• Chapter 4


    I throw a t-shirt that has a picture of an animated taco smiling with a speech bubble that says “I’M A FREAKIN’ TACO!!” over my head as I grab Jake’s hoodie--yes, I still have it--and run down the stairs, through the empty house and into the kitchen to look at the time on the microwave; 7:45.

    Sighing, I walk over to the sitting room, reach into the space under the magazine holder and grab at my pair of black hightop Converse. Jake and Aaron should be here any minute to pick me up.

    My parents and two younger twin brothers--Dylan and Derek--went out to Red Robin for dinner, and they know I’m going to be at the mall all night with my friends. My mom shrieked with joy, because I haven’t really mentioned any friends at all ever since my ‘change’ (when I joined E.M.H.). But then her mood dropped when I told her it wasn’t any of my old friends, but my two new best friends--I have mentioned them before, and my parents didn’t seem to like the sound of them.

    The honk of a car makes me jump and I roll my eyes. Grabbing my Nightmare Before Christmas tote bag, I run out the front door, lock it, then turn and run through the night to the truck.

    “Patient, much?” I say sarcastically as Aaron, once again, drives out of the driveway. “Okay, lemme pick song!!”

    “No, I am!” Jake protests as he slaps the hand I was reaching forward to the dial on the radio.

    “You always get to pick the song!”

    “Because I actually have taste in music!”

    “OH YOU DID NOT JUST GO THERE!!”

    “OH I JUST DID!!!!”

    “WELL AT LEAST I CAN ACTUALLY SING ALONG WITHOUT SOUNDING LIKE A DYING WALRUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

    “OH YOU WANNA GO!?”

    “YEAH BRING IT PUNK!!”

    “GUYS!!!” Aaron shouts, cutting us off. “Let me pick the song!” He uses one hand to turn the dial and the other to control the wheel, and eventually he stops on The Tip of the Iceberg by Owl City.

    “I like this song!!” Jake and I say at the same time. We glare at each other for a second and then Jake says, “I can sing, and you know it.”

    “Psh yeah so I can too!”

    “I never said you couldn’t!”

    “Yeah well--”

    “Guys!” Aaron warns.

    “Sorry.” We respond together. Then we all start singing along to the song, “Peer over the edge, can you see me!? Rivulets flow from your eyes! Paint runs from your mouth like a waterfall! And your lungs crystallize!”

    “He has the best lyrics ever.” I compliment. Then when it gets to the upbeat dance-tune part we all start jumping around and doing the dumbest moves ever while cracking up. “AND FROSTBITE BIT DOWN ON ALL OUR TOES!!! See!?” I exclaim as I shove my foot in Jake’s face--by saying “see!?” I meant the sentence of the song I just screamed being an example of Adam Young having awesome lyrics.

    “The best.” Jake laughs as he pushes it away and Aaron turns into the parking lot.
    We walk together through the mall, pointing at clothes and items in shop windows as For a Pessimist I’m Pretty Optimistic by Paramore blasts through the speakers.

    “OH MY GOD LOOK AT THAT!” I start cracking up as I point at a pink-diamond covered mini dress in Forever 21.

    “Dare ya to try it on!” Jake says and he and Aaron laugh even harder and I make a gagging motion.

    Shaking my head, I reply, “No way in hell! I wouldn’t be caught killing a Borlak in that plastic s**t!”

    “I’ll give ya 20 bucks.” Jake offers, waving the money in the air in front of my face.

    I look from the dress and back, and at the dress and back again, then respond, my face turning serious, “Oh it’s on.”

    I run into the store, grab the dress in my size, rush to the dressing room, change, and then walk out. Jake and Aaron start cracking up.

    “Twirl, twirl!!” Aaron does a spinning motion with his finger and I twirl around like a supermodel in bright pink heels, my hair pulled up in a bun.

    “Wait, wait!” Jake dashes out of the store and then returns carrying a Claires bag, wipes the heavy, dark makeup off my face and replaces it with glittery pink eye-shadow, spray on tan and hot pink lipstick.

    “OH MY GOD!!!” They start cracking up and Jake gets out his thin, dark blue digital camera. Then he stands like a photographer and takes pictures as I pose like a prep and he says, “Now pose, pose! That’s right, work that dress! You’re gonna be a big star, baby, big star!!”

    We all laugh hysterically as I throw the heels at Jake and then run to the dressing room to change back.

    We’re all sitting at a table in the food court, slipping on drinks from Orange Julius and eating fries from the McDonalds compartment as Jake uses Aaron’s black, Dell mini laptop to upload the pictures to Facebook.

    “I am going to hate you forever.” I laugh as I grab a fry and use the straw to twirl my strawberry and orange julius around.

    “Hey, you already hated me, remember?”

    I grin as I switch the topic and say, “So, Hot Topic next, right?”

    “Right.” Aaron replies over his cherry slushie.

    “AND IT’S UP!!” Jake announces, throwing his hands up in the air. Then he adds as he types, “Title? ‘Demi the Dark Girl Wears Dreaded Pink Death’.”

    He grins as me as I reply, “Nice word choice.”

    “Thank you, thank you very much.”

    “You two are going to get some very interesting comments over the next few days.” Aaron grins too and then adds, as he takes his laptop back, “And I, am adding this to my favorites.”

    “I am so going to hack you.” I glare at Jake.

    “And save it to my computer.” Aaron adds before he shuts down his laptop. “Now off to Hot Topic!”

    “Let us go!!”

    “FOR NARNIA!!!!!” I dump our food and we all race to the store.

    “Now this,” I say, holding up a black mini dress with a little poofy skirt part, a collar, tank top sleeves and zippers all over, “is what I call a dress.”

    “Yeah, too bad it’s 50 dollars.” Jake responds, taking a look at the price tag.

    I pout and bat my eyelashes. “Jake!!” I stretch out his name.

    He glares at me and then finally caves in, “Fine! I’ll get you the freakin’ dress!”

    “YES!! THANK YOU JAKE!!!!!!” I throw my arms around him and give him a huge hug.
    He freezes for a second and sharply takes in a short breath. “N-no problem.” He finally stutters.

    I grin as I release him and look back down at the dress. “s**t, it’s one size too big.” I look through the racks, don’t find anything, and then walk up to the counter, where a girl with short, dyed black curls pulled up in pigtails stands, coloring her nails with a black permanent marker. “Hey, I would like to buy this dress, but it’s a size too big, and I couldn’t find any smaller.”

    “Oh, hey, Demi!” I now realize the girl as Violet, a very nice fellow Goth in my algebra class. “Here, you can take these keys to the backroom. I saw some in there earlier.”

    “Thanks, Vi.” I respond, taking the keys shaped like a skull with a grateful smile.

    “No prob. Just return them when your done and I’ll give you the dress half price. Ya know, for letting my copy the homework yesterday.”

    I grin as I head to the back of the store. Unlocking the door, I hum along to the song playing over the speakers, Monsters by Matchbook Romance. The backroom is small, dark, and the sloppily painted black walls are lined with shelves, carrying extra stocks of items. I don’t bother turning on the lights and use the light shining in from the doorway to guide me. Spotting the dress, I head to the wall opposite me and farthest away from the door.

    My right foot bumps into something as I’m about a foot from the dress. I look down, moving my foot away from whatever I hit, and don’t see anything. Lifting my foot up, I look down into the unconscious face of Damien.

    Hazel eyes roll back into his head as fresh blood trickles from his mouth, down his pale white, scratched and bruised face.

    Shock and horror pours over my and I stumble backwards. I reach towards the exit, heading in that direction, starting to call for help when the door closes and darkness overwhelms me. I almost trip and fling my arms out to grab the edge of a shelf to keep myself steady.

    A hiss makes me jump and I turn to look up at the top of the shelf opposite from me. From the dark I see two blood red, glowing eyes, and I freeze.

    Another hiss, louder this time, and I see a body of what looks like black, shiny ink creep out of the dark, positioned like Spider Man or something.

    “Destiny.” The strange creature hisses my name and my heart beats against my chest so fast and hard it hurts. “I’ve been waiting for you.”

    I can’t even find my own voice to speak--or scream, more like it. Suddenly, the creature lunges at me, and an earsplitting scream escapes from my throat and I hear someone call my name, although it seems like they’re so far off in the distance.

    I bring my hands up to shield myself from the monster and I feel it’s fingers scrap along my face and suddenly I’m tackled sideways.

    “Demi, are you alright?” I’m momentarily blinded by the sudden outpour of light and look up to see Jake leaning over me. It takes me a moment to realize he just barged into the room and pushed my out of the monster’s way.

    “Y-yeah, fine. I’m fine.” I finally manage to stutter out. He pulls one hand across my face and pulls it back to look at it, and blood trickles down his fingers.

    Growling, he gets up and turns to face the monster. It stands there, looking slightly afraid, but then it overcomes it’s fear as it glares at Jake. In the light, I can see that it’s body actually is some sort of black ink--like malaise. It’s eyes are long and narrow, has no nose, and it pulls back it’s mouth to reveal a long set of dangerous fangs.

    “Don’t. Touch. Her.” Jake hisses through gritted teeth.

    “Says who? The little elementary school kid with a pathetic crush--oh, and a horrible haircut?” It responds.

    Jake eyes widen and then narrow to slits, and he launches himself towards the creature, tackling him to the ground. They fall into a rack in the actual store, and people start screaming and freaking out.

    “WHAT IS THAT THING!?!”

    “I ALWAYS KNEW THIS STORE WAS LURKING WITH EVIL FORCES!!!!”

    “SOMEBODY CALL THE FBI!!”

    “RUN!!!!!!! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!!!!!!!!”

    “WE’RE DOOMED!!!!!!”

    Jake and the monster fight to the death. Jake gets hurled over the counter and Violet screeches, runs out of the way, gets out her cell phone, hurriedly dials in a number and starts talking into it.

    The monster easily jumps over the counter and picks up the now bleeding and bruised Jake by the neck. Then he slams him against the wall, choking him.

    “DEMI!!” Aaron throws a long, slender silver beam to me, which was once used to hold up a rack.

    I grab it, run up behind the monster, scream, “LET HIM GO!!!!!” and hit the back of it’s head with the beam. The beam slips from my fingers and melts into the monsters head and soon whole body, and I stand there, staring, shocked and horrified.

    The monster drops Jake and turns around. Jake falls onto his hands and knees, gulping in air, and I just now realize how blue and purple his face looks.

    Suddenly a wet, extremely hot and sticky hand punches me in the face and I fall backwards. The monster leans over me, glaring. “I’ve been waiting so long to get a hold of you, Destiny.”

    “W-why? Why me?” I stutter as Aaron helps Jake up.

    “I guess you’ll never live to see.” All of a sudden, it lifts my head up, yanks open my mouth and lowers it’s own down to mine, and then it’s as if life itself is being drained out of me.

    “Oh God, it’s worse than I thought.” I hear Aaron gasp. But I can barely hear him, it’s as if I’m slowly being pulled into another world.

    I hear voices whispering and it’s as if the sources of them are grabbing onto me, pulling me away, up into that other world to join them. I fight to pry the hands off, to restrain, to get away from it all. I try to scream, but one covers my mouth.

    I’m dying. I think to myself, and I allow myself to melt into them as my heart slows. I guess it isn’t that painful when you just let them take you. My heart seems like it’s taking it’s final beat and I breathe in my last breath…

    Suddenly, the source of my soul sucking is removed, the voices halt, the hands disappear and I fall back through the atmosphere head first, then fall onto the ground of the wrecked and destroyed Hot Topic. My heart starts beating like a crazy mental child spazzing out on a drum set as I press my palms against the ground and try to pull myself up but end up falling again. Suddenly two sets of arms pull me up and I look through the corners of my eyes at Aaron on my left side and Mr. Smith on my right. Then my eyes dart ahead and I see, through my thick sheet of hair, Jake standing over the monster, now tangled in a net, with a blaster pointed down on it, and he says with a triumphant smirk on his face, “Told ya not to touch her.”

    I weakly raise my head to smile at Jake, and when he sees me, he comes charging at me and throws his arms around me in a hug. I’m shocked for a second. Jake has barely come as close to me as to hand me a weapon, or when we were patrolling, or fighting a monster and helping each other or covering each others backs or defending or--well, you get the point.

    “Are you okay?” His voice is soft, barely even a whisper when he speaks.

    “I’m fine.” I finally relax after a moment and hug him back.

    “GROUP HUG!!!!” Aaron hurls himself at us and hugs us both too. We start laughing as he continues, “That was really scary, Demi.”

    “Sorry. How was I supposed to know there was a soul-sucking monster in there?” I reply with a grin, my normal quirky, sarcastic, light-yet-dark-spirit starting to kick back in.

    “Just promise me you’re not going to go into any storage rooms alone anymore.” Jake says.

    “Promise.” I laugh as Smith motions for us to put in our earplugs a little bit before he uses the Snark--a somewhat vicious little creature that erases memories, which we can tame and train to use on people outside of E.M.H. who witness monster fights or see monsters--on every person who saw everything.

    “Woah, what happened here?” Violet asks, shocked, after everybody got Snarked.

    “Uhh….I…got in a fight with another girl who wanted the dress.” I say, reaching to the side and picking up the dress I wanted in my size. “But I won!”

    She stands there for a moment and then starts laughing, “Shouldn’t have expected more from Miss Destiny Rock!” She grins and then adds, “But you have to pay full price now, and also pay for the--”

    “Damage, I know, I know.”

    “Believe it or not, this isn’t an unusual occurrence.” Aaron says, shooting a sidelong glance at Jake. We all laugh and Jake pouts as I pay Violet for the dress, and Smith steps up to pay for the damage.

    “Now, you kids go get yourselves cleaned up.” He tells us, and we start to walk out of there (he already took the creature away to the protected E.M.H. monster holding truck, sort of like a Fed Ex one, but it’s silver and doesn’t say FED EX on the sides in colorful letters), when I suddenly remember something.

    “Oh my God, Damien!” I gasp as I turn and rush to the back room.

    “Demi!!” Jake runs after me as I step into the room and turn on the light. I look down at the still damaged looking face of Damien and start to panic.

    “What the hell happened!?” Aaron asks as he appears beside Jake in the doorway.
    I kneel besides Damien, feeling warm tears forming in my eyes. “Somebody go get Smith and call 911.”

    “Dem--”

    “GO DO IT!!” I shout, and both boys turn to leave. I feel a tear slide down my cheek, and suddenly, Damien jerks to life. “Damien…?” I whisper his name, resting his head on my lap.
    He reaches a shaking hand up to wipe the tear off my face, then pulls it back to reveal on his finger is water (from the tear), blood (from him and me both), and some spray-tan. “Why the hell did you spray-tan your face?”

    The tears start streaming down and I feel my mascara run as I lean down and kiss him softly. He kisses me back, and I’m filled with nothing but relief that Damien is alive and my incredible love for him.

    Somebody clearing their throat breaks us apart and I’m pulled out of my fantasy to see Jake standing in the doorway. He looks distant and…sad. But once he sees me looking at him, he avoids my eyes and mutters, “Smith says that security will be here in a little bit.”

    “Thanks, Jake.” I smile gratefully at him as I stand up, helping Damien do the same.

    “Yeah, whatever.” He glares at Damien, turns, stops for a moment, but then walks forward again. “See you guys on Monday.” He says to Smith and Aaron, who are helping Violet clean up.

    “Bye, Jake.” They respond, but he’s already shoved open the door--which bangs against the wall and then falls off--and quickly walks away, out of sight.

    “What’s up with him?” Aaron asks me as I help Damien limp out. Security shows up at that moment and help him away. They ask me if I need to go with them but I deny it, and then Damien gives me a kiss on the cheek, tells me his cell number and orders me to text him tomorrow.

    I smile and wave at him as he leaves, then turn to Aaron and respond, “What?”

    “What’s up with Jake? He seems sorta depressed and frustrated.”

    I shrug and respond, “I dunno. It’s Jake.” Then I turn away and mutter, “Couldn’t care less.” Raising my voice, I say goodbye to him, Smith and Violet before I walk out of the shop too.


    ***


    I sit in my small room upstairs, wearing my E.M.H. original ‘You're So Annoying, You Make Me Wanna Snark Myself’ light blue pajama t-shirt, with a picture of the small, white, fuzzy monster and matching PJ shorts with more pictures of it. I had been sitting in my room for hours, playing the kiss Damien and I shared over and over and over and over again in my mind--I even wrote it out in full description eleven times in my diary.

    Sighing, I force myself to turn out the lamp on my bedside table and lay down on my bed, fully overcome by darkness. But I can’t get to sleep because images of the hideous creature keep flashing across my mind, and for some odd reason, Damien makes it even more nerve-wrecking.

    I’m about to turn my light back on and decide that I’ll just stay awake all night when another image comes into my mind. Somebody who fought to protect me, somebody who cares about me, somebody who risked their own life to save mine…somebody who would do it all over again in a heartbeat.

    And I fall asleep that night thinking about Jake.