The Demonists Read Online Free Page A

Virginia—wide and jaggedly sharp, stained black with old blood.
    Somehow John knew this face. An older part of him, buried within the dream child, had hoped never to see its terrible visage again.
    Do you remember me, John Fogg? it asked, its pointed teeth clicking and clacking as it spoke.
    John remained silent, carefully backing away, back toward the dark department store windows.
    Your silence speaks volumes, the monster said with a chilling laugh as it began to casually stroll toward him, joined by more shadows that detached themselves from the shimmering black mass. And I’m not alone, John.
    John wanted to run—but where? He looked about, desperate to find a safer place, but saw only darkness, darkness that pulsed and moved as if alive. Darkness that throbbed and stretched like the skin on the belly of some great beast, ready to disgorge its babies into the nightmare world.
    There’s nowhere for you now, John, the nightmare man said. You are trapped here, with us.
    The creature stopped and stood in the middle of Herald Square, waiting for the other monsters that continued to crawl from the shadows.
    John found them familiar as well, and felt his terror grow even more. Painful flashes of memory thrummed within the core of his being like the plucked string of a badly tuned instrument. He saw himself as an adult, as he dealt with each of the demonic things that were gathering in the street before him.
    They were minor supernatural pests, the demonic equivalent of fruit flies, but they were still annoying, and potentially dangerous. And he had disposed of them, performing rites of exorcism that had removed them from the earthly realm, depositing them— he now realized —in this nightmarish place.
    We always said we would pay you back in kind, the monstrous leader spoke. If we ever had the chance.
    The darkness around John continued to birth more things that shambled, crawled, flew, and hopped. He had nowhere to go. Everywhere he looked, there was danger.
    And now we do. With that, the leader’s jaw snapped loudly and the creature started toward him, a wave of jabbering nightmare following in his wake.
    John could do nothing but stare, imagining the horror that was about to overwhelm him. He didn’t turn around, but he could hear other things converging on him from behind. And then accepting his fate, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes, tensed, but ready for the nightmare that was certain to never end.
    A sudden sound made him cringe. At first, he thought it might have been some sort of prehistoric beast baying its joy as it was about to consume him in a single bite, but then he recognized it as the blare of a truck horn.
    John opened his eyes to find the leader, and the flow of shadowy entities, mere inches from him. He turned in the direction of the nearly deafening horn, and saw an eighteen-wheeler barreling down the street, right into the beasts, scattering some like road waste, while crushing others beneath its large wheels.
    Falling backward onto the wet street, John looked up in awe as the truck ground to a halt, brakes screeching as it skidded upon the crushed bodies of the demonic entities that had been crossing the street to claim him. The door of the truck’s cab swung open to reveal the driver, and John could not help smiling.
    “Quickly now,” the old woman ordered, holding out her hand. John immediately reached for her and Nana Fogg grasped his wrist, hoisting him up into the cab with ease. “Close the door. My interference won’t keep them at bay for long,” she said. Then she gunned the engine, and with a roar the truck was moving again, crushing more of the monstrosities as they threw themselves at it.
    John could only stare at the silver-haired old woman, who worked the clutch as if she’d been doing it her entire life. “You saved me,” was all he could manage. Where once his chest had expanded with fear, now it was filled with a nearly overwhelming love for his Nana, who had saved