The Sweetest Burn

“What are you?” a white-haired woman hissed, interrupting me. “You killed that man and turned him into, into nothing!”

“He wasn’t a man,” I answered truthfully.

“Don’t listen to her,” the ranger whispered to the older woman. “We just have to wait until the other man comes back. He said that he was getting help.”

“You mean the man with the long black hair?” Adrian’s snort was derisive. “Oh, he’s getting help, all right, but not for you. He’s a demon, and he’s bringing more demons with him.”

I sucked in a breath at his bluntness. So much for easing people into the truth about the supernatural!

“I’m not going to listen to this,” the white-headed woman said. Then she wagged her cell phone at me. “As soon as I get a signal, I’m calling the police!”

Either my legs had recovered from the demon’s freezing touch, or sheer frustration got me back on my feet. “Even if you could, the police can’t help you. I know it sounds incredible, but you’re not in the same world you were in before. You’re in a parallel realm, and yes, demons live on this side. That’s why we need to get everyone back to where they came from.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, they didn’t listen. I’d seen glimpses of the realms all my life, and the first time I heard what they really were, I didn’t believe it, either. With several mutters and glances back at the pile of ashes, the people left.

Adrian sighed. “No one believes the truth until it’s too late. That’s why Demetrius fed them that ‘getting help’ crap. He wants them docile until he’s done rounding everyone up.”

I took a few steps, trying to force the debilitating iciness out of my legs. The warmth from the nearby fireplace beckoned me closer for many reasons. The gateway was right in front of it, and all I needed to do was let Adrian take me through, and we’d be safe. He was right; Demetrius or another demon could show up any minute. But how could I live with myself if I didn’t try harder to save the people downstairs, too?

“I’m not giving up,” I told Adrian, and began heading for the staircase on my still-wobbly legs.

He came after me and spun me around. “You think they’ll listen? You took out a demon in front of them, and they still don’t believe what’s going on. Speaking of that, you got lucky nailing the demon in the head without really aiming. You might not get that lucky again, which is why we need to go now.”

I knew he was right, but Jasmine’s face flashed in my mind, as did my parents’. Maybe no one had been able to help them when they’d been in situations just like this, or maybe someone had, yet had chosen not to. How could I look my sister in the eye if I walked away from these people now? How could I stand to remember my parents if I showed the same apathy that minions had when they’d contributed to my parents’ deaths?

“I have to try one more time,” I insisted, pulling away from Adrian.

His jaw clenched, but he didn’t stop me as I hobbled past him. Maybe he couldn’t stand the thought of leaving these people behind, either. He might not be up to his full strength, but I was pretty sure he could still throw me over his shoulder and force me through the gateway, if he really wanted to.

I made it down the stairs without tripping, which took a lot of effort. Then I carefully made my way into the grand entry room. The people who’d witnessed what had happened upstairs were huddled up with the rest of the group, and from the hostile glances my way, it wasn’t hard to guess what they’d been talking about.

“Whatever you heard, all of you need to come with me if you want to get out of here.” Then I took a deep breath. There was no way to tell them what had happened without sounding crazy, so I just plowed ahead. “This place has been pulled into another realm and demons are coming to enslave you, but there’s a gateway upstairs that will send you back home.”

The white-haired woman shook her finger at me. “Don’t listen to her! She’s crazy and she’s evil. I told you, she killed a man and turned him into dirt!”

“He wasn’t a man, he was a demon, and there’s more where he came from,” Adrian retorted, coming up behind me. “If you want to live, you’ll let us get you out of here.”

“This is ridiculous,” a bespectacled, well-dressed man sputtered. “I don’t know what sort of con you’re trying to pull, but that other man said there had been an unexpected eclipse. That’s all, and he left to get help—”

“Look around,” I snapped, waving at the window. “Not only has it been pitch-black for hours, the desert is now frozen. No eclipse could do that, and no con artist could, either. I know it’s a lot to take in, but you need to accept that you’re in another realm so that you can get the hell on out of it!”

“Demons? Realms? You expect us to believe that?” he muttered, to murmurs of agreement from the rest of them.

I contemplated how long it would take to knock them all out, carry them upstairs and drag them one by one through the gateway. Too long, judging from how I could hardly walk, and Adrian looked better, but not by much.

“You have another explanation for how a dark, freezing version of this world suddenly fell on you?” I countered, trying to force them past their denial. “If you don’t, you might want to start listening to the crazy one.”

“You gave it your best shot, but they’re not listening, and we have to go,” Adrian muttered, tugging my arm.

I planted my feet, going for one last argument. “I wish I could prove the existence of demons and other realms to you, but I don’t have time. You don’t trust me? Fine, trust your own eyes. Eclipses last minutes, not hours. They don’t shut off everything that isn’t battery-operated, knock out cell signals and freeze deserts. You know this, so if it’s not an eclipse, then it’s something that shouldn’t be possible, and yet it is. So please, come upstairs with us, and we’ll take you through the gateway and prove that we can get you home.”

I put all of my desperation into those last few words, trying also to say with my eyes what I couldn’t seem to convey vocally. Glasses Guy turned away. So did the costumed ranger, the white-haired lady and most of the rest of them. But, with several hesitant glances, a family of four stepped forward.

“We’ll come,” the father said, picking up his little girl.

“Take them upstairs,” I told Adrian, fighting back a surge of tears. “Please, the rest of you, come with us. Like I said, we’ll prove to you that we can get you out of here.”

They began to back away instead, egged on by the white-haired lady’s continual, muttered accusations and their own disbelief. Adrian led the family to the staircase and, after a few, long moments where I futilely hoped that at least one other person would change their mind, I followed them upstairs. I was almost at the top when a scream made me run the last few steps. I tripped, but made it into the trashed music room in time to see the two parents beating at the stone around the fireplace.

“Wait!” the mother was crying, while the father stuck his hands in the flames as if trying to snatch something back.

“It’s okay,” I reassured them, doing an odd hop-run into the room. “He’ll be right back, I promise!”

No sooner did I say that than Adrian appeared, almost knocking the parents over with his sudden entry. He didn’t pause to explain, as I continued to do, but grabbed both of them in a bear hug and then lunged at the fireplace. They disappeared as if the flames had somehow swallowed them. I knew what was going on, but to be honest, it was still a little freaky looking.

The costumed ranger picked that moment to run into the room. He had a candlestick in his hands, of all things, and he brandished it at me. “Where are they? What did you do to them?”

“Nothing,” I began, but Adrian’s reappearance cut me off. He grasped me around the shoulders, and I noticed that he was breathing heavy and his color didn’t look good.

“Are you all right?” I asked, worried enough to ignore the ranger’s sudden yell of “What the hell?”