Friday Flash Fiction: Demon Down

Demon Down

by Jason R. Davis

The loud scream pierced through the echoing chamber as the woman stared up at the large vicious looking teeth. Drool oozed down the glistening white and dripping from the open mouth.

It was moving closer. The woman was right under it, looking at the large creature that stood over her. The amphibian like thing was ugly and disgusting in its own right, but all she could see was the long row of teeth as they slowly lowered to her.

The woman screamed again as she heard the rumbling of its growl, and then another scream came, this one different. This one came from his own room.

Dennis turned to look at the open door to his room and there he saw the latest screaming woman. It was his mother and she was standing there with her mouth open in shock and her face locked in that disapproving glare of horror. He hadn’t meant too, but that look meant he had done something anew to upset. It wasn’t the first time he had done something to warrant an outburst, but that ghostly shade of white was new.

“Just what in the Lord’s good name do you think your doing?” His mother asked as she stormed into the room, straight to the television set that sat on his dresser across from him. She didn’t waste time looking for the power button that was often hard to find but instead reached down and ripped the power cord straight from the outlet. The horror movie Dennis had been watching faded as the screen went black.

“You young man, you are going to be caught in a world of nightmares from here to eternity watching that trash.”

Dennis had to fight to stifle the laugh that welled up inside him. It came out but he covered it as a cough. His mother really did talk like that. She was a writer who was always home writing self help religious books and articles on God’s enlightenment and magical touch. All of Dennis’s friends mocked her at school. They’d been around her enough to know just how nuts she can be.

It was the cross he had to bare, pun intended, and the cross that was now baring down on him as she whirled around on him.

“You know those Devil movies are not allowed in this house and you are too young to be watching that sinful depravity.”

“It was on cable. All the good stuff’s been editing out for TV.” Which was mostly true. Dennis had been surprised when they had shown the monster tearing the husbands head off and eating it. It had been crappy special effects but so cheesy he couldn’t help but enjoy it.

“I don’t care. That’s how the devil gets in. He’ll come right through this tv set and steal your soul. That’s what happened in Standard.”

Dennis rolled his eyes. His mother always liked to refer to those abductions that happened twenty miles away like it would somehow happen there. Though, while no one knew what happened to the children, that didn’t stop his mom from claiming it had something to do with the Devil and that some possessed worshiper taking all the children to sacrifice them. Dennis wasn’t sure how this explained no one ever getting caught and the bodies never being found.

Sometimes he wondered what planet his mother lived on.

“Sure mom.”

“You need to listen. Demons are everywhere.”

“Mom.”

“Its like that music you listen to. I hear you play it when you think I’m not home.”

Dennis started to bump his head against the baseboard of the bed. It was this argument again. Really? What was wrong with Black Sabbath and Ghost B.C. It was great music. Sure it wasn’t the gospel music she listened to night and day, but it moved him. It pounded his soul and he could mosh with it.

“Mom, I’m okay.”

“You will be. You are going to church with me this Sunday.”

“Mom, I can’t. I have that thing with Tommy this weekend. I’m staying over at his house.”

She looked at him skeptically as she walked to the door.

“Okay, you can go, but I want you to read that book I got you.” She was pointing and he didn’t have to look to see where she was pointing. The book written by one of her favorite authors, something to do with the Book of Revelations still sat where she had put it last week. He would never read it. It would never get moved, but he smiled up at her anyways and said, “yes.”

That skeptical look never dissipated, but she nodded her acceptance and left the room, closing the door behind him.

Dennis waited until he heard her footsteps on the stairs. He lifted his remote and turned the T.V. on, quickly turning down on the volume. He was just in time to see the killer looming over some teenage girl. The killer had been wearing a hard plastic mask but half of it had been torn away to reveal a savagely burned face underneath, the teeth exposed as the lips had been burned away. His eyes were wide, blood shot and focused on the woman. He held a machete overhead and it looked like he was getting ready for his final kill.

It wouldn’t happen. Dennis had seen this movie many times before. In a few minutes after the killer took to long to play with the victim and it was discovered that he was a demon-possessed child molester who now needed to take the souls of teenagers who were no longer virgins, her boyfriend who everyone thought was dead would storm in with a chainsaw. He would cut the killer into pieces before rescuing his girlfriend and they would make it away in his car.

For a first time watcher, it was a very intense scene. Dennis had nearly pissed himself the first time he had seen it. He had loved showing it to his little cousin. His mother had screamed at him as supposingly Sam hadn’t slept for a week.

Now Dennis had a new watcher with him. He looked over to his closet. He had been surprised his mother hadn’t seen him, but she wouldn’t have been looking. As much as she talked about demons, she had never seen one. She would never know how they can blend in when they don’t want to be seen.

The thing was still there hidden in the shadows of his closet only an outline in the dim liht of his room. Of course it was. Dennis had chained and secured it there and there was no way it had gotten free. It sat there and watched the movie.

“And what do you think of the movie?”

The creature watched as the killer licked the cheek of the teenager then looked at Dennis. It was shaking, its red slit eyes open wide as it looked like it was terrified.

“You don’t like it.”

The demon shook horn topped head, the chains clattering with the motion.

“But its murdery death stuff. You should be loving this.”

The demon tried to shrink back into the deeper shadows of the closet.

“Everyone talks about how big and bad demons are, but your such a pussy cat, you can’t even watch a horror film.”

The demon tried to close the door, but Dennis was quickly up off his bed and pulled the door back. It whimpered as he hovered over it. It wasn’t even up to his mid section. How could this thing be the epitome of all that was evil?

“Fine.”

Dennis turned back. He didn’t know what he thought he would get out of capturing a demon, but this was pathetic. Maybe he’d figured something out later, but at least he could catch the end of the flick. Weren’t captured demons good for granting wishes or did he just get that confused with something else?

He settled onto the bed when his room shook. The lights went out, but the TV stayed on flickering in the now dark room. While the volume was down, it now blared with static as he could only see the snow like it was one of them old tube sets.

Then the pounding started. It was loud but managed to grow louder. A pounding on his door and with each blow shook the room. The pictures on his dressed jumped with each slam until they fell over to the floor. Glass broke, his TV bounced and he could feel the pressure in his head as his teeth felt like they were rattling from his mouth.

The final blow came and his door flew open. Then a real demon entered the room.

“WHERE IS MY SON.” It growled.

Dennis looked to the closet. Then he felt the pain in his chest and saw the talent that protruded. It still held his beating heart. He watched as it pumped that final beat. As he faded away, he heard the creature.

“I’m here. Mommy’s here. Did the bad human hurt you? Don’t worry. We’ll have lots of fun playing with him once we get him down below.”

Dennis heard himself screaming as his world faded to black, and he felt the skin melting heat rise up around him.

 

Advertisement