House Of The Witches

Chapter 18: Friendship

Christmas! The season of giving, the season of love, the season of togetherness and caring, the season of families coming together, building snowmen in the snow and exchanging presents.

Christmas! The season of DEATH or so it seemed for Samson.

As Cerberus's jaws grabbed unto him, he felt the hands of death and its closeness. There wasn't even enough time to scream because it all happened so fast. One minute, he was fine and the next, he was torn to shreds and serving as food in the belly of a hellhound.

Darryl could only watch in horror as his friend was eaten alive and after Cerberus had swallowed Samson, it turned its attention to Darryl. It walked in circles around Darryl, stalking him like a predator watching its prey.

Darryl didn't know what to do. He was disoriented because he was still shaken by what just happened to Sam. The hellhound began walking towards him and Darryl ran towards a torch and grabbed it, holding it out and waving it around to keep the hellhound at bay.

"Stay back! Back off!" Darryl yelled while he swung.

But Cerberus kept coming closer and Darryl decided to set the dog on fire. He took out another torch from the wall and tossed both of them at Cerberus. The hellhound slowly caught on fire and it didn't take long for the flames to completely engulf it. But, it was a hellhound after all, so the flames did no damage to him. Cerberus kept walking towards him, like a fire-hound, ready to do to him what it did to Samson.

The hellhound began running towards Darryl with the intention of killing him. Darryl put down his weapon and stood still as the beast approached.

"It's not real. None of it is real." Darryl began saying to himself and it seemed as if time slowed down while he spoke out these words.

"It can't harm me because it's not real." He kept saying, over and over again.

Kristokulos' mind games cannot work when there's fire around, that much is a known fact. There was fire all over the basement which meant the fire wasn't real, the torches weren't real, Cerberus wasn't real and Samson's death also wasn't real, Darryl thought.

He spread out his arms and waited for the hellhound to reach him. The beast launched at him and as soon as it made contact with Darryl, the room suddenly went dark.

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Jennifer added more pieces of furniture that she could find around into the fire to keep it burning while Nelly was in a corner, staring at the box.

She noticed that Peace's body was moving around restlessly on the couch so she went over and tried to hold her still.

"It's okay, Peace. I'm right here." Jennifer said and picked up a blanket that she had found earlier and covered Peace with it to help her stay warm.

Although they had their little rivalry because of their affiliation with Darryl, she still cared about her deep down and seeing her in this state really made her sad.

Jennifer began remembering a few years ago when she and Peace made the promise of eternal friendship to each other. They were just little girls but they were best of friends.

"Here!" Little Jennifer said to little Peace in the memory and handed her a pendant attached to a chain.

"What's this Jenny?" Peace asked as she took the pendant.

"It's half a pendant. I asked my mom to get it for us. Your half has the letter B on it, while my half has the letter F on it." Jenny said.

"B for Best and F for Friends." Peace said and Jenny nodded.

"Exactly! You keep that half and I'll keep this one. It's going to be a symbol of our friendship, forever." Jenny said.

"Do you really think we can be best friends forever?" Peace asked her.

"Of course, we can, we just have to swear it," Jenny said and sat down beside Peace.

Little Jenny wrapped her necklace around her hand and held out her pinky finger. Little Peace did the same and they made a pinky swear.

"I swear that I'll always be your friend and I won't ever let anything or anyone ruin our friendship," Jennifer swore. "Now it's your turn." She told Peace.

"I also swear to always be your friend and to always have your back no matter what." Peace swore.

"Forever"

 Jennifer stretched out her pinky.

"Forever"

Peace stretched out hers and they locked.

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BACK TO THE PRESENT

"Are you okay J-Lo?" Nelly suddenly asked from behind Jennifer and she sprang back to reality.

"Yes, I'm fine," Jennifer said.

There was a moment of silence between them. They both stared at Peace and Jennifer finally broke the silence.

"How did we let it get to this?" Jennifer asked while she wiped a tear from her face.

"Huh Peace?" She continued, "What happened to us?" She asked and broke down into tears.

Nelly put his hands on her shoulder to comfort her and he patted her back as well.

"I didn't meet you two when you were still best friends when you were still very close but from what Sam told me, the both of you were more like sisters," Nelly said.

"We were."

"Then what happened to y'all?" Nelly asked, wanting to understand.

"We became hormonal teenagers...and then, Darryl came to Brimwood and from the moment we both set our eyes on him, everything began to change. I immediately went after him, knowing Peace liked him too but I didn't care. Getting Darryl was more important to me than my friendship with Peace. Of course, Peace has never been the type of person that doesn't fight for what she wants so she also went after Darryl. We slowly became rivals and we drifted apart." Jennifer finished talking and stopped to take a breath.

"What happened after that?" Nelly asked, now fully invested in the story of how the rivalry and animosity between the girls started.

"Peace...seemed to be winning. Darryl was showing more interest in her than in me. He walked her to her classes, sat with her during lunch and sometimes even walked her home. I was so jealous and so angry. About a month later, it was time for junior prom. I wasn't going to go because I didn't want to see them together but much to my surprise, Darryl showed up at my house and asked me to be his date for prom. We went together and had a great time and then, we started dating and we've been together ever since." Jennifer said.

"Why do you think Darryl made a U-turn from Peace to you?" Nelly asked her.

"I don't know! Peace said it was because he found out about my family's wealth and status, that he chose me to boost his reputation in school as the handsome guy with the rich girlfriend." Jennifer said with a look in her eyes that suggested that she didn't completely doubt what Peace had said.

"Do you think it's true?" Nelly asked.

"I don't know! Darryl's never asked me for money or anything like that. He's always been loyal and honest with me."

"But yet, he had sex with Peace twice. That should tell you something, shouldn't it?" Nelly said.

Jennifer stared at him and more tears rolled down her eyes. Nelly pulled her close and gave her a comforting hug.

"It's gonna be okay, J-Lo. Peace is gonna be okay and when we get out of here, the two of you can fix your friendship." Nelly said as honestly as he could.

"I really hope so, Nelly. I really do."