by Dora Blume
“This is my room, although the rest of the house is luxurious I tend to like things simple.” He opened the door for her to see into his room.
“Wow, you weren’t kidding,” she said as she looked around the room. He had a plain wooden headboard, matching wood dresser, and a bookshelf. Besides the wood, the walls and bedding were all the same shade of beige. On the bed there was a single pillow and blanket that matched. It was almost elegant in its simplicity.
“Yeah, I don’t actually bring too many people up here.” He looked to the floor then back to meet her eyes.
She headed toward the bookcase. Erik quickly sidestepped between her and the bookcase.
“What are you doing?” He asked.
“Checking out your selection, I find that books, especially those you choose to keep in your bedroom, to be a window into a person’s true character.” She looked to him and crossed her arms over her chest waiting.
“Oh, I’m not sure I want you peeking into my character. I mean I barely know you.”
She looked him in the eye and shrugged, “I guess I don’t need to know but I do love books.”
“I love books too. Fine I guess it’s not that big of a deal if you see what I’ve read.” He moved out of her way reluctantly and sat on his bed while she scanned his collection. He felt shy in that moment but wasn’t sure why. He shouldn’t be worried about what Amy thought of the books he owned but for some reason he cared what she thought.
She was rather surprised at what she found, she expected his shelves to be filled with authors like Nietzsche and Machiavelli; instead she was surprised to find Austen and Blake.
“Do you have a thing for the romantics?”
“Ah… yes, I have a thing for good literature. I happen to believe that the romantics are good literature.” He tried not to be offended by her tone; she didn’t know him and already she had certain expectations of who he was, he didn’t like it.
“Wow, I guess I just never heard of a guy my age being interested in classic literature at all. I’m shocked if a guy even knows about a poet like Blake let alone owning his entire collection of work.” She continued to scan the collection now that she was sufficiently surprised.
“Yeah, well I’m bound to break any and all expectations you have.” He winked at her hoping that she caught the double meaning.
“Now that, right there, that is my expectation. How long did it take you after entering your bedroom to hit on me, what two minutes maybe? Way to meet those expectations.” She got up and moved toward the door to make her exit.
“Hey, I resent that, it was three minutes.” He smiled devilishly at her. “Can’t blame a guy for trying.”
“So, onto the next room?” she said as she stood in the doorway. Although Erik was quite handsome, she wasn’t about to hook up with her best friend's brother while Sloane waited downstairs. That seemed wrong on so many levels, she couldn’t believe he even suggested it, considering they supposedly had important things to do. She shook her head at him and thought, typical male.
“I suppose.” He was reluctant to leave now that he got her here and the conversation was starting to take a turn for the better. He knew she thought he was good looking otherwise she wouldn’t have avoided his eyes in the kitchen earlier. She was interested; he was just going to have to try harder, which was something he wasn’t used to doing. He was almost jogging as he caught up to her on the stairwell. Apparently, the tour was over.
Amy reached the kitchen where Sloane was sitting drinking a cup of coffee.
“Oh hey, help yourself to some coffee. It’s on the counter by the fridge; cups are in the cupboard above it. I needed something to calm my nerves.” She took another long sip holding the cup with both of her hands. There was something calming about holding a hot cup of liquid in your hands.
“Coffee, yeah, that sounds great.” She moved in the direction Sloane indicated. Once she had a full steaming cup, she sat at the table next to Sloane.
“So, are you feeling better?” Amy asked.
“Yeah, I thought I was ready for all of this but after coming back here, facing all of this, I realized I’m not. I know that this is where I need to be right now but it’s the last place I want to be.” She sighed heavily, she was usually ready for anything but having to face her past was taking its toll on her. She ran away from all of this for a reason and she wasn’t ready to face all those feelings just yet, too bad she didn’t have a choice.
“Well, if it makes you feel better, I’m still not ready for any of this. You knew all of this before you went into it. I knew nothing yet here I am trying to help you, with something that I don’t even understand.” Amy tried to smile, she wanted to lighten the mood but at the same time she was a little annoyed that she was even here. None of this concerned her other than being Sloane’s friend and at this point she wondered if she’d ever really known her friend at all.
Sloane looked to Amy and then back down at her cup. “Yeah, sorry, I got you into all of this. I’m not even sure why I agreed to go to the club when I knew what was going to happen. That’s the downside of seeing the future. Although I can see what’s coming, I don’t always make the best decisions.” Sloane took another long drink from her mug.
“Yeah, well we’re here now,” Amy responded. She wasn’t sure what to say. She didn’t know how she felt about all of this and she wasn’t ready to process it. For now, she was just going with the flow, which was atypical for her. She could flip out later, in the comfort of her own home. Either that or she could forget the whole thing ever happened. Right now, forgetting seemed preferable. She didn’t know what this life entailed, but she figured there was a reason Sloane had run away in the first place.
Erik came into the room, “Oh, great coffee. I could use a pick me up after Amy shot me down.” He smiled at her and winked. He got his cup and leaned against the counter.
“So, you ready to do this sis? I need you to be strong for this and right now you look like a wreck. You obviously have some issues, but they need to be gone before we go downstairs.” Erik took a long look at Sloane before sipping his coffee. He wanted her to understand what they were about to do without cluing Amy in on it. Sloane’s eyes were sullen and her face pale. He needed her to pull it together.
Amy turned to Erik, “What do you mean downstairs?” She looked confused.
“Don’t worry about it. You don’t need to be involved in this part of the errand. You’ll be home before you know it. Why don’t you make yourself comfortable, I’ll show you where the TV is, so you have something to do for a little while.” Erik moved toward the door to the TV room and held it open for her.
Amy looked to Sloane, she nodded her head and Amy went to follow Erik. Erik turned on the TV for her and handed her the remote. “If you want anything out of the kitchen help yourself. We should be done in about an hour or so.” He turned to leave.
“Erik?”
“Yes?” he turned to look at Amy.
“What are you guys going to do?” Amy’s voice was soft but concerned.
“You don’t want to know. Stay here and relax. We’ll be back before you know it.” He smiled softly at her; she was so innocent, he thought as he closed the door behind him.
“Okay,” she said softly. She had a feeling it wasn’t good that he didn’t want to tell her what they were doing. She was concerned for Sloane, but this was her life. She was more than capable of making her own decisions.
Erik went back to the kitchen. “So, did you get my hint earlier? Are you ready to do this? You know the demon will feed off any weaknesses you might have, and I need you in top shape before we go down there.”
“You have a demon here?” Sloane burst out.
“Of course, we have a room downstairs just for this sort of thing.”
“Seriously? Have you and Bryant lost it entirely? You have a room to keep demons in our family home? What the hell are you thinking?” Sloane glared at him.
“We were thinking about winning t
his battle, it’s much easier to just bring them here to torture and kill. We built a room for it, plus no one around here asks any questions. When we were doing it, downtown people started asking where all the screaming was coming from. We tried to play it off as a fetish club, but we didn’t like the implications. There isn’t another house close enough to hear the screams here.” Erik explained. Sloane felt her stomach turn. She never thought they would put a torture chamber in their family home. Her father and brother had always been the rational ones. They’d obviously changed after her mother died.
“Okay fine, I want to explain how wrong that is but out of necessity and time I won’t bother. So, where’s this torture chamber?” she looked up to Erik. She couldn’t believe what they were about to do, yet the thought of torturing a demon intrigued her. It’d been so long since she’d felt a rush. Living in the normal world could be boring sometimes. If she tortured anyone who was not a demon, she’d end up in jail or worse.
“Follow me.” Erik stood up and headed to the back stairwell. He punched in the code on the keypad and the thick door opened. He led her down a stairway to a small, sterile room with chains hanging from the walls. In the middle of the room was a man chained down in a chair. Blood ran in streams down his arms and face.
“Who the hell is this?” Sloane demanded. It didn’t look like anyone the demons would possess.
“He’s an intern at the capital, and yes he’s a demon.” He could read the question on her face as she examined the young man.
“Since when do demons possess scrawny interns that work at the capital?” Sloane looked at him, he couldn’t be older than twenty. She could sense the demon presence, but it made no sense to her. Why would they possess an intern? They usually went for strong people, with similar inclinations that could kill with their bare hands. Demons liked to feel their prey dying under their fingertips, so they chose to possess people to accomplish that. This young man didn’t fit with their usual possession. Sloane was curious, what would this kid have that the demons needed. Erik dumped water over the man’s head.
“Wake up; it’s time to start giving me some answers.” Erik kicked at the young man.
Sloane walked over to him, using her usual charms. She smiled wide at him knowing the demon would feel and respond the same way the boy did. “Hey sugar, wake up. I’d like to play a little game with you.” She winked.
He smiled at her and his eyes followed her just as she intended. She ran her hand down her body and asked, “So would you like to play a little game with me?” she licked her lips and smiled at him. He tried to move towards her, pulling on the chains when they stopped him from reaching her.
“Why don’t you start by telling me who you are and where you work.” Sloane bit her lip and moved her finger along the hem at her cleavage drawing the boys’ eyes to her hand.
“My name is David, I’m an intern for the governor, but I also deliver pizza at Carbone’s.” He pulled again at the chains, rattling them.
“David, what a strong name. Are you strong David?” She bent in front of him and looked at him through her lashes.
“Well I wasn’t until recently, now I can do all sorts of things I couldn’t before. Some lady said she’d help me be strong if I helped her in return.” David had no problem talking now but Sloane knew that wouldn’t be the case for long. She hadn’t really dug in yet.
“Who was this woman and what did she want you to do?” She moved to run her hand along his thigh hoping that he would keep talking while distracted.
David hesitated, “Nothing really, just to get a position as an intern at the capital. I was planning on doing that anyway, so it was easy.” He shrugged.
“Any idea why she wanted you to be an intern at the capital? Doesn’t seem important to me.” She fluttered her lashes staying close enough to touch him gently, she moved her hand up his arm as she walked around him in the chair.
“No, I don’t know why.” Sloane glanced at Erik, she had gotten as much from David as she was going to get flirting. She figured he probably didn’t know all that much to begin with, he was just told to be an intern, so he became an intern.
“Are you sure you don’t know anything that will help me, David?” Sloane gave him one last chance while Erik started hooking up the cables. “I know you want to make me happy.”
“What are you going to do to me?” David looked truly afraid as he began to watch what Erik was doing in the background. He didn’t like the lights that flared on the machine he was preparing. Erik moved to put place a probe on each temple.
“Nothing much really, I just need to talk to the demon in charge of you and since you don’t know anything else I thought a little shock might bring your demon out to play.” She turned to Erik who started the machine and gave him a small shock for 20 seconds.
“Come out, come out wherever you are.” Sloane said and motioned for Erik to do it again. David screamed, and Sloane got a wicked smile on her face, she really did miss this part.
“So, do you have any new information for me David? Why an intern at the capital?”
The demon glowed through David’s eyes. “Please child you don’t scare me. I’m not like the boy here I will not give in to your petty tricks.” David shined his teeth in an overconfident grin.
“Oh, don’t worry, I have plenty of tricks up my sleeve.” She looked to Erik, “Again, higher.”
David laughed but then screamed when the shocks started. Sloane didn’t hesitate this time, “Again,” she said as she smiled at the demon. She knew the demon would give in soon. Demons who possessed bodies could feel everything the person felt and although he boasted he wasn’t afraid, she knew he’d only be able to take as much as his host... David didn’t look like too much of a fighter to her, so she knew she would have her answers soon. She watched as David’s body contorted in unnatural ways with each shock. She smelt the stench of his hair burning around his temples and winced.
“Oh, good David, I believe you’re going to tell me what you’re doing at the capital now.” She looked at him expectantly.
“Taking it over bitch, what do you think?” David spat at her.
“Now why would you want to do a thing like that?” Her eyes glistened as she spoke.
“To cause you filthy human’s more pain than you could ever imagine. Ha, bitch, you thought we were wreaking havoc before by killing people on the street. Forget that, you idiots set up the perfect scenario so that we could destroy your lives without you even knowing the difference. You morons even brush it off, ‘oh it’s just another corrupt political official,’ shit it’s even expected. Ha, we’ve got you and there’s nothing you can do about it. You designed the system. Isn’t that hilarious? You made it so easy to destroy you.” The demon laughed loudly at the shocked expressions they both held.
Sloane worked to get her poker face back and looked to Erik. “Since when do demons plan and operate together? Usually they're too busy fighting with each other to plan anything like this.”
“I told you, things are changing. That’s why we had to find you so bad. Let’s not discuss any more in front of the demon.” He tilted his head in the direction of the chair.
“Ha, you think you’re going to be able to do anything about it, bitch. We’re not stupid. We’ve been planning this for years. While you Shikari were too busy living you’re all too human lives.” David cackled.
“Okay, time to send you back where you came from.” Erik said he turned and recited the incantation from the paper in his pocket. The room flashed with light and the demon was gone. David sat passed out on the chair.
“So, what are we going to do with him?” Sloane asked.
“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it.” Erik glanced at the hunched figure.
“Oh yeah I’m sure you will take care of it.” Sloane glared at him.
“Hey, I meant drop him off at the hospital. We have friends there remember.” Erik looked offended by her remark. They always took care of the humans after the demons
were out of them.
“Okay good. I wasn’t sure how far you and Bryant had gone. I just wanted to make sure.” She shrugged and looked at the innocent looking boy in the chair.
“Seriously, why would you think that? We haven’t changed that much.” He thought she would at least know that much about them. The basic code was still a part of them, he was sure it was still a part of her too even though she’d deny it.
“Well, let’s see, you guys built a torture chamber in the basement.” Sloane moved her hand to indicate the surrounding room.
“Well, it was necessary, this is more convenient for our purposes. You’ll be happy to know it’s soundproof, so Amy heard none of the screaming upstairs.” Erik wanted to reassure her. He didn’t want Amy to see this side of them. He wanted to be the hero in her eyes.
“Well that’s good. Can I go back to my place now? I know you didn’t need my help with the demon. You could’ve done without me," she didn’t believe they’d just let her leave.
“True, I could’ve done this myself. We need you to try to see the future. We could use knowledge into what’s going on. You saw for yourself, the demons are different. We need your help to get ahead of this.” Erik didn’t like admitting that they needed her, but her gift of foresight was necessary.
“Fine, let me take Amy home. I think she’d like to forget this day ever happened and then I’ll come back tonight, and we can talk about our next move.”
“Great I’m going to go inform Bryant about what we learned, and we’ll meet you back here tonight.”
“Make sure you get him to a hospital. We brought him pretty close to death, and he’s a nice kid.” She motioned to David still passed out in the chair.
