Jeremy and Hannah Stop a Cult

Jeremy is a cynical a*****e whose only goal had been to live a normal life. Hannah is a magical genius with the strength of ten grizzly bears on steroids. They've been friends their entire lives.

Jeremy turned left at the street corner and saw Laura standing on the footpath. He slowed down.

What was she doing in this part of town?

As soon as he thought this, he saw something move in the glass of the shop she was standing in front of, and she quickly walked inside with an uncharacteristic frown.

Well now he had to see what was going on.

He walked over to the front of the shop, which seemed to just be a regular bookshop.

He looked through the window, only to see a flash of short, red hair disappear behind the counter.

Despite his better judgement, Jeremy decided to enter the shop, and walked over to the counter to try and figure out just what was happening.

His curiosity immediately changed to nervousness when he saw the small, badly hidden trapdoor behind the counter.

This nervousness was immediately compounded by the distant chanting he heard when he opened it.

‘I should leave.’ He said to himself. ‘I should leave and get someone else to deal with this.’

He was right, of course. As most people who have ever so much as picked up a fantasy or horror novel would know, distant chanting is never a good sign.

But they had Laura.

Yeah, he didn’t really know her that well, but what kind of person would just leave some poor high school girl, particularly one who isn’t involved in that side of the world get taken away to be sacrificed by a cult?

Even he couldn’t just ignore something like this.

Never mind that Jeremy thought Laura was quite an attractive girl, or that she was actually nice enough to give him the time of day! That had absolutely nothing to do with it! Nope!

‘Oh, Jeremy. What are you doing here?’

Jeremy decided that he couldn’t really be blamed for the shriek that escaped his throat when he felt the hand grab his shoulder.

He spun around near instantly, only to face the short, blonde girl who had grabbed him, sending her the strongest glare he could muster.

‘F*****g Christ Hannah!’ He whispered angrily. ‘Why are you here?’

‘What?’ She asked casually. ‘Most people would be pleasantly surprised to run into their perpetually adorable childhood friend in an unexpected place, even if said friend wasn’t an attractive high school girl.’

‘Yeah? Well most people’s childhood friends don’t spend their days summoning demons and dragging their friends over to deal wit-…’ Jeremy trailed off, as pieces started falling into place in his head. ‘Actually, you know what? You might be able to help me here.’

‘Oh? And why should I help you?’

‘How about returning the favour for every time you’ve dragged me over to deal with the horrible demons you seem to summon every other week?’

‘I do hope you’re going to suggest something that would actually interest me soon…’ She said, walking over to one of the shelves and flipping through a book.

Jeremy sighed.

‘Ok, do you see this trapdoor?’

‘I do.’

‘Well, I opened it just before you decided it would be funny to scare the s**t out of me.’ He started. ‘When I opened it, I heard a bunch of creepy, distant chanting, which played a large part in the reason why you scared the s**t out of me… But regardless, my point is that they’re probably some kind of cult. And depending on what kind of cult this is, there might be a cool demon for you in there, or if we’re particularly unlucky, maybe even an Eldritch.’

‘I see…’ She said, closing the book. ‘You have managed to capture my interest, but this leads me to a new question. If this sequence of events is probably going to end with cults and demons and whatnot, why do you of all people want to do this?’

‘I think Laura … might have been kidnapped by the cult.’

‘Who?’

Jeremy, despite all his efforts, couldn’t stop himself from gaping at her blank expression.

‘Laura.’ He said, trying to jog her memory. ‘She’s been in the same class as us since kindergarten?’

No reaction.

‘Red hair? Spends most of her time reading?’

Still no reaction.

‘She’s been trying to make friends with you since grade three, despite the fact that you constantly ignore her?’

‘Oh, you mean that girl you have a crush on?’

‘Whatareyousayingthat’snottrueshutup!’

‘Wow, that was an even better reaction than I was expecting.’ Hannah said, a smug smile already spreading across her face.

‘Anyway, are you going to help me or not?’ Jeremy asked, desperately hoping that his cheeks had remained their normal colour.

‘Sure, let’s go.’ She said, giving him a small nod. ‘If we move fast enough, we might even be able to use your cheeks to light our path!’

He felt himself blush even harder, and made a particularly rude gesture before opening the trapdoor and climbing through.

Before he climbed all the way through however, he thought of something important.

‘Uh, let’s just try to keep some semblance of self-preservation in mind while we do this though, yeah? I really don’t like the idea of being sacrificed to demons.’

‘Sure thing, wuss.’

He sent Hannah another glare, before climbing the rest of the way through.

Beneath the trapdoor was a long, candle lit passage, which appeared to be carved from the stone itself.

He heard Hannah closing the trapdoor above her as quietly as she could. At least she knew how to behave properly when the situation was this serious.

‘S**t… that chanting isn’t for a Satanic.’ She whispered.

‘Yeah, I know. I just heard a f*****g ‘f’htagn’...’ Jeremy replied, cringing at the thought of what was coming.

Because of course it was going to be an Eldritch.

He sighed.

‘Fine, whatever… Hannah, could you pass me a gun?’

He was met with a blank stare from the small girl.

‘Why did you think I’d have a gun? That would be illegal in this part of the world, silly.’

‘What are you talking about?!’ He whispered frantically. ‘You always have some kind of holdout firearm on you!’

‘I thought today was going to be a day off.’ She said, shrugging her shoulders.

Jeremy was barely able to keep himself from slamming his palm into his face.

‘Ok, alright, FINE. We can still do this. Do you have anything that could be used as a weapon at all?’ He asked, trying to keep his panic and frustration from overwhelming him.

‘I have some combat knives…’ She said, reaching into her backpack. ‘And… Oh! I have two trench knives with me too! I forgot that I’d bought these. Here, get these ready.’

She passed me the trench knives, and I took the time to put them on properly.

‘Alright.’ She said. ‘Now let’s go and save your girlfriend!’

‘Shut up…’ He mumbled.

They continued their journey through the passage in silence, the chanting slowly rising in volume. After around fifteen minutes of walking, they heard a low-pitched hum. 

Another five minutes later, they reached the main chamber.

In the centre of the room, Jeremy and Hannah saw three men in green robes and staffs standing around a giant, twisted pillar, chanting with their arms stretched over their heads. Twelve more men in brown robes knelt around them, praying.

Two rows of smaller pillars stood between the men and the chambers entrance.

When Jeremy looked closer, he thought he could see what looked like people behind two of them, but it was too dark to properly tell.

‘Intruders!’

Jeremy jumped at the shout, and looked to the side of the chamber in dread to see another two robed men walking over.

He was surprised, however, when the men stopped at the pillars, grabbing the figures he had been trying to see.

‘Hey, no! Let me go!’

Jeremy’s eyes widened, and he looked over to Hannah, who nodded back with a similar expression.

That was definitely Laura’s voice.

‘Whoa whoa whoa!’ The other figure said, and Jeremy looked over to see the muscular boy being grabbed by the other cultist. ‘We don’t really have to get violent here, do we? Why don’t you just let me and my cousin go? We’ll leave, you can continue worshipping your creepy obelisk, and the whole day can continue exactly the way we want it to. That sound good?’

‘I’ll admit, that is a tempting offer.’ The cultist holding him said. ‘However, you might be able to help us calm the beast when he is summoned. It would be wasteful to let any potential sacrifices escape.’

‘Sacrifices?’ Laura asked, sounding completely horrified.

‘Yeah, well, just don’t say I didn’t try to warn you.’ The boy said, before stomping down on the cultist’s foot, grabbing the cultist’s robes, and throwing him over his shoulder, his head making a sickening crunch as it hit the ground.

Jeremy’s thoughts moved at a mile a minute. Laura and her cousin would almost certainly lose this fight if he and Hannah didn’t step in, but even then, the chances of success were going to be slim. One slip up, and he would likely be killed, or worse, used as a sacrifice for an Eldritch. And honestly, what kind of idiot would involves themselves when the odds of horrible, horrible death were so high?

He was broken out of his thoughts when he saw Laura manage to escape her captor somehow, grabbed her cousins arm, and made a break for the entrance.

They were only a few feet away when another, previously unnoticed cultist leapt at them from the shadows, swinging a machete down at Laura’s face.

Jeremy didn’t even realise he was moving until the machete hit the knuckles of his trench-knives.

Barely a fraction of a second passed before Hannah collided with the cultist as well, one of her combat knives imbedded in his ribcage.

‘What about self-preservation?’ She asked, raising an eyebrow.

‘Yeah, I dunno… F**k it, I guess.’ He replied, sending her a tired-looking smirk.

‘Decent answer.’

As she spoke, Hannah let go of the knife and grabbed the machete from the falling cultist’s hand.

‘Alright, you ready Jeremy?’ She asked.

‘As ready as I could be, given the situation.’ He answered, and they both got into fighting stances as Laura’s captor regained his composure, more cultists running over from the circle to reinforce him.

‘You alright to take the ones on the left?’ Hannah asked.

‘Hey, don’t forget who fights all the demons you summon.’ He said with a small, dry laugh, before rushing at the approaching cultists. ‘Humans are f*****g small fry!’

He ducked under the swing of a cultist wielding a metal rod, before punching him in the gut. The cultist arched forward in pain, and Jeremy took the opportunity to launch an uppercut into his jaw, breaking it.

As he roared in pain and fell back, a second cultist swung at Jeremy with a hatchet. He jumped away from the swing, before blocking the second swing with one trench knife and stabbing him in the collarbone with the other.

Before he could move on, Jeremy was knocked to the floor, and saw that a cultist had managed to sneak up on him and hit him in the side with a cricket bat. Thankfully, he had already been moving in the same direction as the strike to move around the cultist he’d stabbed, so the strike had only managed to clip him. However, now he was on the ground, with the cultist ready to bring the bat down for a second strike.

S**t, and right after he bragged about how easy this was going to be too! Why did he have to end up dying like an idiot like this?!

Just before the bat could collide with Jeremy’s face, he watched Laura’s cousin tackle the cultist to the ground, before knocking him out with a quick jab to the face.

After this, he stood up from the cultist and helped Jeremy up.

‘Thanks.’ He said once he was back on his feet.

‘Don’t worry about it.’ Laura’s cousin said. ‘You two saved us, the least I could do was help you too. I’m Kyle, by the way. Now let’s go help your friend!’

Jeremy turned his gaze to Hannah, who was doing a pretty good job holding off three more cultists, wielding the first cultist’s machete in her right hand and another combat knife in her left. After seeing that she didn’t really need any help, he looked towards Laura, who was hiding behind a pillar. Every now and then, she would glance out from behind the pillar at Hannah and him, looking conflicted.

He sighed.

They still wanted to help.

‘Don’t.’ He said, grabbing the eager looking Kyle by the shoulder. ‘We’ve dealt with this kind of thing before. You two need to concentrate on getting out of here. If you really want to help, get the police over here. If possible, ask for Officer Lyndall, she’ll be able to help out better than you can, got it?’

Kyle hesitated for a second, a concerned expression on his face.

‘Are you sure you’ll be alright if we just leave you like that?’ He asked.

‘We’ll be fine.’ Jeremy replied, pointing back over his shoulder at Hannah. ‘Can’t you see what’s happening behind me? We’ve faced worse than this. It’ll actually be a fair bit easier if I don’t have to worry about you and Laura, and only have to look out for that damn sadist over there.’

As if to reinforce his statement, Jeremy heard one of the cultists start screaming about his arm, followed by an unnerving giggle.

‘Alright, fine.’ Kyle said after a few seconds hesitation, before running over to the pillar and grabbing Laura’s hand.

‘C’mon Laura, we’re leaving!’

‘What?’ She asked, a concerned expression on her face. ‘But… we can’t just leave them!’

‘If we stay here, we’ll only get ourselves killed!’ He shouted back. ‘And you know that if we don’t, we’ll probably only get in their way! Now let’s go!’

‘Bu-’

Before she could finish her sentence, Laura was cut off by an ear-piercing shriek, and every person in the room paused what they were doing to look to the centre of the chamber.

In the middle of the chamber, an enormous creature perched atop the crumbled remains of the pillar.

It was massive, with a hairy, humanoid body, a goat-like head, and a large, reptilian tail.

For a second, I wondered if Hannah and I had been wrong, and it actually was a Satanic, but then I realised something which chilled me to the core.

Instead of the usual, greyish-red hair of a Satanic goat, this goats hair was jet black.

It was a child of the Black Goat.

‘RUN!’ Jeremy screamed to the others, only for the Child to let out another shrieking roar, and leap down from the pillar, crushing two brown-robes in the process.

As he ran, he looked over his shoulder, and realised with horror what it was about to do as he saw it bend over and grab a large piece of the destroyed pillar.

‘S**t! Stop!’ He shouted, grabbing the Laura’s arm while Hannah did the same to Kyle.

‘What? What are you doi-’ Kyle shouted, before his eyes widened as the huge chunk of rubble flew over their heads, crashing into the rock above the chamber entrance and causing it to collapse.

Jeremy, Hannah, Laura and Kyle all stared in horror as their only known chance to escape was destroyed.

‘S**t.’ Hannah swore under her breath. ‘I’m going to have to use that, aren’t I?’

Jeremy looked back to the cultists, many of whom seemed to have finally realised that they had no control over the Child, as they tried unsuccessfully to escape the creature that was ripping them to pieces.

‘It looks like it.’ He replied, walking back towards the chamber. He noticed that, while the brown-robes were being easily slaughtered by the Child, the green-robes didn’t even seem afraid. ‘You want me to take care of those green robes? It looks like the Child isn’t attacking them, so they might have some kind of control over it.’

‘If you can do it without needing to be rescued by a civilian again, sure.’ She answered, a sly grin on her face.

‘Oh, shut your face, you damned witch.’

‘What are you talking about?’ Kyle asked. ‘Why are you calling that thing a child, and what the hell did you mean when you said you’ll have to use ‘that’? Shouldn’t we be worrying about how we’re all going to get out of he-’

He was cut off, however, when Laura put her hand over his mouth.

‘Is there any way Kyle or I can help?’ She asked, a serious expression on her face.

‘Not right now kiddo.’ Hannah said. ‘The grownups are playing.’

She took a few more steps, before she suddenly paused, looking back over her shoulder.

‘Not that I’m not thankful for the offer or anything though, it’s just that you’d probably be killed instantly if you tried anything.’

 

Once she’d finished saying this, she looked back over to the Child, brought her hands together and cracked her knuckles.

 ‘Limiters one through ten. Release!’

At this command, a wave of pressure swept through the room, causing the Child to look away from its current prey and focus on them.

And then the ground it had been standing on shattered as it appeared directly in front of them, one of the beasts gleaming, black horns barely a meter away from Hannah’s face.

And in response, Hannah weaved her way around the horns and head-butted the Child right back.

The creature reared back with a screech of confusion.

Amusingly, similar shrieks of confusion came from Kyle and Laura as well.

 ‘Alright, listen.’ Jeremy said, getting their attention. ‘I get that you want to help, and don’t get me wrong, I am grateful, but there’s a hell of a lot that can go wrong here, and you won’t want to be close by if it does. Find somewhere to hide, and stay there until everything is taken care of, got it?’

They nodded.

‘Good, now get going.’

Honestly, he felt like talking to Laura like that didn’t do a whole lot for any chance he might have had before, but spending his entire life with Laura resenting him was still preferable to spending his entire life without Laura being there.

Probably.

But Jeremy couldn’t focus on that. Hannah had given him an opening, and he had to take advantage of it before the creature regained its composure.

He took off into a sprint, barely managing to duck under the Childs tail as it swung it at Hannah.

He looked ahead, and saw that the green-robed men had noticed him, and they each sent a bolt of magic at him.

Piece of cake.

Sure, to many people, bolts like these would be a nightmare, but once again, Jeremy had been fighting demons on an almost weekly basis. A few bolts of magic from some cultists were easy enough to avoid when you’ve spent so much of your free time dodging demonic blasts.

And, you know, there was also the fact that he’d grown up with Hannah.

Jeremy ducked under the first bolt with ease, before moving forward into a roll to keep under the second one. The third one, which had been aimed at his feet, proved more difficult to avoid, but he managed to make a second roll to the left in time to survive.

He was almost close enough now, only a few feet away.

Realising that he was too close to effectively hit with a spell, the men readied their staffs. The first cultist thrust his staff at Jeremy’s midsection, which he sidestepped with a fair amount of ease. He was almost close enough to give him a decent punch with his trench-knife when the other two joined him, attacking with similar thrusts at the same height.

This was when Jeremy realised something.

These people were idiots.

At least, they were when it came to melee combat.

Literally all he had to do was duck and he was able to completely avoid the men’s attacks, each of them looking on in shock as he punched one of them in the kneecap, breaking it.

The cultist fell to the ground with a cry, as Jeremy sliced the second across their outstretched wrist and punched the third in the ribcage, once again feeling the bones crack.

As he stood back up, he looked over the results of his performance.

The cultist whose wrist he’d cut was trying to run, but with the way he was bleeding, he wouldn’t make it very far.

Still, he’d better follow him to finish him of-

Oh, wait, never mind. The Child just accidentally crushed him with another piece of rubble.

With that out of the way, Jeremy walked over to the other two, who were laying on the ground and moaning, and squatted down next to the one with the broken knee.

‘So, are you to idiots going to tell me how to banish that thing now?’

‘Piss off!’ He spat back, getting a few sizeable splatters of saliva on Jeremy’s face.

Naturally this was the wrong move to make, especially considering the position he was in, and Jeremy decided that it wasn’t outside the realm of reason to do what he was about to do.

And so, with a tired expression, Jeremy started to poke the cultist in his broken knee.

He screamed in pain, which prompted Jeremy to focus on one piece of bone in particular, rolling it around under the skin.

F****r shouldn’t have spit in his face.

‘Fine! Fine!’ He shouted, pulling a scrap of paper with an intricate summoning circle on it. ‘Here’s the sigil we used to summon it!’

‘Thank you!’ Jeremy said, snatching the paper from his hand and getting up.

On his way over to the battle that was raging on the other side of the room, he ‘accidentally’ kicked the man’s leg, eliciting another howl of pain.

F****r really shouldn’t have spit in his face.

‘Hey Hannah!’ He shouted, making sure to remain a safe distance from the fight to ensure he didn’t go the same way as the cultist whose wrist he had cut. ‘I’ve got the sigil they used to summon the Child! Can I banish it now, or do you need to collect any more ‘data’?’

‘What?’ She shouted, before registering what he’d said. ‘Oh, yeah, just wait a second.’

As she said this, she became a bit more aggressive in the fight, which she was already going pretty well in, wrapped an arm around each of the creatures horns, and placed her foot against the Childs forehead.

And then she pulled.

With a horrifyingly painful sounding crack, both horns broke off of the creature’s skull, causing it to throw its head back with a roar of pain.

‘Alright!’ She said. ‘Ok, you can go ahead now.’

Pushing the familiar feeling of utter horror towards the girl in front of him to the back of his mind, was about to rip the paper, when he heard a loud bang and a shout of pain.

A feminine shout of pain.

Wait, what?

He turned around and saw something that made his blood run cold.

There was another cultist, a normal brown-robe, who’d been hiding at the side of the room.

He had a gun.

Kyle was trying to wrestle the gun off of him.

And Laura was huddled on the ground, nursing her arm.

Her heavily bleeding arm.

“Wait, Jeremy!” He heard Hannah shout in surprise, before the now enraged Eldritch swung back at her, barely being held back by her monstrous strength.

It barely even registered in his head though, and the only thing he noticed was when he felt himself sprint across the room towards that f*****g cultist!

And then he came to his senses, something that looked like it might have been a person at one point dead at his feet.

He turned around to see the shocked faces of Laura and Kyle staring back.

‘Kyle, go grab that piece of paper and rip it.’ He said, only realising at that moment how hoarse his throat had become.

‘Bu-’

‘Do it.’ He repeated, cutting off Kyles protests with one of the sternest looks he could muster.

Kyle hesitated, before sending him a slight glare.

‘Fine.’

As Kyle ran over to the paper that held the sigil, Jeremy knelt down beside Laura, who was trying to wrap a torn piece of shirt over the wound.

‘Are you alright?’

‘Y-… Yeah.’ Laura said. ‘It looks bad, but it only really grazed me…’

‘Good, then don’t ever do something that stupid again. You two could have been killed.’ He said, glaring at her.

She looked down, visibly upset, and despite how angry he knew he should be at her, he couldn’t help himself.

‘But thanks.’

She looked up in surprise.

‘What?’

‘Back then, that guy was probably planning to shoot me so I couldn’t banish the Child. If that had happened, a lot more could have gone wrong, and… you know… I’d probably be dead. So thanks.’

As he spoke, he didn’t even have to look at her face to see a grin begin to spread across her face.

‘Yeah, well, I couldn’t just let you die like that, especially when you were trying so hard to save us.’

Jesus Christ he hoped he wasn’t blushing as hard as he thought he was.

‘Hey, are you alright? Your face has gone all red.’

F**k.

‘Wait, you mean we could have banished that thing that easily?!’ He heard Kyle shout in surprise, as the Child froze in place and began to fade away.

‘What do you mean easily?’ Jeremy asked, pointing to his head. ‘Didn’t you see how I had to fight those three cult leaders? All it would’ve taken was for one of them to get a solid hit to my head and we’d have been screwed.’

‘Yeah,’ Hannah said as she walked over, trickles of blood flowing down from the various small injuries on her head and arms, ‘and besides, how could he keep a level enough head to banish it when there were still cultists endangering his one tru-’

‘Shut. Your. Face.’ Jeremy said, having slapped his hand over her mouth just in time.

‘So… Can we get out of here now?’ Kyle asked, eyeing Hannah with a nervous expression. ‘I just watched a teenage girl trade punches with a giant goat demon and survive, which was somehow more disturbing than if she had died by the way, so I kind of want to leave.’

‘It’s amazing that your only question after that would be ‘can we leave’, but sure.’ Jeremy said, glaring at the face behind his hand. He could feel the smug grin growing even larger against his palm.

‘So, how did you do all of that anyway?’

Hannah looked over her shoulder, grinning when she saw how Laura flinched back at her gaze.

“Magic!”

Author's Note

Sorry if it sucks. Might end up being a first chapter. Also, if you don't like swearing, you probably won't enjoy this too much. Or, you know, if you like quality. Anyway, please tell me what you think of it, because I'm always desperate for feedback.

Reviews

[Steve]

Well, first off, I love the title. I dont see its kind around much so I think it is safe to say to me it is quite original. I will comment on the writing in another comment.