Experiment in Terror 05 On Demon Wings (39 page)

had to hurt me to free me.”

Roman kept reciting his mantra over and over again but

was unable to get to me through the flames. He watched

me steadily through the flames, his eyes never leaving my

horrid face.

“And you,” I said, my head turning to Dex. My voice

melted from that of a child’s to that of a woman in a light

French accent, “Let’s not forget what you did, Declan.”

Dex’s arm slumped off of Ada. His face went slack with

fright.

I laughed, bitter and rich, then tilted my head, eyeing him

with disdain. “Your little secret. You don’t want anyone to

know about what happened to your dear old mother. I’m in

here now. In here with your little tramp. And I wil do to her

what you did to me.”

The other straps on the bed broke apart and I was

thrown back by an imaginary force, my head striking the

back of the wal .

Dex screamed and tried to run through the fire. The

flames were more than real and they caught onto his

sleeves, setting him alit. Ada pul ed him back and pushed

him onto the ground, trying to get him to rol , to put them out.

And my head continued to bang backward until it felt soft

and wet and blood was running down it. If the beast was

going down, he was sure to take me down with it. I was only

a useless vessel for his destruction.

“Dex!” Roman yel ed. “It’s testing you, don’t listen to it. It

wants your fear, it feeds on it!”

Roman approached me, sputtering his words, and that’s

when I began to lift up, my feet leaving the bed. My back

against the wal , I slithered up it like a snake until the top of

my head grazed the ceiling, feet dangling, and I was staring

down at the room, down at the fire that burned contained

around the bed, down at Roman, who was stil staring at me

tirelessly, down at Dex who was getting to his feet and

ripping off his burnt cargo jacket, and Ada, who was

helping him while watching me in complete awe, and Bird

and his steady heart, who kept drumming even though his

eyes glimmered with fear.

I didn’t know how I could possibly hang on. I was already

out, out of control, out of power but I was stil conscious. I

didn’t think it would last for long and that was fine. I couldn’t

take any more of the physical pain on myself or the

emotional pain I was inflicting on others.

I started to move. I floated slowly away from the wal and

then when I was in mid room, I was tilted up so my back

was now flush against the ceiling, my hair hanging straight

down the sides of my face. The thing in me laughed and

laughed and laughed.

“I wil do to her what you did to me,” and this time, it was

Abby’s voice that was coming out of me.

Dex looked at Roman in adrenalized panic and

screeched, “Take me! Let it take me. It needs a soul, it can

have mine!”

Roman ignored Dex’s wild eyes, and shook his head. “I

can win this battle.”

“No, you can’t,” I said, back in the voice of torture and

depravity. “You can’t win. I’l kil her before you even get a

chance. Then I’l take him.”

My eyes shot over to Dex and I smiled sweetly.

Then I was dropped.

I fel from the ceiling straight to the ground, face first.

I saw a shimmer in the carpet before it rose up to my

face.

Then I heard the impact of my fal , my cries that came

from me and no one else. But I felt no pain. I was fal ing,

sucked into a black shimmering abyss and the world I knew

was left behind completely.

I expected to fal through the black vortex forever, my

screams never ending, just repeating for eternity.

But it didn’t work out that way.

The fal ing came to an abrupt stop as I felt my body shift

from the feeling of fal ing downwards, to gliding sideways.

Then I felt earth under my feet, dust in my lungs and the

black curtain around me lifted to reveal a distinctly de-

saturated world.

My world.

Or perhaps not.

I was standing about fifty yards from the back of

Roman’s smal one-level house. The curtains to the

exorcism room were closed, but flashes of white-hot light

poked through at sporadic moments. I could only wonder

what was going on in there, if I was stil in there and being

thrown around by my possessor. I was somewhat glad to

be somewhere else, even if it was outside in land where

everything was black, white and a mil ion shades of grey.

So, where was I?

“You are in the Thin Veil, the Black Sunshine,” a voice

said from behind me.

I whirled around to face Pippa and the rol ing grey

landscape behind her.

“Are you behind this?” I asked. My words sounded

strangely dul and flat.

She walked a few steps toward me, her dress ruffling

and shifting around her. It was probably magenta or some

other bright color but here, in what she cal ed Black

Sunshine, it was a grainy deep grey. Even her face was

done up in varying shades of monotone.

She smiled at me and for once I didn’t find it creepy.

There was something almost maternal about it, like she

actual y cared. Maybe I was just real y seeing her for the

first time. Maybe it’s because I was obviously in her

element.

“I did not bring you here, Perry,” she said delicately. It

was odd to hear her speak outright rather than have it

rebound inside my head. “But I knew you’d come eventual y.

I had hoped it would have been your choice, not that of

another’s.”

“You mean the Devil?”

She shook her head ever so slightly. Her pin curls

bounced from the movement. “It is not the Devil, only one of

his minions. If the Devil himself ever got a hold of a

mortal...No, this is a demon and al demons report to a

higher entity.”

I looked around me at the world, which was my world,

once removed.

“What is this place?”

“This is where I stay. It is a world of transition. Al the

dead pass through here to get from one plane to another.

The dead and...other beings as wel .”

“So you
are
dead?”

She smiled again, sadly. “Yes. Come for a walk with

me.”

She held out her aging hand and I grabbed it. She

grasped mine tightly and said, “You’re too much here,

Perry. I shouldn’t be able to grab your hand like this.”

I looked down at it in wonder and she led me toward the

rancher, toward the window with the bright sprays of light.

“What is supposed to happen?”

She gestured for me to peak through a crack in the

window, where the curtain inside had bil owed. “Can you

see them? Can you see you?”

I looked through. It was hard to make out shapes in

between the blasts of light that burned my eyes, but I could

see Bird on the ground playing the drums. The silhouette of

Dex on his knees. I saw Ada standing by the wal and a

flash of Roman yel ing, arms wide open like a manic

preacher. I also saw me, floating above the bed. I was the

source of the white light. It was coming straight out of my

mouth and eyes, like some ultraviolet angel.

I swal owed hard, surprised to stil feel worry and pain. It

was scary to see myself like that; I could only imagine how

Dex and Ada were feeling.

“I see them,” I said softly.

“I see them too. I’ve always been able to see you. Most

people, when they die, they pass through here on their way

to what you would cal Heaven or Hel . This isn’t purgatory. It

is simply a place of transition. A place to let go of your life.

Many people, many who you think are ghosts, stay here

because the wal s are thin. You look around, it looks the

same as your world. It’s one layer less. But that layer is thin

and at times it grows thinner. It holds many, many secrets.”

She pul ed me away from the window and we started

walking away from the rancher. In the distance, on the top of

a hil two giant wood bugs went scurrying, just like the ones

I’d seen in my hospital delusion. I was vaguely horrified.

“Why do you stay here?” I asked, afraid to take my eyes

off of them. She noticed but didn’t say anything. Instead,

she stopped and squeezed my hand tighter.

“I stay here because I can. I have the freedom to go into

your world and back. Sometimes the demons let me, if I’m

quick enough. It’s thinner, softer here. If I moved on, I would

not be able to stay. I couldn’t come back.”

“But why? Just move on. This place is hel .”

“Not quite hel , remember. I stay here because I have to

keep an eye on you. I need to.”

I was startled. “Me?”

“I think you’re starting to figure it out, Perry. We’re only

the same. I’ve been plagued by the dead al my life, when I

was alive, and now I’m plagued by them stil . I don’t want the

same fate for you. Because it’s coming to that. And it’s

coming fast. I wish it weren’t true but...some people don’t

change.”

It was time to ask, even though the puzzle pieces were

al in place by now; I was just too afraid to look at the entire

picture. “And Dex. Why do you know him?”

“I was Declan’s nanny when he was young. For quite

some time, too. I looked after him because his own mother

couldn’t and his father was too busy. I was like a mother to

him and his brother.”

My eyebrows shot up. Dex had a brother? But I let her

continue.

“Declan had the same...affliction...as I had. As you have.

I could tel there was something special about him, just as

there is about you. I was very sad when I had to leave him.

Sad for him and scared for him. But I was no longer al owed

to be his nanny. It was my own family who wouldn’t let me,

though, not the O’Sheas. They, and the doctors, classified

me as crazy. When you’ve babbled about seeing ghosts for

too long, some people think they have no choice but to put

you away.”

I didn’t want to ask the question because I had a feeling I

knew the answer. And if it was true, it would change

everything I knew and thought about the life I lived. And the

people I loved.

I looked Pippa straight in her hooded, grey eyes and

asked, “Who put you away?”

She didn’t hesitate.

“Your mother. And your father.”

I felt like the ground began to shake and move beneath

me, like I was losing my wits and balance at the same time.

My blood ran cold, colder than it ever had before and I was

stumped. Dazed. Stupid with thought and feeling.

“You’re my grandmother,” I managed to whisper. I was

gutted by the realization and ashamed that it had taken me

so long to find out. Al this time...

“I know you haven’t heard much about me,” she said,

almost embarrassed. She dropped my hand and kicked a

stone with her Mary Jane shoes. It was too human of a

gesture. She was human. It made my heart ache.

“My parents said you had died when I was very young,” I

said, racking my brain for any information about my

grandmother. “I remember grandpa a little. We, he, never

talked about you. I don’t think...”

“I’ve been watching,” she said bitterly. “No, they never

did talk about me. They chose not to remember those last

few years.”

It was al too much. Forget being stuck in the thin veil,

some other dimension. This absolutely floored me.

I sat down on the ground, the dust flying up in the air and

staying there. There was something almost airless,

tasteless and odorless about this land. I couldn’t imagine

that she stayed here on account of me, just because it was

easier to keep an eye on me. Was I real y in that much

jeopardy?

I stared blankly at the colorless earth while Pippa slowly

paced around me, her dress dragging.

“You said they were watching you and watching me,” I

said slowly. “Who did you mean?”

“I meant your mother. And the demons.”

I let out a snort. I couldn’t help it. I looked up at her. “You

mean I’m being watched on both sides? By my own mother

in my world, and by friggin’ demons in another?”

She didn’t smile. “I know it isn’t fair. I fear your mother

may do to you what she did to me. You can imagine how

hard it must be for her to have to see her own daughter take

on the same traits her sick mother did.”

“Are you trying to make me feel sorry for her? After what

she did to you?” I spat out, suddenly enraged.