Back To The Happy Camper - Part IV
Part III
Stefani cracked open the glass of the box with a stiletto as Butch dragged Ryland’s body out the back. They had open and shut the doors as quickly as they possibly could to keep anything else from getting inside. Of course, it wasn’t that safe with Greta in the basement. She was lying low for now, but Butch occasionally heard a grumble or a rattle from her. He kept an eye on the cellar door just in case.
In front of her, Stefani had the Necronomicon open as well as a stack of missing pages that had come from the box and two notebooks full of notes and characters. One seemed to be hers. The other, her father’s. A pair of glasses were perched on her nose as she intently studied all three.
Amanda kept to herself, staring out the window in fear and occasionally looking back to see what they were up to.
After nearly two hours of Stefani’s silent study, Butch sat next to her. “Can’t you already read that?”
“Sort of,” she said silently, still looking over the pages. “Phonetically, it’s not much of an issue, but when we try to decipher what exactly it says, that’s where we begin to differ. However...”
As she picked up a page, Butch felt a chill go through his body. Stefani looked up at him, lowering her glasses. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Butch said, running his fingers through his hair. I guess... I guess I just feel like somebody walked over my grave.”
Butch looked down at the page she was holding. On it, there was a crude drawing of a man with something that looked like a shotgun standing above an army. At least Butch thought it was a gun. “What’s that?”
Stefani looked at the page and studied it for a few seconds. “It’s a figure from a Kandarian legend. According to the text, he lead the army to banish the demons from Kandar after he fell from the sky.”
Butch couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “Yeah, well, some job that asshole did.”
Stefani looked back at the page and shrugged. “I don’t know... He kind of looks like you.”
“Hey!”
“Kidding,” she said with a small laugh as she gently placed the page down on the floor and picked up a floor. “Anyway, if the first part of the book has how to bring the demons into the world, the missing pages have the way to drive them out.”
“Well great! How do we do that?”
Stefani looked back at the page and studied it for a few seconds, her brow furrowed. “Well, it’s a series of two chants. The first makes the demons manifest in their true form. The second sends them back from where they came.”
Butch raised an eyebrow. “But... why would you want them to manifest in their true form? Isn’t there another way without making them grow bigger and more pissed off?”
“I’m afraid not,” Stefani said, taking off her glasses and pushing her notebooks aside. “If we want to get rid of them once and for all, we have to make them tangible.”
He sighed and reached into his pocket for Michael’s cross. He looked at it for a second before holding it to his chest. If this was the only way to make sure nothing else like this happened again, then so be it.
He was about to ask Stefani when they could get it done when he heard the cocking of the shotgun. The two of them looked up to see Amanda standing over the two of them, shotgun pointed at them. “On your feet. I’m the brains of this operation now.”
Butch groaned as he stood back up. Stefani, however, refused. “Amanda, what the hell are you doing?”
“Look, I am not risking it here on some chant that could possibly kill us instead of sending them away. We are going to find the path out of here and get someone else who actually knows what they’re doing to take care of it.”
“But there is nobody else,” Stefani said, scooping up the pages and holding them up. “All we have is this. If we don’t use this, more people will die!”
“And what if you die? Or he dies? What then? These will be fucking useless because all the other pompous jerks who can actually read this won’t come down this way!”
Amanda quickly snatched the pages out of Stefani’s hand and began to walk toward the cellar, shotgun still pointed at them. “No, we’re doing this my way. We’re finding the path, getting the hell out of here and getting someone who can take care of this so I can see my Neil again.”
“Dammit,” Butch shouted, “Can you stop being self-centered for five seconds and realize we have a much bigger issue going on right now than seeing your husband again? We’ve all lost people and we all have people we want to see again! It’s not about you! Plus, we risk more going out there than staying in here!”
Amanda didn’t listen for a second though. Instead, she opened the cellar door as far as it could go and tossed the pages in there. She then looked back up at the and aimed the gun for them. “Now start walking or I will shoot you both in the ass.”
Stefani began to protest, but Butch quickly grabbed her arm with his good hand and began to drag her out, letting the cross slip out of his hand. “C’mon... just do it,” he said quietly. “We’re pretty much fucked either way.”
She huffed as they opened the door to go outside and stood in the clearing. Amanda came out and slammed the door behind her. When she did that, Butch heard the noises in the forest grow louder. Amanda either didn’t or she was purposefully ignoring them. “Alright you two... start walking!”
“Amanda,” Butch started, “will you just...”
“I said walk, dammit!”
Butch and Stefani sighed in tandem as Amanda began to walk behind them, forcing them to go up a path that had a sudden massive growth of underbrush. Walking through it felt weird. Like they were walking through something that was living and breathing.
Something that was on the lookout for them.
Suddenly, Butch doubled over and screamed out in pain. Amanda pointed the gun at him and started shouting at him to get back up, but Stefani pushed the barrel down towards the ground, despite all of her limbs feeling like they were about to give out with how badly they were shaking. “B-Butch... are you okay?”
“It’s happening... again,” he said, his voice shaking. “It’s taking me over. Oh God, please no.”
Stefani began to back away as Amanda raised her gun again. “What should we do?”
“Run,” Butch said between heavy breaths. “Run back to the cabin... up the trail... anywhere... just... run!”
Stefani gasped when she heard his voice begin to dip into the demonic. Suddenly, Butch rose up quickly and roared. Stefani screamed as Amanda aimed the shotgun towards him, but he quickly picked Amanda up and tossed her and the gun into the nearest tree with a loud crack and a soft thud as she rolled over onto the ground.
He turned his sights towards Stefani. When he looked at her, she froze up, not sure what to do. She knew she should run and get away from him, but her legs would not listen to her.
It’s when he gave her the most demonic smile she had ever seen that her body actually listened. She bolted as quickly as she could towards the cabin, not looking back to see if Butch was gaining on her. She practically tripped over the front steps, but using her hands, she scrambled back up and ran from the demonic growling that was getting closer.
As soon as she was inside, she slammed and locked the door, but the demonic Butch was already beating it down. She scrambled across the floor, looking for anything that could help her. The nearest things she could find were a random cross necklace and the sacrificial dagger. As Butch continued to beat at the door, she wrapped the necklace around her wrist and held the dagger out in front of her. If he was to break in, he would come directly to her.
And if the text was right, he would go running from the dagger as soon as he saw what it was.
Suddenly, the beating and banging stopped. The cabin grew eerily silent once again as Stefani stepped closer to the door, ready for anything.
Then, the doorknob began to jiggle. Was he tricking her? Was he trying to make her think he was normal so she would let him in? Slowly, Stefani reached out and began to unlock the door. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. As the door opened all the way, Stefani let out a yell and thrust the blade as far as she could push into the body that stood in the threshold.
It wasn’t until she opened her eyes that she saw it was the wrong body.
In the doorway, Amanda stood with the shotgun in hand and the Kandarian dagger in her belly. She looked down at it for a second, touching at the blood that began to pour out of her wound. “You... bitch...”
Stefani gasped as she took her hands off the hilt. “Oh god... Amanda. I’m so sorry. I thought... I thought Butch was trying to trick me.”
Amanda fell to her knees, dropping the gun. She looked up at Stefani, blood beginning to bubble in her mouth. “Do I LOOK like a man who’s six feet tall and covered in tattoos?”
She began to fall forward, but Stefani caught her and turned her over as gently as she could. She continued to apologize profusely as she dragged Amanda’s body inside, slammed the door and began to pull the blade out of her stomach. Amanda just screamed and moaned in pain the entire time. When Stefani pulled the blade that was now covered with Amanda’s blood out and dropped it onto the floor, she finally managed to stop screaming long enough to actually shout, “God, that fucking hurt!”
“Again, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to stab you!”
Amanda didn’t respond. Instead, her head lolled back and her began to roll up into her head. Stefani shook her head over and over as she began to drag Amanda’s body into the wider area of the living room. “No... no... no. You can’t die on me, Amanda. Please don’t die on me, Amanda.”
Stefani tried to get her to the center of the room, away from the cellar door, but Amanda began to get heavy. Her feet rested outside the cellar door and Stefani began to put pressure on her stomach wound. “Please don’t die on me... Please...”
“Stefani,” Amanda hoarsely whispered, “If you see Neil again, tell him... tell him I loved him more than...”
Amanda began to cough and Stefani applied more pressure. “You can tell him yourself. Just... please. Don’t die!”
“TOO LATE!”
Before Stefani could react and before Amanda could let out a final scream, Greta popped up from the crack in the cellar, latched both of her dead hands onto Amanda’s ankles, and began to drag. Stefani tried to pull Amanda back in by pulling at her arms, but Greta was too strong for her. “No... NO!”
“Let it go,” Amanda said quietly, her eyes slowly growing dim. “I was dead as soon as I picked up the gun.”
Before Stefani could react, Greta gave one final tug. Amanda’s hands slipped from Stefani’s grasp and her whole body disappeared into the cellar with the door slamming shut behind her.
But not before Stefani was hit with a spray of Amanda’s blood.
The cabin fell into an eerie silence again as Stefani stood in the living room, soaked in Amanda’s blood and completely in shock. She’s was all alone with the demonic Butch still out there.
And the pages she needed to save herself were down in the basement with the demon that had just devoured her neighbor.
It was enough to make Stefani cry, scream and just dissolve into hysterics.
Before she actually could though, she heard a demonic roar behind her. Quickly, she turned to see Butch standing over her. She let out a scream and he knocked her across the blood soaked floor. She was quickly knocked out and fell limp.
Butch grinned wickedly as he walked towards her and crouched. This human was going to be tasty indeed.
Something on her wrist caught his eye though. Something shiny. Something... familiar.
Gently, he picked up her wrist to see a granite and copper crucifix hanging from her wrist. He did not recoil. Instead, he looked at it, wondering why it seemed so familiar to him. It was because of something...
No... someone.
A blonde someone. With blue eyes. And an Australian accent. And a wide variety of band t-shirts. And skills with his hands that Butch had never known anyone else to do.
Michael.
The necklace had been Michael’s.
Suddenly, everything that felt human came rushing back to Butch. He first let out a few hard grunts. Then some sobs. Then he felt actual tears running down his face as he screamed, feeling the darkness exiting his body for the second time in a day.
As Butch felt himself become normal again, he took several deep breaths. Was this for good this time? Had he actually beaten them twice? Or would the third time be a charm? Or rather, a curse?
This was quickly interrupted by Stefani waking up and kneeing him in the stomach. Butch toppled over and she scrambled for the axe that was on the floor close to them. He tried to tell her that he was okay, but it was only coming out as a cough. She grabbed a hold of the axe and raised it above her head, but Butch held his hands up to stop her. “I’m alright! I’M ALRIGHT!”
“Prove it,” Stefani said, her voice beginning to crack as her arms shook from the heavy axe. “How do I know you’re not tricking me?”
“The necklace,” Butch said, pointing to the cross dangling from her wrist. “It was my boyfriend’s. Michael’s. I gave it to him last night as a gift. Before...”
He wiped his eyes again as he felt the tears began to fall. “When I saw it, I remembered him. It reminded me of...well... being human. How it feels to be in love. How it hurts to lose someone you love. What it’s like to actually... feel that...”
Stefani dropped the axe and fell onto her knees. Slowly, she took the necklace off her wrist and put it around Butch’s neck. “Keep it close, then. So they know you’re too strong for them.”
She then took Butch’s hand in hers and squeezed. He squeezed back with a small smile. “Are you ready for this to be over?”
“Yes,” she said, her voice exhausted, “But what are we going to do? The pages are in the cellar with a demon that just ate Amanda alive!”
“Well then,” Butch said, looking towards the very still cellar door, “let’s even the playing field a little.”
Part V
Stefani cracked open the glass of the box with a stiletto as Butch dragged Ryland’s body out the back. They had open and shut the doors as quickly as they possibly could to keep anything else from getting inside. Of course, it wasn’t that safe with Greta in the basement. She was lying low for now, but Butch occasionally heard a grumble or a rattle from her. He kept an eye on the cellar door just in case.
In front of her, Stefani had the Necronomicon open as well as a stack of missing pages that had come from the box and two notebooks full of notes and characters. One seemed to be hers. The other, her father’s. A pair of glasses were perched on her nose as she intently studied all three.
Amanda kept to herself, staring out the window in fear and occasionally looking back to see what they were up to.
After nearly two hours of Stefani’s silent study, Butch sat next to her. “Can’t you already read that?”
“Sort of,” she said silently, still looking over the pages. “Phonetically, it’s not much of an issue, but when we try to decipher what exactly it says, that’s where we begin to differ. However...”
As she picked up a page, Butch felt a chill go through his body. Stefani looked up at him, lowering her glasses. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Butch said, running his fingers through his hair. I guess... I guess I just feel like somebody walked over my grave.”
Butch looked down at the page she was holding. On it, there was a crude drawing of a man with something that looked like a shotgun standing above an army. At least Butch thought it was a gun. “What’s that?”
Stefani looked at the page and studied it for a few seconds. “It’s a figure from a Kandarian legend. According to the text, he lead the army to banish the demons from Kandar after he fell from the sky.”
Butch couldn’t help but roll his eyes. “Yeah, well, some job that asshole did.”
Stefani looked back at the page and shrugged. “I don’t know... He kind of looks like you.”
“Hey!”
“Kidding,” she said with a small laugh as she gently placed the page down on the floor and picked up a floor. “Anyway, if the first part of the book has how to bring the demons into the world, the missing pages have the way to drive them out.”
“Well great! How do we do that?”
Stefani looked back at the page and studied it for a few seconds, her brow furrowed. “Well, it’s a series of two chants. The first makes the demons manifest in their true form. The second sends them back from where they came.”
Butch raised an eyebrow. “But... why would you want them to manifest in their true form? Isn’t there another way without making them grow bigger and more pissed off?”
“I’m afraid not,” Stefani said, taking off her glasses and pushing her notebooks aside. “If we want to get rid of them once and for all, we have to make them tangible.”
He sighed and reached into his pocket for Michael’s cross. He looked at it for a second before holding it to his chest. If this was the only way to make sure nothing else like this happened again, then so be it.
He was about to ask Stefani when they could get it done when he heard the cocking of the shotgun. The two of them looked up to see Amanda standing over the two of them, shotgun pointed at them. “On your feet. I’m the brains of this operation now.”
Butch groaned as he stood back up. Stefani, however, refused. “Amanda, what the hell are you doing?”
“Look, I am not risking it here on some chant that could possibly kill us instead of sending them away. We are going to find the path out of here and get someone else who actually knows what they’re doing to take care of it.”
“But there is nobody else,” Stefani said, scooping up the pages and holding them up. “All we have is this. If we don’t use this, more people will die!”
“And what if you die? Or he dies? What then? These will be fucking useless because all the other pompous jerks who can actually read this won’t come down this way!”
Amanda quickly snatched the pages out of Stefani’s hand and began to walk toward the cellar, shotgun still pointed at them. “No, we’re doing this my way. We’re finding the path, getting the hell out of here and getting someone who can take care of this so I can see my Neil again.”
“Dammit,” Butch shouted, “Can you stop being self-centered for five seconds and realize we have a much bigger issue going on right now than seeing your husband again? We’ve all lost people and we all have people we want to see again! It’s not about you! Plus, we risk more going out there than staying in here!”
Amanda didn’t listen for a second though. Instead, she opened the cellar door as far as it could go and tossed the pages in there. She then looked back up at the and aimed the gun for them. “Now start walking or I will shoot you both in the ass.”
Stefani began to protest, but Butch quickly grabbed her arm with his good hand and began to drag her out, letting the cross slip out of his hand. “C’mon... just do it,” he said quietly. “We’re pretty much fucked either way.”
She huffed as they opened the door to go outside and stood in the clearing. Amanda came out and slammed the door behind her. When she did that, Butch heard the noises in the forest grow louder. Amanda either didn’t or she was purposefully ignoring them. “Alright you two... start walking!”
“Amanda,” Butch started, “will you just...”
“I said walk, dammit!”
Butch and Stefani sighed in tandem as Amanda began to walk behind them, forcing them to go up a path that had a sudden massive growth of underbrush. Walking through it felt weird. Like they were walking through something that was living and breathing.
Something that was on the lookout for them.
Suddenly, Butch doubled over and screamed out in pain. Amanda pointed the gun at him and started shouting at him to get back up, but Stefani pushed the barrel down towards the ground, despite all of her limbs feeling like they were about to give out with how badly they were shaking. “B-Butch... are you okay?”
“It’s happening... again,” he said, his voice shaking. “It’s taking me over. Oh God, please no.”
Stefani began to back away as Amanda raised her gun again. “What should we do?”
“Run,” Butch said between heavy breaths. “Run back to the cabin... up the trail... anywhere... just... run!”
Stefani gasped when she heard his voice begin to dip into the demonic. Suddenly, Butch rose up quickly and roared. Stefani screamed as Amanda aimed the shotgun towards him, but he quickly picked Amanda up and tossed her and the gun into the nearest tree with a loud crack and a soft thud as she rolled over onto the ground.
He turned his sights towards Stefani. When he looked at her, she froze up, not sure what to do. She knew she should run and get away from him, but her legs would not listen to her.
It’s when he gave her the most demonic smile she had ever seen that her body actually listened. She bolted as quickly as she could towards the cabin, not looking back to see if Butch was gaining on her. She practically tripped over the front steps, but using her hands, she scrambled back up and ran from the demonic growling that was getting closer.
As soon as she was inside, she slammed and locked the door, but the demonic Butch was already beating it down. She scrambled across the floor, looking for anything that could help her. The nearest things she could find were a random cross necklace and the sacrificial dagger. As Butch continued to beat at the door, she wrapped the necklace around her wrist and held the dagger out in front of her. If he was to break in, he would come directly to her.
And if the text was right, he would go running from the dagger as soon as he saw what it was.
Suddenly, the beating and banging stopped. The cabin grew eerily silent once again as Stefani stepped closer to the door, ready for anything.
Then, the doorknob began to jiggle. Was he tricking her? Was he trying to make her think he was normal so she would let him in? Slowly, Stefani reached out and began to unlock the door. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. As the door opened all the way, Stefani let out a yell and thrust the blade as far as she could push into the body that stood in the threshold.
It wasn’t until she opened her eyes that she saw it was the wrong body.
In the doorway, Amanda stood with the shotgun in hand and the Kandarian dagger in her belly. She looked down at it for a second, touching at the blood that began to pour out of her wound. “You... bitch...”
Stefani gasped as she took her hands off the hilt. “Oh god... Amanda. I’m so sorry. I thought... I thought Butch was trying to trick me.”
Amanda fell to her knees, dropping the gun. She looked up at Stefani, blood beginning to bubble in her mouth. “Do I LOOK like a man who’s six feet tall and covered in tattoos?”
She began to fall forward, but Stefani caught her and turned her over as gently as she could. She continued to apologize profusely as she dragged Amanda’s body inside, slammed the door and began to pull the blade out of her stomach. Amanda just screamed and moaned in pain the entire time. When Stefani pulled the blade that was now covered with Amanda’s blood out and dropped it onto the floor, she finally managed to stop screaming long enough to actually shout, “God, that fucking hurt!”
“Again, I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to stab you!”
Amanda didn’t respond. Instead, her head lolled back and her began to roll up into her head. Stefani shook her head over and over as she began to drag Amanda’s body into the wider area of the living room. “No... no... no. You can’t die on me, Amanda. Please don’t die on me, Amanda.”
Stefani tried to get her to the center of the room, away from the cellar door, but Amanda began to get heavy. Her feet rested outside the cellar door and Stefani began to put pressure on her stomach wound. “Please don’t die on me... Please...”
“Stefani,” Amanda hoarsely whispered, “If you see Neil again, tell him... tell him I loved him more than...”
Amanda began to cough and Stefani applied more pressure. “You can tell him yourself. Just... please. Don’t die!”
“TOO LATE!”
Before Stefani could react and before Amanda could let out a final scream, Greta popped up from the crack in the cellar, latched both of her dead hands onto Amanda’s ankles, and began to drag. Stefani tried to pull Amanda back in by pulling at her arms, but Greta was too strong for her. “No... NO!”
“Let it go,” Amanda said quietly, her eyes slowly growing dim. “I was dead as soon as I picked up the gun.”
Before Stefani could react, Greta gave one final tug. Amanda’s hands slipped from Stefani’s grasp and her whole body disappeared into the cellar with the door slamming shut behind her.
But not before Stefani was hit with a spray of Amanda’s blood.
The cabin fell into an eerie silence again as Stefani stood in the living room, soaked in Amanda’s blood and completely in shock. She’s was all alone with the demonic Butch still out there.
And the pages she needed to save herself were down in the basement with the demon that had just devoured her neighbor.
It was enough to make Stefani cry, scream and just dissolve into hysterics.
Before she actually could though, she heard a demonic roar behind her. Quickly, she turned to see Butch standing over her. She let out a scream and he knocked her across the blood soaked floor. She was quickly knocked out and fell limp.
Butch grinned wickedly as he walked towards her and crouched. This human was going to be tasty indeed.
Something on her wrist caught his eye though. Something shiny. Something... familiar.
Gently, he picked up her wrist to see a granite and copper crucifix hanging from her wrist. He did not recoil. Instead, he looked at it, wondering why it seemed so familiar to him. It was because of something...
No... someone.
A blonde someone. With blue eyes. And an Australian accent. And a wide variety of band t-shirts. And skills with his hands that Butch had never known anyone else to do.
Michael.
The necklace had been Michael’s.
Suddenly, everything that felt human came rushing back to Butch. He first let out a few hard grunts. Then some sobs. Then he felt actual tears running down his face as he screamed, feeling the darkness exiting his body for the second time in a day.
As Butch felt himself become normal again, he took several deep breaths. Was this for good this time? Had he actually beaten them twice? Or would the third time be a charm? Or rather, a curse?
This was quickly interrupted by Stefani waking up and kneeing him in the stomach. Butch toppled over and she scrambled for the axe that was on the floor close to them. He tried to tell her that he was okay, but it was only coming out as a cough. She grabbed a hold of the axe and raised it above her head, but Butch held his hands up to stop her. “I’m alright! I’M ALRIGHT!”
“Prove it,” Stefani said, her voice beginning to crack as her arms shook from the heavy axe. “How do I know you’re not tricking me?”
“The necklace,” Butch said, pointing to the cross dangling from her wrist. “It was my boyfriend’s. Michael’s. I gave it to him last night as a gift. Before...”
He wiped his eyes again as he felt the tears began to fall. “When I saw it, I remembered him. It reminded me of...well... being human. How it feels to be in love. How it hurts to lose someone you love. What it’s like to actually... feel that...”
Stefani dropped the axe and fell onto her knees. Slowly, she took the necklace off her wrist and put it around Butch’s neck. “Keep it close, then. So they know you’re too strong for them.”
She then took Butch’s hand in hers and squeezed. He squeezed back with a small smile. “Are you ready for this to be over?”
“Yes,” she said, her voice exhausted, “But what are we going to do? The pages are in the cellar with a demon that just ate Amanda alive!”
“Well then,” Butch said, looking towards the very still cellar door, “let’s even the playing field a little.”
Part V