And this is a lovely time for a fight scene, don't you think? I certainly do.
Shaun and Sara followed the curving trail of the tunnel for what seemed like hours. Finally they arrived in a small but spacious chapel dimly lit by scattered candlebras.
"Would it be cliché to say I have a bad feeling about this?" Shaun muttered as they crossed the chapel floor toward the altar, his hushed voice echoing off the stone walls.
"What's the matter, Shaun?" Sara chided. "Don't you have fond memories of the last time we were in a church together?"
"Yeah, good times. Beheading an ancient vampire and then being surrounded by thousands of bloodsucking fiends. It's a treasured memory."
"This church looks fairly deserted. I'm sure there's nothing to worry abo—"
Unfortunately, the stonework beneath them decided to give way at that moment. The ancient tiles shattered, throwing up a thick cloud of dust and debris.
Sara fell hard against the earth below. She slowly got to her feet, coughing from all the dust. "Shaun?" she called, but there was no answer. Darkness surrounded her. She looked upward and figured she'd fallen 7 or 8 feet into an old crypt.
She brought her flashlight up to eye level and flipped it on. A skull with hollow eye sockets and gaping jawburst out of the shadows. She screamed and turned to find herself face to face with another skeleton. She stumbled forward in the darkness, feeling the bony fingers clutching at her arms and hair.
Suddenly, a non-sketelal hand reached out and grasped her arm, pulling her out into the light. Shaun took hold of her trembling shoulders. "Sara, it's okay. You're safe." He stroked her hair, removing the cobwebs. She heaved a sigh of relief and threw her arms around him. As she tried to catch her breath, his scent filled her nostrils. Calvin Klein or Ralph Lauren or…Christ, she didn't know, but she'd forgotten how incredible he smelled. It wasn't fair for him to smell that good while she had work to do. Best to get out of his embrace as soon as possible.
"It's just…y'know…spiderwebs," she stammered, brushing the gossamer strands from off her shoulders. "They freak me out."
"Really? I thought it might have been the skeletons."
They stepped forward into the new room that Shaun had discovered. It was more open and well-lit than the one they'd fallen into, about five feet wide and 10 feet long with damp, mossy walls and a barely discernible wooden ladder at the far end.
"Now what kind of slayer would I be if I freaked out at the mere sight of…bodies…" she said hesitantly when her eyes finally made their way to the floor.
Before them lay the bodies of two women. Not as decomposed as the ones they'd just left, but hardly fresh. Sara kneeled down to examine them, noticing the disheveled uniform and nametag on one of the bodies.
"Are these your missing persons?" Shaun surmised.
"Looks that way."
"Same cause of death?"
"Yep. Same puncture wound in the chest, straight through to the heart. But why are they here?" she wondered aloud.
"What do you mean?"
"We found a body, in worse condition, dumped in the woods. Are they being saved for some reason?"
"Do we really want to know?"
"That's kinda' my job, Shaun," she remarked. "Let's see where that ladder leads, shall we?"
They ascended the ladder into an upper room. It appeared to be an old library, its walls lined with shelves upon shelves of thick leather-bound volumes. They split up to scan the room.
"Jackpot!" Sara exclaimed, as she came upon a wall covered with photos, articles, notebook pages with scrawled handwriting.
"What is all this?"
"For lack of a better word, evidence."
Upon further examination, they found a marriage certificate between Evelyn Bryant and William Fairfax, subsequent divorce papers, dozens of surveillance pictures of a man and a younger woman who was decidedly not Evelyn Fairfax, pages and pages of what looked like incantations and mystical drawings. Sara recognized only one word, and that word had some very negative connotations.
"So it wasn't a ghost," she concluded.
"A ghost?"
"Yeah, apparently this is one of the more haunted hotels in the country. We thought we might be looking at a poltergeist, but all of this suggests otherwise." Sara produced a small digital camera and began to take several pictures of the wall.
"Okay. So let me get this straight, this Evelyn gets a divorce from her husband when she finds out he's having an affair…"
"Right. And instead of dealing with it through the accepted method of several pints of Haagen Dasz and Meg Ryan flicks, she decides to dabble in black magic. Grabs a copy of Opening Hell Dimensions for Dummies, lights some candles, and unleashes a hellbeast."
"Are these words to some kind of spell?" he asked, flipping through some notebook pages.
"I dunno. Maybe Julian can decipher it. The only word I recognize in all this is D'Hoffryn, recruiter and supervisor of vengeance demons."
"She summoned a vengeance demon?"
"Looks that way."
"But it didn't go after her husband or his lover?"
"No. Well, not that we know of."
"It's just killing random women?"
"It can't be random," she asserted, shaking her head. "All of the victims so far…they're young, female, and single. Evelyn must have established a type, a standard victim. That's what the demon is focusing on."
"Then it could come after anyone. You, or Emma…" His eyes widened.
"We'd better get back to the hotel," Sara suggested.
They exited the library, passed through a few more doors and found themselves back in the chapel. They were careful to walk around the new hole in the floor as they crossed back to the tunnel entrance.
But they found the entrance blocked. A large, formidable figure stood before them. Clearly not human, it stood several feet taller than either of them. Its smooth, dark blue skin glistened in the candlelight, as did the several sharp teeth it was baring. Spikes of varying lengths, but all looking scarily sharp, adorned its head and arms. An unearthly growl emanated from its throat.
"Friend of yours?" Shaun whispered.
"No."
"Would it have hurt you to say yes?"
"Well, I tend to tell the truth in stressful situations."
"Great."
Sara steeled herself to confront the creature. "Look, I don't know who you are or how you got here, but the Council has a few questions for you."
In response, a sharp, three-foot spike sprang from the demon's right arm at the wrist.
"Well, that's…different," Shaun observed.
"Fine," Sara declared. "If you want to play it that way…" She fired her crossbow at the demon, but the arrow bounced off its armored chest and clattered to the floor. "Oh, dear."
"What do we do now?"
"Fall back and regroup?"
"Okay."
Shaun and Sara hastily retreated to a spot behind a tomb.
"What is that thing?" he demanded while she rummaged through her weapons inventory.
"Don't know."
"How do you kill it?"
"Don't know."
"Could we…gouge out its eyes?" he suggested.
"I didn't see any eyes."
"Kick it in the bollocks?"
"I didn't see any of those either." She placed an axe in his hands and held a gleaming machete in her own. "Look, I've got to find an Achilles' heel on this thing. Be a dear and distract him."
"Distract him? With what?"
"You'll think of something." She got to her feet and readied herself to run. "Just remember," she advised, turning back to him, " don't die." Then she scrambled off to another corner of the chapel.
"Yes, very helpful." Shaun closed his eyes and gathered his courage. With a slow exhale, he rose to his feet and looked across the chapel to where the demon still stood. "Oi, tall, dark, and spiky!"
The demon focused its attention on Shaun and started to stride across the room, its heavy footsteps reverberating throughout the building. Sara launched her attack from the shadows. She swung the machete, but the demon blocked the blow with his right arm, lodging the blade in its arm. Sara tried futilely to free it. The creature's left hand grasped her roughly by the throat and flung her against the wall. Then it removed the machete from its arm and tossed it aside.
"Sara!" Shaun cried and launched into the fray. He swung the axe at the demon's back, but the blade was deflected without doing any damage. Shaun received a brutal backhand that sent him flying across the floor.
Meanwhile, Sara had recovered and was now armed with an iron torch from the wall. She swung it overhead but the demon dodged, and she hit the floor instead. She swung again but the demon caught the torch in mid-swing. A powerful punch sent her sprawling to the floor. She rolled quickly away as the demon swung the torch toward the floor with devastating force. Way to give the guy a weapon, Sara thought inwardly.
Shaun jumped onto the demon's back, attempting to snap its neck. The demon dropped the torch and clawed at its back. Unsuccessful, he decided instead to try to crush his opponent against the wall. Shaun cried out in pain as he found himself wedged between the wall and the hulking creature.
Sara rushed to grab her machete and as she looked up, she saw Shaun fall to the floor. Seeing its opportunity, the demon readied its spike for a final blow. "No!" Sara cried. The demon missed its mark and instead stabbed Shaun in the side.
With newfound strength, she swung the machete, severing the monster's arm at the wrist. As it roared in agony, she spun and drove the blade into its abdomen. The demon stumbled backward, falling into the hole that Sara and Shaun had created.
Sara rushed to Shaun's side. "Shaun, are you okay? Please be okay," she pleaded.
"I'm good, I'm fine," he replied weakly.
"We need to get out of here. Can you walk?"
"Yeah."
She helped him to his feet and let him lean against the wall while she recovered her bag and crossbow. He leaned on her shoulders as they struggled to navigate through the tunnel and back to the hotel's cellar. When they finally reached the doorway, Sara gently deposited Shaun on the floor, closed the door to the passageway and struggled to pull the wine cabinet back to its original position.
Removing the sweater over her tank top, she handed it to Shaun. "Use this to keep pressure on the wound. It should help stop the bleeding." He complied, wincing at the pain.
She knew he was in pain, but his breathing was still strong; she really didn't need him to pass out right now. She used her cell phone to make a quick call to Julian and ask him to meet her in her room with a first aid kit. Then she turned back to Shaun. "Ready to move?"
"Do I have a choice?" he groaned.
"Nope," she replied. "Come on." She placed his arm around her shoulder and helped him to his feet. Slowly they hobbled through the halls and made it back to her room.