Demon's Alter-Ego Ch. 11-12

I heard Oldavai yell my name in a panic, but then my ears were quickly muffled.

There was a brief moment to think it was nothing like the Eternal She before I was thrown into the chaos of sights, sounds, and smells. My mother's house constructed itself in front of me and I watched as the demon tore her and the dogs apart. I looked around in horror. My hand raised of its own accord to my face to feel her blood splattered over my cheeks and lips. From there it was every demon I killed in a jumble of realistic reliving memories and then it paused to stop on my fellow demon hunter in front of me. Regina. The hunter I killed. Her features and braids stood in sharp relief as she walked up to me, grabbed my palm and slashed it.

The pain was slow in coming even as I stared down at my pale flesh turning red. The sound of my heart pounded in my ears as blood flowed in a gush faster than it would on Earth.

Regina spoke. "Die."

I looked up quickly and she jumped on me with her anathem and gauged my eye. My loud scream followed me to my knees. Blood flowed at an unimaginable rate, but I wasn't falling into unconsciousness. If anything, the pain was a never-ending excruciating wave. She made it greater by aiming kicks at my body. The hurt was so intense that it pushed out all of my emotions crammed into my mind from the melee.

I'm not sure how long I stayed there curled in agony, held prisoner in the Darkness. Eventually, I noticed the black moving over me, trying to devour me into nothingness. I knew if I stayed there in my pain that it would take all of me.

Without knowing how, I pulled myself from my own misery and remembered the reason I was there. I thought of Shorn, hoping my voice would reach him, "Is it enough?"

His voice was like velvet in my mind, soothing, pushing the pain back, 'More than enough. You can stay. The Dark is viscous, but it will purge you. No more guilt as you atone through pain.'

"And what do you get?"

'I get you. Every secret shame you try to hide.'

I made a noise of disagreement, 'Not today.'

The Darkness enveloped me, and I finally fell unconscious.

I woke up curled close to the floor. My blurred sight took note of the immediate surroundings and my body felt a fluffiness under it. Beneath me was a humongous, grey dog bed that, even as I stretched my legs, I didn't reach the edges. I rolled towards the end of the pillow and ran my fingers over the frayed pipping. It felt soft and worn and I used the rubbing motion as a touchstone to help me get my bearings. A vibration on the inside of my skin told me there was a demon nearby, the faint smell of brimstone assailing my nostrils told me it was Shorn.

"Do you want some water?"

It was more evident I wasn't home when Shorn crouched in front of me with a glass. I slowly sat up and reached for the water, drinking tentatively, tasting its minerals. I watched him pull an embroidered, pressed white handkerchief out of his black suit pocket.

He reached for the cup and poured what little water was left onto the cloth. The glass clinked on the floor as he placed it beside the bed. We were staring at each other as I watched him go down on his shins. His smell of sulfur faintly blew between us, and I pulled back minutely, trying to breathe through my mouth.

He leaned over me, "Hold still." With surprisingly gentle fingers he held onto the bottom of my chin while the other side washed the grit out of my eyes. I blinked and was grateful that I could open them without a fog covering my sight. When I looked again the handkerchief now had the color of old blood staining it. He placed it back in his pocket while he looked thoughtfully at me. Suddenly I could smell the odor of ozone and I took a deeper breath to fill my lungs with the scented air.

"All better?"

I didn't know how to answer that. All better? Not really. I didn't say it though. I swallowed instead.

"Don't want to answer that question, do you?" He asked quietly. "I didn't want you in my place of Darkness. Oldavai could have handled it."

Still, I said nothing. I had so many questions and didn't trust myself not to insult or annoy him in some fashion. Those red eyes drilled into me, and his trimmed black eyebrow lifted as if he could hear my internal thoughts.

"Give me your hand."

I slowly raised it to him, and he guided it to his cheek as we had done in his office when he was strangling Oldavai. By repeating that simple gesture, it solidified into a promise of trust between us. "It's just the two of us. The portal is closed, I just didn't want to take you back to Oldavai." At those words he smiled slightly as if he had just told a joke.

I cleared my throat before attempting to speak, "Why?"

"I like to irk him. He's really too easy."

"Where am I?"

"You're in my home. Just a sidestep from my office, or anywhere I want it to be."

I felt the blood drain from my face, "Are we in the ravenous Darkness?"

"Yes." He picked up the glass and stood. The tap of his shoes echoed on the spacious wood floors as he moved to an area where a sink was situated.