Life After Death

Chapter 17

I imagined demons as these grotesque creatures, but these dark entities that were standing in front of us were anything but. They looked like people. Normal, average Joe, Bob and Sally's; only more pale with a crimson tinge in their eyes. It creeped me out when each demon removed their hood and revealed their faces. I gasped, and looked around because I had no idea that that's what they would look like. Not in the slightest. Everyone else seemed panicked, sure, but not surprised.

"They look..."

"Human?" Val asked, arching a brow at me. She nodded and turned back to couple of demons parked outside. Staring up at the Soliel like they knew we were inside there. Like they could sense us. "They were people once. They did horrible things in their lives and were sent to Hell and in turn, they morphed into these... creatures-so of course they'd look human."

"They know we're in here," Roman said, looking around the hallway, for an escape. "They are going to come up for us. And none of us have weapons to kill ghosts, especially not demons."

"There are specific weapons to kill ghosts?" I asked in disbelief.

"Val where's the closest exit?" Roman asked, ignoring me. Topher shot me an apologetic glance.

"That way," Val pointed to the direction from whence we came, "straight down. C'mon!" She called over her shoulder already running down the hallway.

I was sure the demons could hear us-hear me-our feet slammed against the ground and echoed down the hallway, the sound bouncing off the grimy walls. I was breathing heavily, but everyone else seemed rather unaffected. Maybe I was just that unfit that even dead I couldn't run down a seriously long hallway without gasping for air. We stopped at the end of the hallway, where it split into two.

"We can try going up to the roof and go down the concierge where the fire escape is," Val suggested. "Or downstairs through one of the three main exits but I'm sure those idiots barricaded it or something."

Roman nodded. "Up it is."

We went right, and went through a door that had an arrow pointing up. We hurried up the stairs.

"Avoid the shadows!" Topher said, running behind me.

We all formed a straight line as we ran up the stairs. We found the door leading to the rooftop of the museum. The air whipped around us fiercely. The sun was going down, dipping behind the building, casting a warm glow on the small town of Hope. It was supposed to be comforting, I guess-watching the beautiful sunset-but it was anything besides comforting. It amplified the fact that, just as the sun was disappearing behind the horizon, we would die and disappear, too.

I didn't realize I was shaking until Topher slipped an arm around my shoulders and held me close to his body. It calmed me. That bright sparkle in his eye made me feel better. It smoothed out the fact that I might die.

"Meredith, do you still have salt?" Val asked, turning her pockets inside out to find that they were empty-no salt.

I stuffed my hand in my jacket pocket and pulled out a handful of salt. I poured it in the center of Val's hand. She curled her fingers around it.

"They're coming," Roman said, standing in front of us all, like a shield.

"Wait," Val said, "the trolls can jump. So they might come up from that side, too." Val pointed to the edge of the building. "I have enough salt to make a circle for Topher and Merri and then the little that's left I can throw at them-it burns them, y'know?"

"You should be inside that circle, too." Roman said. But Val was already forming a circle on the ground. The snow had melted into patches of water. It seemed as though it hadn't began to snow in a while.