Demon Stories

Saya: Reflection Blue, 1980, United States

After lunch, Charlotte wanted to look at the schools of fish in the larger tanks. These rooms were special, for they were floor to ceiling plates of the clearest acrylic. The rooms were dark but for blue light emanating from within the tanks, lighting the fish softly to bring out species who usually flourished in deep, dark waters.

Walking hand in hand, I tried not to think of my past love. But she was just as tall as he had been. Her permed, silky black hair was mermaid-like, long, just like his had been. Maybe she did look like him a little bit, but my heart did not want to compare. There was no comparing the beauty of him, for he was the goddess of beauty reincarnated. Or so many demon fellows believed.

Charlotte pressed her hands to the acrylic, and put her face as close as she could. The fish were rotating in a large circle, going with the interior current. Many had lit their inner lights, casting a ghostly glow and looking almost like strange fairies in the water if one did not look very close. Otherwise, some were most fearsome looking, like the humpback anglerfish. 

"These fish always give me the creeps," Charlotte whispered, in awe of the image before her. 

I had to agree with her. Most of them had very sharp teeth, protruding from their mouthes. I could see how their fish victims could be lured by their pretty lights and then devoured without a moment's hesitation by these eerie beasts. 

"Well, let's go. I want to check out the turtles. I heard they got an albino one in. Isn't that pretty? I want to visit it," she said, moving away from the tank and towards the door. 

I looked back to her, my mouth poised to respond, but my voice caught in my throat. A little green light had passed by at the edge of my vision just then, against the current, causing me to freeze. An intense green light, which caused my heart to shudder to a stop with sudden, intuitous recognition. A small, unsettling whisper in the darkness. 

"Seiya?" she asked, opening the door to the other exhibit.

"In a minute," was all I could say.

She shrugged, and left the room. 

And just as the door closed and the room was plunged into darkness, came the little green luminescence again. It twirled at the corner of the tank, twirling mysteriously like the current was causing it to slowly float and spin like a leaf in the wind. In this phantom swirl, it twirled towards the fish, and I gasped and pressed my face to the tank in fear it may be lost.

This light. It caused my heart to warm the more I watched, to bubble in a feeling of weird warmth overtaking my blood and passing through my body as if honey replaced it. A strange feeling, a soothing, relaxing feeling, as if I never wanted the light to go away, ever.

As it swirled towards the rotating fish, my body felt as if it were floating, too. Floating out of this world, just in a space and time where only we existed.

When it entered the current, the blue light fell on the creature which my prickling demon heart knew was there. The creature kicked its elegant black tail and descended downwards in the water. And my heart trembled in overwhelming weakness just for a second, for I had seen its face.