As it turned out, Liam in fact did not have any tools. So we did what all reasonable people do when they don't have things and resorted to robbery.

"Are you sure this is legal?" Liam whispered to me as we climbed Mr. Hailkins fence and into his backyard.

"Of course its legal why wouldn't it be." I replied with a shrug, I fully well knew this was against the law, but somehow I managed to convince him otherwise.

"Well for one this could be considered breaking and entering."

"You're right, it could be considered breaking and entering, but is it really?"

"Yeah, yeah it is."

I gave another shrug, "ok then we don't get caught!"

"What if they do catch us?"

"We run," I explained.

"Doesn't Mr. Hailkin own a gun?" Liam said, obviously not liking my plan

"We run really fast."

"Okay, but uhh, say we can"t run faster then bullets?"

"Nonsense we'll be fine, c'mon don't be a coward."

Liam scowled, he hated being called a coward. "Fine, but if we get caught you better take the blame."

It was dark out, we had already returned home and done our homework, slipped out of our houses and now hid at the edge of his yard, creeping closer to his tool shed. I only knew he had the stuff in there because he once asked my dad to help out with something in his backyard, and then my dad got me to help out a bit, giving me a good view of everything he had in there.

Besides we were only borrowing them, we wouldn't need them for too long, and when would Mr. Hailkin ever need them anyways? The only thing he did these days was grumble under his breath about how kids are stupid and go to the gun range.

Unfortunately, that meant he had a good shot, despite him being in his seventies. So even more motivation to not get caught.

We came up to the sheds door, just to investigate what we were dealing with, we had all night to do this so we weren't too rushed. Of course we didn't want to be there for too long but thats besides the matter.

I took a look at the door handle, it was held shut by a sturdy, rusty lock. I frowned a little, not that it would be hard to break off, but by the fact that it would definitely wake up Mr. Hailkins. When Liam noticed it, he sighed and trudged over to a large rock.

"Wait Liam you don't have to-" I told him.

"Shhhh," he cut me off. "You don't want to make anymore noise then we have to."

"No seriously just list-"

"Ok, three, two, one." He lifted the rock to smash the lock, but then instead of bringing it down upon it, he froze. Upon further examination of the lock, he realized what I had. The lock wasn't even locked.

"Well dementia is good for some things I guess." He laughed quietly. He threw the rock aside, accidentally hitting another rock and causing a loud clash. I froze, all my muscles clenched up. Did it wake him? It wasn't that loud, but Mr. Hailkins could have been a light sleeper.

I started to move quickly, if it had woken him there was no point in waiting to hear something. By then he could already have a gun and be onto us.

I opened the shed door and rushed inside, looking around frantically. I saw an array of gardening tools, a shovel, a pickaxe, even some of the drills you would see at construction sites. Liam grinned and grabbed one of them.

"NO! Not those," I whispered, "They'll just bring attention to our fort. Grab the more silent ones."

Liam dropped the drill, and picked up the pickaxe. I quickly grabbed the shovel. I gave the shed one last glance to make sure I had everything I needed and left, closing the door quietly behind me. Liam put the lock back on and shut it closed.

"No point in letting him think anyone stole anything!" He reasoned.

Now all they needed to do was get out of the backyard by climbing Mr. Hailkins fence and they would be home free. I look at the house behind me only realizing now that one of the lights was on in one of the upstairs rooms. The shut blinds ruffled a bit, and then opened up to show Mr. Hailkin peering out at us. He had heard the rock.

"He knows!" I cried out to Liam, all subtlety gone. He turned around confused at first, but that quickly switched to panic as he realized what was wrong.

"Dammit run!"

He sprinted the last few steps to the fence and threw the pick over it and began climbing, a few steps behind him I do the same. The backdoor slammed open, I hear the ragged breath of Mr. Hailkin as he searched for us in the dark of his backyard. I held still, movement would draw his eyes in my direction.

Liam was on the other side and already had the pick in his hands, not realizing my situation. He ran into the forest, no doubt assuming I was behind him.

After he had disappeared into the trees I grew even more distressed then I already was. I was on my own, stuck half way up the chain fence. I watch Mr. Hailkin take tentative steps of the back porch and onto the grass. He had no flashlight on him so my best bet was to hope his eyesight was impaired with his old age.

"Where are you, you stupid bastards..." He called out threateningly. He had a gun in his hands. "If you tell me where you are and don't run I won't shoot you, if you do run though..." He cocked his gun.

He approached the shed, and tried to open the door, he frowned and squinted at the lock. I took my chance, I grabbed the top of the fence and took another step higher. Then promptly vaulting over the top, and landing awkwardly. I got up and grabbed the shovel and began sprinting for the cover of the forest.

I had been right, as soon as I moved Mr. Hailkin spun to my direction and raised his gun to fire. "FREEZE!" He called out, but I was already gone. I tore through the leaves and undergrowth until I was surrounded by trees and bushes. I crouched down in the bushes and hid.

I sat there catching my breath, was he following me or not? Where was Liam? We didn't have a meeting point because we never thought we would separate. I pulled out my phone to call him, waiting a few seconds for it to come back to life. Liam and I had both agreed to turn our phones off during the raid, on the odd chance that someone would call us and make noise.

I went to contacts and quickly gave Liam a call. He didn't pick up. Either he hadn't turned his phone on yet or he was in trouble. I groaned, this had gone wrong in so many ways.

I made my way back cautiously, countless thoughts rolling through my mind. Was Liam okay? Had he gone back for me? Was he just hiding in the forest, too scared to come back and find me? I only had myself to blame of course, the lack of planning and the fact that it was my idea to steal from Mr. Hailkin's in the first place.

I neared the break in trees where Liam and I had been earlier that night, scoping out the yard and watching for when the old man fell asleep. I peeked from a tree in the direction of the yard, hoping to catch some movement, but what i got was unexpected. Silence.

No footsteps, no gunfire, not even the sound of Mr. Hailkin complaining about his joints. Nothing. I leaned out a bit farther to see down the road and in the driveway. His car was still there, so he was still around.

I bit my lip, it was time to take a risk. I crept out from my hiding spot onto the gravel road and made my way towards the fence. Doing my best to stay in the shadows, I crouched next to the fence and peered into the yard. Trying to see wether or not he was in the house. No lights inside had been turned on or off since Mr. Hailkin had come out, the only light source left was the dim porch light. I wasn't going to find him here, I turned and quickly made my way back to the cover of trees.

I made my way in a bit, less concerned now. The odds are Mr. Hailkin thought that we hadn't taken anything, we had put the lock back on after all. I stepped on a stick, making enough noise to make me wince. I still needed to be careful.

He was probably at the main road on the other side of the forest, where was had entered in the first place before making our way over here. Making my way through cautiously, I walked for a few minutes. Constantly checking over my shoulder, and freezing at every odd noise I heard. So far it had been uneventful, I could see the road about thirty meters away. I relaxed, we had done it. Of course we could of done much more safely if we had been more careful, but the job was done and we had our reward.

A blunt force jabbed me in the back, I cried out and tumbled forwards into the dirt. Rolling onto my butt I turn to see what had hit me. The blood drained from my face as soon as I noticed the barrel of the gun a meter from my face. Mr. Hailkin was scowling, was he going to shoot me? It was legal after all, if only this had been Canada- well if it was Canada we could have just asked for the tools, and maybe some poutine at the same time.

"Git your hands in the air buddy'o, Ima teach you a lesson bout' stealing from me." He cocked the gun. I start to back away slowly, I hadn't climbed up from the dirt yet. No doubt he would rather shoot me then let me get away. "Ima call the cops yeh here me? You and yer friend'll be in jail fur a long time." He gave a husky laugh and reached into his pocket for his cell phone.

I look around frantically as he turned his attention to his phone, I couldn't run, he would easily hear me and shoot me before I got five meters.

I see Liam out of the corner of my eye. He was hiding behind a tree to my left a few meters away. Was he going to run and hit Mr. Hailkin with his pickaxe? No, it was all undergrowth between us, there weren't any running paths around here, Mr. Hailkin would see him before he got close.

Unless...

I had an idea, it wouldn't get us out of the situation, but it would get the gun out of the old mans hands. I turn to Liam, and mouth the words "when I say go" to him. He nodded and hid behind the tree out of sight.

Mr. Hailkin was finishing up his call, "yessir see y'all in five minutes." He turned to me with a grin, "hear that sonny? You git to spend five minutes with lil' o me until the cops git here. Now where is your friend anyways? I ain't letting either you two walking away from this."

I couldn't speak, he would probably recognize my voice right off the bat. Instead, I just looked behind him into the trees, I started to move my mouth silently, like I was mouthing words to someone. He turned to check in that direction, exactly as I thought he would.

In that second I grabbed my shovel, and moving quickly I covered the distance between us and batted the gun from his hands. "GO!" I called out to Liam, we both turned to run onto the road and get away. But before I got another meter Mr. Hailkin dived and grabbed my legs, bringing me down once more. I scrambled onto my feet but I couldn't shake him, he pulled me down onto my knees. For an old man, he was surprisingly strong.

Liam came running over, I could tell he was hesitant to hit the old man. He was thinking on what to do. Think faster god dammit. It was a race against time now, Mr. Hailkin couldn't hurt us badly anymore, but the police could if they got here soon enough. Five minutes was what Mr. Hailkin had said, when had that been? Two, three minutes ago? We didn't have much time.

Liam finally decided on something, he ran over and kicked Mr. Hailkin in the side, knocking the wind out of him and rolling him into the dirt. Liam then dropped the pickaxe and shoved his hands out, deep in concentration. The ground shifted a bit as roots began to sprout all around Mr. Hailkin, growing and spreading over his chest and legs, growing bigger and stronger by the second.

Mr. Hailkin screeched, in fear. He didn't know what was happening, he tried moving but he was already bound by the roots and branches that had grown around him. He looked at Liam, the centre of it all.

"Demon! Demon!" He cried, spittle flew from his mouth. "Go back to the pits of hell you vile spawn! You shouldn't have been given the gift of humanity you creature of hell!" He screamed in hatred.

The roots stopped growing, and Liam lowered his hands down to his waist where he looked at them as if like something was wrong with them. He stuttered, "I-I-I'm not evil..." He looked over at me, his eyes glassy. "Am I?" His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell over unconscious.

I ran over to him and picked him up, and ran deeper along the forest, I could hear the sirens now, Mr. Hailkin kept screeching at us from behind.

"That ones a demon! You hear me!? A DEMON!!!"

My arms ached from carrying Liam, he was a heavy one after all. But I kept running, all the way until I couldn't hear Mr. Hailkins screaming, until I couldn't hear the sirens. Until I couldn't hear the little voice in the back of my head, whispering into my ear.

What if I'm a demon too.