Terrible Friend

30

Albert throws the truck in park outside the metal fence supposed to secure the mine.  He gets out of the truck and walks over to it.  He gives it a good shake.  There's a chain holding it with a padlock on it. 

The ground beneath his feet begins to tremble.  Almost strongly enough to drop Albert to his knees.  "Shit! It's already started."

He bolts back to his truck and slams the door.  He pats on the dash. "Sorry for what I'm about to do old buddy.  Saving the world calls for it."

He slams the truck into drive and buldozes through the gate.  He speeds up to the entrance of the mine and parks. He gets out and runs into the mine.  He takes the long corridor down under ground.  He pulls his zippo out of his pocked to light his way. 

When he comes to a large open cavern, his eyes bounce around in his head trying to take in everything happening in the room.  It's absolute chaos.  A massive creature is in the middle of the room, grabbing up monks that are sanding in a half circle that files into a single in front of it.  It's picking them up and swallowing them whole.

A body is lying on the slab just behind the massive creature. He can't see the face, but it's dressed like Beverly was the last time he saw her.  She isn't moving.  "Shit."

Jax is tied to a cross in the corner to the right of the slab Beverly is laying on.  He's a bloody mess and is hurling curses like a madman.  Promising to kill each and everyone one of them if Beverly is dead. 

Albert closes up his zippo and slips it into his pocket.  He rushes to Jax's side and starts to untie him.  "What happened to Beverly? Is she alive."

"They'd all better fucking hope so.  That piece of shit Josiah used her blood to perform the ritual before the moon was even up!" 

"Where's he at now?"

"He was the first one Dongorul ate."

"Fitting I suppose." Albert looked around again.  A monk came running at him out of nowhere and hit him in the arm.  Albert turned around and looked at the person that hit him. It was just a kid.  He couldn't have been more then eight or ten years old.  Albert nodded at the kid, hopping he would understand that he didn't want to hurt him, but would if he had to. 

The kid didn't take the warning.  He lunged at Albert again.  Jax jumped in front of Albert and grabbed the kid by the top of the head.  "There is no one in this room that isn't gong to try to kill you. Watch your back and go get Beverly out of here."

Before Albert could get another word out Jax and the kid were gone.  Albert shrugs, recalling that Beverly said he was immortal. Jax would be alright.  He turned and headed to where Beverly was laying on the slab.  From his position now, he could see that it was her laying there, passed out and bleeding.  It was a lot of blood.

He rushes a few steps and is confronted by two monks. He looks at their faces and sees fear.  They are just kids too. Maybe teenagers, but definitely haven't hit puberty yet.  He fights them off, trying not to kill them.  The looks on their faces tell him they just want to feed him to Dongorul to prevent their own demise. He grabs them by their shirts and knocks their heads together and drops them. They slump to the ground, alive but not moving. 

Albert can only hope they stay that way until after they get Dongorul contained.  He closes his eyes for a moment, to make the wish.  Instead, he gets a vision. The room starts to shake and wobble like it did when he was wearing the necklace and things come at him.

The rest of the world froze. This vision was much different.  He didn't see the fight unfold. Instead, he sees Beverly die, and Jax fade into oblivion when her spell on him breaks. He is more determined than ever that he has to save his friends, and the only way to do that is to stop Dongorul. He has to get to Beverly and she has to be alive.

Albert snaps out of the vision and curses. "Oh hell no! He looks toward the mass of monks and the demons in the middle of the room.  Monks are flying in every direction. Jax is in the middle of the mass, tossing them this way and that.