Demons 

Part One

By Robin

Jack

I never realized how beautiful nature was until math class today. Mr. Donnelly has been explaining the Pythagorean Theorem for an hour too long.

I can feel the jitters start, in my leg. They wind their way up to my elbow. Stupid ADHD. I tap my foot to get the tingles out.

I try to preoccupy myself with other things. I find ways to write cuss words on my calculator. I draw on my arm. I tap my foot some more.

I’m so bored. Time to liven things up. I raise my hand.

Mr. Donnelly peers down at me.

“Yes, Jack? What do you need?”

Perfect.

“Um, actually, I need to call my mom.”

I can see annoyance flash past his face. Just a little, and then it’s gone.

“Why? Is it important enough to interrupt my class?” he asks.

“Yeah, sorry,” I say. “I just wanted to tell her I wouldn’t be home until next week, because Mr. Donnelly has a fetish for the Pythagorean Theorem.”

The rest of the class giggles.

His face turns bright, bright red. Sort of like a tomato that’s right about to pop. Not that tomatoes pop, but if they did they’d look like this.

“Jack,” Mr. Donnelly warns. “I could have you suspended.”

I put a fake shocked expression on my face.

“No, please, don’t give me a whole bunch of days out of school!”

He just grimaces and starts writing on a little pink slip of paper. Then he stands, smoothes his shirt and resumes his lecture.

Well, Mom won’t be happy. She hates when I get suspended. Then she has to take care of me on days she shouldn’t have to.

The rest of class is equally as boring as the first part. I’m out the door before the bell rings. I can hear Mr. Donnelly shouting at me to come back. I raise a middle finger into the air. Heck, why not? I’m already suspended.

The bus ride home is worse than math class. Our school is really low on money, so all the kids on the school are piled onto two buses.

It takes almost an hour for me to get home.

The apartment might just be the shittiest one in San Francisco. You have to climb the fire escape to even get in the building.

Some douche is about to set off some smoke flares in the alleyway. I say hi. He gives me a suspicious look. I think his name’s Quivery or something like that. He hangs around the neighborhood a lot.

“Mom!” I yell as soon as I slam the door behind me. “Got another suspension, so I’ll be home getting on your nerves for the next week.”

She walks out of the kitchen.

“Shit. What did you do to Mr. Donnelly this time?”

“I told him he had a math fetish. It’s true.”

She puts her face in her hand. I feel one of those guilt butterfly thingies.

“Why do you do these things, Jack? I can’t take care of you and go to work and—“

“You don’t need to take care of me, Mom. I’m 14. I think I can handle making ramen noodles without your help.”

“Just go to your room,” she says tiredly.

“You mean my cupboard? I feel like freaking Harry Potter,” I say, but then I go and sit on my bed.

I hate when my mom is sad because of me. I can’t help being a smartass. It just comes out.

I plop my head down on the pillow and sulk. My mom can be a real bitch sometimes. Ever since dad left, she’s been really… touchy.I was born long after the country was taken over. He went and helped the other side.What other side? What do you mean—oh. You don’t actually know about all the stuff that happened. Man are you in for a ride. 

Shannon Iggans

If you’re reading this, you have a lot to learn. There are things in this world that go beyond human comprehension. I don’t even understand most of it.

The supernatural is seemingly not so supernatural. A portal was opened in way back in 2045. One of those weird voodoo things. Like with the candles and sack dolls.

Anyway, demons and weird creatures and monsters just tumbled out into everyday life. For 20 years, they didn’t really do anything. Then, in only a couple of hours, they sort of tore the city apart.

I was a secret service agent. I realized the need for people who could help fight back against the demons that had quickly taken over the country. Now I work for the DEC, the Demon Eradication Corporation.

At the moment, I’m after a demon, a Fear specialist by the name of Quivor. He’s been stirring up the public lately. Shooting off smoke flares and stuff. This is what the government has come to, I guess. I’ve been tailing him for about a week.

He pretty much looks like every other Fear demon. Tall, thick, and covered in weird, oozing sores.

Right now he’s scuttling around in an alleyway, getting ready to set off some more smoke flares. He glances around his. He knows I’m tailing him. He just doesn’t know I’m standing on the roof above him.

It’s too hot out here. I throw my duster off of the roof and it spirals and twists in the air and then morphs into a crow and flies off, back to HQ.

The animals are a piece of technology the DEC picked up from the demons. They act as sort of a guardian. If we get into trouble we can’t manage, we can just summon the animal and it’ll help out. Mine’s a crow. A sacred Indian totem.

I charge up my Hellgun. One pop in the chest from this baby and he’s back to the Pit.

I take a couple steps back from the edge of the roof. Then I take two quick strides forward and throw myself off the building.

Adrenaline.

             Adrenaline.

                         ADRENALINE!

But then I have to let the parachute out. Quivor’s noticed me by now. I hit the ground firing. He turns, gives me a shocked look, then darts onto the fire escape of the apartment next to him. His starts climbing up the side. He reminds me of a spider. I hate spiders.

I start running up the stairs. I let loose a round of Hell slugs. They all seem to bounce off the stairs; none of them even make it close to hitting him.

I pull my tomahawk from my belt. They’ve been dipped in Holy water, so they send the demons back. I hurl it at him and it lodges itself in the fire escape. Fortunately, its been programmed to return to my hand. It wiggles a couple times and then zooms back to my hand.

He reaches the top and looks wildly around for an escape route. He’s in mid-jump when I tackle him through a window. Glass goes everywhere. He hits me in the stomach, pokes me in the eyes.

I can’t see! I can’t see!

WZZZ! WZZZ! I can hear the Hell slugs hit Quivor. He claws me once more and then there’s a flash and he’s gone.

A teenage boy, probably 15, maybe a little younger, is standing in front of me. He’s holding a smoking Hellgun.

“Back to the Pit, bitch,” he says.

          Jack

“Back to the Pit, bitch.”

I felt so awesome when I said that.

An older woman with a hair that looks like an old Indian headdress just crashed into my window. Looks like Last of the Mohicans wasn’t really the last one.

“Thanks,” she says. Her voice is all scratchy and her left eye is black. “You got some skill.”

“Yeah, cause it’s that hard to shoot a Fear demon from three feet away,” I say. Wow, I shouldn’t have said that. Just can’t help it.

“Smartass.”

My mom comes bursting into the room.

“What the hell just happened?” she shrieks. “Who are you?”

“I’m from the SFDEC,” the lady says. “Sorry about the window. I can pay for that…”

“Your damn right you can pay for it? Did you just jump in here for kicks?”

My mom is clueless.

“Didn’t you hear her?” I ask. “She said she’s DEC. She was chasing that Quiverly Fear demon guy. They jumped through the window and he was about to kill her so I got the gun and shot him.”

“You shot someone? Oh my God!” Mom yells.

The DEC lady steps in.

“Ma’am, it was a demon, not a human. He was going to kill me and your son helped me. You should be proud.”

I like this lady. She’s actually kinda cool.

Mom just gives one more horrified look and leaves the room.

“Listen kid,” the lady says. “You ever need help, or even a job, call this number.”

She hands me a little card.

“Cool. Thanks,” I say.

She gives me some cash.

“This is for your mom.”

Then she leaps out the window.

That was awesome!