Page 34 of Demonic Cage
I feel guilt gripping me, as if a snake’s fangs are boring into my heart. Desperation overwhelms me and I cry out to Bengt: “No!”
I repeat it once, then multiple times. Eventually, I’m only talking to myself, crouching down, hands pressed to my ears. He’s not here. He’s not here, he’s not here, he’s not here. But it’s in vain. Bengt’s voice keeps reaching me, filling me with guilt. Climbing up my neck, shaking my body, stabbing a knife into my heart. I thought I had accepted it. I thought…
A huge scream erupts from my lungs. The gray light emanating from me burns through space, and along with it, my brother, too. Gasping, I find myself back in the vine-filled garden with narcissus. I stand in front of the mirror, its right corner now cracked, and I have to grab onto a nearby stone pillar to help calm myself down. Next to the glass, the vines are weaved around the statue of a little crouching girl. It’s me. I was huddled like that, screaming. The snake-like, crawling poison-green plants embrace the statue’s legs, claiming her as part of the space. There is a similar statue next to my petrified reflection. The vines have almost completely covered it, but the tears flowing down its face remain distinctly visible.
Lizander. All the carvings surrounding the two suffering statues depict Nárs’s triumphant figure. What was it he saw?
Nárs leans against a rock to my right, lazily fanning himself. When I look at him, he spreads his arms innocently.
“I told you it was dangerous! You didn’t listen to the warning.”
I turn away from him. He’s right.
“It felt so real,” I insist.
“Of course it did,” he retorts. “Every desire is real!”
Nárs babbles incessantly. After half an hour, which I swear feels like a day, I turn towards the demon, who is throwing kisses at himself in the mirror, and tear at my hair.
“So,” I say, exhaling sharply, “why did you bring me here? Will anyone ever tell me why I’m here? And why…? Hey! That’s my lipstick!”
Nárs throws his lily-colored shining grin at me as he continues applying my makeup.
“Oh, Little Flower, there’s no need to react so horribly! I borrowed a few of yourstuffs. That’s what they say, right? Stuffs?”
“You fuc…” My heartbeat quickens. “Did you find anything else among my stuff?”
The demon retrieves a comb –my comb– from the vines and adjusts his tousled, orange hair.
“If you’re thinking about the pills, Lily Girl,” he says, looking at me from the corner of his eye, “I have to disappoint you. I’ve already taken them all.”
“What?” I open my mouth wide.
“Okay. I gave Kripot a few, so he wouldn’t be so grumpy.” He pauses, shaking his head. “But I might have to help him swallow them.”
He winks at me.Kripot.If I find Kripot, maybe I can convince him to give the pills to me.
“So,” I begin, trying to divert my attention from the drugs, “why am I here? Can someone finally explain? You owe me that much, since you kidnapped me and brought me to this damn hell!”
“Hell is not here, and if I remember correctly,youdecided to come with me.”
The voice isn’t Nárs’s. A breeze caresses my neck as Darya gracefully descends beside me. The demon’s black bat wings momentarily obscure the sun from me, the dawn-colored membrane filtering the light. They’re so huge, they could cover me, crush me. His gaze glides over my body, as it does every time he sees me.
“And if I remember correctly,” I retort, “you said you were taking me to a place where they wouldn’t lock me up again!”
Darya steps towards me, and the light breaks on his black leather vest. Mentally, I tether myself to the ground to keep from stepping back.
“People punish you if they sense madness in you. Demons kill you if they sense weakness. You spent years trying to prove you’re not crazy, but it didn’t work, because no matter what you do, people will always think that of you. You said you wanted to go to a place where they wouldn’t lock you up. You’re the one who can free yourself from your room. But if you leave prematurely and encounter a demon, you must know how to defend yourself.”
I open my mouth, then immediately shut it. Darya is right.
I never had a chance to be normal. But why would I?
“I was called crazy because of you!” I hiss, then look at Nárs. “Because of you! If your monsters hadn’t come every night, I wouldn’t have been locked up!”
“Oh, Little Flower!” Nárs claps his hands. “Filizi’s demons haunt not only you in your dreams! Every demon-souled child sees them!”
My brow furrows.
