September's End

Chapter 3

"Brenda G"

     My head is swimming by the time I make it to DW and Jerrod. I just saw a demon, standing in the middle of the sidewalk but they were only supposed to be in my nightmares. My mind is nearly blank until Jerrod drops a heavy arm onto my shoulder.

"Tried another shroom?"

     "Hell no, I'm never doing that again." We all laugh remembering the time we stupidly decided to experiment with mushrooms in high school. I remember the dull janitor's closet coming to life with colors, cleansers seeming to glow in the light and the floor looked like one big crater. We were so scared to move because DW swore we'd fall into another world if we did. So, we stayed cramped on a small shelf for an entire hour. I'm never doing that again.

"Seriously though, who were you talking to?" DW asks, her freckled face scrunched in confusion.

     How do I tell my best friends that I saw not one but two demons? 'Hey guys, I can see otherworldly beings, demons to be exact!' I don't even know how I can see them. Hell, I only know they're demons because of Brenda Gorgenski. In tenth grade, she started hyperventilating in biology class, grabbing her chest and barely getting any words out of her mouth. Everyone jumped to help her, our idiot teacher hollering about how he knew the Heimlich maneuver but I couldn't move. I was glued to my seat, eyes focused on the seven-foot man made of black smoke with his wispy hand outstretched, finger at the girl's chest. His glowing orbs found me just as Brenda took her last breath, I didn't stay to see what happened after but it wasn't long before he found me.

     He told me his name and that he was a demon but he said he wasn't there for me. He told me that I'd only go when my soul was ready and it was far from ready. His voice was deep and echoed round the janitor's closet all while sounding so far away. It's weird but somehow his presence relaxed me and before I knew it I was reaching out to touch him; he was gone before I even realized what I was doing. I woke up in the hall with half the school gathered around me thinking I'd died too.

     I wanted to tell Jerrod and DW that day but I was afraid. I was too weird and sarcasm came so easily to me, those two were my only friends and I couldn't lose them especially over something that I halfway thought was an effect of the drugs we'd only done two days before. The other half was confident that it was some type of traumatic nightmare after seeing someone die and fainting in the middle of the hallway. It all worked out in the end though, I guess I'd pushed it into the furthest corner of my mind dismissing the entire thing because I only saw him in my worst nightmares. Until today.

     This demon was different though, his smokey form glitching, switching from his structureless to one of a human. Brown eyes, thick eyebrows, brown skin, full lips and a head full of dark curls were there one second and the next nothing. But something was telling me that wasn't the last time I'd see him.

"I was talking to myself, preparing for this dreadful horror movie I never agreed to."

"Aw, come one scary cat," Jerrod pulls me along, "there's no such thing as demons anyways."

The irony of his statement is sickening.