The House at the End of the Street

Chapter Eight: Back For More

As I charged at Matt, I could feel the spiritual feeling I had felt earlier. It was Matt that was giving off the spiritual feeling. Matt blocked my first blow, but I was able to kick his leg and knock him to the ground.
Matt was now on the ground but was still strong. He tried to knock me over as I did to him, but he missed and I was able to slice at his face. The machete drove deep into Matt's face, but he got repossessed as I sliced him. Matt, now possessed, healed his face back and ran into a wall, disappearing into it.
"That was a short battle," Jhett said, stating the obvious.
"Why didn't y'all help me?" I asked, walking over to where Matt had jumped through the wall.
"We thought you had it under control," Gracie replied, following me.
"Well, he got away, which sucks. Hey, we know he can turn human," I said, sitting down on the ground and resting my head against the cold brick wall.
I helped Jack up from his stab wound and walked back into the library, where everyone acted like nothing ever happened. I sat Jack down and opened another demon book, but it was useless. I set it down and walked over to Mae, where she was reading a book about Salvullaz and was looking through it.
"Turns out, Salvullaz was a general. He had an army of dead people. I dunno how we could use that to his advantage though," Mae said to herself, still flipping through the book.
"Anything important?" I asked Mae.
"Nothing yet, Zack. Sorry," Mae said, still flipping through it.
"Thanks anyway," I replied, walking away.
I decided to walk outside and sit down on the lawn with a chair we had placed. The sun was a fiery yellow-red with trees blocking the view a bit, but it wasn't terrible.
"Hello, Zack," I voice said.
I turned around and Salvullaz was standing about ten feet away from me. I tried to stand up, but I was frozen, paralyzed. I could move my mouth, but the rest of me was paralyzed.
"What the hell are you doing here?" I asked, trying my hardest to move, but I just couldn't.
Salvullaz floated over to me and stood in front of me. He shoved his face right up against mine, the stench of death lingered around him.
"How would you like to see what life would be like if your parents didn't die?" Salvullaz asked me.
"What do you mean?" I said.
"Let me show you," Salvullaz responded, grabbing me and throwing me up into the sky... then... blackness.

I woke up in a bed, what seemed to be my childhood bed. It had dinosaur stuffed animals lining the corners of the bunk-bed. There was a poster of the Percy Jackson books on my wall.
I sat up and saw a TV, a desk with sheet music on it, and some manuscripts too. I slid down a slide and saw my piano, a small five-octave keyboard that had stickers of the notes.
There were two cases on the ground next to the piano, a Trumpet and Euphonium case that sat side by side. I turned and saw a computer, a huge monitor with a band song on it. Next to the computer was a shelf of books, mostly dinosaur encyclopedias and thick stories.
I opened up my door and saw a hallway that led straight into a bathroom and on the right of the bathroom was my parent's bedroom. Then, the front door opened and a kid, maybe one or two years younger than me, walked into the door with a skateboard and walked into the living room area.
I ran down the stairs and into the living room area, where the kid was sitting on the couch watching THE OFFICE, the US version. I ran in.
"What the hell are you doing in my house!?" I yelled, the kid turned around and looked at me like I was stupid.
"Woah, Zack. Chill out. Did you just have a nightmare or something?" The kid said.
"Who are you?" I asked, still standing.
"It's me... your brother... your family adopted me like four years ago," He said, turning back around to the TV.
"What?" I responded.
"Parents are at Walmart, they just left. They'll be back in an hour or two," He said.
"Do I have a bike?" I said.
I walked outside and hopped on my bike and rode off to Jhett's house. I rode up to his driveway and knocked on his door.
"Jhett! Are you there?" I yelled, knocking on the door harder.
"What do you want?" Jhett said, opening the door.
"What happened?" I asked.
"What? How do you even know where I live? You're a jerk!" Jhett said all of a sudden, slamming the door on my face.
I was stunned, not knowing what that meant. I turned around and walked back to my bike and hopped on and started riding away. I was stopped by... Rylan and Ricky, who I thought was dead.
"Hey, Zack! You wanna come over later and play on my new Xbox?" Rylan asked, greeting me with a smile, something he never did.
"Sure..?" I said, scared this was a trick to beat me up, but it would be well acted if it wasn't real.
"Alright, I'll see you after school!" Rylan said, riding off.
"Rylan is a strange person, but I'll be over too," Ricky said to me.
"Yeah, I guess you could say that," I replied, Ricky, hopping on his bike and riding off.
I saw my chance and rode off to Gracie's house to see if she would remember me. I rode faster than I had in awhile, my legs starting to hurt. I finally made it to her house and threw my bike into the road and ran to her front door.
"Gracie!" I yelled, knocking on her door.
Gracie answered the door and acted surprised like I was a threat to her.
"What the hell are you doing here?" She asked.
"What have I done that was so terrible that Jhett hates me?' I responded.
"Really? You're a bully! You may be a weak person, but you've been bullying Jhett for years! I mean, you hang out with Rylan and Ricky for god's sake!" Gracie finished, started to shut the door on me, but I put my foot in the door so she couldn't shut it.
"What?" I said, still confused.
"Why are you even here? You're a jerk!" She said, pushing me away from the door and slamming it as Jhett did.
I walked off her lawn and sat on the curb. Then, Salvullaz appeared next to me and sat down.
"How are you liking this life?" Salvullaz asked.
"It's hell," I replied.
Salvullaz stood up as fast as he sat down and stood in front of me.
"Would you like to go back?" Salvullaz asked.
"What was the point of this?" I asked, looking up at Salvullaz's dead black eyes.
"To show you that you have no life to live, with or without parents," Salvullaz replied.
"Bring me the hell back... NOW!" I screamed.
With a snap of Salvullaz's boney fingers, I woke up in the same chair I was sitting in before.
"Holy crap... I'm back!" I said, walking back inside the library, not going to tell anyone what happened.