The Club

Forty

"My-my what? How?" I fumbled over my words as I took a step back from him.
"I know it's hard to believe, and you don't want to believe it, but it's true, Lonnie. I'm your father." He tells me calmly.
"No. I-I believe you." I say, furrowing my eyebrows as usually I wouldn't believe something like this, but I do.
"You believe me? Oh! That's great news!" He says happily as he took a step towards me but I step away from him making him stop.
"Why are you here? I thought you were dead?" I ask, confused.
"Dead? Why would you-" He says but I interrupted him, "They pulled you back down into hell when I was a baby! Am I wrong? You never came back for my mother or I. It's why she gave me away and I got adopted."
"No, you're right. When you were a baby and only about three weeks old. My lord pulled me back down into hell. I could not come back up, he wouldn't allow it, but I tried to. I so badly wanted to be there for you and for your mother." He explains, upset.
"I thought the devil killed you." I tell him, feeling some sort of relief knowing one of my parents is alive.
"I almost was, but my lord will pardon me if I helped these mortals do the ritual to bring him forth up here." He tells me seriously.
"The ritual? You're helping Mr. Dubuik do the ritual?" I ask shock.
The demon. My father tilts his head, furrowing his eyebrows as he looks at me confused, "How do you know about Mr. Dubuik?"
"You don't know what he's been doing to me, have you?" I ask him, realizing he's in the dark.
"What are you talking about? What has he done to you?" He ask his eyes flashing.
I open my mouth, but then we get interrupted by slow clapping, which made us both turn towards the entrance of the tent. Mr. Dubuik and Tynan are standing by the entrance with smirks. I noticed Grimshaw wasn't with them this time. I glanced around the tent and tried to feel what I felt the last time Tynan and Grimshaw came around. The feeling was such a horrible feeling, so I know if he's around or not. It's kind of weird that he's not even here with Tynan, since he's been his little shadow lately. When Mr. Dubuik took a step towards us, the demon or my dad steps in front of him, stopping him from coming any closer to me. Mr. Dubuik looks away from me as he looks at my dad with an icy glare, and it sent shivers up my spine.
"You will be wise to step aside, Vonik." Mr. Dubuik growls.
"Why? So you can hurt my daughter?" Vonik growls back.
"Your daughter? Ha! So you two idiots figured it out, huh? Well, in case you have forgotten Vonik you're still under my contract. I'm your master. Now. Step aside." Mr. Dubuik growls as he flung my father aside and through the tent.
I let out a gasp as nobody shouldn't be able to fling a demon, but I had forgotten that Mr. Dubuik is literally the most powerful dark user to be alive. I snap my head back towards him as he came towards me again, and I realized that this is our first time meeting for the first time. Well, actually I guess it's my first time since he apparently met me when I was a baby. I look up at him as I took a step back, but he just smirk at my response. He literally looks like an older Tynan, but he has dark brown hair instead of black hair. Mr. Dubuik also has a small round belly, as he has a small gruffy beard as he looms over me with a smirk. I step away from him as his aura is so strong is makes me want to run away, but I can feel Naberius squirming around in my mind.
My head throb with how much he was squirming around in Mr. Dubuik's presence so I tried to back away from him, to get some distance. He just kept getting closer. Eventually, I felt the dark aura of the book behind me, and I didn't want to touch it. I didn't know what to do now. I shivered as the cold ran up my spine. As he stops right in front of me, staring down at me as his cold aura circles around me. Mr. Dubuik then grabs onto my chin roughly as he examines my face curiously. I swallow nervously, as I'm not sure what he's going to do to me now. I know he won't kill me, at least not yet, as they need me to marry Tynan as a part of the ritual.
"You look just like them. Well, minus the horns and tail, of course." Mr. Dubuik says with a smirk as he removes his hand from my chin.
"You bastard. I know what you did." I growled at him.
"Oh? Do you now? So you know you got adopted and you're not human, but a demon yourself?" Mr. Dubuik asks, making me shiver.
I glanced over as I saw my real father coming back through the hole that he got thrown in, before looking over at us. I lick my lips before looking back over to Mr. Dubuik and answering with, "Yes."
"Your not as dumb as I thought you were, Lonnie. Thats a good thing. You know what you have to do now, right?" Mr. Dubuik asks, watching me closely.
"Of course. How can I not when it's all you and Tynan talk about, but I'm not doing this for you guys. I'm doing this to save my friend." I tell him with an icy glare.
"Your friend, you say? Which friend is that?" Mr. Dubuik asks, sending more shivers up my spine.
"Why do you care?" I ask just wanting to get away from him.
Mr. Dubuik just chuckles in a way that makes my skin crawl, but I try to push it aside as this tent is just filled with coldness and power that it's making me extremely uncomfortable. I stand there glancing between my demon father and Mr. Dubuik wondering what I should do. Mr. Dubuik grabs onto my chin roughly again before forcing me to look up at him as he smiles evilly down at me.
"Shall we get started, Lonnie? I'm just dying for this ritual to begin. I'm sure you are just as excited as us." Mr. Dubuik says, chuckling again.

Is this really going to happen? The ritual that I tried so hard to avoid and stop, but now I'm here almost willing to do it? I hate the even thought of it. I don't want to do this, but I can't abandon Joz either. I can't do that to him, not after he tried so hard to help me. The sun was setting and Mr. Dubuik and Tynan are drawing a huge pentagram in blood. I swallowed as it still bothers me seeing all that blood being used like that. I glanced over to see the demon, my real dad, standing there watching them draw the pentagram in blood. I noticed he looks anxious now, and it's probably because he knows I'm a part of this now. Standing here will not get me any answers, and the two dimwits are busy. This might be my only chance to have a talk with my real dad, and maybe get to know him a little.
I nervously side stepped closer to him before stopping as I tried to not look too suspicious. I repeated this three more times before I mentally slapped myself. Why am I even doing this? It's my father. My real father. Yes, he's a demon and I don't know him, but this might be my only chance to get to know him before the ritual happens. I know he's not the man who I grew up with and who I called dad most of my life, but still. He's my flesh and blood, and I do want to get to know him. I glanced over at him again to see him now staring at me with his head tilted. It made me feel self-conscious, which is weird since he's my dad and it shouldn't. I look away as even though he's a demon. I didn't feel any sort of coldness or bad aura from him. It's weird, but it brought me some comfort.
"What are you doing?"
I jump before spinning around and looking up to see Vonik. My dad standing there staring at me curiously. I lick my lips nervously before answering with, "Um, nothing?"
"Really? I've been sensing you staring at me for a while. I figured you wanted something." Vonik says, shrugging.
"I'm sorry for staring, but um, I want something, in a way." I say awkwardly.
"No need to apologize. What's wrong?" Vonik asks worry lancing his voice.
"Nothing is wrong. Not really. I don't want to do this ritual. I don't want the devil to be summoned. I don't want to lose you, though, but I have to do this ritual. I have to save Joz." I blurt out, feeling upset.
"Who is Joz?" Vonik asks, looking at me with a raised eyebrow.
"He's my friend, and a demon like you. He was-wait. What do you know about me?" I ask, furrowing my eyebrows at him.
"What do I know? Lonnie, I'm your father and I should know everything about you, but I know nothing, just that you're my daughter and half demon." Vonik explains to me, upset.
"So, you know nothing of what Mr. Dubuik has done to me?" I ask him again.
"What does that even mean, Lonnie? What has he done to you?" Vonik nearly growls as his eyes flashed again.
"I'm only here because Mr. Dubuik brought me back to life. I died. I died in a car crash with my dad, uh, with my adopted dad. Mr. Dubuik brought me back, but it was only so I can be a part of this ritual. They needed someone who got brought back alive. He then tormented me by calling me countless times and telling me about the upcoming ritual. He killed my mom, or well adopted mom, and told me." I explain to him and almost regretted it as his posture and expression changed. I felt his power increasing and that comforting feeling I got from him was now replaced by the same coldness I've been feeling.
"Dubuik!" Vonik yells as he charges at him full speed. I barely saw him move away from me and towards Mr. Dubuik.
I let out a gasp as Vonik slams Mr. Dubuik onto the ground before punching him in the face repeatedly. I went to stop him, but Tynan stops me in my tracks. I look up at him and saw that he's watching the scene with a very dark look. It sent terrible shivers down my spine, and it made me want to get away from him. I jump when someone flew by me, and I turned around to see that Vonik landing on the ground. My mouth drops as he gets up and I saw he has a blackeye. This shouldn't be possible. Demons should be powerful than humans, but Mr. Dubuik gave him a blackeye and sent him flying. Vonik didn't hesitate though, as he shot back up and sped past us towards Mr. Dubuik again. I can't let him get himself killed! Naberius help me stop him! I yell at him in my mind.
"Stop him yourself." Naberius answers.
"You know I can't! Please help me! He's my real dad, my only family, and I don't want to lose him!" I yell at him, worried.
Naberius didn't answer me, but I couldn't wait for him any longer. I shove Tynan off, which caught him off guard. I then ran over towards Vonik and Mr. Dubuik as fast as I can. Without thinking, I try to focus on this magic I have inside of me and I used it to throw them both away from each other. I had little practice on using this power, so I only moved them away from each other a little. It was enough to get both of their attention, though. I still felt the power circling through me, but right now the expressions on both of their faces make me nervous. I clenched my fists to make the power that I used to disappear completely, but I couldn't seem to get it to dissipate. I don't know what I got myself into when both of them kept staring at me, both with different expressions. I knew what was going to happen next I would not like, and I knew by the look on Vonik's face when he looked over at Mr. Dubuik that he knew something was going to happen. I'm just not looking forward to find out what it is.