1001 Cranes | ✔

Step One

Her alarm clock glares red, exhibiting the time in bold numbers. It is a quarter past midnight. Streaks of moonlight scatter across the floorboards, painting everything they touch in silver. She's tucked away in a cocoon of quilts. Her chest rises and collapses in a rhythmic pattern, a sign of heavy slumber.

     He emerges from the shadows, where he's been camouflaged. Slowly, he prowls. Every step he takes is mute to the ears. His claws shoot out, his fangs descend. The distance between him and her shrinks, until he can practically feel the steady drumming of her heart, until he can almost reach for the kill—

     She stirs, just the slightest movement in her posture. For a second, a moment's hesitation, he stops, his outstretched arm frozen, posed to strangle her neck. Then, he stares at her. Really stares at her.

     She's faking it.

     Before he can react, her eyelids suddenly yank open and she's lunging at him. They crash in a tangle of limbs. A slip of paper is equipped in between her fingertips. He realizes too late that it's a seal when she slaps it onto his forehead. He's paralyzed, rendered vulnerable. He can't growl, can't lash out, can't fight back. His muscles are screaming for him to act.

     "My name is Alice." Alice still has the seal pinned on him. "I'm a priest and I've learned how to defend myself against demons like you since I was born."

     He doesn't respond. He can't respond. If he could, he would bite her head off.

     "I'm going to cast a spell on you." With her free hand, she straightens her fingers and locks them together, like she's praying. Hurried murmurs sprout from her lips. "Lord, nullify all darkness and help this sinner seek out the light that can be opened through Nirvana's gates. Let the sea and the sky and the stars envelope him. Let nature embrace." Alice rips the seal off him. It sears his skin like hot metal. "You are now under my control."

     When he feels his bones awakening, crackling back to life, he launches a punch at her face. At the last second, his arm freezes. Ceases against his will. A snarl leaves his throat, a hideous noise of protest.

     "It's useless to try. You're under my control now." Alice rises to her feet. "That means you will act according to my command. My command and mine alone. You cannot injure me. You cannot kill me. The spell I've cast will not let you."

     "Motherfucker," he hisses. "I'm a demon. I will and can gouge your eyeballs out—"

     Alice smacks him upside down the head.

     He winces, his features scrunched up like he just ate a lemon whole. "Fuck!"

     "You're a demon under my control." Alice looks down at him. "Get used to it."

     As he sits up, his claws scratching against the floorboards, he glares at her, a venomous edge to his gaze. His eyes morph colors, flickering from gold to red.

     "Now," she says, "answer this question. What is your name?"

     "Stephen," he says, gruff and begrudging.

     "Stephen," Alice echoes, like an obnoxious parrot. "Stephen. Stephen, Stephen, Stephen, Stephen-"

     "What?" Stephen spits, his purple horns snapping up.

     She offers him her hand. "Get up."

     He slaps it away. "I don't need your help. I can get up myself."

     "You can't disobey me." Her hand still dangles in his reach.

     He doesn't have a choice. Reluctantly, he takes it. When he does, his life is erased from existence.