And Ruin Followed Behind Her

Chapter 18

Chapter 18

I reappeared in front of the school, exactly where I’d left Principal Anderson, except that he wasn’t there. All that remained was a bloody drag mark leading down the sidewalk.

“Help!” I heard. I’d recognize the jowly scream anywhere.

I ran toward the sniveling cries and found Principal Anderson surrounded by three demons. Blood streamed down his head.

I held the grip on my daggers tight. “Hey!” I shouted, bracing myself. I felt even more powerful here, nearer to the portal.

The demons turned, and I smiled at them. I don’t know what had come over me, but for some reason I knew I could defeat them. Maybe it was the surge of power from the mystery spot, or sheer stupidity. I grabbed a pinch of my pixie dust and closed my eyes. My wings sprouted behind me, bigger than they were before.

Two of the demons ran toward me just as I evaporated. I reappeared behind them and sliced at their legs. One of them swung its sword at me. With another pinch of the dust, I was gone, rematerializing to ram my dagger through its back. In another instant, I was in the wind, then back again with a stab through the neck. Green blood spurted out as it fell to the ground, revealing its companion whirling a sword at me. It turned to swing, and I stabbed it through the chest. It dropped in its tracks with a gasp.

The final demon grinned at me with razor-sharp teeth. I beckoned it to come closer, but the monster didn’t move. Instead, it flipped its sword around and sliced Principal Anderson across the stomach. Bob screamed, watching his intestines drop onto the sidewalk.

“That’s it!” I shouted.

Another pinch of pixie dust let me appear right next to the demon. It swung at me, but I met its claw with one dagger and dug the other one into its side. Slicing through its hand with the first dagger, I stuck it through its chin. The demon dropped instantly, bathing me in sticky, green blood. With the demons finally dead, I ran over to Principal Anderson.

“Why? Why?” he blubbered to himself. “Why did this happen? Why? Why?”

I knelt next to him. He didn’t look good. His small intestine had leaked out onto the ground. “Bob, you’re going to die. There’s no doubt about that.”

“Why? I don’t—Why?”

“Bob, listen. You can die a coward or a hero.” I snapped my fingers to get his attention. “Listen to me. Okay? How do you close the portal?”

“I don’t—I don’t—”

“This isn’t the time, Bob. You’ll be dead any second. If you don’t tell me how to close the portal, all this will have been in vain. You will die for no reason. No power. No money. Not a hero, just a sad man who brought about the end of the world. Think!”

The color faded from Bob’s eyes. “The blood will open, and the blood will close. It will open and close. Close and open.” That was the last thing Bob said before he faded from this world. Luckily, it was enough to give me an idea. If Elka’s blood could open the portal, then mine could close it.

I knew what that meant. It meant I had to make the ultimate sacrifice. My life for this town. Damn, I hated being a hero.

I wasn’t ready to die. I’d just got this incredible power, and now I had to return it for the greater good—even if that good was objectively pretty terrible. Still, I listened to the screams coming from the town. I thought of Chuck and my mother. They did not deserve this fate.

Bob, it turned out, was right. What is one life exchanged for a million?

I kicked my feet into the air and hovered above the ground. I wanted one last feeling of triumph before I went into the great abyss. When I could control it, floating above the ground was an incredible feeling. I wanted one last incredible feeling in my life.

Once I died, I would end up on the other side of that hole, with no way back. I would be in Hell, a damned soul. God didn’t like people that killed themselves. I knew that for sure.

*

I FLEW TOWARD THE MYSTERY spot as if fighting an incredible headwind. My feet hovered above the ground, but just barely. Demons broke before me like a great ocean, and I slit the throats of those that dared confront me. I was a stone-cold butcher.

It’s not an easy thing, facing your own death. You always think it will happen in the distant future, but the truth is that whenever death comes for you, it comes in the right now.

Even as I made my way closer to the mystery spot, I wanted to believe that something would come along, some supernatural force, that would save the day. Right? Something had to stop me from spilling my own blood to save the lives of everybody else.

I thought of my mother. She loved this town. I thought back to Chuck Dixon, who protected this spot with his life. And now, I would do the same. I always knew I would die in this town, I just never thought it would be by my own hand.

I looked down at the daggers in my hands. They shook as I raised them into the air. Blood will open. Blood will close, I said to myself. In one swift motion, I plunged the daggers deep into my gut.

The air left my lungs and I felt a warmth ooze down my legs. Blood—my blood—poured onto the ground and snaked like a river toward the mystery spot, still visible at the center of the giant portal.

My knees wobbled, and I dropped to the ground. Laying there, I felt my warm blood pooling underneath me and I struggled for every breath. It was working, though. My blood was flowing into the mystery spot like a waterfall. At least my death would close the portal.

Except—it didn’t.

More and more of my blood fell into the mystery spot, but still it stayed open, and more monsters flooded out from it.

I had failed.

As my eyes closed, I thought about what a waste my life had turned out to be. What a pity.