XXVIII.

Yalu never left my side. He stayed with me at every waking moment, and even when I was asleep, he made sure that he was guarding the outside of my door. Caleb didn't seem all that eager to see me, since he never bothered to come and see how I was doing, and he never came to see Yalu, at least not while I was awake.

There were plenty of times that I could hear Caleb playing or walking around, but as he didn't seem all that desperate to throw himself to my attention, I did my best to stay out of the way.

The morning right after my attempted getaway, all Yalu did was growl at me no matter what I tried to feed him to make him forgive me. I stopped trying when I realized that things probably hadn't gone well for Caleb once the demons had found out that I'd almost escaped. I was certain that they would have known, since they seemed to know just about everything else.

I couldn't think of much else to do but practice playing the piano. I no longer had any urge to read any of Caleb's journals, though there were probably enough to last me at least half of my lifetime.

On the second morning, I found a large pile of music laying on the desk in my room when I woke up. When I'd read the first few lines I realized that it was the song that Caleb had written for me to sing to the demons. The only reason I could fathom for him leave it with me was so that I could practice. But that wasn't a song that I felt like practicing. It wasn't even a song that I felt I'd ever want to sing. I felt like just practicing it would tie me down to those dark creatures forever. Sure, I'd taken the time to look it over it once or twice, but it wasn't a piece that I was particularly compelled to sing out loud.

By the closing of the third day, I was beginning to wonder if I was ever going to see Caleb again. When the door to the kitchen burst open while I was trying to open a jar of canned carrots, I ended up cutting myself, and I didn't even realize it was Caleb who had come in until he'd bandaged up the cut on my left hand and plopped himself down in front of me. Yalu hadn't given me any warning that his master would be coming in in such an abrupt fashion.

"Have you been practicing that song, Eliza?" he asked me in all seriousness.

I shrugged, not sure whether reading over it counted as practice. When had I even made the declaration that I would sing for the demons and release Caleb's soul so that mine would be trapped for, with my luck, all eternity. Can we sense the bitterness here at all?

"I've looked over it a few times," I admitted, not wanting him to think that I'd completely shunned the task that I'd been given.

"Looking over it isn't enough Eliza. It has to be perfect, or close to it at least. You need to start practicing. I have no idea when they'll want you to sing for them."

"But they won't take my soul from me while I'm practicing will they?"

"No," he said, shaking his head and wincing a little as he did so.

I knew it must have been the wounds that had been inflicted upon him within the last few days. Why did they treat their servants so horribly?

"You actually have to be within their presence for them to do that. Mean while, all they can do is sense what you're singing and know that there's the prospect of a new soul before them," he finished.

"How long do they keep the average soul?" I asked, wondering if he would actually answer my question in detail this time around.

He sighed. "I can't tell you that. It varies. To them, my time has been nothing but a mere breath. One deep breath that takes up only a second of their time."

"Fine. I'll practice then. I'll get right on that," I told him, rather rudely, as I left the carrots abandoned and trudged my way to the music room, not listening to see if Caleb had anything else to say to me.

I heard footsteps and I knew that I was being followed by both man and wolf. They were heavy footsteps, and they gave away the agitation that Caleb must have been filled with.

I slammed the door to the music room before my guardians could reach it, though I knew it wouldn't stop them for long. I was seated at the piano by the time they came in, but Caleb made me move, spreading the music before him and bidding me to warm up so that I might sound halfway decent while I practiced. But then again, I couldn't promise that I was going to try, and therefore it probably wouldn't sound good anyway.

XXIX.

Hayden was almost sick to death of searching for clues that would lead them to Eliza. He begged to know why Officer Noll didn't just take the squad up to search the house. To him, that seemed to be the most practical plan, but Noll wanted to make sure of the signs before they entered a private premises, even with a search warrant in hand.

Hayden's mother was almost as sick of the searching as he was, even though she was too distraught to go out and search for her daughter herself. She left it to her son, though it pained her to see him leave home day after day and come home empty handed, most times without even a clue that would spur him on and eventually lead them to the girl they wanted to find, whether she was dead or alive.

Hayden knew that Eliza wasn't dead, but it wasn't something that he cared to explain to his mother.

The day he'd heard the wolf howl yielded nothing, nor did the day after that. But on the third day, they found a tree with the paw prints of a wolf around it and scratch marks made deep in the bark. There were also the remnants of two different sets of footprints. One set was made by a man, judging by the size, and the other seemed to be made by someone younger.

Hayden was sure that the set of smaller prints belonged to Eliza, but Noll refused to jump to conclusions, though he admitted that they did have sufficient evidence to believe that Eliza was in the house ahead of them. It drove Hayden nuts when the policeman chose this time to end the search for the day. He couldn't stand the thought of stopping when it appeared that they were so close to finally finding Eliza. Anyone who wasn't blind could see that there were the remnants of a trail made by the people and the animal who'd been by the tree. Closer inspection found some of the bark higher up ripped off, indicating that someone had climbed it.

An attempt to escape, no doubt, he thought, not bothering to share the thought with any of them men around him.

It pained Hayden to know that any amount of snow in the coming night would wipe out what little trail remained. Wind would probably even wipe it out, though the trail specialist was certain that it was partly frozen because of the falling precipitation. The rain had already abolished most of it, to the point that one could hardly see it without squinting. All Hayden could do was hope that snow wouldn't come.

"Don't worry, Kid," Noll kept saying as they drove back to the station. "We have the direction of the trail marked. We'll know where it was heading no matter what kind of weather we end up having."

"But you don't know if she'd changed directions. Who ever makes a completely straight course? There is nothing to tell us that she didn't make any turns."

"No. But it was in the general direction of the house."

"What does that mean for the search, Officer Noll?" Hayden asked, not really caring to pay attention to the answer.

"Tomorrow, we're heading in."

"What?" Hayden cried out, surprised, thrilled, and nervous all at the same time.

"We're going straight to the house tomorrow. The whole squad will head in discreetly. And you, Hayden, will be right up front with me when we finally find Eliza."

The morning dawned bright, and Hayden was up before the sun, having been to excited to sleep. He'd told his mother the plans for the day before he' gone to bed, and he'd told her what they'd found, hoping that she would be as excited as he was, but she refused to be happy until her daughter was safely home.

All of his thoughts were geared towards the search that he hoped would finally end today. He wondered what was inside the house, and how long it would take to search the entire thing. Thoughts such as these and the thoughts of searching for evidence to bring up a case against the kidnapper occupied Hayden's brain as he ate his breakfast, the result being his lack of memory as to what he had consumed.

Everything was a blur, from the time he walked out the door as he told his mother goodbye to the time when they reached the tree in which they'd located the tracks. Thankfully, the weather hadn't gone awry and the trail could still be seen if one looked hard enough.

The last stretch of the search was on.

XXXI.

Practicing that song had tired me out. Well, technically the name for the song was Surreality, but I didn't really care for the title. This was mostly because the moment I sang it at my audience with those evil beings, the surreality mentioned in the song would be my reality for, with my luck, the rest of eternity. It's bad enough that you know your life isn't eternal, even though it seems long. It's another thing all together to know that your life is eternal and there's nothing you can do to end it unless a higher power, be it good or evil, so chooses.

With the practice, Caleb nailed every little bit of the song from the dynamic, to emotion, and all the way down the line to the way every last word was accentuated. We had to have gone through it ten times at least before Caleb felt that I'd made sufficient progress and would let me go to bed. Yes, it did take that long. I was standing for hours. He wouldn't let me sit down because he didn't want to ruin the tone.

Needless to say, I was anxious to get my rest after such a trying ordeal, though I do admit that the audience was probably going to be the most trying event in my life the moment that it took place. I believe that it's also safe to say that I was quite annoyed to have my needed rest interrupted in the same rude fashion that had caused me to injure myself trying to pop off the lid that kept a jar of carrots sealed.

The fact that Caleb came into my room wasn't the thing that annoyed me the most. It was the fact that I'd been having a rather marvelous dream of being home with my family when he'd allowed the door to slam against the wall. Why was it that he felt the need to let the door slam every time he made a hasty entrance into a room? It just wasn't necessary.

When I noticed that it was Caleb, I thought for a moment that he was just looking for Yalu. Stupid me. I rolled over and attempted to go back to sleep after mumbling something about taking the wolf and leaving me to get a few more hours of sleep. For heaven's sake it was still dark outside. And it was cold!

"Get up Eliza!" he shouted. "I don't have time for this."

Yes, the quiet man I'd known for the past few weeks had indeed shouted. He didn't wait for me to respond to his harsh commanded. He yanked the blankets off of me (making me thankful that I didn't sleep nude) and pulled me all the way down the stairs to the music room.

"What's this all about?" I asked as I attempted to stifle a yawn. It was also a rather hard task to keep my teeth from chattering with the chill.

"We're practicing."

"Right now?" I knew that I sounded whiney, but I didn't care. "Can't I just sleep for a little while longer? So that I'll be able to concentrate better," I added quickly to the end in hopes of giving him a good reason to let me go back to bed.

"No. We don't have any time. Your audience is going to be at noon today." The emphasis on the word 'today' made me feel a sudden wave of nausea. "We have to practice. Everything had to be perfect. My life is at stake."

Okay. Those last five words did not just come out of his mouth. His life was at stake? Please! Don't make me laugh. Oh wait. This isn't a laughing matter.

"Did you ever just once stop to consider my life?" I screamed, all irritation.

All remnants of fatigue had vanished from my body. If he really wanted to pick a fight this morning, then by all means he was going to get one.

But the stricken look that now resided on his face let all of my anger leave me just as quickly as my fatigue had.

"Of course I have, Eliza. I've never gone a day thinking about all of the lives that I've been forced to take over the years. You're no different. It's not something that I would wish on anyone, if the choice were mine."

I knew there was something else he wanted to say, but it looked as if it would pain him to say it. With a sigh, I picked up the music in front of me. I didn't plan on giving up my soul, but I wasn't about to let the poor man before me think that I didn't care whether he remained a slave for the rest of eternity. I had no clue how I was going to get myself out of this one.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures," I mumbled, not really caring whether or not he heard me. He played the first few measures of the tune's introduction and I was caught up in the song's intricacy.

XXXII.

Hayden gulped as the house came into view. The trail had been less than half a mile long, and it led towards one of the side entrances. The house itself was huge, with a large shack on the side that looked as if it were used for storage. It was clear that the house was old, but it didn't look like it was due to be condemned. Dark clouds loomed in the distance, but it didn't look like rain or snow would be coming in the near future.

The whole search team met near the shrubs that lined the back. Officer Noll had opted to send out flares instead of alerting the kidnapper that they were present. Hayden's heart was pounding. Eliza was finally within his grasp. Any moment he was going to be able to take her home.

"There's three entrances. This one, the main entrance, and the one on the west side. The house doesn't appear to have a basement. At least, if it does, there's no way to get out or into it without going through the main part of the house," one of the officers reported to Noll.

"I want half of our force stationed outside of the main door, in hiding in case something goes wrong. Half of the remaining force will cover the west entrance. The rest will come with me and Hayden through this entrance here. We have to search quickly and stealthily."

The man gulped as his words started to waver. He took a deep breath before he was able to find the will to continue.

"If we need back-up we'll signal. We'll use whatever we can to show signs of distress. Make forced entries only if it's necessary. Hopefully we'll find Eliza quickly and be home in time for dinner." He took a quick peek at his watch. "It's a quarter to noon, gentlemen. Let's get going!"

The men broke up into efficient teams on their own, making sure to be covert as they made their way to the points that they were going to be responsible for. Hayden was so eager to search the house that he was up at the back door before Noll could stop him. The only thing that kept him from entering was the fact that the door was locked.

"Well that's just great," he seethed as he pounded on the door with a fist.

Noll let his hand rest on Hayden's shoulder. "You think the guy is just gonna let people walk in and poke around his things? We have to get in quietly. We can't have you knocking down the door just because you're frustrated."

"Well what do you propose we do? Does this require a forced entry, or should we just knock politely on the front door."

"No," he said as he shook his head. "We'll have someone go in through the window and find the way to the back door. If they can't find the way, everyone files through the window one by one."

"Oh, and I suppose the kidnapper just so happened to leave a window open for our convenience."

Noll pointed to a window that was about eight feet away from the door. Broken glass glittered in the snow below it, right where the trail that led to the tree began. Upon approaching the pieces, Hayden realized that Eliza hadn't been able to escape through the door and thus had gone through the window.

"It was very kind of Eliza to give us a way in, wasn't it? Too bad the kidnapper didn't think to fix it," Noll chuckled as he rubbed his fingernails against his chest and inspected them.

Hayden nodded. "I'm going in. You wait here so that I don't have to call too loud to get someone's attention if I can't find the way to that door."

"Good idea. Careful not to cut yourself. We don't need blood trails to give us away before we find your sister."

Hayden said nothing as he zipped up his jacket and hoisted himself onto the windowsill. He slipped in carefully, hearing at least one shard of glass rip through his jeans, though he was certain that it didn't cut skin, since he didn't feel the sting of the cut, and neither did he feel blood begin to well up.

He jumped down, careful not to hit the countertop. He glimpse around told him that the dark room he was in was the kitchen. He poked his head out the window, signaling for Officer Noll to come closer.

"What is it?" the man asked, sounding anxious. The men behind him looked as nervous as Noll did.

"I need some light in here. It's broad daylight but it looks like midnight in here, and this room's got windows. Get me a flashlight or something so that I can actually see where I'm going," he whispered harshly, not knowing who might be around.

Noll looked behind him and gestured for two of the closest men to come closer. One immediately handed over a flashlight. The other passed him two candles and a book of matches. Noll nodded his approval.

"Always good to have candles and matches. You never know when the battery is going to run out on you."

Hayden chuckled and gave the men a brief nod of thanks. He flipped the flashlight on quickly, stepping carefully so as not to hit something that he couldn't see in the darkness that the light didn't illuminate.

When he found the kitchen door he opened it, listening carefully to make sure that there was no unwanted presence before taking the light into the gloomy hall. A look back at the door from which he'd come startled him. Large scratches were etched numerously into the door. He peered at them closely and wondered what sort of animal had made such marks.

He shook his head as he moved on, hoping that he was heading in the right direction. He continued to listen intently, praying that no one would show up. When he reached the main hall, he was just beginning to wonder whether he should go left or right when he heard footsteps behind him. He jumped ten feet in the air when a heavy hand landed on this shoulder, causing the flashlight to fall to the ground.

"Calm down kid," came the soft voice of Officer Noll.

"Where did you come from?" Hayden demanded over his beating heart as he bent down to pick up the flashlight. But as it came into his hand, the light winked out, and he couldn't make it reappear.

"The kitchen window, just the same as you. None of the others felt that it was right to let a kid come in alone no matter how simple the mission, so I opted to come in as back-up. Let me hold onto one of those candles while you dig out those matches."

Hayden fumbled to light both of the candles, but eventually he and Noll were in good condition to move ahead.

"Left or right, Hayden?"

He let out a small noise of frustration. A police officer couldn't even tell which direction they should have been heading. He squinted to see past the candle light, which was significantly less than that of the flashlight.

Hayden stepped to the right momentarily and listened, hearing nothing. When he stepped to the left, he didn't hear anything either, but he felt a sense of foreboding. Noll had listened as well, also hearing nothing.

"Which way?" he asked, as Hayden went back and forth between the two options once more.

Hayden was sure there was evil lurking in the house. An evil that wouldn't want Eliza or her kidnapper to escape without their permission. He pondered this for a moment before opting to go to the left, thinking that whatever didn't want Eliza to escape, would be wanting an ill will towards the direction of the exit.

They reached the door with good time after that, though Hayden felt his heart beat rapidly and he felt like his steps kept slowing down, even though he had Noll behind him pushing him ahead at an even pace. The sense of foreboding grew stronger with each step and he was certain that his heart would eventually explode.

XXXIII.

"Do you hear something?" Caleb asked me, stopping dead in his tracks.

He listened intently for a moment, but I was sure that I hadn't heard a thing. After a minuet or so, he shrugged and continued on his merry way, leading me to wherever it was that the demons would be listening to me. If I opted to let them listen to me, that is. It was a quarter to noon and my heart pounded faster with every step I took, just like when I'd gone to see Caleb when he'd been writing the song that I was supposed to be singing.

He stopped again a few minuets later, listening like he'd never been able to hear anything before.

"I'm sure that there's something going on downstairs," he mumbled, and Yalu made a yipping sound that made me think that he agreed.

"I don't hear anything. What is it?" I wanted to know desperately.

"Wait here Eliza. I'm going to check it out."

He looked at Yalu and said something in what sounded like German. Yalu was off like a shot, racing down the stairs like a point guard. I watched intently as they faded from sight in the bleak day, as they took the candles that provided the only light with them.

It didn't take Caleb and Yalu long to return, but I'm sure that it was only because he didn't want to keep his masters waiting. Yalu was whining, like he knew something was going on, but Caleb made him stay with us.

"We'll have to look into it later. Those devils don't seem disturbed by anything yet, so we must be fine for now."

We reached the corner where the attic door was hidden, and Caleb opened it with a shaky hand. He was nervous, and that was understandable since he was possibly marching to his death. But what was I marching to? I couldn't decide if it would be death or servitude. Needless to say, neither options looked extremely appealing to me.

The stairs to the attic were rickety, and I felt like each step was going to give every time I shifted my wait from one stair to the next. Caleb walked in front of me, making sure that my path had light, and Yalu walked behind me; perhaps making sure that I didn't attempt to turn around and run. It was an appealing thought, even with a large wolf behind me.

At the top of these stairs, another door stood before us. It was shabbier than the one at the bottom of the staircase, indicating great age, but it by no means had the appearance of being weak.

"Do not be afraid Eliza. They can do no harm to you yet."

I wonder if he realized that the key term in that last sentence was 'yet'. And how could I not be afraid? I swear that my heart was about to erupt. My head kept telling me to run, but my fear, and Yalu, kept me rooted to the spot on which I stood. I watched in terror as Caleb raised the candle to his lips and extinguished the light.

Everything went pitch black. In a moment of panic I screamed, and Caleb slapped a hand over my mouth to stifle the sound. Once I'd calmed down, he took his hand away and faced the door again, muttering something that I couldn't quite understand. It was the same language that he'd used when he'd begged these evil beings to forgive me at that eerie alter.

"Why did you put out the light, Caleb?" I demanded in a harsh whisper.

"They abhor fire. They won't have it within their sight, no matter how small the flame is."

I heard the door creak open, but all I could see ahead of me was darkness. I didn't want to move for fear of falling, but Yalu pushed me forward, letting me keep a grip on his collar as he led me forward.

There was a brief moment that I felt lost and completely alone. I had no feeling whatsoever of holding onto Yalu, and I could feel the malcontent hostility of the devils. Dozens of red spots blinked into life, and I knew that I was looking into the eyes of every demon that was present in the household. I had never guessed that there would be so many. I felt like feinting from the shock, but Caleb was standing beside me with his hands on my shoulders to keep me from falling.

XXXIV.

Noll and Hayden were shocked at how much larger the house appeared to be once they were inside. With several men behind them, they still didn't feel like they had adequate numbers to search the entire premises. Because of this, they looked until they found the west entrance and admitted the men on that side, signaling for them to stay as silent as possible as they broke up into smaller teams to take on different quadrants of the house.

Hayden opted to go with the team who was taking on the second floor; Noll decided to lead the team that was in charge of the first.

"Knock on the locked doors. If no one answers, or makes a noise, then move on. Don't make any unnecessary noise. Got it?" Noll talked quietly instead of whispering, knowing that it would be louder, but also knowing that the sound wouldn't carry in quite the same fashion.

All of the men that surrounded him nodded.

"We'll meet by the back entrance once we've finished searching. If we haven't found anything, we'll bring in the team at the main entrance and start to use force. Get going."

A man called Officer Howell went up the stairs first to make sure that they were sturdy and wouldn't creak to badly. He was a lot younger than Officer Noll and had a much softer demeanor. When he reached the top of the staircase, he beckoned for the rest of his team to follow him one by one.

Hayden was the first one to follow him. He squinted hard to get some sort of bearings in the dim light. Twelve candles still didn't make for very good lighting, but it's what they had because none of the other men in the party had thought to bring flashlights for a daytime search.

Howell and Hayden moved swiftly, trying doors while trying to be as quiet as possible. It was hard to say how successful the maneuver was due to the fact that all of the men besides Hayden wore large steel-toed boots, causing their steps to fall heavily. They knocked lightly and called Eliza's name when the doors were locked, but nothing was proving successful.

After they'd walked around the whole second floor, Howell was about to call the search over and head down to the rendezvous point when an old officer near retirement moved to lean up against the wall only to find that there was no wall to lean up against. He hit the ground hard, knocking an elbow against the rickety staircase that led to the attic.

Men gathered around the man to help him up and make sure that he hadn't hurt himself severely. Hayden and Officer Howell, however, moved to sprint up the stairs, though their movements slowed considerably when they felt the wooden structure almost give every time they shifted their weight.

As they drew closer to the door at the top of the staircase, Hayden could hear a voice that made him feel overwhelmed with joy. The song may have been unfamiliar, but he had no doubt whatsoever who the singer was.

XXXV.

Caleb was speaking to the demons in their tongue; the strange one that I couldn't decipher. He bowed, nearly hitting the floor with his head considering how low he was bending. He dragged me down with him, causing my head to skim the floorboards in the dark. He pushed me forward after the demons hissed out some sort of reply and my heart almost stopped when all of their attention was focused on me.

"Sing Eliza," he whispered in my ear, and I was gasping for air.

"Caleb," I wheezed, unsure if I would even be able to support my song with such a lack of air, "I don't think I can do it."

"You have to Eliza. You can't back out now. Take your time. They'll be willing to wait for a quality performance," he told me, releasing my shoulders and fading somewhere into the back of all the darkness.

Oh, what fabulous advice from the man who had just sold my soul to a hundred demons. All that remained was to sign the contract and free Caleb from his bonds. I couldn't think of any means of escape. If I tried to run, those demons would be on top of me, or Yalu would rip me apart. The only thing I could do, was sing.

The first few bars that came out were wavering strongly, and I could feel tension from both Caleb and the demons. Shut out the darkness. As I was able to gain my breath, my tone gained better support. The demons are lurking. You try to be strong. At this point there was pounding on the attic door and I heard evil hissing from many directions as I stumbled over the next few words. But they just keep on circling.

"Eliza!" came a muffled scream that sounded familiar, but my hearing was hazy and I was starting to feel dizzy. It felt as though a part of me was being ripped away.

They're trying to get you. You hear them, you feel them. I could barely hear the frenzied shouting now, and I could hardly sense that it was there. Somehow I knew that Caleb and Yalu now guarded the door, and I could hear Yalu growling with menace.

"Eliza! It's me! Open the door Eliza!"

The pounding ensued. I wished that it would stop. I continued to sing, but I knew that the demons were only half-listening. I knew that they were partially occupied by the intruders banging on the door.

"It's me, Hayden! Eliza, answer me!"

The mention of his name broke the spell. I stopped in the middle of one of the lines and started to scream.

"Hayden! Don't come in here!" I could tell that he was trying to break down the door, but Caleb and Yalu stood in the way.

"Keep singing, Eliza!" Caleb commanded, but I couldn't listen to him.

"Eliza! I have the police with me! We followed your trail. I'm coming in!"

The demons drew closer to me, and when one grabbed me with sharp claws, I screamed. But his talons didn't puncture skin. I could only assume that I hadn't sung enough of the song to let them have complete control of me yet.

"Hayden, no!" I shrieked. "There are demons in here! Don't let them get you!!! Run away!"

The longer the gap between my singing and screaming at Hayden, the clearer my head was and the more I felt like every part of me was as it should be. The door kept rattling, and when I squinted in that general direction, I saw light emanating from underneath of it. It was dim, and I could tell that the people outside were only holding candles.

"Don't worry," called a voice full of authority. "We're going to get you out."

"You won't be able to get in," Caleb hissed, not sounding like himself at all. I realized that one of the demons must have possessed him. "Our power binds this door. The girl is ours. Leave here, and never return." I could barely hear Caleb's voice behind that of the demon.

An idea occurred to me and I did my best to jerk away from my captor. It didn't work though; it only made the claw puncture my skin. It was my own fault for moving, so I think that's why he was able to pierce me.

There was an evil chuckle as I felt my blood begin to seep from the wound. My captor ripped his claw out of my shoulder and I fell to the floor, screaming in agony. With my blood all over his talons, I saw the eyes of my demonic captor turn into slits of rage, and I felt him tear the bloody weapons across my abdomen. My screaming filled the air again.

"What's going on?! Come on, Eliza, answer me. Tell me how to get through!" Hayden sounded desperate. I could almost swear that he was to the point of tears.

"Call for the back-up!" I heard the other man shout. Men began to buzz in the background and I knew that more men were coming up the stairs. I could hear their heavy footsteps, even as more of the demons soaked their claws in my blood and began to tear at my abdomen. Those men would be useless. They couldn't get in now, so how would more of them make any difference? With my blood, there was nothing to stop them from killing me, even without my soul. That was their loophole.

"Hayden!" I screeched, as loud as I could. "Set the door on fire!" I could only hope that he had heard me.

I fought my hardest to escape the demons. Suddenly Yalu was on top of me, and all I could hear was a mass of growling, hissing demons, and the shouts of men outside wanting to know what was going on. Demons shrieked as Yalu slashed his wolf-claws through their red eyes and they hissed as he bit at them with teeth as sharp as their own claws. With this distraction, I managed to crawl on elbows and knees through Yalu's legs and reach the door.

Caleb still stood up against it. I jumped back with surprise when I saw that his eyes were rimmed in red. He was still possessed. But the door was old, and I could tell Hayden had heard my suggestion because soon I could see smoke flowing in from beneath it, though it quickly disappeared into darkness.

I could hear Caleb sputtering and coughing as the smoke went up his nose and into his mouth. Soon after this I was starting to feel the heat of the fire as it began to take its toll on the ancient door.

"They set the door ablaze?" Caleb questioned, back to his normal self. Apparently even smoke that indicated there was a fire nearby was something that the demons did not like.

I figured out my lack of skill for planning ahead when I realized that Caleb sounded worried. This must be the only entrance or exit to the attic, and it was now surrounded by fire. The demons would most likely be destroyed, but so would we if we couldn't get to the other side of the blaze.

"Eliza, are you okay?" Hayden called.

"It's getting Smokey in here," I called, touching the door and finding that I could barely stand the heat of it.

I could feel the demons receding to the other side of the room, doing their best to stay away from the enemy that they knew would be on the opposite side of the door. Even their strongest evil magic wouldn't be able to hold a candle (ha ha) to the power of fire.

"Don't worry. One of the policemen is on his way back here with an axe. Officer Howell and Officer Noll sent them for one when we called in for backup," he called, sounding like he was going back down the staircase, and she assumed that he was if the fire was working its way toward him and the police as well.

It was silent for sometime, besides the crackling of fire and the occasional shout from one of the men outside. I was startled when I heard the first pound of an axe against the door. The fire had had some time to work, and the strength of one blow of the axe caused the door to cave in in the center, though it still wasn't enough to let anyone in or out of the room.

I was frying, but Caleb and I stayed on the side of the room closest to the door just to be on the opposite end of the demons. They hissed and screamed as they sensed the fire drawing nearer. Occasionally one tried to come at us, but they stopped when they reached the middle of the room, and with an angry growl they would retreat once more to be with their kin.

Another blow of the axe hit the door and it caved further. On the third attempt (and it holds true that the third time's the charm) one of the officers was able to break in. He was decked out in flame-retarded gear and he had a handkerchief tied around his mouth and nose to filter out the smoke.

Caleb and I could hardly breath. Yalu was lying on the ground whining, and it didn't surprise me since I'm sure all he could detect now was smoke.

"Get him out of here!" Caleb pleaded to the officer while he pointed towards his companion.

"We came for the girl. We have to take her first." Another officer came forth to help, but the flames kept him back. "Stay back, Officer Howell," Noll called. "I'll get them taken care of."

"I'll take Eliza," Caleb told the man, "but I need you to take Yalu. I've had him since he was a cub. Help me."

Officer Noll looked as though he were in a great amount of doubt. The flames now devoured the doorway and everything in the room was clear. When he looked around the room for inspiration, his eyes landed on the group of demons trying to hide in the receding shadows. His mouth fell ajar in shock. He fell to the ground in dead faint, not being able to take the sight of gleaming red eyes and knobby claws.

Caleb heaved himself up and stumbled over to Officer Noll. I could tell that all the smoke he'd breathed in was making him dizzy. Hell, the smoke was making me dizzy, and if it got any hotter than it already was, I was certain that I would faint from heat stroke.

I watched as Caleb lifted Noll over his shoulder and held his breath as he ran through the flaming door and the flames that covered most of the stairs on the other side. My heart pounded as the fire roared, but Caleb was back after only a minuet or so.

He was dumbfounded as he looked back and forth between me and Yalu, clearly at a loss. I knew he couldn't decide who to save first.

"Take him," I wheezed, knowing that he wouldn't last much longer in the heat and smoke with a heavy winter coat and a sensitive nose. "I'll be alright." I took a deep breath as I realized that I'd lost quite a bit of blood.

Caleb nodded his gratitude and moved to pick up the wolf. I saw him wince with pain, and he screamed as he pulled the animal over his shoulder. His first few steps were wobbly, but he made it through the flames a second time.

When he came back, I saw blood soaking through his shirt. The exertion of lifting Yalu and the policeman had reopened his most recent wounds. The demons made some sort of horrible noise that I thought indicated that they believed our new predicament funny. How nice of them. They were the ones who were going to die in a fiery tomb because they couldn't stand to go near fire; now it was heading for them.

Caleb was gasping for breath when he picked me up in his arms and made sure that my face was covered. As he walked towards the door, I heard the horrible sound of the attic staircase crumbling into ash.

I didn't have time to worry, however, because Caleb stepped out onto the landing and made a mad leap down the stairs, hitting the ground hard and rolling down the last few stairs that the fire hadn't quite touched yet. I screamed in agony when Caleb got back on his feet. I had broken a leg in the fall, but at least I wasn't dead.

Hayden took me from the stumbling Caleb as we made our way quickly outside and Officer Howell supported Caleb. By the time we reached the cool afternoon air, the rest of the attic had caught fire and we could hear the screeching demons as they all met their demise.

Hayden refused to let go of me, though one of the officers did get him to put me down while she made me a hasty splint and straightened out my broken bone. Yalu could be heard snorting the remainder of the smoke from his nose, and aside from a few scratches that he received while distracting the demons from me, I knew that he was going to be alright.

Noll sent over half of the force back to the station, only keeping a few people around to make sure that the fire didn't get out of control. It was their intent to let the whole house burn to the ground to make sure every last one of those evil creatures was gone, though only Officer Noll and Hayden would really believe that the demons had existed in the first place.

In my haze I looked for Caleb, and saw the snow beneath him staining the ground red. He wasn't going to make it without a blood transplant, and there was no way that we were going to be able to get him one out here. I could hear him grumbling and moaning; telling Yalu something as the wolf tried to clean his master's wounds.

"Eliza," he mumbled. "Where are you?"

I could barely hear him, but I called out and told him that I was to his right. A brief smile flited across his face and I almost thought I heard a chuckle.

"Good. Will you take care of Yalu for me?" I asked, breaking out into a series of coughs and moans.

"There won't be any need to," I told him, trying to sound like I meant it. "You're going to be fine."

"No," he said, trying to shake his head but not succeeding. "Even without these wounds, my soul is burning away in that fire. I won't be a burden to this world much longer."

"I promise," I called out as loud as I could, to make sure that he would hear me as his life faded quickly away from him.

I saw the mysterious man stoke Yalu's head one last time, before his hand fell meekly to the ground and his head lolled to one side. Yalu howled loud and long for the loss of his friend, and I felt tears well up in my eyes.

Caleb had kept me from dying in that fire; Noll and Yalu as well. He'd ripped open his wounds and bled to save us. Maybe we could have saved him if we'd somehow managed to retrieve his soul. Noll looked lost for a moment, but he hadn't known Caleb as anything but a kidnapper. I'd known him as a desperate man who longed to be free from his tormentors.

"You're mother will be happy to see you, Eliza," Noll told me as the top of the house began to crumble. "I don't think that she'll be going away anytime soon after this." Hayden had the good graces to attempt a laugh. "I think that she'll be disappointed that she can't press charges on the man who did it."

"I don't blame Caleb," I whispered, but I don't think that anyone but Hayden heard me.

Hayden squeezed my hand tight. "La Morte," he whispered and he looked me in the eye. I figured that it must have been a reading he'd done before he'd come out to find me. "I'm just glad it wasn't you."

"What did you see in that reading, Hayden?" I wanted to know as he hugged me close.

"It was when you first went missing. I knew he'd brought you with him intentionally, and that something around him wasn't happy. They didn't want you there. I suppose the cards meant the demons. At the end of that reading, I drew the death card, and I was afraid that they were going to kill you."

"They wanted me in the end. They were going to take my soul and free his in return, because he brought me to them. He was in his seventies, Hayden. They'd been picking at his soul for a long time."

"Then it's good that he's free. We can tell his family for him, if you'd like. I'm sure Officer Noll would help us find them."

"No," I said as I shook my head. "He said they would have died a long time ago. But maybe we can find their tombs so that he can be buried with his family."

"We'll do that. What should we put on his stone?"

"Something to do with music, I think."

"Why?" he wanted to know. He looked extremely confused.

"It's what he gave his soul to them for. They got his soul, and he got the ability to compose music. The libraries and music room in that house were full of it. He had a long time to write it all, Hayden."

"Then it fits. Let's get you home. I'm sure Mom's worrying the day away."

He was silent for a long while as Officers Howell and Noll did the honor of taking us home, but that may have been because we had a large animal sitting between us. It would be interesting to explain this one to my mom.

He looked thoughtful the whole way. When we reached the house, we waited until the Officers had rounded the corner at the end of the street before going into the house.

"If his music was that great," Hayden said as he opened the door and gestured for me to head in first, "then it's too bad that it was all lost in that fire." He looked doubtfull as Yalu followed me into the house, but shrugged and closed the door behind him once he'd stepped over the threshold.

"No," I told him, shaking my head. "He wouldn't have wanted it around. It was only a memory of all the years he spent serving them."

"That song you were singing in the attic-" I cut him off.

"Yes, Caleb wrote it, but it wasn't exactly for a good cause. I'll be happier once I'm finally able to forget it."

He didn't say anything more about it. Even my mom didn't ask about my experiences, or the new friend that I acquired, though she did look rather nervous at first when she first saw him looming in a corner. I knew that he was missing Caleb already and I moved to sit by him. He let me, and began a soft chorus of whining.

"This is Yalu, mom," I told her, as she fought back her initial fear of the animal and came to hug me tight. "I promised that I would take care of him."