Something Else

Zachary didn't expect a demon to appear in his bedroom, but when he sees it, he knows what he must do. A short story in twenty-six sentences.

At first, Zachary had not expected the ritual to work. Breathing heavily from his shelter behind the upturned sofa - a hastily grabbed kitchen knife clutched in his sweating palm - he watched as something emerged from the floor. Churning clouds of white dust rose from the inscribed circle of chalk before him. Disturbances rippled under the face of the pentagram like light playing on the surface of a pond. 

    Every hair on Zachary's skin pricked up as the air filled with static and he felt as if something - some unseen boundery encompassing all of reality - had just popped like a soap bubble. First, came a scent like mixed spices. Ground nutmeg and cinnamon. Honey and mint, covering what might have been the stench of something that had died long before. It filled Zachary with a sense of something else, something that had not set foot in this world for millennia - if indeed it had ever breathed our air or walked beneath our sun.

    Just as he was gathering his wits and emerging from behind the sofa, a hand burst out of the floor followed by what could only be a head. Knife raised before him, Zachary stood his ground as the oily mass gathered itself into a creature. Like drops of black honey oozing from the floor, the viscus fluid seemed to defy gravity as it dripped up into the air and splaterred the outer shell of the creature's rappidly forming body.

    Maybe I've finally lost it, Zachary thought with surprising calm as he glanced down to inspect the knife in his hand - trying to assure himself he could trust his eyes. Not many people could admit to their own insanity and make peace with it. Or was it the other way around? Perhaps only those doubly insane know themselves to be mad, yet still refuse to return to reality, preferring to burrow deeper into oblivion and-

    Quiet.

    Returning his attention to the deamon he had half-mistakenly summoned, Zachary suddenly noticed how quiet it had become. Slowly, he lifted his gaze from his hands and found the demon looking at him. The beast - for beast it was, all horns and fangs and lashing tails - examined Zachary with three sets of icicle-blue eyes, the six orbs set on both sides of its hellstone head seemed to slither under Zachary's skin and prod at him with cold, cold fingers.

    Unable to resist the urge, Zachary took a few stumbling steps until the tips of his sneakers were inches away from the chalk circle containing the beast.

    Viewed from this close, Zachary first noticed the details on the creature's body. Wrinkles on its skin, soft scales lining the backs of its hands and the sharp lines of its facade.

"Xathis Uthesa Phylmon," the creature said almost kindly, the agelees voice echoing from somewhere behind its mouthless face.

    Yet even though the demon's language was foreign to him and the words meaningless, Zachary found that he understood what the creature said, what it demanded.

    Zachary reversed his hold on the grip of the knife in his hand and plunged the blade handle-deep into his own heart.

Author's Note

Hey there! Thanks for reading my story.
It was quite a challenge to write this one, as each of the twenty six sentences begins with the letters of the alphabet in order.
X was especially challenging... :)

Please share your thoughts and advice!
Ido.