A Demon and a Sacrifice

A Story by James

Based on the prompt: roasted

Her screams and wailing sobs echoed through the empty desert beyond the flames, reaching the ears of every human in the grouping of houses. Parents held their children close, covering innocent ears. The Elders remained outwardly stoic while their hearts burned for their society. A mother and father were writhing in mental anguish and desperately praying to whatever god would listen if any even exist.

A shadowed figure in the corner was shaking from fear, anger, and overwhelming sadness. A boy, a brother, slowly realizing the cruelty and injustice of The Elders entering a pact to save themselves, sacrificing innocents in the process. His sister, stolen from their home, from her mother’s arms to fulfill a promise she hadn’t made.

The Elders had tied her up and set the fire that would kill her. She was burning alive all alone as every aspect of her being screamed for help she would not receive.

His shaking decreased and he’d made his choice; no one was going to steal his sister from him like this and let her die if there was a chance he could save her. He grabbed a baseball bat, the only weapon he could see, and snuck out the front door. He ran on shoeless feet through the town and kept going, a small figure moving across the arid land. The moon was full, allowing light to guide him as screams slowed to choked sobs.

The girl, half-burned and terrified, watched as the ground in front of her opened to pure blackness- an infinitely dark world that housed the scariest beings to ever exist. And one was crawling from the pit to get her like a fly caught in the web of a spider. Long, thin limbs appeared out from the dark and a low growl sounded out. Curled and pointed horns seemed to grow out of a twisted and misshapen head with eyes seemingly sewn shut. Its body was round and fuzzy- it was unclear if it was fur or thousands of small needles. The beast scuttled towards the girl who could no longer scream.

“Another girl, roasted for me. The boys are always too crunchy because they burn too fast.” The voice was deep and seemed to come from every direction. It approached the red-hot coals surrounding the girl clinging to life. It bared its teeth and the meal whimpered, fear radiating from her eyes as it grew closer and her end was drawing nearer. “What are you afraid of? Do you fear death?”

She shook her head slowly and her voice was barely audible after shouting and inhaling an excessive amount of smoke. “I’m scared of you. Everyone has heard rumors of what you look like and what you’ll do. I’m going to die.”

“I’m afraid that’s just how it has to be,” it was barely ten feet away from her now, purposely moving its many legs slowly across the ground.

But an even rhythm pounding on the flat earth was approaching, a small figure drawing nearer until he was fully in view. A shout echoed all over when he finally saw his sister- a mix of fear and happiness spreading through him; he had a chance to save her. And then he caught sight of the creature, freezing on the spot. His body began to tremble once again but he found himself unable to move away. With a snarl, the monster lunged at the boy and successfully drew a scream from his chest.

It laughed, “Oh look, we have ourselves a hero! Do you plan on killing me, boy?”

He tried to move past his fear, realizing his bat had been thrown to the side and used his only other weapon: his shaking voice. “You can’t do this! My sister has done nothing wrong, she’s innocent. Please don’t kill her.” Tears began to form in his eyes as his sister attempted to form words with her weakened voice to convince her brother to run away and escape unharmed.

“Ah, a brother who can’t stand to see his sister die. Unfortunately, I have a deal with The Elders, your parents, and I do not plan on breaking it. She is almost dead anyway.”

Confusion set on the boy’s face, “What do you mean ‘our parents’? We are not related to them.”

“Don’t try and lie to me, the conditions of the contract state they sacrifice a member of their family yearly and I continue to grant them immortality.”

“You’re wrong! My sister and I are not related to any of The Elders, they have full families- children and grand-children included! They have never once sacrificed someone from their own family.” Anger was pouring out of him of him with each word. “I knew they were lying; every year we have to place our names in a lottery and someone is selected to be sacrificed. It keeps our land healthy, or so they say. And their family has never been chosen.”

A growl came from deep within the creature. It sniffed at the girl curiously before turning to the boy with a calmer disposition. “You do not deceive me, child. She is not related to them, as you say. Those b******s have been tricking me for decades- perhaps centuries.” As the demon spoke, it moved towards the girl once more, bowing its head before her. Within seconds she was back to normal, untouched and unharmed.

She ran into the arms of her brother as she shed more tears. He embraced her but kept his eyes on the creature, still feeling unsure of its motives. He spoke up again, “If you could tell she wasn’t related to them by smelling her, how did they manage to trick you so many times?”

It sat in thought for a moment, “I believe that is why they chose to burn the offerings alive. All this time I assumed it was for my benefit, to further please me. They were only using the smoke to stifle my sense of smell. They did their research, I’ll give them that much. Damn sadistic a******s.” The demon growled with more anger. “Return home, the both of you, I will take care of things. And you,” it was eyeless yet it seemed to stare directly at the boy. “You have made the right friends today. Well done, I encourage your bravery. Now go get some sleep, it must be well past your bedtime.” It began to retreat back to the other dimension and the children turned towards home, in awe of everything they had witnessed.

It wasn’t long before they were back; friends and neighbors were crowded together but turned in shock when they saw the girl in perfect condition. Their parents hugged them close, tears falling freely before explaining all the commotion; all at once The Elders had screamed in torturous pain as they were engulfed in phantom flames and slowly burned into mere piles of bones.

The children hid their smiles, forever aware of what can happen when you try to cheat a demon in a deal.