Chapter 23
Salina, Kansas
Carmen and Lucas waited until nightfall and lights-out before attempting to rescue his father, Estevan Rojas. The parking lot was lit by one dim light, and the small red brick facility appeared to be shrouded in darkness.
“My sources said he was showing signs of improvement at the nursing home—starting to talk. That’s when the demons came in with papers signed by us, apparently, to have him moved to this private psyche hospital.” Carmen said, breathing calm and steady. At the restaurant, she lifted totes that made Lucas struggle. Under that apron, his aunt was no frail woman. She rechecked her weapons.
“We have to get him out of there. That’s his window?” He pointed to a vine-snaked first floor window covered with rusty metal grates. The structure was surrounded by fields, and the hollow rustle of papery corn stalks whispered on the evening wind.
Carmen nodded. From watching the entrance, they knew only demons were employed here; four were on site at the moment. “Let’s go.” She picked her way to the window.
Rusting bolts allowed them to pull off the cage with minimal effort. Lucas took off his shirt and wrapped it around his hand, ready to smash open the window to his father’s room.
“Wait,” Carmen said, pulling up on the unlocked window. “Men and their brutish behavior,” she grumbled. She shook her head at him with a sigh and rolled her eyes.
Smiling, he gave her a boost and they crawled inside the dank accommodations.
Once inside, a skittering noise as if long nails were tapping on a countertop, made him pause. He flicked on his flashlight and watched dozens of cockroaches retreat under a small dresser. He crunched down on two more of the vile insects with his next step.
Carmen pointed to the bed, where a body lay covered with a thick white hospital sheet. Lucas watched the sheet rise and fall as he crept closer.
What have I done?
Lucas replayed over and over in his head the last time he’d seen his dad. His embarrassment at his multiple failures was no excuse for walking out on his father. His skin crawled; the man’s torment was his fault. When his father needed him to lean on, in his recovery, Lucas deserted him and now had allowed him to fall into the demons’ waiting hands.
Carmen jerked back the sheet and uncovered her brother. His wide eyes stared into the blackness around him. “Please, help me. They’re everywhere.” His gaze darted to and fro at nothing as tears bulged at the corners of his lids and ran into his ears and hair.
Damn the demons. I’ll send them all back to hell before this night is over.
Lucas touched a finger to his father’s clammy temple and could see his unrelenting vision. Surrounded by demons. Nails slowly sliced his flesh. Pointed teeth tested his skin. Red eyes watched his every move.
Cockroaches ventured back out, blanketing the floor and crawling up the legs of the bed.
“Dad, it’s me, Lucas. Your sister, Carmen, is here, too. We’re going to get you out of here.” Lucas turned to Carmen. “The hallucinations they’ve implanted are horrific. He sees demons around him, preying on him constantly. What can we do?” He surveyed his father’s emaciated form with rising malice. The core of his being trembled for the fight.
She ran the flashlight over his uncovered body. Lucas’s pupils adjusted to the dim light, aghast of what he saw. A straightjacket encased his torso. An IV pumped drugs into his vein via his thigh. Carmen worked on yanking the needle and plastic tubing out of his leg. Ankles in restraints, the demons even forced him to lie in his own excrement.
“I’m going to kill every one of them, so help me God…” Lucas worked at freeing his father physically, not knowing how to free him psychologically. “Dad. Look at me. They are illusions.”
Carmen worked on his feet. She hissed, “Shh! They’ll hear you and come and kill all of us.”
“Let them come.” Lucas let his emotions overtake him and, after releasing the straightjacket, knelt next to his father and held his hand. “I’m so sorry, Dad. This is all my fault. I never should have left you. I never should have left you,” he repeated through grated teeth.
Lucas’s father squeezed his son’s hand. “Son, is that you?” His eyes focused for a moment on Lucas. “My time is done, but yours is beginning.”
“Estevan, be still. You’re almost free.”
“Maria?” He shifted his eyes to his sister. “Maria—tell him—Glastonbury—the answers are there.”
Carmen stepped forward and cradled her brother’s ashen cheek in her hand. “No, brother. I will not allow it. It’s not yet time, and you cannot ask Lucas to do this!”
“Hermana, sister, “destiny always finds what it seeks.” His tense muscles slackened as the IV stopped dripping hallucinogens into his bloodstream. He slowly came back to reality.
Lucas frowned. “What are you two talking about?”
Carmen motioned to the small glass window on the door where three sets of glowing red eyes appeared. There was no time. The demons found them.
“Dad, we can talk about this later. We need to get you out of here, now!” Lucas tried heaving his father over his shoulder, but his dad put up a fight.
“My time is past. You two need to leave. Save yourselves. I can hold them. Lucas, give me a knife.” His breath came in short, staccato pants punctuated with a wheeze. “I’m not dead yet.” He rolled on his side and got an elbow under himself, intending to sit up, but fell back on the bed with a low moan.
“Carmen and I can handle this.” Lucas shot Carmen a hopeful glance.
Carmen’s eyes had the spark and anger of a warrior as she removed a short butterfly knife she had tucked in her belt. She flipped it around with a practiced hand that stopped Lucas in his tracks. “What?” she asked Lucas. “I used to be the best in our family with the balisong. I’ve kept my skills honed.”
Lucas was more of a fixed blade kind of guy.
A key slid into the door lock. Carmen and Lucas stood firm in front of Lucas’s father. Carmen hid the knife behind her back as the door slid slowly open. Three surly looking demons entered the room, their rotten egg scent preceding them. Two men and a woman, all dressed in pale green scrubs, sauntered through the door, and let it click shut behind them. The woman was unkempt, with tangled, shoulder-length brown hair and a lip curled up in a sneer of curiosity. “Well, who do we have here? More seers to torment, I hope.” Her eyes gleamed like rubies.
“I’m your worst nightmare, bitch,” Lucas spat as he smoothly removed one of his throwing knives. It hit her dead center in the chest, and she fell to her knees, stunned, staring in disbelief at the knife protruding from her thorax.
Game on.
The two male demons never gave her a second glance. They stepped over her limp body. The bigger of the two sported a jagged scar that ran the length of his right cheek from the corner of his eye to his ear. He spat a wad of chewing tobacco onto the ground and dug his right hand into his greasy blond dreadlocks. He produced a spear the length of his body and tapped the spear on the ground, ripe for a fight.
Lucas considered his necklace. This was the tricky thing about summoning an angel. The demon needed to not only have malicious intent, but be in the process of committing the atrocity. Hard to hope an angel showed at the exact moment a demon lunged at you.
Tricky business, this good versus evil shit.
Lucas withdrew two Bowie knives out of their sheaths and cocked his head at the demon with the spear. “Guess it’s time to send you back to hell.” He did as his dad had taught and slowed his pulse and relaxed his body. He let his eyes focus on the demon. The demon’s lightning fast speed was no matter because Lucas’s trained eye could already see his first move with the spear.
The demon hissed and charged at him with a forward thrust, showing his razor sharp teeth. His aura, black like pitch, expanded to dominate the room.
Lucas sidestepped the blow, using his right hand to deflect the spear and his left to slash the demon’s throat. Blood spurting from his carotid, the creature slumped to the ground with a thud.
The third demon, attempting to straddle Carmen took a balisong to the gut and staggered backward. Lucas sliced an X in his back. The demon arched forward into Carmen’s waiting knife to the solar plexus. Lucas spun his head with a crack before letting him fall to the ground.
Lucas was panting but alive. “That was fun. But I thought there were four demons working tonight,” he said. Footsteps raced down the hallway. They gave chase, only to see a car fishtailing and squealing its tires exiting the parking lot.
When he got back to his father’s room, Carmen had her brother’s head cradled in her arms and spoke in a soft, soothing voice. She looked at Lucas and shook her head.
He knelt by his dad’s side. “Lucas, remember what I told you,” his dad managed, before he took his last breath.