A Demon's Truth

Prologue

For a time, a short time, we were able to live in peace with humans. Not side by side, no, but in peace at least.

We lived in a world divided. It began with towns separating off into two – one side for the demons and one for the humans. But both decided that it was still too close, so the division grew and grew from towns to cities, then to countries and finally countries. Each country then consisted of two parts, and in the middle were the Wastelands – the places that no one lived. We didn’t bother the humans and they didn’t bother us. Maybe it wasn’t quite peace, but it was a quiet agreement, and it worked for a while.

But the humans must have felt that we were still a threat because suddenly, out of nowhere, they attacked us. It began in Britain, but it spread into Europe and across seas. Luckily, by then, demons were ready for the riots led by the humans and they were able to fight back and win their own wars. But we demons in Britain, we weren’t so fortunate. We had no warning and despite our strength, which towered above the humans, we were forced to hide and the humans won over the country.

The demons of other countries thought of fighting for us and against the humans that were first to break the agreement. Those who were closest arrived first, but they were wiped out. There was no explanation on how it happened, and they weren’t found after. They left their countries with half their original defence, so the humans took care of them too. Most countries in Europe were then overtaken by the human race. Further demons were too worried to come to our aid anymore, so they stayed and defended their own territories in an attempt to keep the humans and their new-found knowledge at bay.

Once again the world was divided – but this time it was between the countries that were ruled by demons and those ruled by the humans. But it wasn’t peaceful. Little pockets of resistance of both species fought, but they were eradicated before they could get the ball rolling.

So we hid underground, in forgotten ruins and high at the top of mountains just to get away from them. Truth be told, they scared us. Back in time, we demons would raid villages and take the blood that we needed, relishing in the life force that buzzed and dwindled as we took it in our firm grasps. But our hunger got the best of us and the humans began to die out, so we made that agreement with them to separate ourselves in live in that false peace. Once in a while, a sacrifice would be made. Well, not really a sacrifice. They gave us their dying, the ones they didn’t care for. Though it didn’t taste as good, it was still food for us. It was better than letting them die out again.

Now we had no food, we were forced to hide, and the humans somehow gained the idea of how to weaken us so much that it took centuries to regain our strength. Never before had humanity figured out the small flaw in our immortality, but now they had, and it worried us greatly. The knowledge would spread and our species may as well have been doomed.

But we were getting restless with our hunger, and you don’t keep food from a demon. That rising of the humans was five hundred years ago. No doubt they had begun to feel comfortable in their paradise and safety. We were biding our time, licking our lips for the day we could return and eat with no limit. Because we were ever so hungry and the population of humans had already grown into billions. There would be a long time before we had to worry about their extinction.

Our wait was becoming worth it.

We gathered and we planned. They weren’t really plans as much as expressing what we wanted – but that wasn’t the point. We demons didn't go looking for people to fill an emptiness inside us or to comfort us when we got lonely like the humans did. We felt emotion, but we were far more independent than humans. To be gathering and helping each other… it was a big deal for us. It proved that we could come together and work for each other, but it also proved the severity of what was happening.

But we planned our own rising, and our anticipation to finally get their blood, their flesh, their life, was growing bigger inside us at each passing day. It would be the descendants of those who wronged us, but their deaths would pay in full and enough.

My name was Thom. I was considered a young demon, only born from the fire six hundred years ago. I remembered that rising and longed to gain revenge. I swore on the defeats of my friends, with my red eyes aflame, my tail thrashing wildly and my pointed teeth gleaming with blood, that I would made those humans pay.