The Vendeleer Brothers Book 3: Nightmare on Holly
Chapter 19: Fight Back

The residents of Holly street had know idea what was coming.

Some of them had already left for work, others were mowing the lawn, and dogs were chasing squirrels on their morning walks.

Ian, Roderick, Jordyn, Brian, and Holly all held their breaths as they slowly drove down the street. Hector had to have known that they would be coming, and odds were that he was not going to let them off easy. Brian slowly came to a stop when they saw a dark, goopy figure standing in the middle of the road. Ian and Roderick narrowed their eyes.

“Kishnu…” Roderick growled.

“Remember bro-it’s not real. At least, it’s not the real Kishnu.” Ian cautioned.

“I know. The trick right now though, is knowing if it’s one of Shaq’s illusions or one of Akaysha’s nightmares.”

Jordyn checked the ammunition in her gun, and then made sure she was carrying extra.

“If we’re seeing Kishnu, then this is probably as far as Hector is going to let us go with the van. I think we’re going to have to walk from here.” she told them grimly. “Is everyone ready?”

Holly gripped the crowbar she was holding, feeling rather nervous. Brian looked at them with a little sheepish smile, and then pulled out a sword. They all stared at him.

“Um. Brian? How the hell did you get a sword?” Jordyn demanded. He shrugged.

“I just… happened to have it.”

“Ok. Let me rephrase that. Why do you have sword?”

“Oh yeah!” Roderick exclaimed. “I was with you when you got that! Isn’t it from some anime that you like to watch?”

Brian grinned and handed Brian and Roderick a couple of baseball bats with barbed wire wrapped around the top.

“Here-use these to defend yourselves with. I just so happened to have those because of a zombie event that I went to.”

Ian rolled his eyes, secretly grateful that Brian was weird enough to have weapons like these. Then, cautiously, the five of them stopped out of the van and started to make their way down the street.

The residents looked at them curiously and with a bit of alarm, and a mother of two quietly dialed 911 about a shady group of people walking down the road with weapons. As they continued down, the figure of Kishnu started to become obscured by a mist, and the fog became denser and denser the closer they got. Soon, they could barely see much around them, and they started to stand back to back, readying their weapons.

“What does the house look like?” Jordyn asked as they crept forward.

“It’s a blue house with a red rusted mailbox and a fence that-.” Roderick started to say, but he was interrupted with a screech. A dead looking woman flew at them, her white dress billowing behind her, and her mouth elongated in an unnatural scream. They all scattered, and Roderick found himself already separated from his friends.

“Crap!” he muttered. “Guys! He’s trying to seperate us!” he exclaimed.

“Roderick!” he heard Holly cry.

Immediately, he ran towards her and put his hand on her shoulder to see if she was alright.

“Holly? Are you ok?” he asked, concerned. Holly’s neck made a 180 degree turned, and as she smiled, a green goop seeped out and maggots started to squeeze through her teeth. Her eyes were bloodshot, and blood started to drip down her cheeks like tears.

“Do you want that kiss now?” she rasped, grabbing him by the face with abnormal strength. Roderick tried to pull away, and he went to hit her with his bat, but she grabbed it with her other hand despite the barbed wire. He could see blood spilling out from underneath her fingers, and he tried to pull away his weapon with no avail.

“Pucker uuuuuup.” she smiled, bringing him close, more maggots and beetles crawling out of her mouth. Roderick gagged, trying to figure out how to counteract this.

Then, something hit the woman in the side of the head, causing her to let go. Standing there, gasping and gripping her crowbar, was the real Holly. She had a couple of scratches on her, but otherwise, she looked fine. Roderick did not even get a chance to say thank you, when she grabbed his hand.

“Come on!” she exclaimed. “That didn’t even knock her out!”

As she pulled him away, Roderick looked down to see the maggot ridden Holly pushing herself up, her eyes bulging and giving way to more grubs. The two of them ran through the mist, unsure exactly of where they were going, when they heard another scream. This time, it sounded like Brian.

Even though he knew it could be a trick like last time, Roderick still ran towards the sound.

“Brian!!” he yelled out.

Through the mist, he ran with Holly, and then suddenly, he almost ran right into a chasm that had opened itself right into the road. Brian was hanging on for dear life as a slimy tentacle from some unknown beast tried to drag him down into the abyss.

“Roderick, grab onto him and hold on tight-I’m going to try to get him free!” Holly cried. Roderick nodded and got down on his stomach so he wouldn’t trip in himself, and then he hold onto Brian’s arms. Holly reached down, grabbed Brian’s sword, and then started to whack at the tentacle with all her might. The creature screeched and let go, greenish black blood spurting everywhere, and Roderick yanked Brian up from certain death.

This only seemed to piss the creature off.

Several tentacles shot up after this, reaching for them, and throwing Roderick and Brian to the side. Holly swung the sword in front of her, unsure how to properly use it, and then did her best to back away towards the two men who had just been side swiped.

“You guys ok?” she asked, slicing the tip of a tentacle off.

“Physically? Yes. Mentally? No.” Brian stuttered, pulling himself up.

“You’ll be fine dude. We’ve been through worse.” Roderick told him. “Come on-let’s go replace the others.”

And with that, the three of them ran off into the mist.

As soon as they were seperated, Ian simply closed his eyes and listened for a moment. The first thing he heard, were gunshots, and immediately, he knew that it was Jordyn. He ran to her through the fog, only to bump into her and send them both tumbling to the ground.

“What the hell Ian?!” she growled, dusting herself off. Ian quickly looked around, his barbed wire bat at the ready.

“What were you shooting at?” he demanded. “Where is it?”

Jordyn rolled her eyes.

“I shot it up into the air dorkwad. I figured it would make it easier to replace each other that way.”

“Oh. Well, good idea.”

“Thank you.”

The two of them waited for a moment, seeing if the any of the others would come, but they didn’t.

“Guess we need to keep moving.” Ian sighed.

Silently, the crept forward, and after a couple of minutes, Ian could see the mailbox.

“This is it!” he exclaimed, pointing. “That’s the-.”

“Watch out!!” Jordyn screamed, shoving him to the ground. Ian broke his fall with his hands, scraping up his palms on the asphalt, and then looked up just as a red car soared over their heads.

“What do you plan to accomplish by coming back here?” a familiar voice asked. Jordyn and Ian picked themselves up and looked over to a spot where the fog was not as thick. Shannon stood there, her eyes glowing green.

“Shannon-come on-I know you can fight back against this guy.” Jordyn said carefully. “I don’t want to shoot you. Think of your kids.”

In response, Shannon threw back her head and laughed.

“This woman has no control.” she sneered, raising her clawed hands as blood dripped down her nose. Ian and Jordyn dove for the ground as a mini van rolled across the gravel, barely missing them. Jordyn stood up to go against Shannon again, but Ian grabbed her by the arm.

“Jordyn-we can’t go against her like this. Our best shot is to stop Hector.” he told her. Jordyn grit her teeth, knowing he was right, and then sprinted across the grass to the blue house through the fog. The two of them slammed the front door shut behind them, and then stood there panting and listening.

“Wait a second. If-if she’s throwing cars around, you don’t think that she’d…” Ian started. Jordyn stared at him for a second, and the then the two of them rolled into the hallway as a car crashed through the front wall.

“Shannon!! Stop!!” Jordyn yelled. “Come on-I know that-.”

Another car rolled through the front of the house, and Ian looked up as some of the ceiling started to fall down on top of him. He threw his arms up in defense, while at the same time, someone pulled him out of the way. He expected to see Jordyn standing there, but then saw his younger brother.

“Oh hey bro.” Ian said, feeling relieved.

“Hey.”

He was even more relieved to see that Brian and Holly were with him, but Jordyn was nowhere to be found.

“Jordyn!” he called out into the dust. “Where are you? Roderick and the others are here.”

“Just go-.” they heard her cough. “I’ll free myself. Go after this Hector guy.”

Ian didn’t want to just leave her there, but he had no choice as Shannon appeared again, blood trickling out of both of her nostrils now. The four of them ran through the back of the house, and then into the backyard, where they could see the storage shed in the corner, the door open.

“I bet you he’s in there.” Roderick growled, running forward.

“Roderick! Wait-.” Ian ran after him, followed by Holly and Brian. Roderick ran into the storage unit, and sure enough, Hector was standing in there, smugly leaning against the back wall.

“I see you brought your friends.” he said, unimpressed.

“Watch out!!” Everett cried from a corner. Several people attacked them at once at that moment. Ramona hopped onto Brian’s back, causing him to scream and flail about not wanting to hurt and old lady, Joey grabbed Holly by the hair and bashed her face into the wall, and Shaq became engaged in a fist fight with Ian and Roderick.

Things became even more complicated when Shannon showed up and started flinging rocks everywhere.

Holly felt a rock hit her in the face, and she could feel her eye swelling up where she had hit the wall. Joey went to grab her, and she dodged and tripped her, feeling bad that this person she barely knew was now rolling on the ground. She looked up, and then saw a familiar face in all the chaos, simply standing there.

“Akaysha!!” she exclaimed as Joey wrapped her arm around her neck.

Out of everyone, the girl was doing nothing, and it was only now that Hector seemed to notice this.

“What are you doing? Kill them!” he yelled at her, slapping her across the face. The girl did not fall or react, her eyes blazing green. Her eye twitched.

“N… No…” she struggled to say, her hands shaking as she tried to break free from the man’s spell. Hector grabbed her by the hair, focussing more of his attention on her, his eyes glowing green as well. Holly felt Joey lessen her grip on her neck. Her eyes grew wide. It was probably hard for him to control this many people at once, and he was getting distracted that Akaysha was breaking free. Holly elbowed Joey in the stomach, and then stood up.

“What? You can’t control a little girl?” she yelled as Joey wrapped her arms around her again. Hector looked as if he was going to blow a fuse.

“Do as I say!!” he screamed, throwing Akaysha to the ground.

“I… I… I’m stronger… than you…” the girl managed. Hector picked her up by the collar and slapped her in the face again, causing her lip to swell.

“You little-I’m going to make sure that-.”

BANG!!

Everything suddenly went silent. Joey blinked and released Holly. Ramona jumped off of Brian and started examining her shoe. Shaq staggered in mid punch, and Shannon collapsed and was caught by Roderick. They all looked around, confused as to what had just happened, and then saw Jordyn standing in the doorway, her gun smoking. Then, they turned to Hector, who was on the ground, blood pooling around his head. Jordyn lowered her gun.

“It was just easier this way.” she panted.