Elliot picked it up and put both socks in his pocket. That way, if he lost one he'd have a spare. Elliot took a deep breath. Halfway there. This wouldn't be so bad.
Then Elliot crept up to the top of Kovol's body, standing beside his head. The Demon yawned, revealing a long row of spiky teeth.
He tilted the flashlight just enough to see Kovol's head. All he needed was one hair, so he'd pull it, then get out.
But Elliot hadn't expected this.
There was no hair. Whatever Kovol had looked like when the Pixies last saw him, he was very different now. He was a bald Demon.
Elliot leaned in closer to Kovol. There was no hair on the rock slab, although the way Kovol created a wind with every snore, he'd probably scattered his fallen hair all over Demon Territory.
One hair, surely Kovol had one hair left.
Elliot needed a little more of the light from the flashlight, and he worried because Kovol's snoring had turned to softer breathing. The light probably bothered him.
There! Right on the center of his head. One long, coal black hair that had been lost in the shadows. One hair. That's all Kovol had left and all Elliot needed.
He rubbed his fingers together to get rid of any sweat on them and then pinched the hair between his thumb and forefinger. Elliot held his breath and closed his eyes tight as he plucked the hair.
He had it! Kovol's socks and Kovol's hair. Elliot shoved the hair into his pocket and then raised his arm again to steady the flashlight.
Only something grabbed his arm with a grip so tight that Elliot wondered if it would pinch his hand off.
Elliot looked up and found himself staring directly into eyes as black as the deepest darkness and full of anger that could only belong to something truly terrible.
Kovol was awake.
Kovol yanked Elliot into the air, hanging him by his arm. He yelled out something in words Elliot couldn't understand. They probably weren't words at all, unless there's a word in Demon language that sounds like "Arrroooowwagh!"
If there is a word in Demon language that sounds like "Arrroooowwagh," then it probably means, "It's not polite to pull my hair out when I'm sleeping. Now I have to kill you."
Elliot screamed back at him. Not at him, really, because who'd be stupid enough to scream in a Demon's face? But Elliot did scream something that sounded like, "Waaahh," which, as all humans know, means, "I have to use the bathroom really bad."
The Demon dropped him to the ground and growled, "What have you done?" His voice sounded like the roar of a rockslide down a mountain.
"I needed a hair," Elliot tried to explain. "For the Pixies."
Kovol ran his hand over his scalp. His eyes widened and went from shock to anger to rage. "You made me go bald, human."
"I only took one hair," Elliot said.
"And before you took it, I had hair. Now I'm bald."
If this had been a less serious moment, Elliot would have pictured Kovol in a wig. But it was a very serious moment, not the time for Demons in wigs.
"I'm sorry," Elliot said. "Please let me go."
Kovol laughed. Not in a funny, ha-ha sort of way, but in an evil, prepare-to-die sort of way. "No human goes free from Kovol. And because of you, I will now destroy every human on the face of this planet!"
Well, that's all Elliot needed. To be forever branded as the kid who got Earth destroyed. Who'd want to be his friend now?
"I'll start with you," Kovol said. "It will take a hundred years to fully finish you off, and I will enjoy every moment of it. Where to start? I think with your legs."
Elliot fell to his back. As Kovol reached for him, Elliot fumbled with the flashlight, pulled it out of his pants, and shone it directly into the evil Demon's eyes.
Kovol made a new scream this time. Not of anger or revenge, but of pain. He clutched at his eyes and stumbled backward onto the stone slab.
Elliot scrambled to his feet and raced out of the cave. This time, with the help of the flashlight, he could see exactly where he was going. It was a good thing he hadn't seen the cave before. It was creepier than he had imagined, with moss and giant spider webs, and rats running along the sides of the walls. Something was hanging in a corner of the cave, but he didn't have time to figure out what. And there were bound to be snakes here too. Giant ones with ten heads that had big poisonous fangs.