Get Me To A Church

CHAPTER 15: OFFSPRING

 SAL

          "I guess you've gotta go home now?" I asked.

           "Yeah," Travis replied. "I need to go to my dad's sermon."

           I stopped walking, and so did he, staring at me confusedly. "Are you sure it's a good idea to go back? You could stay with me for as long as you like. Your dad... just... I don't trust him."

           "I have to go to church, Sal."

           I sighed. "Okay," I said.

           We kept walking down the corridor, Travis with his arms folded and me questioning a ghoulish noise I was hearing. Suddenly, my Super Gear Boy in my pocket started flashing bright green and making a hissing sound. I pulled it out and whipped around.

           Travis scrunched up his nose. "What the hell are you doing?"

           I didn't reply. I shakily brought my finger down to the bright red button. I thought about it for a moment, then closed my eyes and pressed it before I could regret anything. My eyes popped open as a long, growling noise came from in front of me. I could barely see the ghost... or monster... but I could see its red eyes staring into me. Travis yelped and stumbled backwards. The thing left as soon as it came.

           Travis was heaving scared breaths behind me. Between each heavy exhale, he said, "What. The. FUCK was that?!"

           "The Red-Eyed Demon," I mumbled so lowly I didn't think he could hear.

           "What?"

           I turned around. Travis was standing super straight, like someone attached a string to his head and pulled. I stared at him for a while, contemplating what to say to him. As I did, his eyes flickered down to my console. "And what the fuck is that?!"

           I sighed again, staring at him tiredly. Then slowly, a smile crept to my face as I got an idea. "I'll explain everything to you if you come back to my apartment," I promised. "But that means missing the sermon, and it'll probably take all day to explain, so you won't be able to go home. Is that okay?"

           He looked at me like I was crazy, which I was, but not about this. He quietly, carefully nodded. "Fine, then," he said. "Let's go."

● ● ●

           Travis listened intently to my story after I got him hooked. He interrupted a few times to point out something or make a comment but I told him that if he didn't want to hear, he could leave. Surprisingly, that worked. I suppose he was really interested in the apartments at that point.

           When I was done, Travis slowly nodded his head. "Yeah, that is the craziest fucking lie I've ever been told," he said.

           I glared at him. "Well, you give it an explanation then," I retorted. "You saw the demon with your own two eyes — you can't pretend like it wasn't there."

           "I don't know!" he burst out. "Maybe you... gave me drugs while I was asleep or something. It could've been a hallucination."

           "We had the same hallucination?"

           "Shut the hell up, bitch!" He cut off, realizing he'd said the wrong thing. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "But this is insane. I knew these apartments were weird, and that the residents were... well..." he glanced at me, then burned holes into the floor with his eyes. "...eccentric, according to my dad... but there's no way it's being haunted by a bunch of ghosts and a fucking demon."

           I bit the inside of my cheek. "Could I show you something?"

           "What?" he asked dubiously.

           "Trust me, alright?" I said.

           He inhaled deeply, then sighed. "Okay, whatever. Let's go, since you're not letting me leave."