Page 103 of The Devil and His Ghost

In another room, I barely had time to turn Kendyll away before she could see what was inside. A machine with the ability to pump certain gases stood by an elevated table, and a series of chairs were around it like someone had set it up to watch some sort of show. A closer look at the tank still hooked to the machine indicated it was a dangerous gas. Carbon monoxide was written in bold labeling, yet the poisonous gas was hooked up to an oronasal mask, which a corpse still wore. The skeletal remains of someone were still on that table with the mask decayed around their face and a hospital gown on the deceased figure. Straps still held the wrists and ankles, though loose now since the body was nothing more than bones.

“Okay, you’re not looking in these rooms anymore,” I told Kendyll as I led her past the rooms that were set up for torture and experiments.

Even though this place hadn’t been used in a long time, I could still feel the remnants of anguish, pain, terror, and confusion like a ghost of their own down here.

A large room stood at the end of the corridor, and it seemed to be some sort of headquarters. Old, worn charts littered a large table in the middle of the room, and multiple filing cabinets lined the back wall. Dozens of substances, medicines, and poisons were stashed within glass shelves. Gas tanks, surgical instruments, and even a box of old sex toys sat around the room.

“I’ve been to a lot of places,” Kendyll began slowly as she approached the table with charts on it. “But I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“I think there’s a reason it was hidden beneath the hospital,” I mumbled.

I glanced at an open chart, which belonged to a child. Notes depicted how they’d reacted to a test of radioactive chemicals being injected straight into their veins.

“All of these patients,” Kendyll whispered mournfully as she looked around the room at all of the filing cabinets labeled in groups of letters from A to Z. They no doubt contained hundreds of charts. “All of these people. I would ask how anyone could do something like this, but I know well the monstrosities humans commit against others.”

“And I understand why a Mischief demon would choose such a place for a hideout. The horrors committed within these walls and the stain of terrible emotions would be like a Hell on earth.” I glanced at Kendyll. “Which is obviously a good thing for a demon, especially one that gets power from that sort of thing.”

“I still haven’t seen any ghosts, though. I’ve only felt them.”

I poked my head out of the doorway to stare at the final corridor we’d yet to venture down. “I bet they’re down there. The energy is stronger in that direction, too.”

After agreeing to return to this room to grab as many files as we could to take upstairs, we started down the final hallway. Muffled voices, cries, and screams grew louder. We rounded a corner, and at the head of the hallway was a doorway. Instead of a door, glowing golden bars barricaded the frame—a demonic cage blocking anyone from exiting. People could enter, but they’d be stuck on the other side if they did.

I quickly held Kendyll back before she could walk through it. We peered through the glowing light at the hundreds of imprisoned ghosts on the other side. Some floated through the air while wailing. Others rocked wildly in despair where they huddled in a ball on the ground. Some walked around in confusion, not realizing they were dead and still trying to interact with the other ghosts like they were all just patients in a ward together.

“Look at all of these souls,” Kendyll agonized. “The demon imprisoned all of them?”

I nodded, still in shock myself from the sheer number of spirits. “Yeah. This is his collection.”

“We have to do something,” she insisted. “We have to free them.”

“I already told you that ghosts claimed by a Mischief demon can’t be released unless their demon releases them or the demon dies.”

Kendyll’s fierce gaze hardened behind her glasses as she watched the hundreds of ghosts beyond the demonic prison bars. “Then we’ll just have to kill that demon, won’t we?”

This girl truly was fearless. She talked as though killing a demon of this level was as easy as flicking an annoying bug off of one’s shoulder. I paused. It could be that easy for some, namely Hell’s most dangerous kind of demon.

“I’ll see about getting the demon dealt with,” I told her with a tug on her hand. “For now, let’s leave. We don’t want to be down here when the demon gets back, otherwise, we’ll be joining those souls in there and be of no help.”

Kendyll seemed reluctant to leave them, but she followed. We grabbed as many dirty patient charts from the headquarters area before getting back into the elevator. I pumped power back into it, and with a lurch, we left this Hell behind.

Chapter 35

Kendyll

(Present Day)

I SAT AT A TABLE with Xander as the two of us waited on the guys from Sinners Do It Better to arrive. Hell’s Gate was just as popular tonight as it had been the last time we were here. Countless demons danced or fucked around the room while heavy pop rock music played and colorful lights strobed overhead.

“Demons definitely know how to let loose, don’t they?” I pondered, watching some curvy dark-skinned beauty offer her bare breast for one demon to suck on while hiking her leg over another woman’s shoulder to let that demon shower her bare center in delirious licks, all while smiling and gyrating to the music.

Xander chuckled next to me, though he didn’t actually pay much attention to what I was referring to. His golden eyes were on me and the purple thigh-length, skin-tight dress I wore. After showing up in a t-shirt last time, I wanted to be more club appropriate this time.

“We know how to have a good time, yeah,” he agreed.

It had been awhile since Xander looked at me with those hooded eyes, though I knew that was because he’d been purposefully trying to hold those feelings back. With the distance I’d put between us and the very business-like manner in which I regarded him these days, it was like he didn’t want to push my boundaries out of fear that I’d run from him again.

Yet tonight, he watched me with enraptured desire, and a flutter broke free inside of me. I had to shift as my own wants surged, and I quickly tossed my black hair over my shoulder and looked away from him before I got swept away by both of our locked-away feelings.