The House at the End of the Street

Chapter Twenty-Four: Rats, Rats, and More Rats

I woke from the darkness, laying on the ground in the middle of a grassy field. I could barely open my eyes, looking around with the little bit of sight I had. It was a small field, maybe twenty feet in all directions with trees lining the sides of it. Inside the forest was nothing but darkness. The sky was a light blue with clouds dotting the sky.
"What... where am I?" I asked myself, sitting up and looking around.
Around me was a burnt circle, the grass was burned to be more specific. It was still warm, like the fire had been put out a few moments ago. I stood up and looked around, but there was nothing in sight. I was in the middle of nowhere.
"Good seeing you again," A voice said.
I snapped my head around and looked at the direction the voice had come from. I recognized the voice, but couldn't pinpoint who it was.
"Who are you?" I asked, reaching for my weapon, but it wasn't there.
I backed up to get a good distance away in case whoever was there was on an animal of some sort.
"We've known each other since we were ten, Zack. Don't you remember?" The voice asked.
"I'll ask again, who are you?" I asked, scared of who it might be.
I kept thinking to myself that it was probably Salvullaz trying to get inside my head. I stood, frozen as I waited for any sign that the person was gone, but it didn't seem that it was leaving.
"I'm only a figment of your imagination, meaning I only exist when you imagine me," It said.
"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked.
The figure started walking out of the dark forest. It was a tall, dark figure with arms reaching down to its knees. The figure was probably eight feet at least with a pale, expressionless face. Its legs were longer than its arms. It's hands were a cold pale, almost completely white.
"You don't remember me?" It asked.
The first I thought when I saw it was Slenderman, but there was no way since I had never been afraid of Slenderman.
"No... who are you?" I asked.
Its eyes looked down at the ground and it hung its head down. It looked sad, like it wanted for me to remember it. I was confused, but felt bad for not remembering it.
"I used to be your best friend, Zack," It said.
"Then how come I don't remember you?" I asked.
It started backing up back into the woods and disappeared. I was weirded out, mostly confused about what had just happened.
Then, I woke on the ground of the cafeteria, my neck sore from Salvullaz holding me in the air. I looked up and saw Salvullaz trying to fight off Jack and Jhett, but he was turned around. I got up off the ground and stabbed Salvullaz in the back.
"Damn it!" Salvullaz screamed, flailing around trying to process what had happened.
"Zack!" Jhett yelled, throwing his spear at Salvullaz's face.
Salvullaz blocked his shot and flung Jhett across the room on top of a table. Jack grabbed his metal bat and smashed Salvullaz's face with it, knocking him over.
The rat monster ran towards me, but I stabbed it in the gut, killing it for good. I kicked over the corpse and went back to mainly attacking Salvullaz. Salvullaz was turned from me, so I took the opportunity to stab him again.
"Behind you!" Jack yelled to me.
I turned around and saw about 600 rats fall from the vents above us and jump onto the ground. Salvullaz turned around, but didn't bother with the rats and went back to attacking Jack.
I ran over to Jhett and helped him off the floor and ran for the exit, but before we did that, we needed to kick Salvullaz's ass to get Jack back.
"Beat Salvullaz and I pull Jack away," I told Jhett.
"Sounds good," Jhett said, running behind the tables.
The rats were still pouring out of the vents behind us as we went to get Jack. Jhett stabbed his spear into Salvullaz's back(how come he didn't turn around after I stabbed him like four times? We will never know), and he started stumbling backwards.
"C'mon, Jack! We have to get outta here!" I said, pulling Jack away from the fight.
"Alright," Jack said, running for the exit.
Jhett moved away and ran to us. We watched as Salvullaz stumbled into the waterfall of rats and disappeared. All three of us pushed the golf cart out of the front door and started riding back to where we had split up.
"Holy crap! That was insane!" Jhett exclaimed.
"Dude, Salvullaz had to stop doing stuff like that," Jack replied, starting the engine and starting off.
"What happened when you were out?" Jhett asked me.
"There was a tall, dark figured man with a pale, expressionless face that talked to me. It sounded like Jack a little, but it had no representation of Jack," I replied.
We sat in silence for a few minutes, trying to understand what I had seen. I was still confused by what I had seen.
"I don't know, Zack. It could have been anything. Maybe it was something from your future that you haven't experienced yet," Jhett pointed out.
"Possibly," I replied.
We pulled up to the house that we had first sent out and the girls had already made it back.
"So, how'd the dump go? We've been waiting for twenty minutes," Mae said, annoyed.
"We got into a little situation with a tentacle monster, then we crashed(with the help of the monster) into Magnolia Park, and we dealt with a giant rat monster that Zack killed. Oh, and we beat the crap out of Salvullaz," I explained.
"We didn't have any inconveniences and found every place that sells fireworks in Ocean Springs. From Wilson Fireworks, Firework Distributors, and Coast Fireworks. We took everything and hid them inside that house," Kaycie told us, pointing to the house on our right.
"About how much?" Jack asked.
"At least a thousand," Conner answered.
"Damn, that'll be enough," Jhett said, walking up to the door.
Jhett opened the door and saw a mound of fireworks.
"Oh yeah! This is gonna be incredible," Jack said, excited.
Jack, Kaycie, Mae, Conner, and Gracie ran inside after Jhett and started to separate the fireworks. I stayed outside, though. I needed a second to try and understand what I saw.
"Being lonely, huh?" A voice asked.
It was Matt's voice... but he was dead. There was no possible way he was alive. I turned my head and saw Matt standing next to a tree.
"How the hell are you alive...?" I asked, suspicious of him.
"Like I said earlier... I'm only a figment of your imagination," Matt said.
I felt chills running down my spine as he said those words. I had even more questions and was more confused than ever.
"Who.. the hell...?" I stuttered, trying to make words to describe what I was seeing.
I had many questions, Does that mean Matt is alive? Is Matt dead or alive? Can Salvullaz shapeshift? How are we just learning about Salvullaz being able to shapeshift? Why the hell am I asking so many questions?
"Good luck with killing Salvullaz," Matt said, snapping his fingers and disappearing into thin air.
"You coming, Zack?!" Jhett yelled from the house.
"Yeah!" I yelled back.
I started running to the door, but couldn't shake the feeling that Salvullaz was watching me... waiting for me to be alone for him to strike and kill me. I turned my head and looked behind me, feeling like something was watching me.
"Zack!" Mae yelled.
"Give me a second!" I yelled back, walking towards the stretch of woods that Salvullaz had appeared in.
"What the hell, Zack?" Mae said, running behind me.
"Shhh! He's here..." I whispered.
"Who's here?" Mae asked.
I didn't answer as Mae and I stood there, silent and listening to the woods. Then, something started to walk through the woods next to us. I stood there, my machete in hand, with Mae right next to me.
"Duck!" Jhett yelled from behind us.
A wolf jumped from out of the woods and right in front of us. Mae and I ducked our heads as the wolf jumped over us and onto the ground. I slowly rose from the ground and held my machete out in front of me.
"Damn it... they've made it across!" Jhett whispered, getting his spear ready.
The wolf growled at me, starting to circle me. A figure started to walk out of the woods behind it. When it did, the wolf turned around and whimpered in fear.
"What the hell?" I whispered, putting down my weapon.
"What is that?" Mae asked.
"Hello, Zack... it's nice to see you again," The figure said, walking towards us.
Kaycie, Jack, Gracie, and Conner all came out of the house and saw our standoff with this being.
"What have we just walked into?" Kaycie asked, freezing in her tracks.
"How do you know my name?" I asked, pulling up my weapon.
"Let's just say that we've known each other since 5th grade," The voice said.
I froze, remembering the voice that was talking to me. It sounded like Dade's voice, but that was impossible.
"Dade?" I asked, stupidly.
The figure stood in the shadow of the tree, I was unable to make out the face.
"Why are you trying to kill Salvullaz? It's impossible," The figure said, its voice suddenly dropping super deep.
"Get the hell out of my head," I said, confidently.
"You're a screw up, Zack. All you care about is band and writing stories that no one will read. Writing songs that nobody will listen to you. Nobody cares about you," The figure said.
"I said, get the hell out of my head," I replied.
All of a sudden, a ton of rats started coming out of the sewer drains and surrounded the figure, climbing up the figure to make another thing.
"I hate rats," Kaycie said, gagging and walking away.
"Me too," I said, running at the figure and slicing it, knocking off some of the rats.
The rats came back onto the figure and started growing into a fifteen foot rat. We all stood in fear, frozen.
"Holy crap," Gracie said, backing up.
"Rats suck," Conner said.
"I hope this is Salvullaz so we can kick his ass," Mae said, getting ready to attack it.
We were standing about thirty feet from the rat creature, and were about to attack it. Whatever it was was about to die, whether it was Salvullaz or not. Just keep reading, it only gets worse from here.