The Spirits' Guide

Chapter 10

Owen shuffled down the street, completely drained of all energy. It seemed that the past days of constant panic and stress were finally catching up to him.

Owen sighed as he lowered his head and continued to shuffle closer to his house.

"Owen," a sing-song voice behind him said.

He groaned. He did not want to deal with such a monster yet or at all. Turning around, Owen saw a small furred being, about the size of a bedside table.

"What do you want?" Owen spoke through grounded. He highly doubted that the creature could do anything truly damaging to him before he could run through the front door of his house.

The demon seemed slightly confused by Owen's tone and words.

"Are you not the bastard we have been told to find and bring to my mistress?" The demon asked as it tilted its head at him.

Owen scoffed, "Any week, any day, any fucking minute or second Iris will find a way to kill this mistress of yours and I will go back to the ordinary, human life I had before this chaos consumed it. Now, fuck off."

The demon blinked at Owen, its yellowed eyes not shining in the light of the streetlamp that was only a few feet away from him.

Looking away, the demon whispered, "You will never have an ordinary human life. There is no such thing for a being like you or even for a human. There is no such thing as ordinary." The creature sighed before it turned back to Owen.

"I pity you, but the mistress has ordered all minions and soldiers to find and bring you to her. It would be easier if you came with me willingly instead of struggling and getting either of us hurt." Owen noticed that the demon's words held a hint of sorrow, grief, or maybe it was just pity. No matter what it was, he was not going to go along with the demon willingly.

"Go screw yourself." Owen growled.

It was just a small demon, he would be able to handle that. It shouldn't be too difficult. He continued to tell himself this even though his heart still raced at the thought of a scuffle.

The demon folded into itself as it grabbed its head and groaned words like "I don't wanna," and "It hurts."

Owen slowly backed away from the creature, his heart pounding against his ribs. Something about this was completely wrong. As he began to turn to run back to his house, the little demon went quiet.

Like a fool, Owen turned around, still in the position he was in before, preparing to run. The demon was still the same size and appeared the same, but something in the air around it seemed to change.

Owen had a feeling that the demon was much, much stronger than he had originally believed. Feeling the little he had eaten for lunch come up, Owen didn't dare turn his back to the silent creature as he backed away slowly.

Owen jumped into a run as the demon shot its head up, its dull black eyes full of a light that caused Owen's chest to tighten.

"I'll kill you!" The demon shouted in a deep, gravelly voice. Suddenly, a large furred and horned demon bursted out of the skin of the smaller one, leaving just the skin on the ground beneath its hoofed feet.

That lunch from earlier was in his mouth now. Owen ran faster as he felt the ground shake beneath him. Owen was under the streetlamp when he tripped. Falling onto his face, Owen vomited. During the brief moments that his mind was blank in the haze of spewing his lunch, two clawed hands grabbed onto his shoulders.

Pulling Owen back onto his feet, the demon whined, "Not yet, not yet. I can't kill you or she will be angry. Not yet. Not yet!" Owen stared at the demon blankly. It had returned to its original size. The demon may not be about to kill him, at least not at that very moment, but he was doomed to being taken to this 'she'.