The Devil's Labyrinth

CHAPTER 37

JEFFREY HOLMES OPENED his eyes and looked around, but the darkness was so deep that he had to put his fingers to his face to make certain that his eyes were open at all. He winced as he felt the sticky filth that covered him, and he tried to shy away from the fetid odor of his cell.

Why was he here? What had he done?

It had to be some kind of prison, but he couldn’t remember — couldn’t remember anything, really, except the strange sensation of flickering in and out of consciousness in the blackness, as if something else — some other being — had somehow taken over his body.

Suddenly Jeffrey felt a white-hot fury begin in his solar plexus and boil up through his chest.

It was starting again!

It was as if he was being pushed aside by something deep within himself, and in a moment the wrath burning inside him would consume not just his body, but his mind and soul as well.

“Please, no,” he whispered, the words emerging from his lips as nothing but a faint squeal. But he knew it was useless to plead in the face of the rampaging fury, and a moment later the rage erupted in his mind.

Jeffrey Holmes disappeared.

The evil that had conquered the boy’s body experimented with it, causing each limb to twitch spasmodically, each finger to clench so hard that its nail sank deep into the flesh of the palms. Relishing the pain, the evil squatted on its haunches and found the powers deep in the body’s brain that let it reach far from the cramped cell to probe the grounds of the buildings above the prison.

It detected a change. Something was happening.

It sent out thin tendrils of exploration, creeping through the building above, the grounds, the ancillary buildings, looking for something, something that had changed…

There! The place where the girls lived!

A new presence.

A kindred spark.

But wait. He had felt this spark before. But it was stronger now, much stronger. Though it was lying almost dormant at the moment, it was gathering strength, gathering momentum.

If somehow they could meet and their energies merge…

They would combine into a force so strong that it could never be conquered.

Yet this was not the spark of change the evil had detected, though it was pleased with this one’s progress.

No, there was something else.

Staring into the darkness with all-seeing eyes, the being continued to probe the consciousness of every living creature it could find, until—

There!

Directly above his cell!

A newly emerging larva of evil. Barely discernable, barely detectable, but there.

It concentrated on the fragile thing, and touched it with its awareness.

The other one squirmed within its host, recognizing its own kind, burning a little brighter.

The evil within Jeffrey Holmes fanned the flame for a moment, then retreated, so as not to harm the new host.

It rested against the wall of the prison and smiled. It was happening. Though still locked up, it could feel what was happening. From some nearby portal, more evil was seeping into this world, and soon there would be a release from this cell and the being within Jeffrey Holmes would be able to combine, to merge, to fuse with the others of its kind.

Fuse, and strengthen.

Becoming one, evil would rule.

The being gathered what strength its own host still possessed and prepared to howl in exultation, when suddenly a cloud of danger darkened his awareness.

A priest!

A priest was drawing near.

It spat on the ground, its hatred and rage quickly rising.

It could feel the priest just outside, and already knew what it would do: when the priest opened the door, it would fling itself onto the human flesh, tearing his chest open to devour the man’s heart even while it still beat.

It tried to stand, to creep toward the door in readiness, but the legs of its host were no longer strong, and instead of readying to spring, the being staggered.

Its fury erupted. It wanted to break the legs, to beat them into submission, but then it remembered its last confrontation with the priest.

His host was not strong, but neither was the priest.

If it was patient, the opportunity would come for it to bond with the fledglings up above, and nothing the priest could do would ever overcome its power.

It sank back onto the floor, concentrating only on controlling its own rage, forcing it down just enough so that Jeffrey Holmes could emerge once more and deal with the priest while the evil rested.

Yet it would still be there, just beneath the surface, watching whatever might happen, just in case an opportunity for escape arose….