How did I get myself into this mess? Howard thought, while running through the thick birch forest that separated his house from his school. He looked behind him, and to no surprise the three bullies he had called names a few minutes ago, were in pursuit not far behind.
Stupid, stupid, stupid! He told himself, Why can't you just leave them alone, do you have a death wish? His thoughts were interrupted by the yelling of the three eighth graders who were gradually catching up to him.
“You little punk!” The tallest one, Thomas, screeched at the top of his lungs. “The moment I get my hands on you, I’m going to rip you to pieces!” And in his rage, he didn't notice the fallen tree that lay on the path the bullies had been following Howard on. With a giant crash, Thomas fell, head-first into the dry ground.
Momentarily confused by their leader’s fall, Thomas’  two “companions”, Josh and Taylor, stopped and waited for him to recover. Thomas, swearing under his breath, pushed himself up off the floor. He was just about to scream more insults at Howard when he suddenly noticed that he was nowhere in sight.
“Where did he go?” Thomas bellowed. “Which one of you saw that little runt run off?” “Come on tell me!”
“Um, we were too busy looking at you boss.” Taylor said.
“Yah, what he said.” Josh replied.
“Ahhhh!” Thomas screamed. “You two are useless! Unless you find him within the next ten minutes, I’m gonna give you the worst wedgie you have ever felt!”
“O-oh ok boss!” Josh said shakily. And with that, he and Taylor ran off into the forest. Although, they never found him.
Howard looked down from his perch on the large tree he had taken shelter on. He looked behind him to the black wings that had sprouted from his shoulder blades. And, with a single thought, they shrank until they were no longer visible. “I guess sometimes being a demon has it’s advantages,” he told himself.
And as he was shaking his head in disapproval of his previous actions, something caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. Something that should not have been on earth at all, a rogue spirit. It was not just any spirit, it was very powerful and malevolent. More powerful in fact, than any other he had ever seen.
There were two types of spirits- rouges, and placids. Rogues were evil creatures born out of the soul of deceased evil humans. While placids were deceased people who wanted to see their family again, so they struck a deal with the devil to be allowed twenty-four hours in the human world. Placids were harmless, and could deal no harm to anyone. But rogues on the other hand, sucked out the life force of living organism, and were attracted to large amounts of anger, fear, and sadness.
Where would such a powerful spirit be heading? Howard wondered, but in a few seconds he knew. “Thomas,” he said taking in a deep breath, “it must be.” And with that, he threw himself forward onto the branch of the nearby tree. He then leaped again, and again, in the direction of where he had last seen the bully trio.
By the time he reached the spot, Thomas was all alone, his companions had been gone a good seven minutes, and he was furious. “Where are those idiots?” Thomas said through his teeth. “The moment they get back, I’m knocking their heads together!” He looked around to see if either of them had come back, but neither had. That's when he saw the spirit.
A white, barely human shaped figure with a dark purple glow around its edges appeared from behind a large birch tree. The moment Thomas saw it, waves of fear and nausea rolled over him in tsunamis. “Wh-what is that!” he said, while slowly backing away from the approaching evil. He looked around him, and saw a fallen branch around the size of a baseball bat, quickly he dove for it, picked it up and yelled, “D-d-don’t come any closer! I-I’m not afraid of you!” to reassure himself.
But  the creature did not heed his warning and proceeded toward him faster than it had before. Thomas felt paralyzed, and not a muscle in his body was heeding his commands, and he fell to his knees in despair. And just before its  glowing hand touched Thomas’ head, a blinding light appeared from above.
Howard knew that rogues had three weaknesses- silver, demon flame, and salt. So when he saw the monster approach, Thomas he shoved his hands in his pockets, rummaging for something he could use to distract it. And in his back pocket he found a spare devil flare, a demon flame bomb. “Perfect.” He said, and without a moment's hesitation, undid the safety pin, and threw it at the spirit.
  The flare exploded into a white cloud of light, with specks of black demon flame speckled throughout. The spirit looked up alarmed, and rushed to the safety of a nearby tree, for it knew that a single touch of the flame would burn away his soul.
And then Howard decided to show himself. He sprouted his wings once more and floated down to the fallen Thomas. “Well, that one is smarter than most,”he said.
“How can you be so casual, that thing almost killed me! And why do you have wings, and what did it want with me?” Thomas exclaimed through steady streams of tears. “I’ve never been so terrified in my life!”
“Dude, you need to work on your inside voice.” Howard said rubbing his ears. “Also, that's a spirit, it wants to suck out your life force, but don't worry, you will forget this all by tomorrow morning.” He cast a sleeping and short term amnesia spell over Thomas. And with that, the big man fluttered his eyelids and fell into a deep sleep.
“Well now that that's taken care of,” Howard said turning around to face the spirit, “it’s time to deal with you.” He summoned his grimoire from his room in the demon realm, and flipped through its pages looking for a spirit extermination spell. All while the rouge slowly floated closer to its previous target.
“Aha!” He exclaimed, “Here it is!” The musty old pages of the book began to glow as he began the incantation. And all around him, the trees and plants whose life was being drained by the spirit, slowly ceased to be giving it energy.
The creature realizing that it’s power supply was being cut off, howled in anger and lunged towards the sleeping human.
“I don’t think so,” Howard said and with a final word, completed the incantation, incinerating the spirit right before it wrapped its hands around Thomas’ throat. Howard took a breath of relief.
“Well this sure has been an eventful day,” he said and began walking back to his human mother’s house.