Frank Fuhrur's: Necromancer 10 Chapter 09

He was gone, and there wasn't anything, necromancer or otherwise, that I could do about it. All that was left were stinging eyes and weight in my chest. My father had crossed over, and I wanted more.

There came an abrupt knock on my door.

"Eugene, it's me. May I come in?"

I blinked.

Another pain was in my chest alongside the weight. I pulled myself from the chair my father sat in. I cracked the door open. Emma was standing outside, not meeting my stare.

"Can I help you, lieutenant?" I asked.

I wanted to shut the door.

"Can I come in, and we talk?"

"No. I think that might not be a good idea," I replied.

"Plus, I was about to do some research. It's going to be pretty boring," I continued.

It wasn't a lie, but I didn't was to confront Emma at the moment. My father said that I had summoned something from the h.e.l.ls; a faceless demon. I needed to do some digging.

I knew that I should tell her, but I needed more information and a better way to bring it up.

"Research on what?"

"Um."

I wasn't expecting that.

"Research on demon culture," I replied, slower than usual.

"Why?"

"Because?"

"Because is an adverb, not an answer."

"I had an itch, and I wanted to do some light reading," I stated, dropping my tone.

"On demon culture?"

"Yes, the statue that I saw had no face, wanted to see if that meant something in their culture."

"I could help?"

"No," I began, "no, thank you."

She winced.

"Alright."

Emma said it so coolly, then turned and walked away.

Sorry, Emma but I can't let you in right now.

The Seventh had a vast collection of demons and their way of life, but they didn't have what I did. With a snap of my fingers, a pool of smoke appeared on the floor, and a ghoulish rotting hand arose, gripping a fleshy red book. I s.n.a.t.c.hed the book up and snapped my fingers again.

The hand descended, and the smoke evaporated. I flipped through the book, blood-stained page by blood-stained page. This was the book of Thanolog. A demon who kept records of all the infamous and powerful demons.

All of their conquests rise to power, defeats, and most important of all, drawings of the statues erected in their honor, were cut into the fleshy pages of Thanolog's own skin. There were seven hundred and sixty-three pages to comb through.

I had read a few pages here and there, but I was far more interested in the pictures of the statues.

"No, no, no," I babbled.

I flipped through the pages even faster as my frustration grew. The second to last page was different. It was just the of the statue that I saw and with this blurt:

"She will never be known, the scourge of the h.e.l.ls. She broke the unity. Forever, she will be faceless; forever, she will be nameless. To you, a darker h.e.l.l, you are d.a.m.ned. If awoken, destruction and suffering will ensue."

"She's the reason why there are seven h.e.l.ls?" I pondered.

I summoned her. In demon culture, it was known that powerful demons were carved into statues, but if you fell out of favor, all traces of you would be destroyed.

"But from this, you were put into another h.e.l.l. Imprisoned?"

"And I just unlocked her jail cell."

I looked up from the book.

"Uh-oh."

I reached for my phone. There were three missed calls from Mimiku.

"Oh, great," I groaned.

I dialed her number.

"OH MY G.o.d, EUGENE!"

"Yeah, I know. I missed your calls," I began.

"No, listen," she snapped, dropping her voice.

"I saw dad," I interjected.

There was silence over the phone.

"That's impossible."

"I thought so too, but he was here, and we talked, and yeah," I whispered.

"What's going on?"

She picked up the underlining. For the next hour and forty-five minutes, I spilled the beans and answered any questions.

"So, you can't go and tell Emma, because it'll raise too many questions, but you can't just do nothing. What do you need me to do, master?"

"I need you here as soon as possible and bring Nekko. I'm hoping that your heightened senses can pick up something, as well as Nekko's," I explained.

"And what if we don't?"

"Well, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it, but I need you here."

"I will be on my way, master."

Mimiku hung up, and I sighed heavily. I needed to head back to the site and see if I could find anything that would help Mimiku or anything that would lead me to another clue. I yanked my coat off a chair.

I opened my door, poking my head out. One way down the hall was cleared, and the other was lifeless.

The coast is clear.

I dashed out of the room and down the stairs as quietly as I could and tipped toed out the door, strangely without anyone seeing me. There was a crisp coolness in the air. Definitely not like the Seventh.

Walking down the block, I found a blind alley.

"I walk in the valley of the dead."

Upon speaking the words, my surroundings changed. The buildings were grey on the outside with non-piercing black interiors. The s.p.a.ce in between was white like fog.

This was the s.p.a.ce between life and death, purgatory. Restless spirits lingered here, becoming crazy, violent, waiting for death to come, and getting lost.

This, in my opinion, was the fasted way to travel. In this veil, I can cover dozens of miles in a matter of minutes and pa.s.s through objects unnoticed. I stretch out a leg. The earth rushed my past me.

By the time I set it down. I was outside the city limits. I smiled, feeling my power freely flowing through me.

It was relieving.

I walked, and a feeling, such a familiar wanting feeling, surfaced.

I wished I could be this, myself, all the time.

At no time at all, I was at the site once again. The Second's paladins had taped off the area and placed wars up.

Wards don't keep the dead out.

I pa.s.sed through unnoticed. I floated down into the hole that I had fallen in earlier. Everything in here was dark or grey except the blood. It blazed a fiery red.

All of it led to the center of the summoning circle. From there, red speckles fluttered upward and out to the surface. I hopped out of the hole following a chosen fleck.

I wandered through the cornfield until it met an end and the forest line appeared.

"Why hasn't anyone seen this?"

I phased out of the veil and tried looking for my speck. It was nowhere to be found. I reverted my eyes back into the veil, and the speck lit up like a flare.

"Interesting."

I trekked my way through the forest. Soon, my chosen speckle gathered with others of its kind. They didn't morph, piece together, or anything of that nature; they just fluttered to their destination. One of which, I hadn't discovered yet.

I had discovered bare footprints of a woman with sharp claws at her toe-tips. They were barely imprinted into the ground, in fact, I almost didn't see them. It was only by luck that I had come across them.

The prints were in-line with each other, long strides, but placed more pressure on the b.a.l.l.s of her feet. These flakes were following these tracks.

I don't think I want to know what's at the end.

I came upon a river. The flakes were able to cross just fine, but I would be taking my time. I looked back behind me. Dark, dense forest covered as far as my eyes could see.

"I need a better vantage point," I suggested.

Raising my head to the sky, eyes rolled back, my mind found the body of my crow. It was a few miles above me, circling. I had wondered far into the forest, further than I wanted to.

The Emma in my head was telling me that it was far too dangerous for me to be here alone.

"Sorry," I condoned.

I circled around and flew across the river. Thankfully, above the trees, I could still see the sparkling specks. They continued for another three miles.

They stopped at a thicker portion of the forest that I couldn't penetrate from all the way up here. I started to dive into the trees, but I was jerked out of the trance. Tumbling back onto the ground.

My bird was dead.

The last thing I remember was a sharp stabbing feeling in the bird's chest before I was pulled back to my body. Whatever is in that thicket, doesn't want things snooping about.

"Get help!"

Now, Mimiku was screaming in my head.

If she knew I was out here by myself.

I shuddered at the thought, but something forced me to press on. Stretching out my hand, human bones clicked and snapped together, forming a narrow bridge.

Once across, I snapped my fingers, and the bones fell back into the river to rest. I took a quick glance around, feeling that eyes were on me. I was a little creeped out.

The leave rustled with a soft, nearly inaudible voice. I strained my ears, turning them towards the sound, trying to figure out what was being spoken. Nothing could be deciphered.

Venturing further, the voice was getting stronger, but I still could make out what was being said. I knew it was coming from the thicket, and I knew that I shouldn't be so eager to go forth, but it was as if I was under a spell.

That stopped me. The voice was silent.

"So, it was a charm of sorts."

The silence was eerie and foreboding, every step I took was the loudest stomp. I even meticulously tiptoed watching out for every stick, rock, and branch; yet, I was the loudest being in the forest.

It knew that I was out here and probably preparing itself for my arrival. I didn't understand why I was calling it an 'IT." I knew that it was a demon. A demon that wasn't supposed to be freed, even by demons.

I froze in place, regretting coming out here alone. Every fiber of my body wanted to turn back. The voice came back, though it was unrecognizable, it beckoned me to continue to find out what in the dark, scarier part of the wood.

This is how horror movies start, and this is how this dumb dude is going to die.

Step, step.

Stronger and louder the song became, and it began to calm my nerves.

As I came upon the spot where the flacks gathered. I hide behind the brush to not be seen. With what view I could see from my hiding spot; nothing was out of place, and nothing could be seen.

Where was this song coming from?

A giggle arose from nowhere. I spun around, thinking that someone had snuck up on me. Again, the giggle snuck up on me, but this time from the front.

"h.e.l.lo?" I whispered.

Sad the one about to die.

Then the only thing creeping in the back of my mind was the 'rrrrrr' of a chain saw. The c.r.a.ppy situation to be thinking about, but who wouldn't be thinking about it in a place like this?

I pushed aside a few branches and stood right where the speckles were falling into a pile on the ground. Their flare was gone once they touched the pile. I squatted down and poked a finger through the collection.

It was a regular pile of ash.

"What are you doing down there?"

Out of fear, I zipped into the Veil. I whipped around, hoping that there would be someone there, but again, there was nothing but thin air. For the time being, they couldn't see me. Unfortunately, I still couldn't find them.

A rustling came above me on a branch. I gazed up and saw a beautiful, dark red-skinned, red glowing iris, a woman with a long, curved back, black horns, and she was naked.