Sam H

Prologue

We walked out of the restaurant that we had eaten dinner at. Our car was parked in the V.I.P parking area. The restaurant was built like an old cottage with steel support beams and lanterns that lit up the gloomy night sky. We headed towards our car. When we got there we couldn't find our car. I looked to the buildings and the glittering stars hoping to see our car. (I was six years old.) An engine revved and I looked at the road, disappointed that my car hadn’t flown away. (Again, I was six years old.) I ran to the corner of the carpark as the car sped in and stopped in front of my dad. “This car has a mind of it’s own?” I thought. My dad didn’t run, nor did he get angry, he just stood there.

“Max.” he said. “It must be this way, sorry.” pointing in the opposite direction that we were walking. With that, the car ran over him, trampling all the life out of his body. I screamed and ran towards him. I checked his pulse but there was none. My dad had always kept a knife in his boot. I picked it out and threw it at the driver as the car sped off. It missed the car completely and sunk into the tarmac wall. The driver and our car disappeared as I sat next to my dad’s lifeless body, smothered in my own despair. I thought back to when my mother had died of cancer in the hospital a year ago. Tears streamed down my cheeks. It wasn’t long until the police sirens wailed.

Chapter 1

I stood in front of the metal detector, hoping that the airport hadn’t amped up their security. I nervously stepped through it. The silence was deafening. It had worked. I continued on, grabbed my luggage and walked towards the tunnel. As I walked through the tunnel towards the plane, I suddenly felt nervous. I doubted that I could assassinate the North Korean Weapons Minister. I was about to turn back as I heard a raspy voice call the passengers for final boarding. I ran onto the plane, sat down in my seat near the window and waited for the plane to start moving.

Finally the plane lifted off and within ten minutes, we were in the sky. I turned on a movie while the flight attendants were giving hungry people their food. I didn’t want to eat anything so I politely declined. Suddenly the flight attendant walked back to their cabin muttering under their breath. Apparently we were entering a zero gravity zone. (How does a normal airplane go out of the atmosphere? I don’t know.) It didn’t feel like we were going up, it felt like we were racing down at incredibly high speeds. All of a sudden everything was flown into the sky and the ground raced towards the window.

Chapter 2

The plane whistled as we dived towards the ground.

“We're all gonna die!” I heard someone shout. I unclipped my seat belt and stumbled towards the cockpit. I yanked the door but it wouldn’t budge. I grabbed a handgun out of my pocket and shot the lock. It popped off and I ran in to find two limp bodies lying in the pilot seats, covered in blood with black spikes protruding out of their chests. Blood continued to drip onto the floor while large quantities soaked through their white shirts. Black veins webbed under their skin and their lips twitched.

“They were killed less than one minute ago,” I thought. The flight attendant’s clothes were ripped and bundled on the floor. Seven flight attendants had disappeared. I gasped as I saw a shadow crawl across the plane nose and rip it off. Sweat glued my camouflage shirt to my skin. The ground raced towards my eyes at the speed of light. I ran back out of the cockpit, grabbed my suitcase from the overhead locker, opened the side door and jumped out of the plane as it exploded. Shrapnel slammed into me and I was consumed in darkness.

“Ahh!” I shouted as I woke. I looked around, I was encased by trees and bushes. Only one light shone and it came from the clearing I was sitting in. I could feel something watching me as I stood up. I turned my head and went for my suitcase to find that it wasn’t there.

“I must have dropped it while I was falling.”

The trees seemed to be bending over me, sealing off the only light in this dim dark world. The sky had completely disappeared. Smothered by shadows, I heard a howl in the distance followed by a moan and a longer, deeper, louder howl. I reached inside my pocket and pulled out a small v-shaped object. It looked like a fridge magnet but it expanded into a visor that hid my identity and helped me accurately maneuver in the dark. I put it over my eyes and the world instantly lit up. I heard a rustle in the bushes and I looked at the place it came from. A huge black dog leaped at me but I ducked as it flew over my head. When I looked back I saw a person in tattered clothes stumbling towards me.

“Wait,” I thought, “is that a zombie?”

I stepped back and blasted its head off its neck. More monsters kept pouring out of the forest and making their way towards me. My gun clicked, I was out of ammunition. Just as I thought that I would be overwhelmed, a shadow shot out in front of me and I was knocked to the ground. I heard one of the monsters say.

“You cannot interfere. The rules don’t allow it. You can’t…”

It went silent as its guts flew out from its chest and lay on the floor. A claw had pierced its chest and it had been killed. The shadow ripped off limbs and stabbed its hand through others. I instinctively backed away and, like a genius, fell on my back. I felt like lying down in these bushes and never coming back out. The shadow turned towards me. It dissipated and I thought that it had gone away before, I saw a person standing where it had used to be.

W...what are you?” I stammered, trying to steady my voice. I was a merciless killer, I didn’t get scared of shadows. But seeing this ‘thing’ kill hundreds, if not thousands, of monsters shook my nerves.

“My name is Leonardo,” it said calmly. “I am here to save you. You have trespassed on demonic land and all the residents here want you dead.”

“This can’t be real. It must be a near death hallucination.”

“Can hallucinations do this?” He stamped his foot and the ground beneath him cracked while it blew me back into the bushes.

“How do I know if you’re trying to get me to trust you and then you’ll kill me?” I replied, I always prepared for the worst.

“You don’t,” he said with a grin and that he quickly corrected, “but if I wanted to kill you, I would have done it already.”

“You may be biding your time? Maybe you just want to…”

All of a sudden, a spike came whistling out of the forest and it hit my hand. I felt a searing pain and I looked down at my hand. The spike had made a clean hole straight through my hand and thunked into a tree. I screamed in pain. Naturally. I remembered the pilots had been killed by the same spike. Black veins started to web under my skin and towards my heart at an alarming rate. I picked a knife out of my boot while Leonardo mumbled.

“No! No! No!”

I didn’t know what he was talking about but I was fully engrossed in getting the knife out of my boot. My hands fumbled around the grip as I tried to steady my arm. The monster came into view, it was the one that had ripped of the nose of the plane! My arm started to go numb and I tried to hurry. The knife was pointing at the monster and I threw it.

As soon as I had thrown it I knew that it wouldn’t kill it. The knife hit the monster tail, severing it’s scorpion like tail. Leonardo finally leaped into battle and started dismembering others that had stepped through. The monsters had disappeared as quickly as they had appeared, leaving only a couple heads and tails behind.

“W...what were those?” I asked. “I’m gonna die, aren't I?”

“Yes, but not now,” he said as he placed a hand on my arm. “Stay still.” The black in my veins started to retreat. I thought I was okay until I felt an excruciating pain. My arm burned and my hand felt like it would fall off. The pain stopped abruptly.

“What did you do?” I asked.

“I reverted the poison from your heart and slowed it down but I could not burn it out, it’s too potent.”

“How long will I live for?”

“Unless you amputate your hand, twelve hours.” He sounded strangely cheerful

Chapter 3

We walked through the forest but my arm still felt numb. Leonardo told me that he had waited in that clearing for three thousand years, waiting for me, someone that could defeat his father, who was simply called Demon. Apparently I was the only one that could.

“I don’t even have a knife, how am I supposed to defeat a twenty thousand year old demon.” I thought. The forest started to grow thin and I knew that we were coming up to the mountain palace. We had decided that I would loudly announce ‘now’ and Leonardo would start to attack his dad while I stood beside and watched. I didn't think that I should around but that was the only way to stay alive. The forest ended abruptly. Stone pillars stood in a circle, they lead off into different directions. I sat down against a pillar. The trees rustled in the cool breeze. An emerald path lead the way towards the grand palace that stood on top of the shining mountain. It looked like the path had grown up and over the palace, encasing it in blinding light.

“This is your home?” I asked Leonardo “It’s so …

“Evil? Maleficent?” Leonardo interrupted.

“...Majestical...”

“Oh!”

I stepped onto the path and immediately appeared in front of the palace doors.

“Shouldn’t we go in sneakily?” I asked. “Is there a back entrance?”

“No.” Leonardo said blankly.

“Let’s go,” I said as I pushed the doors open.

Chapter 4

The palace was deserted except for us, at least that was what I thought. Nothing tried to stop us as we walked up the stairs to the throne room.

“Maybe it’s spring break,” I thought, though I didn’t convince myself. The doors to the throne room were just slightly smaller than the huge double brass doors at the front. They opened all by themselves and we stepped into blinding light.

“Well, well, well. My son has finally returned,” said a deep gravely voice, “and he has brought a friend.”

“Hello, father,” Leonardo said calmly. I didn’t know how he was so calm, my heart was beating a million miles a second. I looked around. We were in a enormous room with a skylight which was strange because we were in the middle bottom of the palace. I finally got a good look at Leonardo’s dad. He had six eyes, four arms and black leathery wings. Plus, he was the biggest thing he had ever seen.

“NOW!” I shouted. I had hoped that Leonardo would start attacking but he didn’t.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk,” Leonardo scolded, “you really believed that I would kill my own father, the Lord of the Forest and soon the world.”

“What?” I questioned. “Aren’t you going to help me? You had been waiting in that clearing for thousands of years.”

“That was my brother. He had only been away once to have a break and he got ran over by a car.” I was only now just noticing the skeletons littered around the room.

“Sorry,” said the Demon (he didn’t sound very sorry). “I must suck out your energy and eat your soul.”

“Wait,” I said, “what did you mean, soon to rule the world?”

“I will send out my other offspring to destroy all humans, one I have ingested your soul.” He reached out his hand.

“You said your brother got ran over by a car. My dad got ran over by a car.”

“You will die with the knowledge that your goodie-too-shoes dad is a demon.”

The Demon touched my chest and I could feel my life leaving me. I saw all the good things that I had done and all the bad. The entire world went black as I desperately held onto the energy that was being stolen from my body.

Chapter 5

I opened my eyes, or did I? Everything was black. My only sensation was the feeling of something in my hand. I looked to see what it was but I couldn’t move my head. I started to see light and I was lying on the floor of the throne room. Something told me even if I couldn’t sit up not to, the demons thought he was dead. I couldn’t feel my legs. Fleets of demons flooded out of the palace towards what must have been civilisation. The only two demons that were left were Leonardo and his father.

“He tasted good.” I heard the demon say. I looked at my hand. I was holding a long two metre sword that shone like the sun. I didn’t know how they weren’t seeing the sword but that didn’t bother me.

“Attack, kill them,” I heard a voice say. I recognised that voice, it was my father’s. “Have your revenge.” I felt my limbs again, my rage consumed me and I jumped up.

“AAAH!” I screamed as I charged the demons.

“Impossible!” The demon said back as I jumped onto his chest. The sword glowed brighter. The demon tried to hit me off but I was too small.

“Get off!” he shouted as I plunged my glowing sword into his throat and he choked on his own blood, cold as ice. I turned to Leonardo.

You’re next.” I growled. Leonardo pulled out his own sword, as black as night.

“Bring it on!” he replied. We charged at each other and our swords clanged against each others.

“I’ve had a millamena of practise, what have you had?” Growled Leonardo.

“This,” I replied. I pushed Leonardo back, somehow shot a crackling beam of light at Leonardo and the chopped off his head. I looked down to see blood trickling from my shirt, Leonardo had stabbed me, the little rascal. I fell onto the ground and dropped the sword. I clutched my hands over my chest to stem the flow. If I didn’t stop the blood I would die, I knew that much. My hand started to glow and the wound instantly closed.

“Wow,” I exclaimed “I’m full of surprises. Maybe I could could create a portal home.” I put my hand up in front of me and a swirling mass hovered in front of me. I stepped through and I appeared on a wasteland.

Epilogue

After just defeating thousands of demons I felt exhausted. I lay on the ground with multiple injuries. I tried healing them all but I was out of energy. At least I didn't have to clean up, all the bodies had dissolved. I got up and limped slowly around the ruple, trying to help anyone that was hurt. My scars and cuts healed faster than before and my energy replenished.

“The next thing I’m going to do,” I thought “is visit the underworld.” I created a portal in front of me and stepped through to get my father. Now that his evil family was dead, he could safely return to earth.

“And while I’m at it, I’ll see mum again.” I thought.