Demon Girl

Copyright 2010 Penelope Fletcher.

Smashwords Edition

ISBN: 978-1-4523-7321-8

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The day I learnt I was a demon was the worst
day of my life. I won’t lie. I spent most the day terrified of
dying, or losing a limb.

The first thing I heard, and thought about
when I woke that morning was of demons. A were-cat scream echoed
for a beat, before an answering scream, higher in pitch called in
the distance. It sounded like the packs were fighting; a
territorial dispute most likely. There was a Pride not too far from
the Temple. A muffled shriek drifted up through the floorboards,
and I rolled my eyes when it happened on the next scream. I buried
my head under the pillow, pulling my blanket up. New Disciple’s
thought the world was ending every time a demon passed nearby. It
took them long to understand, if the Wall was breached the klaxon
went off to warn us.

I rolled out of bed, tripped over the
mountains of fabric and crushed cans that littered the floor of my
room, and head butted the wardrobe door. It bounced back. Clothes
flung over the top and spilling out the bottom had stopped it from
clicking shut. I was not a dirty person, but a messy one. I was the
kind of person who could make mess in an empty four by ten box.
Stood in my fraying bra and panties, I groggily scratched at my
knee, trying to pull myself together. It took a lot of rummaging
around before I pulled on my ragged jeans and faded tee shirt, some
pre Rupture band on the front. Not the best gear for running, but I
was going to have to go straight to class afterwards. I put my
boots on and headed outside.

It was dark. Dawn was hours away, and the
grounds were eerily quiet. Fire drums set alongside the pathway
flickered, and weak flames cast a sick flush over the cold ground.
Electricity was hard to generate, so the Sect cut corners where it
could. Resources during the day, and after dark, focused on Wall
hotspots, places difficult for the Clerics to easily defend, like
steep ravines and cliff faces. These were the places demons too
often breached. My eyes skipped over the Temple grounds, and every
graffiti wall, battered trashcan was colored fondly in my mind’s
eye. The Temple was an army base, before the Rupture, but now it
was the stomping ground of the Sect Clerics and their Disciples. It
was home. Safety. My eyes settled on the Wall in the near distance,
peeking out from the forest bordering the region. Past that
electric fence was Outside. Past that fence roamed the demons.

I started at a jog. In no time I was at the
main gate whistling to the security guard who barely looked up from
his book. I wondered where he’d gotten that. Books made purely for
entertainment were as rare as plain paper. The Sect had a library
of course, right here at Temple, but you had to have serious pull
with the Priests to be able to rent one. We lucky Disciples got to
feel the smooth pages of a book on a regular basis, even if they
were educational, and my envy was brief. The guard caught me eyeing
up the pages and placed it on his lap. He waved me on as the gate
cracked to let me out.

Leaving Temple, I was soon on a wide and flat
lane gravitating toward the forest. I reached the Wall and stared
at it. Each time I came here I asked myself the same question; was
defying Sect Doctrine and stepping past this point worth it? The
excited thump of my heart told me the answer. I glanced behind to
scan the roadside and check I was not in sight. Confident I was
alone; I slid through the sliver of space between the charged wires
then held my breath for a beat. There was nothing but silence. I
had no idea how I’d done it, but one morning I was tired of
plodding the same ground, and I’d looked out into the forest with
its thick tree trunks, jutting roots, and seen a thrilling new
route to push myself harder and faster. I had stood, and stared at
the webbing of steel then wished for a hole to climb through. The
wires had just
unraveled
without setting off the klaxon. I
remembered thinking with a horrible kind of panic that I had
somehow done witchcraft, and was convinced I was the blackest kind
of evil. Then I realized how ridiculous I was being, and figured it
was a coincidental gift from the universe, or something. Now every
morning I had a new obstacle course to enjoy.

The trees were tall, and the air was fresh
and clean and free. I ran, racing the beat of my own footfalls.
Cold wind whipped past pushing hair into my face. Gods, how I loved
to run and revel in the illusion of freedom it gave. I was the
fastest Disciple at the Temple, and the best at cross-country; it
took a lot to tire me out. I ran until the forest became too dense
for me to sprint without tripping over roots. My chest rising and
falling was a pleasant feeling I rarely got to experience, and only
could experience when I ran Outside. Pushing at the long and dark
tangle of my hair, I wished there was less of it. I snapped off a
knobby twig from a shrub at my heel and pulled it back into a messy
bun, using the twig to pin it there. I was distracted, and only
because a raven boldly cutting past drew my attention from the task
of managing my hair, did I see a movement at the corner of my
eye.

A figure strode away from me up a leafy
incline, into the light side of the daybreak.

“Hai?” I called my voice low.

The retreating shape paused, only to dart
deeper into the gloom. Cresting the slope it winked out of sight. I
ran after it. It seemed like the thing to do at the time. Skidding
to a stop at the slope summit, I let out a surprised grunt. I could
see down and far out into the forest. There was nobody down there,
nothing but more trees. Fear whispered in my ear
no humans are
supposed to be Outside
, but I shook it off. Such a thing was
surely nothing but my imagination. No demon would be this close to
the Temple. It would be like a human who wanted to live a long life
doing a jig with their eyes closed on the edge of a cliff.

Then I saw it again. The shadowed figure was
there when I turned around, but was at the bottom of the slope. My
feet skipped back then there was no more floor.

I remembered the same time my head moved to
where my feet had been, that I’d been standing on the apex of a
steep and high slope. I went
down
. I tumbled backward and
ended up rolling and rolling. The world churned around me, but
leveled out abruptly as I crashed into the base of a tree at the
slopes underside.

My arse was up in the air and my shins mashed
against my forehead. Oh gods it hurt. I rocked my body until I fell
onto my side, and pulled my legs back to curl them under me. I
breathed in and out slowly, mentally checking myself over. Nothing
felt broken. I sat up and stretched it out. No, nothing was broken.
The pendant I wore around my neck pressed into my collarbone
awkwardly. I fiddled with it until it hung properly, and the
leather cord was no longer choking me.

I stood and rubbed at my head, then tried to
get my bearings.

The slope was too steep to climb back up and
I wasn’t much into rock climbing. Like most people I was reasonably
tolerable of heights, up to a certain point and tolerable with deep
water, up to a certain point. And even agreeable with confined
spaces. Up to a certain point. Heights especially high were a
stickler with me, despite my love of the things you could do when
you were especially high. I had a way of pretending the floor was
much closer than it truly was. Nevertheless, the slope was too high
to pretend, so I was either going left or right. Determined to stay
calm, I ignored the first curls of fear in my stomach. I hadn’t
explored this far out into the forest yet and based on how long I
had run for, I was at least ten miles from the Wall. I was not
worried about the time; I could still get back for breakfast and
with enough time to walk to class with Alex. Looking to the east
the sky was lightening to blue, but the sunrise was always
painfully slow. Classes did not start until the sun was in the
sky.

I picked the straightest line through the
trees as I could, and started off, my boots slapping muddy puddles
riddling the way. In the early morning the forest was empty of
human presence apart from its familiar visitor in me, but it was
creepy now, like someone was watching.

A short while later it was clear I’d done
something wrong. The trees were getting denser, and more closely
packed together, like I was going further into the forest. I
stopped and spun around. My first instinct was to go back. I was
walking in a straight line, and I could go back to the slope base
and start again. I
had
been walking in a straight line,
hadn’t I? Those nasty curls of fear tickled my insides again. I
started to walk back, but stopped after less than half a mile. I
scanned the ground. Horrified at what I did not see, I knelt down
to get a better look. To my dismay I could not see any footprints
or other evidence I had passed this way. All Clerics were master
trackers, bested only by shifters who changed into predators like
big cats. As a Disciple I had been trained in the basics of
tracking, of course, and at that moment I felt the bitter sting of
failure. What I should have done the moment I felt lost is
literally retraced my steps and started again. But I hadn’t done
that. I’d let the fear get one up on me, and plunged into the
forest without thinking. I needed to calm down and focus. I figured
if I went high, I could see further around me.

I strode back a pace, and took a running jump
at a broad oak trunk. I reached the lowest branch starting five
feet or so above my head, and dug my fingertips into the bark. Tree
climbing was easy, and in no time I hauled my body over the highest
bough that would hold my weight. I balanced on my toes, hands to
knees. Exhaling my breath was visible plumes of wispy vapor, and
for a few seconds I chugged circular globules to amuse myself.

It was cold, it being the end of autumn, but
the cooler days didn’t bother me. It was a welcome change since my
body had always run hot.

The clouds on the horizon were dark with
rain, darker than the sky now. They rolled low and blocked out the
coming light. There was a thick hum in the air, a sure sign a storm
was blowing in. My heart did a jig in my chest, and my mood picked
up, for I simply loved a good storm. The clean scent of crushed
needle leaf on the breeze was refreshing, and a nice change to the
ashy smell that saturated everything at the Temple.

Getting back on track, I looked around in a
wide circle. I bit my lip and looked the circle again, slower this
time. I was in trouble. I couldn’t see the Wall or the end of the
forest. I must have run much further than I usually did before I’d
fallen. Then I’d walked even further in the wrong direction.

I stood, clasped the branch overhead and
skipped to the edge of my perch. Loosening my hold above, I pushed
back with my foot and both my arms stretched back. I arced into a
crescent and was momentarily suspended in the air. The crown of my
head raced to catch my arms as my legs coiled and flew overhead.
The world was crazy for a second; up was down, down was up. Pointed
feet followed my legs around and then I was falling. Feet a foot
apart, my knees bent to absorb impact as I landed, arms extended
either side of me for balance.

That bit of fun helped chase away some of my
distress. I was good at identifying my emotions and could control
them with distractions if I caught them early enough. There were
several notable times I’d allowed myself to fall into foul rages,
where I’d thrown things about and punched walls, laughing as I did
so. The most frequent were bouts of manic happiness where
everything was funny. The worst and hardest to control were the
dark humors. Sometimes the twisted things my imagination threw at
me were only scary, and off-colour to think about once I’d snapped
out of it. I’d always been odd, different to the girls around me,
and those times where I’d lost control made some people suspicious
and afraid of me.