Maurice (9)

Tammy is in trouble. Serious trouble. There’s no one there to save her. The only way she is going to get out of this trouble is to rely on her fast reflexes. And maybe a little luck.

Nine
Tammy knew she was in trouble. Even more trouble than the night she was murdered. The creature standing in front of her, leering down over her with eyes of red flames, even smelled evil to her. A thin envelope of white sulfurous gas seemed to be oozing out of the creature’s every pore. Giving it a kind of sickish white visual aura of foul smells. She knew she was dead. She knew the usual physical reactions of the normal living shouldn’t affect her anymore. But the creature’s smell, the over riding aroma of foul eggs, made her gag and choke as she scrambled backwards like a rat on her hands and feet to get away.

“Run, my little princess. Run!” the grinning madman laughed as he slowly followed her, leaving behind him a thin trail of curling white smoke in the process. “There is no where you can run, no place you can hide here in the afterlife, where I can’t find you.”

Tammy came to her feet, still pedaling backwards in the process, yet turned defiantly to face the creature. Glancing to her left and right hurriedly, she tried to find an escape route, any route, which would put distance between her and this thing. But it was as if the creature was reading her mind. A thin cloud of curling white smoke seemed to veil over every nook and cranny which offered a way out. Turning back to face her nemesis, she looked directly into the burning red eyes and lifted her petite nose defiantly.

“Who the hell are you, and why did you murder me and my baby?”

“Ah, the wench can speak. Excellent. Excellent! My name is Lonnie, princess. Lonnie Perkins. Yes, I found you and bawling little brat and I strangled you both with my bare hands. I did the physical act, but in truth, I’m not truly the one who killed you. For that you must lay the blame onto your father. He’s the one who ultimately sighed your death warrant. He is the one I’ve hung around for so long waiting for an opportunity fulfill a promise I have him so many years ago.”

“Promise! What promise?” Tammy shouted, looking around for a weapon, an escape route, anything which might rescue her from this demon.

“Your father murdered me, princess. Found me in the middle of the night while I was trying to break into a bank and shot me six times with my own gun. I told him, I promised him, just before I died that somehow, someway, I would find a way to get back at him. To first take something away from him he truly loved and then, in the end, to kill him as he had killed me. It took time. I searched and searched to find that someone out there whom he cherished more than life itself. And eventually I found you and that kid of yours.”

“You deserved to die, you rat bastard!” she shouted, anger and hate suddenly swelling up in a growing tidal wave of pure emotion in her as she instinctively lifted a fist up and shook it at the creature.

A most curious thing happened. A ball of blue-white electricity, crackling and pulsating in power, materialized in a big orb about the size of a beach ball and flew directly toward the red eyed demon standing in front of her, accelerating with blinding speed in the process. The blue white ball of energy hissed and threw off thousands of white hot sparks as it hurled toward the creature. So unexpected, so unprepared, for such an onslaught, the demon barely had time to lift and clinched fist up and block the blow with his forearm, forcing him in the process to leap to one side, half stumbling and half falling through the interior wall of the apartment bedroom in the process.

Tammy, stunned, stared in open mouth amazement at her fist, and then lifted eyes up to stare at the demon. That’s when she noticed it. A gaping hole in the white sulfurous cloud which trapped her in close proximity with the demon. A way out! If she could again generate this energy and aim it behind her, perhaps, perhaps, she could blow a hole through the vaporous wall and make her escape. Half turning, closing her eyes, she tried to find the anger, the hate, which had filled her soul only moments ago. But even as she concentrated she heard the creature in front of her move back into the room she was standing in, the soft chuckle of someone actually amused coming to her ears.

“So Randall’s little girl has some power in her after all. I should anticipated that. I felt the inner strength in you when I pulled the life out of your body the first time. Strong then, little one. Even stronger now. But, unfortunately, not strong enough.”

His right hand came up, with one long, arthritic finger pointing directly toward her. From the tip of the finger’s blunt fingernail a much stronger, twisting rope of white vapor flew out and raced directly toward her. The air filled with the eye watering aroma of spoiled eggs. Tammy felt the surge of anger boiling over in her again. Lifting her fist up in a short, a rapid jerk blue fireball shot out into the room’s semi-darkness and hurtled toward the approaching vaporous cloud.

When blue-white energy rammed into the long trail of white vapor the results were stupefying. An enormous explosion sent out a visible shock wave strong enough to blow out windows and send the room’s furniture flying. Voluminous gray black smoke filled the room. The stench of rotten eggs and the metallic taste of immense fields of static electricity equally filled the room. Both demon and Tammy were sent hurtling off their feet and smashing into walls. Seconds ticked back and slowly the smoke dissipated enough for one to see. Climbing to his feet the creature, actually feeling acute psychic pain from the explosion, found it difficult to steady himself as he looked for his prey.

She was gone.

Somehow she had recuperated first and had found a hole in his containment web. Stepping to the middle of the room he reached out with his psychic web to feel for her presence. But she was gone. Completely gone. Furious he kicked an overturned chair to one side with such force the chair flew across the room and punched through the plaster and lattice old walls of the apartment. Anger building up in him threatened to rip the building apart. But his anger suddenly cooled, suddenly collapsed into and manageable slow burn when he felt the unexpected arrival of a new presence.

Walking across the room he stepped near to the gaping hole of a blown out window and looked down toward the street. An old green pickup truck rolled to a slow stop in front of the apartment building. A truck he recognized immediately. As he watched the occupant of the truck open the door and climb out and turn to face the building, an evil, maniacal smile spread across the demon’s lips.

“Welcome to the party, old friend. Welcome to the party.”