- He's already asleep, come on, brothers! called Shadow from the corner.
- I hope you're right... said the old man with the sparrowhawk in his hand, pushing his way into the room on a crocodile... Amon, Baal, come!
- Let me in, I'll get in! called a clumsy figure from the windowsill.
The Shadow extended one of its tentacles and reached for the window, then flung it open. A cold gust blew into the room along with a three-headed, spider-legged demon barely more than two feet tall.
- Thank you very much... said a human face, situated between the mouth of a cat and the mouth of a toad... And where is our friend Amon?
- I'm here. growled a wolf with a tail in the form of a hissing snake crawling out from under the bed.
- So we have no one to wait for!... Shadow was happy... Look at this sleeping young man, we'll be feasting on him, we should be grateful to him for that!
- I can sense his fear... announced the wolf named Amon, hissing his tail at the same time... Not us, but something else.
- He's so young... mumbled the old man with the sparrowhawk in his hand... and he already has so many problems...
- Does that mean our presence is unnecessary here? Baal became alarmed, shifting from one spider leg to the other.
- Not at all!... said Shadow... Let's show this youngster what fear really is!
- You're right... Amon admitted... Agares, get off that crocodile and take me in your arms, I'll go first.
The old man snapped his fingers, in response to which his mount dissolved in the air, and then the man grabbed the wolf and lifted it above the dreaming boy.
- Have fun! cried Baal, accompanied by frog croaking and cat meowing.
- Oh, I will... mumbled Amon... The poor thing will find out how small his problems are compared to what I'm about to give him!
- Then go! ordered Agares, simultaneously releasing the demon from his hands.
The bus rushes forward, its headlights cutting through the darkness around it. There is almost no one inside except Rocky and the driver behind the wheel.
The only passenger scans the dusk-covered shoulder of the road, looking for a sign with the word "Topola" on it. Fears swirl in his mind that he may have already missed her and is now heading to who knows where. He wants to ask the driver when they will stop at that particular stop in that particular village, but he is ashamed. The man doesn't look friendly, quite the opposite of someone you'd want to go to for help. So Rocky just sits, nervously rubbing his hands together, and waits.
The vehicle suddenly stops and the door hisses open, letting a woman inside. She enters, nonchalantly tossing the ticket money to the driver, then walks through the rows of empty seats until she sits right behind the boy. Surprised, he steals an uncertain glance at her, which she notices and dismisses with a sneer showing yellowed teeth. Confused, Rocky tries to ignore her, dedicating himself entirely to examining the roadside with his eyes.
Minutes pass, maybe even a dozen. The bus seems to go around in circles because nothing but the number of passengers has changed. No lights on the horizon, even the roads are completely empty. The world seems to have died out, which Rocky is well aware of, which makes him even more worried. He finally breaks down and turns to the woman sitting behind him.
- Excuse me... breaks the silence... do you know where we are?
- And do you know that I've been thinking about it for a few moments too? ... the other one replies, smiling ... Well, nothing, I think I'll go ask the driver.
The young man nods gratefully and watches as the passenger sneaks to the front of the vehicle and then talks to the man.
It's been a while and the woman is still talking to the driver, giggling to herself. Curious, Rocky strains his ears to try to pick up something from their conversation.
- I used to be a snake charmer, but that was a long, long time ago...
- You are a really interesting person, please tell me more.
- Do I know... All my adventures are over and I don't even count on them ever coming back...
- Why is that?
- Disease. I have a lousy tapeworm in my belly.
- I am sorry to hear it...
- But you know what? That harmonica over there, can I borrow it for a moment?
- Here you go.
- I'm just curious if some tunes work on tapeworms the same as they do on snakes.
- That would be it!
They laugh. Rocky watches as the woman picks up her harmonica and brings it closer to her lips. Shivers run through his body, carrying a warning sent by intuition. At the same time, however, he notices a sign with the word "Topola". Delighted, he gets up from his seat to move towards the exit.
As he approaches the door, music plays in the vehicle. The woman plays the harmonica, and the still smiling driver looks at the boy, asking him a silent question if he gets off here, to which he nods. So the bus brakes and the doors open.
Rocky leaves with inexpressible relief, leaving the other two behind. He hears the car start moving again behind him. She gives him a quick farewell glance, then surveys the area. However, he does not see the girl who was supposed to be waiting for him when he arrives. Is alone. All alone.
- I can feel our friend tinkering with this nightmare! cried Shadow excitedly.
- The kid is sweating, fidgeting... the old man noticed out of the corner of his eye, focusing mainly on playing with his pet, a sparrowhawk.
- We should act now, it will magnify the effect! Baal suggested, nodding impatiently with all three heads.
- What an idea!... commented Shadow... I agree!
Without a word, Agares grabbed Baal, wincing slightly as he touched the spider's legs, and then, like Amon before, lifted the demon above the sleeping boy.
- I'll show him a little bit of hell! announced the three-headed ghost proudly.
The old man, hearing this, released it from his hands.
Rocky waits at the bus stop, glancing at his phone every now and then, only to find that he still can't get signal.
Meanwhile, fears multiply in his mind. Did he get off at the right stop? Maybe that girl left him? He has no idea what went wrong that could have caused this situation.
He is brought out of his thoughts by the ear-piercing scuffling of something heavy on the pavement. The boy turns around, then instinctively takes a step back, seeing the exhausted man dragging the coffin across the asphalt.
- What are you shuddering at?... mumbles the newcomer... Have you never seen a working man?
- There are probably special cars for carrying such things. Rocky replies confused.
- Maybe they are... the other is indignant... but this is an exceptional case when the job has to be done by hand.
The porter stops at the roadside and carefully puts the coffin down, then, as if nothing had happened, sits on it, making it a bench.
- Who's there? asks Rocky timidly.
The man shrugs. She pays more attention to her cigarette than to her boyfriend's questions. Finally, with undisguised pleasure, he inhales the smoke.
- I'll let you look in there if you help me move it. she announces, staring her auburn eyes straight into Rocky's eyes.
- I don't think I'll use it... he grimaces.
- Oh, you whore, I'll teach you some manners! yells the stranger suddenly.
In one swift move, he jumps behind the coffin, and then with a powerful kick knocks it over to the side. The lid falls to the side of the road with something that previously rested in this charming place.
The young man does not have time to notice what the mysterious "something" is, because he immediately rushes to flee, skipping time for even a glance over his shoulder.
- Take him! the porter gives the order, bursting out laughing at the same time.
Rocky is running. Or rather, considering his heart and lungs raging with exhaustion, he fucked off, right in the middle of the road.
He hears no footsteps behind him, no voices or screams. Instead, he hears the sounds of breaking branches, wild growls, hisses. And not from behind his back, but from the sides, as if what had crawled out of the coffin had flanked him.
He is terrified of such a thought, because it means that soon he will have nowhere to run, he will be surrounded.
Then his hope awakens at the sight of the two rear red lights of the bus he recently rode. The stimulated brain sends an impulse to the tired legs, telling them to accelerate even more, although it seems impossible.
And yet he succeeds, and for a moment the boy even feels that he has already escaped the range of the monster chasing him, but this is only wishful thinking and Rocky is aware of it.
Panting, he rushes inside the vehicle, thanking God that the door is open, then rushes to the driver's cab and presses random buttons, hoping that one of them will close the door behind him.
After a few seconds, the much-anticipated hiss is heard and Rocky feels safe. Staggering, he reaches one of the armchairs, where he decides to rest for a while. Anxiety, however, settles in his mind again, causing the boy to nervously jerk his gaze up and sweep it around the interior of the vehicle. He quickly realizes it was a mistake.
At the back he sees two corpses covered in blood. The driver and that woman. They lie with their bellies eaten to the core, and their insides are scattered almost all over the bus.
Rocky doesn't have to look long for the killer, he reveals himself. It hisses as it writhes between the seats, gradually moving towards its new victim. It resembles a skinned snake, several meters long, revealing rows of unnatural fangs in an ominous smile.
The boy, seeing this monster, jumps back as far as possible from the beast. However, she quickly gives chase.
Horrified, Rocky notices at the last moment a harmonica lying right next to the driver's seat. He reaches for it, then immediately puts it to his lips and sends a procession of sounds into the silence, closing his eyes.
Seconds pass and he's still alive. He opens his eyes and sees the viper's head swaying to the rhythm of the melody, stopped less than half a meter in front of his face.
- How he pants, how he moves his legs! Shadow was happy.
- The best is yet to come... growled the old man, stroking the sparrowhawk... It's about time I stepped in.
- So get going and let the grand finale begin!
Agares extended his hands over the restlessly sleeping boy, thus entering a nightmare.
- Don't stop playing, just don't stop playing. Rocky repeats in his mind.
His eyes wander around the vehicle, looking for help, but he can't think of anything. At the same time, he is afraid to move, sensing that then the melody flowing from the harmonica may stop, and the viper is just waiting for it.
And just when it seems it can't get any worse, something huge and all black rubs against the back of the bus. Rocky sees it as a mass of liquid darkness that tilts the bus like a ship's wave. The whole event is short and the boy doesn't even notice which way the body is crawling.
The knowledge that the monstrosity is about to appear ahead haunts his dripping fear mind, making it impossible for the young man to stop the torrent of urine running down his trouser legs. In the face of all this, the viper seems insignificant.
He knows he has to act, so he slowly stands up. He targets the panel with the buttons to open the door and steps uncertainly towards it. The viper moves at once, as if pulling it by a string, but it does not come closer, but only maintains a constant distance.
- Play, play, play. This sentence can be read in the boy's eyes. He taps his elbow in hopes of getting the right buttons off, and he even manages to do so.
The door opens, but the boy does not intend to leave. Not yet.
Now every split second matters. It can decide about life or death. The harmonica stops making sounds only after pressing the button to close the door.
Just then, Rocky runs away, abandoning the instrument. He pops out through a shrinking rift at the last moment. All he hears is the simultaneous sound of two sounds, the hiss that seals the door shut, and the rumble of the viper's head hitting the closed door.
The boy turns around and admires the rabid animal squirming in the vehicle for a while, then snaps out of his trance, remembering the monster lurking somewhere nearby.
His gaze, however, lingers on something that is neither a monster nor a wall of shapeless darkness, a human silhouette.
Rocky recognizes her, has her engraved in his memory, thought of her so many times. He immediately strides toward her, mouth open, wanting to speak, to call out, but something holds him back. It's the spasm in his throat, heralding tragedy, that takes away his ability to speak. As soon as the boy grabs the girl standing with her back to him by the shoulder, his hand is covered with a wave of coldness.
- I'm here... he manages to break the silence with a shaky voice.
The figure slowly starts to turn towards him. The moment seems to last forever, especially for Rocky, whose eyes have already filled with tears at the sight of his beloved's indifferent face. He sees her blank eyes, her mute face, as if she's dead inside.
He doesn't say anything. She just grabs his hand and puts it to her stomach. Rocky feels something moving in her gut. Something twists, jerks. Disgusted, he wants to withdraw his hand, but the girl has no intention of letting go.
Instead, he opens his pale mouth and a soft, muffled gurgling begins to emerge. After a while, a sparrowhawk begins to squeeze through her throat. First, you see its beak holding something, and then its body emerges, clawing the girl from the inside. It is only when she spews up the bird along with the blood that she releases her grip and falls to the ground dead herself.
Rocky tries to take a step back, but his paralyzed body only collapses painfully to the ground. He immediately begins to crawl as far away from the waking sparrowhawk as possible, but in vain. The animal flies up to him, then spits out a piece of meat in front of his eyes. Heart. Beloved heart still beating.
- Nooo! the boy laments, trying to get up.
When he succeeds, he immediately throws himself into a blind run along the road.
It doesn't stop. He pushes forward, wading through an almost liquid darkness that now clings to everything, absorbing any light. He doesn't know where, he doesn't know why. He is alone, all alone in a sea of blackness. No rescue. In vain he looks up at the sky for twinkling stars, and they have been swallowed up by this moonless night. There is nothing left but him.
Finally, he collapses, unable to force his muscles any further. He lands on folds of shadows that begin to consume him, eat him alive like a gelatinous mass. He doesn't have the strength to even scream. He knows it's over, that nothing will show him mercy.
He is wrong.
- Agares, Amon, Baal!... called the Shadow... Come back here!
His voice echoed powerfully, echoing through the room. The sleeping boy, however, did not hear him, unlike the three demons, which immediately echoed with desperate screams.
The shadow hovered over Rocky, then thrust its tentacles straight into the young man's eyes, where it fumbled for a moment, then tore out the whimpering wolf, the old man with his pet, and the three-headed monster. He threw them mercilessly to the floor, to which they reacted with indignant grunts and growls.
- What are you doing!... said the old man, the most nervous of the three... We've almost finished him off!
Amon and Baal nodded, then flanked Agares like his bodyguards.
- You have done your task, and now, as I summoned you, now I am banishing you! Shadow announced.
- What ingratitude! So much trouble only to be interrupted at the best moment!? We're going into this nightmare, whether you like it or not, the youngster's soul will be ours! the wolf threatened, hissing his snake tail for show.
- Fools of you!... Shadow sneered... Lords of Hell, and they let themselves be tricked!
- Stupid soul, who are you really!? And why did you summon us at all!? exclaimed Baal, trembling on his spider legs with anger.
- None of your business!... replied the Shadow... Go away!
- You are just a wandering spirit, unwanted in neither heaven nor hell, you have no power over us! What are you trying to drive us out of? Even God's name won't help you, your mouth will only desecrate it! Agares said angrily.
- Get out! In the name of my love for the one you wanted to hurt, I tell you to get the fuck out of here!
At the same time there was thunder and a scream. The room smelled of sulfur, the only trace of the presence of demons.
Shadow looked at the sleeping Rocky. He knew this was the moment. He approached the young man, who was tossing restlessly in his sleep.
He has the impression that the darkness is creeping through his nose, through his mouth, through his skin and deep into his body, that he is about to choke on the darkness and drown in it. It's everywhere, and now it's even invading itself. The poor fellow can't even put together a short prayer to end this suffering. Completely defenseless, defeated.
But then there is a spark of hope. A flash of light slashes the darkness, and a hand grabs Rocky's wrist and pulls him out of the void.
He woke up but was unable to move. All he could do was run his eyes over the blurred shapes of his room and listen to the strange sounds coming from everywhere. Half awake, half asleep, he had read about it once on a lucid dreaming forum, so he quickly realized his situation and breathed a deep sigh of relief, knowing that the nightmare was over.
- Son... he suddenly heard a voice... It's time for you to finally stop being afraid. You've only just fought real demons, so what's worse than that? You're going to spend your whole life like this, trembling even in front of some girl?! Damn it, take that first step! Believe in yourself! Don't make me ashamed of you even in the hereafter! Just try to ignore these words and you won't sleep for the next year! And know it's for your own good...
Then the voice became faint, distant, until it finally disappeared. A half-conscious Rocky returned to his dreams, but this time the nightmares stayed away from him.
When he woke up the next morning, he had no memory of last night. However, something told him that he should take this "first step", which, after all, began to seem like a child's play.