Chapter 2

"Jay?"

Jay looked up from the cup of coffee she had been cradling in her hands. It had grown cold since she had purchased it an hour ago. Across from her sat Paul, and he reached out and took her hand, worry evident in his eyes. All around them, customers laughed or relaxed in the small coffee shop that they currently occupied. Everyone seemed to be having a good time, and Jay wished she could say the same. Jay took a deep breath.

"It's not gone, Paul. It can't be dead."

Paul's expression didn't change as he silently looked back at her. After a moment, he spoke.

"You don't think it's gone?"

Jay looked down for a moment, then back up at Paul.

"It's out there. We couldn't have killed it."

"Why not?"

"It's taken gunshots before and survived. It can't be gone."

Now it was Paul's turn to look at the ground. His grip tightened around Jay's hand, and Jay could feel him start to tremble. Jay realized that Paul had never seen it before, and it was still a bit of a mystery to him. He had never felt the crippling uselessness of trying to hide. Never realized that it always knew where you were. He had never felt the desperation of trying to run from it. No matter how far you ran, it would catch up with you. It was a relentless and unceasing nightmare, and they only way they could find some temporary escape was to cast it onto someone else and watch the terror on their face as they realized the size of the burden they now carried.

Jay remembered how she had felt when she had first realized just how hard living with it could be. Every single aspect of her life had become saturated with fear. Constantly looking over her shoulder and scanning every single face she saw in the crowd to see if it had found her again.

"Jay," Paul spoke up again. "I…I passed it on."

Jay said nothing, and Paul took a breath and then continued.

"I thought that if I gave it to a hooker, maybe it would get far enough away from us. We wouldn't have to worry anymore. I mean, giving it to one of them could keep it away from us for a very long time. I'm…sorry I didn't tell you."

Jay shook her head slowly.

"Paul…" Jay gave his trembling hand a light squeeze back. "No matter what we do, that thing will keep coming back. No matter how many people we put between ourselves and it, that thing will find its way to us eventually. I want to believe that there is a solution. I really do, but we can never think that it's gone."

Jay saw Paul deflate further at her words, and she too felt a pang in her chest as she yet again reminded herself of how futile their situation was.

"There has to be something…" Paul said, his voice cracking slightly. "Anything, anything we can do to fight this…this demon."

Jay said nothing in return. She didn't have any answers, but God did she wish she did.

She solemnly stood up from their table, her hand still in Paul's.

"Come on, let's go home. Maybe we can think of something there."

Paul nodded wordlessly. All of his energy seemed to have been sapped from him due to their previous conversation.

"Yeah…" he finally managed. "Ok."

The two of them walked out of the small shop together. Each of them grasping onto each other's hand like a lifeline. They climbed into Jay's car, and Jay started the engine. After a few turns, they had left the parking lot and were now back on the road. Jay was thinking.

"Maybe we shouldn't go home," Jay said as they drove.

Paul turned to look at her.

"Why?"

"I think if we want to try and get rid of it, we are going to have to find some more information on it. We can't beat it if we don't know what it is."

Paul frowned. "Where are we gonna find some more information about this thing?"

Jay turned right and continued down the street.

"The library…I guess. Maybe something or someone can help us there."

Paul said nothing as Jay turned another corner.

Neither of them noticed a figure shuffling along on the sidewalk. As they passed by, the figure turned and switched its direction, following the car.

…

The two of them remained silent as they pulled up to the library, which was located in a small outlet mall, with a hardware store and a few restaurants located on either side of it. Jay parked the car, and both her and Paul got out. Both remained silent as they went inside.

The first thing they did was consult the catalog. They searched for anything they could find about monsters, demons, anything supernatural that could give them a clue as to this nightmarish being.

For a few hours they both searched, each poring over numerous tomes on demonic lore and supernatural creatures. Both kept coming up empty-handed, until Paul gestured for Jay to come over with a wave of his hand.

"You found something?" Jay asked as she walked over.

"Maybe," Paul said. "I think whatever this book is talking about is linked to it."

Jay looked over Paul's shoulder, and they each read the passage in silence.

For lo and behold, of relentless fiend and endless despair,

Blood finds chill, veins to ice, in presence of its stare.

Though chase ends in death, for victim and prey,

Tis not true sustenance, forgoing consumption for play.

Nay, tis torment, sinister and pure,

that which strengthens the villain, its true allure.

Though comfort not taken, my soul feels lightened,

To know motives true, finds me less frightened.

Take heed all sinners, for truth you must know.

Tis not your body, but the fear that you show.

"Jay…"

"Who wrote this? Where is it from?"

Paul closed the book to show Jay its cover. Jay read the title:

'Ravings of madmen, truth or personification?'

"The writer of the poem was named Henry Lancaster," Paul spoke again, reading from the book. "He was arrested for robbery in 1954. The book says he was compliant the entire time during his arrest. But once he got to prison, he immediately requested solitary confinement. When it was denied, he started a fight with the other inmates, and then got his wish. He seemed content with his solitary confinement, and wrote multiple poems and stories depicting a creature that stalked him day and night. He was found dead a few days after being committed to the prison. The door to his cell had been broken open, and he was dead. His body had been mangled horribly."

Jay suddenly remembered how Greg had died. How the demon had slaughtered him and then…defiled him before her eyes. Jay shook her head to try and banish the memory.

"It doesn't feed on killing us," she said slowly. "It survives by…by torturing us."

Paul slowly brought his gaze up to meet hers. She looked back at him.

"That's why it's slow. Why it doesn't run or drive or anything. It wants us to fear it first."

Paul slowly opened his mouth to say something but was cut short by a loud bang and a bright flash of blue light.

The two of them blinked away the brightness and turned to look at the source of the disturbance. Loose papers billowed around wildly, and the shelves rattled. Suddenly, the light faded, and the duo now saw a figure standing in its place. It looked like man, but it could have been a woman too. Jay couldn't tell due to the figure being covered in a dark green armor from head to toe.

Both Jay and Paul stared in bewilderment as the armored man turned his head to look around the library, seemingly getting his bearings. When he realized where he was, his demeanor changed. He now seemed to be searching for something. Suddenly, his gaze stopped on the both of them. Jay couldn't tell for sure, but he appeared to be observing them, as though they were something new he hadn't seen before.

The man then made his way towards the two of them, making a loud thud every time he took a step.

Reaching their table, the man stopped and stared at the two of them up close for a moment before suddenly reaching out and grabbing Paul roughly by his chin.

Paul grunted and struggled, but the armored man's grip held, and he turned Paul's head from side to side, examining him.

"Hey, stop!" Jay said from her seat.

The man turned his head to Jay, then looked down at the pile of tomes on demons and monsters the two of them had on their table.

He then shook his head and pushed Paul rather unceremoniously back down into his chair. Standing up, he turned and walked back further into the library, towards the history section. Paul and Jay both followed him with their gaze and watched him as he disappeared behind a bookshelf.

"What the hell was that?" Paul asked, rubbing his chin where the man had grabbed him.

Jay said nothing, then shook her head and turned back around to see Greg walking up to their table. At first, Jay wondered how Greg knew that the two of them were at the library. They hadn't told anyone that they had left.

Then she remembered: Greg was dead, and it always knew where they were.

It was here.

Jay screamed and grabbed Paul by the arm. Paul whirled around and saw it walking towards them. This was the first time he had seen it, and it had taken the form of Greg.

The two of them scrambled up from their chairs and started shuffling backwards. It just kept coming towards them. Jay suddenly felt a sense of dread as she remembered something.

"Paul," Jay said, her voice frantic. "Paul it wants you. It's here for you."

Paul said nothing, his eyes were wide and focused as the demon kept walking closer.

"Paul listen to me. We have to go. We have—"

A loud boom was heard, and the demon was thrown backward as blood erupted from its chest. The two of them were stunned, then turned around to see that the armored man was back.

And he was holding a shotgun.

They watched as the man pumped the shotgun and walked forward to where the demon was beginning to recover from the blast.

The man kicked it down again, then fired a round into its head at point-blank range. The demon's head exploded, and blood splattered all over the floor, the bookcases, and the man himself.

The man turned and looked at Jay and Paul, but the both of them stared wide-eyed at the monster on the ground.

Its head was slowly regenerating. Skin and tissue were beginning to reform from the base of the neck and was slowly working its way up.

This seemed to annoy the shotgun-wielding man, and Jay watched as he brought an armored boot down hard on the regenerating head, causing it to crumple and explode again under the force of the impact.

The man then watched as the head began to regrow again, and this time, he seemed to lose his patience. Jay watched as he grabbed the headless demon by the hole in its neck and drag it out the door of the library and into the parking lot. Jay and Paul remained frozen in place as the man disappeared from sight, then they both jumped as thunderous explosion shook the walls of the library, accompanied by a brilliant flash of green light. The massive boom shook the two teenagers to the core, and the two of them ran outside as the green light faded.

The scene in the parking lot looked like a meteor strike. There was a small crater in the asphalt, and the area around it was seared, cars and pavement alike. The man stood at the edge of the crater, his hands again empty. He was looking in. Jay and Paul tentatively stepped up to the crater and looked in as well. At first, neither of them saw anything, then Paul pointed and Jay saw a half-formed skull sitting in the seared Earth. Jay watched it for any tell-tale signs of life, but the skull remained still.

"Wha…what did you do it?" Jay asked the man.

The man turned and looked at her. Though she couldn't see his face through the visor, Jay got the gist of his response.

'Was that a trick question?'

Jay looked back at the remains of the monster. They weren't regrowing, or standing up, or attempting to move at all. The just sat there.

As Jay continued to watch, she slowly began to believe what she was seeing. It was gone. Dead. It wasn't coming back, and at that thought, Jay suddenly felt…lighter. Lighter than she had ever felt before. And it was amazing. She grabbed Paul and enveloped him in a hug, tears coming from her eyes. Happiness exploded in her chest, not unlike a similar explosion from a few moments earlier, as she held on tight to the feeling.

After a moment, she turned back to the man, who now was looking at the window of the hardware store. Though many people were gathered at the window, dumbfounded at the scene before them, the man appeared to be more interested in the variety of chainsaws displayed above them.

"Thank you," Jay said. "Thank you."

The man turned back to the two of them, then gave them a thumbs up.

There was a loud bang and a flash of blue light, then the man was gone.

A/N: Alright! Part 2 is in! For those who don't know, this chapter takes place in the movie, "It Follows". I like the premise of this movie, and even though you don't really need a Doom Slayer get rid of that demon, I thought it'd be fun to throw him in there. Not sure which one I'm going to do next, but I have a few ideas. As always, feel free to drop a review if you have any suggestions for me! Thanks!

-ImpulsiveWeaver