My Beloved (Demon Slayer Fanfiction)

#3

~Night~

I inhale a little of the air and taste if there's any abnormality; the taste of a demon is putrid, so terrible it makes me gag most of the time. I continue to walk as I inhale small amounts of air every ten seconds; I freeze when I savor a horrible taste at the tip of my tongue; the demon is closer than I thought.

I clench my fists, and my blades shoot outwards from the bracers, I look around my surroundings but could not see a person or demon nearby, but the taste was only getting more horrible. My neck suddenly gets gripped by what feels like a giant hand, I look to see what is choking me, but my eyes widen as nobody was there.

Is the demon invisible?

The taste was disgusting; there's no question about it; it's a demon; it's a strong one too. The monster starts to manifest itself, its murky purple skin nearly blends in with the dark sky, but its yellow and white eyes stand out like a sun in this darkness. It had about three eyes on both its left and right sides, horns sticking out throughout its body, all various sizes but with the same sharpness.

The demon grips my neck more, causing me to try and pry its hand open; when that was obviously not working, I try using my hidden blade to slice off its wrists, but they only bounced off from the various horns surrounding it. My vision starts to get groggy, and it's getting harder to inhale air; in my last efforts, I recoil my leg back as far as I could. I feel the blade at the bottom of my shoes stick out; my leg not only kicks the demon across the face but slices two eyes on his right and one on his left.

The demon dropped me to the ground not before giving off a painful roar like cry; I use my hands to lift myself off the dirt slowly; I have to stop this damn thing if I don't want more children to die. I chase after the demon, who begins to bolt through the streets; I was having difficulty keeping up from the spinning vision and lack of air.

I must have ran after the demon for a long time; we were near a mountain now! I rub my neck and try inhaling a large amount of air before going in, but I cover my mouth quickly as the once disgusting taste in my mouth soon gets replaced by the taste of iron. "Blood," I whisper to myself, "this is the taste of blood."

I drop my arms to my sides and clench them to keep the blades out as I slowly walk inside the large opening to the mountain; the further I went, the darker it got, and the iron only got stronger. I soon see a flicker of fire not too far ahead; I squint my eyes to get them adjusted to the light. But I was frozen stiff when I could finally see what was in front of me, heads, hands, arms, and legs; they were all dangling around this cave like lanterns.

My eyes quickly filled with tears, my knees collapsed under me, and I started to vomit. Not because of what I was tasting, but the sight of this place alone turned my stomach. If I had gotten here quicker, maybe a child wouldn't have lost its body part only to be used as a decoration now.

I'm killing the bastard.

"Hello?" I hear a small boy whisper, "Is someone there?" I shoot my head up and rush to the large rock in front of me; looking behind it, my eyes widen to see a small boy tied up from the neck, wrists, and ankles. It didn't hit me right away, but how the hell can a demon that large and wild manage to tie up a small child with an ordinary rope? "Are you alright?" I say as I start to untie his neck first, "what happened?"

The peach-colored hair boy looks at me with his empty silver eyes, "I'm next," he says, trembling like a wet dog, "my sister was sacrificed today in the morning; my turn is in a few hours." Sacrificed? Demons don't do that; they eat; this isn't making any sense! "What do you mean?" I say as I move to his wrists, "what sacrifice are you talking about?"

"Those hanging body parts are for a ritual," he says, "children are brought here for their "purity" only to be slaughter like cattle by people and be devoured by the demon that lives here. One body part of each victim is an "offering" to their God that they worship." My stomach drops as I realize the only problem isn't with the demon from earlier; it's with human beings too now.