Chapter 38-
Disaster Date

"I've been staring at this thing for five minutes and-" Benny cuts himself off, getting up from the kitchen, where he decided to grab an apple, and walking over toward Rory and I, in the lounge room.

"Does this look like a monkeys head to you?" He finishes, sitting beside me. I shift closer, basking in his warmth.

"I mean, with one eye?" I comment, taking the paper to look at the supposed monkey head.

Rory takes the paper, "I think it looks more like this." He says, placing the paper beside a large map of the city. The map has eight stars, matching the eight dots on the sheet of paper. The stars are connected together with multiple lines, creating the shape Ethan drew.

"Hey, your right. Nice catch!" Benny compliments as he moves closer to take a better look.

"What is this map, exactly?" I ask, realising Rory had dug it out of nowhere.

"Oh!" Ethan's dad calls from the doorway as he walks over to join us, "That would be the "Oh no." zone. It's the only part of town my company won't insure. Too many weird accidents." He finished, bending down beside the table.

Accidents?

That sounds great...

"Uh..." He mumbles, leaning over and pointing to a star beside Skyline Road, "House sucked into the ground."

He then points toward the star on Andy Street, "Garage tone apart by trees." He then points to another star, "Driveway turned to lava."

The boys and I all share glances.

"Yeah, nothing that gets built in these spots stays up for long. It's like the whole area seems to be filled with bad luck."

Benny leans forward, pointing to the centre of the map, "What's this place in the centre? One Darkwood Road?"

"Oh! Darkwood Hotel. Oldest in town. Y'know, back in the 40's a busload of people checked in, then the next day they disappeared. Checked out."

My stomach drops at the latter part of his statement. How can a group of people just... disappear?

Rory shifts uncomfortably, "Checked out... You mean like-" He trails off, looking over toward me.

"No one knows. Whatever it was their insurance didn't cover it." Ethan's dad jokes, hysterically laughing at the end.

Benny, Rory and I laugh along, trying to ease tension.

"So, Ross. Um... We kids- we love your... insurance stories. Do you have any pictures of like, flooded basements and stuff?" Benny asks, obviously trying to get Ross to leave the room.

"Do I? Yeah! They're upstairs. I'll go get them." Ross claims, takin the bait and heading upstairs to collect the pictures.

Benny whips around to Rory and I, "Ok so. Each place he mentioned, they stink of supernatural energy." He claims.

Rory leans towards the map again, "What about this one? It's on the drawing but not on the map." He points out.

Upon closer inspection, I notice the centre point missing. Good eye, Rory.

"Ethan said that cloaky-vamp stopper was looking for something called the "Lucifrator". If this is where it is, then we need to get there first." Benny finishes, pinpointing the place on the map.

"Guess we're heading to One Darkwood Road," I add, getting up and running out the door, the boys following suit.

*

The boys and I walk down a darkened tunnel that oddly smelt like smoke and gasoline. It is made of concrete and the "supernatural detector" echoes as it beeps.

"Dude, this place is definitely haunted. We should go." Rory comments, his voice shaking as he looks around the flickering tunnel.

"Rory, on the monster scale. Vampire beats ghost. You're the scariest- save Abigail, werewolf beats vampire- but you're the second scariest thing down here." Benny comments.

"I am?" I mumble, proud of myself. Rory hold his hand up for a high five,

"Scare scale buddies!" He exclaims, grinning. I high five his hand, I mean who wouldn't? It's Rory.

"Hold on... Wait, wait, wait." Benny stops us walking as he looks down at the detector, "There is a pile of supernatural energy here."

He shifts it around and it starts beeping frantically, "Yeah! This is the right place." Benny adds, looking around the room. That's when I realise the supernatural detector was blatantly pointing towards Rory.

"Oh no! It's been in my stomach the whole time!" Rory yells, freaking out as it beeps louder and louder. I sigh as I take Benny's hands and move it away from Rory, who was frantically shaking around to get the "thing" out of him.

"Nice going, babe," I mumble, smirking up at Benny, who gives me an embarrassed smile in return.

Benny turns towards the path we were taking and follows the detector until he reaches a plant of wood, which he pushes out of the way revealing a small box reading "Service Elevator".

Benny knocks and then proceeds to open up the wooden door, reaching in and picking up a ball covered in layers of cloth.

"That's how it's done." He gloats, taking the cloth off of the crystal ball, "Behold the Lucifractor! We are its new masters."
I roll my eyes at Benny and his theatrics.

"What does it do?"

"It obeys our awesome commands!" Benny answers as we all begin to start walking back to the entryway.

"Cool!" Rory chimes in, "How?" He quickly adds. Oh, here we go.

"I... Have no idea." Benny finishes, his once energetic tone, flattening to nothing.
"I'm sure your grandma will figure it out..." Benny adds.

"For something so important, I would think it would have an alarm or something." Rory comments.

The hairs on the back of my neck stand, and I stop all movement in my legs as I turn around to face a creature being made from smoke, "You mean like that." I whisper.

"Run!"

The three of us run down the corridors, weaving through random passageways to hope to end up outside and not at a dead end.

"Guess I'm not the scariest thing here anymore!" I huff as we come to a stop.

"Ok, second scariest is still pretty good!" Benny defends himself. He then stops as we all look to our left, "Third scariest." Rory mumbles.

"Thanks for finding that for me, kids. Now let me have it." The hissed figure exclaims, holding his hand up for us to place the, what I assumed, Lucifrator into his hand.

Yeah, screw that.

"Oh, you'll get it alright! Run again!" Benny yells as we realised the beast is still hot on our tail.

"Ok!" I scream as Benny grabs my hands and sprints for the exit.

*

Benny huffs as he catches up with Rory and I, "You two are so fast..." He mutters, unable to breathe from running.

"You look a little tired, want me to carry that for a while?" Rory asks, holding his hand out to take the ball.

Benny accepts his offer and blacked places the ball in Rory's hand, only for Rory to immediately start slowing down and his once already pretty pale skin, turning even whiter.

That's weird.

I take the ball and ignore the tingle, "You alright, Rory?"

"It's a lot heavier than I thought." He mumbles, catching his breath.

"Maybe you shouldn't touch this thing, hm?" I suggest, reaching over and putting the ball into Benny's satchel.

Benny shovels into his pockets as his phone starts ringing. He digs it out and answers almost immediately, "Ethan. Hey, we found the Lucifractor and it-" he's it off by Ethan on the other side.

"Oh, yeah! And it-" Ethan cuts Benny off again, then he hangs up, fast.

"Uh, hey Rory. Do you feel well enough to you know... fly really fast while carrying me?" Benny asks. Rory shakes his head in refusal.

"Walking it is," I comment as I take Benny's hands once again.

*

Ethan runs over to us as I help Rory out of the wheelbarrow we st- I mean borrowed...

"Hey! Ok, this is the good news." Benny states, taking off his satchel and handing it to Ethan. "Bad news is..." Benny tails off as we hear a growl behind us.

I turn around and my eyes widen. The big smoke-monster-thing is here. How wonderful!

"That thing sure wants it's chew toy back. Why can't we just... give it to him?" Benny asks, and even though I know why we can't, god I wish we could.

"Are you nuts? It's powerful enough now without giving it a superweapon. Maybe we can destroy one powerful thing with another?" Ethan suggests.

"Good idea. How's a good time to do it." I comment as the beast throws a vampire across the room. Wait. Another vampire?

"I gotta figure out how to use it!" Ethan yells at me.

"Hey, don't-" Benny starts, about to come to my defence, but he cuts himself off, "Maybe I could buy you some time."

Benny holds his hands up, "Zagarock hel-" Benny's cut off as he's gripped by the neck and pushed across the bar, the beast pulling him along and knocking dishes onto the floor.

That beast is going to die tonight.

My eyes flash blue as I turn to my werewolf side and run over to help my helpless boyfriend. I jump on the beasts back and attempt to choke it. The beast lets go of Benny and behind to start trying to buck me off.

"Is it ready yet?" Benny yells over to Ethan. Ethan, on cue, activated the Lucifractorand blasts the beast with a purple light.

I jump off the beast, ignoring the electric shock I got from the Lucifrator and watch as the beast is pulled to the ground, then it disappears.

"What is that thing?" Sarah yells from the entry of the restaurant.

I help Benny off the bar, my human side taking over once again. I brush some broken glass out of his hair, "You alright?" I ask, voice filled with concern.

Benny smiles and kisses me on the nose, "Of course I am." He quickly brushes some hair out of my face, then we make our way back over towards the others, and that's when the Lucifrator lets out a blast of purple energy, knocking the vampires to the ground.

Ethan looks over to the humans who were huddled together, "If you talk about what happened tonight. The only people who will believe who, are those who will eat you."

The humans look at each other in fear and run out of the restaurant, leaving on us. The supernatural.

Ethan helps Sarah up as Benny reaches down for Rory, "You good?" I ask, looking over Rory. He nods shaking his head, "I'm fine. Just a massive headache." He replies. I chuckle softly, "Maybe drink some water, man."

"I think I'll call it a night," Sarah mumbles, as I turn to walk back towards her and Ethan.

"Yeah! Um... I'll call you?" Ethan asks, unsure. Without replying, Sarah walks out of the restaurant.

"Well... at least she'll never forget this date?" Benny mumbles, unsure how to ease the situation.

I walk over towards Ethan and tap his shoulder comfortably, "I'm sorry, Ethan."

He nods, looking a down at the Lucifrator then up at us, "Let's go." He mumbles, and with that, we all head out of the restaurant.

[NOT EDITED]

{ 1893Words }

The updating gods have spoken.

I am here to deliver.

Also, babysitting is HARD. I did it for the first time and wow, I don't know how to deal with children...