Shelley
Tonight's the night, Shelley thought to herself. Mr. Jones had the night shift, so The Gang was going to fight the beast, the one that had already brought so much trauma.
"Shelley, did you do your homework?" Her mother asked with her eyebrows raised. Shelley thought they looked like those weird furry caterpillars, but she wouldn't tell her mother that, obviously.
"Ye-yeah, I got my math stuff done a while ago."
"Oh, really? Then I'm sure you don't mind showing me."
Shelley knew that her mother was already aware she hadn't done her homework, but she tried lying anyway.
"Well, I already turned it-"
SLAP! Her mother struck her across the face. Shelley felt her cheek burn. She put her palm over it and kept her gaze on the floor.
"You can't lie to me, Shelley. I know you don't do your homework, and I know you hang out with that gang of yours all the time." Her mother whispered as if it were some unforgivable sin.
Her mother pulled Shelley's face up so she could make eye contact with her. "Look at me, Girl. Tell me the truth, do you do nasty things with those boys in your gang? That boy Jack?"
Shelley pulled her face out of her mom's hard grip, "No! Not at all!"
It was quiet after Shelley's denial; her mother just stared at her with cold, uncaring eyes. Alex stepped out into the kitchen behind his mother and her chair. He looked at Shelley with a scared expression. Shelley knew exactly what Alex was feeling because she had felt it too. It felt like the calm before the storm, the inevitable explosion of her parents' anger, the feeling of regret and self-loathing that came afterwards.
The wall held a gorgeous photograph that Shelley hadn't paid much attention to until now. The clouds in the photograph were a snowy white, the sky was teal, and the rocks of the beautiful Grand Canyon were as orange as the cream bars the gang would get from the ice cream truck. Shelley thought of how a cream bar tasted, to keep the reality of what was happening away, to keep the pain away.
Her mother struck her for the fifth time with the belt as she lay on the floor.
Ben
"Heavenly Father, I ask that you keep us safe. Watch over all of us. Please make sure that Demon leaves me and all of the others alone. P-please make sure it doesn't hurt Alex." Ben prayed, but even as he prayed, he still had the vivid image from last night stuck in his mind. The tall, almost human-like creature that was pure white, the thousands of teeth in its mouth, that's what he saw. The scariest thing to Ben was what he couldn't see: the Demon's eyes.
Ben stepped on the brown boards of the floor; each step he took came with a small creak as he wandered into the kitchen. He looked around for his parents, but they were nowhere to be found. (Kulin) It was surprisingly peaceful, the house. It was quiet, with the exception of the rhythmic tick-tock of the old clock located on the wall above the couch. (Kulin)
"Schhhhhhhhh! Ben? Ben, do you hear me? Over." Alex's voice came through the walkie-talkie. Ben looked around. He had forgotten where he put it, but he knew it must be nearby if the sound was that close. (Kulin)
After minutes of searching, Ben finally found it in between two red cushions on the antique couch in the living room. He clicked the Push-To-Talk button to respond.
"KKKKKUUUUUUULLLIIIIIINNNNNNN!" Screamed a young boy's voice. Ben dropped the walkie on the floor and took a step back. He remembered all of a sudden, the demon stalking them; his name was Kulin. Ben knew he had to tell The Gang, because maybe the demon's name would be important in finding out its past.
"Ben? Ben? Helloooo? Over." Alex asked through the talkie. He sounded a little out of breath. Ben took a moment before replying.
"H-hi Alex, listen, I need to tell you something." Ben said in a quivery voice,"Over."
"Okay, what is it? Over." Asked Alex.
"The thing that's after us. Its name is Kulin. Over."
There was no response from Alex for two minutes.
"How do you know that? Over."
"I had a dream last night, this boy told me his name was Kulin. Over."
"Okay. Over."
"Alex, just tell the others, okay? Over."
"Copy that, I will. Just be at Jack's place soon. You need to tell the others this stuff about Kulin. Over."
Ben was about to say no, because his parents would most definitely be against it, but he didn't care anymore. There were more important things going on.
Allen's vision wasn't the best; he had been reshaped many times, but he was still the one to do the job, and if all went well, the kids would come to rescue the old security guard. It was perfect, everything seemed to be falling into place.
Maybe Mr. Jones could be of use, too. Either as food for the reformed animals, or as an animal itself.
Allen finally made it to the building, he rearranged his bones to fit through an open window, and he climbed in. Mr. Jones was in the library. Allen could hear his breathing. Mr. Jones didn't even know it would be his final night.
Alex
The whole Gang was meeting up at Jack's place, in the backyard, Alex and Ben too, because there was no stopping them from coming.
Alex waited for Ben to come over; it had been ten minutes since they last spoke on the walkie-talkies. Ben was taking forever. He looked over at Griffith and Carter, who were by the dry pool arguing for the fourth time today.
"Star Wars is literally a rip-off of Dune!" Griffith argued.
"Well, I don't see Dune getting a movie, plus, Star Wars probably does it better anyway," Carter replied in an annoying tone.
Alex rolled his eyes. Why did they argue about stupid things all the time? He looked around the yard to take attention away from the dumb argument. The back gate opened, and Ben came out. Alex jumped and dashed towards him.
"What took you so long, idiot?" He asked in an annoyed tone.
Ben sighed.
"I was looking for weapons to bring; my house doesn't have a lot of good ones besides knives," Ben replied quietly.
"Wait, follow me, I've got a good weapon for you," Alex whispered. He pulled Ben to his backpack, which was lying on the brown dirt. Alex dug through it until he pulled a slingshot out.
He turned to look at Ben. "You know how to use one of these?"
"Yeah, I used to have one back in Wyoming before we moved here," Ben said as he took it and inspected it in his hands.
"Well, with that, you can hurt it, hopefully."
"Yeah. What weapon are you gonna use?"
Alex pulled a pocket knife out.
"I'm gonna use this, even though Shelley said I'd be foolish to think a little knife could hurt Kulin."
That reminded Alex that he hadn't mentioned Kulin to the others yet.
"Oh, shit!" He exclaimed.
"What is it?" Ben asked.
"I forgot to tell the rest of The Gang what you told me, Kulin's name and all of that."
"I can tell them. I'm the one who had the dream, anyway."
"Yeah, that sounds good."
So, the two boys ran over to the others, who were preparing their own weapons for the mission. Ben told them what had happened, with the dream, the familiar boy, and lastly, Kulin. The Gang believed Ben and Alex, but with this new information, they decided to have a meeting, and only the older kids were allowed in the meeting, though. Alex and Ben sat out on the porch.
"This is so dumb," Alex growled, "they always have to leave us out."
Ben nodded and looked at Alex. "Yeah, it's not fair."
It was quiet for a moment before Alex broke the quiet.
"Can I tell you something, Ben?" Alex asked in a vulnerable tone, "you can't tell anyone else, though."
Ben looked at Alex with a curious expression. "Yeah, I won't tell anyone. I swear."
"I'm scared. I'm worried that one of us is going to die. I don't think we're strong enough to beat Kulin, we're just kids."
Alex made eye contact with Ben. He was wondering if Ben thought he was being a scaredy-cat for admitting that. But, Ben replied surprisingly gently.
"Maybe. But, I'd like to believe that even if some of us die, at least one of us will defeat Kulin."
"Yeah, but what if we all die? Then what?"
"I don't know, if I'm being honest. But I do know that I'm not gonna let you die on my watch."
Alex felt comforted by that thought. He looked away and blushed.
"Thanks, but I'm not gonna let you die, either."
"Well, duh. But if anyone's dying, it's gonna be me before you."
Alex pushed Ben.
"That's stupid. I'm gonna die first. It's not a competition, idiot."
"You're the one who made it into a competition, Alex. And I want to be the one dying heroically, not you."
Both of the boys laughed; they were scared, but for some reason, the idea that these may be their last days made them admit things they wouldn't if they knew they had more time.
Jack and the others were done with their meeting, but they didn't tell Alex and Ben what exactly it was about. That didn't matter, though. The only thing that mattered was that they were all going to fight back against Kulin, even if it meant death.
Shelley
We're really doing this shit, aren't we? Shelley thought as they made it to the School.
Jack peeked through the small window located on the locked door. Shelley and the others stood there outside the school building, waiting.
Shelley could hear small crickets chirping. She looked at the sky, which was a painting of various colors: blue, purple, and black. The stars were a dazzling white.
"Damn it, I don't know how we're gonna get in," Griffith said with a sigh. Jack responded by breaking the glass door open with a crowbar. Shelley smirked.
The Gang walked in, on the left was the office, and on the right were the rows and rows of lockers going down the hall. Shelley went first down the hallway, and Ben and Alex followed closely behind. Ben used his flashlight to look around the dark hall.
The school was incredibly quiet tonight, so quiet that a mouse could be heard crawling through the walls. It was a very rare thing that The Gang experienced for the first time, because the only time they had ever been at their school was during the day, when all of the kids their age would scream and yell in the same halls they were walking in now.
"Where's the library?" Asked Carter.
"You don't know where the library is?" Shelley asked with a surprised expression.
"No, I don't read books. I'm not a fucking nerd." Carter responded defensively. Shelley scoffed.
"Well, reading actually helps with your IQ. So it's not something to brag about." Griffith said in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Shut up, nerd." Carter retorted. He walked next to Ben, "So, this thing's name is Kulin?"
Ben nodded and kept a blank expression, "Yeah, I heard it from the boy in my dream."
"Do you know who the boy is?" Carter asked with his eyebrows raised.
"No, I don't," Ben replied nervously.
Shelley shushed them. "Everyone, shut up. We're almost to the library."
They were very close; all they had to do was take a right and go through the door at the end of the hall, but something distracted them from that.
"Help!" A deep voice called from above.
Shelley quickly looked up. It was quiet again. Crack…. Crack….Crack…. The kids heard, Crrrck…. Crrrrck….Crrrrrck…. The noise stopped again. For almost a minute, it was dead silent.
Crrrrrrrrrrrrrrccckkkk! Something was moving above them in the ceiling. The dark blue paint above The Gang cracked and cracked. The Gang ran and followed the ceiling path forming over them.
The cracks led to the library, which, like the rest of the school, was dark and quiet. The ceiling noises seemed to stop once The Gang came there.
"Look around, guys, we can't lose whatever this is." Jack declared, using his flashlight to find any cracks in the Library's ceiling.
Shelley went right and passed shelves and shelves of books. She went from the sci-fi to the fantasy section and didn't find anything, or so she thought for a moment.
She directed the white light that came from her flashlight to the ground and discovered a trail of blood leading to the area between the comics and the children's section. She followed it, taking slow steps, nervous about what she might find. As the trail went on, Shelley noticed little pink fleshy bits in the blood, and the closer she came to the end, the bigger the bits got. The trail came to a stop.
Drip! Drip! Drip! Shelley moved her flashlight higher, Drip! Drip! The sight was horrifying: Mr. Jones was hanging from the ceiling, but there was no noose around his neck; it was his intestine. The long, bloody tube was almost perfectly tied around his lifeless body; his stomach must have lost all of its blood already.
Shelley tried to hold it in by bending over, but she couldn't help puking. The Gang couldn't save Mr. Jones, and this thought overwhelmed Shelley greatly. The rest of The Gang found her eventually.
"Oh, my god…." Griffin muttered in a terrified tone.
Tina puked at the sight as well, Carter and Griffin looked away, and Alex and Ben both stood there dead silent, staring at the body.
