Chapter Forty
Oh, what now?
In the time that I’ve shared a room with Zarmenus, I’ve been woken up by so many different things that I truly don’t know what to expect when I open my eyes. Has the tentacled creature under the bed finally decided to show its face? Or is it some new horror?
My eyes adjust to the darkness, and I can make out a shadowy figure standing over Zarmenus’s bed. Actually, there are a few of them, as two are standing by the door. They are human in shape, but their faces are gold and featureless.
“Do it,” whispers one. Their voice is surprising in that it’s so ordinary, so distinctly human. “Before he wakes up.”
My eyes have adjusted so I can see those aren’t their faces. They are people, wearing golden masks. They’re detailed and ornate, the metal inscribed with patterns that look like rays of the sun. Then it clicks.
They aren’t some supernatural horror.
They’re cultists.
I’d guess they’re members of the Order of the Golden Sun.
One of them presses a cloth over Zarmenus’s mouth.
He wakes up and starts to struggle, but the other figures leap forward, pinning his arms and legs down.
Zarmenus kicks at them, but they must be strong, as they manage to hold him down.
I expect Zarmenus to send them flying, to deal with them as easily as he did the first demon hunter who attacked him.
But he doesn’t. He seems to be trying his hardest, but he can’t get them off.
I need to do something. What, though? There are three of them. And if they can overpower the prince of Hell, what can I do?
Whoever they are, they’re clearly a threat. They’re busy with thrashing Zarmenus, so they haven’t noticed me. I move my hand until I reach my phone. It might not be my first choice of weapon, but it’s the only thing close by.
My bed creaks, and the masked figures all turn to face me. I go still, pretending to be asleep.
“He’s awake,” says the cultist by the door.
“Don’t hurt him! He’s why we’re doing this, remember? He’s been brainwashed. It’s the only way a human could love a demon.”
“Hey!” I shout. “Let him go!”
Before they can respond I throw my phone at them.
It does nothing.
“You, deal with him.”
The figure at the end of the bed takes a step toward me. They reach into their robe to pull out a golden dagger. As they advance, they pull it from its sheath, and start waving it at me.
“Be quiet,” they say.
I raise my hands. I don’t want to be quiet, because I know whatever they want to do to Zarmenus won’t end well. Now my fear starts to spike. Why isn’t he fighting? I’ve seen what he can do. He should be able to take all of them out in two seconds.
“Pick him up,” says the largest of the three, the one I hit with the phone. The one at the end is still holding his knife toward me. Is Zarmenus afraid of hurting them? Or have they really beaten him? I feel my heartbeat in my throat.
The two remaining figures pick Zarmenus up, one holding him by the shoulders and the other by his legs. I keep hoping he’ll move, or fight back, or do something.
“If you follow us,” says the leader, “you’ll regret it.”
They carry Zarmenus out of the room, and slam the door shut behind them.
As soon as they’re gone, I grab my phone from the floor. I decide to slow down for a second, to make sure I get this right. Who do you call if your roommate is kidnapped by a bunch of masked cultists? Campus security don’t seem like they’ll be enough, so I call the police.
“Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?”
“Hi,” I say. “My roommate’s just been kidnapped, I need someone to come right now. They were wearing robes, and I think they drugged him. Please, you need to hurry, I think they’re going to hurt him.”
“Okay, I’ll send a dispatch, just try to breathe, all right? Where are you?”
“I’m in my room, at Point. In Clark Hall,” I say. “They came in and took him, and I think they’re going to hurt him. Please, you have to hurry.”
“First, you’ll need to answer this: Is your roommate human?”
Is he serious? The tone of his voice has changed, and now it seems like he’s smiling.
“Tonight, evil will be vanquished,” he says. “Tomorrow, the sun rises.”
The line goes dead.
Crap, okay. So the freaking dispatcher is a cultist, too.
How many of them are there? What can I do?
I try to think of something, anything. If they have the dispatcher on their side, this must be bigger than a random attack.
This is their grand plan, the strike against demonkind they’ve talked about online.
This is a serious threat, maybe the most serious we’ve ever faced.
Zarmenus is in danger, and I have to help him. I just can’t think of what to do.
My hands shaking, I try calling campus security.
Bell appears on my bed, and jumps down onto the floor. She stops at the foot of my bed and meows loudly. The call rings out.
Bell meows again, even louder.
What does she want? Now is not the time.
“Seriously, you want attention now?”
She bangs her head against my leg, and swats at me with one of her paws.
“No, Bell, I need to think.”
I should call the police. Bell meows again, only this time, it’s deep and distorted. My phone makes a buzzing noise and zaps my arm. I fling my phone away on instinct, and when I check the screen, it won’t turn on. Bell turns her head to the side, her eyes wide.
“Did you do that?” I ask.
She sits still, watching me. Her ear twitches.
Then it clicks. She’s trying to get my attention. And she’s from Hell. As strange as it is to think, she might be the best person to help right now.
“What do you want me to do?” I ask.
She leaps into my arms. I catch her, and she clings to me. Then she points her head at the door.
“Do you want to follow them?”
She meows.
I grab my key card. As I shove it in my pocket, I see the pitchfork by the closet. I grab it, then run out of the room.
Outside, I skid to a stop. The cultists are nowhere to be seen, nor are the police.
“Bell,” I say, somewhat struggling with the fact that I am talking to a cat. “Where should we go?”
Owen, can you hear me?
Zarmenus’s voice rings through my mind, as clear as day.
Owen? Hello?
“Zarmenus? Where are you?”
You have to think your responses, I’m not near you.
I try to think my response.
Yes, I can hear you.
Cool, okay! Can you bring Bell to the church on the south side? The cult is trying to kill me.
I think back, The south-side church? That’s near where my comparative politics lecture is. It’s about a twenty-minute walk.
Don’t worry, you’ve got some time, they’re doing some sermon. It’s a bit dry for my taste. But go as quick as you can.
Clutching Bell and the pitchfork, I run across campus.
When I reach the church, the heavy wooden front doors are open. I sprint inside, then stop in my tracks.
The church is full of people in heavy robes and gold masks.
At the front of the room, on his knees, with a dagger to his throat, is Zarmenus.
Standing behind him is a man in a white robe, wearing a huge golden mask shaped like the sun.
He’s currently mid-speech, and is holding both a golden cup and a dagger.
He notices me. “Who are you?”
The entire assembly turns to face me. There must be a hundred of them. This is the biggest place of worship on campus, a gray brick building with a huge stained-glass window at the back.
The leader is waiting for a response.
“Um, I’m Owen,” I say. “Zarmenus’s boyfriend.”
Bell wiggles out of my hands, and drops to the floor. She runs down the aisle, toward the man in white robes. The cultists stop to watch her.
As she reaches the front of the church, she leaps.
Midair, she starts to grow. When she crashes into the leader, she’s the size of a tiger.
The pair tumble to the back of the room, rolling over the altar.
Zarmenus smiles, and a gust of wind sweeps across the space, blowing out the candles and causing the front doors to slam shut.
Zarmenus stands, and the ropes binding his hands burn to cinders. Bell, who is now so tall she is easily double my height, leaps over him, her teeth bared. She crashes into the crowd, pinning a few attendees beneath her paws.
Cultists scatter, running toward the exit.
When they find it locked, they start pounding their hands against the doors.
Bell leaps around, catching prey in her teeth and tossing them like rag dolls.
A man runs at her, his golden dagger raised, but she sends him tumbling with a quick swat of her scorpion-like tail.
Zarmenus starts to laugh as he transforms into his winged form.
Flames appear on his fists, and he throws them at a cultist. Their robes catch fire, and they run screaming toward the locked exit.
“You,” growls a voice.
I turn. A cultist pulls off their mask. It’s Adam, his face twisted with hatred.
“You’re going to pay for this,” he says as he pulls a knife from the robes of his cloak. “Nobody makes a fool out of Adam Prampin!”
Zarmenus notices me. In a blur of movement, he’s suddenly right in front of me. He punches Adam in the face, dropping him to the floor.
“I’ve wanted to do that for ages,” says Zarmenus. “You got here fast.”
“I ran,” I say. “What’s going on?”
“I’ll explain in a second, but you’re amazing.” He gives me a quick kiss on the cheek. It seemed like a spur-of-the-moment thing, something neither of us was expecting. Despite the chaos around us, we’re both still here, locked in place.
His eyebrows narrow. “Why did you bring the pitchfork?”
“I thought you might need it.”
I offer it to him.
“You know it’s decorative, right? You humans got a lot about us right, but got a lot wrong.”
“Oh.”
“I appreciate it, though,” he says. He takes it and passes it from hand to hand, seemingly impressed by its weight. “Actually, this’ll do. Duck!”
I bend down, and Zarmenus swings the pitchfork over my head. It smacks flat side first into a cultist’s chest, knocking them over.
That was too close for comfort. Way too close for comfort. A bunch of the cultists have figured out escape is impossible, and have armed themselves.
“Excuse me,” says Zarmenus.
He takes flight, flying up to the top of the church.
Then he starts lobbing fireballs from his free hand.
I run up and hide behind the altar. One person tries to grab me, but Zarmenus swoops down before they can, carrying them up into the air.
Some shoot at him with crossbows, but he burns them all away.
Bell is equally devastating as she jumps around, treating the cultists like playthings.
It doesn’t take the two of them long to wipe out every single enemy. The church is now a mess, with broken pews covered in the limp bodies of cultists. Nobody has been killed, but they’ve all been knocked out.
Zarmenus lands in front of me, then transforms back into his human form.
“Okay, you deserve an explanation,” he says. “Humans learn best through lived experiences, and they needed to learn they can’t hurt me. Do you think they’ve learned enough?”
I look around.
“I’d say so,” I say, my voice trembling.
Zarmenus waves a hand, and the church doors fly open. Bell pads up to us, shrinking down to her normal size.
“Was that fun, girl?” asks Zarmenus as he picks her up and plants a kiss on the top of her head. She does a little meow that is the most adorable thing I’ve ever heard.
“Actually,” says Zarmenus, “there’s one last thing I need to do. They could’ve hurt you, so I’m ending this cult for good.”
“How?” I ask.
He starts to grin. “I’m going to tell my mom.”