A Demon's Heir

25 ii

Alice leaned back in the chair she was sitting in, the front legs of her chair raised in the air. Her eyes were closed as she commented. "I would do anything for junk food right now, literally anything. Definitely pizza."

"I agree, in fact I'd eat anything." I replied nonchalantly.

The gnawing feeling in my stomach intensified. Now that the adrenaline had worn off and I'd burned off a lot of energy, hunger was a monster clawing at my stomach and growling every so often.

"Do we have food?" I asked.

Alice leaned forward, the legs of the chair hitting the floor with a defined clunk. Standing up with a creak of leather, she said. "I'll go check. I'll bring you some if there's anything,"

The witch left the room and I listened carefully as I heard her footsteps sounding in the hall. Even after I couldn't hear them anymore I still continued to listen. I didn't know why I was, I just found the lack of a human presence odd like a hole in the room. I'd felt that since Mordis had appeared in my room. I was simply afraid he'd come back. Minutes crawled past and I felt that terrible presence rising again. It was distant but it was clear enough for me to feel that it was definitely in the house. I felt like Mordis was just creeping around the corner to the hallway, his hands dripping with crimson liquid, scraping a dirtied palm across the manor's walls, staining it with Ichiro's blood. I felt like the deer trapped in headlights, the rabbit before the fox, the boy before the shadow... waiting as he poised to kill me-

"There was still a little bit of broth left from earlier," Alice said ripping me from my thoughts.

I jumped, completely unhinged. My eyes turned to the girl and I saw she held two bowls of steaming food. Handing me one, I noticed the quizzical look on her face.

"Hey, you OK?" she asked softly. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

I stared into the swirling contents of the bowl, the broth lapping against the sides of the ceramic. I wanted to tell her but I couldn't because of the promise I made to Ichiro. My chest burned with anxiety and I bit my lip, the broth slowly becoming the most interesting thing in the entire universe. A lump grew in my throat as I looked up again, tearing my eyes from the food.

"I thought I heard something. Turned out to be nothing."

"What did you think it was?" she queried.

"A spirit," I replied truthfully. "One of the evil ones. I had a close encounter with one earlier and it's gotten me scared."

"And what did it say to you?" she asked, her voice as gentle as summer's breeze.

"It gave me a warning. One that I've reported to Ichiro," I mumbled.

"If you've told him, could you not tell me?" she implored.

I lowered my eyes again. "It's not my business to tell, Ichiro will say if he needs to."

"So it's like a problem only he can solve?"

"Yeah," I replied. "That's it exactly."

She grunted before saying. "You should eat your food, it's not going to stay warm forever, you know."

Alice strode across the room with careful steps and settled back down in the chair. We didn't speak for a while as the spoons clinked against the ceramic of the bowl. My stomach growled in approval as I finished the bowl off. Setting it down on the floor, my eyes drifted back to her. I felt bad for not telling her but I didn't want to break my promise to my brother. But maybe it felt like she wasn't to be trusted by me?