THE CHALDEAN ORACLE

Freeing Ishtar

Chapter 5

I flipped through the channels thinking I should be heading to bed. It was almost one in the morning, I wasn’t going to find anything interesting on TV and everyone was either sleeping or out working.

            School had been boring, as always, but at least mom hadn’t brought back the subject of my none-existing love life at the table during dinner today. She had been talking about it all week long and it was seriously starting to hit a nerve.

            I did a last round on the channels, fast, blinking more than paying attention to the TV. My eyes were stinging.

            Flapping peachy. An Ishim with eye issues, that ought to be a first.

            I closed the television, and threw the remote control beside me on the couch.

           Mom and dad had gone to a meeting with the Elder Ishims, in charge around here, at the Saint Joseph’s Oratory of Mont-Royal. Kalvin was out doing his rounds. Michio had gone to sleep, though he was probably just doing push-ups on the floor in his room.

           This was as close as I could get from having the house to myself.

           If I were a normal human being, would this be the perfect set up to call all my friends and throw a “ragging party”?

           I didn’t know what normal humans did, I didn’t know what a normal life really felt like. How would it be to just go to a normal school, with normal friends, not fearing that at every corner you’d turn you’d be face to face with a Demon that wanted nothing more than to see you burn at the stakes? Not knowing that that warm spot in the lake was in fact a water Demon. Not knowing that a night the moon was red there would be some girl sacrificed at an alter somewhere. Not having to check under your pillow every night to be sure the rosemary was still there so you could remember if a Demon had tried to attack you during the night or infiltrate your dreams. Not knowing that every time you had a nightmare, a Demon somewhere had been feeding off that fear and Holy Spirit because it had been wounded or needed more “fuel”.

           Did those normal kids out there lived like the ones I saw on TV? Were their lives like that?

           I got up from the couch and headed for the kitchen, closing lights behind me. I could make myself a grilled cheese and then go study a bit more for my Exits and Escapes test next week. That didn’t sound so bad… the grilled cheese I mean, the studying sounded flapping pathetic.

           I wished I could be like Gotzone and never have to study. If he read it or heard it once it was inscribed in his brain forever.

           I closed my hand around the fridge handle and smiled at the pictures on it, of our entire family at the top of the Statue of Liberty—like illegally on top of it, no one could go there, there wasn’t even access at the spot we were but let’s just say we had our ways of going around authorities and unauthorized areas. Oren at his graduation. Kalvin at his graduation. My parents in front of a pond, at their wedding. Kalvin and Oren in their black fighting gear. Michio and I sitting at the bottom of a small waterfall…

           I shook my head at all the memories and opened the fridge.

           The front door opened and a loud voice echoed at the exact same time making me jump on the spot. “CLEA!? MICHIO!?”

           Seconds later Kalvin was in the kitchen, all dressed in black, dagger tied on his arm, gun and machete secured on his back. One could have wondered how could he even walk around outside like that, but we were Ishims with thousands of years of knowledge in spells and incantations. Disguise were a given. And this was definitely not the point right now because I had rarely seen my big brother looking so freaked out. “What? What is it? Mom and Dad? Is it Oren?”

           The thought of my eldest brother maybe hurt made me sick to my stomach.

           Kalvin shook his head and closed the fridge in one shove. “Worse. A freaking army of Mushhushshu ju—”

           “Munchin-what?”

           “Mush-Hush-Shu! Tiny stinking dragons,” he explained, his voice getting higher, making hysterical hand gestures. “They just popped in the containing cells.”

           My eyes widened. “You mean the ones I visited last week?”

           Michio walked in the kitchen at the same time, rubbing his eyes, just wearing his black sweat pants. Hmm, maybe he had actually been sleeping after all.

           “Yes! And they opened every gates. They even unfroze the ones we kept just to show off! They’re all out and running in the town. So now, every single Ishim has to report to duty!”

           Whoa! Okay I wasn’t expecting that at all!

           My minds wandered for a millisecond to that Fallen Angel. But I pushed the thought right away. I would not think about him, I barely had in the last few days.

           “How about the Malakhims and all the other Angels? Can’t they help,” Michio offered, and yawned.

           “It’s not the only place it happened!”

           “What,” Michio and I gasped at the same time.

           “Few others in the States, one in Saudi Arabia and one in Egypt,” Kalvin ran his hands through his hair, pacing in the kitchen, “I think the one in London too, one in Greece and another in the Netherlands.”

           “Why? What’s going on,” I inquired. That wasn’t normal, not normal at all, and it was bad news, very bad news.

           “I don’t know, but it’s not pretty.” He then looked straight at my younger brother concern evident in his features. “Michio? You’ll be okay to fight?”

           He nodded once.

           It was hard for my little brother to have any kind of encounter with the Demons after what they had done to his biological family…

           Kalvin nodded too. “Good. Now, gear up, you have five minutes.”

           I was running for the stairs the very second.

           I went straight for my room which was on the third floor—well the attic to be more precise but it didn’t look like an attic anymore. It wasn’t so much that I was excited about going out and fight—I was a little bit—but I was mostly scared, I mean who wouldn’t be, especially when they had pretty much no training and no special skills to help them…

           Oh flap, I was so screwed…

           So, the rushing was mostly due to the adrenaline pumping in my system… and the fact that I knew Kalvin would be dragging me by the skin of my back if I didn’t hurry up.

           Even if you we too young to actually go out and really fight, everyone had a gear, for situation like these. I never actually had to wear it, it was the first time I would.

           Okay that was a lie, I had worn it over a hundred times… in my bedroom, looking at myself in the mirror in it jumping around on my bed, doing sick ninjas moves, or well what my coordinately challenged self considered as sick ninja moves, which consisted of kicks that made me look like a retard.

           The suit made me look kinda like Black Widow in Iron Man. Or well to be more exact the whole thing looked like the one Selene wore in Underworld because of the corset it included—fashionable bullet proof vest. It had an ancient look to it—Ishims had been fighting in gears for a long time after all. It was a one piece overall black suit, with long sleeves, not in leather but a material close to it, that didn’t have any problem with water—or blood—and then over it, a black corset with little embroidered patterns on it to make it look pretty.

           I quickly slipped in it, and tied my red hair into a pony tail. I didn’t have any weapons so my pockets and belts and such were empty, aside from the one that had my phone in it.

           I looked at myself in the mirror one last time and decided I was presentable—which wasn’t that important anyway, it was dark outside and the night, it wasn’t like anyone would really see me.

           I sprinted downstairs, slipped in my flat black boots while Kalvin impatiently tapped his foot by the front door and Michio secured his wrist bands.

           He looked cooler than me in the outfit. Flapping little brother.

           “We’re ready? Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go!” Kalvin rushed and we all walked the door.

           A girl was waiting outside, leaning against Kalvin’s car, his black Nissan 350Z which he was really proud of—the car, not the girl.

           I kind of froze in my steps when I saw her. Because of her flapping huge wings and all—humans couldn’t see them though. I didn’t need presentation to know this was Sofiel.

           “What’s the status,” Kalvin asked, heading straight for the driver’s side, while she closed the phone she had been speaking on and shoved herself away from the car.

           Okay, she definitely looked hotter than me in the outfit. Flapping Angel! I didn’t even want to analyze her look mentally because she was too pretty!

           “Everything’s just marvellous really,” she answered in a Kentish accent. Michio and I slipped in the backseats and Kalvin and Sofiel pushed their seats back in place. “All the water Demons are long gone by now. Oh and your parents are on their way.”

           Kalvin sat down and started the car. “Dad can’t fight, not with his old injured leg.”

           “Well you tell him that boy,” she faked-smirked and patted his cheek.

           The drive wasn’t that long considering Kalvin drove fast and pretty much violated every driving laws possible even though we lived in Westmount and we needed to regroup by the Notre Dame Basilica—the containing cells were in its basement. It definitely wasn’t a comfortable ride since we were in a stupid two doors car so our heads were kind of sideways, being too tall to fit and all.

           Flapping car.

           And yes I was pretty much trying to think about anything to distract me from the fact that that I was about to go fight Demons.

           Maybe I wouldn’t even see any tonight, but there were high risks.

           Part of me though, a very irrational part, wanted to be face to face with a Demon, wanted to rip its head off and run around with it on a stick or something.

           That need to fight, to kill Demons, that was in my blood, poor gene pool or not. I was born an Ishim, born to fight evil, and even though I had no actual helpful training at this point, for this kind of situation, I wouldn’t have backed down out of this. It was part of who I was.

           Because of all the construction, it was a pain to find a parking, but we finally managed to get one and all hurried up to the entrance on Saint Sulpice road.

           Inside, it was like an ant cave or something, people rushing everywhere with information, phone rigging, maps on huge screens covering every walls with little colored lights flashing, probably telling where there were Demons, and there was a group of Ishims and Angels walking in dragging a Demon with them.

           I looked around, trying to find Gotzone or Flo, but with all the people they were no where in sight, probably already outside running around anyway.

           The orders were to walk in pairs around the street and find our escaped Demons. It was a “behead first, ask questions never” policy. If we couldn’t contain them or catch them we had to kill them, no time to over think it.

           Inexperienced Ishims, like me and Michio were here to walk around with detectors and such to spot anything unusual of the Demon variety—and call to report the second we found something—so I paired up with my little brother. Plus, that kid could probably kick anyone’s butt with his ninja moves so I wasn’t too worried. And it wasn’t like I would confront a Demon or anything. The thought was nice but completely ludicrous too.

           We were given weapons, with undetectable spells on them. I had a long dagger that I tied on my back and Michio had two.

           We could have carried guns but unless you had perfect aim for that spot on the neck that paralyzes you, they weren’t that useful and would just piss off the Demons. Truth was, we could carry any kind of weapons, because as long as you got yourself a dead Demon in the end you could do pretty much whatever you wanted.

           I would have carried a gun but Kalvin said no and shoved the dagger in my hands.

           I tried not to frown too much.

           I mean, shooting, alright, but beheading? It requested a lot of strength and a strong stomach, two things I didn’t exactly have…

           Oh I was so screwed…

           I had tried to keep a cool composure, not to freak, think none stop to not realize what was happening but now I was walking, alongside my brother in the streets of the Old-Montreal, at night chasing flapping Demons. And I was freaking out.

           What kind of people did that?!

           “You look like you’re going to get sick,” Michio chuckled beside me, looking at the detector in his hands, while we walked towards the port.

           I punched him, looking around carefully, narrowing my eyes. “I have the right to freak out in situations like these alright!”

           At Saint Paul’s street we turned right. We hadn’t even walked for five minutes and Michio tensed beside me, his hands going for the daggers on his back, dropping the detector. Flap!

           I grabbed his arm and whispered, “what?”

           “I’ve sent that Demon before,” he just said and just like that he broke into a sprint, getting free from my grip.

           God dammit, I hadn’t even seen anyone! Was he crazy?!

           I ran after him, completely freaking the crap out but I didn’t want to scream his name to bring attention to him—to us. This wasn’t what we were supposed to do!

           But he was definitely chasing after someone, that had come out from an underground parking in the building on the right.

           Michio turned right in an alley between a restaurant with a yellow sign and a blue door and the Café Bistro Place Royal. I reached it just in time to see him jumping on the emergency stairs by the side of the buildings, going up to the roofs.

           Flapping flap! Was he crazy!? What was he doing? That idiot! That stupid stupid boy! He would get himself killed!

           I took my phone and dialled Kalvin.

           I got sent to voice mail.

           “I’m on West Saint Paul Street, close to an art gallery and Place Royal. I think Michio will be in trouble pretty soon!”

           I held my phone tightly in my hands that were slightly shaking.

           I looked up towards the roof, trying to see movement.

           What the flap was he thinking? He could be dead for all I knew!

           And now I was all alone, without a detector, and it was dark and I felt chills in my back, like someone was watching me.

           The street was eerily quiet. Way too quiet.

           I looked towards the river, towards the front of Place Royal and a man was standing right in the middle of the street, looking my way.

           I dropped the phone.

           Oh no…

           I think I could actually see him smile and there was this sound, like some sort of evil laugh bouncing from buildings to buildings.

           Demon, no doubt. I could feel it in my bones.

           Kalvin and Sofiel would be here soon… I tried to repeat that in my hand. I’d be okay, they’d get here soon…

           “We’re going to get you, all of you, all all all, all of you,” the man said, well sang, it sounded like he was singing it and enjoying it thoroughly. “And you can’t stop us, none of you, especially not you…”

           That last part seemed to echo even in the wind. Especially not you.

           That’s’ what did it. I had no skills I knew that, but I wanted to, I wanted to prove something, to the others but mostly to myself; that I had my place as an Ishim, that I wasn’t completely useless. This was a completely stupid way to show it but that stupid Demon pissed me off.

           And I wanted to behead it. Plain and simple. Have its flapping head roll on the road!

           I ran after it.

           He turned left in an alley—of course. Street of the Capitale.

           The Demon was standing right in the middle again, not moving, looking my way.

           I stopped running and walked slowly, unsheathing my dagger.

           Apparently adrenaline could do wonders, plus all the frustration from being useless and failing at everything would definitely be handy. I could kill it, something inside me was convincing me of it.

           “Come to play, little girl,” the Demon asked, and when he did, another man jumped over the railing that was on the left, joining him.

           Oh flap.

           They were two now. I definitely hadn’t anticipated that! Ya no, outnumbered I was screwed!

           Flap, what had been thinking!?

           I turned around, ready to sprint but another man was blocking my way, and I could see his smile too.

           Oh god, three against one.

           Okay I was dead, officially dead.

           Even if Kalvin arrived he’d probably be too late. Damnation! What had I done that!? I was way too young to die! I didn’t want to die just yet. Flap!

           I stood there, while the three men slowly approached me, surrounding me, leaving no issues. My hand curled tightly around the handle of the dagger, squeezing it.

           God, this is the time where I need a miracle.

           “You’re all going to get killed you know,” I was surprised at how my voice didn’t tremble. Good job Clea. “My friend are on their way.”

           “Shush, shush, shush, quiet little girl,” the first Demon shook his finger at me “you’ll be dead before us.”

           “Don’t worry, it won’t hurt,” the one before me said in delight.

           “Too much…” the third added and laughed.

           “But we’ve been known for lying,” the one behind me added.

           I swallowed loudly turning around on myself, to not lose any of them from my sight.

           I could stab one, and then run for it… it would give me a little time, maybe enough for Kalvin to arrive.

           But then, the one behind me, that was the closest from me, that was about to reach my suddenly went flying backwards in the air, shrieking—well like a girl honestly—and hit a wall in a thump.

           “Why hello ladies! So, who’s next?”