My Demon (20 page)

The words fell out, as if by accident. “Show me what?” Instantly, she clamped her mouth shut. But it was too late now.

Clive smirked, the edges of his skin growing still more volatile. Something pulsated underneath, his shape changing. A dark thing was emerging. No soft velvet cat suit and stuffed horns on this baby. The thing coming out would be one hundred percent demon

U
nable to turn her head, Alex lay frozen on the dirt, fixed on the demon hovering above her. As she watched, his entire image shimmered and she caught sight of something underneath, something desperate to come out.

“Please, don’t change,” she begged.

The demon smirked as his skin cracked. She stared up in horror as his flesh loosened and peeled off. She put a hand up to protect her face, but halfway to her face, the flakes dissolved into the air. Heat radiated down on her, burning her body.

She had to get away, she had to get out from under him. He was changing, finally showing his true face. Her eyes darted to the sides. Was Jeremy nearby? Did he know where she was? Could he see her cowering under thin air? She tried to shout for him, but her voice cracked and nothing but a squeak came out.

“Look at me!” Clive shouted. His once beautiful face was ruined, but this didn’t disguise his expression of pleasure as he stared down at her. He arched his back, his eyes rolling back in their sockets until only the whites showed. The cat suit began falling away, the pieces of fabric dissolving in the air as his skin had. A new shape bulged out. Things rippled underneath. Somehow, Alex found the will to close her eyes. This isn’t real, she whispered in her mind. Clive is made up. Please find me, Jeremy.

“Alex.” Clive was still above her. He waited a moment and said, “Babydoll.”

Alex squeezed her eyes even more tightly until lights flashed behind her eyelids.

“Look up.”

He’d done his thing. She couldn’t resist. Compelled, Alex obediently opened her eyes. Her mouth dropped open, before shutting with a snap. Her bladder almost let loose. Inside her chest, her heart all but stopped. The blood in her veins seemed to slow, and a leaden, numb sensation took her over.

Clive had transformed. From butterfly into monster, she thought. She only knew for certain that the creature hovering above her was Clive as the eyes rolled back down in their sockets and the same dark blue eyes stared down at her. His skin had turned a mottled green brown, lumpy and jagged with sores. Huge bat-like wings had appeared on his back. They flapped calmly, slowly. He folded his arms across his chest and smirked. Claws finished off his fingers. She had let this creature touch her!

His face was hardest to look at. So ruined. She’d kissed that face.

“Oh Clive!” she blurted out as she took in his true demon appearance.

Horns, real and hard and the color of ivory had erupted from his forehead, curling around to point menacingly at her. His face was larger, sharper, with his chin elongated and pointed.

“It can’t be you.” Tears threatened.

He leered at her, and a red forked tongue slid out from between his lips.

“If you don’t kill Jeremy, I will kill you,” he said and let out a rich baritone laugh.

“Why would you kill me? I thought you needed me?”

He blinked at her, and she realized his pupils were like cat’s eyes. Or a snake. His expression suggested she’d asked a stupid question. “Because I can,” he said finally.

Alex found the strength to turn her head. Jeremy was over by an area filled with scrubby bushes. He poked around, trying to find her. This was it. Kill him or be killed. Why couldn’t she run away and hide? Find the doctor and make him take the demon and all his shite away. Jeremy leaned over and pushed two bushes apart. She fancied she heard him call her name. Dear sweet Jeremy. Then she remembered the cloud of blue smoke now surrounding him. He wasn’t looking for her to help her. His plan was to murder her. Clive, still hovering above her, nodded as if in confirmation to her thoughts.

“I can’t kill him!” she wailed. “Please don’t make me.”

“This is my last warning. Kill him now or I will kill you where you lie!” the demon bellowed the words at her.

His skin shimmered, and she wondered for a moment if there was a worse form he could take. He reached out and pinned her to the ground with one clawed hand. Heat so intense she thought she might faint filled her body. “Kill him!” Clive shouted. “Kill him now or I kill you!” His claws curled into her flesh, the sharp tips digging in.

She almost let him. Better to be killed than become a murderer. An idea began to form in her mind, a horrible murderous thought. It made her feel sick.

“Oh yes, I see what you think. Do it Alex. It’s the only way to stay alive. If I don’t get you, the other Podis will later. Take your pick.” He loosened his grasp on her, and flew higher. “I’ll rip your heart out and you’ll be in purgatory forever, but the Podis … they can do things that would make you suffer far more.” He grinned, his forked tongue flickering out.

“No, please no. I don’t want to!”

“Jeremy planned to dump you at the doctors. Get you on pills to neuter your sight. Then he was going to pay a visit to your mother. Take a bottle of wine, get her drunk and then infect her feeble mind.” He hovered closer. “If you want to save the drunk, pull your bloody socks up and start being proactive. Kill Jeremy!” He boomed the last two words at her.

Alex rolled over and got onto her knees, her back to the vile vision of the demon. Still hid behind the oil drum, Alex checked on Jeremy. He was over in the scrub searching for her. Jeremy faced away from her. This was it, her perfect time. Her breath hitched as she realized what she was about to do. She jumped up and sprinted over to the minibus. Heart pounding nervously in her chest, she yanked the driver’s door open and checked for the keys. They dangled from the ignition where Jeremy had left them. Silently she thanked God, jumped into the seat and turned the key.

The engine flared into life. Jeremy would have heard the noise. She crunched into first and slammed her foot down on the accelerator. She spun the wheel and headed for the flaming barrel, at the last moment skidding around the obstacle, half-hoping Clive would still be there. That she’d hit him and he’d die or leave this dimension forever, and everything would go back to normal. She drew her sleeve across her face to clear the tears. The demon had gone. Left her to do the dirty work.

What was she about to do? Alex turned the minibus around, so she pointed towards Jeremy. Was she actually going to go through with this? What if she really was seeing things? She pulled at her jumper and found blood trails on her skin from where the demon’s claws cut into her. The injuries were real. He was real. Podis must be real, and Jeremy had been turned. Him or me. Yet raw terror filled her. Jeremy faced her, his head tilted to one side, maybe trying to figure out what she was going to do. If she drove off to the left, she’d be heading for the exit. He probably thought that’s where she’d go.

He glanced that way as if in confirmation, then started running towards her. He threw his hands in the air, shouting, “Alex, don’t!”

Alex blocked him out. She needed to concentrate. This had to be done right if she didn’t want him to suffer.

The minibus was still pegged in first, and she pushed the accelerator pedal down to the floor, making the engine scream. She waited until the last moment and lifted the clutch. The wheels squealed and the minibus took off. Jeremy stopped running. He stood in her way. Did he not realize she was heading right for him? A part of her screamed at him to move! Get out of the way! That didn’t stop her from hunching over, hands clutching the steering wheel so hard her knuckles had gone white. She popped the bus into second and then third. Foot still pressing the gas down to the floor.

Jeremy suddenly seemed to understand. He spun around and took off for the scrub. He’d realized too late.

Another gear change. She glanced down, she’d got the minibus up to fifty. Surely that would be enough.

What would happen when you hit a person? Alex had run over a pigeon once when Jeremy was teaching her how to drive. It was pecking something off the road, probably another dead bird. It was one of those large pigeons, the ones that crash around in trees, sounding like they’ll bring the branches down. She had squealed when she’d hit the bird, shocked at what a loud thump it’d made, then the feathers had puffed up and over the windscreen. For half a second, she realized this would be a million times worse.

He turned at the last moment, perhaps thinking this was a nightmare, or hoping she wasn’t the one behind the wheel. But then she closed her eyes. She didn’t want him to make eye contact with her. She guessed such an image would haunt her to her death. So she kept the last picture in her mind. Jeremy, half turned, almost looking at her. His accusatory and confused expression stuck forever whenever she thought of him. Didn’t he understand? Him—them, all the Podis or me, she thought. She tensed in the driver’s seat, face all screwed up, eyes squeezed shut as she prepared for impact.

And then she hit him.

The front of the minibus caught him square on. Alex figured he would go up and over the minibus, like she’d seen in those nasty drunk-driving adverts they show after the watershed. Instead he got sucked under the minibus. The wheels bounced the vehicle over him, slamming her about. She’d not put her seatbelt on and crashed first into the window beside her. She cried out. That was Jeremy. Her boyfriend, her lover. What had she done! The back wheels mounted him. She smashed into the steering wheel, winding herself. Gasping for air, she somehow got her foot off the accelerator and onto the brakes. The blood seemed to drain from her head, and for a moment, she thought she might vomit. The deed was done.

Alex turned the minibus off. Out of the corner of her eye she caught sight of movement. Someone approached the passenger door. She twitched, one hand still on the ignition, the other hand on the door handle, unsure of what to do.

She glimpsed a flash of red, and the familiar stuffed horns came into view. Clive had morphed back to his old self. The demon opened the door and jumped in.

“He’s still alive.”

“Still alive?” she asked. “What the hell do you mean?” She banged her forehead on the steering wheel. “Impossible. The tires bumped over him.” Alex replayed the moment she hit him in her mind. The last image of him, half-turned towards her. His confusion. The turbulence when the minibus mounted his body. She banged her head on the steering wheel again. What had she done?

“Yeah, sorry about this, honeybun. I just checked. He’s unconscious though, so he shouldn’t feel a thing.” Clive crossed his arms.

“What do you want me to do?” Her voice came out weak, almost unintelligible, even to her.

Clive clicked his tongue in his mouth. “You can be so stupid. Obviously you need to run him over again.”

“I can’t do it again,” Alex said. Her mind repeated the terrible thudding and thumping as she drove over the person who had once been the love of her life. Now the beast next to her wanted her to run him over again? “No!” she shouted. “You can’t make me. He’s hurt, because of me.” She leaned over the wheel and started sobbing. “This is all your fault.”

“I think you’ll find you drove the minibus, not me.”

“You made me. You hurt me.” She put a hand to her chest where the wounds throbbed. “I won’t run him over again.”

“Sweetcheeks, you will, and you know that already. Now be a good girl and stop pissing around. Go finish him off.” Clive pointed forwards.

“No!”

The demon leaned closer, and for a moment she thought he intended to kiss her. Then he slapped her hard. “You’ll do what I say.”

Alex backed up against the door and stared wide-eyed at Clive. “Wha—”

He hit her again, harder, and Alex tasted blood in her mouth.

“Don’t, don’t!” She shielded her hands with her arms and cowered against the door.

“Start the bus.” He sat back and buckled up.

Alex thought about all the things she should say, do. She did none of them and reached forward to turn the key in the ignition.

Reluctantly, Alex turned the minibus around so the vehicle pointed in Jeremy’s direction. His body lay sprawled out on the earth, all tangled and hurt.

“Do it!” Clive boomed. His image shimmered, and the real demon that lurked beneath the cat suit flashed before her. “Do it now!”