Chapter 10 Racing Against Time
Isolde's POV
Cressida collapses in my arms.
"No, no, no!" I shake her shoulders. "Wake up! We have to save Landry!"
But her eyes roll back. The black veins spreading across her chest pulse once, twice, then go still. She's breathing, but barely.
Police sirens scream closer. Red and blue lights flash at the end of the street.
I'm nineteen years old, holding an unconscious vigilante, and we have less than an hour before her comatose brother dies.
I slap myself. "Think, Isolde. Think!"
My car is two blocks away. I can't carry Cressida that far. The cops will see us.
Then I spot it: a rusty shopping cart by the dumpster.
I dump her into the cart, throw my backpack over her, and push as fast as I can. To anyone watching, I'm just a homeless girl with her stuff.
The warehouse district is ten minutes away. I run the whole time, my lungs burning.
We make it.
The warehouse is abandoned, windows broken, door hanging off its hinges. I push the cart inside and lock what's left of the door with a bent pipe.
I pull out my laptop. My hands shake so bad I almost drop it.
I type: "devil contracts symptoms black veins transformation."
Buried on page seven, I find something real. An old blog from 2003. The title makes my stomach drop: "My Sister Made a Deal With Something Evil Here's What Happened."
I read fast.
She got the power she wanted. Super strength, speed, the ability to hurt people who hurt her. But it came with a price. Black veins spread from her heart. She stopped sleeping. Stopped eating.
Three weeks after she made the deal, she wasn't my sister anymore. She was something else. Something hungry.
They had to kill her.
My throat closes up.
I look at Cressida. Half her chest is covered in black veins now. They're spreading while she sleeps, creeping up her neck like poison ivy.
"You're not dying," I whisper. "I won't let you."
The blog mentions Father Thomas Crane. He studied devil contracts for forty years.
I search his name. He's dead. Died in 2019.
But he wrote a book: The Devil's Fine Print: A Guide to Supernatural Contracts.
I find a PDF online and download it fast.
"Landry..."
I jump. Cressida is waking up.
"Hey." I kneel beside her. "How do you feel?"
She blinks slowly. Her eyes are normal brown again. "Like I got hit by a truck. What happened?"
"You passed out after the fight." I check my phone. "We have forty-five minutes until we're supposed to meet Sable."
Cressida sits up fast, then groans. "Sable has Landry. She's going to kill him if I don't "
"I know. But rushing in without a plan is stupid." I pull up Father Crane's book. "We need information first."
"There's no time for "
"There's no time to die either!" My voice cracks. "Cressida, look at yourself!"
I hold up my phone's camera like a mirror.
She stares at her reflection. At the black veins covering half her chest and creeping up her neck.
"Oh god," she whispers.
"The book says you're in Stage One point five. Stage Two starts when the veins reach your brain." I show her the screen. "Once that happens, you forget everything. You become a full demon."
Her hands shake. "How long do I have?"
"Maybe four hours. Maybe less."
She stands up, wobbling. "Then we go to the church now."
"Sable is the one who gave you these powers!" I grab her arm. "Why would she help you?"
"I don't care." Cressida's eyes are wild. "Landry is all I have left."
"What about saving yourself?"
"I don't matter!"
"Yes, you do!" I'm yelling now, tears running down my face. "You saved my life! You went after those gang members when nobody else cared! You matter to me, okay?"
Cressida stares at me. Then she hugs me.
It's quick and awkward, but real.
"Okay," she says quietly. "We do this smart. What does the book say?"
I read: "Devil contracts can be broken three ways. One: kill the demon who made the deal. Two: complete a trial set by a neutral supernatural entity. Three: find someone willing to take the contract instead of you."
"So we kill Sable."
"Or we find this neutral entity. The book mentions Contract Keepers. They wait in abandoned holy places."
"Like a church," Cressida says slowly.
We look at each other.
"What if the Contract Keeper is already there?" I say. "What if that's the real meeting?"
My laptop dings.
I hack into Mercy General's cameras. I pull up Landry's room.
He's there, alive, machines beeping steadily. No Sable.
"The video was fake," I breathe. "She was bluffing."
Cressida's jaw tightens. "She wanted me scared and desperate."
We gather weapons: Cressida's knife, a metal pipe, pepper spray. Not much, but better than nothing.
I scroll through the book fast. "Contract Keepers always demand a price. Memories. Years of your life. Things that make you human."
Cressida touches the black veins. "I'm already losing my humanity."
Before I can answer, my laptop screen goes black.
Then words appear:
HELLO, ISOLDE. CLEVER GIRL.
My blood turns to ice.
YOU THINK YOU'RE HELPING CRESSIDA, BUT YOU'RE MAKING IT WORSE.
COME TO THE CHURCH. I'LL EXPLAIN EVERYTHING.
OR DON'T COME, AND WATCH YOUR FRIEND BECOME A MONSTER.
SABLE
The screen goes black again.
Cressida reads over my shoulder. "She's been watching us."
"She hacked my laptop. She knows everything we planned."
"So the church is definitely a trap."
"Probably."
Cressida stands up and grabs the metal pipe. "We're going anyway."
"That's a terrible plan."
"You got a better one?"
I don't.
We're halfway there when Cressida stops. She's staring at her hands.
"Isolde? I can't feel my fingers."
The black veins have reached her wrists.
We run.
The church is ten blocks away. We cut through alleys and jump fences.
Finally, we see it: Mercy Church, looming against the dark sky.
A figure stands in the doorway dressed in white robes that glow faintly.
"Welcome, Cressida Halloway," a voice calls out. Ancient and neutral. "I've been waiting for you."
"The Contract Keeper," I breathe.
But then three more figures step out of the shadows.
Hunters. Including Thaddeus, his armor dented.
And standing next to them, smiling, is Sable.
"Surprise," she calls out.
The Contract Keeper speaks again: "You will come inside, Cressida. Alone. Or I will let the hunters kill you both where you stand."
"Don't do it," I hiss. "It's a trap!"
But Cressida is already walking forward.
"Wait! What do I do?"
She looks back with eyes starting to turn black around the edges.
"Survive," she says.
The doors slam shut behind her.
And I'm left outside with the hunters, Sable, and no plan at all.