Spike, The Possessed Emu: Story 2 Part 1
Spike felt the anger of the ghost inside him start to overflow.
"What do you mean you won't marry me?" he yelled at Selene. "What have I done to make you think I'm not worthy?"
"You just haven't accomplished anything yet in your life, Spike. That, and you're possessed by an evil spirit."
Spike stood up, almost knocking the table and their dinner over. Did she not know there was nothing he could do to get rid of the spirit? Did she not love him for what he was and not what he'd done? He was sick of this. The same thing every time. Spike couldn't stand it any longer. He walked out of the restaurant and left Selene there to pay the bill.
"The consequences of falling in love with an emu that's possessed by an evil spirit" she said to herself as she took out her wallet.
Now if you're just joining us, you probably don't know what is happening. If you have read the first story, and already know about it, you can just skip this paragraph. Our main character, Spike, is a twenty-something emu who is hell-bent on world domination and just happens to be possessed by an evil spirit. Spike wants to marry his girlfriend, Selene, a beautiful young emu, who won't marry him yet for reasons we discovered in the last paragraph. Then we have Spike's best friend, Dax, a moose who is, well, to put it nicely, not the brightest Crayon in the box. We love him anyways though. There's the rest of their motorcycle gang, Hell's Emus, but we'll meet them later. Last, but not least, we have the Devil Duckie, the evil, unholy ruler of Hell who just happens to have his eye on Selene. I think that's all the introduction we need for now, so let's get back to the story and see what's happening in the lives of our friends.
Spike went home and put on a couple of death metal CD's to listen to. He always found that screaming along with Arch Emu or Morbid Angelfish made him feel much better. He was about to go get himself a beer and one of those microwave burritos that always taste the same no matter what flavor, when it started raining pieces of drywall and plaster. "What the hell?" said Spike, "My music's not up that loud..." when suddenly a thousand pound moose fell on his head.
When Spike came to and opened his eyes, he was staring up at a huge hole in his ceiling.
"Damn it, Dax!" Spike said as he was getting up, "That's the third time this week!"
"I'll pay for it," replied Dax (Dax inherited the internet and has an infinite supply of money). "Let's go for a drive. I just got my Porsche back from the mechanics! We could go by The Whiskey and see who's playing tonight."
"Alright Dax, let's go," said a defeated Spike, "Maybe it'll help me get my mind off Selene."
So Spike and Dax left Spike's house and got into Dax's car.
Selene had just gotten home, and was planning on taking a nice, long, hot bubble bath when the doorbell rang.
"Ah damn," she said as she walked to answer the door. She looked through the peephole, and saw Spike standing on her doorstep.
"What the hell..." she murmured under her breath as she unlocked and opened her front door.
"Spike," she said, "what are you doing here?"
"Selene!" he replied, "I finally did it! I got rid of the spirit! I'm free! And my plan for world domination! I've perfected it!"
"Wow..." said an amazed Selene, "How did you..." But she was cut off by Spike getting down on one knee, and pulling out a box with a beautiful white gold ring adorned with opals, rubies and diamonds.
"Spike, I...I don't know what to say," she said.
"Just say yes," said Spike.
Selene laughed. "I will as long as you never try to be romantic again. You're no good at it." He smiled at her, and stood up to kiss her. Selene smiled back, but couldn't help thinking that something was wrong. Terribly, terribly wrong.
"Dax!! Slow down!" screamed Spike, "I really don't feel like dying right now!"
"Chill out, Spike. I'm only doing ninety-four. I always drive this fast on Fridays."
"Ok Dax. I trust you... I think." Dax and Spike continued to fly down the freeway at a steady ninety-four miles per hour.
"Hey Spike?"
"Yeah, Dax."
"You're wearing a seatbelt, right?"
After Spike had left her apartment, Selene finally got to take that bubble bath she wanted to. She took a sip of her coffee, closed her eyes, and thought about what had just happened. What was wrong about Spike? What was different about him? Something was very wrong. Selene opened her eyes, and looked at her engagement ring that Spike had given her. The rubies and diamonds threw glowing embers of light on the walls. It was a beautiful ring. It must have cost a ton of money. Where the hell did he get the money to buy this from? Selene picked up her phone and dialed in Spike's cell number.
Spike's cell phone started to ring.
"Dax! Turn down your music! I gotta answer this call!"
Dax turned his stereo off, and Spike's ears rang for a second in the sudden silence. Spike took out his phone and answered it. He sat there for several minutes listening to Selene's voice through the phone, with a look of horror on his face.
"Oh shit," he said, turning to Dax, "we gotta get back to Selene. Now."
Selene had just finished getting dressed and drying her hair. She checked the clock. 11:19. "The guys should be here soon," she said to herself. She opened her bathroom door and saw someone standing right outside and screamed.
"Selene! It's me, Spike!" said the figure. He stepped into the light coming from the bathroom so she could see him.
"Thank God you're here!" exclaimed Selene. "I've been so scared." She went up to him and hugged him.
He kissed her on the forehead and said, "It's ok, I'm here. We're gonna figure everything out. Now let's get going. Dax is waiting outside."
"Ok," she said, "let me just go get my shoes."
Selene was in her room putting on her shoes when she heard a car door slam just outside. She looked out the window and saw Dax and Spike getting out of Dax's car.
Before she had time to react, someone hit her on the head. She saw little stars floating around, and then everything went black.
Spike rang her doorbell for the second time, and still no one answered.
"Dammit, Selene!" Spike shouted, the evil spirit inside him starting to take over. It almost forced him to break down the door, until Spike regained control of his body and took out the key that he had to her apartment. He unlocked and opened the door, and the two walked into the dark living room.
"Selene!" called Spike. "Selene, are you here?"
"Selene?" said Dax, looking into the fridge.
"Dax, why would Selene be in the refrigerator?" asked Spike.
"You never know, Spike, you never know."
Spike punched Dax in the back of the head.
"Ouch! What was that for?"
"You're stupid." Dax looked at Spike and rubbed the back of his head where Spike had just punched him.
"Come on Dax." said Spike, walking in the direction of the bedroom. He stopped just outside the bedroom door, looking at something on the ground.
"Dax... come here at look at this..."
Dax walked to where Spike was standing and looked inside. There was a huge, scorched patch burned into the carpet in the center of the room. A couple of papers were still on fire, and the room was filled with smoke.
"Damn!" cursed Spike. He turned around and punched the wall, leaving a huge hole.
"Did she spontaneously combust?" questioned Dax.
"No, you idiot! It was the Devil Duckie! He took her!" screamed Spike.
"Oh shit!" said Dax as he ran after Spike towards the front door.
Dax drove them to the Wishkah café, where they met up with the rest of Hell's Emus: Skully (Dax's wife), Mouse (Spike's brother), Bruce (Selene's brother), Slade (Dax's brother), and their friends Vic, Chip and Ray. Spike explained to them what had occurred that night.
"So what the hell are we supposed to do?" asked Skully.
"We are gonna go get her," replied Spike, "but you're not going anywhere but home." Skully was pregnant and due the next day.
"Well how are we supposed to get her?" asked Mouse.
"We have to go down to Hell to get her back." said Spike.
"And how, exactly, do you propose we get there?" said Mouse.
Spike grimaced. "We gotta find the Devil Duckie."
As soon as the words left Spike's mouth, the bar and their drinks were extremely hot. They all reacted quickly, dropping their glasses and jumping off the bar stools. The walls and ceiling caught on fire. Flames crawled along the ceiling, blackening the tiles. The glass bottles of alcohol cracked and burst, spilling burning alcohol, fueling the fire. The wooden chairs and tables caught on fire. They all stood in the middle of the room, away from the majority of the fire, while ash and burning embers fell on them. They became aware of an evil, maniacal laughter that was growing louder. The room grew much darker, completely black in some areas where the blaze didn't reach. In the darkest corner, there was a pair of red eyes glowing in the blackness.
"You bastard!" yelled Spike at the laughing duck. "What did you do to her?"
"Nothing." replied the Devil Duckie, with an evil smile playing at his lips. "She's
perfectly fine. You are your friends, on the other hand, I would be worried about..."
Red hot metal bars shot up from the ground, enclosing all but Spike in a fiery
prison, leaving him standing alone outside the bars, face to face with the Devil Duckie.
The spirit completely took possession of Spike's body, pushing his conscience into a back corner of his mind. Spike's body reached down and pulled the concealed blade out of his boot. He stood up and looked the Devil Duckie in the eye. The Devil Duckie had taken out his knife and stared right back at Spike.
"No!" screamed Spike from his internal confinement even though no one could hear him. "It's useless! All your going to do is get us and everyone else killed!" Spike screamed in vain at his body, which, under control of the evil spirit, continued.
Spike's body and its ghostly possessor raised the sharp, jagged knife and lunged at the Devil Duckie. The duck threw himself out of the way and turned, intending to stab the knife into Spike's back, but was surprised as Spike went down and knocked his legs out from under him. Spike came around to finish off the helpless Duckie, but found him to be nowhere in sight. While Spike was temporarily confused, the Devil Duckie hit Spike on the head with the handle of his blade, knocking Spike unconscious.
When Spike came to, he found his wrists and ankles to be chained to the ground. His head hurt badly, and was slightly bleeding. The spirit inside him was extremely angry for losing a fight. He started to look at his surroundings and saw his friends still in the prison. He then saw Selene standing in the middle of the cavernous room. She was wearing a wedding dress, and appeared to be in some sort of a trance. In front of her was an altar, and beside her stood the demon duck Himself. Spike realized that they had been tricked to come down and be witnesses to the wedding of the Devil Duckie and his own Selene. He tried with all of his and his possessors' power to break free of the chains, but found that they were not to be broken. He unwillingly gave up, and sat in a huddled heap on the floor, crying and silently cursing himself.
Everyone was quiet as the unholy wedding proceeded until a shadowy figure walked out of the corner of the room and approached the Devil Duckie. He drew a submachine gun and shot the Duck twice in the skull. The Devil Duckie let out an unearthly scream as a whirlwind of ash and fire consumed everything.
Spike opened his eyes to find himself lying on a moonlit, black sand beach. He was almost positive that he had died until he saw Dax and all of Hell's Emus lying on the sand near him. He sat up to be sure of where he was, and on closer inspection the beach was no beach of earth. There was a strange beauty about the place, and the way the twin moons reflected light on the vaguely luminescent, black ocean gave Spike the feeling that he had been here before.
Spike was about to stand up to get a better understanding of where he was, when he saw the shadowy stranger who had shot the Devil Duckie sitting next to him. He looked at the man as he took off his cloak, which had concealed his face. The man was about the same stature as any human male, but was very different. He had jet-black hair that fell in his face and concealed his intense purple eyes. Enormous black wings protruded from his back, and an intricate black tattoo that curved around most of his body. He helped Spike up and flashed a worried grin at him that showed a pair of fangs.
"We need to save Selene, go wake up your friends," said the stranger.
"Who are you?" asked a very confused Spike. "And how did you kill the Devil Duckie?"
The stranger looked at Spike, and answered, "You can't kill him."
"What do you mean you can't kill him? You can kill anything; you just have to know how to do it! And who are you?" Spike demanded of the stranger.
The stranger laughed at him, and stood up. "My name is..."
...to be continued...