Don't Wake Me Up | Chapter 8

            Darcy and Bradley found themselves trying to back into the wall behind them as Ose took three large steps closer. The demon’s left arm came out of the left flat of the cloak, and he raised his index finger, half-pointing at them, and half-pointing at the sky.

            “You can’t run anymore, Dantalion!” The Night Demon declared. “This is the end of your little mortal joyride! It’s time to join me back in the fiery pits of the underworld!”

            Bradley pulled Darcy back, standing before the doctor in a defensive stance. Because he was the one who had summoned Ose, he knew that the demon could technically do no harm to him. It was Darcy that he was worried about; Darcy wasn’t supposed to be fair game, but he was, merely due to Dantalion’s supposed presence.

            “If you want him, you’re going to have to go through me.” The computer teacher asserted boldly.

            Ose frowned and paused, but after a few seconds, he allowed his eyelids to droop casually and replied, “If you insist.”

            That wasn’t right.

            “Brad…”

            Bradley looked to his right. Sofia was standing there. He turned his eyes off of his fiancée and back onto Ose, glaring at him. “She’s just a hallucination. You get out of my head!”

            Sofia disappeared, but the demon seemed more amused than defeated.

            “Oh, my dear boy,” Ose chuckled, “she’s merely the distraction.”

            Cold hands clamped onto Bradley’s calves�"hands cold enough for him to feel the chill through his pant legs�"and pulled him off of his feet. He fell over with a grunt in front of Darcy, who thought about helping him back up before the crawling shadow at the teacher’s feet dragged him over to the army behind Ose. “Darcy!” The demons hoisted Bradley to his feet, holding his arms so he couldn’t run.

            “I can’t hurt you myself, Mr. Carlisle, but, you see, I summoned my demons, so they can do anything they want to you.” That said, Ose turned his scarlet eyes to Darcy, who twitched. “Now, Dantalion… Where were we?”

            Darcy cowered. He didn’t know what else to do. He was screwed. But then, Ose suddenly stepped aside. His army did so as well, creating a narrow path for Darcy to escape through. He turned his eyes onto the demon, who was staring at him with an expectant smirk. His right arm now came out of the cloak, and he used it to gesture to the opening.

            “You want to make this a game, and I said it’s more fun if you struggle. So, how about we play a little game of tag? I’ll give you a ten second headstart.”

            The doctor was confused. Was Ose really giving him a chance to run, or was it a ruse?

            “Ten.” The counting was what signified to Darcy that it was no bluff.

            “Don’t hurt Bradley,” he quickly requested.

            “I’d start running if I were you. Nine.”

            Taking his chances, Darcy took off running. Bradley watched him go as Ose continued to count down, really taking his time between the seconds, probably because he realized that he would easily be able to outrun his human prey.

            “Eight. Seven. Six.”

            “You b*****d.” Bradley tugged at the demons holding him in place, but their grips were vice-tight. “What are you going to do to him?!”

            Ose turned his head sluggishly and gave Bradley what could have been intended as a reassuring grin. At the same time, he let a long silver blade drop from the hidden area of his cloak into his slightly-extended (and thus revealed) right hand. He didn’t even bother trying to hide it, as if wanting Bradley to know exactly what he was armed with. “Well, it would be nice to have just killed him here, but it does appear I’ve done some foreshadowing of my coming. It would be sloppy to ignore that.”

            “What?”

            “Do you enjoy nightmares, Mr. Carlisle?” The demon shook his head and looked off into the distance. “I suppose you wouldn’t. You’re a victim, not a creator.”

            Bradley didn’t understand what he meant, but that wasn’t entirely surprising to him, since he was conversing with a demon. Ose glanced at his bare left wrist and made a “tsk” of displeasure.

            “Would you look at the time?” He griped. “It seems I have a doctor to catch. You’ll join me later, won’t you, Carlisle?”

            “Go to Hell,” the teacher spat in contempt.

            “Been there, done that.”

---

 

            Darcy found himself running down a residential street. It was dark and snowy, and as he ran, falling snow kept landing on his face. He was running past houses with beautiful lights that cast a warm glow onto him, but he kept running, because he couldn’t slow down. Ose was chasing him. He needed to get away. It felt like he was running in slow motion, and though he couldn’t see or hear him, he knew that the demon was gaining on him.

            The former doctor dashed into a park, beginning to trudge through deep, un-shoveled snow whilst still trying to keep his speed. He could suddenly hear Ose’s laughter not just behind him, but all around him, and it made him again feel like he was surrounded… Which, in retrospect, he probably was. Whatever the case, he kept running. He knew it wasn’t so, but trees seemed to bend unnaturally as he passed them. Panic began to flood his system. Everything was wrong, and it terrified him.

            “Ansel!!”

            The second he screamed that name, he stopped in his tracks. This was all so familiar. He was having a serious case of déjà vu. Where had he seen this before? He looked left, then right, and then turned around, expecting to see Ansel, but saw nothing. Finally, it hit him; he had a nightmare just like this that morning.

            That was when the hand clamped down on his shoulder with enough force to cause him a surge of pain. He heard something snap, and that was when he felt something stab through his back, and out through the front of his chest. His vision beginning to blur, the doctor slowly tried to look down; sticking out of his chest was the tip of a bloody silver blade. His knees buckled a bit, and he fell back against something.

            Trembling and only half conscious, Darcy glanced over his shoulder at his killer. He saw Ose there, looking down at him, but in the midst of his pain, he didn’t even bother to acknowledge the demon. “Ansel,” Despite everything, the doctor said the name with more love than hurt.

            “You always were a pain in my a*s.”

            With those cruel final words, Ose shoved Darcy off of the blade and watched as the doctor crumpled first to his knees, and then down onto his stomach. Snowflakes fell into the doctor’s messy hair as he laid there in the snow, motionless.

            In his head, the demon could no longer feel Ansel struggling. Surely, the young man had recognized the allusion to one of the worst nightmares he’d ever had. The lack of a human presence left him rather empty. He felt nothing for his victory. He’d done the job, and that was that. Now he had to return to Hell. He looked down at his cloak and slid the blood-covered blade up into its sleeve, removing it from existence. When he looked up, he was actually started enough to jolt slightly when he saw Darcy standing on his feet in front of him. His hair covered his eyes, but he was facing him. He wore an uncharacteristic scowl on his face. There was still blood leaking from the wound on his chest, staining his shirt, but he seemed… unfazed.

            Ose blinked once or twice, trying to determine whether he was seeing things correctly or not, which he inwardly felt was somewhat ironic, considering hallucinations were his niche. “You’re not dead, then?” He asked in a flat, confused voice.

            “Ose,” Darcy said his name in a voice that sounded like his own, but at the same time, didn’t. That alone was what made Ose open his mouth in realization.

            “Oh. Dantalion, it’s you. I should have known.”

            Suddenly, Dantalion’s hand was around Ose’s neck, and next thing the demon knew, he had been thrown into a tree. Dantalion walked over and stood in front of him as he got his bearings and looked up, crouching in the snow. The other demon glared down at him in Darcy’s body with glowing blue eyes. During the brief seconds where Ose was flying into the base of the tree, he had conjured his own black cloak around himself.

            “Well, this wasn’t in the plan,” Ose remarked.

            Dantalion grabbed Ose by his leopard print fur collar and hoisted him to his feet, getting right up in his face with a snarl.

            “Ookay,” Ose laughed nervously, “I can tell you’re not pleased.”

            “You wanted a fight.”

            “Well, I never said a fight�"”

            “You always were a coward, Ose.”

            “A coward?!” Ose shoved Dantalion back. “I’ll show you a coward!” He raised his hand, but didn’t seem to know what to do. Fighting Dantalion hadn’t been in the plan; the demon was supposed to have died with Darcy and gone to Hell. “W�"well, I’ve got my thirty legions with me. They’ll be here any minute. Maybe you can face me, but you can’t face all of them, too!”

            Dantalion did not seem impressed. He crossed his arms over his chest and frowned. “Don’t forget which of us has more demons. You have but thirty legions. I have thirty-six.”

            “Right…” Ose lowered his hand.

            “Have you forgotten that I am your superior, President Ose?”

            “Lucifer sent me to get you.” Ose replied. “Your superior. Why are you still here? Your legions are going to be given to me if you stay up here very much longer.” He smirked. “Though, maybe that’s a good thing for me.”

            “What was the deal for your summoning?”

            “I had to bring this worthless human back to life.” Ose told him. “I must admit, I do like his hair, but my side of the deal is done.”

            Dantalion nodded, then revealed, “Mine isn’t.”

            Ose raised a brow.

            “My deal was to protect Ansel Hunnisett.”

            The Great President snarked, “Well, that’s a strange deal to agree to for a demon. Besides, you failed when he died, didn’t you?”

            “He made an exchange for this man, Darcy Adair. My deal was changed.”

            That confused Ose. “Wait, what? Your deal can’t change.”

            Dantalion shook his head. “Poor choice of words. It wasn’t changed. It merely extended. In order to protect Ansel Hunnisett, Darcy Adair must be kept alive.”

            “So you brought him back and hitched a ride.” Ose was now the one who seemed unimpressed. “I always knew you were sentimental, Dantalion, but this?”

            Dantalion took a step forward. “And as for your question,” he began, “my deal may have failed in part, but it was reopened the moment you brought Ansel Hunnisett a new body to inhabit.”

            Ose narrowed his eyes. For a long moment, both demons were quiet, just glaring at one another. During their unblinking staring contest, Ose’s demon army arrived, dragging Bradley along at the front of the pack. The computer teacher gasped when he saw Darcy in a cloak as well, fearing for the worst, but tried not to react too violently, lest the demons holding him rip him apart or something. What confused him was that it seemed that both Night Demons were out, but they were about to enter what looked like some kind of showdown. He ran through that statement in his head once more, finally realizing that no one would ever believe any of this had ever occurred. Almost all of the population of the country, if not most of the world, did not believe in demons, or ghosts, or anything along those lines. For the first time, he wished that he was one of those people; perhaps then he never would have dabbled in black magic.

            “Well,” Ose finally remarked as he threw off his cloak, allowing it to land in the snow behind him and revealing that he wore a tight black jumpsuit of some sort (it kind of looked like a scuba diving suit?) under it, “are we going to fight, or are we going to keep acting like civilized mortal scum?”

            Dantalion lowered his head with a small scoff that slowly grew into low laughter. Ose squirmed a bit, appearing uncomfortable.

            “Well?!” He hissed impatiently.

            Dantalion finally raised his head. From his cloak, he pulled out Darcy’s dark blue scarf. Ose’s eyes locked on it, and he stared at it as it was extended toward him. “Ansel?” The superior demon beckoned, using Darcy’s gentle voice to his advantage despite it still being somewhat distorted. “Poppet, come out and talk to me.”

            Ose looked up at Dantalion, growling in frustration. “What a cheap move. Who’s the coward now?” He complained.

            “Oh, my dear boy,” Dantalion replied, mocking what Ose had said to him earlier as he clenched his fist tighter around the scarf and snarled, “this is merely the distraction.”

            Bradley watched as two other demons, these one surrounded by an ethereal blue aura, came virtually out of nowhere from the midst of the trees behind Ose. The one to the Night Demon’s right punched him in the face, and the other grabbed him by the jaw when the stumbled toward it, whipping him down to the ground. Snarling now in rising fury, the Great President of Hell clambered back to his feet.

            “We’re going to play this way, are we?” He asked, mildly annoyed. “Fine then. Two can play that game!”

            Other demons from Ose’s army rushed forward, charging toward Dantalion. When he extended his left hand, a strong mistral threw them back. In a show of his own power, Ose, by merely raising his right hand, caused the demons on either side of him to screech and evaporate.

            “We could fight for the rest of eternity, Dantalion.” Ose confessed. “The fact of the matter is that you might be my superior, but we are equals in combat.”

            “Then what do you propose? We seem to be at an impasse. You will not give up, and I will not fail my deal.” Dantalion pointed out. “It seems to me we must fight to determine the victor.”

            “Well, then fight we shall.”

            Ose lunged forward and tackled Dantalion. Bradley then watched the two of them wrestle one another, as if they were deciding to fight like mortals. Perhaps, he thought, that made it fairer for them, but he couldn’t be too sure what their reasoning was. Maybe their powers were limited as long as they were in mortal bodies… but then again, Ansel’s body wasn’t mortal, since Ose had made it himself. It didn’t make sense to him, but he didn’t dare say anything.

            Dantalion grabbed Ose by the throat, flipping him over and sitting over top of him. “You want me back in Hell?” He asked as he tightened his grip around the other demon’s throat. “Then you’re coming back with me.”

            Ose laughed. “Giving up already?”

            “No,” Dantalion replied, “just completing my end of the deal.”

            Fire erupted all around the two of them, and Ose began to scream. Bradley couldn’t see anything due to the intense heat, so he closed his eyes. That was when the flames exploded around him, as well. The demons surrounding him began to screech in pain; the sounds of a thousand dead men. It was so hot. Bradley thought he may go deaf and/or combust.

            As suddenly as the fire appeared, it vanished. Bradley reluctantly opened his eyes. The snow around him had melted, leaving him standing in grass that had been burnt dry. Darcy and�"surprisingly�"Ansel were lying on the ground a few feet away. They were dressed as they had been prior to the cloaks, both of which were gone. In fact, despite the melted snow, there were no signs that there had been anyone or anything but them in the park.

            The computer teacher looked around. If it weren’t for what he’d just witnessed, he would have found it unremarkable and normal; just your run-of-the-mill public park in December. Finally, he put his full focus on the two men on the ground, approaching them slowly.

            Darcy was lying on his back beside Ansel. In his right hand, he was holding his scarf. It was dark, but lights from nearby park lampposts revealed to Bradley the bloodstain on his shirt. He looked to be out cold, if not dead. Ansel was beside him, looking the same way. They were both somewhat battered from their scuffle.

            Bradley knelt down between them, at their feet, and took a shaky breath. It seemed he was alone. His fiancée was dead, and so were the men he’d reunited. He turned his eyes to Darcy. The poor fool had relied on him, and he had let him down. He never should have let the doctor talk him into using black magic again. Then, he turned his eyes to Ansel. It was confusing to him to see the young man’s body still present. He reached out his right hand to make sure it wasn’t an illusion�"his hand grazed against the man’s grey pants; definitely real. If Ose was vanquished, then his body should have gone with him. Something wasn’t adding up, something that Bradley was too depressed to ponder.

            At the very least, the two of them seemed at peace. Ansel was even smiling, just a little bit.

            “Bradley?”

            He almost ignored the sound of someone calling his name in the distance until he heard it again, a little bit louder. The voice was far off, but loud enough in the night for him to recognize it.

            It was Sofia.

            Confused, Bradley stood and turned around. Sofia had been dead. Ose had killed her! Just when he was beginning to wonder if he’d finally lost his marbles, he heard one of the men behind him gasp loudly for air. He turned again; Ansel was sitting up now, greedily taking gulps of oxygen. The taller man looked up at Bradley, looking as surprised as the teacher felt.

            “What happened?” The former insomniac asked in a pant.

            “How are you alive?” Bradley questioned back.

            “I dunno, I…” Ansel, stunned, lowered his eyes somewhat. “I just am…!” He then noticed Darcy lying near him, and he got onto his knees beside the unconscious man. “Darc!”

            “What do you remember?!” The computer teacher was conflicted, wanting to stay to help, but also wanting to rush to check on his fiancée.

            Ansel looked at him again. “I stabbed him! Call an ambulance!” He turned back to Darcy, beginning to pet his head with shaky hands as Bradley hesitantly pulled out his cellphone. “Come on, Peanut, stay with me…! You can’t die like this, not now! Darcy!”