Then I heard the door to the room being smashed from the other side. The door held true, and I heard the monster howl before trying to smash it again. I could hear the door creak and I could feel dust falling from the ceiling. I heard the monster try to smash the door open again but this time it was accompanied by a howl of pain. After that, everything was quiet. No hammering, no smashing, no howling. Everything was quiet, apart from our own heavy breathing and sobbing.

"Is it gone?" I asked Vicky as I loosened my hold on her.

The Half-Lilin
By The Light Of The Moon
Chapter 3
by Shin Eris
Proofreading by Stanman63

"Ricky, I'm taking the car, OK?" Tell said as she led my son out the front door.

My son. I like the sound of that. Tell was wearing a black velvet dress with one of Mom's 'princess' ruby necklace. I also noticed that she was using the twin pigeon hairpin I made for her last Christmas. When I made it, I made sure to give her a very strong compulsion to wear it every time she went out. Unfortunately, it wasn't strong enough to override her strong sense of style, so she never used the ruby hairpin whenever it clashed wrongly with her attire.

"Sure, don't let little Vicky out of your sight."

"I'm not you!" she said, probably referring to yesterday's incident at the mall. I accidentally managed to lose little Vicky after a visit to the ice cream parlor. When Tell got back from the powder room, she was so furious she practically kicked me out of the chair I was sitting on and told me in no uncertain terms to look for him. We found him back at Baskins-Robbins, gazing longingly at the many different flavors offered. I was so glad to have found him that I bought him another cone of ice cream.

"I said I was sorry!" I shouted as I heard the front door close. Tell had a 'hot date' with Liz and she was dying to show Liz her new nephew. Frankly, I couldn't see what the appeal was. I thought girls wouldn't bring small kids on dates.

The moment Liz and little Vicky left, I changed the channel from Cartoon Network to HBO. Seeing as there was nothing on the tube, I changed the channel to Discovery Channel, booted up my laptop and tried to do my work with the sound of seals, or penguins in the background. For some reason, I just can't do any work in a totally quiet environment. I was making some good headway with my work until the bell chimed.

When the bell chimed again, I shouted, "Tell, would you open the door, please?"

Again the bell chimed. "Tell! Please open... oh, right. I forgot you're out. Urgh, guess I have to do this myself."

I got up from the floor (I had a habit of sitting on the carpet barefoot instead of the couch) just as the doorbell chimed again, "Coming!" I said loudly.

Grabbing the door and opening it halfway, I said, "Yes, can I help you... Oh, it's you. What do you want, Chris?"

He pushed the door open (and me aside) and simply strode in like he owned the place. I was mighty pissed off.

"Chris! I never said you can come in! Get out!" I said as I pulled on his left hand, trying to pull him out. It only achieved the opposite effect as he simply pulled me to him in one quick move, causing me fly into his waiting right arm. Then his left arm went around my waist.

"I said we're going to talk later, didn't I?" he asked as his right hand squeezed on my upper arms. I looked up at him from my half fallen position and just couldn't help but admire his strength. If only I had half his strength, we would probably still be friends.

"Now, where's this son of yours?" he asked as I freed myself from his arms.

"None of your business! He's my son, I won't let you lay a finger on him."

"Oh? And who is going to stop me if I want to?" he asked as he took a step towards me.

"I will. You want to hurt my son, you gotta get through me first!" I said as I also took another step forward.

"I can live with that," he said in response as he grabbed my upper arms and proceeded to give me a soul-scorching kiss. I probably took a bit too long before I pushed him away.

"What the fuck was that?!" I said as wiped my mouth with the back of my hand.

"Well, you did say I have to get through you before I can see our son. So I thought, fair enough. I just need to get the mother to approve of me with the son. So that's why I kissed you. Have I won you yet?" he said with a huge grin.

"OK. One, there's a damn lot of things wrong in your words that I don't even know where to start correcting you. Two, I am not a 'mother'. Three, he is not 'our' son. Four, who gave you the right to kiss me?"

"Well, your mom said it's OK."

"Excuse me, did you just say my 'mom'?"

"Yup, she even bought us the house I'm staying in now so we won't have to spend any of our hard earned money buying another house."

"Wait wait wait. That big house in South Pasadena, the one you're living in now, that was Mom's money?"

"Yup, every single penny. Except for the decorations, that was my money."

I'm going to kill Mom. I'm going to kill her twice. And then twice more.

"Why'd she bought you the house? She didn't give me a cent when I rented this one last time."

Chris shrugged. "She said this house is not suitable to raise a family."

Great! I change my mind. I'm going to kill Mom thrice, then thrice more. Calm down, Ricky. You don't want to lose control and push your fangs and nails out again. It was damned hard to get myself to be calm enough to retract the fangs and nails this afternoon.

"So, can I see our son, now?"

I glared at him and said, "He's NOT your son! He's MY son. You have nothing to do with him. Now, get..."

It was at that point that a red pigeon flew in through the open window. I knew that bird. It was the same one I 'sacrificed' to make Tell's hairpin last Christmas, except that at that time, its color was gray.

Christ whistled. "Wow, a red pigeon. I've never heard of a pigeon with red feathers."

I raised my left hand and the bird flew to it and gently landed on the palm of my hand.

[*][*][*]

"Was that a fun movie or what?" I asked little Victor as I held his hand while we walked to our car.

"Vicky like monkey. But ghost is scary." he said, gripping my hand a bit tighter.

"Ghost? Hum, you mean the mummy?"

"Mummy? The mummy was pretty."

"Mummy? Pretty? But the mummy was... oh... hahaha, no honey, that was a different mummy. I'm talking about..." It was at that moment that my cellphone beeped, indicating an incoming message.

I looked at the screen and read the message. It was from Liz. "Oh great! Now you're telling me you can't go out, after I've waited for you for over an hour!" I deleted the messaged and put it back into my handbag.

"Who you talking too? Aunt Tell?"

I bent over to put my face right in front of little Vicky's. Then I touched his cute little nose lightly with my forefinger and said, "Now, don't you worry about that. Hm, what do you say we go for some late dinner?"

"But Momma said all good boys go to bed early."

"Oh, you poor thing..." just then I stopped walking as a large dog, probably some kind of wolf breed blocked our way. Through the dim overhead lights, I could see foam dripping from his mouth and his red eyes watching our movements.

In my book, foamy mouth always means a rabid dog. Which means he's ready to bite. I can probably survive a bite or two, but little Vicky most definitely can't. Seeing how intent it was at eying little Vicky though, I just knew that he was its first target. I slowly unzipped my handbag as to avoid making a sound, and grabbed the pepper spray I kept in there. I hope I could fire it accurately when it pounce. I gently pushed little Vicky so he'd be behind me. I have to give the boy credit, he didn't cry or try to run. Running from a dog is probably the worst mistake anyone can do. I sure hope such an option was available though.

The moment the dog couldn't see little Vicky though, it turned its red eyes on me and snarled, showing his foamy fangs. When he reared up to pounce, I took out the bottle of mace, shook it lightly and held it firm. Instead of pouncing though, it transformed into a bigger dog, bigger than a man and it was walking on its two rear feet instead of on all fours.

I staggered backwards as images flew around in front of me. Images so unsettling, of demons and and creatures of light, of talking flames and faces in the mirror. Countless images appeared in front of me, countless voices, some I knew, some I didn't, until it settled on one image.

[*][*][*]

"Shhh! Quiet... don't cry, Tell." Vicky said to me. She was about to cry herself, her eyes were full of tears.

"Why? Why did she kill him?" I asked Vicky. We were sitting together, huddled in fear inside her wall closet.

"I don't know, I don't know why Mommy would do that."

"No no, that's not your mom, Vicky. That's a monster. That monster has eaten your mom. That's not your mom," I said as I hugged her tighter. I tried my hardest to hold her tight, so her shaking would stop. Then I realized that it was me that was shaking, not her. I was shaking and I didn't even realize it. But I couldn't stop it myself.

I touched the wound on Vicky's left leg. It was still sticky with dried blood from the time the monster slashed at it with its claw. We only managed to escape because I pushed the cupboard down to fall onto the monster's back, allowing us to escape upstairs. We blocked the door with everything we could find. Dressers, cupboards, chairs. We know it wouldn't stop the monster, but we hoped it would at least give us some time. I don't know what we're expecting for, probably some kind of help. The neighbors can't be all that deaf to not hear all the howls and noises made by the monster. If help is going to come at all though, I pray it will come quickly.

Then I heard the door to the room being smashed from the other side. The door held true, and I heard the monster howl before trying to smash it again. I could hear the door creak and I could feel dust falling from the ceiling. I heard the monster try to smash the door open again but this time it was accompanied by a howl of pain. After that, everything was quiet. No hammering, no smashing, no howling. Everything was quiet, apart from our own heavy breathing and sobbing.

"Is it gone?" I asked Vicky as I loosened my hold on her.

"I..." she wasn't able to continue her words as a pair of furry arms punched through the back of the wall closet and pulled her away from me, at the same time tearing a large hole in the back of the wall closet.

I was dragged through the hole into Vicky's parents' bedroom as Vicky and I was still holding each other's hands tightly.

"Don't let her take me!" Vicky cried. The monster was pulling her out of the second story window by her waist. Not two seconds later, the monster jumped out to the yard, carrying with it Vicky and me. I could literally feel my bones break when my body hit the ground hard, but still I didn't let go of Vicky, and he didn't let go of me.

The monster was dragging us across the yard when we stopped moving. I looked up at Vicky and instead of Vicky's face, I saw the monster glaring down at me with its red eyes. I could only watch as I saw one of its big hands came closer to my face. Then I saw the big hand shook before it was pushed to the side by invisible hands.

"Don't you dare touch my daughter, werewolf!" said a voice from my left. In my adrenaline filled brain, I wasn't able to make sense of the voice at the time, but I was nevertheless glad to hear another human voice.

I looked to my left and all feelings of relief was washed away. The voice that I thought to be human, was actually the voice of a demon. A flesh and blood demon with wings, horns and tail, in the deceptive form of a beautiful blond girl in the early years of teenhood.

The monster roared at this demon. It then let go of Vicky and charged at this demon that was making some kind of gesture with both her hands. Just as the monster was about to throw a punch at the teenage demon, the demon straightened her arms forward, releasing a blast of whitish mist that hit the monster with such a force that the monster flew above my head and smashed through the garden door at the side of the house.

Then another demon, one slightly older swoop down behind the younger demon. "Mistress, the barrier is secure. As she's only a few hours old, the only way she can get out will be by killing me," she said with a hint of pride.

"How secure?"

"Total physical, audio and visual. We're in our own world. As far as anyone else knows, it's just another boring night of Bridge."

"Perfect! Let's go," the younger demon then started walking towards us.

"Tell, let's get out of here, they're going to drag us to hell!" Vicky said as she tried to pull me to stand.

"I can't. I can't feel my legs."

"Get up, Tell!" she said as she started pulling me backward. I could feel her limping from the wounds on her left leg.

In my fear, I didn't realize that I gripped Vicky's hands a bit too tightly that she grimaced in pain, "Vicky! Help me, please. Don't leave me here!"

"I'm not leaving you, but we must go, come on!" she said as she pulled me hard, dragging me slowly across the grass away from the two demons that were walking towards us.

"Vicky, stop doing that! You're only going to make her injuries worse. Healing is so not my style," said the younger demon who appeared to be annoyed.

Vicky, in her stupidity, chose to stop and ask, "How do you know my name?"

"Vicky! She's a demon. They all know our names. Father Aston told us it's how they corrupt humans, remember?"

"Father Aston? That silly old fool? The only thing he knows for sure is how to mix whisky with ginger. How dare he spread such lies about us," said the younger one again.

"Well Mistress, it is one of the most common misconception widely accepted by the church."

"VICKY! Snap out of it and start moving!" I yelled at Vicky when I noticed that she still hadn't moved.

"My little star, stop fighting. Your injuries are too serious. Come, let Mommy have a look," she said as she knelt in front of me. I was too afraid to move.

"Who are you? How do you know us?" Vicky said from behind me, her hands still holding mine tightly.

"How can I not?" the younger one said as a pinkish glow appeared from the palms of her hands, "I fetched you and my children from school almost everyday."

"No, only Mrs. Willows fetched me from school everyday."

"Well, there you go."

"Mommy?" I said as the meaning of her words sunk in.

"Yes, Sweety?" she looked up at me, then one of her hands moved to touch my forehead. In reflex, I moved my head away from her hand.

"OK now, WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? I was just going to check if you had any head trauma! WHY THE HELL DID YOU MOVE AWAY?"

This time, my trembling became obvious even to me.

"Mistress, mistress, calm down. Remember, this is your daughter. She doesn't know any better. She didn't do it on purpose," the other one said. She had both her arms around the younger one's waist.

The younger one took a deep breath and said, "I'm calm, I'm calm. Get your hands off me!" she paused and then said, "Do I look that scary, Shaina?"

"Well, you do exude a sinister presence in this form, mistress. You looked like you were about to eat the poor girl just now."

"I did not!"

"Yes, you did, mistress. Wanna bet? The girls can be the judge," the other one said with a grin.

"You know, I'm this close to putting you on muffdiving duty for the whole year."

"Heh, anything you wish, mistress," she replied with a smirk.

Totally ignoring her, the younger one asked me if I was hurt elsewhere, after fixing my legs and my lower torso. Her tone was soft and kind, almost like Mom's, but the voice was different, echoey and piercing, very unlike Mom's. When she saw me wince at every touch, she exhaled and exploded. When the smoke was gone, mom was sitting where the younger demon was just now.

"Mommy!" I said as I threw my arms around her. I stopped trembling the moment she put her arms around me.

"Shh, it's OK, sweetie. Everything will be fine. I'll make sure of it." Then she kissed my forehead.

"Vicky," Mom said. When Vicky didn't reply, she repeated it twice.

"Yes, Aunt Sandy?"

"Where is your father? Is he still at the office?"

Vicky suddenly burst into tears. As she wept and wept, saying 'daddy', 'daddy', 'daddy', I told mom what happened. All throughout my story, mom pulled me and Vicky to her and rubbed our heads.

"So Arnie's dead?" I nodded.

Mom looked at the other demon. "Guess we're too late, Shaina. It's just cleanup now."

"Well, we would've arrived much earlier, mistress, if you didn't insist on waiting for Acapulco Bay to finish. And don't forget about the werewolf."

Mom simply glared at the other demon. That's mom, alright. I don't see what's the big deal with those soap operas, but mom apparently loves them as if they're her other children.

"Speaking of werewolf though, are you sure she hasn't escaped yet? She's awfully quiet."

"Positive, Mistress. She did try the barrier a few times and... there goes another bump... she's trying to break through the barrier, but as I said, the only way she can get out would be by killing me. I suspect she will make her move soon."

"Well, let's not waste time then. I have Beverly Hills 90210 waiting in an hour," mom said as she shooed both me and Vicky from her lap. Mom then got up, grabbed her throat and pulled on it roughly, revealing the demon underneath.

"You ready, Shaina?"

"Yes Mistress."

"Alright! Let's go kill a werewolf."

"Mistress, you seem awfully giddy. Have you forgotten that this is your neighbor we're about to kill?"

"Details, details. That uptight bitch has been annoying me for years. Now I have a valid reason to... woooah!"

I watched as the monster downed mom with the full force of its huge body. Mom was using her right hand to hold the monster's neck, pushing its jaws away from her. Her other hand was holding the monster's right arm in a tight grip, while her tail did the same with the monster's other arm.

"Bad doggie! Bad bad doggie! Awh! Your breath smells like shit. Get off me!" mom said as she kicked the monster's stomach.

The monster didn't even seem to notice her kicks. It was too obsessed with the idea of biting off Mom's head.

Mom released a violent breath of bluish flame from her mouth at the monster's head, but the monster simply shucked it off as if it was merely stale air.

"Get off me!" Mom yelled again, "Shaina, what are you doing standing there like an idiot?!"

The other demon, Shaina, made a face of mock shock and said, "You need my help, Mistress? I thought you made it clear so many times that you don't need the help of, and I quote, 'a damned kid'." She made the 'quote' sign in the air with her fingers.

"Oh, fuck you! I'll do this myself," Mom spat in anger. Even from a full yard away, I could sense the venom in her words. I wondered if she was really mom. Mom never said any bad words and she was always polite to everyone.

My musings was interrupted by the flashes of lightning and the roars of thunder from the sky.

Then a bolt of lighting shot down from the sky, was stopped somewhere above the house for a second before it hit the ground, creating a small crater. Then another bolt of lightning struck not very far from us. It would've probably hit us if the demon Shaina didn't block the lightning bolt by raising a wall of earth between it and us. "Oh shit! She's serious. Poor doggy," the demon Shaina said with a sad face as if showing pity.

A minute later, with the roars of thunder and the continued flashes of lightning in the skies, mom made a loud banshee-like shriek that caused me to cover my ears in fear of going deaf. At that same moment, a great white light emerged from mom's body, raising high beyond the clouds. The pillar of white light blew away chunks of the monster's flesh as it punched through to the sky. With its fur soaked in its own blood, it howled in pain and backed off from mom's body.

"I'll deal with you later," Mom said, looking at the demon Shaina. She looked mighty pissed off.

Mom then raised her left hand, waited until something glowed on her palms and then swiftly brought it down. A halo of dim white light dropped down from the sky and hovered above the ground with the monster at its center. She closed her left palm and the halo quickly closed in around the crouching monster, until it yelped like a whipped dog as the halo crushed its body.

Then Mom turned to us, her right arm outstretched and flexed her fingers with the palm pointing upwards. A second later, I heard a loud scream from behind me. I turned around and saw the demon Shaina thrashing on the ground. Her body was covered in a very visible crackle of electricity. It looked extremely painful.

"You should know better than to betray me, Shaina. I'm sure you know that I don't tolerate traitors. My great great grandmother already showed me enough treachery to last a thousand years," mom said in a voice as cold as ice.

"Didn't... betray... Mistress..." the demon Shaina said as the crackles of electricity shocked her body continuously.

"You were about to let the werewolf eat me. If that's not a betrayal, I don't know what it is."

"Mommy, stop! This isn't you. Please, this is not you!" I said as I stepped between mom and the demon Shaina. I had no idea why I did that.

Mom looked at me coldly. "Step aside, girl. This is not the place for chivalry." Then she pointed that same hand at my heart.

Just then I heard a very loud explosion behind me, like a sonic boom of sort. I was thrown forward from the impact, landing just a few feet away from mom.

"Seems like you've learned well, Shaina. You used the distraction that my daughter provided to free yourself from my Static Field. For that alone, I'll give you a second chance to prove your loyalty. It's good to know that my lessons are not in vain," Mom said as she used that same hand to psychically lift me and send me back next to Vicky.

"Mistress, I didn't betray you. Your sense of judgment has been overcome by your hunger. This is withdrawal effect, Mistress, not you. Snap out of it!"

"Don't raise your voice at me, Shaina, or you'll find that your second chance is nothing more than simple words. Now silence!" Mom said as she turn to the monster and produced something that glowed brightly in the night. It was awhile before I noticed that it was a glowing white feather.

"Mistress, is that what I think it is?"

"If you're thinking 'angel', then yes, you're correct. It's an angelic essence I acquired during the demonic possession in an Ursulan convent in Aix hundreds of years ago. I've actually been saving this for something bigger, but I guess this is as good a time as any to use it," mom said with a sigh.

"Won't the cherubs notice its usage? My barrier is not good enough to contain angelic power."

"Probably, but angelic essence is the only positive power strong enough to totally purge negative power."

"We can wait until daytime, sunlight is a more powerful positive energy."

"And miss Beverly Hills 90210? Out of the question!"

Mom then took to the air as she raised the angelic essence above her with both hands. Then she fed the angelic essence with some kind of black smoke from her body, covering some of its light. It didn't last long as the light dispersed the smoke-like thing. She repeated the same thing five more times until it glowed brighter than the full moon. I noticed her coughing blood in the latter three attempts. She smiled at me, as if saying farewell, then she threw the angelic essence at the monster. I had a very bad feeling about this.

"SHIT!" cursed the demon Shaina as she attempted to run past me.

Shaina didn't get very far when the angelic essence hit the ground and exploded in pulses of very bright light. Unexpectedly, the pulses of bright light didn't feel at all hot. It felt warm, like summer, and filled my heart with joy. I closed my eyes to enjoy the feeling, and rubbed my skin as if bathing in the light. When I felt a tingling sensation on certain parts of my skin, I opened my eyes and noticed that with every pulse of light, all my wounds both old and new disappeared as if it was being washed away.

I was temporarily blinded as the angelic light faded out, leaving me in a relative darkness. When my eyes adjusted to the lack of light, I saw three bodies lying on the ground. One was Mom's demonic form, one was the demon Shaina and the other body belonged to Vicky's mom.

"Mommy!" Vicky cried as she ran to her mom's side. She wasn't moving.

"Ohhh, that hurts," Mom said as she got up and sat cross-legged on the grass which somehow seemed a bit longer than before. A pinkish glow then slowly covered her body.

"Shaina, get up! We're going to have to do cleanup now. It won't do if the cops find out they have a werewolf killing her own husband," mom said as she got up to stand herself. The only response from the demon Shaina was a loud moan.

"Oh you're such a drama queen. I don't need an actress here, Shaina. Get off your arse and start helping me clean up this mess. I don't want to miss Beverly Hills 90210."

"You could've warned me before you threw the angelic orb at me, Mistress. I thought I was going to die. That was mean," the demon Shaina said as she got up to stand unsteadily. I noticed her body was covered in the same pinkish glow that enveloped Mom's body earlier.

"You should've gotten plenty of warning. I enhanced the power of the angelic essence a few times, didn't I? Now I want you to change their memories of this. We'll make it appear as if Vicky's dad shot her mom, then attempted to shoot her in a fit of insanity. Not a very nice memory, but totally believable. I'll have to go into the house and make it appear as if it was damaged by a number of shotgun shells instead of a the claw marks of a werewolf. And remember, my daughter wasn't here."

"Aye aye, Mistress Biatch," the demon Shaina muttered to Mom's back as she turned to me.

"Please, what are you going to do to us?" I said with a bit of tears in my eyes.

"I'm sorry, Stella. It's better this way, you don't belong in our world," then she pressed her forefinger to my forehead, "Now sleep, Stella. It's nice to see you again. Say hi to your brother for me if you by any chance managed to remember this again."

Then everything went dark as a sharp pain grew in my stomach.

[*][*][*]

I opened my eyes and the first thing I saw was the upper arm of the furry monster. The same one in that memory. It had its claw in my stomach and the only thing I could hear was a distant child-like voice and the sound of my own dying heart.

"Pat! Pat! Snap out of it!" I came to consciousness as I recognized Chris standing in front of me shaking my body by my upper arms. I never thought I'd say this, but it felt good to see his face.

When it finally registered in my mind what I just saw, I gasped and ran to the keys rack. I was dismayed to notice that the keys for my car was missing and only recalled belatedly that Tell was taking the car. How the hell am I going to save Tell now?

Then I looked at Chris and suddenly got an idea. "Chris! Did you drove here from South Pasadena?"

"Yes, why?" he asked, suddenly wary of my question.

"I need to borrow it, give me the key," I said as I extended a hand to him, palm upwards.

"Nu-uh, nobody drives my Mercedes other than me. What happened to your car?"

"Tell used it. Please, I need to borrow your car."

"And as I said, not gonna happen. Unless of course, there's something for me."

"I can't believe you're asking for money at a time like this!"

"Not money, a kiss."

"You just stole one when you came in."

"Well, I want another one, one that you willingly give."

"Not bloody likely."

"Then the same answer goes for you. Not bloody likely."

"I'll kiss you later."

"I don't take debts."

I groaned at how much of a jerk he was being. "Fine! You'll just have to drive me there then."

"Works for me, where are we going?"

"Saving Tell and my son," I said as I gripped the pigeon hairpin tightly.

Please let them be safe. Please let me arrive there on time. Please Mother, let me have the power to save them.

---

To Be Continued...

*As always, comments are always appreciated. Thanks to Stanman for the proofreading and suggestions.