When Rhea got the Bugatti back to the shop, exhaustion hit her hard, and she took a moment to calm her breathing before she got out of the car. She looked up at the sign atop the shop, its blue light flickering in the dark. Above, she could see the expanse of space, stars blinking in and out, and the moon low on the horizon. Her fingers traced over the beads of her mala for a moment, and then she got out of the car.
She went and unlocked the shop door. The room was dusty and dark, and the humidity made it feel stuffy. The windows were too dusty to let in any light from the lampposts, and she stumbled through the dark room to find the chain for the garage door.
Rhea had one hand on her workbench when she stopped moving. She could hear something in the shop with her. Not a stray dog or macaques. Deep breathing; something large. She looked into the corner of the shop, where darkness enveloped a humanish form, one white eye watching her. Lips spread and revealed several rows of sharp teeth, and a faint reflection showed a mace gripped in hand.
"Who are you?" she asked in a small voice.
I've had many names, said a voice in Rhea's head that was not her own.
"What do you want?"
This is a nice little hideout here, mechanic girl. Hide here a lot, do you?
"I don't hide."
No? You seem like you want to hide now.
Rhea had been slowly trying to feel her way through the shop in an attempt to find the chain to the garage door or the door handle. But with her attention sealed on the phantom in front of her, she was struggling to picture the layout of the shop in her head. She stopped moving and watched the eye in the corner.
"Where do you come from?" she asked.
The phantom rose and stepped a few paces closer and Rhea could see the long human-like face, purple skin, and the sightless eye in the center of his forehead. A smile stayed plastered across its face.
Such a foolish question, it said. Why should humans assume evil comes from another world? Do you not know how sinful you creatures are? What horrors and pain you create.
"I know about human-created evil. I'm not denying that. But you're not human. We have our limits to creation."
Don't be so sure, mechanic girl. You've made a few creations of your own. These contraptions are nothing short of simple. You're good a piecing the physical world together. There are other worlds within your grasp.
"What does that mean?"
So many questions! Your words are getting annoying.
"What happened to your sight."
The phantom's lips curled further up its face, more teeth protruding from its gums, and it crossed its legs and sat in the air.
I was created this way, but I assure you that I can see you. I see everything through a faulty film, shadows on a canvas. I see a lot of pain in you. Loss and fear, confusion and desperation. I swallow those things like dessert, let it fester and bleed, forever growing where everything else dies.
"You were created here? On the island?"
As were you. This place changes you. Morphs you into something wretched and desperate. The phantom placed his feet on the ground. Now stop with the questions. You're going to spoil my meal with your contemplation.
The jaws of the phantom began to extend, fangs twitching, a dark red pit opening to swallow her whole.
Rhea didn't want to give it the satisfaction of her fear, but it was impossible to contain with jaws extending to the ground and teeth ready to rip her apart. She felt a poking in her thigh and realized she was wearing the overalls from when she found the demonic skeleton, the stone still wedged in her pocket. She could feel the cold from it and gripped it in her palm. In the dark, she struggled to understand the form the phantom was taking but could feel its breath inches from her. She gripped the stone in hand and plunged it down the phantom's throat. She could feel fangs ripping at her arm, an intense heat, smoke infesting her nose.
There was a lurching sound as the phantom's jaws closed just as Rhea pulled her hand out and it backed away, gagging and lurching.
BITCH! What did you do to me?!
The gagging made Rhea shutter, the sound of bile clogging a windpipe, and she saw a small light begin to grow in its chest. She could see its form better, long limbs made of shadow that were beginning to smoke. It let out a wailing scream and fell to its knees. She could see liquids pouring from its blind eye and mouth, hands claw-like and reaching for her.
Rhea stood as though made of stone, heart running in her chest but legs unable to move. She watched the shadowed body corrode and erupt, smoky flesh falling to the floor, a physical essence of evil pooling onto the ground.
There was a wail screaming in her head and Rhea stumbled back, holding the palms of her hands on her temples in fear her skull would crack. And then silence swept over her mind and the shop. Everything was still. She could see the stone in the center of the floor, light beginning to fade from its surface.
Rhea backed up into the wall and began to feel for the garage door chain again. After a moment, she found it and yanked it upward, casting moonlight into the shop. There was a pile of ash on the floor and stains on the cement. She reached down and pulled the stone from the ash and put it back in her pocket. She kicked the ash and a small wail echoed through the shop. She ignored it as she went to the Bugatti and drove it into the shop. She locked the doors and walked back to Sockeye, hand gripped around the stone in her pocket, the phantom words reeling in her head.