Go Away (#TheWattys2015)

Chapter 29: Capture

My mom wasn't home when I woke up the next morning. Her car was in the driveway which was odd. She was probably jogging or something. I was too angry to question it. I grabbed the keys off of the counter and drove off to Tasha's, anger building higher and higher in my chest until I felt like I was on the verge of insanity.

I burst into Tasha's house and stormed into her room, nearly knocking the door down. She jumped from her bed in surprise.
"Hey Daija. What's wro-"
"WHAT THE HELL DID IT MEAN 'thank your friend Tasha for me'"!? WHAT BARGAIN? WHAT DID YOU DO!?" She held her hands up innocently.
"Daija chill, okay. Let me
explain-"
"YOU BETTER START EXPLAINING RIGHT NOW."
"Daija please...just, just calm
down-"
"Calm down? Zack's gone, Bella's stuck in the hospital, some demonic thing is out there plotting lord knows what, and you want me to 'CALM DOWN!?'"
"IT HAS MY MOM DAIJA," Tasha yelled. That shut me up. "It has my mom...," she repeated in a softer voice.
I relaxed and resumed asking questions with a softer tone.
"What exactly did it say to you?" She played with her hands for a while and I grew impatient.
"Tasha!" She jumped and started talking.
"I-I don't really know. It said to tell it where Zack was. Obviously I said hell no. But then it got a knife, a really ugly knife might I point out, and started threatening me." She paused for a second then continued with irritation clear in her voice. "I mean how can you look threatening with such an ugly knife? At least a nice pretty dagger or a sword or something, but c'mon. That ratty old leather thing was as threatening as a kid holding up a toy spoon," she rambled on and on. I slammed my hand on her dresser and she pressed her lips closed.
"Tasha! What happened?" She took a deep breath and held her hands as they started to shake.
"Um, uh. Oh yeah! I laughed at its knife, y'know I was tryna act tough, like, be cool and all, then it opened up my closet and out stumbles my mom tied up. So I was like: 'hey buddy, let her go,' and it got all creepy like: 'if you want her to live you'll lead me to the boy.' So I'm over here freaking out trying to play it cool and say that I didn't know any boy named Zack. But then he-it took the knife and dragged it on the side of my moms throat and she started bleeding. I screamed for it to stop but it kept dragging the knife until it reached all the way across. I blurted out that I've seen Zack before. Then it said once I led it to Zack and it 'retrieved him' I would get my mom back. So I told it. I told it how he was going to your place to study. Then it-it dragged my mom out of the house and disappeared." She burst into tears and I growled in frustration, angrily tugging at my hair. "Daija I'm sorry, I didn't know what else to do-"
"I'm gonna kill it," I said in a low voice. Tasha looked up at me, fear shining in her eyes.
"Daija are you okay?"
"I'm going to stab its freakin eyes out. Even if its the last thing I do." Tasha frantically wiped her tears away and put on a brave face.
"I'll help." I stared at her for a while. There was no way she was backing down. I sighed.
"Alright. But if anything happens to you, if you get even a scratch-"
"I got it. Daija, you gotta trust me. I can take care of myself." I nodded slowly and she got ready to stand up just as something scraped against her window. She bolted up from her bed and came to stand next to me. I looked at the window shocked to find the source of the noise was in fact,
the creatures claw. We stared in horror as the creature wrote in its messy handwriting on the glass. When it was finished, it pressed its face against the glass and smiled at us. Then it disappeared. We stood there staring at the message.

Meet me at the abandoned mall just off of Main Street if you want to see your mother again. She's yours if you show up.

I gripped my hands into fists and turned towards Tasha.
"Flare mission is a go. We're killing that thing no matter what it takes." She nodded with understanding.
"C'mon. I gotta show you something," Tasha said, before sprinting downstairs. We reached the door to her basement and she threw it open, running towards the book shelf on the far wall.
"Help me move this!" I didn't ask why, I just grabbed one side and slid it forwards. Tasha pushed with me and after sliding it to the center of the room, I could clearly see the outline of a door. A small silver doorknob stuck out of the side and Tasha gripped onto it.
"Ready to see something new?" I nodded and couldn't help but smile at the excitement building up inside of me. Tasha twisted the doorknob and pushed on the door. It didn't budge. She slammed her shoulder against it and the door flew open revealing a dark room. The walls were bare, made of cement. The room was nearly empty. In its center was a large black bag, bulging with things inside. Tasha walked around to the back of the bag and looked down at it.
"This was my dads. He stored all his army stuff here. I never really looked inside after he..." She drifted off and I walked over, wrapping my arm around her shoulder, patting it softly. She sniffed and smiled at me. "Well, we should get this thing upstairs. There are weapons in here so we should probably unload them in the kitchen. That way if it attacks and we run out of ammo outside, we can rush in here and grab something else before it gets us. The front door should hold it off a bit." She grabbed onto a black leather handle on the side of the bag and looked up at me as I grabbed the handle on the opposite side.
"You ready?" I nodded and together we pulled. Saying that the bag was heavy would be an understatement. I had to come around and help Tasha push it up the stairs. We pushed and pulled until we finally made it upstairs and collapsed onto the cold floor, panting and desperately trying to catch our breath. We dragged the bag into the kitchen and I watched as Tasha unzipped it slowly.
Inside the bag was a giant black shotgun, a sniper rifle, two Uzi's, a Desert Eagle, a taser, two flare guns, a Swiss Army knife, and a note at the bottom. It's said:
Take care of your mom. Be safe princess
-dad
Tasha held the note in her hands and observed her dads handwriting slowly and carefully. Her hands started to shake and tears welled up in her eyes. I gave her shoulder a comforting squeeze and she wiped her tears away and sniffed, stuffing the note back at the bottom of the bag.
"Okay," she said in a shaky voice, "lets see what we need-"
"Damn you guys are strapped."
I nearly jumped through the roof. Tasha squealed and turned around. We faced a smiling Crystal, who happened to be swinging her legs around while sitting on the kitchen counter.
"Came to help," she said simply. I shook my head and let out a sigh of relief.
"Great."

Tasha started giving me instructions on how to load the guns and how to check for certain things. My dad taught me how to shoot, but he never got the chance to teach me how to take care of the weapon. I helped Tasha load some amo into the rifle and the shotgun while she fixed up the flare gun which had some sort of issue. I groaned as a bullet went flying out of my hand and landed on the kitchen tiles with a soft metallic plink! Crystals eyes followed the bullet but she didn't move.
"Aren't you gonna help?"
I asked, staring at crystal sitting on the counter top, her legs swinging calmly.
"Nah," she answered, waving off my question with a flick of her wrist. "I don't need weapons." Tasha pouted and placed her hands on her hips.
"Oh really?" Crystal thrust her hand downwards and her claws sprung out of her fingertips.
"Yeah," she said with a cocky attitude, "I don't."
"Show off," Tasha muttered while digging out a pack of bullets from the bag and loading the gun. She stopped, going silent for a moment. I looked up from digging in the bag and found her staring at crystal. I watched as crystals nostrils flared and her eyes flashed gold.
"It's here."
"W-wait, like right now?" Tasha stuttered.
"Yes right now! Get out your little weapons and lets go."
Crystal sprinted out of the door and Tasha and I hurriedly followed, a flare gun and a kitchen knife in my hand and the rifle gripped tightly in both of Tasha's hands. The creature stood in the center of the back yard leading out to the woods, its dark eyes narrowed. It cocked its head to the side and smiled devilishly, it's teeth glittering with drool and patches of dried blood. It's snake like tongue flicked out and licked its black lips as it snapped its neck to the side, focusing its eyes on a very angry Crystal.
"Ah, have you missed me my pet?" Crystal growled. Then she bolted forward at blinding speed.
"Crystal don't!" Tasha shouted beside me. But it was too late. Crystal launched herself at it, claws out and teeth bared. She lunged at its throat and it easily side stepped her attack and tripped her, connecting its fist with her face as she fell. She jumped back up to her feet and lunged again, this time going for its stomach. The creature grabbed her outstretched arm and twisted it painfully behind her back. I heard a loud popping sound and Crystal cried out in pain. I aimed the flare gun at the creatures eyes and Tasha lifted the rifle in her hands. The creature smiled at us and chuckled. It's claws flicked outwards towards Crystal's neck. It slid out its claws even further and prepared to rip out her throat. Tasha fired at its exposed leg, but the creature moved and she missed by an inch. The shot rang out and the creature backed away slightly, holding a furious Crystal down with difficulty. She fought her way out of its grip, spun around, and raked her claws across its face. The creature howled in pain and fell down on its knees. Crystal stood over it, her claws retracting back into her hands. Her victory was short lived. With one quick motion the creature was back on its feet and its fist connected with her face, knocking her out cold. She fell limply to the ground and the anger boiling in my chest bubbled higher. I charged forward, knife raised and flare gun aimed at its eyes. I shot the flare in its the direction and it...it flicked it away with its claws. The flare burst with red light as it burrowed into the ground. The creature blinked repeatedly and rubbed its eyes. Then it looked up and smiled at me. I stared in shock and let my anger take over, charging with the knife instead. I thrust it forward at the creatures right eye but I was pushed back with incredible force. My back slammed into Tasha's house and I hit my head hard. I slid down to the ground, my body feeling weak and my head throbbing with pain. My vision started to go blurry and I fought to stay conscious. Tasha ran over to me and dropped the rifle in her hands.
"Holy crap, Daija! Are you okay!?" I nodded slowly and my head exploded with pain. I cried out and grabbed onto my head with my hands. Tasha panicked and started checking for blood. I pushed her away and pointed in front of us where the blurry image of the creature carrying Crystal's limp body was moving out of view.
"It's getting away!" I groaned loudly at Tasha. She scrambled forward and grabbed the rifle, aiming quickly and firing a deafeningly loud shot towards the creature. She missed. It turned around and smiled at her and...I think it was giving her the middle finger. She aimed again but it was pointless.
The creature had disappeared.

And Crystal was gone.