Stacia Kane - Personal Demons

"I don't know how."

"You do. You just don't remember that you know. But somewhere in there, you know how you did it and how you can fix it. You beat us, just now. That takes tremendous power."

She shook her head. "I don't understand. If it was so easy for me to beat you, and you just wanted my help, why did you scare me? Why all the business with the photo shoot, and the restaurant? What about sending Don Tremblay after me and my radio show?"

"We thought your show was a threat to us, a message for us. We wanted to see how powerful you really were. And we were his personal army." The venom in Rocturnus's voice hit Megan almost like a physical blow. "When we're not here, in our home, we must do what he says. The show gave him a convenient excuse. But we made sure Tremblay missed that day in the park, you have to give us that."

"Thanks. But why did he send me here? That doesn't make any sense."

Rocturnus sipped his tea. "He didn't. We don't know how you ended up here. Certainly we wanted you. That may have been enough. Now we can go after the Accuser."

"But I don't know how I did that. It just sort of happened. I mean, I knew what I was trying to do, but I don't know how it worked. And I can't remember how I did it."

"The Accuser does. And we have a connection to him, just like you. All we must do is go back to where he is. You'll find what you need."

"You'll take me back to him?" It came out as a whisper.

"No. We can only come when called. You'll take us back."

"Won't you have to obey him if I do?"

Rocturnus smiled. She tried not to look at his teeth. "We can rebel a little, if we concentrate, but not for long. You'll need to defeat him quickly."

"But I can't. I can't go back. He kicked me out. I don't have a body anymore, he's in it."

"Not completely." Rocturnus dropped out of his chair in a smooth slide and held out his hand. Megan hesitated, then took it. His skin was cool and dry, his fingers like long animated sticks in her palm.

"Someone left a line for you," he said. "All you have to do is follow it back."

"A line? I don't—"

She saw it then, a faint red scar pulsing in the air, leading from her chest up into the ether.

The personal demons stood up en masse and lifted their arms. Rocturnus said something in the demon tongue, one word. They repeated it.

Their power slammed into Megan again, but this time she did not scream. This time she opened that door she'd found, and sucked it all in. Their demon power, her own power, mingled in the furnace in her soul and she grabbed hold of the thin scarlet streak and pulled.

The room disappeared. Colors flashed and swirled around her. There was a tremendous thump. Megan opened her eyes and found herself back in the Solithell, lying on the floor beside a slathering horned beast with three eyes who she knew immediately was the Accuser in his true form.

The Accuser roared, his huge black body shaking as he raised his fists into the air. Megan screamed, too, not just out of fear or anger but because being in his presence made the energy inside her body flare to a point where she didn't think she could control it. Behind her the personal demons shrieked, their voices echoing through her.

How long had it been? It felt like hours, but the position of the people in the room made her think only minutes had passed, at the most.

The black smog no longer filled the room. She couldn't see the Fearbusters clients, but Dante still sat at the table, visibly tense even at a distance. Her eyes watered when she spotted Malleus, Maleficarum, and Spud, huddled on the other side of the room around something she had a sneaking suspicion belonged to her. Templeton Black shouted in the demon tongue, his voice hoarse with terror as he faced the Accuser. He hadn't seen her yet. She didn't know if he could, if any of them could. Could they?

A quick glance down told her no. She could see through herself, as if she was some sort of faded reflection. For a moment the world spun and she stumbled before righting herself. No time. She'd already died or agreed to die. This was her chance to live and if it meant spending a little time in Casper form here in the Solithell she would do it.

She shook her head and stood up.

"Hey!"

The Accuser stopped. His eyes glowed red as he turned in her direction, his pig-like nostrils flaring. Blood ran down his bulging arms and matted the hair on his body. If Megan hadn't been ethereal, she thought she would have peed her pants.

"You didn't get rid of me after all," she said, her voice squeaking, "and I've brought some friends to see you, too."

The Accuser looked at her, then turned away, back towards Templeton. The temptation to hide from him, to run around the room, find her body, and steal it back, was almost unbearable.

Then Megan looked behind her and saw the little demons watching her, hope shining in their bulgy eyes. Funny, they were almost kind of cute in a horrible way, once you got used to them. It was her fault they'd been enslaved for fifteen years and her responsibility to rescue them.

She took a deep breath, and attacked the Accuser.

He'd been about to pick Templeton Black up in one ham-like fist. Megan's energy hit him with enough force to make Megan stumble, but the Accuser merely stopped what he was doing. He looked at her, puzzled, as if she was an insect, then gave an almost human shrug.

Megan didn't think anything had happened until she found herself flying across the room, slamming into the wall and falling to the floor. The Accuser had hit back, without even looking as if he was trying to. The little demons hissed.

She stood up, reaching for her head. She wasn't injured. She had no body to injure.

He couldn't harm her any more than he had. She could stay as she was, or she could get her body back, but she couldn't be hurt any worse than she was already hurting.

With a scream, she ran towards him, lowering the shields she still carried and sucking energy from the little demons, shaping it into a ball of fire in her head. A ball so large and hot she would have been sweating if she'd had a body to sweat. She held it in her hands, let it envelop her, until she was flame and she was Megan, and they were both the same.

She laughed, a delighted sound that echoed across the shouts and chaos of the room. She floated above it all, running across the floor on feet that wanted to dance, pulling energy as she ran. Templeton's, and the other demons’ and the brothers', and then with a final giggle, Greyson's, fiery red in her hands and her mind.

She ran with it all, flying with it, across the marble floor, and when she got to the Accuser she didn't hesitate. She kept running, right into him, his flesh collapsing around her with a sickening squelch.

Her own memories flooded back, bending her backwards with the pain of them. Her disappointments, the things she'd seen and done, the loneliness ... and then something else, something clean and pure that was love, and happiness, and pride in her accomplishments. The soft blue of Tera's new friendship, the green of Brian's respect, even the blazing black-edged orange of Greyson's desire and companionship. They wiped away the shame and sadness, not erasing it completely but making it manageable. She shouted in triumph, dug her fingers into the slime-covered flesh around her, and read .

He was older than humans, older than time. She saw dinosaurs and crawling, filthy slug-things. She saw Cro-Magnons and prehistoric animals, chanting Druids, people growing and changing. Occasionally they challenged him, but they never won. He slaughtered and licked them clean of blood, danced in the flames as their bodies burned, and cried out in triumphant glee. Their despair filled him, went to his head like fine wine. Megan tasted it with him, was him, and threw her head back in delight.