What would you choose?

Chapter Twenty-Four

We stepped out the lift and into a massive white, brightly lit room. At the far end of the room is some stairs leading to a door with a sign next to it saying floor nine. "I guess that's where we need to go," Luka said as he pointed to the door.

"What's going on? Why did we get let out? Every nightmare has been in the lift." Raven questioned.

"I have no clue but be careful, we don't know what's instore" I stated. We cautiously walked towards the stairs. Something's wrong. Things are quiet. Too quiet. Some sort of horror should be here terrorising us. I should be glad things are easy but I can't shake the feeling something's wrong and by the look on the others face's neither can they.

We got halfway across the room when the ground started shaking. A hole in the floor opened. It grew. We slowly backed up. Aiden slipped and almost fell down the hole but Raven managed to grab her in time. "Guess it's my turn to save you," Raven stated. The ground finally stopped shaking and the hole stopped widening. I slowly walked to it and peeked over the edge. There's nothing by black that goes on for miles. "You're scared of holes?" Aiden asked, confused. Suddenly, something large jumped out. I was knocked to the ground. The hole closed back up and whatever jumped up landed where the hole once was. The others ran to my aid and helped me up. I slowly looked up and I couldn't believe it. "The devil." Aiden said.

"That's the devil? He's definitely worse than the stories say," Raven said sounding terrified.

"But look. HIs face." Luka stated, "I've seen him around school with Autumn. I think that's her..."

"It's my uncle." It's the devil. Every single detail's the same as when I saw him in my nightmare but this time, he has the face of my uncle. Not him. I didn't want to face him. I can't. I'm not strong enough. I'm not even strong enough to stop the devil let alone them combined. "Your uncle's one of your worst fears?" Raven asked.

"More than the others combined."

"Aut!" The devil roared as he made loads of hardlings appear around him.

"Who's Aut?"

"It's what he calls me, he hates my name."

"He sounds lovely," Raven sarcastically said.

"You're dead you little b****!" My uncle screamed as him and the hardlings raced at us. We started running for our lives. I kept throwing fire balls but it's not stopping them. I even used my telechensis to grab a hold of a hardling and throw it at the rest tripping them up but they quickly got back up. We reached the lift and Aiden urgently pressed the down button but there's no power. "Please tell me you can stop him Autumn?" Aiden asked.

"I can't."

"Why not?" Raven asked as she shot at the hardlings.

"In my dreams I've never been able to stop him and I've never been able to stand up to my uncle. Why do you hate me?" I screamed at uncle; he didn't answer but growled instead. The devil reached out his arm and the lift doors ripped off and went flying, almost hit us, and smacked into some hardlings knocking them out. "You're not alone this time. You have us." Aiden stated.

"The devil's helped us. He's knocked out some hardlings giving Autumn a path to the door. We'll act as a distraction and run in the opposite direction," Luka quickly ordered. I ran to the left and the others ran to the right and the hardlings started chasing them. I sprinted for the door as fast as my legs could carry me.

I was meters from the door when a chunk of the ground flew up and smashed into me. I was instantly knocked to the ground. I struggled to get back up. I could feel blood dripping from my head and I think my ribs are broke. The devil came towards me. He crouched down and stared at me. He gave me the look my uncle always gave me when he's about to beat the life out of me. I tried to make a fire ball but I'm too weak and only a small flame appeared but quickly went out. "Still too weak to stop me." The devil taunted. "You're a weak, pathetic, little girl. Now I'm going to kill you like I should've done a long time.

"Then kill me." I stated. "But please don't hurt my friends. I'm the one you want. I'm the one you want to hurt. You've got me. Just please leave them alone."

The devil laughed, "I'm going to slaughter them and make you watch."

"Please. Don't hurt them." I pleaded. "You can do anything you want to me. Just let them go. I'm begging you."

"I'm going to kill them. Just like I killed your pathetic family."

"What?"

"What?" I heard the others scream as they turned to face me.

"I'm the one who crashed into your family. Couldn't stand listening to your stupid mother brag about her amazing family and how perfect her family is. Your mother is a moron and so is your father. Your mother was always the favourite child. The perfect child. Our parents were so proud of her. She couldn't do anything wrong in their eyes. Whereas everything I did was wrong. I got so fed up with your family that night so I stole a car and rammed it right into your families' car then fled the scene. You were all supposed to die but instead I got stuck with my sister's pathetic daughter and my life was ruined."

"You monster!" I screamed. My uncle started laughing in response. It was my uncle the whole time. He killed my family. My uncle's always been an alcoholic and always skipped school so no wonder my grandparents weren't proud of him. He's a psychopath. My uncle really is the devil. My body started to vibrate and I could feel anger building up inside. My body started to get hot. I could see the horror and shock in the others face's. Aiden's so distracted by what my uncle revealed that she didn't notice a hardling charging towards her with its claws out ready to rip her in half. There's no time to warn her.

Just when the hardling was about to reach her, she was saved. Raven launched at Aiden and pushed her out the way. Unfortunately, Raven got caught in the monster's claws and was sliced right open. Luka instantly reacted and repeatedly shot the hardling's head. The hardling ran away. Aiden dropped to Raven's side and started balling her eyes out. "Don't die. You can't die."

"Too late sorry."

"You shouldn't have saved me. It was my turn to save you," Aiden laughed.

"I hate following rules." I could see Raven bleeding out. She's going to die and it's my fault. One of my friends is dying because of me. "Please don't die Raven. You'll be okay. I need you. Getting to know you has been amazing. I've always secretly admired you. You're so cool and badass." Aiden cried.

"I'm not... I'm not badass."

"Please don't die." Aiden leaned down and kissed Raven. They kissed passionately. Aiden likes Raven? I didn't see that coming. "I love you Raven."

"I..." And just like that Raven's gone. Murdered by a monster. Aiden clung to Raven's lifeless body and screamed and cried. Me and Luka's crying as well. "Look your friend's dead, one less for me to kill" the devil laughed. My whole body shook more. My body got extremely hot and fire covered my body. I felt angrier then I've ever felt. Luka looked at me, "Aiden get up."

"No! Leave me alone."

"Aiden, we need to move. She's going to explode."

"What?" Aiden asked, confused. She looked over at me, "oh crap."

I slowly stood up. Fire fully surrounded me now. "You killed my family! You killed my friend!" I screamed as all my fire unleashed on the devil. Pieces of the wall behind me flung off and smashed into every hardling. The devil tried to hold his stance but I could see him slipping. I screamed louder and with more anger and pain. More power was released and more than I thought I was capable of. It's like all the anger, sadness and pain uncle's ever caused me, that had built up over the years, was now being released. I kept screaming. Everything's smashing into the hardlings and my uncle. Him and the hardlings went flying into the far wall and all passed out.

Aiden and Luka ran to my side. Luka caught me as I was about to collapse. I felt so drained. More than I ever have. My whole body's killing. I couldn't let the pain affect me. This is our chance to escape. The devil and the hardlings are down but we don't know for how long but my guess is it won't be long. "Come on," Luka said as he helped me up the stairs. Time for floor nine.