I was waiting for Ms. Hasgrim. This wasn’t an abnormal occurrence, she disappeared into the shed every so often, which I had noticed occasionally in the month or so that I’d helped her out. I was to wait on the front porch, with a large canister of salt in case those three “devil” boys came around while she was gone. She was convinced that if I hit them with salt, they’d stay away for a while. They hadn’t been to the house since I hit them with the fine crystalline substance last week. I was lucky to hit them at all. Their faces scrunched up and they yelled out like they were in horrible pain. I wasn’t able to hit them often, as Drew, Mark, and David were experts at avoiding capture. I was unsure of why she wanted me to use salt, but I didn’t care enough to protest, besides it did seem to work, they didn’t come back for a while. Every other hour I was to replace the sage in the incense burner to ensure that “nothing” got in. Ms. Hasgrim ensured me that she would be back at five each evening, a promise that she always kept, never a second late. Except for today.
This was not a normal occurrence, it was a truly abnormal situation that worried me greatly. I gave a quick look at my phone, five twenty. I glanced back into the garden to see if I had missed her coming back. She wasn’t there. I quickly relit the sage, shoved the container of salt into my pocket and jogged over to the shed. It didn’t belong in the beautiful garden, it’s rotting wood sticking out from the colorful plants like a sore thumb. But Ms. Hasgrim needed it for what she said was her line of work, which was why it remained. I cautiously outstretched my hand to the thin handle, pulling the peeling door on its hinges. I had never been in the shed, but I was sure that it was bound to be something magical, it was only natural. Everything that Ms. Hasgrim did had an aura of mystical intrigue, from her ancient pet cat to her house - every inch of it filled with sage, to her garden that seemed to draw you closer with only a simple glance. I did not expect to be enveloped in an inky sea of darkness. I couldn’t breathe, it was like the dark, pudding-like gunk was sucking the breath straight out of my lungs. I couldn’t hold on, my vision blurred, the garden disappearing from the open shed window. Then it went black.
...
    “Leo, Leo, Leo!” My eyes ripped open as I awoke with a jolt. I blinked as I tried to figure out where I was. It was dark, very dark. I could barely see my own hand in front of me and the ground was a cold, black stone as far as I could see. There was a soft, red light coming from somewhere above me, like fire, and sounds of screams and moans filled my ears from every direction. I felt something on my chest, pressing lightly.
    “Leo, look at me.” Her voice was cold but lined with urgency and doubt. I turned my head to squint at the person calling my name. It was Ms. Hasgrim, but in a way that I’d never seen her before. Her usually hunched posture was now straight and rather menacing and her tight bun had started coming loose, sending thin strands of gray hair into her eyes. The half-moon shaped glasses glinted oddly in the dim red lighting. Her cat Tamathia was the weight on my chest. She was purring lightly, her bright green eyes staring into my own.  There was a bright blue spear in one of Ms. Hasgrims’ hands and a gray and black knit scarf in the other. She shoved the scarf into my hands. “You shouldn’t have come. This should give you some protection, but I need you to get back to the house before they realize that nobody’s protecting it. When did you last light the sage?”
    “I-I,” I stuttered, unsure of what she was going on about, or where I was for that matter, “I lit it before I came here.”
    He face seemed to relax with that comment, “Thank god, that gives us about two hours to get this under control and get back to the house.”
    “Get what under control!?”
    “The demons!” She shouted, something she’d never done before, “Have you really not noticed that those three delinquents aren’t actually human!? Have you ever seen them do anything other than pester me?! Do you see them at school?! At home?!” Her voice was strained and desperate.
    I stared at her, “So all of this sage stuff and ‘devils’ wasn’t just superstition, or you being crazy, am I going crazy!?”
    Ms. Hasgrim took a deep breath, “Look, Leo, I know you’re mind doesn’t want to accept this but you have to if you’re going to make it out of this. Where do you think we are?!”
    I glanced around at the dark stone, the agonizing screams and the fire-like lighting and everything started coming together. I stared dumbfounded as I tried to put together a logical sentence, “Ms. Hasgrim… are we - are we in Hell?”
I looked back to Ms. Hasgrim, who had stood up again and was set in a defensive position as red eyes appeared from the darkness that surrounded us.
    “Leo, get behind me,” her voice was cold, more serious than I had ever heard it. I slowly pushed myself off of the ground, wincing from the bruises lining my skin. I didn’t land very gracefully. I dragged myself to lean against a rock as she raised her spear. A dark monster crept out from the shadows, its red eyes gleaming towards us. It had the general appearance of a large, black, hairless dog. Its legs alone were the size of small trees, the paws could crush me with one quick step. Its beady, red eyes seemed to pierce through the dark cavern, and large globs of slobber and foam dripped from the huge maw. It snarled, showing teeth that had to be the size of my hand. I felt my muscles tense and a chill run up my spine.
    Ms. Hasgrim hurled the spear, I didn’t think it was possible for someone her age to even throw a spear, much less hit something thirty feet away right between the eyes. The huge beast slumped to the ground, the spear disappeared out of its forehead and reappearing into Ms. Hasgrims awaiting hand. She fished a pocket square out of her belt pouch and wiped the blood off.
    The rest of the eyes came forward. Ms. Hasgrim grabbed something else out of her bag, which now seemed too small for all the objects she was carrying inside. She handed me a small weapon with an ornately carved handhold that fit perfectly in my palm. There were three blades, two that curled around the handle, coming together to form a point in front of where my knuckles would rest, there was a single, needle-like blade between these, jutting out from the handle. It glowed a faint blue, just like Ms. Hasgrims spear.
    “That’s a Katar,” She said, closing my hand around the handle, “you hold it like you would a bicycle handle. Normally I wouldn’t start an apprentice off with something so close ranged, but It’s all I have. Promise to only fight if your life is in immediate danger.”
    I nodded shakily.
    “Swear it, Leo.”
    “I promise.”
    Ms. Hasgrim nodded in acknowledgment, she then directed her gaze to her cat, who was creeping around my leg, chunks of dark fur coming loose onto my pants. “Tamathia, you can help me out here.”
    She took a tentative step, meowing shakily in response. Then she hissed at the monsters in front of us. Before I could process what was happening Tamathia was about the size of a steroid-induced panther. The parts of her body that had once been stiff and awkward from old age were now bulging with muscle. Her small, non-threatening teeth were now replaced with huge, sharp, glistening fangs. She hissed again, but in her new form, it echoed throughout the dark stone. The monsters stopped in their tracks. Tamathia crouched down and leaped, pouncing on the creature closest to her. She sang her fangs into its dark flesh, draining the life from it.
    I cowered behind Ms. Hasgrim, clutching the Katar tighter in my hand. I could feel my heart beating in my chest, the quick rhythm drowning out all other noises. My breathing quickened. I was positive that my death was coming.
    Ms. Hasgrim took a step back, letting her spear fly into the forehead of another demon. I put the scarf tighter around my neck, reveling in any protection it might give me.
    Tamathia and Ms. Hasgrim felled a few more of the creatures before the ground began to shake. The remaining creatures howled and scattered away, one of them freeing itself from Tamathias’ clutches in order to limp off to join its comrades. I lost my footing and slipped onto the cold, dark rock, scraping a hole through my jeans to my now exposed flesh.
    Ms. Hasgrim inhaled sharply and extended a hand to pull me up. “It’s starting, they’re attacking the house, that's why it’s shaking,” She whispered, her voice pausing and shaking, “Leo, you must understand this and I hope you will forgive me.” She put a delicate hand on my shoulder, “If I don’t get back to the house in time to lock it off, the whole world will be in danger. Everything. Normal people wouldn’t stand a chance against these.”
    “Normal people?” I knit my eyebrows together, “Am I a normal person?” Of course, I wouldn’t stand a chance here all alone with these things.
    Ms. Hasgrim smiled the warm smile that I was used to her having, “No. You’re like me.” She sighed, “I will come back to get you. There’s so much more you need to learn.”
    Tamathia shrunk back down to her usual size and jumped into Ms. Hasgrims arms. The two of them disappeared into the same blue as the Katar the was still in my hand. Then they disappeared, a lingering blue glow drifting to the world above us. I sunk down to my knees, wrapping the scarf around my hand. I followed the trace of blue aura with my eyes, leaning the back of my head against the black stone. I cried, letting tear after tear run down my face as I awaited the return of the beasts that would surely kill me. My mind started to wander, going back and forth from present to past.
...
    My hand hovered momentarily over the cat head knocker, I wondered whether or not I should knock. I could always convince my mother that I actually had helped Ms. Hasgrim out. I sighed, glancing across the street at the porch where my mother sat in her chair, watching me intently. It would never work. She’d watch me until she saw a clear reaction from Ms. Hasgrim. I grabbed the knocker and pounded it against the door. The gross old cat, Tamathia peered at me from underneath a thick plant that was growing on the side of Ms. Hasgrims porch. I shooed it away as the door creaked open.
    Ms. Hasgrims beak-like nose stuck out from the doorframe. She sprayed me with a shower of salt, some of it getting into my mouth. “I told you to stay away from my house, you creatures of the dark!” Then she caught my eye, “Oh, Leo. Sorry, I thought it was those, eh.. boys back again to cause trouble.”
    I internally groaned at the thought of spending so much time with the basket case that was living across the street from me. I threw on my most convincing smile, “Good afternoon, Ms. Hasgrim, I was wondering if I could help you out this summer.” I glanced back at my mother, who gave me a quick thumbs-up.
    Ms. Hasgrim studied me, looking up and down. She then stared into my eyes for longer than the socially acceptable time.  “You’ll do nicely.”
...
    “I’m telling you, mom, she’s crazy! You’ve gotta let me work at McDonald's instead of spending my summer with her!” I kicked my shoes off onto the rug as I walked in.
    My mother leaned against the wall, crossing her arms, “it’s only your first day hon, I’m sure she’ll grow on you.”
    I threw my hands up, “mom! She threw salt at me when I opened her door! She has sage and pentagrams and s***! She was in the shed all day! She’s a complete basket case!”
    My mother tilted her head, “language, Leo.” She sighed, “So she might not be all there, but she’s still an old lady who needs help. Just look at what all those boys have done to her.”
    “Mom!”
    “I don’t care, you are going to help her this summer, no matter what you say.” She tightened her lips into a thin line.
...
    The fact that Ms. Hasgrim might be coming back was the only thing that kept me from just stabbing myself, sparing the torture that would inevitably come from the beasts. Time here seemed to move slowly, only I wasn’t quite sure if it was my own messed up perception or if time was actually moving slowly. It wasn't like I had a clock to check the time.
    I curled my knees to my chest, hugging myself into a ball.
    I could hear the rumbling of the demons that were starting to come back. I took a deep breath and looked into the distance, waving my katar for a bit of light. The glowing red eyes crept closer to me. My thumping heart rang in my ears, overpowering all other sounds.  I slowly pulled myself up, using the rock behind me for support.
    Three figures stepped out of the blackness. I recognized them. Mark and David were on either side of Drew. They were taller now, loose of the awkward, pimply disguises that they had used to torment Ms. Hasgrim, their skin had smoothed out and was as pale as snow. Their ears had grown, pointed at the tips and their eyes were a pale red. Long, thin horns grew out of their scalp.
    Drew spoke, his voice was distorted, inhuman. “Leo,” he gave a deep chuckle, “So you’re the one who’s been giving us trouble.” I grasped my Katar tighter, raising it into a defensive position. Drew laughed again, flicking his wrist carelessly. The blade flew out of my hand, landing a good twenty feet away from me. “You won’t be needing that.”
I stepped back, “Don’t hurt me, please.”
Drew smirked, revealing a set of fangs that I was sure used to be braces. “I’ll do what I want with you. You might have protected the house so that old woman could weaken us, but now you’re here and we’ve already had time to infiltrate the house. Now that we’re free to pass between dimensions,  it’s only a matter of time before your dear old Hasgrim falls.”
“You’re wrong,” I said, looking at my shoes, “She’s kept you at bay this long, she-she can do it again.”
Drew smiled again, as the two others laughed, “You are the one she chose to succeed her? Such a bumbling idiot? Without her house - the only true portal to your world- we are weak. Our powers are limited here, God’s punishment. He cast us down here, a consequence for rebelling against a tyrannical leader. We can go upstairs on our own accord, but we have to take a human form, even weaker.” He said the word ‘human’ like most people would say ‘vomit,’ nose wrinkled and eyes disgusted. “We will stop at nothing to get the true power that was so ungraciously stripped away from us. That woman was the only thing keeping us away from the portal. She had to stand guard at all times. But when you came along, she could leave the house with you while she came to weaken us further.”
I took another step back as the three came closer. I felt my back run into the stone. Drew’s eyes glared into mine. “Now that you are with us,” Drew growled, “We might as well have some fun with you.” He waved his hand up and I could feel my sweatshirt hoodie lifting my feet off the ground. I struggled to get loose, but it felt as if an invisible hand was holding my hood, dangling me right above the ground. The protective scarf flew off of my neck, landing in an unseen part of the cavern. Drew flicked his hand again, the quick movement was simple and careless. My body shot back into the stone, the hard surface knocking the wind out of my lungs.
I coughed, gasping for air. Drew twitched his hand in another direction and my face smashed into the rock. My mouth filled with the taste of metal and I felt liquid gush out of my nose, the scarlet drops falling silently onto my sweatshirt. I spit out some of the blood that was spilling into my mouth. Drew dropped his hand and I fell to the floor. I tried to get back up, but my arms failed me and I slumped against the stone floor, the frigid rock piercing my cheek with its temperature.
Drew grinned, sneering down at me, “Weak. You can’t even summon your weapon. How desperate was that old woman to chose you as her successor?” He moved closer, towering over me. I shut my eyes, bracing for another impact. I felt something in the palm of my hand. I cautiously opened one of my eyes, it was the Katar that Drew had thrown into the darkness that surrounded me, slowly materializing in my hand, just as Ms. Hasgrims’ spear had.
Drew laughed again, “Ahh, so you do have potential. You know, you could always help us instead of her. She can’t give you anything, but if you join us we can give you anything. Help us to get through her gates. We can grant you anything. Immortality, riches beyond your imagination. Anything. Just help us get to the house.” He grinned.
I clenched my fist, my eyes meeting with his, “Never.”
Drew tensed up with rage, “you dare defy me?”
He extended his arm, a long, blood-red and black sword with an elaborate, skull hilt appearing in his hand. It was laced with live flames, rising and falling with the movement of the sword, coming from the skull at the base of the hilt. I struggled to stand up, using the rock behind me to brace myself, holding the Katar up defensively over my face. He rushed forward, swinging the sword above his head, the other two demons creeping closer, trapping me between Drew and the stone wall. His weapon swung down from above me, I was barely able to lift my hand to deflect the blow. The force brought me to my knees, my arm stinging from the impact. I pulled myself to my feet again, ducking quickly as Drew stabbed the sword at me. I grasped the hilt of my weapon and shot forward, screaming as I attempted to jump and stab Drews bare torso. My blade hit the pale skin and clinked against the white surface as if it was hard rock. I fell to the ground, pulling myself away from the impending figure, swinging his sword at me again. The blade grazed my shoulder, sending a searing pain through my arm. I yelled out, clutching the bleeding wound.
“Such weapons cannot hurt me, you’re finished, foolish boy.”
As I slid away from Drew, something large and clunky poked at me from my sweatshirt pocket. The salt. I grabbed the large container and ripped off the lid, pouring it in a circle around me. I closed my eyes and looked up, please work, please work, please work. Drew lifted his sword again, raising it above his head. I curled up, flinching as he brought it down. The sword stopped a foot above my head, a thin blue force appearing to protect me from the blow.
Drew scowled, “So the witch did teach you something.” He raised his blade again,
placing consecutive blows onto the thin blue shield. “Salt will repel impure spirits for some time, but it won’t last forever.” He hit the salt barrier again, this time giving it a miniscule crack, like ice, slowly breaking apart. He hit it again, slowly but surely breaking open the only thing keeping me from his blow. One more blow would surely shatter it.
    I felt a small prickle on my left ankle. Glancing down, I noticed a wrinkly fingertip. The fingertip slowly came out of the stone, beckoning for me.
    “Leo, grab on.” The voice was Ms. Hasgrims. The salt barrier shattered, sending salt throughout the premises.
    I shut my eyes and grasped the old weather-worn hand. I was again enveloped in an inky sea of black goop, sucking the air from me.
    I gasped as I surveyed myself and my surroundings. I felt a pain in my chest, definitely a broken rib or two. My mouth and my shoulder were both still bleeding heavily. It was dark, little stars dotting the sky above. I was in Ms. Hasgrims garden, its owner leaning over me.
    “I said I’d come back, didn’t I?” She began to wrap my shoulder in thick gauze. “You probably have questions.”
    My eyes widened, “Yeah. Um, what are you? What is this place?”
    Ms. Hasgrim shut her eyes and sighed heavily, “Leo, this is the only true portal between Earth and the Underworld for living beings. The demons can only come to Earth with their full powers through this house. If that happens, the world could be at stake. Since I’m the only protector, they can grow strong while I’m stuck protecting the house. But because I appointed you as my apprentice, I can kill them off, weakening them while you protected the house.”
    “D-drew said I was your successor, what does that mean?”
    “It means that when I die - which will come sooner than I’d like - you will become the one to protect the house.” She fiddled with her glasses, wiping bits of blood from their clear surface, “I wanted you to be my successor anyways, but when I gave you that,” she nodded to the Katar, still nestled in my palm, “It made it irreversible, the weapon bonded to you.”
    “So I have to protect the house when you’re… gone?”
Ms. Hasgrim nodded grimly, “The future has already been set in motion.” She glanced up to see three figures in the distance. Drew, Mark, and David stood, silently approaching. They were in their human forms again, weak. Their bulging arms had returned to the scrawny strings of a normal fifteen-year-old boy. The red eyes had gone back to a subtle shade of hazel, but they still remained terrifying. There seemed to be a shadow of what I knew they were, an aura of evil lurking above them. Mark and David flanked Ms. Hasgrim, bringing her to her knees.
Drew pointed at me, his deep booming voice replaced with a cracking voice of a teenage boy, but still just as powerful, “this is your last chance, join us. Join us and every worry will go away. Why worry about going to school when you already have all knowledge stored inside your head? Why should you pester your mother for a paying job when you have all the riches you can imagine? Why worry about a nagging mother when you can have all the freedom you need.” He outstretched his hand to me, “all you need to do is give up on that old hag and give up the house.”
I took a slow step forward, pondering his offer. It would be nice, was the first thought that came to me. Wouldn’t it? I tried to imagine it, tried to imagine the perfect life that Drew was promising me. But I couldn’t. Because I knew that the life he promised wouldn’t be a perfect one. Sure, I’d have money and knowledge and my mother wouldn’t nag. But my mother wouldn’t just stop nagging, she’d stop existing. Because I knew that they didn’t just want to come to earth for a nice vacation. Ms. Hasgrim too, she’d already saved my life multiple times. Sure I’d have everything, but I’d have nothing. I wasn’t going to betray my mother, the world, Ms. Hasgrim. I would be the defender. The defender of my mother, the world. The defender of Ms. Hasgrim.
I took another step, confidently towards Drew, my hands naturally guiding themselves around the Katar. I stared at his weak form, “I’ll never join you, I’ll never betray her.” So, in defense of Ms. Hasgrim, I swung my arm. My blade easily slipped through the thin, human flesh. His weakest form spreading out into dark ashes. The other two demons glanced at me and the remains of their leader and disappeared. I walked over to Ms. Hasgrim, outstretching my own hand to help her up.
She smiled, her wrinkles lifting up around her face, “you’ll replace me quite nicely.”