Elly stood frozen, the only sound being her breath and the crunching of twigs and leaves as something came closer to us. I could tell that Elly was scared, her heartbeat was racing. Honestly, I didn't blame her. I had been in so many situations like this one that it didn't phase me anymore but she was new to all this. Nothing more than me being a voice in her head had ever happened to her.
"Elly." I tried to speak calmly, "Don't say anything, just listen to what I say."
Elly responded by nodding, a silent way of telling me she understood.
"Walk away, very slowly." I instructed, "Try not to step on anything that will make noise."
Elly started to move back towards the way we'd come, very slowly, making sure to calculate her steps before taking another one. As she moved, I listened to the other foot falls, trying to determine where they were and where they were going. From the weight of them I could already tell they were quite a big person, probably a guy. When Elly was just barely in the shadows, I heard the steps stop.
"Elly…" I said.
She froze, the forest around us falling silent again.
"Run." It wasn't a suggestion.
Elly took off towards the trail again, bushing through the brush and jumping over logs as quick as she could. I could hear the other set of feet following us, they seemed to be slower than Elly but I wasn't going to tell her to slow down and risk it. We reached the trail again and Elly jumped onto the gator, trying to start it immediately. But there was a problem, it wasn't starting.
"Come on!" Elly said, fear in her voice.
"Elly they're getting closer." I said.
"I know...I." The engine roared to life and Elly floored it, speeding away from the quickly approaching foe.
"Elly, look back. I need to see their face."
She hesitated but after a few seconds her head turned to look over her shoulder and I was able to see the would be attacker burst through the trees. I was right about it being a man. He was very tall and muscular, dark skinned and dark hair, made it hard to tell if he was demon in origin or not, a detail that was very important. But Elly turned back around before I could be sure.
"What do I do!" She said as she drove.
"I'm not sure. But we'll figure something out ok?" I said, trying to keep her calm.
"They saw me Alex! That's not something I can just keep calm about!" She was stressed.
"I get it, Elly. But you need to be calm so that we can think through this rationally." I said, "Yes, he saw you. But that doesn't mean you're in any danger."
"Then what does it mean? Because I certainly don't feel safe!" We were almost back to the main building.
"We can talk about this when you get home."
"Just don't leave ok?"
"I promise I'm going to stay right here, Elly."
*two hours later, at Elly's home*
"What am I supposed to do with a DEMON after me!" She was freaking out a little.
"I'm not sure. I wasn't even sure they knew how to get here until now." I said.
"You're not helping!" ok...she was freaking out a lot.
I tried to take a minute to think. What would my brothers do? What would Ketch do? I knew both answers. My brothers would approach this calmly and try to think things all the way through before barging in to kill the demon before it knew what hit it. And Ketch would've turned right around and killed it brutally right there and then. I was going to do neither of these. I pushed my way into Elly a little more, taking control of her breathing and calming her that way.
"Would you feel better if I took control for a little bit?" I asked.
"I don't even know what to think anymore," she muttered, her voice more gentle now that her breathing had calmed, but I knew she would still be stuttering and floundering if I wasn't partly helping.
"We need to think about this Elly. There's no reason it should be here so we need to figure out why," I sighed, she wasn't going to like what came next, "The easiest way to do that is going to be to capture it."
"Fuck no!" She ran her hands through her hair. "Where would I even put it if -IF- I was able to catch it? I'm not going to be some creepy psycho who keeps a person in their basement."
"We wouldn't be keeping him anywhere near here. Isn't there an old storage building out near the trail it was on?" I asked.
"Ya. It's mainly just crap. But that doesn't solve the problem of HOW we catch him, IF I let you!" She said, sitting on her bed.
"You wouldn't have to. Just leave that up to me." I said.
I could feel her unease. This wasn't going to be the most fun for her but this needed to happen in order for us to find out how and why the demon was here.
*About another hour later.*
I'd switched into full control. It was strange to be like this again, I never took full control unless we were in a situation where I needed to and that didn't happen often. After I switched over we'd come up with a pretty foolproof plan and gone back out to the trail we'd met the demon on. So far he didn't seem to be around but we both knew he wouldn't have gone very far. We'd been there for about twenty minutes now, waiting.
"Where is he.." I could hear the worry in Elly's voice.
"It's ok, calm down," It was weird to speak with her voice, "He'll come back. He's probably just watching us now."
"Ok…" I knew she was scared, I would be too if I'd never hunted a day in my life and suddenly had this crap thrown at me.
I stepped around a log and faced the rip. It was so familiar to me. I remember watching mom disappear into it, and I remember Cas dying in front of it. I know that Jack made the first one. A twig snapping broke me from my train of thought.
"Did you hear that?" I didn't answer Elly.
I was concentrating on where the sound came from. It was from my left and it definitely sounded too big to be anything but the vessel we were looking for. Only when I heard it again, this time a little ways behind me, did I move. I pushed off the ground and sprung at the vessel, throwing my arms around its neck and pulling it to the ground. It made a sound as the air rushed out of its' lungs as it hit the ground. When I had leverage over it, my knee on it's chest and my foot against its' throat, I asked one simple question.
"Why are you here?" I lifted my foot just enough so it could answer.
"Why should I tell you?" it hissed.
"Because," I said as I pulled a small vial of holy water from my pocket, "I have this."
I began to slowly pour it onto the demons chest. The thing let out a horrible noise, somewhere between a shriek of a monster and the scream of a human. I watched at it squirmed beneath me, trying to do everything it could to get away from the pain.
"Fine! Asmodeus sent me!" It shreaked.
"Why?" I asked it, pouring more holy water onto it.
"He wants her killed!" It said between the pain that it now gritted it's teeth against.
"Elly?" I asked the last question, saving the last of the holy water.
"Yes! He wants to make sure you can't come back!"
That was enough for me. I forced the mouth of the vessel open and poured the remainder of the holy water into it. I watched as it curled and writhed in pain as I said the lines that I had memorized for moments like this.
"Exorcizamus te, omnis immundus spiritus, omnis satanica potestas, omnis incursio infernalis adversarii," They were such familiar words to me now, "omnis legio, omnis congregatio et secta diabolica, ergo draco maledicte, ut ecclesiam tuam secura," They came off my tongue so easily, like water, "tibi facias libertate servire, te rogamus, audi nos!"
It was satisfying to watch the demons essence be pulled out of its chosen meat suit. The black smoke shooting from the mouth and arching in a high curve as it drove into the ground and disappeared, to where, I wasn't sure. There was no magic here so I assumed there was no hell for it to return to. Maybe it just died.
The body it had left was limp, obviously it had been dead or was killed while the demon had been in it. Either way, there was no saving the poor man. Whoever he had been didn't matter anymore. He was dead and would never been seen again. I stepped away from him and looked back to the, now shrinking, rip in space and time.
"Elly." I said.
"Are you….just going to leave him there?" She was freaked out, nothing I could've ever told her could have possibly prepared her for this.
"Elly…" I spoke softly.
"...what?" She was nervous, and for a good reason. What I was about to ask of her was almost impossible.
"Elly, I need to take you through this tear...It's the only way you'll ever be safe from this."
"I….I can't just leave! What will my mom think?! What will Mark think?! I...I...I…" She was freaking out. Even though I was in control I could feel her heart racing as she thought of what this meant.
I tried to calm her, "Elly. This is the only way you'll ever be safe again. Otherwise this is going to keep happening and one of those times I won't be around to save you...and I don't want that." I was being completely honest, Elly was my best friend. I'd do anything to keep her alive, "Please El. You need to go."
For a few minutes we stood in silence. Her breathing slowly calmed and her mind cleared. "Ok. I'll go."
"Do you have something I can write with?" I asked.
"What for?"
"When you get to the other side I'll shoot back to my own body, I'm assuming anyway," I said, looking around for the bag we'd brought with us and searching for a pen inside it when I found it, "But when that happens I won't have a way to find you, so I'm giving you my number."
"Oh...that's a good point. There should be a sharpie in the front pocket."
I found it, popped the cap off with my teeth and quickly scribbled my phone number onto her right hand.
"When you get to the other side, find a store as quickly as you can and pick up a new phone if you can, or find another way to call me if you can't. Got it?"
"Got it." She didn't sound completely confident but that was to be expected.
I nodded and stepped into the rip.
