This time, when I saw spots and blotches in the darkness, phantom movement in my peripheral vision, it was real.
I could not look directly at the dark here without looking at the demon. At cords and sinews rubbing against one another, columns of flesh grinding against limbs.
It finished eating whatever it had caught and murdered in order to stain the windows crimson.
“It dawns on me,” I whispered, feeling somewhat numb, “That we really should have hunted this demon in daylight.”
“We’re in over our heads,” Rose said.
The demon’s movements continued. I was put in mind of a boa constrictor drawing tighter. Parts rubbing against one another, locking in. Crushing our little patch of fire-circle light tighter.
I looked to the window, and what had been a gap between the windows uncoiled. My eye moved a fraction, and I was looking at the demon.
I looked away, and I saw that ‘s’ of bent, broken tail, or arm, staying in my field of vision. creeping out.
I fumbled for and grabbed the flashlight, raising it to my eye. I held it there, half-blinding myself.
It helped, but not enough. I couldn’t light the torch without dropping Rose-
I dropped the flashlight, reaching to my back pocket. The blanket…
I opened the zip bag, clawing it with my fingers more than anything else.
I was going blind in one eye.
I unfurled the blanket, swept it across the patch of unlit gasoline, then into the flames. I reached up, grabbing too close to the flame, and thrust it at my face.
Not into my face, but enough to fill that one eye’s field of vision with fire and light.
The fire extended to cover the rest of the blanket, and I was forced to keep shifting my grip. My arm jumped as flames licked it, and I moved the blanket, only to give the remaining tendril ground at one side of my field of vision.
I reasserted my grip, moved the flaming corner of blanket, and burned the rest of the tendril away. I tossed the blanket into the sea of darkness, where it continued to burn.
Was this measure enough? It had only been a slim fraction of the demon. Maybe a bit of the demon’s power rather than the demon itself. Unintelligent…
No. There was nothing I could say to convince myself fully. I could have an expert look me over, and I wouldn’t be convinced.
But this thing didn’t seem to be that intelligent, to be that cunning. It would take over if it could, and it had tried. Now it had stopped. That had to be good enough.
Had it been both eyes, I might not have been able to do what I’d done here. I laughed a little, heady with relief and nervousness. I was all too aware of what else was in this space with us.
“You okay?” Rose asked.
“No,” I said. But the upside is this thing is apparently minor. Or was it moderate?”
“Being a smartass doesn’t help, Blake.”
More serious, I said, “You’re right. Um. I think three of our allies just died.”
“What?”
“Three others. Maybe more, but I only saw three. At least one was a goblin.”
“We didn’t bring help.”
“We don’t remember bringing help,” I said. “If we don’t remember bringing any help, there’s none left, so I have to question how much it matters. It’s a moot point.”
“Moot point doesn’t mean it’s not a point.”
“It means it’s up for heated debate. And this is,” I said. “Just so you know, my arm is getting tired. I don’t have any stamina, Rose. I can’t hold this mirror overhead forever.”
“If I don’t have room in this circle, I’ll get shoved out there.”
“I know,” I said. “Can you jump to grandmother’s house?”
“I don’t think I can without crossing the space in between. She’s in the space in between.”
“Is it a she? I thought of it as more of a he. Or an it.”
“I don’t know, Blake,” Rose said. She sounded tired.
“Might as well try that binding again,” I said.
“Yeah,” Rose said.
A moment passed. She apparently needed to compose herself.
My hand was shaking so badly I thought I might drop the mirror. I felt more hollow than scared, but my body acted scared all the same.
“Demon! For the second time, I compel you to tell me your name! Tell me, or I’ll claim the power to name you! I will repeat myself thrice times thrice, all in all. Will you give your name, or will you let it lie fallow, all the weaker for being unused?”
“Sounds awfully good,” I said. “Will it work?”
“Supposed to,” Rose murmured. “But she can best me in a contest of her choosing, to claim the right to keep the name a secret. This is kind of a last ditch thing.”
“What if she can’t talk?”
“I don’t think she can’t not.”
“Why not repeat it seven more times, all at once?”
“Theatrics. It becomes a gimmick instead of a power play. Have to show confidence.”
“We’re not confident,” I murmured.
“Still have to show it,” she said. “Demon! You have not answered my last two entreaties!”
Good word, entreaties. If I were a demon, I’d give more weight to words like that.
I reached up and very carefully shifted the mirror to my other hand, to give my right hand a chance to relax.
“Name thyself, or forfeit that right! Nine times, I’ll say this, and I’m saying it for the third time now! I call you coward, for refusing me this nicety!”
Our entire world had been reduced to a space no more than five feet across. For all intents and purposes, the only thing beyond that circle was the demon, unfurling and unfolding, slithering against and through itself, the occasional mess of grasping, scrabbling, flailing limbs appearing in the molasses sea.
The fires were steadily dying. Gasoline could only burn for so long, and fluids were encroaching on our space.
I splashed out more gasoline to replace what was missing.
“Four times, I ask you, demon! Four times you decline to answer!” Rose’s voice was loud in the relative quiet. “Are you a mere beast? No better than a dumb spirit!?”
The coils constricted further. Our available space shrunk.
A shadow passed over one window. More of the demon’s mass occupied the area in between.
If I squinted and unfocused my eyes, the factory was only what it was. A dark factory. When I didn’t, when I looked clearly, the demon filled the space. Slithering, endless. Infinite.
“You have the torch,” Rose murmured.
“I do,” I replied.
“And how much gasoline left?”
I swished the can. “Not enough.”
“Light the torch?”
“I was waiting until we had a game plan. There’s a chance we can forge a path, use the torch to stay mobile-”
“Splash gasoline in our way?”
“Fire burns me too, Rose. That’s… I’d rather burn myself than let that thing get me, but I don’t think I can walk on fire long enough or fast enough to make the gamble. I’d fall and it would be over.”
“Okay,” she said.
I switched the mirror back to my right hand. It wasn’t only my hands that were failing. My legs didn’t feel strong. I swayed. The morass of demon in the space around us was making me feel seasick. Another ploy on its part?