Jeremy Chikalto and the Demon Trace (Book III of The Hazy Souls) (8 page)

“Intense father figure,” said Jeremy.

“He's right, Jeremy. We of all people know
how much worse it can be,” said Maren. “We need to get this
compound in order.”

“I hardly think slop duty is a priority
right now.”

Maren snort-laughed, and then was
embarrassed by her snort.

The General made his
announcement over the loudspeaker, the bell was rung, and slowly
everyone got to work. Jeremy, for his part, attempted slop duty. He
was given a cart with two buckets, a mop, and a single pair of
latex gloves. “I want the purple gloves,” he snapped at the
dispensary worker. There was one set of purple gloves and three
pairs of yellow. The dispensary worker
—
an older woman with short, curly
brown hair
—
smiled
at him as she handed him the purple gloves. Jeremy snatched them up
and straightened his posture. His breathing had become labored and
everyone in the dispensary was beginning to stare.

Jeremy set the gloves on top of his cart,
pulled a comb out of his pocket and began to comb his hair into a
perfectly-tousled state.

“Move your cart to the slop deck,” said the
old woman in a droll voice.

Jeremy threw his comb onto the cart. “I
will.”

“Jesus Christ.” A bald man with a wide chest
rammed Jeremy's cart with his own, sending a bucket careening
across the floor. The man laughed and a few onlookers joined
in.

“A real slapstick crowd.” Jeremy rolled his
eyes and picked up the bucket. “I'm so above this.” He pushed his
cart out to the slop deck to receive his assignment.

Jeremy
Chikalto
—
Barracks
C and D

Like a cow herded to the
slaughter, Jeremy pushed his cart forward. The warm sun beat down
on his cheeks and he took a deep breath. Outside, young children
were playing with the larger chunks of hail that hadn't melted
while an elderly woman was hanging clothes on a line to dry. Two
men in hard hats were pointing to the lookout tower under
construction. Jeremy pushed his cart onward and then dallied for
some time in front of an old van that had been converted into a
small bakery. Plain, hard bread loaves were being distributed to a
young couple. The woman
—
around Jeremy's
age
—
wafted the
scent of the fresh baked good past her nose.

“Slop duty,” Jeremy uttered to himself.
There was no way he could go through with this.

“Cajjez Jeremy!” It was Ren. He had jogged
past Jeremy but was now jogging backwards. He slowed and waited for
Jeremy to push the cart beside him.

“Hello, nice to see you again on the other
side of the universe?” Jeremy cocked his head to the side.

“Long story. Some storm, right?” Ren stood
with both hands on his hips and breathed in the cool air.
“Miraculous, Cajjez, simply miraculous.”

Jeremy nodded and looked up at the sky.

“On to your job, then? No time for digestion
in this place. Probably good for me. I'm still in shock.” A lump
caught in Ren's throat. He leaned over Jeremy's bucket. It was
empty. “What do they have you doing?”

Jeremy shook his head. “I can't do
this.”

“Well it couldn't be any worse than slop
duty....” His voice trailed off. “They've got you on slop duty?”
Ren drew back from Jeremy.

“Yes, damn it. I can't.”

“Utterly unthinkable, Cajjez.”

“I know!” Jeremy kicked his cart and it
rolled forward slightly. “I think I'm done here, actually.” Jeremy
abandoned his cart.

“Hey.” Maren tapped Jeremy on the shoulder.
He had dozed off under a dead tree beside the big house.

Jeremy started up. “Everything okay?” He
rubbed his eyes.

“I heard about your slop
duty, and your unreturned cart.” Maren sat down beside Jeremy.
“While I do think it would do you some good to humble
yourself
—
”

Jeremy gave a look of disgust.

Maren straightened. “I
think you need to knock it off. That hail storm was weird, right?
I'm surprised we didn't suffer any casualties.” She dug her fingers
into the dirt beside the tree and let it run through her hands.
“You can travel through the Haze, Jeremy. Like it or not, this is
the Apocalypse, and you're an angel. You need to explore the
universe
—
the
Haze
—
and find out
more information, not sit here brooding over rubber gloves and
buckets.”

“I told you already—I'm not ready. But
listen, I need you to cover for me.”

“Why? For what?”

“I'm going to look for our parents. I'll be
quick. Just going to check the Donegall Estate, maybe leave a note
for them in case they seek it out. Makes sense, right? If everyone
from the Farmoore Galaxy's been transported to Earth, they'll do
their best to make it to that point, since it's where we first met,
before...”

“Mantel's Maze, yes it makes sense.” Maren
sighed.

“So, later!” Jeremy vanished.

Jeremy was swimming in the Haze through a
vast purple ocean. The spirit animals bobbed up and down aimlessly
in the waves. Jeremy only had to twist his body slightly, dip into
another fold in space, and then pop right out onto the Donegall
Estate. The sensation of knowing a place from inside the Haze was
more satisfying than being a steward of wine, and knowing the
location of a particular house was his oak finish. Jeremy smiled as
he felt the familiar zap and pull, and was about to twist his body
around to exit the Haze, when his demons rushed around him.

He shrank back, but then remembered his
power. “Leave me be,” he said, pushing the demons out with his
energy.

The demons were blown back, but they
regrouped into a spiky line and began to undulate. Jeremy felt the
waves come by, like he was waist deep in a black ocean, waiting for
a good wave, and the water line was sharp and cut him in half. He
watched the black swells crest, and the capes swayed on the surface
like cobras.

The demon at the end of the line brushed
back its shadowy hood. “Sequere me.”

Jeremy swam forward into the waves, but then
the demons stopped and the Haze was still and empty. Jeremy looked
around, but the spirit animals were gone. Subconsciously, he swam
into line with the demons. And then we was in them, swaying with
the waves, but the demons rose up into a roaring wall, and crashed
into him and he tumbled into sharp shells. All around him he saw
the gaping “O” of their mouths and then he was dissolved, and he
sank down with a hundred anchors into a sea of red until all was
black again.

Chapter 13

Hellscape

Jeremy was standing on parched earth split
by a thousand fault lines, and each crevice glowed and spit embers.
He stumbled forward, and his footsteps scattered sparks across the
hellscape. In front of him was a dull gray smoke and an expansive
emptiness, and he could feel the thumping of his heart against his
chest. He blinked, and in that brief moment when his eyes were
closed, he saw the faces of the dead pressing up into him, gruesome
and intimate. He inhaled them and they screamed in his bones, a
dissonant chorus of ten-thousand voices. Then he blinked and was
back in the empty gray hellscape with the burning embers.

He had to blink again and saw horrible
things in a rush, in his veins, threatening to explode his heart
from the inside. He tried not to blink again. He walked forward,
but his eyes were drying in the heat of the embers and felt like
sandpaper. “Demons?”

He tried to cross over into the Haze, but
there was a wall there. “Demons, take me out of here!”

He blinked and the dead snaked around him
with stinking corpses. They pressed up against him, pushing a
gelatinous substance into his mouth. The demons condensed in front
of him between two of the bodies. The blood and innards filled up
all of the spaces between the bodies and Jeremy was anchored down,
and couldn't move. Worms and maggots bubbled in his ears. He called
again for the demons, but his mouth was full of the gelatinous
substance. Another demon flickered into his peripheral vision and
approached him with an open “O” mouth. Jeremy wanted to go through
it, to get back into the Haze, but he was paralyzed. He tried to
will his demon to swallow him, but the demon closed the “O” of its
mouth and leered at Jeremy.

Do I blink? Can I go back
to the gray?
His mouth was full of the
sludge and he tried not to think about what it might be.
I can't go like this.
Jeremy tried to spit out the ooze and worked his tongue hard
to push back against the slow tide of death. The leering demon
flattened itself in the small space in front of Jeremy, smiled, and
then it opened up its “O” mouth again.

Jeremy shoved his hand into his own mouth
and began to claw at the gelatinous substance. He wished he would
faint before he had to take his last breath, the breath that would
kill him. He clawed harder and harder, and then gripped both hands
around the base of his tongue. He pulled it out with his nails,
severing it from its base, and held it in front of him. There was
ooze, blood, and slime and suddenly he was in a pocket of air,
beautiful air. He breathed and returned to the expansive
hellscape.

Thunder shook the gray land and in the
distance a great drum beat. It grew louder and closer. Ahead, the
gray opened up and in the distance a bright orange flame blossomed,
brighter than the sun. Jeremy's demons swirled around him,
obscuring his view of the sun, and then the demons were gone.

Jeremy was leaning against the perimeter
fence on the compound. He bent forward and coughed up blood onto
the dirt. His mouth tingled for a second and he slid his tongue
along the roof of his mouth. It was intact and the sensation of
death was gone.

Chapter 14

Cheers

Jeremy stumbled towards
the Victorian house. His body had completely healed, but his mind
was numb. Guard towers now circled the house, supporting a huge
platform above the roof. Behind the jet field were three big
greenhouses with people bustling inside, cultivating crops.
Soldiers were doing drills all over the place.
How long have I been gone?

General Forero rounded the corner,
accompanied by three soldiers. They were wide men with impeccable
postures and serious frowns.

“Hello there, son. I don't think we've had a
good talk yet,” said General Forero.

“Later,” Jeremy shook his hand. “I have to
find Maren.”

General Forero exchanged a
look with his second in command. “My daughter has told me strange
things
—
excuses.
You've shirked all of your responsibilities to date. Too good for
slop duty, too tired for night watch, too weak of a stomach for the
slaughter house. I haven't seen you in three weeks! I call
bullshit. I put you up at my daughter's request, in my own home. I
could transfer you to the barracks in a second. My soldiers want to
know why the entitled little piss gets the nice room. Care to
talk?”

Jeremy laughed and then slapped himself on
the cheeks a few times. “I've been gone for three weeks?”

“My daughter's convinced you're some kind of
royalty. I think you're nothing but a leech, so maybe she's
right.”

Jeremy rushed the General and gave him a
hug, patting him on the back. “Your sneer is the same vertical line
given to me by Tina following a bout of unrequited love.”

General Forero leaned forward. “Do you have
a death wish, boy?”

“I've been granted a
second chance. But listen, my father was a stern man too,
principled, he'd call it. I may not be. But what I've inherited is
better
—
loyalty. I
was out looking for my family and I won't be giving up on them, or
anyone else I care about. You'd be wise to get in my favor. Now if
you could please just move out of my way.”

“Oh? I don't think I'll be doing that until
I get some answers,” said the General.

Jeremy glanced behind the General, eager to
see Maren. “Your power is only a small fraction of mine. I could
have you calling me Cajjez Jeremy in a second, if I wanted.”

The General and his soldiers laughed. “You
think you have power. I still consider you my daughter's kidnapper,
a thief, stealing my jet. The only reason we're playing nice is
because I love my daughter. I built a business empire and now an
army. You know how many young fools have challenged me in my life?
The world's going to shit, and I'm the only one who can clean it
up. The world needs a leader, not some sniveling, selfish boy. You
have built nothing. A kingdom was probably handed to you and you
dropped it from your butterfingers. Either follow my rules, or be
exiled for your insubordination.”

“Tina, your daughter, bows to me. You should
also know that I have more influence over her now than you do.”

General Forero cocked his arm back like he
was at bat, and slapped Jeremy across the face with the back of his
hand, but Jeremy didn't flinch. “Do you like magic tricks?” A
mischievous grin spread across Jeremy's face.

The General was about to finish his lecture,
when Jeremy pulled a raccoon out of the air by its tail, and it
began to screech and swat about. The soldiers and the General
jumped a little bit, and Jeremy put it back behind the air.

There was a long silence. “Jacey Moon, they
called you. Murderer,” said General Forero in a low voice.

“I do prefer to think of myself as a
magician, though. I can pull other things out of the air, things
that would hunt you down like an animal.” There were a few whispers
in the air, coming from behind the perimeter fence, and the
soldiers drew their guns and pointed them at the shadows, but the
General stood fast.