I wasn’t afraid of him, though. Unlike the monsters in Marcus’ painting, he didn’t have fangs or a thirst for blood in his features. Instead, he had a curious look in his dark eyes.
In the distance, a woman’s voice called out. “Please! Help me!”
“No one has called upon me in centuries,” the demon uttered to himself. “I have been forgotten.”
It didn’t seem forgotten by everyone, because the woman cried again, “Lord demon, come to me!”
A portal bloomed in front of the demon, shimmering around the edges with powerful magic. He stepped through the portal, and I was transported through the vision with him.
The demon stood in a dense forest, and the moonlight shone overhead. Several paces away a woman knelt in the dirt, her quiet sobs piercing through the night. She had brown hair and pale skin, and wore a long, simple dress. Through the trees, I could make out a large stone manor. Something told me this vision had taken place many centuries ago, sometime in the late Middle Ages.
“You are a powerful sorceress to have summoned me,” the demon said in a deep voice.
“Please,” the woman begged in a shaky tone, keeping her head down. She spoke in an accent that I thought sounded Malovian. “I have prayed to my gods for many moons, and none have answered my prayers. I only seek your help, and I will give up anything in return— including my soul, if that is what you wish.”
The demon took a step toward her, and she shuddered. “What help do you seek?” he asked.
“I wish to be free of my master,” she said, though she wouldn’t lift her gaze to look at the demon. “He is very cruel to me.”
She reached a shaky hand to her shoulder and drew back her sleeve, to show the demon bloody slashes across her back. They had clearly been inflicted by a whip, and several were raw with infection.
“I do my best to please him, but if I make a mistake, my master locks me in the cellar for days to starve,” she said. “I see the whip almost every day. I cry out in pain each time he lays me down to share his bed. Today, I spilled a pail of water while doing my chores, and I was punished severely.”
The woman began to sob, and her tears landed in the dirt below her. She curled her knees to her chest, then showed the demon her feet. The bottoms were an angry red and oozing with blisters. It looked like her master had forced her to stand upon hot coals until there was no skin left on the soles of her feet. I didn’t know how she’d managed to walk out here into the forest.
Then I noticed the dirt all over her hands and knees, and I realized she hadn’t walked out here at all. She’d crawled out here to beg for mercy from a demon, because selling her soul to a creature of the Eternal Torment was a better alternative than serving her master.
My heart broke into a thousand pieces for her. I couldn’t imagine treating any woman like this. She deserved to be protected, and instead, she was beaten and abused. The man who possessed her deserved a fate worse than death.
The demon curled his hands into fists, and his tone became enraged. “Where is this master?!”
Her voice shook, and she peered over her shoulder. “He is sleeping in the house. Please, take me away. I do not wish to go back there.”
The demon wore a look of sympathy as he knelt by her side, though even on his knees, he towered over her. He reached out a hand and gently placed a finger beneath her chin. The womanshied away, until he guided her face toward his. For the first time, she looked at him. Tears streamed down her cheeks as she gazed upon his face. She appeared to see him in a way no other had before.
“After tonight, you will never have to return here,” he promised. “I am a demonic god, and I will do everything in my power to grant you your wish. Now show me where to find him.”
The woman couldn’t walk, so the demon lifted her into his arms. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and he carried her like she was as light as a piece of paper. The demon stomped through the forest, his angry footsteps shaking the ground. He grunted and moaned in rage as he burst through the front door of the manor. The door blasted clear off its hinges and splintered into a hundred pieces in the middle of the foyer. The demon let out a terrifying roar that made the walls shake.
The house broke out into a ruckus as people woke to the sound of the intrusion. An older man in a nightcap skidded to a halt at the top of the stairs. “What is the meaning of this?” he demanded.
The man’s eyes went wide when he saw the demon, and he clutched at his heart.
The woman clung tight to the demon’s neck as he cradled her in a single arm. “That’s him,” she whimpered.
The demon gently set the woman on a chair near the door before turning his maddened gaze on her master. He stomped up the stairs, the wood cracking beneath his weight. “You are a wretched beast, and have issued your final punishment.”
The master of the home scampered backward, tripping over his own two feet. “P-please, what is it you want? Jewels? Riches? T-take whatever you want.”
“You have taken this woman’s life, and that is of more value than anything you can possibly offer me,” the demonsneered. “And so, I’ll take your soul, in exchange for the one you damaged.”
The demon swiped his long, sharp claws, and the master’s pleading cries instantly died. In three quick swipes of his claws— one right after the other— the master’s body had been completely dismembered. Blood spurted across the walls, and limbs fell to the floor in a heap. His torso, now in two pieces, landed on the lower level of the house, and the master’s head rolled across the hardwood. Servants who had come to investigate the commotion screamed and quickly fled.
The demon stared down at the master’s body, which was oozing a puddle of blood across the floor. The demon shook in rage.
“Even a demon would not be so heartless,” he stated coldly. He turned from the master’s body and slowly descended the stairs, reaching a gentle hand out to the woman.
She turned her gaze up to him, but she was no longer shaking in fear. Instead, she stared up at the demon with admiration in her eyes. Then, she bowed her head to him. “Thank you. In exchange for fulfilling my wish, I pledge that you are my lord. I will give my soul to you now, and you may do with it what you will.”
