Hello there! This was supposed to be posted yesterday, but then we went to a block party, so sorry! But here we are, back to the story! I hope you enjoy!
David’s POV
It was hard to look at him. He looked exactly like Elliot, every small detail, except it wasn’t him at all. I could tell that easily, with how he sat, with how he scowled. Elliot didn’t scowl at all anyway. Yet it was still hard to see him tied up like a common prisoner.
Marina led Melanie into the room, a hand pressed on her back to keep her from running away but also to keep her calm. She went up to not Elliot hesitantly. Marina knelt down to Melanie’s height. “Okay sweetie, you don’t have to be here long. We just want to know if you’ve seen this man before.” Melanie turned to not Elliot, squinting as if it would help her sight. Slowly, she nodded. “Yeah, he was new. They took him and he was thrown in with us, but he was always chained up. He tried…to talk with us. No one ever talked back, no one ever talked,” she explained.
Great, just great. Before this I assumed it was just kids, which was bad enough, but now someone I knew had been taken. Now it was fully personal. “So he’s still there with them?” I asked Melanie.
“I…I think so,” she said. “Is he a friend of yours?” I ran a hand over my face. “Yeah, obviously not a very smart one though.” She smiled a little at that before Marina put a hand on her shoulder, clearly implying it was time to leave. She listened and then they were gone.
I looked over at Logan, then at not Elliot. It was still unnerving, but now something new was bubbling, because I was pissed. They had Elliot, how was I supposed to react any other way? I clutched his shirt, but he just smirked.
“Oh, upset are we? Relax, your friend is fine. We’re not killers,” he said. I slammed his back into the chair before letting go. “Then what are you?” He just laughed. And laughed. And laughed. Like the psychopath he was. “You’re as stupid as that police officer if you think I’d tell you anything.” It was insanely tempting to slam him into the chair again, but Logan stopped me. Instead he stepped up, his claws ready to scratch this thing to shreds. That was probably worse than anything I could’ve done to him, and it was pretty obvious that everyone in the room knew that too.
Logan smiled as if he fully knew what he was doing, but in reality, did he? Didn’t matter, his claws were already dug into not Elliot’s chest, causing a hiss from the monster. “You sure you don’t want to tell us anything?” he asked. It almost looked like there were tears in the corner of not Elliot’s eyes from the pain, but then he just smiled that terrible smile again. “Nice try!”
Those were his last words before he kicked Logan’s leg out from under him, knocking the contents of his pockets out, which happened to include a lighter. Not Elliot laughed. “See you in Hell!” Then he flicked the lighter on and put it up to his chest. The flame danced there for only a moment before somehow covering every inch of his body, burning him to crisp.
He died laughing.
Logan and I stood there for almost a minute, silent and staring at the now dead body in front of us. It was still Elliot’s body, technically, but it was so disfigured that it didn’t look like it was, just a burnt crisp of what used to be a man. Except this wasn’t a man, it was a monster. Yet it seemed almost impossible to convince myself of that.
“David, I’m sorry. I know how this looks-” Logan tried, but I cut him off. “It’s fine Logan,” I promised. “It’s not him.” Air. I needed air. “I’ll be right back.” Logan seemed to want to say something, but he let me leave without another word.
Logan’s POV
“Logan, are you okay,” Marina said, walking into the room just as David left. I looked between her and the now dead monster body. How could I be okay with this? “Sorry Marina, I didn’t mean to make a mess.” She shook her head. “Please, don’t act like I’m stupid. You’re not okay Logan, you haven’t been since that day at the library. And you know I’d understand, so why won’t you talk to me about it?”
This was something that made Marina annoying sometimes. You can’t hide things from her, no matter how hard you try, she’ll always find a way to get you to talk about it. Sighing, I sat down on the couch. “I don’t know how to explain it. Just seeing what I did and being helpless, it made me feel like a kid again.”
Marina nodded. “So the natural way to deal with that is anger?” I looked up at her. “No, of course not.”
She knelt down in front of me. “Well then do what we practiced. In, out.” She took a deep breath and I followed her. Marina taught me this pretty early in our relationship, back when I was an angry teenager. But it wasn’t really even anger, it was fear, fear that what happened to my parents would happen to me, fear that I would be no better than others in my species, the ones who killed. Marina saw that better than anyone. I don’t know why. From what I know of her life, she was pretty normal, as far as a family of psychics were normal. But of course I didn’t know the whole story. Marina didn’t tell me much about her life before she met me, and I never really asked.
In. Out. In. Out. Simple but effective.
David’s POV
This was probably one of the stupidest things I could do, but if Marina and Logan didn’t know what these monsters were, then we’d have to use other sources.
“What happened to I hope I never see you again?” Belphegor asked after one ring of the phone. I rubbed my head. God this was a bad idea. “You also said to call if I needed anything. Remember, no one asked for your number.”
A small laugh came from the other end of the phone. “I suppose I did! Well, fine. What is it that the detective idiots need from me today?”
“There’s this…monster. Marina and Logan don’t know what it is, but you’re a demon. So-”
“So I know every monster ever? Really, that’s what you think?” Belphegor said. I shrugged, placing the phone on my shoulder and leaning against it. “Am I wrong?” Silence.
“I’ll be there in five minutes.”
“Wait I didn’t mean-” But he hung up already. Great, Logan was going to love this.
“YOU DID WHAT?” Logan yelled. Yep, he was taking this just like I thought he would.
“Logan, we need help. I’m not asking him to do the case with us, just identify the monster. I don’t know about you but I’m sick of sitting around not even knowing what we’re after,” I explained. He still didn’t look thrilled, but he understood. Obviously he didn’t really like Belphegor, which was fair. He was a literal demon who tried to kill us. It wasn’t like he was my friend either. But he was useful. That was one of the reasons I hadn’t tried to kill him again.
There was a knock and Marina opened the door. “Psychic! Long time no see,” Belphegor said with a smile, whether it was sweet or predatory was impossible to tell. Marina however gave him back a smile that seemed genuine. “Hello Bel. Come inside.” The first thing he saw when he did was Melanie, which I could tell from the raised eyebrows.
“Who got pregnant and when?” he asked, pointing to the girl. Marina shook her head, patting Belphegor’s shoulder. “She’s one of the victims,” she explained, which seemed enough to help Bel get it. He smiled at Melanie, leaning to her height. “The name’s Belphegor, but you can call me Bel. What about you?” He stuck out his hand.
Slowly and unsurely, she shook it. “Melanie. What…are you?” Belphegor’s smile dropped, as if not wanting to say it. His eyes began to glow light blue. “I’m a fallen angel,” he told her. Melanie’s jaw dropped. “Really? Angels are real?”
Belphegor’s eyes turned back to their normal color. “Yeah. But don’t trust everything you read, kid. Some stories are biased.” He turned to me. “Okay, where’s this dead monster body?”
Me and Logan led him to the living room. We hadn’t touched not Elliot since he died. I wasn’t touching him, and no one else wanted to. Belphegor seemed to have no such fear however, as he knelt down next to the body and grabbed its face. He moved it around before opening its mouth. The teeth were normal though, maybe a little sharper than usual, but normal. He then opened its eyes. They were pure white, like Melanie had described when she was taken. Belphegor smiled. “Easy. It’s a changeling.”
Belphegor got up, brushing himself off. Logan looked at the body and then him. “Changelings? But those are fairies. Fairies aren’t real,” he said, so sure of himself. Belphegor just laughed to himself. “Just because you haven’t seen something doesn’t mean it’s not real. You haven’t seen angels but they’re real. Fairies just don’t come to earth often.”
I stepped forward. “Then where are they from?” Belphegor shrugged. “Fairy land? I don’t know, I haven’t been. Beelzebub told me it was called Avalon, but he’s a pathological liar so I wouldn’t trust that. Either way, changelings are some of the only fairies that come anywhere near earth. They like to catch humans, use them as slaves or to take care of their children. Kids are easy targets for them.”
I looked at the burnt body. Elliot was with them. “And how do you kill them?”
“Fire, I think. Like that story, Frankenstein! Oh, and the words Gairim agus coisricim thú. Pretty sure they mean I bless you or I consecrate you, but whatever it is, they hate it. Won’t kill them, but it hurts like hell. But you need to find their hive. Once you kill their leader, the rest tend to back off,” Belphegor said. “That enough information for you?”
Me and Logan looked at each other. It wasn’t everything, but it was enough. We just had to find them. I put my arm around Belphegor’s shoulders, leading him back out. “Thanks Belphegor, we appreciate it.” He scrunched his face up and pulled away from me. “Yeah yeah. Remember, just because you two didn’t kill me again doesn’t make us friends. You’re lucky I wasn’t doing anything else today.”
Somehow, I had this sneaking suspicion that he didn’t hate us as much as he acted like he did. Maybe because there were worse people to hate.
“Okay Belphie, sure. See you around,” I said, opening the door. He glared at me. “Don’t call me that.” Then he left without another word. I grinned to myself. Logan reached in his pocket, taking out a new lighter. He flicked it on. “Back to the library?” He seemed to be back to his usual self, even for a moment. Excited to kill some monsters. I nodded with a smile. “I guess so.”
Okay so we finally know what the monster is! How will David and Logan defeat them? Will they be able to find Elliot and the kids? Stay tuned to find out!
