“He’s standing right there, let’s just go get him.” Emily exclaimed. She was the most impatient of the whole lot.
“We can’t do that Emily. He’ll just get away.” Stephen explained to her calmly in a leveled voice.
“But that’s stupid.” Emily whined, her lips pressing together in a pout.
“He’s right Em, we need to kill him, and our powers are limited.” Serena said with her eyes focused outside. The guy they were going after this time was tremendously powerful. He could sense if anyone near him was a supernatural. And if he sensed them, they’d all be dead before they even knew what had hit them.
Kyle was stronger and faster than all six of them combined because a Demon sent up from the dark pits of hell had possessed him. It was controlling poor Kyle, who had no idea what was happening, and using him for his cover. Serena’s heart clenched with anger and pity for the boy. She could barely wait to send the Demon back where it belonged.
They’d fought and sent all kinds of Demons and other monstrous creatures back to the underworld. They were pretty good at it too. But this particular Demon was at the very top of the evil creatures superpower pyramid, and there was a list.
His kind of species was called a Larnik, but no one knew for sure what kind of Demon he was. This particular Larnik had been going around town, setting buildings on fire, and feasting on whatever animals he could find. But his main reason for being sent up to the surface was to kill all the humans at the Karvill Mall. The more humans a Demon killed, the more powerful he became.
“So what’s the plan?” Eric asked from the back seat. “There is a plan right?” Stephen smiled, his gaze fixed on Kyle’s back through the car’s windscreen. Kyle was sitting out front, pretending to be waiting for the bus.
“Yes.” Stephen turned in his seat to look at them. “Well here’s what we can do. I’ll try to disorient him. We need to get him by surprise. So be fast. While I’m doing that, Serena you have to freeze him in a chuck of ice. I’m guessing it won’t last long. We need to secure the area so that the humans don’t get hurt while we take the Larnik out. I’ll do what I can but I might need help. So keep an eye out.” They nodded in agreement and then Stephen continued.
“Rhea, when he breaks the ice around him, you and Serena try freezing him again. Emily, help them out with that as much as you can. Eric, you’re going to have to turn into a ghost and get inside Kyle’s body. Two souls won’t be able to stay in one host, so one will be forced out. Make sure you’re the one who stays.” Eric nodded his head. Everyone was looking at Stephen with focused eyes, listening carefully to what he was saying.
“When Eric gets the thing out, he’ll stay inside Kyle for a little while so that the Demon doesn’t go back in. Jayk you’re going to have to do what you can to make sure the Demon goes back where he belongs. Serena, Emily, Rhea do what you can to help. Good luck.”
“Now this, is why you make up the plans. Man, you thought this through.” Eric said with a smile.
Everyone exited the car and started walking to where Kyle stood, the plan fresh in their minds. Stephen approached Kyle first and started throwing random garbage his way; complex math equations, formulas, scientific laws, the usual boring stuff to get one’s head to explode.
Kyle began shaking his head like a mad bull, and had this not been a very serious situation, the scene would have been hilarious. Serena was right behind Stephen. When Stephen gave the signal, her hands shot out, frozen bone chilling ice shooting out from her fingertips as she turned Kyle into an icicle.
Stephen left to secure the area and get the humans away from the fight that was about to go down. Jayk and Eric raced off to help him, and Rhea and Emily came to Serena’s side. After the three girls had completely frozen him they tried to help Stephen, but a loud cracking caused them to race right back.
Kyle was free within moments, a puddle of water all around him. His eyes were flaming with anger.
“Eric!” Serena shouted.
“Emily, Rhea, try to slow him down!” Stephen yelled from across the parking lot.
Emily doused him with water soaking his clothes, while Rhea manipulated the air around him, pulling it away from him, causing him to choke. It was important that Kyle didn’t get hurt as they tried to destroy the Demon possessing him.
Eric came bounding their way and shifted into a slivery ghost mid-jump. The girls watched as he disappeared inside of Kyle. A couple of moments later, it seemed as though Kyle was having a seizure. He fell to the floor and began shaking violently, his eyes rolled into his skull and his mouth opened and closed, trying to take in breaths.
Then, all of a sudden he just stopped moving and lay still. The girls watched as Kyle jumped up, winked, and then ran away. What was left behind could easily be described as the ugliest thing there was in the whole universe. The bright orange colored Larnik stood in the middle of the parking lot, slowly growing in size.
“Holy Lord.” Serena whispered in disbelief.
They’d seen so many Demons before, but none of them had been this ugly or nauseatingly fetid. Ever. It seemed that as the power of a Demon increased he got uglier and uglier. The one that stood before them happened to have about eight red bloodshot eyes protruding from his toad like head, four disgusting sickly colored hands; two tongues that stuck out from his filthy mouth like snakes, but thankfully, he had only two legs. If you looked closely though, you could see green slimy goop oozing from all over him, like a gelatin body armor. The contrast of the Demon’s skin and the green pus was more than repulsive.
The Larnik stood about seven feet tall by now, and to their horror was very nearly unclothed, except for the super tiny black tunic he wore, it was all nasty orange skin and green puss.
“Let’s get this over with.” Jayk said, appearing by Serena’s side almost out of nowhere. She smiled just slightly.
Taking a step forward, her hands shot out, but instead of ice, fire came rushing out of her fingers. Her aim was perfect, and soon the seven foot three inch Prince Ugly was doing a dance, every part of his disgusting orange self getting scorched. His howling was like thunder booming in the sky.
Emily and Rhea got to work quickly and forced water and air into his eyes and lungs, choking him as Serena burnt him to a nasty crisp. Jayk meanwhile, was tossing the orange thing around like a football, with nothing other than his mind. A few minutes later, a sickening crack came from where the Demon was sprawled on the ground, followed by louder more thunderous howling, but he wouldn’t die.
No, in fact the Larnik’s tube light of a brain turned on and he began fighting back. Howling in rage and pain, he managed to gather his peanut brain and smashing the store with his hands he threw the glass and bricks in Serena’s direction. She was, after all causing him the most pain.
Serena looked up in horror, arms still stretched out, knowing fully well that she’d have no time to doge them and still flame the thing. The bricks and glass flew over, moments from hitting her. She closed her eyes and waited for the impact of the hard rocks to smash into her. But the immense pain didn’t come. She opened her eyes and saw that most of them had just ricocheted away and were lying on the ground in front of her. A few of the glass pieces had hit Serena, burring themselves deep in her arm, causing her to wince in pain. But this was nothing compared to what could have happened.
She looked thankfully over at Jayk, guessing that he’d kept the pieces from killing her. But he was busy whacking Prince Horrendous against an invisible wall, trying to break all the bones in his body. Serena smiled and continued her burn session with the Larnik.
“Rhea, Emily! Stephen needs help! Prince not-so-charming’s got friends!” Eric yelled from across the lot.
“Serena should we—”
“Go! Stephen needs help. Jayk and I can handle this butt-head.” Serena shouted to them. Stephen was trying to fight the two other Demons that had appeared to help their friend, as well as keep the humans out of harm’s way.
“Are you—?” Emily hesitated.
“Just go! We’ll be fine.” Rhea and Emily sprinted off to help the other two. “Why won’t he die?” Serena screamed. The stupid Larnik kept beginning to heal after they burnt him or smashed him against invisible walls.
“Don’t know. Keep trying.” Jayk shouted back, his voice echoing the strain he was beginning to feel. He was now attempting to smash the thing’s head against some bricks from the smashed building, but it wasn’t working.
“Hey Jayk, I think I have an idea.” Serena huffed. Tiny black spots filled her vision and she tried blinking them away.
“What?” he shouted back over the roar of the Demon.
“I’ll try to fry him from the inside. You try to break his arms and legs!”
“Okay,” He said hesitantly.
Serena closed her eyes and focused. She pictured her fire seeping through the Demon’s skin and roasting everything inside him. She pictured it a few times, and felt power surge from her fingertips. When she opened her eyes, she knew it had worked. Serena could feel the thing burning from the inside. She could hear him sizzling, and he soon began crying out in pain.
“Now, Jayk!” Both Serena and Jayk used their powers to try and cause the repulsive Demon to explode. Jayk broke his ribs and an ear-splitting screech filled the air.
“Come on Ugly! Die already!” Serena shouted as a pounding began in the back of her head from concentrating so darn hard. The two of them turned it up a notch and sent out every ounce of the energy they had left. It was now or never. “Come on, come on, come on!” Serena chanted under her breath.
Then, all of a sudden there was a thunderous boom as the Demon exploded, bits and pieces of him flying everywhere. As he fell down there was a mini earthquake in the east coast. The pieces that went flying were all charred and burned to a very nice crisp. His insides on the other hand, had exploded out and were a nasty, sickly green color.
Serena looked around to see the Demon’s body parts up in flames all over the parking lot and around her, but nothing had landed on her. She looked at Jayk smiling, and knew he’d put up a shield to protect her. Serena breathed a sigh of relief. It was over. The Ugly was dead. For now.
“Serena, you okay?” Jayk rushed over to her.
“Yeah, fine. Let’s go help the others.”
The Supernaturals had killed the Demon and his two friends and kept everyone safe. Mission accomplished. The three Demon’s pieces evaporated one by one and finally disappeared. They were headed back to the underworld where they belonged. This was good because the crew did not want to clean up the Demon’s leftovers.
“You know, for such evil villains, you’d think they had longer pants and more clothing.” Serena claimed as the group met back up and headed for Kyle.
“I totally agree.” Rhea responded.
“Maybe they were trying to conserve money for their high-tech weapons.” Eric said.
“Yeah, like their hands.” Emily replied sarcastically, and the six of them broke out into a fit of laughter.
“Okay,” Serena began recovering first, “let’s go meet Kyle and make sure he’s fine.” Still giggling the six of them walked over to Kyle who was seated on a bench with paramedics checking his pulse and injecting him with some kind of fluid. He was covered with a thick gray blanket that looked quite itchy and was shivering away.
There was a crowd of people who had gathered in the area. Media folks had joined them at the scene as well as the cops and the ambulance.
“Stephen, can you take care of the witnesses?” Serena asked. After every fight Stephen altered the witnesses’ memories to reduce the panic and unwanted publicity that the fights caused. He read their minds first, to see what they thought had happened, and them he just changed their memories enough to keep the six out of the media. The humans were good at coming up with stories to describe the situations. Stephen nodded, and closed his eyes to concentrate.
“Hey Kyle. How are you holding up?” Serena was the first to approach him. She sat down next to him on the bench, and saw from up close that he had aqua blue eyes and a very handsome face.
“Good so far. Just feeling really, really cold.” He shivered again as proof.
“Sorry about that. Here, I can help.” she raised her hand slightly in his direction and imagined just enough heat seeping though his skin, to stop him from shivering.
“Thanks.” He smiled gratefully and stopped pulling the blanket around him.”Hey what happened to your arm?”
“Nothing, just got some glass in it.” She responded with a smile. “Really it’s nothing.” She continued after seeing his expression.
“Honey why don’t I take a look at that for you?” A sweet lady paramedic came over and asked her.
“Um, yeah, thanks.” The lady began plucking glass shards from Serena’s arm.
“So, Kyle how are you doing?” Stephen asked, the team walking up beside him.
“Great, actually. Never been better.” He looked over at Serena and smiled slightly. “I’m just a little freaked out about the fact that there was something inside of me. Controlling me.”
“Serena what happened?” Emily gestured to the paramedic working on her arm.
“Nothing, just got some glass in it.” Serena shrugged.
“There you go. All bandaged up.” The paramedic smiled brightly at her and walked away.
Serena looked at Kyle, “Well its fine now. You’re safe, and the thing is gone.” she assured him.
“Gone? But he exploded, isn’t he dead?” Kyle looked at her in horror.
“Well, Demons like the one that was inside you don’t die exactly. They just get seriously hurt for a couple of months. But a couple of months for the underworld are like thousands of years for us, so it works out.” Serena answered. Kyle let out a sigh of relief, but he still looked a little freaked out.
“So why exactly did he pick me to take over?” Kyle asked looking at Serena for a response.
“Well, that’s the thing. We don’t know. I figured that maybe you were the first host he saw and that was it. I’m positive you weren’t targeted though, so you have nothing to fear anymore.” Stephen responded instead.
“Few, that’s a little bit of relief.” Kyle looked at Stephen and smiled. His blond hair looked was almost white in the sun. “So um, thanks for saving my life.”

“You’re very welcome.” Serena responded for everyone.
Stephen got to work and altered Kyle’s mind too. Kyle would think he’d just accidently tripped and bruised himself. He wouldn’t remember Serena or Stephen or the Demon. The group all said their goodbyes and piled into their black van. Then they headed to their home sweet home, with Stephen at the wheel.
The six friends all live together in a massive five bedroom house. The two couples, Eric and Emily, Stephen and Rhea, shared a bedroom. Jayk and Serena had rooms of their own.

Later that day, Serena walked up to Jayk’s closed bedroom door and knocked softly.
“Who is it?” His sleepy voice came from inside.
“Me.” She responded shifting her weight from her left leg to her right. “Can I talk to you? Or are you asleep?”
The door clicked open, revealing Jayk standing in pajamas and a plain white t-shirt. His hair looked as though he’d been fighting a pillow with his head.
“If I was asleep I wouldn’t have responded.” He retorted then moved aside and gestured her in, stifling a yawn. “So what did you want to talk about?” Jayk shut the door and took a seat at his desk. Serena sat down on the edge of his bed.
“I just wanted to say thanks. For saving me today.” His emerald green eyes were fixed on her.
“You’re welcome.” He replied simply.
“And there was one more thing. Um, tomorrow is Stephen’s birthday. So I was planning a surprise party. I told the others already, but I wanted to know if you’d help out.” Serena asked then waited.
Her long raven black hair was tied back in a high ponytail with some strands coming loose and wrapping themselves around her neck. Jayk noticed the way her cheeks were a baby pink color from the heat, and how her chocolate brown eyes were sparkling with excitement.
“Depends,” Jayk answered. “What do I have to do?”
“Well, you could help out with decorations; balloons, decorations, streamers.”
“I don’t know,” he began, brushing his bangs out of his eyes.
“Please? You can just sit and put the things up.” Serena pleaded, and then waited for him to respond. Jayk looked at her and thought about it.
“Fine.” He said after a while.
“Yeah!” Serena squealed with delight and Jayk who was still watching her, smiled back. Serena was one of those rare people who could make him smile all the time.
“So, how’s Danny doing?” Jayk asked slowly.
“Danny? Well he’s good I guess.” She smiled brightly, but her brain was racing with thoughts of Stephen’s party.
“So when do we actually get to meet him?” Jayk had no real interest in meeting him but Serena was his friend, so he had to meet the guy at least once.
“Um, I’m not sure.” Serena’s forehead wrinkled up between her eyebrows, the way it did when she was in deep thought about something.
“Are you going to bring him tomorrow?”
“I thought about asking him to come, but it’s Stephen’s birthday and I kind of want just the group to be there with him, so I didn’t ask.”
“Oh well, we can meet him some other time right?” He mumbled.
“Sure.” Serena smiled that angelic smile again. “Well,” she began, getting up off his bed, “long day tomorrow. I’d better go get into bed and let you get back to sleep.” Jayk stood up too and she gave him a quick hug, thanked him again and went to her room, next door.
Somehow that’s how it’d worked out. Serena and Jayk had gotten the rooms that were right next to each other, while the other two couples had gotten rooms that were far apart from all the other rooms. But it was better that way, and everyone got the privacy they needed.