Humans and Demons

Chapter 9... Search Party

1 hour later...

Jack was still scattering in all different directions, even though his legs were about to give out. Jack fell to his knees in exhaustion, which allowed Scarlett to catch up with him. "Jack, what happened? You took off like you were about to be killed." Scarlett said to him. "I- I have- no idea- what- that was." Jack said while gasping for air. "Just breathe, you need to calm down. Tell me what happened." Scarlett said. "The nightmare, that's what it was. It just spooked me, that's all it was." Jack said nervously. "Uh, you ran like Anti was going to murder you, was it about him? Or Nate maybe?" Scarlett asked. "It was about Nate. He looked like a soulless puppet, and he called himself the Marionette. He tied me to a chair and when I couldn't get out, his minions brought me over to this machine and, it killed me. But I woke up moments later and I felt different, like I couldn't move properly and there was blood everywhere." Jack explained. Scarlett hugged Jack, but was interrupted by an extremely maniacal period of laughter. "We need to find Anti, now. Maybe Nate can help him." Scarlett suggested. "That's what I was thinking." Jack said. They both ran deeper into the forest to search for Anti.

Back at the crash site...

Mark and Felix were starting to wake up after Nate healed them and when they did, they backed away from Nate extremely quickly. "What's wrong guys? Are you okay?" Luke asked them. "What the heck was that?!" Felix asked. "I have no idea." Mark said back. They both looked at Nate with fear as they looked at him closer and saw that he had horns. "What the-?" Felix said. "You're a demon? Why are you here?" Mark asked. "He was kidnapped by Anti, in the woods." Liam said. "They flagged me down when Scarlett was poisoned, and I helped her, then Jack." Nate said. "Where's Jack and Scarlett?" Felix asked. "Uh, Jack took off in the woods, no clue why, but Scarlett chased after him. It's been like an hour though, should we go and look for them?" Luke said. "They should be fine, Anti's probably nowhere near them." Liam said. Then suddenly they all hear the maniacal laughter that Jack and Scarlett heard, then they realized that Dark was gone. "Where did Dark go?! He was here a minute ago, at least I thought he was." Mark said. "Okay, now we really need to look for everyone, right now." Luke said. Everyone nodded their head in agreement and ran together into the woods.

Jack and Scarlett ran deeper into the woods to find a giant green glow coming from one of the biggest trees in the forest. "We need to approach him carefully or he will attack us." Scarlett said. They walk around the tree to find Anti, soaked in blood, but he was different, he was knocked out cold. "Uh, what is he doing? Is this like a plan to kill us or is he really out cold?" Jack whispered to Scarlett. "I have no clue. Maybe try shaking him?" Scarlett whispered back. Jack walked over to Anti and shook his shoulder, he was completely out. "Maybe one of his victims died and he's back to normal." Scarlett said. "Maybe, I have no idea. Nate said he was hooking IVs to people, but that's not a brutal killing, right?" Jack asked. Scarlett shook her head, agreeing with Jack's statement. Suddenly about 5 figures emerged from the shadows, it was Luke, Liam, Mark, Felix, and Nate. "Oh, my god, what are you guys doing out here?" Scarlett asked. "Dark disappeared and we are trying to look for him." Liam said. Anti started to twitch violently, everyone except Nate, Jack, and Scarlett back away from Anti really slowly. "What happened to him?" Luke asked. "We just found him like this, we don't know if he's back to normal or not." Jack said. "I can take a look at him if he stays still." Nate said. Nate walked towards him and his eyes turned light blue while he evaluated Anti.

5 minutes later...

"He's back to normal, he did kill someone brutally, he's just passed out from exhaustion." Nate said. "Okay, if Anti's back to normal, where's Dark? Why did he leave?" Mark asked. Mark, Scarlett, Jack, and Nate covered their ears as hard as they could and fell to the ground because of a loud ringing that nobody else could hear. "Guys, what's wrong?" Liam asked in confusion. "It's Dark, he casted out a noise that only demons and people possessed by demon can hear." Jack explained. "That way." Nate said. Mark picked up Anti and ran along with the others, following Nate's direction. They found Dark standing in the middle of a weird lineup of trees, made to look like a circle. From the looks of it, it looked like Dark was sleeping while standing up. "Uh, what is he doing? Is he- sleeping?" Mark asked. "Looks like it, but why is he standing up?" Jack asked. Felix walked up to him and shook his shoulder, he fell to the ground, not moving a muscle. "Jack, can you carry Anti and me and Felix will carry Dark?" Mark asked. Jack nodded his head and Mark put Anti over Jack's shoulders. "Fuck, how much does he weigh anyways?" Felix and Mark said as they tried to lift up Dark, but they miserably failed. Luke and Liam gave a helping hand and lifted Dark on to Felix and Mark's back. "He is heavy, you weren't kidding." Luke said jokingly. "Let's just get back to the van, Anti's starting to hurt me." Jack said. "What do you mean he's starting to hurt you?" Nate asked. "He's digging his nails in my back, I didn't know his nails were so sharp." Jack said while wincing a little bit. Nate walked behind Jack and looked to see what Anti was doing. "Uh, you guys, we need to run, now." Nate said. "Why do we need to run?" Jack asked. Anti dug his nails into Jack's back even more. "Fuck, Anti, what the hell?! Jack said while shouting in pain. "He's turning back to his normal self, so he's gonna be pretty tense for awhile, that's why he's digging into your back, but he doesn't know he's doing it. And I said to run because Anti will become very combative when he wakes up so we need to be quick!" Nate said in a rush. Everybody started to run until they saw the entrance to the forest. 

10 minutes later...

They ran what felt like a marathon all the way to the van. Mark and Felix put Dark in the back along with Anti. "Scarlett, you need to drive, we need to keep an eye on them, and we need more muscle back here." Jack said. "Shouldn't Felix be driving then? I have more muscle than him." Scarlett said with a sassy tone. "HEY! I'm manly!" Felix said. Scarlett wanted to prove her point so she tackled Felix to the ground, everyone looked in shock at first. "Wow, Felix. You got pinned by a girl." Mark said, trying to hold in his laughter, while everyone else started laughing at him. "Fine, you got me, now let me up!" Felix said. Scarlett helped Felix up with everyone still trying to hold in their laughter. "Nate, want to come with us?" Jack offered. "Sure, I'll tag along." Nate said. 

20 minutes later...

Felix was driving while everyone else was taking shifts. Nate and Mark were on first watch while everyone else got some rest. Nate was actually healing Jack at the moment since Anti dug his nails into his back while Mark was keeping an eye on both of them. "Okay, I finished up with Jack, how are these two doing?" Nate asked. "I'm worried about Dark, he hasn't moved a muscle since we found him, can you check him just to be safe?" Mark asked. Nate nodded his head and started to evaluate Dark. About 5 minutes later, Nate finished, he looked a little bit worried. "What's wrong with him, is there anything wrong with him?" Mark asked. "Uh, how do I explain this? Uh, he hypnotized himself, as well as Anti." Nate said. "Are you serious? Why did he hypnotize Anti in the state he was in?" Mark asked with concern. "I'm not completely sure, but if I'm correct, which I usually am, I think he hypnotized Anti because he didn't want to kill anyone, so Dark forced him to kill to return him back to his normal state. How he accidentally did it to himself, I have no clue. He should be waking up soon hopefully." Nate said. "That actually makes sense." Mark said. Mark and Nate took a breather and Jack filled in for Mark. "Hey, feeling better after what Anti did?" Nate asked. "Yeah, I am. Thanks." Jack said. Anti's bicep twitched, making Jack jump. "Uh, Nate? Did Anti have claws when you looked at him?!" Jack asked with worry. "Uh, I know for sure he didn't have claws when he was on your back." Nate said with a look of worry. "How long is he going to be knocked out?" Jack asked. "Uh, when I went through the "Demonic Plague" as it's called, it took me about maybe 2 days to wake up from this state, but it's different for everyone. His state right now, he's not aware what he does, but he can do things. I wasn't like that, I didn't move once in this state and I didn't have to brutally kill someone to cure myself." Nate explained. "So, what is he capable of in this state?" Jack asked. "Hell, he could kill someone really. Possibilities are endless." Nate said. Dark started to open his eyes, they were blood red, glowing blood red. "Dark, you're up? What happened out there?" Jack asked. Dark didn't answer because he was still dazed. "He's pretty zoned out, so I'd give him a minute to adjust." Nate said. "Why aren't you a doctor?" Jack asked. "I have to go to school for it first, so that's what I plan to do." Nate said. Dark grabbed onto Jack's arm and pinned him to the floor. "Dark, what the fuck?!" Jack yelled, waking everyone up. "Why is Dark pinning you, Jack?!" Mark asked. "I think he's still hypnotized so we need to snap him out of it, he could be in kill mode right now." Nate said. "NO SHIT HE'S IN KILL MODE! How do we snap him out of it?!" Jack asked nervously. "We need to either hypnotize him again or find his trigger word. I can try to un-hypnotize him, but we might want to pull over, and maybe stay out of sight." Nate said. "Uh, why?" Mark asked. "You don't want to know, just, everyone out. Take Anti with you, okay? And keep Anti far away from here while I do this." Nate said. Everyone got out of the car and Mark took Anti out over his shoulders as they walked away from it. 

"Mark, you sure you want to be carrying Anti?" Jack asked with concern. "Yeah, why wouldn't I be sure?" Mark asked. "You saw what he did to me, don't say I didn't warn you." Jack said. Mark felt the back of his shirt sticking to him, but he didn't know why. "Uh, guys? The back of my shirt is sticking to me, you guys didn't put anything on me, did you?" Mark asked. Everyone looked at him like he was crazy. Mark then started to wince in pain and fell to his knees. "Mark, are you okay? What happened?" Liam asked. "Here, I'll take him for you." Luke offered. As soon as Luke put Anti over his shoulders, he saw what Mark was talking about. "Uh, guys? I see what Mark meant when he said his shirt was sticking to him. His back is covered in blood." Luke said with worry. "Jack, look at Anti's hands. See if he did this." Mark said. Jack walked over behind Luke, and he saw blood all over Anti's hands, mostly in his claws. "Yeah, he did it for sure, he has blood all over his hands, mostly in his, uh, nails." Jack said. As soon as Mark was going to say something, but the car let out a loud pitch ringing and emitted a black glow. "Take cover!" everyone yelled. Then everything went black...