Heroes of the Horde: Unleashed – Excerpt

Caitlyn reappears right in front of us and the first thing she does is scream. I spin around to see the demon janitor lunging at Jimmy. They fall to the ground, and the demon pins him down. It snarls and bares its teeth in Jimmy’s face. A long string of yellowish drool falls from the creature’s mouth and lands in Jimmy’s perfect wavy hair.

We’re all too stunned to move. Except Jimmy. He reaches up and grabs both sides of the demon’s face with his bare hands. There’s a sizzling noise and then the demon bellows out in pain. It springs away from Jimmy with two charred handprints on either side of its face.

Jimmy scampers back to where the rest of us form a misshapen semi-circle along the side wall of the school. Jimmy stands holding his hands palms up in front of him, ready to use his super-heated touch on the demon again. The demon stares at us with black soul-less eyes

“Anybody got any bright ideas?” Mike mutters, his voice almost comical. I glance over at him and discover he’s levitating about a foot off the ground.

A shiver races through my body. It’s freezing out here, but I don’t think that’s what caused the shiver. I’m pretty sure the fact the six of us are standing here getting ready to fight a demon is a bigger culprit than temperature.

Those powers belong to us, a horrific voice says in my head. The demon.

“The demon just said, ‘Those powers belong to us,’” I relay to the others.

The demon snaps its beady eyes in my direction, snarls, and lunges at me.

Mike hooks my elbow with his arm, and my feet leave the ground as he jumps us high in the air. Cooper and Jimmy rush forward. Jimmy holds his hands ready to sauté the demon again, but Cooper gets there first. He lowers his shoulder at the charging demon. The demon crashes into him, and it goes careening backward about ten feet before slamming into the hood of a parked car.

“How do we kill a demon?” Caitlyn yells.

“No clue,” Jimmy responds.

The demon is up again. It jumps at Mike and me in the air. The creature can’t levitate like Mike, but it jumps far higher and farther than any human. Its claw-like hand encircles my ankle and yanks me toward the ground, right out of Mike’s grasp.

I slam hard onto the ground and the demon scampers on top of me. Pain from the impact with the ground courses through my hip and shoulder. Then a new pain engulfs me. The demon bites into my other shoulder. I scream out and tears swim in my eyes.

“Shelly!” Cooper yells. He grabs the demon off of me and, using his super strength, hurls it into the car again.

My shoulder throbs and I can feel blood seeping from the wound, but Maggie helps me to my feet. I look at her and see nothing but fear in her slanted brown eyes.

“You okay?” Mike asks me, landing directly beside Maggie.

“I think so,” I reply. My shoulder feels a lot worse than it looks. The skin is punctured in a few places, oozing blood, but you can’t tell it’s a bite mark. It looks like I was stabbed a few times with a wide tined fork.

“We need to figure something out,” Caitlyn says, edging alongside Mike.

“I could try to burn it to death?” Jimmy suggests. He moves next to Caitlyn.

“I don’t know if that will kill it,” I say, “but it might slow it down.” The six of us are standing in a semi-circle again. Shoulder to shoulder. Almost like a team.

“Okay, so how do we kill it?” Cooper asks.

You can’t kill me, but I will kill you and take your powers. I cringe as it’s voice rolls around in my head.

“It will get our powers by killing us,” I tell the others.

“Well, that’s not gonna happen,” Jimmy says. He takes a step forward. Mike and Cooper close ranks beside him.

“Think, you guys! Remember Mr. T’s story. What did Deacon Isaac do to stop the demon?” Cooper yells over his shoulder.

The demon glares at us. Its chest heaves with snarling breaths. It looks like it wants to attack, but perhaps it’s assessing us, trying to figure out a weakness.

“That guy in the story kept quoting scripture until the demon came out of the people, but that was a demon possession… this is a real demon disguised as a human. Will scripture work?” Caitlyn asks.

“It’s worth a try,” Jimmy replies.

“Maggie,” I say, turning toward my best friend. “Try it.”

“Me?” she exclaims. “You think I can kill the demon?”

“You’re the only one of us who knows any scripture. You have faith in God. That’s what Isaac did in Mr. T’s story. You can do it!”

“You think I can come up with a scripture right now?” Maggie’s voice rises about three octaves higher than usual. She’s in full panic mode.

Suddenly, the demon snaps into action. It must have heard the dread in Maggie’s voice and now it sees her as the weak link. It dives in her direction. She stumbles back and smacks into the wall behind her. The demon is almost upon her when Jimmy grabs its arm, and the noise of sizzling flesh fills the air. The demon spins, slashing with its clawed fingers. It rips open Jimmy’s skin across his forearm. He screams as blood flows down his arm and stains his white dress shirt, but he doesn’t let go of the monster’s arm.

Cooper rushes forward and grabs the demon’s other arm. He’s so strong he’s able to slow the demon down, but it continues to howl and snarl at Maggie.

“Now, Maggie! Say some scripture now!” I yell.

“I can’t. I can’t think of any.” Tears streak down her cheeks. Her face is ghostly pale with fear.

“You have to, Maggie,” Mike says.

“Um… um…” Maggie sputtered, “‘And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.’”

It is hard to understand Maggie because she is sobbing so much. Cooper and Jimmy struggle to keep the demon back as it bites and snarls at her. Disgusting yellowish drool flies from the creature’s mouth and smacks her in the face, causing her to sob harder.

Mike wraps his arm around the demon’s neck, putting it in a headlock. His height is certainly an advantage, but he uses his levitation to gain even greater leverage.

“‘And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord,’” Maggie says, her voice still terrified.

The demon surges forward, dragging Mike, Cooper, and Jimmy along with it. It is inches from Maggie’s face now. Caitlyn and I stand off to the side, and when I glance at her I can tell she’s thinking the same thing as me: What in the world can we do to help?

What is she doing? Make her stop, the demon screams in my mind.

It howls like it is in pain. I can tell Jimmy is trying to melt the demon’s flesh with his hands. Plus, Cooper may have broken its arm, judging from the way it’s bent back. However, the scream coming from the creature is far more agonizing, far more terrifying. Maybe Maggie’s words are actually helping.

“‘And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger,’” Maggie’s voice grows stronger. She wipes the back of her hand across her tear-riddled face, takes a deep breath, and swallows hard. When she speaks again confidence radiates in her voice. “‘And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.’’”

The demon screams again, and it goes limp in the boys’ arms. The guys drop it, and it falls to the ground in a heap.

“Is it dead?” Caitlyn asks.

Jimmy kicks it with the toe of his shoe. Nothing happens. Mike leans down to check the thing’s face and suddenly its entire body stiffens, causing all of us to jump. Mike actually jumps into the air and stays there.

The stiffened beast on the ground screams again. Its black eyes widen abnormally large, and they’re no longer black, they glow a fiery red. Smoke issues from the creature’s mouth, mixing with snotty spittle. It flops on the ground like someone experiencing a seizure. The strange episode grows in intensity. Suddenly, the demon starts yelling words. Instead of the words only sounding in my head, he speaks them audibly for all of us to hear.

“This is just the beginning! I am one of many! Hundreds… Thousands! You will never rest. You will never find peace. We will get our powers back. You have unleashed The Horde!”

Pain-filled screams overtake its words, and the seizure-like spasms rock its body again. We all take measured steps away from the demon, giving it a lot of space to flail about. Finally, the demon screams so loud we cover our ears until it explodes in a concussion of fire and smoke. I have to turn my face away from the smoke and heat of the explosion. When I look back, I notice nothing is left behind except a blackened scorch mark on the ground.

“And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you kill a demon! Woo!” Mike yells, throwing his arms up in the air victoriously. He grabs Caitlyn around the waist and spins her in a circle. She joins his levity by giggling.

I can’t help snorting a laugh at my brother’s enthusiasm. Maggie bursts out with a full belly laugh. More tears spring up in her eyes and I think her laughter is a release. It’s helping her deal with the terror she felt just seconds ago. Cooper lets loose a few cheers. Jimmy simply nods, too cool to cheer along with the rest of us.

“Maggie, I’ve heard that scripture before. Where would I have heard it?” Cooper asks.

“It’s Linus’s speech from the Charlie Brown Christmas Special,” Maggie says sheepishly.

Jimmy snorts a really loud laugh and all of us fall out laughing hysterically.

“Leave me alone,” Maggie demands through her laughter. “It was the only scripture I could think of at the time!”

“Your family is Messianic! You don’t even celebrate Christmas!” I exclaim, chuckling.

“So, that movie’s a classic!” Maggie replies.

“I can’t believe you killed a demon with Charlie Brown!” Jimmy says. He begins laughing so hard he doubles over. It’s so out of character for him, it has all of us hysterical with laughter…