11: Drawing The Battle Line

Nick felt a combination of different feelings building up inside him; anger, hatred, helplessness, sadness, and a whole lot more.

He was completely pulled out of the chair with the fact that Mario could go this far by hurting his family -- but what would you expect from a demon; a Duke of Hell?

He looked at Mario with hatred burning in his eyes and his blood boiling inside of him.

"How. Dare. You?!"

Nick shouted so angrily with a very loud voice he never knew he could use.

He ran over to his parents and sister and tried loosening the bonds around them but to no avail.

The bonds were enchanted. It gave him a wild jerking zap of electricity which made him stumble back.

"You know, you could have just told me to loosen the bond." Mario said coolly, striding towards Nick as though nothing happened.

"How dare you?!" Nick repeated, venom laced in his voice.

"I didn't do anything wrong, they tried running away so I called my vampire friends, Lukas and Flixus to suck a bit of their blood for breakfast. Wasn't that the kindest gesture from a demon?" Mario said nonchalantly as two akward looking creatures-- with greyish-red hands, long feet with pointy toes, pointy ears, a bald scalp and a sinister smile showing off their four long pointy canines-- emerged out of the blue.

"Laxi! Covre nus promt? Liv harix gor kema Lukas," a vampire, whom he sensed was Lukas, greeted in an extremely weird language.

"Ru kurzewa luc ya fi. Gor kema Flixus. Cari oxi weid volix drax blű favorix. Lokes gan la nus blű?" Flixus asked raising an eyebrow.

"Whoops! Great communication system you've got there Lukas and Flixus. Great!" Mario said, applauding and then continued, "Lukas is greeting you Nick. He said: 'Hey! How are you? My name is Lukas.'

While Flixus said: 'Pleased to meet you, young fellow. I am Flixus. Your family's blood was the best. How would your blood taste?' " Mario translated, amusement glinting in his fiery eyes hinting on how much he was enjoying every moment of Nick's horrified look.

"Oh God! Why! Why! I never believed something like this could be real! And you two vampires dared feed on my family's blood?!" Nick said, panting. He looked round, only to find those crazy panthers enclosing round him-- but, this time, they looked more real!

They started growling, fiercely scratching the blood splattered floor with there unbelievably sharp claws.

Left with no time to think, they pounced towards Nick. He ducked some, slightly grazing his hands on the body of the largest among them giving him the assurance that they were real this time.

Nick found a narrow tunnel nearby and ran off.

He ran, and ran, not stopping or looking back.

He tripped on a rotten skeleton almost completely covered with dust.

Nick, tried getting up, but realized that he was being held tightly on the ankle by the skeleton.

He pulled and pulled, but to no avail.

The skeleton popped his head and middle body out of the dust and let out an extremely loud blood curdling scream.

He heard a voice; "I will possess you. I need a body now."

With all the power and might Nick could muster, he managed to struggle free from the hands of the skeleton and ran.

The skeleton chased after him. Nick turned back and noticed there was something dark inside the skeletal creature-- a dark spirit!

That was what spoke!

And there is no flaming bloody way he would allow it possess him.

NO WAY!

With that little chant in his mind, Nick ran but bumped into the skeletal creature again.

SHIT!

Why is karma such a sucker?

Nick ran the opposite direction and hid behind a boulder with chains strapped around it.

Unluckily, the chains were enchanted and trapped him.

The skeletal creature came, spreading its arms and bringing its crooked fingers toward Nick's face.

Closer... Closer... It came.