Theo – Part 8

When the two goons broke into the room, likely hoping to catch the young wizard with his pants down, they were shocked to realize they literally did. Time seemed to stretch for Theo who had managed to wrench open the window. There was a moment of stagnant confusion amongst Skinner’s men when they entered, then everything happened too quickly for Theo to keep track of.

He heard the goons inhale in sudden surprise as they entered; watched as the demon's wrist that looked perfectly secure in their bondage links, suddenly snap—as if the cuffs were made from nothing more than wet parchment. The boy withdrew himself from the demon’s mouth in a flash and turned to face the intruders.

But before Theo could swing into the room, the demon was across the room in a tornado of ashen smoke, seemingly wasting no time to protect her master. Before the first goon could raise his weapon to defend himself, there was a snap. A clean and sickening snap; the goon fell limply as if he were no more than a sack of potatoes. The second goon in line managed a yell but then met a similar fate. The corridor where Skinner and his goons resided became a torrent of screams and begs for mercy, and the demon gave none as she tore her way through them as easily as a wolf rips through rats.

Theo lunged inside slipping on the slick wet floor coated in blood and dived towards the boy. The boy had just enough time to conceal his manhood when Theo took his back and raised a dagger to his throat.

“Banish her NOW!” He yelled and instantly regretted his decision to shout, or even enter the room at all. Within the doorframe leading out into the darkened hall where Skinner and his men were (or what was left of them), stood the demon. She appeared cloaked in ashen smoke that swirled around her like mist and was coated in crimson to the elbows. Her eyes were black as ink and a sinister grin stretched ear to ear on her face.

“This little piggy stayed at home,” the demon said, and Theo felt his bladder let go. The demon’s breasts were still free but glistened red with the blood of her victims. She took a step into the room but halted for half a heartbeat when Theo raised the knife into the boy neck—enough to break the skin slightly.

“Banish her” Theo whispered in the ear of his hostage, but no sooner than he said it, he heard the boy’s bladder go as well. Theo now knew for certain he was way over his head. Seeing the demon tear her way through those men like that as if they were no more than puppies in the face of a hungry bear; maybe the boy thought he could control her. None of that mattered now, if the boy could not find the courage to banish her, Theo’s life was running dangerously short.

“Let my Master go,” the demon said softly “and I’ll let you live”. The tone of her voice could not have been more contemptuous. Theo backed up to the wall behind him, attempting to limit the demon’s openings for attack.

“Banish her,” Theo said again, this time almost begging.

The demon took a step forward and crushed the skull of the first goon under her foot. The demon looked down startled as if she hadn’t noticed the body was there.

“Oopsie,” she said.

What attempt the boy considered to banish the demon, now ran down his leg for the second time—as blood and brain burst across the floor in front of them.

The demon lowered her posture and smiled, preparing her lunge forward. Theo considered cutting the boy's throat in his last moments but before he could, a red bat zipped itself in through the window—giving the demon a moment of pause. It struck the ground hard and materialized into a Thana, the boy loosened his bowls this time and the demon hissed scornfully.

“Get out of my city demon whore” Thana said, and Theo noticed she wielded one of his daggers in her left hand, the dagger he threw at her down in that tunnel. For a brief second, Theo noticed the demon reconsider the situation. Thana was a monster just like the demon, and both seemed to stalemate before each other.

“Call a guard!” came a woman’s scream down the hall behind them, followed by what sounded like someone throwing up. The demon and Thana both held their eye contact, not flinching or saying a word to each other for some time.

Theo could smell the boy’s bowls hit his nostrils and it seemed to awaken him from his sudden shock.

“Banish herrrrrr” he hissed into the boy’s ear and was relieved when he heard the boy mutter something under his breath. At first, he took it for prayer but later noticed the words weren’t of the common tongue, nor were they elvish, or dwarvish. The language was guttural and harsh on the tongue. The demon seemed to hear the words too because she lunged, but Thana lunged too and the two of them went crashing into each other in a tangle of claws and teeth and smoke. Theo loosened the dagger from the boy’s throat hoping it would ease him a little and the boy continued his incantation.

“Usstan rusvanar tau” he finished and then there was a scream, but not a mortal yell— a demonic one. The room seemed to explode into darkness and when Theo had the courage to open his eyes again, he saw Thana standing there, in the center of the room. The floors and walls were coated in ash, and Theo knew the demon did not go willingly. He dropped the boy wizard at his feet and paced towards Thana.

When he gripped her shoulder, she pulled away. She was wounded, properly wounded; Theo saw a gash across her abdomen, a three-pronged cut from hip to hip. Thana pushed him away, a little too forcefully and Theo fell to the floor.

“Go get skinner, he’s bleeding down the hall,” Thana said wincing at the pain from her cuts, but Theo could already see them healing before his very eyes. “I can smell his blood, he’s the only one that’s still alive, hurry”

Theo stood and did as he was ordered. He walked around Thana, not daring to touch her or even speak to her—in the fear she might kill him there and then. Why she had tried to save him, save Skinner, help the guild; they were all questions he didn’t need an answer to right now. He stepped over the man that had had his head crushed beneath the foot of the demon and looked back at the boy.

“I’ll get him back to the guild, just go get Skinner. The guards will be here soon, hurry!”

Theo nodded and tiptoed amongst the dead that piled in the hallway. The demon had not held back, many of the goons were torn in two, some torn in five. All were dead, all except one.

Skinner was at the rear end of the hallway and lay beneath the corpse of a goon. Theo lifted the goon’s torso and noticed his head was gone. He held vomit in his throat and picked Skinner up by the chest, holstering him over his shoulder. Lucky for Theo, Skinner was as light as he was, and missing much of his left arm.

A resident from the complex peered out in the hallway, no doubt hearing Theo struggle to lift the guild’s leader—but the door immediately shut when Theo locked eyes with the man.

The mission had gone to shit, but if Thana was to do her job and get the boy back to the guild, and Skinner managed to survive, it would still be a success; for what that was worth.

Theo stumbled down the crooked staircase and out into the night streets of Leeside. He took pleasure in tasting the night air again, its clean, crisp taste was better than ash, blood, and death.

There was a bustle of noise growing now, as the people of Leeside woke up to the disturbance that just took place. Theo managed to make it to a sewer grate before the muscles in his legs gave up and managed to get Skinner down the sewer ladder safely. In the sewer, he could rest a minute before continuing and in that minute, Theo contemplated how close he had come to death yet again, and how it was Thana that saved him this time.

‘Do the God’s play with me’ was his last thought before he lifted Skinner up again.