Chapter 39

Amanda had her weapon raised high above her head. With a war cry that would have made an Amazon warrior proud she swung. Chad, and all the other ghouls, had them pinned down in one location and were advancing rapidly.

However, before the weapon could make impact, the entire group of assailants burst like water balloons. The expected impact ceased to be, and as Amanda swung, she spun around. In surprise, she flung the weapon harmlessly out and away from the group and landed on her ass, skidding across the muddy ground made slick with the watery remains.

It would have been hilarious had the situation been different. Yet the crowd behind her erupted in a triumphant cheer. Amanda, struggling to her feet, joined in, running and sliding into the first available set of open arms.

“We did it!”

“Yeah!”

“They’re gone!”

The group congratulated itself. It was Paul, along with the deafening roar of water, that silenced them once again.

“Oh my god.”

They all turned to look toward the lake and saw something that almost stilled their hearts. As the great Pharaoh of Egypt, Rameses, once witnessed himself, there they stood watching as the walls of water began to collapse from both ends of the lake sending the two priests fleeing.

“Hayden and Tommy are going to be killed,” Amanda said.

The great triumph they felt slipped as quickly away from them as water through a clenched fist. Now, the arms came around each other in solemnity to watch the end of their friends’ lives.

* * * * * * * *

When the beast was slain, two things happened at once. Veronica and Riley slipped from their corporeal forms and disappeared. Hayden slipped from consciousness and collapsed in Tommy’s arms. The other man quickly slid an arm under his shoulders and under his thighs before lifting him up to cradle him.

As the water cascaded toward the center on both sides, and the dead center of the lake, Tommy turned in the direction of where he thought their friends were. Though he was resolved to their fate, his body trembled, and out of fear of dropping Hayden, Tommy lowered himself to his knees, gathering Hayden tighter to his chest.

“Please, God, don’t let me drop him. Just let me hold on. Just let me hold on!”

He closed his eyes as the roar of water collapsing and accelerating toward him became deafening.

“Please, don’t let me let go. Let me hang on. Please. Please, God. Please.”

Tommy kept pleading until the water converged on their location, enveloping them both beneath thousands of cubic feet of water, fourteen feet below ground level.

* * * * * * * *

Like warriors of old, the battered and exhausted tribe slowly made their way to the battlefield, shoulders slumped, heads bowed. The world was silent as hands sought hands to hold. Everything had returned to normal. Despite the chaos of a few minutes ago, there was no mass gathering of the town to come and see what had taken place. Instead, this motley crew, bruised and exhausted, gathered in a tight formation as if they were the last remaining human beings in the world.

Alive, breathing in cold misty air from a lake that was still restless and white-capped, they joined the priests who stood like two black pillars against a steel-gray sky. As she approached the men, Amanda could hear them chanting last rites in Latin. Inside, she felt as gray as the sky. Hayden was gone. Her best friend. The guy who had fought so hard to find peace in his life was now swept away.

The struggle of it, the unfairness, the injustice of it all caused her legs to buckle, and in despondence she sank to her knees. Too exhausted to cry, she just sat back on her heels and stared directly into the center of the lake where she’d last seen them.

No one else said a word, there were no sniffles, no lamentations, just the sound of mumbled words of grace delivered to two fallen knights, two kings, who left their kingdom to slay a dragon. And slay they did. It was over. All of it. Even the air felt lighter.

Amanda looked skyward and thought, the sun should be out.

It was then, that someone behind her shouted, “What the hell is that?”

* * * * * * * *

Their world was dark, now. Cold. Yet to Tommy’s surprise, he inhaled a lungful of air.

“I’m alive,” he whispered.

Cautiously, he opened his eyes and saw a faint green glow emanating not from Hayden, who was still asleep in his arms, but from himself.

“Oh, God. We’re alive.”

Adrenaline shot through him, and in response, the green glow brightened exceptionally. Tommy’s eyes fell upon an invisible shield around them—like the one the demon had used when it dragged him into the depths of the lake.

He could feel the energy taxing his body, too, however. He suddenly felt hungry. Ravenous, almost. Then it dawned on him.

“My metabolism. That’s what’s powering this. Which means, we don’t have much time,” he said to his unconscious lover.

That’s why Hayden passed out.

Gathering him up once more, Tommy stood.

Which way?

He knew he was facing the shore when he took a knee, and just as he’d done when he was in the middle east, he listened to his intuition. Slinging Hayden over his shoulder, he ran.