Chapter 3:

Except for a Devil

A Perfect Life


I woke up with a flash in the air. The rain had frozen over, replaces with rapidly falling snow. It was a blizzard, a blizzard with lightning striking every inch of the ground it seemed. I turned to see Olivia fast asleep next to me. Apparently, we were both too tired to make it to bed.

My watch told me it was 11:59. Had it really only been an hour since I fell asleep? Last I remembered it was around Eleven when I put Alisha to bed, There was no way that I hadn’t slept longer.

The couch creaked quietly as I got up slowly, careful not to wake my wife up. Through the windows laid a white hellscape battering against the house. I couldn’t see more than a foot outside before a white cloud of nothingness covered the great beyond, like a white blanket flowing through the wind.

There was a giant grandfather clock in the hearth room, that should clear this up. My watch’s battery had probability just died. It was impossible to tell the time from outside anyway, so that’s the only option I had.

The dark hallways had shadows dancing like marionettes; controlled by masters with schizophrenia. They shifted back and forth, what was assumedly the tree branches Shaftd by the wind and made to move against their will.

A wave of heat burst towards my skin as I entered the hearth room. A great big fire was blazing in the fireplace, making me freeze for a second. Maybe Olivia had turned the fire on, but when would she have had the chance?

I put the fire towards the back of my mind and looked at the great old grandfather clock. Its golden pendulum was flowing smoothly across the clock; back and forth; back and forth. The minute hand was sure enough at 11:59 P.M. The second’s hand was the interesting part. It was stuck at fifty-nine seconds, not moving an inch. I looked back at my watch, giving it a double-take. Sure enough, my watch was at 11: 59 with fifty-nine seconds on the clock as well, not moving in the slightest.

“What the heck…” Those words escaped my mouth as I looked around the room, lit up by the uneven light of the roaring fire. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I could hear the fire crackling and the blizzard howling. Every few seconds a boom of thunder rattled my bones, but I was used to it by this point.

This was getting weird, there had to be some explanation for this, I was sure. Olivia! I needed to got wake her up. I’d feel safer if she was here with me. Besides, I could leave her by herself when an anomaly like this was taking place.

When I got back to the living room, Olivia was still fast asleep on the couch, right where I left her.

I breathed a sigh of relief as I gently pushed on her shoulder. No response. I shook her slightly harder “Olivia, I think somethings happening.” Again, no response.

Worry started to fill my mind as I shook her harder. “Olivia!” I shouted, to no avail. She stayed fast asleep. Something was wrong here, seriously wrong. Her quiet breaths made her chest rise and fall over and over again in even patterns, calming me down.

“There’s no help coming for you.” A voice echoed through the room, vengeful and demonic. Pure spite and anger could be heard though its words, every syllable filled with satanic energy.”

“Who’s there!” I jumped up in shock, looking around the room frantically. Nothing responded, the room was quiet except for the blizzard outside. Fifty blasts of lightning struck around the house all at once. I could feel the shockwaves hitting my body from every angle, knocking me to the ground.

I felt like I got hit with the blasts themselves, my body groaning in agony as I slowly got up. I turned to see Olivia still breathing quietly on the couch and breathed a sigh of relief. As long as she was ok, so was I. Alisha was more than secure in her room, so she should be safe. Nothing, mortal or immortal, should be able to get in there.

The creature’s presence disappeared from the room. A wave of pressure lifted off my body. I hadn’t even noticed it was there until I got relief from whatever that demon was.

My mind darted towards the safe in the bedroom. Whatever that thing was, it was clearly hostile, responsible for all this. I had a slight suspicion for why it was here but put that aside for now. There was no way my sins would come back to bite me this fast. Just no way.

Blood started to spill from the ceiling, breaking me out of my trance. This thing was after me, not Olivia. As much as it hurt, leaving her here was the right move.

I dashed through the shadowy hallways. The rampant thunder didn’t bother me anymore, my mind was too preoccupied to notice. My surroundings barely registered as I reached the bedroom and slammed the door against the wall.

The safe was positioned against the wall next to the bed. I used it as a nightstand due to pure laziness, as moving it would be a pain. My hand shifted the dial seamlessly as the door swung open soundlessly.

Inside was a pair of pistols along with more than enough ammo, along with a long knife that seemed to cut the air itself. A belt was hanging from the back, holes for all three weapons tied onto the leather seamlessly.

The belt felt tight around my waist, the guns rattled against my jeans as I equipped them into the holster, and the long sleek knife found a home in my hands. I was done running, I’d faced worse than this… thing. It was me or him, and I was gonna come out on top.