Midnight Musings

Samuel

The demon crept up behind him, whispering in a long forgotten language. Its feline-like eyes flickered maniacally in the candlelight. The air seemed to ice over as the demon pressed its disfigured face against the boy’s. The demons’ claws scraped across the wooden table, peeling wood shavings onto the cold floor. Long, yellowing fangs protruded from its mouth. Saliva trickled from the dark one’s mouth, forming a red pool at its victim’s feet. The boy’s eyes shifted back and forth quickly, as if he was trying to contemplate what he was about to do. The demon continued to whisper into the boy’s ear, its forked tongue flicking seductively. A bitter smile crossed the youth’s face, as if what the demon’s words sounded appealed to him. He slowly reached for the revolver that lay in front of him on the table, struggling to pick up the unfamiliar weapon. The demon folded his dark wings and talons around the boy, and it began to chant a haunting chorus. As the chanting strengthened, the boy’s trembling hand moved the revolver to his head. His face began to grow contorted, angry, and lost as the demon smiled viciously. The gun was now aimed directly at his head. From his eye there came a burst of light, casting all the murkiness that had been there before to scatter. Something deep within him began to stir. He remembered a vague memory; the long-lost remnants of a strong feeling. An extremely strong feeling of complete and total warmth came over him. It was like he was being cradled by someone, and they were comforting him. The demon began to scream and chant rapidly, knowing that it was losing the battle. The boy’s eye shone with a light that had been lost in them since he had been born. The boy placed the gun back down on the table, and turned to the frantic demon. “No.” He said quietly but firmly. A being of light appeared on his other, right hand side, its brightness beyond anything of this Earth. The angel’s wings rustled, a sound like that of a thousand harps playing up above in the heavens. His long bright white hair and robes seemed to drift in an ethereal breeze, as he smiled at the human. It was like no other smile the boy had ever seen, that filled with truth, love, and compassion. The demon, upon seeing the angel, gave a shriek of pain and anguish, vanishing back into the shadow realms. “Thank you.” Said the boy. The angel shook his head, saying: “It was not us, it was you.” Rising from his chair, the boy turned to the door behind him. Bowing to the angel, he opened the door that had been behind him. A man walked out the other side.