Free Demon Jack by Patrick Donovan

There were at least a hundred now. I almost felt dizzy under the weight of the dissonance of tones in that single word.
    “Hi,” I said. “Long time, no see.”
    I took a slow, deep breath forcing my body to relax. I started at my feet and visualized each breath carrying the tension out of my body on the exhale and bringing in renewed energy on the inhale. It was something I had been doing for so long, I was able to settle into an almost Zen-like state after about two seconds. I made sure I kept myself in front of Chad, taking the bulk of his attention.
    “That’s it. That’s it,” I heard Lucy whimper behind me. She was repeating it over and over to herself like a mantra. I didn’t turn around, despite how much the fear in her voice was pulling at me to do just that. I squared my shoulders, lifted my chin and met Chad’s stare head on. A feverish heat resonated from the light pouring from his eyes. It made my stomach roll.
    “If you let us take her, we will leave you be,” it said after a long moment of quiet.
    I looked back towards Lucy. Maggie had put herself at my back, in between Lucy and me. She had a windproof butane lighter in her hand, the kind that sounds like a jet engine when you light it. She clicked the top open and shut with quick, nervous motions. Lucy had backed into the corner and stood absolutely frozen, her eyes wide with fright. Fat, heavy tears rolled down her cheeks.
    I turned back towards the nurse.
    “And if I say no?”
    “Then we will go through you. Literally,” it said, its lips stretching back into a grin. “And we will take back what is ours.”
    So it was the same thing that had taken Lucy. Interesting. It was also giving me a way out. If I let it go for Lucy, just walked away, Maggie would try to stop it. She might be able to kill it, she might not. If she wasn’t able to put it down, she'd be able to take enough fight out of it that I could finish the job easy enough myself. Granted, I’d have to make sure Maggie didn’t come out of it whole either, give myself a head start from the Ordo. The hospital wasn’t heavy on security and any surveillance videos would just show a guy with a hood accompanying Maggie on the way in. I could make this work to my advantage.
    “So let me make sure I understand this. I let you take her, I walk?” I asked, looking over my shoulder again at Maggie and Lucy. Maggie’s face contorted in sheer shock and outrage as she tried to comprehend the fact that I was about to sell them both out. Lucy said nothing. I could almost see the remnants of hope, a hope we had instilled moments ago, drain from her features.
    “What about the limey?”
    “We will find uses for her. She is old. Strong,” it said, licking its lips as its eyes turned to Maggie.
    I nodded slowly, thinking the options over. I could hear Maggie calling me about fifteen different variations on a son of a bitch under her breath. A sob, little more than a squeak, slipped past Lucy’s lips.
    “Answer me this, why do you want her? You've got your fair choice of bodies, obviously.”
    “She is strong, God touched,” Chad growled.
    I had absolutely no idea what that meant.
    “Decide now. Our patience wears thin.”
    For a long moment I stood there without answering. I just stared, my eyes locked on Chad’s face.
    “Take ‘em,” I said finally.
    “You motherfucker!” Maggie screamed.
    “Excellent. You are dismissed,” Chad said, moving to step past me.
    Even without Alice, I had always been strong. My father had been a fan of hard work, when he wasn’t drinking that was. I’d had muscle beaten into me with manual labor when I was a kid. With Alice’s bonus oomph, I could easily flip a compact car end over end. I hit him the second his first step forward hit the floor. There was a loud, wet, crunching impact as teeth shattered and Chad was lifted from his feet and propelled backwards with the force of a ballistic missile. He still had the medicine tray in his hands when I