Little Devils

Mel rocketed his fist into the white layer of mystical shielding that kept him from his niece. A heavy shockwave erupted from the impact and forced him back, as if proclaiming she was not his responsibility anymore.

“Yalda, wait!”

He couldn’t do anything but watch her ascend within the bubbles that lifted her toward the ceiling. She vanished inside of a mana portal and the lightshow among the many pillars faded. The tunnel river returned to its idle motion, no little angel in sight.

“Blast it…” Mel examined the pillars again, but his desperate glances couldn’t deduce their mechanics.

“What the hell happened to her?” Indena asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe she found a way out of here.” Mel replied. “Can’t say for sure if that's good or not.”

Anxiety climaxed as they worried about her safety.

The group started to debate if waiting for her would have been the wisest move, as scanning the pillars proved worthless. Maybe she’d managed to reach the surface alone? Or perhaps she was trapped in the walls? They settled on giving her some time to return.

In the brief hour they waited, a fog set in. Green with blackened smoke, a combination of brimstone and ash. Emily found it hard to breathe the noxious mix of air, but her lungs had been conditioned by years of cigarettes not to give up on breathing just yet.

“This smoke smells like crap,” Indena barked.

“Where’d it even come from?” Emily said. “It’s giving me a bad feeling.”

“It’s makin’ me want to throw up,” Indena said, her gaze tilting toward the ever dimming rods of stardust Yalda had dropped around as a breadcrumb trail. “Oi, you guys don’t think maybe that’s got somethin’ to do with it, do you?”

“The stardust?” Mel’s brow raised curiously. The stardust lights Yalda had set around the maze were beginning to fade in brightness. Perhaps Indena’s theory on why the smog was claiming the air was right. “You might be on to something here.”

“Damn, I hope not,” Indena frustratedly remarked, setting fires in her palms for a modicum of brightness. “How are we supposed to deal with this stupid darkness?”

Mel brought forth his longsword, the only source of stardust light they had.

Quiet scampering across walls hit their ears as his blade lit with white flame. Possibly the assumed rats they’d talked of earlier.

“Ahhh…” someone groaned in the fog, but it wasn’t any of the three party members awake, nor Marek, who was still asleep. “Ahhh…Help…”

It was a male voice, so clearly not Yalda either. Who could this person have been?

Leaving the pillar room, they marched down the hallway to investigate.

There was a man in a green uniform, curled up in a corner, who lamented his life up to now. He was wounded, scratches all over his skin, especially his torso, like he’d lost a fight with a very ferocious little beast.

In a fetal position, this fellow cowered, grasping tightly to his own legs and keeping his head covered as he rocked around.

“They can’t get me here…They can’t get me here…They can’t get me here.” He continued delusionally repeating those words.

Mel sat the slumbering Marek down and placed a hand on the man’s shoulder, startling him, but also causing him to exit his terrified trance.

Bag ridden red eyes turned to Mel, tears formed at the lids.

“Easy, man,” Mel proclaimed. “What happened here?”

The man’s breathing raced, until he slung his hands to Mel’s shoulders, grasping them tight.

“Monsters...Devils! We have to get out of here!”

He would have rushed out of there on his own, had Mel not held him steady.

There was a proudly displayed patch on the man's shoulder, indicative of one who was serving in the armed forces as a private first class.

“Private, sound off!” Mel called out with authority.

“Pri…Private First Class, Neal Gram. I was sss-sent to report any unusual…aa-activity to the general. Who am I…reporting too?”

“Acting commander Mel Asamo. I’ve taken control of the operation.” He showed him a green crystal card for proof of rank.

“Oh thank God!” Private Gram fervently praised. “The others…they kept saying everything…it…everything was okay…but they didn’t…didn’t see it…”

The light in Private Gram’s eyes returned, but at a slight cost of his strength. The callousness of slumber tickled at his consciousness.

“See what? Stay with me.” Mel gave the man a gentle shake. “What didn’t the others see?”

“Those devils…leaping and scratching, jumping on people and…and…reaching into their chests.”

At last, an explanation had been given for his torso wounds, but to what end did this satisfy the devils he'd spoken of?

Private Gram continued, saying “If you didn’t fight, it was easy. They’d lull you to sleep, as their fingers dipped into your heart. Some people let them…others…oh god…”

Private Gram’s gaze drifted away to Emily, who wore a visibly serious look.

For a time, he just gazed at her, breathing like he’d run a mile.

“Man, stay with me. Keep talking,” Mel ordered.

“It didn’t matter if you let them or not, they’d drag you away to the castle. Kicking and screaming. If you had a fight in you, the bigger ones would…they’d break you so you couldn’t escape…”

*Skitter skitter…*

A noise came from above, just behind the walls.

“Oh God!” the Private screamed. “They’re back! Stars, save us!”

Private Gram’s hands dove to his holster, but Mel stopped him before a weapon was drawn. Who knows the terror a scared man with a gun could cause?

Mel took the pistol, handing it to Emily.

“No! I need that! It’ll protect me!” Private Gram attempted a futile rush to grab the weapon, but Mel held him back.

“Son, don’t lose yourself. We’ll get you out of this.”

*Skitter Skitter…*

“No! It’s too late! They’re here!”

Private Gram frantically fought the grasp of Mel, pulling and tugging until he was forced to let go.

“I have to get out of here!” He charged into the fog. “Wake up…wake me up! I can’t…No more nightmares…never…ending!” His voice trailed off along with his sanity.

Indena was moved to give chase, but Mel stopped her, sensing danger beyond the fog.

“Ahhh! Gah!”

*Thud!*

“Help! Somebody!”

Everything went quiet…

*Skitter skitter…*

Alarm washed over the bunch, causing weapons to rise up. Mel his longsword, Emily her gun, and Indena her fire.

“What the hell was that?” Indena remarked.

Mel quickly collected Marek from the wall. The fog made it hard to see, but his combat vision pierced just enough clouds to show only but a few meters.

Everything was deathly silent, but something was just outside their sight.

What abomination would soon rear its ugly head to them?

A motion broke the still fog at Mel’s three o'clock!

Something leapt at Emily, Mel sliced his longsword across the air, cutting it in half!

“Graaa!”

*POOF!*

It was reduced to ash, just like any other demon.

As if called to action by their fallen comrade, little creatures, shrouded in shadow and fog, scattered across the floor by the dozens.

Emily raised up the gun she’d taken up from the private, quickly flipping the safety and shooting hot lead into the tiny devils.

*BANG!*

*PING!*

Was it a miss? A hit? Did it matter in a rush of devils?

“Fall back!” Mel ordered. “Indena, give us a fire wall!”

“On it!”

*FWOOSH!*

Flame erupted from the ground, covering up a good portion of the hallway. The light hardly lit anything up in the demon fog, but the devils let out screechy cries of pain.

“Reeee!”

The choir of horror rattled Emily and Indena, but Mel shouted commands for the two of them, keeping them focused on escape.

Little bodies of flame jostled out from beyond the wall, still eagerly scampering forward toward their prey.

“Run and shoot!” Mel ordered.

Emily laid down suppressive fire, Indena sent fire bolts toward them. All the ruckus managed to buy them some time to get away.

They found themselves back in the pillar room, where Yalda had escaped this nightmare. Could they do the same?

“Everyone, get between the pillars.” Mel adjusted Marek on his shoulder as they all huddled up in the very center of the room.

“I don’t like this, Old Man!” Indena shouted, keeping her flaming hands extended past the pillars.

“Get in here!” He pulled her close to him.

He recalled his niece's words, the ones about lining something up. He took a position similar to what she had, then looked for some patterns or lines… Anything that would bear the same fruits and light.

Finally he saw what she had. Corner details matched those of the pillars.

As he saw it, similar lights appeared around him, but the ones for him were not blue, but red, bathing the room in a bloody glow.

“That’s not a good look,” Emily commented.

*Skitter skitter!*

*Skitter skitter!*

Those devils became more visible then before in the red light and minor glimpses. Devious sharp claws and teeth, bulging eyes, stocky looking arms and legs, but long torsos.

A red wall of energy spawned up just in time to keep the devils from entering the center along with the group.

Bubbles, large enough to swallow the petrified group up, appeared under their feet.

They found themselves in the protective barriers of these soapy bubbles, then lifted up as if they were weightless.

No water had rained up this time, but rather, the wall appeared to melt like hot metal. From the core of the melting, everything seemed to vanish and lead into a stone tunnel. A hint of surface light reached their eyes.

Was this freedom from the chaos? They surely hoped so.