Audition

We were surrounded by invisible soldiers last night.

Steven, Markus, and I were hanging out at Luca's house, just talking about regular shit. We weren't even having a proper 757 meeting, ...just acting like normal kids. We were having fun, just watching an old movie with Luca's little sweet little sister (she's an amazing kid, by the way).

Then the drumming started. Outside, in the forest surrounding the house, the drumming started.

It was like a march of some type. The drumming was reminiscent of the times I heard the Norcom High School band practicing in the backyard of my house...that sound carried, let me tell you that.
That sound followed you.

The drumming was getting louder as the invisible soldiers approached. Markus went to living room window, looked out of it, and squinted his eyes. We waited for some type of reaction out of him, but none came. Instead, he stood there for like a minuted, and then turned around, and told us he saw nothing.

Despite this, the drumming increased; it sounded as if the soldiers were right outside the house now. I got up myself, and approached the door...

"Luca, you get your sister and hide somewhere else in the house. Call the old man about this. Come on, you guys, let's see what's out there..."

Normally, you'd expect someone like Luca to resist towards this type of request; he's a bit like me...stubborn. He'd want to help too. Instead, he instantly grabbed his sister and ran.

But The 757 are the perfect team, or at least, we are becoming that. It's strange to say, but with Mason leaving, we've all gotten closer somehow. It's like Mason was a bit of an obstacle in our way to becoming a full team. There are a few weak links still, but we seem to be in almost perfect sync.
The numbers stitched to our skin are probably helping with this. I still don't know what the numbers mean...

Anyways. Back to the story.
Opening the door, our eyes found themselves looking at an empty front yard. No demons, no monsters, no Fears, no Grey, no thing; just an empty yard.
The drumming had silenced itself immediately as the door opened.

I walked out near the street, and looked across to the other side of it...
In the forest, I saw, and also did not see, an army of soldiers. At least 30 or so of them. They had 17th century clothing on, and all had a dead look in their eyes.
By see, I mean I sensed their presence, and I could see them in my mind.
By not see, I meant that my eyes could not physically decipher any shapes in that area, except for the trees.

What was happeni

One of the men steps out into the street, and looks me directly in the eye. His eyes are so determined...
He speaks:

"You must vanquish the beast from this land.

You are chosen, young man, to be the hero of this land.

Your friends are also chosen; you all will battle the creature, and hopefully, send it back into the darkness.

You have all been Degaussed."

Exactly when he said "Degaussed", I felt the number on my chest start to itch and burn. I ignored the sensation, and asked him exactly what he meant.

He acted as if he didn't hear me, though, and looked into the sky.

"The sky is so beautiful today! Behold, men; 

Portsmouth is shining bright tonight.

Maybe this time, 

this bright will be able to hold back all our dark...."

A light flashed into my eyes...at first, I thought it was something supernatural in origin as well, but I looked to the left, and discovered it to be just a normal truck. I yelled at the man in the street to get out of the way, but he completely ignored me. The truck rammed into the man...but the crunch of bone and the splatter of blood was never heard that night.

The truck was gone, and so were the ghosts, or spirits, or whatever they happened to be.

Another sound replaced the drumming, however. This was not over...not by a long shot.

This sound was originating in the forest behind the house this time. The sound of thudding feet racing across the forest floor, and the sound of crunching leaves, served as accompanying music to the rapid thump-thump of a drum. This drum was far more wild in sound that the drums that had been with the ghosts.

We ran into the house, afraid that this time, the ghosts wouldn't be as friendly.

 After the front door was lock, we ducked into the kitchen, and hid in the pantry. I hoped that Luca and his sister were alright, as I heard the most inhuman scream outside of the house. The scream mutated into a voice, and began to speak.

At the same time, Steven was trying to call Luca on his phone, to see if they were alright. The call was disrupted in mid ring...it just stopped calling Luca, and indicated that there was no longer service in our area.

But, while I recall hearing Steven's phone calling him, according to Luca, his phone never rang once.

The voice outside, that was loud enough to reach us all the way into the interior of the house, said:

"Owen...Luca...friends...I know you're there...why don't you come out here and say hello?" Grey said.

No one moved a muscle.

"Oh, but boys...you have to see my new getup...it's just lovely! I'm almost perfect...thanks to you, Owen. I want to properly show my thanks. Come on out...if you don't adhere to my demands, why I'll...

I'll blow your house down!! Gahahaha! Out little piggy, out!"

I feel Steven shaking with fear....that almost made me get up and give myself up.
But deep down, I knew, we all knew, that he was lying. Grey planned on having himself a massacre tonight.

We heard Grey...growl, like an animal. Was he getting angry? That wasn't a good sign. Grey actually intended on finishing things tonight. This time, he wasn't playing any games with us.

Suddenly, an explosive blast is heard. The house shakes, and we hear something...crawling. We hear something giggling. We hear the floorboards creaking with what seemed to be a heavy weight...

We kept quiet. For about half a minute, we hardly even breathed.

Eventually, we heard a clicking sound on the linoleum, which then transformed into heavy footsteps, with the additional sound of the floor cracking. It stopped, directly in front of the pantry.

We were done for, or at least I was, since I was the one closest to the door, so I stood up a bit, and tried to hide Markus and Steven behind me. The door handle turned, and seemed that Grey was about to open it the old fashion way...

But then, we heard someone shout "Not in my house!!" A gunshot, a scream, a chuckle, a yelp.

I opened the door, and saw a piece of what appeared to be the same material that Grey's mask was made up of. A shadow fell over it,...a tail hovered above the ground in front of me. It was what the pieces on the ground had broken off of, it seemed.

The tail was attached to Grey, who was monstrous in form now. The black robe was torn to shreds, as white thorns protruded all over his body. His shoulders were extremely wide now, and thorns also plagued the top of them. His mask resembled some type of lizard's face, instead of a human's; the mask was angular, and the horns on the top of it were extremely long and sharp. His hands were claws, with daggers for fingernails.

But that wasn't the dangerous part. Oh no. Inside of the Monster, there was something else...a storm. A storm was raging inside of Grey. The wires were rapidly moving around, like a tornado, inside of his body.

Luca stood in front of Grey, with a gun pointed directly at him. Both of their eyes were locked in a stare.

"Oh, Luca...do you really think you can challenge me?

I don't think you'd survive one second in my wo-"

Before Grey could finish, Luca shot at him again. A bullet connected with Grey's shoulder, tearing off some more of the white material. Grey growled, and then screamed.
The windows to the kitchen shattered, and Grey pounced at Luca.

I jumped into action, hoping to stop Grey; I was not about to let him kill one of my friends. However, his tail slashed behind him, as if it had a mind of its own. The end of it was sharpened, and the entire tail was thick. The tail whipped itself at me, and I was thrown out onto the floor.
My chest was cut, and blood trickled out at an alarming rate.

Though I was hurt, I got right back up, and followed them. The two of them had jumped out of view, into the living room. Markus and Steven ran over to me, hoping to help with my wound, but I told them not to worry about it, and to hurry after Luca.

Out in the living room; Grey stood tall over Luca, whose gun seemed to be out of ammo. Luca threw the gun at Grey, but like the bullets, it had no overall effect on him. Grey laughed, long and hard, and then prepared to stab his sharpened, scorpion-like tail through Luca.

There wasn't anything else I could do, so I jumped in front of Luca, prepared to take the blow...

But the tail was stopped, by something. I was holding my hand out, and some...force had made a shield-like exterior around it. The tail had hit it, and was stopped completely.

Grey was just as surprised as I was. He said, under his breath;

"Degausser..."

As he said that, my chest started vibrating, or at least the left side of it did. A golden glow emanated from it...the number on my chest was shining bright. The cut disappeared...

"What's happening..." I muttered


"You all have been...but that hasn't happened in hundreds of years!!...." Grey said.
 
"Owen, the hell is on your chest?!" Markus shouted.

Grey stepped back, as if the shining light was hurting him.

"I'll be back, brats. This is only a small miscalculation..."

Grey ran out of the house, on all fours. As he ran out, Katy stood on the stairs. Grey took one look at her, but did not attack, thankfully.

We followed him out, and saw that he had blown apart the front of the house. There was no front door or porch now...only a hole. Outside, Grey ran into the forest, and as we saw him leave, we thought we could see some other things in the darkness as well...

The old man arrived just two minutes after Grey disappeared. He told us that we had only called him three minutes ago, but to us, it seemed to be at least almost half an hour ago.

Told him about the Degausser thing. He nodded, as if he was expecting it, and said that he would tell us on a later date about that. Drove home afterwards.

Home, and doing homework. Don't plan on going to school tomorrow.

I wish I was scared.