The simmering cough of the engine was the only sound in the night. As we drove through the forest, only a few meters ahead of us could be seen from our headlights. In the back was our friend, Chris.

I shouldn’t have been driving, I was still slightly intoxicated. It didn’t matter, neither of us cared. The dirt roads seemed endless as the continuous line of trees on either side seemed to repeat forever.

I knew where we were going. We didn’t have to say a word to know where we would bury him. It could only be one place. Somewhere he could truly rest. The place of our childhood.

We reached our destination, or at least as far as we could go by car. The rest would have to be by foot. I stepped out into the autumn air, it was calm, but frigid around my skin. I walked over to the back of the car, leaves crinkling underfoot and opened the boot.

Two shovels, a torch, and a bin bag.

Brad took the tools out and gave me a hand to pick Chris’ body up. It was heavy. Limp. Already too cold. I wasn’t used to carrying heavy weights. I would do it anyway.

Brad shut the car and picked the equipment up, as we delved into the uncharted territory of the forest, though both of us knew the route like the back of our hands. Time didn’t move as we silently trudged along, and in one moment we reached the graveyard of our youth, and soon, of Chris.

It was an empty clearing, with just a tree stump in the middle. We spent every day here when we were younger. A treehouse had been here. On a grand tree, higher than all the others. We hadn’t built it, only found it.

It was perfect.

But it didn’t last forever. When we were sixteen, Chris fell off the tree as he was climbing the ladder. It was a relatively long fall, about twenty feet high, and he landed in the wrong way. He broke so many bones that I don’t even remember all of them. We were terrified, and took turns carrying him all the way to town on foot, we couldn’t bring him on our bicycles.

After that, they cut the tree down, and we had to leave that part of our life behind us to move on. We were still friends, but the childlike innocence had faded, and we viewed the world a bit differently after that.

I placed Chris’ body on the ground. I think this would make him happy. To lie in a place where there was no trouble, no worries; only the sound of nature accompanying him.

Brad placed the torch against a tree and picked up the shovels, giving one to me. I couldn’t make out his face well, but I imagined he would be feeling similar to me. Sad. Nostalgic.

We picked a spot and began digging. The soil was soft and easily excavated, it had been raining heavily just a few hours ago. I didn't feel the ache of my muscles as I tore through the dirt, pouring out my emotion into each strike.

The moon hung directly above us by the time we finished the hole. I stood inside, six feet deep, whilst Brad was on the surface. He walked over to the edge and got on his knees to pass me down Chris’ body. I gently lowered him to the ground. Then Brad left and returned with his head. I placed it down as closely connected as I could. His eyes were closed. The long sleep.

Brad gave me a hand to help me climb out and we both stood on the side. Blood stained our clothes.

Brad spoke.

“Chris. I’ve known you since as far back as I can remember. You’ve always been there by my side. When we played pirates in primary school. When our families went on holiday to Spain. On our first day of secondary. We annoyed the teachers together. We went to detention together. When I met girls, and then when I broke up with them. I got my first job with you waiting just outside. I wanted to move away to focus on my career, you convinced me not to, said this was home.

When my dad got cancer, you stayed with me, just because you didn’t want me to feel alone. Throughout all of it, the highs and the lows; you were there.”

He paused for a moment and sniffled. Then he breathed in deeply, and as he exhaled, he began to wail. Tears streamed down his cheeks. Between quick inhalations, he managed a few words.

“I’m gonna miss you so much man. Thank you. Thank you for everything.”

The sound of his crying echoed through the woods. I tried to remain stoic, but I couldn’t. Tears began to roll along my skin. One caught my mouth, it was salty.

I pulled him in for a hug, and we remained like that for some time. Just letting it all out onto each other’s shoulders.

His breathing evened out again, and I pulled myself together. We let go of each other and I looked down at his body.

“Chris, when we met I was shocked by your generosity, your sensitive soul. I thought no one could live like that happily, but every day you proved me wrong. You always lent your ear to me, lent a hand if I needed help, put others before yourself. I learnt so much from you. Thank you.”

I stepped away to grab a shovel, but stopped and went back.

“I promise that I’ll bring you justice. You’ll have your retribution. Even if I die doing it.”

We started filling in the hole, shovelful by shovelful, until he was completely buried, left underneath the earth, forever.

—-

We sat in the car, as I drove us back to Brad’s house.

He spoke. “Now is as good a time as ever. Tell me what your plan is.”

Straight to the point. That was fine, we would have to be like that from now on if we wanted to make full use of our time.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“We’ll go back to yours first to regroup. Clean ourselves up and get some food and supplies. After that, we need to start searching for information on demons. Ideally, we should try and get another copy of that book. The demon seemed to think we were strong because we offered it. So it should have what we need. Other than that, we should also take a look at the other books you inherited. They could be related.

Then, if you know where they are, we’ll visit people your grandpa knew and see if they know anything that can help us. Do you know anyone?”

He nodded. “My grandma’s still alive. She lives down south.”

“That’s settled then.”

We continued down the country lanes. Tiredness began to bite at me, the relative relaxation of the drive compared to the ordeal we had been through was massive. I was not out of steam just yet however.

Soon we neared Brad’s home. Both of us noticed it immediately. Something was wrong.

The lights were on.

“We didn’t leave those on, did we?” I said, to confirm my suspicions.

“No.” He shook his head. “We didn’t.”

I cut the headlights and slowed to a stop. There was little that could be seen of the house through the dense thicket of trees. Even still, the glow shined through.

“Were you expecting anyone?” I asked.

“No one. It was just meant to be us tonight.” He looked perturbed. Understandable, it was the middle of the night.

“Okay, we have to make a decision now. Do we turn around and head to your grandma’s now. Or do we investigate.”

Truthfully, I was ready to turn around the moment I saw the light, whatever it was, we didn’t need to risk it.. Clearly Brad thought otherwise as he chose to investigate.

I didn’t debate with him, and let him out, turning the car around so that we could make a quick getaway if we had to. On foot, it would take him about 10 minutes in total to check. He would go through the forest and hide in the bushes, checking to see if he recognised the visitor. If he did, he would come back and we would discuss whether to go there or not. If he didn’t, we would hightail it away as quickly as we could.

I tapped the steering wheel whilst keeping my eyes trained on the side view mirrors, looking out for Brad’s return. The only sound I could hear was my breathing, I had even turned off the car’s air conditioning to stay hidden.

I began to jitter my legs as the minutes passed. He should be just outside the house by now, taking a quick look and then returning. Only five minutes now.

But the minutes came and went, and he still wasn’t back. I couldn’t check the time exactly because I didn’t have a phone nor a watch on my person, yet I knew he was later than he should be.

I began to squeeze and scratch at the steering wheel as time flowed by. What was taking him so long? Did he get caught? Would I have to go myself?

The moments of tension added up. I was sure he had been gone at least twenty minutes now. Too long. I unbuckled my seatbelt to get out when I heard a knocking on the passenger side window.

I felt a lurch in my heart and snapped my head towards the sound. Fuck! The second I moved my focus away from the mirrors.

My body eased a bit when I saw the form of Brad, before seizing up again as I saw the panic which filled his face. The fear. I had seen the same face earlier in the evening.

I unlocked the door with haste, and almost simultaneously with the click of the locks disengaging, he pulled the door open and jumped inside, slamming the door behind him.

“Go!” He shouted.

I pressed the ignition and accelerated away as fast as I could. I didn’t bother going slow so that we weren’t heard, my heart was beating too fast.

Once we reached the top speed that I could navigate the roads with, I spoke.

“What happened?”

He took a breath.

“It was the police.” He stuttered out.

“How? The first missing police report should only have come some time after we disappeared. Not now. Not in the middle of the night.”

Brad continued. “No, you don’t understand David.” He hyperventilated. “It was the police, but there was something wrong with them. They acted like puppets with human skin. It felt like they were pulling their limbs with string.

That wasn’t everything though. They were covered in blood, just as much as we are now. And when I saw their faces. It was like I was back in front of that demon, with that fucking smile.

David. I think they saw me.”

My imagination had already begun to flash my mind with images, but I willed them away and focused on driving. I believed Brad, there was little that I couldn’t accept as real now. But, I had never anticipated that the demons could disguise themselves as members of society.

“Oh no.” Said Brad.

“What?”

He pointed at the side mirrors. “They’re following us.”

I took a glance and saw the familiar yellow and blue car I had learned to respect. Only this time, I had no positive feeling for it.

I didn’t want to experience what Brad had seen, so I pushed down harder on the pedal. I at least knew these roads like the back of my hand. I could throw them off somewhere in the forest, and we would drive through the countryside after.

It might waste some time by not going along the main roads, but it would be outside most surveillance. Where they had cameras, the police were king.

Somehow, they were keeping up. They didn’t turn on their siren. Either they didn’t want to attract attention if we passed near any other residents, or they thought we wouldn’t pull over anyway. Both were probably right.

“Brad. You need to do something to slow them down or throw them off. I’m going as fast as I can but they’re still gaining .”

He had calmed down a bit, well that was an exaggeration. He wasn’t panicking, if that was because of adrenaline, it was good enough. I just had to have faith in him.

I received no reply, but he climbed into the back seats. There was a click and then a rubbing of fabric. Through the inside mirror, I could see he had pulled the seat down to get access to the boot.

“David, when we get to the next turn I want you to slow down so that they almost touch us and tell me three seconds before.”

I didn’t know what he was doing, but I trusted him. He wouldn’t do anything he thought wasn’t the best thing to do in the situation.

There was a right about a quarter of a mile ahead. I began to feather the brake pedal, allowing our pursuers to catch up about 50 feet behind us.

“Turn in 3!” I shouted.

The back door opened. If I had looked back, I would’ve seen Brad halfway out the car with both shovels in hand. But I didn’t, my focus was on the turn.

“2!”

“1!” Just as I spoke, there was a loud shattering of glass breaking behind us. I made the turn at high speeds, and as I looked in the mirror, I saw it.

The police car crashing at full speed into a tree.