The Prosecutor: Demon Realm

chapter 5

A month had passed since the incident in the woods, but Hazel couldn't shake off the weary feeling. It didn't help that she dreamt of it every night and would always wake up with a throbbing headache. It kept getting worse every time she had a dream, Which was every night. Her mind was a fog and she felt miserable, on the worst days, she looked miserable too.

It was nighttime again. To Hazel, it felt like the day was too short. She dreaded the night, she dreaded the awful headache she got in the morning even more. Her life felt like a total mess, most nights she'd fight the sleep but it always won, it felt as though she was being pulled into sleep by an invisible force, the harder she fought the stronger it came, any night she tried to fight the sleep they headache doubled in the morning. She gave up on fighting and accepted her faith, she could sacrifice her peaceful sleep for some flashbacks and headaches which went away a few minutes after she woke, it was better than the one she got if she resisted sleep.

In the daytime, she pretended that everything was alright, it's not like she could make anything out of her dreams anyway,  other than the white hair, golden eyes, and a voice, nothing else was clear. She tried her best to return to her usual schedule and almost succeeded if not for the dreams.

"This night better be different or at least let me get a clear image of what's happening" she prayed silently to whatever God that might exist. She lay in her bed staring at the ceiling though she couldn't see it in darkness, her mind was blank, steady and waiting for the sleep to come. She had stopped fighting it a long time ago. This night was different though, her eyes were as clear as the sky on a sunny day, this had never happened before, by this time she should be asleep.

Thinking of how unusual it was to still be awake at this hour, she stood to go collect water from the kitchen, She could have sworn she had kept a glass of water on the stand but when she reached out to the glass it was empty.

"I'll add that to the list of weird things happening this night," she thought.

The walk from her room to the kitchen took only a minute, the cabin was a small one, the kitchen even smaller. The cabin only had three compartments, two were her mom's and her room. The third was the largest which was both the living room, dining room and kitchen, arranged in different spaces. The living room was to the right of the room from the entrance door, there their furniture for receiving guests was arranged neatly. A little bit off the centre, a table and two chairs were placed, and there they'd eat their food. On the left corner was their little kitchen, a stone structure was placed in the centre of the kitchen where all the preparation for cooking was done. To the wall on the left of the kitchen was another stone structure where their stove was kept, the stone structure to the wall had a sink in it. A little compartment built into the wall was also supported by the structure, there they could put firewood and bake or heat the house when it got cold. Under the stone structure to the wall, they stored drinking water in a pot. The arrangement was altogether impressive.

She slowly made her way to the kitchen, navigating by memory and a little light shining into the house through the window. She couldn't afford to light a lamp fearing that she might wake her mother, besides, locating the pots was something she could do with her eyes closed.

After drinking to her fill, she took an extra cup of water to keep in her room on the nightstand, in case she got thirsty again. Returning to her room, she lay on the bed unable to sleep. After a while, her back started feeling numb from lying on it for a long time, she turned to lie with her right side facing the window.

She opened her eyes and out there very close to her window was a dark shadow -  no a man clad in black. She couldn't see any other thing aside from his black attire. "What's he doing there?" She thought. This time she made no move to pursue having given up on her search. Looking out the window again she noticed the shadow was gone. She was swallowed whole by fear, she shut her eyes tightly and started to pray to God that she didn't know if he even existed. When it felt like nothing was going to happen, she opened her eyes slowly. Halfway through opening her eyes, she noticed that the dark figure that was outside her window was now standing right in front of it. She shut her eyes again and continued praying to  God, if there was anything much worse than fear, that was what she felt at that moment. "What was it doing here? What did it plan to do? Was it going to kill me? If I die my mom will be recked" All this rushed through her mind. She dared not breathe too loud, she dared not let her heart go out of rhythm. She just lay still waiting for what she was sure was her on-timely demise.

The dark-shadowed man started to approach her slowly, she could feel him getting closer. He got to the side of the bed and reached out for her placing his hands on her eyes. She felt the touch and resisted the urge to shiver. He leaned in closer as though he was inspecting something and then there was nothing.