Shivering and in pain, I took my slumber on the cold concrete floor of the garage.  For some reason, the demon boy did not pursue me down here.  All night long I awoke every few minutes to hear the same thumping that started all of this.  It was far quieter than when I was in my room, but the noise was still present.  

There was not a peep from any of my family or Jennifer through the night.  I had no idea what was happening inside the house or how I would explain myself if someone were to find me sleeping on the garage floor.  

As the sun rose, I stood tall and straight.  Every bone in my body seemed to crack at once.  An orchestra of pops and cracks bounced off the garage walls and back to my ears.  Walking like an old woman with arthritis, I grabbed the door handle to get into the house from the garage and entered the living room like a CIA spy creeping into his target's hotel room.  

The horror that awaited my return to the interior of the house was beyond my comprehension.  Sorted by height, Jennifer and my family had been hung by nooses from crudely cut holes in the ceiling.  Each noose was attached to an overhead four by four.  Below each of them was a pool of bodily fluids that signified their deaths.

My mother had the vilest look on her frozen face.  It was as if she had seen a ghost.  Maybe she did before the life was drained from her body.  Knowing that the demon boy was able to trick my mind once before by making me believe the ones I truly cared about had been viciously killed, I approached with caution.

Step by step, I drew closer to four hanging bodies.  They were ever so slightly swaying left to right as if a breeze had caught them and influenced the effects of gravity.  Jennifer’s eyes were still open, still gray.  As I was about one foot away, I spotted my pendant.  I needed to grab something to get it from her neck.

Grabbing a kitchen chair, I slung it over quickly and climbed onto the seat.  Luckily for me the necklace had ridden up her swollen, torn neck and was not tangled in the rope.  I reached my shaking arms out to unclasp the necklace, my balance was severely compromised at this point.  I could feel the air swirling around the bodies, this would require focus and determination.

As soon as my hands touched the claps, Jennifer’s head reared straight up, and she bit at me.  Open mouth with strings of saliva, Jennifer squirmed and kicked frantically.  I grabbed the necklace with one hand as the chair was removed from beneath my feet.  The weight of my body, unbalanced and in an awkward position, carried me to the floor landing directly on my spread open arm.  

SNAP!

The pain surged through my body as my arm pointed in a physically impossible direction.  It was broken and with that, so was my ability to grapes items.  The necklace fell to the floor just inches from my reach.  Tears pooled in my eyes as my face pressed firmly into the hard floor.  Sweat covered the entire landscape of my forehead and I began to moan uncontrollably.  

The demon boy was floating in the corner enjoying the show.  I inched closer and closer to the pendant that rested right in front of me.  He noticed and decided it was time to amp things up a bit.  All four of my loved one’s bodies began flailing about and the four by fours started loudly sharing their objections. 

With a quickness only seen in vampire movies, the demon boy appeared in front of me.  He was laughing, giggling just like a little boy would do.  My hand had almost reached the pendant before he stomped on my broken arm.  The bone that was meant to stay internal to my body was now pointing to the sky free from the confines of my flesh.  I had never screamed like that before; the pain was so severe that I passed out and entered the darkness.  

Floating in the darkness, unable to control my direction, images of death flashed before my eyes every three seconds.  Jackson, or what looked like Jackson, had been decapitated with no head in sight.  Jennifer had been reduced to just a torso with a head attached, the spots where her limbs used to be were now blood fountains.  Mom and Dad had been sewn together in an awkward sexual position that I would never be able to unsee.  

The demon boy was narrating every aspect of my blackout.  

It said, “Poor little Jackson got so excited, he lost his head!  Jennifer on the other hand kept hers but lost everything else.  Don’t forget about mommy and daddy, how naughty!”

He brought a bubble of light over to my parents and the unfortunate position they were.  The demon boy reared back; a glint of metal glimmered in his light.  

“Now time for their eyes,” it said.

Just as he released all his harnessed energy to gouge out my parent’s eyes, everything froze in place and my body regained its bearings.  Normal light was restored to the surrounding area and I awoke in my living room, face down on the floor.  My arm was still broken but it seemed that all the bucking and squirming I was doing in the dream state had accidentally rested my hand on the necklace Mrs. Tannell had given me.  

Back in the real world, the demon boy let off a discouraged sigh.  He had yet again been interrupted while trying to horrify me.  The look on his face was priceless, a touch of sadness mixed with a dash of agony.  Picture perfect.

My mother grabbed my shoulder and shook me.  It seemed frantic or just irritated.

She said, “Get up out of the floor Naomi.  Come on now.”

Her voice was music to my ears.  Nothing had happened.  The hangings had been yet another demonic hoax put on by my little haunting ghost boy.

Oh yeah, remember that compound fracture I was graciously given in the heat of the moment, it too was just a mental attack.  If I can keep my wits about me, it seemed the demon boy couldn’t harm me.  This day had started off as hell on earth and now it had done a complete one eighty.  Things were finally making sense.

One eventful night down, it is now Tuesday morning, time for school yet again.  I had to brief Mrs. Tannell of the evening's unfortunate events.  We still had to figure out what needed to happen to restore the eyes of everyone back to their normal colors and make the scars from their first murder disappear.  

The demon boy was living in our home and needed to be eradicated, but first we needed to find where he lived inside the home.  That could tell us a world of information, potentially.  

There was a lot to do, a lot to digest, but now the current issue was making it to school on time.  I grabbed Jennifer, she was still sluggish and out of it, and Jackson, whiny and sniffling, and we made our way out the front door.  The pathway to the street appeared to be stained with a dark substance, I could quite figure out what it was.

My father was not fussing like normal, so I guess he either hadn’t seen it or the HOA hadn’t notified him of the infraction.  It hit me like a ton of bricks as we walked over it.  The stickiness of it, the darkness of it after it had dried apparently.  It was blood.  Could no one else see this?  Was this the best the demon boy could do now because this did not even give me a shudder.

Our walk to school was quiet and extremely slow.  Jennifer and Jackson were dragging their feet and fighting to keep their eyes open.  They didn’t know their souls had been taken, perhaps they could sense it but it was so crazy that they just went with the flow of life even though there was no life inside of them.

Before we stepped into the school building, a rush of air hit my ear.  Here we go with the mind games.

It said, “Hope you kissed mommy and daddy goodbye.  I have a special friend coming over tonight and this guy has the ability to inflict real world damage to humans.  I can hardly wait, maybe I won’t.”

I stopped in place, Jennifer and Jackson did not even notice and sluggishly walked themselves to their classes.  If there was one thing I needed, it was Jennifer back to normal.  I cannot do this by myself.  Tonight was going to be rough.

Just then, Mrs. Tannell grabbed my hand and tried her best to calm me.

“Breath Naomi.  Slowly.  Let us get to class but stay calm,” she said.

Taking a series of deep breaths, I grabbed her arm and pulled her close.

I said, “The demon just threatened to bring in another, angrier demon that could actually harm humans.  Is this real?”

Mrs. Tannell frowned and nodded her head in agreement.  She rushed me to class, got us started on a busy work assignment and left the room with her purse.  Hopefully, she was coming up

with a plan to protect all of us.  We had done nothing wrong to deserve this.

She returned with a grin on her face, she most certainly had a plan.

“The Devil doesn’t knock.”

-JA Boyce