plan clearly in his mind. He did not know if they would survive. But he felt more sure that they would prevail.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
1
The demon left the bus smoldering and in ruins and headed back to the shopping plaza. It was time to get rid of its last vestige of humanity, the growth that had once been Seti, the cult leader.
It circled over the shopping plaza, now littered with dead, dying, and wounded, and saw what it had been looking for-the cemetery where its predecessor had been buried. The demon’s first effort to come to life on earth had been stopped before it had ever begun. This previous leader had started a colony out here in the woods, and though his worship and ritual sacrifice, had gained the demon’s attention. A final sacrifice had been planned that would have brought the demon to life where the coven would serve it and it would prey on both the colonials and the Indians.
But the primitive people of that time had been more understanding than those of the modern world. They had learned of the plot, destroyed the coven, and burned the leader at the stake just as the demon had appeared to take over his body. The demon was granted the briefest glimpse through the doorway from hell, and then flung back into the flames just as quickly. This time, things had gone better. And it wasn’t finished yet.
It landed beside the largest headstone. The ancient spells still held some power-it could feel their force surrounding the gravesite in an attempt to contain the spirits within. Once this site had been disturbed again, the demon had been aroused, had been given the power to reach out from beyond once again. The curse had been set off and the demon had been able to kill. This had given it the power it needed to search for a human conduit. Seti had served that role. But the human had outlived his usefulness now. The demon had granted him immortality, of sorts. Then again, everyone in hell was immortal.
The demon grabbed the huge, extraterrestrial headstone and pulled it from the earth as if it were a mere popsicle stick used to mark a flowerbed. This was a place of death. There was the ancient death of the coven. And the modern death that had started it all over again. The demon pushed back the earth to reveal the shattered coffin and bones of the one who had originally given him life.
The demon merged his mind into what was left of Seti’s. The man was completely insane now, with no conscious thoughts or desires. The proximity of the demon coupled with the eternal pain had rendered Seti’s mind nothing more than random nerve impulses.
It felt no regret as it reached over and plucked the deformed head from its own shoulders, then tossed it like trash into the newly-opened grave. The lump of flesh died without a whimper as the soul of Seti went from one hell to another.
“May you rest in pieces,” the demon said.
Then, from behind, it heard the sound of a vehicle. It turned just as the SUV stopped, noticing the carnage at the shopping plaza. It was the woman who was with child. And her son. This was just too perfect. They would come back to the altar with him.
2
After the prayer circle, Erik and Dovecrest headed off towards the altar while Mark went into town where he was more likely to confront the demon. It would probably head there next. They hoped to drive it back to the altar before dark.
“I’m worried about Vickie, though,” Erik said as he and Dovecrest walked through the woods.
“She’ll be fine,” the Indian said. “We need to finish this up quickly so you can get back to her.”
“Yeah.”
They walked in silence for a few minutes. The position of the altar was so obvious to Erik now that he wondered how he ever could have not known about it. The thing resonated evil.
“I’m just not sure about one thing,” Erik said.
“What’s that?”
“How did this…thing…get here in the first place?”
Dovecrest didn’t say anything for a few moments, and Erik thought he wasn’t going to answer him. Then he replied.
“Demons are really nothing more than human sins in the flesh,” he said finally. “This one calls itself ‘Wrath.’ It has always existed, as long as there has been sin. These demon worshippers from early times merely woke the thing up by worshipping it. They woke it up and brought it here in the flesh, instead of just in the spirit.”
“So this thing is the personification of wrath?”
“Pretty much. We burned the devil worshippers at the stake. That was the colonists’ idea. That’s how they dealt with witchcraft. So when the cult leader was killed, he placed a curse on the land so this demon would get brought back again the first time someone disturbed his spirit.
“It’s been my job to keep watch all of these years. I’m surprised it took so long, actually. I’d just about given up and thought the demon was trapped permanently on the other side. I should have been more prepared.”
“It’s easy to get complacent,” Erik said. “My son tried to warn me. I wouldn’t listen. It’s just that, this is the modern world. You just don’t think about things like this as being real.”
They were almost at the altar now. The thing seemed much closer than it was before.
“I told you it moves,” Dovecrest said, as if reading his mind.
“So what exactly do we do at the altar?”
“We wait. When it comes back and goes through the portal, we follow it in.”
“That’s if it doesn’t kill us first.”
“Don’t worry. If Mark does his job, we will be the least of its concerns. It won’t pay any attention to us. You do realize that the Great Spirit is more powerful than the devil.”
“Of course. But that’s not to say that the ‘Great Spirit’ won’t lose a few troops along the way.”
Then they broke through the trees and into the field where the altar stood at the center. It was the same field, but Erik knew it was in a different place.
“We need to stay out of the way, but as close to this thing as we can get,” Dovecrest said.
He skirted the edges of the field and found a secluded spot behind a large oak tree.
“This looks good,” he said. “We might as well get comfortable.”
Erik sat down on the ground and tried not to think about the last time he’d been here, and the carnage that had ensued.
3
Todd had seen the demon first. His mother had slowed down when they saw a wounded soldier staggering in the street, his eyes ripped out and blood pouring down his face. Todd had tried not to look, and when he’d looked away he’d seen the monster across the street, holding a headstone made of that black rock in its hands.
“Mom!” he’d screamed, and pointed.
His mother slammed on the brakes. The car screeched to a halt and the demon turned to look at them. Todd swore that the thing was grinning at them.
“We’ve got to get past it and into town,” Vickie said.
She turned the wheel hard right and into the shopping center parking lot, narrowly missing the blinded soldier. Todd got a good look at his face and thought he might have been better off if his Mom had hit him. She swerved around an army truck, ran over a couple of dead bodies, and jumped a curbing to land on Route 102
