The Stronghold 3: Mikachi

Puppy Dog Eyes Will Be The Death Of Me

I sat bolt upright and hit Sam in the face. He recoiled and put a hand to his nose while my vision steadied and I stopped shaking. Sam still had one hand on my shoulder and the look of concern didn't leave his face. 

"You really do have bad nightmares, don't you?" he said softly. I stared blankly at him as my brain raced to keep up with what was going on. 

"You were screaming," Sam continued. "And shaking, and yelling out, and crying. It was like you were talking to someone. Lucid dreaming, almost. Was it like a vision or something?"

"In a way," I replied weakly. "My dreams and nightmares take me to other worlds and let me talk to people." 

"So you were communicating with someone?" Sam guessed. I nodded but his frown still didn't go. "Why'd you scream when I tried to wake you up?"

"I wasn't in a nice place," I responded. "I thought it might have been a demon or something, trying to keep me there."

"You were literally going to another world?"

"My home world. Home palace, I should say, because that's where I end up every time." I'd stopped shaking and wrapped my arms around my legs, resting my chin on my knees. "It's there, trying to persuade me to come back, to kill people, to be a 'true' demon and to rule over innocent people who have had their lives destroyed once already."

"Whoever it is doesn't sound nice," Sam said.

"It isn't. He never had a name, I only ever called him 'sir' or 'the being' when I was referencing him with other people. I'm not sure if he even has a name."

"What's it like, in the other world?" Sam questioned cautiously. "If you don't mind me asking."

"Madness," I shuddered. "Everything there is a lie. I've lied about my past to everyone who ever cared about me, I've twisted people's memories and I've hidden the palace deep in the mountains so nobody ever finds it. Barely anything about me is real. Heck, I don't even know if I'm real." Without realising it I'd begun to cry. "At the moment I don't want to be real, I don't want to exist, I don't want my powers taken away or to be made human I don't want to stay there I don't want to hurt people or kill people I don't want to be straight in that world I don't want my demon to have a soulmate!" I took a deep breath and tried to calm down. 

"What was that about the soulmate bit?" Sam said in puzzlement. I just shook my head and he sighed. "If you're not going to tell me then you can't help."

"I don't want you to die," I said before pulling him into a hug, burying my face in his shoulder. I was so shaken up by the nightmare that all my guarded instincts had gone out the window and I was a trembling, crying wreck. 

"Why would I die?" Sam asked. I just laughed and shook my head again. 

"You're not giving me much to work on," he said, patting me on the back. I raised my head and looked him in the eye as calmly as I possible could.

"Have you seen how thin I am? There wasn't much to start with."

"That's not what I mean," Sam scolded gently. His expression cleared and he gave me puppy dog eyes. "Go on, tell me what's wrong. I'll try to help."

"You're clearly not real," I said suspiciously. Another frown graced his face and I continued. "You're too nice. You're clearly a fake person." I poked his face and frowned. "No, that feels real." I flicked his nose. "And so does that." One hand played with his hair and my brow furrowed further. "This is real too." I leaned backwards and regarded him thoughtfully, hands on his shoulders. "You seem real... Maybe you're a robot?" I hit his shoulder lightly. "No, not metal. What are you then?"

"Human," Sam replied.

"Not for long, darling," I laughed. He looked confused and I sighed. "It was a joke that only fans of Supernatural will get. Geez, I'm beginning to hate this other worldly stuff. Nobody gets my jokes anymore." I pouted sadly and let my arms fall to my sides. "Not fun."

"Anyway," Sam said, looking more than a little concerned for my mental state, "are you going to explain about the demon thing?"

Again I sighed. "I can't tell you too much," I said wearily, "but I can tell you a little bit. Shaade isn't my real name, my parents are dead, I'm the only demon to be born a demon, I could have been a prince but ran away, I had a relationship with one of the actual princes of my home world, I wiped everyone's memories and was a fully trained assassin age seven and was brought up by one of the most powerful demons of all time. I'm the only demon to ever have power rival to his but I have a weakness; love, in its peculiar forms, has a tendency to get to me and destroy me slowly. Demons only choose one soulmate in their lifetime and my demon was very confused so it thought it already had its soulmate. When I had to wipe his memory and replace the memories with fake things, causing him to hate me, the demon took over and tried to kill me internally. I almost died and vowed never to properly fall in love again. Part of my emotions has always been shut off and only certain people can turn it back on again - the demon's soulmate. 

'Now more and more recently that's been happening. The demon lets me know when I'm around the soulmate by generally making me crazier than normal, more violent than normal and a lot more likely to become ill or get hurt. Some demons end up going into debt, or get addicted to things, or get STDs from sleeping around and trying to protest against the whole soulmate thing. I've never done any of that; I just obsess over people, I guess." I laughed slightly and then kept on speaking.

"The being in my nightmare was hinting that I already knew who the soulmate was and that the demon wouldn't stop me getting into trouble until I gave in. Lots of other magical beings have been hinting at it but I'm still ignoring it." My eye twitched and I suppressed a shiver. "Because in some cases the soulmate either doesn't feel the same way or dies shortly after a relationship. Apparently in my case one happens after the other. Loki friend-zoned me and, well, like I said..." I shrugged with one shoulder. "I don't want you to die."