Crescent Academy

The Daemn

“Oh my goodness.” Rae stared in horror.

“Stay here, I’ll get it. Remember, don’t move.”

The Daemn could, of course, see and hear us. Demons have very acute senses. It smiled it’s bloody fangs at us and lifted the head of a dead human teenager for us to see. The girl’s blond head was matted with blood, and detached from the body. Bones and muscles hung from the bottom, and an eye was hanging from the socket. The girl’s jaw was hanging open, a silent and final scream of horror. Rae rolled open the window and puked at the sight of the bloodied face. As for me, I have seen worse. Although my stomach did do a little flip when the Daemn ripped the jaw off and starting licking the bloody muscles.

I hopped out of the car; hopping Rae could defend herself even with a weak stomach if the demon attacked.

I looked at the Daemn, they could usually be classified by their appearances. There were probably hundreds of different demon types, and each type had it’s own name. Demons classified themselves by power for their rank, and each rank all appeared exactly the same. Although this one had a humanoid figure, it had matted red and black skin, like dried and crackling lava; a deformed face with a long snout, two slits for a nose and a long mouth in which the corners are beside the eyes, filled with razor sharp teeth. And two strips of black hair growing from it’s head down to it’s heels. A demon of medium strength, one that we called a Horse Daemn due to it’s snout. And it’s speed.

I cursed, I hated the fast demons, but at least it wasn’t too strong…

It smiled it’s triangular teeth, beckoning me with the girl’s head. I approached a bit, headed towards the left to get away from Rae and the car for her safety. When I came no closer, for fear of it jumping on me, the Daemn sighed as it realized that fact. It hopped down from the roof and took a few lazy steps towards me. Then, the Daemn became little more than a blur, running at me with top speed. I drew my sword, jumping out of the way and grazing his arm. The horse demon snarled, rushing at me again. I swung with my sword, but it dodged out of the way, avoiding another cut. It lunged at me again, causing me to back up a step, dodging my sword. Again and again it repeated the same tactic, both of us getting a few cuts on our arms and torsos in the process. With a start, I realized it’s plan. It was backing me up towards the alleys, where I wouldn’t have as much room to dodge. My eyes frantically searched for a way out as the demon gained more and more ground. A wall had already formed on my left side, and he could easily get me if I dashed towards the right. As it ran at me again, I did the unexpected and the stupid. I sheathed my sword and ran at it, jumping up unto it and using it’s head as a lift to get me higher. I soared over the Daemn, hopping to get back into nice open ground. I felt something snag my ankle, and the pavement suddenly greeted my face. I rolled over, nose broken and splurging blood. Through instinct that had been drilled into me for years, I unsheathed my sword again as it approached. It grinned evilly, thinking it has won. A shoe hit it in the face, and it turned to snarl at Rae, who stood outside of the car, her other shoe in hand. The idiot!

 

“Your next.” The brutal, barely understandable voice came from the Horse Daemn. “But I’ll let you watch your friend die fir-” All of a sudden the Daemn stopped and looked down at me, hatred clear in it’s eyes. He didn’t even have time to look down before he dropped dead, my sword buried deep in it’s chest. I pushed the body off of me, digging the sword completely thru it’s body for good measure before taking it out. The blood spurted on me and my clothes, but I paid no heed and picked up Rae’s shoe to hand it to her.

“Oh God, you’re hurt.”

Ignoring her comment, I opened the trunk and started fiddling through my stuff, soon taking out a vial filled with metallic liquid. I poured the contents over the Daemn’s body and into it’s mouth; the body immediately began smoking and fizzing. I got in the car, and after a moment of staring at the fast decomposing body, Rae followed. “What is that stuff?”

I remained silent.

“Ivy? Why are you mad?”

I turned a glaring eye at her. “You’re an Empath right? Then maybe you should just listen to my feelings and shut up.”

“It doesn’t work like that.” She huffed, grabbing a pack of tissues from the little box in the dashboard. She offered me one, but I didn’t take it; so she began wiping up vomit, scrunching her nose in the process. “You really should clean up the blood.”

I snatched a Kleenex and wiped off my face and pulled into a parking lot. I looked into the side mirror and adjusted my nose ever so slightly with a hiss of pain to put it straight again. I got out of the car and grabbed a black sweater. When Rae saw me, she winced ever so slightly. I realized my pull-on had a horned moon in the corner; a Crescent Academy sweater. I cast her a glance and marched into the little 24-hour convenience store; it’s name slightly more creative than Twinbrook’s, being Tom’s Convenience. The store clerk did a double take when he saw me, I had nothing to cover the blood on my jeans.

“I broke my nose, can I have some ice?” I had no idea if it was against Tom’s Convenience protocol to give away free stuff, but the scrawny convenience store guy nodded mutely and fetched me a bag; maybe he was scared or something. I applied the ice to my nose and walked out, calling out behind my shoulder. “Thanks.”  

He seemed to sigh in relief as I left without pulling a gun on him or whatever he expected, and I opened the passenger seat. “You drive; I can’t with this ice pack in the way.”

She nodded and got out, climbing into the driver’s seat. We drove along for about twenty minutes, silently, before she sighed. “Ivy, I can’t take it anymore! What’s so wrong?”

“You really want to know?” She nodded. “You! God damn it Rae; when I say stay, you stay!”

 

She looked bewildered. “I was just trying to help, he was pinning you down!”

“I can handle myself, I’ve been in worse situations; I was trained for this.”

“So was I-”

“Obviously not well! Not once have you fought a Daemn! Oh, and here’s a tip! Don’t throw your shoes at them! You’ll need those when you’re running for your life! And don’t ever, ever move if I tell you to stay! You could have gotten killed. As my charge, I refuse to allow you to get killed.” I turned and glared out the window, giving clear signs that it was to no longer be discussed. A soft chuckle escaped Rae’s lips and I scowled at her. “There’s nothing funny about death.”

“I can feel it you know, the concern under all that anger. It’s sweet, you know, it’s like you’re my new sister.”

Ignoring her, I simply looked out the window, and saw a passing sign. It read ‘Welcome to Niagara Falls, USA’