Everyone stayed and hugged for a while, before beginning to pack it up and try and find the exit.
"Hey- Does anyone even know how we get out of here..?" Ash spun around while walking behind the group, looking for any landmarks at all.
"We walked in a straight line the whole time so it can't be that hard.." Travis kept moving straight forwards, also analyzing the surroundings.
"You guys all have goldfish brain." Sal leapt ahead of the group, walking a bit faster than everyone else to get somewhere a little faster.
"Okay- Dad-! Wait!" June called out, matching her dad's pace.
"Man on a mission." Ash laughed softly, and sped up as well, leaving Todd and Travis behind.
Eventually, they did find the smoke ring, and hopped back through into the kitchen of the townhouse. The kitchen was still as much of a mess as it had been when they left.
...
"We are not going to hell, Todd." Sal crossed his arms, like a disapproving mother would.
"I can understand your worries about going to the literal, corporeal underworld- but that is where Larry is. That is where we need to go to save him." Todd shrugged. "Do you want to save your hubby or not?"
Sal put a hand to his mouth, and bit his black painted nails. At his feet, Kitty brushed against his leg. He bent down to give him a good scratch behind the ears, and went back to deciding.
"I want to save him. Fine- Fine! Let's go to hell, I guess!" Sal threw his hands in the air, then quickly brought them back down to his sides.
"Has anyone actually thought about how we get to hell?" Ash piped up, leaning onto the kitchen table.
Everyone, in sync, shrugged their shoulders.
"Great."
"I might have an idea. Someone commit a cardinal sin real quick-?" Todd looked around at everyone, looking like he expected someone to give a hearty 'yes'.
"I have bacon in the fridge- wait-" Sal shook his head, the most confused expression washing over his face. "Why do we need to sin?"
"That is the only way to get to hell. Sal- Think about it. Demons? Real. God? Not a good guy but probably also real. Which is- Concerning I'll admit."
"Are you suggesting one of us commit a cardinal sin and then die?" June spoke up, Todd's plan finally clicking in her head.
"I am suggesting that. Yes- BUT- Resurrection! If all that religion crap is real- We can probably find some demonic ritual somewhere to resurrect the soul." Todd smiled as if his plan sounded at all appealing.
Everyone just kind of stood in shocked silence.
"Todd- No. Just- no." Ash shook her head. Sal, and June did the same, but Travis looked as though he was actually contemplating it.
"I- I'll do it. Send me to hell." Travis puffed out his chest, trying to look tough, but inside he was terrified.
Something in his heart told him he had to do it. That he had to do something amazing to make up for what an asshole he was in highschool.
"Travis, No." Sal's eyes widened, and he stepped a little closer.
"I'll do it." June spoke up, bunching her yellow sweater in her fist.
"June- Honey- Absolutely not." Sal spoke sternly. "I love you too much to let you do that."
"As much as I love you, and Larry, my biological mom and dad are down there- and- I..."
"You want to see them again." Ash finished June's sentence.
"Junebug- I cannot let you do that. I understand the pain. My mom died when I was young, and it ruined the relationship I had with my dad, to the point where it felt like he wasn't there." Sal knelt down, putting both of his hands on June's shoulders.
June stood there silently. She honestly didn't really want to see her biological parents. She really wanted to save the people who saved her, and if that meant dying- she was willing.
"Okay wait- Everyone stop-" Travis spoke up, holding his hands out as to motion 'stop' just as he said it. "If we go back to Nockfell- My dad had this book- Wicked stuff- Demonic rituals, I mean, the whole nine yards."
"You want to spend days- weeks even- goin back to Nockfell to grab a cursed book?" Todd chimed in, pushing his glasses father up his face.
"I know the book he's talking about. We have a copy." Sal jumped up, running up the stairs and rummaging around in a pile of old books no one has touched in years. He came back holding a book comparable to the thickness of a Harry Potter book.
"How can- How?" Travis looked confused. "How do you just have this?"
"I like a good read." Sal said plainly, as if he didn't just go find a book filled cover to cover with demonic witchcraft and wizardry.
"Fire up that spell then." Todd nodded confidently.
It took a good twenty minutes to get the spell set up properly. They didn't have much space to work with to set up the pentagram due to the literal portal to purgatory about five feet way, but they made it work.
With the stroke and spark of a match, so opened a portal to hell.
"Sal- Guitar?" Todd looked in, and was hit with a wave of strange smells. Hell smelled like burnt wood and sulfur. Something good mixed with something icky.
"Guitar check." Sal's nose curled upon also being blasted in the face with the weird sweet-rotten smell. "According to some ghosts, hell is sort of fun, sort of not. It's not sweltering heat, it's more campfire cozy warm." Sal peered down the portal. It was like a window.
"Oh- So no jackets?" Travis started to take his jacket off, answer his own question.
"Sure- Okay- Three- Two-" Ash started, June finished it.
"One!" With yell and a leap, June was down the portal.
"June-!" Sal jumped in promptly after June did, followed by Travis, Ash and-
No Todd. To be fair, he isn't really an action man, so the group let it slide that he stayed.
"Oh- Wow." Sal looked around, in awe.
The landscape around them almost didn't look like it should be hellish. It looked like-
"Is- Are we in Ohio?" Ash pointed, confused.
"No it's- Oh wait- Cornfield. We are- This is Ohio." Travis pointed in the distance.
"This whole time everyone wasn't just joking about Ohio being 'literal hell'?" Sal sort of chuckled to himself.
"So is- Is everyone in Ohio dead then-?" June turned to face Sal and the others.
"I guess..? Okay- Is everyone over the fact hell is Ohio? Can we go find my husband now?" Sal shook all the funny thoughts from his head, and returned to the reality they were facing.
"Yeah- Okay- Yeah, let's go." Ash waved for everyone to follow her and started walking.
Sal swung the guitar over his shoulder and into playing position. He plucked a few strings and the ground began shake. Grass swayed, and rocks and pebbles bounced around.
A portal opened, similar to the one in the kitchen.
"Oh- Woah-" Sal looked at it. He didn't remember that plucking pattern doing anything before, so he was a bit confused.
"Portal? To where? Illinois?" June looked at it, also confused. Travis and Ash laughed softly at her comment.
"A portal to-"
Just as Sal went to look into the portal, an enormous hand attached to an arm reached out of it. More fingers began to poke through, and the portal stretched to allow another arm through. The arms, which appeared to be scaled, pried the portal open and out fell-
"Is that a FUCKING DRAGON?!" Travis yelled, jumping back and falling into the grass.
A dragon it was! Its eyes were fire orange, with thin slits for pupils. Magma dripped from its horrid teeth, which barely fit into its mangle mouth. It slithered out, screeching.
"Sal- SAL- NECROLIGHT MAYBE?!" Ash patted Sal on the shoulder trying to hurry him along.
"THERE AREN'T ANY NECROLIGHT CHORDS FOR DRAGONS ASH!!"
"JUST PLAY SOMETHING!"
So Sal did, he strummed, his guitar shooting out a wave of pure, green energy. It struck the dragon on the side of its face, sending it back into the portal a bit.
"Keep doing that! Push it back through!" June hid behind Sal, holding onto the hem of his shirt.
Another strum sent the dragon further and further in, until just the tip of its nose poked through. In a panicked rush, Sal plucked the same pattern that opened the portal in hopes it would also close it. He was right, and the portal closed, slicing off the muzzle end in a swift motion.
"Ew- That's- Okay. Dragons, Ohio, What is going on?!" Sal kept the guitar down, just incase Mothman- or a T. Rex decided to show up.
There was a thud behind them.
Todd finally decided to join them, and stood up, brushing off the dirt and blades of grass.
"Is thi-"
"Yes, it's Ohio. Todd- can my guitar open portals?" Sal jogged over to him, helping him up.
"How else do you think it sends demons back to Hell? Or- Ohio?" Todd pushed his glasses up. Miraculously, they had stayed on at all.
"Okay- but does it open portal to other places?"
"Yes. It opens a portal to the place, person, or thing on the front of someone's mind. Say you wanted to see the northern lights, your guitar would open a portal to somewhere where they were visible."
"Why didn't I know this earlier? A lot of things could have been made a lot easier." Sal swung the guitar over his shoulder, returning it to his back.
"I thought you knew that's how it worked? I explained it when I made it."
"That was a while ago. Forgive my forgetting-" Sal looked at the tip of the dragon's nose on the grass. "Guess I was thinking about dragons."
"Sal- Think about Larry and do that same thing! We can make this a safe trip!" Ash hopped in place and smiled.
"Aunty Ash is right! Quick Quick!"
Sal hurried to move the guitar back into playing position, and plucked the pattern. A portal opened, and on the other side, with his long brown hair, and scruffy beard, stood Larry.
"Dad!" June ran for the portal.
"Junie? Larry turned to face the portal, and smiled widely when he was met with June's open arms. He wrapped his own arms around her and picked her up slightly.
Everyone else jumped through and also joined the hug.
Sal was happily tearing up, Ash was laughing victoriously, Todd wasn't really hugging- more just patting Larry on the back, and Travis didn't join in at all. He sort of stood there awkwardly.
"I was starting to think I'd never see you guys again! Travis come on!" Larry smiled, and laughed happily.
"Me? Nah- You guys hug it out.." He gave Larry an awkward smile.
Larry gave him a disapproving glance and began to shuffle to hug group over to Travis to wrap him up in it.
"Lets go home. Preferably now-" Larry gave Sal and June each a kiss on the forehead. "I want to leave Ohio now-" He laughed, a tear rolling down his cheek. He wiped it away before it could go anywhere.
Sal nodded, and stepped away to pluck the same pattern to open a portal home.
...
Months had passed now.
Everyone was safe, and happy at home.
Sal and Larry had found happiness and joy in each other, and June, who was 15 now.
And June had found peace.
She found peace in everything now. She no longer even remembered the sorrow of her years at the orphanage, and instead lived in the present with her two dads.
They all had found peace.
THE END
Author Notes:
OH MY GOD
Hello all of my still active readers!
Seeing this story continue to grow even after the unfortunate mishaps all those years ago with the unfinishable last chapter has inspired me to finally give it an ending that doesn't glitch out.
I change it from what I originally was thinking for it because I felt everyone needed a happy, humor filled ending where everyone lives, and everyone is happy together.
The final chapter is the longest one and for good reason. Without any new content on this story for such a long time, I haven't had the motivation to write any more on my main account (this one) and my second account (vixenwastaken).
Now that it has a resolve, I want to start writing again! Even if anything new I write doesn't have as big an impact as this fanfic did.
Almost 100k reads is insane to me. I haven't gotten this many of anything on anything I've ever created, and so I just wanted to close this book with a final thank you.
Thank you to all of you.
All of you readers, you voters, you commenters.. I still find myself reading ALL of your comments. And I do truly mean ALL OF THEM.
You guys were my motivation to finish this, and continue to be my motivation now, so thank you to all of you out there.
Happy Holidays Everyone!
-Quinn