Zozo's Children

"We must! The board commanded it!" She was on the verge of tears, half hunched over with stress, and wide-eyed with terror. The old barn had been abandoned after the plague wiped out half of the animals, and left to rot. In the two years since it had become home to various wild animals, and a frequent place for kids to sneak off to.

"We should never have touched it." Jaren, her boyfriend, snarled. "This is all your fault."

"Mine?!" Keelie screeched.

"You brought us out here, and then didn't want to do anything but kiss me."

She fell to the floor sobbing, pressed forehead to the floor, and twisted her hair in her hands. "I don't want to." she gasped out.

"Don't want to what?" Elrik asked, poking his head through the barn door. "Gods Jared, what did you do to her?"

"It wasn't me, it was this stupid board." Jared picked up the letter covered board, and snapped it over his knee. "There, see? Nothing. It's nothing!" He yelled, tossing the pieces at her prostrate form. Her hands untangled and reached out for the board pieces, and held them together. Instantly, the board was a single piece again.

"No... no Jaren, it isn't nothing. We have to." Her eyes, solidly black looked up at him and Elrik. "We have to kill them all." She then fell limply to the floor.

"Kill who? What? Jaren, what's going on?" Elrik looked on the verge of running.



Zozo is a demon who specializes in trapping older children and getting them to commit horrible acts. He mostly uses intimidation to begin with, threatening them, lying to them, but once they've begun, they're his. Roving bands of them leave a swath of destruction in their wake. They show up in town, talking about the horror they just "escaped" from, and ask to be taken in, whereupon they terrorize those who were trying to help them. They begin slowly, starting with the local teens, getting them to join Zozo's cult.