Gateway to hell.

Chapter 6

I flipped up the lid of my laptop and powered on. Here's a situation I haven't had to type into google before!

" Errrm...Let's just try demons to start with I guess?" I said to myself, as my fingers danced over the keyboard.

" Demons....demons...demon broadband, movies with demons, song lyrics, and supernatural! Great! Dean is sexy, but I doubt he can help me."

I muttered to myself. I clicked on google images, hunched up my shoulders, and peered through one eye at the screen with trepidation :

Pages and pages of world of Warcraft demons flooded my eyeline. I let out a shaky breath, feeling a little relieved. Associating demons with nerd stuff certainly takes the edge off your fear I can tell you. A sharp trilling noise caused me to jump, sending my MacBook clattering to the bedroom floor.

" Shit!" I cursed through gritted teeth as I saw Alex's name pop up on my phone again. He's calling between classes now too. I flicked the settings to silent, and stuck the phone under my pillow, as I felt my blood pressure rise again. Lighting another cigarette, I lay down on the bed my head spinning. Even if Alex isn't aware of what happened, he's going to think I'm a crazy person! What the hell am I going to say to him, I wondered. I finished my cigarette in 4 long drags, and curled up in a ball on my bed. The phone buzzing softly under my head, I meant to just close my eye's and try and focus on nothingness for a little while, but instead fell fast asleep.

***************

Kendall sat bolt upright a scream building in her throat, as Morgan gently prodded her awake.

" You been sleeping all day?" Morgan asks her startled sister.

Kendall catches her breath and looks around with bleary eye's at the dimming daylight In her bedroom with surprise.

" Shit. I guess so, I didn't sleep a lot last night. Is school over already?" Kendall asked, rubbing the sleep from her eye's.

Morgan perched at the end of the bed, her school books clutched to her chest protectively. " Yeah, I just came to see if you were ok, and say goodbye. I'm staying at Deans for the weekend, I'll be back after lunch on Sunday. Are you going to be ok?" She asked. looked around the room, recoiling a little at the ashy, stale smell of the cigarettes her sister favored so much.

" Yeah, I guess so, are mom and dad leaving soon?" Kendall asked.

Morgan nodded. " mom's just finishing up getting ready, and dad's in the kitchen reading the paper, waiting for her."

" Ok, you go I''ll call you if I need anything." Kendall flicked her long red nails, ushering her out .

Morgan bent over her bed, kissing her quickly, and walking out of the bedroom.

The door clicked shut.

Crickets chirped softly outside as dusk neared once again, and the purply pink of the room was given a new amethyst hue. She shivered involuntarily and began switching on lamps, casting a harsh white light over everything and banishing the shadows.

The sound of her mom's high heels clicked across the kitchen floor, and the low rumble of her dad's voice intertwined with the tinkling peal of her mothers laughter comforted her . The familiarity soothed her jangled nerves. Suddenly the tone changed and a third voice floated up the stairs. Alex! Kendall shot bolt upright listening intently .

" Oh hello dear, Kendall is upstairs, we are just off out for the evening I'm sure she would appreciate the company after not being well today."

Kendall's mother could be heard saying to Alex.

" Thanks Mrs Conner, have a good evening."

She heard Alex's voice getting closer as he made his way through the ground floor of the house. A second later the jangle of key's and a shout of quick goodbye's as her parents yelled they were leaving.

A shadow fell beneath her door, as Alex stood motionless on the other side.

Kendall sucked in a painful breath through the tightness in her chest, eye's fixed on that unmoving shadow.

" Alex?" She croaked,

" Yeah Kendall, can I come in?" He whispered softly from the other side of the door.

" It's open."

The doorknob turned painfully slowly, and the door cracked open. Alex's floppy hair and familiar dimples were the first things she saw, Looking up to his twinkling blue eye's, she slowly let out the breath she had been holding in anticipation....it was Alex...just Alex. No demonic entity ready to splay her open, nothing. Just her Alex.

She held out her arms to him, and he crossed the room in one stride, falling into them.

Burying his face into her neck ;

" How come you wouldn't answer my calls? I was ringing, and texting all day." His voice muffled as he nuzzled into her, drinking in the familiar scent of her perfume, and slight tang of smokiness from the cigarettes she had chain smoked half the day. Right now all she wanted to do was bury the events of the last few days as far to the back of her mind she could manage. Seeing Alex this way suddenly made it all seem like a horrible dream.

" I....I...It doesn't matter, my head is just a little mashed, I'm sorry, let's just forget about it ok? Start from now?" She stuttered.

"It's forgotten already." He grinned, his eye's fixed on those plump lips she was now licking seductively.

***********

The evening passed non eventfully much to Kendall's relief. It was nearing midnight, and she knew Alex would have to leave soon before her parents got home. She groaned in frustration as his hand moved underneath her sweater up and down her warm back. The credits of the film they had been watching were rolling, and all she wanted to do was have him undress and crawl under the soft linen sheets with her and fall asleep in his arms.

" I guess you had better get going in a mo?" She drawled, pressing herself that little bit closer to him.

" Mmm, don't remind me." He answered, sitting up reluctantly and stretching . Kendall carried on chatting to him as she fumbled for her cigarettes. He was silent, sat up and staring at the wall in front of him as she lit up, wittering on about insignificant gossip Gabby had told her on the phone that day. She huffed out a stream of smoke theatrically, as she paused from her one way tirade of conversation.

" Alex?" She questioned , at his motionless back. " Alex what is it what's wrong?" She reached out tentatively and touched his shoulder.

He whipped around in a move so fast it could hardly be human. His hands gripping her shoulders and pinning her to the bed, face twisted in grimace that was very much un Alex like, his pale blue eye's now black as coals, and empty as the deepest, darkest pit.

" You think you can hide from me Kendall, that I can't get to you or your family any time I want?" The thing that had just a short time ago been Alex bellowed into her face. It's breath hot , and the putrefying whiff of sulfur , thick and cloying in the back of her throat. 

She remembered the cigarette still burning between her fingers, and without a second thought jabbed it right between his cavity colored eye's. A satisfying hiss, as the skin burned and the stench of burning flesh stung her nostrils. She waited for his grip to loosen, or even a flinch to give her a nanosecond to wriggle away, but it didn't come, and he laughed in her face.

She froze, petrified, and completely immobile, as his hands crept up her shoulders and wrapped around her throat. He squeezed as a strangled scream escaped her lips, she grabbed at his hands desperately trying to wrench them away, as she felt her windpipe crush beneath his palms. He lifted her head off the pillow, still effortlessly squeezing the life out of her, and slammed her back down as she wheezed and spluttered, the last of her air diminishing. As blackness closed in the last thing she saw was no longer Alex but the grinning face of a demon.