Crescent Shrine

The ring tone I had set for the shrine rang across the classroom. Mr. Tanaka sent me a soft glare as I hurried out of the class.

“Sorry, I have to take this.” I said speed walking down the hall.

I flipped open my phone and instantly my mother’s voice was heard from the other end, “You need to get home right now. A Demon’s tearing the place apart.”

There was a loud crash before the line went dead.

“I need to leave. There’s an emergency.” I said shooting back into the class room, grabbed my books and left. I hurriedly put on my outdoor shoes and rushed out towards the Shrine. Some of the steps had been crushed in foot print like patterns. What the hell type of Demon was it? I ran up the stairs at the fastest pace that I could, which wasn’t very fast at all. The large red arch at the top of the stairs had collapsed downward. I had to climb over the large smooth pieces to continue onto the court yard.

I could not believe the sight in front of me.

My Father was behind the demon waving around a few sticks of incense, a smell the large, grotesque being seemed to hate. My Mother was in front, chanting and throwing what must have been salts at the monster.

“Ann, stay back until we’ve knocked this demon out,” My Father yelled. The demon uprooted the tree that stood tall outside of our house and threw it at him. He was swept off of his feet and crushed between the tree and the stone tiles. I rushed to where the tree had landed and tried to roll it off of my Father, no luck. My Mother was still chanting and throwing salt at the demon – whose attention had turned completely to me. “Ann, you’ve got to make the demon bleed and ingest his blood.”

For some reason that I did not know – I agreed.

“Drink this,” He said weekly, handing me the small bottle he wore around his neck. I opened the stopper and poured the scarlet liquid down my throat, the smooth flower flavour filling my pallet. I felt a sudden power flowing through my veins. I could not control my own body. My mother stopped chanting, and the demon began fading from my vision.

“Mom, keep chanting!” I yelled as I ran to the museum, and broke the glass on the display case in the center of the room. I pulled out the long, sharp sword and ran at the demon that was slowly reappearing as my mother began chanting once more. I raised the sword uneasily – I did not have much strength at all.

I did not know what to do, besides for what my Father had said about drinking the demon’s blood. I brought the rusty sword down on the demon’s leg, causing a shallow cut which made a few drops of blood boil to the surface. I cursed under my breath as I ran around to the stairs which led to the pond, the sword dragging along the ground. I was about even with the demon’s head when I was at the top.

“Hey ugly,” I yelled, throwing the rusty hunk of metal at the demon’s head, it fell cleanly off of it’s neck and the body fell in a jumbled, bloody heap. I had just killed a demon. This had to be fake.

“Drink it!” My Mother yelled, dropping the chat instantly. I slid down the railing and slid through the puddles of blood, sweeping it into my hands and pouring the handfuls down my throat.

I knew it was all a dream when I woke up in my bed on a normal Wednesday morning. The tree still stood just in front of our old house. The vibrant red Torii gate stood, untouched at the front of the stairs like it had been for the past eighty years.

There are no such things as demons.

The Spirit world was just lore.