The Demons Strike at Dawn |Phan

Chapter Four

Phil's eyes opened first.
He looked around the unknown room, noting the dust covered boxes and books. He felt a pressure on his back and looked behind him, where an unconscious Dan was slumped over, their wrists bound together. Phil tugged at them experimentally, but the rope stayed tight.
He tried to wake up Dan, hitting him in the back with their bound hands. Phil knew Dan must've had a pocket knife, he could've sworn he put one in his pocket earlier.
He heard footsteps come from farther up the staircase in the corner, and slumped over himself.
The footsteps reached the landing and stood I front of Phil. "I know you're awake." The voice was the woman from earlier's. Phil stayed slumped over, eyes closed, hoping she would just leave them.
A searing pain spread from Phil's cheek as the demon slapped him. Phil opened his eyes and stared up at her, teeth gritted.
"I said," the woman repeated. "I know you're awake." She smiled and walked over to Dan, kneeling down I front of him. "New hunter, probably." She stood up, shrugged, and looked back at Phil. "Now, Phil Lester." A sickening smile spread across the woman's face. "I've heard of you. What are doing, working with this one? He's a little inexperienced, isn't he?"
Phil glared at the demons black eyes. "We had the same case. We worked on it together." He said bitterly. He felt a tug at his wrists, signaling that Dan was awake, and knew he was working on the ropes. Phil decided to keep distracting the demon. "I didn't realize there was a certain experience requirement on being hunting partners." Phil said, making the demon roll it's eyes.
"You're a big name, how is it you ended up with some lowbrow nobody?" She asked again, as if Phil hadn't already told her.
"I said we ended up working the same case." Phil sighed. "God, you're stupid." More pain spread from his cheek just as he felt the ropes release on his wrist. He lunged at the demon off the floor, and Dan took that opportunity to use a pen from a table to draw a really crappy Devils Trap on the ground. Phil pushed the demon into it and they taped her mouth, so they weren't given away. There were two doors on either side of them, and then there was the staircase that lead them upstairs. Dan peeked through a crack in the left door to find that the hunter he knew all too well, Lily Singh, was lying there unconscious and tied up. He signaled to Phil to check the right door.
Phil had to contain himself from running into there. It was Zoella and Alfie, tied up and sitting together.
Dan pointed to the stairs, and the two of them crept up the stairs, Dan following the lead of this new hunter, without knowing any of his plans.
Phil peeked out from a bend at the top of the stairs, not spotting any demons or even life. He squinted his eyes. That was just too easy, almost like it was too easy. Phil took a tentative step out. Nothing. He signaled to Dan, and they took off out the front door of the library. Dan opened the drivers seat into the Impala. He started the car, and soon they were on the road.
"That was too easy." Said Dan. "They let us go. We didn't escape."
Phil nodded, taking a journal out of the glovebox in front of him. "They took everything but your knife. They knew you had it." Phil flipped through the pages, looking for anything written about demons.
Dan took a sharp right. "They've got Zoella and Alfie. Which means the bar isn't safe anymore." Phil said, gripping his seat. No where for them to research or figure things out, unless Dan had a secret panic room.
Dan drove them to a concrete, square building covered with spray painted symbols. Phil glanced at Dan, but Dan was already out of the car and heading inside. Phil jogged to catch up with him, and Dan nervously held open the large metal door.
"What is this place?" Phil asked looking around. There were Devils traps on the floor, torture devices on every wall, wards against demons scrawled everywhere. Phil stared at Dan.
"You have a secret panic room." Phil rolled his eyes. Of course Dan did. He was just the master of perfect timing.
Dan went to one of the many shelves and grabbed a leather bound journal.
"Okay, so what I have here is that demons are controlled by only two beings, Lucifer and the King of Hell. But seeing as Satan is trapped somewhere down there, chances are it was the King of Hell that sent them up here." Phil stared at Dan yet again. It wasn't hard. He was beautiful, but that's not what caught Phil's attention this time.
"Dan, this... This is huge. This many demons? Being controlled by the king of Hell?" Phil shook his head. "I've been a hunter a long time, and even I can't do this." He added. "Maybe we should let some other hunters take care of this."
Dan walked up to Phil, boldly getting close to him. "I don't know if you remember," he said, steely calm. "But all of the hunters are down there in that basement. There are no other hunters to leave it to. This is our case now, whether we like it or not." Phil nodded. It was true after all. He'd seen his friends with his own eyes.
"Fine," Phil said. "So let's summon the King of Hell. I mean really, how bad could he be?"