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Tears began to stream down her cheeks.
The dog, previously frozen to its spot in terror, finally snapped out of its barking frenzy and ran away, tail between its legs, not looking back.
Groaning, Maddy pulled herself another six inches with her arms. The footsteps grew louder, and the heat was getting stronger now. She didn’t want to look back. She couldn’t. She just needed to get to the edge of the pile. Just two more feet.
With all the effort she could muster, Maddy grabbed onto a broken two-by-four board protruding from the edge of the rubble pile. Using the board as leverage, she hurled herself over the edge, with no idea what was below. Dropping at least ten feet, she landed on a mound of drywall and broken roof tiles. She cried out in agony as her battered body crash-landed and the wind was knocked out of her. She began rolling down the slight slope of the pile before her body came to a stop against a half-smashed concrete pillar.
Every breath was painful. As she struggled to pull herself up, she heard it. A deep, raspy baritone.
Was the demon . . . laughing?
Maddy looked up and saw it just standing there, watching her.
Suddenly it jumped down from the top of the rubble and landed just below, sending a tremendous rumble through the pile. With slow, confident steps, it started walking toward Maddy again.
Frantic, Maddy used every bit of willpower she had to get up on her knees and scurry a few feet forward and around the concrete pillar, then tumble down the rest of the rubble pile to the street below. Her head smacked against the asphalt and her bad wing rolled painfully under her as she came to a stop.
But now, try as she might, she couldn’t get up. She could feel the blood on her head, sticky and warm as it dripped down across her eyes. Somehow she hadn’t really noticed it before.
The demon took its time coming down to the street, apparently relishing in this experience. Then, with a deafening roar, it pounced and landed right in front of Maddy, missing her by less than an inch.
Hyperventilating, Maddy used the last of her strength to reach behind her for her sword. Of course! But it wasn’t there. Both the sling and the sword must have been ripped off her body when she fell.
Now Maddy truly began to lose hope. She pulled herself along her side on the asphalt, which was scattered everywhere with dangerous debris. She dragged herself through the harsh surface, her fingernails growing bloody as she desperately tried to escape. The demon’s heat had become nearly unbearable, as searing and piping hot as steam.
Then Maddy saw it, gleaming like a beacon. Her Divine Sword. It was only about fifteen feet away, resting on some crumbled concrete as if waiting for her. Her Divine Ring sparkled brilliantly. With hope once again rising in her chest, she feebly lunged for the sword, only getting herself a foot or two closer. The demon moved forward quickly, confidently. Almost gently, but certainly firm, it put its terrible clawed foot down on her arm. Just enough to hold her in place. Maddy’s mouth curled open. At first no sound would emerge, but then a wild scream escaped her throat as the demon’s heat blistered the skin on her arm.
Like a revelation before dying, Maddy realized why she had dreamt of this demon so often. She had been dreaming of her own death, the death she never could have predicted for herself. It seemed so obvious now as the darkness closed in.
In her final seconds, Maddy’s mind once again looked back over everything that had happened since that fateful night at her uncle’s diner. An Angel in suit pants and a hoodie walking into Kevin’s and changing her life forever. Jackson winning her over. Saving Jacks on the library tower. And then her choosing to become a Guardian instead of going to college. She thought of the attendant fame and fortune and glamorous events, of how she’d gotten caught up in it all. She thought of everything. The kaleidoscope of memories flitted before her eyes in splashes of brief, vivid moments.
Until, finally, her memory settled itself on one image: her parents.
She’d finally get to see them.
As her brain flickered toward unconsciousness, she could have sworn the demon was leaning down close to her, its terrible mouth full of blackened, twisted teeth, to whisper in her ear:
“Maddy . . .”
It knew her name. Just like it had in the dream.
The Dark Angel pulled its putrid maw away from her face and raised its thorny arm for the fatal blow. Maddy closed her eyes and waited for the inevitable. It was useless to try to fight back. The heat grew stronger and stronger. She tried to move her face away from the onslaught but could only turn one cheek. Her arm was already blistered and burning, and now steam began rising from her exposed skin. Maddy gasped in agony, her breathing labored and her lungs burning with pain.
Now her only solace was that death would come soon.
The darkness was just about closing in on her when suddenly Maddy was aware of a distant popping sound. Repetitive. She came to slightly. As her eyes fluttered open, she realized it was gunfire.
Pop-pop-pop-pop-pop.
The demon moved back one step and began swatting at itself, as if it were being bitten by flies, before turning around to face whoever was attacking it.
Pop-pop-pop-pop-pop.
The Dark Angel roared so loudly that Maddy was deafened for a moment once again.
“Hey! Hey! Hey!” a voice yelled to the demon. “Over here! Over here! Come on, you dumbass!”
Pop-pop-pop-pop-pop.
