Demons Part 2

A 15-year old girl comes face to face with a horned, 5-eyed, six-armed demon... things go well.

"Well," It said impatienly, "Apparently we wait. Because Beau won't stop pestering me to read their-- augh, never mind." It sat down with a thump, staring me straight in the face.

"Okay... Question."

It sighed. "Shoot, kid."

"Uh..." I considered my words carefully. "What... ARE you???"

The thing glared at me. "How rude. Well, uhm... how I put this? What am I, what am I...?"

After a moment of thinking, it snapped its fingers, which made me jump.

"Dead. I'm dead."

I blinked. "You're... dead?"

It nodded. "For quite a while now. I've never quite figured out how or why I'm here, but I am. No point in questioning it."

"So you're an angel?"

It threw its head back, howling with laughter. The thing seemed to really get a kick out of it being called an angel. It recovered, wiping its many eyes, and shook its head. "Heh heh, nah. Don't think I could be lucky enough to get anywhere off of here, let alone become one of the Big Guy's subjects."

It thought for a minute. "I guess you could say... I'm, uh, a demon. But not, like, one of Satan's. More like an 'I'm dead but I'm not in Heaven or Hell and I still have sentience' Demon."

"Alright... uhm... another question."

It nodded again.

"Why didn't you... kill me? You only shocked me a bit, but you didn't even try to hurt me."

It rested its head on one of its hands. "We aren't supposed to do that."

"What do you--"

"I mean, we all know what death feels like, or at least some sort of powerful sacrifice." It continued, cutting me off. "It's not something that we should ever cause or poke fun at. The others who live here get that, or any other demons out there, wherever they may be. I'm sure that everyone else who's died on any sort of dimensional plane or alternate reality or wherever else people come from should KNOW THAT. But they don't.

"Our job is to just scare the living daylights out of people. Make them feel unreal, hellish fear. To even think that we would kill them and take away someone from someone else... that's not what we do. That's not what anyone should do."

"Everyone lives so many lives. They meet so many people. Someone we kill could be someone else's true love, or best friend--"

I felt a pang of guilt in my heart. I didn't know why.

"--and by us killing them, we set off something that should never happen. Say we kill someone, and people find out. They won't know how they died. But someone who loved that person would probably kill themselves. And the chain reaction begins, and the death toll counts higher and higher, and it will have all happened because of us. The blood would be on our hands, and we could never forgive ourselves for it."

It stopped its continuous ranting and breathed out slowly. Looking at the ground, hunched over, the Demon smiled somberly.

"To think a Demon would be more human than a human." It whispered to itself. It held its face in its hands, exhaling slowly. It realized I was still there, and sat up straight.

"But it doesn't mean other Demons wouldn't kill you. You're lucky I got to you first."

I realized my eyes were wide open. I blinked. "That was... sad."

"I haven't had anyone that's not dead to talk to in a long time."

"Hey," I replied. "You said something about... different timelines or something back there? Can you possibly elaborate on that?"

"Well, lets just say that we aren't all from this universe."

"So you're aliens."

"Ha. No. I mean in the sense of an alternate reality. In those alternate realities, we still lived on Earth, or whatever we perceived as our 'Earth', " The demon replied. "I don't know exactly how it works, but in those alternate realities, something is different. Don't even get me started on timelines though. Those are a pain."

All this information distributed to me in short amount of time was quite a bit to process, to say the least. I tried to play it cool, like my mind wasn't collectively screaming "WHAT".

"Alright. The more you know. Cool... final question."

"Okay. Last one."

"You keep saying 'we'... who else is here?"

"Well, that I know of... there's Beau, Memei, T, Harris..." The Demon counted off on the fingers on one of its hands.

It hesitated, as if debating to tell me a secret. 

"..And me." It finished, smiling. "I'm Eilowy."

I don't know why, but I snickered at the name. "Eilowy? Who would name their kid Eilowy?"

"I still have so much more to explain to you..." It said, slightly irritated. Eilowy stood up, and looked over its shoulder. "Ah, Beau!"

I looked over to where Eilowy was looking. A shorter figure stood there, clad in only a neon teal jacket with pink hoodie strings. It had no skin, or muscle or anything-- it just seemed to be a large body of black smoke. Two glowing eyes were the only thing on the hooded head. Waist down, it just ended in coal-colored clouds. It was holding a stack of papers.

"Beau, thank Remote, there you are...? Beau." It said, the hopeful relief in its voice transforming to frustration.

"Yes?" Beau replied. Its voice seemed incredibly morose and slow, as if it was permanently disappointed. Aw. I felt a little bad for it.

"Beau, where's the Manual." Eilowy growled. It seemed more like an apprehending statement than a question.

"oh... i... didn't bring it... b-but i wanted you to read--!" Poor Beau said hopefully, holding up the huge stack of papers, a few falling off the top.

"Beau, In case you haven't noticed, I have a HUMAN here, and I don't know what to do with it." Eilowy said,  gesturing to me. "I think this a more pressing matter than your--"

Beau turned to me, making Eilowy stop what it was saying.

I swear, I don't think I'll ever forget what had happened that day. I don't think I'll ever forget Eilowy chasing me, or making me feel complete, unbridled fear and then ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, or it telling me about alternate realities and morals and timelines.

But I think one of the things I will not forget the most, is when a small, sad whisp turned to me, and said...

"will you read my fanfiction?"

Of course I couldn't say no.

Hours passed, and I read the entire fanfiction.

It was surprisingly good, actually-- especially being written by someone who's been dead for awhile. It took an hour or two, but I finished it. It was a fan story about a popular anime at the time.

Huh.

So even dead people could be complete dorks. I watched anime with Lex on the weekends sometimes, so I enjoyed it. It was a nice read. And adorable little Beau was ecstatic once I finished-- or ecstatic as they could be.

"oh... you like it...?" They said somberly.

I nodded, handing them back the papers. "Mhmm. It was nice. Just a few bits of punctuation you need to fix up, but you're doing well otherwise."

"oh... thank you... im glad..." Their voice sounded a bit higher. I took it as happiness.

Eilowy, who sat there and listened to me read the whole time, seemed very tired. "Lovely, wonderful, are we done here? I'm glad you spent our valuable time enjoying that story, because I just lost..."It looked up through a hole in the ceiling, where sunlight was shining through. "...TWO hours that could have been spent looking for the Manual that you lost. Thanks."

Beau looked up at Eilowy, craning their neck. "i didn't... lose it..."

"That means something else happened to it. Beau..."

Beau suddenly became very interested in the floor and their sleeves. They started tugging on their jacket lightly, fiddling it in their cloudy fingers.

"Beau. Where is the Manual."

They mumbled something quietly. And I mean, dropping a tissue in a soundproof room full of snow quietly. Eilowy tapped its foot.

"What was that Beau?"

"...i don't know..."

I'm not sure why, but this whole experience was funny to me. I could only think of a parent scolding a small child while listening to this conversation. I snickered softly while Eilowy sighed. Luckily, it didn't hear me.

"Well, that means we need to go find it." Eilowy lectured them slowly and deliberately. "Because, we all know there is only one copy of that Manual, and I need to know what to do with her--" She pointed at me with her other hands on her hips "--and we can't leave her here, so you need to keep an eye on her."

"uhm... me...?" They asked cluelessly.

Eilowy let out a prolonged huff. "You. You're coming with us to find that stupid book." It grabbed my hand with its lower right arm and pulled me to the stairs. I stumbled, then caught my balance, yanking my hand away from it.

"Hold on now, would you care to explain to me what's happening?"

Eilowy shot me a look that would probably make me cry under other circumstances, but it seemed defeated afterwards.

"Fine. FINE. Just so long as you cooperate and come help me look for it. I swear to Remote if it's not in the building..." Eilowy trailed off. It let out a heavy breath, and then looked to me, fists clenched."Come on. We're going to find Memei." It turned on its heels and started to walk to the stairs.

"Memei?" I said, jogging after. Eilowy had long legs and took wide, sweeping strides forward, so it took some effort to follow behind. Beau floated by, fanfiction resting on a table near where we had sat.

"She most likely had the Manual last... but I'm not sure... she's the most sensible one here-- next to me, of course --so a visit to her would be safe... ah." It turned to me. "I assume you can't teleport?"

I shook my head.

Eilowy put a hand on its chin, looking back at the stairs. "I didn't think so. We'll have to get to the 5th floor using the stairs. Some flights are completely wrecked, so we'll have to cross over in the corridors once or twice." Eilowy turned back in my direction and smiled. "I hope you don't mind walking."

I did. I did mind walking. But hey I wanted to make this go as smoothly as possible. I sighed a yes, and we were on our way.

---

I was exhausted, and we were only on the fourth floor.

We had to go up one flight, then another, then cross over to one side, but surprise, those stairs were wrecked. So we crossed back over and those stairs were fine, so we kept going. But they turned out to be an extra-long flight, and we ended up on the sixth floor instead. We had to cross over two different flights and get down one set which lead to the second floor, then go to the end of the hallway where we got up to the fourth floor.

Eilowy and Beau didn't seem to be bothered by our prolonged walk, and I noticed they didn't even seem to breathe. They took no notice of my basic human needs as I wheezed behind them, back and feet aching.

This place was a maze of confusing turns and a high probability of getting lost. I nearly lost sight of Eilowy and Beau, but caught up to them, thankfully. Eilowy's long, slow gait and my shorter, quicker jog spurts looked a little funny in comparison to one another.

Eventually, after what seemed like hours, we reached our destination. A door that said "HEALTHCARE" on it. I reached for the handle, but Eilowy frantically slapped my hand away.

"Ah-nah-nah-nah-nah," It said to me, waving its hands in front of it. Eilowy stood in front of the door, blocking my way. "Listen, human, uh... Memei's kinda..." It seemed to be looking for the right words."...sensitive." 

"Sensitive." I repeated, skeptic.

"she's... a germaphobe....?" Beau said slowly. Eilowy shot them a look. "...it's... not a lie..." 

"Look, look, just wait here, okay? This doesn't concern you."Eilowy said to me. "We won't be long, alright? Behave yourself."

I nodded. "Sure."

The two demons cracked open the door and slipped inside. I soon heard hushed voices. One I didn't recognize. I wondered who it was, what it looked like, what they were like...

I wondered about its life. Who was it before it died? Who did they know? When did they die? I was sitting against the door, fiddling with my hands, thinking.

The curiosity was killing me... I had to see this other demon.

I cautiously creaked open the door. I caught a glimpse of Eilowy's back, and Beau's turned head-- and a porcelain white hand, in the corner of my vision. I cocked my head, so I could see the figure--

The hand wasn't connected to anything. It was suspended, but still moving. I thought I saw an arm hanging near it, but--

I realized far too late I was leaning forward. My foot slipped, and in my desperate attempt to catch myself, I pushed open the door, making it slam against the wall and leaving me in full view.

Splendid.

I saw her before it happened. She was short, and appeared to be Asian-- Korean was my best guess. She had a post-op patch, a doctor's mask, and greasy black hair in a bob cut. She was in a hospital gown, clad in a tank top, shorts, and flip-flops.

But the most interesting thing about her was her limbs. Her arms were disconnected from her shoulders, her hands from her wrists, her thighs from her knees, her feet from her ankles, and her neck from her head.

She looked at me, and from her one eye, I saw so much emotion in such a short amount of time. Surprise, confusion, and eventually unbridled fear. She shrieked, and started ricocheting around the room.

Now when I say this, I don't mean running from corner to corner. I mean literally flying around the room, darting at full speed to the ceiling, all the while sounding like a compressed airhorn.

Eilowy and Beau quickly went into action, albeit frantically. They kept trying to tell her to calm down, but to no avail. The screamer eventually cornered herself in the back left corner of the ceiling, wailing about how she didn't want a disease. The other two shooed me out of the room, and I was happy to oblige.

Ultimately, they let me back in, and had her sat in a chair facing towards the door. Beau silently urged me to come in calmly.

I cracked open the door to find who seemed to be Memei facing me angrily. I shut the door behind me softly, while keeping my eyes on her. Anxiously, I approached her. Her one gray eye was trained on me, watching my every move.

My eyes darted to her, then Eilowy and Beau standing behind her. Eilowy just shrugged when I looked to it for help. Thanks, Eilowy.

Clearing my throat, I decided to introduce myself. After all, it was the least I could do after scaring this demon half to... life? I don't even know.

"H-Hi, I'm--"

"Wash your hands"

Whoa. Her voice was scratchy and stiff, as if she had to clear her throat. She pointed to a sink nearby.

After a thorough wash, I came back. I think that was the angriest time anyone's ever told me to wash my hands. Afterwards, she seemed relived, and a bit more relaxed.

"Thanks, I just wanted to make sure you were disinfected, y'know"

"Yeah..." I said. "So, uhm... are you alright?"

"Huh? oh uh-huh, right, don't worry about that  thats' just something that happens" Memei smiled shyly and stroked her greasy hair. "sorry if I freaked you out, uh, I do that sometimes  and, uh, don't worry about" She lifted her shoulder up, detached ligaments coming with it. "all this, haha"She smiled, as if this were just a simple broken bone or sprain. Her disconnected limbs were dripping blood, and I just noticed.

I tried to look like I understood and nodded.

Eilowy seemed to remember what we came her for and jumped up excitedly. "Oh! Right right that reminds me-- Memei, do you have the Manual with you? I don't quite know what to do with this, and I'm looking for instruction." It said hopefully.

Memei shook her head. "Sorry, Eiye  I'm not sure where it is"

It sighed and its six arms hung in defeat. Within moments, it popped back up again, feigned hope on its face. "It's okay, that's okay... You know what? I'll bet that T has it... right. Great. We'll go check with him." Eilowy said, flicking its wrists, making broad hand motions as it spoke. I had to duck once or twice to avoid being hit. "Memei, do you want to come?"

"Oh no, thank you, I just finished sterilizing this room and I don't want to leave it  thank you for the offer though."

"oh..." Beau spoke up. "...i think... i'm going to just.... hang out here too... if that's okay with you, Memes."

"Of course Bo  see you two later" She smiled and waved gently as we shut the door behind us.

...

I doubled over in laughter, wheezing. Eilowy seemed shocked by my outburst, and looked confused.

"What's so funny?"

Through the gasping and coughing of my prolonged fit, I croaked out:

"M--MEMES??"

Apparently my sense of humor is so warped I can't function when I learn that there is a demon named "Memes".

God.

Author's Note

--This is part 2 of a series, go to part 1 if you have no idea what's happening.--This is just a very first-draft-concept-beginning sort of thing-- I hope you like the concept. Please leave a review or constructive criticism, I'm looking for ways to improve! I'll be posting additional parts to it weekly.