The Demon Dealings

I never wanted to go to school again. It seemed like everyone was something and my friends were no exception… the friends that were still alive. Everything was just messed up it seemed like it was the snowball effect.

I wasn’t even sure what was going on with my parents… my parents! My dad was involved which meant he was probably dead… My dad was dead. Everything seemed to get darker.

“Where are my parents?” I whispered hopelessly.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and jumped but hoped that it was mom, dad, anyone. “Cade…”

“Nash. You need to stop dwelling on the past, I know you’ve lost a lot but….” He seemed somewhat concerned, as he should be. Everyone was dying around me and there was nothing I could do to save them. I didn’t have any control.

“I have to… do something. Anything!” I could feel the tear welling up in my eyes.

“What can we do? Where do we start?” He replied.

“I don’t know. Everything just seems so,,, backwards right now.” I took a deep breath.

“That might have something to do with the fact that you’re sleeping...”

“What?” I was confused, I was asleep? “How do you know that?”

“I’m a demon of dreams. I don’t just show up places at random. You called me here, to your dream.” He gave me a look.

“How the hell did I manage that?” I asked myself more than I asked him.

“Nash, you’re an incredibly gifted metahuman. You can do so much more than just call me to your dreams.” He offered.

“My mother seemed to think so.” I muttered.

“Something happened... didn’t it? Natasha, I need you to tell me what happened.” He said calmly.

I looked at him wide eyed wondering how he could have known. I slowly took his hand and allowed my mind to open up. I knew I would not be able to tell him the horrible thing I had witnessed the night before so I allowed the memories to flow into him. He started shaking, although this wasn’t their first time I had transferred memories it was the first time doing so with someone who was not my mother.

“This… This is.” He stopped after I had showed him everything. “Nash. We have to do something.”

“I don’t know what to do! That’s the problem… and everyone keeps dying around me.”

“You’ve already started you can’t just quit now.” He encouraged me.

“Why are you even still here?” I spat, “You’ll end up dead like everyone else.” My voice cracked. This wasn’t going to be easy without him.

“You know why I’m here. I’m here for you.” He said seriously. I wanted to cry. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.

“Well that’s a dumb reason.” I muttered and looked at the ground.

“Well, I’m not letting you give up. No one else is going to die.” He was determined I’d give him that. “Now, I think I have an idea of where to start.” He held out his hand for me to take. I reluctantly linked mine in his.

“And where would that be?” I looked up from the ground to look him in the eye. I shrugged off the lost feeling.

“You saw a vampire named Dimitri. He said he was on the vampire counsel so he must be important. If I take you to his dream the only thing you have to do is uncover the proper memory. Its easy from there.”

I didn’t say anything. I simply took his hand letting him know that it was alright.

Moving through the dream world was something I had never done before. I guess I didn’t technically have the ability because it was outside the human mind to move from one person’s dream to the next. It was dark and cold and I could see why it would be a dark walker’s ability to feed off dreams.

I almost missed it when we stopped moving. Both the in between world and Dimitri’s dream state were dark and hardly differing.

I looked at Cade as I assumed Dimitri’s identity in his dream hoping that our presence here would not affect things. One thing I had learned from Spiros about humans and supernaturals is that supernaturals had the ability to know when someone was in their head if you weren’t careful enough. So we remained quiet; the only communication would be in our heads.

It was hard to see their faces. I’m not sure why but I couldn’t make out who they were. The only thing I did know was that I was seeing through Dimitri’s eyes. That was how it worked when I got into someone’s head. I saw as then, spoke as them and even acted for them if I wanted. But in this dream I only saw through Dimitri’s eyes.

Everything was dark and obscured. The only source of light is the moon which hung as a sliver in the sky. The light barely filtered into the darkened city streets.

There were two, maybe three men standing in front of Dimitri. They were large seemingly ominous figures. I knew that if I had run into them as Natasha things would not end well for me. I could feel a certain aura rolling off of them. It spoke of power and dissonance.

Dimitri leaned forward drawing a circle on the ground filled with symbols I didn’t recognize. My best guess was that they were summoning. What they were summoning? I wasn’t sure.

One man appeared out of nowhere with the body of a woman slung over his shoulder. No one said anything, they all knew what was coming. When the circle was complete they laid the woman in the middle of the circle. She was white as a sheet and barely breathing.

“I know her.” Cade thought just loud enough for me to hear.

Too afraid to say anything, I gave him a look, allowing him to go on.

“She’s a family friend…” He paused like he was trying to figure something out.

Dimitri moved forward before he could say anything, slipping a knife out of his pocket and cutting his palm. He passed the knife to another man who passed it to a third. The three grasped palms over the woman and let their blood drip.

“Blood of the vampire. Blood of the fallen. Blood of the dealer.” He muttered quietly as they bled.

The light of the moon was suddenly was blacked out from the sky and left us in pitch black darkness. I didn’t know what to do or what would happen next. But as suddenly as it happened it stopped, the moon appeared in the sky and in front of us was a woman that I recognized.

It was the same woman from my dreams. The one who wanted so desperately to take over a world that wasn’t her own but was defeated by me and the others from my own home. Lorna was an enemy I already knew that was right under my nose the whole time.

“You have brought me a sufficient vessel. Good work Dimitri.” She nodded at him/me haughtily.

“This was our solution to the problem you’ve been facing.” He nodded to the woman.

“Moving between worlds is much simpler when you don’t have to curse the vessel you’re moving into.” She cackled. “But I do have to say; it’s more fun this way.”

“This woman was more than willing to share her body with you. I hope you find it sufficient for the time being.” Dimitri informed her.

“She will do. Let’s get on this it.” She gestured for them to continue.

The men jumped forward, each one grabbing a leg or arm, holding the woman down. Lorna stepped into her body softly muttering as she went. The woman started screaming inhumanly tortured screams that pierced my ears.

I pulled myself out of the memory not wanting to hear another second of it.

“I know who she is. And I know how to stop her.” I didn’t look at Cade when I spoke.

“Nash… are you sure you’re up for this?” Cade was somewhat concerned.

“I’m not sure but I really don’t see how we have any other option.”

“Alright… I suppose it’s time to wake up now.”

“But there’s more to do here!” I cried.

“Nash, you have to wake up now.” He told me. I felt myself begin to fade away; my surroundings dissipate into nothingness as I felt the pull to the waking world.

I woke up to the feeling of foreign sheets. They were too comfortable and too... manly smelling. This was not my bed and I most certainly did not dream the events that happened the night before. I was in too much pain for that.

I wanted to groan but held it back. That would only attract doctors, although I'm not sure when hospital beds became so comfortable. I shrugged it off. I really didn't want to open my eyes to figure out what was going on. So I didn't.

“Nash.” A voice said beside me, “You have to open your eyes.” He told me. I was a little confused mostly because I hardly recognized the voice that was speaking to me.

“It hurts.” I whined, giving in to the groan of pain I suppressed earlier.

“I know it does but you have to open your eyes for me, ok? Can you do that?” He placed a hand gently on my shoulder and I took a deep breath.

I cracked open my eyes to find a virtual stranger standing next to me. “Ahhhh!!!’ I cried And wormed away from him but this action caused great pain to my ribs, “owwww…” it felt like I was being stabbed... again.

“I told you I’d be around.” He smirked, somewhat amused with my antics.

“Why am I not at the hospital or something?” I asked him slowly, as I looked down to realize that I was in someone's bed. probably his.

“Why didn’t you call the police?”

“Well I certainly didn’t call you.” I spat. I tried to sit up for a second but the pain was rather intense… and everywhere.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” I could see the mirth in his eyes. he was slightly amused.

“So what are you anyways?” I huffed out.

“I’m your… familiar.” He said slowly almost as if testing the waters.

“Familiar… as in to help me out? As in to prevent shit like this?” I gestured to myself, mostly because the bruises were everywhere.

“Yeah, something like that.” For the first time since I had met him, I saw guilt in his eyes. Serves him right.

“You really have a way with words Matheas.” I said sarcastically.

“Thanks babe.” He teased.

I almost groaned in annoyance but held it in as if not to let him know he’d successfully annoyed me.“How do I know you’re not a part of this whole mess?”

“That mark, on your jaw. That was from me. We have a bond now that can’t exactly be undone. You can trust me.” He deadpanned. It was another first for him. However I knew that I only really had minimal knowledge of him.

A light bulb went off on my head, registering the first part of our conversation and the last part of our first conversation. “Wait… have you been stalking me all this time and I just haven’t noticed?”

“That doesn’t matter… what does matter is what you’re going to do to stop the end of the world… as we know it.”

"Me?! Why would I save the world?!" I cried out.

"Because the people who tried to kill you are trying to take over and thwarting their plan would be some sweet ass revenge? Because you like the world the way it is? Because you don't feel like being afraid to go to school?..." He listed.

"Ok... Logical reasons but I'm just one girl. I can't just save the world... shit like that only happens in fiction." I paused a second to think, "Actually. You know what? I'm going to go back to sleep because this is all one crazy... super long dream... Also, my life hurts."

"You and I both know that you can't just give up on this Natasha. You can't just go to sleep and wish it all away."

"I can certainly try!" I would have tried to roll over but I knew the pain would magnify. So I closed my eyes instead.