Demon Soul (1)

IX

I stood there, feeling like the queen of the world.

The stars seemed to gather around my feet as I guided them, currents of ice shooting up around me. They were as black as the sky, encasing the water as is swirled in torrents inside of their shells. A maniacal giggle filled the air as I let them drop, the water falling back into the pond. I was breathing so hard a smiling so wide that it hurt.

"Finally," I whispered. "I'm not just an insignificant being anymore." I cackled. "I'm a God!"

"Are you so sure about that?"

I paused in my joy, turning around towards the sound of the voice. There was a little girl standing in the water, wearing a full length black gown. It looked just like mine. She had beautiful chocolate hair and pale porcelain skin, and while one as was as green as an emerald, the other was a muddy brown. She was around eight or so, but I couldn't quite tell.

"Who are you?" I asked. "I thought I was alone here, with..."

"With the monsters?" She said fluently. "No, we're far from alone here. Everyone has their own little piece of this world, and yours is shared by two other stories that have yet to unravel. You'll learn my name soon enough, but what's important now is that I discuss something with you."

"Discuss what?"

"You're not a God, Nyx." She whispered. "And they don't know who you are yet. I suggest you stay hidden, for as long as possible."

"They? And...my name is Delia." I said quizzically. She shook her head.

"No, it's not."

***

I practically bolted out of bed that day. I was oddly happy, and even as I pulled into the coffee stand, Tara's apologetic stares didn't phase me. I made it to school with a skip in my step and a confident gleam in my eyes. I felt invincible.

First period was a grueling two hours, filled with nothing but silence. We had a test to take, and I looked at not only Blake's empty seat beside me, but Ronin's across the room and felt the guilt settle on my shoulders softly. It wasn't there for long though, and I felt a sense of freedom. I didn't have to walk around the campus feeling scared anymore, I was stronger, I even smiled at strangers as they passed. They all seemed pretty shocked.

The bell rang for lunch and I grabbed my things happily, beginning the walk out to the lunch table. I saw a new face there, sitting in the empty seat beside me. Aidan smiled when I sat down and continued on with whatever story he was telling, making hand gestures as he talked. I took a bite out of a sandwich I'd made myself and listened to him talk about running from French officials when they found him stealing a necklace. But I wasn't able to pay attention for long, because another figure loomed up beside the table, and effectively made my heart stop.

"Hey Delia," Ronin looked down at me, seemingly tired. "How come you didn't wake me up this morning? I didn't hear you banging on my door and cursing like usual."

"U-Uh..." My ability to speak had escaped me. There was no hole in his chest, but he was the walking dead alright. "Ronin, can I speak with you?"

"Sure." He made a face of confusion, allowing me to pull him around to the corner to the blind spot before I pinned him to the wall, holding my arm to his chest.

"How the hell are you walking around all fine and dandy?!" I whispered harshly, poking at his ribs. There was no hole.

"What do you mean? I'm tired as hell Delia, I told you I was sick-"

"You know damn well what I'm talking about." I snarled. "I killed you. I ripped your heart out, and I dumped your body out in the woods, where it should be resting at the bottom of a lake."

"What the hell kind of dream did you have?!" He pushed me away from him, his eyes wide. "Jesus Christ Delia."

"It wasn't-!" I huffed, screeching and holding my hands out in front of me. I expected ice to shoot from the ground, surrounded me in some type of barrier to prove to this asshole I wasn't dreaming, but nothing happened. My face fell and my arms dropped to my side. "I guess I was..."

"You look genuinely disappointed." He snorted. "What, want to get rid of me that badly?"

"Something like that." I turned around, beginning to walk back to the table. I was shaking, not from anything as mundane as fear or cold, but from the sudden realization that I might've been going insane. Everything was so vivid, he was so real as my hand slammed through his bones and broke into his chest, his beating heart alive as I held it. I couldn't have been dreaming, I just couldn't have been. Something was going on beyond my understanding and I was not happy.

The bell rang and I collected my things, traveling back inside to the gym. The last final of the year was our fitness testing, random things like how far we could reach when we sat down and how many laps we could do around the gym before we dropped out from exhaustion. I got all of them done within the first hour and went to change, throwing my gym clothes into my backpack instead of back into my locker. We still had another hour in here, and while I debated on walking back out there or staying in here, I decided that I'd do neither. I grabbed my keys out of my purse and walked out the back door, letting it slam behind me. I walked down to my truck in a fit of anger, leaving the school with the intent to prove to myself that I really did kill him. And the only way I could prove that was by going to the lake.

I drove past the police station, gripping the steering wheel hard while I thought about what Ryker might say to me. I was starting to value his opinion more than I was anyone else's. Maybe I was a monster, but I'll be damned if I'm going to let it hold me back. The road shifted to gravel beneath my tires and the turn off came up quick enough. As I drove down the offshoot I could feel my anxiety rising, making me think all of these thoughts that either scared me or made me braver. Eventually I got down to the end and slammed on the brakes, my eyes wide as I stared at the ice.

It was cracked. All over the place, it was broken apart and floating around like icebergs. I pounded the steering wheel in triumph before throwing open the door and running down to the side of the water. When I dipped my finger in it felt like lukewarm bath water, and I knew that I wasn't crazy. But my idea was. I stripped down, tossing my clothes to the side and standing in the snow in nothing but my underwear. I took a deep breath to steady myself before I dove under the ice, kicking my way further in. It was gorgeous under here with the midday light shining through the surface, illuminating the ground below me. The lake was more like a pond, with a few drop offs here and there. I carried myself over to the hole in the ice that I knew I'd dropped my brother through, and I looked down.

Resting at the bottom of the pond was the tarp, caught under a log to keep it from resurfacing. There was no body in sight though. Instead, floating around the tarp was globs of inky black fluid that was too thick to mix with the water. I was tempted to grab one, but my gut told me that it would've been a bad idea. I swam back up to the surface and broke through, gasping for air. I stayed there for a moment, treading water as I thought about all of the possible solutions to this problem. Maybe...maybe Ronin wasn't human. That would certainly explain why he's up and walking right now, probably chatting it up with some blonde headed babe that looked just enough like me for him to latch onto. My face turned up in disgust as I began swimming back to the shore, pulling myself out onto the bank and collapsing for a moment. It had been forever and a half since I'd gone swimming, and I was starting to realize why.

"God I hate water..." I grumbled, grabbing my clothes. I expected steam to come rolling off of me, but the air was clear. I threw them inside the truck while I grabbed my blanket out of the back and wrapped it around myself, nestling into the drivers seat while I listened to the radio. What a day.