demons | lrh

-03-

But she could've sworn that his eyes swirled with something inhuman.

"Who are you?" Nora winced at the wobble in her voice, and her fingers absentmindedly clutched onto the blanket beneath her as if it would, somehow, protect her.

"Ah," the man grinned, but it didn't nothing to soothe Nora's nerves. If anything, she was even more terrified, "there it is. Who are you?" He mocked, "where am I? What do you want? I was wondering when the questions would start."

This had to be another nightmare.

"Although you have surprised me, most people would still be screaming at this point."

Nora gulped. "Should...should I be screaming?"

A trace of a smirk tugged at the corner of the man's lips, something almost malicious flashed in his eyes, and he shifted on his feet, crossing one leg over the other as he folded his arms and tilted his chin upwards, looking at her down the bridge of his nose.

Stay calm, she kept repeating to herself, knuckles subconsciously whitening further as her grip tightened and her body began to shake. She felt the panic rising in her throat, could feel it pushing frantic tears into the corners of her eyes, her bottom lip trembled, her heart threatened to burst out of her chest and right into the hardwood floor.

But then the man laughed.

Throwing his head back, his shoulders shook as deep, sincere chuckles rumbled through him, and then his eyes were open again. Gone was the threatening look. Instead, amusement shone in its place.

"God, your people are always so fun to play with."

For the first time since waking up, Nora didn't feel like she was about to be sick with nerves and fear. In fact, staring at the man before her, all she felt at that moment was sheer annoyance and confusion, along with the need to fix her damaged pride from his mockery.

The girl scowled. "Who are you? And what do you want with me?"

His tongue clicked against the roof of his mouth, and then he sighed, shaking his head in a taunt and shoving his hands deep into the pockets of his cargo pants. "Such bravery for a weak little thing like yourself."

Despite the tremble in her voice, Nora mustered up the last of her confidence and, through gritted teeth, she hissed, "I'm not weak—" But before she could spew out the rest of her improvised speech fuelled by the temporary ounce of courage that flowed through her veins, somebody called out from somewhere down the corridor, past the door the man was leaning on.

A word Nora did not recognise came from the stranger's voice, and he turned, with a hint of agitation in his features, "what is it?" He grunted, glancing over his shoulder, the person on the receiving end of his question was way out of Nora's sight.

His name.

That word that she had heard...she remembered it. Nora had definitely heard it before she had passed out...but for the life of her, even though she could clearly hear it in her mind, she could not wrap her mind around the pronunciation of it.

"The girl is not a toy, stop playing with her." The faceless voice spoke and Nora, despite her predicament, flushed a bright red.