『Guardian Angel』»〈skephalo〉

XVI

•zak•

Apparently Zelk's mom owns a van, no surprise there. So, Zelk ended up driving everyone to Finn's house that Sunday afternoon. Zelk in the driver's seat, Clay in the passengers seat. Jack and George sat in the middle row while Darryl and I sat in the way back.

I chewed on my fingernails nervously the whole way there. The van was completely silent, everyone was grieving the situation in their own way. It was a tough thing to do, after all. After Vincent went missing, everyone's been on edge, especially with the fact that a friend they've known for a long time is behind Vincent's disappearance.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, although in reality it was only a few minutes, the van pulled into Finn's driveway. My nerves increased immensely once I saw his house. The situation suddenly seemed too real.

We all exited the vehicle, still completely silence. Together, we walked up to the house. Once we reached the front door, we didn't even bother knocking. Finn's parents were never home, like mine, and we knew he always kept his door unlocked.

George barged in, and immediately when we entered, Darryl and him shared a look.

"What is it?" I asked them. "Why are you looking at each other like that?"

"This house smells of dark energy," Darryl simply replied. "It's a very bad smell."

I swallowed nervously, taking in that piece of information. Deep down I had hoped that Finn actually wasn't the demon, and we were wrong all along. It hurt me to hear the truth.

"Finn?!" Clay called into the house, clearly losing all of his patience. His call sounded aggressive. I didn't blame Clay for being upset with Finn, the boy took his one true love after all.

"Finn, come out, we won't hurt you!" I added, trying to seem more nice and understanding. "We know it's you, we can find a safe way to get rid of the demon!"

That's when Finn appeared around the corner, having a face look of worry. "It's not what you think," He said as soon as we all noticed his entrance. "Just trust me, it's not."

"We know," Darryl replied in his soothing voice. "We know you don't mean to hurt people, that the demon takes over your body and you can't control it. But we're here to help," He assured Finn.

But the boy simply shook his head in response. "No," He declared. "It's not that. I'm not the demon, you see," He explained, running his hand through his hair. "You think I am, but I'm not. It's Zak. Zak is the demon."

Ouch. He really tried to use me as an excuse. "Finn, it's okay to admit it. Like Darryl said, we're not going to hurt you," I informed him in a calm tone.

Finn looked as if he was on the verge of tears. He shook his head once more. "It's you, Zak. You may not know it, but it is."

"Then why do we sense such dark energy in this household?" George countered, crossing his arms. "Your logic doesn't make any sense."

Finn sucked in a breath. "Because I don't have a demon to mask it." He then rolled up his shirt, revealing a large gash on his side. But instead of the wound being red, the wound was black, full of demon remnants. "The demon sliced my side, leaving behind lots of energy. It's trying to frame me, but it made the mistake of letting me see it exit Zak's body," He explained.

I shook my head. "What do you mean? Nothing left my body, I would've felt it!" I exclaimed.

Finn bit his lip. "That's the thing, Zak. You weren't conscious. That night Carson went missing, you fainted at Zelk's party. I was the one who saw you faint. The demon left your body. It seems as though it will only do so when you're unconscious," He told me.

"If this is true, why didn't you tell anyone?" Jack pointed out. "If I saw a demon that night, I'd sure as hell tell some people, even if they didn't believe me."

"B-Because it spoke to me. It said... in the most horrifying of voices, 'stay silent, you live'," Finn stuttered out. "So I stayed silent. I wasn't sure why the creature wanted me to be quiet if no one would believe me anyways, so I started to think. The demon wanted me to stay silent because someone would believe me, that's when I tried to find out who'd believe me."

Finn cleared his throat, continuing his explanation. "So I watched you all, from a distance, at the party on Friday. The party that Vincent went missing at. I soon realized that Zak and Darryl both were watching Zelk intently," He continued. "At that point, I had realized a pattern. At every party, a kid disappeared, so I knew that a kid was going to go missing at that party if I didn't do something about it. So I lured Zak up to the bathroom, and knocked him out, thinking the demon wouldn't be able to escape. I guess any kind of unconsciousness will allow it to leave the host's body."

"That's why you hit me over the head with a board of wood?" I questioned him. "That's a ridiculous claim. You're making all of this up."

"Zak..." Darryl murmured. I turned towards my guardian. "Zak, I need you to listen to me carefully. Just listen for a moment." The way Darryl was talking scared me. "Finn has a slice on his stomach... from where the demon slashed him. The mark would not be black if there was a demon inside of him."

I shook my head at Darryl. "H-He's lying! Demons deceive, Darryl! I'm not the demon, trust me, I know I'm not!" I exclaimed.

"How would you know?" Clay argued. "You've been unconscious every time a kid has been taken! You didn't come to the first party, the one where Dave went missing, so I assume you were sleeping! You fainted at the second party, because the demon needed you to be unconscious in order to leave your body! Then, Finn knocked you out at the third party. So whether you're the demon or not, how would you know?"

My heart beat slowly began to increase. "I'm not... you don't actually think...?" I stammered.

Darryl's eyes showed sadness. "Zak, take deep breaths, we can get it out of you-"

"No!" I exclaimed. "He's lying! He's-"

My words were cut off when I felt my throat start to constrict. I let out a choking sound, bringing my hands to my neck and widening my eyes with horror. "Zak!" Darryl cried, watching me as my legs forcefully buckled from underneath me.

What's going on? I thought to myself. Soon, the world faded around me, and all that I saw was darkness.

A/N: MWAHAHAHA IM THE MASTER OF PLOT TWISTS... IVE BEEN PLANNING IT FROM THE START MWAHAHAHAHA