Ethereal Madness

Chapter 44- Daemon Game

My eyes shot open. I sat up and yawned.

Where am I again?

In my peripheral, I saw someone offer me a hand.

"Huh? Thank you." I grabbed it without hesitation.

Wait, who is this?

I faced the resident demon who takes joy in messing with me. Her pure white hair inquisitive and golden eyes gave off an air of mystery, all of which was invalidated by her crude smile.

"Oh, it's just you Miss Mya." I rubbed my watery eyes.

"Just me?" She pouted. "What? Am I boring to you now?"

"Sadly no."

"You want me to be boring?" She interrogated.

"I don't know why you're acting like you care " I said. "I know you don't."

She chuckled. "I think I'm supposed to be reading you. Not the other way around."

Is that really how our relationship should go?

"Maybe not, but it's how it's been," She said.

I frowned.

"Had a feeling," she said.

"In any case," I gazed around the room we were in, "where are we?"

By the looks of it, we were in a somewhat extravagant bedroom. The blue and white walls were reminiscent of the ocean, and the wavy baseboards confirmed it was indeed the theme. Several mirrors were porched on different areas of the wall, their frames presenting different sea life. The floor was beach inspired with sand, crabs, and seashells, and there was even a beach ball. Even the fan had drooping green fills that mimicked tropical leaves semi-accurately.

Miss Mya spread her hands out. "Like the room? I'm not the biggest fan of the beach, but I have to admit it's quite nice. Whoever did this was quite determined. Kenós perhaps? No, that's much too obvious."

"What? This wasn't your doing?"

"What part of 'I don't care about the beach' did you not hear?" She nagged.

I frowned.

"See Arthur, between us demons is a little game we like to play. In the event that we ever get together, each person is granted the freedom to design another's rooms. And whoever can guess the designer is the winner."

"Does the winner get anything?"  I asked.

"Not that I remember. But making fun of the losers is rewarding enough to me."

"Miss Mya..."

"What? At least I'm honest."

"Why do you guys do this exactly?"

"Something random to do." She shrugged. "Live long enough and you'll find yourself doing nonsensical things from time to time."

Demons are so weird.

"Whatever. Let's just go meet the rest," I said.

I walked towards the door, and Miss Mya, who now felt like my mysterious familiar, trailed behind.

What Miss Mya said about their competition made a lot more sense when I saw the next room. The beachside design trickled out from our room and stretched out to the middle of this one. Additionally, multiple other designs leaked out from the other rooms and met in the middle, forming a swirl of color. Around the swirl were multiple seats and colorful small couches that encircled it.

It was apparent as we stepped in that we weren't the first to arrive. Tucker was walking towards the center. Tucker's demon, Ami, looked like a model in a children fashion magazine with her black and pink hoodie, grayish-black pants and Neapolitan cap. With her head pointed to the ground, if I didn't know any better I would've thought she was a lost child.