Slawter

“I have to make sure there are no wires or engines inside.”

“You think that thing’s a fake?” Bill-E exclaims. “Are you insane?”

“No,” Juni says. “To both questions. But I have to be sure. If this is real, it changes the entire way I think about the world. Before I accept that, I have to be certain this isn’t a clever movie prop that got out of control.”

Juni crouches next to the demon. Studies it closely, hands raised defensively in case it leaps back to life and attacks. I move up behind her, also worried about the demon, no longer positive that I killed it. Remembering when I fought Vein and Artery. I could cut them up into bits, but I wasn’t able to kill them. This might be a lesser demon, or I might be more powerful than I was before. Or it might only be wounded, faking death to lure us closer.

Juni kicks one of the demon’s legs—no response. She kicks a mouth stalk. It wobbles from side to side, but only from the force of her blow. Slowly, carefully, she prises its main mouth open and peers down its throat. I tense. If the demon’s faking, this is the perfect moment to strike. I see the teeth start to come together and prepare a ball of energy to hurl.

But I’m stressing for nothing. The mouth’s only moving because Juni is fiddling with the demon’s neck.

“I need a knife,” Juni mutters, running her hands over the demon’s ant-like shell. She looks up. “Either of you?”

Bill-E fishes in a pocket and passes her a small Swiss army knife. Juni pauses, grimacing, then cuts into the demon’s flesh. It’s softer than it looks, or else Juni is stronger then she appears, because the blade plunges in up to her hand. She shudders, then carves downwards along the length of the demon’s side. Worm-like guts ooze out as she slices, as well as a greyish substance which might be blood. Remembering the spray I caught earlier, I wipe a hand across my face and it comes away wet and sticky with the same grey liquid.

“I’d kill for a shower,” I mutter, chuckling darkly at the sick joke.

Juni cuts a long, jagged line through the creature’s flesh, ignoring the grey blood and guts, then hands Bill-E his knife. He grimaces and tries to wipe the muck off on his trousers. Juni looks at me and grins shakily. “I wanted to be a vet when I was younger,” she says—then drives her right hand deep into the demon’s stomach.

“This is so gross,” Bill-E moans.

“It hasn’t put you in the mood for liver and kidneys for breakfast?” I ask.

Bill-E’s face goes green and he almost throws up again.

Juni searches with her fingers for a minute, then draws her hand out. All sorts of horrible bits and pieces come with it—fleshy and slimy, no wires or mechanisms. Juni stares at her fingers, rubs them together, then tries to clean them by digging her hand into the earth.

“Convinced?” I ask.

“It’s impossible,” she sighs. “Demons are creatures of myth, the phantasmagorical creations of primitive superstition.”

“They’re the Demonata,” I correct her. “Mankind’s greatest enemies. They’ve existed since before the dawn of our species. They hate us and love to kill. Sometimes they break through into our universe and the bloodshed starts. That’s what happened here.” I lock gazes with her. “They’ve already killed some of us. If we don’t warn the others, they’ll slaughter us all.”

Juni nods slowly. “I thought I was so clever,” she whispers. “I knew so much about the mind, people, behaviour. Now…”

Her eyes clear and she gets up, businesslike. “Who can we trust?” she asks.

“Dervish,” I answer promptly. “But he won’t believe us.”

“He’ll believe me,” Juni growls and her face is beautifully stern.

KIDNAP

I keep expecting the worst as we reel back through the warehouse, anxiously retracing our steps, making mistakes and having to backtrack. I’m sure the lamps will come on outside, the hole will be discovered, guards will pour into the building to block our escape. Chuda Sool will appear and summon an army of demons. We’ll die miserably and be added to the pile of corpses around the stone.

But none of that happens. Apart from the wrong turns, our journey back to the hole in the external wall passes unremarkably. And when we get there, the lights are still dead outside, the guards in their huts, nobody aware of our presence.

“Will we try and fill in the hole?” Bill-E asks.

“That would take too much time,” Juni says. “We should just—”

I point at the mud-like mess on the ground. Draw upon the magic. Snap my fingers. “Ubsacagrubbsa!” I quip. And the molten rocks flow upwards, defying gravity. They fill the gap, solidifying within seconds. It’s not perfect—there are no individual bricks now, just one large patch of unbroken block—but it should only be noticeable if one of the guards passes up close.

“Nice work,” Bill-E says.

“You’re growing more powerful by the minute,” Juni notes.

“Let’s not waste time on compliments,” I grunt, then lead the way through the welcome, nighttime darkness of Slawter in search of my uncle.

Even though I’m soaked from head to toe in demon blood, Dervish doesn’t believe us. Rather, he doesn’t want to believe.

“This is a movie set,” he insists. “The D workshops are full of amazing demon facsimiles. It wasn’t real, just a—”

Juni curses crudely, surprising us all, then points a finger at the startled Dervish. “Don’t give me that rot!” she snarls. “You weren’t there—I was. You didn’t see it—I did. It was no piece of movie magic. It was a demon. It would have killed us all if not for Grubbs.”

I feel pride welling up inside. Bill-E gives me a dig in the ribs and sticks his tongue out, making sure my head doesn’t get too big.

Dervish stares uncertainly at Juni, finding it harder to dismiss her protests than mine. That’s a positive sign. Chuda Sool hasn’t fried Dervish’s brain completely.

“It was a real demon,” Juni says slowly, keeping her eyes on Dervish’s. “I don’t know how these things can be real but they are. It killed Emmet, Kuk and Kik, a lot of others. It—”

“No,” I cut in. “That demon wasn’t the killer. I think it was just a guard, set there to protect the stone in case anybody got through the rest of the building. There are worse demons than that around—Lord Loss, for one.”

“I told you that wasn’t—” Dervish begins.

“Shut it!” Juni stops him. “If Grubbs says he saw the demon master, he did. I believe him now. Totally.”

Dervish sighs, confused. “What do you want me to do?” he grumbles. “If you’ve already killed the demon…”

“There are more!” I hiss. “The one that killed Emmet. Lord Loss.” I glance at Juni and Bill-E. “That was an awfully large room. Why make a room that big for just a few demons? I think more are planning to cross. A lot more.” I face Dervish again. “You have to stop them. Call the Disciples. Destroy that stone and get all the actors and crew out of here.”

“Who are the Disciples?” Juni asks, but I wave the question away, glaring at my bemused-looking uncle.

“I still think it was only…” Dervish mutters, then pulls a face. “But I’m not going to argue with all three of you. Let’s go back to the warehouse. Show me the demon. If you’re right, we’ll—”

“If you think we’re going back inside that place, you’re certifiable,” Juni says, beating Bill-E and me to the punch. “Run the risk again? Give them another chance to discover what we’re up to, so they can trap and murder us? No way!”

She points at the door. “We’re out of here. We’ll get to safety, call in help—soldiers, police, whoever the