Dying Three Times

Phoenix

Phoenix's P.O.V

     Nobody believed me when I said I knew what happened to them. And everyone who actually did was taken. It sounds like the movies; A kid moves to a new town and rumor has it his house is haunted. He soon them discovers a graveyard outside of his house from the 1950's and the next thing you know, the kid is all alone. My parents were taken first. It happened when they said they wanted to take a look at the graveyard and never came back. A week passed, so my brother Derick thought it was a great idea to go find them and also disappeared. But that time, I saw what happened to Derick. I was watching though my bedroom window.

      It all happened very fast. All the grave stones disappeared at once, and then he fell into a whole in the ground. Seconds later, the stones appeared, Derick nowhere to be seen. Now three family members short, the only person I had left was my girlfriend Veronica. We decided  to find more about this "magical force" and  planned to camp out on the graveyard the same night my brother had gone. Big mistake.

     I woke up that morning to find myself alone. No Veronica. And I knew she wouldn't leave me here without saying goodbye, so she was defiantly taken.  Now I was a 17 year old guy with no friends, no family and no girlfriend. And what's worse? Everyone in this town thinks I'm a psychopath who is seeing things. Or that I killed them. Or both. I knew I had to get them back, dead to alive, to prove that I wasn't in fact, seeing things. So I planned another week or so, and noticed that all of the disappearances seemed to have happened around the time 11:11. No sooner, no later. I decided to head out that day. No more waiting, it was time to put up a fight.

     I sprinted my way though the eerie looking graveyard about five minutes early, just to make sure I was there before I missed my time slot. Two minutes passed before I started to hear strange noises coming from behind me. Heart racing, I turned around to reveal just the blackness that I'd left behind. It's all in your head I kept telling myself as I turned around a final time. But this time, things were different. I wasn't alone. There, in the darkness, was a pair of eyes watching me. Not your average green, blue and brown, but a vibrant purple. The person the eyes belonged to; I had no clue. They glowed in the dusk as I just stood there, loosing more confidence by the second.

     Then the figure mocked, "You shouldn't have come out here, you know."

      "No shit." I snapped

      I guess he could still tell I was almost on the verge of wetting my pants, "What's the matter, never seen a demon before?" he smirked and took a step toward me. I could now see him just a tad better then I did seconds ago. He seemed to have some type of dark hair color. He also looked average height, assuming he was around my age.

     After about two minutes of looking at the guy he spoke again, "Are you checking me out?" He had a look of sheer confusion on his face, and it was just priceless.

     Holding my laughter I responded ,"Not into the whole gay thing. Or the whole demon thing for that matter."

     The last thing I had said must've ticked him off, because he came charging right at me. I had no experience in fist fighting, so I knew where this was heading. I stood still, bracing the impact and tumbled to the ground when it arrived. Then soon afterwards he pinned me to the ground and punched me several times in the stomach. The last time he did so I let out a whimpering sob and curled up into a little ball on the ground, holding the spot that I just got kicked in with my arms, wincing the tears out of my eyes.

     "Rule number one,"  he spoke with aggravation in his voice, "Never insult a demon." He walked over to a massive statue that I couldn't make out  in the dead center of the graveyard, leaving me on the ground in throbbing pain ten feet away from him. Even though he was that far away, I could still see what he was doing. He pushed the stone on it's side with ease, revealing a shallow hole beneath. He hopped into the pit, crouching down so I couldn't see him anymore.

     Two minutes pass, I'm still on the ground, and he's still in the hole fiddling around. I then heard a very faint clicking noise from that direction and all the gravestones started going into the ground below simultaneously , just like I saw out of my window. He jogged back over to where I was laying on the ground still and grabbed my wrist. The scorching pain grew worse as he yanked me off the ground and dragged me over to a grave site in the far corner of the now flat terrain. On account that all of the headstones had seeped into the ground a little while ago, I didn't know who's grave I was actually gazing over. As if the stranger was reading my mind he said, "It's mine. What happens after you die is that they hold a whole meeting for you on weather you should be an angle or a demon. While the angles are holding this meeting, the demons usually turn the soul first, before the angles have a say in anything. Once your a demon, you can either wait for people to die or do what I do and turn live people instead of dead ones. Well..." he said, taking a breath before continuing with the tangent "After you're turned I guess you're considered as dead anyway. I'm actually doing you a favor, you know. Instead of having to experience death twice, I'm only making you suffer though it once. You see, you're supposed to die, and then people usually get turned by demons so that's twice. But if you die by getting turned by a demon, then you only have to die once." I starred at the kid, a lost for words. I just starred down at my black Converse, not saying a word. I looked up slightly only to see that his hand was still wrapped around my wrist, gripping it tightly, balancing my crippled body. Then the ground started to shake.

     The patch of dirt where the demon's dead body was laid who knows how long ago started to sink into the ground, making the patch of dirt a hole again. The hole was very elongated and very deep. The longer I looked at it, the more I thought of it was a ravine than a hole. The demon snapped his fingers, and a staircase started to descend, moving faster the deeper it got like trickling water going down a shower wall. The stranger still hadn't let go of my sweaty wrist. He instead tightened his grip, almost to the point of loosing circulation. He tugged me down the steep staircase, almost making me fall plenty of times. We eventually got to the bottom, with not much room at the end of the big pit. The staircase actually took up a lot of the room, and the only thing that was left was a foot perimeter with a wooden casket inside it. The stranger bent down, still holding my wrist so I had to bend down as well, and knocked on the casket three times. The old thing creaked open, and a scarlet red light shined though. Once my eyes came into focus, I was a room below. Without warning, the demon pushed me in.

     I hit the ground. Hard. I'd fallen on my back, feeling as though my spine shattered into a million pieces. The demon lunged after me, hissing like an angry cat. I tried to get up and at least fight back, but to no avail. I thought he would just turn me and that would be it, like he had told me. But no, he was trying to kill me; taking me into his arms and seeping his teeth into my flesh, ripping my soul from my insides, leaving nothing but a dead body behind. I knew he had won and I had lost. I had no chance in the first place. I just shut my eyes and prepared for the worst.

     "William Jason Benett, stop before you turn the poor boy," I heard a calm voice say. Right then, the demon tossed me on the ground. The voice wasn't a familiar one to me; and it sure wasn't the demon who's name was apparently Will. I opened my eyes just barely enough to see a glowing figure standing in front of me. He put his hands right on the spot where Will had bitten. The pain become numb, nonexistent.

       I then heard Will mummer under his breath,  "Fuckin' angel," but I on the other hand  couldn't be more grateful. Soon most of my body felt healed. Even though I felt okay, I didn't feel normal, I felt...different. Will and the angle who saved me who's name is Gabe started to get into a conversation that I had no interest partaking in. Plus, I didn't want to risk my life again. So, I stayed on the ground, building as much energy as possible. Once both Will and Gabe seemed to forget about me, I made my way to the nearest door. With my luck, it wasn't in an exit, but much more a bathroom. It was a pretty normal looking bathroom, with the theme of the beach. The walls were a baby blue, and there was a beautiful picture of  a crashing wave on the back wall. The floor was white tiles and it also had a small white bath mat for the shower on the floor. I walked past the two person mirror, not believing what I saw. I opened my mouth, and my teeth were partly fanged. I starred myself in the eye, and they flashed the same vibrant purple as Will's. At that moment, I knew for sure. I, Phoenix Jaxon, are officially half mortal, half demon.