Justin’s heart pounded against his chest, his eyes wide with panic as he watched the red eyed demons come closer. He unconsciously took a step backwards only to collide into Chris, stumbling slightly. A hand grabbed onto his shoulder to steady him. Justin glanced over his shoulder to see Lance wordlessly handing Chris his weapon. Though, neither of their eyes left the approaching demons.
As Justin returned his attention to the demon that was closest to him, his eyes managed to catch a glimpse of JC through a narrowing gap. JC was watching them, fear evident on his face. When Justin met his gaze, JC quickly averted his eyes.
JC’s Adam’s apple bobbed, and he blinked rapidly. The action made it apparent that the continuous downpour from the sky wasn’t the only contributor to his wet face. Seeing JC vulnerable snapped something inside of Justin.
He pushed his fear and anxiety down to the pit of his stomach. Now wasn’t the time to let it determine what he was going to do. It had already caused him to believe that JC was already dead during the ride to the cabin. But now JC was standing in front of him. Alive. And that was how it was going to stay.
Justin adjusted the knife in his right hand, gripping it tighter. The rain began to fall harder, but he was determined not to lose the only weapon he had. A quick glance at the guys showed that they were just as determined.
The four of them stood as close as they could without losing sight of the demons. It went unsaid that there was safety in numbers, and it would probably be best if they stuck together. But that was a lot harder to follow through with once the demons got within a foot.
Justin made a swipe at a demon, but the knife only cut air as the demon easily dodged it. Before he could try again, the demon surprised him by grabbing onto his left arm and pulling him forward, jerking him out of Chris’s grasp. As Justin continued to swipe at the demon, hoping to connect with its smoky makeup, he struggled to get his arm free.
But the demon held firm with one hand as the other made a slashing motion across his left arm. His cast had been severed somehow. Justin continued to struggle, knowing that he had to get out of the demon’s grasp. As he did so, pieces of his cast fell to the ground with the added help of the demon stripping the plaster away from his arm.
The cast was off after he’d just been complaining about it days before, leaving his left arm bare for the first time in weeks. But relief was the last thing on his mind. Justin knew that his arm wasn’t completely healed yet, and the demon would probably try to exploit that. With that in mind, he pulled on his arm, trying to slip out of the demon’s hold.
The demon tightened its grip to compensate for Justin’s added resistance before it sharply twisted his forearm. There was a loud crack, and Chris let out an agonizing scream before dropping to his knees. The knife he’d been holding landed on the ground beside him. It didn’t take a genius to realize that Justin’s arm had been broken for a second time.
“Chris!” Joey yelled as he tried to move towards Chris.
But the demon that had been advancing on Joey, swooped in closer. The movement forced Joey to change his direction as he had to duck the demon’s black hand.
Lance had just as much luck as Joey getting to Chris. Several times he tried to sidestep the demon he was fighting. But every time the demon would glide back in front of him, preventing him from reaching Chris.
It wasn’t until he was dragged a half a foot that Justin realized the demon still had a hold of his arm. Another agonized scream could be heard. Justin looked over at Chris who continued to clutch his left arm with his right hand, his face contorted in pain.
Immediately Justin resumed his struggling as he tried to backpedal away from the demon, trying to ignore Chris’s yelps of pain as he did so. His sneakers couldn’t find purchase on the now saturated grass, causing him to slip and fall onto his back.
Justin was left gasping for air. The sudden fall had knocked the wind out of him. It barely registered in his mind that the demon had let go of his arm. But he did notice that Chris had stopped crying out in pain.
Justin slowly turned his head to the right, wanting to make sure that he was all right. His eyes took in Chris lying on his back with his left arm resting across his chest. “You OK?” he asked.
Chris opened his eyes and let out a puff of air before grunting, “Yeah.”
A bolt of lightning hit suddenly, lighting up the yard. Just before the light disappeared, Justin caught a blob of black smoke heading towards him. He patted the grass on his right, looking for the knife that he’d dropped when he fell.
As the demon steadily grew closer, Justin’s search became frantic. As did his heart rate. The demon was over his legs and moving up his body. It was nearly to his chest before Justin’s hand found purchase on the wooden handle.
He tightly wrapped his fingers around it and thrust the weapon up. It didn’t meet any resistance. Not that it should’ve considering the demon wasn’t a solid thing. But regardless, the purified weapon did the job. Just like Sydnie had said it would. The demon had disappeared.
Justin let out a sigh of relief as he rested his right hand at his side. His heart was still racing. That had been too close of a call.
“Chris!” Lance shouted suddenly, barely audible over the roar of the thunder and the howling wind.
Justin quickly pushed himself up on his right arm to see what the commotion was about. His eyes widened as he realized what Lance was yelling about. There was a demon that was quickly advancing on Chris.
Chris had sprung into action at Lance’s warning. He pushed himself to a sitting position as he began to run his hands through the grass that was surrounding him. But the lack of moonlight and the raging storm in conjunction with the dense trees made it difficult to see anything much less the weapon he was searching for.
Lance ran towards Chris, but he wasn’t chased by a demon like Justin thought he would be. He must’ve killed it already, which left him open to help Chris.
A quick look in Joey’s direction showed that he was still busy battling his demon. Justin grabbed at the grass, trying to use some leverage to push himself to his feet. Two demons might be gone, but there were still two more.
As Justin was trying to get off the muddy ground, Lance had made it just a little over a foot away from Chris when the demon that was after Chris abruptly altered its course.
“Shit,” Justin mumbled, his legs churning faster, trying to get to his feet to help. But the added speed only made him slip even more.
Lance, not aware that Justin was fighting against the elements in an effort to reach him, raised his knife so that it was in front of him in a defensive gesture. But the demon went low. The smoke moved around his leg before there was a sickening snap.
It almost seemed like everything was in slow motion as Lance fell to the ground. His body crumbled to the muddy earth, his broken leg not able to support his weight. Justin couldn’t help but wince in sympathy as Lance’s leg hit the unyielding earth first, further aggravating the injury.
Lance gritted his teeth as he tried to get to his feet. It was obvious there was only one thing on his mind, and that was helping Chris. But as soon as he tried to put any weight on the injured leg, he screamed in agony as he fell back down.
“Stay put!” Justin shouted to him.
Lance didn’t say anything, but his head dropped against the wet ground. His eyes closed tightly as he gripped his leg in pain.
Justin focused his attention on Chris and the demon that was nearly on top of him. His feet continued to slip on the grass. Knowing that he didn’t have time to waste, he used both hands to push him to his feet.
Chris let out another scream, and Justin felt his stomach turn. It was difficult to remember that something was wrong with him when he couldn’t feel the pain.
But now that he was on his feet, Justin rushed forward towards Chris with his weapon in hand. It took a matter of seconds to reach his oldest friend. As he pulled up short, his sneakers slid a couple of inches across the slick grass.
The demon had just started to lift Chris off the ground. Chris struggled against it, but the action didn’t do any good. Without a thought, Justin plunged the knife into a part of the demon that had the least risk of hurting Chris.
Almost instantaneously, the demon faded into nothing. Chris dropped to the ground like a rock, and took a shuddering breath. He seemed to be winded, but no worse than he was a couple minutes ago.
Justin sighed. Three down. One to go.
“Isn’t it amazing how a little bit of pain can bring someone to their knees?”
JC tried to ignore the devil as it whispered in his ear, but he couldn’t help the chill that traveled down his spine. The devil continued to hover over his shoulder, while JC’s attention was focused on the scene in front him.
His ears still rung with the loud crack that’d sounded when Justin’s arm had been broken and had Chris falling to his knees as he cried out in pain. JC wanted nothing more than to run to him and make sure he was all right. But he couldn’t.
Every time JC tried to move, he was met with some invisible force that held him in place. It made his heart race, and his eyes darted among his four friends that were fighting off the demons. He couldn’t even warn them if a demon was about to get the upper hand. JC’d found that out when he’d tried to cry out a warning that a demon was moving towards Chris.
All he could do was stand by and watch the demons advance on them. JC had never felt so useless.
“Your friend talks a big game, but it seems he can’t back it up,” the devil said.
JC wanted to turn his head to glare at it, but he was met with the same resistance as before. So he turned his attention on his friends instead. He silently willed Chris to get up, or for one of the guys to notice the demon that was steadily approaching their oldest friend.
His gaze drifted to Lance who had just stabbed his demon with the purified knife, causing it to disappear and leaving him free to help Chris. JC mentally sighed in relief. But that quickly changed to fear when he saw the demon that was after Chris change direction and charge towards Lance.
Instinctively JC tried to yell out a warning and rush forward, even though he knew that it was impossible at the moment. But a small part of him hoped that maybe whatever hold the devil had on him would loosen.
“Stop trying to fight it. You won’t win, so you might as well enjoy the show,” the devil whispered to him.
But all of JC’s attention was on Lance as a loud snap could be heard. He wanted to be there to break Lance’s fall, but since he couldn’t, he was forced to watch Lance land on top of his now broken leg. Lance’s agonizing scream was almost more than he could bear and made him want to look away, but he couldn’t.
JC couldn’t seem to tear his eyes away from the spot where his friends were experiencing indescribable pain. It wasn’t easy to watch them get hurt with the possibility of more. But not knowing was almost worst.
The demon that had attacked Lance returned to its original target. It had just lifted Chris a few inches off the muddy ground when Justin slid up next to him and stuck the knife into the demon. When JC was sure that Chris looked to be all right considering, he let his eyes wander for Joey.
Joey was a couple feet from where Chris was lying on the ground where he was still battling his demon. His movements were almost graceful as he dodged the demon’s advancements, the agility they’d all picked up from dancing all the time paying off. Finally he managed to stick the weapon in his hand through his own demon.
JC could hardly believe his eyes. They’d managed to get rid of all the demons. Albeit with some injuries, but they were alive and that was what mattered. He felt hope rise in him for the first time in weeks.
“I’d rethink that if I were you.”
JC’s forehead crinkled in confusion at the devil’s words before his gaze landed on Joey who was kneeling on the ground next to Lance, trying to shake his shoulder. From where he was standing, JC could see that Joey was saying something, but he couldn’t make out what. What he could see though made his stomach turn.
Lance wasn’t moving. He hadn’t responded to Joey’s shaking. It didn’t even look like he was breathing. Not wanting to believe that he could be dead, JC mentally reached out for Lance only to feel nothing. There were no thoughts. No feelings. Nothing.
And as quick as it came, JC could feel the hope leave his body only to be replaced with despair and guilt.
It felt like he couldn’t breathe. His heart clenched tightly and his lungs burned from lack of oxygen, but JC couldn’t bring himself to care. Lance was dead.
A sob erupted in his chest, forcing JC to gasp for air as tears streamed down his cheeks with the rain. It was all his fault. Nothing was supposed to happen to them. But it did, and at that moment JC wanted nothing more than to die.
“All in due time,” the devil told him. “I want you to beg for it.”
Suddenly there was a bony hand on JC’s shoulder, and he felt a sharp intense pain in his stomach. He let out a loud yelp as the pressure that’d kept him in place fell away, causing him to collapse into a heap.
JC shakily pushed himself up on his right elbow only to fall back into the mud. Lying on his side, he wrapped a protective arm around his stomach. The pain made him feel nauseous and dizzy, but at the same time, seemed to suck what little energy he had left out of him.
Above him the devil laughed at JC as he continued to try to push himself up. He’d never felt so weak in his life.
But the pain he was experiencing was nothing compared to the gaping hole that Lance’s death left in his heart.
Joey leaned back, his weight resting on his left foot as the demon flew past him. It abruptly turned around, ready to knock him off his feet. But Joey was expecting it.
The demon swooped towards him, close to his midsection. But before it could do anything, Joey drove his knife down into the demon. It vanished from sight, and Joey quickly glanced around to see if there were more.
He let out a sigh of relief when he realized that all of the demons were gone. As his eyes landed on Justin, he could tell that he wasn’t the only one to feel that way. But then there was low moaning.
Immediately Joey’s gaze traveled from Justin to Chris and Lance who were still lying on the ground. Justin bent down from where he was standing to help Chris sit up, even as Chris tried to shrug off his help. But Lance didn’t appear to have moved.
Joey wasn’t surprised because he’d heard the sound of bone shattering as he fought his demon before he’d seen Lance fall. He had wanted to run over to him and make sure he was all right, but at the time the demon he was battling hadn’t allowed for that. But now he was free to help, so he quickly crossed the foot that separated them and crouched down next to Lance.
Lance’s eyes were closed. As Joey’s gaze traveled down Lance’s body, he noticed the denim fit loosely around his left leg, while the denim on his right was stretched tight, leading Joey to believe that it was swollen. He winced in sympathy, knowing that the pain must be excruciating.
“Lance,” Joey reached out an arm to shake his shoulder, “are you OK?”
There was no response, so Joey shook him harder. He wanted some kind of indication that Lance was all right. But he couldn’t seem to get Lance to wake up.
Joey sat back on his heels, watching Lance critically. His chest rose and fell, and that was enough to put Joey at ease. At least for now.
The pain had probably been too much for Lance to handle, causing him to pass out. Joey wasn’t happy about it, but he knew that it could be a lot worse.
“Is he all right?”
Joey looked up at Chris who was now sitting up with Justin kneeling next to him. His face was pinched, but that was the only sign that he was still hurting. “He’s fine,” Joey assured.
Before anything else could be said, a yelp sounded to the right. Joey’s head jerked up, and his eyes widened as he watched JC crumble to the ground.
“JC!” Justin shouted, on his feet in an instant as he started to dash for JC.
“Justin!” Joey yelled. He wasn’t exactly sure why he was trying to stop Justin, but he had a bad feeling that something wasn’t right.
And that feeling only intensified when four demons suddenly appeared in front of Justin, creating a smoky wall between him and JC.
“No!” Justin cried out in anger as he lashed out, the knife in his hand cutting into one of the demons in the middle.
There was one less demon, but the other three advanced, forcing Justin to take a step back. They continued to move forward, and Justin’s determination slipped slightly. He was probably realizing that he couldn’t take on three demons at once.
And Joey wasn’t sure how to help. He didn’t know if he should leave Chris and Lance alone to help Justin. Because they would be vulnerable if he did, which wasn’t something they were capable of handling, especially since Lance was unconscious. But at the same time, he couldn’t leave Justin to take on the demons by himself.
Before Joey could make a decision, Justin picked up Chris’s weapon before straightening to face the demons. Joey leaned forward to grab Lance’s knife, and threw a quick glance at Justin to make sure he was all right. Justin caught his eye and nodded, the determination back in place as he stood protectively over Chris.
Joey picked up movement out of the corner of his peripheral, but he wasn’t quick enough. A demon swooped down, a gust of wind blowing past Joey’s face as the demon pushed against his left shoulder. There was a loud pop, and his shoulder felt like it was on fire.
Staring up at the dark sky, Joey was barely aware that he’d landed on his back as the pain in his shoulder thrummed through his arm. The sharp steak knife dropped out of his left hand, barely making any noise as it hit the saturated grass. But Joey gritted his teeth and pushed himself to his feet, trying not to aggravate his dislocated shoulder.
He squeezed the handle of the other knife in his right hand as he managed to get to his knees. Joey looked up to find a pair of red eyes glaring at him as the demon glided towards him for another attack. But he brought his right hand up and slashed the demon, causing it to dissipate.
Joey sought out Justin to see how he was faring only to feel his stomach plummet as a demon knocked into Justin’s side with a resounding crack, forcing him to fall. Chris let out an anguish yell as he doubled over, clutching his side in pain.
But Joey’s attention was torn from Chris to Justin as he cried out. Joey paled as he saw the demon that’d knocked into Justin, wrap its transparent hand around his neck and lift him off the ground.
Justin immediately began to claw at the hand, but, as expected, nothing happened. Joey was so focused on staring at the scene in horror that it barely registered that the other remaining demon was quickly approaching him and Lance. But it did, and he had to make a decision.
Joey’s stomach turned at the thought that he had to choose one friend over the other. Either he helped Justin and left Lance susceptible to further injury. Or he stayed with Lance and Justin died.
How the hell was he supposed to choose?
JC had managed to prop himself up, so that his head wasn’t so close to the ground. He watched in horror as three more demons advanced on Justin before dispersing and going after Joey as well. Just when he’d thought the guys wouldn’t have to fight any more demons.
“Did you honestly think I wasn’t going to send more?” the devil, bent down low, spoke softly into his ear. “Your friends don’t stand a chance.”
As if in direct parallel to its words, Joey’s shoulder popped out of place with a nauseating crack. Joey lied on his back, temporarily dazed. JC felt a desperate need to get to his friends and help them, but he couldn’t move even if he wanted to.
Except this time it wasn’t because of the devil’s invisible hold on him. His body was so weak that he knew he was lucky to be in the semi-upright position he’d pulled himself into. So crossing the ten feet that separated him from the guys would’ve been the equivalent of doing a four hour concert.
His relief at seeing Joey pull himself off the ground and kill the demon that’d hurt him was quickly replaced by fear for Justin and Chris. His oldest friend’s new suffering shout stabbed at his heart. But Justin crying out as he was roughly lifted into the air in a chokehold was like twisting the knife that resided in JC’s chest.
“I think we know how this is going to end,” the devil said, forcing JC to his feet.
“No,” JC protested weakly, refusing to tear his eyes away from the shadowy shape that continued to choke Justin, even as he kicked and clawed at it.
But the devil ignored him as it turned him around, shoving JC forward. He stumbled, his legs almost giving out on him. The only thing that kept him upright was the devil’s bony arm around his shoulder.
They paused as the demon whispered, “You hear that?” There was a sudden snap, bone grinding against bone, that had JC cringing. “You’ve just lost another friend.”
“No,” JC choked out, collapsing to the ground, his knees slamming into the unyielding earth. But he couldn’t feel the pain. His entire body had gone completely numb, except for the gaping hole that completely took over his heart, leaving him empty and hollow.
Another friend. Chris and Joey had just lost another friend. They would have to deal with losing not only him, but Justin and Lance too. And it was all his fault.
“We can stay if you want. I know how much they mean to you,” the devil said, the smirk evident in its voice.
JC shook his head slowly as tears poured in steady streams down his cheeks. “Make it stop. Please just make it stop.” He took a shuddering breath. “I can’t…I don’t want to live.”
The devil smiled. “You know where we have to go.”
JC raised his head a fraction of an inch and could see rain pelting the lake water in the distance. As he was dragged to his feet once again, he let himself be led towards the place where he would die. But he couldn’t bring himself to care. Two of his best friends were dead, and the heartache was intolerable.
Joey started to rise from his crouched position. He was going to help Justin. It killed him to leave Lance vulnerable, but Justin had less time. Hopefully he’d be able to save Justin and still be able to help Lance.
He’d only risen a couple of inches when there was another gust of wind. Joey looked up, afraid that more demons had shown up only to have his heart momentarily stop when he saw Katrina.
Before he could blink, she was grabbing the demon that was choking Justin and pulling it away. Justin crashed to the earth, causing Chris to yelp for what felt like the hundredth time that night.
Satisfied that Justin was no longer in immediate danger, Joey quickly turned back to the demon that was reaching out for Lance’s neck. Not hesitating for a second, Joey thrust his knife into what he would guess would’ve been the demon’s chest if it’d been human.
This time the replacement of demons was almost instantaneous, and Joey groaned. It was becoming harder and harder to fight them off without receiving more injuries. But Katrina appeared again, making Joey wonder where exactly she’d gone in the first place.
He quickly realized it didn’t matter though because while she managed to grab hold on two of the four demons that’d appeared, there were still two more to deal with. Joey finally got to his feet to prepare himself for the demon that was coming towards him.
It took him only a second to glance over at Justin to make sure that he was OK. Justin’s chest was still heaving from the lack of oxygen, but he was on his feet, facing his own demon.
Joey was tired of waiting on the demon to come for him and, in a split decision, lunged with his weapon waving through the air. It’d barely nicked the demon, but it was enough to do the job. Once the demon was gone, Joey looked for Justin to see if he needed help only to see him run by.
“Justin!” Joey yelled in surprise. He didn’t know how Justin had managed to get rid of his demon so quickly, but his determination to get to JC was probably the driving factor.
At the thought of JC, Joey frantically looked around for his friend. The last time he’d seen him was when he’d suddenly collapsed before the second set of demons had shown up. But now he was nowhere to be seen.
Knowing that there was only one place where he could be, Joey’s eyes traveled to where the lake was in the distance. Dread filled him as he saw the devil hover above the still water before disappearing. There was no doubt that JC was in the lake, probably drowning.
Another tormented cry forced Joey to look for the source, quickly recognizing it as Chris. His gaze landed on a figure that was lying on the ground a few feet from where he’d been for most of the fight. Joey ran over to him to see if he could help.
As Joey knelt down in the mud next to Chris, he spared a glance over his shoulder to see how Lance was doing. He was only mildly surprised to see that Katrina had returned from wherever she’d gone and a soft glow was surrounding her and Lance. Joey remembered the last time he’d seen that was when she’d healed Lance’s leg when the tree had fallen on it.
And that reminded him of his own healing power. Without a word, Joey reached out a hand and rested it on Chris’s thigh, hoping that there were some injuries that were his own. He couldn’t feel anything, and the connection was broken by Chris pushing his arm away.
“It’s all Justin,” Chris mumbled, his voice thick with pain. He looked up, brown eyes locking with Joey’s own. “Gotta get JC.”
Joey nodded and moved his hand to Chris’s bicep to help haul him to his feet. He was surprised when it was made easier by Lance grabbing onto Chris’s other side.
“Are you OK?” Joey asked, frowning in concern, even as he felt relief course through him at seeing Lance conscious and moving. He’d been too still before.
“I’m fine. Katrina healed my leg,” Lance said, shrugging it off. Just then they managed to get Chris to his feet. “We got to hurry.”
Together the three of them hurried as fast as they could towards the lake, but it felt like they were moving at a slower pace than they really were. Finally after a few minutes, they’d made it to the lake.
Lance and Joey gently lowered Chris to the ground. His face had grown considerably pale, and his eyelashes fluttered as he struggled to stay awake and alert. And all it took was one look at Justin to understand why.
Justin was in the lake with his good arm wrapped around a limp JC, leaving his newly broken arm to help keep them afloat as he tried to swim to the shore. Not to mention he was breathing raggedly, probably due to the broken rib.
Lance barely glanced at Joey before he jumped into the lake to help. He quickly swam to where Justin was treading water as fast as he could, trying to keep them both from sinking with JC’s dead weight. Once Lance took on some of JC’s weight, the two of them swam to the shore as quickly as they could.
Joey reached into the water and grabbed onto Justin’s arm, pulling him out of the water. Justin had tried to resist at first, mumbling about JC, but Joey hadn’t relented. And Justin had given in, allowing Joey to help him out.
Then Lance pushed JC out of the water as Joey placed both of his hands under JC’s shoulders. He tried to lift him out of the water only to have his left arm quake under the pressure and nearly drop JC back into the water. So Joey settled for dragging him out instead, gritting his teeth as he did so.
Once JC was lying on the soupy ground across from Chris, Joey allowed himself to sit back and collect himself. The pain in his shoulder had become inflamed when he pulled JC out of the water, and it was making him see spots. But he quickly blinked to clear them. He had to stay focused because they weren’t out of the woods yet.
Lance dropped himself onto the ground next to JC and immediately felt for a pulse. Joey glanced at Chris and Justin, noticing that their pain filled gazes were fixed on Lance. After what felt like a minute but what Joey knew was actually more like a few seconds, Lance looked up at them, panic in his eyes.
“He’s not breathing.”
