Then, from behind, it heard the sound of a vehicle. It turned just as the SUV stopped, noticing the carnage at the shopping plaza. It was the woman who was with child. And her son. This was just too perfect. They would come back to the altar with him.

-2-.

After the prayer circle, Erik and Dovecrest headed off towards the altar while Mark went into town where he was more likely to confront the demon. It would probably head there next. They hoped to drive it back to the altar before dark.

"I'm worried about Vickie, though," Erik said as he and Dovecrest walked through the woods.

"She'll be fine," the Indian said. "We need to finish this up quickly so you can get back to her."

"Yeah."

They walked in silence for a few minutes. The position of the altar was so obvious to Erik now that he wondered how he ever could have not known about it. The thing resonated evil.

"I'm just not sure about one thing," Erik said.

"What's that?"

"How did this...thing...get here in the first place?"

Dovecrest didn't say anything for a few moments, and Erik thought he wasn't going to answer him. Then he replied.

"Demons are really nothing more than human sins in the flesh," he said finally. "This one calls itself *Wrath.' It has always existed, as long as there has been sin. These demon worshippers from early times merely woke the thing up by worshipping it. They woke it up and brought it here in the flesh, instead of just in the spirit."

"So this thing is the personification of wrath?"

"Pretty much. We burned the devil worshippers at the stake. That was the colonists' idea. That's how they dealt with witchcraft. So when the cult leader was killed, he placed a curse on the land so this demon would get brought back again the first time someone disturbed his spirit.

"It's been my job to keep watch all of these years. I'm surprised it took so long, actually. I'd just about given up and thought the demon was trapped permanently on the other side. I should have been more prepared."

"It's easy to get complacent," Erik said. "My son tried to warn me. I wouldn't listen. It's just that, this is the modern world. You just don't think about things like this as being real."

They were almost at the altar now. The thing seemed much closer than it was before.

"I told you it moves," Dovecrest said, as if reading his mind.

"So what exactly do we do at the altar?"

"We wait. When it comes back and goes through the portal, we follow it in."

"That's if it doesn't kill us first."

"Don't worry. If Mark does his job, we will be the least of its concerns. It won't pay any attention to us. You do realize that the Great Spirit is more powerful than the devil."

"Of course. But that's not to say that the *Great Spirit' won't lose a few troops along the way."

Then they broke through the trees and into the field where the altar stood at the center. It was the same field, but Erik knew it was in a different place.

"We need to stay out of the way, but as close to this thing as we can get," Dovecrest said.

He skirted the edges of the field and found a secluded spot behind a large oak tree.

"This looks good," he said. "We might as well get comfortable."

Erik sat down on the ground and tried not to think about the last time he'd been here, and the carnage that had ensued.

-3-.

Todd had seen the demon first. His mother had slowed down when they saw a wounded soldier staggering in the street, his eyes ripped out and blood pouring down his face. Todd had tried not to look, and when he'd looked away he'd seen the monster across the street, holding a headstone made of that black rock in its hands.

"Mom!" he'd screamed, and pointed.

His mother slammed on the brakes. The car screeched to a halt and the demon turned to look at them. Todd swore that the thing was grinning at them.

"We've got to get past it and into town," Vickie said.

She turned the wheel hard right and into the shopping center parking lot, narrowly missing the blinded soldier. Todd got a good look at his face and thought he might have been better off if his Mom had hit him. She swerved around an army truck, ran over a couple of dead bodies, and jumped a curbing to land on Route 102 heading into town.

Todd looked out the back window and saw the demon still grinning. The thing opened up a set of leathery wings and hunched low for a take off.

"It's gonna follow us!" he screamed.

Vickie gunned the engine of the SUV while Todd watched the thing take to the air. Its flight was easy and light. He thought it looked weird to see a rock floating on wings. But his idea of what was normal and weird had changed a lot in the past few days. The things he read about in his books looked pretty tame compared to what he'd seen lately.

Once the demon took to the air, it began gaining ground. Todd suspected that the thing could catch them easily if it wanted to. It was kind of like when he played hide and seek with other kidsa"sometimes you knew where they were but you wouldn't find them right away, just to make it more fun.

The trees were whizzing by him on either side. Todd had never seen his mother drive so fast. It would have been fun if they weren't being chased by something out of a bad horror movie.

Todd knew it wasn't too far into town, but he didn't know if they'd make it. The demon was almost over them now, and its shadow was falling over the car.

"Mom, he's gonna get us!" he screamed as the thing's face appeared just above the back window.

His mother hit the brakes and the demon flew past, then as the monster tried to stop she gunned the engine and roared by it. The thing was fast, but wasn't so good at stopping and turning. The thing took a few seconds to get back up to speed and by then they were entering the edge of town.

"He's still coming," Todd said, looking back. He gripped his geologist's hammer so tight that his knuckled turned white.

They entered the town and drove by the library, which was now nothing more than a smoking ruin. The place looked like buildings Todd had seen on the Discovery Channel that had been bombed in World War Two. The brick walls had collapsed into rubble, and what was left was black and still smoking. They passed the ruins and turned onto Main Street.

The place was deserted. The gas station was empty and shut down. The bank was closed. The tiny post office looked empty. Everyone had run away, Todd guessed. They all knew the demon was coming.

The thing had caught up with them again and was hovering over the car like a helicopter. His Mom swerved and lost it for a moment, but then it was back. A claw scraped on the roof, almost knocking the SUV off the road. Vickie swerved again. This time the thing's leg crashed through the back window.

Todd and his mother saw the soldiers at the same time, standing in front of the town hall. The SUV turned hard right and towards the parking lot.

"We're going to make a run for it here," his Mom said. "This is the safest building in town. As soon as I stop the car, run for the front door."

"Ok," Todd said. His mouth was tight and dry and his heart raced so fast he thought it would pop out of his chest. He'd never been so scared in his lifea"not even the night the rock had tried to get him.

His Mom pulled the car into the parking lot and up on the grass, stopping just in front of the door. The two soldiers were firing their guns at the demon, but it didn't seem to have any effect on the thing. The bullets just bounced off like they were hitting a brick wall.

"Now!" his mother screamed, reached over to undo his seat belt, and flung open her door. Todd opened his door and jumped out.

Once outside he was overcome by the awful stench of the demon. It was an awful collection of odors, a combination of something that had been burned far too long, something that had died and rotted for days, and old cabbage. The stench was like a thick cloud, and Todd thought he was going to throw up. He gagged once, and then put his head down and ran towards the front doors of the town hall.

The soldiers had moved forward and were trying to hold the demon back with their machine guns. Todd saw his mother out of the corner of his eye; she had circled around the car and was running for the door too.

Todd ran past the soldiers and could feel the air from the demon's wings beating down against his head. The smell was making him sick and the fear made his head ache. But his legs had taken on a life of their own and he was running faster than he had ever run in his life. If only he could do this in gym class he thought, and he suddenly realized how weird it was to be thinking about school while running away from a demon that smelled like a garbage dump. He almost laughed at the ideaa"in fact, he might have laughed if he hadn't seen the demon grab the soldier in its claws and lift into the air with him.

Todd couldn't help but look up at the mess. He didn't want to, but for some reason his eyes were drawn up, and he looked into the soldier's terrified face as the demon pulled him up. The man had blue eyes and they were wide with fear. He dropped his rifle and it narrowly missed Todd as it felt to the ground and bounced on the concrete stairs on the town hall just in front of him. It made a loud clatter and the hair-trigger went off, firing a bullet randomly into the air. The demon rose high with the soldier and Todd found himself stopping to look up. His mother was right behind him; he felt her arms wrap around him as she picked him up and ran to the cement stairs of the town hall. She stumbled on the first step; Todd was still trying to look up. Then he saw the soldier heading back down. The demon had dropped him.

"Look out, Mom," he yelled, pulling her to the side.

They half ran and half fell out of the way of the falling man. The demon had taken him quite a way up, so it took some time for him to fall. But the demon's aim was truea"he would have hit them if they hadn't scrambled out of the way.

The soldier crashed to the steps with an audible plop, like an over-large water balloon. Blood squirted from the man, splashing Erik's legs and staining his new sneakers. The blood was all over his Mom, too. This time he couldn't stop his stomach from churning and he threw up hard on the steps of the town hall.

"Come on! We've got to hurry!" his mother screamed, and yanked him by the arm. He stumbled to his feet and saw the door there just ahead of them. The second soldier was beside them now, helping them along and then through the doorway. Todd was surprised to find that he was still clutching his geologist's hammer and hadn't dropped it in the commotion. He and his mother hid behind the soldier as he took another shot at the demon and then slammed the door shut behind them. Todd took a huge, deep breath, and smiled sheepishly at his mother. Then he felt his head go light and his knees buckle beneath him as he dropped to the floor in exhaustion.

-4-.

The sun set and it was beginning to grow dark as Erik and Dovecrest settled in near the altar to wait for the demon's return.

"If Mark finds the thing and banishes it, it should be back here pretty soon."

"I think it'll be pretty easy to find, don't you?"

"Finding it will be the easy part. Standing up to it will take faith and courage."

"And if Mark fails?"

Dovecrest was silent for a moment. "It will come back here, eventually. To recharge its batteries. I don't know when, though. And it probably won't need to actually travel back to the other side."

"How will we know if Mark drove it back or if it came back on its own, then?" Erik asked.

"Oh, we'll know. If it's driven out it will definitely be on the run. It'll be afraid. Just imaging the fear you'd feel meeting God face to face on your worst day. I suspect it'll also be angry. It won't like being sent back, even if it's only temporary."

"Temporary?"

"Mark can drive it back. But it'll gather strength again and come back. That's why we have to follow it and destroy it once and for all."

"That's the part I'm really worried about."

"Me too," Dovecrest admitted.

Darkness was quickly covering the area. Though they each had flashlights, they didn't need them. Erik was surprised by how acute his night vision had become, and the stars did illuminate the open field in front of them. Knowing that they'd need to stay quiet and out of sight, they settled down with their thoughts.

Erik wondered what might be going through his friend's mind. The Indian had been alive for almost 300 years. He had seen so mucha"had seen the world go from the stone age into the space age. Erik couldn't imagine what might be locked in that ancient man's brain.

Then his thoughts turned to his wife and his son. He wished he knew that Vickie was safe. He had no idea if his baby had been born yet. He had no idea if it were a boy or a girl. The doctors knewa"but Erik and Vickie were old fashioned and had asked them not to tell. The temptation had been strong. But they had held out.

Erik wanted a girl. A little girl to spoil. He had a son to toss the ball around with and play games with. Now he wanted a daughter to spoil with pretty clothes and with love. He might already have a daughter, right now. They would name her Christine. And he would spoil her with toys.

He remembered when Todd had been born. He'd bought the kid a tiny baseball outfit with a little cap and everything. He remembered how big the kid's eyes had been, how he'd looked right at him, as if he recognized him as his Dad. Todd had been a good baby, though very active. He had hardly ever cried, though. Hardly ever got sick. And smart. He'd been reading in kindergarten. One day he knew the letters and the sounds they made and the next day he was reading his picture books. Erik thought he'd memorized them. But then when he wrote down words for the kid on a piece of paper, he'd read them too, just by sounding them out. The teacher didn't know what to do with him, so she had him help her teach the other kids to read.

God, how he prayed that they were all right. They had to be all right. They were everything to him. So many times he had wished for things and prayed for things that weren't really important. He'd wanted so badly to sell his book. Then he'd wanted it to be successful. And then if only he could have more money, if only they'd option his book for a movie....

Now, none of it seemed important. He'd trade in everything just for the knowledge that his family was all right. If only he had a cell phone and could call. He swore that if he ever got out of this mess ok that he'd break down and get a cell phone. And he'd get Vickie one, too. If only he had one and could call her right now.

Then he remembered where he was. He looked out into the open field and saw the altar looming out there, a terrible relic from another world and another time. No, a cell phone wouldn't work out here anyway, not near this awful thing.

"Dear God," he prayed silently, "Please, please let them be all right. Please stay with them and protect them."

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO.

-1-.

The old town hall was built like a fortress. It had, in fact, served as a fort during the Revolutionary War, and as an armory during the 1800s. Once Todd and his mother were inside, the soldier slammed shut the heavy, steel-reinforced door and dropped the iron bars to seal the place off. All of the windows and doors were barred and the walls were made of heavy granite. It was, without a doubt, the strongest building within 20 miles.

Although Todd didn't know the history of the building, he did sense its strength and security. The demon smashed against the door once and it did not open. Perhaps they might be safe in here after all, he thought.

The soldier was on his radio calling for reinforcements. Todd rushed to the window to look outside. His mother tried to stop him, but he was too fast for her. The sun had just set, but there was plenty of light to see by, with the streetlights and the spotlights from the Town Hall.

Sure enough, reinforcements were on the way. He saw a small convoy of men and equipment turning onto Main Street, and he heard a helicopter overhead. It looked like a lot of mena"maybe fifty, he thought, and a couple of tanks and army trucks too. This wasn't just the police anymore. Surely the army would be able to stop this thing. The army could stop anything. And he wanted to make sure he saw it all.

"Todd, get away from that window," his mother scolded, tugging at him. He noticed that her face was white and she was having trouble breathing. She'd called it "labor pains" and that meant she was going to have the baby soon.

"I wanna see, Mom! Somebody has to know what's going on out there."

His mother was too distressed to argue. She sat cross-legged on the floor and breathed the way she was supposed to when she was having labor pains. Todd looked back out the window to see what was going on. He wanted to see the army destroy this thing once and for all, and then he could get on with his life again without being afraid all the time.

He watched as the demon turned away from the main door of the building and faced its attackers. Rather than wait for them to come to it, the monster went to them. Its first target was the helicopter. Todd couldn't actually see the helicopter, but he could hear it above the building. The demon looked up at it, then launched into the aira"Todd knew that's what it was after.

He heard machine gun fire above him and the helicopter sound became louder, then drew away. More machine gun fire followed. Then there was an awful, screeching noise, as if gears were being ground up and turned backwards. Todd strained to see but the battle was going on above him and just out of his sight. He heard a popping sound, like the sound his uncle's car had made the time they'd driven to Putnam and the engine broke because Uncle Matt hadn't put any oil in it. Sure enough, he saw bluish-black smoke trailing over the top of the Town Hall. Maybe the helicopter guys hadn't put any oil into their engine, either, he thought.

That's when pieces of the copter began to fall. First there was what appeared to be a piece of the big propeller, and it was broken clean in half. The soldiers on the ground were close now, and firing up into the air. The propeller piece came spinning down to the ground, cutting through the soldiers like a lawnmower blade. Todd screamed as he saw a head fly off, and an arm. Several others went down like bowling pins as the blade sliced through them.

The remaining soldiers took cover, dropping to the ground or ducking behind the building, and the two tanks rolled forward. The rest of the helicopter blade fell straight down, like a spear, and neatly speared a soldier through the back as he lay on the grass, sticking through him and into the ground below. The effect looked like a science exhibit he'd seen where they pinned a beetle to a corkboard. The man squirmed for several seconds before collapsing.

"Todd, you need to get away from that window," his mother was saying. It looked like her labor pains were over, so she was a threat now. He didn't really want to look out the window, but he couldn't help himself. He just couldn't wait inside this building without knowing what was going on. Even if it were bad.

"It's ok, Mom. The soldiers are gonna kill it."