May These Noises Startle You in Your Sleep Tonight

The demons circled around us, all hissing and growling menacingly, but none dared to attack yet. I knew that it would only be a matter of time before we became their next meal, so I had to think fast. How does one get rid of a group of blood-thirsty demons with only a small kitchen knife while protecting another person? I looked around desperately, realizing that we were just about out of options, when a gleam of silver on the kitchen counter caught my eye. It was a lighter. An idea suddenly struck.

"Kellin, where do you keep your alcohol?" I murmured.

"Alcohol? Oh sure, let's just pour ourselves a few glasses of red wine while we wait for the demons to kill us!" he exclaimed in a hushed tone.

"Not to drink! There's a lighter in the kitchen. If we can get to that and some alcohol then we can start a fire and at least get a head start towards the door," I explained.

"But how do we get over there?" he asked.

The demons' heads all perked up as a crash sounded from upstairs. Low hisses echoed around the room as they started slowly trotting towards the stairs, breaking their formation around us, and thankfully giving Kellin and I a chance to bolt to the kitchen. Whatever was upstairs probably wasn't pleasant, but it couldn't have arrived at a better time.

I found a few dishrags on the counter and picked them up while Kellin crouched down and searched frantically through a cabinet for alcohol. He finally came up with a bottle of straight liquor. I snatched it from him and doused the dishrags in the liquid before grabbing the lighter. The noises from upstairs were getting louder and louder, and starting to sound kind of like footsteps. I turned to Kellin.

"Are you ready?" He nodded hastily and I wasted no time in setting the dishrags ablaze. I walked into the living room and called out to get the demons' attention. They all turned around to face us, as if suddenly remembering that we were there. I reared my arm back and threw the first piece of cloth at them. Luckily it landed in between two creatures, the flames shooting up and lapping at both of them. They whimpered shrieked as the fire traveled up their arms, staggering backwards and running into other demons. I threw the others at them and didn't wait to watch the creatures burn before I ran back into the kitchen and grabbed Kellin's wrist.

"Now's our chance," I said as I pulled him towards the door. My mind was still racing as I tried to figure out the fastest way to get away from the house. We reached the driveway when Kellin stopped me.

"Do you still have my car keys?" he asked in a rushed tone. That's right! I completely forgot that I had driven us home from the funeral and put his keys in my shirt pocket. I hastily dug them out and we both ran over to his car, him getting in the passenger seat and me in the driver's side. It felt like I couldn't get the keys in the ignition fast enough. As soon as the car turned on I sped out of the driveway and we were hightailing it out of there. As we turned to the next street, I glanced back in the rear-view mirror and my breath caught in my throat. Standing in front of Kellin's house were five Advisers, one of which being the demon that offered me this job.

I got an awful feeling in my gut. Just because we got away this time doesn't mean they're going to stop here. They're going to come looking for us, chasing after us until they've ensured that we're both dead. That thought alone had me about to break down, but I held myself together and focused on getting us the hell away from that house.

We sped along the highway, going just over the speed limit. Neither of us had said a word but I knew that eventually we were going to have to talk about what just happened. Kellin had been in the dark for far too long, and now there are others after him. It was silent for another five minutes until we finally crossed the lines into the next city. Kellin took a deep breath before slowly turning to look at me.

"Can you please explain to me what's going on?" he asked in a surprisingly calm voice. I hesitated.

"You're not gonna like it," I said.

"At this point that doesn't matter anymore," he replied. I nodded; it was true. After everything he'd been through he deserved to know. I took a deep breath.

"Okay . . . so this kind of all started a few months ago. You, Ronnie, and Jaime were all in your basement playing with a Ouija board. Which was a very stupid thing to do by the way! Fucking everyone knows that Ouija boards aren't something to mess with," I scolded. I glanced at Kellin, whose face had fallen. I sighed; I didn't want to hurt him, but for his protection he had to know everything, no matter how hard it was to tell him while he watched me with those big puppy dog eyes.

"Anyway, the spell that you guys used . . . you thought it was to conjure a demon - and it did, which is where I come in - but that's not all it was supposed to do. Where you guys thought that you were supposed to say the names of the people using the spell, you were actually supposed to name people that you wanted the demon to kill," I explained, dreading his reaction. Kellin was quiet for a few moments.

"So you're a demon?" he asked. I nodded. He licked his lips and looked at his lap before a realization dawned on him.

"Wait, but that means that you . . . no. No. You didn't," he whispered in horror. I let out a shaky breath. Even after torturing countless souls, hurting Kellin was the hardest thing I had ever done.

"I swear Kellin I didn't want to. Once I did it I just . . . I hated myself," I told him.

"How could you do that? I trusted you. I thought that you were my knight in shining armor, comforting me and telling me that it was nobody's fault! You were lying straight to my face! There I was trying to figure out if I did something wrong, if I could have helped them, but their killer was sitting right next to me telling me that I was going to be okay! You are a monster!" he exclaimed, not holding back any of his rage.

"Kellin, please li-"

"They didn't deserve this! Ronnie was an only child, he helped support his parents when they weren't making enough money! What do you think they're going to do now? And Jaime? Jaime was fucking innocent! He didn't deserve this! I dragged him into it and I should have been killed, not him!"

I gritted my teeth and tried to stop my lips from trembling as he continued to bombard me with what I knew was the truth. He went on for another ten minutes, telling me continuously how much he hated me, before falling into a dead silence. He sat back in his seat with his arms folded over his chest, staring out the window. I would have killed to know what was going on in his head. Actually no, no I wouldn't do that. I probably didn't want to know anyway.

"Pull the car over," Kellin eventually spoke through gritted teeth.

"I can't do that, Kellin. They're looking for us," I answered.

"Like that fucking matters anymore. Why don't you just finish the job yourself and send me off to Hell like you did to Ronnie and Jaime," he muttered.

"You don't know that they're in Hell," I countered.

"Well isn't that where you sent them? You killed them and sent their souls to Hell to be enslaved forever or something?"

"The spell told me to kill them. It didn't say anything about where they would go afterwards," I said. "And for the record, if I was able to take all of this back, I would in an instant."

"Well good for fucking you. You regret killing two innocent people. You're such a saint," he said sarcastically. I didn't even try to argue; I knew that he was right, and he had every right to hate me.

"Just out of curiosity though, why didn't you kill me?" he asked. I froze. I hadn't been expecting him to ask that question. I guess my hesitation to answer clued him in enough.

"Oh my God, do you seriously care about me? In the midst of plotting to kill me and my friends you actually fell for me?" he asked incredulously. I'm sure my cheeks were tinted pink at this point. I simply stared at the road ahead of me and shifted uncomfortably in my seat.

"This whole thing is a fucking joke," Kellin scoffed.

"Actually it's not a joke. It's a matter of life or death now, so I understand if you hate me, but you need to stay with me. If you don't it's only a matter of time until you're dead," I told him in an irritated tone.

"It's only a matter of time anyway and you know it!" he exclaimed.

"But our chances are better together!" I retaliated. Kellin was about to protest, but he faltered for a moment and closed his mouth again. He looked pained and confused, like an inner battle was going on inside his head. Finally he looked up at me.

"Fine. I'll stay with you. But only for protection," he said. I nodded in understanding.

"Do you even have a plan to save us?" he asked. In truth, no I didn't. But I wasn't going to let Kellin think that I was just going to half-ass some way to get us out of the demons' reach. Even though I kind of was.

"For now the plan is just to get us as far away from them as possible," I answered. The car was silent after that, and we both sat uncomfortable and on edge for the next few hours.