A Demon's Love | Demon!Shane Madej x Reader

St. James' Secrets

I hath been gone for a long while! Though now I return with an update! Enjoy :)

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Upon arriving at St. James, New York, they checked into the hotel and Raia prepared their equipment. Y/N, Shane, and Ryan explored St. James, biding their time and enjoying the scenery. If Ryan knew what happened between Y/N and Shane, he didn't show any sign of it. Rather, he was more interested in the Slice. 

"Where did you two find this?" he asked. 

"Um..." Y/N answered awkwardly. "Shane got it in a bucket of piss,"

"Gross!" he responded, dropping the Slice on the table. It made a loud crash, bringing attention to their table. 

"Don't worry, we washed and sanitized it last night," Shane assured, picking it up. "Sanitized my hand too. That pee was probably a hundred years old." 

"Right, well, I have no idea what the engravings mean. Obviously, it's some sort of code, but it doesn't match Latin, Coptic, Sumerian, Sanskrit, or any other old dead languages, nor does it match any of our current ones." 

"Really?" Shane agreed sarcastically. "This is probably some generic demon tongue language or something." 

"Not in the mood for your sarcasm, Shane." 

"Cool it," Y/N intercepted. They turned towards Ryan. "I think it's some personalized sigils. Some of these look familiar, like the ones from the book; Lesser Key of Solomon." 

"So we get that book and decode it?" 

"We can't. There are 72 seals, but they're just seals. The sigils themselves are personal. Someone crafted this, long ago."

"So we need a personalized code, huh?" Shane added. "What are the chances we find it?" 

"Not likely." 

"We can at least try!" Y/N exclaimed. 

"Why? It's not like it'll fall out of the sky for us."

"You put your hand in 100-year-old piss for this. Why are you suddenly trying to give up?" 

"I'm not!" he said defensively. "I'm just saying, it's not like it'll fall out of the sky. How do we know the decoding even still exists?" 

Y/N took a sigh of defeat, slouching back in their chair. 

"Look, I'm not giving up. I'm just saying, look at this logically. Chances of the code surviving are one in a million, and how do we know it'll translate into English? Pros take years to decode Egyptian hieroglyphics and the meaning will probably get lost in translation." 

"I know," Y/N said. 

"You guys, let's head back. Raia's done setting up, we can look into it later. Maybe let them know too?"

"Sure. They might know something," Y/N agreed. They paid for their lunch, leaving a nice $25 tip for their waitress, and headed into the forest; the rendezvous location. 

"Hey! Everything's set up!" Raia greeted with a smile, camera in hand. "Ready to enter the forest?" 

"Absolutely not, but when am I ever ready?" Ryan answered. He dove through the trunk and put on a bright yellow construction vest, his reasoning being better safe than sorry. Introductions were made, the usual banter done, and they began exploring deeper and deeper into the forest. While filming, Shane pulled Y/N aside. 

"Hey. About last night," Shane started. And ended. He didn't know where to go from there. 

"Yeah... about that. I'm sorry for tripping on you,"

"No, no. It's alright, you just slipped,"

"And I would've been fine had I fell. You didn't have to try and save me,"

"I don't mind. I'd fall for you any day."

Shane paused, realizing what he had just said. 

"I-I mean, I'd fall to break your fall. I wouldn't fall in love with you. Not that you're bad or anything, you're really cool and I wouldn't mind dating you. Not that I'm trying to date you. I meant to say,"

"I know what you meant. It's all good," Y/N chuckled. 

"...And if they'd stop FLIRTING!" Ryan shouted from up ahead. He was walking backward, motioning his hand for Shane and Y/N to catch up. 

"Shut up! You're the one dressed like a traffic cone!" Y/N retaliated. Ryan tripped and fell back, with nothing but pebbles and dirt to break his fall. 

"Ryan!" Shane shouted, he and Y/N rushing ahead. Raia put down the camera and ran forward as well, rushing to his side to pick up him. 

"You okay?" Raia asked, dusting him off. "You should watch where you're going." 

"Yeah, I'm good," Ryan responded, getting up. "But what the hell did I trip on? It felt too big to be a rock and too small for a branch." 

Upon closer examination on the ground, buried under some patches of grass, was a dusty corner of a book. It stood out, a dark maroon color if you had been actively searching for it. If not, it could've easily been passed without any attention. 

Y/N reached for the book, chipping away at the dirt with a stone they had found and tried digging it up. They succeeded. 

"Y/N, what is that?" Ryan asked. 

"It's a book," Y/N answered, flipping through its crusted pages. It was filled with slightly smudged cursive handwriting in dark ink, dirt in the cracks, the seams near nonexistent. At the very end, a decoder from symbols to English. 

"This, the symbols, look so familiar," Y/N commented. 

"Right, well, we can get back to that later. Are we at the cult site yet?" Shane asked. "As great as that is, we still have a video to film." 

"Right. I'll go through it later," Y/N agreed, gently placing the book in their bag. 

They continued exploring through the forest all afternoon, searching for any sign of cults or demonic possession. According to past eyewitness accounts, cults summoned and opened portals to Hell, often bringing lingering spirits that haunted said cultists. Because of this, not only is the forest considered the most haunted area, but all of St. James is occasionally terrorized by demons and poltergeists. 

There was light evidence of the supernatural in the area, with faint energies around the quartet. Only weak spirits, mere wandering souls, with personal unfinished business living in limbo. They wrapped up the video and went to that night's hotel, where Y/N took out the book and began looking through it. 

"Well? What's in the book?" Shane asked while rummaging through his suitcase. He prepared to shower first, in hopes of avoiding another awkward situation as the previous night. 

"Cursive. I'm no good at reading it." 

"Can I see?" Ryan looked over. "Yeah, I can read this. It's a little smudged but it's a good bit clear." 

"Read it to us, Ryan!" Shane exclaimed. "Make it a bedtime story!" 

"Alright. Next chapter, okay?"

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"Did Ryan break the 4th wall??!?" Yes. Yes, he did. Next chapter y'all can get the diary entries :P

In case you don't remember Raia, they're the cameraperson throughout the entire book. Minor side character, I might develop them some more bc I can, and their pronouns are they/them if it wasn't clear. Gotta have me some representation, y'know?