His Demoness

42 ⚔️ Surrounded

Zhijian was reminded of the day where he encountered demons for the first time in his life.

He was only thirteen then; a scrawny boy who loved nothing but nature and wind. He enjoyed tearing through the woods and playing at the river with the rest of the village children. He adored the treehouse that his father had built for him and had often taken his afternoon naps there while basking in the sun.

But one morning, everything changed.

His father, who had gone out for work an hour ago, came running back to the house. With an ashen face, he shouted for Zhijian, who was busy carving wooden figurines in his bedroom. It was something that he was good at and he could make some money from selling them.

When the door to his room was thrown open, he glanced up in surprise.

"Father?"

His father hauled him up from where he was sitting on his bed, pulling him along and carrying most of his weight. With a sense of urgency, they hurried out of the room and searched for the remaining family members.

Zhijian was confused. He wanted to question what was happening, but seeing the sheer terror in his father's eyes made his words get stuck in his throat.

Clearly, something bad was happening.

Not long later, they found his mother at the back of the house. She was in the midst of hanging clothes on the laundry line as she carried baby Zhixuan on her back with a sling.

The sight of her husband's dishevelled appearance startled her.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Demons," he said breathlessly, before grabbing her hand. "We've got to go."

Mere seconds after those ghastly words crossed his lips, piercing screams shrilled through the air. Villagers from neighbouring houses were scrambling for safety as massive, dark shapes came soaring through the air and leaping across the tiled roofs.

Wolves.

They weren't any regular wolves, they were demons.

The creatures pounced on the villagers, sinking their long, canine teeth into their flesh. One by one, the bodies fell as their blood smeared the ground.

As the wolves approached where Zhijian and his family were standing, they started running for their lives.

"Zhijian!" His mother thrusted his baby brother into his arms and shoved him ahead of her. "Run for the guardhouse! We'll be right behind you! Don't look back!"

Except that she had lied.

The wolves started gaining on them. Knowing that they weren't going to outrun the demons, his parents made a split second decision. They ran in another direction, trying to draw the creatures away from their children.

Zhijian stood rooted to the ground in shock. He watched as the bloodthirsty demons caught up to his parents and pounced on them, killing them before his eyes. His blood ran cold as he watched their crimson blood seeped into the soil of the earth, the image staining his childhood innocence forever.

The screams ceased and were replaced by low, monstrous growls. As the demon wolves lifted their heads towards the sky, they began howling all together.

Were they expressing their triumph in killing humans?

In the midst of the madness, a gargled cry was heard. It took Zhijian a few seconds to realise that the noise came from his baby brother, who had roused from all the commotion.

The howls stopped. The wolves' attention snapped to where they were standing; their gleaming red eyes pinned on him and the drool dripped from their muzzles as they eyed him with hunger.