The Demon Dealings

Ok, so I didn’t go home. I lied a little. Instead I went back to Jane’s and slept in her bed in hopes that maybe she’d return and I’d wake up and know that everything was ok. That maybe she had just run off and taken some personal time or had found a new beau and maybe she forgot to tell us where she’s disappeared to.

I was wrong.

When I woke up the next day my face was killing me, as it should and I, being the dumb dumb I am, wanted desperately to find out who or what bit me. So after I bandaged my wound I looked at myself in the mirror and winced. I’d have to do something about that.

So what did I do? I went back to the woods where I was attacked but this time I made sure that there was plenty of day light left in the day for me to navigate my way around.

The woods were almost the opposite of the night before, they were no longer menacing and the feeling was much different. But I was still on edge, with the event of the night before playing through my head. I touch my jaw gently. It still hurt but I made sure to take some pain killers and at least rub some Neosporin on it…

Ignoring the pain that was slowly disappearing thanks to the pain killers I walked through the woods much slower than I had the night before. There was a defined path that I took for most of the way but veered off eventually to find the clearing I intended to reach the night before.

As I neared something was off. The trees got thicker and the atmosphere got heavier. As a result the natural light lessened and I almost felt as if I were the dumb character in the horror movie who went off by herself because she thought nothing would happen to her only to be the first one killed.

I could feel this sense of something impending; something was coming and I had no idea what it was. But I brushed it off and took another towards the clearing. I paused. There was something there, that wasn’t human. Agonizing snarls ripped through the air.

There was something… writhing in the field. Through the grass I could see its dark fur sliding off its skin in globs of bloody ooze. The voice shifted to an almost human tone as its claws retracted into hands. I stood there wide eyed, unable to move.

What was this? What was it?

I could hear the bones cracking back into place as the creature that once writhed about in the field slowly morphed back into a man. I held my breath for a moment. His cries echoed through the air and soon he was on his knees, his naked back facing me.

I let out the breath I was holding slowly once the cries stopped and gulped. Was this what I was sensing before, was he the something that was off?

He sniffed the air precariously. I gasped and turned, knowing I had to run. What he had bitten me? It was the pressing thought in my mind. And if he was the one to bite me I hoped that I wouldn’t change like him, that I wouldn’t have to deal with that pain and gore. I took a step back fully prepared to run from this. But before I could go anywhere I was caught by his eyes, an intense gaze pierced through me.

He stood slowly yet fluidly and I started to freak out in my head wondering why I had yet to run. I hardly noticed anything besides his eyes which were locked on mine. As he made his way through the grass I took a deep breath, preparing myself to face the music.

He stopped directly in front of me, staring in my eyes, which freaked me out even more. I felt like I was in a sauna for a second but then I snapped back to reality.

“Who are you?... What are you?” I whispered, my eyes were wide in shock at the clearly nude man before me.

“I think it would have been obvious what I was.” He cocked his head to the side gauging my reaction. His voice was soft and silky, not at all what I had expected.

“Shifter.” It came out barely above a whisper. I had a hard time grasping the reality of it.

“Something like that.” He smirked, clearly proud of my guess.

And then he did the last thing I thought he would do, you know being a total stranger and all. He put his hand on my jaw, on the bandage I taped over the gouge. The only think I could think was why doesn’t this hurt? He’s touching the gouge in my face, this should hurt like hell.

He leaned in close and whispered, “don’t be so concerned about things you can’t control.”

I pulled away from him, slightly taken back. “How do you know what I’m concerned about?”

He just smirked and shrugged, “I know things.”

“Who are you?” I narrowed my eyes at him suspiciously.

“A friend… I should be familiar.” He emphasized.

“And how the hell do you even know me?” I narrowed my eyes, finally feeling suspicion creeping up my spine.

“It’s just something that comes naturally.” He hinted with a wink.

“I don’t even know what that’s supposed to mean.” I shook my head at him.

“Oh, you’ll know what it means. Eventually, you see, you’re marked and when someone like you or even someone like me gets marked… well, let’s just say there’s a connection.”

“Woha woah woha… Marked? What the hell? How have I been marked?”

“Like I said, you’ll know with time.” He taped my jaw mischievously.

“Will you at least tell me your name? This is getting a little annoying.” I huffed and looked at him expectantly. Of course, he laughed. I should have guessed.

“My name is Matheas.”

“Matheas? What are you doing out here?”

“I think you already know the answer to that.” He gestured back to the field.

“Oh…” I said awkwardly.

“I’ll see you around.” He nodded before making his exit.

“Wait? What does that even mean? Matheas?!”

“I’ll be around.” He chuckled.

“Oh, come on!” I yelled in annoyance after him.

I wasn’t sure how I would explain this to anyone. Hell, I wasn’t sure if I even could explain it to anyone. Everyone was at school and my mother was working. She wouldn’t get the phone call that I missed school either. I would make sure of that. So there wouldn’t be any questions to ask.

So I stood there in the woods for what felt like hours debating what my next move would be. I wasn’t going home. That much I could tell you. But I also knew that I couldn’t stay at Jane’s. That really left me with one option; Carys.

Carys was rich, well at least her parents were. She lived in a gated community that I had the habit of sneaking into. I knew that Carys’ parents (being rich and all) worked all the time so I was easily able to sneak into her house in the same manner I snuck into Jane’s.

I laid on her bed waiting for her, lost in thought. Spiros had mentioned something; he knew something that I didn’t but that couldn’t be true. It all had to be a fluke, right? I knew that I had certain abilities that could alter perception and maybe I was able to alter my own to get answers for something I didn’t understand.

Yeah, that made sense.

The door opened and Carys entered. She jumped a little when she noticed me lying on her bed. “You always sneak into my house and every time you do you scare the shit out of me.” Carys commented annoyed.

“Sorry.” I replied sheepishly. “I just wanted to… talk.”

“You weren’t at school today…” She noted in a motherly tone.

I sat up and looked at her, “Yeah…”

“What happened to your face?!” She cried, “Is this why you weren’t at school?”

“It’s… hard to explain. Just don’t worry about it.”

“Don’t worry about it? How am I supposed to just ignore the big ole bandage holding together your face?” She gestured to my jaw in alarm.

“Let’s not exaggerate here. I just… had a little accident. That’s all.” I shrugged at her pretending it was no big deal despite the fact that I was freaking out on the inside.

“Yeah, I believe you.” She replied sarcastically.

“Can we just… not talk about it right now?” I was starting to feel regret creep up my spine.

“Fine. But we’re talking about this later.” She said decisively.

“Ok…” I replied reluctantly.

“You said you wanted to talk…” She gestured for me to go ahead.

There was a silence as I attempted to figure out how to talk about it without sounding like a complete wack job.

“There’s been some… weird things going on.” I paused.

“Yeah I noticed.” She interjected.

“Jane just dropped off the radar without a trace, which is totally not like her. I mean you and I both know this. And I have been having these weird dreams, they’re so real and I have no idea what to make of them. And then on top of it, I met Ian’s brother and he said some weird things that almost… eluded to my dream which is crazy because there is no way he would know what I was dreaming…”

“Wait you met Ian’s brother? When?”

“That doesn’t matter. There’s something going down and I haven’t quite put together the pieces yet.” I looked her in the eye as I said this, determined. I finally knew what I was supposed to do.

“What are you going to do?” She asked somewhat concerned. “And you still haven’t explained about your face…”

“I’m going to find Jane for starters. And as far as my face goes, let’s just say there was a run in with a dog…” I flashed back to Matheas.

“A dog? Nash…” She looked at me somewhat in disbelief and concern.

“I’ve got to go.” I got off the bed and made my way to the door.

“Nash!” She cried.

“Don’t worry about it.” I gave her my trade mark smirk and shrug and se rolled her eyes. I ignored her and left the house, through the front door this time.

I wasn’t sure where I was going this time. I just let my feet guide me through the streets. I soon found myself at the Northern part of town where random people milled about. Some posh kids from my school sat in a coffee house but I could care less about them.

At some point in time I decided to go to the roof of a nearby apartment building to do some people watching and get some ideas that maybe I hadn’t thought of before.

I jogged up the stairs and to the roof access door. And walked to the edge where I sat down and let my feet dangle over. No one ever noticed me up there on the occasion that I had gone, so I was pretty confident that I wouldn’t get caught.

I watched the street until I got bored and the sun started setting. That was when I noticed something weird. I’m not really sure what drew my attention to it in the first place. And I’m really not even sure how I managed to see it so vividly. There across the street was a woman in her apartment. She was sitting on her bed reading on a tablet.

What was strange about the scene was the man standing there beside her bed. It was like she couldn’t see him. He wasn’t like any other man I had seen before. There was just something about him. Maybe it was his air or maybe it was the way he looked at her; like she was a meal. Either way I could tell something was off.

He hovered over her. I blinked for a second to make sure it was all real. That I wasn’t just imagining things.

He was standing over her slowly inching forward a menacing snarl twisted on his lips. I wasn’t sure what I was witnessing but I couldn’t rip my eyes away. His hands touched her face as he slowly turned it towards him. I could tell she was frightened but his hands made it so she couldn’t look away. So she closed her eyes but something made her open them. I had a feeling it was him.

She looked surprised and opened her mouth as if to scream but no sound came out. I don’t know what she saw in his eyes but she was more horrified than she was to begin with. She thrashed about trying to get out of his hold but it was no use. He hands finally came to rest on his forearms, gripping them tightly.

There is a sudden darkness that surrounds them that sent a shiver down my spine. The only way to describe it was like a mist but it wasn’t that at all. He tilted his head a little keeping eye contact with her. I could see the breath leave her a he drained her life force.

There was a moment when everything stopped just as she was to about to die. His demented smile grew and the look of fear on her face relaxed into slow lifelessness. The color drain from her face until all that was left was grey, almost as if the color went with the life.

And then the dark aura dissipated alone with him and then… he was gone.

I stared in shock. What had I just witnessed? If I wasn’t convinced before that there were other things out there, I was at that moment. That meant that there was only one person that I knew was willing to talk to me. I knew that I would have to see the same person I left the night before; Spiros.