Warning: Rated PG15 for language

Chapter Eleven

What goes bump

Maybe I should have been shocked, or at least a little surprised. But I wasn't. Three creatures waited beyond the threshold, stood right before moms eyes. One was ghostly, in that it had no legs, simply hovered a few feet off the ground. It carried a scythe with a ball and chain at the bud of it, and wore a red cape with its hood up. I could not see its face, or much of anything but a pair of glowing eyes.

The other two creatures were small, both of which I had seen before. The black birdlike creature that had rode on the roof of the bus, and the white cat I had seen on the top of the school building.

"Must have been some prankster," Mom said, making to shut the door, clearly not noticing the freak show that, quite literally, stood on her doorstep.

The white cat, standing on two feet mark you, shoved a heavily clawed glove onto the door, and despite hardly coming to my mom's knee, it was able to prevent her from closing the door.

Mom furrowed her brows, and looked up the spine of the door.

"I don't see what the point was in ringing the doorbell, Demidevimon," the white cat said with a purr to her words.

I glanced at Sarah, to see if she was witnessing the impossibility. She was. She, most definitely, was. Her skin was changing colors again. I believe the expression is white as a sheep, or maybe white as a sheet? Well, she was quite pale anyway.

"Knock her out, will you?" the cat said.

The black, round, bird flew into the house, flapping its feathered wings. Its mouth stretched into a pointed tooth grin. Inches from my mom's face, it hovered, and for a moment my mom seemed to actually see the bird, but then her eyes rolled into her head and she fell to the floor.

The cat entered my house, followed by the cloaked ghostly thing. She peered across the table at me and gestured in Sarah's and my general direction. "Well there they are." She turned, heading out the way she had come. "Good luck, don't forget to thank me."

"Leaving already, Gatomon?" the bird quipped. "And why should we be thanking you? You're not even sticking around to finish the job." The bird snickered, quite evilly.

"For doing your job for you, of course," the cat, Gatomon, called, and then she was gone.

The bird looked towards Sarah and I; standing across the room. "Well, Phantomon, let's get this over with." It flapped towards us.

The ghostly thing, Phantomon, grabbed the chain at the end of its scythe and started to swing it in a circle.

Now, would be a good time to run.

Sarah stood still, paralyzed with shock and fear. She was shacking as the creature drew closer to us. I grabbed her by the arm, dragging her towards the kitchen, towards the back door. We had crossed behind the counter separating the dining room from the kitchen, when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Phantomon release his spinning chain, the ball flying right towards us. I fell to the floor, dragging Sarah down with me. The ball and chain flew over the counter, over our heads, over the kitchen sink, and crashed through the window. The blow was powerful enough to completely knock out the glass framing.

I was quite surprised at the deceptive length of the chain.

"What are you doing?!" the bird squawked. "We're not supposed to kill them!"

Sarah, finally coming to her senses, crawled for the backdoor, I followed after her. She had just put her hand on the knob, when the door burst inwards in a powerful rush of wind. The strength of it was such that we were thrown into the far wall of the kitchen.

My head rebounded and I grit my teeth to keep from crying. Sarah let out a horrified scream.

The door swung from its hinges for a moment and then clattered to the floor. He stepped in, towering over six feet tall. His attire looked like something from an old horror movie, not in the least bit alarming, but his general height and aura of power made up for it. That, and the freak had just busted my door down.

His arm shot forward, stretching across the kitchen. He grabbed Sarah by her shirt cuff and hoisted her off the ground. He walked towards her, arm shrinking to a somewhat normal length.

I glanced at Phantomon, and the round flying creature, which looked far too pleased with itself. Sarah's screams cut off, she dangled, eyes as round as marbles staring at the fanged man.

A vampire? Wow. What next?

Slowly, I inched back into the dining room. The creatures didn't appear to notice. I wondered if I'd be able to slip out. My slumbering conscious perked up and kicked me. Yeah, well, what was I supposed to do? And my eyes conveniently landed on a hefty lamp a few feet from where I was sitting. Slowly, I started for it.

"What the fuck do you want?" Sarah screamed, tears falling from her eyes. She grabbed the man by his ridiculously huge hand. Really, he could have held her by the head. She swung her legs for him, but couldn't bring up enough force to kick him very hard, or maybe he just didn't notice.

"You called on us," the man replied coolly. "And we come."

The lamp was just a little farther, but what was I supposed to do with it? There were three of them and it was only one lamp.

"FLOWER!"

A green haired, winged, pink dressed, giant, fairy burst through the doorframe. She placed her two legs firmly on the ground, and pointed a huge yellow rosebud at the vampire's back.

"CANNON!"

The yellow rose burst open and a rocket shot out of it, crashing right into the vampire. He let out a yell, dropping Sarah at once. But he did not fall, despite just being shot in the spine. He spun, cape fluttering as he turned. His expression wasn't what I would call very pleased.

The fairy lifted off the ground and shot for him, knocking him into the kitchen wall, cracks sprung up the plaster and bits of it fell to the floor. The fairy jammed her knee into the vampires jaw, cracking his head backwards.

Sarah staggered to her feet and ran for what would have been my back door, had it still been attached.

Hmm, nice to know my poor attempt at heroism wouldn't have been returned. Ah well.

But Sarah never made it out of the house. The vampire grabbed the fairy by the face and threw her across the dining room, destroying yet another wall. In a flash he grabbed Sarah by the arm.

"Let go of me."

I crossed the small distance to the lamp, jerked the plug from the wall, and, despite my better judgment, threw it at the vampire.

Surprisingly, it struck him square in the back of the head. He blinked and glanced at me, his expression slightly surprised.

"You can see me?"

I turned heel and ran for the hall, just as the fairy aimed another one of her flower missiles at the vampire. Part of me hoped the blast wouldn't hurt Sarah, but most of me was preoccupied with running for my life.

"FLOWER CANNON!"

I crossed the doorway leading to the hall, the fairy flying back the way I had come. My room was just feet away when something wrapped around my legs and knocked me off my feet. I hit the ground letting out a breath. I tried to move my legs, but they were bound by Phantomon's chain.

The ghostly thing started dragging me back towards him. I tried to get a grip on something. The carpet. The walls. But, as you could imagine, I wasn't very successful. Finally I twisted around and tried fuddling with the chain itself, but by that time I was in arm's length.

Phantomon leaned towards me, and despite how close he was I could still make out no detail within his red hood. It was just a pool of black and glowing eyes. He lowered his scythe around the back of my neck.

"Hey, legless," a voice said from behind.

Phantomon glanced over his shoulder. It was the same girl Sarah had pointed out at the bus stop. She held a small device in her hand and thrust it where, I could only guess, Phantomon's face was.

"Fuck off." The device in the girls hand issued out a wave of light.

Phatomon went into a sort of spasm, dropping his scythe. The monster fled the house, hands groping his hooded face.

Without pause, the girl grabbed me by the hand and jerked me to my feet. I realized it was just me and her in the house. Oh, and my mom's unconscious body. At least I hoped she was just unconscious.

Sarah's second stalker dragged me for the kitchen door. Maybe I should have hesitated, but she did just save my neck and she seemed like she knew how to fight these things.

In front of my house, an old beat up cameri was parked. She dragged me towards it and opened the passenger door. I looked back to my house.

"They're not after your mom," the girl said, seeming to read my mind. "And they won't hurt her. Come on, we need to find your friend." She shoved me into the car and shut the passenger door.

She slipped into the driver's seat and started the ignition. "Sorry about your house."

I shrugged. The damage really wasn't that bad.

"CRIMSON LIGHTNING!"

There was a loud crack.

I jerked my head back towards my house. Now, both the fairy and the vampire were in the air, above the roof of my home. The vampire welded a whip of glowing red light. He lashed it towards the fairy, striking her. The force of it sent her crashing down and with a second crack, the whole roof caved in.

I pressed my face against the passenger window as we sped off, watching the smoke and dust rise and billow from what was left of my home.