arm burned fiercely, though for once there wasn’t any pain. Instead there burned an anger which threatened to overwhelm him. Not his anger, but Baldr's.
The anger surged through his veins like fire, his vision tinged red. His enemy lay before him, the foul betrayer. One he'd sworn on the burning graves of the dead to avenge, he could feel the demon taunting him from somewhere ahead. Surtr. Reaching to his side he felt nothing. Where was his sword? He snarled, recalling its loss. He would make do with what he had.
"Levi. Levi."
He came to all of a sudden. Liz was pulling desperately at his arm. Somehow they were back at the edge of the lawn where minutes before they'd sat. What had just happened?
It reminded him of Hell. Fires burned across the open space, lighting the torn bodies and shattered trees. The devastation radiated out from a dark center, where stood Reggie and Anna Farr. They circled each other, circling each other like a pair of feral dogs. They were talking, though what they said couldn't be heard over the screams of the injured and the crackle of the flames. Reggie held his cane high. No, it wasn’t a cane, it was a sword. A slender blade which flickering redly in the flames. Anna held her own blade, a wicked looking serrated thing, at odds with her appearance.
"Reggie, Miss Farr!" Liz cried over the din, "What happened? What are you doing?"
Anna glanced up for a moment, a look of surprise on flashing across her soot streaked face.
"Reggie's betrayed us,” she cried, "He's killed the others and he’s come for you. Get away now!"
Reggie used the momentary distraction to lunge for her, fast as a striking copperhead. As he moved, a shadow moved with him, blurring his features, threatening to overcome the slight woman.
Liz screamed.
It seemed the shadow and the blade would pierce the young woman but, a sudden blast of wind threw them apart, shattering the remaining windows and snuffing out the fires. Reggie was thrown full across the lawn to crash into a wall. Levi was certain he was dead.
Miss Farr remained standing, breathing heavily. Blood ran dark down her skirt. She gave a strange, sickly sort of smile, taking a step toward the two of them.
Confused by what he’d seen, Levi took a step back.
"You're hurt," Liz cried, running to the injured woman.
Miss Farr took another step, extending her hand to the girl. “It’s alright Liz, help me will you?”
Liz had only taken a few steps when a flash from the dark struck the woman. She screamed, a cry of rage and pain. Reggie's slender sword, guided by luck or skill, had speared the woman’s extended forearm.
Looking for its source, Levi saw Reggie leaning against the wall, clutching his limp left arm with his right. He turned and staggered back into the darkness.
Liz stopped in her tracks.
Anna gripped the offending blade, ripping it from her arm. Indecision played across her face as she looked from the two of them to where Reggie had disappeared.
"Children, find a safe place and call me. They’re coming for everyone. Don't trust anyone." The words were terse, spat out as she turned to chase after Reggie.
Levi stared across the burning wreckage after the two of them. Around him fires had started up again, thin tendrils climbing up the nearby buildings. He took a step toward Liz, but stopped. Something soft was underfoot. He looked down and wished he hadn’t. It was a jesters hat, stained dark.
He vomited noisily over and over, till there was nothing more to get out. Still his body continued to heave, as if to spew out the very memories of the night.
Again it was Liz who brought him back, her warm hand on his back. Of a sudden the heaving eased.
"Let's get out of here,” she said. “We've got to find the others."
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
He pushed back the crippling nausea, chagrined. Liz must have been as shaken as he, even more so perhaps, but here she was helping him. And she was right. Paul, Alice, if what Miss Farr had said was right, they were in trouble. Still, his legs were numb and his steps mechanical, as they picked their way back through the wreckage. There were sirens in the distance now, why hadn't they been here already? It felt like hours since this all began. clock tower said otherwise; 10:15. Ten minutes? hadn't it been longer than that?
Why did he feel like he was forgetting something? Hadn’t he been about to do something? That’s right. Paul, Alice, how’d he forgotten so quickly? He sent a quick text.
Explosion at school some of hunters r dead Reggie did it find somewhere to hide wll meet later.
Following Liz, she led him down deserted halls. He stopped when Liz pulled him into the elevator.
"Wait, where are we going? Shouldn't we get out of here?"
"Not yet, I've got to see for myself."
"See what?"
"Connie's office, maybe Miss Farr was wrong. Maybe they're still okay."
"Is that safe? Shouldn't we get out of here?"
Levi didn’t like the taste of those words. Even as he said it, he felt like a coward. But if there were others with Reggie, others who'd do what he'd done to those kids back there... He wanted to run as far and as fast as he could. Still, Liz went forward and so did he. The tap tap tap of Liz repeatedly hitting the elevator button was in time with the pounding of his heart, both growing louder and faster as the elevator ascended.
Soon they were at Connolly’s floor, away through the elevator doors and down the hallway. It was strange but no one was there, in fact they'd seen no one at all since leaving the massacre. Wasn’t it still a school night?
Here was the office, the door stood ajar, the light on. Levi grabbed a lamp from a nearby table, not sure what good it'd be, at least it was something.
He made to go in, but Liz stopped him.
"Wait here," she whispered, "I'll check it out."
"But, what if..."
She cut him off, a dangerous fire in her eyes. "I'll be fine, just wait."
He opened his mouth to protest, but something made him stop.
She went on, peeking round the door before entering. He listened intently for the noise he hoped he wouldn't hear. But there was nothing, nothing for what seemed far too long. Then
‘ CRASH!’
"Oh crap!"
Alarmed, he ran in, lamp raised like a cudgel.
There was Liz, sitting on the floor next to a fallen bookcase, surrounded by books, nursing a scratched arm. He looked around the small room but saw no one else, though the room was torn apart, blood spattering the walls.
"It's okay," she said, picking herself up. "I just knocked over the bookcase on myself, it was like the only thing still standing too. We should go though, I don't know what happened but it was bad. Just look at this place."
Levi agreed, though now they were here he wondered if there was something in the mess that might tell them what had happened. He thought about looking through it all, but the blood stains on the wall were a grim reminder of the violence that had happened tonight. A reminder he wanted to get away from.
Still, his eyes wandered over the mess, what if there was something here, something important. A folder caught his eye, newspaper clippings peeking from within its manilla folds, just like what he’d seen on Connolly’s desk that time. On impulse he snatched it up before following Liz out the door.
As they walked back to the elevators, something moved. Far down the hall, just exiting the elevators, was a student. He walked toward them, head buried in a newspaper. Levi froze, not wanting to be seen next to Connolly's office, not with it looking like this.
As if reading his mind Liz whispered in his ear. "Don't worry, he didn't see us come out, just keep going."
They'd taken only a few steps more when the other looked up from his book. It was only for an instant, but the adjutor on his arm flared in warning.
"Uh Liz, I think we should go the other way." He said, backing away.
"Huh, what do you... Oh." The student ahead had glanced up again, only for a second. Levi hadn't seen anything, but Liz had turned white, backing quickly away.
"What? What is it?"
"Barghest," she whispered, the words falling like a curse from her lips. "Run."
She grabbed his hand and they ran. Hearing a snarl from behind, Levi looked back. The student, no the barghest, was coming after them. The thing had dropped its disguise, and the sight sent a shot of panicked adrenaline through Levi, pushing him to run faster. It was a dark skinned terror, half man, half beast, with burning eyes and flaming nostrils, a deep growl rising from its throat.
"Here," Liz cried, pulling him through a fire door into a back stairwell. He started to go down, but Liz caught him. "No. Up."
"Where are we going?" He said, running up the steps after her.
"Just trust me okay."
two floors up they were out again and running.
"Really, where are we going?" He said between gasps. He thought he was in better shape after all the training he’d gotten.
"The chem lab's up here," she called back. She wasn't even out of breath.
He didn't know what that meant, but he kept running. Behind him he heard the door slam open, and the thing was in the hall behind. Liz reached the door right before him, slamming into it, but it didn't budge; it was locked. Of course it's locked, he thought, it's the chem lab, they never leave it open. He looked back to see the thing closing in. It was down on its hands and feet like a dog, flames bursting through the singed remnants of the jeans and button up. It's face wasn't even remotely human, instead it had transfigured to that of a demon hound, grinning through yellowed fangs.
There was a loud 'POP' from behind and Liz was pulling him through the door. It must have been open after all, he thought with surprise. Liz pulled him into the dark room, leading him between the rows of hooded tables, ducking behind the tile walled flush station.
What are we going to do now?
The thing was in the room now, its monstrous canine form silhouetted at the door, the flames casting an angry glow throughout the room.
"Call my phone," Liz whispered in his ear. Her voice made him jump.
"What?" he whispered back, not understanding her.
"Call my phone." She hissed insistently.
He pulled it from his pocket, but didn't turn it on, for fear it the barghest would see it in the dark.
She grabbed the phone from him.
He didn’t argue. He didn’t really care right now. The monster was pacing among the rows of desks, looking for them. It had started on the wrong end, but it would find them eventually and now there was nowhere for them to run. It was at the other end of their row, on the far side of the flush station, when her phone began to trill out a happy little tune. It was deafening in the stillness of that dark room. Surprised, Levi realized it was coming from inside the flush station.
Is she trying to distract it? But we’re right next to the flush station. We are so dead.
The flaming beast turned, pausing for the briefest moment before bounding toward their hiding place. What on earth was she thinking? With a roar and a thud the thing leapt onto the phone. Liz reached up, pulling down hard on a lever on the wall. A deluge of water burst from the ceiling, drowning the demon dog in the downpour.
There was a mighty hiss and a howl of anger. Hot steam filled the room, then they were plunged into darkness as the flames went out.
After a very long moment where nothing moved Liz slowly let up on the lever, as if uncertain it had been enough. Still, neither of them moved, neither of them dared disturb the steady drip dropping from the other side of the low wall. Finally, Levi could take the silence no more and, though deathly afraid of what might he might find, he pried his phone from Liz's rigid grasp. Using it as a light, he turned the corner to find... nothing. There was nothing beyond the wall but Liz's waterlogged phone sitting in a muddy pile of ash and a few tattered remnants of bluejeans. Liz retrieved the dripping phone with a sigh.
"And daddy just bought it for me too."
"Wait, what happened to the bar-thingy?"
"That's it," she said, pointing to the pile of ash. "Those things are made from fire, fire and darkness. They don't take well to water."
"Oh."
They stood there staring till Levi's phone went dark.
"Uh, so I think we should get going."
"Yeah," she said. "We should go home. Dad'll know what to do."
"But, didn't you hear that Farr lady, she said we should stay away from anywhere like that. What if something's waiting for us? I mean, I don't really know what's going on, but shouldn't we hide somewhere? We've already almost died twice tonight."
"No," he could faintly see her shake her head in the light from the door. "We're better off going home. They'll need to know, and besides." And here her voice echoed with pride. "It's Taambervol. We know how to protect ourselves there. Mom was a hunter remember? And my dad, well, you don't want to get on his bad side."
"I believe it," he said, thinking of the Guthri's sheer presence. "But we've got to be careful. Miss Farr said they were going after everyone. Your folks could be in trouble too."
"It's okay, I texted my sister already, you know, before this happened." She said, holding up her phone. "She'll tell everyone. But just to be safe, well use the back door."
"The back door?" He thought of how out of the way the front way was.
"Yeah, it's kind of a safety thing my dad set up. You probably won’t like it, but it'll get us in unnoticed. Anyway, we should probably go in case there's something else out there."
They were walking down the hallway when Liz noticed the file still clutched in Levi's hand. "What's that?"
"Huh?" he said, looking down, as surprised as she that he was still carrying the file. "Oh, I'm not sure, but I think it might be important. Just a feeling, you know."
"Oh, ok."
They were quiet as they left the building. They could hear sirens, but saw no one.Wanted to call a cab, Taambervol was a long ways off, but at Liz’s insistence they walked instead. As they walked Levi felt as if he should say something, anything. He'd only known the hunters a few months, but Liz had grown up with them, and now they were dead. He tried a couple times, but nothing would come out.
"It's okay." She said.
"Huh? what do you mean?"
"I know what happened was pretty scary, but I think it'll turn out alright."
What was going on? Was she trying to comfort him?
"But, what about the hunters? Are you alright? I mean you've known them all your life."
"Yeah, that's how I know Miss Farr was probably wrong. If you'd heard half the stories I had, you'd know they don't die so easy. Here, I'm tired of walking, let's catch that bus."
She stepped up to the stop, flagging an approaching bus. When they boarded Liz began chatting like always, complementing the bus driver on her necklace, and smiling at an elderly lady, before finding a spot halfway back. She went on talking like she usually did, and soon had Levi feeling like everything had just been a twisted nightmare.
Levi's thoughts soon turned to the manila folder he still clutched. It turned out to be mostly newspaper articles from all over, even some from Canada, while others were in spanish. Some were monster sightings, but most were animal attacks or disasters. Some of the pictures were pretty gruesome. Most had notes in the margins:
Sanchez - gorgons,
Perrone - minotaur
Wilkes - Namazu
Salazar - Cherufe?
Not sure what to make of it Levi gave up. He closed his eyes as he tried to shut out the events of that night; remaining that way till the driver announced their stop.