DiaG 168 - Out of Service

Again, thank you for your patience! I've got a nice stockpile of chapters that just need editing, so I will start posting them as I do so!

“Hilda! My Morrigan GPS!” Emma said, holding up the bag by the drawstring. It had been pulling solidly until now, guiding them, then suddenly stopped. “I-It couldn’t have run out of juice already… You don’t think…” Her words trailed off, thinking the worst may have occurred.

“Na, don’t worry, I’m sure there’s some other reason. If there is something blocking the magic, then the GPS won’t work.”

“Something like what?” Emma asked.

“Could be anything. Simply stepping free from this plane, or even if a strong enough force nearby drowning out the connection. There’s no reason to think something happened to her at this point.”

Despite her words, Hilda had a serious gaze in her eyes as she focused on the road. She had driven rather aggressively until getting into the city, but in the more crowded, slower streets, she didn’t have much ability to force her way through traffic. “I think we’re close, though.”

Hilda reached through her shirt collar and pulled out her warning charm. She could feel a slight vibration coming off of it, and as they continued down the street, it grew steadily stronger. “Let’s find somewhere to park.”

Emma had taken out her phone and tried calling Morrigan the old-fashioned way, but it went right to voicemail as if Morrigan’s phone were off. “Hmmmm… her phone isn’t working either.”

“Yeah, so most likely she’s somewhere that is preventing signals, even magical ones.”

“Oh, right. I guess when I tried to use a Hilda GPS to find you the same thing happened.”

Hilda nodded. “Yeah. That place I was trapped in was, in a way, outside this world…”

Emma tensed. “Do you think Alice really was just bringing Morrigan into a trap? I mean… I want to trust her… but…”

Hilda gave Emma a smirk and said, “I don’t think so. Or at least, I want to trust Alice.”

“Why? She hasn’t exactly proven herself to be very trustworthy…”

“She hasn’t exactly proven otherwise yet, either. I mean, don’t get me wrong, she’s definitely someone I’d keep an eye on and not trust completely. But the way things went today, and Noir confirming what she and her voidling were saying, I really don’t think so.”

“So why are you really trying to help her anyway?”

“Mmmm… I don’t know. Let’s just say she passed the vibe check. I get a feeling she’s someone who doesn’t necessarily have to be our enemy. I think she’s just stuck in a bit of a situation with this Goddess of Death bitch.” Hilda’s fist clenched a little tighter on the steering wheel, thinking of Lorelai and Terry.

Emma noticed and frowned, looking at Hilda with concern. “So… are you okay?”

Hilda relaxed her grip, trying to shake her memories of the doll house out of her mind. “Me? Oh yeah, I’m totally fine… What? What’s wrong?”

Emma wasn’t sure how she wanted to put it, but she knew Hilda was always one to shake things off with a smile and act like it was no big deal. Even when she was young and had lost her parents, she had this nonchalant air about things. Not so much about her parents' deaths in particular, but her situation in general. She always acted like she had everything under control. She was a rock whom Emma could always feel like she could rely on, but at the same time, Emma knew she’d bury any kind of fear and weakness for the sake of being that rock.

Emma could tell by her extra jokey attitude when they first found her and Alice at her apartment, how she brushed off the whole experience and acted like it wasn’t a big deal. That’s just what Hilda would always do.

“Just… Don’t think you have to protect me from everything. I’m learning to be a witch now too, so I don’t need it.”

“Hey, what’s gotten into you?”

“I’m just saying.”

“Ah…” Hilda paused, some kind of quip on the tip of her tongue, but she decided against it. “Alright, I get it.” Hilda blew out a breath and turned the blinker on, easing the car toward the curb between two parked vans. “Look, I’m not trying to keep you in a bubble or anything, I know you can handle yourself too. But as far as what may or may not be coming up with dealing with this demon, I don’t want you getting involved.”

Emma stared at her. “Too late, I’m already involved.”

Hilda killed the engine. “I mean directly. In there. Wherever this demon has set up shop.” She drummed her fingers on the steering wheel. “You are going to stay on the nice, safe, normal side of reality while I go poke the nightmare bubble.”

Emma tightened her grip on her Morrigan GPS. “So I just sit here and hope you come back? Again?”

“That is the basic outline, yeah.”

“Hilda!”

“No, I’m not arguing this with you, Emma. You are starting to learn to use magic, yeah, but you’re not that far along yet. I don’t know what we’re going to find in there, but I’m assuming a reaper emergency order isn’t something small.”

“Well, I’m not waiting in the Jeep. I’ll wait down the street if things look like they are going to get dangerous.”

“Hmmm…” Hilda sighed and said, “Well, if I said no to that, you would probably just follow me anyway, huh?”

“Yeah, of course I would,” Emma said smugly, folding her arms.

“Then I guess I have no choice. Come on, then.”

Hilda summoned her staff, and they got out of the Jeep and started walking down the sidewalk. By all accounts, it seemed like a normal day in town. The sidewalks had people coming and going in both directions, traffic streamed steadily on the street, and there was an occasional honk of a horn or a shout from a road rager.

There was a curious glance or two at Hilda, probably because she was holding a staff that looked to anyone else like an expensive prop someone would take to a convention. Hilda’s general wardrobe tended not to be very witchy, however, so it probably looked extra out of place without anyone wondering if there was indeed a convention going on nearby.

Hilda kept her warning charm in her hand, rubbing her thumb over it, feeling it vibrate harder and harder as they walked.

“I think we’re getting close…”

Finally, Hilda stopped and scanned around, looking for anything that might be amiss. Emma looked around too, but didn’t see anything.

“Hmmm…” Hilda hummed, then she placed two fingers over her eyelids and muttered a short incantation as the gem at the top of her staff glowed.

“What’s that?” Emma asked.

“Spirit watching spell… I’m trying to see if—holy hell!” Hilda flinched back as she saw the massive tail of a snake slithering between apartment windows.

“What is it?” Emma asked, shooting her gaze in the direction Hilda had flinched back from.

“I’d say that’s definitely a demon. Looks like it set up shop at the top of that apartment building…”

“Oh! Can I see? Or uh, better yet, want to show me how to do that?”

“I don’t think we have the time to teach it to you, and you don’t have your staff,” Hilda said. She saw the disappointed look in Emma’s eyes and smiled. “Okay, okay, come here. Close your eyes softly.”

Emma couldn’t hold back her giddy grin as she closed her eyes and Hilda made a peace sign, placing one finger over each eyelid. She muttered the same incantation and then said, “There you go. Done.”

Emma looked up towards the apartment building, and her mouth hung open in shock. “No way… What the hell is that?”

The snake’s tail was as thick as a bus, the scales like overlapping plates of steel. It slid between the upper floors of the building, vanishing straight through brick walls at some points as if they were made of dense fog. “It's even bigger than the one in the woods!”

“Looks like it made the entire top of that building its domain… I guess.”

“Domain?” Emma asked.

“I read a little about it in some of my mom’s journals. Some demons create rifts that aren’t technically in this world, but I guess parallel to it. Uh, so there's this place called negative space that allows them to do it. Apparently, my Mom and Dad met when they both happened to be investigating something like that in South America…” Hilda grinned and shook her head. “Anyway, since your Morrigan GPS isn’t working, I’d say that’s probably exactly what’s happening here.”

Emma nodded and took a step forward, Hilda instantly grabbing her shoulder. “Hold on there. I thought we talked about this.”

Emma’s eyes lowered, knowing that she shouldn’t argue with Hilda at this point. She didn’t like the idea of Morrigan and her cousin facing something like this while she sat back doing nothing again.

“Listen, I’ll start working with you on some stuff so you don’t have to be left behind next time,” Hilda said. “I mean, hopefully there is no next time. But why don’t you go with plan A and head back to the Jeep for now?”

Emma was ready to nod and agree when a familiar voice called from down the street.

“Ah, Miss Hilda, Miss Emma. Is that you?”

They looked up to see Death strolling down the street. He was wearing a black baseball cap, grey jeans, shorts, and a grey t-shirt with a graphic of a sports car with the hood open and text reading, “If it ain't broke—fix it.”

“Death!?” Emma blurted out. She had never seen him in shorts before, and it was a bit weird to see his skeletal legs, complete with black shoes on his feet.

Hilda raised an eyebrow, unable to keep from grinning at the skeleton in such casual attire. “What the hell are you wearing?”

“Ah, well, I was supposed to have the day off, and I was busy attending a car show I had been looking forward to for quite some time,” Death explained, shaking his head regretfully. “But, of course, duty calls. Noir showed up to tell me of this emergency order, so I apologized to the organizers that I had a… family emergency, and pulled my car from the lot posthaste.”

Emma would have laughed if it were not for the seriousness of the situation.

“Anyway!” Death continued. “It seems Morrigan and Alice had made it here already. Hmmm… and that does indeed look to be quite a nasty demon.”

Then, Noir’s voice echoed as a shadow moved along the wall beside them. Emma flinched as she saw two red eyes open from amidst the pool of shadow. “It seems there is more than one demon here, Master. It appears a rift had been opened somewhere in negative space, and quite a number have gathered towards it.”

“Oh dear… that does sound serious…” Death muttered. “How many centuries has it been since we’ve had to deal with something like that?”

“Twenty-seven,” Noir answered. “And two other reapers have already arrived as well. Fenris and Hellina.”

“Ah! Excellent! Then we should have nothing to worry about. Hilda, were you planning to aid us?”

“Yeah, of course,” she answered.

“Good. Normally, I would say to just leave it to us reapers, but since both Alice and Morrigan are still flesh and blood, it is possible they will require some of your healing magic. Anyway, let us not delay any longer.”

Emma frowned, her gaze dropping to the ground. She knew this was no place for her, but she still hated feeling useless. “Good luck in there, you two. Please make sure Morrigan is safe.”

“Yeah, no worries, cuz. I wouldn’t let anything happen to her.”

Death’s hand shot out as he summoned his scythe, looking even more out of place with his casual attire. “Very good then, let’s be off! It seems that snake demon is mainly responsible for the opening of the rift, so we’ll see if we can attack the heart of the problem by going after her first.”

“Alright,” Hilda said, lifting her staff. “Sounds good to me.”

—

Alice ran up the side of a wall, managing to gain some air before she kicked off. She materialized a chain between the two halves of her scythes and threw one high into the air.

A demon that looked like an oversized mosquito was coming towards her, but she pulled down, ripping the airborne scythe in a quick arc that sliced right through it, not killing it yet, but knocking it from the air. It wriggled on the ground of the negative space streets until Alice ran for it, drawing back the chain and catching her second scythe, then she jumped at the demon and slashed both blades in an arc across its torso.

The weapons plunged deep, and the demon let out another agonized hiss as its form began to dissolve, leaving behind a small ribcage-like structure which likewise began to disintegrate with the shards of bone turning black and crumbling amongst a puddle of gew.

Alice let out a breath and pressed her scythes together, letting out a burst of light as the two weapons melded together and reformed a normal scythe, which she then balanced over her shoulder.

Alice closed her eyes and tried to gather herself, but that pain that was becoming all too familiar suddenly crawled around her limbs. She grit her teeth, trying to force it down, but ended up falling to a knee and cursing. “Damn it…”

She rolled back her sleeve to look at her arm. Those faint black veins were crawling along her skin again.

She dragged in another heavy breath and forced her sleeve back down, covering the corruption. After another moment of focus, the surge of pain receded just enough for her to push herself back to her feet.

“Damn it… Why the hell did she do this to me…”

Alice hated the scale of what Lorelai was. She couldn’t even fantasize about killing such a being—a literal god. She knew there was no way to get true revenge against Lorelai, or take away the power the goddess had over her. The only true way to escape her clutches would be to have another reaper send her to limbo, where nothing would exist of her anymore.

But she couldn’t do that. Alice figured, in the grand scheme of things, in the totality of existence, she had to have an end at some point, even as a reaper. Even if it took tens of thousands of years, or even hundreds of thousands, she would one day face her end, and because of the reaper contract, only limbo would await, and therefore, nothing would remain of her. 

It wasn’t something she planned to prevent or escape from, but when she did finally go to limbo, she wanted to do it while knowing that she accomplished something, that she made a difference, and altered the course of the world and turned it into a worthy place. The world as it was was unforgiving… cruel… Those who made it such a horrid place, the evil people of the world, did not get the punishments they truly deserved.

Three more lesser demons poured out at once. One skittered along the walls like a centipede made of bones. Another dragged itself forward on too many arms, its torso swollen and pulsing. The last unfolded from the shadow of a fire escape, tall and thin, its head bent backward at an impossible angle.

Alice moved and disconnected her scythes into two smaller handheld ones again.

Her chain snapped outward, wrapping around the nearest creature’s neck as she pivoted and slammed her scythe into the second. The blade sank deep, bright reaper light erupting from the wound as corrupted matter began to slough off in burning sheets.

She yanked the chain tight.

The centipede-demon came free of the wall with a sickening crunch as she swung the body of the one she had the chain wrapped around into the third. Both hit the ground in a tangle of shrieking limbs. Alice landed between them and finished the job in two clean, brutal arcs.

Then she searched the sky as she heard a familiar caw, and smirked, outstretching her arm.

“Mistress! Mistress! Caw!” Nyx screamed and landed on her forearm.

“What is it, Nyx? Have other reapers arrived?”

“Caw! More reapers! Fenris. Hellina. Death. Caw!”

“Hm, so Master has arrived. How about demons? Can you estimate how many are here?”

“Can not say. Caw!”

“Specifically, greater demons, Nyx. I don’t care about the weak ones that seem to be down here at the bottom.”

Nyx’s head pivoted left and right, her gaze lifting to the sky as she seemed to consider the question. “Do not know. Caw.”

“Then see if you can find the rift that they are coming through. I suspect it will be up higher, where that snake demon was. She seems to be the one responsible for this. When you are done, report back to me.”

Nyx did not take flight right away, instead turning her gaze down to Alice. She repositioned herself on Alice’s arm, her talons stomping softly and feathers bristling as she seemed to be examining Alice.

“What is the matter? I gave you an order, Nyx.”

“Death?” Nyx questioned.

Alice narrowed her eyes at the raven voidling. She had been with her for two hundred years now, and previously, the bird would simply follow her orders without question, though anything complicated, Alice would have to be very specific. But a new behavior had emerged over the years, where Nyx would occasionally seem to question her.

“There is no need for you to contact Master. Search for a rift, then return to me and tell me what you find. In the meantime, I’ll remain down here and fight whatever other demons I come across. You can help me find a way to leave negative space later.”

Nyx still looked conflicted for a moment, but then let out one final “Caw!” and tore off into the sky.

Alice watched her until she disappeared up into the sky, then sighed and continued walking. It wasn’t long before she heard another skittering sound and knew a demon was nearby. She took a battle stance and raised her scythes, ready for another fight.