Chapter 22 A Hot Demon vs An Ugly Demon

The monster was huge and tall. It almost touched the ceiling. Red smoke came out of the floor underneath it and from his mouth. He stood like a giant man with two huge arms and a tail. His whole body was covered in red scales, he had two horns at the top of his head and his mouth was more like a muzzle.

“Hello, Lady,” he hissed. Like literally, hissed. With snake tongue coming out of his mouth. Yes. A long tongue that branched into two in the end.

“Um… Is hallucination part of cancer?” Mateo asked with his eyes still fixed on the monster.

“Could be.” Obviously, my answer was unsatisfactory.

“Are you… seeing what I am seeing?”

I nodded, still in shock. “Uh-huh.”

“Are we… supposed to run now?”

I nodded again. “Uh-huh.”

They stared at the demonic creature in a daze for a second longer. It was that one second of your mind being blank. Before finally logic caught up, adrenaline kicked in, also your fight and flee program was triggered. And as mortal beings, not on par with a demonic creature, which function would our body choose?

Flee!

I jumped out of the bed and was about to help Mateo took off his infusion line when the creature suddenly lashed out his arms to the ceiling. Both Mateo and I shrieked as the hard arm crashed unto the lamps above. Sparks of fire emerged in the air as the lamps shut down. Glass pieces fell down.

Immediately, I jumped back to the bed to cover Mateo from the pieces of the blown lamps. I wanted to take out the infusion line from his small hand but the creature already swung his arms up to the air again. I knew then that it was about to hit us.

At that moment, I did not even think. I covered Mateo’s body with my own, hoping that it would cushion the blow from the boy. I closed my eyes as I heard my raging heart in the anticipation of the impact. The seconds stretched to minutes as I await my doom. I could hear the wind parting as the arms descending to me, the heat emanating from the creature’s arms made my body shivered in fear.

What is happening?

First, there were wolves. Then there were vampires. Now there is a demon?

I was pretty sure these creatures were not mentioned in the bible. Well, except demons. But hey, even if they were mentioned, you cannot expect me to believe they would suddenly show up and try to kill me!

I really should stop cursing with Beelzebub's name. Wait… was that why this creature came? Because I had been cursing with their sacred name?

My eyes were shut close and I held Mateo tighter to me. Days ago, I would not believe that my end would come this fast. And to think that I would die in the hands of an ugly creature rather than my cancer. That fact alone baffled me.

At least I would have a good laugh when I die. Seriously, was this not comical?

Yet as I waited and waited… the pain or the crush or the impact never came. The heat that I felt before suddenly disappeared away. I opened one of my eyes just to check whether I was still in the hospital room or in the death realm.

Surprisingly enough, the death realm looked way similar to Mateo’s room. I still could see the table with drug cabinets on the right side of the room. Then the wheeled table for Mateo to eat. Even the bed and the sofa inside the roo–

Oh.

I see.

I am still alive.

I quickly checked the boy in my arms. Mateo was still shutting his eyes. But I shook him. “Mateo!” I just had to make sure he was still alive. The boy opened his eyes. His lips were trembling, “D– did we survive?”

“I don’t know…” my voice trailed as my eyes traveled to inspect the room, trying to make sense of what just happened. I saw the creature had taken a few steps backward. Its arms had disappeared completely. Or more like, they were blown off. Trails of smokes came out from its now non-existent arms.

The creature was looking at something behind me with so much anger. When I turned to look at what the creature was seeing, my heart suddenly beat faster.

Holy shit!

It was the crazy man –I meant, the man who I sent to the psychiatric department. He still wore the same clothes as I had met him two days ago. Black leather jacket, black biker pants. His tousled curly hair was still as gorgeous as ever. And his eyes… shone yellow, it got brighter and brighter as he stepped inside the room. I could see his lip line went down and he curled his hands into fists. He was staring down at the creature with so much intensity.

I could even start to picture dark smokes behind him, giving him that ethereal and badass persona.

“A little demon like you dare to touch my Lady?” His tone was deep, threatening.

Wait… little? Is he blind?

“Hello Little Morningstar,” the creature said, “Your father wants her. And I will follow his order.”

Morningstar? I thought his name was Tony Star.

The creature rose to its full height again. He was three times bigger than the man and yet… why does it feel like the man is more intimidating?

My eyes switched from Tony to the creature. I remembered that Tony had told me he was a demon before. And the creature in the same room as them… seemed like a demon.

A hot demon vs an ugly demon. Who would win?

The ugly demon snarled at Tony. But the man was undeterred. He kept his stance, his eyes glowed more. In an instant, a mass of darkness seemed to explode from his body. As if he was the center of an exploding star, the galaxy of darkness filled the room.

I shivered as the darkness covered Mateo and me. When I looked, even the ugly demon shrunk in fear. It hunched its back and stepped back until its back was on the large window of the room. The eyes that were spitting fire turned to shake at the sight of the ever-growing darkness.

The ugly demon trembled in fear. It became smaller and smaller as Tony’s darkness grew bigger and bigger. I stopped shivering when the darkness enveloped me. Somehow… it felt comfortable, warm. It felt nostalgic, which was weird for me.

I saw the ugly demon suddenly burst into black dust. The darkness seemed to absorb the dust and then it was all taken back by the man again. All of the darkness seemed to have been sucked into its center, which was Tony. Just like how a dying star works –from what I have seen on national geographics.

It was beautiful, I dare say. Magical.

Then Tony finally turned his gaze to me. I was still hugging Mateo in my arms. He flicked his fingers and in an instant, Mateo fell to slumber.

“Mateo!” I tried to shake the boy, making him awake. But his eyelids drooped almost instantly. He was sleeping.

“What have you done?” I asked Tony. Panic rose to me. I cannot lose him. I cannot lose Mateo.

“Relax,” Tony said, “I just put him to sleep.” That soothed me a bit. I ended up fixing the boy’s position in the bed and tucked him in.

“You really care about the boy, huh?”

I did not answer.

“Listen, Arianna,” Tony continued, “Those creatures will not stop pursuing you.”

“And why is that?” My voice was raised more than I would like it to be. I just snapped at the hot demon who saved me from an ugly demon. “Why are they pursuing me?”

Tony looked at me with such gentleness. As if he knew how hard it was for me. As if he knew how I felt at that moment.

Did he?

I felt like shit. I felt like all the world was mocking me. Lots of creatures that I never knew existed started chasing me like I was their prey. It felt like I was the final prize in a hunting competition. The contestants? Wolves. Vampires. Demons.

A supernatural hunting contest! Imagine that!

I had fire brewing inside of me because I always hated the unknown. I always despised not being able to control my life. I worked so hard to maintain my livelihood the way it was. I worked so hard for it.

And now, these supernatural creatures just ruined it without a care in the world!

I knew that feeling well. I had befriended this feeling ever since I learned what loss was like.

Anger.

I was furious. At the world for giving me these shits. And at myself for… for…

“They will come back.”

“Michael said they won’t for the time being,” I snapped at the demon again. I wondered if demons had patience. Because the man in front of sure was giving me a lot of patience.

“But it won’t last long. And some creatures are… opportunists,” he continued, “the best option for you is to move in with us.”

“You mean to move into your mansion?”

“Yes.”

Before I could say another word, Tony had said again, “If you don’t want to implicate others around you more…” He looked at Mateo, sleeping soundly as if nothing had just happened in that room. “You don’t have a choice.”

“Why are they doing this to me?” I asked desperately. “Why? Who am I to them?”

Tony still looked at her with that gentleness.

How could a demon be this gentle?

“Come with me and I’ll explain it to you.” He stretched his hand to me. I looked at it for a while.

I knew then it was futile to keep trying to maintain the life I had built for myself. Unexpected things kept happening in a short time and I had to adjust to it if I did not want the people around me to get hurt.

After all, I also needed the answers. This time, I would really get the answers I need.

So, I took his hand.

I was surprised by how warm his hand was. But he kept on surprising me. In an instant, I felt my body was being sucked into a vortex. It happened so fast that I did not have time to breathe. By the time I was able to blink, my body suddenly had landed on a marble floor. The sudden landing made my body stumbled forward. Luckily, Tony caught me.

I looked at his yellow eyes with his arms still draped around me. “Those are not contact-lenses, are they?”

“Nope.”

Then I looked around the room I just landed. I saw the sofas, the paintings, and the rest of the furniture. I knew instantly that I was in the living room I had sat before with Michael and Renald.

I sucked in a breath at the realization of what just happened. It was different from winnowing. With winnowing, the distance of travel would be shorter. But this time, Tony had brought her miles away.

“Teleportation…”

“Only I can do it.” Tony winked at her.