collection | jl oneshots

soul

short

inspired by a reddit story. ctto.

in which, jennie is an abused teenager, finding comfort in the demon hiding in her closet.

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My father is someone who only wanted sons in his life. So when my mom gave birth to their first child, he was over the moon, howling in joy. He was named Jeno. My father loved him so much, he begged my mother for another. Finding out she was holding twins, he was excited to have three sons. My father soon became despaired that I came out a girl. My twin was called Jehyun and, I, Jennie.

It was more than obvious that I was dad's least favourite and he never tried to hide it. He and my mom did not stay married. Things could not get worse when he signed for full custody, Jeno being five, and me and Jehyun, two.

He often took them out to go eat or see a movie while I had to stay home alone. He always played sports with them and never let me participate even though I showed interest in what they were doing.

Growing up, my father was diagnosed with cancer and it was known to be terminal. He made a deal with Satan to live the rest of his life freely until old age, but he would have to sell one of his children's souls. And big surprise, he chose me. So no matter what I do, how much I sin or how much I pray, I was always to be destined for hell.

It was about a month after my dad made the deal, when things actually began to happen. It was one night and I tried to fall asleep on my overgrown bed, a ten-year-old trying to fit on a bed that was probably for toddlers, with my feet hanging off the ledge when lying down straight. My father and brothers were watching a movie downstairs. That's when I saw it. It was pale with gaunt, sunken eyes with a gaping mouth. It's long and bony fingers wrapped around my closet door. There was no question that this thing was a demon.

I cried for help, my father storming up the stairs, but did not at all comfort me, instead giving me a good beating for interrupting his movie night with his kids. After that, he called me a little girl and slammed my door, locking me inside my tiny room. I cried the entire night while the demon from the closet simply watched me, unmoving.

Demons watching me became a regular occurrence from then on. Sometimes, it would be the pale one in my closet, other times would be a dark figure hovering over my bed, and on bad nights, a massive figure with horns and glowing red eyes, taunting me through the window. After a while, I stopped being scared of them.

One night when I was fourteen, the gaunt creature was back in my closet, staring at me while I read. It began to make this creepy growling noise to which I shushed it. It then did something it had never done before. While it would occasionally wrap its hand around my slight ajar door, it would never actually come out. Until that night. With one swift movement, it tore open my closet door and stood up fully, revealing it was taller than the ceiling itself. It had to bend its neck in an abnormal way to fit under the roof. I, rightfully, should have been crapping myself at this moment, but for some reason I just wasn't that scared. We locked eyes for a few seconds, and it was kinda awkward than scary so I just went back to my book.

It continued looking at me until my dad decided that he wanted to be a horrible person again, and threw open my door to yell at me for something or other. The entire time the demon just watched. Thankfully, my dad left after slapping me across the face, but I was crying again for the rest of the night.

The demon, who now looked at me with something more than curiosity, looked back at my closed door, trying to see my dad. As I did nothing but sob, the demon just sat down beside my bed, towering over me. Neither of us looked at each other for the rest of the night, I cried while it just stared off in the distance, but I wasn't alone, and that was all I cared about.