Excerpt: Amaghest

Simon turned around. He meant to do it quickly but, somehow, it was as though the world was pivoting on a tight screw. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a swirl of psychedelic colors whirling above the top of a lab table. When his eyes finally rested on the spot inside the circle that still graced the table top, the swirling colors were melding together into what was unmistakably a creature.

It was hunched over and trembling. Simon thought wildly that one of the cats from the Anatomy and Physiology lab next door had escaped but they had been delivered dead, their stiff, rigor-mortis-riddled bodies piled into a bin. Besides, it didn’t look remotely like a cat.

It didn’t have fur and its skin was a mottled green. Its body was curled but upright as though it were crouched down in submission or fear. He couldn’t make out how many arms or legs it had, but there was a distinct tail poking out from behind. It was short and bulbous with a pointed head. The creature, whatever it was, seemed to be in distress.

Simon was walking slowly toward the creature when Logan shouted, “Wait!”

“Logan, it’s clearly in pain.” Simon’s tone was admonishing.

“Of course it’s in pain. It’s out of its domain. It’s been taken from its dominion.”

“Dominion?” blubbered Simon.

“It’s a demon. Its dominion is the underworld.”

“Logan, I think you’ve been playing too much Dungeons and Dragons.”

“It’s 'Prophesy: The Dawn of the Ages' and I’ve played enough to know a dark creature when I see it.”