Susan stumbled over the front steps as she approached the ancient wooden door of the lone house which sat at the end of the road, completely surrounded by nothing but over grown grasses and darkness, wrapped entirely in the shrewd mystery of made up stories and haunting myths. She gasped and caught the steps with one hand to keep herself from completely falling over and she quickly regained her composure, glancing over her shoulder, she could see the flash lights, she could see the dark outlines of the people chasing after her and calling out her name, they weren't far behind now, she needed to get away from them.
She hugged the small bundle she carried on her chest and frantically pulled at the thick vines which had wrapped around the door, serving as a barricade, they snapped easily like weather-aged ropes and as she pushed the door open, one of the hinges gave way and the door on the left tipped and landed upright on the wooden floor with a loud bang, raising the dust but it didn't fall away as it was still held by the second hinge. Susan cared less about that and rushed into the house, the hinges squeaked louder and the door wobbled like it would suddenly drop but it held, swinging back slowly, the door on the left scraped across the floor utill it closed. The darkness slowed her down, she stood still for a second as her pupils dilated and eyes adjusted to the darkness, and with her hand outstretched, she moved gingerly and searched desperately for the stairs. She had never been into the house before, no one she knew had ever been in the house before because for years it had been abandoned and left to the care of mother nature.The house had once stood by the end of a busy road and used to be an elegant beauty, but for the years following it's abandonment, the forest had slowly crept up on it and it now sat not so deep into the forest, just by the edge and it sat alone in the middle of the over grown grasses which looked to be once a beautiful lawn. The vines had crept up the sides of the house and had wrapped around it like veins and in the light of a perfect moon like the one which hovered above the city this percular night, it seemed to pulse.Stories had been made up and passed down from parents to children, stories of the last owners of the house having been in cahoots with a demon, of how they would lure children into the house and feast on their empty bodies after offering their souls to the demon that they had been rumoured to worship. Of course that had been falsified by parents to keep their children away from the house but then the family and the house had been strange, the children had started disappearing one after the other, all eight of them, they died actually but not of natural causes according to investigators and the media and then the woman died first before the man. It had been said that on the night the man had died, there had been a shrill cry from the house that had sounded inhumane and after that, a terrible storm had ravaged the city.Nobody successful bought the house after that and all who tried faced one tragedy or the other, then people began spreading the wild stories and it rumoured away from the borders of the city - the house was haunted by the still hungry demon bound to the house. It sparked up a chain of investigations, paranormal investigators trooped in and soon, both the house and the city were swimming in the media frenzy. Authorities did nothing about the frenzy at first because they enjoyed the popularity, but that was not until strange things actually started showing, and they showed very clearly and it was also about that time that stories of demons started to surface and to assure the public of their safety - for those who had filed a ton of complaints - the authorities eventually put the house up for demolition after the paranormal investigator teams had condemned the house, siting that it was a hideout for demons and spirits and what nots but then nothing could explain the inability of the authorities to tear down the house, some thing always seemed to go wrong so they had left the house to crumble on its own time. The house had since been standing for seventy five years. But none of those rumors mattered to Susan, in fact, none of those stories entered her head as she didn't think of that as all she wanted to do was to get away to a place where she would be alone, desperation had its own way of pushing people. She had fought her way through thick cobwebs and creaky floor boards till she reached the last floor of the house and from the safety of the attic, she could see the people down below; two policemen, one hospital security guard and two nurses, who had been chasing after her and we're now at the front door trying to get in but the door was locked. They banged and kicked and pushed but it was of no use, the door was rigid and tightly shut, standing firmly like new oak wood, it wouldn't budge. It was the same door which she had just come in through that was just barely hanging on its hinges, but now it stood rigid and was locked securely. Susan didn't ponder on that too much, she just wanted to be away from them for now, she placed her back against the wall and slowly slid down to sit on the wooden floor, she put the bundle she had been carrying gently on the floor and unwrapped it. It was a child, her child and she was dead. She had given birth to twins, the boy who had come out first was healthy and alive and still in the hospital but the doctors had said that her second child was a still born and that there was nothing that could be done to bring her back to life, but this was her child non the less so she had stolen her away from the hospital and ran, and now she sat in this house, weeping and hugging her icy cold baby."I would give anything to have you come back to me." She wept silently. "Anything please."Eyes shut, she wept more, rocking herself back and forth, back and forth and humming a tune with an emotion ladened voice. A metal object clattered in the dark and she bolted upright, squeezing her child to her chest. She looked around and the realization of where she was dawned on her like cool water on parched ground. Stiffening her resolve, she wiped her tears and dared the myths to come alive, she shivered, if truly there was a demon in this house as was rumoured she would summon him and she would ask for its help. She knew that it would turn out to be a very terrible idea if it was true a demon was indeed living in this abandoned house but she was a mother and she would do anything to have her child come back to her. Yes, she was that desperate."If at all there is a presence here," She swallowed. "If the rumors are true and you are here, make yourself known to me now."Eyes wide opened and all senses on high alert, she listened for what seemed like an eternity for a sign, anything, a whisper, a touch, a scream, a giggle, a laugh, a chuckle, anything at all. She looked left and right, up and down for the slightest hint but nothing came. She said it again, this time with more determination and a louder voice in case the spirit here was still in ghostly hibernation. She would wake it up and damn the consequences!"If there is a presence here, a demon, a spirit, a.... whatever, still living in here like the rumors say, make yourself known to me now!"But still, nothing came. Feeling defeated, she broke down and continued crying, planting kisses all over her child's face like that was the antidote for death. Then it came, it came suddenly like the wind, rushing past her from the open windows, it circled the room, spreading the darkness and twirling it like a concoction mixed with the voices of the ones lost and forgotten in death, and as it settled, she heard a voice loud and clear and authoritative, but still gentle enough not to scare her."Anything?" It questioned.Susan buckled against the wall, colour drained from her face and she pulled her knees up so that it pressed her dead child against her chest then she wrapped her hand around her knees, protecting her child. She would not be offering her child to anything as a meal. Scanning the room, she tried to find who had just spoken, it frightened her to know that she was alone but not exactly alone, she was hearing voices but then she had called for it."Who... who is there?" Her voice cracked and she swallowed hard. "Sh... show yourself to me.""You said anything?" The voice questioned again. It swam around her and the room so she couldn't tell where it was coming from but she knew she heard it this time. She knew she did."Who are you and where exactly are you?!" She yelled as she cried, she was afraid and she knew it, she had woken up something that had been dormant for over seventy years and yes she knew it would be hungry or angry or both. What had she done?"Do you want your child back...?" The voice came from her right, she turned. "...or not...?" It came from the far left now, she turned again. The voice was terrifyingly calm, seeming to come from every corner of the room.Susan looked at her still and unmoving baby, she smiled softly and she kissed her cold blue lips, yes she would surely do anything to have her baby back. A tear fell from her eyes and landed on the baby's cheek, she stroked the child's face and whispered."Yes..." She sniffed."Yes what?" It demanded. "Yes I do want him back.""I can help..." The voice floated above her, forming a dark mist, then it moved to the darkest corner of the room and took form. Susan slowly stood up from the floor and hugged her child even tighter to her chest, pressing her back against the wall so much so that she wanted to blend into it, her cautious gaze was towards the darkness. Her heart beat accelerated and she wished it would not show it self to her but then again, she was curious."...but only on one condition." She heard it growl in a low voice."What do you want from me?" Susan was cautious and she shook like a leaf caught in a hurricane."You would have to do something for me in return.""What is it that you want from me? You'll have to tell me first." She blinked rapidly. The air in the attic was getting cooler and cooler."No..." The voice laughed, the sound made Susan's ears bleed."No?""This is not a bargain you see, as you have no choice here. You want your dead child back and I want something in return and all you have to say is yes to my demands.""Well then, what are your demands?""You will first of all agree to it so there is no going back then I will reveal to you whatever it is that I want."Susan knew this gamble was a risky one. Deathly risky but just how desperate was she willing to be? She knew she could not leave the house, no, not after awakening this thing who's voice she could only hear, frankly she saw no other option than to agree to it's choice. She swallowed hard and wiped her tears."I agree to whatever you want."It chuckled and stepped out of the shadows, into the dim light of the moon. Susan shrieked in absolute horror.According to the all scriptures ever written and ever found, and according to our wide and still growing knowledge, even those passed down from generations of old and according to how we had come to be, it was a very well known and a clearly stated fact that the Earth belonged to us, it and everything in it. It was ours, humans, we alone ruled over the Earth and possessed every thing in it and we had done so for as long as time could permit us to remember existing. We had taken full control and exercised our dominance proudly over every area of the Earth.We were smart, we were powerful, we were wise and we were becoming too much so we wanted more and in our arrogance we thought we could have it all and truly we almost did and yes that was how and why the world which we had then, the world which we had asserted our full control over became like this; the world which we know as of now. The world we no longer owned.It was now a broken world ruled by a few corrupted Angels
Smokes was a noisy place, it was always so noisy and always so full, most especially during the evening times and all through the night. It was such a place for demons and night creatures, a place where they came to unwind and sort of relax but then there was almost nothing relaxing about Smokes. The over crowded and noisy place brought in the heat which contrasted sharply with the cool weather just outside the doors but the heat was welcoming for the demons, to them it was relaxing, even the awful smell emanating from the scaly and hideous bodies of these demons, they considered that relaxing too.Situated by the edge of the southern forest, Smokes was a place which welcomed all creatures into its overly warm abode, but it was not a place which all the creatures welcomed and asides from the demons who trooped in every night for the ironically relaxing atmosphere, no other creature came here to relax, it was either for business or... actually only for business. It was so for all
To see a human outside in the open was not something one would see every now and then as the humans had long gone into hiding and they hid perfectly well, so well that no other creature knew of their hiding place. But they did not always stay in their hiding place, they could not always stay. Surviving meant staying alive, and staying alive meant eating, to eat you need to have food, and to have food you will need to hunt, hunting always brought them out of hiding but not all of the humans came out during the hunting time.They had scouts, they had groups, made of the finest and well trained fighters that they had, the quietest and stealthiest of them because coming out meant you were in danger of being spotted by the scavenging demons which roamed the forest and flew above the empty lands, their very sharp eye sight could easily spot any thing moving down below and that could easily put the hiding place of the humans in danger of being discovered. Night time was the only time th
The wind blowing in though the windows whistled lightly, the curtains swayed gently in the soft breeze and all seemed calm and peaceful and cold and quiet. It was much too quiet to be normal, he reasoned, even the crickets remained quiet. True that every other night had been like this, it had always been like this during the past nights but he did not know why he was feeling so uneasy this night, it was a rather strange feeling which he did not welcome and he wanted it to go away. If his instincts were right, something unpleasant was being cooked up and he was sure it would be happening very soon, and very close by too. He straightened up from his leaning position against the door and sharpened up his senses, his instincts were always never wrong.The room in which he stood in was small - for him, that is - but it was just the right size of cute for the human child whom he was watching over as she slept calmly and peacefully in her princess modelled pink bed. Pasted all around th
Leticia was startled awake by the sudden 'woosh' of air caused by the Angel flying away and the cloak which he had placed over her to cover her was partially blown off her body and along with it, the debris of broken sticks and dead leaves which littered the forest floor. She laid still and unmoving on the ground for a while, with her eyes open and staring straight to the sky and to the tree tops. What had just happened? Had she seen right? For the first time ever, she had come so very close to a creature which she had only heard of from people and which she had only read in books, she had seen an Angel. She almost could not believe it.She had seen an Angel!She sprang up to a sitting position and that was when she noticed the cloak on her, it must have belonged to him, the Angel, she was convinced of this because the stench of alcohol was very strong on it. He must have been drinking the night before and had wandered aimlessly into this forest before passing out here in the
Liam dropped down noisyly to the ground, his huge wings flapped once before folding up behind him. He had skipped going to the lake and rather chosen to go to the waterfall instead, standing under the falling water was much better than dunking yourself in a lake. He was already shirtless and he did not bother taking off his pants before stepping into the water. The water here was really shallow, reaching only up to his knees, he walked under the water fall, welcoming the cascading coolness that washed over him, it felt refreshing on his skin.Closing his eyes he tried to drown out his thoughts but he could not, the dark image of Renard constantly played in his subconscious, this corruption had spread faster than anything he had imagined and he did not know why he was feeling pity towards him, he had after all, chosen the path he was on now and he would face it himself. But what had made him change? He knew one of the reasons was power. Renard had always been an Angel who en
"When I said hunting..." Leticia had continued, putting down the cloak before she fixed her eyes on the demon girl. "...I mean demon hunting. I hunt demons for sport. Demons like you."The demon girl fisted her hands by her side. "I would love to see you try!""You would not sell much in the market because you are a bit skinny." Leticia went on, weighing the sword in her hand and throwing it from one palm to the other without taking her eyes off the demon girl. "But I might be in need of a runner. You will be my errand demon."The demon girl snapped and charged at her. Leticia brought her sword up and smiled, taking careful steps backwards as adrenaline burned through out her veins. She knew for sure she was going to love this exercise, the last time she had to train was two days ago but it seemed like eternity. She was not used to staying a long while without exercising her arms and see could not train herself by fighting the trees, no, that was a waste. She saw the demon
Leticia gripped the sword in her hands tightly, her eyes fixed on the Angel Liam and the demon girl who seemed to know each other pretty well, she took a step back and watched them."Liam?" Phidian called in surprise."What is going on here?" He asked, directing his question to Phidian. Throwing a glance off his shoulder, he sighted Leticia backing off slowly from them. He had not been thinking straight when he landed with his back to her and his wings dangerously close to her, he could have lit her up like a dry wood in a camp bonfire."I came here for you but found her instead." Phidian took a step to the side so she could see Leticia."And then what happened? You girls were in each other's throats." He turned now to look at Leticia who threw her face away from him, clearly she was upset about something. He faced Phidian again when she started speaking."She said you both spent the night together, is that what had happened Liam?""We..." He started but paus