Vision

Chapter nine

Chapter 9:

The Journal

It has been a day or two since the incident with Zach. Nobody wishes to speak of it. Jack had taken far more extensive damage than he had thought. As the team moves to a new base, he is put into a private hospital. The team continues to view ways to stop the apocalypse from ever taking place, but are so far unsuccessful.

 He groans in pain as he slowly lifts his legs over the bed and sits up straight. He puts his right hand to his ribcage and squints. He gradually stands up straight, trying to not break anymore of his bones. He fights the pain, battling to control it. He suddenly falls to the ground and gets up steadily. He feels like every part of his body has been stung by a thousand wasps.

At that moment, Dave enters the room.

“Whoa, man,” he starts, perplexed, “when I said you’d get better fast, I didn’t mean this fast “

He puts Jack’s arm over his shoulder, walking him over to the bed.

“Why are you here?” probes Jack.

“Nancy told me to check up on you,” he answers, “but there’s something else too. She thought you might want to see this.”

At that moment, Dave takes out an old, dusty journal. It reads: “A Slayer’s Journal.” There aren’t many pages, probably about fifty. Jack slides his thumb across the sheets of the ancient autobiography.

“What is it?” he asks, confused.

“It’s Eron’s old journal. I think you’ll find it very interesting.”

“After everything that’s happened recently…I seriously doubt it."

“Just read it.”

As Dave leaves the room, Jack runs his fingers down the few pages of the book and finally decides to open it.

May 14, 1971

It was raining, dark and cold. I waited in the central courtyard for the demons to come. I drew my sword and the bloodbath had soon begun. My mission was to finish what my ancestor had started long ago. He never did succeed in completing the task, although he thought he did. After I had finished the rest of them off, I interrogated the general of that pathetic army. He told me where to find Apollyon and I gave him a quick death.

After I had followed the coordinates that he had given me, I found out that it had been a trap. Abaddon had sent fifteen locusts to take my life…well, try to, at least. I would have to find a way into the Bottomless Pit. I somehow knew that Apollyon was there and had always been there, commanding and controlling all of the troops, the King of the Bottomless Pit. If not me, then someone else should take his life, someday.

He scans the page once more and slowly takes in the information. What the hell does it mean? Who is supposed to kill Apollyon? Who is he, anyway? He has so many questions and no answers at all. He’s flying blind.

He hears something in the corridor and listens. He makes no move at all. He doesn’t want to. He needs to listen. It can’t be another demon. It has to be someone he knows. He is in no condition to fight.

He hears the door creak and sees it opening slightly. The sound of the door mildly hurts his ears, since he had taken damage there. He watches, impatiently, waiting for someone to pop through the door, so that his anticipation can be put to rest. He only wants it to end.

He is relieved to see Nancy walking through the door in clutches. She had broken her one leg after the incident. He smiles at her, warmly and she smiles back at him.

“Well, I guess it didn’t take them that long to start the rehabilitation process.”

“No, these doctors are pretty fast.”

“So…did you like the roses I sent you?”

“Yeah, they were nice. Thank you.”

Jack’s eyes widen in distress. He slowly puts his hand under his pillow, where he has hidden his throwing knife and secretly takes it in his hand.

“Is there something wrong, sweetheart?”

Jack point his finger towards the ceiling and she looks in that direction.

“What’s wrong?” she asks, “I don’t see—“

Suddenly, Jack throws his knife directly into her back and she shrieks in pain. When he hears the noise, Big Dave sprints over to Jack’s room and crashes through the door that had been closed by Nancy.

“What the hell did you do to her?!” he exclaims.

“It isn’t her, it’s an imposter!”

“How do you know that?!”

“I asked her she liked the roses I gave her, but I gave her orchids because she’s allergic to roses!”” he squelches.

She falls to the ground, turns her head to face Dave and her skin slowly starts to peel off of her body, revealing the body of a demon with leathery wings and a hideous appearance. The creature desperately, ineffectively tries to take out the sharp knife in its back. It wail in despair and decides to focus on its primary target, Jack. It was sent there to kill him.

It starts to lift itself up into the air with its wings and dives in on him. Dave doesn’t have any weapons with him since they wouldn’t allow them in a public hospital, so he tackles the monstrosity and pins it down. He sucker punches the beast in the face while it is still off guard. When it realises what is happening, it scratches him in his stomach and tries to break free. It almost does…almost, but Dave catches it by the wing. Its wing tears and is loose, but soon loses its levitation in the air, since its wing is crushed.

It falls to the ground headfirst. Dave pins it down again, this time by the neck, using his right arm. He grabs the creature’s head with his left arm and breaks its neck. Dave sits down next to the corpse, crossed-legs, and watches it turn to ash.

“Before this, I was a happy guy with a freaking quiet life, but ‘nooo’, it’s demon-slaying for me,” he grumbles.

“What the hell happened to you guys?!” asks the real Nancy, as she walks into the poor, small room that had been through so much.

“Well,” answers Big Dave, “Jack stabbed you in the back and then I killed you.”

“Guys, cut out the freaking sex-talk,” she retorts, angry at them both.

“That isn’t what I—“articulates Dave.

“A demon disguised as you broke into the hospital and tried to kill me. Dave saved me by breaking its neck and there was a happy ending,” explains Jack.

“Wait, it looked like me and you killed it?!” she questions.

“Its true form was revealed after I threw a knife in its back.”

“What?!”

“I asked it if it liked the roses and it said ‘yes’,” he answers.

“Oh,” she utters, “now I get it.

”But, wait a minute, how’d you know?” she questions.

“You told me.”

“Did I?” she asks, “I can’t remember that.”

“On the way to the hospital, in the…Ferrari, you fell asleep on my lap. You told me then,” he explains.

“While I was dreaming?”

“Yeah.”

She laughs at herself in her thoughts, and smiles at him, but only a little.

“Um, guys,” asks Big Dave, “if you’re going to kiss please do it somewhere else so that I don’t have to look.”

Thanks for reading this chapter, guys!!! Please leave a comment. (: (;