Short Story #1

~Disclaimer! This story is not meant to offend anyone in anyway. Please do not take it that way. It is only meant to be fun and should only be taken that way. Thank you for reading and I hope that you enjoy!~

“If he doesn’t have to go back, then neither do I.”

“Come on man! Let’s go to the other movie!”
I sighed. ‘Let’s not! I like this one.”
“But the other one has got hot guys and basketball games!”
‘But this one has gun fights and adventure!’
“Don’t get too excited, it gets old after a while, I saw enough of that in Hell.”
Looks like I wasn’t going to see the newest action movie, as I moved out of the line to get tickets, against my own will of course.
Some days were easier than others, with an entirely different entity living inside of your head. Though, I couldn’t really complain, he’d saved me from many embarrassing situations. I say “He” but it doesn’t generally like to be tied down by a specific gender. Its name, the name I’d given it, was Paul, like the alien in the movie.
“You’ll thank me for this later.”
‘You said that when we went to that hot wax and I hurt for hours after that.”
I didn’t get a response.

After the movie, I was sat on my couch at home, sipping on a hot chocolate, enjoying the little bit a quiet that filled my apartment. For once. With my roommate always playing loud country music and Paul always babbling in my head, there wasn’t much quiet in my life.
The television was on in front of me, playing a rerun of an old sit-com. A kaleidoscope of colors reflecting off the screen. It was dark outside, the soft sound of an owl hooting and crickets chirping. It was on nights like this that I liked the go sit on the roof of my building and admire the few stars that were visible. Due to the city lights, the stars weren’t very bright, and it was rare that the sky was clear to see them in the first place.
“Hey! Have you seen my glasses?” The sudden voice of my loud roommate knocked me out of my thoughts and almost made me drop my mug.
“Jeez!” I exclaimed “You scared me! Why do you need your sunglasses anyway? It’s night time if you haven’t noticed.”
He shrugged his shoulders “They’re cool.”
I rolled my eyes. “On the counter.”
I heard footsteps and heard an “Ah ha!” when he found what he was looking for.
“You going out?”
He nodded “Meeting up with some friends, don’t wait up.”
“I never do.”
He laughed and left out the door.
“I don’t like him.”
‘You don’t like most people Paul.”
“Yeah, but that guy gives me a really bad feeling.”
I snorted.
“Laugh it up, will ya.”
‘Sorry, I just find it funny that a demon is getting a “bad feeling” from a regular human.’
“Whatever Lottie.”
Lottie. I guess that it would be polite of me to introduce myself to you. Well, dear reader, my name is Charlotte Dans. A pretty boring name. I’m known as Char, or Lottie to mostly everyone that knows me, which is very few people because I don’t really leave the apartment very much. Though, you might do the same if you had a demon living inside your head.
Yeah, if you hadn’t already picked up, Paul is a demon. He left Hell years ago and bounced around from person to person for a while before things got really bad for him.
From what Paul has told me, when a demon leaves Hell, they must returned by an allotted time, if they don’t, they have other demons sent after them to bring them back downstairs and they live the rest of their days as crossroads demons, which –according to Paul- is the lowest job there is in Hell. Paul had managed to escape the attempts of other demons to bring him back to Hell.

Around five years ago, I was out walking with my family, on a pretty normal day. We had just gotten ice cream and I had laughed at my brother, whose face was covered in the icy treat. The next thing I remember, was being on the ground, little pebbles stuck into my hands. There was yelling, voices that I recognized, some that I didn’t. I was going to get up, when a man fell in front of me. He was older, older than my dad at least. His hair was streaked with grey and his face was dirty. It was a split second, but then all I saw was black.
When I woke up, I was in a hospital room, my parents and brother around me. I’d apparently been knocked over by some random guys on the street, I’d hit my head hard a blacked out. I told that the men ran off, but I remembered the man in front of me.

I found out from Paul that he had knocked me over. He’d been running from some demons and didn’t see me in front of him. He’d knocked me over and then tripped over me. He said he had two options. One being that he let the demons take him back to Hell, or he could possess me.
Guess which he chose.

“-and not to mention that he blew up a potato in the microwave!”
‘Excuse me, what?”
Paul sighed “Have you even been listening to me?”
‘You talk a lot Paul, I choose to ignore you have the time.'

• “One of these days, you’re going to need to remember something that I told you and you won’t be able to, because you don’t listen.”*
  ‘And on that day, I will let you say “I told you so”, until then let’s just not discuss it.'
  Paul sighed “Fine. What do you want to do now?”
  ‘Dunno. I kind of want to sleep.’
  “Boring.”
  ‘And what do you suggest we do Paul, go to a church?’
  “. . . Sleeping sounds good.”

BANG
BUMP
THUMP
CRASH
I turned over in my bed, used to the noise that often cropped up in the middle of the night.
Ted, my roommate, was a messy eater and very fond of midnight snacks.
SMACK
CRASH
BUMP
What the hell was he doing?
I uncovered my head, which I had placed under my pillow to block out noise, and listened for a few moments.
SMACK
THUMP
BANG
CRASH
………
Whimper?
I sat up, blinking my eyes so that I could see better and I looked around my room.
Two things jumped out at me first thing. One being that my window was open –though I don’t generally close it- and two being that my door, was also open. I close my door every night and lock it before going to sleep. Paranoia.
Slipping my legs off my bed, I stood up, standing on my tip toes to be quieter.
“What’s going on?”
‘I don’t know. I think that Ted might be dying.’
“Oh. Let him be then.”
‘No! What if he’s hurt?’
“Sounds like his problem.”
I rolled my eyes, wishing that there was a way I could reach inside my mind and slap the demon. But there wasn’t. Not that I’d found anyway, and trust me, I’ve tried.
I walked across my bedroom to my open door, trying to make the least amount of noise possible, which proved to be a task as my feet continuously stepped on the squeaky floorboards. I knew that I should have gotten them fixed.
The hallway was dark. There was a light on at the end, where the entrance to the kitchen began.
“What the hell are you doing? Have you not seen any horror movies? This is exactly how it someone gets killed! Don’t be the character in the first five minutes of Supernatural.”
I scowled at nothing.
“Call the police! Someone could be in your apartment.”
‘It’s just Ted!”
“I highly doubt its ‘Just Ted.’”
‘Well if you’re so smart, then why don’t you go check? Oh wait, you can’t. You rely solely on my body to get you around, so sit down and shut up.'
“. . . Rude.”
I shook my head, ignoring the quiet protests that Paul continued to give me. Oh, how I wished he had an off button.
I crept up the hallway, looking around for something I could use as weapon. On the way up, I reached into the supply cupboard and grabbed out the broom, quickly untwisting the head from the handle. It would have to do.
I hold onto it tightly, feeling slightly silly. I knew that Paul was right. I was the dumb character in a horror movie. What was I going to do what I reached the kitchen? What if it wasn’t Ted? What if it’s an actual invader? How is a broom handle going to help me?
Either way, my feet carried me forwards and before I knew it, I was standing just behind the kitchen door. The soft yellow light was streaming through, the door itself was only open about a foot and a half, but it was enough for me to poke my head in.
I saw a back that was the first thing. A back attached to a head fully of messy brown hair. I knew this to be Ted. Looking a little bit closer, I turned my head a little bit to get a better angle.
The second thing I saw, was that Ted had a man against the wall, a tight grip on the other man’s throat.
And the third thing I noticed, was that the man, wasn’t a man.
How could he had been, with pale green skin and black eyes? His skin was covered in spikes, tiny ones and longer ones, some were grey while others were brown.
“Demon.”
‘Demon? What do you mean demon? There’s a demon in my apartment?’
“Well, what else could it be? A gnome?”
‘I don’t really think that right now is the time for sarcasm.’
“There is never not a time for sarcasm.”
“Please.” The demon against the wall wheezed out. “I have just come to bring back the traitor.”
“Traitor? What’s so wrong about wanting to stay out of hell?”
“I don’t care.” Came Ted’s reply. But it wasn’t Ted. This voice was deeper, gravelly.
“Holy crap.”
‘What?’
“But My Lord-!”
Ted slammed the demon against the wall again and I heard a sickening crack. Then a loud wail filled the apartment. Black smoke vented out of the dead demons mouth, swirling around the room like a little tornado, before flying out the open window.
Ted turned around. His skin was tinted grey, not sickly like, but an actual grey, his eyes were white, the rings where his irises and pupils should have bene remained, but there was no coloration. There seemed to be a flutter when he moved, like the rustling of feathers. There was a broken vase on the floor, shattered into pieces. Painting and framed photographs were littered everywhere and the coffee table in the middle of the living room that adorned the kitchen, was broken in half.
Ted turned around further and faced me, his eyes wide as he saw me looking around at the damage.
“I can fix it I swear” He said, his voice still different.
“What, the hell.”
He flinched. “Well you see, that’s what I’m trying to avoid.”
“Explanation. Now.”
“Well, you see. It’s a bit more complicated than that. I –uh”
“Are you a demon?”
“No.”
“What are you?”
Ted rubbed the back of his head.
“SPIT IT OUT ALREADY”
Ted’s eyes went wide. I knew that he had heard Paul, as Paul had spoken his words through my mouth. Another great thing. He doesn’t do it often, only when he’s really angry.

“I’m the Devil.”