Short Stories

The Demons Inside Us

RUBY

The beast stood in front of me. My friend Yasmin charged, but I stayed rooted behind the dumpster. Recently monsters had been terrorising New York. Me and Yasmin had been able to fight them, along with our friend Cassie, but recently me and Cassie had found some weird stuff involving Yasmin.

Yasmin wasn't even fighting well. The movements of the knife she wielded were slow and uncalculated, unlike her usual style.

But somehow the monster died. Once the monster was lying down in the ground, Yasmin came storming up to me. ''Why didn't you help me Ruby? You literally just stayed there while I fought the beast!'' she screamed. I knew this was the time. I looked down at my sword.

Before I could think, I threw my blade at Yasmin. The sword pierced her heart as she fell onto the ground, but she didn't die like normal people die. Instead, a red ring formed around her dead body.

The ring glowed brightly as black smoke escaped, creating black demons. They turned to glare at me. I wielded my sword, although I wasn't sure how much good that would do.

The demons seemed to take over my soul. My thoughts weren't my own. But they seemed to make so much sense. Kill Cassie. They told me. She told you to kill our master! Our master must not be slayed!

And instantly I knew my goal. I had to kill Cassie.

But then I seemed to shake out of it, and my reason left me. Why would I think about killing Cassie?

I sat at my desk, looking over New York. It had been a week since the fight, and the demons seemed to be able to possess me at random times. I would be overcome with thoughts telling me to kill my best friend. What was happening?

It had become harder to gain control. I almost killed Cassie, and we had a fight. What are you doing Ruby? This isn't you! She had yelled at me.

Why was life so complicated? Me, Yasmin, and Cassie used to be best friends, but then things got supernatural when the monsters appeared. We had found some weapons and Yasmin had started acting weird.

Other than that, we were just normal 18-year-old girls attending university in New York.

CASSIE

I remember the fight well. Ruby...I don't know what is up with her. She came over to my house on Sunday to tell me that Yasmin had been slayed the previous day. I asked her what had happened after she killed Yasmin and she said she didn't know. Like what?

But then she threw the knife.

At my heart.

I ducked, and caught the knife, yelling at her in shock. When I looked up again, Ruby wasn't there.

I ran out of my apartment, just in time to see Ruby run out of the door and into the streets of New York.

I hadn't told anyone what happened. On Monday at uni, it was announced that Yasmin Price had died in a car accident.

I knew that wasn't true though, and glancing at Ruby across the hall she knew it wasn't either.

It was Saturday now, a week after the fight and I decided I needed to take action. I rapped on the door to Rubys apartment and was met with dead silence. When I tried the handle, the door was unlocked. Weird. Ruby never leaves her door unlocked- after all, it is New York. Leaving your door unlocked was practically inviting criminals into your apartment. But then again, she did almost kill me, so I have no idea what's going on in her head right now.

I cautiously stepped inside. No one was in the living room or kitchen. I stepped into Rubys room.

Ruby was standing on her bed, defencless. Five black...shadow demons were surrounding her. ''GO AWAY!'' Ruby yelled to them.

I took my sword and killed all of them. Once I had killed the final one, Ruby fell down onto the bed, knocked out cold.

I checked her heart was still beating, which it was. Then I went over to her diary on her desk. I flipped to the entry on the Saturday of the fight when she killed Yasmin and the Sunday when she came over to my apartment. Maybe this could help me explain what happened just now.

All I found were random times which meant nothing right now. Maybe when she got that glazed look? Was that the demons? There were lots of scribbles with my name with hearts surrounding it, then crossed out with kill messily scribbled in capitals.

What was going on in my best friends mind?

Suddenly, Ruby sat up, groaning.

''Demons...posess...'' Suddenly she seemed to come to attention. ''Cassie? What are you doing here?''

I shrugged, scrambling to close her diary when a page loosely fell out. I picked it up, putting it in my bag before she could notice.

RUBY

Cassie came into the room, where I stood empty handed on the bed surrounded by demons. She must think I'm a lunatic. Why is she here anyway? I literally tried killing her last weekend.

Either way, Casie goes and single handedly slays all the demons. Suddenly a wave of nausea overcomes me and I collapse into unconsciousness.

When I come back again, Cassie is sitting at my desk.

''Cassie? What are you doing here?'' Cassie shrugs. ''I mean, you were standing on your bed fighting these demon things, so I thought I would stay here until you were okay''. Oh. I remember now. Once I finished writing in my diary the demons appeared, trying to kill me.

''Okay...but didn't I try to kill you?'' Again I am met with a shrug. ''I mean, attempting to murder your best friend isn't normal behavior, so I figured I owed you a visit''.

''Cassie, I saw you put that piece of paper in your bag just now''. Colour crept up Cassies cheeks. ''Read it. Please''. She nodded, and scanned over my perspective of the fight with Yasmin.

''Holy crap Ruby...so those demons were possessing you?'' I nodded. Cassie grinned. ''This would make the best fantasy novel of all time!'' she exclaimed. I rolled my eyes as Cassie took out her laptop and began to type.

A/N: TBH I didn't really know what to do with this story, so sorry if the endings bad.

-Oreo