Chapter Two
Unexpected Help

“BRYAN!!!”

Hearing my wife’s scream I got up off the floor, and sprinted across the house and down the stairs, dodging debris and leaping over furniture that had been strewn around the floor.

Leaping down the stairs, my feet barely seemed to touch the ground, as I bounded thru the house, the fear in my gut erased all thought. Rounding the corner from what used to be the kitchen I saw my wife standing in the corner of the living room with her arms out from her sides, trying to keep the children behind her, and herself between the dog like demon that had come thru the window where I had just been.

As I leapt into the room the creature looked at me and snarled, the long bristles around its neck seemed to stand out, the drool running from its mouth had begun to pool upon the floor. It turned from me to pounce upon my family when I shouted at it, I do not know the words I spoke, but the beast instantly turned from my wife and jumped at me, faster than I would have thought possible. I barely had enough time to get my sword up to protect myself cutting a line down the beast’s snout, causing it to howl in pain. I knew that for us to survive this I would either have to dispatch the monster quickly or find a way to run.

As the creature landed it hit my legs with it tail, knocking me to the ground, then it was upon me. I tried to get the sword between us hoping to force the demon to skewer itself upon the blade, but it was just to fast, forcing me to release the weapon and grab its jaws, keeping them away from my face. Its putrid breath smelling of decay blew across my face and into my lungs, causing me to gag, as I struggled with all my strength to keep the demon at bay.

“The sword, get the sword and kill it!” I yelled at my wife. Suddenly there was a tearing sound and pain exploded across my abdomen as the beast brought its claws raking across me. I could feel my blood running down my sides “Hurry!” I yelled. Elizabeth came running from the corner and tried to get the sword that was on the ground next to me, but as she grabbed for the weapon the demon whipped its head out of my grasp and mauled her arm. As she fell back in agony I wrestled with the beast, driving my fingers into the slash I had inflicted on it. It howled in pain, released my wife and turned its attention once again back to me. Its jaws were snapping at my face, its tongue hanging out of its mouth and blood dripping from its teeth splattering my face. In out struggles I felt the sword now under me, not knowing what else to do I yelled for the kids and Elizabeth to run, I would hold it as long as I could.

“Where would we go, how would we survive?” Elizabeth asked.


“Please” I begged. “I can’t hold it forever.” At that moment my hand slipped and the beast lunged for my throat, but I was able to turn its head just enough so that it sunk it fangs into my shoulder, causing me to moan in pain. Then Elizabeth screamed in pain again, but I could not see what had happened as the creature’s head was between my wife and my head. Suddenly the dog-like monster let go of me, lifted its head, and howled in pain. Looking to see what had happened I was not able to see why the creature had let go, but seizing the moment I rolled out from under it grabbing my sword as I rolled to my feet.

Turning on the creature which had its back to me, and was facing my wife I struck at it, stabbing it thru the spine. When its back legs gave out on the creature I was able to see that it had my wife’s forearm in its mouth. I leapt forward and swung with all my might, severing its head from its body. I was then that I noticed that my wife was wearing the gauntlet that we had acquired from the imp like creature we had killed a few weeks ago protecting her from the demons teeth.

Scanning the room quickly, I noticed that the room smelled of burnt skin. “We need to get out of here, something might have heard us.” I led my family from the house hiding behind cars and rubble, trying to keep out of site. Within minutes we had covered enough ground to be safe, at least for the moment. Looking at my wife, I glanced at the gauntlet and asked “What happened back there?”

“I don’t know” she said. “I was desperate and grabbed the gauntlet to hit the thing and it slipped down my arm and seemed to clamp to my forearm, burning my skin. Then fire seemed to envelope it and I struck at the creature, but before I could hit it, fire leapt from my hand and burned the demon, making it release you.”

“Can you take it off?”

She tugged at the gauntlet, and it slipped off her arm easily, she nodded.

“Put it back on, we need every weapon we can get. Now come on we need to find a place to rest for the night.” As we walked I noticed that my injuries no longer hurt, I pulled my shirt aside and saw that the gashes on my stomach were gone, and my shoulder had stopped bleeding. “Look at this” as I showed my wife my shoulder. “Have you ever seen something like this heal so fast?”

“No, when I was working at the hospital, before all this, something like that would take weeks to heal.”

Looking around I saw a manhole cover, “There” I said. As we made our way to it we heard a chorus of howls coming from behind us, as we turned to look we saw a pack of the dog demons closing in on us. I yelled for everyone to hurry down into the sewers hoping to get it closed before they got to us….