HELLS GRACE

Part 15

Coach Hodge stared right at me, and the bile of anger and hate welled up in my throat. I wanted to lash out and tear into him piece by piece, limb by limb. Yet his Resolve remained at a dull greenish hue that I wanted desperately to change immediately. Even without blood spilled, I could already taste the sweet essence of my mortal enemy.

Not yet, I thought. I’m going to enjoy every second and every inch of breaking him down.

“This is where Mark Castle had been hiding for the past three days?” Coach Hodge gestured at the cabin before him; the van’s engines were still running. “Looks like shit.”

“It doesn’t look like a dungeon,” Melanie said. She and Hodge had already told the others about my nature. At least what they believed I was. There was so much more they were missing out on. “Aren’t dungeons supposed to be…I don’t know…in a cave or something? Why a cabin? I know Mark Castle gets a lot of A’s and B’s in school, but I didn’t think his spirit form is an idiot.”

Hodge shrugged. “Because it blends in, I guess? Who the hell knows what that kid is thinking? Or if he even is still a kid. Is he human?”

“Well, we’re here now.” Melanie rubbed her hands together, trying to warm them up. “Our goal is to find the gem and whatever Mark Castle had become. When we see him, we’ll finish him off. But let’s do this fast and quiet. We have the numbers on our side. It’s him versus the six of us—including Alvin.”

“Good thing he took care of Maxine already,” Kirk said from behind. He smiled to ease the tension, but Hodge and Melanie merely looked at the rearview mirror with a scowl.

“Yeah, I would have loved to know about that plan before you bozos bulldozed through here,” Hodge said. “What if the plan failed, huh?”

“But…it didn’t? Alvin’s probably inside right now with his goons guarding Maxine,” Kirk said.

“You should have given it to me,” Rebecca said to Hodge. “It wouldn’t have gotten lost. I’ll probably hide it in my safe. The Seat will reward us, not end up out here in the fucking woods.”

“My husband told Dave to destroy it with the boy’s clothes because he has an incinerator.” Melanie rolled her eyes. “The gem also killed eight people in less than three hours. It took over Maxine Fairlie, a Gifted like Hodge. You don’t have an inkling of talent with the Ways, Becca, so I highly doubt you’d make a difference. You’re alive because my husband did not give you the gem. Be thankful for that, will you?”

Rebecca snorted. “I have a gun,” she said, showing her holstered pistol under her police air mesh jacket. “That’ll make a difference.”

“Enough,” Hodge hissed. “We’re here on a mission, remember? Let’s not get distracted by fighting with each other.” He looked in the rearview mirror to where Jenna and Kirk flanked Tessa on her back, staring daggers at Kirk; her mouth still taped shut. “Is she awake?” Hodge asked.

“Oh, she’s very much awake, coach,” Kirk said. He gave Tessa a creepy smirk.

Hodge nodded. “Everyone, out. Let’s get this over with.” He grumbled the last part.

They climbed out of the van. Hodge kept an eye on the cabin, probably thinking I would pop out and run after him with a knife. Still, he remained vigilant while they were out in the open. Their van was the only vehicle in the parking lot. I had already stashed away Zack and Eliza’s car in the same place in the woods, which now became a makeshift salvage yard of abandoned vehicles left behind by the delvers: Maxine’s Ford Explorer, Zack’s car, Leo’s van, Steven and Alvin’s vehicles, Chris’s Honda, and Clay Havert’s SUV. I would be dumping more cars over there in the coming years. Perhaps purchasing several pieces of equipment to salvage and sell their parts would be good for me. It’s not like they’re gonna use it. Relying on crystals alone was not a good investment when I could leach off a stable local economy outside my borders (as stable as it could get nowadays). I’ll save the crystals for bigger purchases I could not get anywhere else on Earth, let alone from Home Depot. I doubt I could grab a plutonium from aisle six.

After kidnapping Tessa from the hospital, Rebecca, Jenna, and Kirk met up with Hodge and Melanie near Josey’s Roadhouse. Unfortunately, they left their phones and other electronics inside the car when Hodge performed the rite Jonas had told him to use for Tessa. Oracle had no way of knowing the spell's details, and surprisingly, neither did the demon.

When Hodge and the others walked out of the forest, they wore a distinct silver pendant with no symbol etched on the surface. It looked like a coin that had been brushed, scraped, and rendered smooth for hours. Curiously, Tessa was wearing the same thing around her neck. The demon warned me that it could be a protective veil meant to ward off a paranormal attack, perhaps working like the pendant that Maxine used against me in Dave's house.

“Keep it close to you,” Hodge whispered to Tessa, still in her haze, slipping in and out of consciousness. “Take it off, and you’ll lose your head.” They shoved her back into the van and then drove to the cabin.

To me.

And now, my enemies were finally here. I could feel their footsteps on the earth, their breaths in the air. Their heartbeats drummed against the gust of wind and patter of light rain. The way their skin prickled against my aural consciousness, like ants wiggling underneath my flesh.

Hodge took a deep breath and shuddered, and I thought he was going to pass out suddenly. That would be so anti-climactic.

“Hodge? Are you okay? What do you feel, baby?” Melanie asked, rubbing Hodge’s back.

“Power. So much power here,” Hodge said. “The gem is here, Mel. I could feel the Ways at the back of my teeth.”

“Do you know in what direction?”

Hodge shook his head. “Everywhere. It’s everywhere. In the trees. In the soil.” He looked at the cabin. “In there.” He took another lungful of breath. “I…I…”

“What? What is it?” Melanie leaned closer.

Hodge whispered out of earshot of the others. “There’s…darkness here. Like nothing I’ve ever felt before.” For a split second, I saw Hodge’s composure waver.

“We have the girl,” Melanie said, drawing him into her arms. “We will be fine, my love.”

“Right. Yeah. We can do this. I know the Ways.”

Melanie smiled. “You know the Ways.”

Performance jitters? I thought. Perhaps Hodge had never faced and fought a magical user before, and the arcane aura that this dungeon spread around the region made him insecure and powerless. At least it looked like that. Maybe he was masking his cowardice for bravado. Or maybe it’s an act. For me.

“I don’t see Alvin’s car around,” Rebecca said, breaking Hodge and Melanie out of their embrace. She looked down at the tire tracks left in the mud. No other vehicles here, she probably thought as she looked around. That made her uneasy. “Did anyone see it by the side of the road on our way here? I don’t see Maxine’s, either.”

The others shook their heads. “Alvin must have hidden his and his men’s trucks in the woods,” Melanie said. “As for Maxine’s explorer, it could be her escape vehicle if things go south?”

It looked like Hodge appreciated his wife’s confidence that they would have the upper hand tonight. After all, Hodge had magic. She had seen him do unfathomable things because of his Gift. Tonight would be no different. Losing the gem was a setback in their rise within the cult (however far down they are, but I don’t care), but once they find it, they would be extra powerful and influential. Maybe they’d finally get a plate on the golden table. Allow me to ruin those dreams, motherfuckers.

Kirk roughly dragged Tessa out of the van and held her up on her feet. She wiggled helplessly out of his grip while Jenna stood to the side, unsure of what to do. The woman ignored how creepily Kirk touched Tessa from the nape of her neck down to her lower back. She wanted to say something, but Jenna held her tongue.

“Let me go!” Tessa said. She bent her right knee and tried to kick Kirk by the balls, but the man had already read her intentions and quickly blocked the blow.

“Control that girl!” Hodge barked at Kirk.

“She’s feisty, coach. Sorry,” Kirk said. “But I can handle her.”

“Mr. Gamble, why are you doing this?” Tessa asked, eyes welling with tears. She also looked at Coach Hodge. “Why are you all doing this? What have I done?”

“Nothing personal, Tess,” Kirk said. He glanced over to the others (who were too busy looking at the cabin), and Kirk took a whiff of Tessa’s hair. “You’ve always been the good girl in class, aren’t you, Ms. Burton? My advice? Be a good girl now, and maybe, just maybe, you’ll get out of here without a scratch on that pretty little head of yours.”

What a creepy fuck, I thought. I couldn’t believe that I used to like him as my English teacher. He was the cool Mr. G that all the popular kids hang around because he let them use their phones during class while secretly salivating over the young girls as young as thirteen. He was a decent guy in school, but it was like I was looking at a totally different person. The same goes for Coach Hodge, who became Educator of the Year twice in a row, and the school celebrated it.

Tessa snuffed out her whimpering. She looked like a smart girl. I could tell she did not believe she was getting out of this alive. These people were the pillars of Point Hope’s community. They’d shut her up, and the only way to do that was to kill her. Maybe by the end of the night? In the middle of it? Her body shuddered visibly. Escape was her only option.

“It doesn’t look like anyone’s home,” Jenna said, nodding to the cabin. “Where the fuck is Alvin? He should have seen us drive in.”

“Unless something went wrong,” Hodge muttered.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Rebecca flinched. “Alvin told me he hired three guys he knew to deal with Maxine. Armed ones. Guys with better guns than the ones I have. You mean to tell me that Maxine took care of them and a Jason Voorhees motherfucker like Alvin?”

Hodge shrugged. “Like my wife said, the gem killed eight people in Green Hill. We need to be more careful now if Alvin fucked it up.”

“We don’t know that yet,” Jenna pointed out. “For all we know, they could be hiding.”

Rebecca snorted. “Hiding from what? Bigfoot?”

Jenna didn’t have an answer.

Tessa finally pried her eyes away from Kirk’s leering face, and she froze at the sight of the two-story wooden building. An uncontrollable fear engulfed her, clawing at Kirk to let her go. I could see her aura immediately turn bright orange while confusion struck her. It didn’t seem like she knew where she was and the cabin’s true purpose. It’s almost instinctual. Do all the delvers who survive my dungeon react like this? Tessa wanted to flee. Wanted to get away from me.

Hodge noticed it, too. He walked over to Tessa, almost brimming with excitement with each step he made. “You recognize it, don’t you? At least the feeling, the aura of this place. You know what it is. You could feel the Ways leaking from it.”

“I—I haven’t been here before, but please! Don’t let me go in there! I can’t!”

Delvers who cleared the dungeon had a magical bond between them and the Core. Over time, it would fade away (I didn’t know for how long), but Tessa was the sole survivor of the Green Hill dungeon only three days ago. Her connection to me was potent, along with Leo in the cellar. I had already given the latter a boon.

“You’ll go where I tell you to,” Hodge said. “And no, you don’t have a choice. I will hurt you if you don’t do what I say.”

Tessa nodded weakly, still shivering. When they took her, she didn’t wear anything except the hospital gown. Now, she wore Jenna’s tight, long-sleeved white crop-top shirt and mom jeans. Since Jenna’s shoes didn’t fit her, Tessa’s bare feet got caked with mud.

Her response satisfied Hodge, and he started ordering Rebecca, Jenna, and Melanie to scout around the property. He’s sure that Maxine or Alvin must have already seen them approach the cabin and were hiding inside, but this did not deter Hodge and the others. Aside from a split-second lapse in composure a minute ago, he’s awfully confident. Whatever magical bullshit he cast on Tessa, it made him arrogant. Cocky. Unafraid.

I could use that against him.

They never really walked into the cabin just yet. Rebecca and Melanie noted all the possible entryways (the front and the back door) and told Hodge about the boathouse by the lakeshore. The lights inside the latter were on, so anyone standing by the patio deck up on the cliff could see it peeking between the trees and foliage like a dim beacon in a sea of night. Hodge and Jenna went closer to the cabin, peering through the windows and seeing nothing amiss. Everything was totally normal. No person sitting on a chair or a shadow hiding behind a door frame, ready to strike. Kirk stayed by the van, guarding Tessa like a hawk. Eventually, the others returned to the parking lot.

“Did Alvin leave?” Jenna asked, brows furrowed with worry. “Maybe that’s why there’s no cars around. Maybe he found the gem and left! He’s offering it to the Seat right now!”

“Do you know where HQ is, Jenna?” Melanie asked.

Jenna shook her head. “You didn’t tell us.”

“The same goes for a low-ranking initiate like Alvin. Only Hodge and I know where it is.”

“For all we know, he put Maxine in the boathouse. The lights were on,” Rebecca added.

Hodge pointed at Tessa, who squirmed under his gaze. “With the way she freaked out earlier, I think she has a connection to the damn crystal. I think it’s still here, hidden somewhere. I can feel it, too.”

“You want us to turn everything upside down in there?” Rebecca pointed at the cabin with her thumb. “Shouldn’t take too long. It’s a small cabin.”

“If Alvin left and had the good sense of killing Maxine, it would make our job easier,” Melanie said. “All we have to do is search the place.”

“Wait a minute. We don’t know if they left and killed Maxine,” Hodge said. “Maxine is Gifted like me. She could mask herself from us if she wanted to and maybe she already killed Alvin and his men.”

“She’s not that powerful,” Melanie pointed out dismissively. “Nor trained with the Ways. It’ll hurt her more than it would hurt us. She’s not like you, baby.”

“Still,” Hodge continued, “be very careful, my dear. We also have to watch out for Mark Castle. We don’t know what tricks he has up his sleeve.”

“We’ve dealt with ghosts before,” Kirk added. “But this is a first for us. You know? Killing him twice.” He laughed at that like it was the cleverest joke he had ever done.

“You…killed Mark?” Tessa whimpered. Now, she definitely believed she was not getting out of this alive. “The guy in my biology class? The one that went missing? You’re the ones who kidnapped him? You all met with his family! You shook their hands, and you, coach, made a speech about his disappearance during assembly while his parents were standing right next to you! We all walk into the woods with everyone looking for him. And all this time…it was all of you?”

“I don’t appreciate your tone, young lady,” Melanie hissed. “And no, we did not kill him. He’s…still alive. In some other form.”

Tessa scrunched up her face, confused. She didn’t know what Melanie meant by that. Just crazy talk. “Are you going to do the same thing you did to him…to me?”

“If you don’t behave, we might as well,” Melanie said. She tilted her head as if reassessing Tessa under a new light. “You don’t happen to be a virgin, are you?”

Tessa curled her lips. “Bitch, fuck you.”

Melanie frowned. “So, not a virgin then.”

Kirk tugged on her elbow, dragging her toward the cabin. They wanted her to go first. She glanced at Rebecca’s gun and then to the woods. I thought she would bolt right then and there, taking her chances and relying on her speed. But a bullet? No, she would be dead the moment she would go for the treeline. She might not even make it past three steps.

Gulping her hesitation, she walked toward the front porch; the floorboards creaking under her bare feet, leaving mud tracks toward the door. She reached for the doorknob and found it already unlocked. Eyes wide and holding her breath, she turned to the others, waiting a few paces away except for Kirk, looming behind her.

“Well, what are you waiting for, sweetheart? A kiss for good luck?” Kirk smirked.

Tessa cringed, took a step back, and scowled. “I hope your dick falls off,” she said bitterly.

Kirk chuckled. “And I’ll make you eat it. Now, open the goddamned door. Slowly.”

Tessa pushed the door open, creaking loudly as it disappeared into the shadow. She raised one foot slightly off the ground, hesitating to step through the threshold. As if putting her foot inside would curse her forever.

I hovered closer and felt the hair prickle at the nape of her neck. Opening the System interface, I blessed her with the boon I owed her.

“I give you swiftness, Tessa Burton,” I said. “Use it as you see fit.”

I’ve learned that the System passively categorized delvers with four primary attributes: Power, Agility, Wits, and Charisma. This goes for all humans and creatures across the world. It connected my boons to it, and the boon of swiftness heightened Tessa’s agility score. I had no way of reading their stats or individual skills before they came into the dungeon, but merely adhering to the System’s judgment, reducing them into ones and zeroes. It didn’t seem like the delvers had access to their stats while inside my domain either.

With Oracle’s direct connection to the System, he could calculate their chances of survival, which I have already asked many times. Without Hodge’s unknown rite, the cultist’s survival hovered around two percent. With the rite, however, Oracle could not determine an accurate number until after he witnessed the spell’s effect. As for Leo and Tessa’s survival, it landed at thirteen percent, with their boons doing most of the heavy lifting.

Kirk pushed Tessa forward, and the girl almost lost her balance. She stepped onto the threshold and let out a heavy and shaky breath. Kirk chuckled behind her and went inside, fumbling for a second before finally finding the light switch and illuminating the space. He looked around and saw no one waiting for them in the living room (which had been cleaned thoroughly before their arrival) and waved for the others to follow. Hodge was the last to climb up the porch, giving the parking lot and McLaren forest behind him one last glance before stepping in.

Hodge caught Melanie sliding her index finger along the mantle above the unlit fireplace and then rubbing the collected dust under her fingertips. “It looks…real. For something that hasn’t existed before, it's uncanny. The details, the atmosphere, the aesthetic—”

“This cabin must be here before, right?” Jenna crossed her arms. “I mean, a cabin can’t just appear out of nowhere. I’ve seen several YouTube videos where they build tiny homes and barns in under two days. Maybe we haven’t noticed this one?”

“Youtubers didn’t build this,” Melanie said, studying the lamp meticulously. “Magic did. A powerful one.” If she felt scared, the woman didn’t show it.

“You’d need approval from the zoning regulation board for that, and my husband definitely didn’t receive any form from the city council about a bill of purchase. He tells me everything,” Rebecca said. “Many rich folks from Silicon Valley have been desperately trying to buy properties around the lake, and we always say no. McLaren Forest is also within federal territory because it’s a state park, so it’s much more difficult to get the go-ahead to build something here. Unless Maxine and Adam were billionaire nepo-babies…but they’re just a bunch of gym-trash influencers.” She stopped herself and looked at the ceiling. “If you’re listening, Maxine, no offense.”

Kirk led Tessa to the middle of the living room and shoved her onto the couch. “Sit. Behave. Be quiet.” He raised a finger like he would slap her if she spoke back.

Tessa collected herself and slowly sat on the sofa, staring daggers at Kirk, fist curled behind her back. She wanted to hit him, but restrained herself.

“So? What now?” Kirk asked.

Hodge turned to Rebecca. “You said you saw a boathouse by the lake? How big?”

Rebecca paused for a moment. “About the size of this one?”

“Alvin could be holding Maxine inside,” Melanie added.

“Right.” Hodge pursed his lips. “Rebecca and Kirk, go check it out.”

Kirk stood up straight. “Um, what about her?” He pointed at Tessa. “Torres can handle Maxine. She has a gun, and she’s got a good eye.”

“It’s better if we all don’t split up alone. We should all be in pairs. Grab a knife from the kitchen before you leave.”

Rebecca strode toward Hodge and gave her a CB radio, the other pair in her other hand. “We can communicate through this. We'll let you know if we find Alvin dead or alive. Who wants this other gun?” Rebecca pulled out a revolver.

"Give me that," Melanie said, taking it off Rebecca's hands.

"I don't think I've ever seen you carry one before, Mel," Rebecca said. "You sure you know how to use that?"

"Oh, please. I grew up in Kentucky before I moved to Oregon. I know how to use this since I was nine."

"Wait a damn minute. Why do I get a crappy knife?" Kirk whined.

"Well, do you know how to shoot a gun?"

"No?"

"I rest my case."

Hodge clipped the CB radio on his belt. “You will be Rebecca’s backup, Kirk. If Maxine tries to escape, you’ll stop her until Rebecca can put a bullet through her head if Alvin hasn’t done that already. Once she’s dead, try to find the gem in the boathouse. She might have hidden it there. If Alvin stole it, kill him as well.”

“With his three armed goons with him?” Kirk asked.

“If Alvin’s smart, he would have disposed of them by now.”

“But who’s watching her?” Kirk pointed at Tessa again.

“Jenna will,” Hodge answered.

Kirk looked disappointed that he would no longer be Tessa’s babysitter. But Jenna wasn’t having it. “What? Why me? I’m good at finding things.”

“But I want you on guard duty,” Hodge said.

“I don’t know how to fight,” Jenna said. “Only sell houses. What if she escapes?”

“You won’t do much fighting, and she won’t escape.” Hodge reached out for Rebecca’s cuffs, yanking it off her belt. Rebecca almost wanted to yell at him, but held her tongue when she realized who she’d be screaming at. He marched toward Tessa, grabbed her wrists, and dragged her off the couch. He then chained the poor girl on an exposed iron pipe that bordered the firebox. Hodge regarded Jenna once again. “Make sure she doesn’t do anything funny.”

“But what if Maxine shows up and attacks me?”

Hodge grinned, glancing over to Tessa and then to Jenna. “You won’t bleed.” He clapped his hands like he was in the middle of a football game, moving the pieces of his playbook. “Now get to it, everybody. We don’t have a lot of time, you know. Chop-chop.”

You won’t bleed. That sent a little shiver up my spine. You. Won’t. Bleed. I had an idea what the chained rite that Hodge performed in the woods might be, but I hoped I was wrong. I had to test it out. To make sure. Maybe that explained why the others were unafraid when they brazenly entered my domain. They were never scared because they wouldn’t get hurt. But how did the rite work? How could I go around it? Another spell to counter it, maybe?

No, I had to be patient. I had to wait until these cultists made a mistake. And they will regret it.

“Come on, dickwad. Follow me,” Rebecca said, not a fan that she would be stuck with Kirk, and the man grumbled after her. They went out the back door.

“Where do you think Mark Castle could be?” Melanie asked Hodge.

Right behind you, motherfuckers.

Hodge shrugged. “If he’s smart, far away from me.”

“Oh, is that right?” I laughed. I wanted to poke his shoulder just to freak him out, but I held back.

“Where should we start then?”

“We’ll start on the second floor and work our way down. While you’re here, Jenna, why don’t you look around the living room?”

“I can do that,” Jenna said, goosebumps running up her arms. “This cabin is giving me the creeps, by the way. And I usually don’t get creeped out.”

“That’s just magic. Jen,” said Hodge. “Pure magic.”

It was only nine o’clock in the evening, and sunrise wasn’t until 6:55 AM. Ten hours. Enough time to do what must be done.

I doubted they’d make it until midnight if everything went as planned.