A Following Of Demons

by Jessica Cambrook

grabbed her arm before she left.

  “Gwen, there is no discussion. I am not letting you die for me.”

  “Then let me die for Seb. I’d rather die than live without you, but it’s more than that. Esther told me, when we were entering the house, that it isn’t just your life at stake here. You’re a portal to their world, like she was. She saw them in her dreams, and using that little girl while she was most defenceless brought them to reality. You got her curse, and you keep them alive by seeing them. If you happened to die, your “portal” would be completely open for them to be unleashed upon the world. Everyone would be damned to eternal torture and they would slaughter people until there were no humans left. It would be the end of humanity as we know it. Please, if I’m not doing it for you, let me do it for every man, woman and child that don’t deserve to have their future stolen away. For Seb. If he dies, a part of you dies too, and they will seep through you eventually.”

  We locked eyes, and very painfully I nodded slightly, a consent that I would kill the most perfect thing I had ever known. She hurried downstairs as I cried, wailing and cursing myself. She came back with the candlestick that was too clean wrapped in her jumper. She was making an effort to not even touch it, and it made me wonder if she was scared of being in contact with the weapon that would ultimately end her life. I took it from her and felt minute vibrations, as if we were connecting somehow.

  “What do I do?” I whispered.

  “Kiss me.” She demanded. Our lips touched and our tears mingled until I was sure we had become one person. Then she broke away and with a cracked voice told me, “Press the candlestick to where they touched my arm, I have a feeling that will work.” She began to breathe deeply, more calm than she had been all night.

  “Before, when I didn’t know what it was about you that kept them away?” I whispered, wiping tears away furiously, “It’s just you. Everything about you. No one will ever replace you, I promise.”

  She laughed and cried at the same time, a choking gurgle sound. “I’ll watch over you, I’ll guide you. I love you so much, Rick. Just stay with me until I go.”

  “I’ll never let you be alone. Never.” I couldn’t talk now, I only locked eyes with her once more and said without words everything I had ever wanted to say to her, and I knew she understood. I touched the candlestick to the black, charred skin where she had been touched and watched as an angry red vapour exploded out of it, taking her down shrieking the entire way. I knew she’d died properly, not taken by them, and as her peaceful green eyes closed for the last time, and her doll-like mouth slid upwards into her final smile, I took some peace from it.

  The Goodbye

  Kissing her cheek for the last time, I tore my eyes away from the face I had woken up to for so long that every curvature of her face had become etched in my mind. I went back to the room Seb was in, sensing they had finished with Esther and were going to be coming back for me soon. I knew that whatever happened I would be with Esther, dead or alive, and so I walked feeling protected by a bubble of Gwen’s essence.

  The pool of blood had grown so it was almost touching the walls with its sticky mass. His face was grey now, almost like theirs, and for the first time I wasn’t sure if any of us would get out of the house alive. My promise of the four of us leaving together was now a distant memory, and knowing they couldn’t harm me for the moment distracted as they were by our grandmother, I marched over to Seb with my candlestick.

  With Esther’s words spilling out my mouth, I made a small gash in my index finger with a sharp piece of rubble and did the same to him. As I pressed our fingers together I let the chant roll off my tongue, speaking words I didn’t know the significance to but felt so full of meaning that I knew they were right. I felt his blood push through into my veins and mine flow into his, and for a few minutes nothing happened. I began to wonder if I was doing it right, but Seb’s eyes began to flicker and my heart leapt. His eyes flashed a bright green before turning a deep brown like our own, and I knew Gwen was with us.

  “Glad to have you back!” I laughed, filled with a small bubble of elation which grew with every small movement he made, dragging himself back into the land of the living. I wasn’t the only human left in the house now, and I felt comforted.

  “Good to be back, I think...” He gazed at his dull, oppressive surroundings before hugging me hard. We slapped each other on the back before deciding to make a move. Tension began to spill out of me like sand as he asked, “Where’s Gwennie?”

  Shaking my head with gritted teeth, he understood now wasn’t the time. I knew even if we hurried as much as we could they would be onto us in a few seconds anyway, so I drank in the details of his face and smiled again. I felt crushed with sadness to the very core of my being with every thought of Gwen I didn’t manage to block out, but if I couldn’t control my emotions and concentrate on how lucky I was to have a second chance with my brother, the only family I had left now, they would find and kill us both.

  “Let’s go.” I patted him softly on the shoulder, trying to ignore the massive patch of blood on his shirt and explained about not looking at them when they came, and not getting too emotional, they seemed to feed off bad emotion and grow stronger. If you completely broke down, they could get you and take you somewhere that pain would replace any memories of humanity you ever had.

  “But, who are they?” Seb asked as we marched out of the room he had just died in.

  “I don’t know. Demons? Lost souls with nothing better to do? I don’t think we’ll ever find out and we have no family left to tell us anyway.” I’d lived with them for as long as I could remember, always just outside of my reach but I was almost used to them. But recently they began haunting my dreams and I woke Gwen up almost every morning howling in fear, seeing the disgusting and twisted things to come if they managed to grab me.

  I heard a stampeding noise from behind us and we both broke into a sprint, jumping down the stairs two at a time. They creaked with the effort of our weight. They were gaining on us. I knew we wouldn’t make it. I wanted to stop, let them take me. I knew if I did humanity would be in danger. It was a hard position to be in, choosing whether to let my brother die again or let the entire world perish. Quickly, I pushed him hard in the direction of the door and whirled around brandishing to them my pendulum in one hand and candlestick in the other. I knew this stupid, spontaneous action would either be the reason we died or how we triumphed. Now they were in plain sight, in my direct view like they never had before. I could see all the details of their corpse-like bodies and black eyes, revolting and inhuman. Their rotten stench wafted over as they cowered from my talismans. I realised they were probably sending it to me to distract me and make me more vulnerable.

  I wouldn’t let them win though, so with my throat on the verge of gagging I kept my eyes directly on them and swung the pendulum. I felt in control of them for the first time in my life. The candlestick which held Gwen’s sacrifice felt the most powerful, so as I nudged Seb out of the front door with me, I carefully stooped to place the silver candlestick just inside of the doorframe. I looked as many of them as I could in their blank eyes, knowing if this went wrong I would be damning Earth to an eternity of torture at the hands of furious, ruthless spirits that wanted blood and pain.

  As I began to shut the door slowly and carefully, chanting with the words that slipped so easily from my mouth, I watched them and from my right a hand gave one last ditch attempt to touch me. Its finger stretched out, almost touching my face. Then the arm lashed out wildly and just managed to graze Sebastian’s face so lightly he barely noticed it, trying to stand up from being pushed and hassled out. A loud bang erupted as the door met its frame and I wrapped the pendulum around the door handle, hoping it would give us a few more minutes to finish the job. Still chanting, I touched the door seven times as I had watched Esther do the first time I ever met her, to keep the bad spirits in the house. I ran to the car, Seb hot on my heels, and we grabbed the gallons of petrol that ha
d been waiting in the car for us. Sprinting back and panting hard we began spraying and pouring on the walls carelessly.

  “Seb, set fire to the damn house!” They had already managed to get to the door somehow, rattling it with inhuman strength but restricted by the powerful talisman I had placed at the door. If I was correct, they were trapped in that room by the candlestick. If we lit the house, like Esther said, they should be trapped there for eternity. Sebastian reached into his pocket and flicked open the large lighter he had brought from his mechanics garage for us to use. He ignited it and got ready to throw it. He stood frozen for a few seconds.

  “R-Rick! Help me, I can’t... can’t do it. They’re stopping me somehow!” I hurried over to him, sweat running down my pallid cheeks. The door now looked riskily close to coming off its hinges. Grabbing the lighter with some resistance from Seb, I lobbed it to a particularly wet part of the house, and it struck with a metallic ring. It lit up immediately, spreading like waves to the shore. I looked into the living room window as the house became a bonfire, and I saw a tall, angry spirit with tattoos and long, messy black hair. He growled and snarled and his tongue licked his cracked lips at me. He was one of them that I had already seen in my dreams, cutting me up as I watched. As more of the house burned, the souls inside began wailing and hissing. I had a bad feeling about it, and Seb’s blank and shocked face only added to that.

  “Seb we need to go, come on.” I grabbed his arm and pulled hard, but he didn’t budge an inch. “Sebastian! Don’t forget who you are! You are my little brother and I am asking you to please come with me. We need to leave.” I was debating whether to run while I still had the chance but I couldn’t face losing him again. As I had done plenty of times growing up, I swung a nasty punch across his cheek. His dazed eyes seemed to focus, and for the first time he saw the emblazoned house.

  “What’s going on?” He asked dumbly. I took the chance and silently half-dragged him to the car, and threw him into the passenger’s seat. Jumping in, I revved the car up and furiously set off trying to make as much distance as possible between myself and the damned house. It was obvious being anywhere near a place full of evil spirits while it burnt to the ground probably wouldn’t be a good idea. We sped away and as I took one last look into the rear view mirror, I began to feel more at ease. There was still the tight squeezing pain in my gut that reminded me I wasn’t going home with everyone I thought I would be celebrating with.

  Going Home

  Instead of cheers and jubilation, there was a sullen silence as we made our way back to my house. We both sat and although I couldn’t guess what Seb was thinking after having been stolen by demons, killed, resurrected and then burning down a building full of murderous souls, I knew he wouldn’t be thinking as intensely as me about the sacrifices that had been made that night. I hoped the nightmare was over, and soon as we got home safely I would be able to grieve for a grandmother I never knew and a fiancée I wanted to spend my life with. As I drove, I filled Seb in on everything that had happened while he hadn’t been with us, starting from when I’d realised something was wrong and I entered the house though I wasn’t supposed to then ending when I got into the bedroom he’d been murdered in and resurrected him. Silence fell in the car for a few seconds before he broke it with a hesitant voice.

  “When I was dead, stuck in that room, I could sense them wanting to kill you. It was horrible, I knew