THE BULLET SURGED out of the gun with an earsplitting bang. Everything went silent for a second. I was submerged one hundred feet underwater. The world moved in slow motion, humming like mosquitoes in a summer evening.
I shook myself once, the fog from my head finally clearing. I heard screams.
"Fuck!" Joshua lay on the ground in front of me, writhing and clutching his thigh. He groaned in agony as blood seeped between his fingers, soaking his denim jeans.
I'd hit him in the leg—exactly where I'd been aiming. I watched, mesmerized for a second as a small, dark red puddle expanded on the floor beneath him. He pulled his eyes away from the wound and glared at me, grimacing and baring teeth in rage. But then, his focus immediately shifted to something behind me, and a menacing grin curled on his lips. He backed up, inching his body along the ground.
An earthshaking screech erupted behind me—like a gust of wind storming out of Hell. I spun around as quickly as I could, but I was too late. The devil burst through the door. The bars swung open, slamming into my shoulder. The blow knocked me back, and I flew three yards before landing hard on my side, facing the ground. Pain shot through my body on impact. I shuddered and ground my teeth together. My left arm shook as I tried to push myself up.
Another scream.
I whipped my head around. The demon bounded towards me, her hooves clicking on the floor as she bared her bloody, glistening teeth. She had grown to be at least twice my size. With her enormous infant wings spread, she took up half the room.
I screamed and scampered back, sliding across the floor. She attempted to take flight, flapping her wings in a frenzy, but the confines of the room prevented it. Instead, she stumbled forward on newborn legs, the fur on them matted down with blood and after-birth fluids. I tried to push myself to my feet with my one good arm, but the pain was too much and my body was shutting down.
Unable to stand, I raised the gun. My arm shook as the demon approached. I sucked in a heavy breath, and then I pulled the trigger.
With an enormous bang, the bullet flew out of the revolver. It soared through the air for a split second before lodging itself in the shoulder of the devil. She recoiled and screeched. Her wings flapped around aimlessly, creating gusts of wind in the room. The chandelier spun and shook. She glanced at her shoulder, clicking her tongue at it. She hissed. Like a snake, the demon spat her tongue out and cursed.
Black, gooey blood dripped from the wound, but she turned her attention away from it and back to me, still intent on her meal. I tried to aim again, but I wasn't quick enough. Hooves came down on top of me, and then teeth sunk into my right shoulder, grazing off the bone like nails on a chalkboard. Pain shot through my entire body, radiating from the bite. Tears burst from my eyes and I screamed until my voice was hoarse, thrashing around to try to escape. I fired the gun again, not even wasting a second to steady my hand.
The creature wailed. Pressure released from my shoulder and the monster recoiled. Her wings slashed around, one of them smacking into my arm and knocking the gun out of my hand. I caught it glistening in the corner of my eye, flying across the room, but I didn't see where it landed.
I scrambled to my feet in agony and backed up so fucking quick my vision went completely dark for a second. I panted and wheezed as a wet warmth soaked my shoulder. Icy sweat drenched me, and my clothes clung tightly to my body. A stream of blood slithered down my upper arm from the bite, and a wave of nausea crashed over me. My vision spun, my equilibrium thrown off.
The monster shook her head, spitting out black blood-sludge onto the ground. I didn't know where the third bullet had hit, but I wasn't willing to bet it was anywhere lethal. I scanned the room quickly, searching for where the gun had gone. Joshua sat on the ground in the corner, holding his leg and trying to stifle the flow of blood, but I had no luck locating the revolver.
I turned my attention back to the devil. Her hooves perched precariously in front of the door to the basement as she recovered. Her eyes darted to me, and her black lips curled back, showing her teeth.
I had one last idea. With a rush of adrenaline, I charged.
My feet pounded painfully into the ground, and then my body crunched as I collided into the monster, slamming my left shoulder into her chest. The devil stumbled back. Her hooves misstepped, landing on the stairs behind her. She faltered and flapped her wings, trying unsuccessfully to regain balance. Staggering, she tumbled down the stairwell, hitting every other step as she went until she landed hard with a crash on the solid, stone basement floor.
Her wings shook as she tried to untangle herself, moaning and shrieking in pain and rage. In a matter of seconds, the devil got to her feet. She turned to me and bared her sharp teeth, preparing to charge back up the stairs.
She only covered a few steps before I grabbed the door to the cage, clutching it tight in my fist and slamming it shut with a crash. I hit the lock button. Joshua had built this cage to contain the devil, and that was exactly what it was damn well going to do tonight.
She accelerated to the top, ramming into the door. It shuddered and shook. I staggered back in response. She pressed her face into the bars, snapping and snarling at me, trying to claw her way through, but the door wouldn't budge. Her hot, steaming breath coated my face. My entire body pulsed in pain and my head spun.
I needed to get out.
I turned from the entrance to the basement—just in time to see Joshua pushing himself to his feet while simultaneously inching towards the far corner of the room. Something glistened on the dusty wooden floor boards—the gun!
He was only a few feet away, reaching out his arm to grab it.
There was no way I'd reach it before him, but I had another idea. I needed to be quick. Ignoring the pain in my leg, I sprinted to the exit of the room. Shrieks from the basement and clanking metal followed me as the monster continued to smash her body into the door, trying to get out.
My breath came short and my vision faded as I ran through the dining room and into the empty living room. I imagined Joshua had the gun in his hand now. I sucked in air as I reached the front door. I was sure Joshua was getting to his feet in the far room.
I threw the front door open and darted out onto the porch. A blast of icy wind slammed into my body as soon as I was through the threshold. I stumbled as it grabbed onto me like a kite in a hurricane, immediately chilling me to my bones. It tugged at my clothes and hair and soul and sanity, threatening to rip all of me away and reduce me to nothing.
I resisted.
I stumbled down the stairs from the porch, my leg screaming at me in pain.
I ignored it.
I ignored everything.
My eyes caught a strip of grass glistening in the moonlight. The trail of gasoline! Stumbling, I pulled myself to the end of the line. I imagined Joshua was limping through the dining room, gun in hand, headed after me. I didn't have much time.
I felt the back pockets of my jeans—cigarettes in the right one, box of matches in the left.
I may not have been the brightest crayon in the box, but if there were two things I knew about, they were cigarettes and gasoline, and I knew a cigarette didn't burn hot enough to light gasoline. I'd be long dead if that were the case... but a match? That's a totally different story.
I left the cigarettes where they were and pulled out the book of matches with my one good hand. Shaking, I placed it in my mouth and removed a match. Then, I twisted the box in my teeth so the striker was at the front. Finally, using my bad hand as a guard from the wind, I ran the match across the sandpaper-like strip. Fire lit up in front of my face. Startled, my teeth let go and the book of matches fell to my feet.
The flame at the end of the match flickered, threatening to go out as the wind stormed through my bloody fingertips in a hellish whisper. It was now or never.
I dropped the match onto the trail of gasoline. The storm gusted and the flame squirmed, but I told the wind it could fuck right the hell off.
The match landed on the ground, flame still blazing.
Fire erupted in front of me.
It surged down the path I'd drawn like a speedboat through a choppy squall, flames splashing off in its wake. The heat hit me and beautiful warmth coursed through my body.
In less than a second, the fire reached the house. The menacing structure exploded like a fireball. Flames licked the walls. The windows glowed like they were melting out of their frames. The roof became a hellish inferno. Black smoke billowed out, soaring into the sky as the wind carried it away.
For a second, I felt absolutely nothing. I stared into the sun.
Then, in one of the glowing windows, I saw a face. Inside the hellish inferno, Joshua banged against the glass. Even though I could hear nothing over the roaring blaze, I could tell that he was screaming. His face melted as the fire scorched it. For a second, I thought I saw the man—the soul that had been vanquished from its body to create this tool of destruction. For a second, I saw the man Joshua had been before the Devil had taken hold, using the human vessel for his own sinister plans.
And then everything was gone. The man, the Devil, everything. Joshua's eyes went black as fire consumed him, and he collapsed to the ground behind the wall of flames that contained him.
I wheezed and clutched my body, watching the fire burn. My legs gave out from under me, and I sat down in the grass. I blinked my heavy eyes. Pain surged through my bones, and blood slicked my right arm. I collapsed onto my back, panting as my vision faded in and out.
Then, above the sounds of the fire roaring, I heard a familiar and terrifying noise I had all but forgotten—barking.
I lifted my head and tried to focus, but everything spun around me. I blinked, stars flashing in my vision. Coming in from the far fields, two dogs that were part pit bull, part something else, rampaged towards me, barks ringing out through the air like bullets.
I struggled, trying to push myself to my feet, but I was too weak. I had no energy left to get up and run. This would be it. I only hoped I would be unconscious before they reached me. At least then I wouldn't feel the pain as they tore me to pieces.
But I wasn't.
The barking grew louder, and then they were on top of me. I heard panting and whimpering and pounding feet. I braced myself for the attack, but it didn't come.
Instead, I felt heat on my left side. I glanced over. The larger dog had laid down next to me, and it rested its head on top of my chest, whimpering. Something warm and wet slithered along my right arm. I looked over. The smaller dog sat with its head against me, licking my wound.
Tears flowed from my eyes, and I wept.
Suddenly, a shrill shriek blew out of the house like an explosion from a chimney. It was the sound of the Jersey Devil dying.
And then everything went quiet... quiet and still. I looked at the burning house. I looked at the smoke. It rose straight up into the air, unimpeded and free.
It took me a second to register, but finally, as I began to hear sirens in the distance and my mind started to fade to black, I realized what it was.
There was no wind.