Photo by David Monje on Unsplash
I lowered my toothbrush as the bathroom distorted and stretched around me. There was a brief moment where I wondered if I was having some kind of seizure as everything went dark. However, my feet were still planted firmly on the ground. Only, where there had been egg-shell blue tiles beneath my fluffy socks, now there was smooth rock. Smooth rock which had been scribbled on with white chalk. Well, it definitely wasn't my bathroom and it definitely wasn't the hospital. So, I maybe wasn't having a seizure.
I coughed as the scent of smoke caught in my throat, causing me to spew toothpaste everywhere. Muffled gasps from around me drew my attention to the room which had materialised in replace of my bathroom. It looked like something from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but darker. Much darker. Fires crackled in braziers around the edge of the room, but the source of the cloying smoke were an assortment of black wax candles placed in a circle around me. I was stood in the centre of the room within what I assume was a pentagram. I'd seen the things before but only on the TV, I'd never seen one in person and I'd certainly never found myself in one before.
Demons, ghosts and the like were just children's stories. It simply wasn't something I wasted my time on. Especially not when I was trying to brush my teeth and get ready for a very important meeting. Beyond the candles a selection of hooded figures loomed, their faces hidden in darkness.
‘Look this really isn't funny,’ I said, wiping away the toothpaste from my mouth.
One of the hooded figures shrieked and took a step back. The others whispered amongst themselves but offered no explanation for my current situation. Maybe Dave had put something in my toothpaste and thought that this was some hilarious prank. Drugging someone was not hilarious, and neither were pentagrams. I coughed again as the candle smoke snagged at my throat. The same hooded figure who had shrieked before, let out a scream as if someone had just murdered their family.
I rolled my eyes and took a step forward to the edge of the chalk circle. My hooded onlookers gasped and shuffled away from me. I stopped. In line with the chalk was some kind of invisible barrier, I couldn't say what it was, it shimmered in the air like it was hot. Only it wasn't hot, it was icy cold and no matter how I tried, I couldn't go any further. It repelled me and chilled my skin when I tried to touch it.
‘I don't know how you're doing it Dave but it's really not funny,’ I insisted.
Not one of the people gathered offered an explanation. They'd better give me some of the money they get from the YouTube video of this. No doubt it would go viral. I'd be a laughingstock for years. Today of all days, was not the day to become a viral laughingstock. Today was the day of the investment meeting and I really didn't have time for this. Who knew how long I'd been here already? ‘I'm going to be late!’ I shouted.
The fires in the braziers flared up illuminating the room with their crimson light. I got a look at the faces of the hooded figures for the first time. Either they were wearing some exceptional prosthetics, which Dave definitely couldn't afford with his sales numbers, or those were demons. I mean actual demons. They had scales, yellow eyes with slit-like pupils and horns that curled out from beneath their hoods. One, a red-scaled beast with pointed teeth took a tentative step forward. He said something in a language I couldn't understand, then cleared his throat and tried again.
‘We wish to make a deal,' he carefully spoke each word as if it was foreign on his forked tongue. It was like he had been practising saying that for a long time but never thought he'd actually need to say it. Kind of like A-Level French. No, nope, just no. This was Dave, they're not real, this isn't happening and I'm going to be really, really late.
‘Cool, I wish to get the hell out of here!’ I replied, in no mood for games. If I was late to this meeting, I would lose the investment, it would be career-ending. Demon or Dave, this couldn't happen.
The demon who had screamed before stepped forward; it was only then that I realised she had what can only be described as a hell-goat on a lead. The goats you and I have seen before are undoubtedly quite funny looking creatures, with beards and big eyes. This goat also had a beard, if tentacles can be classed as a beard. And at least four pairs of its eyes were large and vacantly staring at me as if I was the odd thing in the room.
One step at a time the demon approached the circle, sweat beaded on its horned forehead as it handed the goats lead to the head demon. The head demon nodded and turned to face me. It pulled an intricately engraved knife from within its cloak. The blade shimmered in the firelight, making it look like smoke swirled beneath the surface of the metal. Now this whole thing really was going too far. I wasn't prepared to die for one of Dave's stupid video ideas. I opened my mouth to protest this but before the words got out the demon plunged the knife into the goat's neck. I gaped in horror as the thing squealed and bucked prior to collapsing in a bloody heap by the edge of my circle.
With a flourish the demon bowed as if he was offering me the twitching corpse of the goat. I took a step back. Maybe this wasn't Dave.
I dropped the toothbrush from my limp hand. It bounced on the ground and onto the edge of the circle. The chalk was smudged. The hooded demons stared at it as if I had unveiled some horrific weapon to them. I realised where the chalk had smudged the barrier that had been containing me had vanished. I raised a hand and pushed it forward, sure enough the freezing air had gone. I stepped out of the circle.
‘I'm just going to leave now and forget this ever happened, ok?’ I said.
That was when the screaming started. The demons fled like teenagers fleeing responsibilities. I, however, did have responsibilities. Namely an investment meeting. Now, the problem was no one would stop running away from me long enough to give me directions. This was inconvenient to say the least.
I peered out of the door through which the demons had fled. A rugged staircase led deep down into darkness. It didn't look like there were any other options, seemingly the only way was down. I followed the demonic screams down the stairs, the darkness receded before me although I couldn't see any lights. I wish that the office lights were this efficient. There better be a Costa at the bottom of these stairs because I'll be damned if I'm going to arrive to a meeting without my flat white.
The door at the bottom of the stairs had been left ajar. Voices came from within; they still held the same guttural tones as before but since stepping out of the circle it was like a veil had been lifted from my head. Now the hacking and spitting noises made sense to my coffee-deprived brain.
‘You summoned a Karen? A Karen!?’ A booming voice shouted.
‘We're sorry, we thought we could contain it,’ I recognised that voice as the demon who had wanted to make a deal before.
‘It brought terrible weapons, hideous weapons...’ the shrieker butted in.
‘The likes of which we've never seen before!’ finished the other demon.
I risked a glance through the gap in the door. The hooded group from upstairs were cowering before a much larger demon who swept up the shrieker and held him in the air by his throat.
‘You never, ever, summon a Karen. Do you know how dangerous they are? Why not start with a Bob or even a Chris?’ The large demon shouted.
‘Alright, enough is enough,’ I threw open the door. The huge demon dropped the shrieker and stared at me with its six black eyes. ‘I am really late to a very important meeting and you lot are trying my patience. Also, my name is not Karen.
I'm Keren, there's a difference.’ I folded my arms and waited.
‘A Keren?’ The big guy uttered with a visible tremble.
The shrieker began to sob on the floor while the others began to back away.
‘Don't you walk away from me; I'm talking to you. You'd better tell me how to get to my office or...’ I trailed off, I wasn't quite sure or what. They were demons. This wasn't like I was dealing with Dave. They had horns, were over 7-foot-tall and could rip me limb from limb in a moment. And yet, they were cowering away from me as if I was the terrifying one.
‘Or what?’ The demon who had wanted to make a deal whispered.
I took a deep breath and flicked my hair away from my face.
‘I want to speak to your manager.’
I'm Katy, but go by K H Simmons officially. I write a lot of sci-fi, dark fantasy and dystopian fiction. If you're here for sparkly vampires, you're in the wrong place ;)
I frequently post short stories on my Facebook page, as well as work on full length novels. If you want more short stories like the above - check out my anthology Death, Demons & Dystopia available on Amazon/Kindle. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YN5DY98
When I'm not writing, I can usually be found cuddling dogs, reading, at the gym or playing video games.
