Devil's Elbow

Act II: Chapter 8

Shani gulped down his fear as he looked at the door, with Mica following close behind with Gavri beside Krista and Kodi.

“Vince,” He said in a whisper as Vince c****d his pistol and got ready for whatever was behind the door. “I gotcha bro.” Vincent whispered as he got beside Shani as they all got ready.

“The monster is not one to be taken lightly,” Krista said quietly to Gavri, who stood beside her protectively. “We won’t, Krista.” Gavriella promised, though she had to bite back the fear that nearly quivered in her voice.

Shani went to the door gulping and finally opened the door quickly… and was welcomed by an empty hallway.

“There’s… no one out there.” Mica said, stunned. “Remember what Krista said… this entity can appear and disappear at will. Kodi, watch our backs.” Shani said as Vince walked out first. As they walked out, Mica held the flashlight over her shoulders and tried to make the hallway more visible over their heads as they moved back into the hallway.

As they stood side by side, Shani noticed the limp Vincent had hindering his aim and held his wrist. “Vin, give me the gun, you can’t aim properly.” He told him. At first Shani saw a look of hesitance in his friend’s eyes before he looked down ashamed and cursed. “Fine…”

“Don’t freak bud, it’s just-” A scream echoed through the small shack, sending a jolt through everyone’s bodies.

“The f**k was that?” Kodi asked as he stood still in front of the girls. Gavri, however, lingered towards the sound as if she heard a ghost.

“Gav, the hell are you doing?” Shani asked in a hushed voice, placing his arm before her. “That voice… Shani, it sounded like…”

She didn’t finish as a bloody hand gripped the wall leading from the way to the kitchen. Everyone once again went silent and Shani held his gun higher and aimed until the flashlight showed the body behind it and lowered his gun in shock.

“Cole...?”

Before the gang stood Cole Hemsley, who looked like a shell of his former self, an hour before. Knees buckled and leaning against the wall of the hallway, Cole was riddled with deep scars across his torn flannel shirt and lacerations on his thighs.

“Shani? Gavriella...?” Cole gasped and dropped on his knees.

“Cole!” Gavriella didn’t hesitate for a second as she ran and held him to keep him from falling.

“Is it really you guys…?” He asked in a raspy voice that could barely pass Shani’s ear like a whisper. “Yes… yes it’s us…” Gavri cried, no longer able to hold the tears back, hugging him.

Before Shani could do the same, Mica grabbed his wrist warily, stopping him. “Mica, what are you-”

“Shani, something is wrong about this…” She said, staring guardedly at Cole, confusing her friend. “Wrong how?”

“I have something of a sixth sense when it comes to people… and something about Cole isn’t right.”

“The brother is cut to ribbons, what is right about that?” Vince asked, leaning in.

“Hear me out, his muscles look like they’re straining in overexertion…” She explained. As she spoke, Shani stared at Cole and noticed what she meant. Deep as the wounds were, Cole shouldn’t have been able to flex a muscle otherwise he would bleed out. And yet his body was muscled and rigid.

“Wait guys…” Kodi said quietly as he scanned him.

“What, Kodi?” Shani asked as Kodi looked at him. “How did he get inside when the only way in is the front door?”

Shani felt his body go cold as the realization hit his brain as he turned to Gavri.

Everyone but Gavri saw his hands go up higher along her back, at first appearing intimately before his fingers had curled up, causing Shani to find his ability to move and run at her.

“Gavriella, get back!”

As he spoke, Cole grasped her neck and began to choke the life out of her, his eyes rabid and filled with rage, making her stare back in fear as she began grasping at his arms.

“C-Cole?!” She gasped as he closed her throat, his eyes' veins going from red to black as his pupils began to glow pale white like the moon.

“YOU LEFT ME IN THAT f*****g HOLE YOU B-!”

He didn’t finish, as Shani kicked his friend in the jaw, sending him flying onto his back. As his hands let go, Gabriella gasped as she finally regained her breath, with Mica and Kodi helping her up. Shani held the gun back in its raised position before turning his head in his friend's direction.

“Run! Back to the damn room!” He said as they ran back.

As he turned and looked back, Cole’s jaw cracked back into place, his body slumped forward as he sat up. Regaining some semblance of consciousness, the man looked at Shani... staring at his best friend dead in the eyes.

“You didn’t come back…”

“Cole c’mon, we had to-”

“YOU COULD’VE REACHED FARTHER!” His friend shouted, his eyes clouded with a dark malevolence behind them. As Shani began to speak, a shadow loomed behind Cole, with pupil-less eyes and the grin of the devil himself: The Entity…

Oh God…

Not hesitating, he ran down the hall to the bedroom, tripping on a wood panel on the ground that was unhinged. Sliding in and looking back long enough to see Cole begin to sprint, Shani slammed the door, pressing his back to it. “Kodi, get the dresser!”

“Why? It’s not like he can-”

His friend was cut off as a loud bang came to the door. “Get! The motherfucking! Dresser!” He shouted with each and every smash that came with his words. “NOW!”

Kodi stared shocked and ran to the large bookshelf dresser.

“Shani hang on!” Vince said as he pressed his shoulder to the door. Mica pressed against Shani to add more weight.

“You cannot escape me guys!” Cole promised on the door as he began to smash his way through.

“Shani, we need to get out of here!” Mica said as the hinges began rattling. Shani looked around, cursing mentally, looking for a way out, and gazed at Gavri. Although breathing, she seemed to be in shock and it wasn’t until he tried to speak that Shani looked over and saw the window.

“Gavri, get the window, we are gonna be escaping out the window!” He shouted, although she didn’t seem to hear. “GAV!” He said and she was still unresponsive.

We are dead f*****g s**t at this rate!

As he thought his words, Gavri finally snapped out of her trance and as quick as lightning, she ran to the window and tried lifting it but it was nailed down. “Shani! The machete!” She shouted. He sighed internally, glad she was back to her old self, and tossed it facing downward.

She flipped the machete in her hand and shattered the glass. Kodi finally managed to push the bookshelf to the side of his friends. “One! Two!”

The three leapt away from the door, just as Kodi pushed the top half down and secured the door in the crevice as Cole kept banging. “Out the window everybody!” Shani whispered hushed and Vince leapt first, the tiny shards cutting into his back as he landed on the dirt. Gavri went out next and Mica looked at Shani worried. “Shani…”

“We'll be behind you,” he promised her, followed by a kiss. “Go.”

She looked hesitant and dived out to the others as Shani followed, but looked as Kodi stared at the door.

“Kodi, c’mon!”

Kodi closed his eyes and stared at his friend in the second s********m. “Sorry, brother.”

Before Shani could ask, he had then been shoved out the window and spiraling down the roofing until he hit the dirt groaning as he hit the glass. The adrenaline blocked out any idea of pain as he stood and looked at Kodi.

“Kodi, what the f**k?!” He coughed, standing.

“Imma take care of Cole. Just run!”

“Kodi, have you lost your damn mind?! You can’t face him!”

“But I can buy you guys time! NOW GO!”

As he was about to argue, he could hear Mica and Vincent call his name in the distance and looked back up at Kodi, who just nodded.

“Better come back, asshole!” Shani shouted and, despite every fiber, ran off.

Kodi smiled sadly at his friend, whom, despite every logical reason, remained loyal to him. Somehow, though, he suspected he wouldn’t keep that promise as a loud crunch came into the door. As he turned, he saw the rage of a man, who was no longer his friend.

“Hello Brother.” He said to Cole.

“Hello… brother.” He snarled.

“The hell happened to you man?” Kodi asked as Cole circled him.

“You all left me is what happened.” He said and looked over Kodi’s shoulder. “They won’t get far.”

“Neither will you.” Kodi admitted, raising his ax, making his friend scoff unimpressed.

“Trying to be a hero? You are a damn leech brother. Never even told Shani about that drug problem you had. The source of your unhinged outbursts. You’re afraid he will look at you with disappointment. When it was, you confided in me. When it was I who gave you a goddamn roof over your junkie head. And what did you do?! You turned tail and left me in a hole!” He shouted, moving at inhuman speed and gripped his larger friend by the throat and strangled him.

“Always were a proud motherfucker, man… Shani was with us when I got help. Both of you were there for me...” Kodi scoffed at him, to which Cole’s face went emotionless.

“And now I am going to kill you.”

“You may be right… but…” Kodi then headbutted him hard, stunning him and punched him in the face. “You never could fight for shit.” He shouted and swung the ax hoping to kill the monster his friend became, and sent the ax straight through his rib.

But somehow, Cole was unfazed and just glared at his friend as he was tackled into the hallway, taking punches to the face before giving a knee to Kodi’s stomach. Doppling over, Kodi held his stomach before Cole lifted him with the same inhuman strength and flung him down the stairs.

“All I asked for was loyalty, friendship, people to fight for me like I did them.” Cole said, stalking down the stairs. Kodi clutched his stomach and stood up, his hand held the button area of his button-up t-shirt.

“You all never cared. I was just excess baggage to you. No matter how much I changed… you saw me as a snake, a cheat… a lesser man than all of you…” He said with pain in his heart as he picked up the ax. “The ridicule was so painful I cannot even fathom it.” He scowled, his rage taking over.

“So you cheat on your girlfriend? Makes you such a big man.” Kodi shouted downstairs, a fire poker in both hands. Behind the kitchen wall.

“Gavri gave up on us long before I ever did! She held me back! But when I am done with you all… when it is done with us all… NO ONE! SHALL HOLD ME BACK! AGAIN!!!”

As he shouted, he swung the ax around at Kodi... and got the ax stuck into the wall in the process. Kodi took the chance to impale his old friend, who shouted as Kodi shoved him into a wall, an ax in his chest as Kodi pressed forward, with wide eyes, as he felt something dig into his stomach.

As he gasped, he saw a jagged knife-like bone near his heart and fell.

“s**t man… We loved you…” He said as he crawled away.

“No… you never did.” Cole snarled as he began to slide forward off the poker but stopped as he heard Kodi laugh.

“Why are you laughing?” He asked before he realized the air was hot and stuffy.

“Was never good at watching your surroundings.” Kodi smirked as he laid against the wall, lighter in hand as the stove began to heat and began flicking it.

“No! NO!” Cole began to slide off quicker.

Kodi smiled sadly as he kept flicking. “Okay Shani… this one's on me brother…”

Cole leapt off at him as the lighter finally lit… consuming the house in an explosion of fire.

When Kodi next awoke, he looked around confused about where he was.

Is this..?

“Heaven? Oh no, dear boy…” A voice grinned. As he looked up to the source of the sound, before him was someone in the shape of a woman.

“You’re the damn entity?” He asked, coughing up blood as he realized he was chained to the floor.

“Is that what you are calling me? Hmm, half the time I am called other things, mostly the devil, which I hate because really the devil is an angel.” She laughed hysterically as her voice began to become something more familiar and male.

“Shani?” He wheezed, feeling a familiar sensation throughout his body.

“Oh, this is the form that has the most effect, huh?” The Entity smirked, lifting Kodi’s head by his hair. “Now I wanna know why.” He grinned, his finger growing a long needle like talon, making Kodi start to panic as he tried to struggle free.

“Time to see what thoughts really scare you.” He said and stabbed into a vein on his arm, the lines starting to turn black and feel like fire, making the youth scream in agony as the memories came back.

“Kodi? We know you are in there, man! Let us in!” Shani said on the outside. Inside was a motel room so run down it was a surprise it was standing. Kodi was trying to sneak out the back window, consumed by various drugs in his system.

As he ran, he didn't get far as a body tackled him to the ground, the body being Seth , one of the very men he called a brother. “GET OFF ME!”

“No chance, man, we are taking you in for help!” Another voice, Cole, said as he walked and hefted Kodi up as he struggled in his hands.

Months passed and Kodi sat in the rehabilitation building's lobby as though he was waiting for someone to arrive. When he looked, his best friends -Shani, Cole, and even Seth and Vincent- walked in with a comforting smile from the former. A smile that Kodi returned since Shani was the only one to visit him since he and Seth brought Kodi in.

“Hey brother.” Shani said, sitting beside him as they clasped their hands together.

“You were close to this one, huh?” The Entity asked, curiously grinning.

“He was my brother… We fought for each other when no one else would…” Kodi answered sadly as time went back to an more personal event for Shani, as he was in confrontation with a man taller and older than himself.

“WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TALKING TOUGH TO, BOY?!” The man growled, lifting Shani by his neck.

“You, obviously!” Shani growled, spitting in the man’s face before headbutting him and began to furiously punch into his face as Kodi began pulling him off. “He ain’t worth it man!” He said as he managed to get Shani off the man who glared.

“You are no son of mine, you hear me DeShan?!” The man shouted as Shani was dragged away.

“You haven’t been a father to me for years, so fine, John. And you will stay away from Mom and Jayden or I will call the f*****g police, I swear to God!” He shouted as the door shut behind Kodi.

As the two became quiet, Shani began punching the wall in rage-filled tears as he broke down as Kodi held him.

“Hey hey hey, it's okay man.” Kodi told his friend, who just sobbed.

“I hate him so much…”

“I know, brother… I know.”

“Well, that was touching.” The voice taking Gavriella’s form grinned evilly.

“Why… are you doing this? For power..? Or thrills?” Kodi glared.

“Both actually. My power is from the hunger I crave when I see your suffering. And your fear and addictions are so delicious to see that… well I can barely contain it.” It laughed in Vincent’s voice as he flailed his hands around his head in an explosion type of motion.

“They will stop you… Just wish I was there to see it…”

“Oh you will. I am far from done with you yet.” The Entity said in Shani’s voice as he walked over, a syringe appearing out of thin air bringing a familiar sense of fear in Kodi’s racing heart.

“From what I can tell your biggest fear is your addiction coming back to haunt you… meth, was it?”

“No! Nononononononono-!” Kodi began to shake furiously out of his restraints to no avail as The Entity injected him.

“Let’s see how many multiple overdoses you can handle before you are going to want to die.”

That was all Kodi heard as the world began to fade into a light, his screams going nowhere…