Chapter 1: The Book
Rain dampened the asphalt. A smell rose into the mist, the fresh scented midnight dew. The cloaked figure, clad in darkness, stood silently, and motionless against the shadowed moonlight. The swirling steam from the ground seemed to go through him. He held a book in his gloved hand. The book was wrapped all in brown paper.

The man stood for several hours, a hood over his closed eyes. Then, the mist lifted, and hung in the trees like a blanket. The cover of the mist was purposeful, as if to hide something. The mans hand clenched, and a moment later, he was thrown to the ground, maybe twenty feet from where he stood. His eyes shot open, and above him, a man sat on his stomach, holding his arms down straight at his sides. The man was very hairy and strong. From behind the trees, another man, very tall, appeared, wearing a full navy blue suit.

“An eye for an eye, Charles,” the man growled and walked up to the two on the damp grass.
“Makes the whole world blind,” Charles answered smoothly. “You’re nice and strong, aren’t you?” Charles looked up at the heavy man holding him, “Just how you like them, Jern.” Charles laughed, and Jern huffed, outraged. “Who is this beast,” Charles snickered with genuine curiosity, and looking up at the monkey man. “...another one of your slaves to do your stupid errands?” The hairy man cocked head and looked confused for a moment.

“You don’t seem to be scared, aren’t you afraid of what I’m going to do to you, after what you did to me?” he wondered, waving away Charles’ remark. “You ran away with my book, and now I want it back.”

“You think I didn’t know you were coming? That’s why you both are still alive. I have been waiting here for you, Jern.” Jern frowned at him. The monkey man frowned too, and got up off of Charles. He started growling towards his master.

“Looks like the monkey figured it out” Charles smiled and stood up. He strapped the book onto his person, underneath his cloak. The beast-man jumped at Jern, screaming, a pounding his large fists on him. Jern stumbled backwards and fell. He pulled out a gun from his pocket, and pulled the trigger. The monkey lay limp on top of him. Jern, after much effort, pushed the body off of himself. He stood up muttering, ‘The temper on that thing.’

“Clever, Charles. Now give me the book,” Charles opened his cloak and teased,

“This book?” He began dancing around Jern, always keeping out of reach.

“Yes,” Jern yelled. Charles thought for a moment,
“Hmmm... Nope.” Jern ran towards him at amazing speed, too fast for just any eyes to be able to see. He slammed into Charles, and drove him backwards. Charles wrapped his hands around Jern, holding onto him, and cackling into Jern’s ear. His feet scraped the floor, and left deep tracks in the shredded grass and asphalt. Soon the entire park with its paved walkways was destroyed. The men beat each other with tree branches and no-littering signs. Many trees were uprooted and scattered across the land. Charles pressed Jern against the iron gate at the entrance of the park. “I’m not giving it to you, stop now or I’ll kill you!”

“You don’t need the book, I do!” The men tumbled towards a large fountain in the middle of the whole park. “I’m gonna drown it, I’ll throw it into the water!”

“No!” Jern screeched, as he raised the book over the fountain. Then, lightning struck him. Charles tumbled into the still water, and it shimmered with sparks. Jern caught the book before it fell into the water. His breathing slowed, and soon he was completely alone in the dark park. Without looking back, he ran out of the park and into the dark streets.


At home, Jern ripped off the brown covering. “This is...” he whispered, “not my book.”
“This is NOT MY BOOK!” Jern roared, and he threw the book across his bedroom. Something fell out of a page in the book. A small note: ‘Jern you fool. The book you seek is far from your reach. You will never know where it resides, even if you are two feet from it.’
Jern fell to the floor and sobbed.


Chapter 2: The Key
A piece of silver glints up at me. Its curves are so unusual. There is no way this key opens any door, at least not a normal one. I try to remember a dream I had just now. But all I can see is red. Red hearts, red hats, red feet, red stained armor. I sit up in bed, examining the key. On the handle is a small heart. It is a dim gray color. On my bureau, I find a small folded paper. On it, is a message from my father, even though he had been dead for many years. ‘You can open it now. What is inside, you must protect. I love you.’
Realization kicks in. I run downstairs to the basement with the key. There, buried under a heap of clothes, sat a small, archaic box. I fumbled with the lock, and finally opened the box. A book, I thought. What is this? I slowly make my way back upstairs, and read through the first page in the dawn light shining through the windows. I came across a phrase that caught my attention. “Kill the demon.” I sit on my bed reading it for several minutes, over and over again. “Strange, this book is three pages long... How to kill demons.”

From behind me, I hear a slow, jagged voice. “Soon, it will be three simmered pages.”
I whip around, and gasp at the sight. There, sitting on my window sill is a skinny, lanky creature. His pathetic face was marked with scars, and rips. There were signs of deep incisions on his body. His limbs looked like they were taken from the graves of sad people, and stitched onto him. He had a raspy voice, and whitening wisps of hair.

“Give me the book, little girl.”

“Who are you?” I squeak.

“My human name was Jern. But my demon name is far too horrific for even you to bear, khekhekhekhe...”

“Why do you want this book?”

“You know what, it probably would be easier to just take it from you” he climbs down from my window, and crawled toward me. I shrink into the closed door behind me...

“And then what happened? You survived, since you are here now.”

“Yes, Carmen, of course I survived. Lets just say its not hard to kill a demon if you have the right tools.”