The Demon's Soul

Receiving their food, they took the tray along with them while searching for spare seats. Lilly couldn’t resist but to turn her head in the direction of the man her eyes had met but he wasn’t there anymore.

"We should have asked for extra sauce," hearing Gwen’s remark on her beloved ketchup, Lilly couldn’t help but smile. Her friend loved ketchup and if given the chance she wouldn’t mind eating ketchup all day.

After finding seats, they finished what they had ordered for. Gwen was sucking the little plastic ketchup dry while Lilly looked at her hand, wishing she was at home so that she could lick the remnants tastes from her fingers. Doing what her parents taught her, she pulled out the tissue from the table and wiped her hand.

Her friend was yet to take a parcel home for her cousin due to which Lilly decided to wait for her at the bus stand until Gwen returned back. As she sat on the empty bench, she pulled out her phone and started playing subway surfer. Just as she was about to cross her old score she heard a gruff voice comment at her,

"Hello, babe. What are you doing sitting here all alone? Wanna go on a ride?"

Looking up to see who it was, she found a man sitting on an expensive bike. He has a mohawk styled hair and tattoo-covered on his neck which was also adorned with gold chains. She wanted to give him a piece of advice on his fashion style but decided not to do it when he looked her up and down. Ignoring him, she looked down on her phone to sense the man get down from his bike to walk towards her.

Feeling unsafe, she thought about going back to the McDonald’s where Gwen would still be there. Getting up quickly, she started to walk there to hear footsteps closely following her. As if it weren’t enough, she heard another bike. She slipped her hand in her bag to grab the pepper spray from it.

When one of the bikes stopped in front of her to block her from going further, she pulled out the spray and pressed the nozzle to smell the lavender fragrance. Shit! She had grabbed her perfume and not the pepper spray!

Lilly stepped behind but the man on the bike which was in front of her grabbed her hand and she did what she could do best by hitting the bottle over the man’s head. Hearing the man yelp in pain, she began running in another direction so that the first guy in the bike wouldn’t catch her. Before she could take more steps away she heard people getting beaten up and her footsteps came to a halt.

Turning her head she saw someone beating the crap out of those two men. Lilly came to realize that it was the same person whom she had seen at the Mc Donald’s with the deep forest green eyes. In less than half a minute both the men were on the ground. He couldn’t be a human, thought Lilly to herself as she looked at his tall physique. Before she could thank him, he had already started walking away from the scene leaving the men groaning on the ground.

Lilly not wanting to stay at the bus stop went half way to see Gwen already on her way towards her and she told her what just happened.

Gwen then said, "I am happy that whoever he was, was there to help you out. I heard that there have been similar cases going on in the neighborhood," she then went on to lecture Lilly on taking self-defense classes.

Lilly then changed the topic to her family weekend plan, telling she wanted her to come along with her.

When the weekend did arrive, Lilly with her family, her friend Gwen and a few of her father’s acquaintance had arrived at the cottage her father had booked for them. It was very unusual for her father to invite other people for a weekend getaway. With the cottage surrounded by vast forest, they were away from the noise and pollution of the city. It was calm and serene. Four hours had passed since

They had arrived at the cottage four hours ago. Keeping their bags in the room both Gwen and her went to enjoy the view of nature. It was just amazing. Rose and Jack had gone to get some woods while my parents were relaxing having tea in the yard with their guests. Regorzil, the demon king and Canrart who looked after the vampire clan had accompanied them here. Gwen was a little jittery around the demon king as he was Cole’s father.

As the sky turned dark, both the girls returned back to the room they were sharing, talking to each other until they heard someone bang their door loudly. Frowning, Lilly unlocked the door to see Rose’s face smeared in blood who was clutching the side of her stomach.

Lilly’s eyes went wide in worry as she saw a wound.

"Oh my god, Rose! What happened?!" when she went to take a look, Rose shook her head, taking her wrist in hand, the woman said, "Lilly listen to me carefully. You need to run from here right now. Don’t turn back," she said in between gasps.

"What do you mean? Where are the others?" What was going on? She was in a panic so was Gwen.

"Your parents and the kings are fighting them off but you need to leave right now," she said leaning on the wall. She slid down to sit as she couldn’t stand anymore.

"Fighting whom?" Lilly asked but Gwen interrupted her.

"Ah... Lilly?" Lilly turned her gaze in Gwen’s direction was looking outside the room. The entire cottage was filling up with smoke and fire. It was burning down.

"There’s no time! Go now both of you! Don’t worry about me!" Rose barked at them.

Gwen pulled a dumbstruck Lilly out of the room and they were soon coughing due to the intense amount of smoke that filled the corridors. The cottage was big and it was difficult to walk. The entire place was on fire and it was getting hotter by every second making it harder for both of them to breathe.

Lilly covered her face, pulling Gwen with her and then suddenly stopped when she saw her father and the demon king fighting some men outside through the window. The smoke was getting thicker and they didn’t know where they were heading as they couldn’t see anything. Gwen suddenly stumbled on something and when Lilly went to pick her up, she froze in spot.

"M-mother?" she shook her mother to get no response. Lilly shook her harder and cried out, "MOM! Wake up!" But her mother laid there motionless.