Ballet on Glass

Before I Bow

**

"Games, you say? What games do you speak of?"

My skin felt like it was soaked in saliva and grime, and left for days without a bath when I heard its diseased excuse for a voice. The scratchiness and throaty wetness combined with Momoko's feminine chords wasn't at all a combination I'd have loved to hear.

I took a discreet step back as I said, "I-It doesn't matter. Leave her body at once."

Sounds of wet laughter circulated the room, and Mum chose that moment to hurry up the stairs. Then, it occured to me to run, take Mum's hand and have her drive us back home, but I knew I can't be that easy. Besides, I would definitely see the beast again, and worse, on my own premises.

That was not going to happen.

Instead, right as Mum reached the last landing and was about to enter Momoko's room, I shut the door in her face and locked it firmly. Her wild banging did nothing to distract me from my impending task.

"So you went to a holy place, did you? How... disrespectful," The demon growled.

"If you hadn't stuck to me in the shrine and everywhere else after then, I wouldn't have had to. Besides, isn't the shrine a holy place as well?"

My voice rose with each word and I knew I'd have to swallow down fear if I wanted to get this thing to leave me alone. The monsters-under-your-bed theory wasn't very far from this very situation, I reckoned.

So much for swallowing my fear, because the demon stood and limped towards me, its grey, scaly hands and deadly white skin reflecting the little sun rays peeking into the room in a sickly manner. Its pet cockroach ran over the scar again, and I wondered if there was some significant meaning to that action.

When it was but a feet away from me, and my hands grasped the door knob should I need to dash at the last minute, it licked blue, scaly lips and ran its eyes over my face.

"The shrine is not holy, pet. The gods took away everything from me, all because of one single mistake. I had no where else to go...until you invited me."

I scrunched my brows, and my mother conveniently chose that moment to bang real hard on the door, causing me to lurch forward and into the demon's arms.

Screams and the loud slapping of the wind on Momoko's closed window filled the room. I frankly had no idea I could yell that loud, because my voice startled me once more and I scrambled to her bathroom to empty whatever meal had yet to digest in me.

As I sat beside the toilet, I heard scrambles, the clack of a door and a long, monotonous scream before complete silence invaded the room.

Fearing nothing and everything, I got up, my legs shaking convulsively, and left the bathroom... only to come face to face with the demon.

And my mother lay headless at its feet.

*

Static ringing, the kind you get when sudden tinnitus hits, was all I could hear.

I couldn't scream anymore; even my vocal chords have given up on me.

"She interrupted our discussion, pet. It is only right that I shut her up."

A single tear slid down my cheek, then another from my other eye. My feet felt cemented to the floor, and my vision blurred. Seeing my mother dead on the floor, with her head Lord knows where, sucked all the energy out of me.

The ringing continued, and the demon began saying things I paid no mind to. It killed her, this vile thing that dared to intrude into my life.

Suddenly, extreme rage engulfed me, surrounded me like baby chicks would their mother hen, and the next thing I know, I'd climbed the demon's body, my legs wrapped tight around its neck.

The cockroach ran over the scar again, and my unfiltered rage mixed with disgust had me ripping out its skin and the cockroach along with it. Both dissipated into ash the next second, and seeing that fueled my determination even more.

This thing was going to die, and I couldn't care less who got hurt.

All I saw was red when I snapped its neck clean, and watched it tumble with me to the floor. The wind from earlier finally got into the room as it banged open the window and swooshed around the demon. Air and ash combined and thinned, until all that was left on the ground was Momoko's limp frame.

I didn't check if she was alive, because I had a different goal in mind.

Two seconds later, I lay beside my mother, with Momoko's hair scissors firmly lodged in my neck.