Demon: A Short Horror Story

A young boy named Clarence accidentally summons a demon, and must save the world from it. This story is very short, but it is complete.

            My name is Clarence, and this is the short story of how I prevented a demon from coming to power. I am five foot three, male, I have black hair, and very, very dark eyes. I am thirteen years old and live with my mom and dad. We aren't very close because I scare them. I am a necromancer, meaning that I have the ability to raise the dead. I have tried my ability often, and from what I have gathered, I believe that when someone dies, their mind and body perish, but something is still there, the very essence; the soul. I can control and command the souls of the dead. They cannot cause physical harm to anyone, but they can cause mental devastation.

            Last year, a bully drove me mad, for the whole year he made me wish I was dead, and out of anger I did something horrible. As I was walking home after school, I passed the cemetery. The bully thought it was a good idea to pick up a nearby wooden board that had a nail sticking out of the top, and pound my head with it. Relentlessly. I commanded the vast supply of souls to come to my aid. I should have died that day, the nail went right through my skull, but my subconscious mind controlled the souls. Using their own energy, they healed my major wounds. I got back up, and looked at the bully, he was stupefied by the fact that I was alive. He dropped the board. I stared into his eyes and saw him for what he really was; a scared, helpless kid who had endless greed, and a thirst to make others feel afraid of him. Using the knowledge of what comprised him, I commanded the souls to create his deepest fears. The boy lived in fear. His fear drove him insane. He was shipped to the best physiatrists there were, as if they could cure him. With my ability, I can do anything. The souls can heal me, do my bidding, protect me and they provide me with strength and courage. The souls are the only friends I have ever had. I can communicate with them, get information out of them, and use them as power to fuel summoning that require energy far beyond what is found in the average human.

            I have only attempted a summoning once. It was to test my limits as a necromancer. I have noticed that the more I use my ability, the stronger it gets. After about a year, I decided to see what I can do. I used my imagination to conjure something that was harmless enough, it would only be for a few seconds. I called upon every soul I could sense. I had thought about what to summon, and I eventually decided on filling a corpse with the energy of the surrounding souls to resurrect it for a few seconds. A ritual was not necessary for the summoning, just the souls. As I controlled the souls around me, a teenager ran by me.

"Boo!" He shouted and ran past.

I recognized the voice, it was Ben, my old bully's older brother, and he enjoyed sneaking up on me and scaring me. As he said that one word, a jolt of fear shot through me, not fear really, I was just startled, but that one second, that one word was enough to change the world forever. The souls must have sensed my fear, since they were in the process of resurrecting something, they were already half done. But they felt my fear, and they conjured something to protect me. The creature had sharp talons, a half demonic, have human face, not quite male, not quite female. The body was about twelve feet tall, and the back was hunched near the top. The eyes were red, and lifeless. The body was strong and fit. I was calm, for I was its master. I then felt the power that the souls put into the atmosphere drain. The creature started growling. It picked me up, and held me in front of its face. It let out a scream so loud and so high pitched, that it blew out the windows of nearby houses. I then knew what I had summoned; a devourer of souls, a demon.

            I was stunned, I didn't know what to do. In front of me stood a creature that was not of this world. It had to be only minutes before someone grabbed a hunting rifle and shot the thing, but it wouldn't die, any weapons that were from Earth could not kill demons, one of the souls told me that.     

The only way to kill a demon was for a necromancer to suck out the souls that empowered it. So that's what I did. I concentrated on the thing, it was still holding me, staring me down. I closed my eyes and opened up my mind, preparing to drain every drop of life from the thing. I felt it's vast, dark consciousness. I inhaled, as if breathing the souls from the demon into my own body. I focused on sucking the souls out. I tried, but the demon only let out a massive bellow, it had a tight hold on its spirits. It threw my against a nearby wall, it knocked the wind out of me, but nothing was broken, which was good. I couldn't sense any souls for a kilometer or so, the demon must have consumed them for energy.

            The demon growled. The growl summoned a deep pit of fear in my stomach. The souls had summoned it to protect me, right? Maybe I could still control it before it got too many souls...

"Demon, listen to me. This world is not yours. The events that brought you here were pure bad luck, return to where you came!" I ordered the demon.

It just sat there, it cocked its head at me. It roared a mighty, low pitched noise and jumped into the air. It touched a power line and disappeared. Was it traveling with the electricity? My answer came a few seconds later when a spark appeared where the demon touched the wire, and flowed down the wire with the electricity, it reached the circuit box on the line and the box exploded in an array of sparks and smoke. In the dim light, I could see some of the city's lights go out, a few second later, the entire city went dark, and the power was blown out.

            I stood, dumbfounded at what I had done. I could not contemplate my error for long, because a bolt of electricity shot from the power line and hit me. I jolted for the split second that i was conscious, I then fell into blackness. I woke up with a jolt, much like when the electricity flew out of the wire and hit me.

"Kid? Kid? You okay?" I heard a voice ask.

The voice calling to me belonged to a paramedic.

I looked around, I was on the ground in a prone position on my back, surrounded by paramedics. It was dark out. From the corner of my eye, I could see the emergency lights flashing blue and red from where an ambulance was parked.

"Kid?" Asked the paramedic again.

I looked at him, he had short, blonde hair, a little stubble on his chin and a slim build. His voice reminded me of a military soldier. He was kneeling over me holding a defibulator to my chest. I sat up, ignoring his question.

"How long has it been?" I simply asked.

The paramedic cocked his head to the side.

"What, you mean since the freak power outage?" Asked the paramedic.

I nodded, now noticing that there were a team of paramedics around, as well was two ambulances. My parents did not even show up, surely they knew of my accident?

"It has been two days since the power outage." Said the paramedic.

I returned my gaze to him.

"Has anything strange happened since the power outage? Anything at all?" I asked the paramedic.

"Well, yeah, now that you mention it. I've seen animals with glowing eyes, I've heard strange noises at night, as well as during the day. I thought I was imagining it! Why? Do you know something?" The paramedic replied.

I ignored his question again, knowing that he would not like the answer.

"Can you take me to where you have seen the animals with the glowing eyes, and heard the strange noises?" I asked.

The man nodded.

"Yeah, but don't you want to let your parents know that you are alright first?" Asked the paramedic.

I shook my head.

"My parents would ignore it if I got hit by a bus, and I have a feeling that you'll find out why." I told him.

The man was going to say something, but he looked away and began walking towards town. He led me to a house that was within a stone’s throw from where I was.

As I neared the house a little more, I sensed a lot of demonic energy, the air seemed to carry electricity, and it was almost heavy with tension. I closed my eyes.

"Demon, you were summoned by accident, and not even by me entirely. You must leave this Earth, for it is not your home, we must not tip the balance of fate, lest something happen to both your world and my own." I said calmly.

I opened my eyes, I felt a change in the atmosphere. It shifted, like the demon was uneasy. Just then, a cat with glowing white eyes stepped onto the windowsill and stared at me.

You are a reckless necromancer, youngling. I will not leave this earthen plane, it has been centuries since I have taken a physical form. Your recklessness will be your own demise! The demon's voice appeared in my head.

With that, the cat changed form, it shifted from feline to the twelve foot tall demon that I saw when I first accidentally summoned it. The paramedic behind me swore, and ran away screaming.

"My stand is now, I will not allow my world to fall to its own demise because of my recklessness." I told the demon.

I admire your foolish bravery, but you must die along with the mortal race. I will allow the underworld to rise up and once again walk the Earth. Said the demon in my mind.

I was not as scared as I thought I would have been. I sensed souls nearby and absorbed them, ordering that they give me their strength. They obeyed. I felt a rush of energy fill my limbs as an unnatural power surged through me. I noticed that there were more souls in the atmosphere. I used them before the demon could. I used my mind to send the spirits flying at the demon, it flinched with every blow the spirit inflicted. I smiled, the demon was weak, it had only taken a material form a few days ago, if I had been knocked out for a day or two more, the outcome of this fight would have been different.

Once I ran out of souls in the atmosphere, I ran at the demon, relying on my unnatural strength now that I had no more souls to use. The demon, however, had souls in its body as well. The demon punched at the ground in front of me, I jumped over its massive arm and came around to its right side. I threw a punch on its side, it flinched and whirled around, backhanding me and sending me flying through a wall. I could feel the major deplete of the souls' energy inside of me as they took the brunt of the blow. I barley felt a thing.

You are a skilled necromancer, but you will soon no longer exist. The demon said into my mind.

I couldn't go on much longer, I analyzed the souls inside my body, they were not nearly as numerous or as strong as they had been before the fight. I had to finish this quickly, or else the world would end as we all know it.

I drained myself of all spirits and concentrated them into one energy mass. I used all of my mental strength to send the souls forward as hard as I could. The souls connected with the demon at full speed. The demon was now stunned. If I were to make a move, it was now or never. I closed my eyes and concentrated on the massive reserve of spirit energy that resided inside the demon. I inhaled, much like I had last time. I focused on pulling the energy out. The souls started coming. I was doing it! I created a string of souls flowing from the demon's body into my own. I felt the Demon's existence fading away. Finally, as the last of the souls were being pulled out, the demon said into my consciousness:

Fear not, demon slayer, for my race shall rise again, and it will be a dark day when it comes, and as sure as the sun will rise tomorrow, that day will indeed arise.

With that, the demon's existence fading into nothing. I had done it. I had saved the world.

Years after those fearful events, even as I reflect on them, I contemplate the events that brought me to this age. I am now a very successful necromancer, my parents are now deceased, they died peacefully in their sleep. They both reached a ripe old age of eighty three. I am a young man now. I work as a paranormal investigator and I make decent pay. Although the parade of time marches on, part of me wants to march on with it, but another part of me still resides in that one fateful day. The day I slayed a demon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

           

Author's Note

Very short story, please tell me what you think, it shouldn't take too long to read. ;)

Reviews

[luvs2write]

This was a very interesting story. You chose a captivating topic that almost everyone is interested in and you did a good job with it. I have a minor suggestion, more opinion than anything...I think you might want to make the font a bit bigger and space out your paragraphs more. I feel like the story was a teeny bit rushed, which I completely understand...I have never in my life been able to write a short story that isn't rushed or stretched out, just not my thing. At the same time though, you might want to not rush it as much. I personally don't think there should be a word limit on a short story (unless it's a competition rule) so if you need a few extra paragraphs to get the idea across, go for it. I think it is interesting how the character introduces himself at the beginning of the story, but you might not want to say "and this is a short story of how I prevented a demon from coming to power"...it was kind of a spoiler because then I wasn't as surprised when the demon was summoned. I know I have mentioned a lot, and I hope you don't think I'm saying this because I didn't enjoy your story. I really did like reading it, you definatly have talent in writing. Keep writing!!

[Ryan Henderson]

Thank you! And yes, I did rush this one a little, wrote it in just under an hour for a pre Halloween short scary story contest, there was a word limit, so I had to keep things brief. Thank you so much for reading!

[luvs2write]

Under an hour??? I think it took me three weeks to write the next chapter on my book... You're welcome

[weatherbee]

I honestly liked it allot. I think you have tons of creativity. This story has lots of potential. You have the meat and bones to it, but in my opinion it needs a little more work on combining some of the minor and major details to make it the best it can be. I don't know if it was meant to be scary but i found parts of it funny. It has the making to be really cool!
Keep writing and working it. and thanks for sharing.
WB

[Ryan Henderson]

Thanks! I might not redo this one, but we'll see. I liked writing it but it was just for a contest. Kinda a shotgun, off the top of my head story. :/

[Shannon]

I Found this enjoyable. I feel like you lay of the world we are venturing into very quickly and with broad, effective strokes. It would be interesting for me to learn an tiny bit more about how our hero know the things he did about demons? Does he just know or has he had some teaching?
One more final thought (if this is too nit picky, I apologize). I would like to challenge the use of the word and characterization of "bully". If we are to see a would be murderer as a scared, confused boy, we need a precipitating event or an understanding of a motivation. Does he believe that Clarence is harming him using his power? that sort of thing.

[Ryan Henderson]

Thank you very much for the review! I kind of put this together really quickly ages ago for a contest. Since then it hasn't seen any editing, so I understand where you're coming from XD

[Shannon]

I did go back pretty far, didn't I? I checked why. I have not ventured into book reading yet on here, because I hate doing that much reading on a screen. And I usually prefer stories to poems, so I guess I went back far enough to find something that peaked my interest!

[Ryan Henderson]

Well, I'm happy you chose my work. thanks again!

[Sarah Hines]

I was hooked from the first line. The whole story is very endearing, in a way.

[Ryan Henderson]

Thank you for the review!

[Delmar Cooper]

The story was a little disjointed as if the rules of the game were being contrived as the game was played, or as the ink flowed. This kind of story, written from the point of view of a child is full of opportunity, but it also has pitfalls. If the child narrator grows as the story progresses the reader will grow also. A firm grasp of the story direction and the rules of the situation would help make this piece much more effective. Some writers use a basic outline sketch before writing the body of text.

The various aspects of the narrator's talent were a bit bewildering and the difference between "soul raising" and "summoning" was not clear to this reader. From context I assume "summoning" is demon retrieval.

[John Mcnab]

Very good horror/fantasy story! I love the concept, the dialogue was very good, however not too plentiful. I get the impression that Clarence is a self secluded kind of guy. Very nice work, keep it up!