Introduction to After Slawter
The story you are about to read is based on the book Slawter by Darren Shan. I enjoyed this book so much it inspired me to write this short piece. This story is my interpretation of what happened to the character Bo Kooniart. The main character Grubbs has been able to escape the town of Slawter where the horror filmmaker Davida Haym wants to make a film with real demons, but Bo has stayed behind to look for her brother and father. The characters you will meet in this story are Bo, a demon named Artery, a demon master named Lord Loss, Nadia Moore, and Juni Swan. Another character you will meet is a boy I created, Cedric, who bonds with Bo. Artery is the favorite familiar, or servant, of Lord Loss. Lord Loss feeds off of peoples’ agony and pain before he kills them. Nadia Moore was a Disciple, or demon hunter, before she felt betrayed by her master and became one of Lord Loss’s familiars. Juni Swan is a psychologist who deals with children in the movie business and bonds with Grubbs’s uncle while they are on set. I hope you enjoy.
After Slawter
Bo’s life was full of money, gossip, and popularity until she saw her brother eaten by the hell-child Artery. She couldn’t take her eyes away from the demon: leeches streaming out of the holes in his skull, the chomping jaws on his hands, the fire pits in his eyes. It was all horrifying. Then, all of a sudden, a wave of magic flew through her hands and a stream of light electrified Artery. The electricity didn’t hurt him; he just looked a bit peeved.
He turned toward her, Abe’s blood all over his face. Startled, Bo started towards the edge of Slawter, hoping to be able to make a hole in the barrier by killing Artery against it. ‘Oh damn!’ she thought as she ran for her life.
She wasn’t sure she would be able to get to the edge of the barrier without getting killed by the other hundreds of demons that swarmed Slawter. Now that she had tapped into her magical potential she was able to turn her arms into swords just as she had seen Grubbs do when he saved her life earlier. She hoped the rip in the barrier he had made was still holding so she could slip through and live. She continued to block demon assaults although tears were streaming down her face as she realized her brother was dead.
‘If only Davida Haym hadn’t been so greedy about making her horror film with real demons. Why wouldn’t she just let computers do all the work for her? If she had, my brother and father would still be alive, and I wouldn’t know about demons or magic. But then I wouldn’t have met Grubbs’, she thought. She had teased him in the past, but truly deep down she had an enormous crush on him. She continued to flee Artery, but she was now flying about five feet off the ground, swerving around demon after demon, trying not to pay attention to the poor victims that lay on the ground before them.
As she neared the edge of Slawter, where she had left Grubbs to look for her brother she saw that the barrier had closed. Her heart fell as she noticed Lord Loss nearby. The demon master was currently torturing an 8 year old boy. Bo couldn’t bear to look at him; it just traumatized her too much. She glanced back at Artery, he was having trouble racing through the demons, and Bo had the advantage of flying. She eyed a hat shop and busted through the door, racing toward the back room.
Once she was there she drifted to the ground and was about to hide behind a barrier when she heard a noise. She went to investigate and found a 12 year old boy with a traumatized look on his face cowering in a corner.
She noticed that one of his legs had a claw tear in it and it looked as though it might detach from his body. She started to put a hand on it to see if she could heal it, but he whimpered and slid away. “It’s okay.” She whispered, “I won’t hurt you, I’m trying to heal you. What’s your name?”
