“There’s a Scout Demon out there!” I started to climb up the ladder. My demon still couldn’t pick up the Scout’s stat block, so it didn’t seem to be following us, but I didn’t want to take any risks.
Andrew snapped his head up to scan the horizon and pulled his bow off of his back in one smooth motion. I joined him as soon as I reached the top, scanning the opposite direction.
“Do you know if there was just one, or more?”
“It told me there were more, but I don’t know where, or if it was telling the truth.”
He raised an eyebrow at me. “It spoke to you?”
Demons speaking out loud was such a rare occurrence that some people believed it wasn’t actually possible. “Yeah. It was taunting me.”
“...why?”
His attention was more towards me, now. I continued to scan the horizon. “I don’t know! I think it knew it couldn’t kill me, so it just tried to intimidate me.”
He lowered his bow an inch. “Why couldn’t it kill you?”
I had no genuine answer to that question. “I’m—I’m just guessing, Andrew, I don’t know.”
His attention was fully on me, now, looking me up and down as if trying to assess whether I'd sustained a head injury. I looked back at him, slightly defiantly.
“Go back to the station,” he said. “Tell the other watchmen what's going on. I'll keep my eyes peeled in the meantime.”
It was a full dismissal, a statement that I was of no help here and no longer wanted.
I went back to the station.
The other two watchmen decided to patrol the outskirts of town. Joan, as a trusted native of Saybrook, was dispatched to warn the townsfolk to stay inside tonight, just in case.
I wasn't assigned to do anything.
I sat on the edge of one of the station beds, the chest of my belongings sitting in front of me. I was packing them quickly into a satchel. Every few minutes, the demon would wordlessly scan the area, coming up with nothing each time.
Finally, it spoke.
“You've been quiet for a minute. Yes, we're catching a ride with the first wagon out of this place in the morning.”
It went quiet again.
“It'll be alright,” I said, assuming it was saddened at the thought of moving far away from its dungeon. “We'll find someplace better. Trust me, most human towns are way better than this one.”
I was confused. “Tonight? Why?”
[NAME] Andrew Wenn
[HP] 100/100
[MANA] 0/0
[PAIN] 0/10
[NAME] Ephraim Haley
[HP] 100/100
[MANA] 0/0
[PAIN] 0/10
The stat blocks pinged one at a time from outside the mercenary station.
I heard the front door of the station creak open and two sets of footsteps come inside. There was a knock at the door to the living quarters.
I was paralyzed with indecision. There was no good way out of this.
The knock came again, louder this time. The demon shrunk into the back of my mind in fear.
Maybe they weren’t convinced yet. Maybe they still had doubts about whether I was possessed.
I stood up and reached for the doorknob, but the lock clicked before I could get there. Andrew opened the door, keys in hand. Behind him was the preacher from that morning, with his hair parted neatly and his cloak spotless—Ephraim, I presumed. Andrew had a hand on the dagger sheathed on his belt.
My muscles stiffened involuntarily. My demon was taking control, inching its claws into my nervous system.
“Don’t hurt them,” I muttered under my breath quickly. “Don’t. Let me talk it out.”
There was a moment of tension, then It let me go. I took a deep breath as my muscles relaxed.
I turned my attention to Ephraim. He was studying me, one eyebrow raised inquisitively.
“Evening, gentlemen,” I said, eager to get the first word. “Is there…some sort of a problem?”
Ephraim answered quickly, keeping his demeanor calm and friendly. “I apologize. We assumed, since you didn’t answer the door, that you weren’t here. We were looking for you, though. I simply need to ask you a few questions.”
My eyes darted between them. Andrew didn’t look at me. “What kind of questions?”
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Well, Jacob came to me with some concerns. He says you’ve been acting strangely.” He tilted his head towards Andrew, indicating that he was the “Jacob” being referred to. “Talking to yourself. Knowing things that you shouldn’t know. I was immediately worried for you—and for what it might mean for our community.”
I ignored It. “I…understand. Frontier towns like this one have to be extra cautious about demon infiltration. I’ll answer your questions.”
He thanked me, and I started to pull a chair out for him to sit. Before I could grab one for Andrew, he left the room, opting to stand guard just outside the doorway instead of staying with us. I sat across from Ephraim.
He pulled a small notebook from his breast pocket. “I understand you’ve had a rough time, recently. How are you feeling?”
I studied him carefully. “Alright, all things considered. I mean, I’ve just come out of a pretty harrowing experience, but it could be a lot worse. I could be dead.”
Ephraim smiled in a sort of sad, sympathetic way. “It’s good to count your blessings in times like these.”
The demon scoffed from the back of my mind.
“Were you aware that Jacob goes by his middle name?” Ephraim continued.
“No, I just saw Joan’s registry on her desk and read the names on it. That’s why I thought his name was Andrew.”
Ephraim made a short “hm” sound, his eyes locked onto the contents of his notebook. “Knowing things you shouldn’t, like names you’ve never learned, is a sign of demonic influence.”
“I know,” I said. “Killing demons is—was part of my job.” A thought occurred to me. “Those mimics hanging outside of town, did you do that?”
“I can’t take all the credit, no. Rooting out mimics is a community effort.”
“But it was you that made the final call, wasn’t it?”
“Not my favorite responsibility as a preacher, but one I must shoulder nonetheless.”
Bile rose in my throat at the thought of this man sentencing two people to death—whether or not they were mimics.
“The years within the demon cycle are serious times. Sometimes I wish I could’ve lived in another time, but at the end of the day, it’s besides the point. The best we can do is follow the Paragon and stay vigilant.”
He was looking to me for agreement. I spoke slowly: “You’ve already decided I’m guilty.”
He didn’t falter. “Of course not. You could be a demon, sure, but you could also be a disturbed man who has just gone through a terrible thing.”
A disturbed man. “Either way, you’ve decided I’m dangerous.”
“Are you dangerous?”
I leaned back in my chair. We were silent for a stretch.
“I’ve spoken to mimics before—people who I was absolutely certain were not human.” Ephraim pressed his hands together. “You don’t feel like a demon, to me, Garreth, but you don’t feel like someone I would trust, either.”
The demon’s claws inched forward. My fingers curled into a fist.
Ephraim looked me in the eye and shook his head. “I’m sorry Garreth. I truly am. But I believe the asylum is the best place for you to be.”
I lowered my head. There was no salvaging this.
“Just try not to hurt him,” I said.
The demon was momentarily stunned, flames of betrayal and anger coming off of it in blasts.
“So it is possession, then,” he said, a sliver of fearful astonishment finally showing through in his voice. He called to Andrew, who stepped through the door with ropes at the ready. “Thank you for cooperating with us. I know it must be hard. I can’t necessarily promise the safety of the demon, though. That will be up to the clerics who perform the exorcism.”
“I wasn’t talking to you,” I responded.
The demon understood.
In a flash, it conjured a tendril that grabbed my sword from my satchel. I grabbed Ephraim by the neck and roughly pulled him between me and Andrew, using him as a human shield. The demon secured him, wrapping tendrils around him that pinned his arms to his sides, and handed me my sword as Andrew advanced on me with his dagger drawn. He stopped short as I pointed the tip of my blade at Ephraim’s jugular.
He studied me closely. We were at a stalemate.
“Garreth,” Ephraim rasped. “Garreth, resist its control. I know you’re in there.”
“Me and the demon are on the same page here, actually,” I said, slowly stepping towards the door. “Neither one of us wants to be reduced to a shell of ourselves.”
“So, what?” Andrew snarled. “You’re going to run from town to town, constantly fearing being discovered? That’s no way to live.”
He was right, in a way. “Neither is having my mind scrambled so hard that I have to live in an institution for the rest of my life.” I took another step to the side, starting a sort of circle around him and towards the door.
“And you’re willing to kill a preacher to avoid that?” Disgust dripped off of his words.
“The preacher that was just about to give me and the demon a life-and-death sentence, respectively?” The demon’s tendrils tightened around him. “Yes, I do believe we are.”
“You’re never coming back from this. You do realize that, right?”
I took another step. “Move aside, Andrew.”
He gripped his dagger tighter.
“No. We're outnumbered. I'll just show him we're serious.” I moved my sword up to Ephraim's face and began to slowly carve into his cheek.
He yelped in pain, shaking as he struggled harder against the demon's tendrils. “Jacob, please stand down,” he said.
I could see Andrew weighing the consequences in his mind. After a few, agonizing moments, he took a step back, then another, lowering his knife slowly.
We circled around each other until I reached the door.
“Well, this has been fun, Andrew,” I said. “I’ll leave your preacher somewhere outside town for you to pick up.”
“You won’t get away with this,” he growled.
“With what?” I couldn’t help but grin. “I’ve barely done anything. Satchel, please.”
A demonic tendril whipped across the room, dragged my satchel over to me and hoisted it onto my back. I stepped out the door and closed it with my foot, turning and sprinting away as soon as it closed.
I picked a direction and walked into the darkness. I wanted to clear the patrol perimeter of the other two watchmen before letting Ephraim go, so we dragged him along for quite a while.
The moon was almost full, making navigating in the dark possible, but not easy. We tripped through the scrub brush at an embarrassing pace.
Once I was certain we were far away from the watchmen, I instructed the demon to let go of Ephraim. It did so quickly, and he dropped to the ground in a heap.
“No I’d rather not kill him,” I responded, and Ephraim whimpered. “It’s taboo, you know? He’s just a peaceful messenger of the Paragon.”
It seemed to wrinkle in disgust.
“Get out of here,” I said, shooing him away like a stray dog.
He got up and started to trip back through the scrub brush in the direction we came. “The Paragon will have her reward for you!” he called back as he ran. “You’ll regret the day you ever let that demon possess you!”
As I watched him disappear into the dark, I started to realize that I didn’t. I didn’t regret it at all.
Crickets sang as the cool night breeze danced over the grass. I let it soak into my skin.
I took my time to think, but there was really only one answer I could come to.
“We’re not welcome with the humans, and we’re not welcome with the demons.” I took a deep breath, imagining the dark air seeping into my bones. “We’ll just have to tear them both down.”