To Hell & Back

“Nnghf-fuck!” I blurted, blinking bleary eyes. After a few moments of confusion, I looked around at my surroundings. I saw rough, stone floors and walls. Everything was illuminated by soft lantern lighting. I was alone except for a big, winged, ebony… thing.

What in the fuck is— Oh, right, I’m in Hell; that would be a demon, I realized. It is looking at me. Why is it looking— Wait a second, I’m back in a fucking dungeon? I just can’t win today. What the fuck, man, I— my fucking head, ow!

I winced as an intense pain flared from the back and side of my head. Holding my head with both hands, I continued to look at the sight in front of me. The demon was vaguely humanoid: two legs, two arms, a head, etc, and it was completely black, except for a few lines of red that ran like chinks in plated armor. The arms were elongated; they had an extra joint, and they ended in eight particularly long fingers sprouting from a small palm. The hands looked like a spider, minus the abdomen, at the end of an arm. Potential contender for freakiest thing I’ve ever seen.

The demon was on its knees, so I didn’t get to see much of its legs, but I could tell it was fairly skinny. It looked starved. The face was vaguely human. It looked very drawn.

The nose was small, while the eyes were huge. Its large, red, glowing eyes seemed to bore holes right through me. Straight, thick, dark hair fell partly over its face, obscuring it partially from view, but the hair couldn’t hide those hellish eyes. They were like a pair of red LED lights pointing right at me.

One thing that really surprised me was the color of its face. Its face was pale, and instead of a plated look like the rest of the creature, it looked like skin. It had very pale, and very drawn skin, but it was definitely skin.

It has hair… so then this is a half-way form? I wondered, racking my brain to remember details about different types of demons. Demons don’t have hair, I think, not in their true forms… but since when was there a half-way form? Like an alpha werewolf, able to only change parts, maybe?

I scratched my head, winced at the pain that caused, and thought, Maybe this is a greater demon, one of high power and intellect… Isn’t that how their caste system works? The more powerful, the greater the ability, the smarter they are, right? Why can’t I remember? Goddamn parents and their fucking overly powerful amnesic charms— Ow, head hurts. Why do people keep hitting me on the head, and why can’t I stop picking at it?

I took a look around, trying to keep myself from being consumed by the anger I felt rising to the surface, but my eyes couldn’t stay off the demon in front of me for very long. I had never seen anything like it, and try as I might, I couldn’t think of reading about anything like it. It was frightening and beautiful at the same time.

It is so… um… not of this world… Well, guess it is of this world. It isn’t of my world, I mused. I guess I’d be the one not of this world. It probably thinks I’m as weird-looking and different as I think it is. Somehow I don’t think it is as scared of me as I am of it, though.

The longer I looked, the more I decided that the demon looked pained, starved, and angry. I figured out one reason it might be mad: its huge, bat-like wings were pinned against the wall behind its back. Big, bloody holes near the wingtips had white, ethereal chains running through them. The chains linked the wings roughly to the wall. More chains were holding its arms at the wrist, linking them to the wall behind it.

I frowned, thinking, Those must be magical bindings, but they are colored white. That isn’t demonic. Demonic magic is red, black, and… purple, I think… This is white magic. Who and what uses white magic— Wait, isn’t healing magic, and only healing magic, white? Just how much don’t I know about magic? On second thought, let’s not think about that.

I stood up on shaky legs, just as the door handle behind me rattled and opened. The door smacked into me from behind and knocked me forward, right back onto the ground. I was going to say something, but the demon in front of me stood up and let out the loudest, most headache-inducing, piercing shriek I had ever heard in my life. Whoever was about to come through quickly slammed the door shut, while I could only clamp my hands over my ears and wince at the noise.

When the shrieking finally stopped, I decided it was time to take the initiative. I wanted a way out before anyone worked up the courage to come back in, or the demon found a way to eat me from the other side of the room.

I stood up, ignored my protesting muscles, headache, dizziness, and a host of other pains, and moved away from the door. The demon responded by uncoiling slightly, raising up and forward a bit. I took a deep breath and met its eyes. I could feel an intense rage, but I saw intelligence behind it.

This is no simple animal. Okay, Stas, be confident and in-charge, without being too overbearing. Just be friendly. People make deals with demons everyday, it can’t be too difficult, right? I thought to myself, trying to calm my nerves. Just… Stas… Stas, it’s still looking at you. Just say something for fuck’s sake.

I took a deep breath, swallowed hard, and said, “Um, hello? My name is Staysa. What’s yours? Are you a girl, cause… I am… and, stuff?”

I… Yeah, like that, I thought, sighing at myself. You are the worst.

The demon paused for a moment, head cocked slightly sideways as it just stared at me. I could have sworn I saw recognition before it suddenly lunged forward. It pushed its face at me, mouth wide-open exposing a row of sharp teeth. I jerked back, yelping and scrambling frantically, as it snapped its mouth closed inches away from my face. The ethereal chains binding the demon were all that kept it from taking my head off. I fell over backwards onto my ass and elbows, clawing at the ground to get farther away. The recoil from the chains snapped the demon’s body sharply back against the wall, causing it to scream in pain.

The demon glared at me from across the room. I could feel its anger. It thrust out an arm towards me and screamed. I felt a sudden surge in energy from across the room before I felt a multitude of emotions — fear, anger, hate — slam against my senses like hammers against my chest and head, clouding my senses. My throat closed up and I hugged myself, as the multitude of emotions morphed and focused into a fear so powerful that I clenched my hands into fists until they bled. I had to force myself to breath and to unclench my fists. It stopped a short while later, giving me a moment of relief.

When I felt another surge of energy suddenly build up, I tried to steady myself for what I knew was to come. I opened my eyes just as fear ripped through me again. The demon poured the feelings into me, turning the fear into abject terror. I screamed and felt the slickness of blood as my nails ripped into my palms. I pushed my palms flat to my sides, trying to keep from hurting myself, trying to get a grip on my senses. The sense of terror rippled through me like waves upon a beach. I could barely get a breath in before the next wave slammed into me. I had to keep forcing myself to breath, to just hold on; it was all I could do. I was dimly aware of the tears flowing down my face, and I thought that I could hear myself screaming. My senses narrowed to almost nothing. My body seemed to fold in on itself.

I don’t know how long it lasted, but when the waves of terror finally stopped coming, I became aware of more than how terrified I was. I just barely had enough time to look around for the door before another wave hit me. It was different this time; this time it was pain.

I had no idea this sort of attack was even possible. My whole body seemed to have been hurt one way or another. I shrieked as every bump, bruise, and cut intensified to utter agony. It took everything in me to even begin to claw at my senses and fight for control.

It ended abruptly, leaving my nerves tingling and my body aching. I was breathless. My throat felt raw, like I had been screaming for hours. I had a brief moment to wonder what happened, before I looked up to see the demon bearing down on me.

I’ve moved, I thought, eyes wide.

I tried to move out of the way, but a vice-like grip clamped down on my leg and yanked me towards the demon before I could get far enough. I kicked at the demon’s hand to try to break its grip, but I only succeeded in cutting up my heel on its claws. I kicked several more times, each more frantic than the last, but I was rewarded only with pain. The demon dragged me back towards the wall it had been chained to. A small part of me wondered what had happened to the chains; they were gone.

The demon held me still with one massive hand clenching my torso. I closed my eyes, readying myself for a brutal end that didn’t come. I frowned, opened my eyes, and stared up at the gigantic beast until it finally clicked in my head what was happening. I closed my eyes for a moment, took a deep breath to calm myself, then changed to witch’s sight as the demon settled in around me. I knew more or less what I was going to see, but it was still creepy as hell.

Big tendrils of glowing, black energy were wrapped around me, linking the two of us together. Energy was flowing between us, from me to it, and my grip on consciousness was slowly and quietly fading with it. I got more and more lethargic over the next few minutes.

Just one more hurdle, Stas, I thought, focusing as hard as I could. Just gotta beat this thing… Somehow you gotta get out of this. It’s just a demon… Just a big, scary demon… with scary powers I ain’t ever seen or heard of before… There’s gotta be something I can—

I felt the demon squeeze for more energy, briefly cutting off my chain of thought. Every following squeeze was like a momentary blip of unconsciousness. I tried shutting off the pipeline between us, trying to buy myself time before I went under for good, but the barrier I put up was made out of energy, so it just absorbed that as well.

Fuck, I thought with a defeated sigh. This thing cheats, dammit. How can it—

Harder still the demon squeezed. Darkness began encroaching on my vision as I could no longer keep my eyes fully open. I knew it would be all over soon. It wasn’t long before I gave up, or more accurately, I ran out of energy to fight with. I closed my eyes, embracing the feeling. Lethargy slowly replaced all feeling in my body. The pain from my head, feet, and everywhere else disappeared. The feeling, or lack thereof, evolved until it was a high beyond belief. I felt like someone had shot me full of heroin. Deeper and deeper the demon pushed.

Too far, a voice whispered.

Suddenly and without warning, a jolt of pain rippled through my entire body. A terrifying realization hit me, snapping my eyes open; I knew with a sudden certainty that the demon had just stumbled into the bindings put in me by my father years ago — bindings that were made to keep something from getting out, not from getting in. Memories of being tied to a table drifted through my mind as I felt myself grin uncontrollably.

Not all of us are so easily defeated, whispered through my head, accompanied by a surge of adrenaline.

The demon draining my life away shoved a metaphysical hand into and through the wards my father had put in my body, probing for the energy source trapped inside of me, and that is exactly when everything went wrong for it. I felt the floodgates open when it breached the barrier. A ravenous hunger found a rage that had been pent up for the Devil only knows how long. The demon tried to pull back, but the seal was broken, there was no turning back for it. The power inside had grabbed hold of the demon and wasn’t interested in letting go.

Guess the nightmare was real, I thought.

I opened my eyes to a strange sight: the demon’s hand was embedded in my chest. Tendrils from my body were winding themselves up the demon’s arm. The demon above me wrenched hard, trying frantically to pull away, but it couldn’t break itself free. The tendrils grabbing hold of its arm jerked and pulled, taking the rest of the demon’s hand and wrist. I felt panic in the air. It wasn’t my panic.

More tendrils drifted out of my chest to wrap themselves around the demon’s arm. They tightened, holding the demon in place for the next set of tendrils. I felt my body laugh as I watched the scene play out. I was absorbing the demon, and there wasn’t anything it could do to stop me. The demon collapsed on top of me as it once again began to yank at its arm, now several inches past its first elbow. Another two feet of arm disappeared into my chest as the tendrils yanked hard.

Abject terror was filling the air like a thick musk. The demon’s panic grew. I saw it look at me, then look at its arm, and it made a decision. Its mouth opened wide before clamping down about a foot above where the tendrils had reached. It ripped with its teeth and yanked hard. Black ichor gushed as it severed its own arm and pushed away from me.

Clever girl, the voice in me murmured.

The end of the demon’s arm sank into my chest. I felt full, but I still wanted more. I felt power return to me, but it wasn’t enough. I wanted more. The demon stood, shook itself, then looked at me, its eyes glowing angrily. After a brief pause, it came back to attack. Anger twisted its features as it stomped forward towards me.

On instinct, I kindled the power now surging in me, igniting it in a forward arc. The force manifested as the demon closed in on me, exploding like a grenade against its chest. The shockwave picked me up off the ground, sending me flying back into the opposite wall. My head slapped against the wall. My vision swam wildly as I slumped to the ground, dazed.

Didn’t think that one through, I thought with a groan. I am going to have the worst headache…

When I could, I tried to get up, but my chest tightened into what felt like a solid block of pain. I groaned and curled up into a ball. Power was pushing out of my chest and spreading — a strangely familiar and horrible power. Panic hit me as the familiar feeling of malevolence began to fill me. It wanted control.

Control it! Ted’s voice echoed through my head. Control it, or it controls you, child.

I clasped a hand to my chest, suffering through what felt like the worst case of heartburn ever, and thought, I’ll file that under shit I already fucking know, Ted!

I sat up, making my whole world spin. I took a deep breath, fighting a rising panic. The power spreading across my chest was wrapping up and around my sides, as well as up my collarbone and down my stomach. It was spreading everywhere, and moving quickly.

What would happen if it got fully loose? If what got fully loose? What the fuck is going on? Why can’t I remember anything? I thought frantically. What the Hell is in me and what—

Fix the wards, Ted’s voice whispered across my consciousness, interrupting my thoughts. You have no time.

I snapped to it, doing what my old teacher wanted. I didn’t know how I understood, but I did understand what he wanted me to do. I took a deep breath, squeezed my eyes shut, and focused on the wards in my feet and hands.

They were almost completely drained, but I could fix them. I knew I could, even if I didn’t know how I knew.

Just fix them! Ted’s voice growled at me.

I took the energy I had gotten from consuming the demon’s arm, pushed it at the wards the demon had attacked, and was rewarded with an immediate splitting pain in my head and in the areas the wards were buried. I grabbed at everything I had in me and shoved it at the wards, ignoring the pain it brought. I kept pushing everything I could into them until a terrible thought ran through my head, What about the big, angry demon?

I looked up with a heavy sigh. The demon was stalking towards me, barely half a dozen feet away, and it was reaching at me with its good arm.

I… fuck, I thought as it grabbed my upper body, twisted, and threw me across the room. I went flying through the air, hit the far wall, and was unconscious before I hit the ground.