Assumption Ch. 03

The next night, the world froze again while I was sitting on my couch.

Despite being committed to my belief that none of what I had encountered was real, a part of me had expected to find myself returning to that place. This time, I knew immediately what was happening, and instead of wandering around confused, I decided to test the exotic state I was in. I stood up and waved my arms, scattering the light of the room to pieces around me, then reached out to try and catch one.

This task proved to be nearly impossible. Every time I got near a fragment, a mysterious force pushed it further from my grasp, and when I did manage to outsmart the flow and touch one, the slightest contact repulsed them. Just as I thought I was going to be able to trap a particularly large bit of couch in a cupped hand, the fire came and spoiled my attempt.

I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, holding onto one last breath while I waited for it to be over. When I allowed myself to look again, I was back in the dark room, standing on top of the painted circle.

It was the Matron's voice that greeted me. "Kneel, demon."

The gravity of the world felt like it increased by magnitudes. I fell, catching myself on all fours where I spent nearly all my strength struggling to stay on my hands and feet before I figured out to put my knees underneath me. Only when I was properly supporting my weight on my calves did the force pulling me down let go.

I lifted my head to see three familiar figures approaching me.

The Matron stopped short of the circle that surrounded me, no less than a foot outside the edge. The other two women continued to walk, following the lines of the shape but staying just as far outside them. They flanked me, the Follower walking to my right and the Princess to my left, and disappeared beyond my peripheral vision as I remained transfixed on the person in front of me.

She pulled a small black book from the pocket of her robe. "We felt you reach out to us last night. The others believe your visit, and the pleasure it brought us, was your way of honoring your new masters. I am not so trusting. Touching our minds so strongly while still trapped in your infernal realm demonstrates an incredible amount of power. Perhaps you meant to intimidate us with it?"

"I—" was the only word I got out before she cut me off in her usual fashion.

"Quiet, Demon," she said. "I don't need to hear what you have to say for yourself. Tonight, you will prove with actions whether your channeling was meant to celebrate our bond or exploit it. If you can link our aspects from the confines of Hell, you should have no problem doing it while we are all here together. This time, it won't be to live out your perverse fantasies. Instead, you will fasten our potential together so that we may act as three through one. Do you understand?"

I did not, but since I was unable to speak, I had no way to get this point across. Not only had her call for my silence taken my voice but it seemed I was unable to provide any kind of clear communication. I couldn't even form a thumbs down to convey disagreement.

"Know that if you try anything," she continued, "I am prepared to stop you. You may hold dominion over your sphere of the underworld, but there are worse Hells I can banish you to." She paused to let the words sink in.

The tone of that evening was already much different than the first. If this were a dream, it might be fun to explore, but where it would be easy to file away this sort of thing as a vivid nightmare from the safety of my home, it was nearly impossible while it was all still happening around me. Whatever I was being pulled into, be it experienced or imagined, was well beyond my understanding. If I could have been allowed to ask even one question, it might have been easier to endure, but the Matron had prepared no explanations, only threats.

She began to read aloud from her book and as she did, the other two joined in. Their voices didn't blend together like when they repeated the words of the Matron in harmony. They were all reading something different. It wasn't English or any similar language that I could properly try to understand and yet as unintelligible as it was, I found it to be hauntingly familiar at the same time.

The voices became louder. They no longer sounded like they were coming from in front of me and behind. It was as if they were coming from inside my head. Their words soaked into me, weighing me down.

I fell again, flattening myself out on the floor, but that wasn't enough to satisfy the mysterious force that was working on me. It continued pulling me down, pressing me into the concrete. I tried to cry out, but I still had no voice. All I could do was watch the feet of the woman in front of me as my cheek ground into the hard surface beneath it.

Suddenly the force reversed itself and threw me into the air. I looked down to see all three of my captors were positioned in a triangle around the circle. In the center lay a naked man, his arms and legs outstretched toward them. His eyes were closed, and he was so still I couldn't even tell if he was breathing.

It took me a moment to realize the man was me. I had never seen myself from that angle and until then I had been so overwhelmed with my surroundings that I hadn't realized I wasn't wearing any clothing. Searching my memory from my first encounter, I found evidence that I had been nude then, as well.

I instinctively looked down at myself, or more appropriately, the projection of myself that was floating above it all, but there was nothing to see. I had no body or form. The only part of me I had control of was my consciousness, suspended in the air.

The women each extended one arm in the direction of the circle and thin, wispy white tendrils of smoke began to flow from their fingertips toward it. The tendrils touched the outer edge at points that aligned perfectly with the intersections of the pattern and trailed down into it, following the complex lines. A new triangle jumped out at me, one that had always been there but wasn't immediately obvious, before the trail of smoke turned again, continuing to follow the design to my body and finally wrapping around the center of it.

The tendrils began to ripple, swinging upwards as if they were trying to fling me off the ground, but no part of me moved. The recoil bounced back toward the women, equally failing to move them. For just a moment, I became conscious of what my physical body was feeling. Something was wrong.

I tried to get back into myself, waving non-existent arms and legs as if I was swimming, but my position remained fixed. Despite accomplishing nothing, I could feel the exertion. I was growing tired and out of breath. Muscle memory made me try to inhale, but I had no lungs to draw oxygen into. My brain, if that was even still in the equation, was struggling to keep track of where everything was. I had been split in two and all the parts that I needed to calm myself were attached to the half I had no access to.

Instead of accepting that I was a disembodied spirit or some kind of astral projection, I panicked. I was effectively suffocating and paralyzed. The worst part was that there was no light-headedness or encroaching darkness to take away my consciousness and make it stop. I was stuck in the worst part of asphyxiation.

The voices quieted, and I saw the Matron open her eyes and look around. At first, a sly smile appeared on her face, but that quickly faded. "This isn't like last night. Do either of you feel anything?" she asked.

The Princess was the first to answer. "Nothing," she said. The Follower shook her head.

The Matron lowered her arm and the smoke immediately vanished. As quickly as I arose from my body, I fell back into it. Even though my tangible form didn't move an inch, it felt like an impact when I landed. I struggled to breathe, sucking in air in loud, shrieking gulps.

She crouched down so her eyes could find mine. There was no sympathy to be found there. "How did you counter our ritual, Demon?"

I still didn't have a voice to answer with, but I was confident that even if she had released the silence that had been imposed on me, my response wouldn't matter. All I could do was stare back at her, as articulate as a fish that had just been removed from its tank of water.

"Did you take my threats lightly?" she asked. "Do you think I am so afraid to lose five years of work that I won't cast you away and start over? Do you believe you are so valuable that I wouldn't cut out your heart right here and banish you to eternal torment?" Flecks of saliva followed her words, landing on the floor in front of me.

Her speech hit me like a whip. I didn't know what she was capable of, but at the very least she had brought me there, wherever there was, far from the safety of my home. There was no reason to believe she couldn't send me somewhere worse. Faith was not a part of my daily life. If you had asked me if I believed in God or Heaven or angels or demons before this all started, I don't know what I would have told you, but in that moment, I definitely believed in Hell.

She turned to her left. "Find something to collect his blood for the displacement," she demanded. Then, she turned to her right. "When she has it, you'll lift his head so I can cut his throat. We've learned enough from this summoning. The next one will be easier. We'll put more controls in place."

The Princess walked out from her position behind me and crouched down in front of me. "I want to do it," she said. Her right hand lowered to the ground, driving something large against the floor where I couldn't see it. The clanging sound it made echoed off unseen walls. "But let's cut his balls off first."

"Is that an ingredient for something?" The Follower asked. "I don't know that one."

"No, but imagine the look on the next one's face when we show him what we did to the last demon that thought he was smarter than us. If that doesn't convince him to listen, nothing will." She dragged the object along the floor, generating a grating noise that made me shiver. When its path veered in front of my face, I was not surprised to see a large, unevenly-sharpened, dagger.

The blonde's voice trembled. "W-why don't we just get Ambree?" she asked. "Isn't tha—"

The Matron cut her off. "What do you think, Demon? Do you feel powerful now? Will it be exciting for you to feel the cold embrace of metal scraping off your testicles? Will that get you off?" She brought her face as close to mine as she could without crossing the outer edge of the circle

My heart pounded through my chest so hard that I could almost hear it knocking against the concrete floor and I went from having no air to too much of it. I hyperventilated. This time, the world did threaten to fall away from me. Darkness appeared on the outer edges of my vision, pulsing in and out with the same quick rhythm of my pulse. It didn't matter if I was a demon or not. I would face the same consequences for failure.

The Matron touched the Princess' wrist and she picked up her blade, removing it from my line of sight. "Does it have to be this way?" She paused and let hope hang in front of my face before resuming her speech. "Perhaps," she paused again, "we needed this night to help you understand the position you're in. You will submit to us, or you will be condemned to an eternity of brutal torment. An eternity without your sex organs, apparently," She tossed a look to the woman next to her, who laughed. "Blink if you would rather serve me."

I blinked, hard and immediately, and was rewarded with a smug grin. "Maybe I do have the patience to give you one more chance, Demon."

The floor released its grip in time for me to see the telling looks the three women exchanged. The threats and the knife had been a scare tactic, but recognizing this did nothing to resolve my fears. Even if they didn't intend to harm me that night, they had proven they could, and there would be nothing I could do to stop them.

"We will call on you again tomorrow night at the same time so you can help our elder undo whatever defense you have worked out to impede us. Do you understand?" the Matron asked.

I opened my mouth to answer, but no sound would come out. I pleaded to them with my eyes, begging to be released from whatever hex was keeping me silent. There were other ways to signal my understanding that I knew had been released for my use, but I was desperate to talk. If they had let me speak, I would have apologized and explained that I wasn't trying to fight them. I just didn't know what they wanted.

Instead, the Princess grabbed my face and pressed her blade to my throat. "Are you going to be a good little demon, or what?"

That was not the time to take chances. I blinked slowly.

She let go, dropping my head back onto the floor.

"Good," the Matron said. "Do not mistake my patience for weakness. We are your masters now. If you cannot accept that, I will have no problem casting you away and starting over with a more sensible member of your race."

She watched me for a long moment before adding just one word. "Away."

The concrete was replaced with carpet and the woman in front of me was replaced by my television set. I rolled over onto my back and let out a breath I only just realized I had been holding since the Princess touched her dagger to my skin.

Life as a demon was so much easier when all anybody asked of me was oral sex.