The House at the End of the Street

Chapter Four: An Understanding

Demons are just a figment of our imagination. They don't exist. That's what history taught us, but history is wrong. About seven centuries ago, humans and Demons had forgiven the humans.
The demons trusted the humans again, hoping to create a new world. Demons had promised to be gentle creatures and promise not to hurt or kill anyone human or demon. With that, the demons and humans decided to create three rules to keep both safe. The rules following are in order from most to least important:

Promise to never under any circumstances hurt the other. Be peaceful with each other.
Promise not to trespass on any property you do not own.
Promise to never take glory from the other, give credibility.

The demons gave the human's invention ideas but never got the credit, breaking the third rule. The demons cared less about it though. One day, a demon, Salvullaz, has had enough of the rules and took the opportunity to become a legend and attacked a human camp. It took about twelve lives and the demons became angry at Salvullaz, as he had broken the most important rule, to never hurt the other. Salvullaz became a bloodthirsty demon, wanting power over everyone. Salvullaz was becoming greedy and wanted nothing more than to become the king of everything. He eventually attacked multiple more humans, resulting in more people dead and more demons angry. The humans rioted against the demons to forbid any demon into any human settlement.
The humans agreed on this and all demons were now forbidden from being close to any settlement set up by a human.
As life progressed, Salvullaz became more and more anxious, becoming a murderous demon. Salvullaz was now forbidden to come into the demon's kingdom and sent to hell. Above the entrance of hell, Salvullaz built a house, never to be touched by a demon or humankind. After four centuries, humans built neighborhoods and didn't notice the house. When humans tried to destroy the house, it built itself back up, puzzling the humans.
It was ignored until now when I opened the door releasing Salvullaz into the world.

It was Saturday at noon and the group had just come over. I had asked for everyone to bring bikes so we could get around faster. It was raining, a sign of depression in the air. There were few to no people outside.
"C'mon, Zack. Why are we going to the library?" Gracie asked, hopping off her bike.
"We are still trying to find more information on Salvullaz, as he is the main enemy currently," I replied, pulling a 2-inch thick book out of my bag.
"What is that? Is it about all demons or just Salvullaz?" Jhett asked.
"It has about fifteen pages about Salvullaz, so this is barely any use to us. We need to find out his abilities, his weaknesses, anything to help us figure out how to stop Salvullaz," I finished.
"So, are we just going to look around the library for a book about Salvullaz?" Mae asked.
"Word," I replied, hopping on my bike and riding off.
"Is... he okay?" Kaycie asked.
"He's fine. I'm starting to think he has a mental illness," Gracie responded.
"I haven't ridden my bike in years," Dade complained, barely able to stand up.
"It'll be fine, Dade. We're just heading to the library. It's only five minutes," Jack replied.
With that, to the library, we went. The day was getting darker than it had before. It was on the edge of raining but didn't. Next to a park called Freedom Field. I hopped off my bike.
"What's the holdup?" Jack said from behind.
"It's here," I replied, putting down my kickstand and walking into an empty field.
I could feel the presence of the demon. It was like a surge of adrenaline, but I couldn't do anything with it. I walked out to the middle and stared upwards.
"Zack? Are... you okay?" Gracie asked.
"It's here," I replied again.
All of a sudden, a thunderous boom came from across the field. I look over and see a smoke black, ghostly figure watching me. I could feel my heartbeat start to speed up.
"What the hell is that?" Kaycie asked, hiding behind Mae.
"Salvullaz. He's back," Mae said, grabbing a small pocket knife out from her pocket. I unsheathed my machete and held it in front of me.
"Well, well, well. Looks like you've found me. Good job on being idiots," The demon said.
Salvullaz's voice was like nails on a chalkboard, scratchy, hiss like, and very deep. Salvullaz started walking towards us and stopped about thirty feet from us. It had pale white eyes glowing the intensity of shined iron.
Then, Mae threw her pocket knife at Salvullaz, hitting him in the chest. Salvullaz started to disintegrate. Salvullaz pulled the knife out of his chest and threw it back, hitting Kaycie in the leg.
"Kaycie!" Mae said, reaching down to help her.
"What the hell was that for?" I said, walking towards the demon.
"Zack! No!" Mae shrieked, but it was too late.
Salvullaz grabbed me by the torso and thrust me upwards. I went flying into the sky.
"What?" I yelled.
As I left the dark clouds, I came into a light blue sky with white clouds every so often, stopping in the air. It was one of the best sights I'd ever seen.
"Where am I?" I yelled out, but there was no response.
Then, the sky became a dark black and I saw what could only be described as horrifying. A scene from my past started playing. My Parent's death. It showed an armed robber forcing his way into my house. My dad came downstairs, then BAM! BAM! BAM! He lied there, dead.
"No!" I screamed, feeling my eyes starting to cry.
The Robber searched my dad's corpse and saw that there was nothing on him. The man shoved his body over and slowly walked up the stairs of the house. My mom ran out of her room with a shotgun but had a terrible shot. The gunman hit her in the face, killing her instantly.
I remember running out of my room only to get shot in the arm. Luckily, it had only grazed my right arm, so I was fine. I ran back into my room and grabbed a home-made bomb that I made for the Science fair, and tossed it at the robber as I jumped out of my two-story window onto concrete.
KABOOM! The Bomb exploded, leaving my finger broken, my parents and the robber dead. Then, I fell out of the sky. I slammed into the demon, thrusting my machete into Salvullaz's head.
I jumped up and fell in front of my friends. Salvullaz looked as if he were confused, but he stumbled backwards and fell over, disintegrating entirely.
"Suck on that, dumbass demon," I said, turning around.
Mae pulled the knife out of Kaycie's leg. Kaycie shrieked in pain as Mae threw away the knife. I turned around to see Matt standing across the street from us.
"Look! It's Matt!" I screamed.
Then, as a huge flock of birds passed in front of me, Matt was gone.
"Damn it!" Jhett exclaimed.
"We need to get to the library as fast as possible, or we might be dead," I said, ushering everyone to get out of there as soon as possible.
All of us, except Kaycie and Mae, hopped on our bikes and rode off about thirty seconds in, my legs were burning. We made it to the library and all ten of us ran inside.
Conner and Gracie went to the south side of the library, Philip Seth and Madison went to the northern side, Tristan, Jack, and Philip went to the western side, and Jhett, Dade, and I went to the eastern side.
We searched and searched, and searched. Then, we found something.
"I found it!!" Gracie exclaimed, running over to the table in the middle and setting the book down onto the table.
It was about 2,000 pages of pure Salvullaz information. It had each detail right to the point, how Salvullaz became the demon he is now.
"Nice find, Gracie," I congratulated.
"Only took a few hours!" Gracie joked. It got a small laugh out of everyone.
I checked the book out under my name and we were off to find it, but we had decided that Conner, Jhett, Dade, Gracie, and I would go and fight it off while Jack, Tristan, Seth, Philp, and Madison stayed back to get notes from the book.
"You're sure you don't want to come, Jack?" I asked.
"Absolutely," He replied, opening another book.
I walked out with the group, leading the way to the house. As we got outside, it had dropped about ten degrees and was starting to rain. Hard. We powered through the rain, though, and we ventured off into the woods.
The rain started to hit harder and Dade was starting to complain again. He was a strange character.
"Guys, the rain is starting to make welts on my back!" Dade complained.
"You'll get over it eventually," Gracie replied.
Gracie sped up on her bike to get in front of me.
"Hey, what's up?" I asked.
"Nothing. This demon stuff is messing with my brain," Jack replied.
"Yeah. After a few weeks, you get used to it," I said, laughing.
"What happened when Salvullaz launched you into the air?" Jack asked.
"It's personal, but I guess I'll say. So, when I was seven, a gunman killed my parents. I blew him up with a homemade bomb that I'd made in Science. I had to watch it unfold," I said.
"Wow. I didn't know that your parents... died. You never show any emotion about it,"
"Yeah. After they died, I decided to not show emotion about it, so nobody would try to comfort me. It gets awkward,"
"Is that why you're so ambitious?"
"No. It's to impress other people, so they don't hate me. The worst thing is someone starting to spread rumors about something bad, especially if they are popular and talk to a lot of people,"
"Hey! We're here," Dade said, breaking off the conversation.
I hopped off my bike and laid it on the ground. The others did the same. I walked across the street and onto the lawn. It was about four inches high off the ground, showing that nobody did anything to it.
"Follow my lead," I said, walking across the lawn.
I went to the side and smashed the window from the outside.
"Why didn't this break on Halloween?" I asked myself, hopping into the house.
"Zack, are you sure about this?" Gracie asked.
"He's sure. He's done way more stupid stuff," Jhett interrupted.
"Cmon, Gracie. It'll be fine," Conner said, hopping into the house after Jhett.
Dade jumped in and Gracie was the only one still outside.
"Grab my hand. It'll be easier to get inside," I said, reaching my hand out to hers.
"I've got it. I can do it myself," Gracie said, smacking my hand away from her.
"Alright. Your choice," I finished.
The House was huge from the inside. It looked bigger than the last time I had been in it. The wood looked as it was rotten, a grey, almost blackish, the color around the house. The stench of death lingered around the house, specifically coming from a single closet.
"What the hell is that?" Dade asked, walking towards the closet.
Dade opened the closet door and saw something truly horrifying. It was Charlie's mangled body like it was a human put together by an infant.
"Holy crap. What the damn hell happened?" Gracie said, backing away.
"We need to get out of here," Jhett said, running towards the window, but it had somehow rebuilt itself like it was nothing.
"Oh no. We're screwed," Conner said.
I heard a loud bang from upstairs. I grabbed my machete and unsheathed it. I moved in front of the others and walked up the stairs slowly.
"You selfish asshole!" Someone screamed.
I snapped my head backwards to see Charlie, fixed, standing across the room.
"What the hell do you mean?" I asked.
Gracie and Conner screamed, running behind me. Dade and Jhett soon followed.
"You are a selfish asshole who didn't care enough about my life to save me! You are a real nice guy, Zack. I've known you since the second grade, and you care more about escape than saving my life! What kind of game is this?! You are such an asshole!" Charlie finished.
"First off, I was trying to save Carter AND you! So cut me some slack," I replied.
"No, you wanted to escape and we BOTH died! I had a damn Girlfriend, and now she doesn't even remember me! So shut the hell up before I get Salvullaz to beat your ass!" Charlie said.
I had enough and slashed Charlie's face. He stumbled backwards and hit the wall, falling to the floor.
"You're not Charlie," I said, raising my blade and bringing it down into Charlie's head.
Charlie's body slowly sunk into the ground and disappeared. The entrance to the underworld all of a sudden exploded, firing wood in all directions.
"Duck!" I screamed.
Everyone ducked behind the stairs. A piece of wood sliced into the wall, millimeters from Gracie's face. A red being appeared from the hole. It was Salvullaz once again. He was halfway out of the hellhole when I grabbed my machete and ran towards him. I jumped and drove my Machete into his chest.
"You are an idiot," Salvullaz screeched, pulling me from his chest and tossing me into Dade.
"Get off me!" Dade yelled.
I got up and remembered that I had placed a small bomb in the house. I ran to the corner, and it was there!
"Eat fire, damn demon!" I yelled, throwing the makeshift bomb at Salvullaz.
KABOOM!!!
The explosion blew open the door. All five of us ran out, the house falling, presumably killing the demon and closing the entrance to hell. All of us had a big group hug and all asked the same question.
"Where did you get a makeshift bomb from?"
"I hid it there before Charlie's and Carter's death on Halloween. I don't know how it survived the first house destruction, but it survived, and we are safe!" I answered.
We had done it. Well, we were wrong. It was only the beginning, the beginning to a world of messed up endings.