Monster

He had never had a more horrible day.

The kids in class had kept screaming, and he had been too lost in thoughts to have noticed it. At the end, it was the principal who had heard the commotion. And even though the man never cared before, today he had to come in and inquired about the noise. Thanks to that, Aether had been exposed to a grand lecture for about an hour and a half.

It sucked.

And to top that off, a message from the squirrel had appeared on his wrist. It said “7:00 pm”. He could have easily pretended that he didn’t get the meaning of it, but that wouldn’t make reality any less real.

It was probably the time he’d get to meet the woman.

And just when he’d thought that it was the worst that could have happened, his arm stung, reminding him that the squirrel had sent the message on his wrist. It was a traditional, one of the most guarded ways to communicate, used only by the demons. But it was used when the affair was highly secretive.

And nothing about this marriage was a secret; of that he was sure. For all Aether knew, his father could be laughing in hell, celebrating his only victory against his son.

Oh well.

He would pay soon enough.

Scowling, he rubbed his wrist, hoping the pain would pass. Normally, any wound he had would get cured in about an hour, but these message scars were a whole other torment. They stung for days, reddening the area where they appeared. They only ever went away completely after months.

The fact now pissed him off, and he decided he was in a fowler mood than he had been in the entire month.

He needed to kill.

Angry, he headed to the village of Tara.

***

Tara was a beautiful place, just on the outskirts of the city of Kato, where Aether had spent the last twenty years of his life. It was a rather small village, abandoned to a large extent, but there was something about it that made him have a special regard for it.

It was a hub for demons, after all.

The humans didn’t know of it, but there were certain places in their world from where a demon could directly enter into his own dominion – the demons’ world, which was called the Xian. The village of Tara was one such place. It wasn’t the entire village that granted the entry, of course. It was a centuries old dried up well in the village that was the door.

Aether parked his car nearby.

As he stepped out, he realized that the village was somewhat inhabited. There were green fields all around, which meant he was a good distance away from the population. The villagers never lived close to their fields. There was always a chance of fire or wild animals. He didn’t know which, for sure.

Walking across the fields, he sensed the location of the well. It had been some time since he had used that entrance to Xian. The well still spewed a good amount of demon energy though. He walked for a while, looking for the correct direction. When he could finally sense it, he saw that it was located in the far south of the fields, in a rather barren area. The land around it had been fenced as well.

Aether sighed.

He rubbed his hands together. And then closing his eyes, he ran.

The ground shook beneath his feet, and his eyes turned red, but he jumped over the fence and leaped directly into the well. As his feet touched the ground, he was hit by a harsh gust of wind. When he opened his eyes, he had been pushed into his world.

That was how easy it was. For the powerful ones, of course.

He breathed in relief.

Today, he had been transported to a forest which was somewhat near to his house. One other advantage of this forest was that it had access directly into the dining room of his house. The forest was called the Dahaka, and it harboured lots and lots of Valkyries – bats that sometimes took human shape during the night. And after he had hunted enough of them, he could take one of their corpses to his house. Their skin made nice coasters.

Smiling, Aether crouched, moving silently between the trees. It was the time of dusk now. He muttered under his breath, his words barely audible, and looked up at the dark sky. He could see one of those horrid creatures flying. He shut his eyes, and minutes later, a bow had appeared in his hand. He aimed for the Valkiyrie, and as he spoke silently, a faint blue arrow materialized in his hand. He shot.

A horrible scream echoed through the air, as the corpse of the beast fell down near his feet. Aether smirked, and stepped over it. And after a killing spree that lasted for over an hour, he finally felt satisfied. He had killed a rather huge Valkyrie today too, one that was at least a meter in length. That ended the matter. Grinning, he hung the corpse over his shoulder, and looking the very image of a bloodthirsty beast, proceeded towards his house.

The human world could be entered from anyplace within the demons’ dominion, provided the demon had enough power. Aether stepped out of his world quite easily, and into the humans’ dominion again.

Exhilarated from the hunt, and the huge prey on his back, Aether entered his dining room directly.

And almost instantly, he saw a small woman sitting on his couch.

HIS COUCH!

Their eyes met. And he sniffed her scent.

She was human!

Angry, he was about to yell, when she screamed. He took a step towards her to make or stop. But...

He tripped on her sandal instead.

WHAT THE HELL.