A&D Book 1: Amulets & Demons (Editing Slowly)

Chapter 15

Jace's POV

All of our candy we got from that vending machine: gone in three days. Every last piece. It was a shame; I didn't even get one Twinkie.

After our run-in at the border, we continued our trip along the countryside to the first Amulet.

It was kind of weird, the entire Amulet deal. First of all, Flynn (Flynn, of all people) shows up and says that they give us superpowers, and then it ends up giving us superpowers. To top it all off, not even our resident smartie could figure out how it works.

And this headache... God, I'd rather be torn apart by a demon than have to live through another minute of this. It's like someone's taking a dull jackhammer to a diamond slab, inside of my head. It was absolute... wherever demons came from.

Getting back on track, we traveled for about a week after our time at the border, and reached Winnipeg in the middle of the afternoon. We cleaned ourselves up in a small stream, and set up camp next to it. From there, we discussed our next course of action.

"The tracker is showing that the Amulet is only 8.5 miles from this spot." Katilyn said, gesturing to her computer in her lap. "If we head out now, we could reach the spot by nightfall and head in."

"Too risky," I said, biting my lower lip as a wave of pain rolled over me. "We might get jumped by demons on the way there."

It was a legitimate concern. During the past week, we had been attacked by packs of demons. They came in groups of 10 to 15, and our worst injury was a mild gash on Allani's bicep.

"I agree with Jace," Adrian said, looking at everyone. "It's too risky to travel at night. I say we camp out for the night and travel to the spot in the morning.

Sarah, Allani and I nodded with what he said. Katilyn sighed and closed her laptop, saying "You all, being safe."

So, we set up camp for the night, conversation about as common as our camdy. Adrian lit a fire, and we ate beans (again. God, that's about as painful as my headache).

After a short dinner, we set up our sleeping bags (they still smelled like demon, mind you) and tried to fall asleep.

None of us actually slept. Allani was making annoying noises, so I don't really know whether or not he was actually sleeping.

The night passed kind of quickly, 'kind of' being a relative phrase. The sun eventually came up, and we headed off towards the spot.

It only took about an hour, and we had found the spot. To be honest, I was expecting something more visually pleasing.

It was a hole in the ground. Not gonna sugar coat it, it was a hole. The entrance was inside of a hill. It looked about to cave in on itself in two seconds. If you didn't get it by now, I was dissapointed.

"Is this it?" Allani asked, making a few stones on the hill float into his hand. "This is just kind of sad."

Katilyn, looking once again at her scanner, said, "This is it. This is where the Amulet is supposedly is. Probably in the cave, if anywhere."

Adrian stepped into the mouth of the cave and said, "It looks like it goes pretty far back. We better prepare for a long trip. Check your food, sharpen your weapons, whatever you need to do."

"And use the bathroom." Allani said from behind him.

Adrian turned around to look at him and said, "W-what?"

"You heard me," Allani said. "Someone here - Adrian - is gonna be pretty pissed if we have to stop for a bathroom break during this job."

Adrian nodded after a second and pointed to a nearby tree. "Who's first?"

*****

I was slumped on a rock, trying to not cry from the pain in my head. I wasn't doing that well. Tears dripped down from my face, and landed in the dirt. It was more like mud at that point, but you get the gist.

Adrian walked over to me and sat to my right, giving me a look. "You ready for this?"

I lightly nodded. "Yeah, I'll be-" I held my head as another burst of pain raked my head. "-fine."

"You sure? You could sit out on this one, I could get Sarah to keep you company."

I let out a small chuckle and said, "Nah, just give me a second, and I'll be fine."

Adrian patted me on the back and walked away for last-minute preparations. I wiped me eyes off on my sleeves and stood up, dusting off my back in the process.

I walked over to the others, who were all ready to go. I slugged on my backpack and looked towards the others.

"Let's do this." I said.