You're Real After All....

Gone

"Darko!" Ryan screamed as he kicked the demon away. Darko stumbled back and shook his head at the blow before he lunged at Ryan again. The gamer rolled out of the way and stumbled away from the tree, watching as Darko trained his gaze on him. 

"What do I do?" He whispered as he nearly avoided another attack from Darko.

That's when he saw it: a big branch by the tree--big enough to seriously hurt someone. 

"That's it!" Ryan suddenly went for it, and his instincts kicked in when he heard the footsteps charging behind him.

The branch was swung and broke in half when it collided with Darko's head, which made a sickening crunch at the impact. He screamed in pure agony and collapsed to the ground.

"YOU FUCKING BASTARD. YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR THAT!" Darko screamed in fury.

"Oh God, he's still alive?" Ryan looked terrified as Darko got up and started to stalk forward, simply stepping over the previously broken branch. Ryan went to take a step back, but Darko attached a hand to the collar of his shirt and forcefully began to pull him forward, ripping the article of clothing in the process. Ryan stopped moving, watching in frozen horror as Darko's eyes changed in color.

Ryan flinched back and shut his eyes as Darko lunged his claws forward. He then opened his eyes as a scream echoed past his ear. He froze, but turned to see the claws were embedded in Baz's shoulder.

Ryan broke out of Darko's grasp, and stepped back as Baz slid against the tree and sat on the ground. He was breathing heavy as he held his bleeding shoulder.

"Baz?! What the hell are you--?"

"Ryan, run!" Another voice called out. The drummer turned around again, and saw that Seàn was there too, holding the book in his hands.

"I know how to stop Darko, but you need yo get away from him!"

Ryan snapped back into action and started to run away from the alter ego, who was really pissed his execution was ruined. 

"You dumbasses. How naive you all are. You think you can stop me just like that? I don't fucking think so."

Darko made a mad dash towards Seán, who quickly moved out of the way and turned the next page in the book.

While Darko was distracted, Ryan ran back over to Baz, who was still bleeding pretty bad.

"Baz, what the hell are you two doing here? Where's Lewis?"

"Lewis is fine, h-he's with Will."

Ryan sighed in relief and looked at the big dripping wounds in the older's shoulder. Cringing, he applied pressure to it in an attempt to slow the bleeding, causing Baz to grunt in discomfort. 

"Jesus mate, that was really fucking stupid," the older Brit frowned, but Ryan held up a hand in protest, "and I admire that. You saved my life, dude."

Baz shook his head, "No, not yet. We still need to wake you up. You're slowly dying here."

"PROHIBERE! Ego mandatum vos! Dimittas, et his qui vivunt, eorum vitae continues." Seán read from the book as he backed Darko into a corner.

The alter ego's skin was melting when Ryan looked over at him, and his screams were becoming distorted.  That's when Ryan noticed the necklace around Sean's neck.

It was a diamond and pearl necklace, which is supposed to protect him from evil spirits. Maybe that's why Darko couldn't hit him?

"Morietur, vos bastardis!"

Ryan let go of his bleeding friend's back and made his way over to the weak alter ego.

"Y-You idiots! I will never die! I'll kill every last one of you!"

"This is for torturing us." Ryan's eyes were hooded as he landed a hard punch onto Darko's nose, which made another gross crunching sound. 

The demon fell to the ground again, but this time he didn't get back up. His body was still drained of color and Ryan nearly screamed in joy when he saw his friends' figures fading from the forest.

"We're waking up! We fucking did it!" Seán cheered as he slammed the book shut.

"Holy shit, we did it! We killed him!" Ryan breathed as he wiped the dirt off his hands and onto his pants.

"Yeah, and he almost took us with him." Baz grunted as he took his hand off his shoulder.

The wounds looked absolutely disgusting, and it reeked of copper, but that didn't matter to them. They were finally free.

Will was sitting on the couch, scratching at his cast nervously, while Lewis was pacing around the living room and biting his nails. They were all nubs at that point, but he was too anxious to stop. Will didn't blame him.

The other youtuber had eventually told him what had happened when he left the house that day; from the moment he thought he saw Lewis in the road, to the moment he hit the tree and his arm snapped.

The gamer started crying after the story, blaming himself and apologizing profusely. But Will had violently shut him down, not allowing him to blame himself for long.

When Lewis saw his friends jolt awake from their sleep, he nearly screamed in joy and the fear he had was gone.

"Oh my God, you guys are alive!" Will exclaimed and interrupted whatever Lewis was gonna say, if he was even able to say anything at all. 

"Yeah, yeah we're okay." Seán gasped when he sat up from his position. The color in his and Baz's skin were returning to normal, and Will felt dread fill him when he saw that Baz was hurt and bleeding.

"You're hurt..." he weakly stated, hanging his head slightly.

"Don't blame yourself for this,  Will. There was nothing you could do. You're in no condition to hurt anyone, anyway."

Will didn't have a chance to retaliate because the coughing fit from Ryan's chair wiped away everyone's thoughts in that moment.

"O-oh my God, R-Ryan?!" Lewis practically dove to his boyfriend's side and grabbed his hand.  The grip was tight, almost bruising.

Ryan was quick to sit up, and the color of his skin was returning to normal, and the marks Darko gave him were starting to show.

He had a splitting headache of course, but knowing that Darko was gone made it bearable. 

He looked up at Lewis with a smile and rubbed the sleep from his burning eyes, "Hey Lew, what's for dinner?"

Laughs were heard around the room and Lewis nearly cried at the sound of his voice. Something he didn't think he'd hear again. 

"You asshole!" He chuckled before he pulled Ryan into a much needed kiss.

Ryan kissed back and held the younger male close. Both felt safe in each other's arms.

What added to Sean's feeling of accomplishment and happiness was the look on the others' faces when they saw the kiss happen; wide eyed and completely shocked.

Ryan was getting blood in Lewis's hair, but they didn't care. Darko was gone.