Ever since I was little I never was alone. Sure, the other kids on the orphanage didn't talk to me, if they didn't mock me or taunt me. They pretty much left me alone when I scared them with a horror story, it wasn't even scary. Just sadly true.
Whenever I was left in the river, chased up in a tree or locked into the attic. I never felt scared or lonely, I felt like I was with my friends. When it was nighttime and everyone was asleep, except for me, she came into my room through my open bedroom window. We talked away most of the night, then when I had fallen asleep or the sun started to rise, she jumped out through my window and flew away.
I learned not to say anything about her nightly visits to our headmistress, she always thought it was the devil trying to lure me into hell.
I wouldn't be surprised if I ended up there either.
As I grew older, the raven came with different books almost every night: "Demons and their whereabouts", "Supernatural dictionary" and so on. She helped me study these books and made start to write them down, the more I read about demons the more interested I became in them. I started seeing them everywhere, the books helped me identify demons, ghosts, poltergeists, haunted or possessed material. The more I read, the more demons started to surround me. They were everywhere, under my bed, in the closet, on the shoulders of the other orphans. But most importantly, they were in my head. That's why I say I'm never lonely, they follow me everywhere but I don't hate it. I like it.
When I turned eight I had a phase where I liked to walk in the woods. I traveled further and further into the woods every day, but they always helped me find my way back home. Some of them tried to get me, to take my soul. They never succeeded because a creature from the forest followed me, protected me. It was a Scakasher, but I never called their name. Because if you did, they would disappear from the woods existents. I re-named it "My happy place" because wherever I go they always made sure that I was safe and sound.
I found a big old tree, "My happy place" seemed to like the tree. So it settled in there, it fused together with the core of the tree. Making my creature the guardian and spirit of that tree, "My happy place". I spent all my days there, happy days, sad days, every day. Now when I think back on it, it feels like I forgot something. Someone. Someone was there with me, there in the tree. I taught it to climb the tree, to trust the tree. In the way, I trust my demons and spirits. The more I try to remember their face, the more blurry it gets. So I just let it go and it floats into my past, never to be taken back up to the surface again.
Eventually, I got my cat, my own little cat. My demon cat, named Domino. He's tied to me through a contract. If I die, he dies. If he dies, I die with him. In his real form, he's a big cat. Bigger than a moose even, but he shares their crown of horns. Domino is a rare species of the Carmeldon, where the amount of tails equals more power and higher status. Domino has three tails, and the high-status cats have five tails. I got the interest of a demon cat knight, go me.
After I graduated college I moved to France with a view over the Eiffel Tower. There I wrote many songs and painted many pictures. I remember I painted a very special painting of a woman, sitting alone in a golden cage in a dark room. Her wings had been plucked, white feathers and blood decorated the floor of the cage. Even tho she'd lost everything, she still managed to find the key to the cage and get out of it. Whenever I paint, draw or sketch it seems like everything I put down on the paper can move. It feels like the painting moves off the canvas, out into my room and it feels like the painting is existing somewhere in a middle-universe. It's not in the demon universe, but it's not in our universe either so it must be somewhere in between. A middle universe.
While I was living in Paris I took a photography class, we had an American exchange student there. She was kind and sweet and had a passion for what she did, I painted her a painting. It was a girl, laying upside down on a cloud, a camera pointing at us as she smiled. The exchange student liked it and said she'd bring it home to her girlfriend. She was one of my first friends.
Weeks after the photography class I decided I'd move back to the U.K, which I did. I brought my clothes, pencils, pens, brushes, my canvases, a sketchbook, and my cat. The first thing I did after I'd settled in was to go visit the orphanage again. It had burned down. I found traces of one of "The Three Kings", those are the three most powerful demons in this universe. I won't tell you the name of the demon since it's very dangerous if I proceeded to a contract. I did, however, cast a hex over the poor orphanage, making it impossible to break through if not a five tailed demon cat or a Jordyaleo.
I soon noticed that America lacked the sound of France, there's a difference. You would probably also trust a demon cat when he says it's a difference. I couldn't find the right music to listen to when I was sketching, so I created my own music. I made a small melody Domino likes to use as a lullaby, the lyrics are written and sung in Thrashicie by me. I wrote it and I sing it. Somehow it leaked out on the internet, I'm guessing an Electrolyte was behind it. Soon I started putting out covers and my own written songs on the internet, and people seemed to like the way I made my own music. They especially liked "Domino's Lullaby". They said the song sounded something out of this world, they weren't wrong. The language comes from another species than humans, demons, and angels.
Soon I was known for my covers, my special language ad my paintings. I met another boy who liked to do music, we paired up. I never told him about the demons around us, I wanted him to be happy without a worry. The two of us blew up, soon we were touring with another band. Then we got out on tour a while after, it was a blast. Domino did not sleep if he wasn't listening to his lullaby, he said it reminded him of home. I found myself realizing that my raven lady stopped visiting after I met my companion. I opened my books to search for her. Found she was an Agassiz, a shapeshifter who is attracted to depression and loneliness. I'm not lonely anymore, I'm never lonely.
I traveled around the world with my companions, Domino and Joel. Maybe you've heard of me, maybe not. Maybe not in your universe. My name is Yamiyov. Yamiyov Shalayapin.
