My Own Personal Hell

Chapter Seventeen: I'm Not Ok.

I'm lost, and I don't know what to do. Two of my friends are dead. My best friend is having a mental breakdown. And I can't find Rose.

I can't find Rose. I CAN'T FIND ROSE!

I'm so scared.

Fireballs pelt the Earth behind me. I just run.

Could Venny have really been the mastermind here? Could he really have planned all this out? I hope I'm coming to a false conclusion.

There's Check In. He's missing his arm. I try to run over to him.

A siren starts going off. It's loud and painful.

I clutch my ears and fall to my knees. I look back up, but Check In is no longer there.

"Find and Kill, Damen Black, Check In, Jack Jones, Rose Alexandra, Venny Karion, Jason Davidson, and Akicha Davidson. You will be rewarded handsomely." This sentence is repeated over and over everywhere by some loud disembodied voice.

I jump back up nearly dodging another fire blast.

I slam into the side of a familiar building. It's what's left of The Happiest Place on Earth. Distorted and demolished just like everything else.

Happiness is lost... it's broken. I run inside the building to hide, just as I see two demons coming my way.

It seems that every lost soul from Hell is looking for us.

We lost. We have actually lost. We didn't even get a chance to fight, and we've actually lost.

I look around the coffee shop and see our table still set up. I walk over to it slowly.

"Hi Damen." A voice says behind me.

I turn around quickly. My heart is racing. I see the barista from before smiling at me. How? I don't know...

"Table for one I assume." He writes something on his clipboard and leads me to our table.

I take a seat. He sets the same coffee I got last time in front of me. I look at it with a confused expression.

He sits in front of me.

There's a long pause.

"Why are you still here?" I ask him. "You realize it's the end of the world right?"

"Is it? I must have missed that." He sighs. "I just know coffee."

I look down at my mug and take a sip. "What are we gonna do..." I shake my head.

"Well, I don't know about you, but I'm going to keep serving coffee." He smiles.

"Why?" I shake my head. "Who would come here at this point?"

The barista sits back and crosses his arm. "Anybody who needs it. The Happiest Place on Earth is always there for those who need help. No matter what."

"Hmm? How odd." I look at my coffee.

"So Damen... shouldn't you be out there right now with your Seven Deadly Sins?" The barista asks.

"Not anymore... it was a good go. It actually might have done something, but just like everything else I do, it got screwed up too." I sigh. "Turns out, things weren't as they seemed. Venny turned out to be the bad guy and Jason's completely lost it... I can't find Rose... I'm a failure."

"Wow. How interesting." The man smiles.

"What do you mean?" I look up at him.

"Well, it seems to me that you blame yourself for a lot of things that aren't your fault. I keep telling you kid, your doing better than you think." He laughs.

"What?" My eyes widen.

"Check your pocket and get back out there. No one's stopping you but you."

I look down at my pocket then back to the barista, but he's gone.

I reach into my pocket and pull out the peace of paper the old man gave me. There's something written below its original message.

"You can't change the past kid, but you sure can change the future. You just have to do it."

I look up.

I stand and put the paper back in my pocket. I take one sip of my coffee and throw it to the floor. It smashes.

"Good game Venny, but now it's my turn." I walk out of the coffee shop and see Rose, Frost, and Check In the distance surrounded by demons.

I run for them. For my friends. For my family. For me.