With a shriek that blew out the windows in the kitchen, Chul wrenched himself away from the open hell portal and glowered at the two humans who dared to manipulate him. His glistening cluster of dull orange eyes rotated on their stems. Deegie saw the flames of the Underworld reflected in them. Before either of the witches could react, a thick black tentacle, solid and not at all like smoke, uncoiled from the demon’s body and wrapped itself around Gilbert’s waist. Then, like the arm of a demonic octopus, it tightened, clenched, and began dragging him upward towards the maliciously grinning crescent mouth and its ring of jagged, gnashing fangs. The blind, questing hand of bones from the Underworld, as if sensing a comrade in the furious Chul, crept across the floor, feeling its way to where hot blood and living flesh writhed and screamed in terror.
Deegie’s mouth went slack and, in utter shock, she watched as Gilbert was lifted off the floor and hoisted towards the demon’s unholy slavering maw. She raised her hands, intending to hammer Chul with the last of her power reserves, but realized that the risk of hitting Gilbert was too great. She grabbed for his flailing legs instead, wrapped her hands around his ankles, and pulled for all she was worth while she screamed for Zach, hoping desperately that he heard her.
“MINE! GIVE ME WHAT IS MINE! HOW DARE YOU SUMMON ME WITHOUT PAYMENT?!” The Gate Keeper of the Underworld shook the walls of the old house with his furious foghorn voice, and his massive hand pawed and swiped at the unfortunate, dangling Gilbert.
“Zach! Help me! It’s killing Gilbert! Zach!” Deegie screamed out for her friend again as she desperately clung to Gilbert’s ankles. Above her head, she saw his bulging, horrified eyes looking down at her, saw his lips were moving in a silent prayer.
He managed to get a hand free, and he fired off a blast that struck the creeping, clattering hand of the Underworld Gate Keeper. The end of its cadaverous middle finger disintegrated in a riot of bone dust and red sparks. An ear-splitting bellow from the other side of the portal followed, and it retreated to the fiery depths, dragging its ruined digit. The jagged bone carved a long gouge in the wooden floor. Another random bolt from Gilbert’s wildly waving hand missed its intended target and exploded against the kitchen wall. Cabinet doors flew open, and their load of plates, cups, and glasses smashed into jagged shards on the floor. Distracted by the noise of Gilbert’s attempts to free himself, and the running footfalls of Zach as he pounded down the hall, Chul’s grip on his prey loosened, and with another mighty yank from Deegie, Gilbert fell to the floor just as his brother returned.
Zach skidded in a pool of Chul’s putrid slobber, and he went to one knee just as Gilbert dropped to the floor in front of him. Gilbert’s shirt had come untucked, and his abdomen bore a row of bloody welts, but he was alive. On his hands and knees, Zach closed the distance between himself and his brother. Looming above the both of them, with insanely grinning mouth and staring, insectile eyes, was the thing from the basement.
The towering demon uncoiled a tentacle and sent it undulating in Zach’s direction. Chul’s foul appendage twined around his waist in a deadly noose, and as he was lifted off the floor, he uttered a single word:
“Deegie?”
Deegie shot a flash of light, bluish-white like a flashbulb, through the air, where it vaporized the deadly coil around Zach’s body. Draped in whirling black smoke, with her upper lip lifted in a sneer, she screamed, “Leave them alone you bastard! Get out of my house!”
A high-pitched whine began in Deegie’s ears, and she wobbled on her feet as she struggled to remain standing. The last of her powers left her in a string of fading pops and fizzles. Weak sparks dropped sluggishly from her fingertips. Her lungs burned as she pulled in huge, ragged breaths of the polluted air, and she asked, prayed, BESEECHED all the gods, all the goddesses to give her just a little more, just enough to send Chul back to the stinking pit from which he came.
The demon’s clustered eyes rolled her way, dangling obscenely on their stalks. The drooling, cavernous mouth twisted into a mocking, sardonic smile.
From the pit of her stomach, a rage unlike any she had ever known rose upward in a burning trail and settled in her wildly pounding heart. This disgusting creature, this wretched, inhuman thing had invaded her new home, disrupted her life, stunk up her kitchen, and was now trying to kill her friends. She was barely conscious of her hands tightening into hard, white fists, and, despite the heat pouring through the open portal, icy ribbons of sweat trailed down her back and trickled between her breasts. “Get out of my house! Go to Hell!” She barely recognized her own voice as she screamed her demand. Deegie lifted her hands, palms out, and her mind gave one last gigantic PUSH. Blinding red lightning bolts shot from her fingertips, and Chul’s entire left side exploded into inky shreds.
The force of the blow knocked Deegie off her feet and hurled her backwards into the wall. Multicolored stars blazed across her vision, and she sank to the floor, galvanized by a headache so agonizing it was nearly exquisite. Through fluttering, half-closed lids, she watched as Chul advanced on her, shrieking in outrage, his remaining eyes rolling crazily. He sent out another thick tentacle, and it bounced and hunched across the floor towards her while he gnashed his filthy, crooked fangs. Green foam poured out of his mouth and splattered down on her legs.
I hope I hurt you, asshole! Deegie tried to say it out loud but she hadn’t the strength. I hope I taste as horrible as you look. I hope I make you puke!
Through the smoke and chaos, she saw Zach and Gilbert huddled against the wall next to the kitchen, and she struggled to raise her head, fought to form words. The Altman brothers had offered to help her and now they were going to die because she thought she could take on a demon. And Bast—what was to become of him? She’d left him at the brothers’ house, sleeping on one of Zach’s old T-shirts. Would he miss her? Would a kind soul take him in?
Chul crouched next to her now, and she felt the ghastly touch of his tentacles on her skin. Dank, scalding breath, reminiscent of an open sewer, blew into her face. With a mighty effort, she lifted a hand and raised her middle finger. I hope you choke on me!
On the outer edge of her vision, she saw something huge and tawny and moving fast. When it streaked past her, she realized what it was: Tiger! She saw him, actually saw him in his true form. He was breathtaking and magnificent, more beautiful than any mortal tiger. When he reared up on his hind legs, the top of his massive head brushed the ceiling. A swipe of his enormous paw relieved Chul of the rest of his eyes, but the wildly thrashing tentacle meant for Deegie snaked around Tiger’s neck and tightened. Another writhing appendage materialized from inside Chul’s body and waved menacingly in the air, looking for an opening.
Deegie clawed at the floor and pushed with her legs, trying desperately to crawl out of the way of the two battling titans, but even the slightest motion intensified her agony. A fist ground itself into the back of her T-shirt, and she felt herself being dragged across the floor. Zach’s voice was loud in her ear, asking her over and over if she was okay. She shook her pain-filled head and wrenched it around, focusing as best she could on the supernatural battle taking place in her home.
Despite the choking tentacle around his neck, Tiger seemed to be gaining the advantage over Chul. The six-inch scythe-like claws of his front feet slashed and tore at Chul’s already mutilated body, and Tiger propelled Chul steadily backwards towards the open portal. Chul, blinded and steadily weakening, offered little resistance; his dark body slipped over the threshold. He sent out three more appendages, all flailing and whiplashing through the air as he scrabbled madly for purchase. Bellowing and shrieking, he teetered on the edge, then fell into the flaming portal.
And he took Tiger with him.
Deegie heard someone screaming, hoarse, loud, and long, and it took several long seconds before she realized it was herself. Zach had her in his arms, checking her for injuries, and saying her name over and over, and she heard Gilbert’s hoarse yell:
“Deegie, close it! Close the portal before it gets out!”
His hand sought hers, squeezing tightly. “Deeg, please! Just be my conduit, just say the words and I’ll send the energy. Say them, Deegie!”
Zach pulled her into a sitting position and patted her cheeks smartly. “Say the words, honey. Come on, it’s almost over. Don’t let it get out again!”
She raised her head and fixed her eyes on the seething furnace that had just swallowed the friend she’d known since childhood. With the last of her strength, she shouted the words that she’d learned from her father’s dark Book of Shadows: “Claudere porta a malus!”
Deegie felt a sharp, crackling sensation where her hand joined with Gilbert’s, and she squinted against the brilliant light that streamed from his free hand. “We revoke our invitation! We command all who would do us harm to leave this place and never return!” She gasped out the rest of the words and held onto consciousness long enough to see the edges of the portal draw inward, slowly at first, then faster and faster. Just before it closed entirely, Deegie caught a glimpse of a black, man-shaped silhouette wearing a round-brimmed hat. The edges of the portal pinched shut with a whispery crackle, and the rift between the worlds was no longer there.