The Crimson Milk Ch. 25

"I don't want you," Sebastian spat. "I said what I want. That one day." He raised the Omundaret from under his coat. Every creature in the room, even Mandi's shadow, lurched forward with a horrendous screech. As they did, time slowed, and then stopped. Sebastian looked to his left. Poe's arms had come up in time to catch the lunge of an immense wolf. To his right, Everett held up some strange beacon of light to ward back a pair of demonic gargantuans. No one moved, except Mandi. She sat down, the glamour fading away. Once more she became the frizzled hair young woman that Sebastian knew. He walked forward to the steps and sat down beside her.

"I wish he hadn't brought you," she said, her voice once again mousy and quiet. "Everything would have worked out."

"No," Sebastian said, bitterly. "It wouldn't have. You've been torturing me for years. I'm not sure it would have stopped. This is the only way to end it." He turned the Omundaret over in his hand, a jagged point emerged from the bottom. "Besides, you're not her anymore. Not really."

Amanda laughed. "That's what Everett never understood. It's why he thought he was saving Teresa. I am this. We are one. We will always be one."

"More's the pity," Sebastian said, readying his strike.

"It will kill them all," she said, cold and quick. "Trap me in that thing, and every single person will die. Including you."

Sebastian hesitated. "You have a better idea?"

"I let them go," said a voice that did not belong to the girl beside him. "I let her go."

"So I get a better deal than Everett? Why?"

The voice spoke again, "Because this one troubles us."

"All the more reason to end it." Sebastian struck quickly. He buried the jagged point of the Omundaret in Mandi's chest. The world sprang back to life, and a great tremor rocked through the town.

Yet Mandi did not fall. She smiled, blood curling from the corners of her lips, "Thank you, Sebastian. I knew you could do it."

Everett dropped to his knees. Age overtaking him as all his years reclaimed their time on him. "Do what? What've you done?!"

"He freed me from the rest of them. All those lost souls dragging me down. Now I can truly asc—"

Poe lunged forward and yanked the Omundaret from her chest. She screamed as he turned and smashed it on the ground. Mandi started to split. A dozen women fell out of her body, dropping to the ground around her. One crawled over and took Everett into her arms. Another went to Sebastian, hugging him close as they dropped to the ground. All around them, the creatures of Mandi's menagerie wailed. Many started to flee, trying to escape the crumbling walls of the building. All the while, the creature that had been Mandi gurgled and screamed, a hole in her chest growing wider and wider. Her skin mottled into a crimson black, and her eyes burned a blood red. Hundreds of women appeared, all facing the creature finally taking on its true form. Poe could feel the hate the women shared for the demon which had shackled them. For a moment, he pitied the thing. The legion of lost souls attacked.

White light surrounded him, and he felt a hard pull at the center of his back. In the next second, Poe stood beside a vacant road. At his feet, the broken Omundaret laid in several pieces. He looked up at the forest in front of him and saw shapes moving. One by one, people started to emerge, dazed looks on their faces. One of them walked up to him, "What happened?"

Poe shrugged, "What do you remember?"

"I was on a bus. On our way home from some competition, I think. How did —"

"Magic stuff," Poe said, gathering up the pieces of the arcane device. "Best not to over think it." He looked past the gaggle of strangers emerging from the forest. For a moment, he wondered if he saw a flash of red moving between the trees. Fucking magic stuff, he thought. He shoved the hunks of metal into his pocket, gave the forest one last look, and started walking south.

The End