Forever Changed (17 page)

             
I laid my fork down on the table and looked at my father.

             
“I didn’t want them anymore that is why I threw them away.” I was so serious silence fell on the room. No clinks of forks and no sound of chewing. All eyes were on me.

             
“But why, Elizabeth?” my father said, with more persistence in his voice.

             
I became angry. “Why in the hell would I keep something awful of your murder? I took pictures of everything I was forced to do. It was the most miserable, emotional time of my life. I couldn’t have them lying around reminding me of what we are!!!” I screamed at him.

             
My parents both hung their heads down looking at their laps. They knew I was right and they understood completely. I felt bad for getting angry, but they shouldn’t push me to talk about something I didn’t want to talk about.

             
My father looked up and made eye contact with me. Our brilliant blue eyes burning into each other and said, “Are you ashamed of who we are, Elizabeth?”

             
I thought for a minute while we sat staring at each other. My mother was looking like we were going to kill each other, right there. She was scared of the answer I had for my father. She was proud of who she is and my father of who he is, but me, I don’t know who or what I fully am.

             
“I am not ashamed, but sometimes wished I was a normal teenager with a normal family, living in a normal house, and in love with a normal man.” I said sighing, “but this is my life and I am happy to be a part of it. Who knew that my first best friend and boyfriend would be a demon?” I giggled a little, lowered my eyes from my fathers, and picked up my fork. I couldn’t risk looking at any of them, especially Landon. I could feel him tense up sitting next to me.

             
“I understand, Elizabeth, but you are special. I am glad that Landon is your best friend; he is an amazing young man and has already decided what he wants. He doesn’t want to go back to the Underworld because he may be a demon, but he is far different than one. His father sent him here for a reason. He thought that Landon would get close to you and drag you back to the Underworld. He didn’t factor, that Landon would find love on his mission. He is a demon who should not feel anything other than hate and anger.” My father said cautiously, trying not to piss me off.

             
I looked up at Landon with tears in my eyes, “You lied to me?”

             
“I had to Elizabeth, your father didn’t send me here, but my father did. Mitch, begged me to stay away from you, but when I came into your bathroom that night. I knew then I would never be able to take you back to the Underworld. Every time I disappeared, I would go to argue with my father, telling him I couldn’t do it. Of course, I haven’t disappeared any since because he told me I had made my decision. which I have and his reply was that he shall fight me as well. He could have ended it right there for me, but he sent me back with his warning that he would be coming.” Landon said this with his head down.

When he raised his head and looked me in the eyes, I actually saw tears forming.

             
“Wow!!” I said. I didn’t know what else to say. Landon didn’t come to protect me; he had come to take me to the Underworld.

             
“Please don’t be upset, Elizabeth.” My mother said with tears in her eyes. “We love you and need you to be strong.”

             
“I am not upset, I am am….hurt,” I finished saying with the right word. “Please excuse me.” I said, while putting my fork down and leaving the table.

I headed up the stairs to my room. I went in laid on my bed and cried. I cri
ed over Landon lying to me and over my father being murdered. I cried over my mother knowing more than she let on. I cried over the lies in my father’s letter. I didn’t know what was going on.              

             
Alone, confused, hurt, and angry, I cried myself to sleep.

Chapter 30

So, I got over throwing my tantrum and for the next two weeks, we worked our butts off getting prepared for the Dark Lord. We practiced our powers. I had mine down pretty good. We worked with the flames, fire balls, inhaling the fire, and of course exhaling the fire. All in all we were doing great.

I was nervous yes, but scared
, hell no. I was not letting anything happen to my family. After years of wishing things were different between my parents, and finally having a best friend and a boyfriend, I finally got all of it. My life was just the way I wanted it and I was not about to let anything change that.

Landon said that the Dark Lord would rise on the full moon. That was tomorrow. I decided that today we would just sit, watch movies, hangout, relax, and play some board games
, and cards.

That is exactly what we did, all day. We enjoyed ourselves and laughed. We acted like a normal family. Finally
, at the end of the day the laughing ceased and tension rose. We were all nervous and we were all worried about the outcome that tomorrow would bring. Would we defeat the Dark Lord? Or would we spend eternity in damnation?

We all went to bed early that night, but I don’t think any of us slept well at all. We were restless. Small screams would break through the
silent night from one of us having nightmares, of what tomorrow night may bring. The next morning we hardly talked to each other. My parents sat in a chair together, wrapped in each other’s arms and Landon and I did the same. The only thing we did was wait. We waited for the sun to go down and for the full moon to rise. We were ready.

               ******

We were sitting in the living room when the full moon rose high above the house. We watched and listened. Slowly holes formed in the floors, the same kind of rabbit hole that Landon had appeared out of the night in my bathroom. I looked at my family and Landon and they looked back at me. Without a word we all shook our heads. We were ready.

At first
, we stood there in position and waited. I watched in horror as holes surrounded us, all around the room. Flames rose out of the red glow of the bottomless pits.

Standing at least 4 feet tall, t
he demons that rose out of the floor, were the most disgusting things I had ever laid eyes.

R
otten meat smelled better then these things. They smelled so bad; it took everything I had not to cover my mouth and nose with my hand.

Their
flesh was livid and looked bruised. Black, cracked, and filthy bones protruded out of their skin. Their heads were weirdly shaped and red eyes peered out of their too big eye sockets. Their teeth alone were scary, two rolls of jagged sharp teeth. Their fingers were skeletal looking with only a thin layer of skin and they had talons for their fingertips.

They hunched over a little
, when they proceeded to walk toward us. I was horrified, what if we were not able to defeat them? I couldn’t think like that though because I had my family to think about.

I braced myself and I thought that they moved slowly, but in all honesty
, they moved faster than I expected. They ran towards us catching us off guard with their speed, except Landon.

Landon threw his hands up and pushed black balls of fire at them to keep them from ripping us to shreds.

That was when I was ready and pissed. I threw fire ball after fire ball at them. Once they connected they died, turning into nothing but stinky smoke and ash.
They kept coming up out of their rabbit holes, ten to twenty at a time. Charging at us, but mostly charging at me. They wanted me and I thought to myself, I should just give up to keep my family safe, but I knew I couldn’t. My family and especially Landon wouldn’t let me sacrifice myself.

I saw my father
, shooting mostly flames out of his eyes. We didn’t have time to concentrate on them, to crush or smash them. Landon used black balls of fire to ward them off. I noticed that my mother, who could only produce a little white line during practice, could now produce larger white balls of something.

The demons kind of avoided my mother which was a good thing
, but they did because of the light. Not sure what the balls

of
light were because they didn’t look like flames, they shimmered. Huh, it had me totally dumbfounded, but I focused my attention back on the demons that seemed to keep rising out of there rabbit holes. As soon as I had looked away, I heard my mother scream in agony as one jumped on her, raking their talon fingers down her chest.

“Hey,” I screamed out at the demon. It turned and looked at me as I threw a fire ball, aiming right at its face. “Eat this!” it cocked its head a little to the left as the ball made contact. It turned to ash and smoke right at my mother’s feet. She smiled gent
ly at me. I smiled back weakly.

I wondered how ma
ny more were going to rise. Then, Landon had killed the last one. It stopped, no more came out of the floor. We looked at each other and smiled, except for Landon. He had a look on his face, like a child who had was ashamed of their bad behavior. I wondered why, when I looked around the room.

Fire crept up all the walls around us, I watched as the roof turned into a black
starless pit. The fire place disappeared and I watched as it turned into a fountain of flowing lava. What in the world? Then I realized the Dark Lord was coming. My father and mother looked tense and Landon looked ashamed. I was ready though, I was beyond ready to get this shit over with and done.

I watched as a huge hole appeared right in front of us, causing us to back up a few steps. I watched a
s something started rising out of the mutant looking rabbit hole. I bet if Alice seen that, the bitch wouldn’t dare go down in that hole, looking for the white talking rabbit that disappeared into Wonderland. This was far from Wonderland and a white rabbit was not going into the gaping hole, but something was coming out of it. I watched as two funny shaped huge long black horns slowly emerged up out of the hole.

The Dark Lord was coming out of my living room floor. I braced myself.

Chapter 31

             
Slowly he emerged, rising and rising up out of the rabbit hole. I watched cautiously hoping he wouldn’t come out ready to fight.

I was not surprised about what
he looked like. His face was mean looking with seriousness about him. His eyes were as dark as Landon’s, if not darker. He had so many wrinkles, that he reminded me of a pug, those dogs were cute but, the Dark Lord was just ugly.

His skin was drawn tight, t
hat looked to have a greasy slime on it but, at the same time scaly rough looking. He had spikes sticking up around his throat and down his arms. His skin was a charcoal color and his hands looked like the demons, but without talons, just long and black. He was tall and stood on hoofed feet.

“
Ahhhh, Elizabeth, do you fear me?” the Dark Lord boomed.

             
“Ha, me fear you? Is that some kind of joke?” I asked with sarcasm.

             
He looked pissed, “You should fear me, for I have come to take back what you have stolen from me.”

             
“Really, what exactly is it that I ‘stole’?” I said crossing my arms and pushing my right hip out a little.

             
“Your father and my son,” the Dark Lord boomed again.

             
I started giggling, “You serious? Because last I checked, he is my father and has no debt to pay to you. And Landon, well I have claims on him.” I looked over at Landon and smiled and he looked at me grinning a little.

             
“DO YOU NOT BOW BEFORE YOUR FATHER, BOY?” The Dark Lord screamed at Landon.

             
“I have no reason to bow down to you. You told me that I could make a choice to stay and be normal because I do not fit in the Underworld. So my decision has been made. I am staying with Elizabeth, I love her.” Landon said with his head held high and his shoulders back.

             
“Do you think she wants you? She will find a new man to love and will be rid of you faster than you can take a breath. You have betrayed me and your brothers. You were supposed to bring her back, so that we could have her powers. And now you tell me you will stay.” The Dark Lord questioned and assumed. I wonder why he was being so