The House at the End of the Street

Chapter Two: The Demon

As Mr. Allen carried me and ran down to the nurse's office, teachers and students kept looking at me, like I was an alien. Mr. Allen hit a teacher and she asked what happened.
"I'm guessing he slipped in the darkness and hit his head," Mr. Allen said calmly.
Then, the earth started to spin and blackness.

The door to the nurse's office opened. Gracie and Jhett had come to check up on me. The power was still out, so the teacher had to trust Gracie and Jhett to come and check up on me.
"How are you coming along?" Gracie asked me.
I was silent, not saying a word since the nurse would think that I was crazy.
"He hasn't said a word since the incident," The nurse said.
I sat on the cold bed mattress, not moving and hardly breathing.
"Let me go back to class, please," I said, suddenly.
Jhett helped me up and assisted me out the door. We walked down the school hall for a little longer before the bell rang. We ran back to class, grabbed our stuff, and went home.
Tuesday began and the power had finally come back on. Jhett and Gracie met me in the hallway right before school started. Jhett, Gracie, and I walked to our class before someone stopped us in the hallway.
"Hey, dimwad," A voice said.
It was Rylan, another school bully. Rylan was with two friends, Gabe and Tyler. He was smaller than Ricky but stronger.
"Get the hell away from us, Rylan. We're not in the mood," Jhett said, walking a little faster.
Rylan grabbed Jhett's backpack and pulled him backwards, making him fall. I took action and caught him before he fell.
"What the hell is your problem?" I asked, moving towards Rylan.
"Why don't you tell your friends to shut the hell up?" Rylan replied.
Kids started to circle Rylan and me, hoping we'd fight. I fought with words, not fists.
"Shut the hell up before your face becomes a dead piece of crap," I said, trying to make myself look taller, but I was 5' 2", and Rylan was almost six foot.
"Wow. A lot of nothing, am I right, guys?" Rylan said to Gabe and Logan. Both just shook their heads yes. Gabe and Logan were his 'Accomplices' I guess.
Rylan moved towards me and shoved his body right next to mine. He was trying to make himself look bigger, but he was just plain fat.
"Now, you listen to me, kid. You can shut the hell up or I can smash your damn face until it looks like the cement outside, so stop being a little asshole and move out of my way," Rylan threatened.
I smiled, thinking about all of the retaliations I could say back.
"Big words... from one fat ass man," I retaliated.
Gabe and Logan stared in awe. All the kids in the halls watching froze. No one has tried to say anything about Rylan, to his face or behind his back. Kids were scared of him, but after what I had seen yesterday, nothing was as scary as that.
"Oh damn," Jhett mumbled.
Rylan stood there with his mouth hanging open like he was a doll.
"Oh god, you didn't just say that. You're dead, asshole," Rylan said, lifting his fist. I didn't flinch.
Rylan's fist came flying down and... SMASH! I dodged the blow and Rylan smashed his fist into the CONCRETE wall.
"Damn it! You asshole!" Rylan screamed.
I stood watching Rylan in pain, smiling. The nurse came rushing down to Rylan to take him to an actual hospital. Gabe and Logan followed Rylan as he walked out the door.
"That's what you call, a good ending," I said.
"Oh damn, kid! You just smashed his hand!" A kid passing by said, giving me a high five.
I was given high fives and cheers for taking down the bully of the school.
Jhett, Gracie, and I walked into the classroom. Everyone clapped, even the teacher as Rylan had been a bad student for a while now. That's when my rivalry with Rylan truly began, but barely lasted a few hours.
It was a break and I was over by the soccer field playing tag with Jack, Gracie, Jhett, and Conner. Conner was Gracie's best friend. Jhett was it when I noticed something odd. I stared into the woods and was somehow being pulled towards the woods.
"You're it!" Jhett yelled, but I didn't pay attention.
"Zack?" Gracie asked.
I kept walking and into the woods until I was tackled... by Rylan. Rylan now had a cast on his arm and was pinning me down to the ground.
"This is what happens when you become an asshole like yourself!" Rylan screamed in my face.
"Get the hell off him!" Jack yelled.
"So, you've got your friends into this? What a damn loser you are," Rylan said, pressing against my neck with his cast.
I could feel myself losing my breath as his cast crushed my windpipe. Then, BAM! Rylan fell to the ground next to me. It was Dade, a Russian boy that had been transferred to America but never specified why.
"Leave. Him. The hell. Alone," Dade said slowly.
"What the hell?" Rylan said, sitting up.
Dade had a thick metal pipe in his hand with blood on the end where he had hit Rylan.
"Back away from Zack, or this lead pipe is going right through your torso," Dade threatened.
"Ok, man. I'm sorry," Rylan apologized.
All of a sudden, everyone looked up to the sky. Rylan and I turned around and froze. About 15,000 birds were flying above us.
"What the hell?" Dade said as one of the birds swooped down and turned into the demon.
The demon grabbed me and threw me high into the air. I could feel my body started slipping from reality. Then, I stopped falling. I looked up and saw a light blue sky and seeing my family as clouds.
The clouds start with my parents falling in love with each other and eventually having me. I watched as the clouds started to turn dark as my parents started getting sick of each other. I laid in bed as my mom cried out to my dad. BAM! BAM! BAM! Gunshots ran through the house. Dark storm clouds started coming around me.
"No! No!" I yelled, trying to get it out of my memory.
The clouds showed me at an orphanage being lonely and eventually crying every night. I could feel tears falling from my face and making the clouds blurry.
"You see, Zack," The Demon began using Rylan's voice, "You're a worthless bag of meat. No one cares about you. No one can help you. Nobody loves you. Nobody wants to hang out with you. Nobody wants your presence. Everyone hates your guts,"
"Get the hell out of my head!" I yelled, eventually coming back to reality and falling to the ground. I hit the ground with a thud and Gracie pulled me up to a rock. I wiped off my face with my sleeve and saw that my face was bleeding, really badly.
Rylan was standing close to the demon.
"Rylan!" I yelled, but it was too late and the demon sliced Rylan in half, his guts and organs falling out on the ground. I could feel myself get dizzy and nauseous. I tried to stand, but I couldn't. I fell back onto the ground and smashed my head on a small rock.
"Zack!" Jhett said, lifting me onto a log.
Rylan's eyes rolled into the back of his head and he started shaking violently. The demon grabbed a giant fishing hook from the ground and stuck it through the back of Rylan's head. He lifted Rylan's half body in the air and started sucking the soul out of him. Yes, the demon sucked Rylan's soul from his body.
A green mist was sucked into the demon's mouth. The demon dropped what was left of Rylan's body on the ground, his eyes falling out of his head and his lower half spilling his organs all onto the ground. Then, it all soaked into the ground. The Demon stared its eyes right into mine.
"You're too late so save anyone now, Zack. You're too late," The demon said, disappearing into the ground, the flock of birds gone. It took about thirty seconds until someone said something.
"Holy crap! What the hell just happened!?" Conner yelled.
The words ping-ponged around in my brain as I tried to figure out what it meant. Gracie and Jhett helped me stand to my feet.
"Zack? What have you done?" Conner asked.
"I've awakened a demon," I replied.

Saturday, 11 AM.
There was a knock on the door. I hopped out of my chair and ran to the door. It was Jhett. I had invited Jhett, Jack, Dade, Gracie, and Conner over to my house to converse about what the hell happened at the school.
"How are you holding up, Zack?" Jhett asked.
"I've been better," I replied.
There was another knock at the door and Gracie, Conner, and Jack were at the door. I could see Dade running to catch up to us.
"So, I'll explain on the way," I said, opening the door and walking into the woods.
"What the hell, man. I just ran here through a damn forest!" Dade said, but eventually coming along.
I explained what happened on Halloween, but nobody believed me.
"Yeah, sure," Conner said.
"You explain what happened Tuesday then," I replied.
"Point made,"
We made it to a small open field and sat down on a log that had fallen from the recent storm. It was about 12:45 when we finally sat down.
"Long walk," Jhett said, stating the obvious.
Then, something caught my eye, it was a house, an old, run-down house.
"What the hell?" Dade said, walking towards the house.
It was an 1890 Victorian house, over 100 years old. The house had a rusted door and the hinges were more rusted than the house itself. As we walked inside, the sudden stench of rotting flesh hit us like a bulldozer.
"What's that smell?" Conner said, looking around the house.
I looked around the house too, searching for anything interesting. I walked up the stairs, the stairs creaking under my feet after every step. Then, I opened the door to a closet and there was Carter's mangled body, his limbs ripped off of his body.
"Guys!" I screamed, running down the stairs and falling on my face.
"Zack! What'd you find?" Jhett said, helping me to my feet.
"It was Carter's body!" I started, but couldn't finish.
Everyone was frozen and looked up the stairs. I slowly turned around and saw Carter with his limbs back on, but broken more than they could be fixed.
"Come here, guys. I've got a surprise..." Carter said, starting to roll down the stairs. The front doors slammed shut, locking us inside.
"Run!" I yelled.
We scattered out any exit we could find. Doors were locked, windows were sealed shut. We were stuck and had no way to get out. I grabbed a machete from the ground and turned back towards Carter. He just sat there, a blank state on his face.
"Be a man and fight me," I said, moving closer to him, but then, he sunk into the ground.
I figured out something, it was a distraction. The door flew open and a man wielding a chainsaw stood across the open field we had walked through to get into the house. His face was half-burned, like a piece of toast that had been through something crazy.
"We're screwed," Jhett said, walking out the door.
By this time, we had all gathered weapons, Jhett had a sharpened broomstick, Dade had his lead pipe from when he had knocked Rylan in the head with it, Jack had a slingshot, Conner found a Bow with some Arrows in the house, Gracie had found a sharp tree branch, and I had a machete. It was six weak kids versus a chainsaw-wielding maniac.
"Let's kick some butt," I said, leading everyone.
I blocked the first chainsaw blow with the machete. Luckily, Jack was able to shoot a small rock into the dude's head and distract him so Dade could smash his head with the lead pipe. Gracie wanted some action, so she stabbed his right in the gut with the branch.
"It worked!" Gracie said, but it was too early and the chainsaw dude smashed her face with the butt of the saw.
Dade and I hatched a plan, hoping it would work. Dade distracted the chainsaw dude long enough for me to jump on Jack's back and drive the machete right into the guy's skull. The sound of bone being sliced was a little satisfying.
I fell off him and the chainsaw dude fell onto his face, dead.
"Well, that was easy," Dade said.
Conner helped Gracie up and we started walking back out of the woods, but something strange happened. I turned around to see the demon floating out of the chainsaw dude's dead body and float in front of us.
"What the hell?" Jhett said.
"You may have won the battle, but you will NEVER win the war," The demon said, turning into a green mist while chanting those words.
"Zack? What have you done?" Jack asked.
"I've screwed the world,"