Angels in the shadows of Demons

Chapter one

The rhythmic ticking of the clock was like a lullaby but it didn't soothe her soul, it took every ounce of her strength to keep her eyes forward. She could feel it before she saw it. Goosebumps were beginning to rise on her arms, the hair on the back of her neck stood at attention. The smell was putrid, as if she were in a room full of rancid corpses, and not a city bus. It moved in closer, studying her curiously like a wild beast. Its warm breath tickling the back of her neck, long slender fingers wound through her thick black hair like a thread on a spindle. But she couldn't bring herself to look at it, she couldn't react because then, they would know.

The worst part wasn't the smell or the groping, but the sound of its voice. "So sweet like vanilla, a honeysuckle in full bloom that's yet to be plucked." Its voice was as vile as its stench. A horrible wet gurgling sound, as if it were choking on old blood. "But you're tinged with something dark, something more than sin."

That last part was always the same, 'tinged with more than sin.' She had no clue what that meant, and didn't care to know, as they say some things are better left unknown.

"What are you?" That part was always the same as well.

The air around her began to shift hot, and stifling, its shadow twisting around her like English Ivy. Face to face rancid death filled her nose causing her throat to burn and her stomach to churn. Pale, ashy grey flesh was stretched over a deteriorating gaunt face. Its yellow, milky eyes were unyielding. She couldn't help but wonder what could it see in her black ones? Could it see pass her pale skin and pierce through her soul? Their noses were almost touching, watching for something different, a reaction.

Unexpectedly it began to cough. Bones rattled to life followed by a wet bubbling noise. Its hair was like shaggy black patchwork, wisp of it tickled her face as it convulsed. All her resolve shattered, the smell and the sound caused her nose to twitch. Shit!

As quick as it came, the convulsions ended abruptly. Its head jerking back up, milky eyes shifting to big blood orange ones. Honestly she wasn't sure if it were male or female and she wasn't stupid enough to ask.

"Can you see me?!" It peered at her, its eyes squinting, but she would give it nothing, she wasn't about to be its next victim.

After six years long of this you would think she would grow accustom of this madness, but who would get use to this, the smell of death, the propping feel of death groping at you. But could anyone really get use to this?

She could remember it like it was yesterday the last day of a normal life and the first day of insanity. She was ten and there it was wrapped around her teacher like a parasite or a vine strangling the life out of its prey. It peered at her curiously inching closer, if she only knew then what she knew now; because once the door was open it could never be closed. A scream of terror tore from her lips, but this only made things worse. All eyes were on her as the teacher ran towards her with a leering demon in tow. Backing against the wall kicking and screaming she babbled about a shadow demon, the creature reached out to her causing her to scream hysterically pushing and hitting her teacher. The only way they could calm her down was to restrain and sedate her. Strong hands held her down; their touch felt like a blazing fire, voices invaded her mind as if they were her own. The pain was too much and she blacked out.

From that day she had become something like an urban legend the girl that had a mental breakdown in class, kicking and screaming about a demon that was or wasn't there. Everyone knew her story even if they never saw her. The image they created of her was still haunting her to this day. She was the crazy black sheep, the outcast.

She had made the mistake of acknowledging the creature's presence, a terrible mistake. Once she returned to class the creature of the damn hounded her for weeks leaving her with more than emotional scars, shivering at the thought she did her best to push it back to the recess of her mind.