Heaven, Hell, and Everything in Between

Chapter 7: Demonnapped

CH.7 Demonnapped

I was walking to school on a usual Wednesday, when I see a girl walking further up the road. I took one look and thought 'WOW!' The girl was about my age, long blond hair made a halo around her head as she walked, had the body of a supermodel, and was drop-dead gorgeous. I sped up to catch her before she got to school, but as I was getting within ten feet of her, a demon springs out of nowhere and grabs her. I raced to her rescue, but the demon Arced and was gone in a flash. I stumbled to a halt, and recalled what Rocko had said to do in a similar situation. 'Any demon has the power to Arc, or transmute. It is something they do if they don't want to be tracked. No human method can find an Arced demon, but they leave a trail in what we call the Shadow Phase. It is similar to what we have done to prevent mortals from seeing demons. If you can learn to see past this barrier, you can track any Arced demon.' He had me bring out my sword, and took some of the demon essence it had absorbed. He then had me turn around so he could move the blob around the field. I then had to concentrate my mind and 'see' the trail of essence the blob had left. If I lost the trail, he had me start over until I had it perfected. I used the technique Rocko had pounded into my brain, and watched as the world was drained of color, until it was like I was in an old black and white movie. I immediately saw the red-purple trail the demon had left when he Arced.

I ran about ten blocks until the trail ended at an old factory on the edge of town. Carful to not alert the demon inside, I climbed into the rafters of the main floor, and looked to see where they were. I crawled around, avoiding the loose girders that would have made a quick acquaintance with me and the factory floor, twenty feet below. I must have covered most of the main floor, and was starting to wonder if they had not stopped in the building, when I spotted them in the far corner of the supply section, what I saw was something that still haunts me today. The demon was fully transformed, a half-wolf mix, and was circling the girl, tied and gagged in a chair. He was stroking her and messing with her hair, and I knew he was not going to stop at that. The very thought of what he was going to do almost made me puke, but I quickly caught myself before I blew my cover. I had to get to her somehow, and kill the demon before he harmed her, only I had no clue how. Wolves have excellent hearing, and any step I made on the gravel floor would alert him to my position. The crates were not an option either, they were old and rotten, and would fall apart if I landed on them. The only option left to me was to stay in the rafters. I carefully, moved over to the corner, until I was directly above them. I could now here and see everything that was going on below, and I almost fell off the girders in rage.

"My sweet," the demon said to the girl in a soothing voice, "you and I are going to have some fun together."

I saw the girl's pupils shrink to pinpoints with fear, realizing what he meant. I was not going to let that happen on my watch, so I whispered my sword's name, and it grew in my hand to full size. For all of his hearing, he was too focused on the girl to hear my voice.

He walked up to her and started to untie her, I knew this was my only chance to attack, so I jumped off the girder and yelled as I fell, "Hey ugly! You forgot to invite me!"

Both of them looked up at me as I fell, the girl and demon matching in their surprised looks. I landed right on top of the demon's head. He was flattened to the floor by the force of my landing, and would have been dead if her were mortal. Instead all I did was tick him off, he roared at me, and flung me off of his back. I landed in a pile of crates that, thankfully, were half rotten and absorbed my fall.

The demon turned to the girl and said, "Back in a moment hot-stuff, just got to take out the uninvited trash." He turned back to where I had landed, but saw the tip of my blade an inch from his face, instead of a limp body. He never got out the question I saw on his lips, because I had already shish-ci-bobbed his head. My sword absorbed him from head to toe, in that order. I turned to were the girl was tied up, and saw her staring at me with a look that was half relief, and half fear, which I thought added up to become quite a funny mix on her face. I walked up to her and proceeded to untie her. She never said a word the entire time, and simply watched me as I undid the knots that held her to the chair. Once she was free, she stepped up to me and, for a moment seemed to battle with herself at what she was going to do.

I said, "I know this is hard to explain, but I may as......" She had kissed me, and not just one of those little love pecks either, but a full-on, ten-second, lip-to-lip kiss. Whatever I had been about to say was stopped in an instant, and the next my whole brain was short-circuited. I simply stood there in shock as she gave me the works. I don't know when she stopped, but when she did I was totally tongue-tied, pardon the pun.

She stepped away and said, "No explanation needed, you saved me and you got your reward." She turned away and said over her shoulder, "My name's Grace, and I hope to see you again, and not just at school, hero." I watched as she walked away, and tried to get at least some of my cylinders firing again. I must have stood there five minutes before I could walk back to school. I could not believe my luck. A girl had not only kissed me, but had said that she may want to see me again! I whooped for joy and practically skipped back to school, only to remember that it was almost ten o'clock, I was late for school! I sprinted back to campus and just made it in time for second hour. Everyone wanted to know where I had been, but I was too preoccupied at the moment with thoughts of Grace. The rest of the day passed in a blur, and to be honest I didn't remember a thing the teachers said. I walked out of school, and guess who was standing there waiting for me, you got it, Grace! I never got a single word out before she grabbed me and short-circuited my brain again. Ricky, who had been walking next to me, nearly passed out from surprise. I was probably going to be a close second if Grace hadn't stopped right then.

Ricky looked at me, then to Grace, then back to me and said, "Am I missing something here? How did you get hooked up with her?!" I could see the gears in his head twisting and turning, trying to make sense of what he was seeing, when Grace solved it for him.

"You could say I'm sort of a rescue," she said, "and Sam here is the rescuer."

It took Ricky about two seconds to figure out what she meant, and said, "You mean," he looked at me, "you and her," I could see him putting it together piece by piece, when it made the whole picture, he said, "Holy crap!"

"Yep, that pretty much sums it up." I said.

"No wonder you were late for school!" he said, "I would have thought you overslept, but this, never in a million years!"

"Wait a minute," Grace interjected, "you mean he knows that you fight demons!?"

I said, "Yep, and he wouldn't know either unless I had to have fought one to save our skins."

"Wow!" she said, "You mean you have fought two demons?"

"Actually about twenty if you count the one that I saved you from." I said.

"I want to fight too," she said, "I can't stand by and watch you fight on your own."

"I can put in a request with Shikia to see what can be done." I said.

"Who's Shikia?" she asked, "It doesn't sound like any American name."

"That's because she's an angel, literally." I said, "I train in Heaven every night with their training master Rocko, or as I like to call him, 'The Rock'."

"Is that why you're so tired in the day?" she said, "No wonder! You must get like two hours of sleep a night."

"Sometimes less," I said, "but I manage."

"Can you ask about me too?" Ricky said, "I want to be able to defend myself if I'm attacked."

"I'll put in a request for you too Rick," I said, "but I don't know what can be done about it, if anything."

"See you tomorrow guys." Grace said, "I have a bus to catch, but Sam, I want a full report on her answer in the morning. Got it?"

"Definitely." I yelled as she ran off. I turned to Ricky and said, "Am I lucky or what!? I just scored the hottest girl in the whole school!"

"You said it," he said, "be careful though, it you mess up with her, no girl in the school will go out with you."

"Amen to that, brother," I said, "amen to that."