Staring through the demons (unholyverse )

10

"Hey," Gerard greeted Mikey when he got back on the bus. "Listen, I don't think we have that long until Cortez and those guys show up again. What did you get from Pete?"

"I don't know yet," Mikey said, sitting down next to him. He pulled his knees up to his chest. "Nothing concrete. He seemed really ill, though, like totally drained. He said it's been happening a lot after the shows."

"I don't know if this is relevant," said Bob. "But I saw two girls getting carted away by paramedics. They were unconscious."

"You think they got knocked out in the pit?" Frank asked.

Bob shook his head. "That's the weird thing. It didn't happen until after the show had finished. They didn't get pulled over the barrier; they filed out with everyone else and collapsed in the lobby area."

Gerard shook his head. "Shit."

"They did not look good," Bob added. He rubbed his hands together and frowned worriedly. "But I mean...it's a rock show. It happens. One time I almost died."

"Big surprise," said Brian dryly.

"What did you and Gerard find out?" Ray wanted to know.

Gerard grimaced. "There's some conflicting information, but my first instinct is that someone's draining Pete's life force."

Frank leaned forward. "What for?"

"Necromancy," Gerard said, sitting back. He rubbed the heel of his hand over his face. "Man, there's not enough shit going down on this Earth, people gotta get the dead involved too."

Ray made a face. "Like, bringing people back?"

"The Father says there's a bunch of definitions," Brian put in. "Could be a literal raising of a dead person, could be an attempt to bring a spirit back and have it possess a body."

"Or," Gerard said, "It could be a demon. Someone could be trying to raise a demon from Hell."

"Why would someone do that?" said Mikey. "I mean - isn't that a really stupid thing to do?"

Gerard shrugged, spreading his hands. "You would think. But from what I understand, it's not uncommon for some lunatic to get the impression that their own personal demon will help them take over the world."

Ray cleared his throat. "I'm not exactly an authority on demons, given that I know exactly nothing about them, but...they don't seem like they'd be all that likely to take orders from humans."

"Really, really not," Gerard agreed. "But it might not be that anyway. It could be a person they're trying to raise, or it could not be necromancy at all."

"But you think it is," Frank pressed.

Gerard considered for a minute, head tilted to the side. He looked over at Brian, then said, "Yeah. I think it is."

"So what does that have to do with Pete?" Mikey asked. "Someone's draining his energy?"

Brian nodded. "Not very much is known about symptoms, because draining energy from living people is an unusual method."

"Which is kind of what makes me think it's the demon thing," Gerard added. "Because they'd need a huge amount of power for that, and human souls are like batteries."

"But why Pete?" said Bob.

Gerard shook his head. "I don't know. Mikey, he didn't tell you anything else? Are you sure?"

Mikey thought about what had happened in the dressing room, and offered, "He said that it felt like he should be full of holes, like something was being pulled out through his skin. And he said-" Mikey broke off, not wanting to sound stupid.