Flee! The final hour of Sonny Davin

What is fear? Ultimately fear is a powerful human emotion that alerts humans to dangers that threaten one’s safety. However, how does one really know what true fear is? We all think we know the answer to that question. It’s what you felt that time that you got lost in the mall as a kid— parents nowhere to be found. Or rather it's that time you and Tom Cruise were surrounded by assassins with nothing but plot armour to defend you. Those are both very similar situations every person has lived through at some point. Before you know it, those situations become the standard for defining fear; a standard that lets us know when we are scared. Or so one would think.

Sonny let out a shaky breath, one he did not know he was holding in. With his head in his hands, he realized he was sweating. Yes, anyone could say they had experienced true terror but oh how they were wrong! The chilled air that drove daggers into his skin, the darkened room ominously whispering of the dark fate he was due to face. This fear had already turned his once steady and unwavering legs into jello. It was all he could do to lean on the desk and not collapse to the cold and unforgiving ground. Sonny grimaced. It was an unrelenting feeling that was unbecoming for a man of his stature, but it could not be helped.

Sonny did not think himself to be a cowardly man. In fact, he battled the hardest challenges and fought to control the most incorrigible demons daily. It was a miracle he had held out this long and he was proud of it. Despite his accomplishments, Sonny could not get rid of the horrible feeling in his stomach. Something was coming that would wipe out his very existence— it would be devastating no matter how he prepared. Especially recently it had seemed he was surrounded by enemies at every corner, always plotting his demise. Every time he stepped into this building this dark feeling fell over him like a sheet of evil snow. The powers of darkness were coming for him. The demons were watching. 

The room, dark as mentioned before, gave him a little indication of any lurking threats. Dark silhouettes lined the room but like he, everything was silent and motionless. 

Another shaky breath. ‘Everything is okay,' Sonny told himself. All he had to do was predict his enemies' next move. Would they come from the left with swords? Or from the right with spears?

Wait, wait, wait. What do demons even use for weapons? He had to know. If he didn’t, even the slightest gap in details would mean his death. Sonny forced a laugh. Death? What was he talking about, being so dramatic like this? His sweaty hands pulled out a phone from his back pocket, only unlocking it after three attempts. 

“Demons demons, demons.” He muttered to himself, as he typed the words into the search bar. Better to be safe than sorry after all. No one was wrong to get more information about a problem they had. 

He gripped his phone tightly. The buffering bar was loading but loading at a snail's pace. Bad wi-fi reception. His eyes darted around the room— as futile as it was. Sonny's brow furrowed as he looked back at the phone. He didn’t have time for this!

The room lights turned on. 

Sonny squinted against the sudden emergence of light and completely froze up. He was too late! Opening his eyes slowly to adjust to the brilliance of the fluorescent lights, he attempted to bottle his fears down. Sonny gawked at the now open door, his back now a cold sweat. His vision was wavering but without a reason of doubt what boldly stood before him was a demon.

“Mr. Davin?” The demon asked, confused. Sonny could not bring himself to respond. He could only stare with his jaw set and eyes wide. They had come for him in the one moment he was unprepared, a genius move by the enemy that could be compared to the brilliance of long-dead generals in history. The demon took a step back. “Uh, why… Why are you looking at me like that? It’s scary.” 

Sonny risked looking down at his phone. Surely his all-important information request could save him now. He read the first option out-loud. “Demon’s was released by Imagine Dragons in 2012 with their album ‘Night Visions...” 

THIS DOESN’T HELP AT ALL! Sonny almost screamed. The phone clattered to the desk as Sonny grabbed his exasperated face.

“Imagine dragons? Are we doing an assignment on the band?” Sonny’s head snapped back to the door as the demon slowly approached. Sonny stumbled backwards. This wasn’t good, it was cornering him. “Ah right! I had something I wanted to ask you!” 

Sonny remained speechless as he retreated, keeping the distance between him and the demon the same. The demon reached into a bag and pulled out a sheet of paper. Paper outstretched, the demon continued to advance, practically begging Sonny to grab the paper. As if he was going to fall for such a simple trick! Sonny stopped as his back hit the wall. Looking at the demon straight in the eye, he smirked.

The demon stopped, now looking very concerned. “Mr. Davin?”

“Think you have me cornered? How naive!” Sonny took in a deep breath. He was not retreating needlessly as he made it appear to the demon. He may not have a way to fight this demon head-on but he wasn’t going to be captured! Not now, nor ever!

With a confident and brash flip of the middle finger, Sonny laughed and jumped out of the window.

“I just wanted you to read my essay!” The horrified cry of the demon was the last thing Sonny heard as the wind swept him away. Falling was a cold yet freeing feeling he immediately found. Strangely as he plummeted down towards certain doom, Sonny mused that he had always wanted to try sky-diving. Granted this was free fall from a second-story window but who’s to blame him for feeling a little excited? With a small oomph that stole the breath from his lungs, Sonny more or less fell gracefully into the safety net he had prepared.

“Don’t tell me that Mr. Davin actually jumped out of the window.”

Cecilia turned to see a classmate enter the room and join her at the window. Together they watched as their balding English teacher struggled to free himself from the mess of ropes and blankets tied to the trees below. Cecilia, still pale and shaking from the experience, could only look at her essay paper with concern. Was marking assignments really that scary? Her classmate must have read the expression on her face.

“It had nothing to do with you, so don’t worry about it. I asked an upper-classmen and they said that Mr. Davin is always on edge this time of year.” 

‘No kidding.’ was all Cecilia could think.

Many would say Sonny was an uptight and sensible person. He had always been a rule-abiding citizen and on Sundays helped volunteer with the local homeless kitchen. For as long as he could remember he had never broken the law. Breaking the law was something Sonny had sworn to never do. Now... breaking into Hilroy High School’s science rooms apparently never occurred to him as breaking and entering. 

Fumbling through the window and finally landing on someone’s catapult project, Sonny groaned. His body protested as he pulled himself to his feet and managed to close the window he had forcibly opened. He could see a few students, demons rather, muttering to themselves in their groups as they passed the employee parking lot— likely asking themselves which idiot was breaking into the school during broad daylight. To be honest, Sonny would have to admit he was an idiot for this— but in his defence, he was an idiot with a traumatic memory. Put anyone in his position and he could guarantee that they would act the way he had all day.

With the relief of knowing that no one was in the room for an ambush, he made his way for the door. The room clock read eight-ten. At that knowledge, a part of Sonny wilted. It’s not like he could continue to avoid the enemy as he had been. However, was a high-stakes mission that he would be willing to go to any lengths for. At the very least he wanted to avoid being drenched in blue paint… like last time.

Sonny shivered in his memory. The last battle had been short but fierce and deadly. He had nearly lost his life after all. A demon by the name of Jayden had manipulated Sonny with his allies to the point of the attack. That attack had Sonny scarred for the rest of his life. Never again would he trust another soul, not even the teachers he had once felt the pride to have as allies. No… they could be in on the plot as well.

Click.

Noise at the door. The sound of keys jingling followed by the turning of the lock. What’s worse? It was the door Sonny currently had his hand on. Panicking, Sonny could do nothing but wait in horror as the door slowly creaked open. With a stack of papers balanced in hand and buttered bread hanging from her mouth, the recent addition to the science department —April Moore— could only offer a rather confused eyebrow raise. Not that she needed words. Sonny knew exactly what she was going to ask. Where is the book on martial art techniques I lent you, Sonny? Why haven’t you returned my ‘Pranks for dummies’ book yet Sonny?

Why isn’t she moving though? A thought occurred to him after they continued to stare at each other. What if it was not actually April? Yes, yes, now that he realized it, April's hair was never blonde! Ah, what a fool he was to almost fall for this!

Sonny began to chuckle to himself, shaking his head. Yet another plot to lure him into a false sense of security. It almost had him he had to admit, though whoever this was had done a fabulous job with the make-up. They even got those three freckles under her eye down to perfection. Ah, what lengths the demons would go to!

Sonny wiped the sweat from his brow and gave a knowing look to the woman in front of him. Not-April gave him an unamused look and tapped her toes to the ground.

A second later, Sonny found himself rushing past the slender woman and into the hall, seeing an opportunity of escape when Not-April spared a moment to look at her watch. Blood pumping with exhilaration, he turned to meet Not-April’s what’s that for? look. He could ignore that though— he was free, not trapped in the classroom after all. None could get in the way of his freedom!

“Mr. Davin?” 

Sonny whirled around to face the voice. Coming down the nearby stairs was the demon from earlier, followed by a shorter and more sturdy built demon. They already found him!? And the demon spawn multiplied their numbers!

Flying options through his head, Sonny took one look at the two closing demons and dashed away through the hall. His exhilaration continued to climb, spurring him on even more when he heard Not-April order the other two demons to “Go after him!”

A chorus of uneasy agreements responded to Not-April, followed by the dull thuds of running footsteps. Unease and slow at first but soon picking up speed.

That’s right, be afraid to chase me! No-one will catch me! 

It was only thirty seconds before Sonny began wheezing.

For what felt like an hour-long chase, Sonny found himself locking the heavy gym doors. As the chase went on, the pursuing demons had called upon others until a horde was following him. They sure liked to lay the plot on thick, didn’t they? It was like a scene out of the walking dead— minus the rot and dead people.

On second thought Sonny was sure he could find at least one or two of the horde that felt dead inside.

He breathed a sigh of heavenly relief, catching his breath for what seemed like the first time all morning. The sweat was now coming off his brow with no restraint. Clearly, he needed to make time to get into shape. That is if he managed to survive this situation anyways.

He could hear the voices outside coupled with the banging noise of fists on the door. Each cry, each hit, reverberated deep to his bones and Sonny shivered, shuddering to think of what would happen upon capture. Every scenario that played in his head went to the same conclusion. Shame and the death of his character. Not even a Shakespeare creation would compare to his tragedy. His legs shook and fear glazed over him once more. There was nowhere else to run.

Oh, how he longed to be elsewhere! Somewhere that was far beyond the reach of these demon cries. He merely wished this nightmare to be over, to return to his peaceful books and life. Why should someone like he, be forced to protect himself in this manner? Had he not proven his worth to the world?

Ah, but what a cruel world it is! Sonny remembered. It was the type of world that allowed ice cream to fall to the ground in the deadly summer. If such a sad fate was to be allowed, then the world would never know salvation.

Sonny’s focus returned to the door as a realization dawned on him. The banging and voices had stopped. In fact, It had stopped for a minute or two as he took the moment to rest. His eyes narrowed. What were they planning? Did they retreat? No, impossible, those demons if anything were never the type to give up and run away from their prey. 

Murmurs. Sonny cautiously approached the door and placed his right ear upon it. The sound of shuffling feet and then the jangle of… keys? Did Not-April follow after all? If so, running to this gym was the worst idea he could have, especially if Not-April had staff keys.

Frantically Sonny looked around for an idea. Unlike the first time he was cornered, he truly did not have a backup plan here. The door would be open and they would come at him like a flood of terror. His heart pounded hard just thinking about it. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted it by the girl's locker room. Hesitantly he raised his hand, faintly wondering if this would work.

Grabbing his prize he returned to the gym doors in the best defensive position he could muster. This would be his last stand and he swore upon the Sylvester Stalone figurine he bought last week that he would absolutely, without fail, make it out alive. He still had so many books to read, so much work to achieve. The tales of his glory had not yet been sung and until then he was merely just dust in the wind, one grain of sand in the desert.

Once more he prepared himself as the saving barrier came undone, the key of destiny turning the lock of fate. He stilled his resolve. 

As if the world had entered a scene from the matrix, the door shuddered and seemed to open in slow-motion. In the distance, Sonny could swear he heard war drums beating steadily, ramping up the unbearable tension. Ignoring all the peculiar details, Sonny trembled ever so slightly as the first individual crept through the doors. Closing his eyes and committing himself Sonny pulled the pin to the fire extinguisher.

A shout of surprise and anger caused Sonny to open his eyes in an instant where he took in the sight of his victim, covered in foam. Clearly shaking with anger the burly man wiped his face clean with a linen cloth. The matrix effect no longer in play, the school’s Vice-principal marched up to tower over Sonny in mere strides. The door was now cast wide open with gasps from various people outside.

Sonny quickly hid the fire extinguisher behind his back and gave the best apologetic smile he could give. For a few moments, there was only silence until Sonny finally gave in.

“April fools?” He whispered weakly.

“So what does it say the date is?” April asked as she showed Sonny her phone.

“April second.” He replied meekly.

“And so after you joyfully proclaimed ‘April fools’! He dragged you to his office by your neck and yelled at you for an hour?” A meek nod. April looked at the English teacher slumped against her desk once and doubled over to laugh. Sonny could only manage an exasperated expression. He winced, remembering the scolding he got. Due to the previous prank, Jayden Houch masterminded— a prank which ended in Sonny resembling Grouchy Smurf— the Vice Principal had banned all April fools-related pranks. Naturally, Sonny had completely forgotten and was thrown off completely when no trouble-makers had revealed themselves the day before. Making things worse, his imagination had taken things too far when he saw his co-worker in a new style. Sonny slid to the floor all the while April began to sober up. She gave Sonny a penetrating stare.

“Maybe this thought of not letting anyone close to you can be reflected with how you live your life. As a middle-aged man you might be thinking what have you accomplished and then followed by, what have you been doing your entire life?”

“Rude.” Maybe he would egg her car before he went home— blame it on Jayden. Sonny grinned to himself. This day would not end in a loss! So swears Sonny Davin!