Dealing with Devils

I pull my jacket over my shoulders and check in my pockets. Everything I need is there so I turn the light out in my room and begin to bound down the stairs.

I reach the bottom of the stairs glancing outside at the dusk. Not much time left better say my goodbyes and leave. I poke my head into the back room “See ya tomorrow mom.”

She looks up from her needlework trying to re focus her eyes onto me. “Oh Bye then. Be good.” She always says that.

“Don’t worry I wont.” I always say that too.

My brother Jake has paused the Play Station so we can have the same argument again. “Can I come?” What can I say? He likes to be included.

“No not today Jake.” I pick up my keys from the kitchen counter and bury them deep in my pocket.

“You say that everyday.” He’s not wrong.

“Today is especially dangerous. Maybe next week.” I refuse to be swayed by the look on his face. I push past him and open the door. “See you tomorrow.”

He rolls his eyes at me. “See ya.” He’s got the grumpy teenager voice on again.

I pull the door closed behind me and it doesn’t catch. Damn stupid new lock, It’s been doing this for months. I push it back in and slam the door shut then push the door again to make sure it’s locked.

I walk down the steps out front and take off at a run down the road.

I pick up the pace as I see the sun getting lower in the sky sprinting for the last ten minutes of the journey. I round the corner of Line Street as the sky turns that weird pink/red/orange/yellow colour that it does at this time of year, at this time of the day.

I unlock the old, sturdy oak door and push it open with a loud creek. I turn and lock it behind me and light my silver Jack Daniels Zippo lighter so I can see, not that I need to I know this place like the back of my hand… well the hand I have at this moment in time anyway, I don’t spend much time examining my ‘other’ hand.

I run down the stairs jumping the last few, swing the door closed on the large metal cage then lock it with the twenty six pad and combination locks. I pull my hoodie and t-shirt off in one go and throw them to one corner of the cage. I then pull my jeans and socks off in another one movement. (As you may have guessed I have done this quite a few times before.) With one hand I pull off my bra whilst I thrust my legs into the large wrought iron shackles trailing on the floor.

I sit down on the purple bean bag that lives in the cage, lock the shackles around my ankles then lock another around my neck and finish the whole look off with the shackles around my wrists.

And now I wait. I can see the sun has gone down but it will be a few more minutes until the whole thing kicks off so I sit and watch the light diminish out the small window across the room set into the wall.

The moonlight begins to filter through the glass and lands directly on my skin. Here we go again. A deep pain pushes its way into my gut as I begin to change from the inside out. It feels like I’m being stabbed repeatedly in the same place over and over again not being able to recover from the pain before in rockets through my body once again.

I roll over onto my stomach and pull myself on all fours. Thick brown hairs begin to shoot from my arms covering all of my skin apart from the palms of my hands and the bottoms of my feet.

The bones in my hand begin to break and knit themselves together in a matter of seconds. Pulling my wrist further up my arms. I watch as my thumb recedes into my hand. And my little finger is moved closer to where my wrist now resides.

I can feel my pelvis breaking from where it should be and rotating to accommodate this position permanently. I feel my back beginning to bend in a manor that I know is not human.

Then everything goes black.