This short story is published, but it's free, so I'm posting up here (: Hope you enjoy! It's also the beginning of a discontinued series - I lost the files for the rest of the series so this is it.
Alexis rushed down the crumbling stairs in a frenzy of nerves. She was late for workagain and couldn’t find her car keys. She ran into her shabby kitchen, almost slipping on the puddle that had formed from the overflowing kitchen sink.
“Shit!” she cursed, running to turn off the taps. Her feet skidded on the worn lino.
She emptied the sink and moved to the coffee maker. The last dregs of coffee were sitting at the bottom. Having no time to make any more, she added lukewarm water and grabbed her favourite coffee mug down from the shelf. As she opened the door it came off - the hinges had obviously rusted through. She slammed it down on the wobbly kitchen table and turned back to her coffee. Cold. She put it in the microwave but it was on the blink again. Frustrated, she downed the soggy mixture and slammed her cup on the counter.
“Disgusting,” she growled.
She turned away from the empty mug and searched for her car keys again. Nowhere could she find them. She saw her flatmates keys peeking out from under the fridge and dived for them. She was sure her flatmate had taken her car when he couldn’t find his own keys.
She dumped the keys in her bag and ran to the back door. The front door had long since been boarded over.
A fat grey rat scurried in front of her and she screamed, flailing her arms and dropping her bag. She scooped it up before the rat could get inside and pulled on the door. It jammed on her first pull. She tried again but the door still wouldn’t open. She looked out the window and discovered that it had been boarded up too.
She went to the laundry and climbed on top of the washing machine so she could reach the window. She jimmied it open and looked out. The rosebush was right below her but that couldn’t be helped. She jumped out of the window and shredded her tights on the thorns.
“Aargh!!!” she screamed, pulling her tights off and stuffing them in her bag. God she needed to find a new place to live.
She stood up and ran out to the roadside. As she suspected, her flatmate had taken her car. She opened his car, put the key in the ignition and switched the car on. As she moved into gear and pulled away, the exhaust went ‘bang!’ and small volumes of smoke started streaming from under the bonnet.
Alexis was so preoccupied that she didn’t even notice the dark-skinned man watching her from the bushes.
Ariyus shimmered back to the underground, bowing to his master. His knees cracked on the hard cobblestone floor.
He murmured an apology before standing up, his hands crossed.
“I know who she is,” he said gruffly, in his low voice. His mouth was hidden by his giant moustache and distorted by the unsightly scar on half of his face.
“And?” asked his master, his silky voice tainted with boredom. It echoed around the chamber, spookily whispering his words back to him.
Ariyus shifted uneasily. “She is no older than 22, perhaps. Light brown hair, and violet eyes. She has an intense aura – I know she is the one with the power.”
“Well done,” said his master, flipping a gold coin in his fingers. “I knew feeding you that aura reading witch was a good idea.
Ariyus bowed at the waist, deeply. He shimmered out, quickly.
“You’re late.” Her boss was not pleased. Alexis watched as she swivelled in her chair, tapping her pen on the dull, pine desk.
Alexis bowed her head, worrying.
“You do realise that this is your last warning. If it happens again then you are out.” Her boss’ voice was stern and sharp. The tempo of the pen increased.
“Yes, ma’am,” Alexis replied in a tiny voice. Even her delicate good looks and honest soul could not get her out of this one.
“Remember, Alexis. Just because you are by best friend’s niece does NOT mean that I will continue to be lenient. The rest of the staff are asking questions. Just remember, Alexis. No more warnings.”
Alexis sniffed unhappily. It wasn’t totally her fault that she was late.
“Stop crying, you still have a job.” Her boss shooed her out of her office.
***
Alexis sat at her desk, staring at the plans for a new shopping mall downtown. It was going to be huge, and she was the rookie in charge of it. If she stuffed up when choosing the decor and customers didn’t like it then she was out for sure. She would go down as the biggest idiot decorator in history. She trusted herself to get it right, but the mall had a very small budget for such a big place and really, a master was needed to pull this off.
She sighed, feeling dejected.
“I am never going to pull this off,” she announced to thin air.
“Oh, come on,” smiled her co-worker, Andrew. He had just peeped around to her cubicle. “You have the most brains in this building.”
“Right,” she said, turning to face him. “That’s why I live in a condemned, boarded up building with a flatmate who steals my car.”
“Right,” he replied, smiling. “You know, there’s a spare room at mine if you’re interested. Cheap rent, too.”
“Let me guess, it’s boarded up, too?”
“No, just the opposite: 7 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 2 living areas. It’s huge. Some old lady rents it out for, like, 50 kaching a week.” Andrew rubbed his fingers together, indicating money. “You wanna come check it out after work?”
Alexis hesitated, wondering if she should. She didn’t even know the guy.
Andrew saw the hesitation in her eyes. “Don’t worry; there are 4 other girls. It’s totally respectable.”
“Ok, sure,” Alexis replied. That was a huge weight off her chest. She hated living in that hell hole. What could be worse?
***
Ariyus watched as she moved around her office. He was pretending to be a client, transmogrifying himself into a famous basketball player. Thank god he had eaten that witch, Delia.
“So, sir,” the annoying employee was saying. “You would be best to look at upwards of $15,000 for the kind of redecoration that you want.”
Ariyus looked at the employee without blinking. “I heard that Alexis Osiris works here. I would like to see her instead. I hear that she is good at getting luxury redecorations on low budgets.”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Corones, she is busy with the new shopping mall downtown. She won’t have time for anything else for the next few months.”
“I don’t care,” Ariyus growled. “I wish to see Alexis Osiris NOW!!”
***
Alerted by the yelling coming from Andrew’s booth, Alexis rushed over to see what was wrong. Before she could get there, however, huge bangs and crashes filled the room.
Alexis stood in the doorway, horrified at what she saw. Andrew was in the corner, whimpering. His desk was turned at a funny angle and a big, muscled, dark-skinned man with a huge scar on his face was standing in the middle of the room. He turned when he sensed her, snarling.
Terrified, Alexis waved her hands and froze the room. The man froze for a second but fought through, unfreezing and growling even more threateningly.
“You shouldn’t have done that, Alexis Osiris. I am more powerful than you!” he roared, stomping his feet.
Alexis backed out of the room, grabbing her keys and hurrying to her filing cabinet. She unlocked the bottom draw and pulled out her diary. She had kept it since she was a little girl, when her mother was still alive. She remembered her mother telling her about witches fighting demons and writing them down in the diary for Alexis.
Alexis flicked through the pages, looking for the picture of the demon invading her work. She couldn’t find it fast enough and the demon crashed into her cubicle, pushing everything over and creating havoc. She turned around and froze him again, moving her desk (and anything else heavy that she could find) on top of him.
She turned back to her diary, holding her hands over the pages and willing them to open to the right page. A wind picked up and the pages flipped by themselves, eventually falling open to the right page.
Alexis turned around and saw that the demon had unfrozen and was struggling to move. She froze him again then turned back to read the page.
Ariyus.
A recently ‘born’ demon that was turned after an almost fatal car crash. He was gifted the power to absorb a witches powers by eating them. He is a particular favourite of the Demon King because of his near invincibility.
“Shit. He’s near invincible?!” Alexis turned and looked at him, horrified.
“That’s right, bitch. You can’t defeat me,” Ariyus laughed.
Alexis froze him again, reading on.
Ariyus was deathly allergic to peanuts in his human life and is still sensitive to them if inhaled. A simple jar of peanut butter is enough to kill him.
“Peanut butter?” Alexis laughed. “That’s all it will take to kill you?”
Alexis continued to laugh at Ariyus. She laughed so hard that she didn’t realise that she had no peanut butter.
“Do you have any peanut butter?” Ariyus smiled evilly. “Of course you don’t. You’re allergic too. I can sense it in your aura.”
Alexis stopped laughing and froze. She hadn’t thought of that.
“See?” Ariyus’ laugh mocked her.
Alexis froze Ariyus and read some more.
He can also be killed by sticking a demonic blade into his stomach or chanting this simple spell:
Evil eyes look unto thee,
May you soon extinguished be.
Bend my will to the power of three,
Eye of Earth, evil and accursed.
Alexis turned towards Ariyus. She was getting pretty tired now, although she could not tell. After freezing Ariyus so many times she had exhausted her power. This did not stop her.
She took a deep breath then looked at Ariyus. She unfroze him and stared at him.
“Evil eyes look unto thee, May you soon extinguished be. Bend my will to the power of three, Eye of Earth, evil and accursed.”
The spell hung in the air for a moment. Light seemed to be coming from inside Ariyus’ stomach and he looked down.
“Noooooooo! How can this be?” he cried. He shook his fists in the air and his stomach exploded in a burst of flame, sending ashes into the air. The ashes floated down to the ground and went ‘Poof!’
