Haunteds

Chapter 31

I gritted my teeth. "Oh yeah, well how about you come up with something and I'll do the punching."

I swung hard that he staggered backward, releasing his grip on me.

Harmony stood between Cato and me, pushing us away from each other. "That's enough!"

"You can figure this out," Cato said, wiping the blood from his lips. "You're just not looking."

"Oh, I'm not looking?" I said. "The shadows covered every inch of the room, the floor, the ceiling, cutting us off from outside help and preventing any real chance of escape, trapping us here with that guy who wants to use us as guinea pigs for his science project. We have no way to defend ourselves. Our only chance is the sun but I doubt Dr. Frankenstein over there would just sit quietly."

"Herack Mea, Azgarmoth!" Daniel finished the chant.

Just then, red light shone from the circle.

"Um, kids," Daniel said. "It's cool that you're planning on stopping me and all but could you keep it down? I'm trying to work here."

I kept my eyes on Cato. "Did I miss anything?" I said.

Cato brushed Harmony's hand away and walked up to me. "Like I said, you're not looking. We have something more powerful than sunlight behind me."

I got his meaning immediately. "And you assumed I can just use his magic circle?"

"He's already activated it," Cato said. "All we have to do is figure out how to use it."

"If it were easy," Daniel said, stretching his back. "Everyone would have done it. It's not like you can just repeat what I've just said." Then he exhaled, slowly, and closed his eyes. He started chanting in that language I don't understand again.

Cato ignored him. "So I was thinking. If that summoned that Shade, maybe we can use it to unsummon it."

The place darkened. The symbol shone brighter. Arcs of red lightning shot out. The red lights died out. I couldn't tell if it worked because Daniel didn't look any different. "That's one down," he said. "Eleven to go." Then his stomach spat out the bodies of Kent and Eris.

Daniel looked down at the bodies of Kent and Eris. "These kids won't be going anywhere," he said. "Maybe I'll start with the live ones?"

He stepped out of the symbol and closed in.

But we were already hugging the wall. There was nowhere to go. We screamed as he gets closer. But my mind was on what Cato had said. Maybe he's right. Maybe we can use it against him. The only reason why no one was able to replicate the ritual was that they don't have the spell to activate it. I remembered what Major Coleman said back at the museum. Without the proper incantation, drawing the symbol is no different from a doodle. But now, Daniel has activated it. I just have to copy what he's doing.

It's just a few steps more until he's on top of us.

The front row of our group armed themselves with the plastic chairs. I thought about picking one up but I decided to slink to the back. Think! I told myself. Cato gave me something to work with. Now my mind is in an overdrive to put the pieces together.

First is the offering, our blood. Well, that's easy. Just get close to him and he will do the rest. But that means that whoever was being drained was surely going to die. I'm not going to do that. There are nine prime candidates here, ripe for the picking. I'll just wait for him to pick his next target and launched myself after him. This isn't the time to be a hero. Besides, if this works, I could save all of them and get rid of the Shade, once and for all. Everyone wins.