DEMON

            The horned humanoid creature walked naked and alone in the dark cold woods. He had tread through this same forest several times before and every time he walked, he walked alone. He had no family and no friends - only enemies. The only ally he knew was the primal instinct he possessed within himself that told him to survive.

            His purpose on the earth was unknown, even by the creature himself. The only thing he knew was  that he was different from normal people, which made him a constant target of prejudice, malice, and hate.

            The cold wind blew dead leaves around him in all directions. The creature snarled slightly as a small cyclone of leaves passed by and brushed his scaly leg. The moonlight glimmered through the small cracks of space between the leaves in the trees and shone on his blackened eyes, every so often. His jagged teeth clenched tightly, his decrepit toe nails dragging in the dirt with each step, he walked on.

            “Demon…demon…” he muttered to himself. Demon was the name that he had been given by the people of the world. Everywhere he went, he was shunned, chased, attacked, and called by the same name. “Demon, demon, demon…” he continued to chant to himself, “I am Demon.”

            Demon came to a small clearing in the woods. A shallow pond surrounded by bulrushes and tall grass lay in the middle of the clearing, reflecting the white moonlight off of its smooth surface. There was a large, flat rock in the shadows, under some trees beside the pond. He cautiously stepped forward towards the pond, making sure that there was nobody else around. He knelt down onto his knees at the edge of the pond and, after quickly glancing around again, submerged his head in the cool water and opened his monstrous mouth.

            He filled his mouth with the cool, refreshing water and then lifted his head back up into the air. He shook his head furiously for a few seconds, spraying droplets of water around him in all directions. Slowly getting back to his feet, his stomach growled. He hadn’t eaten in over three days, and his stomach felt as if it were a pit of rotting, quivering flesh. He quickly grabbed a handful of leaves from a nearby tree and shoved them into his mouth, chewed once, and spit them out in disgust.

            “ROOAAARRRRRRR!” growled Demon as he looked to the sky in anger. Birds flustered and scattered out of all the trees around him. He breathed heavily for a few moments, trying to calm himself down. Slowly, he walked over to the large rock beside the pond and sat down.

            A strenuous expression covered Demon’s face. His pain could be seen under his rough, red-scaled skin, behind his black eyes and in the deep ridges of wrinkles on his forehead. He was a creature who did not belong in the world; an entity with no place amongst the species of his realm. His entire life was spent as a fugitive, running from hunters and living in the wilderness, alone.

            Unfortunately, Demon’s pain was more deep rooted than that of a ridiculed outcast. For as much as he wanted to be a part of society, there was a greater part of him which was consumed by rage. The creature not only had the exterior appearance of evil, but his soul was impure; tainted from the moment of his creation. His hatred of mankind was so deep rooted that he was created with a sense of loathing for all those around him.

            Through all his evil, Demon still had a glimmer of his creator in him. He didn’t believe in God, but he knew inside himself that behind all his hate, loneliness and contempt, that there was something more to his existence. Something he would never openly admit, which wasn’t very hard for Demon, because he had nobody to talk to. Some inexplicable force which forced him to keep on living resonated from some part of his being, deep under layers of pain and despair. Currently, Demon wondered and pondered, frantically creating hypothetical reasons; rationales that could possibly describe or explain why he existed at all. 

            “When will it end?” he asked himself. He looked to stars and then quickly shifted his gaze over to the moon and hollered, in his raspy, thunderous voice, “When do I get to die?”

            “Why would you want to die?” inquired a quiet, timid voice from the path behind him. Demon jumped to his feet suddenly and raised his red, muscular arms, ready to attack. A small boy let out a yelp and fell to the ground, staring up in terror at the creature which towered before him. Demon snarled and drooled, revealing his razor sharp teeth.

            “Please…please don’t hurt me!” pleaded the boy in horror. Demon stared at him quizzically for a few moments, shifting his head from side to side, analyzing. After he decided the boy was of no threat, nor even enough for a snack, he slowly lowered his arms and got out of his fighting stance. His black eyes stared deep into the brown eyes of the small boy, who was still on the ground shaking.

            “You’re all skin and bones,” said Demon, “you’re not even worth slaughtering to eat.” Relieved slightly, the boy stopped shaking and slowly got to his feet. He stood only a few meters away from the huge creature, staring up at him in awe with his mouth wide open. “Get out of here,” commanded Demon in resentment, “go back to your…village.” Demon turned away and went back to the rock to sit down.

            “I ran away,” said the boy in a squeaky, innocent voice. Demon stopped in his tracks, turned around, and snarled at the boy.

            “I don’t care if you flew away from whatever forsaken place you’re from!” boomed the creature. The boy stepped back a bit, frightened. “Now go home and leave me alone,” reiterated the creature. Demon stomped back over to the rock and dumped himself on it in exhaustion. He lay down and closed his eyes, but could still smell the boy near him. The small, congested nostrils on Demon’s face flared heavily for a few moments. “You have food! Give it to me!” barked the creature as he opened his red eyes and sat up. The small, freckle-faced boy stood motionless, staring at the monster before him. Demon let out a low snarl as his piercing, fiery eyes stared into the back of the boy’s skull.

            “I…I only have a little bit left,” said the boy in trepidation. He reached into his pocket and pulled out some salt-cured pieces of meat wrapped in paper. Demon jumped up suddenly and snatched the meat out of the child’s hand. “Hey, stop!” screamed the boy in desperation as he watched what was left of his food be devoured by the carnivore before him. Tears began to form in the boy’s eyes.

            “You’re crying?” exclaimed Demon in a mocking tone. The boy now began to weep uncontrollably, staring at his the holes in his shoes. “Sickening, putrid creature,” said Demon as he sat himself back down on the rock. The boy continued to cry for a few more seconds, then looked up at Demon in resentment and anger.

            “No wonder everybody wants you dead!” hollered the boy. Demon sat on the rock with his eyes closed, unmoved by the boy’s words. The boy took a few steps closer to the rock. “I hate you!” he screamed. Demon opened his eyes and turned his neck slowly, meeting the child’s cold gaze.

            “You don’t know what hate is,” proclaimed the creature.

            “Yes I do!” replied the boy. “Everybody hates me. The other kids call me names and spit on me while my own brother’s just watch and laugh. My father does nothing but yell at me and beat me. And my mother…my mother is dead.” Demon shook his head slowly in a sense of disbelief.

            “Do you have any idea who you are talking to?” asked Demon. “I am the most hated creature in the universe! The most feared…the most loathed and hunted of any in existence. I am the epitome of your anguish; the very image of the evil and malevolence of your entire race!” The boy stared at him in confusion. “Stupid boy! You talk about the other kids and your…family. While I am the only one of my kind in the entire world!” explained Demon. “You are too young and ignorant to understand.”

            Demon and the boy remained locked in each others’ eyes for several moments, and the child wiped away what tears were left on his face. This was the only human contact that Demon had ever engaged in without being attacked or hunted. It was also the only contact the small boy had ever had in which someone had actually taken the time to listen to him.

            “Be gone from this place,” ordered Demon, “go back to your people. Leave me alone with my pain.” Again the creature closed his eyes and lay back on the rock.

            “What is your name?” asked the boy.

            “I am Demon,” replied the creature.

            “But what is your real name?” asked the boy again. “I’m Jacob.”

            “I have no name other than that given to me by your insidious race,” explained Demon, and then repeated, “I am Demon.”

            Jacob turned away from the creature for the first time in their encounter and walked towards the edge of the pond. He picked up a small, flat stone and attempted to skip it across the water. The stone hit the water once and sunk to the bottom.  He washed his small, nimble hands in the water and shook them off in the air. Turning his attention back to Demon, he noticed many bloody gashes on the creature’s legs and chest.

            “Does it hurt?” inquired Jacob.

            “Ha!” snorted Demon.

            “You’re bleeding,” said Jacob.

            “I am always bleeding,” replied Demon.

            Jacob, overcome with innocent curiosity, walked back over towards Demon and stretched out his bony arm to touch the creature’s rough, scaly skin. Demon opened his eyes suddenly, instinctively grabbed Jacob’s arm firmly and, not knowing his own strength, snapped the boy’s fragile bones.

            “Aaaaahhhhhhh!” wailed the boy in agony.

            In that moment, something changed inside of Demon’s mind. It was a feeling he had never felt before; like tasting a foreign food that he had never known existed. In that split second of a moment, there was a new reality to Demon’s existence. A wave of energy seemed to flow through his entire body, emanating from his hand which clasped the child’s broken arm. For the first time in his life, Demon felt sympathy and compassion. He quickly let go of Jacob’s arm.  The boy fell to the ground, clasping his arm and moaning in pain.

            “I’m sorry,” said Demon, “I…I didn’t mean to harm you.”

            “It hurts!” the boy screamed. “It’s too much…it’s…it’s more than I can take! Oh God, it hurts!” Demon took a step toward the boy, reaching his out with his red, muscular hand. The boy recoiled and squirmed back in terror.

            “No!” pleaded Jacob. “Please, don’t hurt me again!”

            “I’m trying to help you,” informed Demon, again reaching toward the boy.

            “No!” yelled Jacob, curling into a fetal position. “I don’t believe you.”

            Demon was overcome with emotion. He had never known he was capable of feeling anything at all, besides anger, fear, and loneliness. In the short time he had encountered this human boy, he had discovered parts of himself that he had never even fathomed could exist. He felt compelled to help the boy.

            “I am going to help you,” proclaimed Demon, “do not resist me.” The boy lay on the ground, shaking in fear, unable to struggle anymore. Demon rolled Jacob onto his back and analyzed the boy’s mangled arm. He stared at the deformed arm, his glowing, red eyes taking in more than they ever had before. It was as if in each second that he stared at the injury, he gained more knowledge, wisdom and insight than he could comprehend. The immense pain which had throbbed in Demon’s head throughout his entire life seemed to be pulsating, and each pulse provided his mind with new truths; fresh realizations that made his entire existence to this point seem irrelevant. He couldn’t begin to understand why or what was happening, but he somehow knew what he had to do.

            “I known how to help you,” assured Demon. The boy lay whimpering on the dirt, hoping his pain would soon be alleviated. Demon reached forward and rested his blistered fingers on the child’s fractured arm. He closed his eyes.

            White light began to glow from deep within Demon’s hand, piercing through his veins. His mouth and eyes suddenly opened wide, his face raised toward the moonlight. The creature’s neck was stuck in place; his entire body rigid and unable to move. Demon’s shiny, opal eyes turned to a pale shade of pink. The white light in his hand began to glow more brightly, covering the entire clearing and forcing Jacob to close his eyes.

            A feeling of warmth flowed throughout Demon’s body. Miraculously, the broken bones in Jacob’s arms began to readjust themselves and reconnect within his arm.

            “It’s so warm,” whispered the boy in awe, “so warm.”

            The light moved away from Demon’s hand and began to travel towards his black heart. Demon fell back with immense force, as if he had been hit by a car, and flew into the pond, splashing water in all directions. Jacob opened his eyes and got to his feet slowly, stroking his healed arm. He stood in a state of bewilderment and stared at the light which seemed to shine upward from the center of the pond into the infinity of the night sky.

            Demon’s body slowly appeared at the surface of the water, levitating up as if he was harnessed at the waist by the light. His legs and arms dangled down, his head raised toward the sky. Jacob’s eyes remained wide open in shock as he raised his head to look up at the creature rising above him. Demon stared up at the white light, his mouth still agape, and the shade of his eyes changing from pink to blue, and suddenly stopped rising.

            His skin began to crack. Across the creature’s chest, his shoulders, his face and his back, white light beamed out in magnificent rays, illuminating the entire forest for miles. Within a few seconds, white light exploded from inside the creature, and his demonic physical form was no more. The entire forest was covered with utter whiteness and nothing could be seen for a several seconds. As quickly as the light had exploded from within Demon’s heart, the light vanished, and darkness again covered the night.

            Jacob opened his eyes just in time to see another small boy plummeting toward the pond from the space in which Demon had just been. The boy crashed through the surface of the water and Jacob ran into the pond. He dove under the surface, reached out, and grabbed a small hand. He kicked and pulled with all of his might, bringing himself and the other boy to the surface. Jacob swam over to the edge of the pond and dragged the boy onto the dirt.

            Jacob got up and stared down and the curly haired child who lay on the ground, coughing up water. The boy stopped coughing and opened his blue eyes, staring up at Jacob. Jacob helped the boy get to his feet and the two stood in front of each other at equal height, gazing into each others’ eyes.

            “I’m Jacob,” said Jacob, abruptly.

            “I’m Andrew,” said the boy shyly, “will you be my friend?” Jacob smiled and took the Andrew’s hand. The two of them walked down the path, following the moonlight back to the village, together.

            Somewhere far away, in another land, in the middle of another forest, a Demon appeared; cold, naked, and alone.