Awakening XV

The daimone charges toward me at high speed, chips of asphalt flying up behind its spiked feet. I shout to Roshan, "Distract it - I need time!", and he nods. I remember the giant's words, only hours past: "With horrific sacrifice, they bound it tightly..." I don't have any innocents to sacrifice - nor would I - so I must find something that will serve in its stead. Hoping that the syntax isn't too rigid, I begin: "Foul daimone, by my words and deeds you are here bound."

A shadow falls over me, and I look up. The daimone towers above me, staring malevolently. In that ever-so-sultry voice, it informs me, "You've run out of time, littl-" Roshan rudely interrupts it with a thick steel rebar he picked up when I wasn't looking, knocking the daimone several feet to the side. It snarls and turns toward him, saying "Two of you?"

I continue the ritual. Picking up a piece of glass on the flame-lit street, I intone, "With blood I bind you, blood for the blood you have spilled." I slice it across my chest; compared to the pain of my... stump, I hardly notice. Blood wells up, spilling onto the ground. Roshan shoots past my view, crashing into a pile of rubble. I hear snapping, and wince. The daimone stalks toward him.

Looking toward the other side of the street, where victims lay sprawled like toys, a tear trickles down my cheek. I carefully scoop it up with a finger and press it into the pool of blood growing beneath me. "With tears I bind you, tears for the anguish you have caused." As the daimone plucks Roshan up from the rubble, hands coming toward him to rip him apart, a shot rings out, jerking the daimone sideways. Dropping Roshan instantly (who is in no shape to attack again), it whirls and charges.

I reach into the car and pull out, with no little disgust, my roughly-severed arm. Holding it before me, I say, "And with loss I bind you, a sacrifice for that which you force on your victims!" The daimone blurs across my vision, charging Rebecca, clearly no longer in a mood to toy with us. I drop the arm, my last hope to resume the life I'd lived before, falling into the pool of blood and tears. It hits the surface just as the daimone's outstretched hand touches Rebecca's throat. I cry out, "Stop!", but there's no need - the daimone is frozen in place.

It curses me as I approach, saying, "Do you think you can bind me with such pitiful sacrifices? Those you emulate sacrificed thirty innocent souls to me to gain mastery over me - and see how that served them! You cannot hope to hold me for long. Surrender now, and your death will be... quick."

I look at it. I'm weak from blood loss, missing an arm, and somewhat sleep deprived. I turn to Rebecca and tell her, "Shoot it in the brain and the heart until it dies." She walks up to it and feels its blood-spattered chest for a pulse. Finding one, she levels her pistol inches away and fires.

She fires: once. Twice. Thrice. She alternates, switching from the head to the heart with every shot. The wounds are surprisingly clean. Its healing still operates, and the edges of the wounds begin to close up within seconds, but its agility was its greatest armor. After the seventh shot, it slowly topples over, forcing Rebecca to back up quickly to avoid being crushed. She walks to where it has fallen and continues firing: eight, nine, ten. Cautious, but hardly unwarranted. After the eleventh shot, the daimone stops twitching. After the twelfth, Rebecca runs out of ammo.

Roshan and I walk over to Rebecca. I don't know how he can walk. He's clearly broken bones, and from the fall he's taken, he might have some internal trauma as well. Then again... he could say the same for me. Wordlessly, we lean on Rebecca, lacking the strength to stand any longer on our own.

Eventually, I realize that sirens are blaring behind me. I turn and look. Sure enough, police cars, fire engines, ambulances: the lot. All behind us. I don't know how long they've been there. I wave weakly, and shout, "Could you get us to the hospital? I'm not feeling my best."

The Freemasons lived in a dream - a dream where power and wealth justified anything. A dream where their vile sacrifices to fuel the Heart could produce some good result. A dream wherein, even while summoning daimones and committing mass murder, they could do no wrong. It was a dream they took with them to their deaths, but a dream which, with the release of the daimone they summoned, could have lived on beyond them.

For me, this has all been one long nightmare, of terror and pain and loss. And only now am I finally awakening.