Demonic Dora

by Claire Chilton

  “They killed babies?” Dora scowled at them. She hoped they got what they deserved.

  “In a manner of speaking.” Lord Lascher grinned, and his fangs glinted with an orange glow from the firelight.

  She watched the office to see what happened next and jumped when the first book opened and wailed. It sounded like a baby squealing, and the sound sent tremors down her spine. Another book opened, then another. The squealing cries of babies filled the air as the workers rushed to the table, each one grabbing a book and cradling it in their arms, trying anything to stop them screaming.

  The baby books were not easily satisfied. They wailed and snapped at the individual workers. Dora watched one old lady cradling her book and singing to it. The leather bound tome hushed. “Shh, little baby. Yes, that’s right. Good baby book,” she murmured to it, holding it close to her face.

  The book gurgled at her. She smiled down at it, making soft calming noises. The book hiccupped and threw-up in her face. Milky baby-book puke splattered across her face, covering her horn-rimmed glasses. “Why you unedited piece of crap!” She screamed at it, poking it with one of her knitting needles. The book spat more puke at her before blasting out a loud scream. All the other books, which had been calming down, began wailing again too.

  “God damn reviewers!” One of the other workers complained before yelping as her baby book bit her hand.

  Dora watched another worker screaming as his book peed on him. He dropped the wailing book and yelped. “Sock puppet, give me a sock puppet!” The skin on his hands bubbled and peeled off, turning into painful-looking pustules. He fell to his knees crying and begging as the skin all over his body burned off.

  Dora winced as he pleaded. “Please, someone help me. I’m sorry. I lied on the forums because my penis is tiny. Please give me a sock puppet.” Trails of snot hung from his crooked nose in long, stringy strands as he lay on the floor wailing.

  A small, furry troll scurried out from underneath one of the desks. It was about the size of a baby and wore a sock over its face with eyeholes cut in it. The troll stood over the cowering man, unfastened its tiny troll pants and peed on him.

  “Thank you, yes!” He told the troll as its pee cured his bubbling skin and restored it to perfect condition. When the sock puppet had finished, it scurried away and disappeared under a desk.

  “What did these people do to deserve this?” Dora asked Lord Lascher. They didn’t appear to be particularly pleasant people, she noted as they tried everything from slapping the baby books to spitting on them to try and silence them.

  “You have to understand what the place they come from is. It is a place devoid of empathy, compassion and humanity. It attracted the worst of humans to it. The question that may be better asked is; what didn’t they do?” Lord Lascher pointed to a young man who was strangling his baby book. “That one killed a million author babies in his lifetime and a few authors too. He was known for making a sixteen-year-old author kill herself. He was immensely proud of that. He used to laugh and joke on the forums about killing babies all the time.”

  Dora narrowed her eyes at the man. Being bitten by a baby book didn’t feel like enough punishment for these people. “Why would anyone do that?”

  “When humanity is removed, people will do anything,” Lord Lascher replied. “That’s why we love the internet so much, compassion isn’t something we have to worry about there. It’s a place where people can be as evil as they want to be. These people were doing a stellar job of selling their souls. Authors attacking each other for a dime, literally a dime! Who knew souls could come so cheap? People attacking other people, so they can feel important. Greed, pride and let’s not forget sloth, for they can do it all from their armchairs while indulging in a takeaway. It’s so beautiful, I’m jealous I didn’t create it myself.” A tear of appreciation shone in Lord Lascher’s eye.

  He wiped it away and continued. “But of course, after all that sin, there is always the punishment, which is when they end up here. What punishment do you think they should have?” he asked. A devilish smile grew on his face.

  Dora burned with hatred for these awful people. “I want them all to burn,” she muttered.

  Lord Lascher laughed with a glint of delight shining in his eyes. “And so they shall.”

  “Kieron D. Lascher, how dare you come home in such a state?” Lady Lascher shrieked.

  Kieron glanced down at the burnt rags he wore, which had once been his clothes. He raised his eyes and stared at his mother in disbelief. “Are you shitting me?”

  “I did not raise you to speak to your mother like that.” His mother held a hand to her mouth in shock.

  “You didn’t raise me, Nanny Simpson did.” He grumbled.

  “That demon was the worst influence on you. I raised you to come home looking respectable, not like some … some—”

  “Someone who’s been pushed into a lava lake before having to climb Mount, Fucking Doom to get out?” Kieron shouted.

  “There’s no need to shout.” His mother complained.

  “There is every need to shout. Where the hell is my bloody father?” He growled.

  “He’s not bloody.”

  “He will be.”

  “Don’t blame your father for your own mistakes.”

  “How is this, my mistake?” He gestured to his ragged jeans, which were still smoking in places.

  “You follow that stupid girl around like a dog on a leash. How did you expect it to end?” His mother snapped.

  “Dora? What do you mean end?” His pulse raced. “Where is she? Where’s dad?”

  His mother peered around his room, refusing to meet his eye. She glanced at the desk, the floor, anywhere but at him. “You really should tidy this room up,” she said.

  “Where is she?” he shouted.

  “There’s no need to keep shouting like that. Honestly, I don’t know what’s wrong with you lately. She’s clearly been a bad influence on you.”

  “Answer me!”

  “Fine! She’s been sent home.”

  A shuffling noise coming from the doorway interrupted the conversation. He glanced over to see Pooey making his way out of the room, behind his mother.

  “And, she left her crap behind!” Lady Lascher shouted as she spun around and pointed to Pooey, who froze in his tracks.

  Pooey slowly turned around and pointed to himself, wearing an innocent expression. “Is she talking about me?”

  “I suppose we’ll just have to make use of him at the next barbecue.”

  Pooey’s fluffy face scrunched up to appear even more squashed than usual. His eyes became slits as he blurted out a threatening growl. “Like fuck you will.”

  “What exactly are you going to do to stop me?” Kieron’s mother went from calm to insane in an instant. She launched herself at Pooey, who daintily sidestepped out of her way, causing her to crash face first into Kieron’s desk instead. She pushed herself up and spun around with speed and agility she should not have possessed. Her curly hair draped over her face in a mess. Her narrowed eyes glowed green, which clashed with the red stripe across her forehead from her encounter with the edge of the desk.

  Pooey studied Lady Lascher for a moment before yelping and scurrying behind Kieron’s legs to hide from her.

  “Just for that, you’re going to suffer a painful death.” Lady Lascher snarled.

  “Pooey is under my protection,” Kieron said, his mind brimming with questions.

  Dora’s been sent home, back to Earth, why?

  “You’re not allowed any pets.” His mother snapped, ducking left and right in an attempt to close in on Pooey, who was digging his claws into the back of Kieron’s shins.

  “Fine, I’ll just tell the Demonic Tax Authorities that dad’s been holding back on his tax returns for the last five-hundred years,” Kieron replied.

  “You wouldn’t!” His mother gasped.

  “I fucking would.”

  “I don’t know what’s got into you lately, but fine!
Keep your ugly mutt—”

  “Hey!” Pooey grumbled. “I’m a pedigree.”

  “Do pieces of crap come in pedigree?” Lady Lascher taunted.

  “I dunno. Look in a mirror sometime and ask yourself,” Pooey replied.

  Kieron groaned when green smoke billowed around his mother and her bipolar other half snarled. “Should I call the DTA now or when Dad gets home?”

  Lady Lascher hissed, scowling at both Kieron and Pooey. “Fine, keep your inbred critter for now. You’re grounded for a decade!” She screamed before slamming her way out of the room with green smoke curling ominously under her dress.

  Kieron sank onto his bed and stared at the closed door. How could they take Dora away without telling him? What was he going to do now?

  The bed bounced when Pooey jumped onto it, and he sat beside him. “What are we gunna do now?”

  “What can we do?”

  “You don’t really believe they sent her back to Earth, do ya?”

  “Why would they lie?”

  “Er, because they’re evil demons.”

  “Aren’t we all? Maybe Dora’s safer where she is?”

  “Then why are pieces of her soul still inside Lord Fucknut’s vault?”

  Kieron scowled. Pooey was right. If Dora had been sent home, it would have been with her whole soul, not a fractured one.

  “How do you know what’s in the vault?”

  “I like to explore.” Pooey flashed innocent eyes at Kieron before he found a sudden interest in examining his claws.

  “So, where did they send Dora?”

  Pooey shrugged. “When did you last see her?”

  “Going into the Cave of Sinners …” His eyes widened. “They can’t have put her in there!”

  “Oh yeah, ‘cause they’re such compassionate souls.” Pooey shook his head.

  “Time moves differently there. A few hours will feel like years to Dora. They’re not going to get away with it.” He clenched his fists.

  “What are we going to do?”

  “We’re going to break into the vault.” He scowled at the door. This time he was going to hit his parents where it really hurt, in their bank balance.

  Dora crossed her legs and uncrossed them. She eyed up the cell door, waiting for the ghoulish guard to stroll by again. He did so every hour, holding a burning torch in one hand and a bloody axe in the other. She didn’t know why she waited for him, other than it was the only way to tell how many hours she’d been in the cell for.

  The first hint of the guard’s arrival was the clinking of chains as he dragged them across the stone floor behind him. She frowned when she saw him through the bars. His ragged skin was ripped with old scars on it. Her stomach turned over as she studied his grey-tinged flesh and the purple welts on it. Half of the skin on his jaw was missing, baring skeletal teeth on one side of his face in a gruesome grin. One of his eyes hung from the socket, and he was completely bald. He wore a ripped leather tunic with thick chains wound around him. She shivered at the chains around his fists.

  Those will hurt if he hits me.

  At first, she had thought Lord Lascher was joking when he told her she wasn’t coming back to Castle Lascher with him. Because Lionel had been smiling so pleasantly at her when he had left her here, it had taken her a while to realise he had meant it. He had told her that Kieron didn’t want her to return with him, and since she wasn’t helping improve Kieron’s chances of passing the Judgement Day tests, it was for the best if she stayed here.

  She had been too upset to respond. It was the kiss. It had to be. Kieron had obviously been angry with her, but she had never expected him to abandon her in Hell because of it.

  I’m such an idiot!

  Lord Lascher had been kind. Well, if you could call leaving her in a prison kind. He had given her advice about her own test. He told her to use this time to become strong, and to learn to defend herself. Because, as of right now, it was the only protection she had. He hadn’t lied to her. He’d told her straight. If she didn’t fight back, she’d die here. Then he had left, and she had been alone with her thoughts. They weren’t pleasant thoughts.

  Thirteen times the guard had strolled past her cell. For thirteen hours, she had tried to come to terms with the fact that no one was coming to save her this time. She was on her own. It was a daunting realisation.

  You would think I’d be used to people letting me down by now.

  But she hadn’t been prepared for this. She had become used to Kieron protecting her. She had forgotten how much scarier everything could be on your own, and she had forgotten how to take care of herself.

  Dora stood up feeling determined and paced her cell. She refused to be defeated by a bad boy and a ropey prison cell. The tests were coming up, and she was on her own. She needed to learn to fight here and to forget about everyone else. Whatever they had in store for her, she could handle it. She scanned the room for a weapon of some kind. It was bare except for a rickety, metal bed and a bucket.

  She picked up the bucket and weighed it in her hands. It had some weight in it and was durable. Okay, it wasn’t a baseball bat, but it might do enough damage if she hit something with it.

  She dropped the bucket when she heard a key rattling followed by a loud creak as the door opened behind her. She didn’t know what to expect when she spun around, but the man standing before her was the last person she thought would walk into her cell.

  She froze, speechless as her father strolled into the room and slammed the cell door shut behind him. How is he here? “Dad?” She couldn’t believe her own eyes.

  He turned towards her with red glowing eyes.

  Did he die? Was he sent to hell?

  “DEMON!” He bellowed.

  “Look who’s talking.” Dora scowled as fiery hate burned in her belly.

  Chains sprang out of the walls and wrapped around her body on their own. Similar to twisting snakes, the metal bonds wound around her body and bound her to the spot. She heard crunching under her feet and peered down expecting to see stone slabs but found herself standing on a wooden pyre.

  What the fu—

  “Bitch, bitch, burn the witch.” Her father sang at her. He had acquired a burning torch, from the ether it seemed, and held it in his hands as he walked towards her.

  “No, no, no. This can’t be happening!” she cried. But it was happening, she realised as he lit the wood beneath her feet. He was going to burn her, and this time there was no one to save her.

  Heat scorched her skin as the flames grew. Her father became a dark shadow on the other side of the fire. She could feel her skin bubbling as the blaze grew. She screamed in agony.

  I’m dead. This time I’m dead!

  The flames licked at her skin, but all she could do was shriek in pain and terror. She could hear her father laughing in the background. “Kieron,” she whimpered. “Where are you?” Her heart ached, and something dark entered her soul as the world around her faded to black.

  When Dora awoke, she was alone and unharmed in her cell. The ghoulish guard walked by again, dragging his chains behind him. She sat up and checked her arms. Her skin was unblemished, but she was trembling in fear.

  Did I burn? Am I dead now?

  She jerked her head around when she heard keys jangling in the cell door. Her father walked into the room and slammed the door shut behind him.

  “Incinerato!” she shouted, pointing her hands at him. A fireball shot from her fingers and hit him squarely in the chest. He stumbled backwards against the door as he ignited into a ball of flames. He stepped forward and continued towards her as if he could not feel the flames engulfing him. His eyes glowed red at her. “DEMON!” He bellowed.

  Aww fuck. Not again.

  Kieron watched in silence through the keyhole of the door as his mother strode across his father’s office. He was hidden inside his father’s stuffy stationary cupboard next to the main office.

  “Let me see,” Pooey whispered in his ear as the little demon climbed up
his arm and sat on his shoulder, trying to push his head away from the keyhole with his fluffy, little paws.

  Kieron violently shook his head, attempting to silence and dislodge the fluffy fiend at the same time. When Pooey refused to budge, he lifted his arm and pushed Pooey off his shoulder.

  Not now, something is finally about to happen.

  His eyes remained glued to the scene in the adjoining room.

  “You shouldn’t have taken her soul.” He heard his mother’s voice echo through the door as he watched her pace the room through the keyhole. She stopped and stared at his father with venom in her eyes.

  “But it was so shiny,” Lord Lascher replied. He reclined back in his chair and rested his feet on the desk. “What does it matter anyway? She’ll be back on Earth in no time.”

  “It matters, you idiot, because she might do well in the tests without a soul. The whole purpose of summoning her here was to help Kieron pass his Judgement Day exams. And it would have worked too if you hadn’t been greedy.” Lady Lascher shot a bolt of electricity at her husband and slapped him in the face with it. He slammed back in his chair, which flipped over dropping him on to the floor with a loud thud.

  “Idiot!” Lady Lascher repeated.

  Kieron watched his father stand up, rubbing his head. Little blue sparks of electricity shot off his hair, repeatedly zapping him and making him jump.

  Is this true? They brought Dora here, so she would be an easy competitor for me to beat in the final battle. She was brought here, so I could cheat my exams…

  He frowned. When it came to his parents, he didn’t have very high expectations, but he was disappointed they had managed to fool him so easily. He hadn’t been even mildly suspicious, but he should have been. A portal had magically opened, and he’d never suspected why it was there. His magic hadn’t worked the way it should have on Earth, and he’d known it had felt restricted. He groaned when he realised why his spells had not all worked on Earth. He’d had a parental restriction on his powers when he was there. Son of a bitch! I was set up.