Killer From Purgatory || BBS

Chapter 4

TWO YEARS EARLIER

Smitty's hands shake as he fishes for his phone, unable to get them into his pocket as his eyes stay glued to the bloody body of his best friend that lay on the floor in front of him. A hole in his chest steals the breath from him as his fingers fumble to keep a grip on his mobile device. There's only one thought in his head, call Evan, he should be the first one he should tell. He's too panicked to notice the faint rise and fall of Scott's chest.

The phone falls to the ground unexpectedly, and he slowly crouches down and blindly reaches for it, his eyes watching as the blood pool grows larger and larger.

Behind him, the door bursts open.

Several men march inside, wearing black suits and button downs as they file into the apartment. Smitty is speechless, only translating into his head that he is going to die and he begins to shake even more as they pull in another man who has chains connecting his wrists and ankles together.

"Wh-who..." The human presses himself against the wall in fear as the chained man begins to struggle against the restraints. The suited men drag him further inside, closer to Scott's body.

"You, take care of the human, we got the shapeshifter." One of them instructed to his companion and immediately a couple of them moved in closer to Smitty, who opened his mouth to scream but they were fast in tackling him to the ground. He struggled against them, not wanting to die.

"Hey, hey, relax, relax." One of them says to Smitty as tears fall from his eyes, slipping in between the fingers that prevent him from crying out loud. "We're not gonna kill you, okay? We're gonna save your friend, just calm down, got it? We need you to be calm so we can explain what's happening." Below him, Smitty nodded slowly, once again just trying not to die. The man turned back to his friend. "Do your thing, dude, we got him."

They dragged a shaking Smitty into his bedroom while the other men did whatever they were going to do. "Don't hurt me, please." His voice is choked up with sobs and the men let go of him, simply instructing for him to sit down on the bed. Smitty complies.

"No one is going to hurt you, okay?" Smitty nods in fear. "Now, when you go back out there you're going to see a body that looks just like your friend, Scott, but it's not him. It's a shapeshifter- yes, before you ask, those exist. We," he gestures between him and his friend, "are demons, I think your friend Craig can explain it to you better because we're gonna have to keep it brief. We can help Scott, and we're going to, but you can't tell Craig or anyone else that we were here, okay?" Once again, Smitty nods. "After we leave, call an ambulance, go to the hospital, and call Craig while you're waiting for news from the doctor. You're going to tell him that Evan is missing and that things are not looking good for Scott. He's going to tell you that you're safer with him, you are, so do exactly what he says, okay? Don't tell him you're at a hospital, don't tell him anything about me or what happened in the past twenty minutes, got it?"

"Y-yes, I understand, this stays between us." Smitty runs a hand through his hair as he calms himself down with the realization that he's not going to die. Even though a million questions were running through his head but before he knew it the demons were gone and his hands shook as he stood up to go back to the entrance.

Just like the man had said, there was a body that looked like Scott, and Smitty only knew it wasn't Scott because the bullet hole was more in his stomach rather than in his chest. Still, tears jumped to Smitty's eyes as his fingers struggled to type in '911' into his phone.

"9-1-1, what's your emergency?" The operator on the other line answered calmly, prepared for whatever Smitty was about to tell him. Surely, he had heard worse.

"M-my roommate was shot, I don't know what happened I just walked through the-the d-door and-" He gets choked up with sobs. "There's so much bl-blood, I need an ambulance or something."

"Sir, I'm gonna need you to calm down, is there anyone in your home besides you and your roommate?" The calm and collected voice drifts into Smitty's ears as he pretends to step around the body and search the apartment carefully.

"No, I don't think so, I-I can see into most of the rooms from where I am-Oh my god I just stepped in his blood!" Smitty screams suddenly, pretending he's freaking out as he throws himself backwards onto the floor. More crying follows, fearful of his own apartment even though he knew that the body wasn't really Scott, maybe that's why he was scared.

Shapeshifter. It was a shapeshifter. There was a shapeshifter lying in his apartment, at his feet.

"Sir, calm down, it's gonna be okay, just stand outside your apartment, can you do that for me? What complex do you live in?" The calm voice of the operator makes Smitty just a shade more calm.

"F-Fountain Heights, apartment 213B. D-do you just want me to stand outside my door?" The operator says yes, and Smitty moves outside, shoving a hand into the pocket of his white hoodie as he slides down the railing that lined the inside of the square complex. The ledge-like balcony was void of any life save for him, the painted red of the metal matched his dark red jeans as he sat with his phone pressed against his ear. His black wooden door stared back at him as sirens blared in the distance. Despite his hoodie he began to feel cold.

The waiting room was empty, pacing footsteps echoed throughout it as the boy ran a hand through his hair. His light brown eyes stared into the black screen of his phone. Nerves race through him even though he has nothing to be nervous about other than the fact that he is going to be lying to a demon. Smitty takes a breath and dials in his number.

"Um, h-hi, I don't know if you remember me. It's Smitty? Scott's roommate? We've met a few times before..."