“We should look for supplies.” Jesse spoke as we reached Vanir. I stepped through the slick mud of the path leading towards the entrance of the town, stepping carefully as not to slip. I have seen ghost towns before – my father and I would visit them every year for Halloween and tell each other the stupidest of ghost stories.

Yet, all those towns felt so different than this one had. Despite being abandoned for as long as they had, I could still tell that the veins of the town once pulsed with life. But this had been something else.

The town had been so far gone that I struggled to see how anyone ever lived here. The stables in the far end had been blown down by storm winds, the glass windows shattered inwardly and half of the town buildings burnt to heaps of charcoal. It looked more like the remains of a nuclear town, filled with superficiality than it looked like a powerhouse trading town.

“Split up?” I suggested, still looking around the town. It was huge, surrounding the runes of an old church. The rest nodded, taking their own quadrant of the vast area. I walked over towards a barn like building and slipped inside, immediately catching the scent of dead rodents, and covered my nose. The barn had been filled with farming equipment, mostly manual, but an old beat up tractor, too – the kind you'd find in the garage of a collector. It's body had been beaten by the hammer that was set aside it, and it's windows smashed in and covered in slashes of paint.

“What happened to you?” Perhaps, I could have gotten it to start up. My father had taught me a decent amount about cars while we had been on the road, always stating that it was a waste of time, and money, to have someone else fix things for you. But time hasn't been something we had right now, and food was what we needed if we planned to make it back to the academy alive. I walked on, looking for something we might have been able to use. I shuffled a hand full of farming tools across the work bench before lifting a machete from the pile. I clipped it to my belt in case Rebecca and her gang showed up again. I refused to be as useless as I was earlier...

“You find anything yet?” Erin yelled from the building across the road. It was some kind of inn or tavern, so it had to have some amounts of food stock piled. I headed over to her.
“No, how about you?” I spoke, pushing through the doors, instantly stepping onto an orchestra of shattered glass, almost neatly piled up against the edge of the bar. No stains, though. As if they were all emptied out before shattered.

“What's that smell?” She spoke, pinching her nose shut. The building had the same scent the barn, but something else added to it – rotting fish entails, mixed with a near sulphuric odur that twisted my stomach in on its self. The hair at the back of my neck rose. My body shivered.

“I'd rather not find out,” I pressed through the building until I reached the storeroom in the staff only entrance behind the bar. The door creaked open slowly, adding the the  horror movie like ambience that began to weigh down over the town like a anvil. I peaked.

The sight was what caused me to hurl the scraps of berries I had eaten. The room was filled with the corpses of wild boars who had their heads ripped off and their backs snapped like twigs. Blood drenched the floor and walls. Glass shards glistened in the pool of crimson.

“I-” Erin trailed off, covering her mouth as she swallowed bile.

“Get over here, now!” Jesse's voice echoed across two streets in the empty town, and both of us stormed towards him, glad to not be in the storeroom anymore. We rain through the entrance of the home he had been in, and up the stairs with Arry joining us. We froze when we reached him.

The beds of the room were opened, filled with a set of corpse that must have been rotting for years. Their skin a charcoal black and shriveled like the skin of a prune. Their eyes, set so far back in their skulls that their the gaze seemed to follow you no matterer where you turned. Their sheets a crisp white.

“It was the same in the children's room.” Jesse spoke, and Arry tugged onto his arm, pointing towards the buildings across the street, stating she saw the same there.

“That doesn't make any sense,” Erin spoke. “I heard this place was still its usual self less than a week ago. These bodies seemed to have been year for years...”

Arry stepped closer, explaining the hands of the corpses. They were scrapped down to the bone, covered in blood. She frowned, looking at Jesse who shook his head. “I don't know...”
Hurried footsteps raced up the stairs, causing the four of us to pivot onto our heels as fast as possible. My heart raced, but it had been a child who showed up around the corner, swinging a thin metal rod towards us. Erin caught it, pinning the child against the wall.

“Whoa, whoa!” She yelled, “Calm down, we're here to help!”

“Help?” The boy struggled, spitting onto her before stepping on her toe. She flinched, then bound his hands with a spell. Tangle. He growled, trying to seem more intimidating. “Where was you help when that monster showed up?”

“Monster?” Jesse spoke, still looking at the hands of the corpses. The boy was dressed like a farm hand – a dirt brown pants and white shirt, soiled with manure of whatever live stock her looked after, and his own sweat. His deep black hair sweeted across his face, covering up his eyes. They were brown. He seemed Italian, apart from his accent.

“What do you care?” He spoke, beginning to cry. Erin sighed, then lowered herself to brush the tears off his cheek. She loosened her bounds, the pulled him into a hug. The boy began to settle down now, slowly falling asleep.
“Poor kid,” I spoke, not knowing what else to say. Jesse seemed anxious as he faced the group.

“Most of the town left with the horses,” He spoke, trying to gather his thoughts as he paced across the room. “Those who stayed... Perhaps there's more survivors.”

“Why would there be any?” I spoke. Jesse looked at me, the back at the corpses. Arry glared out the window and Erin carried the boy down the stairs, sitting down with on the couch in the living room. “Do you have any idea what happened here?”

Arry tapped her nose and Jesse nodded, as if they were sharing a conversation in a code only they understand.
“This place reaks of a demon,” He answered. “And it might still be here.”

“A demon,” I spoke, my voice crackling on the second syllable. I swallowed. “Shouldn't we be getting out of here, then?”

“We can't,” Jesse covered the faces of the corpses after saying a little prayer, then walked towards Arry and I. “You heard what that kid said. We weren't here when they needed help. If there's anyone else here, we need to help them. Before they end up like that.”
But what if we ended up like that? Why should we care about someone we didn't know?

I chided myself for the thought and nodded before responding. “Why didn't the kid end up like them?”

“I don't know,” Jesse admitted. “We need to ask him a few questions.”

Arry nodded and we headed down the stairs. The boy had been curled up on Erin's lap – her one hand weaved gently through his hair and the other, filming locked onto his side so he would fall. He rested his head against her chest.

“How is he doing?” I asked, walking closer to the pair.

“Stay away from him,” Erin answered in a low growl that took me by surprise. I frowned.

“We need to ask him –”

“I said stay away...” She trailed off, and Jesse placex his hand onto my shoulder, shaking his head.

“We should probably rest for the night. Demons thrive in the darkness of night. Going outside now would be a death sentence.” He spoke and I shrugged. “See if you can find anything to feed into the fire place. We need as much light as we can get.”

“Okay,” I responded with a shrug before walking back upstairs. I found a bag of wood in a storeroom and dragged it down the stairs. Arry had already got the fire started using bits of the furniture she broke down. I set the back down near the fire.

“There's an old tractor in the barn,” I spoke, setting down my machette before lowering myself down near the flame. “We could use it to get out here if I can manage to get it to run.”

“Arry and you can go in the morning,” Jesse responded. “For now, get some rest. We should take shifts standing guard.”

“I'll take the first shift,” Erin stated, as if not trusting any of us to be awake while she was not. Tired, the three of us nodded before curling into tight balls around the fire. I let it's heat consume me as my dreams began to take over yet again.

In someway, the dream was different this time. I found myself in the passager seat of my father's car with the window rolled all the way down as we rode past an endless stretch of golden wheat farms. I remember the day. We decided we need a break and headed towards towards the Dakota magic casino, armed with a fake ID to get me in. It was a silly and fun plan, yet we never made it there. Our car broke down on the road, steaming from the engine. It must have over heated, or something.

My father stepped out of the car and opened the bonnet, only for a jet of steam to shoot directly at him. He dodged at the last minute. Being my father, we stood on the side of the road for at least three hours as he tried to fix it, never once giving up. It ended when a trucker came by, willing to help toe us to the next town. I agreed on my father's behalf, and our day of fun was over.

Or at least at this point, I hoped so. The next “town” was a crappy one. Filled with only a small gas station and a motel with rotting doors, but had a pool. Not that I would have swam in it. We booked ourselves in the motel as my father and I took refuge for the night, sleeping on the floor rather than the sleeping under the sheets that might as well been the sheets Brendon Urie described in the song, Build God, then we'll talk. Yet, there was no way I could have guessed what the shade it had been before the deep brown and yellow stains.

The next morning had been no better. The landlord woke to the trucker floating face down in the pool. Being a small town, they had been quick to blame the only people they hadn't know, and quickly asked us to leave. Luckily by then, my father had managed to get the car started. The police found it to be an accident, finding an excessive amount of alcohol on his system.

Yet, somehow I knew it hadn't been that. It had been our bad luck, following us wherever we went. Now, I wondered if it had been more than luck...

“Erin?” Light slipped through the tiny crevices of my eyes as I slowly woke up. The boy was on the couch alone, but a series of sniffles met my answer to where she was. I rose to my feet, walking towards the curled up ball pressed against the wall. “Are you okay?”

“Don't come any closer! It wasn't my fault!” Her screams woke the group and took me aback completely. I lowered myself closer, slowly.

“Erin, it's okay. It's just me.” I tried comforting her, yet she curled up tighter, pressing her knees so firmly against her chest in must have been hard to breathe.

“Stay away...” She whispered, crying now. I stepped away slowly before looking at Jesse and Arry.

“Oh gods... ” Jesse's eyes widened with realization and fear. “Arry, stay here. Anne, with me!”

He sprinted out the front door, casting a light spell, and I followed. We raced towards the church in the center of the town, and Jesse threw himself into the wooden door. It slid back slightly, only to get caught on a pile of rubble. The crevice was too narrow for me to slip through.

“Pedere!” He yelled, and the burst into splinters before I could shelter my eyes. He ran in, jumping over the rubble, and continued towards the stone alter. More corpses were scattered around it, yet he wasn't bothered by them now – his eyes firmly locked onto what was written in blood on the stone.

With the blood of a sloth slain,
and the nectar of mortal vein,
I offer company to he whos breatheren have abandoned,
and call him from his cell far beyond lands end.

A shadow shifted across the candelabra above us. I shifted uneasily, looking upwards. The demon was huge, looking like some bizzare mixture of a demagorgan and wendigo – its belly enlarged so much it was larger than it was. It's face was human like, apart from the row of blue needle like fangs that covered every party of its maw.

“What the hell is that?” My eyes widened as I allowed a flame to grow over my palm. Burn the building down, a voice whispered to him, and I listened, throwing a ball of fire directly at the demon. It shifted, wincing in pain even though I missed. The light hurts it.

I threw a second, this one catching the wooden support beams that held up the town, setting it alight. The orange light flared brightly, slowly engulfing the church.

“Acedia, the demon of apathy...” He whispered, frozen in place. “We're all going to die...”

“Now isn't the time for that!” I yelled, grabbing onto his wrist before dragging him with me as I ran. We made her way back to the house, and I occasionally looked back, hoping not to see us follow. Perhaps it died in the flame? No...

We finally reached the house and I shoved him through the front door before throwing another fireball into a hay cart that had been tipped over in front of it. It burst into a bright, vibrant flame that illuminated the street for at least a few blocks. I slipped in the house, shoving the couches in front of the door with the help of Arry. Not like it would have stopped whatever that was...

“Shut up!” I yelled, gripping onto my head, trying to explain the thoughts. Yet the darkness of whatever I saw began to slither into my thoughts. I stepped to the window, peering through the glass, and reached for the latch.

Slap!

I blinked rapidly as my cheek strung. Arry slapped me again, making sure I snapped back to rationality. I shook my head, thanking her.

“Sorry,” I spoke, and she shook her head. I looked at Jesse who's eyes had still been wide open, his brain struggling to comprehend the touch of the demon. He repeated the name of the demon repeatedly. Acedia. Acedia. Acedia. “Its almost dawn. We need to get them upstairs until then.”

She nodded, and we started with Jesse who could still walk, and then the boy who had been trapped in a motionless sleep, and eventually Erin who we had to restrain before moving her. I grabbed the machete, gripping tightly onto it as Arry drew her rapier. Her hands were trembling, and so were mine. She dug her teeth into her skin, undoubtedly trying to center herself.

“Arry,” I spoke, breathing through burning lungs. “We need to get out of here...”

She stared at me, her face asking if I believed we could make it out alive. I sighed.

“I... ” I froze, the looked out the window. The sky slowly turned to a gentle shade of royal blue. My heart sank, realizing how long Erin had been alone with her own apathy. “We will protect them.”
Arry rose to her feet, using the wall to support her. She glared at me, then lifted her mask over her mouth. She nodded with focused eyes. I smiled.

What the hell are you doing? You need to save yourself. These fools mean nothing to you. My inner voice spoke as my mind once again took possession of his foul darkness. I dug my nails into my wrist. A rumble from down stairs sounded, then the sound of glass crashing. We stayed quiet.
The demons footsteps splittered the floor boards beneath him, and we slowly stalked our down way. I whispered, “I'll go first.”

By the time I slipped around the corner, the demon had stuffed out the flame and gone threw the bottles of alcohol on the high shelves of the dining room. He held a bottle over his head, slowly pouring its content into its gaping maw.

“Pedere!” I yelled, and the bottle shattered, spilling its content over me. The demon hissed, then charged towards me. Arry sprung out of the darkness, driving her knee into its temple, giving me just enough time to slip out of the way.

The demon roared, it's grip tightening around my mind so much so that my legs gave him. He grabbed hold of Arry, tossing her into the wooden wall behind me. I looked back, gripping tighter onto my machete and began swinging blindly. Acedia stalked closer, grinning from ear to ear. Literally.
Anastasia, call my name.

My eye widened as my strength flowed back into my being for a few moments. I punched the machete into his gut, and he bellowed in pain, then slipped through the opening between his legs.

“Phoenix!” I yelled, and he burst into flames, twisting in pain as his body began to sizzle. Arry made her way back to my side, the charged, plunging her blade into the demons chest with enough force the two fell through the worn down wall. The demon's back hit the ground before twisting in sick pain, disapating in the rays of the sun.
Arry slowly rose to her feet and looked at me before we both passed out.