The Short Demon King

Chapter 4

I jerked back out of the falling water, completely startled. It was such a strange sensation, in mere seconds I was already soaked from head to toe. I watched as the water slowly dripped off my fingertips onto the tile floor.

After taking another breath to calm myself down, I slowly shifted my arm back under the cascade of water. I forced myself not to flinch back and cautiously shuffled the rest of myself under the shower head. As I got more used to the water flowing around me, I began to play with the droplets, watching them flow between my no longer clawed fingers as I tilted them towards one another. I could finally control something again.

As I stood there, completely mesmerized by the water, I heard Kevin ask from outside the door, "Most of the clothes I have will probably be too big, so I'm gonna go search some old bins. Are you doing alright?"

"Yeah, I figured it out," I answered, brought back to reality.

Remembering the goal of this shower, I grabbed one of the bottles off the side. I pressed it randomly until the top part pushed down and another liquid was in my hand. This one was thicker than the water, actually keeping some of its original shape. I plopped it on top of my head and let the water carry it down my body, assuming that would work well enough.

Once all the soap and blood had made its way to the floor, staining it slightly red, I turned the knob back around until the shower head stopped pouring water. I shook myself to dry a bit, splattering water all over the walls. Feeling quite proud of myself for successfully figuring out how to shower, I opened the door and stepped out onto the little rug. I rubbed my tiny toes against the soft fibers, then reached over the counter to grab all the secret towels Kevin had found.

I swaddled myself in the towels, enjoying how fluffy they were. When I looked up, I noticed my own reflection staring back at me. Is this what they call a mirror? I wondered, placing my hand on its smooth surface. The only thing I could recognize of the person staring back at me were those eyes, the same dark magenta I always had. They did appear to be a little smaller though.

Everything else looked as though it belonged to someone else entirely. I even had an unreasonable amount of silver hair descending down my back. I poked at my soft, squishy face, wondering how humans even survived with such flimsy skin to protect them. My skin also looked deathly pale—completely devoid of color. The only creatures with such pale skin were angels but they at least had some similar colors to demons, just a lot lighter.

As I stared into my reflection, lost in thought, Kevin's footsteps approached once more. "I don't hear the shower running anymore. Are you done?" he asked.

I carefully turned to face the door, not wanting to fall and mess up the towels. "Yep, I'm all clean now. I really like these towels too! I can see why you hide them from intruders."

"Hide?" Kevin wondered aloud, before choosing to ignore it, "Well, whatever. I brought some clothes that should fit a bit better. Can you open the door so I can hand them to you?"

I copied the motion of turning the handle to open the door. When he saw how I had completely encased myself in towels, Kevin laughed a little, struggling to stop himself.

I tilted my head to the side in confusion. "What?"

"Oh, it's nothing," Kevin dismissed my question as he placed the clothes down on the counter. "Just put these on and we can do some laundry soon, I guess."

I shrugged it off as he turned to leave. When the door closed, I carefully slid out of my towel cocoon and slipped the human clothes on, noticing that they were quite soft too. It was a struggle to get all my hair out of the shirt, but I eventually got every strand unstuck. After grabbing all the towels off the floor and putting them back on the counter, I glanced back at my reflection one last time and left the bathroom to go search for Kevin.