Midnight Snack
"Werewolves, vampires, zombies... what are you up against?"
There was a pause.
"Demons. I think... but I can't be sure. We've only had one brush so far, but all the signs seem to point in that direction."
Carson leaned across the mini-mart counter, peering closely at the boy. He dropped his voice to a murmur. "Signs, eh? Like what?"
The kid leaned in too, giving the mini-mart a cautious, sideways glance. "The usual," he muttered. "Strange noises, strange symbols, strange disappearances, the occasional whiff of sulfur... they're subtle, but when you've been around as long as we have, you learn to pick up on 'em."
"What's your next move?"
The kid's face went hard. "We go in."
"Guns blazing?"
"Damn straight. Hit 'em quick and hit 'em hard."
Carson whistled softly. "Gutsy."
"Messy, too. Bui somebody's gotta clean up the night. It ain't pretty, bin it's the only way."
A loud crash abruptly shattered the tension of the hushed exchange. Both heads snapped about, eyes hungry for the source of the interruption. It wasn't hard to find. A few feet away another boy stood by a toppled rack of magazines, arms burdened with chips, cookies, candy bars, snack cakes and an impressively unhealthy assortment of dips.
His mouth twitched into a sheepish smile. "Uh... sorry, dude. I'll pick that up..."
"Hey, no worries kid... I'm on it!" Carson ducked under the counter and hurried to the rescue of the Newsweeks and X-Men comics. "Looks like you got your hands full. Besides, I hear you guys have a game to get back to."
"You got that right! We gotta... whoops!" A few packages slipped from the top of the boy's mountainous, teetering armload and smacked to the floor. "Aw, man, the Twinkies! A little help, Kel?"
The boy at the counter hurried to help. He was nearly a head taller, and with his superior armspan was able to rescue the remaining snacks from further disaster. Together they staggered to the counter and unloaded their booty.
Kelly rifled through the pile with a professional eye. "You got the cheese dip. Kit? I don't see cheese dip..."
Kit adjusted his glasses, then produced a yellow jar from his jacket pocket, cradling it tenderly. "I may forget the cookie dough, but never the cheese dip."
Kelly grinned. "Rock on. Got the Dew, too?"
"Got it!" A third boy appeared, his wavy brown hair just visible above a load of sloshing two-liter bottles that would have made a seasoned stock mule shy nervously. He was the shortest of the three by a hair, sturdy, with a friendly smile and confident stride.
"AJ, you're my hero."
The sodas joined the rest of the countertop pile with a sugary thump. The boys stood silently for a moment, surveying the landscape of their sweet desires.
AJ nodded slowly in appreciation. "Where guns and bullets fail..."
"...caffeine and sugar prevail!"
The boys exchanged a resounding series of high fives and knuckle bumps.
Carson slipped behind the counter, surveying the brightly-wrapped, preservative-enriched mountain with a certain measure of pride. "Gentlemen, I'm impressed -- and I sell junk food for a living. Last time I saw this many goodies in one place I was unloading the 5 a.m. truck. What gives?"
"Munchie run. Got an all-nighter going on." Kit began happily stuffing the goodies into plastic bags as Carson slid them over the scanner, a parade of colors, chemicals and additives that nearly dazzled the senses. The rapid, erratic beeping rang through the store in an eery and unheeded parody of a cardiac monitor.
Carson grinned. "Yeah, right... off to do battle with the forces of darkness once again, eh? I hear it's demons this time."
"You got it! And if I know AJ, they'll be the worst of the worst. I swear, sometimes I think he tries to kill us..."
Kelly grunted his agreement, digging some bills out of his wallet as the mounting cost of their feast flashed across the cash register in insistent green. "Yeah -- he puts us through Hell... literally.'"
"So what's the game?"
"Summoner's Song," AJ chimed in. He stood beside his friends, making no attempt either to deny their accusations about his sadism nor to conceal a sinister grin. "And tonight's no ordinary night. We're running an official playtest of Nether Regions, the upcoming supplement for Song. It's got new character types, new rules on midget demons, plus a totally revamped system for determining the effects of failed partial incarnations involving deviant spirits from the Fourth Realm of the Underlands." He drew a new but obviously well-loved book out his rumpled army backpack and dropped it on the counter.
Carson flipped through its dog-eared and underlined pages as the other boys pooled their money. "Cool... 'rhyming vs. non-rhyming chants'... 'Satanic rashes'... 'the effects of demonic possession on daily job performance'... looks like they've got it all covered."
"Yup..." AJ's grin broadened into a hungry smile that had nothing to do with junk food. "I can't wait to try it out..."
"Can't wait to turn us into demon kibble, you mean." Kelly punched his friend on the arm with good-natured enthusiasm and just a little too much of what he was really feeling.
AJ winced, rubbing his shoulder. "Yeah. That's what I mean."
Kelly laughed.
AJ didn't.
Kelly's grin faded and he flashed Kit an uneasy look.
"Great..." Kit's eyes rolled. "We'll be payin' for that one all night. Thanks. Thanks for that."
Carson passed back the book and a handful of change and closed the till. "Well, have fun. Don't summon anything I wouldn't."
"Hey, man..." through the reflection of the plastic bags on his glasses. Kit fixed the cashier with a steady gaze. "Let's get one thing straight -- we don't mess with the Hot Place. Don't get us confused with the Hell Huggers."
"'Hell Huggers?'"
"Yeah, you know... Satanists... cultists... robies, hood-heads, goat boys... call 'em what you like, they're the ones trying to stir up all the chaos. We're here to stop 'em."
"You got that right." Kelly piped in. "Bottom line is, you bring it into this world... we take it out"
"Yeah... that's how we roll..." Another round of hearty high-fives and knuckle bumps followed.
As the others loaded up with bulging bags and continued their animated reverie of impending cultist-thwarting and demon-thrashing, AJ quietly stuffed the rulebook back in his bag. He paused. "Hey... you wanna play some time?"