Fifty-nine

Out of two hallways came a scattering of the monster men. On the right a scrum of burly men with the heads of bulls roared forward swinging clubs and axes. On the right, two smaller men with the heads of cats held rifles, while a half a dozen more poured out of the other corridors with swords, axes, and clubs.

Skella ran to Bub and slid to her knees at his side. I turned and rushed the men with rifles, screaming. Jimmy’s own cry reached me as I smashed into them.

One of them got off a shot as I slammed Gram down, severing both arms, and cutting the rifle in half. I staggered as the bullet thumped into my chest, knocking me back a step. I’d feel that later. I assumed the chain stopped it since I didn’t fall over.

The armless guy fell back screaming, the stumps of his arms flailing, spraying me with black blood.

His partner stepped forward and swung his rifle around, catching me in the shoulder, causing me to lurch to the left and nearly go down in the slick blood. I careened against the wall, caught my balance, and juked to the side as he stabbed the bayonet forward, missing me by a hair’s-breadth. The steel rang as it sparked off the cinder block wall and the blade snapped.

I smashed my right hand forward, catching the bastard in the face with the book. He dropped his rifle and brought his hands to his smoking face. I stepped back as his head caved in on one side, melted by a flare of purple light that exploded from the book.

In the flash of light, I saw the Bowler Hat Man back in the deep shadows. These were the shock troops. He’d enter the fray after they’d won or fallen.

I backed out of the hall, glancing around to see how the others were faring. Skella had Bub’s head in her lap and his wounds were a glowing swath of light casting her face in awkward shadows. He was breathing, but she did not look pleased.

Jimmy had taken down three of the other fighters, but was having a hard time keeping the rest from either bringing him down or getting past him to Skella and Bub.

I launched myself into the flank of the oncoming baddies, smashing one with the book, causing another explosion of energy—this one green. The light slashed through several of them like shrapnel causing two to drop and a third to fall back holding his face. I dropped him with a quick thrust of Gram, kicked a second to the side and engaged the final man in that hall.

“About time,” Jimmy grunted as he parried a poorly aimed strike with a short spear and swept the tip of his blade across the monster man’s eyes. The ugly fell back with a cry as two more stepped forward to take his place.

Skella screamed.

“Skella,” I shouted, dancing with my own enemy.

I glanced over, and she was dodging a blow from the Bowler Hat Man. He had come forward too quietly for me to notice, what with all the battle going on. He wielded twin axes, dancing an intricate web of flashing steel and verbal derision.

I made out a few words my mother would blanch at. Skella had no place to go and had just missed getting hit with one of the axes when Bub lurched forward and swiped the inside of the man’s thigh with his claws.

The man roared like a banshee, which thankfully he wasn’t, and I put down my last bad guy. Jimmy was being hard pressed by four of the burly men with clubs. “Hold the fort, Jim,” I called as I swung around toward Skella. The Bowler Hat Man smashed an axe down, catching Bub in the shoulder. He crumpled, lifeless and broken.

“Fuck you,” I cried, leaping over Bub’s body. My vision started to blur as the berserker finally kicked in. Skella fell to the side as she caught a glancing blow from one of the axes, but I dove over her, catching the man in the chest and knocking him back into the hallway he’d come down. We landed hard, my shoulder in his chest, and he grunted, dropping the axes. I scrambled back, looking around. I’d dropped the book, but managed to keep my hands on Gram.

I was on one knee, debating standing or just fighting the guy on the ground, when something very pointy stabbed me in the back. The world sloughed sideways, the walls running like melted cheese. My body seized up, poison flowed into me, pumping from the bulbous poison sacs of a huge millipede that had dropped from the ceiling.

That’s gonna leave a mark, I thought as my vision blurred.

I lurched to the side, trying to bring Gram around to stab the damn thing, but I couldn’t lift my hand. The Bowler Hat Man had his knee on my wrist and was trying to wrench the blade free.

I was rightly fucked. I punched upward, striking the millipede with my right fist, but I was growing too weak to make much of a difference. Then it bent itself back, extracting its stinger and screaming. Skella stood there, blood running down her face, with her torch thrust into the great thrashing creature.

The Bowler Hat Man stumbled back, giving up on getting Gram and picked up one of his fallen axes. I rolled to the side, vomited once, and pushed myself up onto my hands and knees.

Skella pushed the millipede thing away with the torch, and it curled up in a ball, smoking and writhing, the screaming rising in pitch. The sound pierced my head with such pain that I vomited again. I gripped Gram with both hands and forced myself up onto my knees, then let gravity help me smash the sword down on the beast, severing it in two.

The screaming stopped, and I fell back against the wall on my backside, Gram in one hand and my other on Skella’s leg. She stood over me, waving the torch, keeping the Bowler Hat Man from advancing.

“Tut, tut,” he clucked, a grin spreading across his face. “You are already dead, my pretty. I’d prefer to play with you a bit before you fade away, but I think you’ll be entertaining even after you’re dead.”

“Try me now,” I said, almost too weak to talk. “Give me your best shot. See how you like it.”

My vision faded in and out as he laughed at me, standing there, just out of reach with one axe in his hand, and his hair a disheveled mess. Funny, I’d assumed he was bald the way he kept that damn hat on all the time.

I could hear battle coming from the main hall. Jimmy was still fighting. I just wish I could stand up.

Skella waved the torch in front of us, and the man laughed, his voice like a nightmare.

“Don’t you worry, missy. I’ll be having a go with you as well. It’s just this bitch that’s been haunting me. Her I want to hurt. You I’ll take my time with, let you linger a while. I bet you’ll be delicious.”

I looked to one side, then the other, looking for the book.

The man followed my gaze, stepped to my side, and knelt down next to the book. “Is this what you’re looking for?” he asked. “I want to thank you for bringing it to me, after all these years, it’s finally mine once more.”

“Don’t touch it,” I said, half hoping he would. Maybe it would burn him up. But there was something about him, something older and fouler than the other denizens of this fucked up dimension. I had a feeling that if he touched it, he’d turn it, corrupt it.

Wait. Did he say the book was his?

“I saw what you did to some of my boys with that little book,” he said, keeping a fair distance away. “I think I’ll let it sit for now.”

He stood, stepped over the book and walked past us toward the mouth of the hallway.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll see to my great grandson.”

“Warn Jimmy,” I said, but the world slid sideways and I fell over. Grandson? Jimmy?

Screams filled the corridor, and a roar like a grizzly echoed down the hallway. I truly hoped it was on our side.