The House at the End of the Street

Chapter Three: The Dream Team

People don't understand what many things are. Some of which are the most important things in life. Kids don't understand most of the things that adults, or now us teenagers, understand. Life is just like that, a misunderstanding. But sometimes, misunderstanding could lead to world chaos.
A story from before humanity presents this idea fully. This story began when the demons from hell surfaced onto Earth. They began living like normal people lived today. Then, humans started evolving and the demons and humans lived together in peace. Demons first invented fire, the wheel, and many other inventions, but the humans took advantage of this and rewrote history, marking them as the inventors and lying, saying it was a misunderstanding.
This angered the demons so much that they tried to destroy the world. But, it was too late and the humans fought them off, eventually returning the demons to hell. As I had said before, a misunderstanding can lead to many things that could cause world chaos. Except, it wasn't a misunderstanding and led to the almost destruction of the world. For centuries, the demons have tried to destroy the world, but never come close,"
Kids started laughing, noting how fake the story was.
"Nice story," I said walking in.
It was Monday, we were out for Thanksgiving break, and we had overheard some girl talking about demons. The interior of the library was like a regular library, with books on shelves and little to no people. There was a huge window that looked out to most of the town.
"Is the story true, or did you make it up?" Dade asked.
"It's a true story. Nobody believes me though," The girl replied.
The library was almost empty, a few books here and there, but overall, empty. It was obvious that the library hadn't been cleaned in some time. The early light of the rays of the sun shone through the cobwebbed windows.
"Sorry, I haven't introduced myself yet. Hi, I'm Mae," The girl added.
"It's fine. I'm Zack. Here is Jhett, Conner, Jack, Dade, and Gracie," I replied.
I sat down in a chair, immediately breaking as I sat down.
"Ow," I said, standing back up.
Dade turned around and saw a book, one that said 'Demons for Dummies'.
"Guys. Look!" Dade exclaimed, running over to the book and pulling it off the shelf.
It was about six inches thick and had a dusty front page, one that said only a couple of words. They still scare me to this day. The words were 'It will kill you, so there's no use in running,'.
"That's a nice opening," Jhett said, flipping the pages to the last.
"2,279 pages?!?!" Gracie exclaimed.
"Holy crap. How are we gonna read all of it?" I asked, pulling the book from Dade's arms.
"Gimme a few weeks to read it and I'll finish it," Conner said, grabbing the book and pulling it from my arms.
"Yeah, right," Jhett said.
Then, I felt a weird, spiritual feeling through my body. I felt my body turn without me doing anything. There was a dark hallway that went down into the basement.
"Zack?" Jack said, grabbing my arm and trying to pull me back.
The spiritually feeling pulled me towards the door to the basement. I tried to stop myself from walking, but I couldn't.
"Where's Zack going?" Gracie asked, slowly following behind.
I could feel myself walking down the stairs to the deep basement, probably twenty to thirty feet underground. Then, I fell onto my face.
"Zack! Are you okay?!" Dade yelled, running with the rest of the group.
I sat up and ran to the wall. Then, a person at the end of the hall appeared, looking me right in the eyes. I could only blink, as I was frozen from fear. I stayed against the wall as the rest of the group came running down with the weapons they had acquired from the house.
The figure had a burned face, half gone. He was wearing a white shirt, stained with red splotches of blood across his shirt. The figure just stood there, frozen. He was about 5' 6", tall for an eighth-grader.
"Zack," The figure said, repeating over and over again.
"What the hell is that?" Conner said, backing up next to me.
I recognized the face and remembered who it was. It was Matt, a kid from my class that played Trumpet. Matt was a cool guy, but he got in trouble sometimes, resulting in detention. I had only known Matt for a year.
"Matt?" I said, trying to see if he was possessed or not.
"Zack. We meet again. It's been a while since we've seen each other, right?" Matt replied, walking towards me. In his left hand was a spear, about four feet long.
Dade and Jhett stood next to each other in front of the rest, trying to protect us from Matt. Matt started flickering like a video game lagging and sprinting towards us. Dade uppercut Matt with the lead pipe. Matt stumbled backwards onto his butt.
"What is your problem?" Matt said, grabbing the pipe from Dade's hand and throwing him across the room into a small bookshelf.
Dade slammed into the bookshelf and fell. Matt walked over to Dade and stuck his spear in Dade's face. Then, Gracie came from nowhere and smashed Matt with Dade's lead pipe.
Matt stumbled backwards but still was conscious. Matt fell into some bookshelves and into the wall.
"You're an asshole, Gracie!" Matt screamed, standing up and throwing the spear at Gracie. Time moved in slow motion as I jumped up and shoved Gracie out of the way, the spear barely missing both of us.
"You're welcome," I said, standing up again.
Jack threw me my machete and I stood my ground. Matt picked up his spear and stood his ground too. I sprinted at Matt and struck him with a blow, but Matt blocked it. Matt grabbed the collar of my shirt and threw me across the room, hitting bookshelves on the way. Matt turned back to the group, Dade now standing up with his lead pipe again. I grabbed a book from the ground and tossed it at Matt's face, hitting him in the face. Matt didn't flinch but turned towards me, grabbing me by my shirt collar and lifting me off the ground.
"You'll think better next time you try and hit me with a book," Matt said, aggressively.
I was choking under the pressure of Matt's hand. Then, Dade came from nowhere and smashed Matt's head with the lead pipe. Matt fell to the ground and I crawled away. Jhett helped me up as Mae came running with a metal bat and smashed Matt's head with it. I was hoping Matt would die of brain trauma. Matt stood up and walked over the wall.
Finally, I ran up and drove my machete into the back of Matt's head. The machete went through the back of Matt's mouth and out the front. Matt fell to the ground and pulled the machete out of his head, blood pouring out of his head. After twenty seconds, Matt stood up, almost fully recovered with the demon healing power.
"I'll be back. Bigger and stronger than you'll ever be. It will kill you, so there's no use in running," Matt finished, walked through the wall.
"No!" Dade screamed, running to catch him, but it was too late. Matt had already absorbed himself into the wall.
"Damn it!" Jack screamed.
"We were so damn close!" Jhett yelled too.
I stood up, checking up on Gracie while the rest were screaming at the wall that Matt had gone through.
"Are you okay, Gracie?" I asked, sitting her up.
"Thanks. I'm happy to be alive," Gracie replied, standing up.
I Just remembered a plan, so I got the rest of the group's attention with a plan.
"We may have lost Matt, but we can still kill the demon. I've got a plan," I said, walking up the stairs.
"Whatever you say, Zack. This better not kill us, cause I still want dinner," Dade said, walking up the stairs with us.
"Oh yeah. Mae, would you like to help us kill the demon? I mean, you know everything there is to know about demons, so," I asked Mae.
"Yeah. I'll help as much as I can," Mae replied. We walked out of the library with Mae and we went back into the woods to try and find the demon to kill it. But first, we had to recruit some new people, since we almost died with the six of us last time.
We walked out the doors and the first thing we saw was a huge crowd of people, everyone calling out a name. They were looking for Matt, the kid who tried to kill us in the basement of the library.
"What's this?" I ask one girl.
"We're looking for a kid named Matt. He went missing a little while ago and I believe it's something more than just a disappearance. I think he got abducted by a demon. But, everyone calls me crazy," The girl replied.
"I don't believe you're crazy," Mae started, "I study demons and paranormal stuff,"
"We're trying to kill a demon that has killed my friends. So, revenge, I guess," I said.
"I want to join. I'm Kaycie," Kaycie said, introducing herself.
"I'm Zack. This is Dade, Jack, Jhett, Conner, Gracie, and Mae," I replied.
We started talking, but we had to kill the demon before it killed us. It was 8 PM, the time had gone by so fast, so we all headed home, but something happened on my way home.
I left my friends and headed my way home. It was a dark, dark road, one with little to no street lamps. Every few seconds, I could hear something rustling through the leaves in the woods next to me. I stopped and turned around to see a pitch-black figure jump into the woods.
As I started walking again, a huge Great Dane started walking in front of me. I was relieved, thinking it was the dog that was following me. It stood in front of me, still as a statue, silent. But, behind the dog was the most frightening thing, a figure, pitch black, was floating above the road. It was the same figure I saw twenty seconds earlier. I was attracted to it, my body trying to come closer. It was the library incident all over again. I could feel myself slipping from reality.
Then, my body stopped.
The Great Dane turned its head towards the figure, freezing at the sight of it. The figure started moving towards me and the dog. I couldn't react. Then, someone fell onto the dog.
"Got you!" The person yelled, grabbing the dog by its collar.
"Who are you? What are you doing here?" I asked, but the person just looked at me.
"I'm Tristan. Nice to meet you," Tristan said, shaking my hand.
"Zack," I started, "Did you see that figure behind your dog?"
"No...?" Tristan replied.
I immediately pulled my machete from its sheath and stood in front of Tristan and the Great Dane. I waited until I heard a rustle in the bushes. I slowly walked towards the bushes... BAM! The demon shoves me across the road onto the cement. Then, he started growing, the size of an apartment building. He was now a super Demon.
"Back for more, eh?" The demon said, grabbing the Great Dane and tossed it across the cement too.
All of a sudden, the rest of the group came running through the forest and into the path of the demon.
"There he is," Jhett said.
"You messed with Salvullaz? Are y'all idiots?" Mae yelled, backing up into the forest.
"Who is Salvullaz?" Dade asked.
"That!" Mae shrieked, ducking.
Salvullaz tried to grab Mae, but she grabbed a stick and stabbed it into the demon's hand. Salvullaz didn't flinch and finally grabbed Mae. Dade pulled out about twenty fireworks he had stolen from a firework seller.
"Mae!" Dade screamed, lighting a firework.
KABOOM! It exploded on Salvullaz and he backed away. The demon dropped Mae onto a bush. Salvullaz gave up early and flew away, shrinking down back to his regular size.
"Thanks, Dade," Mae said, Dade, helping her up.
"What the hell just happened?" Tristan asked, puzzled.
"I opened an entrance into the underworld and let out a demon. To summarize quickly, I have screwed the world," I replied.
"Fun. My parents own a huge mansion with tons of weapons that we could use to kill the demon, so can I help y'all?" Tristan said.
"Circle up!" Jack said, forming into a circle with the rest of us.
We decided to let Tristan come along with us since he was our weapon supplier. It was now Jhett, Dade, Mae, Conner, Kaycie, Gracie, Tristan, Jack, and I, trying to defeat this thing. Then we finally were able to go home. I made it home and slept.

It had been a week without a single sighting of the demon or Matt. We had a small 'Pep Rally' for the remembrance of Matt, even though I already knew what had happened to him, but not a single soul believed me. The rally was over and that's where I met Philip.
"Whatcha gonna do, Philip?" Mike said.
Mike was another bad bully, worse than Rylan or Ricky combined. Mike was almost six-foot, barely compared to me, being 5' 3". He was a school known bully, one that had bullied at least half the school. Mike had Philip's bag above his head, taunting him.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Philip said, reaching for his bag above Mike's head.
I grabbed Gracie's attention since she was the closest one to me that I could talk to.
"Gracie! I need your help!" I whispered.
"What?" She whispered back.
"We need to help Philip. Maybe recruit him," I replied.
"I'm on it,"
Gracie and I walked over to Mike, where he was still taunting Philip with his bag.
"Hey, Mike! Try this on for size," I said, punching him in the jaw.
Mike fell over and stumbled backwards.
"Damn!" Gracie said, backing away.
Mike turned around to look at me. He stared at me for so long, I thought he would mentally punch me back.
"What the hell is your problem, kid? You hit like a girl," Mike replied.
The kids who had witnessed the first punch all gasped since being called a girl in Middle School was a terrible thing. I could care less about it. People had called me a lot worse.
"Your insults need work. And, you bully people like a girl," I replied, walking closer to him.
"Maybe it's because I'm not bullying him, I'm just... uh... playing around with him," Mike retorted.
"I'd believe you if you did say 'uh' in your sentence, you asshole,"
Now, the kids were egging us on to fight, but I was not interested in physical fighting but mentally fighting. Words speak more than actions.
"You're becoming such a pain in the ass, kid," Mike replied, cracking his fists.
"Haven't seen someone crack their knuckles since the first grade," I replied.
"I haven't seen someone like you be such a pain in the ass since the first grade," Mike said back.
"Damn, Mike! Using my joke against me! That's just too hurtful,"
"Maybe if you had a joke, it would be more painful,"
"Even though you just used the joke four seconds ago?"
"Shut the hell up before I hit you in the face,"
"Man, just say you're going to sucker-punch me in the damn face and kill you. It sounds a lot better and would be smarter, but you're pretty stupid, so there's no way you would say that,"
"Shut up!"
"I think I'll just keep on talking,"
"No, you'll shut the hell up before I-"
"Hit you in the face. Heard that one before. Please, make something original so it hurts more,"
"Ummm..."
"That's what I thought. And keep your DAMN MOUTH SHUT. Do you understand?"
"Uh... Ummm.,"
"Bye-bye. I win," I finished, completing the conversation.
Everyone was silent. I grabbed Philip's bag, gave it to him, and walked out the door with Gracie.
"Holy crap, man! That was awesome!" Philip said, giving me a high-five.
"That was pretty cool, standing up to the worst bully in the school!" Gracie said.
The bell rang. I walked with Gracie and Philip to class. That was the day that my courage skyrocketed.

The day ended and I walked outside to my bus. Philip grabbed my bag and pulled me back.
"I never said thanks," Philip said.
"No problem. Quick thing, do you want to help me kick a demon's ass?" I asked. Philip looked at me like I was crazy.
"What do you mean?" He replied.
"A demon-possessed Matt is trying to kill us. We need all the help we can get. Can you help?" I said.
"Yes. I will help," Philip replied.
"Alright, Saturday at noon we're going to fight it. Meet me here," I gave Philip my address. "I'm also inviting a few people, but that's unimportant,"
The buses were about to leave, so Philip went to his and I went to mine.

FRIDAY 11 AM.
I walked into the cafeteria to get lunch. The window which the tree had fallen into was now fixed. Nothing was signaling it had been broken before Thanksgiving break. The kids who needed lunch got it and we started to leave. Then, I noticed something, Matt. He was standing across the room staring at me. I walked over to Gracie.
"Do you see that?" I said to her, not taking my eyes off Matt.
"Oh my god. It's Matt," Gracie whispered.
"Is that Matt?" A kid asked.
It was Seth, a Trumpet player in the band. Seth believed in demons, ghosts, aliens, you name it, he believes in it.
Then, Matt disappeared. A girl named Madison also recalled seeing Matt. Seth and Madison both decided to help us beat the demon. It was now Jhett, Dade, Mae, Conner, Kaycie, Gracie, Tristan, Jack, Philip Seth, and Madison. The story only gets better, keep reading, and you won't be disappointed.