Apollyon's Game

A destructive demon plays a game with a poor victim

“Humans are so pathetic” thought Apollyon as he watched the Male human stumble around in the darkness, trying to find his screaming wife in the maze that their house was. Apollyon crawled quickly along the ceiling, following the man and his panicked calls for his wife. His Demon body was made of millions and millions of incredibly small scales, able to change size and colour at will. His limbs were thin and ended in four razor sharp claws and his tail ran along the ceiling behind him, its spiked tip swaying. His eyes had a dull red glow, like the embers left after the fire. He followed the human, sticking to the darkest corners of the house. He wanted to watch his game play out without giving himself away. The wife’s screeching was really irritating him though, he might just have to shut her up soon. She had woken up down in the basement of the house, disorientated and under the effects of a Chaos spell Apollyon loved to use. She started to have increasingly horrifying hallucinations from the moment she had woken up, and her screams had woken her husband. The door to the basement was locked, not that she could find it anyway in the state she was in. The Human Tyler had reached the door and was screaming to her telling her he’s coming, the usual “i’ll rescue you” speech that Apollyon had heard hundreds of times before. “Why aren't humans more original?” he asked himself for the billionth time. He was clinging to the wall opposite the room from the man. The woman was screaming about how ants were in her eyes, she couldn't get them out. In his heroic bravery the Male ran away from the door and out into the hallway, the sound of the door slamming behind him. “Marriage of weaklings” Apollyon growled to himself. Bored of the man, the demon decided he would go watch the women’s struggles. He dropped onto the floor and crawled towards the door, shrinking his body down so he could pass through the gap under the door. The women was curled up at the base of the stairs, shaking as she mumbled to herself and thrashed at the air around her as if she was fighting away great creatures. Apollyon reformed back to his usual size, making himself visible to the distraught woman. She screamed louder as he approached her, stopping just inches away from her. He rested on his back limbs,in a warped version of sitting. “Your hu-man has left you” he screeched at her, “ Weak!” he screamed in his raspy demonic voice. She cowered against the stairs and screamed for the male human, tears streaming from her eyes. These were the moments Apollyon lived for. Fear, anguish,torment and stress fueled him. Without these worthless,pathetic mortals he would be weak. He would be nothing. He so enjoyed the useless struggle, the fight some had in them, the ones that broke easily. He especially loved when Tristitia, the demon of Sadness, joined him. With his destructive nature and Tristitia’s mood altering abilities, they had hours of fun tormenting the humans. There had been one man who they had tormented to the point he lost control, became unstable. He would attack other humans around him, and Apollyon had great fun making him his puppet. Raid a house here, murder a human there. It ended shortly after when another human shot their toy. So they followed the killer human and broke him too. But now was not the time for memories. Apollyon pulled himself from his thoughts and realised in the brief moment he had been distracted he had faded translucent so the woman could no longer see him and she was halfway up to the door. He growled quietly, annoyed he had lost concentration, it had completely broken the effect he had so expertly set up. He decided he would kill this human, it would be bad for him if others heard he had lapsed in a critical moment, so he let his claws elongate, running them along the cellar wall. The noise made the human women whimper and turn to look down the stairs. The pause was exactly what he wanted, the unease setting in again. He could tell from looking at her that she was terrified of what lay below, but also terrified that perhaps she was crazy, imagining things. Apollyon laughed at that, which came out as a rasping rumble that set the woman scrambling up the stairs again. He let her go, she couldn’t unlock the door as he had destroyed the key before any of this had started. She got to the base of the door as he lept onto the ceiling, sticking like a lizard to the rough surface. His claws clicked as he pulled himself along, a dark shadow, barely visible in the dim lighting. She was pressed against the door, banging on it, crying out for the male.  He was long gone by now, “probably rambling to a friend how his house was haunted” Apollyon thought. He was about to drop down behind the panicked female when there was a crash and a piercing scream echoed off the walls. Looking at the human he saw the door behind her had been broken, a jagged gap right in the center shone light into the space and protruding through the hole was the handle of an axe, its head buried deep in the female human's shoulder. She was screaming and sobbing as voices echoed through the hole. The male. He had gone and come back with friends. Apollyon looked at the woman and the red blood that was seeping into her clothes and smiled. It wasn’t the plan, but it was better. Much better. He could hear the men on the other side yelling and trying to rip away at the door. Considering his game nearly completed he dropped down onto the stairs, thumping down loud enough for the female to jump, causing her to shriek with pain. He moved his body into the light and screamed at her. “WEAKLING!” echoed off the walls and the men on the other end rushed to the gap and all crammed together trying to break in as the lady yelled for help. Apollyon crouched low and examined the woman and her wound, his demonic face inches from hers. He gave another scream, displaying his rows of razor teeth and while she cowered he speared his razor sharp tail through her other shoulder, drawing another piercing scream from her lips. He drank in the sound, pleased he could cause such pain. He stood up best he could and launched himself back out of the light and as the door was finally broken apart and the men rushed through he disappeared from view entirely. A ghost in the dark. He watched as the men searched the dark and could see the Male crouched beside his tortured and broken wife and the tears streaming down his face brought joy to Apollyon. “Worthless weaklings” he thought as he faded from the human world, “Worthless, breakable, terrified weaklings.”

Reviews

[Lore Keeper]

Well Zach, the downside first. There’s a positive upside as well so don’t worry this wont be a slog of me saying do this, that and the other better. My main issue with the story is no paragraph breaks, as such it could be an intimidating read for someone when they see a wall of text.

Secondly, strictly as an aesthetic preference I would liked to have seen Apollyon’s thoughts italicized. I had to go back and reread just to make sure that I saw he thought what he was saying instead of verbalizing it out loud.

Now to the good parts as promised. I liked that you portrayed Apollyon as a powerful outsider that could do some serious harm to mortals, simply because he could. There was some solid tension mixed with the demons arrogance. Overall you did a very good job.