Sorry I haven't updated lately. I've had writer's block big time! Well, here it is.


Alice

The terror dog, the collar of our shirts clutched in his mouth, set us down beside Graham and Jeremy, and before Armageddon. "Hey, man, watch the dog drool," whined Jeremy, tugging at the collar of his shirt. "This shirt is dry clean only!"

"Here are the children, my master," the dog barked to Armageddon, his head bowed respectfully.

At that moment, a low hissing came from the demon. Amazingly, the hissing came out as words. As clear as a bell, I heard Armageddon say, "You have done well, my servant."

I felt Jeremy nudge me with his elbow. "Psst, Alice. How come we can understand him this time? Dr. Spengler said this guy speaks Sanskrit."

"That's just what I was wondering," I muttered back. How come Armageddon was speaking English this time?

"You little fools," the hooded figure hissed. I couldn't help but notice how large he was in person up close. "Did you really think you could enter my domain without my knowledge? I am the ruler of this realm!"

"I suppose you're not gonna let us go then, huh?" asked Jeremy.

"Silence!" rasped Armageddon. "You have made a mockery of me. But I shall now have my revenge. The four of you shall be held in captivity for all eternity."

"Can we at least have a TV in our cell?" Jeremy continued to make flippant remarks.

"Quiet!" Armageddon began to pace, and mutter to himself. The terror dog was watching us with a menacing glare. The four of us looked at each other, too scared to speak.

Finally, I spoke up. "Graham. How did you end up here?"

"Well first Bozo here turned on the machine," said Graham, jerking a thumb in Dexter's direction. "Then, the cousin of Dogzilla over there chased us in. And before we could get back through the portal, Gedd ambushed us!"

"There was another terror dog?" Jeremy asked incredulously.

"Yeah, and I think it was the same one that busted your leg," Graham replied.

"Have you guys seen that thing before?" Dexter gasped, throwing a nervous glance at Armageddon. "He is one scary dude. Is he a dementor or something?"

"No, he's the angel of death...sort of," I corrected.

"Look, Gedd told us the whole story," Graham said. "He's been watching us and he wants revenge for sending him here."

"Watching us? How?" I asked.

"It's that girl, Sally. She's really an agent of Armageddon!"

I gasped. "Oh my God! And we left Eddie all alone with her!"

"Al, I think Eddie's a lot safer than we are right now," Jeremy pointed out.

"But how come we can understand him?" I wondered out loud.

There was a stumped silence. Suddenly, Jeremy spoke up. "Hey, wait! Maybe-no, that's dumb."

"What?" I asked.

"Well, I just thought of something, but it's probably wrong. I was just thinking that if we're ghosts right now, maybe that's why we can understand Gedd. But that's a pretty stupid idea, huh?"

I thought for a second. "No, it's not dumb...not dumb at all...in fact, I think you might be onto something."

Jeremy looked astounded. "Wait. You mean I actually got it? You wouldn't be yanking my chain right now, would ya?"

I ignored that. "Alright, does someone have a watch?"

"Yeah, it's," Graham looked at his wrist. "4:47. You got an appointment or something?"

I ignored that too and made some mental calculations. "Alright, and we opened the portal at 4:09. We've been here...thirty eight minutes. So we've got...twenty two minutes to get out here before the portal closes."

"Yeah, I don't think we're gonna make it," said Jeremy, eyeing the terror dog, who was suspiciously watching us.

"We have to. Otherwise we'll be trapped here forever!" I said anxiously.

"Don't count on that!" A voice yelled out.

Our heads whipped around to see Eddie zooming toward us, followed closely by Graham's little sister Kendra.

"The cavalry has arrived!" sighed Jeremy with relief.

"Seize them!" Armageddon shrieked.

The terror dog started barking and took off for the two. "Scatter!" Eddie shouted at Kendra. The two of them took off in opposite directions, and the terror dog was forced to pick one to chase-and he chose Kendra.

"Ah!" squealed the girl as the dog pursued her. "Help me!"

"No!" yelled Graham, enraged. "Not my sister!"

His hand flew to his utility belt and he whipped out his Ecto-Porter.

"You had that this whole time?" Jeremy exclaimed incredulously. "And you didn't use it?"

"I forgot!" Graham called apologetically as he took aim and fired at the terror dog. With a last pitiful whine, the terror dog dropped off to sleep.

"NO!" howled Armageddon. "You will regret that!"

"I don't think so!" Graham replied, turning his gun on the demon. "You don't scare me! I don't think you're all that powerful! You're just a weak little ghost who gets his minions to do all his dirty work for him! You tried to hurt my baby sister...now have some of this!"

Graham shot his gun, and a green blast of energy hit Armageddon and passed right through him, leaving a big gaping hole in his torso. Slowly, the hole healed itself.

Graham stared at the device in his hand confusedly. "What the?"

"Weak, am I?" rasped Armageddon "Let me show you just how weak I am!"

He raised his hand and emitted a stream of his own white-yellow energy, which hit Graham at full force. Graham went flying backward. He landed with a thud on the ground beside us. "Ow," he groaned.

"No!" shrieked Kendra. She stared angrily at Armageddon. "You hurt my brother!" She darted straight at Armageddon and started kicking him in the shin with her tiny foot. "You're a meanie! You big bully!"

Armageddon let out a howl of pain as he-amazingly-grabbed at his leg, as if Kendra had actually hurt him.

I gasped. "That's it!"

"What's it?" Jeremy asked me.

"We're in a state of metaphysical matter, right?" I said quickly.

"Yeah. So?" said Eddie. At some point he had landed beside me and I hadn't noticed in all the excitement.

"So, that means we're at the same ionic level as Armageddon! We can physically touch him!" I exclaimed and took off running at Armageddon. I started throwing punches wildly.

The boys stared at Kendra and I trying to beat up Armageddon. "Huh," said Eddie. "Crude...but effective. Yaaaaaaaaaaah!" Eddie took off at a run too and joined us in our efforts to pulverize the monster. Jeremy and Graham looked at each other, shrugged, and joined in too.

"Take that! And that!" I shouted as my fists swung.

"You're going down, dirtbag!" Jeremy yelled.

"ENOUGH!" Armageddon screeched. A blast of energy essued from him and and all of us were thrown backward by the impact.

Graham, who had been abused for the second time now, moaned. "That was really stupid."

Armageddon stared at each one of us, and I felt a cold chill run through me. "You children will all die!" he hissed.

He shot out a beam of energy, this time blue, and hit Jeremy. "Ah!" He groaned in agony as he clutched his head and sank to the ground. "Make...it...stop!"

"What is he doing to him?" I cried, my voice shrill.

"It looks like he's causing Jeremy some sort of mental pain!" Eddie replied, watching Jeremy, horrified.

"We have to do something!" I exclaimed. I looked around wildly. What could I do? I spotted Graham's abandoned Ecto-Porter on the ground and snatched it up. I stared at it momentarily, wondering what I could possibly do with it to save my Jeremy? It had already been proven useless...then I remembered something. "Of course!" I gasped, smacking myself in the forehead. "How could I have forgotten?"