Hide & Seek 2: The Return of Mr. Harmon

Chapter 22: The Ring

As we walk toward the mansion, there's this silence between us that's killing me. I decide to break it. 

"What did Cody mean when he said only the last demon can stop the book? What did he mean by demon?"

Helena smiles. "That's another story soon to be told. If I told you that, we'd be here for hours."

"Just a brief explanation?" I ask. 

She stops and looks at me. "My story is no brief explanation. Each thing I say will lead to more questions. I will tell you this, I'm not human."

"But what if it doesn't work out?" I ask. "What if you don't make it? Then I will never know the story."

Helena shrugs. "Then you'll never know."

We laugh and continue walking. As soon as we approach the tall grass, everything turns black. "Shhh," Helena says. "We could be in the game."

"No. Then our lips would be sewn," I inform her. "How are you we going to stop Mr. Harmon?"

We stop again and Helena's expression changes. Her eyes grow wide. "I have an idea. But it might not work. Come on." She grabs my hand and we run past the long grass and into the amusement park. As soon as we step foot into Mr. Harmon's park, our lips sew together, which is bad because she hadn't told me her plan.

She takes my hand and we sit down near the closest ride. Helena reaches into my pocket for my phone. As she does, I get this really bad feeling. Something doesn't feel right. I trust this gut feeling and stand up. Before I can take Helena's hand so we can  hide somewhere else, I see someone running at Helena. The object in their hand pushes through Helena's throat. I can barely look at Helena. The sight is too horrible. "You're dead," someone behind her says.

Using her finger, Helena quickly tears through her stitches and pulls the ring off of her finger. "The ring," she struggles to say. Her voice is hoarse and I can barely hear her. "Mr. Harmon. Book. Together. Destroy." She then falls to the ground and I touch her hand and yell, "I found a dead body!"

I take her ring and put it on my finger quickly. The lights come on and I see Abby smiling at me. "Hey, old friend. Did you enjoy your trip?" Before saying anything more, she looks around. "Dad! Put us back by the drop."

Nothing happens. Abby then yanks my hair and pulls me along with her. "What is wrong with him?" As we approach the drop, I only see Mr. Harmon, Mrs. Harmon, Jasper, Doreen, and a masked child. Mr. Harmon is sitting on the floor and his head sort of twitches to the side over and over.

Abby walks behind him. She puts her hand on his shoulder. "Dad? What's going on with you?" In that same second, Mr. Harmon quickly grabs Abby by neck. His mouth opens to an impossible size and he slowly pulls Abby head closer and closer to his mouth.

Jasper runs beside me. "What's happening?"

I look at him. "I don't know!"

"Look!" Doreen yells.

Abby screams as Mr. Harmon's mouth stretches over Abby's  head. He stops for a split second and everything is beyond quiet. We can see Abby trying to push away but she isn't successful. 

"Let me go!" she screams.

There's another moment of silence. "You're dead," Mr. Harmon says and with that he closes his mouth over Abby's head. The rest of her body falls limp to the ground. Blood sprinkles around Mr. Harmon's face and he looks at us. His eyes are dark and I can see purple veins swelling on his face.

He runs at us with his hands out like he's a hungry beast. "Run!" Jasper calls out.

All of them run, even Mrs. Harmon. I'm the only one who doesn't run. I take off the ring and show it to him. He stops immediately. I don't know what I'm doing, but I hope I get some ideas real soon.