Shivering in my tear drenched shirt under the stairs of Mrs. Tannell’s house surrounded by a demon mother and son duo, my concern was not with the impending attack from the demons but more so with the large hairy beast that had just burst from the only unsearched room upstairs.  With the pendant in hand, I should be able to fend off the demons and any strike they may launch but that was not a certain.The demon lady pushed her hovering demon son aside and shuffled in close to me, almost face-to-face.  She looked down at my pendant and laughed, a gaudy laugh that resounded through the large room and echoed for what seemed like ages.  She said, “Your little magic necklace is as good as nothing when it comes to fending off my attack.  It may work on my little son, but I am far stronger than him and will not be taken down by a

The demon woman wanted to ensure she still had a hand in this fight, no pun intended, so she enacted a plan that would mentally haunt me for the rest of my life, even after my death.  I was still down on the floor with the demon woman trying her best to gain control of me without her hands.  To my left I could still hear this odd noise, something I had never heard before.  It reminded me of bones snapping and guts smushing around.  The demon boy sighed as if he were disappointed in his mother, he still was not over their fight and really wanted to prove a point to her.  He wanted to be the one in charge, the one to finish this mess and annihilate the humans and the beast that accompanied them.  His mother had already let us know that she had bigger plans, plans to fill the Earth with demons and eliminate the human race from this gracious land.Todd and the beast had realized that they were being approached by the demon boy and took a

Watching the yellow glowing pendant soar through the air under the guidance of my glowing orange palm beam was a sight for sore eyes to say the least.  All of our lives depended on that pendant landing in Todd’s fat sweaty grasp as he leaned over the unstable second floor railing.  Every second went by in slow motion, knowing the doom and despair that waited in the shadows if this crucial catch was not made precisely as we had planned.The further Todd leaned out, the more the second floor railed began to bow under his weight and crack, hinting at a disastrous result to the much-needed catch.  Suddenly, Todd sneezed in the middle of all this excitement and leaned far too much over the railing, it finally dismantled under his weight and he began a quick, long fall to the dark hardwood floor below. There was more to this problem than we

Jennifer did not even acknowledge the presence of Mrs. Tannell at my house so late on a school night, at least not to Mrs. Tannell, as she blew past her and made sure to add a sigh of frustration to plop the cherry on top.  My best friend since we were small children, Jennifer knew every aspect of my life, but I absolutely needed her to get on the same page with me in regard to the demons and the portal to hell.  She was usually game for anything I had to say because her home life was not the greatest it could be.  With no father at home or siblings, she tended to spend most of her time at my house acting as if my father were her father and my little brother was her little plaything, like most older siblings treated them.  My family really did not seem to notice that Jennifer clung to them as if they were her own, we had never discussed it, nor had I ever heard my parents discussing some secret plan to help Jennifer and her divorced mother through th

Jennifer recoiled at the sight of my inscribed hand; in fact, she gagged a little bit.  It was not the sight of it that really turned her stomach, it was not ugly or mangled, it was not scary or intimidating, it was just odd, and something knew nothing about.  My excitement grew just thinking of how she would react once she saw my hand in action.  Zapping demons left and right, holding them at bay while I yawned from boredom, it was my newest party trick to show her.She said, “What in the hell happened to you?  What is that and why is it etched into your skin?”Staring down at the inscriptions, I took great pride in having this gift bestowed upon me, permanently scarred on my body but for the right reasons.  Jennifer rubbed the letters, one at a time, and traced the circle with her index finger while she made a whistling sound as if my hand were a wine glass fil