SERAPH - Demon Hunter

Chapter 1

"So you would say they're what, exactly? Shadows of some kind?" Seraph asked.
"A shadow? I must say that's a very juvenile way to describe them."

"Okay," Seraph said. He looked at himself in the one way mirror where his new partner observed from. He leaned back in the chair and adjusted his silken cherry red tie. "Then let's hear it. If not shadows, what are they to you?"  He put his hand out, palm facing up.

"They're my family. They've been there since the beginning."

"And what is the beginning to you Mr. Howard?" Seraph asked.

"I can't remember a time without them. The earliest of my memories are flooded with their influence." Mr. Howard looked at the ceiling of the plain white room and listened to the gentle hum of the crackling lightbulb. "Yes, they've been with me since I could walk. I was just a pupa then."

"You say pupa," Seraph pointed out. "I've never heard a human refer to themselves as such. You are the child of your deceased parents, are you not? The term pupa is for bugs."

"The term is what they called me," Mr. Howard said. "Specifically making it a point to say 'our pupa.' They were my family."
Seraph shifted some manila folders across the table. "And this is why you murdered your parents all those years ago, is it? You found a new family? It was YOU that murdered your parents, right?
Mr. Howard stared into Seraph without a blink or twitch. "You think me a monster?"
"I don't know yet." Seraph tucked his lips and bit down on them while he squinted his eyes. "I'm not so much focused on whether or not you're a monster; just if you're the type of monster I'm looking for."
"And what does that mean?"
"What do you know of demons, Mr. Howard?"
"Demons?"
"I'm asking if you think these things you've lived with your whole life are demons. Have they, at any point in time, spoken enochian tongues, communicated red or orange runes, or taken control of your body?"
"No to all but one. To clear things up...no...I did not want to kill my parents. I was manipulated into doing it...I don't know how but they made me feel like it was the right thing to do. I only felt it in that instant, and all the other instances they've made me do horrible things. They've not taken control but warped my mind. I'm conscious of my actions and I choose to do them, yet I'm filled with horrible regret when the moment passes.
Seraph's face sank, he pursed his lips and began to slouch. "So, not a demon then. They are known to take direct control. That is clearly not what you've been experiencing."
"You're telling me that demon's exist? And you're telling me the things in my head are not one in the same?"
"Shocking, yes." Seraph sat up. "To summarize; the creatures inside of you are likely phantaurs. I'm assuming you picked them up from a dark set of curtains in a childhood home. They manipulated you into killing your way up the food chain, starting with cats? Dogs? Or was it mice?" Seraph leaned forward. "Well you got to your parents eventually. Phantaurs get more powerful as their host spills more blood. They faded when you were arrested for all seven of your murders. Without all that sweet blood to soak in they probably withered into a pea sized clot somewhere in your body."
Seraph paused for breath and noticed Mr. Howard stared into the wall. He looked directly past Seraph into nothing. His cold lifeless eyes were paired with lips that trembled.
"They want me to kill you. They're saying gouge out your pretty yellow eyes." Mr. Howard said. "But this time I don't want to. They're telling me you're a seeker...and you exist to kill things like us."
"Like them, Mr. Howard." Seraph looked away. "That's progress. I guess they have grown weak, haven't they?"
"If you are a seeker, please kill me." Tears began to build up in Mr. Howard's eyes. "I have done so many horrible things. I have watched my hands take lives and tear loved ones away. Please kill me!"
Seraph grabbed the manila folder, stood up, and tucked it beneath his arm. "I'm done here. We won't be seeing each other again, Mr. Howard. You'll be passed onto the laboratory where you will be cleansed of these creatures. Then your memory will be wiped and you will be returned to society, as a free man this time. No such things as demons and monsters exist, or so you will think."
"What of my crimes?"
"Their crimes," Seraph said. "You'll be given a new identity. Mr. Howard killed himself in prison this morning because the monsters told him to. He was a crazy man, absolutely foul in the head." Seraph grinned. "You won't remember any of it. You'll have a new life."
    "You can do that?"
    "Impossible is every day."
"Well...then I'm excited for that version of myself," Mr. Howard said. "Even if I'll never remember how I got there."
"You have been through a great deal. Someone will be with you shortly, goodbye." Seraph stepped out of the room and came face to face with his partner, Kiyomi Kurita.
"You know Phantaur's can never be cured right? The laboratory is going to vaporize him," Kurita said with bent eyebrows.
"I know," Seraph frowned and looked to the ground. "In his final moments...I think it's better he dream about the life he might have, than the one he will always regret."