Paradoxical Demon

0. Weird Hallucinations

I never believed in supernatural beings.

My belief only goes as far as thinking a demon is silently watching me in the dark after I finished a scary movie.

The creepy figures I see in my pitched black room? Definitely a demon trying to attack me and grab my feet that always dangled off the bed. (It was just my stack of unorganized clothes).

One night, I had fallen asleep and unexpectedly woke up to a staring contest with a figure standing at the end of my bed. I blinked multiple times to see if I was seeing things and tried to reach for the light.

It was then that I realized my body was paralyzed in place. I could only gape at the figure in horror as he mirrored the same facial expression.

I ridiculously hid under my layers of blankets to "protect" myself after I was able to move again. Thankfully, he was gone when I gained the courage to peek again with one eye.

With my heart still doing somersaults that eerily night, I recklessly assumed it was just a hallucination my sleepless nights caused and went to sleep.

My assumption was absolutely, terribly wrong.

The figure continued to mutely appear in my peripheral vision the following days, scaring the absolute heavens out of me every time. It didn't just only appear at night either.

Today, I was determined to confront that suspicious-looking creature despite the bad gut feeling I have about it. Whatever it is, it hasn't harmed me yet. I assumed it can perhaps be a friendly ghost of some sort. Still, it sounded like supernatural things that only ever occurred in movies.

Worst-case scenario, I get possessed. It'd be fun to scare the priest that would have to perform an exorcism on me.

It was still daylight outside so I was less jittery as I set my plan in action. I casually sat on my bed with a baseball bat hidden beside me and pretended to be immersed in my book.

Now I wait for the figure to appear again.

A few minutes later, I spotted him out of the corner of my eye at a way too close proximity. He was much closer to me today, and more prominent with the human-like figure. I said a quick Hail Mary and mentally prepared myself.

Here goes nothing. I eyed where he was located in the corner of my eyes and counted down from ten.

Zero-point five... Oh, screw this.

I stood and picked up my baseball bat, swinging it with all my might at where he was supposed to be located.

Before the bat could come in contact and damage my wall, a visible yet translucent hand popped out of thin air to grip onto the bat and stopped its swing midway.

A full figure of a person started to gradually become visible and I forgot how to properly breathe as my jaw dropped.

Once his figure became clearer, I was able to make out his appearance. His body was lean and paired with a nice set of thighs. My eyes lingered there longer than I liked before it trailed up to his face. Seeing the mismatched colors of the figure's eyes made him appear devilish, but his face was surprisingly more pleasant to look at than I thought.

"What the heck are y—?" Before I even got to finish my question, he vanished along with my baseball bat. I looked down to where the bat was previously in my hands and then up at my empty room. I was left bewildered and hurriedly went to go find the rosary my mom insisted to bring when I moved out last year.

"Holy, holy, holy!" I chanted as I rummaged through my drawers.

"Staying up until 4 A.M. is giving you weird hallucinations, Willa," I spoke to myself and glanced around the room. "Demon, be gone!" I outstretched the rosary I found in front of me.

A sudden chill came over me and I shuddered. "Stop messing with me, you runny chicken nose! Either you appear or get out!"

It was moments later that I directly felt a cold sensation behind me. I swallowed thickly as I tried to keep my eyes focused at the wall in front.

Curiosity killed the cat, so I looked down to see the same black, translucent arm wrapping itself around me to reach for the rosary I held in my palms. Little unknown particles floated in place around his arm and were slowly coming together to solidify.

My eyes followed his newly formed fingers as it gently picked up the supposed-to-be-blessed and untouchable-by-demons rosary.

A stream of curses erupted from my mouth.

"Turn around, sweetheart," a honeyed voice said behind me. "Let's have a proper introduction."

. . .

Hi everyone! Welcome to the prologue for Paradoxical Demon. I hope you guys will enjoy this story as much as I enjoy writing it. Thank you so much for giving it a chance.

My updates are still at random times but I'll try to update more regularly.