Simple Distortion

Chapter 12 - Simple Distortion

The Demons skin was red and knarled, which was visible now his growing back pulled his shirt away. I stood frozen in shock as he grew, his Demon wings sprouted from his shoulder blades and he began to tower above me. His head already touched the leaves above us.

He snarled and it reverberated inside me. I let out a whimper and he focused his red, beady eyes onto me. He looked like the dragon in an old painting I’d seen in the town hall.

His clawed, bony hand clasped around my waist before I could stop him. He pulled me towards him and shoved his massive muzzle in my face.

“Your… Fault…” he rasped through snarling, pointed teeth.

He began to crush my body in his fingers.

“Let go!” I managed, trying to push my ribcage out of his grasp. Through the growing haze, I stared into his eyes. His overgrown forehead was wrinkled, his eyebrows pulled sharply down, commenting on his snarling face.

My body strained, then a fire shot around my side. The air hissed through my mouth as one rib shattered. I prepared to fight back, bringing my fingers into fists, ignoring the throbbing pain. The adrenalin made my vision pulse, the world jumped to one rhythm.

With a shock, I realized the Demon’s hand had loosened, and he held the other hand to his side, to his ribcage. My feet touched the ground and I felt soil on my bare toes.

“E 'venuto da laggiù!” We both heard the voice from behind us. I glared back up at the Demon, the ‘your fault’ accusation in my eyes. His gaze was locked on the trees behind me. He shifted slightly, the hand on his side slipped to the ground. He turned and ran, his red body slipping quickly away.

One minute, he was there, the next he was gone. I was surprised to see that I didn’t catch another glimpse of him, even though his colouring was like a flashing beacon when surrounded by the green and brown.

“Ehi!” I spun around, faced by two humans. They weren’t old, maybe 14 and 20, and they looked like brothers. Before I could say anything, I was pulled away. The forest shot past, blurring into a mass of green, until I came to a sudden stop.

The Demon was in front of me. He loped along on his great legs, his face pinched. His eyes took me in and slammed his claws into the undergrowth, slowly bringing his massive body to a stop.

“They heard you, you know,” I said, looking into his muzzle. “They aren’t used to, well, us.” He kind of grunted in agreement, his head swinging down slightly. I could tell he wasn’t angry with me anymore. There was defeat in his eyes. “We can’t stay here,” I added, involuntarily glancing backwards. His head bent again and his began to run.

He was fast, faster than I was. As I tried to keep up, the pains from earlier came all rushing back. My chest was aching, my back was stiff and my mouth was dry. Although I healed very fast for mortals, my wounds were so deep and so many that I needed to rest. I needed food and water to move, to be more or less human, but I could live without it. But I fall into a coma, of sorts. If an angel was badly hurt and left for about a month without food and water, they would fall into a sleep that could only be woken by human blood. Human life.

The pain grew worse as we rushed through the heat, aiming nowhere, only away from the history of Pineto.

We ran through pale yellow fields, the long grass brushing my bare legs and the ground dry under my bare feet. I had flicked them off earlier, I couldn’t keep up with them on. I didn’t mind being without them.

News spread fast, and we had to be careful where we stopped to rest. We had paused, thinking we were far away from civilization. But when a great, roaring combine harvester started up, and a drowsy farmer chugged over the first line of crop on the other side of the field, I knew we needed to be more careful.

Finally, after almost a whole day of moving, we stopped. The sun was low, it coloured the tall hills around us in with orange.

My body hurt everywhere. My feet, which had been fine, now were red and painful. I could feel pain in places I didn’t even know I could.

My chest was stiff as I breathed. My beautiful violet dress was ripped and dirty. I’m sure my face and hair was disgusting. But, for the first time in forever, I didn’t care.

The Demon was still a monster. He could barely keep his eyes open, and if I were safe and happy at home, it would’ve been funny to see him so exhausted. But I wasn’t, so I didn’t laugh.

I had so much to think about, but I couldn’t concentrate. My mind was dragging me off into a deep sleep before I even lay down so I didn’t complain about sleeping on the ground, or near a Demon. I just slipped into a heavy, dreamless sleep.