Demon Breathing Down My Neck

Chapter Nine: Evil Network

I tense my muscles from my back to my lower right arm. I take a deep breath and hold it. My hand rips upwards off of the concrete. Pink and red strings split in between my palm and the street. My hands' innards are a sticky puddle on the cement. My scream is raw and wild. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

The fake realtor smirks at me. "I will make you believe."

Shakily, I push myself to my feet, red dripping from my palm. Wetness trickles down my raw flesh. Stinging. Burning. Deep burning. "You're a psychopath!"

The fake realtor pauses and strokes his chin. "Am I?" He points at me. "Or are you?" His irises flash into black slits, then shift back to round and brown. "We think everyone who thinks differently from us is a psychopath."

I stare at the deep cuts across my palm. They burn and smart, beginning to go numb. Whitish tendons are slashed in half, little knobs of bone sticking out of red mush. My pinky finger hangs by a bloody thread, no tingling or throbbing. I summon what little energy I have left and push white sparks out of my bruised wrist. They rush over my nasty wounds like a sea of white, glowing ants that are all biting my wounds. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

The sparks prick and blaze over my hand, leaving behind them pristine, pale flesh. Ahead of them my hand is a mangled mess, behind them smooth, unbroken skin. After about thirty seconds, the sparks fizzle out at my fingertips and my hand is whole again. The only thing missing from before is my rainbow nail paint. I grit my teeth. This thing will regret messing with my nails! I just had those done after last time my hand got lopped off!

The fake realtor puts his square jaw an inch from mine. His breath smells like a garden of all of the flowers in the world. Just as quickly, they all rot. He wheezes, "You will join us sooner than you think, sweetie!"

My shield buzzes back out of my flesh and black body suit. My rainbow claws shoot back out of my fingers. I smile fiercely. "Do you seriously believe that?"

His eyes stop twinkling. "I don't think you understand."

"Understand what?! That now my God and I will kick your-" I gasp. It feels as if the walls all around me are closing in. The pressure on my shield grows so much that I have to drop it. I fall to my knees, feeling like the Titan Atlas with the whole world on his shoulders. "Hhh." I can't speak. "Hhh." I can't even think.

The fake realtor's face is like a statue. "I could've done that all along."

The great pressure releases. I fall down at the fake realtor's feet and gasp for air. It felt like I was never going to be able to breathe again. That was so so horrible! Please make it never happen again! The gray street beneath me begins spinning. Oh no, what now?! UuuuuuUUUuuuuuuuUUUUuuuuuuuu. At first, I think I'm just dizzy. But the air around me seems frozen, unnaturally still. I'm staring at the gray concrete. It's spinning. The gray concrete. It's spinning. Yes, it is. The gray concrete. It's spinning.

The fake realtor grabs my whirling head by my hair. "Get up!" He yanks hard on it, causing me to yelp and jump to my shaky feet. "Now, do you see? You never had a chance."

His face is still an inch from mine. I stare deep into the fake realtor's swirling chocolate eyes. They go around and around, like whirlpools in a milkshake. The milkshake is spinning. The chocolate is going around and around. The milkshake is spinning. The chocolate is going around and around. The milkshake is spinning. Around and around. "Hhhh-what-what-hhhh-what do you want?"

The fake realtor flashes his pearly white teeth. "Ha-ha, you're funny. What do I want?" His smile vanishes and he stares at me like ice cream. "You."

My head swirls around like the water flushing down a toilet bowl. Sloshing around and around. Yellow water sloshing around and around and around. "Uuuuuuwhoareyoooouuu?"