Chapter 23

Hong Kong – Leon
Canada – Matthew
USA – Alfred
Seychelles – Shelly
Australia – Kyle
England – Arthur /Artie
France – Fran / Francis
Denmark –Mathias Normann
Norway – Lukas Normann
Sweden – Berwald Oxenstierna
Finland – Tino Väinämöinen

Berwald has found what he was looking for – a scrap piece of metal that will work for him as a crowbar. With his foot he kicks away the carpet in the kitchen and starts slamming the metal into the wood, trying to hit the tiny gaps between planks. His brows are furrowed in concentration not to hit too hard, as he still can't quite figure out where exactly Shelly is under the floor. With his strength the wood chips away steadily, but the small gap offers him nothing but darkness.

The bloody scream of the demon let the whole room tremble. Arthur can't take his gaze away from the horrific face in front of him. He knows it is the body of his love, but the face is someone completely different. He can't feel his heart, nor his limbs as everything was numb in fear and confusion. The screeching is sending everyone chills down the spine. The sound of old pots clanging, wooden shelves shaking and old rusty nails getting themselves twisted out their holds is a heinous choir and let their hair rise.

Arthur blinks and suddenly Francis' face is smooth again and for a second he sees the violet blue eyes he had fallen in love with.
"Arthur…!" Francis' voice wails. "Help me!" His voice seems strained as if he has to fight over his own vocal chords. Arthur can only let out an aghast gasp but Mathias takes a step towards the chair on which Francis is bound. Tino shuffles closer to Lukas.
"Ah omni visibili et invisibili et ubique in hoc saeculo liberetur … »

He slowly stops as the room goes silent. Completely silent. Not even the single light bulb hanging on a long cable is making any noise as it swings still in circles. No body moved.
And then the chair slowly lifts from the ground. Arthur watches as the chair with Francis halts as their heads are on the same level. Frantically Mathias continues but gets interrupted by yet another shriek. Furiously the chair turns around and flies up against the ceiling, hammering with the four foot of the chair against the planks.
"Put him down!" Mathias yells. "Put him down!" He waves with his arms, bible still in hand. "PUT HIM DOWN!" For a second the slamming stopped. Then the chair remembers gravity and falls to the ground. The four men stumble backwards as pieces of woods fly across the room.

"Francis!" Arthur yells and jumps at his side.
"Francis?" Lukas asks more carefully as he follows Arthur to the ground, where the man is lying unmoving, the sheet still draped over his body. From the corner of his eye Lukas can see something moving. An evil feeling is spreading in his chest and before he can even see what the danger is, he yells.
"Mathias, look out!"

Mathias jumps away from the spot he is standing, just in time to escape the heavy wardrobe suddenly falling at the exact spot where the man just had been standing. Tino stands beside them, hands still stretched out in his failed attempt to reach the wardrobe and stopping it. Mathias stumbles, falls and rolls on the floor. His breath is knocked out of his lungs.

"Are you okay?!" Lukas asks and let's go of Francis to go and check on his husband. Arthur too let's go to see what had happened. The second he looks away Francis' upper body slowly rises up with a cold, gruesome laugh belonging to an old woman.

"Don't let go of him!" Mathias yells, pointing at the upright sitting body. Tino is at his side, helping him up. "Hold her still!" Lukas scrambles to his feet. Arthur whips around and quickly grabs the shoulders. "Don't let her get up!" Lukas is the first who is again at Francis' an Arthur's side and takes a hold of the other shoulder. Fury is written all over Arthur's face as he shakes the body.
"Damn you! You leave my family alone! You hear me? I don't know what you're are, but you leave my husband alone! Goddammit!"

The old raspy voice coming out of Francis' body is laughing manically as his eyes stare empty into the distance. Mathias has opened the bible again and continued with his Latin but the laughter continues. "Let her go! Do you hear me? Let her go!" Arthur yells even louder, his nails digging into the white fabric over Francis' shoulders. Slowly the laughter subsides.

The ugly, wrinkled, sickish head turns around to face Arthur. The yellow eyes struggled to focus but eventually find Arthur's.
"He's already gone," the slow voice tells him and Arthur's mouth opens in a silent scream. "And now you are all gonna die." The sprung open lips stretch into a twisted smile. Behind them Tino's Shot gun lifts itself off the wooden box it has been resting on, turning around so its barrel is facing into their direction. Tino feels his muscles strain before he knows what he is doing and he slams into Mathias, shoving him to the side, just as the shot is fired.

Berwald stops as finally some light from the kitchen falls into the small hole he had created. Quickly he lets himself fall onto his knees and peeks inside.
"Shelly?" And truly, there is a small girl cowering under the wooden planks, her warm brown eyes enlightened by the small strip of light hitting her face. Her long dark hair is half fallen out of her two pony tails and dust is covering her colourful clothes. The hole is too small to get her out and Berwald suspected she doesn't recognise him as his face must be in shadows. So he straightened himself and yelled through the house.
"FOUND HER! UNDER THE HOUSE!"

As they hear Berwald yell through the house everyone stops in their tracks. Mathias and Tino who are lying on the cold cellar floor hold their breath as they try to understand. Lukas who is still looking at Mathias doesn't even have time to be relieved that he is okay, before Francis' body moves as soon as they all have learnt where Shelly is.

"Francis, no!" Mathias yells and tries to get to him as the others are only turning around to understand what is happening. But the now crooked body moves too fast and hobbles over the floor towards the hole in the wall through which Lukas had fallen through. On the way he managed to grab a pair of scissors.
"NO!" Lukas yells as he sees the body disappear into the darkness. Mathias and Arthur follow him, ducking through the entry to walk between the house's foundation walls.

They follow the grunting of Francis, following the sound of irregular steps. At an intersection Arthur walks to the left as Mathias goes to the right, the sounds now echoing from all sides. Suddenly they hear a high-pitched scream and even more rubble rolling around.
"Shelly!" Arthur yells but hits a dead end, closed off with wooden planks, separated enough that he could stretch his arm through.

There Shelly was sitting, under the light of the kitchen, kicking and screaming against the cold grasp of the demon. Francis lifted his hand, holding the scissors, laughing maniacally as Mathias reached the right side.
"FRANCIS!" he yells, as he tries to squeeze through the much too small opening he had found himself at. "DON'T!"

Francis seems to physically struggle against himself, his face showing through the demon's features. His hand over his head trembled.
Then from up over his head there is Lukas. He has run up to the kitchen and reaches now with his arm through the small hole that Berwald had slammed through the planks.
"Francis!" he yells and his fingers are so close to reaching his head. Then Mathias voice bellows through the cave and kitchen, filling everybody with a cold fright in their hearts as he calls the demon by her name.
"BETHSHEBA!»

All traces of Francis are gone. The gruesome head whips around and stares Mathias right into his soul with those yellow eyes. But Mathias glares right back and with a steadfast voice he commands.
"By the power of God, I condemned you back to Hell!"
The whole face distorts into a painful howl. And finally Lukas manages to get a hold of Francis' head and lays his hand on his forehead.
"This is your daughter!" Lukas yells. The head twists to get out of that gentle touch, the rusty yet high pitched voice tries to deny.
"Noo..!"
"You can't give in!" Lukas tries again and Francis lets go of Shelly. The frightened girl stumbles over the rubble and into her father's arms, still stretched out through the planks.
"Arthur, we need to get him to fight from the inside!" Mathias yells, having given up to squeeze through the hole in the wall. His and Arthur's eyes meet and he receives a small nod.

"Don't let her do this to you, okay? Don't let this thing do this, you have to fight it. I know you're stronger than she is. You have fight it!" Arthur yells, his voice tinted by desperation, fighting against the howls of his husband.
"Almost there! Lukas take over!" Mathais yells up.
"Remember what you've shown me, Francis!" Lukas continues for Arthur.

The breaths between the howls almost seem like sobs, the eyes turn dark and at the corners Lukas can see it glint in the spare light. "Remember the day you said you would never forget!" Now Francis was crying, his face shining through, his hair is turning golden again.

Short moments of sunlight seem to flash beforehis eyes as he remembers his kids laughing, how the fresh wind of a summer's beach is caressing through his hair, the loving green eyes of his husband before he leans in to kiss him on the cheek. Howling turns to crying. He looks up at the kitchen lights. His whole body is screaming after the warmth of the real sun, the warmth of his husband's embrace, the warmth of his children's smile.

"You said they meant the world to you!" Lukas reminded him. Slowly Francis lowers his head. His eyes still were yellow but as he sees his poor little Shelly clutching herself at her father's arms his whole body convolutes and he falls to his knees. His stomach turns up side down and he throws up black goo that lands steaming on the dusty floor. When he slowly straightens himself the last traces of the demon leave his body and finally he is himself again

Arthur has Francis leaning on him as he leads them out of the house. Outside the morning has already begun and birds were chirping and greeting the wonderful day. Tino and Berwald talked to Alfred at the police car.

When Francis steps out on the small porch he flinches at the warmth of the sun. But it feels too good so he takes another step so his whole front body can feel the gently shine. Arthur sighs relieved as he sees how all the blue marks the demon had left on Francis' body vanish at the touch of light. Francis almost stumbles as the feeling of relief rushes through his body. Shelly looks worried up at him and at that caring face Francis tears up. He gets on his knees as he sniffles and caresses Shelly's hair and pulls her into an embrace.

"Shelly, I am so sorry. I love you so, so much, Shelly…" Arthur gets on his knees as well and hugs both to him. Francis didn't know whose cheek he should kiss first. But as a second police car pulls up in front of the house they all look up. And when the three boys jump out of the car and run up to their family, Arthur and Francis got up again, carried Shelly down the few steps of the porch and the whole family stumbled into a big embrace.

Lukas, Mathias and Tino are the last to leave the house and stay on the porch to give the family some space. Mathias leans against one of the wooden pillars and Lukas sneaks his arms around his waist. He lays his head on Mathias' shoulders and together they felt that they were alive and together and that was what counts.

Tino on the other hand had a handkerchief pressed to his bleeding ear and sat himself with a huff on the steps. He looked up and smiled sheepishly at Berwald who walked over.
"A draft did that to ya?" Berwald asked and nodded at the wound. Tino knew rather than saw that this giant man was smirking.
"I'd take a guy with a gun any day," Tino said, but had to smile back. Berwald nodded and sat down close to him as he felt the exhaustion claiming his body.

It was Shelly who first got up from her family and walked over to Mathias and Lukas. Her steps were a bit wobbly after this long and horrible night. But never the less she smiled as she reached her hand over to Lukas who curiously held his hand under hers. She opened her small fist and out fell the silver locket that Lukas had lost in the cellar.
"Thank you," Lukas whispered as he closed his hand around the metal, kissed the locket with the picture of Emil in it and held it to his heart. Shelly nodded, turned and hopped back to her family. Mathias kissed Lukas on his temple as he held around him a bit tighter.
All was well again.

That's it! I finally managed to finish this! And right on time for Halloween! Thank you so much for reading and commenting! You guys were the motivation to finish it after all.
Now that this fanfic can finally rest in peace I can concentrate better on the Mount AU and another fanfic that is currently in the works. I hope you liked it and have a great day/night! Stay safe 3