The Incubus

Chapter 9, Scene 4

The demon needed human flesh to create a physical body for itself. Using a small piece carved from Robert Richardson's arm, the demon moulded a skeletal body for itself. Arms formed, and then legs. Veins and sinews raked along the arms and legs like thousands of miniature vines. As the arms and legs strengthened, the demon pushed itself up from the ground. It used a table to pull itself from the ground, and with the weight, the table tilted, sending a flower-filled vase crashing to the floor. The sound of the shattering glass overwhelmed the demon and it jerked up and fell back into a bookshelf. As muscles formed over the face, chest, arms, and legs, a thick liquid-like substance ran over the limbs, covering the muscles and veins. The liquid settled and became what appeared to be flesh.

Three blocks down a dog barked.

The sound ripped into the demon's mind. It hissed a coarse scream and flung some books off the shelf. The falling books exploded like mortar shells around the demon and it clutched its unformed ears in a vain attempt to filter out the noise. Two stories up an old lady burned cookies in her oven. The smell stabbed at every muscle and nerve ending. Next door, someone turned a key in a lock. An ambulance siren rang a few blocks down. Three houses down the road someone hammered a nail into a wall. The demon screamed, but again nothing more than a coarse hiss escaped its half formed mouth. The sound was lost in a dry gurgle because of a not-yet-fully-formed throat. Upstairs someone moved a chair. The demon slammed its first on the table. Nails, hair, and skin now slowly formed and the jaw snapped into place. Every inch it moved shot a whole new sensation of pain through its body.

A car engine exploded to life.

A few birds chirped in explosive stereo inside the demon's head. It smashed its fist through a door in the hallway. The pain stabbed up its arm and into the nerve centre of the brain. Someone a few blocks away flushed a toilet. The last piece of flesh formed around the demon's face. Gun shots from a television set at the old age home down the road.

Everything burning.

Everything exploding.

The taste of blood.

And just like that, everything stopped.

The demon fell to its knees and used its hands to keep it from collapsing onto the ground. It breathed heavily, each heartbeat an explosion in its ears. Then the exploding sounds faded and the demon opened its eyes. It could see. And just then, the demon remembered where it was.