Page 58 of Unbinding the Demon
“Yeah, but it fucking levitated and then... and then...ugh!Where do we even go and what do we do!? Should we go to the police station?” she asked through her tears.
“Yeah, let’s go to the fucking police station. I don’t think we really have a choice since, you know, there’s a dead, mutilated fucking zombie corpse in our fucking living room right now!” he dramatically exclaimed. “Oliver better not give us any more shit for believing in zombies after this!”
“What about the cats?” she asked. “We can’t take them there, can we?”
“Let’s take them to Ashton’s house. We’re already heading in that direction, plus I really want to see him right now.” I finally spoke up. It felt like I was trapped in a shocked daze, unsure if all this was real or not.
“He won’t mind that we’re waking him up at 2:38 in the morning, will he?” she asked while pointing to the clock.
“I doubt it. He’s pretty reasonable, and I think he’d want us to go to him for help.” I shakily brushed a strand of hair behind my ear.
“Alright, let’s go to Ashton’s then.” She shrugged and took the next turn.
The long driveway cut through the thick misty forest like a winding river of gravel. Lacey rolled the car up and parked next to Ashton’s black sedan. The headlights illuminated the large Victorian house, which no longer looked like a dilapidated house of horrors, but rather a beautiful and well-kept home, thanks to Ashton’s immense efforts to fix the place up. We jumped out of the car, then rushed along the cobblestone path and up onto the porch. I banged on the door, hoping to wake him up.
“What’s his number? Maybe I could call him,” Lacey asked, glancing around with unease.
“He doesn’t have a phone. He claims he doesn’t need such astupid, worthless device. He lives like an old fogy.” Just as I finished speaking, Ashton opened the door with a concerned expression and raised a brow.
“Hey, is everything all right?” No one answered him. We just stood there, dumbstruck and unsure of what to say, while staring with pale, terror-stricken faces. “Come in?” He stepped to the side and motioned for us to enter.
William barged through the door first. “Oh my fucking god! You’re not going to fucking believe us!” Lacey followed in after him, and Ashton put an arm around me to guide me inside as well. In the back of my mind, I realized just how weird it was for us to show up unexpectedly during the wee hours of the morning, wearing our dorky pajamas while clutching our cats and looking terrified. But I didn’t care.
“Is everything all right?” he asked again as he shut the door behind us.
“I—I—I,” I sounded like a broken record. I couldn’t form the words to explain the unnatural occurrence we had just witnessed.
“Alright, well, why don’t we all go into the living room?” He ushered me across the foyer and into the living room, with Lacey and William following behind us.
A warm crackling fire was lit in the fireplace, with Belzar cozily curled up in front of it. “Belzar, you should go upstairs.” Ashton looked at him while pointing through the wide archway. Belzar tilted his head and gave Ashton an annoyed, groan-like whine. “Don’t give me that sass. You’ll terrify the poor cats if you stay down here!” Ashton scowled at him. With a small whine, he reluctantly got up and pranced out the door. The sound of his clicking nails echoed throughout the quiet house as he went upstairs.
William placed Esquire on the couch and then bent over while gripping his knees, as if he were catching his breath after running a marathon. Esquire was freaked out by his new surroundings and quickly jumped down to the floor. He then tried to shimmy under the couch to hide. However, he was a bit too fat to fit, so only his front half squeezed under there, while his back paws pathetically tried to propel him forward. I stood by Lacey, not daring to put Pepper Paws down.
“Wooo, oh man!I need to get a fucking grip!” William said to himself while shaking his head from side to side, still hunched over. His messy hair fell from his bun in disarray, adding to his distressed, whacked-out appearance.
“What happened?” Ashton asked in a gentle tone while placing a comforting hand on my back.
William began to flail his arms while running all over the room like an absolute madman as he tried to explain.“There was this fucking Night of the Living Dead-looking—THING—this fucking girl! She had fucking soulless black eyes and black goop dripping from her mouth! She leapt through our fucking living room window! Then she levitated up into the fucking air and fucking exploded!”
“William, I think you should try to take some deep breaths and calm—“
“I’m not crazy! I know I sound crazy,but I’m not fucking crazy!”William cut Ashton off, hysterically yelling and staring at him with crazed eyes. He latched onto Ashton’s shirt, raving like an absolute loon.
“Breathe, William! Breathe!”Ashton grabbed onto his shoulders, since he was freaking the fuck out, and led him to the couch.
William laid on his back, with one knee bent like a horizontal flamingo, while hyperventilating. Lacey had an arm around me, as we both stood there, traumatized and trembling, with tears streaming down our cheeks. Ashton walked over and gently took one of our hands in each of his, with a compassionate smile. “Never mind, you don’t need to explain. Just tell me how I can help.” His eyes shifted back and forth between the two of us.
“The cats. We need you to watch the cats while we go to the police. Can they stay here?” Lacey asked through her tears.
“Yes, of course.” He then looked at me. “Gwendolyn, I want you to stay here as well.” He squeezed my hand.
“But Ashton, they’ll want to hear my part of the story too,” I shakily whispered.
“I know. We’ll go in the morning when you’re not so distraught. But you’re staying here tonight.” He brushed a tear from my cheek with an authoritative look. “You two are welcome to spend the night here as well if you’d like,” he added while glancing at Lacey, then William.
“We should go,” Lacey said while shaking her head. “But can we come back once we’re done there? I don’t want to wake anyone else up tonight.”
“Of course, I’ll stay up and wait for you to return,” Ashton smiled warmly at her.
