Julia
The whole world spins.
The driving rain is relentless, sloughing down my skin in cold rivulets. My hair hangs limply in a sodden curtain around my face, blocking my view of everything except the swirling muck below. There’s a rank taste in the back of my mouth, and I understand dimly that I must have bitten my tongue when Amos hit me.
The place where the branch slammed into my skull throbs with every step the demon takes. Even though I can’t see it, I’m pretty sure that I’m bleeding. My vision swims as I’m drawn deeper into the swamp.
“I’m going to break you on your husband’s cock,” Amos croons as it carries me over its shoulder like a sack of potatoes. “I’m going to fuck you until you plead with me to release you from your sorry life.”
There’s nothing I can do to block out the filthy, horrible things that spill from its twisted mouth. Instead, I fight against its hold, kicking my bare feet into the torso of Jake’s body and pounding my fists against its back.
But my efforts don’t seem to slow it down. To my horror, it seems to enjoy the way I struggle. Its fingers dig into the soft flesh of my thighs tight enough to bruise.
I know where the demon is taking me.
I recall how the foreman told me about the strange engraved rock the workmen dredged up from the swamp. They found it in the old cemetery as they’d been digging up the grave markers and the ancient bones that lay beneath. According to the Voodoo priestess, that rock might have been how the Gregory family summoned Amos–Asmodeus–in the first place.
Amos came from the clearing, and now it’s taking me there, to the place where it has the most power. And there’s nothing I can do to stop it from reaching its destination. The more I resist, the tighter its grip becomes.
In a last ditch effort, I claw at my pockets in an attempt to grab the potion. I can feel the small bottle against my hip, but I can’t reach it.
Part of me is relieved. Even if I could get to it, would I really be able to drink the contents of the vial? If Amos does kill me as it intends, would my death trigger the spell? There are too many questions, too many unknown variables.
No, the potion isn’t an option. I’m just going to have to fight the best I can and hope for a miracle.
It isn’t until it climbs up onto the mossy clearing that it finally releases me. It throws me down on my back, knocking the wind out of me. I gasp and sputter desperately for air as it sinks down on top of me, straddling my hips. I can feel its hot excitement through the thin layers of fabric between us, and the sensation fills me with dread.
“You’re mine, Julia,” the thing hisses as it dips its face low over mine. A flash of lightning crackles overhead, reflecting hellfire in the matte black depths of its eyes.
“I’ll never be yours,” I snarl back. The weight of Jake’s body pins me down. I can barely move. But I won’t let Amos break me, not while I still have hope.
The demon grins. “You already are.”
Disgust and terror bubble up in my very soul as it closes the distance between us and swoops in for a brutal kiss. My hands claw at its chest to push it away, but it’s no use. Amos is too strong.
But I’m not powerless.
I find Jake’s lip with my teeth and bite down–hard.
“You bitch!” the demon howls as it jerks back. Its hands fly to its mouth to cradle its wounded lip. Blood, glistening almost black in the darkness of the storm, dribbles down its chin and falls with the rain onto the front of my sodden, muddy shirt.
Amos’s shock and pain seem to have given Zeke the opening he needs. The darkness clears from Jake’s eyes, if only for a moment.
“Keep fighting!” Zeke instructs. “I need you to know how much I…”
Jake’s head shakes violently, and when it stills again, the eyes are once again brimming with shadow.
“Your little boyfriend is quite troublesome,” Amos growls down at me. “I’m going to make him watch as I tear your cunt apart, and then I’ll crush him like the cockroach he is.”
Its hands are on me again, tugging violently at my clothing. Just as the fabric of my shirt starts to rip, something swings out of the darkness and clocks Amos squarely on the back of its head.
Jake’s body collapses down on mine. I cry out in pain at the sudden weight, but he’s quickly rolled off of me.
My eyes search the darkness for my savior, but I don’t have to look for long.
A harsh white light clicks on above me, revealing Helen.
The old woman’s face is grim. She’s holding a heavy flashlight, the kind somebody might keep in their car for emergencies. Dark blood and strands of hair stain the bottom portion of the lens, and I realize that Helen must have hit Amos with it, stunning him.
She reaches out a hand to help me up, and I take it gratefully. My head swims as she pulls me to my feet. Bile rises in my throat at the jerky movement, but I swallow it down.
“That was a close call,” I pant as I struggle to catch my breath.
“It’s not over yet,” Helen warns as she shines the light down on Jake’s twitching form. “We need to do the ritual. Now.”
I nod. We’re out of options.
Amos has to die.
I grope around in my pocket until my fingers close around the cool, textured glass of the bottle. Thank God it hadn’t broken in the struggle. I extract it carefully and hold it up in the glare of the flashlight. The murky liquid sloshes within and I wrinkle my nose. It looks like it tastes terrible. I’m not looking forward to drinking it.
But I know what I have to do.
Using my nails, I scrape away the seal at the neck of the bottle and then work out of the stopper. The cork breaks free with a small pop.
“Bottoms up,” I cringe, holding up the bottle in a mockery of a toast.
“Julia, no!” Helen catches my arm before I can drink. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“It has to be me,” I insist. “There’s no other way!”
She shakes her head. “I’ll drink it. I’ve lived a good long life. If killing Amos is the last thing I do, then I’ll die happy.”
“Absolutely not,” I argue.
Down in the mud at my feet, Jake groans. Both of us eye him warily. It isn’t clear if Amos is still in control of his body, but I don’t want to find out. And something tells me that’s exactly what will happen if he wakes up.
“We don’t have time for this, Helen,” I sigh. Jake could regain consciousness at any moment, and then we’ll be screwed.
A hard look passes over Helen’s face. “You’re right,” she agrees. “I shouldn’t drink it. But neither should you. Give it to Jake.”
“What?” I gasp.
“Let Jake drink it. Hasn’t he hurt you enough?” She scowls down at him, contempt plain on her features. “Is he really worth dying for?”
“I can’t,” I whisper in horror. “It would be wrong.”
But that’s not entirely true, is it?
Jake has hurt me. He’s cheated on me, and he’s struck me more than once. But the worst part is that he sold me out to Amos. Zeke told me that the demon could only possess a body for that long if the host agreed to a deal. And what had Jake promised it?
Me.
Cold rage writhes through me. Maybe Helen’s right. Maybe he does deserve this.
Jake groans again, and my resolve waivers. How could I even consider sacrificing him?
His eyes flicker open, and in the washed out glow of the flashlight, I’m shocked to realize that his eyes are neither black nor amber. They’re just normal.
“Jake?” I exclaim.
My husband blinks slowly, like a man waking from a dream. “Julia?” His voice is broken, almost inaudible above the roar of the rain.
I squat down beside him, the bottle in my hand momentarily forgotten. “I’m here,” I reassure him. For all the hate that I hold for him, he’s still my husband, and I can’t bear to see him suffer.
“I’m… sorry,” he murmurs.
A sob escapes my lips at his words. I know in my heart that he means them. He really means them.
He raises a shaky hand and points to the bottle clenched in my palm. “Let me,” he urges.
It takes me a moment to realize what he’s asking. I shake my head, causing pain to radiate from the spot where the branch had struck me. “No, Jake. I can’t let you do that. You’ll die!”
Jake grins. It’s not the inhuman grimace of Amos, but the slick, confident smile that my husband dons when he’s securing a business deal. “I’m already… dead,” he forces out. It’s clear that it’s taking him great effort just to speak. “Let me… show you… how sorry I am.”
Tears roll down my cheeks, mingling with the rain and the mud of the swamp. I don’t want to do this. I really don’t.
A cold, shaking hand closes over mine, working the bottle out of my grasp. Jake’s movements are weak, and I could throw him off easily, but I don’t. I simply let him take the vessel from me.
“I love you.”
It’s the last thing he says before he brings the neck of the bottle to his lips and drinks deeply.
I expect him to spasm or foam at the mouth as soon as he swallows, but he remains still in his crumpled position in the mossy clearing. I clasp my hands over my mouth, holding in my sobs.
I never wanted this.
I never wanted any of this.
“Julia?” Helen’s alarmed tone jolts me from my stupor. “Julia!” She points down at Jake, who’s still staring at me.
But now, his eyes are black.
“You fucking bitch!” Amos roars. It springs to its feet with surprising speed, causing Helen and I to flinch back. There’s no time to dodge as its grasping hands reach out and grab me by one arm, pulling me toward it.
“Go back to hell!” I shriek as I push it away.
Amos stumbles, and as it does, something stirs deep inside of me. Unbidden, the incantation that Helen and the Voodoo priestess taught me rings through my mind.
Something ancient unfurls within me.
It’s time.
I open my mouth and start to chant.
“From light to shadow, from stone to bone…”
A thread of lightning cracks open the sky overhead, and I feel the power of it radiating up from the mossy clearing and into my bones.
“I send you back to the void you’ve known!”
Amos yowls in pain. Its body jerks unnaturally like a marionette on tangled strings as it thrashes against some unseen attacker.
“By earth, by sky, by sea, I proclaim…”
The demon’s eyes fix on me. The hatred in its gaze burns, but the power that swirls within me is too great.
“Be gone, demon, in darkness remain!”
At the final word, I rush forward and shove Amos as hard as I can.
For a split second, time seems to stand still. It teeters on the edge of the clearing, its arms reeling useless in the air.
And then Amos falls backward into the swamp.
As soon as it hits the mud, the brackish slime whirls up around it like the tentacles of some great beast. It pulls at Jake’s limbs, dragging his body deeper and deeper into the mire. The demon’s mouth opens in a soundless scream as the muck closes in over its lips, and then its nose, and then those horrible black eyes.
And then Amos is gone.
Amos is gone.
I know it in my soul.
As if a switch is flipped, the rain tapers off into nothing. For a moment, there’s only silence. But then the crickets begin to whir deeper in the marsh, and the frogs start to bellow and peep in the underbrush. The whole place feels different.
Empty.
I step carefully to the edge of the clearing and peer down into the dark murk beyond. There are no bubbles in the mud, nothing that would indicate that Amos is still alive.
Or that Jake survived.
Helen comes up beside me and wraps a comforting arm around my shoulders.
“I think I just murdered my husband,” I whisper to her. My voice seems too loud out here now, and I cringe at the sound of it.
The older woman shakes her head. “You’re not responsible for this,” she assures me. “This was his choice. Jake chose to save you in the end, even after everything he’s done.”
“He’s dead,” I say numbly. “Everybody will think I killed him.”
“It’ll be all right. And if anybody asks, I’ll attest that it was self defense.”
I appreciate Helen’s support, but it’s not enough.
Like the stench of the swamp, Jake’s death will haunt me forever.
Amos will torment me even from the depths of hell.