This was a mistake. I knew from the second that Toby had asked me to come over that something was very wrong. He hadn’t asked me to come over since the argument. As I made my way up the wooded path, a chill ran through my very core. There was something dark here. I shuddered and wrapped my arms around myself, knocking on the large oak front door. Toby came to the door within seconds, his large disturbed eyes bored into my soul, he was not himself that night.
“Come in, come in,” he muttered, ushering me into the kitchen where I spent much of my childhood raiding as a pirate and drowning my sorrows in sticky cherry pies after particularly horrendous breakups. I had not been in that place for six months. I turned to look at the boy who had comforted me when my parents had gotten divorced, the boy who knew my secret but had not run from me screaming. At the time he had thought it was interesting.
“Everly,” he started. “I need your help. Your… ‘specialised’ help.” Ah that’s why he called me. He needed me to get rid of something. “Something has invaded my home.” The lights flickered and Toby’s lips twitched. Yes, something strong had crawled into the walls and taken refuge in the inner workings of the house. Something dark, something dangerous, something evil.
“Is that the only reason you called me here?” I could not make eye contact with him. I wanted things to go back to how they were. He did not answer me. “Let me go get my things. We  `will need all the help we can get. “ I left the room and stomped out the front door. Leaning against my forest green Range Rover, I twisted one of my red locks around my pale fingers with a deep sigh. After six months he had only called because he needed something taken care of. I stared up at the nights clouds. Even the sky looked aggravated. I quickly took my things out of the car and went back inside. Toby was nowhere to be seen. The kitchen was empty of any sign of him and there was an eery silence in the room. I began setting up for the ritual, setting a cross on the kitchen counter and spraying sacred water around the room.
There was a low guttural howl from somewhere across the room and I froze. The lights began to flicker uncontrollably and the cross flew across the room, smashing into a million pieces against the wall. I couldn’t move a muscle in my body, it was as if I had been turned to stone. Panic rose in my chest and tears welled in my eyes. From the edge of my limited vision I saw a contorted figure shambling towards me. The figure was growling and hissing in an other-worldly language. Fear held a steel grip on my heart as the figure came into the light. It was Toby, except it wasn’t. His body was twisted and bent into unnatural angles. There were veins throbbing in his face and neck making him look more beast than human. Something was glinting in his hand and that was when I knew.
“Toby,” I whispered. “You are the demon.” Burning tears slipped down my cheeks and I whimpered as an evil grin crept across the demon’s lips. He uttered one word before he took my life.
“Surprise”