Demon Stories

Beau: Fear, Year Unknown, The Roman Empire

I examined her slight form in her night clothes, the soft cotton lovingly bought by her rich husband, a beautiful gift to his unfaithful wife. The thought of this sliced into my brain and the pain stood there, like the axe was still in the wound. 

And as I stared at her body, I thought of what my hand had felt as I had gripped her wrist. 

"...We can't...do this anymore, Iulia," I faltered, trying to get the whole words out to her this time. 

"Oh hush," Iulia decreed, as like one would joke, but by her serious face it didn't look like a joke.

But I didn't move. The crease in her brow deepened. A feeling of darkness seemed to envelope the room, as a tense feeling built up in my throat.

Many moments went by, as we stared at each other. I could see terror rising in her eyes like a slow rising flood. I could see the same choke creeping up in her throat as in mine.

Staring at her sadly, I had to control my breathing or she would see how much this hurt me, too. And she couldn't see that. I had never shown her my human side, and this was not the time to do it. She could never know how human I was. I clenched my fists to try to control myself.

On the bed, I saw her fists clench, too. But I felt through the floor, her trembling carried from the bed to my feet and up my body. Her trembling became mine, too.

Her soft mouth opened slightly, and I could feel my lovesick heart melt. But I could not possibly let it show.

What she would say next began a shattering of my world which would never be fixed.

"Please, I need this," she whispered in the most serious tone I had ever heard her utter. Gone was her usual strict playful manner, replaced now by a scared, vulnerable woman whom I did not know. It sent fear into my bones. "Please, I need you...!"

It took everything I had to fight rushing to her and wrapping my arms around her to comfort. She didn't look like herself at all. She looked ill, suddenly frail.

"Please, he hasn't touched me in weeks, please!" she begged. Her eyes became glassy and she was crying. 

A twinge of fear began to form in me. A single burning swirl of smoke.

"Why wouldn't he touch you?" I asked slowly.

Grasping the hope I had just tossed to her, she sat up fully on the edge of the bed and looked me full on, but her eyes were not strong. They were full of desperation, and a sinking feeling fell over me like a net trying to drag me under. 

"Because..." she said, her voice dropping to an apprehensive whisper. I could hear her heart pumping quickly, a human sign of nervousness.

My feelings became confused then, a jumbled mess difficult to differentiate, but with the climbing fear wrapping around them.

"Because..." she breathed quick and then looked at me with those scared eyes, a begging look. "Because...I'm pregnant."

My eyes went wide but I blinked immediately, trying to mask my feelings. The words had sent a rush of burning energy through my bones up to my skull. A nervous feeling began to race in me, flying through my blood like fires. A buzzing tingling feeling began to occur in the tips of my fingers and toes. I felt light headed.

I couldn't say anything for many minutes. We just stared at eachother, her eyes were searching me up and down, looking for any answer. She knew what I was thinking before I could say it.

"But, you told me he hadn't touched you for months last time," I said slowly and quietly.

She began to cry more, and this time she crumpled into herself, like a shy child. Like the shy child I had met all those years ago.

The tingling feeling in my fingers rose up my arms and it spread everywhere, a horrible energy. 

"But I can't..." I whispered, trying to figure logically, "I can't...I'm a demon--"

She fought for her voice, and with it she interrupted me.

"It is your's," she said quietly. "There is no way it wouldn't be."

With these words, my body shook on the inside dangerously. Like an earthquake, my walls fell down unlike I would have predicted.

Trying to control my breath, my panic, I turned around and quickly walked towards the door.

And as she screamed for me into the night with her begging voice, I made the worst mistake of my entire existence.