Demon in Town (Book 2)

Chapter 9

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”-Sun Tzu.

Chapter 9

-Karen-

“Just because I’m paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not out to get me,” I said to myself.

What’s the problem with being paranoid? Let me answer.

You can’t go all alone to the kitchen in the darkness to drink a glass of water at the midnight. You’ll definitely feel a hand touching your shoulder or even a hand reaching out for the water bottle at the same time when you reach for it.

You sleep alone and become so scared that you’ll not turn to the other side of the bed because you think someone might be already lying there, right beside you. They will show you their dangerous toothy smile.

You can’t look away from your bathroom mirror for a second because you know someone will obviously appear out of thin air if you look again.

I wasn’t paranoid about people suddenly appearing, anymore. That fear was long gone with Victor appearing most of the time in my room. Sometimes Nate accompanied him into the portal. They said they were collecting vampires.

I was paranoid about werewolves watching my every move. Really, I felt it. I had a feeling that someone was watching me all the time. First I thought it was Victor trying to keep an ‘eye on me’ but it wasn’t him. He was busy grouping up the vampires. He only came at night to see me and warn me of the coming situations. They worried me the least of all.

The real problem was with the feeling of someone watching me. Even when I walked with Jon to my house, I could feel someone following us. When I stopped to search the surroundings, nothing looked suspicious to me.

“Are you still in bed, sweetie?” Mom called me from downstairs. I had been lying on my bed for an hour, maybe more than that. I didn’t keep the track of time.

It was Saturday and I had been trying to do my homework. With tons of homework and a large heap of notebooks staring at me from the study table, I felt tired already. So, I decided to turn off the lights and started this bed therapy which included lying on the bed and staring at the fan. It was pretty soothing.

“No, mom,” I lied and jumped up to a sitting position. “I am thinking about my…math assignment.”

“Why don’t you come down and have dinner?” Dad called.

My dad was a cool guy. Well, most of the time. He wasn’t annoying or over-ambitious. He was just a simple guy working in a computer hardware firm. Mom and he had been in love since their school time and soon they married after they were out of college.

Maybe I was living in this world of mine where I thought that the same would happen to me too. I pictured Jon and I being together but turned out, not always the story repeated. It was a hard time for me to accept what he had said but the truth had sunk in. I felt the crush fading away into sisterly love.

“Coming, daddy,” I called back.

I turned on the lights and blinked to make sure no one was in my room.

Then I walked downstairs slowly. I didn’t feel like eating. The phone in my pajama bottoms buzzed and I took it out. It was from Jon. Great.

Hey, what’s up?

I bit my lip.

Nothing, just getting to the dinner table.

I didn’t have to wait for his answer. He typed like a maniac. Yeah, why wouldn’t he? He was always on the line with Maya White.

Wanna hear a joke?

Maya White was surely not on-line at this moment.

Yeah, why not :)

“What do we have for dinner?” I asked while sitting on the chair.

“Mashed potatoes and fake meatballs,” Dad’s voice wasn’t pleasant.

“Awesome,” I matched his tone. Mom was turning into a health freak. I missed the times when we didn’t have vegetable meatballs for dinner.

My phone buzzed and dad looked at me. I passed him a guilty smile and peeped at the bright screen.

What do you do when you can’t find the meaning of ‘Armageddon’ in the dictionary?

“So, how was your school today?” Dad asked as mom passed the bowl to me.

“It was great. I got an A+ in a surprise test.” I smiled while typing under the table. C’mon, this was embarrassing.

IDK :(

The phone buzzed so loudly that I nearly dropped my spoon.

“You know the rule of having no phones at the dinner table, Karen.” Mom glared at me. “It’s bad manners.”

I looked at dad who just shrugged. He pointed at his phone on the table. He wasn’t using it.

“Mom, just one last message,” I pleaded. It worked usually.

“Who is it anyway?” Mom asked.

“Who else,” Dad interrupted. “It has to be the Carlton boy.”

He liked Jon so much. Mom also liked him but he liked him more than mom did. Jon was my dad’s favourite. He called him to watch football matches with him on the TV. They enjoyed talking to each other about sports. And he loved how Jon was engaged in sports so much. He said Jon reminded him of his younger self.

“Yeah, it’s him,” I said with a mouthful of mashed potato. It sounded more like ‘yeafim’. I checked the message.

Who cares? It’s not the end of the world.

Seriously? This was the joke? I wasn’t laughing.

Funny. I typed back. You’re a riot.

The phone buzzed immediately.

You like it? Need one more?

I didn’t answer. A second message came right after.

I’ve knock-knock jokes too. ;)

The doorbell rang.

“We didn’t order pizza, did we?” Dad’s face lightened up. He loved pizza. “You planned a surprise, honey?”

Mom made a face. “Finish the meatballs.”

She stood up and walked away to the door.

“They are not even real meatballs.” Dad furrowed his eyebrow.

“Stop complaining, dad,” I said quietly. “Or these are going to disappear too.”

Mom screamed a bloodcurdling scream.

“What the hell?” Dad’s eyes went wide with fear.

He and I rushed to the hall.

“Mom,” I called, bending down.

Mom was unconscious on the floor and the door was open.

“Hello, Karen.”

I looked up and saw three pairs of dark eyes staring at me from the entrance of the house. I didn’t know any of the faces but somehow I knew they weren’t humans. They were supernatural. All were wearing heavy black jackets. The person standing in front who looked like their leader had a vicious smile tucked to his lips.

They were all tall and muscular.

I knew what they were.

“Karen, call 911.” Dad urged, picking mom’s head up in his lap. Whether he hadn’t noticed the people standing here or he was too worried about mom.

“Dad,” I uttered. I pressed the call button on phone without taking my eyes off the intruders, dialling anyone’s number.

 “Who are you?” Dad asked, his expressions turning a mixture of confusion and fear. “What are you doing here?”

“Kill this man,” The leader ordered.

“No,” I screamed and launched myself on the werewolf.

Power burned in my veins. I made a motion with my hands and fired a visible ball of green energy at him. He barred his thick fangs but that didn’t work as my powerful blast had already taken him far enough from me. He got up from his knees and charged towards me. I moved faster than I thought I could and promptly punched the leader in the face hard enough to make him drop back to his knees.

“Karen!” Dad shouted.

Dad was trying to move towards me to save me but the other guy held my dad and I saw his wolf hands. For the first time, I had seen a werewolf in reality. The werewolf hands were similar to what I had pictured before. The hand was brown-furred and had long sharp nails. Why wasn’t he turned into a real wolf?

Dad was struggling to free himself, but all in vain. He looked at me with fear in his eyes. God, I was never going to forget that handsome face in anguish. He was never so scared in his whole life. It wasn’t every day we got to see werewolves. I moved my hands in front of me and aimed at the werewolf behind him and fired the green energy right at his face.

Before I could see the results of my powers on him; the third guy transformed into a werewolf before our eyes. Okay, I had always thought they just became regular wolves when they transformed into one.

It wasn’t dramatic as I had seen in movies. It was supposed to happen quickly. But as my time slowing powers were at their peak, I saw the whole changing process.  His body started to make snapping noises as his bones dislocated from their usual places to overstretch and his face structure changed completely.

In five seconds, the guy was standing on his two legs and had fierce blood-red eyes glaring at me. His skin was covered with shiny black fur. He howled, showing his fanged mouth. He raised his razor-sharp claws to strike at dad. Thank God, this all was in the slow version.

I ran near dad who was on his knees and brought my hands up in the air. I made an energy shield before the powerful blow came upon it by the werewolf. He staggered back as if he was struck by electricity.

“What’s going on?” Dad breathed, shaking his head.

“Dad, stay there.”

The werewolf recovered his senses and growled. I cried out and smashed the powers burning in my hands on his stomach. He slid back and fell on the floor. I prepared myself to fight him but I was held back with someone’s arms around me.

“Follow the protocols, Mike.” The guy who had been trying to hurt dad had gotten up and he was now holding dad by the throat. He screamed. “Turn now.”

The werewolf turned back into his human form. He got up and cursed several times. His bare chest was covered with sweat and his black hair fell on his eyes.

“Move and I’ll be happy to snap your father’s damn neck, Karen.” The leader hissed in my ear from behind me. “You’re coming with us.”

A green light washed all over us and I saw Mike bring his hands up to shield his eyes. The portal had opened in the hall and Victor stepped out of it, along came Nate. I breathed in relief.

“She’s going nowhere.” Victor moved fast and held the throat of the werewolf who was holding dad. “You should never torture an old man.”

Nate caught Mike and pushed him away.

Like a mad person or a witch, I elbowed the leader who was holding me. He groaned in pain and moved backward. I moved faster than he could and my fist crunched into the face. A breaking noise, he held his nose and his eyes flared in rage. Blood streamed down his face.

It was again like the time stopped for me. I was so fast that everything slowed down for me. I moved forward swiftly and punched him in the stomach with all the force I had. He flew back and crashed to the wall behind him. There was a surprise in his eyes when he got up.

Breathing hard, I kicked him before he could regain his strength. I stopped and glared at him. A challenging glare was enough for him and he ran towards the entrance door. He stopped for a moment before getting out and smiled at me. I was about to follow him when I heard dad taking my name. I looked at him and saw him lying on the floor.

I rushed to him and checked his pulse. He was unconscious like mom. I looked at the brothers for some help.

Nate was fighting with Mike and the fight was a blur. While Victor had already sunk his teeth into the other monster’s neck. The guy seemed to lose his strength. When Victor pushed him away, he staggered out of the house and disappeared.

“I hate werewolf blood.” Victor spat.

A crunching noise was heard and we turned to look at Nate. He had broken a bone of Mike’s hand. He pulled him up and dragged him to us. The poor werewolf tried to free himself but Nate had a deadly grip on him.

“Ask him who sent him here.” Nate was so angry that his green eyes were lit up with fury.

“You won’t ever know.” The leader snarled and moved.

It happened so fast that I couldn’t even get up. My mind was so crowded with thoughts; it took me time to register the move the werewolf had made. He turned around despite the grip Nate had on him and punched him on the stomach with his okay hand.

Nate groaned in pain and fell back.

Victor moved fast and attacked Mike. They punched and kicked until Victor finally kicked him out of the house. Mike fell out of the door and started running away into the night. Victor disappeared after him. I rushed to Nate.

He was holding on to his stomach and his eyes were closed in pain.

“Nate,” I said. “What’s happening?”

I thought it was just a punch. I had to be wrong.

“Don’t worry,” He said through gritted teeth. “I’ll be fine.”

“He’s lying. He will not be fine.” Victor came back. “The werewolf stabbed him with a very small cedarwood piece. The pain is killing him. Not literally though.”

My heart nearly stopped. Why was I so upset to hear this? Nate was my friend and I couldn’t let him die. I couldn’t see him in this much pain. But there was something else that scared me more than I should be. I looked at his angel-like face and tears welled up my eyes.

“Do something then.” I urged. Nate was biting his lips to keep from screaming.

“Move,” He gestured me to move and sat cross-legged on the floor near Nate.

Nate was lying down on the floor, twisting and turning in agony.

“Let me see,” Victor said. He held him still with his strong hands and ripped his shirt. It revealed a burning surface on Nate’s stomach. The pale skin had turned ashy like a fire was burning him from inside. “Great, now I’ve to do that.”

Nate opened his eyes and nodded, breathing heavily.

“Seems like God is making you pay for stabbing me,” Victor said and he pierced Nate’s stomach with his hand.

Nate screamed at the top of his voice and I looked away. Tears rolled down my cheeks. My hands balled into fists at my sides. What the hell? Wouldn’t he die? I had to do something. I had to stop Victor.

“Smart. He broke the other part and Nathan’s healing power covered the pointed end.” Victor held the two-inch miniature stake between his thumb and index finger. It was covered in thick blood.

Nate had stopped screaming. He just lay with his hand covering the wounded part. I went on my knees and touched his forehead. His skin was cold and his hair was plastered to the forehead.

He opened his eyes.

“Are you fine?” I asked a silly question.

“Yeah, I’m fine now.” He said, removing the hand. I saw flawless skin. “Don’t worry.”