Read What Following Brings Online
Authors: S. E. Campbell
What Following Brings (25 page)
“
That
'
s the point, Yuri. I know zombies aren
'
t real.
”
Eden frowned.
“
Okay, after this experience
in
the afterlife, there is some possibility something might happ
en, but not likely. My point is
even though zombies aren
'
t real, you show me a picture or a film with a zombie in it
and I get scared
. Now imagine that in reverse. I
'
m scared of zombies more than anything else in this world, but demons areâ
”
“
Demons are scared of God,
”
Yuri said.
“
Eden, you are a genius.
”
And then he
pulled
her in his arms, hugged her to his chest, and kissed her on the lips. Eden felt stunned and remained rigid, even as he let her go. She
gazed
into Yuri
'
s face and saw he, too, appeared surprised with his halfway gaping mouth.
“
Um,
we can talk about this whole kissing thing later
,
”
Yuri said.
“
Yeah,
”
Eden said, biting her bottom lip.
“
Let
'
s focus on the killer demon first.
”
“
I think we
'
re going to need an empty room, some holy water, and a lot of reflective surfaces. But
what if we don
'
t manage to get
Asag
here? What if we
'
re wrong?
”
He clenched his fists.
“
I know I saw a face in that pane, Yuri,
”
Eden said.
“
And even if
Asag
knows we want him to come out, he
'
s going to. We
'
ll make him.
”
“
How?
”
“
With
some
psychology,
”
she said.
“
Demons are vain, evil, and prideful. Insult his pride and make him
angry
, and he
'
ll come out of
the
mirror.
”
Once again, Yuri gazed at her with an intense expression on his face
which
made her realize he was thinking about kissing her again. She
spun
around before he could, not because she didn
'
t want him to
, but because she did and knew
she couldn
'
t afford to get distracted. Not now.
****
Eden walked by a trickling stream and saw a dark face
leering
out at her with large, bulging eyes. Though she saw Asag
and
his disgusting
crusted tongue, she tried hard not to focus on him. The moment they locked eyes, she knew he would come out of
the
water and grab her
;
she could not afford to have him realize she knew he was following her yet, especially when there was so many innocent people involved. She knew she could not permanently dispel Asag, but she could make it so he thought tw
ice
about toying with her and Yuri again.
After that
she and Yuri would be okay, and she could continue on her search for the last remaining two spirits with great love.
Yes,
she thought, h
er fists clenched.
Do not look at
Asag
. Get the mirrors and the holy water, just like you promised Yuri.
He
'
ll manage to get an empty room. How, I do not know.
She stumbled across the dirty ground and laid eyes on a man
,
kneeling
,
with sodden linens around him
and
a dirty piece of some sort of mirror lying at his side.
He also had a sword.
She ran up to him
before Asag decided to take the leap early and
appear
.
As she leaned down beside
the man
, he gazed at her.
“
What are you doing?
”
he asked, watching her as she touched his mirror.
“
M
-
may I have this?
”
Eden asked, knowing she was in a Demon town now. Chances were good this man was greedy.
“
Yes,
”
the man said.
“
Just wondering what a pretty girl like
you is doing wa
ndering around all alone. Nobody should be alone during these times.
”
Then he moved his arm and she saw he sat next to what appeared to be a mural. Upon further inspection, she saw it was a picture of God with a halo
which
had been drawn with charcoal. The slab was thin and about the width of her.
“
I like that picture,
”
Eden said.
“
Do you?
”
the man asked.
“
I like to draw. It
'
s a great
hobby
of mine. My name
'
s Karael.
”
S
he gazed
nervously
at him before offering her hand. She didn
'
t have time to be
socializing with strange old me
n on the street, but she wanted
the
picture.
One thing that would frighten a demon more than the word God was a picture of him. She
glanced
down at the reflective sur
faces tucked underneath her arm
,
and realized if she used them to refract
the
image, it may make what she was about to do even more powerful.
But as she laid her eyes on Karael
'
s sword, she knew she could get herself into trouble bartering with him. Karael followed her gaze.
“
Drawing
'
s just a hobby when I
'
m not working,
”
Karael said, grinning.
“
I fight, mostly.
”
“
I see,
”
Eden said.
“
Listen, what can I give you
for
that picture? It
'
s so beautiful.
”
Karael went silent for a moment
and then he whistled.
“
Wow. Nobody
has any interest in my pictures
normally. Tell you what. Since you
'
re so pretty, I
'
ll give it to you for free. Good luck with it.
”
“
Good luck?
”
Eden asked, raising an eyebrow.
“
Yes,
”
Karael said, then whistled again.
“
Everybody needs luck in these times.
”
Karael grinned at her and handed her the slab. Luckily, it was light, and Eden was careful as she handled it, as not to drop it on the ground and break her
“
lucky drawing.
”
****
“
I
'
ve got it, Yuri,
”
Eden said, when she arrived at the meeting spot in the middle of town.
Yuri had an odd expression on his face when she
grinned
at him, though. Usually he had
an intense, though emotion-filled, look to his eyes, but now his eyes appeared dull and almost empty.
What is wrong with him?
Stepping forward, Eden touched his cheek, but then he seized her wrist and pushed her hand away as if she was disgusting to him.
Hurt filled her
. There was no way this was the same man who had kissed her an hour ago as if he had nothing else in his mind,
even as the world burned to the ground around them.
Something had happened to him.
“
Yuri,
”
Eden said uneasily,
“
what
'
s going on?
”
“
I have the room we need,
”
Yuri said, staring at her blankly.
“
Yuri,
”
Eden said,
“
who got to you?
”
“
I have the room we needâ¦
”
Then Yuri
turned
on his heels and began to walk down the street with his back unnaturally stiff. Once again, Eden stared after him. Was it possible for a soul to be hypnotized? She didn
'
t think they could be. She thought about Asag
'
s bulging eyes as well as his dry
,
cracked tongue. What if Yuri had not
glanced
away
from an image with Asag in it
? What if he had stared straight into those two bulging eyes and then been taken in by them? It appeared the demons could affect judgment and thoughts. Satan had managed to get inside her head when she was weakened by
the
Morsus.
As she saw Yuri
stop
ahead of her and look over his shoulder at her, she felt horror fill her.
Not him.
The horror was replaced with anger. She was sick of Asag. She was sick of Satan. No one should be able to force people to do what they did not wish to do. Nobody should force others to hurt themselves. She would follow Yuri, only because she knew what awaited her. She had holy water in her pocket, her blessed cross around her neck, and she had a couple of mirrors underneath her arm. She also knew just what
to say, though she was shocked she would actually use a movie script to get rid of a demon.
Eden sped up her pace and ran toward
Yuri
, picture under her arm
. She
kept her eyes straight ahead and thought,
If Asag thinks he can take Yuri away from me, then he has another thin
k
coming.
He messed with the wrong girl this time. If I could handle walking into
the
Blood Stone chapel, then I sure can handle him.
Eden faced a large wooden door
that was
her height. At her side, Yuri lingered, but for the first time, he made her feel anxious and
uneasy
. Ev
en with his army status
,
and the reputation he had, she had never truly feared him before this moment. She gazed down at her clenched fists and took a deep, trembling breath.
I can do this. I don
'
t know what
'
s come over Yuri, but I can do this.
The picture
she had collected was the only thing
which
lessened her worry.
“
Aren
'
t you going to go inside?
”
Yuri asked, a threatening edge to his voice. She knew if she did not enter on her own, then he would drag her inside and force her there.
“
Yes, Yuri,
”
she said.
“
I am going inside.
”
She
placed her hand on the door handle, twisted, and stepped inside. When she
went in
and
searched
around, she saw a
hallway with two
doorless
thresholds at the end. As Yuri led her down the hallway, she glanced nervously around a corner and saw a
plain room but no Asag. She glanced around yet again and once more saw no Asag. A single shard of glass lay on the floor, reflecting the room.
Yuri put his hand on her shoulder, and she, fearing he was going to attempt to harm her, grabbed his arm and yanked him forward with all the strength she had. As a human girl, she never could have managed tossing a far taller and more muscular man across the room, but as a soul, there was no dominance of physical powers according to sex or size. Her movement caused him
to stumble forward and past her
into the room. When he
spun
around, he wore an accusing sneer on his face.