The Demon Conspiracy

by R. L. Gemmill

  ***

  As far as Travis was concerned the sleepover was going great in spite of the fact Kelly also had someone over to spend the night. He was glad it was Melissa because she seemed to fit in like she was part of the family. She was funny and crazy and just as sneaky as the boys when it came to spying. Plus with her around it gave Kelly someone else to hang out with. Before dinner Melissa convinced everyone to go down to the basement to tell ghost stories and she was really good at telling them. She told stories about demon dogs, zombies, vampires and murderous skeletons. After what happened in Pandora’s Cave, Travis wasn’t interested in hearing any scary stories. He was glad when Angie finally called them upstairs to eat.

  When they sat down at the dining-room table it became obvious how much trouble Angie had had with the grill. She’d never used a charcoal grill before and she’d ruined quite a few hamburgers and hotdogs before she got the hang of it. But in the end dinner turned out to be pretty good. Luckily, Mathew preferred badly charred hotdogs and Melissa ate mostly potato salad because she was thinking about becoming a vegetarian.

  After supper the boys went to Dr. Parrish’s house to see if they could help build something. Right after they got there Granny showed up because she got off early from her job at Mike’s Pub. Dr. Parrish was so engrossed with laying ceramic tile in the downstairs bathroom he’d forgotten all about the boys. But it was obvious he was glad to see them when they came in. Travis noticed he was especially glad to see Granny, too.

  “Since you’ve got heat now, you’re done with the hot air blower, right?” said Granny, getting right to work. “Do you want me to move it out to the garage?”

  “Better leave it in the corner with the kerosene,” said Parrish. When I finish up the ceramic in the bathroom, I’m going to tape the kitchen ceiling. It’s kind of cold tonight, and I want the drywall compound to dry.”

  “Don’t you think your brand-new furnace will keep the place warm enough?”

  “I’m a big believer in Murphy’s Law and I like to have a backup plan.”

  “What’s Murphy’s Law?” asked Travis.

  “I know what that is,” said Mathew. “If something can go wrong, it will go wrong. That’s close anyway.”

  “Very good, Mathew,” said Parrish. “And that’s why I’m keeping the heater and the kerosene around, just in case.”

  “So whutta you want us to do?” asked Travis.

  Parrish gazed down at them and thought about it. “I’ve got just the thing. Come with me.” He led them to the dining room where some tools and supplies were stored. He sorted through the pile and pulled out a pair of cordless drills and a large box of screws.

  “How’d you guys like to do some real work?” he said, handing each boy a drill.

  “We get to use drills?” said Mathew hopefully.

  “As long as you’re careful,” said Parrish. He led them into the kitchen where the floor was covered with thick sheets of plywood, but the boards moved a little under their feet. “I’ve already cut the plywood and laid it down, but it’s not attached. I need you to screw down all these sheets of plywood tonight so I can put ceramic on it tomorrow.” He showed them how to work the drills and how to put in screws, then watched them do it. Travis was always interested in tearing things apart, but he was extra thrilled to be building something. He exchanged an excited glance with Mathew as they went to work. Parrish was clearly amazed at how quickly both Mathew and Travis grasped the concept and the coordination that went with drilling screws into wood.

  “I think you boys have it down nicely,” he said after several screws had been put in to his liking. “Let me know if you have any questions. I’ll be in the bathroom working.”

  “How many screws do we put in?” asked Travis.

  “Do you see all those dots on the floor?” said Parrish. The boys scanned the huge kitchen floor. There were hundreds of marks. “Well, I pre-measured and marked where I wanted the screws put in. I need one screw in every dot. If you finish that job, and do it correctly, I’ll find more work for you.”

  “That’s what I’m talkin’ about!” said Travis.

  “Yeah!” Mathew agreed. Both boys nodded eagerly and set off with their drills.

  Travis noticed that Parrish watched them discreetly for a while, then quietly went back to his tile job. Travis spoke to Mathew as they worked. “I’m sorry I don’t have a tree fort to camp out in,” he said. “That would have been cooler.”

  “Are you kidding?” said Mathew. “This is way more fun than the tree fort. I’ve never worked a drill before. Besides, it’s kind of cold tonight, my treefort does better in the summer.”

  Travis worked like it was the dream job of a lifetime. When they had finished over half of the room, Mathew stood up and took out his cell phone. “Hey, Travis, can you take a video of me working? I want to show my parents what we’re doing.”

  “Sure.” Travis took the phone and aimed the lens at Mathew. Mathew drilled a couple of screws into the floor and looked up.

  “Hey, mom and dad! We’re helping Dr. Parrish fix his house! See?” He drilled another screw in, then took the phone from Travis and got some video of him doing the same thing.

  Travis was a little embarrassed to be recorded as he worked. He looked up shyly and waved. “It’s easy!”

  “That’s good,” said Mathew approvingly. “Hey, let’s finish this and go to the tower. Maybe we can take some video shots from up there.”

  “Yeah!” said Travis, as they both went back to work.

  28

  OUIJA BOARDS AND S’MORES

  KELLY

  Nothing could ever ruin the perfect night I was having with Melissa. So far we’d had dinner and watched two scary movies. Now it was nearly midnight and we were setting up the Ouija board in the basement where Angie had agreed to let us sleep. There wasn’t much stuff in the basement anymore, just a few boxes, tables and the other equipment Chris had used to invent Majik Juice. We dragged the desk across the room to a spot under one of the windows, hoping to add a little privacy to our sleeping area.

  When Angie came downstairs to see if we needed anything, I noticed her eyes were a little puffy and red, like she’d been crying. I scanned Angie’s thoughts and found out why. Chris, of course.

  “A Ouija board?” said Angie. “Those things scare me.”

  “That’s the idea,” I said. “We want to be scared. At least a little.”

  “Yes, well, when I was your age my grandfather told me a tale about some kids that played with a Ouija board and one of them became possessed by a demon. He started acting weird and did strange things.”

  “What kinda strange things?” asked Melissa.

  Angie thought for a moment. “He must have been killing small animals because they found a grocery bag full of animal bones in his bedroom. And he covered the walls in his room with tiny handwriting about how darkness and demons would some day prevail and the world would end. It took three Catholic priests to exorcise the demon out of him.”

  We gawked at Angie. “Is that, you know, true?” I asked.

  “Not sure,” said Angie. “But it kept me from playing with the Ouija board. Of course, you’re not afraid, so maybe we need to fix the mood in here. You should have candles burning instead of an overhead light. I’ll see if I can find some.” She left the basement and came back a few minutes later with four tall, thick red candles and some matches. She set three of the candles around us and put the fourth close to the Ouija board, then turned off the light.

  An intense eeriness filled the room as the candle flames danced. Shadows moved all around us. I held my breath. All of a sudden the basement was kind of spooky. If I were going to talk to some dead guy with a Ouija I’d rather do it in a brightly lit room.

  “Candles are certainly easier to light than that stupid grill,” said Angie, laughing. “Isn’t this better?”

  I gulped.

  Melissa smiled. “Perfect.”

  “Before you start communing with the d
ead,” said Angie, “have you ever had s’mores?”

  I shook my head. “What’s a s’more?”

  “Oooh, I love s’mores,” said Melissa. “You cook marshmallows over a fire and sandwich them between two Graham crackers and a piece of Hersey chocolate. They’re so awesome.”

  I thought they might be really good. “Do we have any Graham crackers?”

  “I’ll check,” said Angie, as she went upstairs again. When she returned she shook her head. “We’re out. The boys were going to roast marshmallows in the fireplace next door, and we’re out of those, too.”

  “That’s okay,” I said, trying not to sound disappointed. “We can eat something else.”

  “No,” said Angie. “I’m going to the store. You girls stay here. I’ll be back in half an hour, okay? If you scare yourselves too badly go next door where Dr. Parrish and the boys are. Matilda might be there later. Is there anything else we need?”

  “I forgot my toothbrush,” said Melissa. “I can give you money if you need some.”

  Angie smiled broadly. “Sweetheart, money is the one thing we’ve got plenty of these days. Our bank account grows every time I look at it.”

  “Are there any stores open this late?” I asked.

  “Oh sure, I’ll be right back.” Angie left the basement and went upstairs. Melissa held the candle under her face and tried to make her eyes look wide and ghoulish.

  “It’s time for the Ouija board,” she said in her most sinister voice.

  I thought about it and got both excited and nervous. “Are you sure? I mean, after what Angie just told us?”

  Melissa reached into her purse and took out a folded sheet of paper. “I’ve got instructions right here. Got ‘em off Ouija board.com.”

  “There’s a website called ouijaboard.com?”

  “Kelly, don’t you know there’s a website for everything?”

  29

  MONSTERS IN THE NIGHT

  LIPSLUDGE

  Lipsludge was small for a demon, barely taller than the average eight-year-old human child. But he had something going for him that kept him from being pushed around by most of the much larger demons. He was fiercely aggressive and possessed superior leadership skills. The Boss had complimented him on numerous occasions, which made him the envy of his fellow demons no matter what color they were or how many eyes or arms they had.

  At supper, while feasting on a hot bowl of delicious human and cave fungus soup, the Boss announced he needed a demon death squad to go on a mission of the utmost importance. As soon as Lipsludge heard about the mission he volunteered to go because it offered a chance for him to see the outer world at night, something he’d wanted to do since he’d been budded. But there was one thing that truly bothered Lipsludge about the mission: the entire idea had been suggested by the traitor-human Mr. Deel.

  Lipsludge didn’t trust Mr. Deel and he couldn’t fathom why the Boss seemed to fancy him. Mr. Deel popped in and out of the deep caves whenever he pleased, and if he wanted some task accomplished that required a demon, the Boss ordered it done on the spot with little or no discussion. It almost made Mr. Deel seem like the boss! Of course, Mr. Deel had promised all demons that they’d rule the surface of the world soon, but how could anyone trust the word of a human—especially a traitor-human who wanted to destroy his own kind? Somebody needed to keep a close eye on Mr. Deel. But Lipsludge knew he’d have to do it on his own and he’d better be sneaky. If the Boss found out…well, demon soup was also a popular dish in the caves.

  The spindly little demon emerged from the drainage pipe in the cul-de-sac at the end of Oak Avenue. He paused in the pitch-blackness of the tunnel, knowing he was entirely invisible to any humans that might be outside in the night air. He turned to his five companions.

  “Da way’s clear,” he hissed in his softest demon whisper. Numerous sets of glowing eyes blinked open before him. Some were bright red, some deep yellow, and one set of three in a triangle shape was translucent pink. The other demons listened intently. “We’re a demon death squad and ya knows da plan so don’t screws up. Finds a good shadow and stays outta sight till I gives da signal.”

  “What’s the signal?” asked the demon with pink eyes.

  “Dammit, Klawfinger!” barked Lipsludge. “We wents over dis before we lefts da caves!”

  One of the other demons nudged Klawfinger and whispered to him. “The signal is when Lipsludge says ‘Get ‘em boys!’”

  “Get ‘em boys?” Klawfinger scratched his head with a giant lobster claw-like hand. “Okay, got it.”

  “When we gets in da house, finds da right place and stays outta sight. Klawfinger, you hides by da big oak tree out front. Dere’s plenty of shadow dere, even for you. No matter what, you keeps ‘em in da house so we can deals wit’ em’.”

  “Oak tree, got it. Hey, Lipsludge, if there’s an oak tree do you think that’s why they call it Oak Avenue?”

  Lipsludge shook his head. “Yer as hopeless as a human.”

  About then the porch light came on at the front of the house. A moment later an adult woman emerged and walked to one of the cars. The demons shrank back into the shadows until the car had driven off.

  “Das better,” said Lipsludge. “Won’ts be as many of ‘em now. Remembers, all of you. We’res Demon Nation! Let’s go!”

  Each of the demons whispered the word under their breath. “Demon Nation.”

  As the demons moved silently and quickly from shadow to shadow in the moonlit night, Lipsludge kept an eye on both his crew and the houses. The massive demon, Klawfinger, disappeared behind the great oak tree like he was supposed to and Lipsludge gave him the thumb’s up. As Lipsludge went to the front porch of the McCormicks’ house to test the door, a man-sized demon with four arms moved up behind him.

  “Lipsludge,” said the four-armed demon. “The house next door’s supposed to be empty. They got lights in there.”

  “Don’t worries about da house next door,” said Lipsludge. “We does our job right, they won’ts even knows we wasez here. It’lls be a piece o’ cake.” He turned the knob easily and the door swung open. He looked back at Four-arms and grinned horribly. “Now ain’ts they courteous to leaves da door unlocked? Like I says, a piece o’ cake!”

  30

  BREAKING AND ENTERING

  MANSON

  Manson Stanfield ran along the roadway carefully watching every step. Her frog-demon mask was loose fitting with a tendency to block her vision and she didn’t want to turn her ankle in the loose gravel. She followed Donnivee and Kurt Lazarus, who also wore horrible demon masks and grotesque rubbery hands. Kurt stopped running and ducked into a dense thicket at the edge of the cul-de-sac.

  “There it is,” he said, pointing at the McCormicks’ house. They took off their masks. Kurt’s was a horrible-looking oversized head with nearly a dozen fake eyes mounted in a bloody skull. He wiped sweat on his shirtsleeve. “That stupid mask is hot. I can’t see for crap.”

  “We have to wear ‘em or they’ll know who we are,” said Donnivee. Her mask was a cross between a vampire and some kind of grisly wolf-like creature. “I can’t get caught. My dad would kill me.”

  “We won’t get caught,” said Kurt flatly. “I never get caught.” He bent down and kissed Donnivee on the mouth. Right away she threw an arm around his neck and they started making out in front of Manson.

  “This is real cool, guys,” said Manson, a little peeved and plenty nervous. “Can’t you wait till we’re done?”

  Kurt broke the kiss and laughed at Manson. “You’re just mad cuz Robbie didn’t show up.”

  “Wrong,” said Manson worriedly. “I don’t want to get caught cuz you two’d rather mess around than get to work. Look at that house next door, it’s all lit up. You said it was empty.”

  “It was empty last weekend,” said Donnivee. “Now it’s not. So what?”

  “So what? They could see us!”

  “Not if you stay outta the light,” said Kurt. “When you’re in a hou
se with the lights on at night, you can’t see squat outside the windows. Come on.”

  Manson pulled on her mask and followed as the brilliant half moon cast shadows over the street and yard. A slow moving, curdling fog moved through the trees and was just beginning to settle above the ground. They knelt beside the Mustang, which was parked by the curb, and kept their heads down. Manson suddenly remembered something.

  “Where’s the minivan?” she asked. “They have two cars. I’ve seen the minivan.”

  “Who cares?” said Kurt. “It’s not here. That means nobody’s here but those girls.”

  “How do you know they’re still here?” asked Manson.

  Kurt pointed to one of the basement windows. Manson strained to see what was there, but all she could make out were several candles inside. A moment later a shadow moved by the window and she got a brief look at Kelly as she glided in and out of view.

  “It’s her!” said Donnivee. Manson could tell her friend was so angry that she could hardly keep from diving through the window after Kelly.

  “Come on,” said Kurt. “Back door.” He led them around the garage while Manson nervously watched the house next door. She saw people in there working and moving about, but apparently Kurt was right. From inside the brightly lit house, they couldn’t see anything outdoors, even if it moved.

  At last they made it to the shadows behind the house and Kurt studied the situation.

  “Stay here.” He leaped up on the deck and silently crossed the rough wooden planks until he came to the sliding glass door. He tried the door. Manson could just see him in the filtered moonlight as he pulled hard and the door slid open. “Can you believe these fools? They don’t even lock up! Let’s go!”

  Manson followed Donnivee to the door, but her heart was pounding. There was no way she wanted to go into that house, though she was afraid Donnivee and Kurt might hurt her if she didn’t. She looked around, her hands shaking as she stopped at the doorway.

  “Wait,” she said, trying to hide the obvious fear in her voice. “What if the foster mom comes back? If she pulls into the driveway we won’t see her. We’ll get trapped in here, or worse.”

  Donnivee gave her a dangerous look and Manson thought she might get punched. But Kurt nodded. “Good thinking, Manson. You stay here and keep guard. If somebody comes, scream. We’ll get outta here fast. Anybody else who hears you will be so startled they’ll probably wet their pants and hide. Come on, Donnivee.”

  “Don’t be long, okay?”

  “We’ll be in and out like the wind,” said Kurt.

  Donnivee looked back at her best friend. “Yeah,” she repeated. “Like the wind.”

  Manson waited reluctantly by the sliding glass door as Kurt and Donnivee moved through the kitchen and disappeared around a corner, Manson heard them talking.

  “Manson was too scared to come in,” said Donnivee angrily.

  “So?” said Kurt. “We don’t want her with us when we’re messing around.”

  Manson was steaming hot inside the mask, but she was cold everywhere else. Maybe she was scared, she didn’t know. But whether it was fear or just the brisk night air, she did not want to be here waiting for that stupid Kurt. They were going to get caught, she could feel it.

  She stepped off the deck and went to the corner of the house by the garage. She heard the whirring of electric drills from the house next door and looked that way. Every now and then somebody would move past a window and cast a shadow across the narrow yard between the houses. This whole thing was too stupid. If it were just she and Donnivee, everything would be fine. But Kurt was an idiot, even if he was nineteen. That settled it. Manson had had enough of breaking and entering.

  She went back to the deck and glanced into the semi-dark house to see if her friends were coming out. All she saw was a glow of light from the hallway. They turned on a light? Kurt was so stupid! Manson Stanfield cursed under her breath and ran around the side of the house, right past the basement windows on ground level. She stumbled over something in the dark and pulled off her mask. Then she ran as fast as she could to the woods across the road and all the way home.

  KELLY

  “Okay, we got the candles lit, it’s night and there’s at least two of us,” said Melissa, scanning the directions she’d gotten off the internet about using a Ouija board. “I’ll be the medium because I know more about ghosts, and stuff, okay? Remember, I’m the only one who can ask the questions. But if you have a specific question you want to ask, just think it to me, and I’ll ask it.”

  I nodded, watching her set up her iPhone on a special stand. She made adjustments, so it was recording everything we did, and said. “What’s with the video? You’re not streaming us live, are you?”

  “Course, not. What if something happened, and we looked like complete idiots?” Melissa laughed. “No, I’m recording this, just in case.”

  “Just in case…what?”

  “We make contact.”

  “Shouldn’t we wait for Angie to get back?”

  “We’ll be fine. There. It’s kind of a long shot, but everything is in the picture. Now, sit close enough to me, so our knees touch. Good. This thing here is called the planchette. We both have to put our fingers on it, to make it work, when we ask questions.”

  “Who are we asking questions to?”

  “Spirits. Ghosts, you know.”

  “We’re gonna ask dead people a bunch of questions?”

  “Yep. But here it says, we need to begin with some simple yes and no questions. I’ll start. Spirits, are you with us?”

  I looked at the planchette and held my breath. For a moment nothing happened. Then I felt it start to move. “You’re doing that, right?” As soon as I spoke, the planchette stopped moving.

  Melissa shushed me. “I’m the medium! Don’t talk, or you’ll scare them away. Let’s try again. Spirits, are you with us?”

  This time the planchette moved slowly toward the word yes on the board. I immediately went into Melissa’s thoughts, and listened, to find out if she’d moved the device.

  “They’re here,” said Melissa firmly. “I can feel their presence.” All at once a shadow moved quickly past the window behind me. Melissa freaked. “A ghost!”

  I nearly choked with fear, until I picked up the thoughts of the person outside. “It’s Manson Stanfield! She’s afraid of something. She’s running home!” I scanned some more. “Kurt Lazarus and Donnivee are in the house, right now!”

  Melissa pushed the planchette out of the way, and grabbed her cell phone. “Come on, Kelly. We need some weapons!”

  I searched the basement for something to use as a weapon, and remembered seeing Chris, a few weeks ago, with a metal pipe and a baseball bat, that he’d found under the stairs. We looked there, and found both items. Melissa took the pipe, which was nearly as long as the bat, and met me at the base of the steps. She held the pipe in one hand, and the cell phone in the other.

  “You’re recording?”

  “We might need the evidence.”

  “How are you going to record, and swing the pipe, at the same time.”

  Melissa thought, as her eyes got a little crazy. “I’ll figure it out as I go. Let’s do this!”

  “Wait!” I said. “Are we gonna hit them with these? We could kill them!”

  “Hit ‘em in the knees. They won’t run away. Then I’ll record them, lying on your floor, confessing about why they broke into your house.”

  I nodded, and slowly followed Melissa up the basement stairs. As we passed silently through the kitchen, we heard the ceiling creak above us. I looked up.

  “They’re in my room!” I whispered. “They’re looking for something of mine to steal!”

  “Of course,” said Melissa, her voice almost too soft for me to hear. “Why else would Donnivee come here?” We hurried to the stairway by the front door.

  “Maybe we should call the police,” I whispered, reaching into my pants pocket for my cell phone. “Wait, my cell phone’s on t
he charger in my room.”

  “We can call later. I’ve got an idea. You go in the den on that side of the stairs, and I’ll hide in the living room. When they come down, we’ll clobber them from both sides!”

  I was uncertain and tense, but I liked the plan. Donnivee and Kurt would never see us coming. How dare them enter my house and try to steal something! It made me hot with anger to think that they‘d broken in, just to hurt me, and my family, in some way. If we got them on video, that would be all the evidence we’d need for the police. Maybe we could keep them trapped upstairs, until Angie got home. Then they’d be in big trouble.

  But, as mad as I was, I wondered, could I really hurt one of them? What if they were crippled for life? Part of me said, Good! Clobber ‘em! But my stupid compassionate side made me fearful that I might not swing the bat all that hard, when it came down to it. I became angry at my own softness. They had come into my house for one purpose: to steal from me. They might even try to beat me up, too! I worked up my anger again and swung the bat at the air. I had a pretty good swing. The bat felt right in my hands.

  I heard something from the top of the stairs. They were coming. I gripped the bat tightly, and moved into position by the doorway. Across the foyer, Melissa stood ready with her cell phone aimed, and recording. The pipe was leaning against the wall next to her. We exchanged a brief nod, and waited.

  Suddenly, everything went black. I blinked, straining to see. Except for whiskers of moonlight passing through the blinds on the front windows, the house was as dark as a cave. It must have been part of Kurt’s escape plan. But how had he done it? He and Donnivee were upstairs, and the breaker box was in the garage. Who turned off the power? Was it Manson? Did she come back? Did she even know how to do something like that? I mentally searched the garage. Nothing. Nobody was there.

  I heard a metallic sound behind me in the den. It was like the blade of a knife being scraped across some jagged edge. I spun around. Somebody—or something—was there: the noise had been deliberate. Whoever it was wanted to be noticed. I made another scan in search of nearby thoughts. Nothing. But the feeling of being watched was strong.

  I turned back to Melissa. I could just make out her silhouette in the dark, holding the cell phone. I whispered. “What’s going on?”

  “Did Kurt turn off the power?”

  “There’s no way he could’ve.”

  “Then how did it—” Melissa stopped cold. She brought the iPhone up, directing the shot straight at me. “Uh, Kelly. Behind you.”

  I turned. A pair of rheumy, green eyes stared back at me from across the room. The eyes seemed to have no pupils, and they put out a strange glow, like dim flashlights in need of new batteries. I froze. Every muscle in my body turned to mush. My heart pounded like a jackhammer. Those eyes looked familiar. As if to confirm my thoughts, the thing with the eyes spoke in a whispering, raspy voice.

  “Pretty girl…”

  31

  A PLACE TO HIDE

  KURT

  Kurt Lazarus was having the time of his life. For Kurt, nothing was cooler than breaking into someone’s house and having his way with pretty much everything in there. And this time he had a girl with him. If things went according to plan he’d tear up the place, steal something valuable and maybe talk Donnivee out of her clothes. He already got the feeling she’d do anything to please him, and he had a pretty good idea what that meant. This bedroom was as good a place as any for it to happen.

  He set his mask on the bed and took hers off. Then he pulled Donnivee close and kissed her hard on the mouth. She pressed against him, which got him aroused almost more than he could stand. Kurt didn’t care if she was only thirteen. Age didn’t matter as long as he got what he wanted. But she saw something behind him and pushed him away.

  “Look at that picture,” she said, crossing the room to the desk. “I’ll bet that’s her real family, you know? Her dead parents. I’ll bet it’s the only photo she’s got, too.”

  “So?” Kurt was peeved. He wanted some sex action and he’d better get it soon. He should have known not to hang out with a stupid eighth grader. She had the attention span of a slug and didn’t really know what she was doing when it came to love. He preferred girls who had experience. Of course, he didn’t mind breaking ‘em in, either.

  “So it’s the only picture she’s got with her parents in it. I’m gonna burn it and mail the ashes to her later.”

  Her cruel ingenuity surprised him. Kurt nodded his approval. “I like the way you think.”

  She took the photograph from the wall and pulled the backing off the frame. She tossed the frame on the bed but kept the photo as she scanned the room. Kurt knew she was looking for something else to destroy or steal. He wrapped his arms around her from the back and pulled her close.

  “How ‘bout you an’ me doin’ it right here?” he whispered into her ear. “Right now.”

  Donnivee looked back at him and kissed him. “No.” She broke away again and started going through Kelly’s dresser drawers. She took out a pair of panties and held them up. “Oh, man look at these boring panties.”

  Kurt looked. Whenever he saw a girl’s panties he found nothing boring about them. He shrugged, trying to act like they didn’t have an effect on him. “What’s wrong with ‘em?”

  “I wear thongs,” said Donnivee. “This stuff’s for little kids. Come on, I got what I came for.” She tossed the panties aside, put on her mask and left the room.

  When Kurt heard her say thong he had to wipe the drool off his chin. Maybe this chick was more experienced than he’d first thought. He grabbed his mask and went with her. At the top of the stairs he made Donnivee wait while he listened. The house was quiet and seemed empty, but with the lights on they still needed to be careful. It wasn’t like they had the cover of darkness to hide in. He was about to start down the stairs when suddenly he froze.

  Something didn’t feel right. Kurt tilted his head toward what might have been a tiny sound. What was it? He held his breath and listened.

  Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

  Kurt let out a huge sigh of relief. A damn clock ticking in some other room! He almost broke out laughing. He glanced at Donnivee and saw her wide-eyed fear. He smiled and shook his head.

  “It’s nothin’,” he said, starting down the stairs.

  Suddenly the lights went out. The entire house was pitch black. Donnivee gripped Kurt’s arm just above the elbow. Her grip was so strong it shut off the blood to his hand. He yanked his arm free but she grabbed him again. He waited and listened. He still heard nothing but the clock ticking, which appeared to be downstairs some place. So who turned off the lights?

  Somebody in the house must have seen them. Now they were playing a game. Dammit, if he got caught again he’d do time in jail, and it wouldn’t be juvie this time. But if he escaped and Donnivee got caught she’d turn him in to save her own butt. Even if she didn’t want to turn him in, the cops would talk her into it. Cops could make you say all kinds of stuff whether you wanted to or not.

  Kurt returned to the hallway and looked for a place to hide. He opened the first door on the right, somebody’s bedroom. In the moonlight he could just make out a jacket hanging over a chair. There were words on the jacket, like a logo, or something. He inched into the room with Donnivee still holding onto his arm. He took a tiny penlight from his pocket and clicked it on. Normally he didn’t like using flashlights in dark houses. They were like beacons if somebody was outside looking in. But he needed to know whose room this was before he tried to hide in it. He aimed the beam at the jacket.

  “Satan’s Sidekicks.” He read it in a whisper. “That’s a motorcycle gang. Hell, this is the old lady’s room. We don’t wanna be in here.” Donnivee shook her head in agreement and followed him back into the hall.

  The next door was narrower than the others, more like a closet than a bedroom. Kurt opened it slowly in case it squeaked. But the door was utterly silent. These dopes must oil their hinges, thought Kurt. Good f
or me. He shined the light inside the closet.

  The closet was tiny with four shelves, starting about hip-high and rising nearly to the ceiling. The shelves held stacks of clean linen along with bath towels and washrags. Kurt nearly dismissed any possibility of hiding in there until he noticed the mound of dirty clothes on the floor. It was a laundry closet. He estimated the amount of space in there and looked at Donnivee. It would be a tight squeeze for sure. But nobody who was searching for intruders would make more than a glance into a space that small.

  “Get in,” he said, pulling off her mask again and giving her a nudge. He pointed the beam of light at the floor of the closet.

  Donnivee looked confused. “In there? No! I’m not leaving you!”

  “I’m not leaving you either. Get under the clothes on the floor. I’ll be right behind you.”

  “Can we fit?” As she spoke she crawled into the closet and sat in the laundry pile. After some scrunching and adjusting she managed to move the clothes around her until she had a small space to hide. She looked up at Kurt. Kurt tossed some of the clothes over her head and made certain she was completely hidden. He reluctantly squeezed his much taller frame into the tiny area beside her. It took some doing, and he had to sit with his knees in his chin as he ducked under the lowest shelf, but he finally made himself fit. He covered himself with clothes and sat pressed against her shoulder.

  “Don’t move and don’t make a sound,” said Kurt in a whisper. He smiled at Donnivee to keep her calm until he realized she couldn’t see him in the dark under the clothes. “Nobody’ll find us in this little closet. Nobody’ll even look in here. Nobody.”

  32

  DEMONS EVERYWHERE

  KELLY

  I nearly fainted dead away. I’d heard those words before. The voice was familiar enough to be somebody from my own family. But this wasn’t family. Not even close.

  I screamed, or thought I did. But nothing came out. My mouth hadn’t even opened. I tried to run for the front door, only a few feet away. But my legs didn’t move. My entire body was leaden, and stiff, as if I was paralyzed. It was like one of those nightmares, I used to have as a young child. The monsters chased me and I couldn’t run. Only, this was no dream. This was real. The monsters were coming, and I was frozen like a corpse.

  Something grabbed my arm. I jumped. I didn’t want to see what it was, but I looked anyway. A hand gripped me firmly. It looked human.

  “Can we get out of here?” Without waiting for an answer, Melissa yanked me out of the den. At the same time, she lost her grip on the cell phone. I heard it bounce toward the kitchen. We looked at each other.

  “We’ll get it, later,” she said. She opened the front door. Before we went outside, we glanced over our shoulders. The sickly glowing eyes moved toward us, slowly, confidently. The horrible voice spoke again.

  “Pretty girl!”

  Somehow I found my legs. I also found some courage, though this didn’t seem like the time to stand and fight. I willingly followed Melissa out the door to the front porch. Just being in the moonlight made it feel somewhat safer. But the feeling was short-lived. As soon as we hit the porch, a massive shadow passed over us, and blocked the light. From behind the great oak tree, something huge and hideous stepped out of the gloom. We stopped cold.

  “What the…?” This time it was Melissa, who froze in terror. She gawked at the creature, clearly unable to comprehend what was happening.

  I saw two massive legs beside the tree. My gaze followed the line of the creature’s body ever upward, from the ground to the treetop. Whatever blocked our way was big—real big—close to seven meters tall! It stood over us menacingly, with huge lobster claws snapping. I thought I saw a reddish tint to it in the moonlight. But how could anything that large have been so impossibly hidden behind the tree? Where had it come from? What was it?

  Suddenly, the evil words came back to me, as clearly as if I’d heard them only minutes ago.

  We know where you live, Kelly and Travis. We’ll grab you in the dark, when the night comes. The dark belongs to usss!

  “Pandora’s Cave,” I said with a shudder. “Demons! Go back inside!”

  “What about the one in there!” Melissa was freaking out.

  “It’s smaller. Go!”

  Melissa obeyed. She rushed into the house again. I followed closely, one hand on my friend’s shoulder, the other holding the bat. The outside demon let us go, as if it wanted us to return to the house. I made a mental note of that, as we entered the foyer and slammed the door.

  Melissa turned the bolt lock, breathing hard. “If that thing really wants in, the door isn’t gonna stop it!”

  “Nope. I have a feeling we’re right where they want us to be.”

  As soon as I spoke, the smaller demon came at us, teeth bared. Its knife-like claws were long and sharp. I saw it first. I reared back and swung the bat, high to low. On the way down the bat struck the small chandelier. Pieces of glass flew everywhere. Glass bounced off the walls, and scattered across the floor and stairs. But I never stopped the swing. The bat smashed into the head of the small demon, splitting open its skull. I felt a warm, greasy fluid splash over my face, and hands. I couldn’t see it, but I knew it was demon blood. The demon collapsed to the floor, unconscious or dead. Either way it stayed down, and kept quiet.

  “Come on!” I hit the stairs, crunching over broken glass.

  Melissa took a step toward the kitchen, to look for her cell phone. But, apparently, a flash of good sense changed her mind. She took up the pipe, and followed me.

  At the top of the stairs, Melissa turned. She thrust her steel pipe in the direction of anything that might have followed us. The stairs were empty. I ran into my bedroom to look for my cell phone, but it wasn’t there. Where was it? I heard Melissa challenge the demons in the hallway.

  “Come on! I dare you! Come up the stairs!”

  I ran from my room to join Melissa in the hallway. It took a moment for me to realize, I’d left my cell phone in my locker at school. I stood desperately beside my friend, who kept the pipe directed at the stairs.

  “We need to get your phone,” I said.

  “I know.”

  The house wasn’t as dark on the second floor, because the window at the top of the stairs had no blinds. As a precaution, I reached around Melissa, and raised the sash.

  “What’s that for?” asked Melissa.

  “Just in case. Do you see ‘em?”

  “No. Maybe that’s all there were.”

  “Maybe.” But that would be lousy strategy, I thought to Melissa. You can’t just send two demons after us. Are demons really that stupid? I glanced to our right down the hall. Still nothing.

  “I guess we shouldn’t have messed with the Ouija board,” said Melissa reluctantly. “Angie was right. That thing’s dangerous.”

  “This has nothing to do with the Ouija board,” I said. “This is personal.”

  A set of sickly, yellow eyes blinked open a few feet in front of us. Some kind of distorted creature hung invisibly in a coal-black shadow on the stairway ceiling. I gasped when I saw it. The creature had been hanging directly over us, when we came up the stairs.

  “Oh…!” Melissa saw it too. We watched the demon calmly lower itself from the ceiling with two strong arms, as two more arms hung freely from its thick shoulders. The four-armed demon dropped to its feet on the stairs and stood before us, eyes glowing grotesquely. When it grinned, its nasty long teeth showed white as ivory, as if they glowed in the dark, like its eyes.

  I spotted motion in the hall. This time something was there. The demon creeping toward me was also man-sized, but it had a dozen tentacles instead of arms. Its head was triangularly shaped, almost like a crocodile, with long, wicked teeth and catfish-like barbels protruding all around its mouth.

  I nudged Melissa. She turned and saw the other demon.

  What do we do? I asked inside Melissa’s head.

  Get crazy, said Melissa. Everyone’s afraid of crazy peo
ple, even Donnivee.

  What if it doesn’t work?

  If it doesn’t work we’re gonna miss out on the smores.

  The demon with tentacles had a foul, fishy smell that permeated the hallway. It narrowed its cruel, green eyes and pointed at me with one of the longer tentacles. “What’s yer name, human? Be quick about it!”

  “Why?” I asked in a shaky voice. I stood sideways to the demon, holding the bat out of sight behind my legs. I couldn’t believe what was happening. Here I stood in my own home having a conversation with a demon from Pandora’s Cave. There were other demons in the house as well. The evil creatures had come all this way just to find me, and probably Travis, too. Apparently demons didn’t like witnesses to their existence, which meant Melissa was now in danger as well.

  Use someone else’s name! I was surprised to hear Melissa inside my head when I hadn’t even been tuned into her. The idea was a good one.

  “My name is Donnivee Fox.”

  “Donnivee?” The demon shook its ugly head. “Bahh! Whut about you?” It pointed at Melissa. Slime droplets slid off the pointing tentacle and landed on the rug. I screwed up my face at the repugnant smell.

  “Manson Stanfield,” said Melissa, never taking her eyes off Four-arms, who glared at her from the stairs.

  “They ain’t right!” cried Tentacles. “Whud’we do with ‘em, Grund?”

  The four-armed demon, apparently named Grund, was still on the stairs with Melissa’s pipe aimed in its face. Grund smiled with an odd glint in all three of his yellow eyes. “We can’t believe a thing these lying human scum say.”

  “Yeh,” agreed Tentacles. “But whut’da’we do with ‘em?”

  “I say get ’em! We can sort out who’s who when Lipsludge wakes up.”

  “Yeh. Lipsludge’ll know whut ta do.”

  I considered what they were saying. Lipsludge must be the smaller demon I bonked on the head with the bat. So I hadn’t killed him after all, just knocked him out. He must be the leader of this group. I was about to ask what they wanted when suddenly three slimy tentacles darted toward me.

  Apparently the creature didn’t realize I planned to fight back. I swung the bat at its head. Crack! The grotesque green demon staggered back and fell against the wall. It screeched loudly, like a car hitting the brakes on dry pavement. I covered my ears at the piercing, irritating sound.

  At the same time Grund grabbed one end of the pipe that Melissa was holding. The four-armed demon must have expected her to pull back on it, but she surprised him. Instead of pulling it, she jammed it forward into the demon’s startled face. Grund lost his balance and toppled over backwards. He rolled down the stairs and slammed hard into the front door.

  Tentacles was stunned, but he wasn’t as dumb as he was smelly. In what must have been a standard defense reaction, he extended all his tentacles straight up and out, like the fur on a cat when it’s about to fight. It made him look huge and terrifying. I gasped. Then I slammed the bat down onto one of his feet. Tentacles released his irritating scream again and hobbled away from me down the hallway.

  I started after him, but Melissa caught my arm. “What do we do?”

  “Maybe we should hide?”

  “I don’t know. Those things can hide a lot better than us.”

  At that moment headlights flashed across the front of the house, which could only mean one thing. I looked at Melissa.

  “Angie’s home!”