Dead!

Chapter 32

Chapter 32

After all of that, I raced home to make sure that Grandma was alright. I knocked on the door, and Grandma answered. "Ivy!" she exclaimed, giving me a hug. "You're okay!"

"Yeah, I'm fine," I said. "Are you okay?"

"I'm not okay!" Maya shouted from inside the house. "I promise!"

I ignored her and asked the same question to Grandma again. "The demons didn't come into our house," she answered. "We're very lucky. The Zhangs' house burnt down. I'm going to bake some cookies for them. If either of you would like to help, you can."

"Sure, I'll help," Maya said. "Well, as long as I get to pick the music that we listen to while we make the cookies."

"I'll pass," I said. "I'm tired, and I have work tomorrow."

I went up to my room, and immediately crashed onto my bed. My seventeenth birthday had somehow managed to be exhausting, terrifying, and thrilling all at once, and I loved it.

The next day, I woke up early to go to work. When I got there, Rosie had me take pictures of the damage around Cedar Creek. I saw that the demons had caused all kinds of chaos throughout the town. Many of the houses had been broken into and a few had been destroyed. Statues had been toppled and several trees had been uprooted. Thankfully, all of the citizens of Cedar Creek were fine, but we all were fortunate. If this were to happen again, we probably wouldn't be so lucky.

I spotted Adam on the way home from work, but he was too busy redoing all of the work that had been undone by the attack to talk to me. He promised that he would talk to me later in the week though.

When I finally got home, Maya greeted me at the door. "I'm going to the park again with Henri, Jack, and Raj," she said. "Do you want to come?"

"Sure," I said. I followed Maya to the park, and when we got there, we saw that the boys were already there. "Hi everyone," I said.

"Hello Ivy," Henri said.

"Maya!" Raj exclaimed. "You're okay!"

"I thought I texted you that," Maya said. "Did you give Ivy her gift?"

"Yeah, she really liked it," Jack said. "The demons kind of ruined everything though."

"It wasn't that bad," I said. "At least I had an exciting birthday."

"Not in a good way," Henri said. "That was scary. What if Anthony comes back?"

"That would be terrifying, but we could get rid of him," Raj said.

"I bet he looks like Brendon Urie by now," Maya said.

"That makes no sense," Jack said. "Anthony didn't look like Brendon Urie before, so how could he look like him now?"

Maya didn't really have an answer for that. "Uh...I don't know," she said. "Some of those demons did look like Brendon in Emperor's New Clothes."

"You keep talking about that video," I said. "I don't think you know what it means."

"Did you just reference The Princess Bride?" Henri said. He gave me a high five and then said, "That's my favorite movie!"

"It's one of my favorites too," I said. "It's just so quotable!"

"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die," both of us said simultaneously.

"Oh, I love that movie!" Henri exclaimed.

"I've never seen it," Jack said.

"Inconceivable!" I shouted.

"Really Jack?" Maya said. "You've never seen The Princess Bride?"