Tragedy ✔️

Chapter 27

"Fire!" shouts Richard.

Under the red sun, slowly steaming the surface of the Earth, we shoot at the demon hound. The beast is taken aback and drops the head of the mail man on the blackened grass. The body of the mailman stands for about one more second then it falls to the ground in a heap.

The other humans scream in pure terror. And they have every right. I would piss my pants if I was alive. The world is ending, a monster that walks on two legs, is furry, and with the head of a horse rips the head off a mail man and a red army starts shooting at it with strange weapons.

The other humans run off down the street. Richard and Tony keep shooting at the beast until its head explodes and black goop splashes all over them.

"Who's gonna pay for the dry cleaner?" Richard jokes. Even at the face of demons and with the world ending, he keeps his sense of humor.

Then, a horrible screeching sound, like a bird and a dinosaur created a remix, is heard in the distance.

"Look over there," says Susan, "Run!"

I am about to turn around to see what Susan is pointing at, but Tony pushes me in the opposite direction and we start running. The suit is really hot with the sun being hotter now, and the gun is really heavy. The adrenaline I had before is starting to diminish and so is my stamina.

I whip my head back for just a second and that is when I see them. It is a pack, about twenty or so, of demon hounds. They are moving on all four legs like a gorilla, but at incredible speed. That is when I know we'll never outrun them.

"We have to take shelter!" I shout, my heart racing as we flee the beasts. The sight of them has injected a bit more adrenaline back in my system.

"In here," pants Susan and we take a sharp right. We climb a small flight of stairs to the doors of what looks like a city building and Matt kicks open a door.

When we all enter the building, he closes the door behind us and we help him shove file cabinets to block the entrance from the demons. We are about to put a cabinet on the second door when a door swings open, hitting me in the face.

I am taken off guard and that is when it bites my arm. Fear enters my system and haunting memories flash before my eyes.

My dad leaving. My mom dying of cancer. Me killing both me and Annie by driving into the moving train. Me killing my sister again. Mandy falling into the coma. Ms. Pudge killing my mother. Losing Charlotte to the king.

All of this sadness; it feeds the demon, and it drains the life out of me along with it. These memories cross before my eyes but as they change from one to another, the snout of the demon biting my arm quickly flashes by.

There's no hope anymore. Was there any to begin with when my father left me? Every single one of these painful memories are a sign that hope was never in my favor. Nothing good ever happened to me. Now this is how I will die.

The passing memory of Mandy and I falling through the portal in the stairs of her home is suddenly shut off. I only black out for just a second when I see a picture again. Only this picture is Matt with a small file cabinet by him, a big crack on his skull with blood gushing out of it, and his eyes rolled back.

I blink and blink for a thousand times, trying to get an explanation of what I am seeing. One minute, I was bitten by a demon and was dying while seeing painful memories. The next, the new member of our squadron is dead.

Dead. Not destroyed. He didn't turn to dust and disappear like everyone else who I witnessed become destroyed. No. He is just laying there like any human. Dead.

"Wha- what the hell happened?" I groan, sitting on the ground. I move my arm but it hurts like hell. Looking down, I see my arm is bleeding from big teeth marks stamped on it.

Bleeding. All of this seems normal in the case of an attack. You bleed when you are hurt. But not when you are already dead.

Perplexed, I stare at my arm. Then across from me to Matt's crushed head. I then look up to Richard, Tony, and Susan who are looking back and forth from my arm to Matt.

"Can someone please tell me what is going on?" I am angry now, "What happened to Matt?"

Richard walks over to me and bends his knees to lower himself down to me. He opens his mouth but no words come out. He closes it again, as if to reconsider his words and finally settles for,

"I don't know."

I chuckle, "What do you mean you don't know, Richard?"

"I don't know! We were putting the cabinets on the door and then the demon hound barges in and attacks you. We pull up our guns to help you but more of them barge in. We shoot at the others to try to get to you but they put up a fight. One of them grabs Matt's gun and breaks it in half. I shoot the beast and it dies. Matt has no weapon but he has a clear path towards you. He grabbed one of the small file cabinets that were closest to him and threw it across the room at the demon that was attacking you. You got released from his bite. I had a clear shot at the demon but before I could shoot it..."

Richard pauses. He looks up to the ceiling then down to the floor. He puts his hand to his chin and shakes his head.

"Tell me," I whisper.

"Before I could shoot it, the beast hauled the cabinet back at Matt, hitting him right in the head."

I stare at Richard and say, "That isn't possible. You know the rules. Dead people can't die the same way as humans."

"And dead people don't bleed," he says, pointing at my arm.

"The sun," speaks Susan, and we all turn to face her. "The unusual and sudden sunrise. The star was flaming, literally. Brighter than normal. Then there was that big gust of air coming from it. I believe that triggered something. Something that changed the rules of the universe here on Earth."

"So," I begin, "What you are saying is-"

"We can die any minute," she says, "We can die at any time, in any place, and in any way. We are alive again."