No! You fucking focus now! You’re so damn close! So damn close!
Jane put her hand on Baal’s powerful forearm and pulled herself closer to him. She pushed up against his chest and for a moment they breathed together in a perfect rhythm.
“See, Jane Elring? I’m not so bad…. This darkness you’ve created for us is beautiful. Why don’t we stay here together… forever?”
Jane whispered softly as she relished the closeness to this beautiful body. “You admire this darkness, Baal?”
He whispered back, “It is truly gorgeous.”
Suddenly Jane ducked and moved through the demon’s legs. She ran toward the door as she left the surprised Baal behind her.
“Then fucking stay here forever, Baal, in this beautiful darkness!”
Jane ran out of the room and into the blinding hallway. She turned around to see Baal running toward her. With all her strength she pushed against the heavy door and tried to close it.Baal reached her just in time and pushed back. They stood in a power struggle that was impossible for Jane to win, both pushing against the door with all their might.
Baal roared, “You’re a clever one, Jane Elring! You are a truly terrifying thing! With you Man has created the most exquisite horror!”
Hearing his voice sent shivers down Jane’s spine. Baal knew how ugly she was.
Maybe, she thought, she was only a reflection of how ugly the world could be. Was that a world worth fighting for?
The strength deserted her arms and Jane felt how Baal was winning. Slowly but surely the door opened and Baal came peering through the crack.
Jane knew she couldn’t win. She couldn’t beat him. She couldn’t ever beat the world around her. She had to submit. She would never be good enough. Strong enough. Worthy enough.
Then the tiniest voice sounded through the hallway. “No… give up… now… Jane.”
When Jane turned to look, she saw the seven girls stumbling through the hallway to meet her.
“No! Stay away! This is dangerous! He is too dangerous!” she warned.
The girls ignored her as they stumbled, fell, and crawled toward her.
Jane’s muscles screamed as she desperately tried to shut the door. If she didn’t do it now, then the girls would be consumed by Baal. That one innocence that lived inside her head, lost forever to the terrible demon she had allowed to enter.
The girls reached Jane and hugged her legs. One of them said, “No… give up… yet….”
Jane watched as the seven girls leaned in against the door. Their collective weight was enough to give the raging demon pause.
“What is this now, Jane Elring?! Can’t fight your own battles?! You have to rely on others?! Are you that weak?! Are you that pathetic?!”
If I have to be pathetic to beat you… I’ll take it.
Together with the small girls Jane gathered all her strength. She worked through her burning muscles. She worked through the indomitable self-doubt that lingered through her mental house. She worked through Baal’s taunts.
I can’t allow him to walk out of here. If he leaves, it was all in vain. Arthur will have died for nothing. Caleb will get arrested. And I… I will die.
I… Do Not… Want to Die! I Deserve to Live!
Jane roared violently as she focused all her remaining strength and tossed herself against the door. And then, finally, aided by the little girls that had always seemed so incredibly powerless, the door closed with a loud iron clank.
She could hear the furious Baal rage inside the room. He yelled things that were no longer audible, and they didn’t matter. Baal no longer mattered. He lived now, isolated and powerless, in a room inside Jane’s head.
Jane sank to the ground. The tears ran freely from her eyes. Tears of fear, and sadness, and anger, and just the impossible exhaustion that came with facing off against a demon.
Carefully the small girls surrounded her and leaned in against her. There was no more hint of their amazing power. There was only their softness as they held on gently to the weeping Jane.
Very patiently they whispered, “We… love… you….”
Ellie stood in front of a window on the second floor, looking out over the entranceway to the Toaves mansion. In the distance she could see the open gate where the men were gathering around the person she vaguely knew as Agent Bradford.
The men, there were five of them, were dressed in dark blue uniforms, carrying heavy vests and helmets. She couldn’t make out any of their faces, but she sensed that they were excited, eager almost.
They carried guns and rifles Ellie didn’t know the names of, along with belts that contained all kinds of equipment she couldn’t really make out from that distance. ‘Armed to the tooth’ was the proper expression, and seeing the weapons scared Ellie to her very core.
Those men would soon come this way. What would they do if they found her in here in this locked bedroom?
Ellie wasn’t alone. The room also contained Elsa and Jean, two maids that had been here long before she first arrived. The women looked lost as they sat on the spacious bed against the back wall of the room. They had no idea what was going on, what was about to hit the mansion in the next few minutes.
Mary stood by the door, trying desperately to pull it open. Of course the lock was far too strong for the frantic woman.
Mary had been talking to somebody she called ‘Uncle Jacob’ before Caleb escorted them to this room. As soon as the door had closed and locked from the other side she came back from what Ellie thought could only have been an illusion.
Now, confused and angry, Mary banged her fists against the door.
“Let us out! Let us out of here right now!”
Ellie knew better. She understood that they were safest in this locked bedroom, huddled up together where the men could not reach them. Maybe they would be lucky and the men wouldn’t even realize they were here at all. If everybody was quiet, that was.
“Mary! Please stop it! Come look outside,” she said.
Mary’s strong steps took her away from the door and over to the window. She gasped when she realized what was going on.
“Who are those men?! What are they doing here? Are we hostages?!”
Ellie didn’t have the words to explain what was going on. If she was being completely honest with herself, she didn’t understand much of it either. All she knew was that this was Jane Elring’s design. Ellie believed in Jane Elring. She owed her savior that faith, the girl thought.
“You see why you have to be quiet now, Mary? Those men aren’t our friends. If we keep quiet they may not even find us.”
Before Mary could answer, one of the men outside yelled words that sent shivers down Ellie’s spine.
“Ready! Head out!”
Ellie watched as the five men hurried up the small road toward the mansion. The two in front carried a metal battering ram to force the door open. They were followed by the three others that had their weapons ready, eager for the first excuse to use them. A short distance behind this group of anonymous but terrifying men came Agent Bradford. He too had his gun ready.
Scared though she was, Ellie couldn’t help but think that the special agent looked very tired. His eyes were dark and hollow, his hair was wild and, mostly, his movements were slower and less secure than those of the other men.
When the men reached the front door Mary ran over to the two maids and yanked them off the bed. Her strong arms guided them across the room.
“In the corner! Get in the corner!”
The two women crawled up in the corner farthest from the door and sat weeping with their red and terrified eyes. Something like this wasn’t supposed to happen in the safety of the Toaves mansion. Something like this was not supposed to be part of a maid’s reality. Yet here they were, in the discomfort of each other’s company, waiting for the anonymous men that could easily shoot them to pieces.