HELLS GRACE


    Part 10


    Huh? What’s this about now?


    The Oracle ]


    A Dread Score of 9 was the highest score my archetypes had ever received (and the demon had an eight). What would a ten be like? A world-destroyer? Oracle is capable of that if given the chance. Lucky for humanity, I didn’t want to destroy the planet since I still live in the goddamn rock.


    bolt!” the demon exclaimed, smiling genuinely. “You managed to knock me down my pedestal. How wonderful of you!”


    Permanently.” She flashed an evil grin. “But this is your domain—your world. We archetypes must stick together and support each other. We are all…friends…here.”


    see everything.


    A night where they can be alone and away from the world.” Clay was a hopeless romantic. It was easy to manipulate him, especially when I added that Chris would be out of town for a few days, leaving them alone to be with each other. Who wouldn’t be tempted to go to a remote cabin where it’s just them? I watched his breath quickening, the heat running to his cheeks. He loved this woman, and I wondered if Rebecca felt the same.


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    you. We don’t even have to be here.”


    I know,” Rebecca said, annoyed. Taking a deep breath, she marched toward the hospital. The van drove past and disappeared into a corner.


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    I wanted to play.


    me.


    Who knows what kind of magical protection their house has?


    all mine tonight.


    And I will feed gloriously.


    “Should we call the cops?” Charlene whimpered close to Daisy’s ears. “Oh my god, they took Tess!”


    “Shut up. They might still hear us,” Daisy hissed. She pulled out her phone from her jacket’s pocket.


    “Drain the batteries,” I ordered Oracle.


    Daisy was about to punch in the three numbers when her screen flashed twice before it died. “Shit!” She exclaimed. “My battery died.”


    Charlene checked her phone. “Mine, too. That’s weird. I charged it this afternoon.”


    They reached the front of the hospital, glimpsing only the fading tail lights of the van and Rebecca’s squad car exiting left and heading north.


    “Fuck! We missed it! Quick! Where did you park your car?” Daisy asked. The two girls stood above the CCTV camera next to the street light.


    Charlene ruffled through her pockets and fished out her car keys. “Should we go after them?”


    “Follow me.” Daisy rushed toward the sliding entrance doors. “There’s cops posted on the lobby. We should tell them that Tess got kidnapped. Maybe they can chase them down?”


    “Was that really Mr. Gamble? Who was the other woman?”


    “Officer Torres, I think. We met her last spring when the school did that assembly for self-defense demonstration, remember?”


    Charlene nodded. “But if she’s a cop…are the other cops behind it, too?”


    Daisy stopped in her tracks. “No, that can’t be.”


    “She walked into the hospital and wheeled Tess out. A cop is bound to see her when she’s not supposed to be here. Where’s the cop posted outside the door? He was gone when we left for the vending machines. Maybe he’s in on it, too.”


    Daisy refused to believe it. “They can’t all be on it.”


    “I don’t know, Daisy. I’m scared. What should we do?” Charlene clutched tighter on her car keys.


    “I—” Daisy stammered, shaking. Adrenaline coursing through her veins. “I don’t know! Shit! This is so fucked up, Char!”


    These girls were loose ends. I didn’t want them alerting the cops and searching for Rebecca Torres. The police department tracked squad cars like hers via the GPS installed into the vehicles. They would know where she was if these girls blabber to the Sheriff about Tessa’s kidnapping and that his freaking deputy did it. Sure, Oracle could block the GPS from pinging the police of her true location, misdirect them to the other side of town, but the entirety of Point Hope would be in high alert, scouring for Tessa all night (She’s still seventeen, so the police would trigger the AMBER alert across the entire state). I didn’t want a hundred people stumbling into my dungeon when I live twenty-two minutes away while they have a search party in the woods.


    I want the entire night to myself and my fucking food!


    Let me eat in peace!


    A few blocks away, more of Tessa’s friends, Lana and Paul, were driving toward the hospital. They were bound to see Charlene and Daisy outside the building, panicking.


    “Potential delvers, my liege?” The demon asked eagerly, watching all of this unfold. “They are close by. Easy to pull the strings and lead them to the cabin…”


    “Our focus is the cultists. These teenagers are just an obstacle,” I said. “They will tell the cops if we don’t stop them. Oracle can stop any 911 calls, but I can’t stop them from going to the station physically.”


    Unless I hurt them.


    Once Paula and Lana arrived and decided to go after Kirk’s van, Oracle could lock them inside the Tesla and trigger the auto-pilot feature, then drive them through the street light at fifty miles per hour. They’re in front of the hospital already, so if they get seriously injured, help was only a hundred feet away.


    Or it could be a sudden green light on an intersection with an oncoming car from the flank. Cause an accident that would render them badly injured and hopefully unconscious. Long enough for me to feed alone and undisturbed by wailing police sirens, the first responders, and drawn guns.


    Doing the battery trick Oracle pulled on the truck on the highway would keep them alive, but then they could walk to the police station. Sure, it’ll take them thirty minutes to walk from the hospital, but they’ll get there eventually, and I would have limited means to stop them from crossing that door and entering the sheriff’s office.


    But then…I could also just kill them all. The teenagers, the first responders, and the cops included. Turn this cabin into an all-you-can-eat buffet. How much could I feed in one night?


    Ten?


    Twenty?


    Fifty?


    Do I even want to find out what a satiated dungeon feels like?


    It must be magical.


    It would be damning. “It would be a scandal that would sink the Havashar Society for a few months before the next trendy tragedy comes along and all the keyboard justice warriors online have moved on.”


    And once they start coming for me, I will be a lot stronger, with more monsters and traps in my arsenal.


    Final Girl. If we’re going to make this a night the entire country remembers, we need a true survivor to tell the tale.” Pinning it all on the cult, of course, and not to some supernatural demi-god. I heard in a movie once that a sole survivor would be even better for the narrative.


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    Dripping, and dripping, and dripping…