The Demon's Voice

Chapter 13

I looked around and I couldn’t believe my eyes, the forest was nothing like I had imagined. When I heard of the rock forest I thought it was something like a bunch of tree shaped rocks, but no, this was beautiful. All around me crystal like rocks hung like leaves and flowers. They were all sorts of colours, some of which I could never have dreamt of in my wildest dreams.

“This place, it’s amazing” I said, stringing my hand through some of the thinner draping crystals, I was shocked when they turned out to be flexible and moved over my hand instead of my hand having to move through the crystals “they aren’t stiff…. they should be hard, but their soft” I said, amazed at the beauty “How is that possible”

“We’re in the demon realm” raven said, giggling softly at my excitement “the rules of the mortal realm don’t apply here”

“I wonder where Bartok is” Damon mused to himself “he doesn’t normally let people this far into his domain without attacking them…. Especially if a human is here”

“Who is Bartok?” I asked, worry in my voice

“he is a powerful, but mindless demon, he only understands his masters orders now” Damon said, sounding very sad

“Now?” I asked curious, the way he said it had made it sound like he once had his own mind

“He…. He was a very good friend” Raven said softly “then Lucifer corrupted him….. Very few in the uprising were spared… or even… have it as good as Damon and I… and we were only spared to watch out men and our leader suffer throughout eternity for we were both second in command to her… her most trusted… she bore her punishment in humble silence… just to see us free”

“Or as free as we can possibly be while he still leads” Damon growled under his breath

“How did she know she could trust him?” I asked, trusting Lucifer seemed foolish, and I hadn’t even met the guy

“A curse” Damon said softly “with her last breath she placed a curse on him, he broke his word… he hurt either one of us…. He would be eaten from the inside out by magic so dark we were surprised that she knew of t… she hated dark magic, hated it with a passion… but I guess when it came to it… she would do anything to protect us” I felt so bad, this leader, their friend, she had done so much for them and never asked the slightest thing in return.

We walked on and soon we game to a large ruined open air temple. Around me the crystals had twisted and changed, seeming like they had meant to protect a sleeping treasure within, but still the light shined through, almost as if something or someone had ripped apart the very walls and the roof of the temple just to get the treasure, whatever it was. I didn’t think as I moved forward and entered the temple, Damon and Raven walking cautiously at my sides.   

The temple itself was amazing, there were swirling patterns all across the walls, and the colours, red, blues, greens, yellow, purples, any colour you could have thought of decorated the wall like a rainbow. The colours and patterns flowed through the temple to the very centre of the back wall where something stood straight up, yet nothing held it in place. As I approached I saw it was a staff made of beautiful black stone, at the top was a flat surface where I thought the orb could have sat and, just under the flat surface, was a small hole which looked as if it could fit a small gem inside it. The staff by itself was beautiful, but I felt as if it was nothing compared to what it could truly be, of what it truly was.

I reached out to grab it but Damon got to it before me “no” he said softly “you touch this… it could cause you to become something you’re not ready for… it will make you unstable and fall apart even quicker than you are now… and we need as much time as we can get Rosie” he moved his hand to stroke my face but before he could reach it out I heard a loud crash, I turned to see what I could only describe as a horribly deformed version of a demon. Large boils ran down its body, large, twisted, black horns came from its head, growing first upwards then downwards, often digging into its skin then growing back out in a different spot, its limbs were long and looked like they had been broken in numerous places, healing in the wrong way, making look like jagged bones were trying to force their way through its skin and out to the air… he bleed constantly “wha…. What is that thing” I said, horror in my voice, I had never seen anything more frightening in my life “Bartok” Damon said “now… we run” with that word Bartok let out a blood curdling noise, it was something between a scream of agony and the growl of an animal on the hunt.

I ran, I turned and ran not looking back, I just ran, that thing, I couldn’t face it. Raven and Damon were behind me, trying to keep Bartok at bay. I didn’t look back at them, I couldn’t, I couldn’t at that creature, that horrid thing, that…. Demon. “Come on move it!” Damon yelled “we are almost at the edge, Bartok can’t leave the forest!” I barely heard anything, I was too busy focusing on running.

I saw the edge of the forest and was about to cross the border when I felt something grab my foot and I turned and saw it, Bartok was trying to eat my foot. I screamed and in a matter of seconds Damon appeared almost as if out of nowhere and broke off Bartok’s arm with his bare hands “no one touches my Rosie” he growled, before scooping me up and carrying me the rest of the way out of the forest. My face stayed buried in Damon’s chest crying, until I passed out.