First book in a series about 8 teens who find stones allowing them to control nature. |
Chapter 16 The Demon Anthony “Georgie, the sun is finally coming out,” said Carolina after a long dark winter in Alaska. She then walked to her refrigerator and took out a gallon of milk and put it on the kitchen counter. She then went to the kitchen cabinet and pulled out some cookies, and a mug. After pouring the mug full of milk, she put the gallon away and walked to the family room. She set the glass down and put the box of cookies on the table. Carolina reached for the remote and turned the television on. She then flipped to the news station. The anchors were talking about the winter finally starting to end when there was a breaking news bulletin. “Breaking news, nine children went missing today in Florida. Eight of the nine were last seen going off on a boat into the Atlantic Ocean at 7:30 AM. The other was last seen in his room at 4:00 PM. Their names are as follows: Patty, Bobby, Stephanie, Jonathan, David, Kemelly, Andrew, Nick, and…” said the newscaster. “Please do not say Jessica, please do not say Jessica,” repeated Carolina to the television set. “I believe that was it,” said the news anchor, “Oh wait! Here is the last name. Jessica. David was the one last seen in his room; all the others were last seen on a boat. We now have helicopters and search boats looking for the children.” Carolina ran over to her telephone dropping a cookie onto the floor which was quickly scooped up by Jorge. She began to dial and the phone started to ring. After five rings she hung up and called again. This time the phone was picked up. “Hello,” said a man from the other side of the telephone line. “Carlos! How could you have let Jessica go into the ocean with no one but her friends?” shouted Carolina to her ex-husband. “Carolina, calm down. Don’t you think I am worried also?” asked Carlos. “No not really seeing as you let her go on this pleasure cruise into the Atlantic Ocean. Do you know how large the Atlantic Ocean is? It could take weeks to find her IF she is even still alive!” “Let me start off by saying that she didn’t even ask me to go on the boat. I got back from a business trip at 2 in the morning today.” “You have to stop letting work get in the way of your family! Look at what it has done now! Our daughter could be dead right now for all we know!” shouted Carolina just as she hung up the phone. She began to dial again. The phone then began to ring. After four rings, the answering machine picked up, “Hey guys you have reached Jessica. I cannot come to the phone now, but leave a message and I promise I will call you back as soon as I can.” “Damn it!” shouted Carolina. She then walked outside with her dogs close to her and went to her car. She looked at the ground and said, “There is way too much snow for me to drive out of here.” Carolina then walked back inside and grabbed a large jacket and put on some pants that will surely keep her warm. She put on a hat and walked outside. “The only way for me to get to the dock is now by walking,” she said to her dogs. They began to walk to the dock that was two miles away. The walk took about an hour and a half simply because the weather continued to get even worse the further she walked. In the distance she was able to see a faint outline of her plane and a few others. She and the dogs began to jog up to it. Carolina grabbed the door handle and began to shake it to open it. “Damn it,” she said, “The handle froze over.” After saying this she looked up into the sky out of exasperation. While looking up she saw this large shadow fly above her head. After seeing the shadow, her two dogs began to bark and they began to chase the shadow. Jorge ran after the shadow without even waiting, but Georgie stayed behind and waited for Carolina. Georgie led her in the direction towards her house, but then began to move into the forest. Carolina decided to stop at home and get her crossbow just incase anything bad might happen. She walked inside, wiped her boots, grabbed a glass of water, grabbed her crossbow, and fetched some arrows. She let Georgie get some water and then proceeded outside and into the forest. Carolina then followed the paw prints left by Jorge into the forest. Georgie continued to stay close the Carolina’s side, but then began to walk a bit in front of her as they got closer to the place where Jessica was found after the avalanche. Georgie ran towards a small hole in the mountain and climbed in. “What is it girl, do you want me to go in there?” asked Carolina. She then got on her knees and crawled in after Georgie. Carolina then looked around inside of the cave and noticed it was cut right into the mountain and could possibly even lead to the peak. Immediately after entering the cave, Georgie began to run up and out of Carolina’s sight. Carolina put an arrow into her crossbow and began to climb slowly through the cave. She stumbled a few times because of the steep road, and she sometimes tripped over a few stones on the ground. She took off her jacket because it was slowing her down and kept her from moving easily through the cave. As she was climbing over a rock a few feet from where she left her jacket, she heard a loud cry. It was the cry of a dog. She recognized it at once as Georgie’s cry. She then jumped over the rock, stumbled, but kept her legs moving and was up in a matter of seconds. She began to sprint up following the path within the cave. She then stepped into a room where she saw Georgie lying on the ground crying with Jorge standing right next to her growling. She rushed up to Georgie without even wondering what Jorge was growling at. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Jorge leap at something inside the room. She turned to look to see what it was and saw a large wolf and close to the wolf was a carcass of another wolf. She also noticed that the room was surrounded by ice and in the center was a small altar that has been frozen over with ice. Carolina then remembered the very real danger to both her and her dogs, the wolf. She turned her head and looked at the wolf. She then raised her crossbow over her head. She then leveled her arm and fired an arrow straight into the wolf’s heart. The wolf fell in an instant with a small cry. Jorge then rushed to Georgie’s side as did Carolina. “Don’t worry you guys, its all over,” said Carolina. After she said this, Jorge began to growl again. “Jorge, don’t worry he is dead now,” said Carolina again hugging her two dogs and putting down her crossbow. Jorge however wouldn’t stop growling and he continued to stare at the ceiling of the roof. Carolina tried to find what he was growling at, but couldn’t find the source of his fear. As she was turning down to treat Georgie’s wound, she made a double-take and noticed that ice was spreading throughout the ceiling of the room. “This cannot be good,” said Carolina and ran toward the entrance of the room carrying Georgie and with Jorge at her side. The ice kept spreading and when it reached the center, the whole room shattered and all the ice and rocks began to fall. Carolina shielded her two dogs from the debris and lowered her head to shield her own face. She then heard a booming voice from the center of the room or what had just been a room in the mountain. “IT IS NOT HERE! WHERE IS THE STONE?!?” shouted the voice. The dust then began to clear from the room. Carolina looked up to find standing right next to the altar was a human-like creature. It looked male with short hair. He seemed to have body piercings all over his body and a lot of jewelry. She then began to examine him more closely and noticed that protruding from his back were two very large wings that resembled the wings of a bat. Carolina then stood up and asked, “Who are you?” The man then turned his head and looked at her with light blue eyes and a stare that alone could have killed her. He then said, “My name is Anthony. I am the demon of ice and I demand to know where my stone is!” he shouted. Carolina reached to the ground the grab her crossbow to shoot him with, but she realized she had left it where Georgie was once lying on the floor. “What are you doing here?” asked Carolina. “How stupid are you? Haven’t I mentioned the stone enough times?” asked Anthony back. Carolina replied walking very slowly to her crossbow, “Yes you have mentioned the stone many times, but what is this stone?” “The stone used to rest on this altar within this mountain.” “Can you please inform me on what is so special about this stone?” “The stone has the power to control the element of ice and will grant me power to destroy this world.” “Oh great, another psycho that wants to take over the world,” mumbled Carolina to herself only a few feet from her crossbow. “What was that you just said?” asked the demon. “Oh let me repeat it for you,” said Carolina staring at the demon and then looking at Jorge, “Go get ‘em boy!” Jorge leaped from Georgie’s side and straight toward the demon’s neck. “Fool!” shouted Anthony, “I will kill you!” “I doubt that,” said Carolina grabbing her crossbow from the floor and aimed it at the demon, the same way she aimed it at the wolf. “Say good-bye,” said Carolina. She then fired the arrow straight for the demon’s heart. Carolina then ran to Georgie and picked her up. She then began to run outside of the room with Jorge leading the way. As she was running out of the room and back into the cave she heard from behind her, “Do you really think a human weapon can kill me? Fool now you will die!” Carolina continued to run as fast as she could out of the cave, but since she was carrying Georgie she took just as long as she did getting up. When she reached the spot where she left her jacket, she wrapped Georgie in it and then continued to carry her hoping that the jacket could slow the bleeding. She finally exited the cave and set Georgie down next to the entrance wrapped in the jacket. Carolina and Jorge began to run to the house, but then she heard and explosion coming from the mountain. Carolina then whispered to herself, “Please don’t be what I think it is.” She then turned around and saw the demon exploding from the side of the mountain about one hundred feet from the entrance to the cave. As the demon began to fly down the side of the mountain, she reloaded her crossbow and fired it at him. The shot was a direct hit, but it seemed to not have damaged the demon seeing as he kept flying toward her without slowing a bit. Carolina then reloaded her crossbow again, but this time with two arrows instead of one. She then whispered to Jorge, “Get ready to attack him. When I say ‘go’, attack him.” Jorge then got ready to spring at the demon when Carolina gave the command. She leveled her crossbow at him again and fired with the demon only about twenty feet away. He didn’t budge and kept on flying quickly at her. She instantly reloaded. When he was only ten feet away, she fell to the ground with her back down and yelled, “GO!” Jorge then leaped at the demon’s neck and got a good hold with his teeth. The demon then turned his body in distress. Carolina aimed her crossbow and fired into the demon’s back. The demon then fell to the ground. Jorge released his grip and began to retreat back to Carolina’s side, but Anthony blocked his path with a wall of ice. The dog then ran around it and was blocked yet again. Jorge then looked back at the demon. He was then flung into another piece of ice. Carolina saw this and when Jorge was flung, she heard several snaps. Her dog fell lifelessly to the ground. “NNNNOOOO!” shouted Carolina. She then fired several arrows at the demon but all were blocked by a wall of ice that formed in front of the demon. She then grabbed Georgie and took her to the spot Jorge was lying at. Carolina listened carefully to Jorge and could hear he was breathing, but whenever he would breathe, he would let out a small whimper that grew fainter with every breath. “It’s sad isn’t it. You and your pets never stood a chance against me. I gave you the option to run away, but you chose to fight,” said Anthony. “You will pay for this! YOU WILL PAY!” shouted Carolina with tears streaking down her face. “Oh, now that’s funny,” said Anthony walking up to Carolina with a large smile on his face. “Do you really think anyone in this world will be able to stop me?” “I know someone will be able to. You deserve to die a very slow and painful death,” said Carolina. “Who is going to stop me?” asked Anthony. “I AM!” shouted a voice coming from the forest. “Don’t worry mom, I will take care of him, now take both the dogs to the vet and save yourself. I will make him pay.” “Jessica, is that you?” asked Carolina. “Oh how sweet, a mother daughter reunion,” said Anthony. Jessica looked up at the demon and said, “The only sweet thing that is going to happen here is me watching you die. Now go mom, now!” |