A Demon's Home

Thunder echoed throughout a valley of rural homes. The sky was dark and filled with even darker clouds. Lightening promised its appearance by spitting across the sky. Rain is coming soon.

An old teenager stood by the window, watching. It was almost time. Taking utmost care not to wake her parents or younger sister, she dashed to the cabinet, scooped two handfuls of yellow candles and set off into her living room. Placing them all in a circle, she lights them one by one. Fumes rise to the ceiling.

She sighed. It was almost time. Almost time to summon a very particular friend from the other side. Crouching before the circle, she got to her knees and mumbled a chant she knew by heart.

The fumes became more smoky, its ascent to the ceiling quicker, the scents from the candles growing intense. The rumbling grew louder. After two minutes, her eyes glowed blue, the mumbling seemed to tumble out of her mouth. Almost there. Outside the wind thrashed with the window.

Hard rain poured, slapping the windows, the walls and the doors. This was the storm they have been warned about for weeks now. They were not expecting for the storms waters to become quite this heavy nor this dramatic.

Little did they know that the prime cause of all this was the girl herself who spoke complete nonsense at this point. Who spoke in a catchy foreign tongue that made no sense no matter what ways you have played it in a recording.

Then stop! The girl collided with the floor, the rain calmed, the wind blew gentle breezes. The room held its breath. One minute. Two minutes. After ten minutes, the girl stood, dizzy and tired. She stole a look at the room. Nothing out of the ordinary. No new visitor was here. Nothing changed.

Suddenly her feet moved on their own.

-------

Now the girl was still conscious through all of it. The only problem was that her body wasn’t her own. Whatever was going on she was clearly not in control of. Her feet lead her to the bathroom where she nearly fell and hit her forehead on the counter. She gazed at herself in the mirror. And nearly did tumble and have her head collide with her back.

Staring back at her was her old dead friend: Alfonso. Blond hair, mischievous smile, baby blue eyes. Very handsome. She shook her head as violently as the winds. No it wasn’t him. What an imagination she must have! It is not him! Alfonso is dead; he’s been dead for three years.

She almost screamed then Alfonso did something she thought she’d never see a reflection do. He talked to her.

“Whoa whoa hang on there,” his voice. Her being scared of Alfonso turned to dead on confusion. The way the reflection spoke, not at all like her timid shy Alfonso. This voice sounded confident, easygoing. She remained silent awaiting his next utterance.

“Thanks for calming down so fast,” Alfonso said. “For a moment, I thought I was gonna have to not take over your body and have you pass out quicker than you can summon me.”

“Summon you?” She repeated quietly. “What are you…” She knew what he was going to confirm next; she just wasn’t sure if she was ready to accept this fact.

“Yep,” he nodded. “I am a demon. And I like taking over people’s bodies. It’s fun.”

“Why?” she demanded.

“I just told you,” he smirked. “It’s fun.”

How was she supposed to respond to that? What should she say to respond to that? She is not mad that this demon took over her body and presented her with an image of an old dead friend. No she was excited for the possibility, the numerous ways and opportunities that opened up to her just by having this powerful associate.

And yet. Yet….

“Hey female! Your head’s sinking into the abyss of ‘hey I’m talking to you.’”

The girl lifted her head to this at once. “I am not female.”

“So you’re a dude?” The demon asked amusement in his voice.

“No!” she hollered. Snores sounded. After a moment, “I am a female, but that is not my name.”

The reflection chuckled the same way Alfonso would chuckle. For some reason, the girl could not look help but be frightened and curious about him. Normally Alfonso would not laugh at her jokes and even if he would it would be her poor attempts at Yo Mama jokes.

“I know that, but…” The demon did something that was quite scary and amusing. He flew straight out of the mirror. Replacing the demon’s former reflection was the girl’s original one. She felt a slight warmth at her left shoulder. “You are very much a female.” he finished slowly, certainly.

The girl froze and felt cold despite the warmth surrounding her. She took a deep breath. “You demons grant favors, deals, whatever.”

“Yep, and that’s the reason why you summoned me, yeah?” The warmth shifted from her side and came in front of her face. In her view was Alfonso only with a bit more flesh. Ghostly. “Whatsup? What can I do for you today and or tonight?”

The girl could not find the words. “Um…”

Alfonso waved his hand to the side. “S’okay take your time.”

“You…” Nina started and trailed off.

The demon remained where he was: in midair. “Yes…”

“I uh…” She tries again. “You’re not…”

“Like the other demons?” Alfonso guessed.

The girl nodded. “You’re not what I was expecting either.”

The warmth shifted again. “Would you stop moving so much?” She demanded.

“That got you back to reality.” Alfonso mused. “Alright so what’s going on, aside from being too nervous to request, like anything?”

“I...there’s something about myself that I want to improve. Something that I have been struggling with for my whole life. That is...my shyness and public speaking abilities.”

At this Alfonso frowned. “I...see.”

Now it was the girl’s turn to look up. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m not normally the sort of demon to help mortals out with this sort of thing.”

He started to fade away. “Wait!” the girl cried. “You’re a demon, you grant whatever favors mortals may have. You are bound to these deals.”

The fading stopped. “My pro...OH!!” He flat out laughed. He threw his body back still in midair and laughed so hard. Oddly enough the parents couldn’t hear him. It’s like something is muffling his laugh, something magical. “Oh now that makes sense! Wow.”

The girl was thoroughly confused. “ I don’t really understand. What…?”

Alfonso crept up to her. “Man the look on your face. The reason why demons come into the mortal world, the reason people know about the most ancient demons, the whole reason of why they summon us, hahaha.”

“The Internet?” the girl guessed

“Yep, boy are mortals gullible sometimes!” He finished laughing. “Websites created by mortals just to summon to grant favors and wishes. ‘Oh don’t summon the demons They’re real! Oh no they will get you and make you mindless slaves for all eternity!’”

When Alfonso noticed the girl staring at him, he cleared his throat. “I see I need to explain a few things, but first-” he clapped his hands- “Introductions-” he stuck out his hand- “the names Aslon, I am a demon of all trades-”

“Don’t you mean a jack of all trades?”

“Well, no. Mainly ’cause my name’s not Jack.” The girl groaned. “I’m Nina,” she said before he could ask.

“Nina, Nina, nice name you got Nina.”

“Yes, I was born with this name.” She replied. “Will you help me?”

“It was like I was saying before. I may be a demon of all trades, but I normally do not help mortals with these sorts of issues. “You’re better off summoning someone else....” He placed a finger on his chin, thinking. “But then again...”

“I would rather I didn’t summon you anyone else.” Nina paused, as though recalling the time it took her to find the right demon for the job. “It was far too much work to do, what with the candles, and memorizing the chant and the exact time of day. Summoning a different person-”

“Demon!” Aslon corrected.

“Got that! Anyway, I don’t want to summon any other demons. You’re the closest one that I have that could help anyone with this sort of thing. Please won’t you help. I have been struggling with shyness my whole life and I have a presentation tomorrow and-”

Aslon held a finger for silence, he allowed that silence to thicken. Finally he said “I will think about it and until then, feel for any and all warmth. That’s a sign I’m near you okay?”

He vanished. Nina stared at the spot, heard one of her parents getting up and dashed to her bed. Her father thought he heard someone, investigated and wondered, “Where did these yellow candles come from?”