Demon's of the Past

Demons of the Past

My most vivid memory isn’t my wedding; it isn’t even a happy one for that matter. No, my most vivid memory is of the last week I ever saw Billy, my best childhood friend.

It was in the dead of the hottest summer Arizona had ever seen. There hadn’t been a drop of rain since June. Even the cactuses were suffering because of the drought. I had just woken up that Tuesday morning. I rolled over and reached for the remote on the dresser beside my bed. Instead my hand closed upon the list of suggested reading for junior year that the junior English teacher gave the sophomore class. Pulling the list down in front of me I scanned it for the first time since I got it. The list wasn’t populated by classics or poetry; it was a page full of horror stories. I could tell because half of the books were Stephen King novels and the other half had titles that screamed horror stories. Titles like “The Real Mr. Hyde” or “Creeping Darkness.” I rolled my eyes and dropped the list on the floor.

Sitting up I spotted the remote, snatched it, and flicked on the television. It was on the news channel. As I listened to Alex Rickman give a monologue story about a car accident somewhere near Phoenix in which someone died (the name wasn’t being released at that time) I rummaged through my dresser to find some shorts to wear for the day. I was about to put on a pair of Khaki shorts I found when Alex said something that caught my attention.

“For all of those people who are tired of the heat, relief is on its way. Rain is in the forecast as Gerry is happy to announce,” he said as he turned to the stations meteorologist. I froze with my shorts halfway on. I turned my head to look at the television screen and sure enough there was a forecast calling for rain. In fact, the entire forecast was rain, today, Tuesday, to the follow Monday, nothing but rain.

I shook my head in disbelief. It isn’t possible, I thought slightly amused with the obvious error with the forecast, just yesterday they were forecasting temperatures in the 100’s, with no chance of rain at all. Nevertheless, I quickly finished getting dressed and dashed to the window in the hallway.

To my amazement, my backyard was suspended in an eerie, unnatural twilight, caused by a blanket of rolling, gray, clouds. The first few drops of rain were speckling themselves against the window pain. Off in the distance, thunder boomed as a single bolt of lightning lashed out. Then my eyes settled on a glimmer of movement. Someone was out there running around like a fool.

What I then realized made me laugh. It wasn’t just anyone in my backyard; it was my best friend Billy. I went back into my room and got into a more weather appropriate outfit. Still chuckling I headed downstairs to my back door, opened it, and stood there watching Billy prance about like a Jackalope. Billy claimed to have seen one a week back and had been leaping about ever since.

“What are you doing?” I shouted to him from the shelter of the doorway. Billy stopped jumping about and looked over at me grinning.

“I was attempting to bring the Jackalope back,” he said sincerely, “they love the rain. So I figured that I could probably get him to come back if I was leaping about like he did.”

I shook my head. Billy had never grown out of believing in the supernatural stuff we all used to believe in. He still claimed he had seen a water demon at the Grand Canyon. “Sure Billy, don’t you remember that our Bio teacher said Jackalopes were non existent? Anyway you couldn’t get him to come back if you wanted to. Remember the water demon you had seen at the Grand Canyon when we were twelve? We went out there every night for an entire month that summer. Did we ever see him, or catch him? No, wait Jack did catch something… Oh yeah it was cold.”

Billy look disheartened at my sarcastic remarks, but he knew I was only joking with him. The smile came back to his face after a second or two, but there was something else that had crept into his face. It took me a second to recognize it, but there in his eyes was that mischievous glint that always meant we were headed for an adventure. “Speaking of that water demon,” Billy said slowly, working over the best way to pitch his latest idea to me, “he’s back. I know it!” he shouted as I began to open my mouth in objection. I closed my mouth and he continued on grinning.

“He’s back George, I saw him at the canyon a few nights back. Swear to god, George he was sitting on one of those cement-car-stopper-thingies at the front end of the parking spaces nearest the canyon. If you don’t believe me look around Georgie. It’s raining. We were having the hottest summer recorded and then in the middle of it all we get rain, POOF, like magic. He’s back you got to believe me.”

Billy stood there with the rain trickling down his face. The mischievous look in his eyes had vanished to be replaced instead by a an earnest pleading. I heaved a sigh weighing the prospect in my mind.

“If it helps you make up your mind I’ve already convinced Jack to come, for old times sake.”

Billy grinned as I rolled my eyes. How could I resist? Billy, Jack, and I were the best of friends. Since first grade we had been in the same classroom till Jr. High, but even then we had at least three classes a year together. No group of friends had had as much fun as we did. Each time we all got together we were always off on an adventure of sorts. Whether it was a dare to go spend the night in an old abandoned church that was haunted or hunting for a mythical beast Billy thought he tracked down, we always went together.

“It’s settled then,” Billy said full of enthusiasm, “we’ll meet back at my house at 4, tell your parents you can stay the night, bring your camera, wear extra clothes it could be a long stakeout.” He paused to inhale deeply. “Pack your bag with snacks and drinks and the like, grab an umbrella, a blanket if you want one, definitely grab a rain coat or a poncho or something, a flashlight or two or three, and I think that should do it.”

I laughed and told Billy I’d grab everything I could remember. He nodded and shot me one last triumphant grin before dashing off towards his house. I turned to go back inside chuckling as I kicked around the idea of one last attempt to find Billy’s mysterious water demon. Billy had done all the research possible and was an expert on them, but it never helped in proving they were real. Personally I didn’t believe a lick of it but in the spirit of friendship I played along whenever the subject came up. So I trudged upstairs and packed everything I would need for that night.

I spent the rest of the day playing video games and eating junk food. Occasionally I’d pause the game and walk to the window to stare out at the wet scenery and listen to the sound of rain on the roof. When 4 rolled around I wrote a note to my parents stating I’d be at Billy’s for the night and taped it to the fridge for them to find when they got back from their weekend trip. I slung on my backpack and tossed my poncho on over that, after locking the back door I headed off to Billy’s just like was planned.

As I walked down the street, I heard the splashing of someone running through the puddles on the sidewalk. I looked back over my now bright orange shoulder to see Jack sprinting up the sidewalk beaming at me. I stopped to let him catch up.

“Why did you slow down?” Jack asked breathing easy as if he hadn’t just sprinted at all “I was enjoying my run,” he laughed slapping me on the back. He always was the more athletic of the three of us.

I shrugged and turned back around resuming my walk towards Billy’s, Jack followed beside me. “How did he con you into coming?” I asked Jack sarcastically.

Jack shot me a sideways glance before replying. “Simple, he said that he had convinced you to come and that it’d be the gang together again.”

I shook my head chuckling, “He got you with that too then?” I asked. “Because that’s exactly what he told me.”

Jack shrugged, “Billy always was the cleverest.” I nodded because it was the truth.

We turned onto the pathway leading to Billy’s front door. He lived in a two story black house right near the Grand Canyon, just over half a mile to be specific. We walked up to the door and just before I hit the button to ring the doorbell the door sprung open and Billy was standing there grinning. He led us upstairs to his room so we could drop off our crap. His dad was still at work and his mom was in the kitchen baking cookies.

Once we got upstairs Billy laid out the plan for the night. His parents shared in his love of the supernatural and supported him going out to get proof that such things existed so they were completely ok with the plan. Around 8 after everyone left the Grand Canyon and the sun had set we would head over and set ourselves up with a good place to watch for the demon which we sought. He had packed a ton of energy drinks and what not in order to make sure we didn’t fall asleep during our stake out. From that point it was just a matter of waiting for the demon to show up and then we could get photo evidence of its existence, although Billy had packed some rope just in case there was the opportunity to snatch the demon itself.

We sat around in his room and caught up on life until his mom called us down for supper, it was Sheppard’s Pie, Billy’s favorite. For desert we had the cookies his Mom had baked earlier. What we didn’t finish of them she packed in a little bag for us to take with us. After thanking his Mom for the wonderful meal we went and got our stuff and headed out the door.

Within half an hour we arrived at the parking lot Billy had supposedly seen the demon in. There was a nearby information kiosk that we decided to hide behind while we were waiting. After setting up our little hideout we settled down for the long night we assumed we had ahead of us. We were quietly whispering when Billy motioned for silence with a finger against his lips. A low rumbling could be heard in the distance. My heart froze for a split second before I realized it was a thunder storm moving in. I burst out laughing causing Billy and Jack to jump in surprise This made me laugh even harder and soon they were laughing along with me.

Our spirits were high as the watch on my wrist beeped signaling eleven o’clock. The rain had begun to pour down even harder and the thunder was a lot more constant. Jack was beginning to look tired so Billy passed him an energy drink and cookie. Jack had just cracked the can when Billy signaled for silence again. We froze, barely daring to take a breath. Billy pointed a shaky hand out into the parking lot.

There, sitting on one of those cement-car-stopper-thingies was a creature of some sort. It was probably 4 feet tall and by the glimpses we could catch in the flashes of lightning had scaly skin like that of a fish. Its scrawny arms had hands that ended in 4 inch claws that seemed to glow incandescently, his foot claws did too but they were longer almost a foot. It turned its head slowly over to where we were and I could see two saucer sized, yellow, catlike eyes peering at us through the dark and the rain. My heart froze, my breath fled my lungs, and I sat there paralyzed with fear.

I could hear Billy rummaging in his sack, but I didn’t dare move enough to turn my head and see what he grabbed. Then, all of a sudden, a bright flash illuminated the darkness followed by the click of a Polaroid camera going off. The demon screeched a note almost above the range of the human ear and the spell of paralysis caused by my fear broke instantly. I covered my ears and hit the ground cowering. I was vaguely aware of Jack doing the same.

What happened next still shocks me to this day. I heard Billy start to run, away in fear I thought at first, then I realized he was running into the parking lot, towards the demon. I got up and chased after him all fear forgotten, solely concerned about Billy and whatever he was about to do. Jack was chasing after also I could tell because he passed me about two seconds after I started out.

The demon saw us coming and darted with unnatural grace and swiftness for such an odd creature towards the canyon itself. Billy was sprinting after it, the rope in his hands. Billy was gaining on the demon and the demon was caught either way for it had run out on an outlet of ledge that lead towards the middle of the canyon. Billy shouted for us to hang back and catch the demon if it managed to slip by him. We complied and watched as he slowed down approaching the demon. Billy drew out an arms length of rope and stopped mere feet from the demon.

Then without warning, Billy lunged himself at the demon, rope drawn tight in his outstretched arms. The demon didn’t move, it just watched as Billy soared at it through the air. Billy tackled the poor creature hitting it square in its scaly chest. Lightning branched out across the sky illuminating the scene. A look of triumph exploded across Billy’s face as he wrapped his arms around the demon. However, that same look faded within a split second.

The momentum and force he carried with him in that single lunge was more than the small demon could withstand, and the two of them toppled over the edge of the cliff. Jack and I dashed to the edge simultaneously shouting “NO” at the top of our lungs. By the time we got to the edge Billy and the demon were falling fast. I can still see those two yellow, catlike eyes shrinking, falling farther below.

I turned away and grabbed Jack’s shoulder forcing him to look away too. We stood there for a good ten minutes still in shock from the realization of what just happened. Then slowly we moped back to our things to pack up and head back. I volunteered to pack up Billy’s things.

As I put things back into the backpack I ran across a note. It was folded in fourth’s and read as follows:

If your reading this then something bad has obviously happened. I had a feeling that something might happen to me tonight. However, that also means I got a photo of the demon. Take that back to my parents and tell them all that happened.

P.S. Also tell them not to worry, that I’ll be back.

I read the note twice before showing Jack. He read it and shook his head ruefully.

“Just like Billy,” he stammered as a single tear streamed down his cheek, “he always had everything planned out.”

Jack and I walked back in silence. When we knocked at the door of Billy’s house his Mom answered the door. Jack opened his mouth to speak but no words came out. Instead he handed her the picture and the note. As she read it, she burst into tears and looked in our faces for an answer of some sort. So, crying myself, I recounted the night from the moment we left the house to instance of our return. Not knowing what else to say or do Jack and I walked back to my house to spend the night there.

The newspaper the following morning had a story about a boy who had fallen into the Grand Canyon the night previous but police hadn’t been able to find the body to bring closure to the family. The rest of that week Jack and I spent together for we were the only one who really knew what happened to Billy, and none of our friends could offer the proper condolences to us, having not been there that night. Every day it for that following week it rained, and everyday we added our tears to the watershed for each day of rain was just a reminder of Billy and his water demon. That is my most vivid memory.