And All The Devils

Chapter One

Four years later

The house at the end of Krueger Crescent was most certainly haunted.

It was not an old house by any means, having been built after the Cold War with the other houses in the neighborhood, all of which were nearly identical with their red brick exteriors and black shingled roofs. And although the house at the end of Krueger Crescent had obviously been vacant for sometime, its front yard overgrown with tangled weeds and vines that spilled out into the street, it was still pleasant enough to observe at first glance.   

So it wasn't by looking at the house that told a person it was haunted, but rather how they felt when they looked at it. And that feeling was often such a chilling sense of foreboding that it went against every survival instinct a person possessed.

Three houses down from this cursed residence lived the Millers. They were a good family, but the son was fresh into his teenage years and, although he was quite precocious for his age, he was also stubborn and endlessly curious, which tended to lead him to trouble. The boy's name was Kendrick.

Kendrick had been kicked out of his house after a long argument with his mother about his grades after which, her eyes red and runny with black kohl, she screamed at him to get out. So he did; with no destination in mind, he climbed onto his bike and began to skirt around the neighborhood, looking to merely pass the time. No other children lived on Krueger Crescent, at least none close to his age. He circled the houses once, twice, carefully avoiding the house at the end of the street. He was just making his third rotation when he caught a glimpse of something that caused him to come to a stop.

A dog was trotting down the street. This in itself was not unusual; it was by no means the first time Kendrick had seen a stray around his house. What caught his eye was not the dog itself, but the fact that it was carrying a bundle in its mouth. From where he stood, Kendrick couldn't tell what the bundle contained. It looked like a sheet that had been wrapped up neatly into a little bag.

Kendrick watched it trot by, the bundle swinging carefully in its jaw. It was a beautiful breed, some kind of eskimo dog with a russet coat, a white underbelly and a thick tail that curled up and over its back. He was debating with himself on whether he should try to pet it or not when the dog turned and headed determinedly to the end of the roundabout, towards that cursed residence.

"Hey! Come here!" Kendrick called out. The dog paid him no mind and continued to dutifully trot towards the weeded yard. 

"You shouldn't go near there," Kendrick continued as he followed the dog from a safe distance.

The dog looked back at the boy and dropped the bundle from its mouth. Kendrick could see now that it had two different colored eyes, one sky blue and the other a vibrant spring green. It barked loudly, once, twice. Almost as though it were warning him to keep back. Then it scooped up the bundle and turned back for the house.

Kendrick looked away, content to go back to his cycling, until his gaze fell on the house at the end of the road. He blinked in surprise as a dark cloud seemed to linger over the house, curdling the bright blue sky that surrounded it from all sides. 

Kendrick darted forward until he had reached the dog, which gave a startled yelp as the boy wrapped a hand around its leg and yanked it backwards. The parcel flew from its mouth and it let out a cry. 

He continued to pull the dog backwards until the dog was barking furiously, struggling in vain against his strength. Kendrick ignored it, dragging it behind a bush in the neighbor's yard. He risked a glance back at the house and nearly gagged on his own fear. 

The dark cloud was undeniably closer than it had been just a moment ago, spiraling away from the house in a gray funnel and reaching out for him. Smoky tendrils beckoned towards Kendrick like great fingers and he recoiled away from them, pressing deeper into the bush. The leaves pressed their sharp edges into his back but he dared not move. He could almost swear he heard a voice calling out to him in the silence, a voice that teased at him to come out. 

Little boy, the voice called. Little boy, come here.

The voice was saccharine, all sweet promises; at the sound of it, the dog seemed to redouble its efforts to escape.

The cloud stretched until it reached the bush; it seemed to halt beside it, slowly encircling it, trapping him inside. 

Don't you know better than to play near haunted houses?

The voice did not sound nearly so sweet anymore; instead, it had shifted into a much more menacing tone.

Kendrick couldn't help the strangled cry that erupted from his throat. The smoke grew ever closer and Kendrick pressed the dog closer to him with shaking arms, inhaling the scent of smoke and fur.

"Leave me alone!" he shouted. Or maybe he only managed to whisper it, choking it out around the fear that was closing his throat.

Kendrick was too fixated on the fog encircling him to notice that the dog was still struggling to break free. He ignored its frantic barking, barely paying it any heed, until it turned around and bit down hard onto his hand. Kendrick let out a pained yell and released the dog, who immediately took off, sprinting out of the bush and towards the house at the end of the road. It slowed down only to reclaim the bundle it had been carrying earlier. 

Kendrick clutched his hand and watched it run away from him, into that sudden thick fog that now settled in the middle of the road. The fog seemed almost to him like it was a sentient thing, pausing in the middle of the road to consider him. In its haze, Kendrick could see shadows darting back and forth. Shadows with wings like giant bats and hair like living snakes, streaming out behind them. One shadow suddenly broke away from the rest and flew towards him, leaving the smoke and reaching out for him, its massive claws dripping with gray blood...

The dog barked again and the shadow dissolved, leaving nothing but a few wisps of gray smoke behind it. These wisps were quickly carried away by the wind, until nothing remained but the familiar street with its familiar houses. He watched the dog as it bounded up the weeded driveway and through the front door, which had imperceptibly creaked open to receive it. Then there was only silence. Above him, the sky was growing steadily more gray, as clouds that promised snow started to obscure the blue.

Kendrick blinked rapidly, expecting to see shadows and demons reemerge from whatever hell he had just witnessed. But there was nothing. Nothing but a rapidly darkening sky and the house standing menacingly at the end of Krueger Crescent.