STILL

Chapter Ninteen

"He was in a CAB!" Lena helped Jenny catch up to what she missed. 

"No way!" Emma seemed to be more shocked than anyone else there.

"Like, an actual yellow cab," Lena continued.

"You lost your babe tonight, Shawn," Emma said, making Jenny chuckle.

"Wow, even you're on this?" Shawn looked at the girls from the rear view mirror where he sat next to Markus.

"I mean, come on," Jenny paused. "Even you know you talk about that car too much," She continued. She was met by a betrayed look through the mirror.

"Okay but can we please address the elephant in the room?" Tom said, "how did you kill the demon?" He wondered.

"Well, it's a long story," He said as his smile grew, "You guys remember the the guy I talked to? the one who gave us the audio?" He asked. "Yeah, the one in the house of ruins," Jenny answered almost immediately.

"Yes, him, his name is Bob." He turned around the U-turn. "When I talked to him, he told me the demon never steps inside his house because of the ruins, since he drew them all over the floor. So, he made a plan with me, he told me since the demon never targets him when he's home, there's no way for him to know what he's up to. He called me and helped me mark down some ruins around dad's old office. I knew if he saw it on the floor, he'd escape so I drew it on the roof of the room with chalk, wasn't easy but it was worth it. And just for fun, I put the ruin that doesn't work on him on the floor using alcohol. I threw a lighter and an almost burned out cigarette on the floor. Made him feel cocky enough to walk right into the center of the actual trap." He smiled. Markus was so proud of his accomplishment.
"I just played the audio, this time he couldn't escape so he burned completely." He said.

"It was originally dad's plan," Lena added. "Apperantly, our dad and Bob played the game together." She smiled proudly. She hated the fact that her dad played the game too, but she was happy that even years after his death, he still protected them.

"Your dad played the game!" Jenny said in disbelief.

"Yeah, who would have thought." Markus said, he waited for comments on his story, which was met by utter silence, he could tell that a part of them was still worried the demon might still be alive.

"Are you sure?" His suspicion became a certainty.

"What do you mean, Tom?" He asked, fighting the paranoia building up in his mind.

"Are you sure he's dead?" Emma joined. "You saw him burn, sure, but are we sure he's dead dead?" She wondered.

"I saw his ashes," Lena said. "Yeah, but is that enough for him to be gone? Should we even bother to let our guard down?" Jenny asked. Markus stayed silent for a good minute before finally breaking the silence.

"No, we shouldn't. Aquilla is dead but Connor is still out there," he said as he hit the gas. "With him out there the game is still ongoing, so we don't completely let our guards down until he's out of the picture too." Markus said.

He hated that it wasn't over, but he knew that if he pretended it was there would be consequences that he could never bear.

Just like that, life went on. Tom completely disappeared. Emma started looking for a job, as did Lena.

Jenny got on multiple dates with Shawn.

Markus studied the paranormal. for a whole month he never stopped looking for the demon's stupid companion, Connor, he looked for him for one reason.

If there's anything they all shared through that month were the nightmares... the damn nightmares.

Aquilla showed up in their dreams, it would start off subtle, quiet green fields with birds singing in the distance, clouds would make their way to the center of the sun, and that's when it would appear.

A small hut in the woods would appear out of nowhere, they'd find themselves get dragged towards the door where Aquila would show up except he's in a human form. White hair, young face, white T-shirt and a dark red flannel over it. Even though he looked human, his grin was too sinister to mistake.

He'd place his hand on whoever was dreaming, and that's when he would turn to an it. That's when he'd show his true colors.

His hands would turn to a dark shade of grey, his fingers would turn to dark claws, blood would leak from the cracks between through the floorboards. He grew taller, too tall. They'd hear his bones crack and he laugh and laugh. His would body would turn completely grey before face would turn to its demonic nature.

Antennas would grow off its back, its skin would turn solid almost like scales, and worst of all, its teeth. From their noraml shape, to pointy swords, blood from the roof would drip onto them only for its long tounge to lick it clean.

Its claws would tear through their flesh, slowly from their lower back to up their shoulders.

They'd scream and squirm but they couldn't move an inch. The demon would continue scratching and cutting through their skin until it reaches the point where it's scratching on the surface of their bones, and that's when it uses it's teeth. It would lift them up and rip them apart with its jaws, then and only then would they wakeup. All of that wasn't the real problem they faced; It was how real it all felt. Every scratch, every bite, every loud sound he'd make they'd feel. For a whole month those dreams didn't stop, for a whole month they'd wakeup screaming, for a whole month the slightest attempt of seeing each other would bring back too much pain, too many memories of the ones they lost.

For a whole month no turn was played, but they died a thousand times every night.

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Wait for the next chapter to see what happens next 😉😉

Don't forget to vote and comment! I hope you liked this chapter, I came up with this dream about 30mins ago and I was like "gotta add that!"

Let me know what you think of the story so far, I'd love to hear your thoughts!

The pic above is an AI generated pic of Aquilla!
The one down here is his mentioned human form: