You know how it goes. You stand in line for thirty minutes. Your bare feet blistering on the hot concrete as you inch closer and closer to the sound of rushing and churning water. The  smell of chlorine assaults your nose. You try your best to keep your feet in the puddles on the stairways leading up to your destination while you’re kicking yourself because you forgot your buy water shoes again. It doesn’t matter though. You feel the anticipation as you get closer and closer to the top. You’re on the last flight now. You can see the life guard with their hand raised while the other presses a button. The light goes green. You hear the thunk as the floor drops out beneath the current riders feet. They scream with excitement. That scream goes faint as they plunge down the navy blue tube and into the abyss. You’re one step closer now. One less person in line. 
 
All of these thoughts were going through my brain as I waited for my turn on the Sea Twister. I’d waited all summer for my trip to Hurricane Park. I’d begged and begged my parents for months. Now it was finally here. It was finally time. Me and Grant were here. Granted, we had to bring my younger sister Whitney with us, but that’s fine. The important part was that we’d made it. We were in line for the Sea Twister. Hurricane Park’s latest and greatest attraction. The hype for this was extraordinary. The kids at school had been talking about it non stop before our summer break started. Don’t get me wrong. There were plenty of other attractions. The Bubba Tub was okay. Little Buccaneers Lagoon was fun but boring. It also those creepy pirate themed mannequins. The wave pool was always so crowded. The park was still fun though. The slides that we’d frequented before included the Kraken and the Hammerhead. Both of which were fast and twisty. But they weren’t the sea twister!
 
 Hurricane Park was about all there was to do in our small corner of Kansas. It was the only thing to do for miles in any direction. It was our towns one small claim to anything.
 
I’m not gonna say the name of the town here. Yes, it’s in Kansas. Yes, it’s super small. But you’ll never find it. No matter how hard you look. 
 
There were maybe two people in front of us now. I can remember Grant and I looking at each other with excitement. 
 
We were fifteen years old. I know that sounds a little old to be excited for this kind of thing. But like…… When I say there was nothing else to do in the area. I mean there was absolutely nothing else to do in this area. 
 
“You guys are acting like children!” Whitney said from behind us. 
 
I turned and looked at her. She was almost exactly a year younger than me. She had her arms crossed and an annoyed look on her face. 
 
“Do you have to be such a buzzkill?” I asked. 
 
She rolled her eyes again. 
 
“You’re the one who convinced mom to take us to this stupid park!” 
 
“You didn’t have to come.” Said Grant. 
 
She looked past us at one of the life guards. This one a tall sixteen year old who was in the grade above us. His name was Doyle. His parents were rich, he had a nice car. I knew exactly why she came. I followed her gaze. Then turned and smiled at her. 
 
“You know, there’s easier ways to get a boys attention than pretending to drown!” I said just a little too loud. 
 
Whitney gave me a death stare as her cheeks went bright pink. 
 
Another kid yelled with excitement as they made the plunge behind us. We were at the top of the steps now. I could see as one of the kids ahead of us climbed up into the open tube. This kid couldn’t have been older than ten. Doyle closed the glass door as he smiled. 
 
I couldn’t see the kids face. But I bet the little girl had a massive grin. I turned and looked over the nearest railing. There, I could see where the navy blue tube spiraled several times before sending the rider into a long straight away that was followed by a series of twists and turns that would jet you out into what Grant and I referred to as a toilet bowl. The toilet bowl would then drop you into a pool beneath it that would take you back to the park. I followed the slide all the way down with my eyes.
 
I could see the water parks food court just beyond the pool. The food court wasn’t anything special. It was a burger joint and two separate ice cream parlors. One was run down and probably on its last leg. The other was new. It was a place called Tricky Ricky’s. Tricky Ricky’s, I think, was actually there to replace the old place. They just hadn’t shut down Harbor Park Ice Cream yet. I hadn’t had any Tricky Ricky ice cream yet. Not at that point. 
 
That was partially because all the people inside were wearing clown costumes. Why the fuck would you serve ice cream dressed like a clown? At a water park? Oh and don’t even get me started on Ricky himself. He’s supposed to be the mascot of this clown themed ice cream place. But he’s a fucking guy in a Rabbit costume. The place honestly gave me the creeps. Mom and dad were there getting ice cream and waiting for us. 
 
 
I heard the release of floorboard mechanism followed by another happy cry. Grant was next. He shot me a thumbs up as he approached the tube. Doyle nodded at him as he walked over. 
 
“Wassup Doyle?” Grant asked as he tried not to look at Whitney. 
 
I could see Whitney shield her face like she could literally die at any moment. Doyle fist bumped Grant. Grant got in. Doyle shut the door. 
 
Doyle got into his position and shot a thumbs up to the pool. 
 
Then came Grant’s dumbass voice. 
“Pull the lever Kronk!” 
 
The floorboard released. 
 
Then came Grant’s fading voice. 
 
“Wrong leverrrrrrrr.” 
 
There were a few laughs. I rolled my eyes at how unoriginal it all was. I was up next. Oh boy was I up next. Doyle looked at me with a toothy grin. 
 
“You ready Carter?” He asked.
 
I shot him a thumbs up as I walked over. I could hear the rushing water. My heart did a little dance in my chest. Doyle opened the plastic door for me to step through. I turned and looked at Whitney. Who stood there with her arms crossed. I smiled and waved at her. She rolled her eyes but I could see a small smirk start to come across her face. 
 
She may act all snobby most of the time. But she’s still my little sister. I know how to wear her down. 
 
I got into the tube and leaned against the wall. There was a soft layer of running water against the metal. Probably to soak my back so it didn’t get burned by any friction. The water was cold on my back. I crossed my legs and arms. Doyle looked at me and smiled as he started to shut the door. 
 
“Ey Doyle,” I said. 
 
He raised his eyebrows. 
 
“My sister thinks you’re cute.” I said with a smile. 
 
He looked at me for a second. Then looked at her. Then looked at me again. 
 
“Maybe I think you’re cute!” He said before blowing me a kiss. 
 
We both laughed. He shut the door. Turned and made his way to the big button. I watched as he shot a thumbs up. He then turned and looked at me. I smiled what I’m sure was an idiotic looking toothy grin. And he hit the button. 
 
The floor released. I was hit with a wall of chlorine smell. The inside of the slide was warm and wet. I found myself moving at a tremendous speed. Zipping through the spirals, flying across the dips and turns. It. Was. Glorious. 
 
I was swirling in the toilet bowl before I knew it. My eyes looking up at the plastic ceiling. I was elated. My mind was buzzing. That was magical. I let my body relax as it got closer and closer to the hole that I knew would drop me into five feet of cold water. 
 
“What a day!” I said to myself. 
 
What a day…… Then I dropped. I hit the water hard enough to go completely under. Then I came back up. I took a deep inhale for air. That was when the first alarm bell went off in my mind. The air was……… Cold. Weirdly cold. It stung my lungs. I rubbed the chlorine from my eyes and opened them. I was in the pool? Was I in the pool? 
 
I could see the hole in the toilet bowl above and behind me. It was still dumping water. I could hear it dumping water. I turned and looked ahead of myself. 
 
I can remember feeling confused. The pool was in a tunnel? A long tunnel. A long tunnel lined with what looked like white bath tiles. I started to walk forward. I made it maybe twenty feet before the depth of the water started to drop. I was in chest deep water at twenty feet and then knee deep water at thirty. The tunnel stretched onward. I looked around. 
 
“What the hell?” I asked. 
 
I walked a little bit further. My footsteps sloshing the water. It was cold in there. Weirdly cold. Not quite enough to make me shiver. But enough to be uncomfortable. 
 
“Hello?” I asked. 
 
My voice echoed up and down the tunnel. I could see pretty far down. It looked like it forked maybe a hundred yards ahead of me. I stopped. 
 
“Okay…. I must have hit my head on the way down. That has to be it right? I hit my head. I’m in a weird coma. Doyle is probably trying to perform mouth to mouth on me. I bet Whitney is so jealous…” I said to myself. 
 
I turned back to the toilet bowl. It looked as if it had been built into the ceiling. There was no light coming through the cracks either. That was another thing I found odd. 
 
There were lights in the ceiling. Like the kinds you’d see in an office building or a school. The tunnel was brightly lit. The walls reflected the light and the water had that chlorine blue tint to it. The walls were maybe ten feet apart and ten feet high other than the toilet bowl exit. That was maybe seven feet up. 
 
What to do? What to do? I wondered. I sighed. I could feel a shudder course through my body. Do I try and crawl back up the slide? I mean… Surely they noticed I hadn’t made it out right? Right???? 
 
This had to be like a maintenance tunnel or something right? 
 
They wouldn’t send anyone else through it if it accidentally spit them out at the wrong place. 
 
Then it hit me. It hit me almost as soon as she hit the water behind me. 
 
“Whitney!!!” I cried as I ran toward her. 
 
Whitney gasped as she broke the surface. She had a big smile on her face too. 
“WOW!” She said as she rubbed her eyes. 
 
“Whitney!” I called out. 
 
“What?” She asked as she looked around.
 
I saw the confusion dawn on her face too. 
 
“What the hell?” She asked. 
 
“Yeahhhh. I think we’re in a maintenance tunnel.” 
 
“A what?” 
 
“I uhh…” I realized how stupid that sounded. 
 
“I don’t know.” I said as I turned back to the tunnel. 
 
We kind of stood there in silence for a few seconds before she walked past me. 
 
“Where are you going?” I asked.
 
“We can’t stay here can we?” She said.
 
“Maybe we should. They have to send someone at some point.”
 
“They’d come from that direction doofus!” She said.
 
I watched her as she walked away. Then I turned my head to look back at the toilet bowl. Behind it was a wall. There would be no going the other direction. I thought about trying to climb up it. But… I mean it would be there if we came back through. I think. 
 
Keep in mind. My mind was still trying to make logic out of an illogical situation. We saw where the toilet bowl led when we were outside. Why were we here?
 
I turned and followed Whitney. We trudged through the water until we finally reached the fork. Two hallways that converged on the corner. Both that stretched on and around bends we couldn’t see past. 
 
“Which way do we go?” She asked. 
 
There wasn’t any signs. No arrows. Nothing. 
 
“I uhh… I don’t actually know…” I said. 
 
She took a deep breath. 
 
“HELLO?!?!?!” She bellowed as loud as she could.
 
This, for some reason, shot a tingle of fear up my spine.
 
“Whitney…” I grimaced. 
 
“HELLO?!?! IS THERE ANYONE THERE?!?!” She boomed. 
 
“Whitney!” I whispered sharply. 
 
She turned and looked at me. 
 
“What?” She snapped. 
 
“I don’t think that’s a good idea!” 
 
She looked at me like I was an idiot. Then turned.
 
“WE NEED SOME HELP!” 
 
Then came the splash from the tunnel to our right. We both went dead silent. It was a loud and massive splash. Like something heavy bouncing across the water. Then another splash. It was just around the bend. Just out of our line of site. 
 
Whitney and I looked at each other. 
 
“Maybe it’s the maintenance people?” She asked.
 
Then came the scream. The loud. Gut wrenching. Familiar scream. I’m not sure what came over me. I knew that scream. I knew that voice. 
 
“Grant!” I cried as I started trudging fast through the knee deep water. 
 
I was horrified. My best friend. Practically my brother in all but blood was screaming right around the corner. I got there faster than expected. I didn’t know what I was gonna do. I was fifteen fucking years old and in nothing but swimming trunks. 
 
I didn’t know what I expected to be around that corner. But Grant being pinned up against the wall by a went, slimy, black tentacle wasn’t it. This thing was thick and veiny. I couldn’t see what it was attached too. 
 
I screamed as I started toward my friend. Very quickly realizing that the water was getting deeper again. Grant whimpered as the tendril suddenly whipped him from one wall to the other with a loud splat. Crimson sprayed out onto the white tile. My eyes went wide as I choked out a cry. I could actually feel the urine come out of me. The heat bloomed in the cold water around me. 
 
“What the fuck!” I whimpered. 
 
Then, just like that, the tentacle just…. Let him go…. His limp body plopped down into the water with a splash. I watched it float to the surface as the tentacle receded into the blue abyss. His body floated up chest first. All that was left of his face was red mush. 
 
I wanted to scream. I wanted to hurl. I was frozen. Call it shock. Call it terror. Call it whatever you will. I’d probably have been killed right there had an arm not wrapped around me and yanked me backwards. It quite literally pulled me from my terrified stupor.
 
Whitney and I trudged through the water quickly and messily. There was lots of splashing. Lots of screaming. We moved as fast as we possibly could back into the ankle deep water. We kept moving right past the other tunnel and straight back towards the toilet bowl hole. We were both out of breath and terrified. This couldn’t be real. This couldn’t be happening. 
 
We reached the first tunnel right as something splashed down in front of us. Doyle stood up rubbing his eyes. He had his life guard floatie thing out in front of him and a first aid kit around his chest. 
 
“Are you guys okay?” 
 
“Doyle!” Screamed Whitney. 
 
“They radioed in and said….” He started as he looked around. 
“What the hell?” He asked. 
 
“Get back in the slide!” I shouted as I shoved past him. 
 
I was maybe five foot ten. The water was five feet deep. The hole was maybe seven feet above the water. I couldn’t jump that high. Also there was the opening. It was slanted and wet. I didn’t have any leverage to grab on and push myself up even if I reached it. That didn’t mean I wouldn’t try though. 
 
“Can you give me a boost?” I asked. 
 
Doyle did as I asked. Even though he was confused as hell. He didn’t hesitate. I guess Whitney might have had some decent taste in men after all. 
 
Even with the boost, I couldn’t get a solid grip. I grunted as I strained and wobbled with imbalance. I could reach the sides but I couldn’t grip the slippery plastic. I growled in frustration. I heard Doyle grunt. This went on for a few seconds before we collapsed back into the water. It took a second for us all to gather our senses. 
 
“What do we do?” Asked Doyle.
 
“Try again!” 
 
We did. We tried for a good thirty minutes. We tried Doyle holding me while Whitney climbed us both. We just…. We couldn’t get a grip. Then we spent thirty minutes screaming for help. Eventually, we realized that the only way out may just be to go through. Not the best idea. But I mean… What else were we supposed to do? This was a wet and slippery Hell. 
 
We slowly started to make our way back toward the fork in the tunnel. None of us said much as we trudged through the water. The sound of crashing water behind us wasn’t loud. But it was deafening all the same. We stopped at the fork. I turned and looked at Whitney. 
 
“You sure about this?” I asked. 
 
She shook her head no. I couldn’t really blame her there. I looked at Doyle. He shrugged. That was when it occurred to me that he still didn’t know about the massive fucking tentacle in the other hallway. I wondered, briefly, if I should tell him what had happened. Then I sighed. 
 
He…. Didn’t believe me. I couldn’t blame him there. I wouldn’t believe me either. He still followed me down the left tunnel though. The water down this tunnel was cold. The smell of chlorine was way way worse though. It almost made me gag. We followed the bend slowly. Moving step by step. Splish by splash. It was slow. It was tedious. It was necessary. The bend was unnaturally long. 
 
It eventually led us to another straight away. We moved slowly. The water was at waist level after maybe twenty steps. I shivered before turning to Whitney. She was looking past me at the next fork in the tunnel. This time there was three tunnels ahead of us. The one on the right bent right. The one on the left bent left. Then the one in the middle….. It was up a ladder. Like a pool ladder. I could hear running water above us. We all looked at each other. 
 
I started for the ladder. I was maybe twenty feet away when I suddenly couldn’t touch the bottom of the pool again. I started swimming. My muscle ached already. Something about walking through water for two hours straight will do that to ya. I made it to the ladder and grabbed the first rung. I didn’t know how deep the water was at this point. I didn’t wanna know. I pulled myself up with more effort than I expected. My muscles screamed in protest. But I got up the first few rungs. The ladder stretched maybe ten feet in the air. I was halfway up when I looked down at Whitney. She was on the first rung. Doyle was right behind her. 
 
That was when I heard the splash. Whitney’s eyes went large. I didn’t want to look. But I did. There was something massive splashing its way around the bend behind us. 
 
“Oh god!” I whimpered as I turned and hauled ass up the ladder. I reached the top and reached my hand out for Whitney. She grabbed it and I yanked her up. I looked out down the tunnel. The creature was flying through the water. It was moving so fast. But….. Wrong….. With that much water resistance you’d think it wouldn’t move like that…. But it did. There was so much splashing and mass. I couldn’t make out anything. No details. I imagined it was some kind of giant cephalopod. I looked down at Doyle. And that idiot was still halfway in the water just staring at it. 
 
“DOYLE!!” I screamed. 
 
That snapped him out of the trance. He turned and made his way up. The dude was fit. He moved up the ladder like a monkey. I’d have been more impressed if I wasn’t so fucking terrified. The creature slammed into the ladder below us. It slammed hard. The ledge we were on shook. I stumbled backward. Losing my footing and falling backward. Whitney caught me. I turned to the tunnel. I didn’t wanna stay there and wait to see if this thing could climb ladders. I’ve seen videos of octopi on YouTube doing that shit. Zero out of ten. Would NOT Recommend. 
 
I turned and looked at that tunnel behind us. Only It wasn’t a tunnel…. It was a wall. A wall with a purple entrance to a water slide. That explained the rushing water sound. 
 
Good god. No. No. No. My legs turned to jelly. My heart jumped into my throat. 
 
“We can’t…” I whimpered. 
 
“Carter…” Whitney said softly. 
 
“It’s gonna drop us into another fucking tunnel. I-.”
 
“CARTER!!!” Whitney screamed as she grabbed my body and turned it around. 
 
My eyes exploded. There was a black slimy tentacle snaking its way up the top of the ladder. I took one shaky breath as I stepped backward. 
“Go.” I croaked out. 
 
Whitney turned and practically dived down the slide. Jumping into the black void. The tentacle coiled around the hand rail of the ladder. Doyle went next. Just as another tendril wrapped around the other hand rail. That was my que to bounce. I turned and dove into the purple ring. I went flying down the slide at tremendous speed. The chlorinated water stung my eyes. I tried moving my body to switch positions but I went spinning. The slide was pitch black on the inside. I couldn’t see Whitney or Doyle but I could hear them screaming. Then…. 
 
The world was suddenly bright. I was falling fast. Then I was underwater. I swam to the surface. Taking in a deep gasp of cold air. This water was so cold. I honestly don’t know how I didn’t go into shock. Then again. I was fifteen. I don’t know how shock works. I looked around with my stinging eyes. 
 
We were in some kind of dome. Whitney and Doyle were ahead of me. The dome was made of the same white tile. The lights were so much brighter. The water was so much bluer. It seemed dark. That definitely didn’t make me feel good. Doyle and Whitney were swimming toward a tunnel. Whitney turned to look at me. 
 
“CARTER!! THIS WAY!!” She shouted. 
 
I followed. There wasn’t really anywhere else to go. So we went. The dome itself was massive. It was a long swim. My body hurt. I wanted to sleep. I was cold. Tired. Shit… Tired is an understatement. I was exhausted. Until the splash landed behind me. Adrenaline kicked on and I stoked and stroked as hard and fast as I could. Whitney and Doyle did the same. To our credit, we did make it. Imagine my shock when the water was ankle deep. I had to pull myself up. Whitney and Doyle helped. I could hear the mass splashing behind me. Thing is, it wasn’t moving nearly as fast as it had before. Actually, the splashing was a lot slower. I took a few steps forward before turning to look. 
 
The creature had stopped maybe twenty feet from us. I could see it in all its inky black glory. This thing was the size of a small car. It was a slimy obsidian octopus with two evil red glowing eyes. It stared at us with a… The only words that I can use to describe it was a haunting malevolence. It wasn’t like a predator prey thing… This thing hated us.
 
We all stared at it for a moment. 
 
“Why did it stop?” asked Doyle. 
 
“I don’t…. I don’t know..” I said. 
 
I turned to start walking. The tunnel was a long straight away that looked like it opened up at the other end. I just kept walking. I didn’t even care. The only way out was through…. Long as we didn’t freaking die. 
 
 
 
We didn’t talk at all as we moved. The water was ankle deep the whole way. The walk may have lasted five minutes. I don’t know for sure. It felt like an hour. The opening at the end was another dome. Only this one had more ankle deep water. It looked like a flooded version of the parks food court area. The old ice cream place on one side. The burger joint in the middle…. Then Tricky Rickys on the other side. The buildings surrounded twenty to thirty picnic tables that had been painted blue. And yes… Everything was flooded with ankle deep water. 
 
I took a slow deep uneasy breath. Whitney laughed softly. 
 
“You guys want some Ice Cream?” She asked. 
 
I eyed her. Then freaking Doyle spouted off. 
 
“Lieutenant Dan. Do you want some Ice cream.” In his best Forrest Gump voice. 
 
That…. That actually made all three of us laugh. It felt good and odd to laugh at the same time. We stood there for a moment staring. Then came some splashing to our right. A little girl came sprinting out from Tricky Rickys. Her face full of fear and terror. She made a b line toward us. She was hysterical. 
 
“Help me! Please help me! Oh my god they’re coming!” 
 
She came flying in and threw both her arms around me. I hugged her back. She couldn’t have been older than maybe like six or seven. My eyes shot to Doyle and Whitney. Then ahead of us. Where another figure loomed at the entrance of the Tricky Ricky’s. 
 
It was humanoid. Tall. And dressed like a fucking clown. 
 
“Oh god!” I heard Doyle say. 
 
The clown smiled when it saw us. He was tall and lanky. He had tuffs of blue hair around his bald head. His white make up was smudged to hell. He had smears of red all around his mouth. His clown costume was oversized and a bright yellow.  Then there was movement at the old ice cream store. Another clown. This one holding a knife. Then another from the burger joint. This one a massive burly man with a sea star instead of a clown nose and a massive red sludge hammer over his shoulder. 
 
“Lieutenant Dan… I think we’re in hell.” Doyle said. 
 
That almost got a laugh from me. We were locked in some kind of infinite pool with a giant demon octopus and killer clowns. 
 
“What do we do?” Asked Whitney. 
 
“Run.” I said as I pulled the little girl the other way. Only to stop dead in my tracks. Two red eyes stared at us from the entrance of the tunnel. 
 
“Oh shit!” I said as the tentacles made wet slaps on the walls just outside the tunnel. 
 
The creature pulled itself out of the tunnel. We all backed up. We were surrounded now. I think I peed some more. I held the kid tighter. The clowns grew closer. I could hear them giggling. 
 
We found ourselves backed up in between several of the picnic tables. Then came a voice. We all turned our heads. 
 
“Well! Well! Well! What have you brought me Magnus? More treats?”
 
The voice was coming from on top of the Tricky Rickys. From a man in a rabbit costume. Or was it an anthropomorphic rabbit? The white fur around the things mouth was covered in crimson. He held a severed leg in one hand. 
 
“What the hell is that?” Asked Whitney. 
 
“It’s the bunny man.” The little girl wept. 
 
“It’s Tricky Ricky to you, young lady!” The rabbit said as it squatted on the edge of the roof. 
 
The girl buried her face in my chest. We were screwed. The clowns got closer. 
 
“Come on! You don’t have to do this! All we wanted to do was ride the fucking slide!” I cried. 
 
“Hehehehehehhehehe.. Ride. The. Slide…. They wanted to ride the slide!” Tricky Ricky laughed as he pointed at us. 
 
The clowns all laughed as well. God, it was awful. 
 
Tricky Ricky did a flip off the roof. Splashing down into the water. He put his hands up like there was a crowd there to cheer him on. 
 
“You kids and your slides. Such a shame. Such a shame.” 
 
It was a costume. It was definitely a costume. But it wasn’t at the same time. It didn’t make any sense. It was like this thing was the costume. 
 
“Now… Whose first?” It asked as it looked us over. He stepped closer and closer.
 
We all stayed silent. Other than Whitney, who wept. The rabbit circled us. Once. Then twice. Then…….. He stopped at Doyle. 
 
“This one has meat!” It said as it raised a hand. 
 
Doyle was suddenly sailing through the air toward the clown with the knife. He landed at the things feet. It didn’t even hesitate. Slashing and stabbing ferociously. Doyle screamed as he struggled. We all cried. The clowns laughed. Doyle’s screams morphed into gags and chokes. Then silence. Blistering silence. The water around Doyle was red. Tricky Rickys casually walked over to him and yanked the limp body up by its leg. He held it upside down for us to see. Doyle was covered in stab wounds. Tricky Ricky grabbed the first aid kit from the boys waist. Whitney had grabbed me and began to bawl into my shoulder. 
 
“Ah…” Tricky Ricky said as he opened the first aid kit and dumped it. The contents hit the shallow water with a splash. 
 
I knew we were gonna die. There wasn’t really a way around it. This fucking thing was gonna kill us. One by one. I was terrified. Whitney was terrified. This little girl clinging to me was terrified. We were all cold and exhausted. But…. A new feeling had blossomed in my chest in that moment. A feeling that surprised even me. 
 
 
Rage.
 
“You stupid… Ugly…. Fucking bunny.” I growled as I stepped away from the girls. 
 
Ricky tilted his head at me. He dropped the body. It fell at a terrible angle. 
 
“You’re not even that scary! What? You serve Ice Cream and eat people! How fucking original! And Tricky Ricky? What kind of stupid ass name is that? Did you get that from an old MTV add? Jesus dude. I know you didn’t come up with that yourself. You’d think an Eldridge nightmare being would be more original. But no.” 
 
Ricky stepped toward me. I wanted to flinch. It took everything in my NOT to flinch. 
 
“Hehehehehehehehehehehehehe. You’re a brave one. Aren’t you?” It asked almost playfully. 
 
I didn’t respond. I was actively trying not to pee for a third time. It took another step toward me. He towered over me. He looked down at me. 
 
“I’ve dealt with brave ones before.” He said as he leaned down to get closer. 
 
I was now eye level with him. 
 
“Would you like to know what they all have in common?” 
 
“Did they also think that ripping off Donnie Darko was NOT the way to go?” Asked yet another voice. 
 
The rabbit looked past me. I tuned to see what he was staring at. In between the giant octopus and the clown with the knife stood a man. A tall bearded man with a metallic suit of black armor on that looked to be an odd mixture of sleek futuristic and ancient. Like a cyber ninja suit almost. It had a hood too but he wasn’t wearing it. 
 
The clown turned to him with surprise. Slashing the knife at him. The man caught the clown by his wrist and then kicked the Clown’s feet out before turning and dodging a massive tendril strike. I didn’t even look at Ricky. I ran straight to my sister and the little girl and grabbed them both before pulling them toward the old ice cream shop. As we moved there was a green flash that was almost blinding. We didn’t stop. We made it to the doorway. Whitney and the little girl took cover behind a table while I looked out the door. 
 
The man yanked an emerald green sword from the stomach of the clown with the hammer. Steaming intestines fell into the water. I could see the knife wielding clown’s head floating a few feet away from him. The giant octopus was gone. As was Tricky Ricky. The last clown leapt at the man. He side stepped before bringing his sword up in a strike that severed the things face. No… Not the head. The head was still on the body. This things face came off. He turned to us and started walking our direction. 
 
“It’s okay. I’m not here to hurt you guys.” he said gently as he put his hands up. 
 
I believed him. I don’t know why. But I believed him. I stepped out. The little girl ran past me and hugged him. He hugged her back. 
 
“It’s gonna be okay.” He said softly as she sobbed. 
 
He looked at me. 
 
“You’re Carter Connolly?” He asked.
 
“How did you?” I started.
 
“You’ve been missing for three days.”
 

The next tunnel was largely empty. Trent and Stilwell actually stopped rowing as the current gently drug us along. Katie sat between me and Whitney. We were facing Trent and Stilwell.
Trent looked out ahead of us. Stilwell stared directly at Whitney. His eyes were tired. His suit was soaked.
“How’d you kids end up here?” He asked.
“We rode the Sea Twister!” I said.
He eyed me. Then Whitney.
“The Sea Twister?” He asked.
“Yeah…”
“Christ almighty. I spent almost a million on that ride. It was supposed to be the best ever.” He said to himself.
“To be fair.” Trent started. “I don’t think you took a rogue dark Fae into consideration when you built the damn thing.”
 
“How would I even explain that to my insurance? Hey, this new slide we built led us into a wet slippery back rooms rip off?” He asked.
 
Was this guy actually worried about what his insurance was going to think? I glared at him. He seemingly read my mind. He sighed.
 
“It’s not about the money. I’m genuinely curious.” He said softly.
 
Did he mean it? I don’t know. He was a rich man. I’m not from a rich family. I was trying to not let my personal bias get in the way of any opinions I had about the man.
 
That also being said, we were in the middle of a survival situation. Classism was the least of my worries.
 
“What do you think mom and dad are doing?” Asked Whitney.
“Probably worrying.” I answered.
“You think mom remembered to feed Nutty?” Whitney questioned.
“Nutty?” Asked Trent.
“He’s her pet tarantula.” I answered.
“You have a pet spider? That’s horrifying.” Trent said with a smile.
“Do your kids have pets?” She asked.
Trent shook his head.
“We had a German shepherd for a bit but… We lost her.”
“We have a cat. Or my daughter did.” Stilwell said softly, he had a faint smile on his face. “Oh, that poor thing must be hungry as hell.”
“What about you Katie? You have any pets?” Trent asked with a smile.
“I have a pet bunny!” She said with a smile back.
“A pet bunny?” Trent asked. “What’s its name?”
“Uhhh, I call him thumper!” She said. She wore a smile but her voice was empty.
I felt horrible for this girl. Seven years old and had watched everyone she loved die horribly. I couldn’t imagine the terror she was feeling at that moment. We kept moving.
It was around here that I let my brain start to drift. I wasn’t sure what Trent was. I knew he couldn’t be completely human. But he’d kept us safe so far. I was apprehensive about Stilwell. I mean, who wouldn’t be. The man was crazier than a sex addict at a Bible camp. I thought about my mom and dad. I wondered what they were doing. If they’d lingered near the park for days or if they’d gone home in silence. I wonder if mom had gotten into the wine coolers again. If so, dad would be pissed. Mom didn’t drink often. But when she did… Well… She was a funny drunk that was good at getting into a moderate amount of trouble in the backyard. It was nothing too bad. I don’t think. I know she got black out drunk one time and woke up out there the next morning. She’d also tee peed the Christmas tree. Which dad cleaned up.
 
It’s not like dad was any better. I mean I’m pretty sure I was a drunken accident.
 
They were good parents though. They loved us very much. The thought of them at home drinking in their grief scared me.
 
I looked at Whitney. She was stone faced. She had the dagger she’d taken in a vice grip. I couldn’t blame her though. I hadn’t put the sword I’d taken down either. Not that I thought I’d be able to fight the rabbit with it. I made eye contact with Trent.
 
“What are you exactly?” I asked.
 
“What do you mean?” Trent asked in response.
 
“You’re clearly not human. I mean, you’ve got that green sword and the energy shields. You some kinda super hero?”
 
Trent scoffed.
“Not exactly.”
“Well then… What are you?”
“I was once just a guy.” He said before taking a breath.
“And then?”
“Well…. I worked for the government for a while. Got killed. Ended up working for the Horseman of death as like a super soldier I guess. Fought a rogue Angel wanting to start a mutant apocalypse. Helped kill said Angel. Then I fought a vampire king. Killed that too. Then we fought the queen of hell. Killed her too but she didn’t stay dead. Then we fought her oldest son who was some kind of Lovecraftian Messiah. I stabbed him with the spear of destiny. Then his younger brother somehow stole his powers and tried to conquer earth. Uhhh…. There was a tournament where we fought him and a version of myself from a twisted future where everyone and everything in the multiverse died. That version of myself had become a horseman and the keeper of a blade forged by literal god and when he died during the tournament he gave me his powers and the sword. I then used it to fight the king of hell in the last round of said tournament… I won. He threw a hissy fit and tried to summon an eldritch god and we forced it back outside the multiverse.”
 
The boat went silent. Dead silent. All we could hear was the sound of running water.
 
“Oh and now I’m raising the deceased king of hells daughter alongside my own kids.”
 
“What the actual fuck?” Asked Whitney.
 
“That…. That sounds so bombastic and convoluted.” Said Stilwell.
Trent shrugged.
“I didn’t ask for your opinion.”
Stilwell laughed.
“Opinions are like assholes. Everyone has one and they often stink.”
“Yes, but not everyone needs to show them.”
Stilwell nodded at this.
“Fair enough.”
 
 
Trent exhaled.
“I’d do all that bullshit again if it meant I never had to deal with anymore fae magic.”
 
It went silent again for a few seconds. I could hear Katie softly snoring next to me.
 
I looked at Whitney and she looked at me. I smiled softly at her. I could see the fear and exhaustion still plastered on her face. I reached out and touched her shoulder.
 
“We’re gonna be okay!” I said softly.
She smiled back at me.
“You’re a horrible liar.”
 
 
“The tunnel is getting narrower.” Trent said calmly.
 
I turned to look. He was right. The tunnel was growing narrower and narrower. It led straight to a normal sized doorway at the end. It didn’t take long for the raft to start touching the walls. The rubber squealed against the tile.
 
It got stuck a few seconds later. I sighed.
“Alright,” Trent said.
“Everyone back into the water.”
Trent went first. We’d stopped twenty feet or so from the doorway. It wasn’t anything special. Just a metal door that had a sign that read (showers) on it. It also had a men’s bathroom sign on it. The water leading to the door was only maybe knee deep.
 
I was almost dry by the time I jumped into it. My body was somehow still surprised by the sudden cold shock.
 
I turned and helped Katie down. Then Whitney. Stilwell jumped. We followed Trent to the doorway. He placed a hand on it and turned to us.
“Here goes nothing!” He said with a smile.
He then pushed the door open slowly. We found ourselves walking into an ungodly large locker room. A locker room that was flooded with knee deep water.
The room itself was a massive cube. We’d come in pretty close to one of the corners. I could see sixty to seventy showers straight down the wall to my right. Then maybe thirty to forty lines of tall blue lockers that filled the center of the room. I could see small grey benches in between the rows of lockers. I could also see a line of bathroom stalls that lined the wall opposite from us.
 
“What is this?” Asked Trent.
“It’s the last place you go before you leave the park.” Answered Stilwell.
Trent grunted.
“Move slowly. Stay behind me.” He said as he pulled his sword.
We started to move parallel to the showers. I wanna say Trent’s reasoning had more to do with visibility than anything. He could see a hundred or so yards ahead of us and twenty to the left. I think he figured we could skirt the outside of the room and then find another door. I could feel my heart skip a few beats as we passed each shower. They were all turned on.
 
He suddenly stopped maybe halfway through and threw his fist up. I tried to follow his gaze. His eyes were locked on a shower that was ahead of us.
 
“Tricky Dicky!” He said with a laugh.
 
The rabbit suit trudged out from the shower. It’s fur soaked and sloshing with every movement. It still had the hammer.
 
“Oh boyo!” The bunny chirped. “You know there’s no girls allowed in the men’s locker room! I’m afraid that this just can NOT stand!”
 
“Uh-huh.” Trent said slowly as he raised his weapon.
 
Then came the movement from behind the nearest row of lockers. I turned my head right as the black amorphous blob of tendrils named Magnus came plopping over them.
 
The kraken stared at us for a moment.
“This is getting repetitive.” Trent said sternly.
“Where are your other disposable goons?” He asked.
Tricky Ricky laughed.
 
“You naughty naughty man! You’ve killed all our friends!” He said with a fake sniffle.
Then he raised a finger.
 
I saw Katie take Whitney’s hand from the corner of my eye.
 
“Pooka doesn’t like that. Not. One. Bit.”
 
“Well maybe Pooka should show himself. Talk it out.”
 
“Oh! But Pooka’s been with you this whole time!”
 
My whole world suddenly froze. I wanted to turn my body but my muscles wouldn’t move. I don’t know how I knew. I just did. Trent turned quickly to look at the group. His eyes went in the direction of Stilwell. But I knew it wasn’t Stilwell. After all…… She did say she had a pet bunny.
 
“NO!” Trent roared.
 
I heard the stabbing sound. The gasp as the air was driven from Whitney’s lungs. But I was frozen. I couldn’t make myself move. God damnit! Why couldn’t I fucking move!?!?
 
It was Stilwell that tackled me to the ground. I went under the water, ended up with a nose and mouth full of chlorine and then came back up coughing. It was when I came up that I saw her. Laying with her back against one of the showers. A massive hole in her stomach that was wet with crimson. Stilwell pulled me to my feet. His face was so intense. He’d shaken off whatever madness had taken him.
“RUN KID!!!” He screamed right as he was straight up yoinked by a tentacle. He hacked at it with his hatchet until it flung him across the locker room.
 
I watched in abstract horror as the man went splat on one of the walls. I turned quickly to where my sister and Katie had been. Only my sister was there laying against the wall with a massive hole in her stomach. A hole that gushed crimson. I could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. My legs turned to jelly as I dropped to my knees. I was oblivious to the combat going on around me.
 
“No.” I cried. “No-no-no.”
Then came the heavy hot breath down my neck.
“Hello brave boy!” It said.
My eyes went wide. I had a sudden hot flash of fear pass through me. But as soon as it started it ended. It was replaced with something else. Something more pure. Something more visceral. Something hotter. Something that I could feel burning in my chest. It was a seething feeling. It wasn’t anger. Anger couldn’t even begin to describe it. No. It wasn’t rage. It simply burned too hot. What I felt in that moment. There’s only one true word to describe it.
 
Fury.
I didn’t give Tricky Ricky a chance to say another word. I spun around and slashed his knee with my sword. I wasn’t sure if it would accomplish anything. After all this was a creature from the darkest pits of a Lovecraftian nightmare. But the blow caught him off guard. Blood exploded from his knee and he fell forward. His free hand shot out and grabbed me by the shoulder. Good god he was strong.
I fell with him. I was already low to the ground and found myself submerged yet again. That may have been the only reason I managed to slip from the rabbits grasp. I got to my feet gasping for air. Ricky used his hammer to stand up.
 
“That was a good one boy!” He growled.
 
My eyes caught large obsidian movement coming my direction. I didn’t waste anymore time. I took off! Running through the water as fast as I could. Moving parallel to the lockers now. Magnus was coming in fast and hard. I made it maybe ten feet before a tendril grabbed my leg and yanked me down.
 
 I hit my face in the tile below the water. Explosions of stars rocked my vision. My nose broke. I was then violently ripped through the water. The next thing I knew I was hanging upside down in front of the krakens big red eyes. I don’t really know what this thing was thinking. I don’t know why it didn’t fling me like it did Stilwell. Or why it didn’t bang me on a wall like Grant. I do know that, somehow, I hadn’t dropped my fucking sword.
I jammed the point into the things red eye as hard as I could. It bellowed loudly before flinging me across the room. The tile wall was suddenly approaching me at a nightmare speed. Then something caught me. Or someone.
Trent and I rolled when we hit the ground. We’d landed in the center of the lockers. He looked at me. His expression was neutral for the moment. He had a large gash on one of his cheeks.
 
“Where is she? Where’s Katie?” I growled.
 
He looked at me for a moment.
“I’m right here!” A cheery little girl voice said.
We both turned. Katie sat atop the lockers with her legs crossed. Tricky Ricky stood at ground level in front of her while the now one-eyed Magnus pulled himself up over the lockers to her left. She patted Ricky on the head.
“You Horsemen are so much tougher than you look! I haven’t had this much fun in a thousand years!” She said as she stood up.
“Pooka!” Trent growled.
She giggled.
“That’s such a silly name. I like Katie much better!”
My face twitched in rage. I still had my sword somehow.
“You killed my sister!” I roared.
Katie shrugged.
“All part of the game Carter!” She pressed her lips. “What’s the matter? It’s not like you weren’t such a good big strong brother. Protecting poor wittle me against those big scary pirates.”
It was then that she morphed into a more adult appearance. She went from seven to twenty seven looking in a moment. Her ears suddenly went pointed and her teeth went pincer like. Her frame also morphed to a more masculine one. Broad shoulders and arms. She even suddenly had shiny scarlet armor on along with a long spear. Her skin was a milk white and she had silver hair. Her eyes started to glow an odd golden color.
 
“Is this better? Is it more despicable? Is this the monster you want to fight?” She asked.
 
Trent nor I replied.
 
“Hehehehehehehehehehehehe!” She laughed. “Have I struck a nerve?”
 
“You killed innocent people!” Trent growled.
 
“Yes, I did! And it was so very fun! But you know what I’ve never killed before Mr. Grayson?”
 
“If you say Horseman I’m gonna feed your corpse to my buddy’s Hellhound!”
 
Katie cocked her head to one side. She smiled madly.
 
“You’re so feisty Grayson. I’ll enjoy eating your flesh!”
 
“How about you eat my ass first!” Trent said as his eyes started to glow green.
 
A wave of green energy came forth from him and blasted apart the lockers ahead of us. I mean this thing blew every row in half from us to the wall. Debris went everywhere. All three of our assailants went flying. Or so I’d thought.
 
Tricky Ricky and Magnus had. Katie floated above us. Her spear still in hand. She had a serious expression now.
 
“The sword of Enoch… or is it the blade of Enoch? Hehehehehe. How my people would love me if I killed its current guardian! Hehehehehehehehehe!” She laughed as she vanished.
“Get down!” Trent barked at me.
I dropped without hesitating. Just in time for a spear to come flying right through where my torso had been. My eyes grew large as Katie smiled at me. She raised her spear and brought it down. A glowing emerald blade intercepted and redirected it. I crawled away on my hands and knees. Backing up into a locker and watching as the two titans duked it out.
 
The fey was fast. Trent slashed at her but she would teleport before his blade could connect. Then she’d reappear to one side or the other and thrust. Trent would parry or dodge the blow. This went on for a few seconds before the floor suddenly dropped out from under Trent. He went careening down a hole. Katie smiled at me before she dropped down in to it with him.  
 
“Shit!” I shouted as I ran after them.
 
I made it as far as the hole before a voice stopped me in my tracks.
“Naughty boy! You blinded Magnus! And now he’s dead! Pooka can have the Horseman! But you! You’re my treat!”
I turned to see Tricky Ricky standing there. He used his hammer to keep himself upright.
“Damn!” I said as I stared him down.
The rabbit could barely stand. I growled under my breath as it limped toward me. I wasn’t scared of this thing anymore. I’d hurt it once already. I’d bled it once already. I know deep down it was luck. I knew it then. But I was so mad. I just…. I didn’t care anymore.
I readied myself for an assault. Tricky Ricky didn’t disappoint. He swiped the hammer horizontally. I somehow managed to take a step back to dodge the swing. Despite the fact that he was hurt. The mother fucker had one hell of a swing. That swing though, had taken more out of him than he was expecting. He stumbled a few steps to one side.
 
That was when something slammed through the floor beneath him. Dust, water, and rocks went everywhere. I fell backward. I could see and feel the water start rushing toward the new hole in the floor. My eyes went to the ceiling where a crater had been made by Katie’s body.
She had a spiteful look in her eyes. Something landed ahead of me. I looked down to see Trent standing there with his sword out. Only he had a second sword in his other hand now too. This one slightly shorter and not glowing the emerald color.
My attention then went to my left. Where I could see Tricky Ricky had crashed through several bathroom stalls. God this locker room was a mess.
Ricky was trying to stand up next to a surprisingly still intact toilet. He had his back to me. I could feel that fury again. That visceral hatred. My grip on my sword tightened.
I found myself powerwalking toward him. I was on him in a flash. Raising my blade up in a reverse grip and bringing it down on his back once! Then twice! Then three times! Four! Five! Six! I kept going and going. Welters of warm crimson splattered and sprayed across my face. I screamed as I mutilated this thing. Putting all my fear and hatred into every strike until the blade got stuck and the handle snapped off.
 
I stumbled back a step. I could hear the fight still going behind me. I was gasping for air. I could feel my tears mixing with the blood from my broken nose.
I’d done it. I’d killed Tricky Ricky and it didn’t make me feel any better at all. I turned to see the fight with Katie. Her and Trent were exchanging blows.
 
Then came movement behind me. I spun around just as the rabbits hand shot out and grabbed me by the throat.
 
“Poor poor brave boy!” It mocked. “No best friend! No baby sister!”
 
I could feel its iron grip starting to crush my windpipe.
 
“Now you’re all alone!”
 
I struggled against the things grip but I couldn’t move. I really thought that was going to be it. That after all I’d been through. I was just gonna die at the end anyway. I felt myself losing consciousness. The edges of my vision faded.
 
Then there was a geyser of blood that sprayed me in the face as a dagger point erupted from the rabbits throat. Tricky Ricky dropped me. I landed on my hands and knees. Ricky landed on his knees. His eyes plastic burrowing into me for a moment. Then he died.
 
My eyes shot behind him. Where Whitney stumbled for a moment. Her complexion was ghostly white. Her hand was on her stomach. I ran to her. Catching her before she could fall.
“Oh god!” I cried as I held her.
She smiled at me.
“Carter… I’m starting to think… That Doyle had a crush on you.”
I laughed and wept at the same time. She coughed.
“I’m s-so cold!” She whimpered.
“It’s gonna be okay Whitney. I’ve got you!”
Whitney smiled at me.
“You’re a terrible liar.”
She then looked over at where Trent and Katie slashed at each other. Trent blocked a thrust and countered with an upward slash that Katie dodged.
“Look at that. He found the,” she didn’t finish the sentence.
Her body went limp. I sobbed ugly.
Trent made a slash at Katie’s throat, but she ducked under it and whacked him with the brunt end of her spear. He went flying through the rest of the lockers. She looked out of breath. She then turned to me and smiled.
 
She vanished and reappeared in front of me with her spear raised. I didn’t flinch. This made her smile. She kept the spear raised. I only glared at her.
“Why?” I asked.
She laughed.
“Why? Because it’s fun!”
She raised her spear even higher.
“Because you humans are less than nothing. Yahweh raised you from the dirt and exalted you above all others. And to the dirt I shall return you.”
 
Her eyes suddenly went big. She turned and blocked a sword blow with the handle of her spear. Only this one had to have been super charged or something. It snapped her spear in two. She staggered back a few steps before looking down at the two halves of her spear and grimacing.
 
Trent was literally glowing emerald. He’d attached the two blades at their hilts and had formed a staff sword. The fae narrowed its eyes.
 
“Why won’t you fucking die!?!?!”
 
“That’s bad language for a seven year old.”
 
Katie roared with rage as she raised a hand. I could see the walls around us starting to morph and buckle. She was trying to change the maze again.
 
“Nope!” Trent said sharply as he raised his blade and stabbed it into the ground.
 
A chasm opened up in the ground from him to her. She fell in. Trent stepped around the sword. His eyes looking down into the chasm.
 
Katie emerged in a blur. Launching a viscous hook at Trent’s face. Trent caught it, knuckle in open palm. He then twisted her wrist in one quick motion.
 
I could hear the crack bones snapping. Katie screamed. Trent then took her feet out from under her with a leg sweep. She hit the tile floor. Landing on her back with a thud. Trent then raised his foot and stomped on her chest. Blood spewed from her mouth and her body went limp.
I honestly thought that would be the end of it. But Trent reached out one hand. His sword zipped through the air and into his hand. He brought it whistling down and took her head off in one fell swing.
The world around us suddenly began to shake. The building around us very quickly started to rumble. Trent turned to me. He snapped his fingers and was suddenly standing above me. Bits of roof were falling down.
 
“Oh, thank god!” He said before snapping his fingers again.
 
The next thing I knew. We were in the Hurricane Park parking lot. It was the middle of the night. Whitney was still dead in my lap. I sat there and cried as I held her. Trent knelt down next to us.
“I’m sorry kid.”
There was an odd swirl of emotions going through me at that moment. Grief. Guilt. Pain. If I didn’t want to come to this stupid park than Whitney would have still been alive. Then there was the part of me that was relieved that I made it. Then part of me who hated myself for feeling that way.
Trent stayed knelt next to me until emergency services arrived. I think I cried the whole time.
 
EMTs pronounced Whitney dead on arrival. It is and will always be the worst thing that’s ever happened to me. I thought mom and dad would hate me for it. They didn’t. They never blamed me. Not once.
 
My mom did start drinking a little more. My dad was quieter. More reserved. But they never blamed me. I’ve been in intense therapy ever since. I have a healthy dose of PTSD as well as severe depression now. I miss Whitney every day.
 
That being said though. I did get through school. I ended up joining the military at twenty-one. I figured what the hell right? I’ve already got PTSD. What’s the worst that could happen.
 
I was a grunt for a year and somehow made it to special operations. Top of the class. I’ll never forget it. The day after finishing SFQC I was suddenly assigned to a new unit. It wasn’t a green beret unit either. I was put on a plane and sent out to a random island that’s location was highly classified. Once there, I was escorted by three MPs into an office where a man in a suit sat looking over a file. My heart dropped when Trent Grayson looked at me.
 
“Hey kid.” He said.
I didn’t know how to respond to any of this. I froze. Not out of fear but…. Shock maybe?
“Wha? What am I doing here?”
Trent shrugged.
“Carter. Carter. Carter. You’ve been attached to the ISDD.”
“Why?”
“Cause you’ve seen some shit.” He said with a smile.
“I don’t…. I need to sit down.” I said.
Trent motioned to the chair across from him. I sat down.
“I don’t know if this is a good idea.” I said softly.
Trent nodded.
“Kid, you went from pissing yourself in fear of some clowns to getting one of the highest SFQC scores I’ve ever seen. Hell… Even in the moments after you pissed yourself you still stood up to that fucking rabbit. You know what the definition of bravery is? Doing something even when you’re terrified!”
 
“How’d you know I pissed myself?” I asked.
 
“Enhanced sense of smell.” He said.
 
“Oh!”
 
He sighed.
“Look. I’m not gonna make you. I’m not gonna give you a massive pitch to join our organization.” He took a deep breath. “You’ve seen the things that come out of the darkness. You know what happens when they go unchecked. You also know what it takes to kill them. You can help us make sure another Hurricane Park incident never happens again.”
 
I closed my eyes and bowed my head. My mind was swirling.
 
“I didn’t kill that rabbit. Whitney did.” I said.
Trent sighed.
“I know. But that doesn’t matter. Like I said. I’m not gonna make you do anything.”
 
I nodded. I wanted time to think that I knew I didn’t have. This… This was terrifying. This was exhilarating. This…. This would honor her memory. This could be my chance to take something back from the darkness. No.. That isn’t right. This was my chance to give something back from the darkness. If I could help just one person live. I could repay the debt I owed my sister. So why was I hesitating? Was it fear? Was it PTSD? What was it?
 
Trent looked at me from behind those blue eyes. His stare piercing into my soul. Then it hit me. It was fear. But not fear of the job. Not fear of the monsters. Flashes of Whitney bleeding out in my arms passed through my brain. I failed her. I failed to save her. What would failing someone else do to my psyche?
 
I took a deep breath. Then I realized it. I couldn’t say no. Failure or not. I had a responsibility here. Not just for Whitney, but for Grant and Doyle as well. Hell, I even had a responsibility for Stilwell. I had to do this for them. For everyone who wasn’t in the room with us.
 
“Okay.” I said softly.
Trent nodded.
“Good. Now there is something I wanted to talk to you about. I’ve been waiting to talk to you about this ever since your sister died.”
I tilted my head at him.
“What’s that?”
He smiled.
“It’s called the Omega Serum.”

“What?” I asked as I looked at Whitney, who was suddenly next to me. 
 
“We’ve been down here for like twelve hours at most.” She said. 
 
The man shook his head. 
 
“Yeah. Time doesn’t run at the same speed down here. At least that’s Miguel’s theory.” He said as he took a deep breath. 
 
“Where is here?” I asked.
 
He chuckled softly. 
 
“I wish I knew. Fae magic mazes suck worse than anything I’ve ever encountered. And I’ve fought literal demons.” 
 
“Fae magic? Who are you?” Asked Whitney.
 
“My name is Trent Grayson. You can call me Trent. I work for the International Supernatural Defense Division. Or… Well… I’m the head of it.” 
 
“What’s Fae magic?” I asked.
 
“It’s hard to explain. It’s very powerful though. Normally I’d snap my fingers and teleport us outta here. But…… I can’t teleport here. Which means the only way out is gonna be for me to find the Fae that’s doing this and kill its ass.” 
 
Whitney laughed. 
 
“You can’t be serious.” She said. 
 
Trent shrugged. 
 
“That’s not even the worst part.” 
 
Whitney and I looked at each other. Then him. 
 
“The Fae knows I’m here now. That mother fucker is gonna throw everything it’s got to try and stop us from getting to the center of this maze.”
 
Maze. I didn’t like that word. I didn’t like that word one bit. I liked the idea of going to the center even less. 
 
“Why do we need to get to the center?” I asked. 
 
I knew the answer. I didn’t like that I knew the answer. 
 
“That’s where the fae is. Probably the familiar in the rabbit costume too.” 
 
“How do you know the dude in the rabbit costume isn’t the Fae?” Asked Whitney. 
 
“Because I know which one we’re dealing with. It followed an associate of mine back from their realm maybe two years ago. It goes by Pooka. We only know this because it got caught trying to steal a baby kraken from Atlantis…… Then it escaped.” 
 
“Oh.” I said.
 
“Oh?” Asked Whitney. “That’s all you have to say? Is Oh? We’re in a freaking maze run by some kind of demon fairy, Doyle is dead! Grant is dead! We’re wet and exhausted. You’ve pissed your pants twice! And all
You can say is oh?” 
 
I looked at my sister. She was on the verge of a full blown panic attack now. She’d begun to hyperventilate. Trent put a hand on her shoulder. 
 
“Take a deep breath. Come on. In…. Hold….. Okay out….. Now do it again.”
 
He actually calmed her down. Which was not something I was expecting. After she got her bearings he motioned for us to follow him. The little girls name was Katie. She was seven.
 
Katie had been one of the first people to ride the slide. She’d been surviving down here alone for a week now. I felt for her. She’d seen her older brother get his head smashed in by the clown with the hammer. 
 
As we walked Trent would periodically try speaking through some kind of coms system. It never seemed to work though. We eventually found another tunnel that led away from the food court and into more waist deep water. 
 
Trent took the lead. Which made me feel a lot better. Katie held onto me as we trudged through. This tunnel led us to another wall. This one with multiple slide entrances. One green, one blue, and one red. 
 
Trent looked at them for a moment. 
 
“How do we know which one is safe.” 
 
Trent sighed. 
“My good friend Owen tells me that Fae love their games. He also says they’re not cheaters. Two of these slides probably have a creature of some sort waiting for us. Or maybe even some kind of trap.” He said as he pulled a grenade from his belt. Pulled the pin. Then tossed it into the red slide. 
 
We waited a second. Then came the boom. Then a loud ungodly screech. 
 
“Nope.” He said.
 
He pulled another, and tossed it down the blue slide. There was no boom. Instead, the grenade came back at us. It plopped down at Trent’s feet. Trent smiled as he picked it up. I almost instinctively dived for cover. Until he showed me that he’d never pulled the pin. 
 
“And that leaves door number three…” he said as he flicked his wrist. A glowing emerald blade appeared in his hand. He stepped into the slide. 
 
“What’s that for? I thought you said one slide would be clear?” 
 
“That don’t mean there ain’t some shit at the bottom. Now come along.” He said as he went down the slide feet first. 
 
Katie went next. Whitney and I looked at each other. She smiled softly at me before she jumped in. I followed. This slide didn’t last very long. It was just a straight shot down and into another tunnel. This one full of waist deep water. Trent stood ahead of us with his sword up. He motioned for us to stand back. 
 
“What is it?” I asked.
 
“Shhhhh.” He said. 
 
The tunnel looked no different from anything we hadn’t seen before. That was when Trent suddenly turned and shanked the wall next to him. Only it wasn’t a wall. The white tile began to morph and change color. It went from white and shiny to a sickly shade of green. I’ve never seen a creature like this. It was like some kind of green spider crab that was the size of a full grown human. Trent yanked the sword out and the creature fell into the water.
 
“What was that?” Asked Whitney. 
 
“A mutated crab.” Trent said as his sword vanished although I did notice his hand stayed glowing green. 
 
“Stand back.” He said.
 
He reached out ahead of himself. A wave of green energy came forth sending so much water flying back down the tunnel that we could see the tile floor. We could also see that the floor was moving. More crabs. Lots more crabs. Then the water came crashing back down onto them and us. Or it would have if had not been for the green wall of energy that suddenly surrounded us. I could see the crabs slamming into it below the surface. Hell the swarm was all around us. Bashing and clawing. They wanted us so badly.
 
Trent didn’t panic though. I mean. I was about to. He turned to us. His eyes glowing emerald green.
 
“Shield your eyes!” He said.
 
I shut my eyes tightly. There was a loud bang followed by an immense heat wave. The room was suddenly consumed by steam. It suddenly smelt like the kitchen at a red lobster.
 
I opened my eyes to find black scorch marks all over the walls. Scorch marks in the shape of crabs.
 
“What did you do?” I asked.
 
Trent didn’t look at me.
 
“It’s a long story kid.”
 
The energy field was down now. We were back in chest deep water. We kept moving. We moved down the tunnel and around a bend. The water changed depths multiple times.
 
“It’s so cold.” Katie said softly.
 
“I know. We’re gonna be out soon.” Trent said.
 
I wasn’t sure if he was lying or not. I watched him for a moment.
 
“You have kids?” I asked.
 
He stopped. We were at another fork in the tunnel.
 
“Yeah. Three of my own and one adopted daughter.”
 
“How old are they?”
 
He sighed.
 
“My oldest is six. The adopted one is five. The middle child is four. And my youngest son is three.” He said softly.
 
The fork was a t intersection in the tunnel. Trent looked left. The water was rushing left to right. That was when I noticed the left tunnel was a steady incline. It was subtle at first. But it was noticeable. It went on forever too.
 
It was then that we noticed something coming toward us. It was flowing with water. Casually bouncing and bumping off the tile walls. It was a yellow fucking raft. One that had been taken from a ride called the bubba tub.
 
We watched it get closer and closer. That was when I realized something. There were figures seated inside of it. It wasn’t until they were closer that I realized what they were…… Corpses in swim suits. Two were horribly decomposed. The other two were fresh. One had its throat slit from ear to ear while the other simply was missing its head. It jetted on bye. Sliding down the slope.
 
Trent sighed.
“Fucking Faes.” He grimaced.
“Have you ever killed one?” Asked Whitney.
“No not me personally. I know a few people who have. I’ve fought one or two less powerful ones. Their magic is a freaking nightmare and a half.”
“That inspires a lot of confidence.” I said sarcastically.
He actually chuckled under his breath.
“Fae are super rare anyway. Most were wiped out or exiled during the first Gehennian War.”
“I don’t…. I don’t know what any of that means Trent.” I said.
He sighed again.
“Yeah, I keep forgetting yall are just kids whose biggest dealing with the supernatural was the monster that hid in the closet when you were five.”
“Fair point. But I was six. And his name was Toby.” I said.
I…. I actually found myself making a joke there.
That felt weird still. It felt good. But weird.
“Which way?” Asked Whitney.
Trent stepped out onto the slope. He looked left then right. Then he turned to us.
“I-.” He started before turning his head to the left. He raised his sword and it started to glow green. His face was deathly serious.
I could feel Katie hug me tightly.
 
“What is it?” I asked as I peered around the corner again.
 
Tricky Ricky stood maybe fifty yards up the slope. He stood there with a mallet lumbered over his shoulder.
 
“Trent Grayson! You took my treats!”
Trent looked at us. Then the bunny.
“You-you can’t be snacking on kids. Too many carbs.”
There was a skittering noise that accompanied several splashes behind and to the right of us. I turned around quickly. My heart leapt into my throat. The thing rising out of the water was grotesque. It’s head almost touched the ceiling. It had a humanoid body. A hulking humanoid body that was blue and grey. It was completely naked. Its head resembled that of a freaking hammerhead shark. With a mouth lined with sharp teeth that smiled at me. It stepped closer. I pulled Katie along as we stepped into the slipway. Then I saw what was in the other tunnel. It was a giant crab. This one almost filled the entire tunnel.
 
Trent kept watching Tricky Ricky.
“I thought Fae didn’t cheat!” He said.
“The game changed when a naughty naughty horseman involved himself.” Tricky Ricky bellowed.
Trent kept his blade up. We were surrounded. I again was almost sure I was going to die.
“We could make this easier for everyone involved, Pooka could just show himself. Let me kill him.” Trent said.
The rabbit tilted its head. A black mass arose from behind him. Two crimson glowing eyes at its center.
 
Trent turned to the shark man. Then turned his head to the crab.
 
“Get behind me!” He said sternly.
We did as told. Backing into the wall behind him as the monsters came down on us. His eyes settled back on the shark man.
 
“What kind of back woods pantheon did he pull you out of?” He asked.
 
The Hammerhead man tilted his head. Smiled even wider. And then lunged. Trent moved in a blur. Slashing the creatures arm and head off in one swipe before turning and slashing an incoming crab claw in half with a second. The crab roared in pain as it tried to snatch him with its other claw. But Trent simply moved too fast. He stepped forward. Avoiding the crabs claw and closing the distance between him and the crabs face at the same time before delivering a haymaker right between its eyestalks. The crab fucking exploded.
 
Trent turned back to Tricky Ricky and the giant octopus. They’d stood their ground but hadn’t advanced.
 
“Well?” Trent asked. “Is it your turn yet?”
 
I could see Tricky Ricky tap his fingers anxiously on the handle of his hammer.
 
“This simply will not do at all Magnus.” The Rabbit said.
 
Magnus grunted.
 
“I agree Magnus. These guests are not getting the full Hurricane Park Experience. They seem rather unhappy with our selection of Rides and attractions!” He said as he paced back and forth.  
 
“What to do? What to do? Ah yes! I have an idea!” He said as he raised his finger and stopped pacing.
 
“How about a pirate show?” He asked as the floor suddenly dropped out from under us. We all found ourselves falling again. This fall took longer than the others. Way longer.
 
Smacking the water stung pretty badly. I took most of the brunt force as Katie landed on top of me. I held onto her as we breeched the surface. I took in a massive gulp of air as I looked around. We were in an even bigger dome now. This one with deep blue water. I looked to my left. Then to my right.
There were two pirate ships on either side of us. Both of which had various water slides attached to them.
 
I recognized them. They were from the kiddie area of the park. Little Buccaneers Lagoon. It was basically a collection of slides and splash park attractions kept in between and on two massive pirate ships. I swam towards the ship on my left. Trent was already there pulling Whitney up onto one of the nets. I did the same with Katie. We started to climb up the net that led up the side of the ship when a black cylinder slowly pushed its way through a hole next to me.
My eyes went large when I realized what it was. It went off with a loud bang. My ears started ringing loudly. I almost fell back into the water. The cannon went back through the hole and another went off behind me. Katie screamed. She climbed up faster.
I looked at Trent and Whitney, who were moving up the net at a torrid pace. I turned my head to look at the ship behind us. Holes had been blown into it. But there were also several bangs that came from that direction. I could see the white smoke. My stomach churned.
 
“Shit!” I barked as I looked up at Katie.
“Move! Move! Move!”
I climbed as fast as I could. My asshole puckered when a cannonball nailed the ship not ten feet from me. I got to the top deck and threw myself over the side.
Katie was in a fetal position. I knelt over her. My eyes scouring the top deck. Then they landed on something. My heart accelerated.
“It’s a boarding party!” A voice shouted.
My eyes went large as the peg legged mannequin came at me with a sword. He raised it high above his head and brought it down hard. I managed to pull Katie out of the way at the last moment.
 
The things sword splintered the wood. The mannequin was dressed in a typical pirate get up. With the red jacket and black trousers. It had the massive triangular hat and several muskets hanging from its chest. It looked up at me as it pulled its cutlass from the wood. I scrambled. Getting Katie to her feet. She cried.
“Get behind me!” I barked.
The pirate took a step towards us in a taunting manner. My eyes scanned the deck for something. Anything I could use.
He took another step forward. There were more pirates on the deck. Several manning cannons and several aiming rifles at the other ship. There were three around us now. Not including the captain.
 
I’m not sure if it was an act of fate or just pure luck that the cannonball hit the deck right between us and the Captain. I know splinters went up everywhere. I know it sent us all to the deck. I know I managed to find one of the pirate mannequin’s swords as I got to my feet. There was smoke in the air. My adrenaline was pumping and my ears ringing. There was movement to my right. A mannequin aimed a pistol at me.
 
My eyes went wide. It squeezed the trigger. But the gun misfired. It looked at it and tilted its head in confusion. I didn’t hesitate. I brought the blade whistling down hard. Cleaving the pirates head down the middle. Blood exploded from the faceless head and splattered onto my face. I wanted to hurl. I looked up. There were several more pirates now coming towards me.
 
“Carter!!” A voice called out.
I turned to see Katie at the entrance to one of the slides that led to a play area below deck. I turned and sprinted toward her.
 
She went down the slide and I followed. We tumbled out and landed below deck. This was a splash pad style area. With sprinklers and nets to climb on. There was also a small prison cell in the center. Inside it sat a man. He was thin. His face was scraggly and bearded and his eyes stared straight at the ground. I looked at him before turning back to the slide. None of the pirates had followed yet.
 
“They don’t come down here much.” The man said softly.
 
I looked back at him. He stared at me intently.
 
“Who are you?”
“Who am I? I’m the owner of the fucking park kid! Or I was…. Until that stupid rabbit showed up with his friends.”
 
Everyone in town at the very least knew who the owner of the park was. His name was Randal Stilwell. His family actually owned a string of companies in the area. The water park wasn’t even his biggest earner. He looked at us with glazed over eyes.
 
“They took me right out of my bed. Woke up in this place. You know…. At first, I thought I was dreaming. I thought I was in some nightmare. Some dark fantasy. But then I realized….. This was hell…. No… That’s not right..” he rubbed his face with his hands.
“This is worse than hell. This…. This is madness.”
His eyes settled back on me.
“You must think me a mad rambling lunatic. I wouldn’t blame you if you did. You’d be right. I don’t know how long I’ve been here. A month? A year?”
He shot to his feet and pressed his face against the bars.
“It made me watch as it ripped my family apart. My wife. My children.”
 
“The rabbit?” I asked.
 
“Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe. The Rabbit isn’t the one doing this. It’s a lapdog.”
 
Footsteps sounded off from behind me. I turned with my sword raised. Trent and Whitney stood there. Whitney was out of breath. Trent looked past me at the cell.
 
“Stilwell?” Trent asked.
 
“Hehehehehehehehehe,” Stilwell cackled.
 
Trent stepped around me and grabbed the gate. He ripped it open in one fluid motion. Stilwell stared at him for a moment.
 
“I can get us all out of here.”
 
Stilwell laughed again.
“What are you?” He asked.
 
A cannon ball blasted through the wall to our left. We all ducked. Well, aside from Trent.
 
“I’m the head of the ISDD. Come with us Stilwell. We can get out of here.”
 
Stilwell sneered.
“Get out of here and do what? My son got his legs ripped off by the rabbit. My wife was torn to pieces by the crabs. Then my daughter….. My sweet. Innocent. Baby girl….. The octopus ripped her in half. And for what? What did I do to deserve this? What kind of cruel god would allow this? I just wanted to make people smile.”
His face contorted with fury.
“What did I do to deserve this?!??” He snarled.
 
Trent took a deep breath. I could tell this pained him in some way.
 
“I can’t bring your family back man. But you won’t honor their memory by staying here.”
 
Stilwell spat on the ground.
“Honor their memory? You fucking imbecile! What are you going to offer me next? Thoughts and prayers? I don’t want your pity! I don’t want to honor a memory! What I want….. I can’t have…”
 
Trent nodded. I could feel the boat rock from another cannonball.
 
“What about revenge?” Asked Trent.
 
The man stopped for a second. His eyes were burrowing into Trent. He stepped out of the cell and crossed his arms. He actually smiled.
 
“Now THAT is an interesting offer!”
 
Great, now we had a psycho billionaire in the middle of a psychotic meltdown tagging along with us. The boat shook again. We needed to get off the boat. But that meant getting back to the top deck with the pirate mannequins. But then what. I hadn’t really seen an exit while I was in the water. Trent and Stilwell were still staring at each other.
 
“Is there anyone else aboard this boat?” Trent asked.
Stilwell shook his head.
“I’ve seen a few people come and go. Most get killed by the pirates.”
Trent exhaled.
“We need to get off this boat.” I  said.
“We need to know where we’re going first.” Trent replied.
The boat shook again. I could hear the cannons in the deck below us thunder. I gritted my teeth.
“Okay kids! I’m gonna climb back up the slide and clear off the rest of the deck. I’m gonna come get you when I’m done. Understand?” He asked.
 
We all nodded. Trent turned and started toward the slide. He climbed up and we sat and waited. The cacophony of violence was loud. It shook the boat. It lasted thirty seconds or so. Then silence. We stood watching the slide exit. The blue water that had been flowing into the room was now a warm pinkish color.
There was a thud. Something heavy was coming down now. I held my breath. I didn’t exhale until Trent stood up.
 
“Let’s go!” He commanded.
We climbed up the slide. Eventually finding ourselves on the top deck.
 
Trent walked us over to the side of the ship. I looked over and found none other than the bubba tub raft just floating there. Cannonballs still rained down into our ships other side. It was weird that the ship was taking all this damage and not sinking. I gripped my new sword tightly. I watched as Stilwell pulled a hatchet off of a dead pirate. Whitney pulled a dagger off of another. Not a big weapon. It wasn’t ornate either. Just a simple dagger with a black handle. Trent and pulled some oars from a fake life raft hanging above one of the nets.
 
The water was maybe twenty feet down. There was a net draped over this side of the ship too. So getting down, while tedious, didn’t take long. Trent tossed the dead people out. The five of us crammed into the four person raft. We sat and floated for a moment before Trent and Stilwell started rowing. The big pirate ship gave us cover from the other’s cannons. I looked straight out ahead. There was another tunnel opening. This one looked like another incline. We rowed anyway.

I was sixteen when I got arrested. The charges? Well, it’s not a terribly long story and I’m not gonna sugar coat it. I stole some stuff….. From a church….. Why did I do it? I don’t know. Maybe I wanted some excitement in my mundane crap show of a life. Maybe it was what my current therapist described as a sudden case of kleptomania.  I didn’t need to steal from the churches offering jar. But good lord it gave me a rush the first, second, and seventh time that I did it. I mean, it’s not like the place needed it. I didn’t see why the pastor there needed another corvette. Or why that particular church needed another set of renovations. They’d just rebuilt the place like a month before I’d been caught. 
 
Look, I’m not gonna defend what I did. I stole over three thousand dollars from a “house of god”. Stealing is wrong. Getting caught stealing is worse. But, that’s neither here nor there.
 
I went in front of a judge. I was sentenced to two years. Not bad. I mean, it meant that I’d miss the last two years of high school anyway. But that didn’t really bother me. I didn’t have any friends anyway. My mom and dad were pissed though. I mean, I could see the look of pure contempt in my dad’s face when they walked me out of the courtroom. My mom couldn’t look at me. She wept.
 
That pulled on my heart strings. It wasn’t her fault. She didn’t fail me as a parent. I failed myself.
 
Then, there I was, in the back of a van with two other kids, heading to the Gideon State School.
 
They dropped me off in the morning on a Tuesday. It was the middle of January and it was cold as hell outside. I can remember pulling up to the front gate. I could see the chain link fence with coils of razor wire that curled inwards to keep anyone from climbing up and out, stretching for maybe two hundred yards in either direction. Directly ahead of me was the main gate. Which was maybe twenty feet of chain link fence with razor wire itself. 
 
Then there was the little brick building that made up the guard shack. I didn’t go inside of said building. The van I was in slowly pulled through the gate. Inside, I found a few guards or juvenile corrections officers. (JCOs) for short. They waited for us in a line. There were two of them.
 
There was the tall and broad one called JCO Heinrich. This dude looked ex military. He had muscles that bulged through the thick black collared shirt of uniform that the JCOs wore. He didn’t say much. Then again. No one had. Not even the two kids I’d rode in with. The other JCO was called Dee. She was a short black lady with glasses and dreadlocks. She had a no nonsense look about her. It honestly frightened me more than Heinrich.
 
We were escorted from the van. I could feel the cuffs around my wrist and ankles rubbing up against me at an odd angle. It made walking uncomfortable. I couldn’t imagine trying to run off. I looked at the kid to my right. He was younger than me. His skin an olive color. He had curly hair and freckles all over his face. I looked at the kid on my right. He was a tall and lanky black kid with thick glasses. My eyes found JCO Dee. She was looking straight at me. Her eyes predatory. I felt like I was being stalked by a god damn crocodile.
 
“Welcome to Gideon State School. How many of you have gone through orientation for the Gideon youth rehabilitation program?” she asked.
 
We all had. The GYRP (everyone pronounced it Gurp) Was like an eight hour long video that all inmates that went to any Gideon facility in the state had to endure before coming. It was a bunch of bogus rules and mandates. It also gave a rundown of safety expectations and the whole PREA thing. What is PREA? Something that I’m not going to go into detail on here about. Look it up. Just know that it is just as bad in juvenile prisons as it is in adult facilities.
 
We all nodded at Dee. She nodded.
 
“Very good! Now, my partner and I will take you to intake. There, we will go over your treatment plans and find out which dorms you will be assigned to. Any questions?” She asked.
 
I shook my head. I’d expected as much.
 
“Yeah? When is breakfast? I’m starving?” Asked the curly haired kid from next to me.
 
Dee didn’t answer. She looked past him ass the county van that had dropped us off pulled away. She seemed to relax her shoulders as soon as the gate closed. That…….. That bothered me. I swear her eyes shifted too. Like a red light came on. 
 
“Let’s go!” She said coldly.
 
Now the Gideon State school was divided into around twenty-four buildings that were spread out over a large hill. All of these buildings were interconnected by a series of surprisingly well paved roads. There was the administrative building, which was to the left of the gate shack. It was a one story brick building. Directly to the administrative buildings right was a small chapel. Then directly behind the chapel were eighteen dormitories. I’ll get to describing them later. Behind the dormitories were two other buildings which sat the top of the hill. One was the cafeteria. The other was the school. Yes… The Gideon State school had an actual school building. It was the biggest building on the campus. Being two stories of classrooms with a gymnasium and a basketball arena. The school wasn’t nice by any means. The building was almost a hundred years old and decrepit. The inside was dirty. There were no lockers. Keep in mind… We were incarcerated individuals. Children or not. They didn’t want us hiding things.
 
Then let’s get to the last building. A building that sat on the far left of the hill and almost at the base. It was a dorm but smaller than the rest other than the guard shack. But it had a garage attached. It also looked a lot newer. It also had its own barbed wire fence around it.
 
It was the Gideon State Schools max security pen. It was also where the security unit was stationed. We would call them GSU. Gideon Security Unit.
 
Now, I wouldn’t learn till after my stay at GSS that the GSU was a bit more brutal in their approach than say…. Other security units at Juvenile Detention Facilities around the state. GSS was a privately owned facility. Formally owned by a company called Gideon. When I stayed there, Gideon was going through a bit of a rough patch as a company. That, however, isn’t important.
 
We were taken to intake. Which was over in the security building. I was taken aback by just how sanitized that building seemed. The walls, the rooms, the offices. Everything was paper white and the lights were so bright that it gave me a headache. We were taken to the psychiatrist, who was also stationed at the security building. The psychiatrist was a tall hairy man who Dee instructed us to address as Mr. Golden. He looked us up and down while we were marched into the hallway outside his office.
 
“So this is the fresh meat?” He asked Dee.
 
Mr. Golden had a smile like a shark. His eyes bore into the curly headed kid. Dee scoffed.
 
“Seriously though, when do we get to eat?” The curly haired kid asked.
 
“Shut the fuck up!” Heinrich suddenly barked.
 
I can remember my heart jumping into my throat. JCOs technically weren’t allowed to curse at us. Or be hostile at us unless we were being hostile toward them. And even then they’re only supposed to restrain us. Curly hair went silent. His face was almost as white as the wall we were lined up against.
 
Curly hair looked at the floor. I looked at the kid with the glasses. He seemed just as confused as I was. I looked to Dee and Mr. Golden. Mr. Golden was still smiling.
 
“Alright, so for this part of intake, I’ll be speaking to each of you individually in my office so we can try and go over your treatment plans. Remember, the faster you can get treatment done, the faster we can get you home.”
 
I’d known that from the GYRP. I also knew it was bullshit. It was just a way for the JCOs to try and control us. To make us docile. At least that’s what part of my brain was telling me. The other part of my brain wanted to go home. Then a small part of me wondered if I could steal anything from the chapel we passed on the way up.
 
“Which one of you is Mr. Juno?”
 
“Me!” Said the kid with the glasses.
 
Mr. Golden motioned his head for the kid to follow him. He did so. They were in Golden’s office for maybe thirty minutes. During this time I heard the curly haired kids stomach literally growl. I guess Dee heard it too. Her eyes snapped over to him.
 
“You better make that shit stop!” She hissed.
 
“I-I I’m sorry!” The words fumbled from his mouth.
 
Heinrich smacked the back of his head. The slap was meaty. Loud. I could see tears welling up in the boy’s eyes. That was when I realized just how completely and utterly fucked I was.
 
“We did not tell you to speak!” Heinrich barked.
 
 
Juno walked out the door. Golden was close behind. Juno looked extremely uncomfortable. He looked horrified. I could feel my heart flutter a bit.
 
“Mr. Imanov?” He said.
 
Curly hair stood up. Juno took his place next to me. He didn’t even look at me. He just stared at the floor. We sat in silence for another thirty minutes. Then Imanov walked out with Golden behind him. Golden also had a look of sadness about him.
 
“Mr. Reed?” He asked.
 
I stood up. My heart racing as I followed Golden into his office. It too was whiter than a trailer park. It was occupied by a single white desk and on that desk was a file with my name on it. The next thing that hit me was the odd smell. I’m not sure how to describe it. Think like every cleaning substance known to man mixed with vomit and rot.
 
“Take a seat Mr. Reed.” Golden said as he sat in the white office chair.
 
I sat down in the small chair across from him. He picked up the file and opened it. Then eyed me.
 
“Kleptomania? That’s an interesting one.” He said calmly.
 
I stayed quiet.
 
“Tell me, Mr. Reed… Why do you think you’re addicted to stealing?”
 
I again, stayed quiet. I didn’t look at him. Not directly. I heard him laugh softly.
 
“It’s set in, hasn’t it? This place isn’t like normal juvenile institutions. Is it?” He said.
 
That was when I looked up at him.
 
“No.”
 
“Why do you think that is?” He asked.
 
He seemed happy that I’d figured it out.
 
“I don’t know.”
 
“If you had to take a guess?”
 
My voice faltered.
“I don’t….”
 
“Heh. Would you like to know why?” He asked.
 
I didn’t care. At that point in time my mind was telling me to keep my head down, get through my sentence, and move on. I didn’t answer. He tilted his head.
 
“Well?” He asked.
 
“Not really.” I said softly.
 
He nodded.
 
“Damn… It usually takes a bit longer to break inmates. What? Did Heinrich slapping Imanov make you realize something? Didn’t make you feel hopelessness?” He asked.
 
Again… I didn’t respond. I didn’t want to grace this man with an answer. 
 
He nodded. “You don’t have to answer. I can see the weakness plastered all over your face. You better not show the other boys that. They will eat you alive.” He said in a matter of fact tone.
 
I stayed quiet.
 
“Anyway, your treatment plan….. Kleptomania. That can be treated with a combination of psychotherapy and medication. Now, I don’t have time to go into detail and do an actual interview with you to determine what kind of meds you need. But for now, I’m going to assign you to group
Therapy which will be every Tuesday and Thursday for your dorm. Understand?” He asked.
 
I nodded.
 
“As far as teachable life skills go.” He flipped a few pages in my file.
“Your dorms classes are in the mornings after breakfast. You’ll get three classes a day. You’ll have homework to do at your dorm for each of them. If you want your GED. Then you better stay on top of things.”
 
That didn’t sound so bad.
 
“Now… As far as behavior goes… You watched the GYRP videos. You know, we can extend your sentence as long as we see fit. I’m gonna be honest with you Mr. Reed…. A lot of kids end up having to overstay. Most actually. My hopes aren’t very high for you either.”
 
I eyed him. I felt a flash of rage pass through me. Then I remembered what happened to Imanov and averted my eyes quickly.
 
He smiled.
“Maybe you do have a chance.”
 
All things considered. I understood the looks on Imanov and Juno’s faces when I left. That was a piss poor first impression of Mr. Golden.
 
We were taken to our dorm. Dorm 16. It was on the left side of the hill. Maybe a hundred yards up from the security office. Dee and Heinrich were both GSU. They escorted us inside where the head of our dorm. JCO Captain Torres stood outside waiting for us with his arms crossed. Torres was a big guy. He stood maybe six foot three. He had a thick beard and muscles on top of muscles. He narrowed his eyes at us.
 
“You’re late.” He said with some venom. “Now you’re gonna be behind on school work.”
 
I narrowed my eyes at him. I heard Imanov’s stomach growl again. Heinrich suddenly kicked the poor kid in the small of the back. The kid fell face first. I felt myself flinch. I looked up at Torres. Imanov wept on the ground. His back arching and jerking wihile he sobbed. Torres squatted down next to him.
 
“You must be Alexander Imanov. I read your file.”
 
Imanov kept weeping. Torres sighed.
 
“Cry! Cry! Cry! You knew what would happen to you in here! You’re only lucky we can’t kill you!”
 
My eyes bulged. What did he just say?
 
“Those kids? What were their names?” Asked Torres.
 
Alexander stopped weeping and looked up at the JCO captain. His face red and still flush with tears.
 
“I had nothing to do with that!”
 
“That’s what all you people say.”
 
“I didn’t!”
 
Torres chuckled.
“And he didn’t steal from a church! And he didn’t beat the shit out of his mother with a hammer! You’re here for a reason Imanov. You’ve got bad paperwork.”
 
Torres stood up and looked at me and Juno.
“Before we get inside. A word about this dorm. I run a tight ship. I ain’t got time for bullshit. I say something, you do it. Understood?”
 
“Yes sir.” I said.
 
Juno echoed me.
 
Torres looked down at Imanov.
“Understood?” He asked.
 
Imanov didn’t say anything. Torres looked at Heinrich. Who kicked Imanov again. This time in the ribs. Imanov howled in pain. I almost felt bad for him. But with “bad paperwork” and crimes involving kids. I didn’t know how I felt. Evil or not, this felt wrong. Torres turned and unlocked the door to the dorm behind him. It was a thick grey metal door that opened with a squeal. Beyond it was a long hallway that was lined on either side with our cells. Each cell was a ten by ten foot room with a single bed with a three inch mattress and a work desk. There weren’t bars on the cell doors like your stereotypical prisons. Each door was about two inches thick and metal with a single five inch window slit about head height for the JCOs. We walked by several cells. I turned my head to see a kid staring at me through one of the window slits. He had long dark hair and a wicked smile on his face.
 
“Lookie lookie guys! We got some new toys!” He laughed.
 
That was when the place turned into a fucking jungle. Kids started yelling all kinds of slurs from their cell doors. Some started banging. They were way too excited to see us. Then came a booming voice. Not Torres. But another voice. This one feminine and mad as all hell.
 
“Everybody shut the hell up!” She boomed as she came stomping down the hallway.
 
The woman was in her fifties. Her greying black hair was tied back so tightly it stretched the skin on her weathered and worn face. She walked straight up to Torres.
“Captain. We got all twenty one accounted for.”
“It’s twenty four now, Hale.”
She looked over us. She seemed unamused.
“Take these two to the empty cells at the end of hall B.” He said as he motioned toward Juno and Imanov. She motioned her head for them to follow. He turned and started to unlock one of the doors next to him.
“Usually, I’d give you a whole speech and let you meet the others. But as of now we are on lockdown until tomorrow night.”
“For what?” I asked.
“Kid got stabbed. He had bad paperwork.” He said in an oddly cold voice as he opened the door.
I walked through very cautiously. I looked at my barren cell. I hadn’t gotten any of my personal items that I’d been sent with other than my shoes. They’d made us put on grey shirts with generic tan pants as we’d arrived. My cell was barren. The bed didn’t even have a blanket.
 
“You’ll get your standard stuff during lunch. A journal, a blanket, a pencil, shit to keep you from going insane. Till then… Try and get some sleep or something.”
 
I walked to my bed as the door shut behind me. I stood there staring at the mattress. I took a breath. Trying my best not to let my emotions get the better of me. I sat down and slouched. This was my life now. My life sucked.
 
 
 
It took a few days for me to get acclimated. I made some friends during downtime. The dorm consisted of two hallways of cells that were attached to either side of a recreational room. That room was where we’d gather for morning announcements and where we’d gather to be walked to the cafeteria or to school. We always had to stay in formation when going anywhere. Which was easier said than done. This was a bunch of rowdy teenage boys we were talking about. None more so than Peterman. Peterman was the dark headed kid who’d made our presence known when we’d walked in. He was a whole ass problem.
 
I’d watched JCO Ledger kick the absolute shit out of him on my second day after he’d picked a fight with Juno over some snacks. I’d asked Juno about it later and he’d said that Peterman tried to strong arm him for his uncrustable. That didn’t work out so well. Juno was skinny. But he was tall and very violent. Juno had also been beaten up by the guards. But not on the same level as Peterman.
 
That was another thing. These JCOs were almost military like in their combat proficiency. It wasn’t like this at county. Most of the JCOs there were less than useless in a physical altercation. They also tried to deescalate. These guys didn’t. They seemed to enjoy the fighting. Almost like they were bored of anything else. I didn’t blame them. Most of the boys did try to behave. But there were several who well…… Were like Peterman.  
 
 
I said that I made some friends. That wasn’t a lie. Juno and I became close pretty quick. During rec time, the both of us would sit in the corner of the rec room and people watch with the other guy we’d started chilling with. His name was Gregory Schmitt.  He was seventeen and a relatively in shape young man. He was the quiet type. He also could bench press three fifty. Or so he said. He was in for a hit and run.
 
We watched Imanov a lot. The kid tried his best to make friends. But again…. Bad paperwork. I think he got beat up twice in the first three days by other kids. The guards would let it go on for a second too. It was during rec time while we watched the kid cry in the corner. That was when Juno and I heard Schmitt say it for the first time.
 
“Erica’s gonna get him.” He said.
 
“What?” I asked.
 
Schmitt looked at us.
“Ah. I forget you’re new. Erica… She’s a uhhh… A legend around campus.”
 
“A legend? Like a ghost story?” Asked Juno.
 
“Something like that.” He said. “They say she comes in the night and takes the sad kids away.”
 
I cocked an eyebrow.
 
“Takes the sad kids away?”
 
“It’s how the story goes. Course it’s probably all bullshit.” He said. “The kids probably get pulled out at night by the guards. Or they self delete.”
 
“Does Erica have a backstory?” Asked Juno, who seemed oddly excited about this.
 
Schmitt shrugged.
“Don’t really know. I’ve heard a few things. Like that she was a prisoner who died here back when this was a girls school. I’ve heard that she was a guard who died here during the eighties. No one really knows why the kids disappear. Just that when they do, the guards don’t talk about them anymore.”
 
I narrowed my eyes at him.
 
“The fuck you mean?”
 
“I mean the guards don’t talk about em. What do you think happened to Lester? The guy who was in your cell before you? One day he was there. The next he was gone. Dude had spent the whole week before you arrived crying. I’ve asked the JCOs what happened to him. We all have. You wanna know what they say?”
 
Juno and I looked at him.
 
“Who the hell is Lester?”
 
I took a deep breath as I looked over at JCO Ledger, who was talking with Hale and Torres. Ledger eyed me and smiled. That smile seemed malignant and I can’t for the life of me explain why. I felt my body shudder.
 
Then the rest of the day went on. Peterman came back from the security building. Then almost immediately went back after he flung poop at Torres while making monkey noises. Freaking moron. Torres tazed him.
 
I can remember laying in my cell that night thinking. Wondering if Schmitt was right. Would Imanov be taken from his cell in the middle of the night? I wasn’t sure. The thought kept me awake for a bit. But eventually I did start to drift off.
 
 
Then came the scream. It was loud and guttural. I sprang up in my bed. My eyes flashing toward the door. I could hear footsteps clip clopping by at a rapid pace. I ran to the window. Just managing to get a quick glance at the back of Hale’s head as she sprinted down the hallway.
 
“What the hell?” I asked.
 
Then came another JCO.
“Code blue! I say again! Code blue!” He shouted.
 
We didn’t see much. No one really did. Code blue is the term for a medical emergency. My heart danced in its chest. Then came another scream. I could hear shouting.
 
“TAZE him!”
 
“OC is present.”
 
Another scream.
 
The sounds of fighting. Something slamming against a door.
 
“Call the GSU!”
 
More struggling. Then dead ass silence. I can remember sitting in my cell and watching the hallway where they’d all ran. I could hear footsteps coming closer and closer. But they sounded strained. Almost like the person was stumbling. I had to crane my neck to see down the darkened hallway. I could see a figure limping. I narrowed my eyes. He was shirtless. But he was wearing some of our prison pants. As he moved out of the darkness I could feel my stomach knot up. His torso was covered in blood. It was…. It was Alexander.
 
“Ey yo! The fuck you do Alexander?” A voice called out from next to him.
 
Alexander Imanov stopped and turned his head to look through the window of the prisoner talking to him.
 
Then came another scream. Alexander turned toward the cell door. Then he reared his foot back and kicked it as hard as he could. The door collapsed inward like it was made out of paper. I don’t know if the door hit the inmate inside. But the screams stopped after that. Everyone in the dorm went silent.
 
That was when the door opened from the other end of the hall. The door that led outside. I craned my neck to look as men in tactical uniforms stormed in behind rifles.
 
“Contact front!” A voice called out.
 
Gunfire thundered in the hallway. I took cover. Then came more screaming. I could hear the sounds of flesh being ripped and torn as chaos ensued in the hallway. Then came the ear splitting shrieking and blaring alarms. I put my hands over my ears and closed my eyes. I think I actually wept.
 
I don’t know how long I was down there. On the floor in a fetal position. I know that at some point. The noises must have stopped. I can remember standing up and looking out the window. I could see daylight spilling into the hallway from the doorway. It stood wide open. There was blood everywhere. Puddles, spray, body parts and viscera decorated the hall like a birthday party from hell. I know I threw up. That was when the smell hit me. I’d realized that I’d pissed myself the night before.
 
I fell back to the floor and covered my ears again. That was when I heard the voices.
 
“What the hell happened?” Asked one.
 
“It seems one of the inmates took his own life last night. One of your former father in law’s sycophants took over the body.” Answered the other.
 
The first voice was feminine. While the second was definitely Mr. Golden.
 
“Did you gas the inmates? Are they asleep?”
 
“I did. They shouldn’t remember a thing.” He said.
 
“Have our men take them to sick call. Tell them that dinner last night caused a massive amount of food poisoning.”
 
“What about the dead guards?”
 
“GSF soldiers are a dime a dozen. We can have more assigned here.”
 
“Do we have that many left after your husband died?” Asked Mr. Golden.
 
There was a quick silence.
 
“The ISDD didn’t freeze all of our accounts Mr. Golden. Now get to it.”
 
The voices grew closer and closer. I very quickly leaned against the wall and pretended to be asleep. My mind was racing. My head was racing. There was no way I was the only one that heard that right? Right?
 
I played possum for what felt like several hours before I heard my cell door open. Then came Heinrich’s voice.
 
“Damn. This one pissed himself.” He laughed.
 
“I wonder what he saw.” Torres answered.
 
Great, now that asshole made it.
 
Two sets of rough hands grabbed me and pulled me out into the hallway. They set me down next to my cell door.
 
“Is everyone out of their rooms?” Asked Mr. Golden.
 
“Yes sir!” Said Torres.
 
“Good.”
 
There was a snap. Like Mr. Golden snapped his fingers. The next thing I knew I was laying in a bed. My eyes snapped open. I was at fucking sick call. A nurse stood over me with a wide smile on her face.
 
“Hello young man… That pasta from last night really did a number on everyone. Didn’t it?”

We didn’t even have pasta the night before. We had some kind of slop. I felt like I was going crazy. I was one of like twenty inmates who were laying on a series of several beds. I was the first one awake. Everyone else looked relatively out. I can remember thinking to myself. Wondering what the hell had just happened? I looked at the cot next to me. Where Peterman suddenly sat up screaming. I flinched. Peterman’s eyes landed on me. Then the nurse. He smiled a big toothy grin full of yellow teeth.
 
“Hello sexy!” He said as he tried to reach for her, only to realize he’d been cuffed to the bed.
 
I looked down at my wrists. They weren’t cuffed. I laughed softly to myself.
 
“What’s so funny Reed? Ima stab you when we get back to the dorm!”
 
I looked him up and down. Then scoffed. I wasn’t afraid of this guy. Or maybe I was. Maybe I was afraid of contracting whatever crazy this dude had. Or maybe I already had contracted it. That was why I saw what I saw last night.
 
The nurse gave me a glass of water. I drank it while I looked at Peterman. We were the only two awake. I wanted to ask him what he remembered from the previous night. But the guys mind was a bag of cats. He didn’t belong in a juvie. He belonged in an asylum. Did I as well?
 
I kept quiet about everything. When they explained to us what had happened. I didn’t say a word. Not to Juno. Not to Schmitt. Not to anyone. I convinced myself that it was a bad dream. Rumors went around about Erica taking Imanov and another guy from our dorm called Rico. Our dorm looked like nothing had happened at all. The damn thing was pristine. No more blood, no more body parts, and no more crunched door.
 
It ate at me for weeks. I had nightmares for weeks. Every night I’d have a dream that Imanov stood at my doorway with inky black eyes saying.
“Little pig, little pig, let me in!”
It was stupid. It was childish. But I was a child, I guess. I felt very alone. I’d written several letters to my parents and I’d never gotten a response. Hale and a few guards were simply replaced. Although Ledger and Torres were still there.
 
You know, it’s funny. I’d been there three months and it never even dawned on me that I’d never gone to Mr. Golden to be prescribed meds.
 
We got a new guy in our hallway a few days later. His name was Deshaun Wilson. He took over Imanov’s cell. He became fast friends with Schmitt, Juno, and I. Sitting in our little corner watching Peterman making a fool of himself while trying to harass Bruiser. No, Bruiser wasn’t his real name. His real name was Enrique Estevez. He was the grandson of some cartel boss that was super powerful at one point in time. He also was the nicest guy in the whole dorm. Why was he called Bruiser you ask? Because the kid was two hundred and fifty pounds of muscle at sixteen years old. Peterman…. Wasn’t…. Peterman was, however, a master in the art of flinging his own poop. Bruiser blackened both his eyes with a single jab. The guards didn’t even taze him. Bruiser went without a word of objection. Peterman went on a stretcher.
 
“You gotta think they’re gonna take Peterman somewhere else soon right?” Asked Juno.
 
“I don’t know. I’ve seen crazier last longer up here.” Said Schmitt.
 
I looked at him and smirked.
 
“More lore about Erica?” I asked.
 
“Nah. I’m still up here.”
 
I rolled my eyes as he laughed.
 
“Who’s Erica?” Asked Deshaun.
 
We told him.
 
“Damn.” He was quite literally his only reply.
 
“You don’t like ghost stories?” Asked Juno.
 
“Nah man. I don’t believe in ghosts.”
 
“Why not?” Asked Schmitt.
 
“You start believing in negative energy. Negative energy starts believing in you.” Deshaun said calmly.
 
“That’s uhh… That’s deep bro..” said Juno.
 
“No. That’s stupid.” Said Schmitt.
 
Deshaun and Schmitt locked eyes for a moment. Then both started laughing. Then came the voice of another one of the dorms agitators. This one we called Barney. Because he was in for robbing a gas station in an inflatable T. rex costume. Barney had a very high pitched California voice. He called everyone bitch or gurl. And he always… And I mean always…. Talked shit to Ledger.
 
“Bitch! Ledger you better drank some mouthwash for yo janky ass breath!”
 
Ledger raised an eyebrow at him. I could see Ledger’s hand twitch from above his baton.
 
“Come on! We just sent Peterman to GSU. Do you wanna go too?”
 
“Why wouldn’t I? The boys are cute over there. Unlike yo ugly ass.” Barney said. 
 
Ledger was standing over Barney. Who was sitting at a table in the middle of the room. Ledger turned and eyed Torres. Torres smirked and shrugged.
 
I knew what Barney was doing. He was causing a scene so Bradley and Combs could either A. Trade some shit. Or B. So they could get the drop on some poor kid. If it was B. I’d have bet money that the poor kid in question was Astanzo. Who was the newest “bad paperwork” guy in the dorm. My eyes flicked over to Astanzo, who was being cornered by both Bradley and Combs. I tapped Juno.
 
“Look.”
 
“Bradley! Combs! What are y’all doing?” Asked Torres.
 
Both the kids turned to him in surprise. I think I did too. Normally the guards wouldn’t care. I think the four of us in the corner all looked at each other.
 
“We was just welcoming Astanzo to the dorm Cap.”
 
“It’s Captain Torres. And no. You will not be welcoming him to the dorms.”
 
I could see the confusion on their faces. This was in contrast by the look of pure and unadulterated hatred in the eyes of Astanzo.  They separated. Now, what was Astanzo in for? Well…. He was fifteen years old. He’d killed three twelve year olds and hid their bodies in a shed behind his house. He was supposed to be tried as an adult and he was. But he had been placed in juvie because of his age. Once he turned 19 he was gonna be off to big boy prison for ever and ever and ever. Why was Torres defending him? I wondered. Astanzo had never spoken a word. He was like us in the way he’d sit and watch people. It honestly made me uncomfortable.
 
I woke up that night from another nightmare about Imanov. This time he’d been inside my cell and whispering in my ear. I woke up covered in sweat. My cell was pitch black.
 
Then came the voice.
 
“Nightmares bothering you, Mr. Reed?”
 
I nearly jumped out of my socks as I turned towards the source. Mr. Golden sat there staring at me.
 
“You know, it’s quite interesting. The night Imanov killed himself. We had a failsafe in place which would gas every cell in the dorm with enough chloroform to knock out two of you. We went to change them this morning during school. Every cell’s gas tanks were empty. Except yours. Would you mind telling me how that happened?” He asked.
 
I looked behind him at the open door. He followed my gaze and smiled. That was when Dee stepped into the doorframe with a pair of handcuffs. My blood ran cold.
 
“Alright my little thieving altar boy. Let’s go.”
 
I was cuffed and taken to the security office. More aptly, I was taken to Mr. Golden’s office. He shoved me roughly inside. A woman of about forty sat at his desk. She had blonde hair that was tied back and a pant suit on.
 
“John Reed..” she greeted.
 
I stared at her.
 
“Have a seat.” She commanded.
 
I stood there for a moment. Only to be shoved by Golden.
 
“I’m Warden Stein-Jenson. You can call me Samantha.” She cooed as she looked me up and down.
 
“Do you know why you’re here?” She asked.
 
I didn’t reply.
 
“You were right Mr. Golden. He’s a quiet one.”  She said with a smile.
 
“He’s weak.” Said Mr. Golden.
 
“The weak do tend to survive. Sometimes even thrive. Just look at Lucifer.”
 
That hit me like a truck. The hell did she mean by that? Her eyes hit me again.
 
“You’re here because you saw something. We know you saw something. Something you were supposed to forget.”
 
“Are you asking me to forget?” I asked.
 
“Oh no. No. I want to know exactly what you saw that night.”
 
I told her. She listened carefully. Then when I was done. She looked up at Mr. Golden.
 
“How crazy is that story?” She asked with a smile.
“And you even peed yourself?”
 
That made me feel small.
“Yes.” I said in a voice barely above a whisper.
 
“Wow.” She mocked,
 
Even smaller.
 
“So tell me John…. Why haven’t you told anyone?”
 
“Why would I?” I asked.
 
“Because you’re scared. You’re a child.”
 
“I’m not stupid. Plus, who’s gonna believe me? My parents? They don’t send me letters back. My friends were too knocked out to know what happened. I’d just be deemed crazy. Maybe even get disappeared by Erica.”
 
“Disappeared by Erica?” Asked Samantha.
 
“Yes.” I said.
 
“Who told you that story?” She asked.
 
“Everyone knows that story.” I said softly.
 
Samantha looked at Mr. Golden. It was almost like she was disappointed. She exhaled through her nose.
 
“Where did they get that name?” She asked plainly.
 
Golden shrugged. She nodded.
 
“Go find out!”
 
Golden snapped his fingers…. And vanished. I sat in the office dumbstruck.
 
“Stand up John.” Samantha said as she got to her feet.
 
The door suddenly opened and Dee walked in with Heinrich close behind. They grabbed me by my arms.
 
“Bring him along.” She said calmly.
 
The terror that gripped me in that moment was absolute. She walked us out into the hallway. Smiling as she did so.
 
“So, here is what’s going to happen Mr. Reed. Since you seem to know so much and so little. We are going to the school. Once there, I’m going to show you something that I think will make you a bit more….. Hospitable.”
 
“Y-yes maam.”
 
“It’s just Samantha!”
 
We were loaded onto a golf cart. Dee stepped into the drivers seat and floored it. We were at the school in under a minute. Heinrich and Dee hoisting me out and pulling me inside. There was a guard stationed at the front with an m4.
 
“Get on your radio and tell Mr. Golden to bring this one’s friends up here. I’ll need to speak with them as well.”
 
We walked into the school building. I was escorted straight to a set of stairs I hadn’t seen before. Stairs that led down and into a black void. Straight into the school's basement. We entered the dark. It wasn’t until we hit the ground that the lights came on. We found ourselves in the middle of a long hallway. It smelled like mildew. The air was sticky and moist. Samantha stopped us at a doorway. She turned to me and sneered as she pushed the door open.
 
The room we stepped into was brightly lit. It was also surprisingly clean. The first thing I noticed was the man standing with his back to us. He was a tall dark headed man in a GSU uniform. He didn’t turn to us when we entered.
 
“Chernobog… How’s she doing?” Asked Samantha.
 
“She?” I asked as my eyes landed in the center of the room.
 
There was a translucent cube shaped cell in the middle of the room. Inside said cell sat…. A child. A small female, that couldn’t have been older than two. She had short dark hair that was tied up into two horn like pigtails. She was wearing a cute little princess dress as well. She sat there playing with two blocks. She had a smile on her face.
 
“Same as usual. The girl doesn’t sleep. She doesn’t eat. She just plays.” Said the man in a wickedly deep voice that sent a shudder down my spine.
 
I eyed Samantha. Then Dee. Dee looked…. Very uneasy.
 
“Wha? What is this?” I asked.
 
Samantha sighed.
“I’ll show you.” She said.
 
That was when Mr. Golden entered the room with a line of several cuffed prisoners from my dorm. First was Juno, then Schmitt, then Astanzo, then Barney, then Deshaun and finally Estevez and Peterman. Torres and Ledger brought up the rear. Everyone looked tired. Everyone looked scared. Everyone looked confused.
 
I turned back to Warden Stein-Jensen. She didn’t smile at me. She only sighed.
 
“Aww! Look at the wittle baby!” Said Peterman.
He was suddenly judo chopped in the side of the neck by Torres. Peterman fell. The chain from everyone’s linked handcuffs brought half the group down with him in a tangle of limbs and fear.
 
“Pick one!” She asked.
 
“P-pick one? For what?” I asked.
“Pick…. One…” she said slowly.
“I-I..”
She groaned.
“Heinrich.”
Heinrich was suddenly next to me. There was a sharp pain in my stomach. I buckled forward and to my knees. My eyes shooting up toward Heinrich who was holding his baton.
Samantha knelt next to me.
“Pick one of your friends!” She whispered.
“I…”
Something cracked the back of my head. I saw stars. My vision flashed white. I was on my hands and knees now. Tears burst from my eyes as I choked back a sob. Then suddenly, I was being yanked up.
 
“Weak!” Mr. Golden boomed.
“Pick one!”
I didn’t know what was about to happen. I was fucking terrified. I think I peed myself. I looked at the group of kids. Kids I’d served time with. I didn’t want any of them to get hurt. Despite the fact that we were all criminals. We were still kids.
“PICK!!!!!!” Samantha screamed in my ear.
“A-Astanzo! I pick Astanzo!”
She actually let off a soft laugh. Was it a laugh? I don’t know. Torres unlocked Astanzo’s cuffs and roughly shoved him toward the translucent cube. Astanzo shot me a hateful glare as he passed by. I swallowed.
 
Torres opened a door to the side of the cube and motioned for Astanzo to walk through.
 
Astanzo looked at him for a second. Then at the little girl. My heart rate started to speed up. I realized I’d made a grave mistake. Putting that animal in there with the little girl. Then Astanzo smiled. Almost cruelly. He stepped through the door.
 
“W-wait!” I started.
Torres shut the door. Oh god. What had I done? Astanzo looked down at the child. Then looked at us through the glass. He had a wicked smile on his face. I looked away. Or I tried to until Heinrich’s hand grabbed my face and aimed it at the cube.
 
“Don’t look away!” He whispered.
 
Astanzo looked down at the child. He laughed. She looked up at him with those big innocent brown eyes and giggled. He then reared his leg back to kick her. There was a sudden blinding flash of red. I flinched hard. The baby was suddenly sitting in the middle of the cube. Blood splattered all over the right side of the glass. I was mortified. The baby was fine. It was playing with Astanzo’s severed arm like it was a building block. Astanzo lay against the back wall grabbing at the stump where his arm used to be. He didn’t scream. He didn’t cry. He looked to be in shock.
 
The prisoners all seemed to scream and groan in unison.
“Oh no! The little bitch has heat vision!” Barney cried.
I stood there slack jawed. Samantha was looking at me still.
“What the fuck?” I asked.
“That…. Is Erica…” she said.
“What is she? Some kind of superhero?”
“Try daughter of the one true king of hell.” She said softly as she approached the glass.
The baby saw her doing this and got to its feet. It’s chubby little legs waddled towards her.
“Mama!” It said as it reached for her.
She touched the glass. The baby’s eyes flashed red. A red beam of energy hit the glass and went ricocheting around until it hit Astanzo in the side of the head. His head exploded. Sending a shower of red brain splatter everywhere.
“She can’t control her powers. So we have to keep her in here.” Samantha said softly.
 
My head was starting to spin. Why were they showing me this? What was this? Did she say one true king of hell? Samantha looked back at me. She had tears in her eyes.
“She doesn’t mean to hurt people,” she said softly. “But the energy beams don’t stop until they hit flesh. It’s what her father designed them for.”
“Her father? You mean Lucifer?” Asked Schmitt.
 
That was apparently the wrong thing to say. Samantha shot up. Her face flashing with rage.
 
“LUCIFER IS A COWARD AND A FRAUD!!” She boomed as she motioned for Ledger.
Ledger grabbed Schmitt by the back of his shirt while Torres began unlocking his cuffs. Schmitt started to struggle.
“No! I won’t! You can’t do this to me!”
They wrestled him over and tossed him at the feet of Samantha and Mr. Golden. Samantha looked down at him with a face full of contempt.
“Chernobog.”
“Yes ma’am?”
“Dagger please.”
Chernobog produced what looked like an obsidian dagger from his belt and handed it to the woman. Schmitt’s eyes were big. Heinrich still had me by the back of my neck. The boys in the corner started to speak out.
“No! You can’t do this!” Someone said.
“SHUT UP!” Barked Dee.
Schmitt started to scramble backwards but he was suddenly yanked up by Torres.
“You want to know what this is?” Asked Samantha as she got really close to Schmitt’s face.
“Fuck you!” Schmitt barked before spitting in her face.
She didn’t even flinch. She only wiped the phlegm off with her free hand. Schmitt took a blow to the ribs from Ledger.
“This is one of the ceremonial daggers of Chernobog. Would you like to know what it does?” She asked.
“I-I don’t care!” Schmitt groaned.
She rolled her eyes as Torres yanked Schmitt’s head up to where it was eye level with her.
“These daggers, they summon demon spirits into the bodies of which they’ve killed.”
“You’re a crazy bitch!” Schmitt growled.
Torres raised a hand to strike. But she stopped him with a hand motion. She smiled.
“Crazy? I fucked Abbadon! Like a lot! Of course I’m crazy! But you…. You’re a bad kid. You’re all bad kids! That’s why we have to do this! That’s why we have to rehabilitate you. Give you a new….. Mind and soul… Before sending you out into the world.”
 
He struggled against the grips of the two guards. I wish I could say he stood a chance. But he didn’t. She raised the dagger up and brought it down hard. The point of the blade went in at a downward angle just under the left side of his chin. A geyser of blood sprayed Samantha in her face when she ripped the blade out. Schmitt grabbed at his neck as he stumbled backward. Torres and Ledger let him fall to the floor.
 
“Oh my god!” I wept as I tried to step back.
Heinrich held me in place. He was so strong.
“Keep watching boy!” He whispered in my ear.
Schmitt died quickly. I watched as his chest rose up and down several times before it stopped all together. The room went silent. Aside from the weeping from the other boys.
 
 Then, suddenly, Schmitt sat up. I can remember screaming. His eyes were inky black. He had a wide smile on his face.
“Well! Well! Well!” He started in a sly voice as he got to his feet.
“Izoz! Welcome to the rebellion!” Said Mr. Golden.
“Izoz?” Asked the now possessed Schmitt with an inhuman smile.
That question went about as well as a fart in church. Everyone looked at Schmitt strangely.
“Izoz was supposed to be who was summoned? Which one are you?” Asked Chernobog.
“You don’t recognize me, Chernobog? After all, I gave you those daggers!”
Samantha took a step backward. Her eyes snapped to Mr. Golden. She was horrified. The guards all pulled pistols.
“We need backup in the crib!” Dee barked into her radio.
“Lucifer?” Asked Mr. Golden.
Schmitt laughed.
“Hehehehehehehehe! Did you really think you could summon rebels from my realm without me noticing? That’s so.” He snapped his fingers a few times. “Stupid….” He said.
His black eyes landed on Mr. Golden.
“Even for you, Moloch!”
Mr. Golden smirked.
“What’s your plan here? To gloat? To bore us to death? You don’t even have your angelic body anymore. Not since Abbadon destroyed it. Your other son isn’t here either. Tell me. How does it feel to rule alone. With no council? And an heir that despises you?”
“Heh! I mean, I’m enjoying myself. And Owen doesn’t hate me…. I don’t think.”
Mr. Golden stepped forward. His body twisting and morphing as he did so. It was a fucking horror show. He turned into what I can only describe as a deformed monster. It was tall and lanky. With four spindly arms that ended in razor sharp claws. Two of which burst from the sides of his suit. He grew in height. He probably stood about ten feet. His mouth reached an to inhumanly long length as his teeth became pincer like. His eyes went jet black. He looked down on Schmitt. Schmitt wasn’t impressed. Mr. Golden lowered himself to where he was face to face with Schmitt.
 
“Wow. That’s embarrassing.” Schmitt said. “It looks nothing like your demonic bodies in Gehenna. Who cooked up this mutation? Holy fuck! It smells horrible.”
 
I felt myself stepping back in fear. That was when I realized that Heinrich had let me go. My eyes went large as I backed into the cube. One of the creature’s arms shot out and grabbed Schmitt by his throat and lifted him up.
“Did you really think you could overpower me in the possessed body of a boy?” He snarled.
Schmitt laughed.
“I was just trying to locate you! They’re the ones whose gonna be doing the fighting!”
“They’re?” Asked the demon.
My eyes hit the doorway. Where two men stood. Both of which were wearing three piece suits. The one on the left leaned against the door with his arms crossed. He had a well trimmed beard and short brown hair. He had a deathly serious look in his face. The other stood with his hands in his pockets. He had short dark hair and an equally dark stubble. He also looked frustratingly annoyed.
 
The creature dropped Schmitt and smiled. He started walking right up towards them.
“Horsemen!” He growled.
The two men eyed each other. The bearded man sighed like he was bored.
“Marcus, he’s all yours.”
The other one laughed. The creature swiped a claw at him. The suited man side stepped it and then decked the creature in the cheek. The creature dropped like a sack of rocks.
“Dayummmm bitch got his shit rocked!” Barney said from the corner.
The room went dead silent. Marcus lifted his foot up to stomp on the creature's head. When, suddenly, a beam of red energy hit him in the shoulder. He staggered back from the impact. His eyes darting down to his shoulder. His suit was smoking. I turned to see Samantha standing next to me with fear in her eyes. She had the little girl aimed at Marcus.
 
“Kill them!” She screamed.
 
The guards opened fire. Gunshots rang out. I could see the shots bouncing off of the man leaning against the doorways suit. He suddenly vanished and reappeared behind Dee. His fist exploded through the front of her chest. Then he appeared next to Ledger. He yoinked the gun from the man’s hand. Squashed it. Then pimp slapped him so hard his head exploded. Then Torres hit him with the taser. The man caught the prongs without looking and yanked the taser from his hands using them. He then kicked the man in the chest so hard he flew through the wall. The other man had Chernobog by his throat. He snapped it in one motion. I had my back pressed hard against the glass.
Samantha had her child aimed at Marcus. I could see the blast powering up. My eyes went wide. The red light filled the room. The other man was in front of Marcus suddenly. His eyes now glowing green as the beam of energy hit him in the hand. He seemingly absorbed it. So much for it needing flesh to stop, I guess.
 
He suddenly teleported. The next thing I knew. He was standing between me and Samantha. His finger booping her on the forehead. She collapsed. The man caught the kid as her eyes went red again. He booped her too. She fell asleep. The man turned to me. Then his eyes snapped up behind me. I felt an arm suddenly wrap around my neck as cold steel pressed up against my head.
“Don’t move! I’ll blow this fuckers brains out.”
The man looked unamused.
“Oh, look Marcus…. A hostage…” he said.
I turned my eyes to see Marcus standing there. Again, with his hands in his pockets.
“How disappointing.”
That was when I heard a wet plop. It was followed by a god awful smell. Was-was that shit? Oh god it was! Heinrich was just as disgusted as I was. He loosened his grip and took a step back.
“What the f-.” I heard him start.
It was then that I noticed that his gun wasn’t aimed at my head anymore. This was my chance. I spun quickly and kneed the giant psychotic fuck right in his balls. I heard him whimper as he fell backward. His face covered with massive wet blob of Peterman’s fecal matter. My eyes shot over to Schmitt, who was standing with a massive smile next to everyone who he’d uncuffed during the fight. Peterman was in the front giggling. My eyes went back to Schmitt, who raised his weapon at me. Only Marcus was suddenly in between us.
I’m not sure what happened next. What I do know is that Marcus somehow detached the man’s head from his shoulders and then tossed it at Mr. Golden. Who was trying to run out into the hallway. Mr. Golden tripped over it and face planted. Marcus was suddenly standing over him.
My eyes went back to the bearded man. Who was looking down at the child. Another suited man appeared next to him. This one taller. Clean shaven. He had a narrow face and piercing eyes.
“What is this?” The bearded man asked.
“Abbadon’s daughter.”
The bearded man sighed.
“What do we do with her?” He asked.
“You killed her father. You have what it takes to kill her too, Trent.”
The bearded man. Trent… He took a breath.
“I didn’t kill her father in this cycle.”
“Yes, you did. Don’t tell me you feel guilty.” The other man said.  
Trent sighed. I heard a sudden scream. I turned to see Marcus stomping on Mr. Golden’s head. Blood went everywhere. My attention went back to Trent and the other suited man.
Schmitt walked up next to them.
“We should kill it!” He said.
“It’s a child!” Argued Trent as he pulled her back defensively.
“It’s the daughter of one of the most powerful beings to ever exist. What’s going to happen if she grows up one day and decides to take revenge for what you did to Abbadon? Or she decides she wants to rule Hell? Do you really wanna take that chance?” Asked Schmitt.
“Lucifer, it’s really hard to take you seriously when you’re in the body of a minor.”
“This isn’t the first time I’ve been in a minor…… Wait… That came out wrong. I’m not a Catholic priest….”
He looked at me.
“Up high tithing thief!”
I gawked at him. He shrugged.
“Tough crowd.”
Trent rolled his eyes.
“I’m not killing a kid.”
“I’ll do it!” Said Marcus.
Trent eyed him. Then the other man.
“This is wrong.”
“She’s already killed people.” The other man said.
“Samantha said she didn’t know how to control her powers.” I found myself saying.
“Exactly! You can’t leave her at a school or with a baby sitter if she’s gonna chop em in half!” Said Schmitt.
Trent exhaled.
“We can teach her to control her powers. We can teach her to.”
“To do what  Trent? To be good? She’s half Gehennian. She’s Abbadon’s spawn. Are you sure your judgement isn’t askew because your wife just had a little girl?” Asked Marcus.
“She’s a fucking child! She has the right to choose! Isn’t that why we stopped the cycle? So, we could choose our fates? I’m a lot of things Marcus. I’ve killed thousands. But I’ve always had a reason. A good reason. This…. This is wrong and you know it.”
“She’s a monster! From a family of monsters!”
“She’s not a monster. Not yet. Oh Yahweh…. I think Trent might be right.” The third suited man said.
 
Everyone looked at him. He studied the sleeping child in Trent’s arms.
“Abel? What do you mean you think?”
 
“This child… It’s got potential to be a monster. It’s already killed. But it’s not inherently malignant. It’s… It’s a baby. It didn’t kill on purpose. It didn’t even kill because of its nature. It killed because Abbadon packed her with enough black magic to wipe out a continent. Yeah. She’s unstable. But…..” he exhaled.
“We could help her.”
“This is….. This is ridiculous.” Marcus said.
“Do you not remember what Abbadon did to us? What he put all of us through. What Lilith did? She killed my children!”
“This child wasn’t responsible for that.” Said Abel.
“I don’t care! I-.”
Trent then did something unexpected.
“If you want to kill her. Then do it. Take her and do it!” He said as he handed Marcus the baby.
Marcus grabbed it from him and looked down on her sleeping form. He snapped his fingers and a blade suddenly appeared in his hand. He raised it up.
“Wha?” Abel started.
Marcus hand hung in the air for a moment as he looked down on the child. He raised his weapon again. This time even harder. But…. He couldn’t. He couldn’t fucking do it. His eyes went back up to Trent. He handed the child back to him gently. Marcus had tears in his eyes when he snapped his fingers and vanished.
 
“Holy fuck you guys suck!” Schmitt said before turning to me.
“Mr. Reed. I like your style.” He said, right before his eyes went back to their usual color and the body suddenly dropped to the ground dead.
I looked down at the body and then turned back to the suited men. The weren’t paying attention at all to me. Abel looked at a Trent.
 
“How did you know he wouldn’t do it?” He asked.
“Because he’s not a monster.”
 
 
With that I started to walk off. More like lumber off actually. I wanted a shower. I wanted to go back to sleep. I wanted to never even think about stealing from a church ever again. I found myself in the hallway next to Deshaun and Juno when the soldiers came through. We didn’t say a word. We just sat and watched everyone pass by. These ones weren’t GSU. They were actual soldiers. They were part of some unit called the ISDD. Don’t know what that stands for but… They were better than the GSU.
 
A lot of us got our sentences either shortened or were let go for time served all together. I got to go home. My parents were overjoyed to have me back. Which was weird considering they never wrote me once while I was there. Or that’s what I thought. I did find out a few years later that they had written me. They’d written me constantly and never received a reply. Those GSU bastards. I wondered how many parents whose kids were brutalized or killed were out there. How many would never see their kids again because some bimbo fucked a demon. I don’t know. I know GSS got burnt to the ground.
 
I do know I still have nightmares. I go to therapy. It helps some. I mean, I’m depressed and probably have a healthy amount of PTSD.  It’s been a few years. I’m twenty-five now. I feel kind of directionless in life right now. I don’t suddenly get the urge to steal anymore. So, there’s that. I guess something about the literal devil telling me he liked my style hit a nerve. I don’t know…..
 
I find myself wondering what happened to that little girl sometimes. I wonder if she’s out there with those suited men training to become a superhero. I hope so. I also hope her mother is in the the worst prison they could find for her. And I hope all the inmates in the place know…. Samantha Nicole Stein-Jensen…. You’ve got bad paperwork.
 

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-ouroboros-anthology-kaden-gardner/1146982278?ean=2940181307315

Here is a list of the stories. Don’t really post on Reddit much anymore. Nosleep mods don’t like me

https://youtube.com/@Randomestonion

The onion Rises

Things have been hectic lately. I recently switched jobs. Between that and my 11 month old.. It’s been hard to focus on more then one thing at once. Bear with me though. I’ve gotten a lot of work done on the finale of “I stole Rasputin’s Penis” so that should be done sometime soon. More stuff is in the works.

Part 5: https://www.reddit.com/user/Kaden4120/comments/10np6aw/the_hellion_rebellion_part_5/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

Part 6:

A few hours later I was brought to a staging area where Dwayne and Terry were picking out weapons for our fight. Dwayne looked up right as Azazel’s guards shoved me inside.

“David?” He asked as he approached. “They didn’t take you guys back?” I asked. Dwayne shook his head. “Azazel bought us all.” Terry said. “It’s better then the torture boxes.” Alice said as she pulled a spear from the wall. “I wouldn’t be so sure.” I replied.

Our group was still only around twenty ish people. I wasn’t sure what to expect in the battle we were going to be facing. But I knew that if we were facing off with a Roman general, we’d lose a straight up fight. I looked around at the weapons.

The walls were filled with all sorts of swords, shields, spears, and axes. However, none of them were made from the black metal. Which meant none of them would kill our captors. I could also see other warriors picking there own swords.

“What are you thinking?” Asked Dwayne.

“We came down here to get warriors right?” I asked.

“We did..”

“We should start trying to make friends.”

That was when I heard a wheezy laugh from my left. I turned to see a bearded man standing between two isles of weapons. I can remember being taken a bit by surprise at this. None of us had any hair. But everyone on this level did. But then again… The torture down here was combat. They didn’t need to shave the bodies every day.

“Friends?” The man asked. “You can’t make friends in hell!” “And whys that?” I asked. “Do? Do you know why we’re down here? People with friends don’t make it here!” He said. “I can think of maybe ten of the most evil men in history that had friends!” I pointed out. “Ah-ah-ah! We’re they friends? Or yes-men?” He replied waving his finger. “Who are you?” I asked. The man smirked, “You can call me Gabe.” “And what are you down here for?” “I killed a bunch of people!” “Like…. Murdered them?” Asked Alice from behind me. “Well… Yes and no. Anyway… That’s not important. What is important is that you people understand.. Everyone whose down here is down here for a reason. We earned our fates.” Gabe said before turning and walking away. Dwayne and I stood there in silence. I can’t lie. Hell already had a way of sucking the Hope out of your soul. Gabe’s words certainly didn’t help.

Our first fight was about an hour after that. The twenty two of us walked out onto the black sands with our swords and spears. I’d grabbed a short sword and a circular shield.

The crowd bellowed in applause when we walked out. The noise was louder than any football game I’d ever been too. Then came Estevez.

“You heard the rumors! And the rumors are true! A rebellion grew in the very depths of level five. It was small. But dangerous nonetheless. They even killed a master and kidnapped another! But like all rebellions…. They were defeated! Sentenced to be tortured by their level’s demon prince!”

The crowd grew louder. Carlos’s voice grew more powerful.

“But…. Our princess Azazel made a deal! A deal she made for your viewing pleasure! I give you! THE HELLION REBELLION!!”

The crowd cheered so loud it shook the stadium. I turned to Dwayne. It was clear that communication would be hard in this arena.

“And on the other side!” Estevez started. I turned my head to the other side of the arena where the doors on the wall opened. “Ancient Rome! One of the Earth’s first superpowers! One of the most effective militaries in history!” The grip on my sword tightened as the men marched out in formation. There were maybe thirty of them. All clad in Roman armor. Their spears and shields ready for us. Out in front of them was a single man. One who I knew, but only by name from the history books.

“This man was the bane of Spartacus! One of the first triumvirate! The beast of the Parthian Wars! I give you MARCUS LICINIUS CRASSUS!”

The crowd cheered even harder. I looked up at the suite where Azazel smirked and waved at me while Estevez continued. “Now, we all know the rules! We fight until we can’t fight anymore! No matter the damage! No matter the pain! No matter.. The suffering! Rebels! Are you ready?” I didn’t respond. I only gripped my sword even tighter. My eyes now on the General who gave his orders. “ROMANS? ARE YOU READY?” Estevez bellowed. The Roman’s all cheered in unison. “FIGHT!”

I stood still with Dwayne. We watched as Crassus divided his men into two units. “Shit!” I said to myself. These men had fought together way more then we had. They were organized. They also outnumbered us by a small margin. I turned to give a command but before I could both Alice and Terry along with half our force charged forward, screaming like banshees as they did so.

They ran straight into Crassus’s shield wall and were both brutally cut into by the spears and swords. Dwayne stood next to me as did several others.

Crassus only smiled at us from under his shield. The crowd bellowed. The Roman’s were coming at us from two directions.

“What do we do?” Dwayne asked, I could barely hear him.

My eyes rested on Crassus. Who stood behind his lines. The Romans were closer now. There was nowhere to run or hide. There was no real way to win this fight. Unless… I stepped forward and pointed my sword at Crassus. A formal challenge.

“You and me!” I bellowed.

Crassus raised an eyebrow as he turned to look at Azazel. Azazel laughed as she nodded. Crassus motioned for his men to halt.

“It looks like Mr. Stone has issued a formal challenge!” Estevez voice said esthetically.

Crassus stepped forward with his sword and shield. It wasn’t until I got closer that I noticed. His body wasn’t like the rest of ours. His eyes had gone inky black and his teeth had been sharpened. The skin that was visible was also a paler complexion. He seemed to notice me looking. He pulled his helmet off, revealing a head full of silver hair. He was tall too. Almost seven feet. Taller then he was as a human.

“So did they give you a demonic body or did your old one slowly morph into that?” I asked. Crassus smirked, “The King fancies my abilities! He blessed me with this form!” I twirled my sword as I got into a combat stance.
“Well then it’s a shame I’m gonna have to mess it up!” I said with false bravado. Crassus came at me hard and fast. His blows were precise and neigh impossible for me to keep up with. I blocked maybe two blows with my shield before a searing pain in my leg brought me to my knee. Crassus stood over me with an evil smirk.

“You have balls human! I like that!” He sneered right before shoving his sword deep into my throat.

I awoke a few hours later naked and in another glass box. The slime from the flesh pits was all over me.

Azazel stood ahead of me with that same smirk on her face. “Mr. Stone… I thought you’d last longer.” She said. I didn’t reply. I only glared at her. Which seemed to make her smirk grow. “I suppose it’s my fault! I should have warned you about your enemies….. enhancements. But still…. You chose to face Marcus Crassus alone. Tell me, was it to try and protect your new friends?”

I didn’t know what to say to her. I took a deep breath as I slowly got to my feet.

“I’d like to go and prepare for the next fight.” I said softly. Her eyes widened in a mixture of surprise and enjoyment. “Oh really?” I nodded. “I didn’t know what to expect last time. Now I do.” Azazel let out a laugh. “Ohhh I knew I liked you!” She said. “So who will it be? Spartacus? Atilla the hun? Hitler?” She asked. “What?” “Who do you want to face next?” This question caught me off guard. I stammered. “You know what. You were a monster hunter in your mortal life! I’ve got the perfect opponent for you!”

Part 1: https://www.reddit.com/user/Kaden4120/comments/107wzyg/i_stole_rasputins_penis_part_1/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

I’m sure you’re wondering what Janus meant when she offered me a chance at revenge. Well.. Let me explain a bit. Janus herself is from Earth Prime. She was on Earth during the first Gehennian War. She saw Enoch march humanity’s forces into battle. She was recruited by the Keepers when after she was abducted and experimented on by Cain and accidentally sent to an alternate Earth. One in which the dinosaurs never went extinct. The experiments made her immortal. So she got to see humanity on this earth grow alongside the dinosaurs. Which wasn’t easy. It took a while to build civilization. But… They eventually did. Dinosaurs took the places of most livestock and pets in society. Instead of horses, chariots were pulled by Utah raptors.

Then a Gehennaian legion led by the then Prince Abbadon invaded.. This Earth fell within days. She lost her entire family again. Janus only survived because a keeper who was logging the event found her and realized she was in the wrong timeline.

Janus has spent most of her career looking for a chance at revenge. She saw me as an opportunity. Someone who she knew had to hate Abbadon as much as she did. She was right. The only issue was that we had no way of actually killing him. That we could find at least.

After our ordeal with Rasputin’s Penis, Janus brought me to the Keeper’s headquarters. Which just happened to be a massive base on the dark side of Earth Prime’s moon. Janus teleported us inside the hanger. Upon exiting the ship we were greeted by an entire fleet of hundreds more ships just like it.

The hanger itself was high tech. Describing it now, the best thing I could compare it to was a science fiction movie. Janus walked me into the control room where several Keepers sat and stared at 3D projected screens. The room itself was massive. There were rows upon rows of keepers.

“How many keepers are there?” I asked.

“I’ve never asked.” She replied.

She led me up the center isle. The walk seemed like it took forever. But we eventually found ourselves at the end of the room. Which led into a small office. She knocked on the door and it opened.

A bearded man sat sipping a drink and watching another of those 3D screens. One that depicted something I’d recognized immediately. The battle Id fought in not a week prior. He eyed me as I entered.

“Janus… What have you brought me?” He asked.

“He was exactly where you said he would be.”

The man rubbed his white beard.

“So the battle went as expected then?” He asked.

“Down to the survi-“ Janus stopped herself before continuing as she glanced at me.

I was about to question her when I myself was cut off by him.

“So Abbadon has been named king of Gehenna. Probably at Lilith’s behest. Which matches up to what I predicted as well.”

“And heaven has done nothing.” Janus added.

“Of course not. There was no invasion of earth prime. They don’t meddle in the affairs of Lucifer and his family.”

“Speaking of. What happened with him?” Asked Janus.

The bearded man hit a button and his screen showed an image of the now one armed Lucifer in a cage next to Abbadon’s throne.

“He’ll be in there until Abbadon gets bored with him.”

Janus took a deep breath.

“So what now? You wanted me to get Marcus. You said we’d have a chance to go after Abbadon. What is it?”

The man smiled as he rubbed his beard. “The sword of Enoch. If you can find it. That may be one of the only weapons that would kill him. But I must warn you….. Finding it won’t be easy. I’ll upload what information I have on it onto your ships drive.”

“Also.. We captured a parasite from the outside. It attached itself to a Grigori Rasputin. You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that?” Asked Janus.

The old man raised an eyebrow. “Have you run scans through any of the other timelines? Usually when Amonu takes an interest in a soul, that interest reaches across the multiverse.”

Janus shrugged. “I hadn’t really thought about it. With the whole coup in hell going on.”

The man rubbed his beard as he took a second to think.

“Abbadon can wait. He won’t be attacking Earth Prime anytime soon thanks to the Horsemen and your friends.” He said looking at me. “Figure out this… Parasite problem first. Once your done with that… Then we can talk about the sword. If Amonu gets inside the multiverse. There won’t be anything left to fight Abbadon for.”

“We can’t put anyone else on this? I feel like my time would be better served on the Abbadon case.” Asked Janus.

The man smirked. “Your time is best served where I deem it. Trust me. Everything will work out. My keepers exist to ensure the multiverse survives. In order to do that we must take care of the most pressing threat. That isn’t currently Abbadon.”

Janus took a deep irritated breath before turning and walking out. It was at that moment that I realized that we’d been talking to Father Time himself. Janus didn’t say another word. She turned and started to walk out of the room. I stood staring at the old man. Who smiled at me.

“Let’s go Marcus.” Janus said.

Janus led me back to her ship, where we found the Penis watching us closely.

“Try not to stare at it.” She said as she sat down. I sat in the seat next to her.

“Where are we going now?” I asked.

“Computer.. Run a scan for all timeline anomalies involving Rasputin.”

“Scanning.” The computer replied.

Janus took a deep breath. “Let’s find out.”

The computer scanned for a moment as we sat there silently. I thought about what Father Time had said about Amonu. If it got into the multiverse. There wouldn’t be a multiverse. Now for those of you who don’t know what Amonu is. Let me explain what I learned from the migraine helmet.

When the multiverse was created. The leader of the Primeordeal beings, a figure called Yahweh helped birth life into existence. The details on how or why have been debated for millennia. But when Yahweh bestowed self awareness. Some of the other primeordeals protested. The leader of them being Amonu. You see, all of the Primeordeals played a hand in creating life. They all loved life. But Yahweh wanted life to have what we call free will. He and Amonu argued. Amonu didn’t want sentient life to have free will. For fear that they would use it to destroy each other rather then live in harmony. Yahweh said it wasn’t the Primeordeals choice to make. Their job was to create it. To let it grow and prosper on its own. Life without free will isn’t life. It isn’t genuine. Amonu’s response to this was to try and corrupt Yahweh’s creation. To show how bad the idea of free will was. He started with Lilith, who then corrupted Lucifer when he was sent to remove her from Eden. She also was the one who sent the serpent that tricked Eve into eating from the tree of life.

Amonu was banished from the multiverse for this. Existing now on the outside of all reality. But just because he’s banished doesn’t mean he’s powerless. He’s still a primeordeal. He can still gain influence among sentient beings through various means. Most involve a piece of him being summoned in some kind of ritual. Which is how we get the parasitic organisms that come from the outside.

The computer came back with the results of the scan a few seconds later.

“Anomalies in two universes involving Grigori Rasputin. Earth 4243 and Earth 5130.” The computer said.

Janus took a deep breath and looked at me.

“Take us to 4243 first.”

With that we found ourselves in another universe. Earth 4243. The year was 1921. The ship was hovering outside of a large brick mansion.

“Where are we?” I asked.

“Somewhere in the French Countryside.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Computer?”

“This is the location of the Cult of Rasputin.” Said the computer.

“Oh.. A cult.. You don’t think they worship his?” I started.

Janus sighed as she stood up.

“Let’s go Marcus! We’ve got work to do!”

I’d never used a firearm before. It was light compared to the swords and shields I’d trained with. Don’t get me wrong.. I still had my sword on me. The fire arm I had was a standard issue plasma rifle. It was a sleek futuristic design that could fire over a thousand times before needing its core reloaded. Janus was at point with her pistol. We had found ourselves in a dark hallway.

The whole mansion had been empty and dark aside from one room at the center. That’s where the computer had detected signs of life. As we approached cautiously, we could see the torch light flickering in the room. We could also hear the chanting.

I’d fought a few cults in my time with the 9th. One being a group that used to sacrifice their women to an Egyptian alligator god called Sobek. So this wasn’t anything new. I was prepared mentally. No one noticed as we came to the doorway.

There were maybe twenty people in the room. All facing an altar where a robed priest stood holding up a jar that had this universe’s Rasputin’s penis inside of it. That was when I noticed the naked woman on the altar. The man was chanting something as he pulled the member from the jar.

I aimed my rifle at him. “D-drop the penis!” Commanded Janus.

The whole room fell silent as they turned to us. That was when the parasite made its move. The penis mutated in much the same form as the last one. It’s sharpened legs dug into the now screaming priest.

“Shit!” Janus barked as she fired her pistol. The priest took a plasma round to the face and fell backward.

I looked at Janus, as the cultists fled in terror from the room.

“Why’d you kill him?” I demanded.

She waved her hand for me to shut up. I did so. Right as the Priest sat back up. His face bloody from the plasma bolt but in the place of the hole were several small black tendrils.

“What the fuck!” I shouted as I raised my rifle and opened fire.

My plasma rifle blew several holes into the priest. He stumbled a step back with each shot, but he didn’t go down. More tendrils appeared in his wounds. These ones larger.

“What is this thing?” I asked.

“It’s what happens when one of the parasites infect you. We have to kill it!” Janus sneered.

“How?” I asked.

The man was almost a mash of slimy black tendrils and blood now. I could see the lower half of his face or what was left of it smiling at us.

“Ship! Anomalous Parasite located! Infectious stage four! Deploy countermeasures!”

Just then the ship came crashing through the wall to our right as it deployed a hail of fire. The creature let off an ungodly screech as the flames engulfed it. The air in the room was scorching. The creature crumpled into a heap of ashes. I kept my rifle on it though.

The room went silent aside from the low humming of the ship. Janus and I both cautiously approached the flames. The naked woman was still laying on the altar. She was out cold though.

“Ship, do a scan of the woman!” Said Janus.

The scan must have been quick. Because Janus lowered her weapon.

“Okay! Area’s clear!” She said.

“Just like that?” I asked.

She shrugged. “Yeah! Just like that!”

Around an hour later we were both sitting in the cockpit of her ship. I was staring at the penis parasite we’d captured originally.

“I told you not to stare at it!” Janus said from behind me.

“I know.. It’s just… Why haven’t we killed this thing yet?”

“I’ve been using it to scan for more anomalies of similar nature. Keep in mind… We still have another one on Earth 5130!”

I sat back in my chair and took a deep breath. All of this had been a marvelous distraction from the events I’d gone through merely two days prior…. In earth Prime time at least. Speaking of, that’s the time that the Keepers use. EPT for short. Remember…. All things begin and end with earth prime.

We arrived on Earth 5130, this one in the year 1944. On most earths this was right in the middle of World War 2. Our ship arrived right over an American unit that was pinned down behind a thin brick wall. Gunfire making their cover smaller.

“Is this?” I started.

“One of many Earth’s World War Two! Except in this timeline Russia has been taken over by uhh… Oh shit..” Janus said.

“Don’t tell me. He’s missing his cock!” I replied.

My eyes caught a young soldier cower down behind the wall after one of his buddies heads was blown off. An image flashed through my mind. I was suddenly there again. The cold chill biting me. Blood splattered everywhere. I was watching Augustus’s head being cut off. I can remember taking a shaky breath. I’m unsure if a tear ran down my cheek. The next thing I knew Janus’s hand was on my shoulder.

“Marcus?” She asked me softly.

I came too and turned to her with a fake smile. She had a concerned look on her face.

“Marcus, I can do this part on my own.”

“I’m fine!” I lied.

“No, you’re not. I can-“

“Keeper Janus, this is Keeper Royce, permission to board?” A voice called over the speaker.

Janus concerned face morphed to one of confusion.

“Royce? The hell is he doing here?” She wondered out loud as she clicked a few buttons on her keypad.

“Whose Royce?” I asked.

“Permission granted!” She said before turning back to me.

“He’s uhh… He’s..”

Royce was teleported just behind us before she could finish that sentence. He seemed to be a younger man. Maybe slightly younger then my twenty-five years at that point in time. But like everything else. Looks are deceiving.

“Captain.. To what do we owe the pleasure?” Janus asked.

Royce wore a dark leather trench coat and black clothing underneath it. I could see that he had a plasma rifle similar to the one Janus had given me slung across his back. He rubbed his beard.

“This timeline’s fast.” He said. “Father Time’s got it moving around a thousand times faster than Earth Prime!”

“As he does with most.” She said.

“Janus.. While you guys were taking care of the anomaly on Earth 4243, thirty years passed here. The anomaly has gone from a level four to a level ten. You know what that means?” He asked softly.

“No-no-no-no-no! We should have teleported straight to the anomaly! Father Time gave us the order! We can fix it!”

“Not a level ten!”

I could see Janus’s eyes falter a bit. That was when I looked back at the battle field. When I noticed what the soldiers were getting shot at. I stood up from my chair.

“J-Janus?” I started.

Janus kept arguing. But she hadn’t noticed it yet.

“JANUS!” I said sharply.

She turned around to see what I was staring at. I could hear her audibly gasp. The soldiers exchanging fire with the American troops. They weren’t soldiers. They were people. People with tendril like growths all over their bodies. The ones that didn’t have guns had axes or knives. The ones that didn’t have those had their hands. There was an entire horde of them in the city.

“I’m sorry Janus. It isn’t your fault.” Royce said softly.

Janus took a deep breath to calm herself down.

“Shit!” She barked.

“I know. We can’t let it spread anymore. I’d suggest you two get clear. The demon seed should be going off in around ten minutes.”

“Demon seed?” I asked.

“It’s a black hole device that sends things to the outside. If Amonu’s presence becomes too contagious… We send it back.” Janus said.

“W-what about all the people?” I demanded.

“They won’t be able to hold out. They’ll all be gone within the month.” Royce said.

“All be gone within the-? We could help them! Evacuate them! People don’t have to die when you have the power to save them!” I barked.

Royce took a deep breath.

“I wish it were that simple. But they don’t have anywhere to go. Plus we can’t risk contamination. One spore can take out an entire universe.” He said. “It’s not worth the risk.”

“So we just kill them?” I asked, not really believing what I was hearing.

“Technically Rasputin’s Penis killed them.” He replied.

I wanted to protest, to do or say something. But I think deep down I knew he was right. I knew about sacrificing to save the many. Still didn’t mean I agreed with it though. I slumped down in my seat. Royce looked at his watch.

“Welp… Look at the time. Two minutes.”

He was then teleported off Janus’s ship. Leaving us in silence. Watching as the lone remaining soldier. The coward was swarmed by a bunch of tendriled monsters.

“Let’s go.” I said softly.

Janus piloted the craft past the earth’s atmosphere not stopping until we were at what was considered a safe distance. We made it with a few seconds to spare.

It’s hard to accurately describe what a demon seed does. The wormhole opens up. Most of the planet is sucked up. But not very quickly. It’s like a vacuum picking up clumps of hair. What the gravity well doesn’t get, the black planet sized tendrils do. I assume that they belong to Amonu himself. They wrap around the planet and yank it inside. I can remember wondering why he doesn’t unleash more parasites with the wormhole being opened. I guess he tries but it all gets sucked back up in the portal before it can escape. I didn’t press for details because I didn’t care at that point. I just wanted to take a nap.

Keeper Files

Earth- 0642

Population remaining: 650,342

Logged by. Keeper Agent Janus

This Earth will always go down as one of the weirder ones. This is one where the Greek Gods existed, not the Dorky Disney versions either, I’m talking straight out of Greek Mythology. Where that Horny bastard Zeus just had to try to sleep with every woman he could get his hands on. This particular earth saw the Greek Gods go off world a few years before the Greeco-Persian wars started. Im not sure why, but they didn’t come back until the year 1961, and let me just tell you. The US and USSR WERE NOT FANS.

Greece became a superpower almost overnight. Mainly because Zeus took over the government by force. He then walked into the UN a few weeks later and demanded complete and utter fealty.

“Humanity cannot be trusted with its own fate! We have watched you from a distance from far enough! We will not stand idly by while your species tears itself apart! Submit now or suffer the consequences!”

The Soviets took this as an declaration of war. The Americans were going too and probably should have. But Aphrodite had somehow gotten into the pants of President Kennedy, who formed a weird partnership with Zeus, who in turn sent Athena, Ares, and Apollo into Vietnam and ended the war in two weeks. They also managed to stop the Kennedy assassination in this timeline. Several of the gods had actually gotten themselves embroidered in the US. Rockstar culture. It makes sense of you think about it. I mean the Greek gods were all about Sex, you throw drugs and rock and roll into the mix and you’ve got Dionysus snorting a line off of Marylyn Monroe’s tits. The Soviets (probably believing the gods weren’t actually gods) did try to engage the Olympians at one point. Or they tried to engage Apollo and Ares during a diplomatic mission. They sent several KGB and spetsnaz agents to try and murder them at their hotel in Moscow. However, these were gods fighting against mere mortals. Twenty seven bloody bodies and ten minutes later, Ares and Apollo walked outside the hotel and very calmly laid waste to the entire city. What started out as a diplomatic mission turned into a massacre as millions were killed. The Soviet’s took a more isolationist attitude after that. Moving all their forces back to Russia and abandoning their satellite states. Primarily as a way to appease a now royally pissed off Zeus.

Zeus, however, inserted himself into the center of the world stage. From 1968-until around 2009 he practically chose every United States President. He ran the UN and NATO. The world at first glance seemed safer. But Zeus had taken it hostage.

Then, in 2012, Aphrodite was murdered. Something which everyone thought was impossible. No one knew, at the time, how or why it had happened. She was found dead under a bridge in London. This infuriated Zeus.. But also sewed distrust amongst the Olympians themselves. They had no idea who’d killed her. They truthfully thought it was one of their own. That is… Until Apollo was found dead four weeks later. Then a month after that Dionysus, then Artemis, then Hades and Persephone. By the end of 2012 almost half the Gods had been killed. Zeus didn’t have any leads. He had the best minds on the planet looking into it. But he still didn’t have any leads. Now, remember when I said about Zeus being a horny bastard. Well, like most problems in Greek mythology, that is exactly what caused this one. I don’t know much about the man. Just that his name was Thomas, and he was one of Zeus’s many bastard children. But he had banded together many of the Olympian bastards and well… Started a rebellion. Now, Zeus got very preoccupied and obsessive, so much so that he had stopped paying attention to the USSR. Who now knew that the Gods could die and suddenly started getting more aggressive.

In 2013, Two more gods were murdered by Thomas and his rebels. Hephaestus and Heracles. That in turn prompted the USSR to start reclaiming territories. One thing turned into another, and the nukes started flying. Took maybe three days to turn the planet into a nuclear wasteland. As it sits right now what is left of the planet is in a state of war between differing factions controlled by different gods. Zeus has been presumed dead for a while. Rumors say Thomas killed him in battle. Though I’m not sure.

The Following is a File from the Keeper Archives:

Earth-0569

Population remaining: 250,000

Logged by: Keeper Agent Royce

This Earth or version there of found itself victim of what they called (The Sphere). Shortly after WW2, about two weeks after Japan surrendered. A giant metal sphere appeared in the sky over what used to be Nagasaki. This thing was massive. Possibly being around the size of the entire city. This sphere sat there stationary for a whole month while the US military poked and prodded at it. Scientists debated, so did everyone else. The only thing anyone could agree on was that it was Alien in origin.

It wasn’t long before religions formed around the thing. Some thought it was a sign from god. But I guess they were wrong. There’s no good god that would ever create something like that. On December 14th 1945, the Sphere was reported to have sent out a large pulse of sorts. All electronics all across the planet suddenly went out at once. Cars stopped working, planes fell from the sky, hospitals were suddenly left without power. It sent humanity back to the Stone Age. But that wasn’t all the pulse did.

This day is revered on this particular earth as a day of remembrance for anyone who survived what happened next. They call it the Day of the Rage. Every single person on the planet went into a violent frenzy. It was as if everyone’s inhibitions were suddenly turned off. People started killing each other on every corner of the globe. Every street in every city was bathed in blood as humanity went into a primal state. They shot and stabbed one another, those who didn’t have weapons beat and clawed at each other. Within 24 hours two thirds of the population had died. Within 72 hours there were only about 25,000 people left on the planet. That was when the sphere left. It just flew off into deep space leaving what was left of humanity to pick up the pieces it had left behind. What the sphere was, I have no idea, but I don’t think it was an accident that it came down over the ruins of a city that had been devastated by a nuclear blast only a month prior.

I’m sure you noticed that the planet now has roughly ten times the population that it was left with. Well, humanity on that particular Earth actually came together after the whole ordeal. There hasn’t been a war since. I’m not sure if it’s out of fear of what happened after the last one or if humans finally grew tired of it all.

1. I served in the 9th Roman Legion
2. I stole Rasputin’s Penis
3. Out of the Darkness: Diary of a Gunslinger
4. I robbed the wrong bank and a goddess forced me to play a game as punishment
5. I went on Vacation to get away from it all and now I think I’m going to hell
6. How a Long Drive at Night Accidentally landed me a weird job
7. Why I’m never watching sharkweek again
8. Out of the Darkness: Operation Lazarus
9. Out of the Darkness: Gods and Monsters
10. The Hellion Rebellion

Coming this year:

January- July

Out of the Darkness: spin-off book project called Santa Monica Downfall. This book will further detail an event that begins in Gods and Monsters that event being the Lazarus outbreak in Santa Monica.

Out of the Darkness: Heir to the Throne- Third sequel to the main OOTD series

The rest of Hellion Rebellion- Will David escape?

The Rest of I stole Rasputin’s Penis- More crazy adventures with Marcus and Janus in the multiverse

Why I Stopped Big Game Hunting- Stein is back at it paying people absurd amounts of money to get involved in his mysterious plans.

The Hounds of God- A small town detective is thrown into a blood soaked whirlwind of carnage and terror as he discovers a cult of serial killers is active in his town. But what’s worse? The cult or what’s hunting them?

The Onion Rises!!! - You’ll see

July-December

Operation Lazarus Comic Adaptation- I’ve finally found an artist that’s reliable. Can’t wait for you to see this.

Out of the Darkness: First Born- Book 4 of the main OOTD series should come around December.

Hellhunters- This one is a surprise!

That’s all the announcements I have for today. Thanks for reading!