The Demon Realm

It was two o’clock and in the middle of my interview when I sensed the demon.

“Is that all clear?”

I jerked my eyes back to my interviewer, desperately trying to remember what we’d been

talking about. The company? Uniform rules? Pay?

I pushed my glasses further up my nose. “Perfectly,” I said with a grin that felt like a death

rictus. My senses prickled unpleasantly as the newly born demon began to move,

somewhere out in the city. It was like someone was dragging a nail across my naked brain,

and it made it almost impossible to focus.

“Right,” he glanced at the checklist in front of him, big forehead wrinkled as he dragged a

grease-stained finger across the page. There was engine oil on his overalls as well, and he’d

somehow rubbed a blackened streak of the stuff into the remaining wisps of dirty blonde hair

clinging to his head. “I think that’s most of the routine stuff done. So – you mentioned you’d

worked on trams before.” Milky blue eyes glanced up at me. “Can you tell me a bit more?”

“Ugh…” The demon shifted again, moving, and I had to resist the urge to wince.

“Don’t worry, take all the time you need.”

At least my pained expression was to be expected. Thank all the gods above for small

mercies. Act normal. “I’ve worked on the lines,” I said, trying to resist looking out the window.

By the feel of it, the demon was streets away and still moving, but slowly. The urge to get up

and go after it was almost overwhelming. “And I’ve also done some bigger refurbishments.”

Not the most illuminating answer, but it was words. Words counted.

“Thank you.” He made a tick on his checklist. “We’ve already talked about your previous

employment, so that covers that off.” He set his pen down. “We’ll mainly be doing work on

the local trams in the next six to eight months, and we’re looking for someone that knows

their way around a circuit board.”

“Well, I’m your man for that.” I said, feeling the sweat glistening on my head. It was hard to

concentrate with the feeling of the demon clamouring in my head.

“We’ve actually got a couple in for repair at the moment, so I’m happy to offer you the

position on a trial basis.”

Relief licked through me. “That’d be great.” Changing cities every five minutes was a

nightmare, and I hadn’t thought I’d land on my feet this quickly. Carmarthen was…different to

every other backwater I’d been to before. Bigger. Busier. More overwhelming. I’d leapt at this

opportunity the minute I’d seen the ad. Engines I could do.

The demon scraped across my raw nerves again, and I bit back another wince. Not that I’d

expected trouble so soon from this city, either. I’d thought bigger meant safer.

That’d been a mistake.

My interviewer stood and headed for the door, still chattering. With relief, I shot to my feet

and followed him. Impatience drummed in my blood. I wanted to get out of here, to track

down the damn demon pounding a migraine into my head and get rid of it.

“We’ve already told you the working hours?” My interviewer was completely oblivious. Milky

blue eyes watched me expectantly. I straightened my black jumper, tucking my hands into my matching jeans. It didn’t look like it – I tended to radiate scruff – but I’d done my best to

look neat today.

“Yep,” I said, as we stepped outside, into the yard. Green trailing vines covered every wall

and provided shade from the sun high overhead. There were four brick arches in the wall

ahead, with green and blue trams parked up in two of them. Grassy tram lines bisected the

yard, leading to each of the parking zones.

“Great. We’ll play it by ear for now with you, as there’s no point you coming in unless there’s

someone here on shift to show you the ropes.”

“Ok.” It took everything in me not to grip one of the knives strapped to my body. I tucked my

hands into my sleeves, my concealed fingers digging into the fabric. I fought the urge to run

a hand through my unruly dark curls – it just tended to make them worse.

My interviewer snapped his fingers. “Wait, we’ve got Sara coming in later today. Can you

start at around four?”

My heart sank to my toes. Not a good start. “I’m afraid I can’t today, I’ve got-” A demon to kill.

“-my accommodation to sort out. I’ve got viewings booked.”

“Oh.” He looked put-out, eyes shaded under frowning brows. Well damn, there went a

perfectly good job straight away. Stupid demon. And my funds were running low. If I didn’t

get a job soon, I’d be on the streets. Again.

“I’m sure I can start straight after that though, if you can let me know the schedule?”

The frown disappeared. “I guess that would be alright.”

“Perfect.” I began to back away toward the street, knowing I was bordering on rudeness. “I’m

so sorry, I have to run…”

He frowned after me. “Quite alright, I understand.” But his face said he didn’t.

I took off.

Something told me this new job wouldn’t be for long. Which wasn’t great, as there was

surprisingly little need for a mechanic in a city this large.

Well, it wouldn’t be the first time I’d had to improvise. New employers always started hopeful,

looking past the dozen jobs and hundred addresses listed on my resume, somehow

believing I’d stay. I always let them down. In some ways, it was easier. I had no family, no

friends, no lover to lie to. Just an employer to pay for my rent, and didn’t they always expect

you to lie, anyway?

I hurried out of the tram yard and into the city streets, feeling for the demon. It was

somewhere away to my left, quite some distance away. I could always tell how far away they

were. They were a fuzzy presence in my brain, and the closer and closer I got to them, the

sharper and sharper the feeling grew – like claws digging into my brain.

The city streets were bustling, folk strolling along the cobbled streets or hanging on to the

rattling trams that cut through the foot traffic. Fae – with their slightly pointed ears – mixed in

with the humans and the half-fae magic users peddling charms and potions on every street

corner. Music blasted as I hurried past a bar on the corner, and I caught a whiff of something

delicious sizzling on the grill from the cart the other side of the road.

Trees shaded out the sun overhead and blocked the view of the towering buildings climbing

into the sky. Vines and creepers flourished in abundance, covering walls with verdant

carpets of emerald and jade. Flowers spilled from window boxes and grew alongside the

pavement, spilling jewelled colour over bricks and cobbles.

I hurried over the slender arching bridge crossing one of the many river tributaries in the city.

A water taxi cut under the bridge below, its solar-powered engine chuttering along. Its bow wake pushed aside a scattering of water lilies covering the surface, dragonflies lifting to flight

at the movement.

No one gave me a second look as I jogged down the stairs of the bridge the other side,

turning right into a lane lined with wooden-porched shops. The crowds moved around,

blissfully unaware that there was a demon stalking their streets.

I wasn’t surprised. Everyone believed they were safe, the doors between the realms locked

tight.

But not if someone forced them open a crack, using magic to let a demon creep into this

world. And I knew better than most what happened when a demon got loose. When the door

was opened, and couldn’t be shut.

The feeling in my head intensified, like claws raking across my brain. I cursed under my

breath and turned left down the nearest street. The demon was so close I could almost feel it

in the air all around me.

The street here was a mixture of modern glass and wooden-beamed buildings, vines crisscrossing overhead with hanging trumpets of peach and lemony flowers. The crowd here

were made up of more fae than I was used to seeing, and I almost cursed again. This was a

fae area of town, and not one I wanted to draw attention to myself in.

The fae and the humans had never gotten along well, even in the thousand years since

they’d crept back out of hiding, out from the ancient margins of the world. Cities like this

tended to have a human lord looking after its running, but there was usually a fae court –

with its own kings, queens and nobles – running alongside it as well. Another reason I was

beginning to regret coming to Carmarthen.

The feeling of the demon was all around me now, so close it could be meters away. I turned

in the middle of the street. Fae and humans strolled past, unconcerned. There was a family

chatting with the baker outside his shop on the corner. A couple were posing for a

photograph under the flowering trees.

If I didn’t find it fast, the demon would tear through this street like paper.

There was an alleyway tucked behind the bakery. My heartbeat picked up, kicking against

my ribs. I headed in that direction, my boots clicking against the cobbles.

The alleyway was gloomy, a bosky tunnel with the greenery crowding out the sky overhead. I

paused at the entrance. Something felt wrong. The air felt charged, like the sky before a

storm. It lifted the hair at the nape of my neck, sending goosebumps pricking up the bare

skin of my arms.

I reached under my t-shirt, to the long, wicked knife strapped against my back. The blade

glinted silver and white as I tugged it from its sheath. Somewhere out in the street, someone

laughed. I moved further into the alleyway, so passersby wouldn’t see me standing in the

open with a knife.

Crates and boxes were piled in a jumbled heap against the walls. The bins from the bakery

were stacked by its back door. There were a thousand hiding places. A thousand dark

corners.

I edged further in. I felt exposed in the middle of the alleyway. There were too many

shadowy hiding places. Too many cracks and edges. It could be anywhere. It could be

watching me right now.

My foot clinked against a broken cobble.

Up ahead, something stirred. In the gloom, two sulphur-bright eyes blinked open.

Demon.