Daemon High: The Sense of Dread

Household Welfare

Chapter 4: Household Welfare

Ever had that feeling when you're mowing the lawn and then you realize that the weeds are just going to grow back, only to get longer and you feel pissed? Then you suck, cause when the grass just instantly grows back after a long day's work, bigger, longer and tougher, I'm pretty sure you're going to give up.

The things just grow another one when we cut one down, I sliced one in half but it just grew another one from the stump, Clacks wasn't doing anything better, he only knew slice and dice in this situation. Lucy however...let's just say staying close to Xiang is the best thing she can do right now. She's terrible with the sword, I've seen her do better with the Scythe of Despair, Clacks, or seduction, what? All vamps need to know that, Mom taught us right when we hit puberty, it was also the time I learn that humans females bleed once a month, you think that's bad? Huh? Anyways...long story short we weren't doing well, and we were surrounded.

But wait what's that? What the...

“He's just a ghost and he's aflame

hotter than a fantasy, OCD-er than an owl,

He's gonna start the purge by fire

that mad glint in eye, even he wants to he couldn't stop anyway

Ooooooooooooooooooooh,

He's got no feet on the ground,

but he's burning it down,

He's gonna bring it to town,

And he's not backing down...

THIS GHOST IS-”

“Fox shut the hell up, quit mucking about and freaking help me already!” yelled Lawrence. Fox immediately burst out of my cloak, making me feel embarrassed and annoyed at the same time and started to burn down the things. The nerve of that guy and how does he keep doing that?!

Lawrence's white fire and Fox's orange flame met, this caused a huge inferno and one by one the tentacles caught fire and shriveled up. Once all of them were burned to death, Fox opened his mouth, no wait unhinged his jaw and sucked in the rest of the fire. He finished with a smoky burp and said “Well...I'm outta here!” and leaped into my cloak without even giving me time to react.

I'm going to kill that fox, I swear if he pops out of there one more time, I won't care if he's in a hurry, he is going to freaking die.

I glared at Lawrence, but he spoke first, he said “No way I'm letting those things take us, so...I had to call Fox to help,”

“That is the last time you're calling him like that, you hear me?!”

“Yes your majesty,”

I looked to Lucy, she was clinging onto Xiang with Clacks back into his scythe form on the ground next to her. Xiang was trying to peel her off, saying “Alright, alright, just get off me, and you're welcome!”

Lawrence floated right next to him and whispered something to Xiang. I don't want to say what Lawrence said but Xiang's face says everything. He turned to Lawrence and said “Dude! Not cool! Just not cool! Wait 5 more years dude, then tell me that again,”

“Angie? Lucy? What are you two doing?” said a familiar voice. I straightened myself and turned around, I forced on a smile, which in my mind looked pretty fake and looked at my mom. Xiang and Lawrence immediately bowed and said “Lady von Berringwood,”

Mom acknowledged him and said “I've already said that you don't have be so formal to me you two, don't look at me like some royal, look at me as your friend's mother. Now you two what have you been up to? And who did this? Why is everything so burnt? What happened to my spell?”

I tilted my head and asked “Spell?”

“Yes! My household welfare spell! The one I learned from the book your witch friend gave me!” said mom. She got a book from Sabrina a few days back saying that it's an early gift for her birthday, my mom, not knowing much about magic took the book. These last few days she's been dabbling with magic and let's just say, like a mom learning from a new cookbook, she’s not doing well.

Xiang asked “Madam does your spell happen to include black tentacles that grow back instantaneously after they've been cut?”

“No...” said my mother as she shook her head in a dignified manner. Xiang scratched his chin and said “Then where did those tentacles come from? Did you misread something from the book and mistake it for a household welfare spell?”

“Someone mind telling me what the heck is a household welfare spell?” I asked. Lucy turned to me and said “It's a spell that makes the house repair itself, this on the other hand...take the book out, I need to read something,”

I searched around in my cloak, thinking about the book until I grabbed onto something solid, I pulled it out. It was a small black book with a magic rune on it. I think the rune meant 'to secure'. Lucy took the book from me and started flipping through the pages. She muttered as she flipped through the pages.

“Hand knots, household annihilation, household fortification...there we go! Household welfare.”

My mom looked that the page and said “I must have misread the spell...the household welfare spell was nothing like the spell I've read before...”

“Mom? Which page did you flip to?”

“Page 64”

“Eldritch Abomination Summons? Really Mom? Really? How can you mistake Eldritch Abomination for Household Welfare?”

That point mom's dignified air was gone, she hung down her head in shame. Lucy tilted her head and asked, “Mom, you were drunk weren't you?”

She nodded. I facepalmed and so did Lucy, my Mom has absolutely zero tolerance to beer and the castle is filled with those. The things she does when she's drunk makes Dad look like the responsible head of the family. Xiang drifted forward and asked, “Madam, was the black creature connected to the spell somehow?”

Lucy, who was reading the book, said “No, it says here it'll summon a part of an abomination whose name cannot be pronounced unless you are the One and well, nothing else actually, just a huge Cthulu-esque thing that is weak to man's greatest tool,”

I felt something moving near my thigh again, if cold and wet and, It's Fox. He had half of his head in the cloak, eyes and snout visible. His head moved away from my thigh and said “Although the name will not help you in rid of that thing, I'll just point it out that his name is J'slakil Njuyatal. Anyways peace off, boop,”

With that he disappeared, as quickly as he appeared. I didn't even have time to get angry at him. The Fox is scared. Lucy arched her brow and said “Well, that was sudden, anyways we need to find that thing, purge it, preferably by fire and kick his sorry butt out of the castle, and I believe that we should hit the kitchen next, because that's where the other corridor leads to, ready?”

I looked at my mother, who nodded her head and said, “I'm triple the patrols tonight,”

“That thing's not getting away from me again,” said Lawrence, his eyes glinting with a small spark.

“This place is my new home, no way some dude is gonna break it down,” said Xiang.

“That laugh pisses me off,” I said. Everyone looked at me, I shrugged and asked “What? Isn't that a good enough reason?”

Lucy shrugged and asked “Ready?”

The two ghosts and I said in usion “Ready,”

The hunt was on, that thing is going back to see the Spirit of Hell.