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I only allowed myself the luxury of an hour in the silence. The crows that surround me assuring that they were no foe.
I allowed my mind to transcend back to the reality of day by taking the necklace off. The shudder automatic as I was sucked flawlessly back into my room.
“Trinity necklace.” The male voice made my insides squirm as I had been caught red handed. I looked over my shoulder to where Haymen sat. The dull lighting only made his pale skin shimmer with an off-orange hue. His piercing blue eyes are breath taking as always. They were sharp and consuming, as if you could see the very worlds he tore down before him to get what he wanted. His black hair was well groomed as it always was. The black suit he wore indicating he might have been attending human meetings prior.
I was still wearing my short polka dot silken pajamas and high cut shirt that my nipples clearly peeked from and my chiseled stomach on display. His glance did not go unnoticed.
“How long have you been here?” I said with a steady voice. If it were anyone else that had snuck into my room uninvited the consequence would have not been a simple conversation. I haven’t had to confront him physically for weeks now. The pure power that radiated from him was overpowering and near suffocated the words from my mouth. A thin layer of raw power and darkness always surrounded him, unable to be contained. His presence was always overwhelming and my voice wanted to lock but I took a stand, like I always did. I eventually got my grip and bearings around him. It was just the initial shock of his presence every time. Menacing. Powerful. And a specimen who created an in-depth reaction from my own. It made me only hate him more.
“As soon as you went off the grid,” he simply said, his expression still not changing. “So, this is what you’ve been saving all your money for?”
“I didn’t know that there would be consequences if I bought such an item. I could think of worse things,” I said walking past him to hide it from his reach in a vain attempt to distract him from the item. I swaggered my hips in a way that I knew would distract most from the necklace and straight to my ass. I headed towards my walk-in wardrobe but he grabbed my wrist and the burn of his touch ignited my tattoos and they lit brightly. He smiled at the sight. Just a reiteration that he owned me.
“I didn’t say I was displeased. I simply wanted to check on my kitten,” his rough voice charmed with an arrogant smile that was hard to resist.
“I am not your kitten,” I said through gritted teeth because my body said otherwise. He stood up, his height towers over mine with my head at his chest level. Those harsh blue eyes always intimate as he searched for something within me, of what I wasn’t yet sure but not curious to find out.
“Not yet, but you will be one day,” he said stroking the back of his finger over my cheek. I wanted to push him away, because my arousal was apparent, and I hated that even more. He chuckled to himself as if knowing and leaned in to whisper into my ear. “You forgot to protest,” he charmed. He vanished within a second, a black mist remaining like a black poof of magician dust. I took a step forward not realizing that I had been leaning into him.
“Grrrrrr!” I grabbed a pillow and threw it across the room agitated. Now not only was I hot, flustered, and my needs not met, I had been completely caught off guard. If I had hackles they would have risen and I had to check in the mirror that I didn’t physically have any at the time in case one of my demons has come through. I was so angry! I hated him and yet my body reacted to his so freely like every other woman and man I knew. Why did he tease me in such a way! Next time I would be prepared for his charm and like I usually did, I would resist it. What worried me more is that he now knew I owned a Trinity necklace and I doubted he was here to check up on me and make sure I was okay. Haymen simply didn’t like his property to go amiss. Especially of its own choosing.
*
Word was that the local orphanage was experiencing some bizarre phenomenon and children were going missing. I knew that it could be almost any species of demon that would be daring enough to prey on the weak and innocent. I drove through the city at illegal speeds on my chic black motorcycle zipping between cars amongst the many sky scrapers of the city. The wind whipped back my crimson hair in lashes of waves. A lot of people on the streets in crazy hats and crazy colored tones yelled out my name waving as I drove through the streets. My hair and bike were unmistakable. The fashion of the humans had gone extreme as soon as demons and angels came out of hiding. Those who had money went under cosmetic procedures and fashions to try and even look more ‘paranormal’. Even the city, Shabeah itself had gone under major reconstruction the moment Haymen decided to make this his ‘human’ residence and where most of his business was executed. Most of that reconstruction was to nicely preserve the old cobble streets and buildings on the outer streets of the city. Internally, it had already been crafted to the demands of human evolution. Other high demons and angels alike usually held rein over a city of their own. Some chosen from preference, others by rank of wealth, power, and even being the victor of some cold blood wars. It was certain that those city keepers had far superior rein over the money invested in the city and control over it than the human mayors themselves. Some completely cut out the human counterpart. Much to my surprise, Haymen had kept generations of the Mayor’s involvement. Perhaps that was simply because he rather deals with business in the Underworld than the human one.
I zipped through cars even driving onto the footpath at times and dodging people so that I didn’t have to slow down. A few intersecting cars were displeased by the way of their horn. People continued to point at me in awe as I zipped past and were excited by the clocked speed I was reaching. I wanted this to be a visit that the public knew exactly where I had been. It only made the humans trust Haymen’s lead more so to see his Guardians out on the prowl for justice. It simply looked better for the treaty that we looked like we cared. I planned on interviewing those in charge of the orphanage. Usually when dealing with demons, I left that to the discretion of the night, because usually it wasn’t a simple conversation.
Demons who decided to go against the treaty were often the ones in power in their human careers and took that as a stable position to start feeding off of their humans. It was an act I saw all too frequently and now went straight to the top of the food chain to see if it were the same thing. This was a public investigation but I would do the remaining of it at night when most of the demons dwelled and revealed themselves.
I pulled to the curb, the back end of my bike lifting slightly as I lowered it in a quick halt. I looked up at the sad looking brick building. The signage on the left read ‘Shabeah Orphanage’. Black gates surrounded the building and green grass was lavish around. It was clean and well-structured from the outside but I could feel the animosity from where I stood. It was the remains of something powerful and demonic. The demon might not be here now but there is definitely residue of something being here. I could sense it. The building was in a back street of the city. Plenty of unsafe alleyways surrounding in a part of the city that I wouldn’t deem safe to have children dwelling.
I wondered if this was Haymen’s or the mayor’s decision but then again, I couldn’t imagine Haymen putting much thought into what happened to the children. In other words, the mayor simply didn’t want this on display like most things on this side of the city. This was also where the homeless, poor, and sick lived. I rolled my eyes at the structure of the city. In comparison, my human life was much like this opposed to what and who I was now. I had very little in materialistic objects and a small apartment which I rented for an excessive price. But that was my life and I was happy with it.
I pushed away the thoughts of my previous life disturbed by the distaste. My demons didn’t much like the human comparison either. I stretched my leg over the bike and walked through the black gates which automatically opened for me. I saw people on the streets who might’ve been so desperate as to steal my bike, if they didn’t know who I was. My reputation alone would keep their mitts off of my property or the penalty would certainly be a painful death. My demons were almost daring someone to try, taking pleasure in dealing with the consequences.
I walked up the stairs onto the second level and an older lady walked out of the two open wooden doors offering her hand in greeting. I looked at it and ignored it. I wasn’t one much for human contact.
“We didn’t know if the Mayor would pass through the message. Thank you so much for coming Miss Vivian. My name is Dorothy,” the older lady with wrinkled skin and white hair pulled back in a ponytail, said. I tried not to scoff at her Miss Vivian. No one knew my last name and it was never to be made public. I wasn’t famous in my human life like the others so it was the only thing I could truly burn from that time. I didn’t detect Dorothy to be anything other than human and there was absolute desperation in her eyes. “Please come this way. I will lead you to Mr. Greenhouse, he is in charge of the Shabeah Orphanage.”
She walked me through the brick building which gave me the sensation of being in a slaughter house more than it did an orphanage. That disturbed me greatly. It meant that death was in the air for these children and they were being hunted. The lights were on and bright but I could imagine them flickering back and forth. An odd sensation that made me question if perhaps exactly something like that had happened. I heard little girls crying one side of the walls and others that played. All of the doors were opened, letting me see them as I walked pass. Some still had innocence in their eyes and enjoyed to play, some even unaware of who I might’ve been. But others stared at me. Some even through me and I knew that they had seen or been touched by something any child would be traumatized by. Their looks were blank as if they were already being manipulated into being a demon’s puppet.
I rounded the corner following Dorothy. The shuffle of the rubber of her shoes squeaked against the floor. On the left-hand side were two rubbery doors which led into a kitchen. In there, adults and children were preparing meals. I took the moment to assess it properly with that keen eye of mine that took in everything within seconds. For some reason I could almost see the walls bleeding. I wanted to halt and assess the room further but couldn’t feel the presence of any demon. My eye caught that of a girl, maybe not yet twelve with braided brown hair. She stood beside the bench where she had been rolling dough and looked at me with a concrete stare that I couldn’t quite read.
Our gaze was broken as I was greeted again with brick wall and rounded the left corner of the hallway. On this side of the building there were square glass windows where the curtains were drawn back and peeled open. It overlooked the green grass and an attached building to the side.
“What is that building?” I asked. She looked down and gave a grim smile.
“That’s the pool. We like to teach the children to swim since Shabeah is surrounded by water. We closed it down three weeks ago after the first incident,” she said shamefully.
“Which was?” I pressed. I was only given the minor details. It wasn’t the mayor who had passed the message but a direct request from Haymen this morning.
Dorothy went to speak and then looked to the children who hid behind the corner staring at me with curious wonder. As soon as I looked towards them they hid again. She nodded her head to the side to say we would speak behind closed doors.
At the end of the hallway was an office with open doors. I didn’t have to read the signage to know whose office it was because it looked like it was set up as a principal’s office. A man in his forties looked up from the scribblings he was writing and smiled. He was seated behind a large wooden table with bad posture. The computer screen in front of him turned off as he was copying text from a book to his own note form. Behind him was blinding light from the windows very similar to the ones in the hall. The side of the office had numerous volumes of books and I couldn’t help but notice that a lot of them were notably credited to demons and their species. Before the wheezily man in front of me could introduce himself, I spoke.
“Demon books and descriptions seem to be an odd place in an orphanage. One would even consider it encourages contact with one,” I said arching an eyebrow. Although I knew the leather seat in front of the desk was positioned to be inviting I studied the room more carefully. Dorothy stood to the side quiet. No introductions needed to be made.
“It was a personal interest of mine since I was kid,” Mr. Greenhouse said. “But I’ve never encouraged it. This collection has increased since I’ve tried to find what demon has been taking our children.” A demon Mr. Greenhouse was not. But there was something about him that was dark and menacing. Something even cruel and I felt the presence of the exact demon of mine which wanted to come forth. Without warning, my tattoos glowed bright blue and I allowed her to come through, merging flawlessly with her. Bells rattled as my cat demon appeared. Perfectly black with green eyes that glowed in the dark. Her black coat delicately laced my skin to cover the nakedness. My claws were retracted in a non-threatening manner and the bell laced around my tail jingled as it twitched back and forth tentatively. “Hmmm,” I purred almost in ecstasy from the change and the sense of freedom. Mr. Greenhouse shot from his chair in shock.
“No need to worry Mr. Greenhouse,” I purred as I sassily walked over to the bookshelf brushing over the titles in curious wonder. “I’m here to help remember,” I purred raising an eyebrow. My tail flicked attentively to his every move. He wasn’t the demon here. I couldn’t sense a demon anywhere within the compound but darkness still swept throughout the entire building. And for some reason this room pricked my instincts most. “Did you know that a cat’s sixth sense is keener than any other animal’s? Or maybe I am just biased to that thought,” I all but laughed. Dorothy was pale in the corner. “Sometimes much like the gypsy’s, a cat’s eye can see things even us humans cannot.”
“But you’re not human,” Mr. Greenhouse stammered.
“No, I am not.” I was certain that my eyes glowed with that statement. He had a strong reaction to my demon form. Perhaps for all his study and research on demons he had never seen one himself. He finally collected himself and sat back down in his brown leather chair where I noticed very tiny scratch marks on. They were tiny, only the surface on the leather slightly disrupted but with my keen sight I noticed it. They looked to be the size of a small child’s nails. My gut told me I knew the reasoning but I had to confirm. I was certain that was why my cat demon came forth. There was no demon present now, and perhaps I would see something as soon as I made contact with the core of this place, but there was another darkness lurking here that I could easily remove.
“Do what you must. I want these demons gone and to leave my children alone,” Mr. Greenhouse said with concern that met his eyes. But not entirely to convince me. I charmed a smile that I knew rattled him. Whatever hopes Dorothy had put into me had vanished and she was now terrified. It seemed humans forgot we weren’t angels but those who could summon and took pleasure in our demons. And yes, we often looked terrifying.
I touched my hand to one of the books and allowed my sixth sense to open. I narrowed my vision to the core and roots of all that would lay open to me. I saw children playing. Children being bullied. Some even finding homes and the overwhelming sensation of finally being saved from this place. I scanned back through and everything became hazy as I swept through the main hall. My vision narrowed back and forth and I felt lethargic as I dug deeper. There was resistance so I had to push a little more and find the keyhole to open the images of the past. And then I heard the screams. Children being chased and tortured in the night. The darkness that enveloped me only enough to show its touch but protected to not let me see more. I knew this feeling and was certain that these were the same entities and presence I felt when I had my Shadow dreams. I could only brush past the memories not able to see anything clearly. They blocked me from encountering anything more, being careful to hide their tracks.
I could usually see and hear the footprints of demons, most aren’t able to hide from my cat’s eye. Like a vacuum I was sent back to the room I was in now. The entity’s not allowing me to see any further in the halls. I kept my cat eye open as I was now in a memory of the same room I stood in. And there was the evil that lay bare and probably drew darkness to this place.
“Please Mr. Greenhouse,” a little girl said backed into a corner by the human who held an evil within him that could not be seen by other adults, but the children who were his victims.
“Shhh, shhh,” he said leaning his weight over the little girl. “It’s just a little game and a secret between you and me. You can’t tell anyone okay. It’ll be fun. You be the robber and I will be the police officer.” The graphic images I had to watch afterward only validated my previous instincts and it was why my cat demon–although I usually used her for investigation–so quickly wanted to come to surface. I knew that the hair on my back rose and I was probably hissing at the image. Although a demon, my cat demon was most adept to children. Surprisingly she was the most maternal of all my demons and did try to protect their innocence.
I allowed myself to be sucked into another part of the property, the pool I had inquired about earlier. It was a large room with a lapping pool, few chairs around and ornamental plants. The shutters to the windows were closed dark in the night. No light came through but with my cat vision I didn’t need it. My eyes glowed green as I walked over to the eight-year-old girl whose mouth and eyes were open in horror. The paleness of her skin told me that she had been dead for hours. And yet she still floated on the top of the pool. I looked around but nothing remained. The damage had already been done and the murderer vanished. I was sucked into the back of the grassy establishment where a boy hung from a tree. My cat all but curled and snarled at the gruesome kill. I knew as I brushed past the remains of his mind that it wasn’t voluntary. Something had pushed him to do this. I was drawn to the local dumping ground where amongst the rubbish which had been splashed on top, another little boy had buried himself, with added help from the boy that had hung himself afterwards. I knew that no one has yet found his body.
I stepped out of my cat eye now and into the present moment. “The little girl was killed and found in the pool three weeks ago. That was the first incident,” I said to Dorothy.
She tried to speak but nothing came out. She then cleared her throat amazed that I knew and said, “Yes.”
“There was a boy who hung himself on the back tree,” I added. She nodded as tears swept down her face. My hackles rose again as I knew this boy was also a victim of Mr. Greenhouse’s disgusting actions towards a child. “And you’re missing another boy?” I said. Her eyes lit up and she let out a sob.
“Timothy,” she said with hope.
“Is dead. Buried at the local dumping ground.” Tears swept down her face as she began to wallow. She genuinely cared for these children.
“And the demon?” Mr. Greenhouse said infuriated. “What type is it?” I sneered at him. Type? It’s almost as if he wanted to validate his knowledge in some sick manner.
“Dorothy I would like you to send me a file to my personal email on the other experiences and your findings,” I said bending over Mr. Greenhouse’s desk and writing down with pen and paper my email to her. I could tell he was confused as to why I hadn’t asked him.
“I need to investigate this further,” I said to both of them. “What I strongly suggest is that you evacuate your children from this property by tomorrow.”
“We have nowhere else to go,” Mr. Greenhouse said almost defiantly. “We needed you to come to get rid of the demon.”
My eyes glowered at him and my claws sheathed out. He jumped back still in his chair. “Mr. Greenhouse,” I purred with smug expression. “I plan on doing exactly that. Just know that I kill all evils that I see befit for the Underworld. My cat eye sees everything and even if my prey might run, I will find them at dark.” He paled understanding my threat, his eyes large and shocked as he realized I had seen everything.
“If you can kill the demon by tonight then do we truly need to evacuate?” Dorothy asked.
“Yes,” I said to her less bitter and changed back into my normal form. My leather dressing fitting my body tightly.
“The treaty,” Mr. Greenhouse began to stammer. “You can’t hurt anyone but demons,” he said almost in desperation. His rounded face wobbled from fear. I could sense that Dorothy was confused behind me as I began to walk out of the room.
“Have a good afternoon Mr. Greenhouse. My cat will definitely find a mouse tonight,” I said pissed that I couldn’t kill him right now.
