The Demon of Hell

Chapter III: Reality vs. Dreams

-Manhattan Cemetery, July 10th 11:00 P.M.-

Sherlock walked down the hill of the cemetery with the flashlight in his hand. He had searched for exactly 3 hours, but couldn't find the clue of whatever had killed those men. He looked behind every gravestone, searched nearby trees, and hedges but he had found nothing. There was absolutely no evidence of the fight that had happened to the two mob members. Sherlock mumbled curses to himself since he couldn't anything that had to do with the fight. He was snapped out of thought when he heard Envy calling him. "You never answer your phone do you?" he said as he approached him, "We found something." "What did you find?" Sherlock asked, "Bullet capsules, and a third body."

S.H: "A third body? Are you sure?"

E: "Yeah, we saw it with our own eyes."

S.H: "I thought all of the bodies were moved."

E: "That's what we thought too, but apparently the police missed one."

S.H: "Where did you find it?"

E: "The same place where we found the bullet capsules."

S.H: "Did you ID the body?"

E: "We couldn't."

S.H: "Why not?"

E: "It's in an open grave. We can't get it out."

S.H: "Show me where you found the body."

E: "You don't have to tell me twice."

Envy lead Sherlock to the area in the cemetery; they found Korra who collected the last bullet capsule and placed it in the evidence bag. "Oh, there you are, I was just go in and examine the body." Korra said to him, "Where is it?" Sherlock had asked her. Korra pointed to the grave that was about to be buried. The consulting detective approached the open grave and looked inside. Sherlock can tell that the body was there for a while, since there were maggots and the body began to rot. Surprising enough it was the body of a marine officer (No doubt the N.C.I.S is looking into this).

Looking at the body it was there for a total of three weeks. He was obviously in his 30s, married for about 15 years (judging from his ring), left his wife since he was having an affair. Was in the marine business for 6 years remarried with his affair. His heart was missing from his chest, and something else was missing from his body. "Where's his head?" the detective had asked.

K.S: "We checked everywhere in this area even in a dumpster, no sign of the head though. Wait a second, how do you know it's a guy?"

S.H: "Look at his muscles, they're more buff than yours."

K.S: "That is a good point."

E: "What do you suppose happen to the head?

K.S: "It could've been slashed off."

S.H: "More like bitten off."

K.S: "How can you tell?"

S.H: "The part of his neck, it's been torn off."

E: "How did we miss that?"

S.H: "Cause you don't know where to look. Lucky for me I know where to look."

K.S: "I just have one question, how do we get the body out of there, without messing with it."

The three looked inside the grave where the body had laid. "That is a good question." Sherlock said to turning to the both them.

-Meanwhile-

Shadow couldn't believe what he just saw. The same man was here just now at the grave of a girl named Jenny Romano! Shadow was trying to figure out why the name sounded familiar. The gargoyle was now on his back tilting his head with a smile like the Cheshire cat. "The name ring a bell monkey?" the gargoyle asked scratching its head, "Get off of me!" he yelled trying to shake him off. The gargoyle jumped off his back and onto a back of a statue.

S.F: "And to answer your question, the name does sound familiar."

"It does now?"

S.F: "Yeah, I think that man, uh... Jackie screamed her name before that man killed her. He was begging him not to pull the trigger...and than the man... he..."

"He, what?"

S.F: "I...I'd rather not talk about."

"Fine than monkey, don't talk about but you gotta remember this. The You-Know-What in you will play tricks on you. They can even confuse you and make you go around the Ben."

S.F: "Confuse me? What do you mean confuse me?"

He turned to see that the gargoyle had vanished. He looked around but saw that he was really gone. He turned back to the gravestone, however he was standing in front of a different gravestone. It didn't say Jenny Romano anymore, it said Caroline Winters. He realized that he was back where he was before. 'What... The... Hell?' he thought, 'Ho-how did I get back here? Wait, what just happened?' There was a sudden noise, which had made him jump; he sighed in relief when it was his phone. He took his phone out, and answered it.

S.F: "He-hello?"

S.H: "Shadow. It's Sherlock."

S.F: "Oh he-hey Sherlock."

S.H: "Are you alright?"

S.F: "What? Oh yeah I'm fine just fine."

S.H: "Well, I need you to meet us at the entrance to the cemetery. We found something interesting."

S.F: "Yeah, got it I'll meet you there."

S.H: "Alright than. See you there."

Shadow hung up the phone and heaved a sigh, and held his head with his hand. He walked down the concrete road, back to where the entrance was. As he did he suddenly felt nauseous; He felt himself turn green. Everything began to come back up; He got on his knees and got spit everything back up right on the floor. He opened his eyes to see that it wasn't his food that he had eaten, it was black blood mixed with red. He backed himself up from the puddle, and only stared at the puddle in horror.

"You cannot... escape... No matter... how far... you run..."

The hedgehog had jumped at the sound of the voice. His darted in every direction but he couldn't find the source of the voice; until he turned behind him and saw the dark fog. He quickly stood up and began to back up. Suddenly the three heads from his previous nightmare appeared from the fog; as they appeared the gargoyles appeared as well. Shadow quickly turned and started running with the creatures coming after him.

"Not again! Please, not again!" Shadow cried out.

The three heads began to go faster, while the gargoyles flew ahead and destroyed anything that had shed light. Soon the whole cemetery was pitch black. Shadow stopped in his tracks and froze in fear; he searched for his flashlight, but couldn't find it. He was soon surrounded by dark fog; Shadow felt his whole body go absolutely numb. For the first time in his life he felt completely helpless; unsure of what to do, unsure of how to defend himself.

"Shadow! Wake up!"

He gave a quizzical expression when he heard the voice. It wasn't from the monster, the voice was very familiar. He suddenly heard a growl coming from the fog. The first two heads appeared dripping with blood of red. He backed up till he hit something hard and cold. The two heads moved like a snake while the third head just stared at him directly in the eyes with the eyes of a blooded cold killer.

"If you can hear me, I need you to open your eyes!"

The two heads grabbed his arm and leg, and the third grabbed his neck causing himself to scream as loud as he could.

"Please Shadow, wake up!"

Something else appeared from the fog. What had appeared before him were a scythe and a hand with claws as sharp as the blade of a sword. With one swing from both the scythe and claws, Shadow cried out in pain and he felt himself dyeing.

"WAKE UP!"

Shadow shot himself awake, only to find himself back at the hotel, in his room; Sherlock and John were standing over him. He turned to his side finding Sakura there squeezing his hand with tears rolling down her face. "Sa-Sakura?" he managed to say. Sakura had suddenly thrown her arms around Shadow causing him to blush a little. He let himself relax and put his arms around her, stroking her hair.

"Thank God." John said, "For a second there we thought you were a goner." Shadow let go of Sakura and dried her tears. "How are you feeling?" Sakura had asked him.

S.F: "A little light headed. Wait, how did I get here? I was at the cemetery just 5 seconds ago."

S.K: "Hoe?"

S.H: "Did you hit your head or something?"

S.F: "Huh?"

S.H: "Don't you remember what happened?"

S.F: "Remember what?"

J.W: "Well, Sakura and I met up with Sherlock and we were on our way back when we found you puking up what you had for lunch. You were saying a lot of things that didn't make sense."

S.H: "I asked you if you were feeling alright and you just fainted. Luckily Agent Gibbs was in the area and saw what happened he managed to get you back to the hotel."

S.F: "How long was I like this?"

J.W: "Three days."

S.F: "Three days!? But I was-"

S.H: "In the cemetery we know, but it was only a dream, and they tend to do that."

Shadow managed to get out of the bed however he fell to the floor, right on his face. He got up off the floor using his arm to support himself but felt a sudden pain from his arm. "You shouldn't get out of bed your sick." Sakura said to him, "She's right you've been sick for the three days you were sick." John told him as he helped him off the floor and back into bed. "Korra and Envy went out to get medicine for you illness." Sherlock said to him, "I'm meeting with Agent Gibbs to discuss our dead marine."

S.F: "Wait, there was a dead marine at the cemetery?"

S.H: "Oh, I forgot to mention we found a dead marine in an open grave. His head was missing when we found it."

S.F: "Are you serious?"

S.H: "I'm being clear aren't I? I going meet with Gibbs at Starbucks to discuss his background."

S.F: "I'll come with you than."

J.W: "Shadow, your sick. You need to rest until your fever passes."

In defeat Shadow laid back down in his bed and tried to relax. "I'll be outside, just yell if you need anything." John told him as he went to the door with Sherlock. "Sakura, come on. I'd rather deal with two sick people." Sherlock had said to her. Sakura let go of Shadow's hand and kissed him on his forehead. "Get better okay?" she said with a smile, "You know I will." Shadow said smiling back at her. Sakura exited the room with John & Sherlock. As soon as he saw them leave he quickly sat him self up and removed his sleeve. He was shocked to see that there were scars on his arm. It was no wonder he was feeling pain in his arm.

He lifted his shirt and saw that there were scars there as well. He jumped out of bed and went to the mirror in his room. He looked in the mirror and was shocked to see that there was a scar there too.

"That creature and all of that pain, was it... real?"

-End Of Chapter III-