The Demon
I don't know how it happened, or why I was there, but the last thing I ever saw were glowing eyes filled with cruel amusement.
Mother woke me that fateful night with an excited smile. She told me to get dressed in my finest evening gown. I rubbed my eyes and asked why; it was the middle of the night. All she told me was that we were going to a party with father.
I knew of these parties. Mother and father had been attending a lot of them lately. Apparently, only the wealthiest of nobles were allowed to participate. I had never been gone to one before; father always told me that I was too young to attend, so why was I suddenly allowed tonight?
But I didn't question mother as I was pulled from my bed and practically stuffed into a corset.
My finest evening gown was made of black satin and puffed out like a cupcake at my growing ten year old hips. I yawned as mother's personal maids slipped heels onto my feet and did my hair and makeup.
Pretty soon, mother and I had been all dolled up and we're heading to a carriage outside our manor where father was already waiting. He looked impatient and hurried us into the carriage before entering himself and signaling the driver to go.
I was still tired, so I used the time in the carriage to take a little nap.
Mother woke me when we finnally reached wherever the party was located, but before we left the carriage, father wrapped a black silk cloth around my eyes. When I asked him what it was for, he told me that I wasn't allowed to know the location of the where the party was being held. I was confused and a bit scared, but I loved my mother and father and trusted them with my life, so I just went with it.
Mother held my hand and led me towards the party for what seemed like an eternity. I distinctly remember having to descend a long staircase into a place that felt cold. A stench permeated the air, almost like mold mixed with blood.
I wanted to gag, to rip off the blindfold, to run away, but mother's reassuring words kept me from doing so.
We finally stopped and father removed the blindfold from my eyes, only to replace it with a mask of feathers. Looking up, my parents both wore identical masks, making me wonder just what sort of party this was.
We had stopped in front of a door. Father knocked on it and after a minute or so, a man opened it just a crack and poked his head through. He growled at father and mother with a scratchy voice, something about them being late, then looked down at me.
I opened my mouth to answer when he asked who I was, but father replied saying that he had permission to bring me along. I didn't understand, but apparently the man behind the door did, seeing as he let us in a few moments later.
My eyes widened as we entered the room behind the door.
There was an alter directly in the center of the large stone room with a cage behind it. A strange circle with a pentagram in it had been drawn on the stone floor around the alter and both things were splattered with blood. I gagged as mother and father abandoned me to take their seats around the gruesome display.
I remember wondering where all the blood was coming from as I stared in horror, but my question was answered as I watched two men drag a boy from the cage and to the alter. My breath hitched in my throat as my terrified and tearing eyes caught his dull blue ones for a moment and we stared at each other.
His hair was navy blue and matted with blood. His cheeks were gaunt and his skin like paper. He was covered in dried blood and wounds. He looked like he was my age.
I removed the mask from my face as tears began to drip from my eyes and stream down my face. He looked so helpless, yet there was an angry looking fire in his gaze, as if he was trying to tell me with his eyes that he would take revenge on those who caused his suffering, that he would kill them all.
It broke my heart to keep his ferocious gaze, but I never dropped it.
The only time he looked away from me, was when a man suddenly stabbed him in the stomach. I screamed the same time the boy did, but I was drowned out by the cheering and the like going on with the spectators. Even my parents were grinning from ear to ear as he was thrown back into the cage.
I tried to run to the boy, but my trembling legs only allowed me to drop to my knees. Tears fell down my face and soaked the fabric of my dress as I balled it in my little fists. I let out another scream, telling the men to stop and cursing my parents over and over for bringing me to this hell on earth.
That's when I felt it- the presence.
The nearly soul crushing presence that forced everyone in the room to erupt into a fit of shouts, asking for thinks like eternal youth and such.
A figure appeared on the edge of the circle between me and the boy. Whoever it was was surrounded by black smoke, but I could see the basic outlines of their body. "Oh?" A silken male voice asked from within the smoke. His tone was laced in amused curiosity and I could see the sharp glint of his teeth and the shine of his glowing fuchsia eyes as he looked between me and the boy on the alter. "By whom was I summoned?"
His eyes stuck on me for a moment and he took a step closer to my fallen form with those tall heels of his.
I was trembling like a leaf and felt about ready to pass out from fear. This figure... A demon, I could tell... Why would mother and father ever be a part of this?!
The boy gasped and grabbed onto the bars of the cage, catching the demon's attention. He turned and through the smoke I could see his smile as he licked his lips hungrily. The demon began to advance on the boy and I watched with horrified eyes as his now brighter blue gaze flicked to mine for only a moment before returning to the demon.
My pulse raced and sweat poured off of me in waves as I watched the two make a contract. The boy screamed louder than when the knife had been plunged through him, and when it was over he glared around the room, one eye reflecting the symbol on the floor.
"Demon, this is an order!" He shouted. "KILL THEM ALL!"
My eyes widened in sheer terror as the demon began to jump about the room slaughtering all those who attended the 'party' and laughing as he did so. He even tore apart the other children in the cage.
Never in my life had I seen so much blood.
I vomited at the sight and horrid smell of it all.
Finally, he stopped just in front of me. The grin on his face was malicious and hungry.
"Even this one?" He asked the boy. I looked to the cage to find the navy haired boy who couldn't have been older than me staring at the demon with dead, soulless looking eyes.
"Did I stutter?" He growled. "I ordered you to kill them all!"
The demon began to chuckle and raised a clawed hand above me. Tears poured out of my eyes like a monsoon as his fuchsia eyes glinted with amusement and malice.
He brought his hand down and uttered the last words I ever heard.
"Yes, my lord."
