Echo

Abby screamed. Whirling around, she flew at Tomas, beating on his face, with all the vengeance of the Furies. Armoni grabbed her from behind, calling to Kelly to get the needle. Needle? Abby panicked. As she felt a prick on her neck she saw Echo run over to Barney.
    “No Echo honey, run.” She watched Echo wrap her little arms around Barney’s neck and lay her head on his. The room filled with sulfur as Echo’s tail shot up over her head, directed at Barney. Echo then twirled to Kelly who stood with a syringe in her hands, her mouth open with astonishment.
    “Armoni, check this out,” Kelly called, a new strangled note in her voice. In unison, they turned toward Echo as her crystal antlers peeled open from the ends, omitting a dark red stream of liquid gunk that splattered all over Kelly. As Abby sank to the floor fighting unconsciousness, she felt the flutter of a swirling aura in her mind.
    “I am here, Sister. I will take care of the bad humans. Banish your fear.” The last thing she remembered was the malignant sight of the black-red crud covering Kelly dissolving her face; right to the bone, leaving her stripped and consumed skeleton to collapse, face first, on the floor. She distantly heard a raving scream and then she passed out.
    ###
    Scotty and Jose headed home from Peter Gavin’s inauspicious office, the contracts for Abby to review, tucked in a file at Scotty’s side. Peter had already started his research, proving how diligent and enthused he felt toward their new partnership.
    An armored truck was on the way, scheduled to pick up the bulk of the gold and the uncut diamonds tomorrow. Peter already obtained a commitment for thirty pounds of the gold. When he completed the transaction, he would fly to Florida to meet with a realtor to start the search for their new home. As soon as the gold and diamonds were logged in and secured with the armored truck, they would pack and await the arrival of a hired limousine that would take them to Norristown where they would check into a suite at the best hotel Peter could find. Abby would visit the local gold dealers to convert some more of the melted gold and they would continue south to Florida, stopping at the occasional good hotel to rest and give Echo a chance to eat of course.
    Pulling into the driveway, Jose whipped off his sunglasses, unbelieving. The front door flapped in the breeze, wide open. They jumped out of the car, not bothering to shut the doors and raced up the short cement walkway, the smell of sulfur, overpowering. They detected an underlying stench of rot. Good God, no. Please, Abby, be okay. Jose’s heart thundered; his skin clammy with dread.
    Stepping through the front door, Jose and Scotty were assailed with a riotous flashing aura. Echo lay plastered to Abby, golden leathery fingers stroking her blanched face as she lay sprawled on the floor like a wooden puppet discarded by a capricious child, the front of her wrinkled dress torn to shreds. Unbelievably, two human skeletons also lay prostrate on the floor, the bones old and dissected.
    “Welcome Brothers, Sister Abby will not wake up. The vile evil humans are exterminated except for the one that ran away. He hurt Sister. I will find him and I will make him exterminated.”
    Their stunned and unbelieving minds couldn’t process Echo’s whispers. Horribly and undeniably, Abby lay on the floor not moving. Jose ran to her side, gently pushing Echo away. He put his hands to her fragile throat, feeling the warmth, her pulse strong. Relief flooded Jose’s senses. She was alive.
    “Jose, should we call for help? An ambulance?” Scotty held up his cell phone.
    “No, they’ll take too long to get here anyway. We can handle this, as long as she’s alive. We can heal her can’t we, Echo?”
    “No, Brothers, she does not need to be healed. She is just sleeping and won’t wake up. It has been many hours.” Jose scanned the area, grabbing a handy throw pillow from the sofa to place under Abby’s head. He felt a bulge under his foot and bent down to retrieve a disposable syringe, its needle bent from stepping on it. Foreboding jammed its way down his throat to lodge like a leach in the pit of his stomach.
    “Echo, did you see what they used this for?”
    “No, Brother Jose,” The aura spiked frantically. “My Barney was dying. They did evil and hurt him. I needed to save him before he died or it would be too late.” Echo got up and ran to the back of the sofa. “My Barney