A Pawn of the Devil Part 12
It was cold outside the movie theater. Mary gave Sarah a thick, long coat, but it couldn’t get the chill out of her bones. Tonight, was the night everything would end one way or the other. Tonight, either he would die, or she would. That is, if he even showed.
Michael came over with the tickets. He was ghost white. Sarah guessed planning was one thing. Actually, doing said plan was another. His nerves showed in the shake of his hands as he passed out each ticket. “Here you go. Should we get popcorn?”
“Absolutely! What is a movie without popcorn?” Mary beamed at her husband.
“Don’t worry, we will watch the movie. I just have to keep it together long enough to not start early.” Sarah eyed Mary’s large tote bag. “Did you get enough of what I asked for?”
She patted the bag. “Yes, I sure did. Working in my field made it easier than I thought.” Mary wrapped one arm around me and one around her husband. “Let’s go see a show!”
Sarah couldn’t help but smile. Mary was good. Placing each of them like she did, hid the bag so it didn’t get searched. The press of bodies everywhere made Sarah irritated. Her anger started to rise until Mary patted the shoulder her arm hugged. Her presence seemed to calm the demon inside Sarah. The thought made her want to laugh. She was here to kill a demon, not become one.
Mary kept her arm around her as Michael went through the lines to get their drinks and food. They went all out. He bought a large popcorn, three large drinks, nachos with extra cheese, and even bite-sized candy bars. All of them were things Sarah had mentioned she liked. It took all three of them to carry it inside the actual theater room and find their seats.
Several times, people tried to sit right next to Sarah. Her anxiety shot through the roof each time until Mary or Michael told them they were saving it for someone else. Sarah wondered what they would think when the seat never got filled. Would a confrontation start? If it did, oh well. The party would start early, then. She would just have to apologize to them for missing the movie.
All the talking from the crowd felt like shooting daggers in her head. A child somewhere screamed continuously, and the parents wouldn’t take it outside. A slight thump of her seat had her seeing red when the people behind her tried to switch seats. Again, Mary’s comforting hand grasped Sarah’s and it all eased away.
The lights dimmed. It seemed to help calm Sarah even more. When the previews began, it distracted her for a while, but not long. All their plans ran through her head, over and over. It had to work. He had to be lured out by what she had planned. How could he want to miss something this grand? It was his work that brought all of it to the point they were at after all.
Sarah hadn’t realized the movie was over until Mary squeezed her hand and released it. She leaned in to where only Sarah would hear. “It’s time, dear. I’m going to go lock the doors.” Mary stood and excused herself until she was at the end of the aisle. In the darkness, it didn’t take long for her to disappear. Michael stood and came closer to Sarah. It was the first time he ever got that close, but it was required.
Mary had left her bag behind on purpose. As the credits rolled, people began to try to leave. They quickly realized they couldn’t. Loud voices rose through the music still playing on as more unread credits zoomed over the screen. Finally, someone in the projector room, or whatever you called it, realized something was wrong and turned up the lights.
By this time, I had made it to the front of this theater room. Michael was on the floor covered in blood. Now, the loud voices were replaced by screams. Bodies pressed against the exit doors. Some smart people even tried to rush past me and to the emergency exits. They found those locked as well. As they passed, I sprayed them with blood from the bags in Mary’s tote. I placed one foot on Michael’s chest to keep anyone from noticing the small rise of his chest, and he tried to slow his breathing and appear dead.
Mary went through the crowd with her own bags, spraying as she went. In all the chaos, it took a while for anyone to notice they had blood on them. When they did, screams became even more shrill and mostly from the men. Mary fell to the floor and lay limp before them all.
“SHE’S DEAD!” Someone screamed.
Fingers pointed in my direction. “SHE DID THIS! LOOK! SHE KILLED HIM TOO!”
I raised my claw. “And you all will die along with them.” I began to laugh, letting my rage take over. All the blood, chaos, and screaming were just too much. I had to release it. Before I did, I saw him. He sat in the least row to the left. His feet were propped up on the chair in front of him, and a discarded bucket of popcorn was held in his hands. The gleam in his eyes racked Sarah’s body, causing the rage to build even more. Now was the time!
Sarah slowly passed through the screaming crowd. It was easy since none of them wanted to be the next to die. She would swish her claw for effect but never even cut anyone. Her eyes were solely trained on Xaphan. With each swipe of her claw, his grin widened. He took so much pleasure in other’s torment.
When she was a row away, Sarah went in and sat on the seat in reverse directly in front of him. He leaned forward. The smell of rot and sulfur blew in her face. His smile faltered as screams died down a little. “What are you playing at my little project?”
“Oh, you are gonna love it. It will be the death of all deaths.” Sarah quickly reached out with her claw and snapped it closed on his arm. He howled in rage.
“NOW!” Sarah yelled out to her partners.
Both Michael and Mary jumped up in a flash. They ran to all the doors and unlocked them. They had placed chains around them so no one could come in from the outside. With the doors released, the crowd rushed out along with Mary and Michael. Sarah could hear them yelling at the workers to lock the doors again from the outside this time.
Their jobs were done. It was her turn now. Sarah kept a tight grip on Xaphan’s arm. Her thinking was that as long as she held him, he couldn’t somehow disappear. This was going to be fun.
Sarah’s rage built and built. Her body hummed from the pent-up energy waiting to be released. “You picked the wrong girl for your project.” She pulled out a knife and stabbed him through the heart. Knowing that wouldn’t kill such a creature as him, Sarah grabbed his other arm with her good hand and snapped off the one her claw pinched.
Another howl rose from his mouth. He jerked himself free of her. Sarah desperately tried to hold on but couldn’t. His eyes glowed brightly. “How dare you! I made you! Do you really want to do this?”
Sarah’s smile matched his now. The rage fully taking over. “Oh, yeah! I wanna do this!”
He shook out his arms as he walked to the aisle. The cut-off one grew back as Sarah watched in horror. “Fine. Let’s do this.”
Xaphan let Sarah enter the aisle as well, but that was all. As soon as she was there, he leaped. When he met with her body, they tumbled down the carpet floor, leaving a trail of blood. Each hit and punches along the way. Sarah tried to use her claw again, but he was way too agile now that he knew it could damage him.
His movements resembled a large cat. He leaped from the back of one chair to the next, making it damn hard for Sarah to keep up. The rage kept her going, though. It seemed to clear her mind and be able to predict his next move.
His next bound across a row found him tumbling again with Sarah cutting up his body. Somehow, he produced a blame of his own and stabbed Sarah several times. She cried out in pain, but it only fueled her now. She was a killing machine just like he wanted her to be. She straddled over him, but it didn’t slow his abilities.
They each cut and sliced the other. Sarah with her claw and Xaphan with his magically created blade. She even started punching him in the face with the hard surface of her new appendage. That seemed to get his attention, but only for a moment. He quickly went back to stabbing her sides. She was even more determined to end him with each sharp pain.
An opening finally presented itself to Sarah. He had gone wide with his knife hand, and the other was busy trying to fend her off. She kept her claw close so she didn’t make the same mistake he did. Just when he was about to thrust into her side again, she forced her pincers wide enough to fit around his neck. She held it there, and he stiffened all his body. There were no more stab wounds to her side anymore.
“You do not wish to do this, my project. You do not understand the consequences.” His body started to shiver with strain. It was taking all his will to stay still.
“Why wouldn’t I want to do it? After all you did to me? This is more than you deserve. A quick death and being sent back to Hell. I wish I could torture you for days on end, but I don’t trust that I can hold you. This will have to do.” Without another word, she snapped her claw shut and cut off his head. Just to make sure, Sarah knocked it far away from the body, but where she could still see it.
Rolling off of Xaphan, Sarah groaned as she sat up. Tears of relief rolled down her cheeks. She nearly expected his head to grow back like his arm did, but nothing happened. The body didn’t move, and his head stayed where it had rolled to. All of a sudden, purple and blue mist rose off his corpse. Within seconds, he was gone.
Mary and Michael rushed in through the doors. When they saw the state Sarah was in, they each fell to the floor next to her. “Oh, dear lord. He stabbed you. A lot. We need to get you to the hospital.” Mary was beside her with a towel she has pulled from her tote.
“I told you two to stay outside no matter what. Why did you come in?”
This time, it was Michael, who answered. He had a towel as well and tried to put pressure on some of the wounds. “We were listening, and when it all went quiet, we thought it would be safe enough to come in. We were so frightened that he had killed you.”
“Nah. He wasn’t strong enough to kill me. His arrogance in that made him weak. Oh, and no hospital. I can’t have them seeing this.” She lifted her clawed hand that was now somehow clean of his blood. It must have evaporated with his body.
Mary and Michael stood and lifted Sarah into Michael’s arms. Mary fussed over Sarah’s wounds as they walked. “You are lucky I am a nurse. I can patch you right up at home. But we need to hurry before the police show up.” They all headed out the emergency exit and started walking the short distance to their home.
Sarah luckily didn’t weigh near anything at this point. Michael had no problem carrying her, but Sarah’s breathing became ragged. Her heart beat fluttered in and out of existence. Michael could feel it through their contact. “Mary! Mary! Her heart is giving out. What do we do?”
“Just a little further, dear. Hold on, please. Don’t leave us.” Mary tugged on her husbands arm to make him walk faster, but he shook loose.
“No, Mary. Whatever we have to do, we need to do it now. We are losing her.” He gently laid Sarah down on some nearby steps. After taking off his jacket, he placed it behind her head as a pillow.
They both knelt down beside her. Mary began instructing Michael on how to do chest compression as she did her best to dress the wound with their towels. Sarah’s placed a cold hand on Michael’s to stop him. “Please, don’t. Let me go. I did what I needed to do. He’s gone. I am free.”
Mary sobbed, taking Sarah’s head into her arms. “No! We just found you. We can’t lose you now.”
“It’s ok, Mary. I never hurt any innocents. I will be fine. Just let me go.” Sarah’s head became heavy in Mary’s arms, and her hand slipped from Michael’s. She was gone.
Seconds later, bright yellow light emanated from Sarah’s body. It glowed so brightly that both Mary and Michael had to look away. When the light dimmed and they looked back, Sarah’s body was gone.
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A week later, at the bus station on the other side of town, a teenage girl loaded up onto the bus headed south. Her dirty blond pony tail bounced back and forth. A tattered plaid shirt had one arm rolled up and the other dangling down beyond her hand. She took a seat by the widow and stared outside. A smile spread across her face. Not one of malice or evil, but one of freedom and happiness.
