Jeremy Chikalto and the Demon Trace (Book III of The Hazy Souls) (6 page)

Maren nodded.

Jeremy leaned across his seat and placed a
hand on Maren's shoulder. He brought her through the Haze and into
the Chikaltos' royal garden, which was showing signs of neglect.
All around, the green plants wilted; the delicate petals of the
benitia flowers curled up, their tips a dreadful burnt-orange.
There was no movement, no noise beyond the wind. Jeremy lifted his
arms up and felt the strange energy of the place. "Do you feel the
absence of life?"

"I... suppose so." Maren rubbed her arms. "I
feel cold," she said softly.

"Let's have a look inside." Jeremy motioned
to his castle. "I don't think there's anyone here."

Maren nodded and braced herself.

They made their way slowly down a snaking
cobblestone path towards the south side of the castle. At the side
entrance, the door was ajar. Nobody was manning their posts.
"Hello?" called Jeremy, peeking in the door. "Your Cajjez has
returned." His inflection was sing-songy, and when it echoed back
to him he felt sick. "They're not here."

Jeremy dashed forward through the doors and
up a long, steep staircase, the bannisters charred from the recent
fire. "Come on!" he yelled back to Maren. He disappeared from
view.

"Jeremy?" Maren turned a corner. She'd
entered the west wing. She stepped over the ashes of what was once
an antique hand-dyed rug. "Where are you? I don't know my way
around!"

Maren stopped in front of his bedroom door,
charred black. She heard a rustling noise. "Are you in there?" She
pressed her ear against the door. The noise was getting louder.
"Jeremy!" There was a thud. Now something was beating on the
exterior of the castle. Maren pressed her back to the wall, her
heart fluttering in her chest. Jeremy flung the door open. He'd
been crying and was covered in a green velvet cape, several cloaks,
and jewelry, fortuitously preserved but reeking of smoke.

"What are you doing!" Maren pulled Jeremy
forward.

“There's something outside," said Jeremy.
The noise had sobered him, but he still looked insane. The wind
picked up to a feverish pitch. The curtains ripped off, and debris
from the burnt castle whipped around outside. Rare glass objects
crashed off Jeremy's shelves.

“Close the window!” shouted Maren.

“Aren't you supposed to leave the window
open?”

“I don't remember!”

A strong gust blew through and shattered
glass everywhere. A lamp flung across the room and crashed against
the wall inches from Maren's head. Trees were uprooted from outside
and the entire castle was shaking now, trembling and rumbling. It
tipped left, then right.

The sky lit up and a bright orange light
filled the room. Suddenly the air felt warm, then hot. Jeremy tried
to close his bedroom door, as though that might save them. He
battled it with massive force, and the blue energy crackled off his
body. The murals on the wall behind him warped in the heat.

"Jeremy! We have to leave now!" Maren was
wedged behind a curio.

Jeremy dashed to her. The light was blinding
now. He grabbed her arm and pulled her through to the Haze. Jeremy
raced with her through the purple swirls of light, ignoring the
curious paws that stretched out to his exotic green cape. In a
panic, he could feel in the Haze that all the planets in the
Farmoore Galaxy were exploding or imploding or else disappearing
completely from his awareness. There'd be nowhere to pull Maren out
for oxygen: he needed Earth's atmosphere.

Luckily for Maren, Jeremy's desperation
electrified his speed. He blasted forward like a rocket, and in a
few moments Jeremy found himself back in New York City.

Chapter 9

Globe of Dust and
Smoke

Jeremy and Maren were just outside Tina's
house on Fifth Avenue in New York. It looked to be about five in
the afternoon, and the sky was a globe of dust and smoke. Hundreds
of people were shouting all around them, demanding to be let inside
Tina's home. A ring of armed, military-garbed men were pushing
people back, beckoning others forward. An older woman was led by
the arm through a line of soldiers and the door to Tina's brown
stone apartment was opened for her. There was a rumbling in the
distance.

“Move back!” shouted a man through a
megaphone. The crowd scattered and a black tank the size of a house
emerged from around the block, the sidewalk cracking beneath its
treads, its huge cannon dragging down cancer-walk banners that were
strung overhead. Jeremy flung a half-conscious Maren over his
shoulder and ran over to a man in uniform. "I have to see Tina! Let
me through."

Common courtesy seemed
antiquated given the state of things, so Jeremy disappeared before
hearing what the man had to say and then reappeared in Tina's
kitchen. It would have been an open space, with lustrous white
beams partitioning the kitchen off from the rest of the house,
except for all the people crowded around the perimeter. Tina's
parents were standing in front of the television arguing. Tina was
in the living room hugging a crying friend.
Her brown, curly hair was slicked back in an elegant french
braid, and she had glitter on her chest, which rubbed off on
everyone she touched.

Jeremy steadied Maren and then led her over
to Tina. He tapped her on the shoulder and she turned around, eyes
wide and brows knitted.

"Oh. My. God!" She hugged
Maren and then Jeremy,
plumes of glitter
cascading all around the reunion like confetti
. "So happy you made it!" She groped and embraced Maren, then
Jeremy, then Maren again. “Don't worry, we'll get going soon. My
daddy will take care of us.” Just then Frisky walked through the
door and set down a large hiking backpack beside the staircase. She
pushed her brown hair behind her ears and adjusted her
glasses.

"You're here!" Tina launched into another
elaborate greeting.

Jeremy and Maren waited while the commotion
around them escalated. Family members were still arriving and soon
they were all packed like sardines.

“Close it up, we're done
here!” shouted a booming voice
—
it was Tina's father, a man with a
strict military cut and buff forearms, who was waving at a line of
soldiers.

Tina pushed through to her father and clung
to him. “You're leaving now?”

“Yes, pumpkin. I'll see you when the dust
settles.” He kissed her on the forehead.

“Move out!” A circle of soldiers formed
around Tina's father, and then they burst through the front door
and ran to one of the big tanks parked out front.

Tina was nibbling at her fingernails. The
door closed, and they were gone. She ran back to Jeremy and Maren.
“We'll see him later.” She nodded to herself. “Follow me. Nice
outfit, Jeremy.”

Jeremy, Maren, and Frisky followed Tina
through the endless ebb and flow of people, up the stairs, and into
Tina's bedroom. The room was spacious and shaped like an “L.”
Tina's king-sized bed was draped in a purple leopard print
comforter. The hardwood floor looked freshly polished. The room
wrapped around to a private bathroom enclave with a small window.
Tina let out a big sigh. “So, hi! Welcome.”

Maren took a seat on the floor and let her
fingers play with the plush, neon pink rug beneath her. “What's
going on?”

Jeremy sat down beside her and placed a
reassuring hand on her leg, but Frisky, sitting across from them,
shot him a prudish look.

“A lot,” said Frisky, crossing her arms.

Maren beamed at her mousy friend. "Frisky,
you're a survivor!"

“We're safe because of money. Most of the
people I know aren't so lucky.” Frisky's eyes welled up, and she
wiped them on the sleeve of her eggshell cardigan. “But yes, thank
God. I don't mean to be a downer.”

“Where were you when it happened? Did anyone
pop into your room?” Tina leaned forward, ready for a story.

Frisky was silent but shook her head.

“I'm sorry, what?” said Jeremy.

“Well,” Tina jumped up on
her bed for effect. “There I was, enjoying dinner with my beloved
family, when BAM! Or no, wait, I went to the bathroom. I was
holding my pee in because my mom ordered this sweet lemon tart cake
from this bakery that was still open after everyone
disappeared
—
talk
about customer loyalty, am-I-right?” She jumped up and down some
more.

“Go on,” said Maren.

“So I was in the bathroom-mid-pee, when
BAM!” Tina made a gun with her hand and shot three times. “Three of
them, speaking all gobbly-gook!”

Jeremy and Maren waited patiently.

“Your turn,” said Tina, taking a seat on her
bed.

“We have no idea what you're talking about,”
said Maren.

“We weren't here,” said Jeremy, “until just
now. We were in the Farmoore Galaxy, on my home planet.” Which was
no more. He swallowed hard.

“A couple of hours ago, suddenly, like
millions of people appeared out of nowhere!” Tina was shouting,
excited to be the first to deliver the news. “Millions! Maybe
billions. Did you see how crowded it is out there?”

"People?” asked Jeremy. “So the Rapture
happened, and then... everyone came back?”

“No, these people are different. Over here,”
Frisky stood up and walked to Tina's window. “Look outside.”

Jeremy and Maren followed her to the small
window. Fifth Avenue was a sea of people clawing at one another,
like a World Series win celebrated by zombies.

“Oh dear,” whispered Maren.

Tina stepped behind them and put her arms
around Jeremy and Maren. “But I told my dad everything about
Leviathan Island, about the Maze, and the demons. He didn't believe
me at first, of course, but after the Rapture happened, he decided
to fortify our beach house in the Hamptons just in case. I mean,
it's only been a couple of days, but we're rockin' and
rollin'!”

“Money, so much money!” Frisky pretended to
maul her eyes out.

“Money is going to save your ass,” said
Tina. “My dad used to be in the military too, so he was able to tap
into that real quick, once the government, well, you know.”

“They don't know,” Frisky deadpanned.

Tina slapped her cheek.
“Right, so the President was assassinated earlier today, the Vice
President too.
Politicians everywhere are
dropping like flies.
People are revolting,
all kinds of religious groups are taking over.”

“There are just too many people now,” said
Frisky.

Maren drew back from the window. “This is
sad.”

“Want to hear want happened to my home
planet?” asked Jeremy.

Chapter 10

Lurch Forward

That night, Jeremy, Maren, Frisky, and Tina
all slept in Tina's room. There was a lot of shouting outdoors and
a lot of crying indoors. Tina's mother, Anna—a curvy woman with
cat-shaped glasses and large, curly hair, flicked the light switch
on just as the first ray of dull sunshine filtered in through the
curtains.

“Get up, Tina. Everyone, we're putting you
on the next tank. Hope you slept well.”

Tina popped up out of bed immediately and
shouted about peeing, while Jeremy, Maren, and Frisky groggily came
to.

Frisky sat up on her elbows and rubbed her
eyes. “Did anyone else smell cotton candy all night?”

Jeremy lifted up a perfume dispenser that
was sitting on Tina's nightstand. “Yes.”

Downstairs, everyone was
handed a simple breakfast
—
a packaged muffin and bottled
water. Then there was a great roar, and soldiers burst into the
room, shouting and waving everyone forward. Jeremy and Maren got
swept into the herd, which made its way outside. The street was
momentarily clear in front of the apartment steps, and the lucky
few ran up a ramp and into the massive tank. The doors were sealed
and the vehicle lurched forward. Other smaller tanks
followed.

The inside of the main tank was surprisingly
roomy and well-lit. The recently reunited companions sat on padded
benches in a passenger compartment, rather like a partition inside
the hull of a battleship. A small army of mercenaries were also
packed in around them, chattering, but they had semi-privacy.
Tina's mother and grandparents were with the driver in the
cockpit.

Tina squirmed her way into
the back seat, sitting between Jeremy and Maren, extending her arms
behind their backs. "We have the
fancy
tank! Hors d'oeuvres?" A
manservant approached and leaned across the bench, swaying as he
held a fruit, cheese, and cracker platter in front of
them.

Jeremy seized a cracker and cheese slice. “I
need to see what's going on outside, I'm getting claustrophobic in
here.”

“There's a peep hole over there.” Tina
pulled a tablet out of her extravagant purse and flicked it on.
“But check this out.” The screen displayed a live feed from several
cameras outside the tank. The streets were swarming with people
carrying groceries. Fist fights were breaking out. The windows of
stores and cars were smashed, and smoke poured out from a few
overturned cars, strewn about Manhattan like children's toys. Other
cars, gorged with supplies, tried to make their way through the
crowds, but people were surrounding them and pounding on the
windows. Gunshots cracked in the distance. The massive tank rumbled
down the street, parting the seas.

Frisky stared at the screen in disgust. "I
can't eat right now.” She handed her grapes to Maren.

Chapter 11

The Hamptons

Tina's place in the Hamptons had changed
since Jeremy and Maren were last there. A twenty-foot-high barbed
wire fence lined the perimeter of the four acre property, which had
expanded to include several nearby lots. The foundations of what
would be guard towers were in construction at regular intervals
abutting the fence. The front lawn was ripped up and workers were
busy laying down concrete. Much of the fancy landscaping was
replaced by tanks, helicopters, and a few handsome jets. Several
golf carts were lined up neatly next to Tina's house, a luxurious
Victorian which seemed out of place now. A bulldozer was pushing
debris which used to be a neighboring home. In a field to the west,
a crane was lowering steel beams into a pit dug in the ground.