No Way But Down

7

Rocco POV

Jamie knew full well I was driven by rage and sorrow right now, but he knew how much I loved Femi, so the way her life was taken was unforgivable.

"So you said it's connected to an object right? Was there anything you saw that might answer that question?"

"I don't know."

I said practically cursing under my breath, randomly I decided to turn on the news to see Femi's original house surrounded by a SWAT team and a helicopter. Listening to the news reporter she said.

"SWAT personnel have been assembled because the police officers that went into the house have been killed. From the cameras, we could only see they started to approach something like an urn and then-"

Muting it now we knew what the object was, the final piece was how to destroy it.

"It's the urn. Do we just smash it?"

"Before when Femi was possessed..."

It still hurt to say her name in the past tense but I continued.

"She tried to feed me something black and now that we know it's an urn it was probably the ashes. It feeds on one person and then tries to turn others it's weak without tethers.

"I see. So if we destroy the ashes we could destroy the paranormal entity attached to it?"

Jamie said as I nodded yes, he moved to open up a closet I always forgot he was a survivor, living in rough climates so I got a flash of his bow arrows and hunter rifles. He pulled out a rifle and started to clean it, putting some bullets next to his feet. I looked up how to destroy ashes and thought nitric acid should do the trick. I'm sure Jamie was thinking it when I received the delivery of nitric acid, cutting it out of the box he finally said.

"You're not planning to come back are you?"

"No. For this plan to work one of us has to be outside the urn's radius. As we know this demon likes to play mind games, I need to be its target."

Jamie and I carefully filled five grenades with nitric acid, he told me these explode in two seconds to make sure to pull the pin only when I'm ready to run behind some cover. We bickered back and forth but ultimately Jamie won the argument of coming along until a certain point since he was the only one who knew how to fire a rifle. After he taught me how to properly pull the pins in grenades we rushed over in the car to Femi's house. Now we parked next to the house behind Femi's house, separated by a patch of woods. We didn't advance till we made sure there weren't any SWAT on this side. There were but they were very dead.

"Godspeed to you my friend."

"You've been closer than a friend brother."

I replied as we shared a tight hug, then separated hearing ruffling in the shrubs. Aishah in full speed drenched in blood started to charge me with a knife in her hand, Jamie sent a shot through her head causing my ears to ring. I pushed him ahead of me as I pulled the pin on the first grenade and threw it at Aishah who was getting back up, rolling down the hill it exploded hearing her screech and claw. Stella was next she was quicker causing me to me dodge many swipes, she nicked my legs and torso. Snarling I put a grenade in her teeth pulled the pin and Sparta kicked her, Jamie shoved her into a trash can and closed the lid just in time as it shook from the explosion. Jamie started to move forward but I held out my hand, he almost stepped into the dead patch of grass I was standing in. Jamie and I shared one last look before he backed away into the safety of the trees to reload and provide backup if needed. Good timing too since the back door creaked open eerily, taking a deep breath I looked down the hallway seeing fake Femi singing lightly holding the urn that was completely pitch black now and walked deeper into the kitchen. Steeling up, I walked into the house looking around for the urn. Turning the corner my breath hitched into my throat seeing a familiar library.
Scanning the bookcases, was one of my memories. One of the best ones actually, when I first met Femi I saw her eyes through the bookshelf. It made me sick to my stomach since I knew this was precisely how this demon-possessed Femi. It gave her pleasure then decimated her with pain. Reaching into my pocket I did have a small failsafe for this, I wasn't sure if it would work but it was worth a shot.

Do you want to be with Femi again?

Turning around, to see Femi as a child the demon knew full well that was the aching need in my soul. But I cut my thumb on the dagger in my pocket shaking my head to declare.

"Of course I do, but I know she's dead and she's never coming back."

The illusion was breaking but only by the edges, flipping the dagger into my hand I felt like two people were behind me so my immediate action was to swipe over my shoulder. I cut either Aishah's or Stella's corpses as the blood dripped down onto my pants. My side was scratched but I returned the favor of injuring them back. They were invisible to me and I was only responding by instinct. Cutting my belt with three grenades left on it, I held it in my hand and reached forward. If the corpses were attacking me I had to be close to the urn. The illusion shattered once more letting me see something like a closet, Aishah's corpse was down and I realized the demon was the weakest right now. I temporarily forgot SWAT was here as Stella's corpse quickly went to work on them before eventually being shot down repeatedly enough that she couldn't move properly. The demon was screaming in my ears so loud they started to bleed, my nose started to bleed as well as it felt like everything was moving in slow motion. Pulling the lid off, I made sure to pull the pins before dropping the grenades into the urn. It exploded sending me backward into the couch, there was blood everywhere including my own as the urn shatters into the pieces the ashes fizzling out. Jamie was initiating the final fail-safe which was to burn the house down with gasoline though I'll be honest, I didn't expect him to be sitting next to me when he did it.

"Together?"

"Together."

I replied as we clasped hands before dropping the lighter into the gasoline tank, with bugs smiles, and tears on our faces. The flames engulfed us both but it was the most peaceful moment I've ever experienced well aside from...

"Rocco?"

"Femi."

We hugged and I wasn't sure this was real, maybe the demon won and I ended up killing myself and Jamie in the process. Truly I couldn't know.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you what I felt I-"

"I know Femi, I love you too."

We shared a desperate kiss while chuckling, light enveloped us both.