Chapter Four: The Twilight End Zone

"What are you doing Sasha?"

"Oh nothing." The incubus mocked himself

"Really?"

Sasha switched his tone to light an playful, "Of course are you talking about the fact that I'm out here freezing my ass off on the word of a semi drunk man."

"You're the one that wanted in on the family business."

"Oh fuck off." the red head stuck out his tongue to the night.

"This is fucking stupid." The young man muttered to himself. "And I'm talking to myself."

Sasha stood at the edge of the football field, the moon light shining brighter and casting his shadow out behind him like a long black ribbon. He felt increasingly stupid as he stood out in the cold autumn air. Max had been less then helpful after his break down. When the incubus had managed to actually calm him down he had found out somethings about the town and more specifically about the football team. The town typically had a relatively good team, nothing spectacular but enough to keep the fans excited every season. It seemed that the whole town centered around football and probably would have been right at home in Texas; for more then one reason. The town had a little bit of a small minded way about certain things. the way that Max had trailed off from the explanation let the red haired teen know exactly how he was a freak.

"Being gay here isn't what exactly apple pie with a lot of folks," Max had told him just before Sasha left him alone, the words made the pit of his stomach drop out, "So there is a story that gets passed around the high school. Bout some poor guy that got fag bashed daily and then one day he just vanished. Everyone in town knew he got killed but nobody did anything about it, there wasn't even an investigation. Nice right? Don't be gay or you could vanish like Jimmy "

It was disgusting for the young incubus to think that people actually could hate a person based one who they loved. That defined every fiber of his being especially because to him gender was completely unimportant. What mattered was the love and person and how you could make the other person feel. To be able kill someone over who they love and then have the whole town cover it up. It made Sasha sick but it also gave him an idea as to what had made the football players. Maybe it was a ghost, now he just had to find the hypothetical body and figure out how to get rid of the ghost. No problem right. Except he had no idea where to begin looking.

Football was the center of the town and it was probably the football team that had done the bashing.

So maybe the ghost was doing a little bashing of its own.

From beyond the grave, the incubus could actually hear the twilight zone music playing in his head. The familiar do-do-doed. But if Sash was going to be honest, that was the most likely choice at least as a starting point, Occam's razor and all that. Football team potential bashed a gay man to death, so it would stand to reason that his ghost would want a little payback. What better way to take revenge then to take the strength of the players who would use it to hurt others.

Which is what brought Sasha to the field.

All of the football players sickness started here on the field so it seemed like the perfect place to start, plus it was the only real land around the town were no one would think to hide a body because football was the towns religion then the field would be its temple. As the incubus stepped out onto the field and a rush of energy crashed through his veins, the whole place was a nest of adrenaline and violent passion. The moved around like a lava lamp, over and under and around each other but never really co-mingling. But there was something else that filtered through the crowd of passion, it was the black and red tint of both malice and hate. Old emotions. But they were there deep in the core. As suddenly as the feelings flooded his senses they seemed to all wash back out of Sasha as if the emotions were aware that he could actually feel them.

Sasha turned to make sure no one was around before he spoke.

"Hello?"

A soft cold gust like breath on the back of his neck startled the incubus.

"I'm trying to speak to the ghost?"

There was another rush of air but this time it felt like fingers along Sasha's arm.

"I am trying to communicate with the spirits from beyond." The incubus chuckled and threw in a soft accent to mimic Miss. Cleo, "I don't know where, I don't know when but something awful is going to happen. And don't marry that fat man he only wants you for your money girl."

The air had grown still, silence stretched across the whole field and beyond, whatever Sasha had been talking to was obviously not amused with the joke. A short series of gusts did rush through the field like the air was snickering at him. Mocking him. The incubus snarled softly on his next words.

"Everybody's a critic."

Sasha could tell there was something here watching him, something tied to the field, this was something's home and it's crypt. It seemed to be playing with him; acknowledging him as it was acknowledged but never actually being seen. The incubus knew that he had to see it or else he would be unable to fight it. the grass was in need of cutting and it swirled lightly like someone was dancing barefoot around him. Sasha could even swore he heard the light sound of someone squealing in euphoric laughter. The invisible force rushed forward and knocked the unprepared young man off of his balance; it repeated the action and the incubus realized he was dancing with it. Then suddenly as quickly as it started the force and the wind vanished leaving Sash alone on the field again. What had made it attack?

The violence of the game?

It had died in violence after all hadn't it?

No that was stupid.

The hate?

Of course, why had he died?

Because of some closed minded bigots so didn't like who he loved.

The hate had to be the trigger.

That would make sense, it would explain the emotional scar on the field. If it was hate that brought it here and kept it here, then maybe some hate would make it show itself. Sasha knew he was going to hate himself after saying this, after all the word felt sick in his mind. Like someone had taken a hose from a diesel engine exhaust and put it straight into his brain. Pumping deadly grayish gas into his skull. It was a poisonous word and the incubus once again thought it was a stupid idea. But still there had to be a way to get this thing to show itself and if there was then this would be the way.

"Fag"

The air bristled hard at the word but nothing else happened. Annoyed the incubus knew he was onto something but didn't like the idea of having to say it again. It was already bad enough he said it once. Preparing himself, Sasha pulled in as much air as he could before shouting at the top of his lungs. His eyes flashing as he threw a little bit of extra incubus in for power.

"FAGGOT!"

The foul word made Sasha want to rinse out his mouth after saying it.

It was like gargling dog vomit but like the incubus had figured the hateful slur had caused a reaction form whatever had been playing with him. Although now the playing was over, it was striking how one word could be so powerful. But it was.

The effect was instantaneous.

And deadly.

Wind grew claws and teeth, snapping at Sasha's clothing and hair. It tore violently along the grass, sending a smattering of grass and dirt up into the air. The red haired incubus knew at once that he had stepped too far over the line and now this thing, whatever it was, was pissed. Sasha had been so focused on the minor carnage being created by the wind that he was practically dead to everything going on around him. So much so that he didn't notice the fact that the yellow field goal behind him was shaking like a leaf. Because the poor young man didn't see the thirty feet of quivering metal behind him, he wasn't able to move out of the way as it came crashing down on his head. Starts flashed in front of Sasha's eyes and at first all he saw was black.

Then white

A/N: I'm sorry for those that read this. I'm going to try and update more often. My bad. Yes its short because stupid FFN wont let me put empty space into the sorry and I don't wanna use crap tons of pages lines.

~ WordDemon