Novel B: Bring Me to Life
Synopsis
Our hero is abducted from Earth by a UFO, which he notes with some confusion looks just like an enormous Fender Telecaster. He's shanghai'ed by a sort of interplanetary Captain Ahab, seduced by a daemon using the body of an Earth woman, and schooled in how to work magic using sound. He just wants to get back home, but the daemon tells him he has to go through Hell to get there—and he's the only being in the universe who can do it.
Excerpt
"The kriffer is approaching rapidly," Peter continued. "I think it's onto your scents."
Evan turned to the others. "Our ghost friend says there's a big cat up ahead that seems to have caught someone's scent."
"Probably Pity, yes," Ghent offered. Pity backhanded him.
"He says it's coming this way!" Evan said. "What should we do?"
"No way you could outrun it," Peter said. "It's only a couple corridors over, and it's coming pretty fast now." He vanished back through the bulkhead.
"You will have to kill it," Srrmhr sang, and Evan thought it sounded like something out of an opera he had heard once. Or perhaps a cartoon.
"Us?" Evan said. "What about you? You're the one with the magical voice."
"Not all of you," Srrmhr sang back. "Just you alone."
"Sounds right to me, yes," Ghent said.
"What do you want me to kill it with, my bare hands?"
"Sing with me," Srrmhr commanded, and she took Evan's hands in hers and faced him. She moved into a simple pentatonic scale, up and down, only one note at a time.
Evan looked into her emerald eyes and once again marveled at her beauty. He had to keep reminding himself that the being speaking to him wasn't really the person he was looking at.
"Sing!" Srrmhr sang again, so with a mental shrug, Evan began to vocalize the same notes as the daemon.
It took him a few bars to match her rhythm and her notes, but he was soon singing in sync with her. She squeezed his hands, and then began to sing something else. He got that she wanted him to continue singing the simple track she'd laid down for him, so he kept at it, and she weaved harmonies around his voice.
He could feel power surround him, just as it had when he'd first laid hands on the guitar, only now these energies had a direction, and they felt much stronger. Where before he'd had the feeling of static electricity, now it was a generator running up to full power. The music was beautiful, and it coursed through his body, through his soul. There was a time once back on Earth—long ago, far away—when he'd felt something that approached this experience. He'd been on stage, playing, and everything had seemed to align in a perfect way, and he'd thought perhaps he could do anything. This was like that, with the amps cranked up to eleven. Or maybe twelve or thirteen.
He didn't know what exactly was about to happen, but he didn't want this feeling of elation to stop. His voice grew stronger, he felt locked onto each note with Srrmhr, and he could feel the sound resonating between them.
Peter rocketed by them. "It's coming now!" he said, only three seconds before the door before them began to creak and groan.
Evan saw Ghent raise his mouse from the corner of his eye, and he was surprised that he and Srrmhr sang the same words at the same time, "Hold your fire!"
Then the monster thrust the door aside, and its countenance was terrible.
Evan was facing Srrmhr, he had eyes only for her while they weaved their music together, but somehow he still had full awareness of the kriffer as it burst through the doorway, scant meters away from where they stood. It filled the corridor, and it was standing on all fours. Evan wondered just how in hell anyone had ever managed to get a creature of that size on board this ship. Evan would have called it a sabre-toothed tiger had he not already been introduced to its proper name, and had it not been a mottled green and gray, and sported a mane like that of a lion. Its dripping fangs were ridiculously large, perhaps a meter in length, and Evan couldn't imagine what evolutionary track could possibly have led to such a monstrosity.
The big cat roared, and Evan's singing almost faltered, because it roared in beautiful, terrible three-part harmony, and he could feel a blast of pressure wash over the shield he and Srrmhr had sung into being. Evan was working magic, some sort of alteration to the very nature of reality, and he had no idea how that could even be possible.
So he was more than a little confused when Srrmhr sang to him, "Hit it!"
Did she mean that in the classic Earth sense? He thought he was already "hitting it," if that was her meaning; he was right in the middle of a song. Or did she want him to actually walk up and bop this cat on the nose? Surely she didn't think he was that suicidal. So he just frowned at her and waited for clarification.
Evan could actually feel the pressure in the corridor drop, and he saw the kriffer taking in a great breath. He cringed as the next harmonious roar came, louder and much stronger than the first, and it washed over the two of them and knocked Ghent and Pity back against the far bulkhead. Srrmhr and Evan still stood their ground, but he wasn't sure if they could withstand another blast like that one. And to make matters worse, the kriffer had now decided to advance on their position, apparently now finding them less a possible threat and more a possible lunch.
The cycle of rhythm came around again, and Srrmhr implored him to "Hit it!" once more. What did she mean? The monster crept closer, and Evan wondered what he could do about it.
Finally, Srrmhr put her hands on his shoulders, spun him to face the cat, and swung the guitar around to hang in front of him. He got the message, but he still wasn't sure what to do. He knew this instrument must be powerful, to the point that the daemon had been afraid he was going to strum a single chord back in the vault and had stopped singing to warn him about it. He must be able to use it to stop the kriffer from devouring them, somehow.
Srrmhr stepped behind him and placed her hands on his hips. She was swaying slightly, still singing her two-part harmony, but her song had changed again. Now the tonal content was very simple, and the power came from the rhythm. He could feel that they'd switched from defense to offense; if the kriffer decided to blast them again, they'd be facing the full force of the roar.
They'd have to take the creature out before that happened. But how?
Srrmhr's beat sounded familiar, somehow, and then she began to vocalize something over and over through the notes. It took Evan a few precious bars to get it, while the monster crept toward them, closing to less than three meters, surely within swiping distance of its deadly claws. She was saying, "Ozzy, Ozzy, Ozzy."
Evan's first thought was that it seemed appropriate for a daemon to be chanting that name. Then he finally made the connection and got the rhythm. It was, against all logic, a song from Earth called "I Don't Wanna Stop" – he knew it well, he could jam to it. Srrmhr was laying down something like the power keys part as best she could using human vocal cords. So Evan formed a chord on the neck of the guitar, held his breath, and let fly.
The monster yelped as the blue cone hit it, the sonic wave so strong that it made Evan's ears pop. The cat slid back down the corridor, stunned for a moment. Too quickly, it shook its head, growled low, then drew in a deep breath. Before it could blast them back, Evan hit his chord again.
His wave met the kriffer's, and they folded together in the corridor and buckled the walls. Evan began to worry that they might tear the ship apart if they kept this up, but then the cat was getting ready to roar again, and Evan laid into the chorus.
The left wall blew out completely, and sparks flew into the corridor. Evan briefly considered how lucky they were that he hadn't breached the hull, and he kept playing. He threw power chord after power chord at the beast, giving it no time now to take a breath. He realized he was singing the chorus, and he made himself sing louder, just in case it helped. "All my life I've been over the top, I don't know what I'm doing, all I know is I don't wanna stop!" And he didn't stop until the monster lay completely still, battered to death by the music.
The silence after was deafening.
Evan's ears rang. Srrmhr had stopped singing when the cat finally fell, and she stood still behind Evan with her hands on his hips. Evan surveyed the damage he'd done, using nothing but a musical instrument. One wall of the corridor was completely gone, and whatever lay behind it was severely damaged, spewing sparks and bits of flame out at them.
Peter poked his head out of the opposite wall and said, "Is it over?"
Evan felt he was owed some explanations.