John Connolly - The Gates

“Your point being?” asked Tom, now getting somewhat impatient because he couldn’t follow most of what Maria was saying.

“My point being,” said Maria patiently, “that Nurd here may be the solution to our problems.”

“Solution?” said Nurd nervously. “This solution isn’t going to hurt, is it?”

“Might do, a bit,” said Maria. “Scientifically it has lots of holes in it. It may not work at all.”

“Well, it’s better than no plan,” said Samuel. “Assuming Nurd is willing to try.”

“It can’t be any worse than what’s happened to me already,” said Nurd gloomily. “Explain away.”

So they did.

“Right,” said Nurd, when they had finished, “that sounds so foolhardy, dangerous, and completely impossible that it just might work. Now, all we need is a car.”

He looked up from the table, and his expression changed.

“There is just one more problem,” he said.

“What’s that?” asked Samuel.

Nurd pointed a shaking finger at the window, to where a pair of demons, one a toad, the other a spider, now stood at the garden gate.

“Them!”

THE CHILDREN CROWDED AT the window, staring out at the demons.

“Ugh,” said Maria, wrinkling her nose at the sight of the ten-legged spider and the great toad. “They’re horrid.”

“The servants of Ba’al,” said Nurd. “They look awful, and they are awful, but Ba’al is like a thousand of them rolled into one, with added nastiness. I’m in trouble now.”

Samuel stared at the two demons. There was something strangely familiar about them. It took him a second to realize that they both still wore the remains of tattered black robes.

“They’re not after you,” he said to Nurd. “I’m not even sure they know you’re here.”

“Then who are they after?” asked Tom.

“Me, I think,” said Samuel. “They’re two of the people from the Abernathys’ basement, or they used to be. Mrs. Abernathy must have sent them.”

“Why?” asked Tom. “You didn’t even manage to stop her. The gates are open. She has what she wanted.”

“I got in her way. I don’t think she likes people crossing her. I’m not sure if anyone has ever crossed her before, not like that. She wants to punish me, and you lot as well if you’re caught with me.”

He turned to Maria and Tom. “I’m sorry. I should never have got you involved in all this.”

Tom patted him on the back. “You’re right, you shouldn’t have.”

“Tom!” said Maria, appalled.

“I was only joking,” said Tom. “I really was,” he added, as Maria continued to glare at him.

“So what do we do now?” asked Maria. “Run away?”

“Running away sounds good,” said Dr. Planck from somewhere beneath the blanket.

“No,” said Samuel. “We have to face them.”

“Look,” said Tom, “hitting little flying skulls was all very well, but I don’t think those two are going to let any of us get close enough to knock them on the head with a bat.”

“We go ahead with the plan,” said Samuel. “We send Nurd through the portal.”

“There is just one thing,” said Nurd. “I’d rather if they didn’t know it was me. Could create difficulties at the other end, assuming I don’t get spread over half the universe if the portal collapses. Perhaps you have a disguise of some kind that I could use?”

Mrs. Johnson whipped the blanket from Dr. Planck, made two holes in it with a pair of scissors, and handed it to Nurd.

“But where do we get a car?” asked Tom.

“Mum,” said Samuel. “Keep an eye on those things. Tom, stay with her. Nurd, Maria, come with me.”

“Where are you going?” asked Tom.

“To steal my dad’s car,” said Samuel, and saw his mum smile.

Samuel, Maria, and Nurd stood in the garage at the back of the house, looking at the car that Samuel’s father had spent years lovingly restoring.

“‘Aston Martin,’” read Nurd. He stroked the car gently. “It’s lovely. Is it like a Porsche?”

“No,” said Samuel. “It’s better than a Porsche, because it’s British.”

“Right,” said Nurd. He wasn’t sure that he agreed. He really had liked the Porsche, but this was still a splendid car.

“Are you sure you can drive one of these?” asked Maria.

“I drove a Porsche,” said Nurd. “I got the hang of that fairly quickly.”

Samuel was having second thoughts about letting Nurd have the car. Samuel’s dad would go crazy when he found out.

“You will look after it?” said Samuel to Nurd. “It’s such a beautiful car.”

“Samuel,” said Maria, “he’s going to drive it through a transdimensional portal and, if things go right, end up back in Hell, or, if things go wrong, in tiny little pieces scattered throughout a wormhole, or even compressed to almost nothing. It’s not entirely fair to ask him if he’s going to look after it.”

Samuel nodded. “Perhaps it’s better not to know.”

Samuel handed Nurd his father’s spare car keys. Nurd climbed into the driver’s seat and put the key in the ignition as Samuel raised the garage door that opened onto a lane at the rear of the house. Maria stood beside the open passenger-side window, and spoke to Nurd.

“Do you know where you’re going?”

“Toward the big blue light,” said Nurd. “It won’t be hard to find.”

“No, I suppose not. You’ll need to build up quite a head of speed if this is to work.”

“I don’t think that will be a problem,” he said.

“Right. Good luck, then,” said Maria. “And, Nurd?”

“Yes?”

“Please don’t let us down.”

“I won’t,” he said.

“Your dad is going to have a meltdown when he finds out, isn’t he?” said Maria to Samuel as he returned from opening the door.

“If Nurd fails, or if you’re wrong, my dad will have better things to worry about,” said Samuel.

“You’d think so,” said Maria, “but he’ll still find time to kill you.”

“I don’t care,” said Samuel. He was not frightened, but neither was he quite as angry as before. In a terrible way, he was getting his own back on his dad for leaving. If they weren’t quite even, they were getting there.

“Give us a few minutes, then get going,” said Samuel to Nurd. “We’ll distract those things at the gates, just in case they have come for you.”

Nurd gripped the steering wheel expectantly.

“I’ll count to one hundred,” he said.

“Great,” said Samuel. “Well, like Maria said, don’t let us down.”

He patted the car once more in farewell.

“Is your dad really going to be annoyed?” asked Nurd.

“He’ll get over it. After all, it’s for a good cause.”

“I hope he understands,” said Nurd. “You just seem… like the sort of person who should be understood.”

“I wish you could stay around,” said Samuel. “I’d like to have gotten to know you a little better.”

“You were the first person who was nice to me, ever,” said Nurd. “That counts for something, whatever happens.”

They shook hands, and then Samuel gave Nurd a hug that, after a moment of surprise, the demon returned. For the first time, Nurd began to understand how it was to feel sorrow at parting with a friend, and even as it hurt him he was grateful to Samuel for giving him the chance to experience something of what it was to be human.

“Come on,” said Maria. “Let’s go and help the others. That will keep your mind off things.”

“I expect so,” said Samuel. “Being eaten by a spider or a toad will do that…”

The demons had not moved. They were simply staring at the house, but it was the huge spider that most concerned Samuel, its mouthparts moving, dripping clear venom that turned the leaves black. Samuel’s brain was filled with shrieking voices telling him to run. He had always been frightened of spiders, ever since he was a very small child. He couldn’t explain why. Now he was being forced to confront a spider so vile that even in his worst nightmares he couldn’t have come up with anything like it, even if it did have a pair of human legs sticking somewhat incongruously out of its bottom.