O’Melissokomos
The Bee Keeper

Inner Demon 21: End Game

by Redkage

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He was in a deserted wasteland, hunting prey. They skies overhead were dark and completely clouded over, covering everything in shadow. He was chasing down Chris, who looked so small, as if he was looking at him from a elevated distance. However, he wasn’t standing on a hill. He was huge. Massive. Dangerous. Hungry.

He could have caught Chris anytime he wanted to, but he was enjoying the hunt. He was playing with Chris. Toying with him. He could smell the fear coming from the tiny guy, which only served to make his mouth water even more and cause his stomach to rumble in anticipation.

Suddenly there was a change. Chris stopped running. Figuring the tiny mortal was giving up all hope, he reached out to grab his meal.

And then Chris turned around.

Suddenly HE was the looking up at the eyes of a monster. The monster stood tall, almost fifteen feet high, covered with bulging muscles so big that they should have been physically impossible, yet he was looking at it before his eyes. Fearfully, he looked up at the monster’s face. Long strands of jet black hair tumbled from its head, and its face was hideous. Fangs too big for it’s mouth jutted outwards and its eyes… its icy blue eyes stared at him with hunger. With an earth shattering roar, the monster open its mouth wide, lunged forward and-

Kou’s eyes snapped open as he jerked awake. He laid there, staring at the ceiling as sweat poured down his face. Did he… did he just have a nightmare? But, that would mean that he had been asleep. He hadn’t slept once for the past several years, and yet now he had just had a nightmare. It might’ve been the fact that this was the first nap he had had in years, but his mind felt like a woolen blanket was wrapped over it.

It was then he realized that something hot and heavy was on top of him. A bit groggily he threw off the wool blanket and allowed the cool air to settle into his hot sweaty body. He closed his eyes as he laid there on the bed, trying to ignore the pounding in his head. Remotely he realized that he was in his father’s room, seeing how the only other place with a bed was his own. The bed underneath him felt strange to him, but he paid it no mind. He began to wonder why he was in his father’s room when he began to shiver from the cold. Quietly he sat up and hugged himself to try to bring the warmth back to his body.

It was then that Kou noticed something peculiar. His arms wrapped around himself much more then he’d used to. Before, his muscles would press and fight each other as he did any sort of action, but now he felt less restricted and more mobile. Not only that, his clothes felt loose, and he even felt like he was smaller then before.

Wait… Kou’s eyes widened as he began to run his hand over his body quickly. He was actually feeling himself! He could actually feel! Quickly he pinched himself and cried out from the pain. It was really true! He could even sense that he was cold and was sweating without touching himself. Kou looked down at his hands in amazement, and in doing so he noticed that his forearm seemed smaller. Startled, Kou felt his forearms, and then his entire body. He groped his chest, arms and legs, each of them feeling significantly smaller then before. Unable to take it anymore, Kou threw off the extremely baggy clothes that was draped on him, looked down and stared at his body. Then he jumped out of bed and rushed to the mirror to get a better view. When he saw his reflection, his jaw dropped. He still had big, bulging muscles, but nowhere near as big as he had been before. If he could guess it, he would have said he’d lost possibly a hundred pounds of muscle, leaving him roughly around 230 lbs. He still kept his definition, so he could still see his striations and veins, but with the decreased muscle mass he actually looked… Normal.

“I’m… I’m normal. I’m normal. I’m normal!” Kou cried out excitedly. Even his hair, which used to have numerous streaks of white in it was now completely jet black. Sure, he still had the body of an amateur bodybuilder, but it was far better then being a massive teenaged muscle hulk. Kou felt so happy that he could just jump out of bed and dance. Wait until he showed his Dad and Chris!

Chris

The color drained out of Kou’s face as he suddenly remembered what had happened. How he had gone into his room to check on Chris. How Chris had came onto him. How they had sex.

How Chris turned into a monster.

Immediately Kou bolted out of bed and out the door. He ran down the hall, nearly tripping in his oversized jeans and fumbling around. With iron determination, Kou grabbed the waistband of his pants and held it up as he dashed to the door leading into the loft above his room and burst through it.

“Chris!”

Standing on the ledge of the loft, he could see into his room clearly. Several of the furniture had been dented or smashed. There were also smears of milky white substances that had been overlooked due to some hasty cleaning. His father Lou was there, as well as Coach Lumens, Hunter, Lucas, Paige and Mark. However, Kou’s eyes sought out one and one thing only. When he saw it, however, his heart stopped beating.

It was both beautiful and hideous at the same time. Tied down to his bed by some sort of bright blue magical bonding, it was roughly nine feet long and engorged with muscle. It appeared to be unconscious, but occasionally it would jerk or thrash against the bonds. It’s long jet black spilled out to one side, and its skin shone like gold. Its arms were as thick as Kou’s legs, knotted horribly into two powerful limbs. Its bare torso was shaped like a cobra head due to the wide lats, and its pectorals rose above high. Proportionally its legs were massive and thick, but its cock stretched a full two and a half feet.

Its face was both truly frightening, twisted in agony and anger. Its teeth were sharp pointed fangs, and two stubby horns grew from its forehead. And yet its face was the same as his friend.

“Chris!” Kou yelled again. He didn’t bother with the stairs as he jumped off the loft and landed on the ground floor completely sound, his strong legs easily absorbing the impact with ease. Even though he was much smaller, he still appeared to retain much strength beyond his appearance. Quickly he rushed to the bed where Chris was tied down like some sort of animal. “Chris!”

“Easy Kou!” Lou said, gripping his son on the shoulder. “Don’t get too close to him just yet.”

“What’s happened to him?” Kou whirled on his father, his eyes flashing dangerously. “Why is he like this? What’s going on?”

A cry of pain coming from Chris’s mouth snapped Kou’s attention back to him. He took a step forward, only to be pulled back by Lucas and Paige, both of them using their powers to weaken and overpower him.

“Calm down Kou.” Paige said, though she too looked outraged.

“Yea bro, take it easy.” Lucas added, his muscles stretching to fill his shirt.

“Easy?” Kou glared at them. “Easy? My best friend turned into a demon and you want me to take it easy!?”

“Kou.” Mark’s voice spoke, “Yelling won’t help save Chris.”

Immediately Kou felt his anger doused as worry and concern flooded him. “I… He’s…”

“We know, son.” Coach Lumens walked up to Kou and placed his hand on Kou’s shoulder to comfort him. “We know.”

Hunter waited a few moments before he begun speaking again. “As I was saying, the different demonic essences that have infected Chris have begun to manifest and alter his physical, mental and spiritual state. Normally a person undergoes the metamorphosis from just one, but Chris had unusually high tolerance. Unfortunately, not even he could stand up to the infection of four different demons. Because of this, if the transformation doesn’t kill him in the process he will become something like a hybrid of all of the demons in his system. He’ll have Kou’s strength, Damien’s sexual powers and if I identified them correctly, the mind control of those twin demons we found in the warehouse.”

“A complete monster.” Paige closed her eyes and shuddered.

“We got to stop it!” Kou shouted, completely aghast.

“That’s the plan.” Hunter sighed.

Suddenly Lou frowned. “Why Chris? What’s so special about him that made three different demons go after him? I can pass Damien off as coincidence, but three? There’s gotta be an explanation for this.”

Hunter looked over at Mark briefly.

“Chris is, to put simply, one of us.” Mark stated.

Kou, Lou and Lumens stared at him.

“One of you?” Coach Lumens broke the silence first.

“Hunter, Lucas, Paige and I are unique human beings born with supernatural powers.” Mark explained. “No one knows why, but we do. We are not the first ones, nor are we the only ones. So far, there are over twenty three thousand of us scattered around the globe. One of the theories says that we have the correct DNA sequences to unlock them, but there’s no definite proof. We do know that there is a kind of substance in our blood that can easily be identified. When demons ingest this, it gives them increased power and strength.”

“Think of it as a demon’s version of a Red Bull energy drink.” Lucas joked.

Kou became disturbed when his mouth watered at the memory of how sweet Chris’s blood tasted. He remembered the rush, the power, and the heat emanating from his belly as he drank. Perhaps that was why he had such a growth spurt all of a sudden; all that new power had made him even stronger than ever. He had never tasted or felt anything so good before, and it nearly drove him wild just remembering about it.

“Chris, on the other hand, has surprisingly high levels of this substance.” Mark continued on. “When he was tested, it was discovered that his power levels were just below Saint level, one of the highest rankings in our class.”

“Wait a minute” Lou cut in, “If he was so powerful, why isn’t he fighting demons like you kids?”

“It’s because it was too dangerous.” Paige told him.

“Chris’s power is similar to mine.” Mark placed a hand on his chest. “I can create a psychic link to a person’s mind and body. Chris can do the same, only he connects on a much deeper level.”

“He connects directly with people’s very hearts and souls.” Lucas nodded. “Very fitting for someone just under Saint level.”

Kou’s head was spinning from all the facts. It was just too much hard information coming one after another. “W-wait, how is that dangerous?”

“You can’t connect with a demon’s heart and expect to come out of it unaffected.” Paige explained. “That kind of link would corrupt his very soul.”

“It’s like touching a door that’s just been painted.” Lucas simplified. “Ya can’t get in without having some of the paint rubbed off on ya.”

“One characteristic of Chris’s psychic link is to drain his opponent.” Hunter crossed his arms. “This probably explains why you’ve been weakened to that state and how he became so physically strong.”

Kou looked down at his smaller body, then at the huge Chris. If really did look like Chris had taken his muscles away and taken it for himself. Experimentally he clenched and unclenched his fist several times. He still felt strong, but definitely not like he was before.

“It was decided that Chris would not undergo training like the rest of us.” Hunter crossed his arms. “He was to lead a normal human life. However with such strong powers, he could be easy prey for demons. We were assigned to keep an eye on him to make sure no demons would get close.”

“Well you did a very good job.” Kou said darkly.

Hunter cocked an eyebrow. “May I remind you that you are technically a demon as well? If we had gone by the book in the very start, no doubt you’d be living under a new address somewhere in hell. The only reason we didn’t kill you off automatically was because Mark was still too sickly to be able to finish you off, and then because Mark wanted to give you a chance. Are you saying that was a mistake?”

Kou flinched back. He knew he partially deserved that, but a part of him was still somewhat intimidated by Hunter.

“Moving on...” Paige’s voice cut through the tension. “We were just about to discuss exactly how we’re going to save Chris.”

“Unfortunately it won’t be easy.” Mark looked worried. “Normally to exorcise the demonic presences I would do a ‘dive’ and destroy each demonic segment one by one. However, Chris has a sort of protective shell to him that I can’t easily penetrate. If I try to force my way in, it could take days before I break through, and by then it’ll be too late. Before Chris could fully transform into a demon, we may have to kill him.”

Kou stared at him in shock. “No! You can’t!”

“If we don’t kill him, we’ll lose Chris’s soul for good.” Hunter explained. “It’s better for him to die now than to spend an eternity burning in hell.”

All the color drained from Kou’s face as the full weight of his words descended upon him. “So that’s it? We either kill him now in cold blood or let him turn into a demon?”

“I didn’t say those were our only choices.” Mark pointed out. “I just said getting into Chris’s head would take days… if I didn’t already have a shortcut.”

“What shortcut?” Kou asked eagerly.

Mark gave him a cool, leveled look.

“Me?”

“He’s already made a link with you Kou.” Chris said. “I can use you as an entry point and get inside his head to fix this. But in order for me to do this, I’ll have to take you on the dive as well.”

“Then do it!” Kou said firmly.

“It’ll be very dangerous.” Hunter warned him. “Whatever happens in there will happen to your real body.”

“I don’t care, as long as I can help save Chris, I’ll do anything.” Kou said completely unhesitant.

Coach Lumens smiled broadly. “You’ve raised a fine son there, brother in law.” He said as he patted Lou on the back.

“Lily would have been proud.” Lou nodded in agreement.

“What do I have to do?” Kou asked.

“Place you hand on Chris’s forehead and I’ll do the rest.” Mark told him.

Kou walked to the bedside and knelt down. Reaching out he rested his hand on Chris’s forehead. It felt uncomfortably hot under his palm, as if he was burning. He felt Mark place a hand on his shoulder for a second before the world around him suddenly begun spinning before it gave a huge lurch and everything turned dark.

When Kou woke up, he found himself staring up at a fog covered sky. Wondering how he had gotten outside, he sat up and looked around. He found himself no longer in his room but on the bank of a shallow stream or river, he couldn’t tell because the other side was hidden behind the heavy fog. Out in the stream he could make out the outlines of several objects, though he couldn’t determine what they were. Overhead he could hear the rumbling of thunder, and underneath him the ground groaned, as if the forces of nature were preparing for the greatest disaster in history.

At this point, Kou had realized that he wasn’t alone. Around him were other people. Slowly Mark, Paige, Hunter and Lucas pushed themselves off the ground and surveyed the area.

“Where are we?” Kou asked, breaking the silence.

“We’re in Chris’s mind.” Mark said. “Well actually a physical representation of it.”

“His… mind?” Kou looked at the scenery again. It was so dark and foreboding, a world of grey dissolving into the thick blanket of fog. Was this place hiding behind Chris’s smiling face all this time?

“How come these places are never pleasant?” Lucas asked out loud. “For once I wish we can dive into a nice quiet field or the girl’s locker room or something.”

“This is serious Lucas.” Paige said in an ominous voice.

“Just because it’s serious doesn’t mean I can’t make jokes to ease the stress from things.” Lucas argued.

Paige rolled her eyes. “You’re hopeless, you know that?”

“Actually I do.” Lucas answered with a broad grin.

“If you two are done,” Hunter interrupted, “We have work to do.”

Lucas gave Hunter a wink. “Whatever you say, boss.”

The stream was a bit deeper than Kou had originally thought. Instead of reaching to his ankles like he guessed, it came all the way up to his shins. Not only that, but it had a slight chill to it.

They waded further out into the water. Now that Kou had a closer look, he discovered that the objects he had seen outlined in the fog were in fact doors. They were simple, ordinary white doors with a silver knob just sticking out of the water. They seemed eerily odd, standing out of the water like that without any for of support. Kou made his way to one of them for a better look.

“Hey, what exactly are these?” He asked as he grabbed hold of the knob and turned it.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were-”

Kou turned his head to look at Mark to hear what he was saying and his hand slipped and opened the door.

FLASH!

Chris came out of the shower wearing only a towel around his waist. He saw the big guy, standing in the middle of the room with his back turned, waiting. Wordlessly, Chris went up to him and leaned his head against Kou’s arm.

“Kou, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.” Chris said softly.

Kou looked down curiously. “Yes, what is it?”

“You… you’ve always been there to save me, to help me out when I need it.” Chris started. Chris felt his heart start to beat faster.

“Chris?” Kou asked, concern written all over his face.

“Kou… I…” Chris could feel Kou’s warmth, his strong muscles lying underneath the skin, but those eyes were so kind and gentle. His heart was beating rapidly as he mustered every bit of courage for this one moment.

“The truth is, I… I lo-”

“Woot woot!”

The sudden noise startled both Chris and Kou as the rest of the boys from PE class began to file into the locker room.

“Damn them…” Chris said. Feelings of pure hate and rage welled up inside them as he glared balefully at those stupid jocks that had just ruined their moment. Pissed off as hell, Chris moved towards their lockers. “Come on Kou, let’s go change.”

“Ah, y-yea.” Kou followed.

FLASH!

“-you.” Mark finished.

Kou blinked. He was back in the stream again. But somehow he had been in the locker room again just a moment ago. What was even stranger was the fact that he saw everything from an entirely different point of view then before. “What just happened?” He asked.

“What you saw was a memory.” Hunter moved in closer. “The rooms behind the doors hold a moment in time of some significance to the person. And that...” He waved at the open doorway. “… was definitely a significant memory.”

Kou looked back at the doorway. Beyond the door the fog seemed to have condensed into walls, forming some sort of rounded room. In the middle of the room, rising high from beneath the water was a large crystalline structure. It had translucent pale blue aura as it stood there in the middle of that room. It took Kou only a moment to figure out that that crystal was Chris’s memory in physical form, as hard as it was to believe. But then again, who would believe that Kou, a demon, would team up with a group of supernaturally gifted teenagers to dive in his best friend’s mind in order to prevent him from becoming a demon himself.

The world was full of strange things.

Kou looked at the room, then around the door. The area directly behind the door was completely normal, with no room in sight. But when Kou walked back around to the front of the door, he could clearly see the room and the crystal inside.

It’s magic you idiot. Kou thought to himself. The doorway obviously connected to another place.

Mark went up to Kou and placed a hand on his broad shoulder, his tiny hand looked like a baby when pressed against something so large. “Close the door Kou. Some memories are meant to be kept private.”

Kou nodded and gently closed the door. “So, do all of the doors lead to something like that?”

Mark nodded. “But not all of them will be as pleasant. “In fact, the ones we’ll be going to will be rather… um… not very nice.”

“Isn’t that an invasion of his privacy?” Kou suddenly became angry. “Who gave us the right to look intrude upon his memories like this?”

“I don’t like this either Kou.” Mark looked away guiltily. “But the demonic essences that’s invaded Chris’s mind latch onto these negative memories. Memories are what define a person’s heart. A single memory could give a person immeasurable strength or break him. The demon essences prey on the bad memories and use them to physically and mentally alter a person’s mind. That’s why we’ve come in to purify those memories. And the only way we can get to them is to open those doors and get inside. And the only way to open those doors and get inside is to relive the moment that is encased within.”

Try as he might, Kou couldn’t figure out anything to say to that.

“I know it’s wrong, but try to remember it’s for Chris’s sake.” Mark said, gently patting Kou on the arm.

“I… know.” Kou said. “It just seems wrong though.”

“I found one Mark.” Hunter’s voice cut through the fog.

The both of them turned in the direction of Hunter’s voice, then back at each other. “We should probably get going.” Mark suggested.

“Y-yea.” Kou said, and the two of them made their way through the water.

Kou didn’t realize he had fallen behind Mark until Paige fell into pace besides him. She gave him a long, hard look that made Kou slightly edgy. Then all of a sudden she sighed deeply. “You win.” She said.

“Win what?” Kou tilted his head to one side, confused.

“It doesn’t matter.” Paige said in a resigned tone. “I didn’t really have a chance anyways. Either way, you can’t stop a girl from trying now can you?”

The conversation didn’t really make any sense to him, but before he could inquire further they had reached the others in front of another door. Unlike the last door, this one seemed a bit dirtier than the pristine white of all the others. Not only that, the door had a kind of evil presence to it that made the hair on the back of Kou’s neck rise up.

“Is this it?” Kou asked.

“Yup.” Lucas nodded as he took hold of the doorknob. “Is everyone ready? Alright, here we go!”

FLASH!

“So how about we begin the fun, eh?” Aaron grabbed the front of his shirt and ripped it down the middle, revealing a magnificent torso that made Chris’s dick spring to life against his better judgment. Terri followed Aaron’s example and ripped his down the middle as well.

“N-no.” Chris whimpered. He was trapped between a rock and two hard places. There was no escaping this. He was going to be raped… again!

“Give yourself up to us…” They both said in unison, and Chris’s body began to obey.

“S-someone h-help me…” Chris’s voice fought the twin’s control.

“Give us what we want…”

Chris shut his eyes as he felt his own hands begin to pull off his shirt. “P-please, anyone…”

“You want it… you need it…”

Now Chris was completely nude. Already the twins began to nuzzle him, feel him up. “Please… ..Kou… save me…” He cried with the last bit of willpower he had left.

“Just let yourself go…”

Let himself go?

“Give in to your desires…”

Give himself in?

“Set yourself free and take us…”

The last bit of fight died in Chris’s spirit as he finally gave himself up, allowing something to rise from the depths and take over.

Suddenly Chris towered over the two demons, who were now fearful of Chris. They tried to run away, but Chris grabbed them with his long, powerful clawed arms, squeezing them, enjoying how they begged for mercy as he slowly crushed them. Then he brought the one known as Terri closer to his face, opened his mouth and-

FLASH!

“There!” Lucas pointed. The crystal standing in the middle of the room was significantly different from the other one Kou saw. Instead of a soft blue color, it was a sickly grey tone. It was also covered with a dark, oily substance that seemed to shift and bubble violently. Mark stepped forward and the substance suddenly began to boil madly.

“Purify!” Mark waved his hand, and the substance suddenly began to smoke. Slowly it shrank, until finally it was completely gone. Now devoid of the black oil, the blue color of the crystal began to return, though it appeared to be weaker than the first one.

“Let’s go.” Hunter nodded. “We’re done here.”

“Are you alright Kou?” Lucas asked the big guy.

Kou had his hand clamped over his mouth, his face a mix of horror and disgust. He was trembling violently, and his skin was pale. “I-I thought you said those demons k-killed each other…” He finally managed to say.

“We thought so too.” Lucas nodded, looking back at the crystal. “But… I guess we were wrong.”

“In a way it makes more sense.” Hunter closed the door behind him as he came out. The door was once again pure white, Kou noticed. “I thought it had been odd that Chris had been completely uninjured while the other two were obviously dead.”

“S-so Chris ate them?” Kou paled.

“No. He tore open their necks and lapped up the blood.” Hunter corrected him.

Suddenly Kou felt his stomach heave. Quickly he turned away and fought down the urge to throw up the contents of his stomach. He felt someone rub the small of his back to comfort him, and eventually the sick feeling died down.

“Thank you.” Kou said weakly as he wiped his eyes.

“No prob bro.” Lucas said. “I threw up myself the first time I saw something like that. Now come on, we gotta get moving.”

“How many more of these do we have to fix?” He asked.

Mark’s forehead scrunched up as he concentrated. “About… seven. Maybe even eight, I can’t tell at this distance. The next one is…” Mark turned and pointed out into the fog. “That way.”

The next door was absolutely filthy. It was so dirty that it was almost black. Not only that, the evil feeling Kou had felt from the last door was much worse. Even the water swirling around his legs had turned freezing cold.

“Be careful everyone.” Hunter warned. “This one has had more time to develop than the last. We might encounter a physical manifestation inside.”

Kou tensed himself as Lucas grabbed the doorknob and yanked it open.

FLASH!

Chris pushed against Damien’s chest, trying to break free, but Damien was stronger than Chris so it had no effect. Instead, the chest seemed to push back against Chris, growing firmer, fuller…

Chris’s eyes widened as he realized what was going on. Damien was growing again! Though he was still lip locked with Damien, Chris was still able to look downwards enough to see what has happening. Damien’s arms blew up to 20 inches and still growing. His chest inflated like two extra large party balloons, pushing Chris’s hands apart. His abs rippled, becoming more defined than anything Chris had ever seen. There wasn’t a shred of fat anywhere! His quads expanded, touching each other with their massive girth. What caught Chris’s attention most of all was Damien’s manhood. It had been about 9 inches before, flaccid. However now it was hardening as blood pumped down into it, making it swell bigger. Longer, wider, thicker, Chris’s eyes grew along with Damien’s length. 12, 13, 14 inches and still growing!

Chris’s attention was broken when Damien suddenly bit his lip savagely. Chris’s cry of pain was muffled since Damien had his mouth under his control. Finally, after what seemed an eternity, Damien finally pulls back. Damien’s suave, seductive look was now completely gone. It was now replaced with a look of a madman. His lips had traces of blood on it, and his eyes… they were no longer rational or had any life. They were filled with insatiable hunger.

“So sweet…” Damien muttered, as if in a daze. “More… MORE!” Damien lunges onto Chris, knocking him back onto the floor and bites Chris’s shoulder, drawing blood. Chris cried out as Damien began sucking his blood. He kicked and flailed, but he couldn’t get Damien’s increasingly growing body off of him, he was simply too weak and worn out.

Damien was now reaching inhuman proportions, a physique closer to Kou’s usual form. Veins popped out everywhere, covering the giant muscles that rolled and pressed against each other as they grew. In fact, the entire situation was distinctly similar to the one Chris had been in when Kou had drank his blood for the first time. Though Chris was in pain, his dick grew hard once more as his muscle fetish began to cloud his mind. He couldn’t help it, Damien was so big, so strong… it made him hard just thinking about it!

Damien suddenly stops attacking Chris and lifts his head, sniffing the air. A low, frightening growl escaped his lips as another, more familiar, hunger resurfaced in his mind. Damien pulls back and reaches down with his now huge hands and grabs Chris. His hands were now so large and strong that they could easily crush the life out of Chris with as much effort as crushing a soda can. Instead, he flipped Chris over roughly, exposing his naked rear to him.

Startled, Chris looked back and blanched from what he saw. Damien was on his knees, but he still towered over him. Everywhere on his body there was bulging globes of muscle pulsing and flexing as Damien’s body tensed up. Damien’s massive tool, now a 15 inch monster, was pulsating and aching for release.

Chris began to tremble violently as he realizes what Damien intended to do. He tried to push himself up, but his strength gave away and he fell down again. Not that it would matter anyhow; he was trapped in a locked room anyhow, with no clue to where he was except for a few marked crates. There was no escape for Chris. No escape from Damien.

Damien grinned evilly as he poised himself.

“No…” Chris whimpered.

Damien began to lower himself, bringing himself closer.

“Please no…” Chris pleaded, knowing full well that Damien wouldn’t listen.

Damien placed the tip of his tool against Chris’s hole, preparing himself to enter.

“Someone… anyone… help me…”

Damien laughed and then-

FLASH!

“I raped him.” Damien finished with a maniacal laugh.

Kou gasped. Standing in the room was none other than the incubus demon himself. Standing dressed in a tight black t-shirt at 6’3” and built of lean muscle, Damien leaned against the crystal pillar looking almost amused. As tough as it was for Kou to admit it, Damien did look rather handsome and attractive, and he was finally able to understand what Chris saw in him. But as good looking as this guy was, he was still evil. “What’s wrong? You guys look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Damien smirked.

“YOU!” Kou dashed into the room, his face livid with rage. “You slimy son of a bitc-”

Damien’s hand moved out and casually brushed Kou on the cheek. Just a simple, single touch.

All of a sudden Kou stopped as a low shuddering moan escaped from his lips.

“I can see what he sees in you.” Damien said as his hands moved to caress Kou’s biceps. “So big… so strong.”

Kou’s knees began to buckle as the touch and voice licked his every nerve, sending signals down to his crotch. How could simple touching and talking feel so good?

“Come on, cum for me.” Damien said as he reached under Kou’s shirt and began to run his hand against Kou’s ripped abs. “Show me how much you like this.”

It took Kou all he had to stifle a whimper and to comply with Damien’s command. Oh God it felt so good! Kou knew Damien was the bad guy, but he couldn’t deny the arousal growing inside of him. Was this how Chris felt when Damien had him? A mix of pleasure and dread all wrapped up into one?

Suddenly all feelings of pleasure evaporated as rage began to take over once more. This was the guy who raped Chris. The sweet, innocent boy who befriended him was defiled by this… this thing.

Letting out a roar, Kou’s fist lashed out and struck Damien full on in the face. The force was so strong that Damien’s head actually flew off. The head landed with a satisfying splash in the water. Damien’s body, now devoid of its head, began to smoke and dissipate. Within moments it completely dissolved, leaving no traces of him behind.

With that demon gone, Kou turned and looked at the others, who were all watching from the doorway. “Thank you for not interfering.” Kou said.

“We figured this was something you needed to do by yourself.” Mark said.

“Personally I wanted a crack at him as well.” Paige said sourly. “But this muscle head held me back.” She glared at Lucas.

“It’s a matter of pride.” Lucas shrugged. “And it doesn’t seem right to barge into it.”

“What is up with men and pride?” Paige rolled her eyes. “Honestly, all that testosterone soaked muscles must’ve squeezed out what little common sense you men were given.”

“Shall we move on?” Hunter interrupted their banter. “May I remind you both that we don’t exactly have the time to lounge around and banter, you know.”

“Whatever you say.” Lucas said and started off.

They five of them traveled further into the world. Kou was starting to realize that this world was much larger than he had first initially surmised. He had first thought that this was a mere river, but he was beginning to think it was closer to a big lake, or possibly an entire ocean.

After a few minutes of wading, they came in sight of the next door. It wasn’t as soiled as the others, but it still emitted the same, uneasy pressure as the others. After a brief look, Lucas went up to it and opened the door.

FLASH!

He desperately wanted to leave and return to his run downed apartment, but doing so without his Uncle’s consent meant a reduction in his monthly allowance. He was already in trouble money-wise due to the fact that he had just spent three day’s worth of money on the food his Uncle forced him to buy. He probably could have just asked his Uncle for money to buy them, but then again, his Uncle was never known for being generous.

Suddenly the door opened. Leaning against the frame was his Uncle, his vast bulk filling up the doorway. His eyes seemed a bit unfocused, and his movements were sluggish and strange.

Chris felt his heart start to beat faster. He recognized that face all too well.

“Look a’ yer.” He slurred. Even at that distance, Chris could smell the alcohol on his breath. “A fuckin’ fag. My freakin nephew, a freakin’ god damn faggot!” He stomped over and towered over Chris, who had scrambled to the back of his bed and pressed against the wall. Although they varied greatly, his Uncle Joey frightened Chris just as much as Kou’s demon half did, and they both seemed to tower miles above him.

“Why the ‘ell did those two ‘ad to go and leave me with a freaking pussy like you? Ha?” Suddenly he lashed out, striking Chris in the ribs. “How da hell do ya make yer kid a faggot, huh?” He struck the side of Chris’s head. “Are you happy with this?” He struck repeatedly at Chris, soon not bothering to yell out and focused his entire attention in hurting Chris.

After what seemed like an eternity of pain, Uncle Joey finally seemed to have enough and left, muttering insults as he exited the room.

Chris, now soundly beaten up, moved painfully off of his bed and limped out of his room. After his Uncle Joey beats him up, it usually meant that it was time to leave. So, now sporting a few aches and bruises, he headed home.

FLASH!

“Purify.” Mark said, and the oily substance on the crystal evaporated.

“What was that?” Kou demanded hotly. He glared balefully at the crystal in the middle of the room. “What the hell was that!?”

“That bastard!” Paige growled.

Lucas clenched his fists. “Fuck, if I’d known that he was takin’ this kinda shit…”

“I suppose this is my fault.” Hunter said. “I had thought that only observing Chris at school would suffice, but it looks like I was wrong.”

“I’ll kill him.” Kou muttered darkly. “When this is all over, I’ll rip off his arms and show him hell.”

“Hey, save some of him for me.” Paige said with an approving look. “Why should you have all the fun?”

“I don’t suppose you two would mind if I come and watch, right?” Lucas grinned wickedly.

“I think I’d like to come too.” Mark added.

“We can fix Chris’s life after we save it.” Hunter reminded them.

Once they calmed down, the band traveled deeper into the world in search for more infected memories. They waded for an hour and they had only found two. Those memories were of when had been kidnapped by Mark and the group in their basement in the faux Satanist ritual and the first Kou had lost control and first turned into a demon. Kou cringed when he saw how savage and hideous he had become through Chris’s eyes, and was thoroughly revolted with what he did. Deeper and deeper they went, until Kou realized they were moving into the part of Chris’s past that didn’t include him.

Kou didn’t know how but as they were passing a solitary white door, he just knew what that room contained. Unable to help himself, he fell back to allow the others to go ahead a bit before he took hold of the doorknob and slowly opened it a crack.

FLASH!

“Excuse me.” A deep, yet soft voice interrupted. Mr. Benson and Chris turned around towards the door to see the speaker, and their jaws dropped.

The speaker just couldn’t be a student. He was over 8 feet tall, and was packed with muscle! The man’s arms were huge balls of solid muscle streaked with large sexy veins, probably 30 inches around, cold! His arms were attached by the cannonball deltoids on the impossibly wide shoulders that filled the doorway. Even through the flimsy white t-shirt, the shape of his gargantuan melon pecs and perfect chiseled abs were visible, all leading down to the biggest legs they had ever seen, with a respectable bulge, all contained in what had to be custom made jeans. The man’s backpack and face was probably the only thing that distinguished him from a pro bodybuilder from a student. His face was rather handsome, with deep, dark eyes, a masculine square chin and a childish expression, though his dark hair had white locks in them, all tied back in a neat ponytail. On a side glance, Chris noticed that it all ended up at a size 18 pair of white sneakers and two very large hands that seemed rough and warm at the same time.

“Um, I didn’t mean to interrupt.” The giant blushed shyly. A man his size just shouldn’t be allowed to blush, Chris thought silently to himself. “I, uh, just wanted to know if this is the Mr. Benson’s room.”

“I-it is.” Benson croaked. Absently, he wiped the beads of sweat off of his forehead. “A-and you are?”

“Oh, um, new.” He looked down somewhat, as if nervous to look at Mr. Benson straight in the face.

Yet it was Mr. Benson who looked as if he was going to have a breakdown. “A new, uh, s-student?” He pointed rather widely at the backpack. “There’s, uh, an adult school program several blocks-”

“But I’m not an adult!” He said suddenly. Everyone in the room flinched back, and Mr. Benson nearly collapsed. The man noticed this and cringed back himself. “I’m… I’m fifteen.”

“FIFTEEN!?” Everyone said at once.

“I, er, um…” Benson stuttered, trying to compose himself. “Wh-what is your name, sir?”

“Kousuke Sterling, sir.” the giant said politely. “But you can call me Kou.”

“Well, er, Kou.” Mr. Benson coughed uncomfortably. “Go ahead and take a seat while I, uh, confirm this.” Without another word, Mr. Benson walked to the door on the far end of the classroom and exited, then rounded back and past behind Kou, walking rather swiftly with both his hands over his crotch. Luckily for him, Kou didn’t look back. Unluckily for Chris, however, Kou chose to walk over to him! He bent down in front of him, showing Chris a peek at the various ridges on Kou’s back, then stood up again. In his hands were the various books and papers that Chris had dropped earlier.

“You dropped these.” He said somewhat meekly. He held out the pile, which Chris took dumbfounded. “Is anyone sitting here?” He pointed at the desk next to his. Chris shook his head. Carefully, Kou sat down on the chair. The chair squeaked and creaked, but held. Kou breathed out a sigh of relief, then turned to Chris. “So, is this class, er, hard?”

It took five seconds before Chris realized Kou was talking to him. “Huh? Oh, yeah, he’s pretty tough.” Calm down Chris! he thought to himself. You can’t let your hormones get to you! He might not be gay, or even bi at least!

Kou smiled a bit. “I guessed a bit from overhearing.… I’m sorry, I didn’t get your name.”

“Chris.” He said automatically. “Chris Stanton.”

“Nice to meet you Chris.” Kou smiled a little broader. He extended his hand, causing his bicep to bulge and his shirt sleeve to stretch even further. Chris stared at it, then tore his face away from it and back to Kou’s face.

“It’s nice to meet you too.” And that was the simple truth.

FLASH!

Silently, Kou closed the door again. So Chris remembered that day as well. Somehow, the fact that Chris had considered it an important memory made him feel so happy inside. That feeling made him more determined than ever to save his best friend from this crisis.

“Hey Kou!” Paige called from way ahead. “Hurry it up, or you’ll get left behind!”

“C-coming!” Kou said, running the best he can through water to catch up with the others. When he reached them, Hunter gave him a raised eyebrow, but said nothing.

The atmosphere began to slowly change the further they went in. The fog seemed to become even thicker, the waters even colder. The previously still air now had become a freezing wind that chilled them to bones. It was getting so bad that Kou was even starting to regret regaining the ability to tell hot from cold. It was then without warning the water they had been wading through turned into ice, encasing them from the knees down. And if to make things worse, the cold wind suddenly turned into a howling blizzard that screamed at them.

“Wh-what the… ?” Kou looked down as he tried to move his feet, but they were completely trapped. The others tried as well, with similar results.

Hunter quickly turned to Lucas. “War, do you think you can break the ice?”

“I can give it a try.” Lucas cracked his knuckles and rolled his shoulders around. “Kou, mind if I… ?” He held his hand out to him.

“Sure.” Kou reached out grabbed the outreached hand.

Quickly Lucas began to grow, his muscles inflating like they were balloons. His growing torso and arms were starting to make the t-shirt he had been were shrinking by the second. Now filled with power, Lucas slammed his fist into the ice. The blow sounded like a small detonation as he shattered the ice around his feet. After Lucas had freed himself, he began to work on Paige and Hunter while Kou mimicked him and used his own strength to free himself and Mark.

As soon as they were all standing on top of the ice, Kou turned to the others. “Why did the weather change all of a sudden like that?”

“We’re ssssstarting to get close to a very p-p-painful p-period for Chris.” Mark’s teeth clattered. “Sssso na-na-naturally the sssscenery will cha-cha-change to reflect th-that. And unfortunately, th-that is where the b-biggest part of the infection resides.”

Again Kou felt both angry and guilty with what they were doing. He knew they had to do it, but still…

Mark looked around at the surrounding area, taking in the ice and show while shivering. “I t-think it’s t-time we got a c-change of clothes.” He waved his hand, and all of a sudden they were all dressed in thick snow jackets. At first Kou thought about asking where they had come from, but remembered that this world wasn’t really real and that Mark had the power to change anything he wanted. Better leave magic alone. He thought to himself.

They moved on into the driving snow, deeper and deeper into the eye of their storm. Contrary to the endless body of water wrapped in fog, this place was a vast white wasteland that howled and tore at them with biting cold wind and snow. The terrain began to become rough and jagged, complete with hillsides and deep trenches. Not only that, the blizzard obscured their view in a white out, making it almost impossible to see where they were going save for Hunter’s keen eyes. But even he didn’t see the glacier until they almost walked right into it.

It stood high and tall above them like an imposing mountain, the top of it vanishing into the darkness that was brought on by the storm. There was, however, a kind of pathway.

“Up there.” Hunter pointed. “There’s one of the doors.”

Kou looked up and squinted a bit. He could just barely make out the outline of a door in the side of the glacier. It wasn’t quite that far up, but in this weather it seemed like quite a climb.

The pathway looked safer than it actually was. The ground was iced over and slippery, making it difficult to climb. They made very slow going as they inched their ways upward. It seemed ages until they finally reached the doorway. Without a world Paige yanked the door open.

FLASH!

Chris reached forward and pressed the rewind button on his VCR. He watched as images of large muscular men moved around the stage in reverse, giving him some time to rest up before he jacked off again.

He shifted his weight around so he could get into a more comfortable position as the movie neared its beginning. Once it reached the intro, he reached forward, pressed play and then got into position.

“Hey boy, where’s my dinner… ?” Uncle Joey opened the door and walked in.

Chris jumped and tried to yank on his shorts and turn off the TV before Joey could see, but he was far too late.

“WHAT THE HELL!” Joey bellowed.

“I-I can explain!” Chris started, but Uncle Joey was already advancing on him, his eyes flashing angrily.

“Youra fuckin’ faggot! A faggot livin’ under my own roof!” He growled as he kicked Chris. “I give you a place ter stay and food to eat, and all this time you were bringin’ this shit into MY house?” Uncle Joey continued to hit and kick Chris, ignoring the cries of pain and begs of mercy. Finally, his Uncle Joey stopped in his attack to stare down at him.

“You are no longer welcomed in my house.” Uncle Joey growled. “From now on, you’re gonna live on the other side of town. You got one day to pack yer things and git out!”

Chris just nodded, his throat locked to prevent him from crying out again. Uncle Joey gave him on disgusted look before he spat on him and left.

FLASH!

Unlike the rooms they had been in before, the walls of this room was made out of pure ice. It was jagged and reflected their images in the thousands of faces, like the very crystal that grew from the floor in the middle of the room.

“What’s going on? Who the hell are you people?”

Kou felt his back stiffen even before his eyes fell upon the owner of the voice. Even a manifestation of Chris’s Uncle Joey enraged him. “Pardon me guys, this might take awhile.” Kou said as he approached the man.

“I’m right with you bro.” Lucas stepped forward, cracking his knuckles.

“Let’s try to draw it out as long as we can.” Paige added as she joined with them.

“Enjoy your fun.” Hunter gave an understanding smile.

“Oh we will.” The three of them said together.

Several minutes later Kou felt much better about himself, and from the look on Lucas and Paige’s face, they felt the same. The things they had done to that bastard were very satisfying. Who said revenge was empty?

“It’s too bad the real one didn’t feel a thing.” Lucas said as he rolled his shoulders around.

“Oh he did alright.” Mark grinned. “I connected that Joey with the real life one. Chris’s Uncle is going to have a very realistic dream tonight.”

“So he’ll see and feel everything that happened here?” Paige asked hopefully.

Mark nodded. “Along with a few of my own modifications to it, yes.”

The corner of Kou’s lips couldn’t help but move up into a smile.

Before they set back out into the roaring blizzard, Kou suggested that it may be a good idea if Mark created some ice climbing gear to make their journey easier. Ten minutes later they were already quite a ways up the side of the glacier, making surprisingly quick progress now. The new boots helped make the climb less hazardous, and for extra insurance they were all roped together so that if one of them fell, Lucas or Kou could use their inhuman strength to prevent them from sliding all the way back down.

It wasn’t too long before they reached the next door. Kou, who was leading the way, waited until everyone caught up before he turned the knob and opened it.

FLASH!

Chris fought back the tears as he watched the coffins containing his parents were lowered into their graves. The rain fell upon them, bringing the sad event into full force. A ring of fellow mourners were gathered, though Chris doubted any of them could feel how he felt at that moment. After all, Chris was now an orphan after all. They did not have to face the trials of growing up without any parents.

His eyes flicked over to where his Uncle Joey stood. Unlike the other people, Uncle Joey didn’t seem so mournful. He was his only living relative, so naturally that man was to be Chris’s guardian. Chris knew very little of his Uncle and had only met him a few days ago, but already he didn’t like him. His parents had always said that his uncle was a drunk and had a violent temper, but now Chris was going to see it for himself how mean Uncle Joey could be.

Finally the coffins were completely lowered into their final resting places, and every lined up to drop a red rose into the pit. Chris watched with dead eyes as one by one the people went by until it was just him left. He moved in front of hole and look in to see the bleak black wood. He clutched the roses tightly, barely noticing the pain as the thorns dug into his hands. For a brief moment he thought of throwing himself in, so he wouldn’t have to leave his parents and say goodbye. Even in death, he wanted to be held once more by his mother’s arms, to feel safe again. However, his fears prevented him from taking that one, simple action. Slowly, he loosened his hands until the rose slipped through his fingers and fell down to join his mother and father.

With the ceremony complete, the grave diggers began to shovel in dirt to fill the holes. As other people left, he stayed and watched as the graves disappeared underneath the brown earth until the graves were completely filled. He was now forever separated from his parents by ten feet of dirt.

At last Chris turned around and began to walk away. Though he did not cry, the sky was raining the tears for him. However no rainstorm could ever hope to amount to the number of tears he wanted to shed. So silently Chris made his way through the graveyard.

Alone.

FLASH!

The crystal in this room was almost completely swallowed up by the black matter. Mark stepped into the room and waved his hand. “Purify.” He said softly, and the dark substance vanished into smoke. Silently he turned and walked back outside, closing the door.

“We should probably keep moving.” Mark said in a low voice, his head hung down.

Kou could only nod. A lump was stuck in his throat and Kou. If he stayed any longer, he was bound to burst into tears.

They continued their track up the glacier. However, the weather became even worse. The wind blew harder, the snow fell more heavily, the sky above them rumbled louder and the ground beneath them shook more violently that Kou almost fell several times. It was if nature itself was trying to impede their progress, to turn them back and drive them out.

However, they had to move on. They only had one more memory to cleanse before Chris was saved.

It was a while longer when Kou became aware of a strange feeling in his gut. It had been so slight that he hadn’t noticed it until now. It was hard to describe, but it almost felt he was being led somewhere. As they climbed higher, the feeling grew stronger. Finally it became so strong that Kou had it made him stop climbing.

“What is it Kou?” Mark asked.

“I… I think there’s a door.” Kou said. “In there.” He pointed straight at the face of the glacier.

“What are you saying?” Paige yelled over the howling of the wind. “There’s nothing there!”

“No, wait.” Mark held up his hand. His face was set sternly in concentration. “He’s right, the last door we’re looking for is in there.”

“That’s impossible.” Paige retorted.

“No, it’s just like he said.” Hunter peered deep into the ice. “There is a chamber of sorts in there.” He turned and looked at Kou. “How was it that you noticed this? Neither Mark nor myself knew of this until after you pointed it out.”

“I… I don’t know. I just had this feeling.” Kou struggled to explain.

“Well, can that feeling of yours tell us how to get in?” Lucas said from the rear. “Because I don’t think we have the time to pound our way through twenty feet of solid ice.”

“There’s a hidden tunnel just around the bend.” Kou waved his hand.

Everyone stared at him.

“I just know!”

And sure enough, just around the bend, hidden behind a large boulder was a tunnel cutting right through the ice. Not only that, it appeared to be manmade. The walls were perfectly smooth and even.

“I don’t like this.” Paige muttered as they walked through the passageway.

“I don’t like it either, but both Mark and Hunter are saying this is the place.” Lucas said.

“But how did Kou know about this place?” She asked. “It’s too convenient.”

“I know that, but what are we going to do?” Lucas whispered back.

“You know we can hear you.” Hunter said loudly from the front, causing the two to jump. “And you know very well that my eyes can perceive a fake instantly. And this…”

They stepped out of the tunnel and into the chamber. Like the tunnel, the walls were perfectly level and smooth, with no scratches or fractures whatsoever. The roof stretched upwards above them into a perfect dome. And standing between two ornate ice pillars in the middle of the room was a great, black, double door.

“… Is definitely real.” Hunter finished.

They moved cautiously to the door, on alert for any traps. However there were none, and when they reached the doors they became even more uneasy.

Still wary, Lucas stood up straight. “So, now that we’re here, what’re we going to do about that?”

By that, he meant by the great lock and chains wrapped around the door, preventing all from opening it.

“I don’t think we’ll be able to muscle our way through these chains.” Mark commented. “It looks like the only way in is with the key.

At that exact moment Kou felt something in his pocket turn hot. Jumping up high from the sudden pain, Kou yanked his hand into the pocket and yanked whatever was burning inside there out. The moment his fingers touched it, the heat disappeared, leaving only cold metal. Frowning, he opened his hand and looked at what he was holding.

It was a large black skeleton key.

Everyone’s eyes were on the key. Then they moved up to Kou, who returned theirs with his own baffled look.

“Well what are you waiting for?” Mark asked. “Put it in the lock.”

“Wait, you’re not just going to walk right into this are you?” Paige asked.

“We don’t have a choice.” Mark told her. “Time is running out, and we need to get the job done now.”

“But stay on your guard.” Hunter warned them. “There’s no telling what will happen once that door opens. This is Chris’s most painful memory, and the essence that’s feeding from it will be the strongest we’ve faced yet.”

Kou held the key in his hand for a moment before he inserted it into the lock and turned. The sound of it unlocking was so loud and great that it rippled through them. For a second nothing happened. Then the lock fell from the door and struck the ground with a loud resonate bang. Now without the lock holding it together, all of the chains that had been wrapped around the door fell to the ground all at the same time, unraveling and unwinding itself until finally the doors were fully exposed.

Hesitantly, Kou took hold of the handles, and then yanked the doors open.

FLASH!

Chris looked out of the car window, sulking. The back seat of the car was filled with boxes of toys and games and colorful bags filled with similar goodies. Even with all these presents, he was still angry that he didn’t get the video game that he wanted.

“Honey, you aren’t still mad over one silly little game, are you?” His mom said from the front seat.

“I told you I wanted that game.” Chris said angrily. “I told you for months that I wanted that one, not the stupid golfing game you got me.”

“Watch your mouth young man.” Chris’s dad said sternly. “That’s your mother you’re talking to.”

Chris ignored him. “I told you that all I wanted was that game. But you wouldn’t listen to me.”

“Honey, we tried to get you that game.” His mom said gently. “But it was sold out everywhere. Plus it was too expensive to begin with.”

“I don’t care!” Chris yelled. “You should’ve tried harder!”

“Quiet back there!” Chris’s dad raised his voice. “You’re ten years old today for Christ’s sake. Start acting your age.”

“Fuck you!” Chris screamed.

“NOW LISTEN HERE YOUNG MAN!” Mr. Stanton turned around and yelled at his son.

“Look out!” Mrs. Stanton yelled at her husband. Mr. Stanton jerked back forward and swore just as the truck smashed right into them.

Chris gave a cry as his head hit the back of his mom’s car and a sharp pain shot from his forehead. For a few moments he was completely disoriented as he tried to push himself back upright.

“M-mom? Dad?” He called as he looked at the front. His dad was draped over the steering wheel and his mom had her face pressed against the dashboard. Both of them appeared to be unconscious, even though Chris could clearly smell the smoke and flames coming out from the hood of the car. “Mom! Dad!” Chris cried louder.

The door on Chris’s right was yanked open. “Are you okay?” Chris turned and looked into the face of a pretty lady.

“Mom and D-Dad are…” Chris pointed at his parents.

“They’ll be alright, let’s get you out of there first.” She said as she unbuckled Chris’s seatbelt and took him in her arms. As she pulled Chris out of the car, he was faintly aware of the yelling of the people that had gathered, something about the car being on fire and danger.

The woman turned and started to move into safety when the car behind them suddenly exploded, the impact sending the both of them crashing into the asphalt. Chris’s face slammed into the ground and the bitter taste of blood filled his mouth as his lip was split. He laid there on the cold ground, pinned down by the weight of the woman holding him. Then someone moved the woman off of him and picked him off the ground. Quickly Chris turned his head at the lady to see if she was alright. He took one look and screamed.

The lady had a piece of metal sticking out of her back, a small trail of blood running down the side of her mouth. Her eyes were completely lifeless as they stared forward.

She was dead.

FLASH!

“N-no…” Kou’s eyes widened, his face turning white. “M-mom?”

A great wind roared from beyond the doorway, and waves of black shadows flew out at them. The ground shook violently as a massive earthquake hit them, knocking Hunter and Lucas off their feet. Cracks formed in the surrounding ice as the entire glacier as a curtain of darkness began to spread. It was just like Armageddon.

“This world is collapsing!” Hunter yelled.

“No shit!” Paige yelled back.

“Hang on everyone!” Mark said, just as the darkness swallowed them all.

* * *

It was dark. Complete and total darkness encompassed them. All that nothingness and empty space… it was truly frightening. If it weren’t for the translucent bubble around them, Kou knew that they would have been lost forever.

“Phew, that was a close one.” Lucas wiped his brow.

“What happened?” Paige asked. “Everything was going fine until that point.”

“Chris lost his will to live.” Mark explained. “When he was forced to relive that memory, it killed all of the fight in him that was left. Without any resistance, it’s only a matter of time before the transition into a demon becomes complete.”

“And that’s why we were allowed to enter that memory.” Hunter said grimly. “That demonic presence knew this would happen, so he allowed us to open those doors.”

Mark scowled at the bottom of the bubble. “I don’t know. Somehow there’s something more to this.”

“Hey Kou.” Lucas reached out and touché the big guy’s shoulder. “You alright man? You haven’t said anything.”

Kou turned and look at them, his face ashen white.

“Kou?” Mark leaned forward. “What’s the matter?” He leaned forward and gently brushed his fingers across Kou’s forehead. The moment their skins touched, Mark jerked his hand back and sucked his breath. “No!” He looked at him, horrified.

“What? What is it?” Paige demanded.

“It’s that woman that saved Chris, the one that pulled him out of the car.” Chris said, still staring at Kou. “It was…”

“My mom.” Kou said in a hollow voice.

Paige gasped and Lucas’s eyes widened in shock. Only Hunter seemed to maintain a calm face, but even he looked surprised by this.

“I… see.” Hunter broke the silence. “The demon essence knew Chris would realize this and that would break his spirit, allowing it to completely take over.”

“And we willingly walked into its trap.” Lucas pounded his fist against the side of the bubble.

“I tried to warn everyone!” Paige shrieked. “I said it was a trap, but what did we do? We went ahead and played right into the hands of the demon!”

“As I said, we didn’t have a choice in the matter.” Hunter said firmly. “We had to get into that room to cleanse him, and the only way to do that was to open that door and relieve the memory.”

“But man, I certainly didn’t expect this.” Lucas said out loud. “I mean, what were the chances of Kou’s mom being the very same one that pulled Chris outta the fire?”

“It’s somewhere around two thousand to one.” Hunter supplied. “But then again, fate has a very strange way of working.”

Kou looked down at his hands, completely at lost. He had just watched his mother die right before his eyes. Try as he might, he could not think or act coherently. His entire insides had even gone numb. He was in a kind of shock, he realized.

“Mark, is there any way we can save Chris now?” Lucas asked.

Mark bit his lip. “There is one. We have to reach the doorway that reaches into Chris’s heart. There, we must try to convince him to live.”

“Unfortunately, with the demon side in control getting into that place won’t be easy.” Hunter informed them. “We’re going to have to fight our way to it.”

“Not a problem.” Lucas cracked his knuckles.

Right outside of the bubble, an archway suddenly appeared, streaming brilliant light from the opening.

“Since the demon hasn’t had time to fully construct its defenses, I can easily take us straight to the heart.” Mark said firmly. Then he let out a deep sigh. “If I had Chris’s level of power, I would have been able to do this from the start.”

“It’s alright, you’ve done all that you’ve can.” Paige reassured him. “Now it’s time for us to do our part.”

Mark gave a weak smile, and then moved their bubble passed through the archway. The brilliant light blinded Kou, and seconds later it was gone.

They now stood in what Kou could only describe as a portrait of hell. They stood on the brink of a massive plate of rock that was jutting out of a sea of magma. Pillars of fire shot up all around them, and flakes of ash rained down on them. Above, the sky was but an empty darkness that looked like it would swallow them all up if they came to its reach. The sharp smells of smoke and brimstone filled Kou’s nostrils as he took in this hellish nightmare.

The rock they were standing on was uneven as it stretched outwards. There were innumerous cracks and small fissures within the surface and occasionally white hot steam or smoke shot out from the ground. At the far end of the rock was a single door, but standing between them was the figure of the demon.

“Hello.” The demon said in a familiar, yet chilling voice. “Glad you can make it. Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Kousuke Sterling, pleased to meet you all.”

It was undeniably Kou standing before them, but not quite the same. For starters this Kousuke had hair that was completely white, and his eyes were an angry shade of red. Also, two great horns grew from his head, curved outward like a ram’s. But what was really noticeable was this guy’s size. He was roughly eight feet tall and even though he was clothed, it was obvious that this guy’s body was engorged in thick strong muscles. He wore ordinary clothing, a tight black t-shirt and jeans, but they might as well have been painted on by the way they displayed his muscularity. He had shoulders as wide as barn doors that look like someone had stuff oranges onto it. His forearms were the size of hams and he had cannonball biceps. This Kou’s chest was so big and developed that it would have put the bustiest woman to shame and tears. His abs was the same shape and size as large bricks, but his waist was ridiculously tiny. With wide lats, combined with his wasp waist gave him an incredible V-shape to his body.

“I’m surprised you actually came in here.” The second Kousuke said, crossing his big arms over his thick chest. “Though, I guess I should have known that I would show up no matter what.”

“W-who are you?” Kou started at him, shocked and totally at a loss.

“So you’re Kou’s demon essence.” Hunter mimicked the Kou clone and crossed his own arms. “Not only are you a pure reflection of Kou’s demonic side, you’ve also have the power that had been drained from his body and into you.”

“Correct!” Kousuke’s clone gave a thumb’s up sign. “As usual, you’re always the first to catch up on these things Hunter!”

“Naturally.” Hunter nodded in agreement.

“But because you’re just pure demonic essence, you don’t have his conscience or soul.” Mark stated. “You may have our friend’s face, but you are certainly no friend of ours Kousuke.”

Soul? Kou thought. He had a soul? That was some shocking news.

“So,” Paige took a step forward. “Are you just going to stand there or are you going to get out of the way and let us through?”

Kousuke laughed haughtily. “You must be joking. Why should I let you through? So I can let you reach Chris’s heart and stop my rebirth? I don’t think so.”

At those words Lucas stepped forward, rotating his shoulder to warm himself up. “If you won’t move, then we’ll just have to make you move.”

“You? Make me move?” Kousuke threw back his head and laughed loud. “Oh man, that’s the funniest shit I’ve ever heard!” In an instant the cheerfulness vanished from his face as he stared down at them all in superiority. “Perhaps you’ll change your mind once I show you my real power?”

At first, nothing seemed to happen. Then Kou noticed that the hem of Kousuke’s (since he didn’t know what else to call him) t-shirt was starting to rise up, revealing his ripped abdominals. It took him only a moment to figure out that Kousuke was growing.

“Oh yea…” Kousuke moaned as he swelled up in size. “This feels good…” His body stretched up higher and higher, reaching gigantic proportions. His muscles swelled up with size like inflating balloons. Kousuke’s lats flared out and completely blew out the sides of his shirt. His massive chest barreled out until his shirt split right down the middle, exposing his torso. His arms exploded in size and strength, going beyond cannonballs and approaching the size of full melons. Kousuke’s hair lengthened and grew until it cascaded down his back all the way to his waist. The horns on his head even grew outwards into a more imposing form. Bigger and bigger Kousuke grew, growing far beyond what Kou had ever achieved. It was then that that Kou suddenly realized that this Kousuke didn’t have any of his seals to hold him back. This Kousuke had 100% unrestrained power, a fully transformed demon.

When he finished growing, Kousuke looked over the shelf of his pecs and grinned evilly down at them. “Still feeling confident, Lucas?”

“Looks like this is gonna be a real challenge.” Lucas answered with his own broad grin, right before he charged forward, fists first.

“Men.” Paige rolled her eyes and quickly followed.

Kousuke laughed as he reared his arm back and threw a punch.

“War!” Hunter barked, and Lucas jumped to barely dodge the fist. The force of Kousuke’s punch was so strong that it sent shockwaves through the ground. Lucas, undaunted, reached out and quickly grabbed Kousuke’s arm. Immediately he grew, bursting out of his clothes as his own muscles became bigger and stronger, though they were nowhere near the size of Kousuke’s level. Amazingly Kousuke just waited until Lucas was done growing before he broke out into a wicked smile. “Done yet?” Then with blinding speed Kousuke struck him, sending him flying towards the edge of the rock.

Paige took this opening to dash forward and thrust her palm right into Kousuke’s chest, trying to use her power to weaken him. Kousuke just looked down at her and flexed his pec with so much force that it threw her back. “You can try as much as you like, I’m far too strong to be weaken by just that!”

Lucas picked himself off the ground and shook himself off. “We’re not done just yet!” He yelled as he charged again. Kousuke threw out several punches, but Lucas dodge then due to Hunter’s commands and Paige kept in range to keep her own power active. However, it was obvious that Kousuke was toying with them. They were fighting an impossible battle.

In one swift move, Kousuke reached out and grabbed both Lucas and Paige in each hand, his action so fast and sudden that even hunter didn’t have time to warn them. “Just give up.” Kousuke told them. “That worthless piece of shit isn’t worth throwing your lives over.”

“You’re wrong!” Paige screamed as she struggled to break free.

“Chris is our friend…” Lucas grunted as he tried to break Kousuke’s hold on him. “We’re not just gonna sit back and let you take over!”

Watching his inner demon fight his friends, Kou slowly began to come out of the shock he had been under. They were right. Chris was their friend. Even when he had found out he was a demon, Chris had been very understanding. When Kou had attacked him, or when the others had kidnapped him to get to Kou, Chris had immediately forgiven him. Now it was his turn to do something for him.

His mom had sacrificed herself to save Chris. He wasn’t about to let her effort to be in vain.

Suddenly Kousuke seemed to stiffen up, his grip on Lucas and Paige suddenly slipped as they fell onto the ground. “W… what… .” Kousuke grunted, as if he were struggling to speak.

“Kou, move it!” Kou turned around and saw Mark with his palms out and sweating. His limbs were shaking wildly, and it was only with the help of Hunter that he kept them up.

“I can’t hold him much longer. You gotta get to that door now!” Mark grunted.

“R-right!” Kou nodded, and then he dashed towards the door.

“Oh… no… you… don’t!” Kousuke roared, and one arm broke Mark’s hold and reached forward to grab Kou. However, Lucas suddenly appeared and grabbed that huge arm, stopping him just inches from reach.

“Go for it!” Lucas cheered as he held Kousuke back.

Kou went into a full sprint, running towards the door as fast as he could. Behind him he could hear Kousuke roar as the binding broke, but he did not dare look back. The ground underneath him shook and jets of steam and smoke shot out from where he had been, but still he pushed forward until finally he slammed into the door and broke through.

The moment he stepped into the room, the scorching hot air suddenly turned cool and calm. In contrast with the wild, chaotic outside, this room was just a simple square room with simple white walls, floor and ceiling. Kou glanced back and found that the door that he had just come through had vanished.

A soft whimper caught his attention. Kou looked back into the room and his chest still as his eyes landed on Chris.

Chris was in a sorry looking state. His clothes were dirty and torn, his face and hair covered with grime and ash. He sat in the corner, hugging his knees with his head hung low as he rocked back and forth.

“Chris!” Kou was immediately at his side, knelling down and shaking his shoulder gentle. “Chris.”

“Go away.” Chris said. His voice sounded so dead, so lifeless.

“Chris, it’s me, Kou.” He said, shaking a bit harder.

“Please, just go away.” Chris repeated.

Gently, Kou cupped the guy’s face. “Chris, snap out of it. Everyone’s waiting for you to come back.”

“Go away.” He repeated. “Just let me stay here and die.”

* * *

“What’s going on?” Lou asked. “Why isn’t Kou waking up?”

Lou and Coach Lumens had been keeping constant vigil over everyone when all of a sudden Mark, Hunter, Lucas and Paige had woken up. However, Kou was still stiff as a board, and Chris still looked as ghastly as before. In fact, Chris looked even worse, and also he was starting to thrash around more strongly against the magical bindings.

“He’s still in there, trying to snap Chris out of this.” Paige informed them.

“If anyone can get Chris out of this, it’s Kou.” Lucas said as he tried to get the cramp out of his neck.

“We’ll have to put our hopes on this.” Mark said as he went into position next to Kou and Chris. “Because if this doesn’t work, I’ll have to drag Kou out of there and kill Chris before the demon could fully take over.

* * *

“It’s no use.”

Kou whirled around and found Kousuke standing behind him, once again eight feet tall and fully clothed again.

“You can try talking to him until the end of time, but he won’t be able to hear you.” Kousuke told him.

Kou ignored him and turned his attention back to Chris. “Don’t say things like that, Chris.” He told him. “Everyone misses you and wants you to come back.”

“Don’t listen to him, Chris.” Kousuke said. “He’s only lying.”

“You can just shut up.” Kou snapped at him.

“You don’t deserve to live, Chris.” Kousuke continued. “You killed your parents AND my mom. You’re more of a monster than I am.”

“Yes…” Chris seemed to sink further into the darkness as he listened to Kousuke’s words. “I… am a monster.”

“No you’re not, Chris!”

“You’re a demon.”

“I am a demon…”

“You deserve to die…”

“Chris, don’t say it!”

“I deserve to die.”

* * *

“We’re losing them!” Hunter warned Mark.

“I know!” Mark snapped back. Already he could feel Chris’s will slowly grow weaker and weaker. “I have no other choice. I don’t want to lose both of my friends tonight.”

Mark reached forward and placed his hand on Kou.

* * *

“No!” Kou yelled. “You don’t deserve to die!”

Chris flinched back slightly, but he didn’t move.

Kou reached forward and grabbed his friend by the shoulders. “Chris, you are not a monster. You are a kind hearted person. You don’t deserve to die!”

“Chris, don’t listen to him.” Kousuke said. “You are a horrible person. Your selfishness ended up killing not only your parents, but my mom as well!”

“I… I killed everyone.” Chris sobbed. “I’m a monster.”

“Chris, don’t you dare listen to that fake.” Kou ordered.

“Fake?” Kousuke echoed. “Chris, I am his inner self! I’m the part that he’s been hiding. Everything I feel is what he feels! And you want to know something? Kou hates you. He hates you for killing his mom!”

“Y-you… hate me.” Chris sobbed as he sank further away. “You want me to d-die.”

Kou hesitated. Was his demonic self telling the truth? Did he hate Chris?

Kou! Mark’s voice suddenly rang throughout the room. Kou! I have to pull you out of there!

“No!” Kou yelled, but he could already feel himself fading out. When he looked down at his hands, he could see right through them.

It’s too late, we’re losing him! Mark’s voice told him. I have to pull you out or else we’ll lose the both of you.

“No, I won’t leave him!” Kou yelled again. “I won’t!” Abruptly Kou’s form slammed back in solidity.

“Why… ?” Chris asked. “Why didn’t you leave… ?”

“Because I can’t just let you die!” Kou told him.

“But I don’t have a reason to live…”

“Then live for me!” Kou told him. “Live for my sake! Live so that we can be with each other everyday, to talk, to play, to share everything!”

“But I… I killed your mom.” Chris sobbed. “You… you should hate me.”

“It was an accident.” Kou told him gently. “And I can never hate you.”

“Don’t listen to him, Chris.” Kousuke growled.

“YOU don’t have a soul, so YOU can just shut up already!” Kou snapped at him.

“Wh-why don’t you hate me?” Chris asked, his body shaking. “You saw what I was like. I was such a bad person.”

“But you’ve changed.” Kou reached forward and wiped the tears away from the corner of Chris’s eyes. “You’ve turned into a wonderful person, Chris.”

“But… I don’t deserve you.” Chris hung his head lower. “All I’ve done is been a burden to you. Even now, you’re risking your life to save me, the same guy who’s responsible for your mom’s death.”

“Chris…”

“Why should I live if I only cause pain to others?”

“Chris…”

“Why should I live if I’m so useless?”

“You’re not… you’re...”

“Why should I live as all?”

“Because I love you!” Kou yelled.

Chris’s head snapped up and looked at him for the first time, his face full of complete surprise.

“Because I love you, alright?” Kou yelled again. “I can’t stand to think of living without you. You’re not a burden, you’re not useless and you know what? I don’t care about the accident. In fact, I think my mom somehow knew the two of us were meant for each other, so that’s why she saved you. Don’t you see? We were destined for each other! And if you want you kill yourself, then I’m joining you in death, because I can’t be without you.”

“K-Kou…” The tears were flowing freely from his face now. “I… I love you too.”

Kou leaned his head forward and planted a kiss on Chris’s lips, and Chris kissed back. Immediately he felt better than he ever had before as the two of them moved as one. Finally, they broke the kiss and looked into each other’s eyes.

“Well, I guess I lost then.” Kousuke’s voice made the two look back at the big demon. Already the Kousuke seemed to be dissolving, flowing back into Kou, who was beginning to grow bigger. “Do me a favor and take better care of him, alright? His heart only has room for one other demon.”

A wild suspicion formed in Kou’s mind. “Wait a minute… you weren’t trying to help us save Chris all this time, were you?”

Kousuke laughed. “The two of us are the same person, remember? Even though I was made out of your dark side, it couldn’t erase what you felt for him. So, I was perfectly content of letting the both of you get together, but then he got overdosed with demonic essences and this mess happened. The only way to save Chris then was to get rid of them and me as well, but I knew that wasn’t enough to get Chris to save himself. So, I had to play the part of the villain… though I’ll admit it was a bit fun.” Kousuke shook his head a bit wearily. “Well, at least now the two of you will have a fresh start, so use it well.”

“Will we ever see you again?” Chris asked.

“Oh you’ll be seeing me plenty of times.” Kousuke grinned broadly. “Every time the two of you have sex, I’ll make sure that the both of you really enjoy yourselves. And this time I promise to be good. Scouts honor. Now, take care of each other!”

And with that, Kousuke completely vanished.

Chris looked up at Kou, who was now over 9 feet tall and packed with muscles. Similarly, Kou looked down at his love and smiled.

“Well then, now what?” Chris asked.

“How about another kiss?” Kou asked, and he leaned down and the two of them melted in each other’s embrace.

“Oy, get a room.”

Kou and Chris snapped their heads back. They were back in Kou’s room, surrounded by family and friends, all of them watching the two of them smooch. Chris had turned back to normal, save for a few strand of black hair. Kou, on the other hand, now towered above all of them at 15 feet tall and several tons of pure muscle mass, with long white hair and red eyes. Even kneeling, he was simply too big. Kou looked down at himself a bit shyly. Along with his height and muscles, his huge tool had grown as well, reaching nearly 4 feet in length and completely exposed.

“It looks like the seals all broke.” Lou muttered. “It’ll be quite a task making them again.”

“Wait.” Chris raised his hand. He looked up at Kou and concentrated. Suddenly Kou began to shrink down, smaller and smaller until he was 7 feet high and weighed roughly 320 lbs. “There. I think I’m starting to get the hang of this power.”

Kou still looked uncomfortable as he grabbed a sheet and covered himself. “Don’t you think you could’ve made me a bit smaller than this?” He asked.

Chris grinned mischievously. “But I like you big.” He then jumped up, wrapped his arms around Kou’s neck. Kou looked into Chris’s eyes. One of them was brown, and the other was blue. Similarly, when Chris looked at Kou’s eyes, he saw that one of them was dark and the other red.

“I guess I can get used to it.” Kou laughed sheepishly, and then kissed Chris once again.

Epilogue: 13 years later

The small group of children walked up to the front porch dressed in their costumes and holding their brightly colored bags in anticipation. One of them reached forward and pressed the doorbell, then snatched his hand back as they waited until the door opened.

“Trick-or-treat!” They chorused.

Standing beyond the door was a giant of a man, whose head nearly touched the top of the frame. His bronze tanned muscles were huge and bulging, larger than any of the bodybuilders seen on TV. From his head two stubby horns grew out, and he was clad with a simple loincloth of leopard skin. The man’s hair was stark white, and his eyes were both a fiery red.

“Well well well…” The giant rumbled. “What do we have here? A bunch of delicious looking morsels for me to eat, mwahahaha!”

“Happy Halloween Mr. Sterling!” The children said together, holding out their bags.

“Yes, yes, Happy Halloween to you too!” Kou said as he began to deposit bits of candy into each of their bag. As they left, he called out to them. “Don’t stay up too late; we’ve got class tomorrow morning, alright?”

“Yes Mr. Sterling!” The kids said as they all waved goodbye before they moved on to the next house.

Kou chuckled as he closed the door.

“Were they kids from your class?” Chris asked as he walked in. He was dressed as an angel, with cute little wings strapped to his back. He had protested the first time Kou forced him into the costume, but now he seemed to be getting used to it.

“Yup.” Kou nodded as he placed the bowl onto the counter. “And I expect half of them to will be sent to the nurse’s office for stomachaches tomorrow morning.”

“Hey, it’s Halloween.” Chris smiled, making his face look even more angelic. “Let them have their fun.”

“Speaking of fun, I thought Mark and the others were supposed to come over by now.” Kou looked up at the clock.

“Something came up.” Chris told him. “Maria managed to catch a pretty dangerous demon, so they’ve gone to take care of it first.”

“That girl may be a full time ho, but she’s pretty damn good at her job.” Kou laughed.

Talking about the others made Kou think about them, and how they’ve all turned out. Kou was now a 3rd grade teacher at a local elementary school. Chris, after he turned 18, took back his parent’s house from his Uncle, who now had a phobia of large people (the brute actually wet himself at the sight of Kou.) Speaking of uncle, Coach Lumens was still a PE teacher in high school, leading at least 3 sports teams to state each year. Also, Kou’s Dad, Lou, returned to his career in archeology and is constantly on the move, looking for new excavation sites around the globe.

Lucas and Paige had gotten married a few years back, and for some strange reason it wasn’t really a surprise. They had two kids, and Paige was currently carrying their third, though her expanded girth has made her even shorter tempered then before, if that was possible. Hunter became a top rated lawyer at a very prestigious firm. Even though he had long discarded his old gothic attire and gotten rid of those creepy silver contacts, he was actually pretty good at intimidating the witness during interrogation until they slipped and allowed him an easy win. Mark had finally outgrown his chronic illnesses. As if to repay for the services the doctors had given him, he became a doctor himself to help other people in need. Even though these four had all gone their separate ways, they still spent their free time hunting down demons, along with the occasional help from Kou and Chris.

However, every Halloween they would all get together for a little reunion party; just a celebration between family and friends in remembrance of the old days.

“Well then,” Chris placed his hands on his hips and looked up at his massive lover. “Since we have some spare time, how would you like a treat?”

Kou’s eyebrow rose up as Chris moved forward and placed his hand seductively on his huge chest. The two of them leaned forward for a kiss.

DING-DONG!

The two of them smiled and stepped apart. “I’ll take this one.” Chris said and turned towards the door. As Chris walked away, Kou watched Chris’s cute butt move under the robes. One of the reasons Kou made Chris wear that outfit was because it outlined Chris’s lean built body very well.

Oh he got a treat alright. Smiling, Kou went to get things ready for their Halloween reunion party.

END

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