“What do you mean it took Tom?” Wesley asked.

Alec needed only to gesture to the vast, cluttered basement. It was dark, eerily still, and sure enough, Tom-less.

The sound of Jared retching startled Wesley from his held breath.

Alec stood, pushed Wesley aside and glanced behind all the sofas and sessels. “He’s not here.”

“That doesn’t mean it took him,” Wesley said, striding over to the lights and turning them up to maximum brightness. The room was once again, the familiar man-cave they had forged so many regrettable memories in.

Alec shook his head vigorously. “It did. I saw it. It… it moved its wings around him, engulfing him like it was… swallowing…”

“Check on Jared,” Wesley ordered as he made his way upstairs.

Jared was rinsing his mouth with the sound of the toiled being flushed in the background as Alec stepped into the bathroom, hands jittering. “You…you shouldn’t be…”

“Throwing up?” Jared snapped. “Yeah, I goddamn know that. Maybe if we hadn’t just been assaulted by a freaking demon, I’d be more concerned about my health!”

Alec stood awkwardly at the threshold, putting his hands in and out of his pockets as he waited for his friend to clean himself. Jared ran his hands through the water, then pushed them through his hair, bringing it back to its usual, high standing and incredibly style.

“C’mon,” Alec said, jerking his head.

“C’mon where?”

“Wesley’s looking for Tom upstairs.”

Jared scoffed. “You saw that thing take him too, didn’t you?”

Alec nodded, his eyeshades appearing larger than usual.

Jared pushed past his smaller friend, walking back into the basement and picked up one of the printout symbols. “Why?” he asked.

“What?”

“Why the hell would you make us…?”

“I didn’t make you do anything!” Alec protested. “How the hell was I even supposed to know it would work! Since when are demons real man?”

“Since now! And because of that Tom is gone!”

“He’s not gone!”

“Yes, he is,” Jared said, blatantly. “And now we don’t know if we’ll ever see him again.”

Alec’s heartbeat raced and his breath sped up. “This isn’t my fault.”

Jared scoffed again as sat back onto the couch, picking up a blank A5 canvas from the floor. He squeezed a glob of maroon paint onto it and began to slide his finger through, making what seemed like haphazard lines.

Alec knew that it would turn into something magnificent. He’d seen Jared do it a thousand times.

“Stop watching me.”

Alec slumped against the wall and let himself slide down. From his pocket he pulled a chain of paperclips and straightened each of them out. Then, he started to twist and fold them with his calloused fingers, contorting them into something he didn’t know the name of yet.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

The two friends sat there in silence, each desperately trying to steady their scattered minds and racing hearts.

And then the doorbell rang, echoing throughout the house like a gong atop a mountain.

Jared raised an eyebrow. “Did we order food?” he asked.

Alec shook his head. “No. Maybe its your parents.”

“Why would my parents ring the bell to their own house?”

“Last month your dad lost his key, remember?”

Jared rolled his eyes. The bell rang twice more. “Wesley get the door!” he hollered.

Wesley was already at the door, directly above his friends, looking through the peephole. Three people stood there, dressed in brown suits and caps, two of them carrying briefcases.

Wesley cracked the door open and met them with a warm smile. “Hello there. How can I help you?” he asked.

“Hello sir. Is this your house?” the woman in front asked. Her face built out of stone and her hair was straighter than a ruler. A crucifix necklace rested on her chest.

“Oh, sorry. The owners aren’t home right now, but they’ll be back in a bit. I can give you their number if you’d like to call them,” Wesley offered.

“That won’t be necessary,” she said, glancing at a man with a thick moustache behind her. He swiftly handed her a file from which she pulled out a document that radiated officialness. “We’re from the SDS, Society of Demon Surveillance.” She flipped out a badge from her breast pocket. “We’ve picked up an immense amount of demonic activity coming from this house. We’d like to have a quick look around.”

“Sorry ma’am, this is private property,” Wesley said, wracking his brain from any legal rule that would prevent them from entering. “You’re not allowed to enter without a…”

She held out a warrant to him.

“Oh.”

“Step aside please,” she ordered, pushing past him.

“Oh god,” Wesley muttered under his breath.

“Search every corner of this house. If there’s anything remotely suspicious then everybody inside is potential threat,” told the two men as they barged into the kitchen, flinging open cupboards and drawers.

Wesley whipped out his phone and dialed Jared.

“Who was it?” Jared asked.

“Clean up.”

“What?”

“Clean up the basement now! Some demon surveillance guys are here searching your house right now and if they find any of Alec’s demon stuff we’re screwed. Clean everything up now!”

“You can’t be serious,” Jared responded.

“Jared hurry!” Wesley ordered, cutting the call and rushed back to the woman. “Hi um… I really think you should wait until the owners of this house get back… they’d probably have an explanation for you, then you won’t have to do all this searching.”

“Step aside, sir,” she ordered.

“Excuse me?”

“Step aside. I’m allowed to use force to do my job if necessary.”

“Oh. Right… go ahead then.”

Sweat dripped down Wesley’s hair line and a wave of lightheadedness hit him. His sugar level was low. He needed to eat.

Wesley made his way to the kitchen where the burly, mustached man was rummaging through Jared’s snack cupboard. “Hi there, mind if I grab something?” Wesley asked.

The man nodded, moving aside as Wesley snatched a pack of gummy bears, tearing it open and popping a couple into his mouth.

“So what is it you do exactly?”

“We work with the church. There are a lot of sketchy people in this town who do a lot of sketchy things. Demons often get involved, sometimes completely unbeknownst to the people, sometimes not. Sometimes people invite them into our world. That’s a crime that only god can forgive.”

Wesley gulped. “That sounds horrible. Why d’you think people do that?”

The man shrugged. “Fame, power, all sorts of other sick desires.”

“Oi Albeck! They’ve got a basement!” called the steely voice of the leader.

Wesley and Albeck the burly man made their way to the door of the basement where they met the lead woman and the third man, with long, slicked back, white-blond hair.

“Find anything?” she asked.

Albeck shook his head. “Everything’s normal and mundane.”

She nodded. “Hansen, you checked everything upstairs?”

“Everything that could be checked, Blaire. I mean, this is a massive house,” the slick haired man responded in a soft, husky voice.

“Ok, onto the basement,” she declared, opening the door. The three of them barged down the carpeted stairs with Wesley following, heart in his mouth.

“Um… hello?” Jared asked. He and Alec were slumped in sessels, videogame controllers in hand. Both of their virtual cars crashed as they lost focus, staring at the SDS members with brilliant mock confused.

Blaire face held a mix of disappointment and disgust as she took in the amount of dirty clothes and garbage strewn about the room.

Albeck let out a hearty laugh and Hansen snickered. “What’d I tell you Blaire, just a load of crap faced teenagers.”

Blaire’s mouth formed a straight, thin line as Wesley let out a sigh of relief. “Back in the car. C’mon, there are actual matters we have to deal with,” she ordered, shoeing the men back up the stairs. She turned to Wesley, “If we get the slightest trace of demon activity coming from this place, we’ll make quick work of you.”

Wesley smiled. “Have a nice day, ma’am.”