Brandon spent a good five minutes trying everything he could to get his phone to cooperate, but after turning it off and back on several times, pressing every button he could think of, handing it over to Dax who did the same thing, and even shaking it up and down for several seconds, they had to accept the fact that their message hadn’t gone through, and they hadn’t received any new ones.
“That really sucks,” Elliott muttered, pacing back and forth in front of where the rest of the group was huddled near the entrance to the tunnel they’d occupied for at least six hours, or so it seemed by the way the portal was opening. “I don’t like this. I don’t like this one bit.”
“There’s likely a logical explanation,” Aaron said, his voice calmer than anyone else’s but still starting to crinkle around the edges. “I’m shocked it’s worked at all.”
“We must be out of range of a cell tower now,” Jamie reasoned. “Hopefully, we’ll get back near enough to one by the time the portal opens up again that it will go through then.”
“Yeah, well, I think it’s time to deploy a new tactic,” Elliott said, stopping and putting his hands on his hips. “I think the next time the damn things open, the kids go out. If they can get to the opening fast enough, and it doesn’t look like they’re going to end up in the middle of an asteroid belt, they go.”
“You want us to leave you here?” Brandon asked, not sure how he felt about that. As much as he’d just wanted to go for it the last few times the portal opened, the idea of leaving his dad behind wasn’t cool with him at all.
“Yep. We’ll be fine. It’ll be helpful even,” Elliott continued. “You can have a real conversation with Cadence and the rest of them, and you can let them know what it’s like in here.” He swiped at a plume of fog that hit him in the face, getting nowhere but further frustrated.
“If they’re goin’, I’m goin’. Hell, I shoulda gone already.” Heather folded her arms in defiance.
“That’s fine with me,” Aaron said, and Brandon turned to look at him, realizing that meant he was giving his blessing to Dax and Brandon going, too. “I just wish there was a way of knowing where to stand so we could be close enough to know for sure where to go.”
“Maybe we should practice running back and forth through the tunnels that haven’t opened yet,” Dax suggested. “We know that they’re rotating around us but that they’re staying in the same order, thanks to your clever numbering mechanism.” He glanced down at Aaron’s hand, as if he expected it to still be bleeding, which it wasn’t. “And we know which tunnels it won’t be.”
“The last few times it’s opened almost in a diagonal pattern,” Jamie pointed out. “So, if I had to guess, I’d say, it’d likely be on this side over here.” He gestured at an area near them.
“What’ll we do when we get out?” Dax asked, and Brandon noticed he seemed almost as scared at the thought of leaving as he had at staying. “What if we don’t know where we are?”
“Your IAC will work even if your phone doesn’t,” Aaron reminded him. “It has your current location embedded in it. They’ll be able to find you.”
“What if there’s a whole host of Vampires waiting for us? They could capture us,” the teen continued.
“Do you want to stay here?” Elliott asked.
Dax didn’t get his answer out before a sound they hadn’t heard before alerted them that someone, or something was approaching.
“Get down!” Heather whispered, grabbing ahold of Elliott’s arm and yanking him down to where the others were sitting. Heather got up on her haunches like she was about to run and readied her weapon.
From one of the tunnels across from them, a scratching sound began to echo off of the cave walls accompanied by what sounded like fabric blowing in the wind. It was an odd combination of noises, and Brandon knew he’d never heard anything like it before. He suddenly realized that all of the other sounds had stopped. The hissing and howling they’d grown accustom to had been getting louder such that he expected another attack soon, but now, they couldn’t hear a thing except for whatever was making its way down the tunnel.
“What is it?” Aaron whispered so quietly on the other side of Heather’s head, Brandon probably wouldn’t have even known what his boss had said if he hadn’t been thinking exactly the same thing.
“Demon hunter,” she said, her voice a breath. “Might not hurt us. Seen ‘em do damage to others, though. Stay low.” Slowly, she began to shift her weight back and forth, working across the cave floor to the opposite wall, peering around the edge.
The others followed suit, except for Dax who creeped back down the tunnel, away from the opening. Jamie also didn’t seem interested in seeing the creature and stayed a few feet behind them, nearer to Dax.
Brandon’s view was slightly obscured by the fact that his dad had his arms extended behind him, holding his son into place, like he was going to protect him should the monster head their direction. But he could see well enough over the top of Heather’s blonde head, around Elliott’s shoulder.
The silhouette took shape before the being ever stepped out of the tunnel’s mouth, and it was unlike anything he’d ever seen before. The first thought that entered his mind to describe it was if a cloud was attacked by a pair of gardening sheers—and it wasn’t too happy about it. The shadow wasn’t even black as it flickered across the fog, but when the demon hunter itself stepped out into the tunnel opening, it was wispy and white, with a sharp hint of a face formed by the smoke like substance that seemed to make up the entire creature. It’s eyes were orbs of black with white flecks in the middle, and it’s feet reminded him of a tauntaun from Star Wars because they were white and clawed.
In a sharp whisper, Heather recited, “‘I looked and there before me was a pale horse! And its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him.’”
Brandon had had enough and started backing toward Dax, dragging his dad with him who wasn’t about to let go of his son after seeing that. Aaron and Heather came along, too, and once they were in a more central location, where they would have enough time to react should something approach from either direction, Elliott asked, “You say that thing is a demon hunter?”
“Yep. They get in sometimes, and when they do, the demons all scatter. So in that regard, it’s a good thing. But eventually, it’ll get pushed back out. There’s probably more than one. They usually travel in groups.” She eyed the Guardians as if they were similar.
“Did you say you’ve seen it kill something other than demons?” Jamie asked, rejoining them.
“Yep, lotsa times. They don’t never seem too interested in me, though. I got away from ‘em a couple times. Others, they just steered clear a me.”
“But... I didn’t think anyone else had been in here with you,” Dax said, coming up behind her.
“Why’d you think that? Hell, there’s been lotsa Vampires in here over the years. Dumb sons of bitches who thought they could get away with usin’ the damn thing one more time. They don’t ever make it more than a couple hours. Then there’s the poor pathetic humans who wander in and freak out. Usually, the demons’ll get ‘em but I’ve seen the demon hunters tear ‘em up, too.”
“Great. Just great,” Elliott muttered.
“Where are all of the remains?” Aaron asked.
“Hell if I know. Cave’ll claim ‘em eventually, I guess, just like it does the demons. I already told you I found a pile of bones back there, though.”
“I was under the impression those had been here for a long time, longer than you’d been in here.”
She shrugged like she didn’t see the difference. “You leave ‘em critters alone, they’ll likely leave you alone.”
A shriek filled the air, cutting off any sort of response any of them might have formed. It chilled Brandon to the core and reminded him of Irish folktales about banshees he’d read when he was in middle school and was constantly looking for new ways to terrify himself. It was a high pitched squeal that shook the cave enough to shake down some of the rocks from the ceiling.
“That means it’s got a demon in its sights. You just wait. There’ll be plenty of hollerin’ here in a minute.”
“Let’s move that way,” Jamie suggested, pointing down the tunnel away from where they’d been sitting. “If we think that the portal will open on the far side away from the demon hunter next, we may as well head in that direction.”
“All right, but keep yer eyes peeled. I’m tellin’ ya, I ain’t never seen just one.”
“And you said they usually get pushed back out?” Dax asked. “Through the portal opening, the same one we’re about to try to use?”
“Yep, but I reckon it’ll stay in here longer than that. It’ll probably only give us trouble in a day or two. If we’re still around by then. I ain’t gonna be, though. I gotta good feelin’ about this next openin’. I think it’s the one.”
Brandon followed Heather down the tunnel, headed the direction Jamie had indicated, hoping she was right but glad his dad was behind him. He didn’t need to run into that creature if he could help it. He would’ve felt much more confident about his abilities to defeat it if he hadn’t seen Alex pass away. Now, he had an idea a demon hunter could kill just about anything it wanted to. Another shriek, followed by a low growl and the sound of bodies banging off of walls resounded from across the cave as they headed on, and Brandon prayed they weren’t about to run into a tall, wispy opponent.
