“Oh, shit, it’s disgusting,” I choked.
The wood-like horns curled back from its face and were so long they almost made a perfect circle on each side of the gray demon’s head. The smell of burning flesh wafted off its skin. Smoke and ash billowed around it. Its large, jutting bottom jaw didn’t align with the top and it couldn’t get its mouth to close all the way, so saliva and remnants of its last meal dripped from its mouth. Its large, gray forehead was bare but for three circles in the center. The circles were in a line. Their sides touched but did not overlap. A line with a slight curve extended from the center of the middle circle. It almost looked like the picture of a cherry on a Vegas slot machine.
Its unblinking, black eyes stared at me. A reflection bounced back to me. But it wasn’t me I saw reflected in its eyes. It was the woman in the parking garage. Her face was twisted in pain and horror. Her mouth was open as if she were trying to scream, but no sound came out.
A gray hand grabbed my other wrist and jerked me forward. I fell out of the chair, hitting the kitchen floor on all fours.
Dragging her toward the hole. The smell is unbearable—sulfur and burning flesh. Screaming. The hem of a black dress scraped across the asphalt, her knees bleeding.
“A black dress. Red high heels and red fingernails. Tell her to find that woman now!” I panted. I couldn’t catch my breath.
“She says it’s the secretary. She’s talking with her now. Has it changed?”
I couldn’t answer. A gray hand wrapped around the woman’s throat. I felt everything. Its hands burned into her skin, squeezing so hard that she couldn’t take a breath. It pulled her toward the hole.
I shook my head no.
“Take the secretary somewhere. Out for coffee or something, but take a cab,” Chay told my mother.
I couldn’t breathe. I clawed at the invisible hands clutching my throat.
“Chay, they’re here.” It was Muriel’s voice.
“Damn it!” He dropped the phone and ran out of the house.
I struggled to stay conscious. Stars floated in front of my eyes. The thing in my vision still held the woman by the neck. Her head and shoulders were in the hole.
It’s hot. The hole glows at the bottom. It squeezes harder and pulls her by the neck… down… down… down. The heat is unbearable.
And then my arms buckled, and I fell face-first on the tiled floor, gulping in air. My lungs burned. My throat felt like sandpaper, and the smell of sulfur still stung my nose.
“It’s over,” I whispered.
“Aunt Rachael, Milayna says it’s over. Okay, okay… Bye.” Muriel ended the call. She knelt down and looked at me. “Are you okay?”
I pulled myself up to a sitting position and nodded, but tears stung my eyes. “I could feel it, Muriel. It was choking her, and I could feel it. The smell of sulfur burned my nose, and I could see the, oh good Lord, I could see its face.”
“Hobgoblins?” Chay asked.
I shook my head. I hadn’t heard him come back into the house. He knelt next to me.
“Muriel, get her something to drink.” He looked at me. “Then who?”
“How the hell am I supposed to know?” I whispered. The tears filling my eyes fell to my cheeks. I didn’t know what the monster was I’d seen. I just knew I didn’t want to see it again. Ever. Because as sure as I knew my own name, I knew that the creature was evil. It brought death.
Chay helped me up from the floor. He glided the pads of his thumbs over my cheeks and wiped away my tears. His touch was soft, and my heart stuttered. “They’re getting bad fast.”
It wasn’t a question, so I didn’t answer. I didn’t trust my voice. Chay’s hands still cupped my cheeks. I shivered.
“Let’s get you into the living room,” he murmured. He guided me to a big, overstuffed chair. I fell onto it and gripped the fluffy throw pillows. I pulled them over me like a shield. Chay knelt on the floor in front of me. With his hands resting on my knees, he studied my face. “You okay?”
“Yeah.”
I looked over Chay’s shoulder and realized we weren’t alone. In fact, there were five others in the room. Muriel was there, handing me a cold Coke. Jake and Drew were walking through the back door. Jen and Shayla stood behind Chay, their faces worried.
“How’d you guys get here so fast?”
“Muriel started the call chain,” Jen answered. “We all live in the same subdivision. Demis tend to gravitate to one another, so it doesn’t take long to get to each other’s houses.”
“What happened?” someone asked. I couldn’t tell who.
“Oh. Uh, I had a vision.” I hated that my voice quivered, though I wasn’t sure if it had to do with the vision or the fact that Chay was still touching me.
“A bad one,” Muriel added.
“Well, at least they’re gone. It wasn’t too difficult tonight.” Drew stood next to Muriel.
“Who?” No one answered me. “Who?”