Black Wings

The Demon Inside (Part 2)

I would've gotten right back up again to punch him in his smug face, but then he pulled out a familiar shiny black weapon from inside his trench coat. I looked around, panicked, but there wasn't anyone else in this secluded section besides a dark haired man with his back towards us. I wished I hadn't scared that woman off earlier. I heard that mothers were pretty formidable. She could have beat this sleazy guy with her pink Prada purse, and then I wouldn't have to worry about yet another dangerous man. I was getting a little tired of dangerous men.

"None of these puny puppies are dangerous."

He has a gun! He can shoot my brains out.

She didn't respond, even to share her violent wisdom. I was on my own. I eyed the man up and down, taking note of his slightly above average features and poor fashion sense. "You're not going to sprout wings, right?"

He gave me a bit of a baffled look. Was it my question, or the fact that I wasn't quaking in my designer boots?

"That stuff you're on is some pretty good shit, huh? Come with me, girlie, or I'll make you come with me," he proclaimed while waving his gun around.

The guy with the man bun sitting three tables down still didn't give any indication he knew what was going on. He was either deaf, or he didn't care. I was really on my own, now.

"So, you are not affiliated with the strange cult that believes I'm secretly a demon plotting to end angel-kind?"

He just stared at me, and I got the sense that he was getting impatient. He was clearly a real, human guy. I couldn't help but grin. Angels and demons and cults freaked me the heck out, but real life pervy middle aged men with real life guns? I could totally handle that.

I gently set my bag of food on the floor beside me, then grabbed the square table and flipped it forcefully at his face. A gunshot went off and shouts of surprise ensued, but I didn't stop to check where the bullet went. I grabbed my food and ran.

"BITCH!" he screamed.

"Pervert!" I shouted back.

I only paused when I was a few steps into my get away, because the guy with the man bun vanished right before my eyes. He was there, and then in the next blink, Man Bun was gone. Poof.

"GO!" Voice exclaimed, sounding a bit exasperated. She was right. I couldn't let my hallucinations distract me. Man, things were really messed up if Voice suddenly became a voice of reason.

I continued to dodge chairs and tables in my pursuit of the glass doors, but another sharp bang sent me jerking to a stop. I stumbled against the entrance, wondering why my body wasn't cooperating. I had to get the heck out before cops arrived. My palms were wet. I stared at them in horror when I realized they had splatters of blood on them. The glass door in front of me had a whole spray of red on it. My McDonald's bag was soaked in blood. God, whose blood was that? The shouts behind me became muffled behind the ringing in my ears. Was that my blood? I looked down at my abdomen, nearly fainting when I saw a huge dark splotch on my maroon t-shirt. A spasm of pain hit me like a truck, sending me to my knees.

I got shot. I'm dying.

"Give me control."

I'm dying.

"You will not die. Let me take over. I will bring that man to his knees."

I pressed my hands to my bleeding chest, and then everything went black.

✹ ✹ ✹ ✹ ✹

As she falls, I rise. I'm dying. Poor girl. She is so innocent and small and weak. A mere fragment of my own powerful mind. She is a parasite, infesting my body. She doesn't even know of the weapon she had control of. I carefully extend my hands, wondering at the marvel it is to simply move them again. I curl my fingers into a fist. I can still feel her, like a tumor in the back of my brain. She should be impossible. How can two souls exist in one body? And yet, I feel hers slumbering safely behind my own. She will stay that way. I am not relinquishing my body again. Still kneeling, I press my palms to the tiled floor, hearing the thrum of the Earth's powerful song.

"Listen to me," I whisper to it. "I command you." The Earth hisses back at me, it's steady thrumming turning into aggressive thumps. It has been too long.

"Shut up! Nobody moves! If I hear anyone call the cops, you are dead!" At the puny human's words, everyone goes silent. Good. Better for me to concentrate.

"Obey me!" I command. Now the Earth listens. It screeches as my own beat of power weaves into it.

"What the fuck did you just say?! Obey you? Obey me you little bitch!" The puny human sounds like a gnat in my ears, so jarring and annoyingly small against the sound of true power.

Bang! The human shoots me again. He thinks a tiny cylinder of metal could stop me? The most powerful warlock in history? I've brought armies to their knees. My flesh knits itself back together without prompting. Slowly, I rise from the bloody tiles and turn to face the crawling humans. My eyes sweep over them crying and whimpering, and the particular human who still stands with its weapon outstretched. A dawning fear begins to surface on its face, tinging its aura grey. It had scared my twin soul. I wonder when I started to feel so protective of her.

Curling my fingers back into fists, I feel the discordant power of an Earth enslaved.

"Kill them all."