Caedes looked down at his beaten and battered body. He was sore as hell, but he was healing very quickly. All he had to do was wait just a little longer and then he could get back in the game and be at one hundred percent. I'm going to have to do something to get Jackie out of the way, he thought to himself as he stared up at the sky. She's the strongest one out of all of them and the only one that can keep Jeff out of my clutches. Once she's gone, then Jeff is as good as mine.

He heard footsteps behind him so he turned around to see who it was. It was one of the demons that worked for him, although he couldn't remember the thing's name or even what kind of demon it was to save his life. "What?" he said, unhappy that he was being disturbed.

The demon, a pathetic looking thing that was only four feet tall and had pink skin, wringed his hands together nervously. "M-m-m-master we know where the humans have taken your pet," he stammered out.

Caedes rolled his eyes. "So do I you idiot. Do you really think it was hard for me to figure out where his new friends are taking him? They took him home, which is not good for us because it's their playing field." He shook his head. "It doesn't matter though. I'm not afraid to go to Apocalypse City."

The pink demon gulped loudly. "Good for you," he said under his breath.

"What was that now?" Caedes asked, even though he had heard the demon perfectly.

The other demon gulped again. "Well...I've been to Apocalypse City and I know from experience that it isn't even a good place for demons to be. We go there, and we're going to have more to worry about than just--"

Caedes had heard quite enough of that kind of negative talk, and snapped the pink demon's neck without hesitation. He knew very well what problems that could be awaiting them in Apocalypse City. The place was a breeding ground for chaos and destruction, and he was sure he still had more than his share of enimies from the last time he had been there. But those things didn't matter to him. What mattered was getting his hands on Jeff again. The world was soon going to be trembling at his feet and he wanted Jeff by his side. No human had ever caught his attention like this before. For as long as he could remember, he had seen human as cattles, just there to be killed for his own amusement. The fact that he couldn't get Jeff out of his head no matter how hard he tried both frustrated and intrigued him. He needed to get his hands on Jeff again and figure out what kind of spell the man had on him. And he was going to do just that, even if he had to destroy the entire world to do it.

.....

Jeff's chest felt like there was something extremely heavy sitting right in the middle of his chest, filling him with dread and making it hard for him to breathe. Matt, Shannon and Shane were missing. Sure he felt bad that Christina was gone too, but Matt was his brother and Shane and Shannon were his friends. He couldn't help being more worried about them. If they never found them or if they all died...he didn't know what he would do. The loss of his father was weighing heavily on him, but he had a feeling that it was going to get a lost worst once he actually had time to absorb what had happened to his father.

"Well this sucks," Mark grumbled. He put his hands on his hips and stared at the ruined remains of the van like it was going to give him some sort of clue as to where the others had gone. "Is there any upside to this situation at all?"

"Uh....we did end up in Apocalypse City," Andy said hesitantly when nobody else spoke up. "So this would have been perfect if the others hadn't disappeared on us."

Cooper sighed. "So how exactly are we supposed to get the others back?" he asked. "Fuck, how are we supposed to figure out where they went? I'm still trying to figure out what the fuck happened back there!"

"We'll figure it out somewhere else," Jackie said. As soon as she had realized that Christina was missing, her entire demeanor had changed. She was extremely tense and there was definitely more than a little bit of fear in her eyes.

"You guys still live in the hotel?" Chris asked.

"Yeah," Jackie replied, not even looking at Chris as she answered. "So let's move it people."

James gave her a nasty look. The whole getting bossed around thing by someone who wasn't Mark looked like it was starting to get on his nerves. "Okay, who died and put you in charge? Seriously, I--"

Jackie suddenly grabbed him by the throat and gave him a good throttle. Her eyes were turning black and something weird was going on with her face. It looked like there were a bunch of very thin black worms swimming all around beneath her skin. Jeff gasped and looked at Chris, who was staring at his niece with wide eyes. He obviously was as taken aback by this as Jeff was.

"You listen to me right now," Jackie growled, effortlessly keeping James still even though he was trying to get out of her grip. "If you have such an issue with me barking out orders, then you take it up with me after I get my sister back. Anything you say before that will not only not get listened to, but it could be the final thing you fucking say." She shoved James to Mark and stormed off.

James coughed violently while rubbing his throat. "Bitch is strong," he said, his voice hoarse and strained from the throttling that had just taken place.

Mark moved James's hands out of the way so he could look at the bruises that were already forming. "Jesus fucking Christ," he muttered.

Andy chuckled nervously. "Sorry about her," he said, kind of hiding behind Chris in case Mark or James came at him for what Jackie had just did. "She's just freaking out because of Christina. We've uh...lost a lot of people we've loved and she just gets really antsy when something like this happens."

James rolled his eyes and muttered a whole bunch of obscenities under his breath. Jeff didn't hear everything that was said, but the words "fucking cunt" were clearly audible. Mark better keep him in line, he thought to himself as they all followed Andy (who was trying to tell Jackie to wait up for a second so they could all catch up with her). Jackie didn't sound like she was kidding.

Chris wrapped his arm around Jeff and pulled him closer to him. "Stay close to me," Chris ordered in a low voice. "This place isn't really that safe to be in."

Jeff gave his boyfriend a serious look. "On a scale of one to ten, how bad is it?"

"Uh...we would be safer walking across a land mine," Chris admitted.

Mor overheard that and he glared at Jericho. "If that was the case, why didn't you speak the fuck up before we got here? I might still have Matt with me if you had just--"

"Jackie and Andy know what they're doing," Chris interrupted. "And so does Christina. They've been doing this whole fighting evil gig since they were kids. Believe me, I wouldn't be trusting them with helping to protect Jeff if I didn't know that they know what they're doing."

Mor bit his lower lip. "What about Matt?" he asked hesitantly. "Are they gonna be able to get him back?"

Chris nodded. "Yeah. We'll get everyone back and then we'll Caedes and then we'll be done with this bullshit."

Jeff couldn't tell whether Chris was just saying that to make Mor feel better or if he really believed that. Jeff wanted to believe it, but it was a hard thing to do when his mind drifted back to the memory of his rape. He shuddered and tried to push it back out of his mind. He couldn't think about that and stay sane. I have to believe what Chris is saying, he told himself. I have to believe that somehow we're going to keep Caedes from hurting me again.

Jackie finally slowed down enough so they could start walking along side her, and they soon came to a street filled with wrecked cars and demon bodies laying every which way. The demons were all different shapes and sizes, and Jeff was amazed that they had just been left lying there for everyone to see.

"The human bodies usually get cleaned up first," Andy explained once he saw the look on Jeff's face. "Someone will clean all these up later."

"Where the fuck do you dump these things?" Mark asked while keeping a watchful eye on James. The look on the psycho's face suggested that he was possibly plotting something bad.

"We usually burn them," Jackie answered. "It stinks like shit but it's better than burying them." She shoved her hands inside her pockets. "That's why I appreciate vampries so much more. They turn right to dust when you drive a sharp pointy stake right in their heart. All you gotta do is brush the ashes off if they get on your clothes."

"Do vampires sparkle like that one movie says they does?" Connor asked as Cooper tried to keep him from wandering off. Jeff had a strong suspicion that Connor wanted to start poking all the demon carcasses for his own entertainment.

Jackie snorted. "Hell no. If vampires are exposed to the sun longer than a couple of seconds, they catch on fire. That bitch who wrote those stupid Twilight books is way off base."

"Oh." It was hard to tell whether Connor was disappointed by that or not. "Well--oooh! There's a puppy!" He tried to run over and grab it but Cooper pulled him back. "Coopy what are you doing?" he asked, desperately trying to get free. "I want the puppy!"

"Connor look at that thing!" Cooper snapped. "That ain't no dog!"

"It is too!" Connor insisted stubbornly. "Look at it! It's all lonely over there!"

Jeff took a good look at the "puppy" in question. It did like a puppy until you saw its face. There was absolutely nothing puppy like about its face at all. The thing had a face of a demon. "Jackie? What is that?" he asked.

"A baby hell hound," Jackie answered. "From the looks of it, I say it's a week old at the most."

"Can I have it Daddy?" Connor asked eagerly. He began jumping up and down excitedly. "Please please please please please with cherry and naked Marky on top?"

James chuckled while Mark looked at Jackie. "Is that thing going to kill us?" he asked.

Jackie sighed impatiently. "Well it's a baby, so you might be able to train it...but if it's already tasted human flesh it could try to rip your throat out as soon as you go to pet it."

"Well fuck that shit then," James said loudly. He grabbed Connor by one arm while Cooper grabbed the other and they forcibly marched the younger man away. Connor protested loudly but everyone ignored him. Jeff looked back at the baby hell hound and saw that it was staring at them with its head tilted to the side. It almost appeared to be puzzled about why they were just walking away from it. Aw, it's cute...in a weird ugly kind of way anyway.

"How much further till we get where we're going?" Cooper asked. "There's only so much longer that we're going to be able to hold him."

Connor whined and tried to twist himself free. He still wanted the baby hell hound.

"It's uh...another two miles," Andy confessed.

Cooper glared at him. "Please tell me you're joking."

Andy shook his head. "Sorry, I wish I was."

Jeff looked at the roads. The further they walked, the more of a mess the roads became. Even if they got their hands on a car, they wouldn't be able to drive anywhere. "What happened here?" he asked. "It looks like a tornado hit this place."

"Well things had just gotten done being crazy when we left here, so shit probably hit the fan again while we were gone," Jackie said with a sigh. She took her cell phone out of her pocket and flipped it open. After taking one look at it she frowned. "I've got no reception," she announced. "Andy?"

Andy took his own phone and looked at it. "Fuck, I don't have any either." He looked at everyone else. "What about you guys?"

They all took their phones and found that they didn't have any reception either. Jeff looked at Chris, who just shrugged. He didn't know why that had happened. "This is never a good sign," Jackie muttered unhappily as they started walking faster than they were before. "I swear, if it's not one thing it's an--" She was cut off by a high pitched scream that sounded like it was coming from a little girl. Without hesitation she ran off in that direction, forcing the others to sprint after her just to keep up. The screams were coming from a nearby alley, and when they got there they saw a little girl being chased by what almost looked like a gargoyle. "Daddy!" the terrified child shrieked. "DADDY!"

Jackie started to lunge for the gargoyle, but all of a sudden it dropped down to the ground and just stayed there. There was a large arrow sticking out of its back now, and it looked like it had struck the gargoyle right in the heart. Standing not too far from the thing was a bald, middle aged man holding a crossbow.

"Rupes!" Jackie exclaimed. "You took my fun away!"

Rupes just shrugged. "Sorry kiddo, but that was my kill."

Jackie pouted. "Bitch. I no like you now."

The little girl that had been getting chased stopped running and stared at everyone with wide, terrified eyes. She couldn't have been any older than five or six years old. "Daddy," she whimpered, backing up against the wall. Her face and eyes were red from crying.

Jeff approached the distressed little girl slowly. He flinched as she immediately screamed and hid behind the dumpster that was near her. "Hey, hold on for a second. I'm not going to hurt you."

She just continued to cry and act like she hadn't heard him.

"Her dad's dead," Rupes said quietly, making Jeff look back at him. "I'm pretty sure she saw it...I want to say it was this fucking gargoyle that did it, but I only found it chasing her so I can't say for sure." He frowned. "Where's Christina?"

"Well uh...she kind of got lost in the portal we took to get here," Jackie said, wincing at the look that came over Rupes's face.

"Oh Jackie," Rupes groaned. "No no no, tell me you're joking."

"It was Christina's idea!" Jackie said defensively, pulling Andy in front of her so she could use him as a human shield. "And nobody called to tell us that we couldn't travel by portal!"

Andy sighed. "Why are you using me as a shield? This should be the other way around. You're the stronger one!"

"Yeah, but you're my big brother! That means you're automatically the shield!"

"Who is this Rupes guy anyway?" Mor asked Chris.

"Their legal guardian," Chris answered. He took a step forward. "You look like you've been put through the wringer Rupes. Robin and Damien haven't been aruging again, have they?"

Rupes almost smiled. "They have, but that's not what my problem is."

"So what exactly is the problem?" Andy asked, now looking apprehensive.

"Well...I'm hoping that all the signs are wrong, but if they're not, then we've got about forty eight hours before every other dimension in this universe starts trying to bleed into this one."

"Uh...so does that mean the world is having their period and we are its tampon?" James asked.

Mark smacked him on the side of the head. "Lawson!"

"What? It was a legitimate quesion!"

Rupes shook his head. "No, we are not a tampon. That would be better. No, once again, I am the man that cried apocalypse nowish...Caedes isn't even our biggest problem anymore. The demons are talking and they're scared. This is bigger than Caedes. Whatever woke him up, is not just looking to destroy our world; they want to destroy every dimension there is."

Jeff winced. He didn't like the sound of that at all. And just when I thought this could not get any fucking worse.