• The beginning of the end
    My name is Joe Stephens, And this is my story. Weather or not its true is for you, the reader to decide. In the beginning, nothing was wrong. I mean, the same old stuff, like school, still sucked. But all in all, things were normal. Everything was predictable, the future happy. Happy, and predictable. I would go to school and graduate and get a job and all that boring junk, but it was a good solid life and I knew what was coming. Until, like it always seems to, life threw me a curve ball. And struck me way out. I awoke to my cell phone, my only real alarm, blaring The Guillotine by Escape The Fate. I yawned. It was six AM, time for school. I scratched my chest and got up out of bed. After a quick morning shower, I combed my green Mohawk down and dried it. I brushed my teeth and dressed in black Tripp pants with green stitching and my Avenged Sevenfold t-shirt. I put on my fedora and black jacket and walked out the door.
    …
    Upon arrival at the bus stop, I sat down against a tree and listened to my Ipod. Joe Labosco sat down next to me and listened to it as well. “Want to go to Getty?” asked Zack Healy. I nodded and stood up. Tanner Porida and Joe Massa went with us, and we all bought Mountain Dew, our favorite soda. It seemed like a typical day. I was wrong, so very wrong. And it would cost people their lives. I made it through math, barely, and tried not to fall asleep in social studies. I had already read all about the roman empire, so Mr. Turcotte was just droning on about everything I already knew, plus he somehow always made things even more boring than usual. But, oh glorious day, we had lunch after social studies. Everything was going great, until the pain started. It lanced through my head, and I dropped my tray. My eyes were clenched shut, and white lightning patterns crossed my vision. My ears would not stop ringing, and I clutched my skull. “Joe!” someone shouted as I blacked out. I awoke in the nurses office with an ice pack on my forehead and a plastic cup of water on a chair next to me. “what’s going on?” I asked groggily. The nurse was standing above me writing on her clip board. “your finally awake then. Good. Can you stand?” she asked. I sat up to fast, and quickly regretted it. I clutched my skull as the pain came back, a ghost of its previous ferocity. “damn it…” I slumped back against the wall. “no, I don’t think I can.” I said. that’s when all hell broke loose. Time seemed to slow down as I watched the huge flaming rock fall towards the courtyard outside the window. “get down!” I screamed. I dived to the floor. The pain in my head almost made me black out again, and I looked up in time to see the nurse get impaled by a piece of shrapnel from the bike rack. “no!” I shouted, crawling away. I heard multiple thuds and the ground shook as more boulders rained death upon the small town of South Hadley. I stood up slowly. Movement was the only way to survive. Holding still made me an easy target, and that was certain death. Something, something old was doing this. I felt a presence, an ancient being older than space and time itself. aid me in my goals Joe. Aid me in the destruction of the human race and all things living! the pain threatened to consume me, and this time it came with a voice. Something so dark and malevolent I trembled with fear and I broke out in a cold sweat. aid me or your sanity will be lost forever! the voice spoke in my head again. “NEVER!” I screamed. I slammed my fist against the wall and stumbled out into the carnage.
    …
    Things combed the pitted landscape, sifting through the ashes for survivors. When they found a charred body, barely twitching with a small amount of life, they would stab through its stomach with jagged bladed talons. I clutched a sharp piece of aluminum pipe from the bike rack and crouched in a crater. I had to restrain myself from crying out as the voice spoke again with another sharp jolt of pain. those are my servants Joe. They are cheap and effective, so go ahead and kill some. I can always make more. “why would I kill them?” I asked quietly. so that they don’t kill you. it laughed its evil laugh and I shuddered. My pipe felt good and heavy, but I didn’t want to take my chances with one of those creatures. They had long, hunched black bodies ending in a long forked tail. The shape of their heads was like a cylinder with a blunt end like a bullet. When they opened their mouths to utter horrible demonic screeches, they opened into four sections like a quartered square. And they had brown fangs as long as drywall nails. “no, I don’t think I can kill one of those.” I said to myself. I shook my head. this will aid you. I heard the voice say. The pipe was consumed in a blinding light, and when it faded I was holding a huge double sided battleaxe. It was black metal, and it seemed to emanate darkness. In between the two blades was a skull with emeralds for eyes. The handle was three feet long with even more precious stones embedded in it. this is the axe of ten thousand heads. It has been passed down through the ages by my most loyal servants. said the voice. It didn’t hurt as much this time, so I assumed I was getting used to it. I hefted the axe. It wasn’t as heavy as it seemed, and it felt perfectly balanced in my hands. “hey!” I shouted. Every creature on the street turned towards me and screeched. “damn damn damn!” I said, and raised my ax for a fight. They charged, running surprisingly fast on squat legs. I demolished one, the shear weight of my ax cleaving through its neck. Two more went down, and I kicked a third in the chest. But they where coming to fast, and I ran. Halfway down the street, I came to a small house nestled in a clump of trees. I heard shouts and screeches from inside and a solid column of flame shot out the front window. It was followed by a young man about my age, he dived out and rolled away from the building as the flames caught. In his hand he carried a heavy duty pump action squirt gun with a Zippo lighter in front of the barrel. “there are more of them inside, help me burn em out!” he called me over. He handed me glass bottle with a rag stuffed down the neck and pulled out a second one. “I don’t have a lighter.” I told him. He handed me a book of matches and I lit one. We lit our Molotov cocktails and threw them at the house. The bottles shattered and spread flame upon contact. “I’m Joe.” I shook his hand. “Justin.” said the red haired kid. He wore flame retardant gloves on his hands and a hydrogen bladder full of lighter fluid hooked up to his squirt gun. “What now?” I asked. “we go to the police station and get guns.” he said simply and continued walking down the street. “but the cop shop is in the falls. We cant make it all the way down there!” I said angrily. He pumped his squirt gun. “between your ax and my flamethrower and the proper application of Molotov cocktails, we can.” I shook my head. “and what after that?” I asked him. “we stay alive. that’s what.” he kept walking. “do you know what these things are?” he asked me. “no.” I lied. I could hardly tell him they were demons created by a powerful force to destroy the world, and that I was supposed to be helping them.
    …
    We arrived at the police station in South Hadley falls around sundown, just down the street from my house. “looks empty.” I commented. The doors where busted down and corpses littered the front steps. Inside, the front lobby was caked with blood. “charming.” said Justin, kicking open the door to the back rooms. We walked through the abandoned police station, checking every room. “got it!” shouted Justin from across the hall. The wall was lined with equipment lockers. “definitely.” I opened one, and took out a Mossberg 500 pump action shotgun. “very nice.” Justin took a MP7, and we both stocked up on ammo. We were just about to leave, when I saw her. A girl about my age stood on the front steps, beckoning me. “dude, should we follow her?” I asked Justin. He looked at me like I was crazy. “follow who?” he asked. “that girl!” I pointed to were she was standing, but she wasn’t there anymore. “your seeing things man.” he patted my shoulder. I shook my head. The worst part was, I recognized her. It was Courtney, my ex girlfriend. She had disappeared a while ago, mysteriously. Many think her and her family moved from South Hadley, but I knew the truth. I had been at her house when the cops showed up and talked to her father. I overheard them talking about her. “missing… gone…” snatches of the conversation reached my ears as I ran home. To this day, I still had nightmares about some faceless kidnapper dragging her away. I thought I was in the clear, until about halfway down Grant street the voice came back. last chance Joe. Your sanity will be mine unless you sacrifice enough souls to bring me back to power. it warned. How am I supposed to do that? I thought to myself. you know Joe. You know. it implanted a picture of the nuclear power plant in Belchertown in my head. overload the reactor, and thousands will die. Sacrifice their souls so I can rise from my pit and destroy humanity! “I wont… never…” I clutched my shotgun tightly. you must! it screamed inside of my head, and I almost blacked out from the pain. I can end your life Joe, and the lives of all you care about. Obey me! I fell to my knees. Then, I saw her again. Courtney was standing in front of me, five feet away. She laughed, and beckoned for me to follow her. I chased her down the street, stumbling from the pain in my head. Justin shouted my name, swore, and chased after me. I followed her into an apartment building, and she disappeared. “no! come back!” I shouted. In answer, I got a blood curdling screech from the upper floors. “damn it!” I screamed as hundreds of the creatures crawled down the walls towards me. I blasted one with my Mossberg, and his corpse fell to the floor still twitching. Justin appeared next to me, and lit up at least thirty demons with his flame thrower. “come on!” I heard a familiar voice behind me. I turned around to see Zack Healy and Joe Massa, my best friends, standing there holding the doors open. “Run!” called Joe, and I sprinted out the front door with Justin close on my heels.
    …
    After locking the doors and torching the apartment building, we walked down the street to the Getty mart. “so what now?” I asked, sitting on the counter and sipping Mountain Dew. Zack was cleaning the scope lenses on his hunting rifle, and Joe was leaning against the refrigerator and checking the clip on his M4A1. Justin sat in the corner pouring lighter fluid into his flamethrower. “we find out some answers.” said Zack. He stared menacingly at me. “this all started when you collapsed at lunch. I have a feeling you have something to do with this.” he pointed his finger at me. “it was Just a migraine.” I lied. He shook his head. He didn’t say anything more, but I could tell he was suspicious. And unfortunately for me he had every right to be. Courtney, who now appeared regularly at my side, laughed. By this time I was pretty sure she was a hallucination. She leaned over and whispered the words “power plant” in my ear. “lets go to Belchertown.” I said.