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- 04/28/2013
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Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
Torturous Love - 5. Chapter 5
It was like standing in a whirlwind that was a firestorm. I screamed, even though it meant that fire tried to race down my throat. I couldn’t see, couldn’t breathe. I was dying, burning up, being crushed. This was worse than the pain before, worse than the breaking grinding bones or the rape. Why, why had I agreed to this? My body was gone, lost somewhere. I was going to die and I had so wanted to find out what the demon Zai had meant by his last statement.
Experience a life like you’ve never known…what had that meant? What kind of life? A life with a demon, with this demon?
I realised I could feel my hand. I wasn’t quite so lost. I could feel my hand, and in my hand was Zai’s hand. His strong furred fingers gripping mine. I clung on tight.
Zai? Zai? Where are you?
Hush little one. His voice is my head was like a whisper straight into my brain. The pain isn’t real, it’s just imagined. Concentrate.
I can’t! It hurts! I wanted to block out the pain, wanted to try and do what Zai told me but the fire was white hot on my insides. All I could feel was my hand, the rest was just pain.
Concentrate boy! Zai hand crushed my own, the bones were grinding against each other and that pain started to shock me back to the arm my hand was attached to, the body attached to that. Concentrate and come on out of there. You don’t have to be in the fire. Come on.
I closed my eyes. I found my other hand and used it to reach out blindly and find Zai. I could taste the flavour of the demon’s mind, I just had to find him. I fumbled, but the person I touched was not Zai. I recoiled, the fire flooded in.
Try harder. Follow your hand. I’m right here.
I grasped Zai’s hand with both my own and followed his arm up to the shoulder. I found his face, his muzzle curving up as he smiled.
There you are.
Open your eyes. Come on now. See the world.
I open my eyes and saw Zai standing there, smiling at me. Next to him stood a large...man. Not a man. Half a man, half a giant snake. I shut my eyes again quickly.
“Oh boy,” Zai took my chin in one hand, “Don’t worry about that, that’s just Inai. Come on.” He tugged at my hand, and I followed blindly. After a few steps I felt it safe to open my eyes again and I stopped dead.
Behind Zai was the new world. It was predominantly red and black and fiery. And warm. But I saw the fires, the lava, the oddly shaped stone buildings, the oddly shaped people who moved around this strange new land, and found that I liked it. There was no grass, no trees, no sky. And I found I didn’t mind so much. Zai still held the portal stone in his hand, but it was clear now, the fire gone.
“Hey wait.”
“Yes my precious?”
I frowned at him and shook my head.
“Where? I mean, is this…? How long was I in that fire?”
“Longer than you needed to be,” Zai’s thumb was stroking my hand again, “And yes, this is Hell.” He brought me to stand beside him and draped is free arm over my shoulder in order to point. “That is the palace,” he gestured to a large building in the centre of the city with domes, towers and flying buttresses, then to a wide sweep of hillside dotted with large sprawling buildings, “And up there is our house.”
“Ours?”
“We share with several others. But I think you will like them.” He put his head on one side, “Eventually.”
I stared up at the sky. It was not the same sky I saw from back home, not even close. For one thing it seemed a lot closer, perhaps only a mile up, and the stars were orange. And sort of, messy. Zai caught me staring.
“Those aren’t stars little one,” Zai’s hand stroked the back of my neck, “Those are campfires.”
“Well what are they doing up there?”
“It’s a legend little one. Those are the campfires of the battles of old. Demon’s never really die Tobias, but when their time is done they go up to the campfires in the sky and wait for the end of the world.”
“Huh?”
“You know,” Zai smiled, and made an expansive gestures towards the campfire dotted sky, “Ragnarok, the great battle, the rising of the gods,” He noticed the blank look that cross my face, I had no idea what he was on about, “The wolf swallowing the sun? You never heard of this stuff?”
“No.” I yawned, surprised at how tired I was. I’d slept most of the day.
“OK you,” Zai wrapped his arm around my waist, “Home time. Try not to stare at anyone ya? I don’t feel much like getting in a fight over you just now.”
Zai kept his arm wrapped around me as we walked. He seemed not to mind where he trod, and the ground was uneven, patches of rubble, smooth expanses of black stone, rivulets of lava, and in my slightly damp socks I stumbled, trod on something sharp then tripped and stepped on something hot. I yelped, lurched sideways, and collided with a demon that looked like a classical nightmare. Big black horns pointing skywards, red skin, glowing eyes. I scrambled back as the beast snarled.
“Watch it,” the demon spat and the ground sizzled, “You’d do well to mind your prey!”
Zai snarled, his hands brushing me down, righting me on a smooth bit of the path.
“You watch yourself!” Zai’s voice was an octave lower, a rumble in his throat like thunder. The big red devil took a step forwards and Zai snarled, “Oh I am older and stronger than you are boy, for all your muscles, and you’d do well to mind your better’s.”
The big demon narrowed his eyes and took a step forwards. Zai reeled out and hit him, a back lash across the face that sent the large creature sprawling over the rough ground.
“I am sorry your Sire.” From his prone position the red demon bowed his head, long black horns scraping the ground, “Forgive me.”
Zai gathered his arm around me and we walked on. We had no more run-in’s though we passed creatures that I tried not to look at too closely. Zai walked slower, allowing me to pick my footing carefully.
“Did you know him?”
“Not well,” Zai answered, looking back at me, “Ridiculous little upstart. A demon’s size has very little do to with his true strength,” Zai explained, “You’ll understand better when you met the other’s, and maybe the Prince eventually.”
“There’s a Prince?”
Zai turned and smiled. The gestured to the large stone construction at the centre of the city.
“Who else do you think lives in the palace? We are very lucky to have a member of the Royal court in our house.”
“We do?”
“Enough questions, come now.”
I yawned as I followed my demon companion. The house when we reached it was tall, windowless and black. Blindly I walked behind Zai, not noticing where we went in the house until we reached a wooden door set in the candle-lit passageway. I had hoped for the sight of a bed, but the room I was led into was a bathroom. There was a bathtub the size of a small swimming pool and I sat on the edge as Zai filled it with warm sweet smelling water.
I saw so grateful for the warmth of the water that I sank in without a second thought. Zai followed and separately we scrubbed away the sink and horror of the last three nights. I counted my scars. Some pink and shiny with new skin, some dark, nearly brown and rough to the touch. There were fifteen in all. Many of the wounds had fully healed, even that was obvious. The worst of the scars were the slices on my shoulder that had cut to the bone. They were dark and raised on my skin. Zai washed the blood from his fur, the water turning dark before he drained it away.
Wrapped in a towel I stood shivering, bone tired and exhausted. Zai smiled, picked me up, and carried me through the house. Then there was a softly lit room, a huge square bed covered in furs and blankets, and sleep.
*
I slept for years. Or it may have only been a day. It was hard to tell. I woke from something warm and dreamless and stretched. I yawned, jaw popping as each of my vertebrae cracked into place. I doubted that I’d ever had a better night’s sleep. I rolled over, and stared at the stone ceiling. I was warm, comfortable, seemingly safe. And yet…
I’m in Hell. Literally. I was brought here by a demon, and now I’m lying in his bed.
I’ve been kidnapped.
And tortured.
And raped.
And apparently you don’t mind Tobias.
I covered my face with both hands. I had never been so confused. I felt rotten, guilty, like the time I’d let my father blame my little sister for a mess I’d made in the kitchen. A hot knot of shame built up in my stomach. My family thought me dead. I’d sort-of-willingly accompanied a demon into hell. A demon who had attacked me, raped me, and sort-of-tried-to-kill-me. And he was an empath.
I’d never had much use for my skill. It was very weak, and as a kid I’d never noticed it. Just been good at reading people, working out what they wanted. Puberty had been when that talent had swung treacherously into play, and touch was a heightened sense. I had to be touching someone, and their mind had to be in an open transmitting sort of state to get anything decent. To get such clear thoughts from Zai had been a slap in the face, and to know that he was feeling what I was feeling had been weird.
A demon empath, I never would have thought such a thing. Why would a demon need to be an empath? And Zai had taken a perverse pleasure in causing him pain, was that to do with the way he was made, or was that just a demon thing? Perhaps it was a learned thing.
And now what? The immediate future was uncertain, I wasn’t sure what I had let myself in for. I was in the house of a demon, and I had to make the best of it. Why had I come anyway? Granted the other option had been death, but after all that the demon had done to me, death would have been.
But it wasn’t was it? You nearly died. The world was going black and you begged for life.
I inhaled deeply and dared to sit up.
I was naked, clean. And the bed and room were empty. A pair of boxers and a t-shirt were laid out at the end of the bed. And there was a note. I rubbed my neck. The Chain was still there, but it felt different. There was a long mirror attached to the wall across the bed. I was surprised to see how thin I looked. All I’d eaten was a bacon sandwich. The Chain of Possession was no longer a thin strand of plain silver, but red with grey oval gems all along its length the same colour as Zai’s fur. One in the front was acid yellow. I wondered what that meant. There was a note lying on top of the clothes. I read it as I dressed.
Tobias,
I’ve had to go out on business, but feel free to help yourself to anything in the fridge. Best not leave the house just yet. I told the others to leave you be for now, but Shindae is in. I’ll be back later.
Zai
His writing was florid but messy, and I was left wondering, what business, where was the fridge, and who on earth was Shindae?
The house was silent as I stepped out. The hallway was lit by candles and carved from black stone. I padded along the carpet in bare feet in the direction that felt most like ‘down’ until I reached a set of narrow stairs. It seemed like a back way, and I followed the stairs down and was surprised to come out into the back of a large modern kitchen. A big open plan entrance way led to a plush looking lounge, also lit by candles. The kitchen was lit by the gold light from something that looked like a cross between a gas and oil lamp.
The fridge turned out to be a glass apparently unmalting ice block with a door and a hollow interior. What was inside would not traditionally be described as food. There were a large number of unidentified chunks of meat, ranging from pink through red to brown, but everything at least smelt fresh. There were also a number of other things that might’ve been vegetables. There was something that felt and smelt like a mushroom but was the size and shape of pumpkin, a collection of what looked like tiny fat purple peppers and much more that was unidentifiable. Kitchen cupboards held things in jars, bottles of spices and in the corner were two steel drums which seemed to contain rice, or something very similar and all shades of cream and brown, and potato shaped objects in a variety of colours. There was a six ring oven like an aga, and a variety of pots, pans and tools about the place.
So I was half naked and in a strange place with strange food, but I was a chef. I could cook. So I did.
I found a round glass bottle of what was probably oil and a big casserole dish. I fried the giant mushroom along with a red onion that smelt like garlic, then peeled a bunch of the might-be-potatoes with a knife as along as my forearm. As the vegetables began to go soft the scent of cooking began to fill the kitchen. I located spices and identified them by smell. Paprika, thyme and cayenne pepper all went in and I re-opened the fridge.
Of all the unknown meat the paler cuts looked the least like I had when Zai had clawed me open. There was something that was cut into layers like bacon and white fatty marbling so I sliced it up and added it to the frying mulch.
I judged it done, found a big stoneware bowl and a tin spoon and took my odd meal into the softly lit lounge. I dumped myself on the sofa and hugged the bowl in my lap.
“Smells nice.”
I jumped clean out of my skin, spoon clattering to the floor. I had been too absorbed to notice the other figure who sat across from me. I reached down and grabbed the spoon without taking my eyes off him.
“T-thanks. Who are you?”
“I’m Shindae,” the speaker was a tall demon with wide shoulders. He had hooves and black skin and blood red eyes, “You must be Tobias.”
“Yeah. I am.” I ate another spoonful of my lunch, or whatever-it-was, “Do you know where he is?”
“Work.”
I frowned.
“Demon’s go to work? What?” the image of Zai in a suit made me smile into my food, “How does that work?”
“Your Master is an Enforcer. He and Sitka have gone up top to beat up someone who offended the palace.”
“My what?” I put down my bowl and spoon on the sofa carefully and fixed Shindae with my most annoyed glare, “My fucking what?”
“Your Master.” Shindae looked at me like it was simple, he spoke to me like I was a child, “Had you not noticed that he already collared you? Least he got a good cook, we could do with better grub around here.”
I rubbed the jewelled chain around my neck, then narrowed my eyes and threw my spoon at Shindae. The demon caught it without even looking.
“Well thankfully Zai warned us about you, and you’d better be grateful that he left me here and not anyone else. Kiorl would’ve have skinned you alive for that.” Shindae got up, and walked over to me, his big cloven hooves clicking as he walked and handed me my spoon, “Eat your food and I’ll give you the tour.”
I ate, watching Shindae ignore me. The big black demon picked at his long claws and plaited and unwound sections of his hair. Once I’d finished I went back to the kitchen, filled the big white sink, the type you get in old fashioned farm house kitchens, and washed everything up. I forgot about Shindae waiting in the other room and began to wonder about what to make for dinner. What did Zai normally eat anyway? For the last three nights he had apparently been surviving on the odd the slurp of my blood. I shivered involuntarily. Did demons eat dinner?
My hand went to my throat as I emptied the sink and touched the jewelled Chain. What Shindae had said disturbed me. Was this a collar? Was I owned now? And how in hell had that happened anyway. My Master? Huh.
Shindae stood in the doorway, blood eyes watched me at the sink.
“You ready then kiddo?”
“I don’t need a tour thanks.” I paused. Sure I could go back to the room and mope for the rest of the day even if I knew how to get back there. That would be really independent of me, “Actually…”
Shindae’s long clawed hand came to rest on my shoulder.
“It’s alright Tobias, it gets easier. You’ll learn.”
The ground floor of the house was taken up by the big kitchen, the lounge, and then there was another staircase, much grander and sweeping with carved bannisters. On the other side of the big entrance hall was another lounge, all rugs and cushions and softness. We took the grand stairs up. The passage with the candles held a bunch of doors all with name plates, Sitka, Watara, Inai… There was the bathroom I’d been in yesterday, and Shindae showed me another four. At the end of the hallway were the service stairs I’d come. There was a second door that I hadn’t noticed before. I followed Shindae up the narrow staircase and we came out on the roof.
There were no windows in the main building, and it was obvious from the few chairs and chaise-lounges up here that the demons spent time on the roof of their building. It was easy to see why. The house wasn’t the tallest on the hillside, but from their position, no other building on this side of the palace had a higher roof, which meant that Shindae and I could stand up there totally unobserved. I looked up at the ceiling painted with campfire stars.
“You’ll learn to like it here. Where you from anyways?”
“England.”
“Huh, Haven’t been there in a while. I think Sitka and Zai went off to Russia this morning.”
“Can you get anywhere from here then?”
“Absolutely. People think there’s millions of demons all over the world but they’re wrong. There’s only a thousand of us or so, but we move around a lot. Same demons can be on three continents in one night.”
“Cool.”
“So is he turning you?”
“What?” I looked at Shindae blankly and the big demon raised a surprised eyebrow.
“Turning you into a demon. I mean it’s that or a mortal life down here. Apparently growing old is no fun.”
“Zai can turn me into a demon?” I was surprised, that sounded like a pretty important power.
“No sweetie.” Shindae ruffled my hair, “You have to go to the Prince for that. Come on little boy let’s get you dressed for your new Master shall we?”
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Note: While authors are asked to place warnings on their stories for some moderated content, everyone has different thresholds, and it is your responsibility as a reader to avoid stories or stop reading if something bothers you.
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