Enemy Among Us

Chapter 15

Gabby

It only took us ten minutes to arrive at the library, it was covered in shrubs and vines. We stepped inside and immediately knew something was off, inside was clean except for the books that were scattered on the floor. There were a couple broken shelves, books on the floor were falling apart and soaking wet from the rain, while the books on the shelves were dusty, covered in cobwebs and had loose hanging pages stuck inside them but other than that, everything was clean. Johnny and Andy walked ahead and started scouting the perimeter. Laney and Eli stayed with me and Savanna. We had started to look around when I noticed a book that was out of place. “Eli come look at this.” The agent came over and picked up the book, he flipped through it and looked at the cover.

“Why is this the only perfectly clean and well kept book here.” We looked around at all the dirty books scattered across the perfectly clean floor. That's when I realized, I remember seeing that book in Anaiya’s house. It was sitting in her room by her bed on its own little pedestal inside a locked case. The case was obviously bullet proof but it was also covered in a black blanket, I didn’t understand why it was there but it was in a language I didn't recognize. “A Latin book of demons.” I jumped slightly as I felt Johnny’s hand on my shoulder, I didn't even notice him come up behind me. “You know what this says?” “Yeah, as a kid my father would teach me Latin, kept saying it would come in handy one day. The book is about demons but the face on it resembles Agent Holman’s but different.” I looked at the cover and giggled. That did look a lot like Anaiya when it came to the painting but this was a photograph of a painting that was millions of years old, and I’ve been around her so long that I know all the details of her face. “That's not Anaiya's face, that must be her mom’s…..”

I froze, that's when it hit me. Anaiya has been a family friend for the longest. She excelled in every talent. I then remembered one night she was with me, like a faded past, it was late and we were playing in my dad's study when she said she had something to show me. She had taken me to see her mother, who I now remember was locked in the dungeon of my kingdom's palace inside a special cell sort of made of the same material the casing around the book was made of, but I was just a kid so I didn’t think too much about it.

Johnny

“We have to go home.” Gabby gripped my arm tightly. I kneeled down and squeezed her hand. “What is it?” “Anaiya has been friends with my family forever, I just remembered that one night when I was younger she showed me her real form but took me into a secret room in my father's study! We have to go!” I opened my mouth to answer but a loud crash stopped me. We all turned our attention to a room in the back, we kept close to each other because the windows were tinted. Andy pulled out the axe as I drew my sword. We waited for what felt like an eternity, when we saw it step out into the light.

A dog, a demon. It looked like a blood hound but it's eyes were solid black and it's fur was laced with red and with each step left a trail of scorched tile. I pointed my sword at it as I began to back everyone towards the door when a loud bark caused everyone to turn. “There's one here too!” Andy had his back to the group as he kept the axe pointed towards the one blocking our exit. Both hounds growled and continued to step closer, I swung my sword at the one in front of me as it left a gash at the top of its nose. That's when I noticed the room it came from was all glass and it left a large enough hole for us all to get out but one by one. “Andy we have to get to that room!”

“Are you insane?!” “It's our only exit now everyone on the count of three duck!” The hound crouched ready to attack. “1….2…..3!” The hound lunged at us and as everyone ducked, I thrusted my sword into its shoulder throwing into the other hound. “Go! Go! Go!” I pushed everyone to the room as the hounds got back up to lunged once more. Me and Andy blocked the entrance as they tried to attack, I stabbed one in the eye as Andy cut off the others left paw. We both managed to get to their hearts and cut through them, both hounds falling back and faded back into the earth. That’s when we heard a loud howl from somewhere deep in the forest. I made my way out of the building to everyone. “They're gone for now.” Gabby looked at me with a smile on her face but that happiness quickly turned to horror.

“Johnny...” I heard the fear in her voice as Andy kept her back. “Don't, it's too dangerous.” I felt this odd pain that began to spread, I looked down to see blood and black liquid, oozing from a claw mark the hound made. “Guys?” I coughed and collapsed as the pain hit me like a truck. I’ve never felt this kind of pain before and it was like my arm was on fire, like someone took a branding iron and held it to my shoulder.