Malevolent

Aosoth's Lair

"This is the place. I can feel it, can't you?" Cassiopeia asked her brothers without taking her eyes off the cathedral.

"If you mean the venue for a potential mugging, then yes." Jason said, bored and examining his fingernails.

"Cassie can we go now?" The other brother Ethan asked in an exasperated voice. "There's nothing here but ruins. Let's go home"

"Shut up, Ethan. You can go home if you want to. I'll stay here and stare at this place overnight if that's what it takes."

"Well, the building won't suddenly regurgitate its secret because you stared at it hard and long enough, would it?" Jason said, his voice laced with sarcasm. "I wonder why I agreed to go with you on this wild goose chase anyway."

"It won't be a wild goose chase when I find out what I'm looking for, soon enough." Cassie snapped.

The three of them continued to stare at the cathedral, their eyes willing it to open up and reveal its secrets. Among the New Yorkers that walked past the cathedral, they stuck out like sore thumbs. They were dressed in black wool turtlenecks with matching black leather pants and superhero-style weapons belts, filled with everything from Celestial Bronze swords to throwing blades; standard fighting gear for Hunters.

They'd been interested in the series of demon activities going on around the city ever since a deliveryboy had been declared missing on the news, and his body had been found days later in the alley of a Chinese restaurant two blocks from the cathedral by a very startled and traumatized cook.

The Hunters in New York had managed to examine the body before the mortal police took over, and a very strong demonic presence had been detected around the body. Cassie had heard their parents talk about it and then coerced her brothers into looking for the demon.

She fingered the yellow police tape around the cathedral thoughtfully. "Hmmmm. What if—"

"No you don't" He grabbed her wrists. "Let's go. People are starting to stare."

Indeed passersby were beginning to give confused looks at the three teenagers in black clothes and weapons.

"Fine" Cassie shrugged her brother's hands off her. "But I'll be back."

Then the three of them held hands in the dimness of the cathedral's spires, each having the same image of the same building in their minds. Within the blink of an eye and another, they'd disappeared.

*****

It was evening and Maddie was standing on the doorstep of Olive's house. She rang the doorbell for the third time. This time Olive opened the door.

"Hey, you look drained." Olive said, holding the door open for Maddie.

"I feel drained." Said Maddie, walking into the house. "Why did you leave?"

"I thought you and your dad were having a moment and I didn't want to intrude." She explained. "What was going on between you too?"

"Just…a stupid fight." Maddie said simply. Again, just like that time in the bookstore, she felt something like this was better left unsaid. What Olive didn't know wouldn't hurt her. She turned to her friend as the other girl closed the door with a click.

"Can I crash here tonight? I can't stand my dad right now"

"Oh, I can relate to that." Olive said, smiling slightly. "Sure, you can crash"

Moving Olive's paperbacks from the couch, Maddie settled down, removed her glasses and rubbed her eyes tiredly. Olive sat beside her, her vivid blue eyes regarding her.

Ah, s**t, Madde thought. What was the point of hiding something from her best friend?

"Can you believe he wants us to move again?" She blurted out.

There was a moment's hesitation before Olive said "For real?"

"Yeah. Well I made it clear that I'm not moving with him. I'll get a job in New York if I have to, move in with you if i have to." Even as she said it Maddie's chest was filled with stones of apprehension. She was just fifteen, a minor by all standards. Her dad would never leave her alone in New York.

As if reading her thoughts, Olive snorted and said "Yeah but you're too young to stay alone in New York."

Close to tears, Maddie put her head in her hands "Jesus, Liv. I know. But I really don't want to go, start all over again in a new place, try to make friends again…"

"Did you try to explain all of this to him."

"Yes, of course." Maddie raised her head. "And I might have said some things that hurt him."

Olive stared at her, and seemed about to say something when her cell phone, buried in her hoodie pocket, began a loud buzzing. Maddie fished it out, gazed at the name blinking on the screen, and scowled.

"It's my dad."

"I could tell from the look on your face. Are you going to pick the call or should I pick it and tell him you rode your bike off a cliff?" Olive asked, a mocking smile on her face.

"Not right now," Maddie said, missing the attempt at humour. She felt the gnaw of guilt in her stomach as the phone stopped ringing and voice mail picked up. "I don't want to fight with him again, and I know we would definitely fight."

She punched the voice mail button on the phone and listened to her dad's voice with a growing feeling of guilt. "Hey Maddie. I'm sorry I yelled at you that way. Please come on home, let's talk."

She threw the phone aside and groaned. "I don't want to go home. He's just going to force me to move, the way he's done all these years."

"You can always stay at my house," Olive said, rubbing Maddie's back sympathetically. "For as long as you want. My dad won't mind."

Later in the night, after rejecting Olive's dad's offer of dinner, and laying beside Olive on her bed, Maddie slinked into a chain of disturbing nightmares.

She dreams that she is waist-deep in melting lava, in the heart of a volcano. Her clothes are in flames, and although she knows that she is probably sweating buckets, she feels no heat. Her mouth is open in an everlasting, inaudible scream, and as she is about to go under, a team of warriors in black gear show up at the mouth of the volcano, wielding weapons that gleams like gold fashioned in heaven. A terrible, female voice booms from the depths of the volcano, saying "You arrive too late, Demonseekers. I will rise and claim my spawn" The black-clad warriors give a loud cry and jump into the volcano just as she is submerged completely in the boiling lava.

As in the manner of dreams, her landscape changes. She finds herself before a dark cathedral, its spires and darkened windows towering down menacingly. She finds herself, not walking but gliding towards the door of the cathedral. She reads the plaque on the door aloud: "I Am Aosoth, Made Of The Same Flesh As Lilith And Lucifer" just as the door opens and she finds herself staring at a pair of black eyes and falling, falling...

Maddie felt it. There it was again. The unfamiliar, uncomfortable feeling that something was following her. She'd been convinced by Olive's dad the next day to go home and hear what her own dad had to say. On her way she'd decided to pick up a bagel at a bakery downtown because she'd skipped breakfast. As she stepped out of the bakery with her bagel in hand, she stopped as something caught her eye. It was a flicker of movement, across the street, down by the rubbish-strewn alley of a barbershop. There was something unnerving about the movement; a funny angle as a gesture caught the light, too impossible and fast to be human. Keeping an eye on the trashcans by the barbershop, Maddie fished her cellphone from the front pocket of her Jeans and proceeded to dial her dad's number. On the second ring he picked.

"Hey dad," she said tentatively.

"Maddie?"

"Dad, it's me. I'm–"

"Maddie listen to me," Paul's voice sounded strained, like he was trying to hold in a great amount of pain. "Maddie, you can't come home. Stay at Olive's for the time being."

"Dad! What's wrong? Are we being robbed? Should I call the police?"

"We're not being robbed," Paul said "But home's not safe for–"

There were dull thuds from her dad's end of the call, like furniture being kicked around, and a slithering, snake-like sound. She heard her father gasp, then he said "Be safe, Maddie. I love you." before the call disconnected with a harsh, jarring sound like the phone had been flinged against the wall.

"Dad!" She cried. She made several frantic phone calls but her dad never picked. In her apprehension and fright, she'd forgotten to keep an eye on the trashcans. Too late, she swerved to see a great mass of black fur before a heavy paw hit her across the face and she felt herself being dragged before blacking out.