by Cassandra
The voice of reason in her head also thought about what would happen to her grade if she missed retaking her history test.
“I can literally see you weighing the pros and cons in your head,” Chad teased and interrupted her thoughts. “But time is ticking, and I need to get going. I can’t afford to wait for you to figure it out. I’ll catch up with you later.”
Jessica watched as he set off in the opposite direction. “Wait!” she called and jogged after him.
He glanced at her with a raised eyebrow. “Are you sure about this?”
She nodded. “I don’t like this one bit, but I need to come with you. Those demons could have killed me. Who cares about detention or even a suspension after something like that? I…I need to be more prepared in case…you know, in case it ever happens again.”
“We took care of those girls, though. I doubt they’ll send anything after you ever again.”
“Chad, I’ve known Debbie McCrow since grade school. The girl is completely demented. She might think twice about coming after me now, but who’s to say the shock won’t wear off? Who’s to say she won’t eventually try something even worse?”
“Worse than three demons attacking a young and untrained girl like you?”
Jessica shrugged. “She may think I simply got lucky. Or that you helped me.” She looked sideways at him. “You don’t plan to stay in this town forever, do you? I need to know how to defend myself when you’re gone. I can’t only rely on luck.”
Chad shook his head. “I guess one day, you’ll realize that it wasn’t only luck. It was you, Jessica.”
“Well, if I had some proper training, maybe that would be easier to believe. If I can see you in action, I’ll know what to do next time around—if there is a next time around.”
He nodded. “All right. I get it. Let’s pick up the pace then. Pastor Norman needs us.”
“Why do these things keep coming after him?”
“Because he’s killed so many of them,” he answered simply.
Jessica fell silent as they broke out into a jog. Another chill went down her spine.
She had killed three. Did that mean demons would come after her for revenge sooner or later, regardless of whether Debbie and her crew sent them?
If she hadn’t been resolved to take note of Chad’s demon fighting skills before, she most certainly did now.
She had been expecting them to go to Pastor Norman’s church, but they wound up in a field some distance away. It was an area widely used for picnics and barbecues around the holidays, as well as occasional church-related social gatherings. It was vacant now, fortunately.
Jessica glanced around. A part of her actually expected demons to practically dance right out in the open.
“Where are they?” she asked.
“Shh.” He held a finger to his lips and gestured for her to follow him.
With her eyes open wide, Jessica followed so closely that she almost walked on his heels. Her senses seemed hyperalert, and the hairs on her arms stood on end.
She wondered if the demons were close by.
They headed to the small cabin on the far side of the field, where the restrooms and vending machines were located.
As they reached the door, someone pushed it open. “Chad Hollingsworth. How’s it going?” The voice inside sounded too cheerful for the situation.
“Andy,” Chad greeted the man and shook his hand. “I’m good. You?”
“Can’t complain,” the guy called Andy said. “Well, actually, I could complain, but I won’t. I’m actually honored Pastor Norman called me. I guess it’s my turn to prove myself.”
Chad nodded. “Yeah. Besides, Roger’s busy right now. You’re next in line.”
“Roger is usually the one with you?”
“Yeah, but he’s tied up with another lead at the moment.”
Jessica stood and listened silently to their exchange. She had deduced that Andy and Chad knew one another and could only presume that Andy was a demon-hunter too. He was young, probably around Roger’s age. His curly hair was thick and black, his eyes deep brown, and his dark, smooth complexion stood out against the bright red shirt he wore.
During a pause in their conversation, his eyes settled on Jessica.
“Is she standing in for Roger? She looks young.”
“This is Jessica. She’s Ms. Ethel’s granddaughter,” Chad explained. “Jessica, this is Andy. He’s an intern, like Roger.”
Andy’s eyebrows shot upward, and he looked at Jessica with new respect. He bowed his head and reached for her hand. “Well, how do you do, Jessica? Ethel’s granddaughter, huh? I guess we can expect great things from you. No wonder you brought her along, Chad.”
She shook his hand but couldn’t bring herself to respond.
Chad almost looked proud for a moment. “She hasn’t had any training yet but she’s powerful in her own right. She’s already—”
Jessica cleared her throat and shot him a glance to warn him against recounting the fact that she’d already fought and killed demons and imps.
“Already what?” asked Andy.
“Ready to take notes,” Chad finished. “She’s only here to observe, that’s all. Where’s Pastor Norman?”
“Back here. Come on.”
They followed Andy farther into the building. Before long, they found the pastor near the back door where he rummaged through a duffle bag full of weapons. When he heard their approaching footsteps, he looked up. His gaze found Chad first but abruptly switched to Jessica.
“Jessica? What are you doing here?” he cried and turned away from his bag.
Chad scratched the back of his head. “She was with me, sir. We had to, um… There was a project we were supposed to work on at school. We were on our way there when you called. I didn’t have time to drop her back home.”
Pastor Norman frowned. He clearly hadn’t found the explanation satisfactory and narrowed his eyes at Jessica. “And your grandmother is okay with this?”
“Um… She…she’s…”
“She doesn’t know you’re here.”
No. But she does know that I fought and killed three demons by myself.
“This isn’t right,” Chad protested suddenly and shook his head. He looked at Jessica. “We can’t lie to a pastor, for crying out loud! Lies are deceit, and deception causes nervousness and fear. Demons feed on emotions like that.”
She stared back at him, wide-eyed and caught off guard, and sighed. “Well, since you put it that way…” She turned back to Pastor Norman. “Father, I was attacked by three demons Thursday night.”
He gasped.
“And I fought them,” she added. “I did a little more than fight them, actually. I killed them.”
“By herself,” Chad added.
“I decided to come today because I wanted to witness a demon fight by…by professionals like you guys. I want to be better prepared in case… You know, for next time. If they come after me again.”
“Why on earth did demons come after you?” Pastor Norman asked.
Chad frowned. “That little coven at her school seemed to be responsible.”
“But what…” the pastor began before his voice trailed off, interrupted by the eerie sounds that drifted from somewhere outside of the building.
Laughter.
Demon laugher. Jessica would recognize the sound anywhere now.
“We’ll talk more later,” the man snapped. He immediately began rummaging through his bag again.
Chad rushed to him, while Andy crept to a window and peered out.
“You’ll have to share the goods, Pastor,” Chad confided. “I don’t have anything on me. I thought all I had to face today was detention and a history test.”
“Not a problem.” He tossed a gun to the younger man.
“Real or water?” he asked as he caught it.
“Real. Loaded with blessed bullets. I think that might work better on this kind.”
“What kind are we dealing with?”
>
Before the pastor could answer, the lights inside the building flickered. The air became so cold that they all could suddenly see the fog of their breath.
In the next moment, the walls began to shake.
“A very bad kind,” Pastor Norman answered. “We have to get outdoors before they collapse the building. Come on!”
Without wasting another moment, the men rushed for the back door.
Jessica ran after them.
“No!” Pastor Norman cried and paused temporarily to look at her. “You stay inside, Jessica!”
“But the building is about to crumble!” she protested.
“Only because they know we’re inside.” Andy loaded and cocked his gun. “Once we’re out there with them, you’ll be safer in here.”
And with that, they darted out the door.
She glanced around uncertainly. The lights still flickered and the walls continued to shake.
Her gaze drifted to Pastor Norman’s duffle bag of weapons. She hurried to it, felt inside, and pulled out the first weapon her hands touched.
It was lighter than she expected it to be. Although Jessica had never held a gun in her life, she knew there was something off about this one. She shook it up and down and heard something slosh around inside it.
It was a water gun.
She recalled what Chad had said about Pastor Norman killing demons with water guns filled with holy water.
I can handle this, she thought. She gripped the gun tightly and decided to hold onto it. Pastor Norman might think that water guns would be useless against this breed of demon, but simply holding the weapon made her feel better.
After all, she didn’t have her geometry ruler with her.
Jessica wandered cautiously to the window. She could see the fight was already in full swing.
Four demons were present this time. At the sight of them, she felt compelled to join the fight, regardless of what Pastor Norman had said. That way, it would have been an even match. At least in numbers.
The pastor attempted to take on two demons at a time, while Chad and Andy each fought one.
Bullets were fired in volleys by the demon hunters. The creatures emitted horrendously loud shrieks that resembled nails on a chalkboard and Jessica’s skin crawled at the sound.
They looked much like the demons she had been forced to fight, except they were larger. By the way they dwarfed the three men who fought them, Jessica estimated that they must have stood eight feet tall, at least.
One demon swiped Pastor Norman off his feet and her heart jolted at the sight. The creature lunged with a large talon-like hand and barely inches away from the pastor’s leg. He rolled out of the way in the nick of time and narrowly missed being stamped on by the second attacker. From his position on the ground, he bellowed a loud cry and fired upwards. His adversaries dodged the bullets with snake-like reflexes. Finally, he managed to shoot one.
The creature stumbled backward and fell heavily. Its limbs thrashed uselessly for a few seconds before it exploded in a cloud of ash. The other beast howled and charged Pastor Norman in retaliation.
Chad noticed that the pastor was in trouble, turned, and fired a single shot that struck the evil creature in the leg. Demon blood splattered and sizzled as it touched the ground.
In the same moment, a long, agonized scream pierced the air.
Andy.
The pastor, who had finally managed to scramble to his feet, raced toward the other man. The demon hunter had mistimed a strike and now dangled from the monster’s vicious grip.
The creature laughed as it brought Andy closer to its ugly face—or more accurately, closer to its sharp teeth. The man squirmed and screamed and his two-tone red shirt shimmered in the sun. Jessica realized in horror that the shirt had not been two shades of red before. Now, part of it was soaked in his own blood.
Pastor Norman fired his weapon at the demon, but had to aim with extreme care and fire at awkward angles to avoid accidentally shooting Andy.
On the other side of the field, Chad managed to kill his adversary. The demon disintegrated and the man turned in Andy’s direction. He watched in horror as the demon held his victim in a vice-like grip and Pastor Norman shot wildly around them both. Chad broke out into a run.
From behind the window, Jessica saw the demon that had merely been shot in the leg now stalk toward them. She trembled from head to toe. Without doubt, she knew what was about to happen. Or what could happen unless she acted.
Before she could even think it through, she raced on wobbly legs for the door, thrust it open, and bounded outside. The sulfurous smell almost made her gag, but she somehow held it together. Her eyes were trained on the monster that now headed for the others, all of whom were too distracted by the demon that threatened to eat Andy.
It laughed and taunted them and literally used the man as a human shield.
Andy had already lost so much blood, she realized.
All the while, the other demon slunk closer and closer and prepared to strike.
Jessica aimed the water gun and pressed the trigger to direct a strong stream of holy water into the creature’s leg wound.
The demon stumbled to a halt and released a thunderous scream. Its injury bubbled and cracked open to increase in width. Disgusting clunks of scaly demon skin blasted loose from the wound and blood streamed from it like a waterfall.
Momentarily distracted, the monster that held Andy lowered his guard and looked at Jessica. Both Chad and Pastor Norman grasped the opportunity and fired.
A moment later, Andy plummeted to the ground. He lay there, panting and groaning as the demon stood over him. It looked down at the man for a moment, opened its mouth in a silent scream, and toppled. It was ash a moment later.
“Jessica!” Chad screamed and leapt toward her. He raised his weapon and fired as he ran. His third shot was the fatal bullet that sent the injured demon to the ground where it flailed and sizzled before it transformed into a pile of dust.
She lowered her water gun.
Chad gasped for breath. “We told you…to stay…inside…”
“Lecture me later. Is he okay?!” She looked at Andy. Pastor Norman knelt over him and pressed his hand firmly into a wound in the young man’s side.
The other two hurried over.
“This wound is serious. He needs the coven.” Pastor Norman pointed to the other side of the field. “Help me get him to my car.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
“Okay, lift on the count of three,” Pastor Norman ordered. He gripped the wounded man under the arms while Chad grabbed hold of his feet.
Andy had fallen unconscious, but his chest still rose and fell with labored breathing. Jessica couldn’t help her apprehension. She saw his slack expression and the way his skin had grown several shades lighter.
“One… Two… Three!” the pastor shouted. With a grunt, he and Chad lifted Andy and began a hasty run toward the truck.
Jessica raced forward and overtook them so that she could reach the vehicle first. She threw the back door open and stood aside.
“Thanks.” The pastor nodded appreciatively at her. “I guess we needed you here all along.” He gave her a slight smile before he grunted as he and Chad settled Andy’s unconscious body gently into the back seat. “Will you sit with him?” Pastor Norman asked and looked at her.
She nodded and hopped into the back to gently cradle the man’s head in her lap. Her gaze settled on the rise and fall of his chest in a constant check to make sure he was still breathing.
Pastor Norman slid behind the wheel, and Chad hurried into the passenger’s seat. The older man cranked the engine and accelerated and the tires screeched on the road as he pressed hard on the gas pedal.
They drove all the way in silence, with each of them too lost in their own anxiety to speak.
Jessica thought constantly about the two cops who had been killed by demons. That event already felt so long ago. Nevertheless, the thought made her stomach cramp with tension. It
was one thing to hear of someone being killed by demons and another thing entirely to have witnessed it firsthand.
He won’t die. Andy will not die, she told herself firmly in her head. She stared at his slack-faced expression and stroked his hair gently from his forehead. He didn’t look good. She looked at his chest again in panic.
He was still breathing, but there was so much blood on his shirt. The two shades of red stood in stark contrast to one another. The lighter shade was vibrant and clean. The other was blood, wet and so dark it was almost black.
She was about to ask how much longer they had to go when Pastor Norman pulled up in front of a large house. A little curious, she peered out the window. The house was enormous, three stories tall and twice as wide as her parents’ home. It was the only house on the block.
At first glance, Jessica would have assumed rich people lived there due to the sheer size of it. However, there was something foreboding about it. The house reminded Jessica of haunted mansions in gothic horror movies.
“Are you sure we shouldn’t take him to a hospital?” she asked in a small voice.
The pastor shook his head but met her gaze in the rearview mirror. “A wound like that cannot be left in the hands of mundane doctors.”
Seconds later, he and Chad and pried Andy out of the back seat.
“Go knock on the door for us, Jess,” Chad asked. They carried Andy slowly to the house.
She scrambled out of the truck, her legs slightly wobbly, crossed the yard, and hurried up the creaky stairs and onto the front porch. The door had a knocker on it—something she had never seen in person before. She marveled at it briefly before she banged it against the thick wooden door. The heavy thuds echoed in the large and open space around them.
A little nervous, she glanced at Chad and Pastor Norman. They climbed the stairs carefully with Andy. She jumped when the front door creaked open and almost expected Vincent Price to answer.
A bright green eyeball stared at her. “Who are you?” a voice asked.
Jessica caught her breath and stammered, “We-we need help—”
“Open the door!” Pastor Norman called from behind her. “It’s Pastor Norman and Chad Hollingsworth! Andy Lagone has been injured in a demon attack.”
