**Welcome to the world of Demonology. I hope you enjoy your time here and read more stories set here**
*
Mark had been driving for days. He was making his way from North Carolina to his small Texas hometown of Creek Crossing. Driving his pickup on the interstate was always risky; there was too much chance of State Patrol pulling him over when he was on the main roads. For some reason, he needed to take that chance. He just felt rushed, as if he had to get there as quick as possible. Why he felt the need to get there right away, he didn't know. He had left that small town when he was fifteen never to return -- until this mad capped dash across state lines.
He spent his last night before making it to Creek Crossing in a small mom and pop hotel just the other side of Oklahoma City. Mark hated staying so close to an interstate, but so far, he'd had good luck following I-40. It was dark and the neighborhood was run-down, so he felt safe hitting up a local grocery store. A pound of chicken livers and a six-pack of Bud later and he holed himself back up in the hotel. He wanted to get into town late, the closer to sunset the better, but he needed a place to stash the truck.
Finally, Mark decided on an old farm that he remembered being abandoned when the cattle market took a dive in the 80s. He lay back on the bed to see if anything was decent on the four channels this dive got while he popped the chicken livers back like candy. He set the alarm for 10AM and drifted off to some B-rated movie about a bunch of sex-starved teenagers being hunted down by a monster serial killer, part of some stupid Halloween monster movie marathon.
When the alarm went off, Mark grabbed his sunglasses; the light coming in through the drawn curtains was almost unbearable. He hated moving around during the daytime, but he had to, there just wasn't time to remain under the cover of darkness. Throwing his duffel back into the truck, he checked out. Grabbing a pack of Camels from on top of the sun visor, he threw the truck into gear and set off back on I-40 heading straight towards Amarillo. He turned north on 385, finally exiting the interstate. He filled the tank and got some 'cat fish bait' at a grocery store in Amarillo. It was a shitty cover story, but his kind couldn't just swing through a drive through. He swore to whatever he was going to vomit if he spent another week living off chicken livers. There just wasn't enough time to hunt.
As the sun set, he crossed a small bridge over Ledger Creek. The abandoned farm was there, looking even crappier and dirtier than he remembered. The pole barn that he planned to hide the truck in looked more like a deathtrap, but it was his only option. He pulled in, carefully maneuvering the truck around a portion of roof that had collapsed. He covered the truck with some old tarps and blankets that had been hiding a rusted out tractor carcass. Grabbing his duffel, he set out in the last rays of the sun towards town. It was about 20 miles to Creek Crossing, but he kept walking at a normal pace, too early in the night for him to allow himself to make better time.
As midnight approached, he broke into a fast lope, he was getting hungry and the chicken livers were not holding him over anymore. He began covering ground quickly, there was still a bit of light from the moon, so he left his sunglasses on, and his hat on his head. His strides were strangely long, and his stamina seemed bottomless as he easily avoided every rut and rock in his way. He covered the distance faster than humanly possible, reaching a small hill outside of town where he could survey the situation.
The town looked smaller than when he left. The old Creek Crossing Cattleman's Bank had become a branch of the 1st National of Amarillo. The bars in town still looked closed and the 'Dry Town' sign was still up. The town appeared deserted, his gamble that no one in this god-fearing town would be out on Halloween night paid off. They'd all be holed up, worried Satan would come for them if they dared sin on this night.
He skirted the town and worked his way up to the Baptist church on the far side of town. The old minister's house was dark and there were no cars in front of it. Every year, his mother was at the all night prayer meeting Halloween night, except tonight the church was dark and deserted. He walked out behind the building, through the neglected graveyard. It had been dry the past few years here from the looks of things. No grass was growing and the few trees that had been planted were looking worse for wear.
Walking through the tombstones, he wasn't sure what he would find; then he saw her name in cold granite. Elizabeth Margaret Jacobs 1952 – 1996. His fingers slowly traced the letters and numbers. She died six years after he had left. He had hoped she'd still be alive. He didn't hope that for any emotional reason, his mother had never been warm to him. Hell, she hadn't done more than feed him and drag him off to church to be 'saved'.
Mark used to be the shy boy in the back of the class. Sure, everyone always whispered about him. Everyone in town knew his mom wasn't right in the head. She managed to make enough money for them to survive by waitressing at one of the bars before they closed, and as a young Mark soon learned, rumor had it she did more to make money than waitress. As the strange quiet boy whose mom was a whore, he was normally left to his own.
No one ever spoke of his father. The only time he ever heard reference to his daddy was when his mom was dragging him off to be healed, blessed, or exorcised or whatever her thought of the day was. He never thought that she meant it when she called him a demon child though. After the town went dry and she decided she was 'born again', she thought everyone was going to Hell or influenced by Satan. Sure, he looked a little different. He was paler than other kids and the sun hurt his eyes more. It wasn't until he started to hit puberty that the real differences started to occur.
By the time Mark knew there had to be something unusual with his father, he couldn't stay in this town much longer and had left without getting the answers he was searching for now. People had been starting to talk about how Satan was infiltrating the town and they always looked at Mark when they said it. Somewhere in this town had to be the answer for why the gold specks in his eyes changed to make his eyes pure gold, and why he grew horns on his head, and why his teeth were so sharp and he ... well, why he just wasn't human.