The Demon's Chase

Chapter 8

The next afternoon, Hazel and I remained safe in the cave, cooking dinner for the evening. That's when everything happened so abruptly. I heard a large thud and Hazel and I both flashed concerned looks at each other. We ran to the side of a wall and looked back. When we turned around, we saw a giant viper, standing about 13 feet tall.

"What the heck..?" Hazel muttered. It came lunging at her with it's fangs wide open.

"No!" I screamed, lunging at her. I managed to push her aside and it barely skimmed the seam of my jeans. The viper hissed as it swayed back and forth. We both sprinted for the tunnel that led to the other cave, but we just hid in the tunnel because we knew the snake couldn't get us from there. I looked at Hazel and then everything went into slow motion. My vision grew dull and black and white. Everything slowed to a stop as I turned around and saw the demon. My heart stopped cold. He smirked, his scraggly white hair falling in front of one eye.

"Don't move, and my little friend won't hurt you. Move and it will kill Hazel"

"You sick ba-"

"Ah-ah-ah. Be nice now". I glared at him as everything resumed. "Why are you doing this, why me?"

"Whoops" he said as I gave him a confused look. He pushed me out of the tunnel and Hazel looked at me.

"Get back in here! What happened?!". The demon laughed and locked eyes with me, pushing Hazel out as well.

"No, Hazel get back! You'll be hurt he's out to get you!"

"The snake?"

"The demon.". She froze. The snake grabbed her between it's jaws.

"No!" I screamed in defiance. I whipped around to the demon, tugging his shoulder close to me. "You can't do this. I dragged her into this please take me! She deserves to live, or else I'll be the reason she dies and that's worse than death for me. I can't afford to lose another person that I actually care about. I'm running out of them"

"I know" the demon spoke, "I intend to make them extinct.". As he said this, with the snap of his fingers, the viper clenched it's teeth and sunk them into Hazels stomach, dropping her to the ground. I ran over to her side, falling down to her on my shins.

"Hazel?". She responded, but was barely hanging on. "I can fix this, I know I can. I will" I said, tears filling my eyes, one slipping down onto her arm.

"Some things are un-fixable. You'll do just fine without me, I'm glad I could help you all this way kiddo.."

"No! Don't you start that with me, you'll live. I know you will!" I quickly wiped my tears away, shaking her shoulder.

"Always keep fighting, you've got a fighter personality. I always liked that in you. Defeat this demon punk, show him your strength and don't give up til he's on his knees for mercy or dead. Just... keep fighting".

"No! Stop it, I'll fix this. This is all my fault. Hazel...?". No response.

"Hazel? Please?!" I shook her lightly, her head fell the other way and she looked grey. She was gone.

I hated myself just about now. She could've been at home with her family on Thanksgiving if it weren't for me. She could've been alive. But I lost her and I couldn't even do anything about it. If this is what determination to kill a demon felt like, well, I definitely didn't feel this before. But now, well, now I was ready. As ready as I could be.