Demons // l.t. ✔️

2

I raise my hand. "Ms. Allen?"

"Yes?" Ms. Allen points to me.

"I need to go to the bathroom," I say, trembling. Fear runs through my veins. That's a new emotion.

"Okay..." Ms. Allen says, unsure, probably noticing my pale face. "Are you okay?"

"Yes," I run out of the classroom.

Where do I go?

Get out of the school. Now! The demon orders. I'll guide you.

I race out the front doors, to the open air. I run, a thousand times faster than the cars passing by on the highway, a hundred times faster than the airplane above me. I let my instincts take over. I don't have a damn clue where I'm going.

Where am I? I ask, panicking.

Right now, you're in Mullingar, Ireland. The demon replies coolly. Stop here, you're safe now.

What? I stop, my heels digging into the grass. Ireland? Already?

I told you, I'm fast. The demon's smug voice echoes through my head.

No kidding, I snort. I look around at my surroundings. I'm in front of a house. Great. There's a kid playing football by himself in front of it, probably about my age.

The kid looks up. "Hey!"

"Hi," I mutter.

"Whoa, you're British," he says. "Were you born there? Are you just visiting Mullingar?"

"Yup," I squint. "Born and raised in the UK."

"Cool!" he grins. "Wanna play football with me?"

I shrug. "Sure, why not?"

He walks over to me and shakes my hand. "I'm Niall, by the way. Nice to meet you, Louis."

"How do you know my name?" I ask, my eyes widening. I'm staring at his hand like he's an alien, checking if it's burnt red.

It's not.

Niall awkwardly shifts from side to side. "Uhh, you told me your name just now?"

"I... did?" I say, racking my memory for a time in the last minute that I told him my name.

I never told him my name... weird...

"So, you wanna play football?" Niall grins again.

"Yeah, sure," I raise my eyebrow, a little more cautious this time.

Niall kicks the ball to me, with a surprising amount of force. Almost inhuman.

The ball flies past my ear, hitting the other side of the street. Horrible aim.

Are you a demon? I think. If he's a demon, he'll reply.

Niall smirks at me, and nods. "Took you long enough."

I take a few steps back. Is he a pure demon, or is he hosting one? I ask to the demon inside me.

Hosting one, the demon says. Don't worry.

I squint at Niall. "What do you want?"

"Don't worry," Niall says, repeating my demon's words. "Lord Gehennam sent me."

"Lord--" I say, shocked as to how he can repeat the Lord of Hell's name so clearly.

Of course, Lord Gehennam has a lot of different names.

Lord of Hell, Lord Gehennam, Satan, The Devil, etc.

Humans use the words "Satan", or "The Devil".

Demons use the words "Lord of Hell", or "Lord Gehennam", if we're feeling courageous.

"Yup," Niall sneers, the suddenly dark expression not fitting with his cheery blue eyes. "He sent me to join you on your mission. He sent a pure demon to fly near the school, so your demon would tell you to run, and guide you to me."

He did? I ask my demon.

The demon chuckles deeply, but says nothing.

"Oh," is all I can say to Niall's explaination.

Wait.

"What mission?" I ask.

Niall looks at me incredulously. "Are you serious?"

"Um..." I rack my brain, but I find nothing. "I don't know about any missions..."

Niall facepalms himself. "He never told you? No one ever told you?"

I shake my head slowly, curiosity slowly building up in my body. "No one ever told me..."

Niall laughs. "Well. I'll let your demon explain to you. I'm going to go get my ball."

He jogs away at a slow, human pace, and goes to retrieve his football.

Alright, the demon says. Sorry I didn't explain to you earlier. Anyways, there are four other people around the world that you need to meet up with, you have to make a group. You met Niall Horan already. You also met Kaia Dyer.

Kaia Dyer? I repeat angrily. She's a part of this, too?

Yup, her, I can feel the demon rolling his eyes through his voice. You left her behind, but she should be coming here soon. Anyways, once you get together with all these people, you have to form a team.

A team to do what? I tap my foot impatiently. Can't anyone just get straight to the point around here? What's the need for all these questions?

Louis, do you know what Hell does? Do you know what it's for?

No, I roll my eyes. Am I supposed to?

Hell is for punishing those who sin, the demon replies, his voice raising. Without Hell, all evil gets transported to Heaven, and there is no more paradise for the afterlife. Death will be ruined. Life will have no more meaning, the world will end.

Whoa, I think. That's pretty important.

Some demons are trying to make Hell disappear right now, the demon snarls. Lord Gehennam is trying to form a team of the best demon-possessed humans in the world to stop them.

Then he doesn't say anything else.

Niall jogs up to me, looking like a perfectly normal, happy, human. "Did he explain everything to you?"

"Yeah..." I mumble.

"Alright, now we wait."

"Wait for who?" I glare.

"Kaia, of course."

"Oh," I snort.

"She's slow, but she's almost here," Niall grumbles. "I can't believe we have a slow runner on this mission. So stupid!"

Suddenly, he's thrown against a wall, and I yell in surprise, although it wouldn't hurt him at all. Niall gets to his feet quick as lightning, although Kaia's faster, and she bodyslams him against the wall again.

"Guys," I groan loudly. "You're going to reduce the entire town to rubble if you keep this up."

Kaia gets off of Niall, and she rolls her eyes. Niall shakes the dust off his hair.

"Okay," Niall dusts his hand together. "The first person we need to find is named Harry Styles."

"Okay, let's go," I walk away, only to be stopped by Kaia's ear-piercing shriek.

I turn around just in time to see Niall being swooped up by a winged creature, yelling and kicking the air.

"What is that?!" I yell.

Kaia turns to me, her eyes horrified.

"A pure demon."