Indestructum

from First Lies by T.F. Torrey

"Please," he interrupted, "call me Hack." The voice on the other end screamed, then spoke again, rattling off words like there was no tomorrow.

"Henry, you gotta help me. It's trying to get—" Another scream.

Henry "Hack" Hammond would have liked to have said, "What's going on? Who is this? Are you calling to place a flower order?", but he was a man of few words. Instead he just said, "Huh?"

Click. Hmmmmm.

After a few seconds Hack hung up the phone. He looked at the clock on the wall. It was nine o'clock. He still had to finish the arrangement for the funeral tomorrow. Suddenly his eyes filled with the glow of recognition, and he smiled. "That was Kathy," he said to himself. Kathy Kalloway was Hack's girlfriend, a gorgeous blond who lived across town and liked to do full-scale clay sculptures of men. She had met Hack when he had responded to her advertisement for a model. Hack wasn't exceptionally big (about five eleven and one hundred sixty pounds), but all of his muscles were extremely well defined from his years of karate teaching and training, and Kathy liked that.

Kathy liked a lot of things about Hack. He was a third degree black belt in karate, he owned his own business (a small flower shop which specialized in flower sales to funeral homes), he had a black Trans Am, and he had a great personality to boot.

"Uh-oh," Hack said to himself, "Somebody's trying to hurt Kathy!" Kathy had a house on some beachfront property on the south end of Sebastian, and it took Hack about five minutes to drive through the dark Florida night to her house.

As Hack's Trans Am raced up the street towards Kathy's house, he noticed that all the houses in the neighborhood except Kathy's were well lit, and all the streetlamps were lit. He jammed his car to a stop on Kathy's lawn, digging large, long furrows with his tires. He jumped out of the car and raced up to the porch. "Kathy!" he yelled, twisting the knob of the front door. It was locked. Hack took three steps backwards.

SMASH!

The door toppled to the floor, splintered by the power of Hack's thrusting side kick.

"Kathy!" Hack shouted again, then listened intently for any sound, standing in a back stance just inside the door.

CUCKOO! CUCKOO!!

SMASH!

Hack's powerful backfist sent tiny clock bits showering about the room, and the destroyed frame fell to the floor at his right.

Uh-oh, Hack thought, Kathy's gonna be mad.

From upstairs: a whimper, low and high.

Hack sprinted across the room, to the back of the small house where the stairs were located.

Again the whimper, then a small thud, as of something light landing softly on the upstairs floor.

Hack sprang up the stairs four at a time, nearly wrenching the railing away from the wall as his arms sought to help his legs up the stairs. At last he reached the top and---

there it was. About Hack's height, but more muscular, silhouetted against the night sky through the window at the far end of Kathy's upstairs hall. Past it, in the doorway at the far end of the hallway, in the faint glow cast through the window by the near-full moon, Hack saw Kathy's hair, just inside.

Hack glanced to his left; the doorway there was closed. He stepped into the hall, facing the intruder squarely, lightly on his feet in a leaning back stance, veins full and hard with the fight hormone.

"Get out." Hack's voice was calm and firm, commanding.

The intruder made no move.

"Get out," Hack reiterated, "or I will destroy you."

A high, light laughter floated to Hack.

SMACK!

Hack leapt backwards, expecting to see the intruder topple over, clutching his throat and gasping from the power of Hack's perfectly placed lunge punch.

But the intruder remained motionless, unshaken by the force of the blow, and again the laughter drifted.

Front kick round kick side kick, Hack's feet just a blur.

Again the intruder seemed unaffected, and again the laughter.

Flying back roundhouse, a kick aimed at the head and so powerful that it should have separated the intruders head from his neck and sent it smashing into the wall—and it did.

The head bounced to the floor a little away from the wall, but the body remained erect, and the laughing prevailed.

Hack stepped back in horror.

With new fury, he attacked it.

Lunge punch side kick rear leg round kick spinning back roundhouse footsweep rising back kick.

Hack leapt to his feet.

Back fist hammer fist crescent kick. Side kick to the chest.

Hack, jumped back to observe the effects. The laughter subsided to silence. The overhead light in the hall snapped on. Hack took another step back, blinking in the brilliance. Seconds later, his eyes were adjusted.

What remained of a fresh clay statue stood in the hall between Hack and the far window, its body pocked with the dents of Hack's kicks and punches, its head resting a few feet away, a deep dent scoring its surface, giving it another smile—from nose to ear.

But Hack paid it no attention. His eyes were steadied on the figure standing in front of the far window, next to the light switch, next to Kathy. Hack had minored in mythology at Florida State, and he instantly recognized his foe. Indestructum.

One meter tall. Bipedal. Orange-skinned and bald except for a bright green Mohawk. Very, very evil. Thin and frail looking, but not to be underestimated. Bulging eyes and yellow smile. Capable of magic.

Indestructum reached out a hand and flipped the wall switch, plunging the room into complete blackness.

Hack stepped backwards into a defensive stance while he waited for his eyes to adjust. While he waited he thought. The cogwheels of his mind strained to assemble the data Hack had once studied for extra credit in a course in demonology.

Indestructum. Something about electricity, and pentagrams, and midnight, and—and bagels. Of course. That was it. Hack had worked on his extra credit project with a Swedish Jewish guy from Baltimore who had always smuggled a bag of bagels into the library while they were researching. That's right.

No. Indestructum. Oh, yes. Indestructum. Hack thought so hard his nose scrunched, then he remembered. Indestructum was a native of one of the planes of hell. He drew his power from electricity, and when his power was gone, he was teleported back to his own dimension. He could only escape to the material plane through the electrical power of a pentagram. And, after midnight, until dawn, he gained ten times his normal power, making him very difficult to expel back to hell. In the past, before the days of Edison and Faraday, Indestructum was only a threat during thunderstorms, and usually disappeared soon after them, but several dissertations by modern demonologists suggest that Indestructum in today's megawatt world would be—devastating.

Hack shuddered at the thought. He gritted his teeth, and set himself to the task of destroying Indestructum.

The room to the right at the far end of the upstairs hall was Kathy's workshop, and Hack knew it to be filled with some of Kathy's finished projects as well as the unfinished ones and a few dozen of the plants Hack had given to her as gifts. He crept silently down the hall towards the room now, alert in a cat stance. His keen hearing picked up the low breathing and faint scratching and scraping sounds coming from the workshop. He reached the doorway, and the noises stopped. All was quiet. He clung to the law wall and began to ease around the corner.

SMASH!

A spray of fine dirt mushroomed into the hallway as Hack sprang back behind the wall. Inside the workshop the broken pot fell to the floor beside the door. The smell of petunias drifted into the hallway.

"Hey!" Hack shouted. "I gave her that for Christmas!" Indestructum only cackled, his voice high and thin.

Hack scrunched his nose, then he had an idea. Cautiously he stuck three fingers into the doorway.

POW!

The pot and plant crashed against the hall wall. Hack leapt into the doorway in a fighting position, ready for anything that Indestructum might throw at him. Hack strained his eyes into the darkness of the workshop. He was lucky, the large windows to his left let the moonlight spill into the room, giving everything a silver hue.

Indestructum stood opposite Hack in the room, behind a table upon which Kathy's potted plants were lined. To Hack's left, under a window, catching the moonlight splendidly, was the clay chess set Kathy had sculpted. Hack saw that only five pawns were on the board—arranged in a pentagram, and an understanding entered his mind. Scorch marks radiated outward from the center of the pentagram (making a pretty star shape, Hack noticed), ending at the pawns, which looked as though fused in place.

Indestructum's arm moved, and the plant cut a silver arc through the air toward Hack.

CRASH!

Rose and shattered remains of earthen pot fell to the floor, stopped by the power of Hack's reverse punch.

"Hey!" Hack shouted again, moving toward Indestructum. "Quit throwin' Kathy's plants at me!" Indestructum only cackled. Indestructum snapped his fingers, and the room was filled with bright light. Hack blinked.

POW!

The fern caught him squarely in the chest, knocking him backwards slightly. "Ouch! I said to—"

CONK!

Another plant caught him just above his right eye. Hack fell to one knee. A daffodil whistled through the air towards Hack's head.

SMACK!

This time Hack's eyes had adjusted to the light and he punched the plant away with his left hand. Indestructum cackled some more and snapped his fingers once again. The room plunged into darkness.

CRACK!

A vine ripped some hide off Hack's head. Hack blindly grabbed the clay chessboard from its pedestal under the window and held it in front of him as a shield. Plants and pots pounded against the board as Hack advanced toward Indestructum. Finally Hack gathered his strength and pounced at the fiend, knocking him down and pinning him underneath the board. Hack pressed his face close to Indestructum's.

"I told you not to throw Kathy's plants at me," Hack said, raising a meaty fist over Indestructum's head.

Indestructum stuck an arm out from under the board. Fire flew from his fingertips. Hack swung his fist. The fire struck Hack mid-swing directly in the chest, throwing him backwards onto the floor, his shirt flaming. Hack leapt to his feet, frantically beating at the flames on the front of his shirt. His efforts were futile, though, and the flames spread over his chest and around to his back. Fingers of flame licked up toward his face and hair. Indestructum's evil laughter raced lightly through the house. Hack reached a hand to the neck of his shirt and fixed a grip on its collar. Flames engulfed and destroyed it as he ripped it from his body and flung it to the floor. Hack stepped out the flames, then looked around. Indestructum was nowhere to be seen.

"You ruined the plants I gave Kathy, and now you've gone and destroyed one of my best shirts," Hack said, low, under his breath. "Get back here and fight like a man." Another burst of cackling, and Hack realized its source. Eager feet carried him across the workshop to the stairs that led up to Kathy's balcony. Hack saw from the bottom that the door at the top was open to the night sky. Silently he crept to the top of the stairs, then, in one quick movement, flung himself through the door, landing in a cat stance facing the open end of the balcony.

And there was Indestructum, holding on to Kathy at the railing at the far end of the balcony.

"Don't come any closer, my athletic friend," warned the fiend, "we wouldn't want her to accidently fall over this railing, to be killed when she struck the rocks below, now would we?" Hack knew that three stories below the railing was a very rocky beach.

"No," he agreed, "we wouldn't want that, so why don't you come over here and fight me like a man?"

Indestructum looked pensive, considering. Finally he spoke. "No," he said. "This is much more fun. But I'll fight you in five minutes." Hack looked at his watch. Eleven fifty-five.

"No," Hack said. "I have to fight you now."

"Okay, but you'll be sorry." He let go of Kathy and raised twisted claws to his head, becoming the very picture of concentration. Kathy's eyelids, closed until now, fluttered and opened, revealing Indestructum's eyes behind them.

"Kathy?!" Hack shouted. "What's wrong with your eyes?" Kathy opened her mouth and the fiend's evil laughter flew from her lips. Indestructum stood rock-still, hands pressed to his head, eyes tightly closed. "Kathy, RUN!" Kathy assumed a fighting position.

Indestructum's voice kept time with Kathy's lips.

"Come on, Hack, fight me like a man," the voice called. Suddenly Hack understood. He took a step toward Indestructum.

"Let her go, or I'll—"

SWISH!

Kathy pounced, fast as a snake, knocking Hack down and wrapping her thin fingers around his throat. No, Hack thought, I won't hurt Kathy. Kathy's grip on Hack's throat tightened steadily, but he made no move to hurt her. Indestructum's laughter once again issued from Kathy's mouth.

Uh-oh, Hack thought suddenly, she's gonna kill me! He scrunched his nose, then he had the answer. He gripped her wrists, gently but firmly, and pulled at them. He pulled hard, but Indestructum directed more and more of his power to Kathy, and her grip only strengthened. Hack concentrated, funneling his strength to his arms, then, with one mighty tug, pulled her hands off his neck.

Hack leapt to his feet. Kathy's arms shot around his waist. Hack looked down, trying to pull her arm away. Then he caught sight of the luminous dial on his watch. It was eleven fifty-eight. Hack looked to Indestructum, who was still standing rock-still by the railing. Hack moved toward him, dragging Kathy. When Hack was just ten feet from Indestructum, Kathy suddenly launched herself against Hack, catching him by surprise and driving him to the railing at the edge of the balcony.

Hack teetered, on the brink of falling off. Forty feet below him he saw moonlight riding the crests of waves in to pound the rocks on the beach below. Kathy pushed again, knocking Hack over the railing. Hack caught hold of the railing with his right hand, and for a second dangled by one arm over the rocks below, which were being slowly covered by the rising tide. Hack swung his left hand up, catching hold of the railing an the other side of Indestructum from Kathy, and just then she pried his right hand off the railing. Hack gripped the railing, hands side by side, and hauled himself back over, now on the opposite side of Indestructum.

Lightning-quick, he grabbed Indestructum with both hands and lifted him over his head. Indestructum took his hands away from his head, and blue fire shot from his fingertips, scorching Hack's bare chest. With a mighty heave Hack threw Indestructum over the railing into the ocean. As he hit the water he exploded with great force, filling the air with a bright blue light and the smell of ozone.

Hack knelt down next to Kathy, who had fallen to the floor when Indestructum took his hands away from his head.

"Kathy?" he said, almost fearfully. She opened her eyes, and they were her eyes. She looked around frightfully.

"Is he—gone?"

Hack nodded. They embraced. "I guess he just short-circuited," he said.

"Oh, Henry, I knew you'd find a way to destroy him," Kathy said. "That's what I love about you, Henry, you're so smart and so—"

"Please," he interrupted, "call me Hack."