Demon Hunters by JKMelby74 Page B

gathering their axes and hatchets. I stepped
back and heard a car rev up and turned to see Ivar driving toward
me. The car came to a sharp stop in front of me and the passenger
door flew open.
    “Get in!” Ivar barked. I did as he said and
Ivar peeled out and in the rearview mirror I saw the giant stalk
that the diner sat upon swing around wildly. Soon after, I saw the
police and fire vehicles racing away.
    “Faster,” The entire stalk began to sway and
lean forward. The police car jetted past us with its sirens and
lights blazing. The car jumped a bit as the stalk started to hit
the ground. I saw the whole thing tumbling down on us fast and
quiet. “Faster!” Ivar pulled the wheel hard and we veered to the
left, missing the stalk from crushing us by mere inches. Snootch’s,
which was still clasped by the giant tendrils, exploded in a giant
cloud of smoke and fire. The tendril broke through the ground and
looked as though it had left a rather deep gash in the highway.
    Ivar kept driving on and past the smoldering
remains up ahead and beyond. I watched as the lights and excitement
shrunk away in the rearview mirror.

Chapter 8
    Cautionary Measures

    I filled Ivar in about Sam’s message on the
way to the airfield. Ivar suddenly turned off the main road and
started down a rather rough dirt patch. We went for a few miles
toward a small forest of sorts stuck in the middle of nowhere. It
was like a small park with a field of grass and a few thick banks
of trees surrounding it. Ivar parked in an out of the way spot and
got out.
    “Come on.”
    “This doesn’t look like an airfield to
me.”
    “We need to take a little precaution first.”
Ivar walked over to a small clearing nearby. It was a small patch
of rocks and dirt near a modest pond. He started searching around
the area picking up rocks, twigs and flowers.
    “What are you doing?”
    “Figuring out what we’ve got to work with.
Wait here.” Ivar then went back to the car. He popped the trunk and
pulled out a large brown case. He returned and sat himself down on
a nearby log. He set the case before him and opened it up. He
pulled out a bucket and some bottles and began sorting them
around.
    “What is all that?”
    “My tools.”
    “Could you explain a bit more?”
    “Do you realize every time you’ve been
attacked by some demonic thing, you were thinking about the demon
just moments before?”
    “I guess. So? You said it knows where I
am.”
    “It does, but it’s not strong enough to
close in on you that quickly. Or it shouldn’t be. Everytime you
even think about it, it finds us. We’re going to fix that.” He
started to arrange the small rocks he had found into a circle and
filled it with kindling.
    “By camping?”
    “No. I am going to hide you.” Ivar then set
the kindling on fire and the flames rose up into the air. Ivar
reached back into his case and started pouring things into his
bucket.
    “Hide me?” I sat down next to Ivar.
    “Yes. I know of an elixir that will block
you from the demon.”
    “For how long?”
    “Long enough, I hope.” Ivar emptied bottle
after bottle of nasty fluids into the bucket. A breeze blew by and
the scent shot up at me and caused me to fall back.
    “How much of that shit is piss?”
    “It only has a little toad urine.”
    “Man! You are sick.”
    “I learned this from an old witch doctor in
Spain two years ago.”
    “This stuff is really important to you,
isn’t it?”
    “These are the practices and beliefs that we
were all born from. Our sense of progression has caused many to
lose their way, but I have always seen it as my personal
responsibility to reconnect with that ancient part of life that we
owe so much to. They all think the answers lie in the future, but
it’s the past that holds the promise of the next world.”
    “So for all this witchery, you wouldn’t be
able to just cure me?”
    “Yours is a special case. I just hope this
works.”
    “You hope? You just said it’ll block me