They Always Wait

"Safe, yes, good idea," I said as I moved quickly to Abby, shedding my rucksack and bag, laying aside the bow and quiver, sheathing the dagger and kneeling at her feet. "I am here to rescue you from those two bitches and we have to act quickly." I looked at her in the bed sheet. "Have you no clothes?"

"They don't believe in clothes here, William," she told me, obviously perturbed. "Just long leers when the little buggers bring the food. They don't dare harm me, but they don't have to help me, either."

"Now is not a good time to be shy, darling," I told her. I had a plan, such as it was, and needed to put it in motion. "Put this on." I took off the necklace and handed it to her. To her credit, she dropped the bed sheet (revealing her wonderful assets) and put on the necklace. It glowed brilliantly for a moment as it had for me before fading to normal.

"Wow..." she murmured at the feeling of power coursing through her. "What is this?"

"A major amount of protection against just about everything, as far as I can tell. Now take off your two amulets and give them to my father." As she was removing them, I turned to him.

"Is a revenant undead?" I asked.

"Well, technically no, but in most mythology, yes," he answered. "Why?"

"Are they possessed?"

"Not usually, thought they can be. Again, why?"

"Are they evil?" I persisted.

"Not necessarily," he answered, obviously confused. "It depends on the compelling force for their return to life. Why are you asking all this?"

"Okay, the two amulets Abby is handing you are the Star of Ranfaing which protects against possession, and Eannatum's Eye which is a protection against evil. If you aren't evil or possessed, they shouldn't hurt you. They will, however, frustrate those two succubae bitches. Once we're all as protected as we can get, we can have a little talk."

He eyed the two amulets with suspicion, but did slowly don them. Since there wasn't any immediate, noticeably bad effect, he left them on. I got up and sat on the bed with Abby, rummaging through my rucksack while gesturing for my father to take a seat in a nearby chair. I pulled out the set of Abby's clothes I'd brought and handed them to her. It was then that she and I really looked into each other's eyes.

Hers started leaking. Mine may have, too.

"William!" she sobbed as she threw her arms around me and I caught her up in an embrace to last for eternity. She felt so perfect in my arms, her hair smelled so sweet, her skin... well, it was wet where she was crying on me. I gently turned her face up to meet mine.

"I love you, Abby Miller," I told her. "And if this isn't proof enough that I'd walk into Hell for you, I don't know what is..." I leaned down and kissed her and she kissed me back. Hard. Devoured might be the right description.

When she finally let up, it was so she could smack me on the arm and tell me, "I love you, too, William Fitzgerald. And you don't have to prove anything to me."

"You know," my father drawled from the chair, "you two need to make your escape before they come to milk me or feed her. If they find us like this, the jig is up."

"Get dressed, Abby," I told her. "I need to figure out what we're doing here." She complied, shedding any sense of propriety and getting her clothes on in short order while I turned to my father. "Okay, we're as safe as we're going to get until we're out of here, but given that the succubae visit in our dreams no matter where we are, I don't think one place is any better than another. Would you like to tell me what happened? And what I might do about it? I noticed you didn't include yourself in our escape plans."

"I'm not sure where to start," my father told me. "As a young man, my father made me aware of the family curse. It dates back to Scotland in the 1300s. Generally, when a young man of the family reaches adolescence, the demons make life interesting for him via his dreams. When he reaches adulthood, they begin milking him. He garners special attention if he becomes Lord of the Manor. I determined to save you from that fate by sending you to America for your education, presuming you would choose to stay there. Obviously, I was wrong.

"As you've probably surmised, Gabrielle was my mistress and a devotee of Agrat and Ardat, which suited my purposes just fine, because once married, your mother was a rather cold fish. After doing her wifely duty and presenting me with an heir, we had almost no marital relations. My time with Gabrielle, on the other hand, was phenomenal. Until Ardat decided to seduce Elizabeth. I did not see it coming. Out of nowhere, my wife now wanted lovemaking and was rather insistent upon it. She was slowly becoming demonic. Gabrielle saw it and confronted her. They had quite a fight about it. Shortly afterwards, Gabrielle left and Elizabeth became a wanton slut.

"She existed on the material plane, not in dreams, and could wreak quite a bit of havoc on the estate. I finally resorted to keeping her prisoner in the North Tower, tending to her needs instead of having the servantry do it, because I could not afford for her to be loose. In the end, it availed me little. I began researching how to banish demons, hoping to break the family curse and restore peace. I built a sanctified study, a safe space, in the basement where I accumulated those things I thought would help me develop a solution.

"One solution, which sadly was incorrect, involved diluting human blood with holy water and ground acacia in a pig's bladder, then throwing it at, and theoretically breaking it on, the demon to be banished. I spent months collecting my blood, a cup at a time, to make the brew. When Elizabeth got loose once, I tracked her to the South Tower where she was destroying my 'trysting place' for about the fourth or fifth time. I found out the hard way that throwing the pig's bladder of blood at her only pissed her off. She damaged the porch on the way out, swearing she would get even.

"Her method of getting even was to enlist the aid of Agrat and Ardat in tricking me into believing I'd actually come up with a successful, powerful banishment. I started by summoning them to me, which was a mistake because I didn't have the proper controls in place. Then I attempted the Banishment spell and, since my understanding of the Black Tongue I was reciting was so poor, I didn't realize I was binding myself to them as their servant, forever. Essentially, I 'died' and was 'resurrected' and became an enslaved immortal. The only way I get out of this is if one of the major Necromantic Gods takes pity on me and disintegrates me. I suppose Yahweh could do it, but there's little reason to believe he'd look favorably on me at this point.

"So you two might be able to escape, and maybe even find a way to truly banish Agrat and Ardat so they would leave Earth alone for ten thousand years or so, but I won't be going anywhere. Oh, and just to make your lives a little more miserable, William, since you've returned and caught their attention, you will find it is nearly impossible to travel beyond the boundaries of the original estate."

I listened to his description of the events with more than a sinking feeling. Depression, dejection, grief... all would probably apply. Even if we got out of this Hell, which wasn't a given -- I had no idea where the exit was and didn't want to mention it -- we would still be haunted by two very angry succubae and their minions for the rest of our lives, barring a miracle and actually being able to banish them.

Abby took my hand and I felt an awesome surge of happiness pushing away the darkness.

"So how do we get out of here?" she asked. The darkness came rushing back.

"I have no idea," I admitted. "The way I got in was with the Heart's help in the Vault."

"You got into the Vault?" I think my father was going to have a seizure.

"Yeah," I told him. "I started accidentally with Room III because I was exploring Gabrielle's secret room, and then I got to Room V and Agrat's shrine by following the map. I got to Room VII and Ardat's shrine trying to get out of Room V. Getting out of Room VII via Room I sent me to the dungeon in the basement where all six Roman Numerals were. I used that to get into Room XI which is actually the Vault, and Dad, the place is amazing! After the bitches stole Abby, I got here by going to the Vault and using the black altar to get to Room XIII."

My father sat back heavily. "I never made it to any of those rooms. I wish I had. I had to depend on the Library and Gabrielle's carelessness when she'd leave her room open when we were um... having relations. But if the black altar has a pentagram suspended above it, I can tell you how to leave this infernal world. You will need to do it quickly, though. I am sure we will be missed."

"You have my complete and undivided attention," I told him.

"If you go to the roof of this tower, you will see another tower, with a hexagonal roof, perhaps a hundred yards away. Suspended above that roof is an inverted pentagram which blazes red. It should be an analog to the one above the black altar in the Vault. If it truly is, then there will be a large glyph in the stone of the roof in the shape of a pentagram whose lines do not touch each other. Each leg will appear to either go over or under the ones that intersect it. Use the Heart to activate it."

"And how does one get from this roof to that one?" I asked. A hundred yards was a bit far to leap.

"How strong is your faith in the items you have brought with you?" he asked in turn. I was confused.

"Why?"

"Because if those are the carcanet, bow and sword of Inanna, as I suspect they are, you can compel a demon to fly you over there. The carcanet should allow you to control at least one of the beasties. Of course, that may not help you when the others realize what is happening and pursue you."

"That is what the bow and sword are for," I gritted my teeth. Abby gripped my hand tighter.

"We can do it, William," she said softly. "And we can find a way to banish the demons and un-revenance your father, or whatever you call it. We just have to believe."

"Abby, after all the mystical help I've gotten so far, I'm willing to go out on a limb. But I'm not willing to risk you."

"But I am," she told me firmly. "And anyway, I'm the one wearing the carcanet."

Somehow, arguing with her seemed pointless. "I'm open to suggestions, Abby."

"I think we do like your father said and climb to the roof. You attract the attention of some flying demon and I pray to whatever gods are listening to help me know how to operate this thing, although praying to Inanna might be most fitting."

"You are aware that Inanna is the Sumerian Goddess of love, beauty, sex, desire, fertility, war, justice, political power and prostitution, right?" I asked. Alright, I was being sarcastic.

"Yep!" she smiled. "Right up my alley!" And I thought I was being sarcastic. Or maybe she wasn't.

"Then you two take off, William, and I'll just take a stroll back downstairs. I'm bound to piss somebody off, wearing these two amulets. That should provide enough of a distraction for you to get away," my father told us. "I hope. And William?"

"Yes, sir?"

"Don't come back looking for me. You've given me enough to have fun with until they tire of me. I wouldn't mind another sip of holy water, though."

I pulled off the canteen and gave it to him. He took more than a sip, but I wasn't going to begrudge him that. Once it was replaced on the pack, the three of us headed for the stairs. When we reached them, he turned to us and said, "Up. Quickly and quietly. I'll give you about thirty seconds, then start down, whistling. That should beak something loose." Abby and I nodded our agreement and began making our way up towards the roof while true to his word, a little while later we heard whistling down in the tower.

We managed to gain the roof without being intercepted. Hiding in the shadow of the parapet, Abby whispered to me, "do you know how to get the attention of one of them?"

"Yes," I told her. "Do you know how to get Inanna to help us?"

"I think so. Give me the sword."

"Why?" I asked, even as I gave it to her, sheath and all.

"To draw with," she told me as she eased out and started scraping an eight-pointed star in the stone of the roof. "And to cover your behind when you start using the bow." She finished her scraping and sheathed the sword then stood right up in the middle of it and started reciting something.

"Dame fun Himl, Inanna, dem meydl rikveyerz deyn hilf tsu antloyfn dem turme, di beser tsu khbud ir durkh ixeyting geshlekht, shvangershaft, nekome kegn di beyze geyster aun punkt bes an ale arum gut tsayt. Bite."

"What the hell are you doing?" I hissed.

"Invoking Inanna's aid," she hissed back.

"What are you saying?"

"Lady of Heaven, Inanna, this maiden requires your help to escape this prison, the better to honor you through exciting sex, pregnancy, revenge against the demons and just having an all around good time. Please."

"In what language?"

"Yiddish. It's as close as I could get to Sumerian. I can't remember jack about Aramaic."

"You're praying to Inanna... from Hell... in YIDDISH???" My mind was going numb. That's when the necklace flared a brilliant green. A first for it, as far as I knew.

"You just get one of those winged creatures over here," she hissed, kneeling back down behind the parapet.

"Okay, my turn to be stupid..." I told her as I got up, walked out into plain sight, pulled the Heart out of my shirt, held it up and yelled, "HEY! UGLY!" That got their attention.

A brilliant shaft of red light shot up from the amulet like a super-bright searchlight. With about the same effect. Several winged creatures paused in their flight to look over at me. None of the looks were very friendly. The one closest to us dove straight at us. Right before he got to us, and I realized I'd been stupid and didn't have the bow out, Abby jumped up from behind the wall and put her hand up, palm outwards, facing him.

"Halt! In the name of Inanna, Lady of Heaven, I command you to take both of us safely over to that tower where the bright red pentagram is hovering!" The creature, looking kind of like a Wyvern, pulled up and hovered, glaring at her.

"I sure hope I did that right," she mumbled. "William! Get over here and hold onto me!" I didn't need to be told twice. The creature swooped down and grabbed both of us in its claws, beginning to beat its way over towards the tower. It was hard to breathe, but we weren't being punctured or crushed. What we were, was unceremoniously dumped on the roof of the tower.

"Return whence you came!" Abby shouted at it. I was already stringing the bow and nocking an arrow. The creature seemed confused and flapped off for a bit, but his buddies weren't. They were coming right at us.

"See if that bloody glyph is there!" I called to her as I lined up on the closest demon.

Twang-swish-thud-poof! The arrow found its mark and the demon exploded. And another with the same results. I was targeting a third when Abby called, "Yes! It's here!" I started backing towards her, taking out as many demons as I could on the way, about four in all, and giving the others pause as to whether to attack me.

"Get out the sword, Abby. Hold on to me. When I turn my back on those things to activate the glyph, hit anything that tries to attack. Got it?"

"Got it."

"You are a beautiful woman... now!" I loosed my arrow at the closest creature, spun and pressed the amulet to the glyph. I heard Abby yell, "Take THAT!" right before we disintegrated into cold, icy vapor. When we came back to consciousness, she and I were lying at the foot of the black alter in the Vault.

I stood up and pulled her to her feet. "We are getting the fuck out of here!" I told her and held her hand as I touched the amulet to the Roman Numeral I. I don't think she had time to get her bearings before we were congealing again in the dungeon. Once we were all together, I pulled her to me and walked us out the door, closing and locking it behind us. I walked us at a steady pace up to the kitchen where the order of the day appeared to be a double-Scotch neat. For both of us.

* * * * *

[Epilogue]

Three months after that escape, we were married, before Abby started to show too much. We had the ceremony at the estate, and threw the entire village a grand fete, but our guests were gone by nightfall and we didn't have overnight visitors. Six months after that, Gabriel was born. Two years after that, Magdalena was born. She is now two, and although the children have kept us both busy, they haven't hampered our continuing research into getting rid of a couple of household pests.

Abby's gift with languages has been an absolute boon. She spends more time in the Vault than I do. Between us, and a wonderful Old World jeweler in town named Gustav Steinmetz, we have been able to craft talismans to our specific needs, including specific protections for ourselves and our children. It seems Herr Steinmetz did contract work for Tsar Nicholas and his family for similar reasons, so he is not too surprised at some of our requests.

We've returned Inanna's items to the Vault, and make certain to honor her with a small sacrifice every January 2^nd, her Holy Day. We are creeping closer to a final solution, but we are doing it very carefully.

Abby is a strong and forthright woman, and she has figured out how to play those two demon bitches like fine instruments, to enhance our lovemaking. And how to block them from our dreams when we don't want them. They were furious when they found out my father had acquired the talismans, but they have calmed down, and now see our maneuvering as a clever game... one which intrigues them. We also figured out what those "power rods" of the succubae are good for... let us say, our sex life is excellent.

We've discovered books describing the origin and history of our family's curse and thankfully have plenty of time to pursue its destruction. It is turning out that the life of the landed gentry isn't so bad, after all.

~Finis~