The Quarter Moon (Afterlife saga) Read online

  As Little Red I got out of Big Blue, umbrella in hand and walked over to the metal door. I tried the handle but had a feeling it wouldn’t have been that easy, when I found it locked. I debated whether or not to knock for a moment but I decided to trust my gut and hold back. I lowered my fisted hand back from the door and decided to look around. Thinking this, now I was really feeling the part. Forget about just the gun, now I was thinking about adding a long beige trench coat.

  “Female version of Columbo, that’s me! Just short of a good head rub, one cigar and I have cracked it.” I muttered as I rounded the corner. I don’t know what I was looking for but I thought back to the letter and knew I was most likely supposed to find a ladder.

  “Bingo!” I shouted when I saw the alley way. There was a metal fire escape on the side and although I had never used one, I remembered one in almost all American movies that had alley ways in them. I walked closer and looked up at the series of ladders and metal balconies they were attached to.

  “I hate heights.” I muttered looking round for something to stand on. The first ladder up needed to be pulled down and it was only when I couldn’t find anything that my mind went back to the clues the Oracle had left me.

  “Haha!” I said in triumph as my mind clicked in gear. I lifted the end of the umbrella and hooked the last spindle on the ladder to then pull it down with a groan. It was stiff but once it moved the first bit it started to play ball. It came down with a rush and I fell backwards landing with a thump on my behind.

  “Smooth Columbo…real smooth!” I picked myself up and patted my coat free from wet dirt. I bent back down to pick up my umbrella and started to climb to the next level. I tried not to look down but of course I did, without anyone saying the standard movie line ‘Don’t look down’. I seriously needed to get a grip…preferably one that wouldn’t let go at the wrong moment. I also need to stop watching movies!

  When I made it to the top I saw a window that was half open and all I needed to do was push it all the way up and I was in. I unfolded myself and soon found I was in a messy looking office. The desk that was near the window was piled high full of paperwork that had long ago become beyond organised. I moved the worn chair out of my path and made my way to the only door. Once out of the office, which smelled like someone had a mouldy cheese fetish, I took in a deep breath and looked around the massive open space.

  It was a fairly large warehouse with a metal balcony all the way around the top that only seemed to lead to a few doors and I gathered these to be more offices. Looking down, I could see pallets of boxes piled high and all wrapped together with clear plastic. There was also a forklift and a few hand held devices for moving heavy items. But that was it, not a soul was in the building…or at least not one I could see.

  I had to walk around the edge to get to the staircase at the other end and the sound of my booted feet on metal grating was the only noise to be heard… and it wasn’t a comforting sound.

  I did a quick check of the other rooms, the one with ‘Manager’ on the door was locked and the others empty, so I continued down the staircase. The main part of the warehouse was a bit like a shiny maze of clear plastic towers and a chill crept up my spine when I realised just how many shadows in this place could be filled with these ‘Pishachas Demons’.

  “This is insane.” I whispered out loud as I made my way around them and gingerly checked every dark corner. Although, I needn’t have bothered. As I soon heard a cackling laugh that sounded like a combination of wood burning and a child’s high pitched giggle, I knew I had been found.

  “I love the smell of chilled flesh in the morning…like coffee to you humans.” A strained voice said from further away. I wrinkled my nose at the thought of getting anywhere near someone who I smelled like breakfast to, but at this point, did I really have a choice?

  I zigzagged through the piles of boxes until it opened up into what looked to be a loading dock. I could see the big rolling doors and some sort of conveyor belt. But it was the two red glowing orbs in the dark that had me stopping fast enough to tip back on to my heels.

  “Lose the jacket, Tricks!” He snapped and I was sure I could hear the clicking and grinding of teeth at the order. I couldn’t yet see him as he remained hidden in his favourite place, using the shadows to his advantage. I did as I was told, knowing now the reasons behind my dress…I just hoped it wasn’t like dressing the Salmon before the buffet opened!

  As I pealed the jacket back I heard a sharp intake of breath and I purposely hid my umbrella behind my back as I moved my coat. I tucked the handle into my belt at the back, so it hung out of sight. I had a feeling it was going to come in handy pretty soon.

  “Throw it away, up on that crate,” he ground out, all the while still gnawing those teeth. What was he doing back there, filing them into sharper points?! Did I look that chewy?

  I did as he said with a frown, as I really liked that jacket and doubted I would be given the time, when running for my life, to have the chance to grab it.

  “Ah, now that is better, come closer,” he said and now, instead of the grinding teeth, there was more of a slurping sound, like he was sucking back up the saliva that was dripping down his chin, if he even had a chin.

  “Umm…I think not, no in fact, I think I am good right here.” I said in my firmest tone. He started laughing again and the sound made bile want to rise up. There was something so disgusting in the sounds he made that even without seeing him, I was repulsed.

  “Silly, silly, silly…if you don’t come closer, then how are you to retrieve this?” He said and I saw a shadowed arm come out from the darkness holding an envelope. I fisted my hands at the sight, wishing I knew how I was going to get that letter with every pound on my body still intact. I mean, most girls liked the idea of losing a few pounds but the Hannibal Lecter diet wasn’t one I wanted to try any time soon!

  “Let’s cut the spooky shadows crap and cryptic messages that are really just giving me a damn headache now…what do you want for that letter?” I said losing my patience and letting my frustration take control of the situation.

  “They say that you are f…”

  “Feisty, yes I know.” I interrupted dryly.

  “Fresh.” He corrected back and I shivered.

  “The price is a penny for your thoughts or a pound for your flesh…which do you value more?” Nice saying I thought but doubted it would make it as a bumper sticker!

  “My thoughts are the payment I choose, but first the letter.” I said knowing with the shield I had in place, if Lucius couldn’t have cracked them then this lower Demon would have no chance, so let him try as I walked away. Well this was the plan, I thought with hope.

  “I accept, although I must say what a shame it is that I wouldn’t be tasting the marrow from your bones…that colour suits your skin.” It was one thing being told ‘nice dress’, but saying that how pretty I would look bleeding to death was quite another and even in the supernatural world I wasn’t about to take that as a complement!

  “Jeez, thanks. Now can we get this over with” I snapped and as soon as I said this I heard the envelope skidding along the floor. It stopped right at my foot. I picked it up quickly and stuffed it into the top of my boot until it was flush against my leg. As soon as I straightened I felt it. It was like someone was pulling at the edges of my brain with one of those tiny metal hooks the dentist uses to scrape plaque from your teeth. It nicked and scratched away at the seams but it couldn’t get in. Then it tried something bigger and replaced the hook with claws. It was painful in a strange way but after a few minutes of concentration, the pain receded and soon its clawing gradually seeped away until it was nothing but a murmuring around the edges.

  “Impossible! Impossible for a human! Give it to me!” The voice grew into a growl and I took a step back.

  “I said GIVE IT TO ME!” It screamed and the sound cracked the windows, making one give out and smash to the floor behind me. I jumped and held up my hands.

  “He
y, it’s not my fault you can’t feed from me, we made our deal.” I said playing dumb.

  “Then your flesh will just taste all the sweeter!” It said before I finally got my first glimpse of the creature itself.

  It stepped from the shadows and I screamed at the sight. The first light to hit the Demon sizzled like it was being burnt but the further it came forth, I soon realised it wasn’t its own skin that cooked, it was the skirt it wore that was human skin sewn together like a horrific patchwork quilt. Soon the room started to fill with the smell of charred skin and burning hair. Some pieces of his demonic uniform even had tattoos from the pieces of flesh he had taken from humans. As he stepped closer the skin suit was made like a coat that had thick straps crisscrossing all his torso and it reminded me of a straight jacket made in Hell.

  One arm looked broken and twisted back to lie flush against his back while the other, a long and thin black bone, had several joints as though it belonged to a spider. It had a pincer on the end that clicked as it snapped out and back in on itself. The claw type bone looked as if it had been carved out of flesh as it bled from the tip and it alone was the size of my hand.

  When the last of him came into view, it was the face of a man with long, grey hair, centre parted and it hung down his torso in two strands straight as a board. His eye sockets were impossibly deep and the two eyes staring at me with a mixture of hate and feeding lust, were bleeding tears. Like two pools overflowing from the source, they flickered as something in him started to ripple from his smoking chest.

  The nauseating smell was making me keep swallowing my own bile back down, but when he took the last step and I saw what his face was doing, I could no longer keep it back. The rippling had travelled up his chest, to his neck and then started to literally rip his face apart. The split started at his chin and spread up his face, spraying blood out in a fine mist.

  Once the blood cleared the air, it left me staring at a face cut in two, only now with tiny rows of teeth running vertical up the sides of the hanging flesh. His face had now become one massive sideways mouth and his eyes were the only things spared from the change, as even his nose had become two nostrils inches apart.

  I turned my head and heaved up my vomit, finishing just in time to move out of the way. His one arm had swung out to grab me and missed by so little, I had felt the whoosh of air from the action on my face. As I was taking steps further back something in my mind clicked and one word flashed like a neon sign.

  ‘Shield’.

  In one swift movement I brought the umbrella I had back round from the hook of my belt and pressed the button. It flew out and I held it out in front of me hiding myself behind it. It covered my dress perfectly and when I heard the roar in frustration, I knew he couldn’t see me. I heard the movement of a frantic arm looking for prey as it blindly whipped this way and that. I took little steps back, not knowing how well it relied on its hearing but not willing to take any chances. As soon as I thought I was far enough away I stopped to look around for an exit. To get back to the stairs I would have had to have passed ‘Big Ugly’ and I now realised why that name was picked for him, as it was oh so very fitting.

  I saw on the other side, an exit door and I made my way towards it making sure to keep myself from view the whole time. It was slow going walking backwards but I soon made it. I let out a sigh of relief when I pushed on the bar in front and it opened near where my truck was parked. I fumbled with my umbrella while running for the door and it was only when I was safely inside my vehicle that I could breathe.

  I didn’t feel like waiting round here while I studied the letter so I turned Big Blue around and squealed the truck down the road back to the guard who let me through with a wave. I only just managed to make it out of sight before I cut the engine, threw myself out the car to throw up again on the side of the road. When nothing was left, I spit a few times to get the taste out of my mouth and got back in the truck.

  It wasn’t what you would have called my finest hour, that was for sure, but at least I had done what needed to be done. I tried to tell myself this over and over but it didn’t help when trying to open the envelope with shaking hands. I pulled the letter out, feeling something weighty in the corner of the envelope but left that for later.

  I unfolded the page and thought my eyes were deceiving me for a minute but no, I read it over and over again and then said the first thing that came to mind,

  “Son of a Bitch!”

  Chapter 9

  Paid for my Wasted Hopes

  I just couldn’t believe that all I had gone through was for a piece of paper that’s said what, another damn riddle!

  ‘If Alice is sick of Wonderland then pull an ET, But if she wishes to meet the Royalty down the Rabbit hole, then wait ten minutes for one to show up’

  And that was it! I screamed out in frustration and fisted my hands. How was that any help to me at all I didn’t know, but one thing I did know, was that I was being led on a merry dance! Question was, how did I know what the bloody steps were without any music? All this cryptic crap was getting me no closer to Draven and I was close to jacking it all in. I mean I had just nearly become a main course for a Demon to chow down on, and for what...? A letter and a…

  I tipped the envelope, just remembering there was something else in there and something weighty fell into my gloved palm.

  “A coin?” I said looking down. It was a misshapen silver coin which looked like it belonged in a museum. It was so old it was barely even classed as being round in shape. On one side had the head of a person, man or woman I couldn’t tell, but they had their mouth open and their tongue hanging down. Tiny round circles surrounded the head that could have been curls or snake heads, I couldn’t tell. I turned it over and the other side looked like an anchor with three symbols around it at different points.

  I don’t know how long I stared at it but when another car passed me it brought me back from my trace. I put the coin back in the envelope along with the pointless letter and started the truck. All the way home my mind kept going back to that coin and what I was supposed to do with it. Of course it was at this point my truck decided to give up for the second time and I cursed like a sailor as I pulled it over.

  Old tricks came back and I hit the steering wheel in hopes the truck would know yet again how pissed off I was with it! I got out, dragged my hands through my hair and tried to calm down. This was turning out to be one Hell of a day and it wasn’t even past morning yet.

  “I doubt I will get another chance at seeing Big J,” I said finding that my own comfort in this situation was to talk to myself like a crazy lady that lived with a shopping trolley, collecting cans. I once again saw the smoke coming from the grill on the front and I wasn’t about to burn my hand twice in one day doing the same stupid thing, like touching the bonnet.

  Well, it looked like I only had one choice. I got back in the truck and fished my handbag from under the seat where I had stuffed it and rummaged for my mobile.

  “Time to phone…home” I said slowly and then dropped my phone along with the penny in my mind.

  “Phone home! That’s it!” I shouted reaching for the letter I had stuffed angrily back in the glove box. I read the letter again and groaned out loud.

  “I don’t know what you’re playing at Pythia, but I am starting to see you’ve got one pain in the ass sense of humour. Ok, so I will keep playing…ET indeed.” I said shaking my head at the last part. So she was saying if I was to call Frank, game over but if I waited here, for only she knew what to show up, then I was still a piece on the board. So that is what I did, I waited.

  It was almost the longest ten minutes of my life as I painstakingly waited for each number to change and when spot on ten minutes hit, I saw help coming my way. I got out to meet the tow truck as it pulled up in front of me. I watched as a stocky guy got out of the truck and approached. He was about five foot ten but was square in the shoulders and had a shaved head that he rubbed on his way over. When he lifted his gaze to me
, he looked uncomfortable for a moment and when he looked me up and down, I realised why.

  I was still wearing my dress and with the combination of gloves and heavy black boots, I didn’t exactly fit the expected profile of someone broken down at this time in the morning. I bit on my lower lip and when I still felt the remains of lipstick there, I winced. I really hoped he didn’t think I was a working girl.

  “Are you Keira?” He asked in a deeper voice and I frowned at him.

  “How do you know that?”

  “A guy came into my garage as I was opening up. He told me that a girl called Keira in a hot…umm…red dress was in need of a tow.” He said rubbing his head again and it looked to be a nervous habit. When his gaze finally found mine, I was taken aback by light green eyes and a rough but handsome face. He had week old stubble on a strong jaw, a flat nose that added to his roguish charm and a pair of full lips. And I hadn’t missed the blush his little ‘hot’ slip up, had caused him. Although I really didn’t see why, as I felt like a swamp critter at the moment, with wet hair and no doubt a red nose due to the cold the early morning brought. I missed my jacket already.

  “Well, I appreciate it.” I said not knowing what else to say.

  “Hey, you’re British!” He said and then looked as if he instantly regretted it. He walked past me to my truck to hide another blush.

  “Sure am.” I said in a higher pitch than was needed, but the smile he flashed me to the side told me that he was thankful for my light-hearted response.

  “Let’s see what we got here then, can you pop the hood?” It was amazing how many times you could hear the same sentence in the space of a few hours, from two very different guys.

  “I will do but I can tell you now what’s wrong.” I said and he straightened from the bonnet and folded his arms. He had a playful glint in his eyes as he said,