Prequel to The Infant's Secrets

Chapter 1: The Portal

Darkness engulfs him as he sits on his throne. I don't need to see his face to know he's bored— he has been for nearly a century. But this time it's different because this time, he calls me over. He extends his arm and I watch as his index finger curls beckoning me to obey. I walk over to him and bow.

"Yes?"

"I'm bored."

Uh... "How can I help, my Lord?"

"Open a portal."

I look up at him then, curious. "To where?"

"We're going upstairs." He replies and normally I would have paid attention to the fact that he said "we", but I was more distracted by the "upstairs" part of his reply to even notice.

"Are- are you sure?" I say it without thinking.

"Are you questioning me, demon?" His voice becomes frightening.

I shake my head furiously. "N-no! I would never!"

"That's what I thought. Now get ready."

I'm confused. "'Get ready'? My Lord?"

"Yes. You'll be joining me of course."

A blush takes over my face and my eyes widen. "I- I will?"

His mouth contorts into a grin, exposing his enormous fangs and his deeply crimson eyes seem to sparkle despite being clouded by scars. "Yes. Now get ready. You can't go to the human world looking like that."

"Y-yes, my Lord."

He referred to the fact that as a demon our attire differed from what would be considered acceptable for everyday wear in the human world. I changed quickly into more professional human attire.

I return to the throne room and see that he's taken a more human form with the addition of the exceeding beauty we demons possess.

"Ready?" He asks and extends out his hand. I notice his black claws are gone and have instead been replaced by fingernails to go along with his human appearance.

"Yes," I say as I take his hand and begin to open the portal.

"Then let's go," he says and I feel as his magic wraps around us.

We arrive in the human world in a quiet explosion of flames. It's the middle of the night and there's nobody to be seen except for the single cat that ran away in fright. I hoped it wasn't so dark as I had never been to earth before and I wanted to see as much as I could.

He lets go and his magic unravels itself from my hand and returns to him. "Well, here we are. Now let's start looking."

"Looking for what, my Lord?"

"Not for what, for whom," when he sees I'm confused he continues, "Someone was calling to me through my boredom. They are why we are here, demon."

I wonder how strongly they must have called out that he came in person. Or maybe he was just too bored to send someone else.

"That reminds me," he says, "that I can't call you 'demon' here. You need a name."

"W-what name?"

He grins and I see that his fangs are much smaller in this form. "I'll call you Amanda."

It was an honor to receive a name since as demons we didn't really have names. Especially not a name given directly from the dark lord himself.