Possession

Chapter 11: Confrontation

Chapter 11

Confrontation

"What the hell Andre?" Robert's voice is muffled by the ground. He turns his head and I can see his face is all scraped up.

"That's not Andre!" I yell at him. I grab the railing of the bridge and pull myself up to avoid putting weight on my right leg. "He's going to kill us!"

"What?" Robert asks confused by the situation.

"Enough chit chat you two." Honaw chides us and yanks Robert up off the ground and shoves him into the railing beside me hard enough to knock the wind out of him.

"What the hell's going on?" Robert gasps. "What'd you do to piss him off Dyllan?" He asks me kind of dazed.

"I told you he's a demon!" I snap back, "It's some sort of pissed off bear or something." I explain softly, as Honaw walks slowly closer with an evil smirk. "What are you two talking about?" Honaw asks squatting down in front of us.

"It can't be true. Demons don't exist!" Robert yells.

"Unfortunately for you, we're quite real." Honaw tells Robert, "And to add to that misfortune, I didn't bring enough rope to hang you both." grinning he adds, "So one of you has to disappear. I'm kind of relying on the murder-suicide story."

Robert glares hatefully at the demon, "Hey genius, ever watch CSI? You've already beat Dyllan to hell. They'll know he was murdered." He snaps at Honaw.

Honaw refocuses his gaze on Robert, "That does force my hand. Well then I'll let you take your pick; drowning or bear mauling?"

I don't want to die! I think to myself. Is this river even deep enough to drown in?

"Give Andre his body back!" Robert yells at the demon.

"Hm, nope. I have great plans for this body." He says.

"You bastard!" Robert tries to punch Honaw in the face but the demon dodges him and slams his arm into the railing. With Robert's arm pinned Honaw punches Robert in the stomach. He falls over coughing and gasping for air.

"Tsk tsk, no violence on the bridge boys." He scolds Robert.

"Go to Hell." Robert hisses at him. "What are you going to do with Andre's body? What do you want?" He asks as he starts to recover and sits up but still has his arms wrapped around his stomach.

"Isn't it obvious? I want what most demons want." He says standing up, "Money, power, followers, loyalty and of course, since this body is male, women." He says ticking them off on his fingers. "Sadly only one of those things is easy to come by in this age. Money and power come with hard work and dedication, and it's not until I've gained those that I can have everything else." He says amused, "It's a strange world I've found myself in."

"Where's Andre? I want to talk to him." Robert demands.

Honaw sighs irritated, "Over there." He points vaguely at an empty space, "He's yelling at me to stop. I get the feeling he doesn't want me to kill you." He smiles, "He's learning it sucks to be a powerless ghost. You can't see him, hear him, touch him or even sense him. He can't undo Dyllan's restraints, or even help you up off the ground." He flicks his finger towards where he says Andre is and the air shimmers.

A steady pressure builds in my ears and drowns out all other noises like I'm in a loud room. My ears pop painfully and I hear a faint screeching noise. He's hurting him. Andre's ghost is being tortured.

"It's so much fun having a few spirits around to play with." Honaw says amused.

"Let him go!" I yell and regret it when Honaw turns his gaze towards me.

"Why? Ghosts can't die or even be injured." He says innocently.

"They can feel pain. Isn't that bad enough?" I ask my voice trembling.

"What's he doing?" Robert asks me.

"He's torturing Andre." I reply.

"You sick son of-" he starts to say as he stands up when Honaw kicks his legs out from under him.

"You're rather rude." He says, "It's not like he's dying. It doesn't even really hurt all that much." Honaw says. "Well, fun times over. The sun's coming up." He says looking over the trees at the gray morning sky. "Well, over the railing with you." He says forcing me up by grabbing my arm by the shoulder. I try twisting away and almost succeed but the pain of his fingers buried in my tendons with that steely grip, keep me from shaking him off.

I kick to no effect, "Let me go! Help! Somebody hel-" Honaw punches me in the stomach and drops me again. It hurts so much I almost throwup and I panic, not able to breathe, as if my lungs collapsed. I flail wildly for my balance before falling off the railing. My back slaps the water and reminds me painfully of cliff jumping back in Maine during the summer. The water isn't very deep, as I thought, and my back scrapes the bottom of the river bed. I start freaking out but luckily I come back up quickly. Once I surface, I catch my breath. Oh sweet, life-giving oxygen. That doesn't stop the painful nausea, and soon I find myself retching and throwing up, while struggling to reach dry land, half bound up.

I keep my head low and start heading towards shore. Honaw doesn't know I can swim so if I can just get there I can get away. Finally I reach shore and rip the duct tape off with my teeth and hide behind a rock. I peek out and look at the bridge. A few moments later two figures go flying off the bridge.

Robert and Honaw land in the water and disappear beneath the surface.