Clue #17
In wooden a embrace
Your reward sits unfazed
Asleep in the house of grace
Under the messenger's gaze.

Shara turned on her phone's flashlight and swept the circle of light over the wooden building. Vines clung to the walls and whatever windows weren't boarded up, were broken. The treasure hunt committee was really embracing the spooky vibe this year. But whatever. It still had nothing on her day job.

She tested her weight on the front steps before walking up to the door. It gave way with a single push, and the room beyond coughed out a cloud of dust. Three rows of pews greeted her along with a layer of dust and cobwebs that should come with a health hazard label.

The floor groaned with every step as she walked up to the altar. It was flanked by a statue of an angel with a rolled up piece of paper in one hand. She pulled the vines away from its base and rubbed the dust away with her sleeve.

"Archangel Gabriel," she read. Her heart skipped a beat. The messenger angel.

She stood next to the statue and followed its line of sight. Across the room, a few tree branches had burst through the window and entangled in a way that looked like two lovers hugging.

Shara marched over there and clawed at the branches until a silvery box came into sight. "Jackpot."

Her phone when off, its buzzing and screeching ringtone echoing through the church like a siren. The caller id said it was her fellow treasure hunter and colleague, Garret. "Yeah?" she asked, her breath clouding the air.

"We have a problem." Shara could barely hear him over the background noise. "Mrs. Calloway and Emily are missing. No one's seen them an hour."

She tucked the silver box under her arm and headed for the door. "Then call the police?" She regretted her tone as the words came out. It sounded as though she didn't care about her next door neighbor, or her daughter.

"We have. They're here, but..."

Shara scowled, already knowing where this was going. "This isn't a police problem, is it?"

"I caught a whiff of forbidden fruit. Should I go in alone or wait?"

Her car appeared in the distance, parked at the Backwoods' entrance. "Wait for backup, and send this message to HQ: Deus vult."

"Is that some kind of code?"

"It's an SOS. I'm not taking any chances. Turn your GPS on so I can find you. I'll get there as soon as I can." She hung up and made a bee line through the frozen trees for her car.

According to her GPS, Garret was twenty minutes away, near the industrial area of their little town. But she planned to cut that time in half. Hopefully, Angel would get to him before she did. Having a newbie alone in that kind of situation was a recipe for disaster.

She took the back road, but was able to see a kaleidoscope of police car lights near the town hall. Just as she zipped pass, a message from the committee came through, announcing the cancellation of the hunt.

Shara pulled up outside the local water depot and popped the glove compartment. Her emergency supply of holy water was nestled inside. She popped the cork with her mouth before exposing the exorcist's mark on her wrist.

The cool liquid seeped into the black lines as she poured out a generous amount.

The water depot was a grey monolith against the moonlit sky. White markings marred its metal shutters, harsh jagged lines that looked liked the gnarled branches of winter trees.

Shara jumped out of her car and hit the ground running. She tried Garrets phone but only got a busy signal, and the GPS said he was out of range. Her sprint became more urgent, her footfalls louder, and her heart rate faster as she rounded the depot -- all the while redialing Garret's number and following the signs of otherworldly activity.

"Come on, come on..." she groaned at the phone.

Static came through the receiver, interspersed with Garret's chopped up words.

"Garret where are you?"

"I... surrounded..." The rest sounded like word vomit.

"Signal Garret, I need a signal!" The line went dead. "Dammit!" She skidded to a stop and looked around, holding on to the hope that he'd heard her. A flash lit up her peripheral and she made a beeline for its source – the radio station.

A prickling sensation radiated through her mark as she neared her destination. Pools and splatters of luminescent white liquid spotted the ground and infrastructure, carrying the sickly-sweet smell of forbidden fruit.

A cacophony of screeches reached Shara's ears, and she sprinted full-speed towards it. As she turned into a passageway, a cloud of hellspawn greeted her, so thick it was hard to make out where one ended and the others began. The beating of the leathery wings filled the air like the drone of an aeroplane engine. As soon as they spotted her, they released a chorus of shrieks and attacked with taloned feet.

Shara pointed her palm towards them. "Luxeum!" Tendrils of light shot from her mark and formed glowing red shield before her. The hellspawn curved away like a school of fish fleeing a predator.

"Garret!" She pushed through the throng of demons, hunkering behind her shield. The smell of forbidden fruit burnt the inside of her nostrils and made her stomach churn. A hand shot from the dark and pulled her into a narrow gap between two AC units.

Garret's pale face was a welcomed sight, but it took all her self control not to sock him in the mouth.

"I said wait!" she screamed, loud enough to be heard over the din.

"They were heading towards the town. I had no choice." He wiped the sweat from his pale brow and pressed his back to the wall.

Shara bit her lip as she weighed their options. She could easily kill off all the demons if she went all out. But doing so would put Garret in danger. They wouldn't last in their current position but if they could just hold out until...

Everything became still and quiet. The demons were suspended, unmoving in the air, and tiny balls of light weaved between them like fireflies. Footfalls, slow and deliberate echoed through the dark like the trumpet blares of a harbinger.

"And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence." A smooth baritone reverberated through the air. "And the violent... take it by force."

Shara shielded her eyes the balls of light exploded. The demons' screams grated on her ears as they were reduced to white ash. When the light cleared, only Angel stood in the passageway.

"Took you long enough." Her shield disappeared in a plume of red light.

Angel grinned and roughed up his curly hair. "I apologize for the delay. Happy to see you're in one piece, Shara and..." He raised a brow at Garret.

"This is Garret," Shara said, pulling the person in question to his feet. "Garret this is Angeleo Silva."

Angel nodded. "Please get me up to speed as we walk. I'm feeling... something nearby."

"Two of our neighbours went missing," Garret explained. "I was told she came to this area looking for a treasure. Caught a whiff of forbidden fruit and followed it out here."

"It's possible she's been possessed then." Angel stopped at the end of the passageway and pointed towards a radio tower. "There."

Mrs. Calloway was lying at its base in a pool on luminescent white liquid. With her skin shriveled and sporting and sickly grey-green colour, she looked less like a person and more like a comic book zombie. Emily was by her side, barefoot and toying with the hem of her dirtied pink dress.

"Holy—" Garret clamped his mouth shut as Emily swiveled her head towards them. She cracked a wide smile, and glowing white liquid dribbled down from the corner of her mouth.

"We're far too late," Angel said. He pulled up the sleeve of his turtle neck to expose his exorcist's mark.

"W-wait... what do you mean? Are you gonna... kill her?" Garret looked back and forth between Angel and Emily.

"She's been possessed by Lilith's spawn," Shara explained. Her heart was heavy, a feeling punctuated by the defeated look on Garret's face. "And she's already eaten her mother's soul. We can't let her loose. She'd wreck the town."

The little girl was on her feet now, swaying back and forth. She charged towards them in a blinding blur.

"Luxecto!" Shara shouted, and Emily stopped a foot away, suffused in a red glow. She grunted as the child struggled against her hold, waves of pain radiating through her mark. "Hurry, Angel."

"As God wills." He stepped forward and placed a hand on Emily's forehead before glancing at Garret. "Look away if you must."

Written for: The Treasure Hunted
Prompt: Every year, your town hosts a treasure hunt and this year you're determined that you're going to win. Except when one of your neighbours goes missing during the hunt, it's up to you to determine whether there's more going on in your not so quiet neighbourhood.
Word Limit: 1500 words
Final Word Count: 1492 words