The Demon Inheritance

TWO

"Rawr!" At the following moment, a familiar hand slammed against my shoulder, right before a happy laugh sounded out. Predictably, it was Mary. She slid into view after seeing that I wasn't startled by her jumpscare, blocking Oliver from my view. Her inky curls bounced against her head, and her green gaze drifted over me. "Oh, look, Sis, you aren't wearing slutty clothes today!" I rolled my eyes. Mary continued, "Where are we bringing le human first?"

I glanced up towards the sky and said, "Where everyone lives, then the stores, then the woods. A tour of Millton would take until the sky starts getting dark. I'm thinking, since I brought money, we can go get ice cream and pizza in the middle of the day."

"Sounds like a deal!" my friend agreed, black hair bobbing. Her eyes glimmered. "What do you say, Oliver?"

"I've never had ice cream... or this pizza object you mentioned... But I'm all for a new experience, so I say I will follow along."

Mary gaped at him, and I knit my brow, trying to analyze if he was telling the truth or not. My best friend clasped a hand over her heart and let out a long, sad note of grief. "It sounds as if there is a case of child abuse going on!"

Oliver bit his lip. "Actually, no, I am well cared for. I do not see why the subtraction of a type of food I can live without is considered abuse... I did find your laws odd when I was studying them..."

Mary turned to me. "I am going to make this child high on ice cream, and I am going to feed him so much pizza he pukes."

"Now that," I said, "sounds like abuse."

She shushed me and began to jog away from us, towards the sprouting row of houses on either side of the sizzling concrete. Oliver and I trotted after. As I moved, the only thing I could think about was my dreams, the strange boy, and all the blood that followed.

***

There, in the suffocating darkness, the air felt like fire on our skin and there was a dizzy sense where our minds couldn't decide if we were going up or down. The place was void of light, but the strength of my demonic eyes could refract our leader's pale soul glowing two miles ahead, so I could slightly see the glow of my companions. The place in which we crawled through, which I suspected was a tunnel miles wide, was big enough for two slim people to snake side-by-side.

He pressed his flank to the side of the sodden dirt wall, inhaled deeply, and let my slip by his side. I breathed in his scent, widening my eyes enough to the the outline of his face. His smell was as precious as oxygen. I assumed he was bending the soul light, too, considering that his staring at my face directly was apparent. "We travel together, Lil."

I didn't find it strange that he was calling me by another name. If I truly thought about it, this man was a stranger. However, here, in the capacity of my mind, I'd known him my whole life. "Thank you... For savin' me back on the field." I wasn't sure where the dialogue came from, either, but it felt right. "Gary would have killed me. This wouldn't be happening right now..."

We began to crawl again. "It was the least I could do. Everyone was saving each other out on the field," he said. "Is this confusing for you?"

"A bit... when did the Dark strike? Why?"

"He is Croma's brother. They were both born alongside the universe, and Dark was made to destroy, while Croma was made to create. They didn't go hand-in-hand, as was meant to be... Because the Dark kept murdering the test kingdoms before us, where Croma designed creatures to go in his worlds."

"What happened to the dead ones?"

"They became demons, Lil. Demons like us. But we came back after death, back to Croma's new six kingdoms, and we owe him everything."