Out of the Darkness

144

 I looked with him, expecting to see something. Maybe her trying to practice scaring the others or maybe she just got weak for a moment. I didn't have a clue but it felt weird. "Guess she's not here. So, it's safe to talk about what I found out then? About the house," Sam whispered, still looking around. I shrugged. "I guess. She told us not to talk about it earlier so I'm guessing she would tell us now, if she were still here. It wouldn't be the first time she just disappeared." "Okay, let's get the dressing changed. I'll tell you while I do that," he replied, pushing me back so that I would sit back down. I did and held my arm out to him. I was already bracing myself for the pain that I knew was coming. He loosened the stained bandage, then cut it with the scissors that he had brought up this time. It didn't hurt as bad as it did when he unwrapped it. "Good call, with the scissors," I said, hissing in between my teeth, when he pulled the gauze off of the open wound. "Sorry," he said, keeping his eyes on my arm. "I thought the scissors would be easier." "They are," I replied, taking a deep breath. I had been hoping that it wouldn't hurt as badly this time. That was stupid of me. It hurt just as bad, if not worse. I peered over his working hands, to see the damage. It looked disgusting. A long jagged cut, deep, with the edges of my skin puckering up on the sides. The black goo was still seeping out of it, mixing with my blood. It looked like spoiled hamburger meat stuffed inside my arm. "Ah, shiiiit," I groaned, when he started to clean the sides up with a warm, damn rag. "Sorry, sorry," he said, stopping for a minute so that I could catch my breath. "I've had some painful injuries, Sam, but nothing like this. This has got to be the worst thing I've ever felt in my life," I huffed out, in between gasps of breath. "I know, man. Honestly, it doesn't look any better, but it doesn't look any worse either. You'll be okay," he said, starting in on my arm with the rag again. I gritted my teeth and closed my eyes, trying to ignore the pain. I heard the doubt in his voice. He didn't believe what he had said anymore than I had. There was something seriously wrong with me, and neither of us had a clue how to deal with it. Ash didn't know how to deal with it. I had the feeling that this wound was going to kill me. That terrified me. I started thinking about Anna and where she may have went off to, just to get my mind off of my dire thoughts. The witch, Lilith, had some kind of control over her. I didn't understand how she was doing it, or why, for that matter. Why did she allow her to come see me? Especially, when she knew that I was trying to fight her now. Rage grew inside of me, as I thought of that bitch. If I was going down, I was going to do everything in my power to take  her with me. "OUCH!" I yelled, my eyes snapping open, when I felt Sam's fingers press against my wound. "SORRY!" he yelled back. "It's gotta be done. Just stay still." "I hate you," I muttered, glaring at him. "Yeah, love you too, buddy," he replied, grinning. Asshole. "What did you find out?" I asked, once again trying to take my mind off of what he was doing. "Oh, yeah," he replied, wiping his hands on a separate rag. "So, you already found out that the witch has lived in that house for hundreds of years, under different names and stuff." I nodded, wincing when he placed a large bandage over my wound. "She obviously doesn't live there now, but she is keeping tabs on it. We don't know if she was actually there when we experienced all of that, or if it was just, like, security spells or something that she put into place for trespassers." "What's your point?" I asked, letting out a deep sigh of relief when he started wrapping the ace bandage around the gauze. "Well, I started thinking about where she actually is. Does she live in the here and now, or does she live in that alternate reality. The demon realm, or somewhere else? So, I found out the last name that she used, from that article that you showed me a while back. After a little research, I found someone with that name. She lives in LA, in a penthouse. An extremely expensive one too, from the looks of it." "So, how do you know it's her?" I asked, pulling my arm to my chest and cradling it. He passed me the medicine that I had asked for, along with a bottle of water. I tossed it into my mouth, and chugged a little water, while he took all of the medical stuff to my bathroom. "Well, I found a few pictures of her online. She's involved with some really influential people in the entertainment industry. Not surprising really. I guess that brings a whole new meaning to selling your soul to the devil. Anyway, I compared it to the pictures that you found, and it's definitely her. She's blonde now, different haircut, updated clothes and makeup, but it's her." I stood up, with Sam standing close, just in case I lost my balance or got weak. "What good does that do us?" I asked, walking towards my door, slowly. Sam matched me step for step. "If she's got such a nice place, then it's obviously going to have security guards, cameras, the whole nine. Besides, what are we even supposed to do with that information?" He shook his head, watching my feet. His hands were down, but I could tell how tense he was, waiting for the moment that I might need him to catch me. "I don't know, but it's something. It can only help. I was thinking that we could maybe check out the old house first. See if we missed something. If not, then we could always go back to our old exploring days. Security was never much of an issue, ya know?" I grinned, and gingerly started down the stairs. "Only a few times. One time for sure," I replied, laughing a little. "Ah yes, and how are your prison buddies doing, Colby?" "Shut up," I laughed out. "Maybe you can get some of them to help us take the witch down," he said, grinning.