Demon's Reign (Updating Every Sat & Sun)

thirteen

The tension in the room is incredibly stiff. When they walk in, all the Demons rise slowly, as if not to startle anyone, and they bow to her.

A Demon male walks forward, one she knows well, a Demon General who she would have said ruled this area in hell.

"My Lady." The light green Demon opens his mouth to say something else, but the five shades in the room float forward and the general scrambles out of the way.

"Master."

They stand in a pyramid position, like a battle formation, as the one in front at the tip waves an arm out, his bony fingers sliding out of its folded robe.

Sauda freezes as the dark grave voice slides from nowhere. She stares at it, trying to find a face in its dark hood. The air becomes chilly around her.

"You can hear us?" It asks.

"I'm sorry," Sauda says back, "I didn't know you could talk."

She can feel the people in the room stir but she refuses to take her eyes off of the deadly Shades in front of her. Though her eyes are itching to peek at the Demon General nearby to see if he is close enough to pull in front of her should the Shade attack.

"Only our masters, and those they give power to, can hear us."

"And I am your master—No way. A Shade tried to kill me in my shower not too long ago, there's no way I'm your master."

"That Shade belonged to La Muerte, and followed her orders to kill you. Not all of us follow her, she does not have the power that commands us. You do. You are our Master."

"Since when?" Sauda asks.

Sauda can feel Andra wrap his hand around her arm and gently tug her back until her ear is near his lips. "Are you really talking to a Shade right now? Is it talking back?" He asks,

"Can you not hear him?"

"No," Andras says.

"No, my lady," Kang Dae says.

"You are our Master, since you willed us not to move in the Shadowlands," The Shade says to her.

"Shadowlands?"

"The party that La Muerte held to trap you. Where you ordered Demons to burn down our home."

Sauda could hear anger and pain in the Shade's voice, but her mind was having trouble comprehending. Shades, the death of many Demons, were not just creatures who stalked around sucking the life out of whatever they could, but intelligent creatures only few could hear.

"I didn't give any orders to Shades that night, I was too scared and just prayed for you guys not to move and kill us," Sauda explains.

"You are our Master. We will follow any command you give us, and not just the spoken commands. That night, through your power, you commanded us not to move, and then to go away. So we did."

"So that wasn't La Muerte calling you away, but me, telling you to go away, and you obeyed?"

"Yes, Master."

Sauda stops and looks around at all the Demons, human-looking and other, as they stare at her.

"Anyone else hear him talking?" She asks.

No one moves, just continues to stare at her.

She turns around to her father, but a little voice in the back of her head begs her not to put her back to a Shade. So slowly she steps to the side and turns halfway to keep the Shade in her sight and look at her father.