Demon Stories

Diana: What the Eyes Can't Unsee, Year Unknown, Roman Empire

Diana

What the Eyes Can't Unsee

Year Unknown, Roman Empire

Fire raged. People ran everywhere. There were no familiar faces. People were screaming an unfamiliar word all around me. 

"Demon!!" 

I sat on the ground, hugging my five year old self, trying to get into a tight little ball of protection. My heart was pounding so fast I felt my fingers going numb. I watched our villa become a monster of fire, the flames rolling in an orange and black fury upwards, like burning tiger gods swimming and devouring everything in their path, their hatred coming out as billowing black smoke into the sky. 

I wanted it to all go away. I wanted it to be like it used to be. Just earlier today I was playing with our goats. Feeding them flowers even though Papa said not to. Was this my punishment? Was everything going to go away because I had defied my Papa? 

I couldn't cry. I couldn't think. All my eyes could do was watch everything I love burn away. Papa and my sisters and their families were all still inside. If I hadn't gotten up to relieve myself then I would be in there, too. I'd be with them. We'd all still be together. 

This was when I felt myself get up and start walking towards home. Everyone else was running away. It seemed like hundreds of people, when in reality it was just our servants and slaves. The heat got more intense as I slowly walked as if possessed, unable to control my longing love, my need to be with my dying family. 

Suddenly, the air burst from my lungs and I was airborne, it seemed, and flying away from the rolling heat. 

I found myself and began pounding and scratching this stranger. Screaming animal screams. Trying to pull away to go back in the other direction.

"Diana!" a familiar voice screamed, "We must get away from here! The demon! The demon!!"

I wrenched my neck upwards and saw the terrified face of my eldest sister, her long, loose, black curls flying in the wind as she ran with me in her arms, her usually sleepy brown eyes now drawn wide in horrified panic. 

My mind flashed to her two sweet boys, one my age and one barely a year younger. Where were they? Were they in our home, their sun tanned, brave bodies burning? Would the younger really never surprise me with a grasshopper or the elder never snatch my flower crown away again? 

I began to cry and cry, wailing as if in babyhood. I heard my sister begin to cry as well, her running body trembling from her grieving core. We were almost in the forest now.

Out of nowhere we were flying. My sister's screams turned to pure inhuman sound. We were many feet off the ground. We swung over the trees and doubled back towards the flames, flying over them, the heat tremendous. Behind the villa, we swooped down near the ground and I was rolling in the beaten down dirt, my head swimming in this sudden strange movement. My ears locked on the high pitched wailing of my sister, blood-curdling screams. 

I clapped my hands over my ears and searched around and around with my frightened eyes for her, breathing quickly as my head swam as if in a sea of dreadful loss of familiarity. 

My eyes locked on the highest point of our villa. Movement which didn't make any sense. Through my hands, I heard the faint screaming of one of the figures, who was being swung around and around. Like they were dancing. Then one of the figures lifted the screaming one up in the air, and held her close and the head dipped down to her's. The free hand seemed to caress her chest, and then jerked forward, and she was silent. The hand drew out, and seemed to be holding something. The other figure's head leaned backwards and held the mystery item over it, and the hand squeezed.

My eyes felt like they'd transcended into a strange nightmare land. None of this could be real. I had to be dreaming. I had to be in the villa, sleeping warmly between my two sisters, nuzzled between familiar smells of lilac and fresh linens. 

The figure had its head pressed against my sister's neck now for what seemed like a long time. Then it flung her away into the flames and out came large wings as I had never seen before. This human figure had sprouted and grown bird-like wings before my very eyes. The figure launched into the air and did a barrel roll over the flames, the flames parting like obedient servants as it rolled towards me. 

As it came nearer and nearer, a warm feeling of calm flooded from my heart to the tips of my fingers and toes, filling my head and making my head lighter than air. It was like a thick, sweet liquid, like my body was being filled with floating flowers. My heart was bubbling ocean waves of the most loved feeling I would ever have. I couldn't make any sense of it, and I didn't want to. 

The wings opened and the figure glided towards me, shadowy form finally becoming visual to me as the flames' light illuminated the figure. It landed at my feet, the wings folded and disappeared into nothing. My breath caught as my eyes could not comprehend what they beheld.

It was a man. Skin so silky and white that it glowed in the moonlight. Hair more black than I knew black could ever be. Piercing, almost glowing green eyes in color,  almond shaped and focused, ready for anything. They were staring at me now, and the fear I had felt seemed to wash away and drip onto the ground underneath me. 

He extended a blood tipped hand towards me, the blood ruby red and fresh as if it were still alive on his skin. I took it, and it seemed to hug my small five year old hand with years of wisdom and love. 

I never looked back as we walked into the opposite forest, from a home I would never see again. My heart glided higher than the moon, for I knew he was my only home now.