Demons Among Us

Chapter 9: Dylan

Dylan walked carefully down the dark corridor with their stoned lined walls, he could hear the hissing getting closer as he slowly walked farther along the path. He knew his way around this temple, he had been here before many times and knew what to expect. As he moved toward the loud hissing he drew his long sword and readied to attack. He turned right ready to face the giant serpent but before he could make his first swing the demon queen came up behind him and slashed him with her razor sharp claws, ending his last life.

Godammit said Dylan as he threw down his controller on to the the coffee table, he had been working on that level for a week now, he always got killed by the demon queen, he could make his way through the traps and the serpents but the damn demon queen always got the better of him, but he was not going to give up, he would beat these demons one way or another. He debated giving this level another try but the alarm on his cell phone went off reminding him that he had an afternoon class.

Dylan got up off the couch and stretched, he had been playing for four hours since he got home from his morning class. He was in in his last year of university and only had two courses to finish off his degree, one class in the morning and one in the afternoon and in 4 short month he would graduate university with a degree in mythological  studies with focus on ancient ruins and translations, he was proud the he could understand ancient Latin and he could decipher codes and hieroglyphs, his minor in urban legends drew his fascination to such stories such as the Dover demon, a creature that was sighted on the eastern seaboard in the 70's.

As he made his way along the path that led from his dorm room to Lambert Hall where his class was he thought about the last level of his game. He had been playing demon hunter for months now, it was one of the most in depth games he had played, he had every stat maxed out and had completed every side quest and collected all the scrolls and extras he could find, but he always got killed by the demon queen.

He sat through his class listening to his professor drone on about the ancient ruins built by the first men to settle and they mysteries that surrounded them. Dylan knew this already, hell he could teach the class, none of his professors knew he had been studying urban legends and mythology since he was 13 years old. 

His parents thought at first it was a passing phase but as he spent more time in the library researching and less time with his friends they grew concerned. He remembers when they took him to a doctor who asked him silly questions like was he hearing voices or did he feel like he was someone else. Dylan answered no to all of these, and stated in an innocent 13 years old tone that he just felt a connection to these stories particularly the serpent and demon lore. As he said this he missed the look of uneasiness that passed between his parents.

The doctor told them that he was fine, just an over active imagination and he needed to be involved in social activities, his parents made him enroll in an afterschool computer club. At first he hated it, sitting in front of a screen for two hours, typing command and watching little tricks happen on the computer screen, big whoop he thought.

It was in this afterschool program where he got his first taste of video games, he was watching the scree turn colour for the millionth time when he heard a tap a his desk. He turned to see Simon, he knew this guy from around school but never really spoke to him, he had nothing against him but they just didn't travel in the same circle. He saw Simon slide a disk over to him "load this up dude, and thank me later" Dylan muttered a thanks and slid the disk into the computer, he waited a few seconds then a huge smile came across his face.

He saw a huge demons head appear on the screen, the black and gold horns were magnificent, the demon king look fierce with his crown between his horns and his black and gold cloak flowing over his large extended black wings. Dylan could swore he could feel an erection starting when the title of the game flashed across the screen DEMON SLASHER. Dylan looked at Simon with his mouth gaping open, he saw Simon give a slow nod and a smile.