Alright, sorry for the long period of silence–it’s been a busy few weeks. That said, let’s get this story finished!
***
He couldn’t keep up–he just couldn’t. Dan was huffing and panting as he shoveled coal into the furnace, the flame always calling for more–more heat, more power,but Dan just couldn’t keep up, no matter how fast he went, and even in his muscled form, he was growing tired, and the flame wasn’t happy–it wasn’t happy with him at all, but all he could do was shovel as fast as he could.
At the top of the stairs, David sat, hmming quietly to himself as he watched Dan work away, one hand tracing the horns on his head, as he considered his next move. It wasn’t Dan giving him pause–he knew he could take Dan under his control in a heartbeat–no, it was the furnace, the center of the house’s power which had him worried. The flame was nearly as great a trickster as his master–and if he wasn’t careful, he could be undone. He decided that the best course of action would be sabotage, and so be began a low tune, matching the pace of Dan’s work, the muscular man naturally falling in step with the song, and then, when David was confident that he was ensnared, he began a slow decellerando, watching as Dan struggled to move quickly, but his feat couldn’t leave the pace set by David’s music.
Below, Dan could sense that something was wrong. He knew he could move faster than this, and yet it was almost as though he the air were made of molasses, and the flame–oh was the flame angry with him now. Fear gripped his heart as Dan realized he was failing in his duty, but there was nothing he could do, and though the flame tried to urge him on, there was nothing Dan could do as he slowed to a crawl, and then froze in place, David holding his single note as he watched the flame in the furnace die back, running out of fuel in a matter of minutes, until it was just a flicker once more.
He’d done it–he’d really done it. David danced down the stairs now, knowing that the furnace was too weak to tempt him while his master’s song protected him, and spun a little jig around Dan’s still frozen body. “So Dan, this is where you disappeared to, I see. Well, don’t worry, you’ve been found, and goodness, with a body like yours, I’m sure my master would love to play with you. So how about the two of us march out of here and pay him a visit? It’s over now, the demon has lost–so let’s go play!”
David raised the pipes to his lips, ready to begin a new song when a flare of fire erupted from the furnace, striking the wooden pipes and incinerating them to ash in a moment, and immediately, the songs enchanting David and Dan unravelled, the massive worker free to move once again, as David stumbled back, free of the satyr’s influence, the horns gone.
“You hurt the flame,” Dan growled, stalking towards David, “You hurt the flame, and now I gonna hurt you!”
“Dan, fucking snap out of it man! We have to get out of here,” he said, scrambling back, but he was too slow. the giant grabbed him by the ankle and hauled him back, dragging him to the furnace burning weakly, but far from dead. David, lacking the protection of the satyr’s magic, found his eyes pulled to the fire, and hatred–so much hatred burned there, anger at what he’d done, at how he’d almost undone all of the demon’s work, and that hatred poured out into him, and he felt himself changing. Like Dan, he too packed on a massive amount of muscle, but he actually shrank to a little over five feet, his face morphing inot that of an ugly troll, greasy hair and beard growing out his head and face as his brain emptied of will and knowledge. He’d done a bad thing, a very, very bad thing, and he needed to be punished, he needed to pay for what he’d done–he could see that now.
Together, the filthy muscular men started shoveling, and together they could shovel far more than Dan had managed alone, finally allowing the furnace to reach it’s full potential, every vent in the house blasting heat, raising the temperature to sweltering. Bob, busy feasting under the ghost’s supervision, barely noticed, too far gone in his new life to even notice that the satyr’s song was no longer compelling him onward, and Ken, under the thrall of the master was also unaffected, though they all heard the roar of excited triumph from upstairs. The demon was loose to roam the house, and the satyr, out in the garden lost some of his joyous demeanor. He’d hoped to avoid this, but there was no helping it. “Come on, pet,” he said, to Ken, his newest monster, “Let’s go finish this once and for all.”
***
Alright, here we are–the final battle, and only one of our antagonists can come out on top. So, who’s it going to be?
1) The demon wins out in the end, by a) transferring the stone curse to the satyr and Ken, leaving them trapped as statues in the garden, or b) his magic simply overwhelms the both of them, reducing them to his subservient monster pets.
2) The satyr wins out in the end, by a) Ken killing the demon, while the satyr absorbs his powers, making him the master of the house and everyone within it, or b) he uses a song to ensnare the demon, making him a demon of gluttony and sloth, instead of wrath and domination.
No matter what, this next chapter will be the last one, so pick well! What do you guys want to see?
Bracken's Corner 