"You see. What first gave us hints about its presence was the diary. It was fairly normal, from what we could still read. It went like this - do realize, we had to infer some words."

The demon was still talking. This story was different from the ones it normally heard...normally, the stories were...not ones where the person telling it was actually there. But it seemed this demon was there for this story...

It hadn't stopped doing its job. Its actual body was there. So this was not wrong. There was nothing wrong with it coming over to look at the demon as he talked more closely. Nothing at all. Even if the demon did look like he thought something was wrong. He kept looking back at it after all.

The demon next to the small one gave him a weird looking thing, and the smaller demon opened it. It was looking into the thing as it talked.

"Day one. I changed my titles because I'm in a new game now. Mom said we're playing hide and seek with the people outside. That's why I have to stay quiet and can't practice my war cries. Or fight with the other kids. We have to purserve our strength and stuff. It's really loud outside. I mean, I can still feel the ground shaking. Some of the kids are crying. Indecipherable. I'm not alone right now. I was kinda annoyed when we only got a little food though. They pulled it out of some storage room or whatever. There wasn't a lot of water either. The grown ups look worried. They're all murmuring in a corner and made me go sit with the other kids. They keep bugging me while I write. Indecipherable."

There were no sounds right now, and the demon was also not talking. Now seemed like a good time to move. Since it was sure talking when someone else was talking was bad polietness; it even waited. It carefully walked over...and hit the ground. A bug that had been slowly coming over was killed.

It had to let them see it working right.

The demon made a weird noise, and then went on.

"Day two. We didn't get a whole lot of food today either. The sounds are still there but now they sound quieter. I heard dad say that they moved past us. They won't tell us what they're doing though. But I'm not stupid like these kids. I know what they're doing out there. They're doing a big fight, and leaving us out of the fun. Then they'll come find us for hide and seek. Who leaves the hiders alone for a day? That's just stupid. Indecipherable. My stomach hurts. I think everyones' does. They're saying there wasn't enough time to stock the place for so many people. Does that mean there's extra people? Indecipherable. My head hurts too. The cold ground is hard to sleep on. And it's dark. I don't like it here. When, indecipherable."

Quiet again. They were all looking very closely at the talking demon. So was it. This was some story. It even lasted days!

"Day three. I can't write much because I got dragged around by the other kids to play. The grown ups stopped telling us to purserve our strength. They were doing something with the door before. I don't know why they're trying to open it though. We can't let the seekers know we're here? The game must have just started. The sounds only stopped a while ago. Indecipherable. We didn't want to do it. It just happened."

What happened? And what was all this "indecipherable?" Why did the word keep being used. Should it do that? Indecipherable. WHAT NEXT?

It felt like the demon gave a fast back look but it wasn't sure. 

"Day four. The adults are asking us. Asking us what happened to Rax. But that's okay, because indecipherable. No one will ever know. I'm hungry too. I've noticed some of the adults acting weird too. I don't feel too well today."

Who's Rax? Why was this not said before? AND, WHY WAS THIS ONE SO SHORT?

"Day five. Indecipherable. Day six. Somebody ate Lert. They won't say, but I know. I can see the blood stains on those two. Those are bite marks on Lert's body, and ain't nobody indecipherable."

Oh, so not only did the person not say who Rax was, talker in thing one even added a Lert now? 

"Day seven. We're completely out of food now. The corpses are going missing too. Rax's body was one of the first to go. Everyone is acting weird now. Indecipherable. Mom and father are telling me to hide. I am to stay in this room. Isn't this becoming too long for a game?"

So a "game" was where you killed and ate each other? While inside a place you couldn't get out of? The small demons in the city sometimes talked about "playing" too. Could it be that this was what they were doing? That was some training. Even killing off friends?

"Day eight. They're dead. I peeked out. I hear chewing. I can see somebody crouched over the corpse. I don't know who they are, but they're eating - there's copious blood stains here. More so than other parts."

Why though?

"Day nine. I did it. I'm going to keep doing it. I don't want to die yet. So, they'll go first. Diary, you're listening right? You understand me right? I'm not...the wrong one."

It wasn't sure. Was it? This was fun. It was like it could talk to the one that was talking. 

"Day ten. I won. I - the rest of the page is torn out. There's bite marks here where some pages are missing."

Won what? Did the talking one kill everyone else? 

"Ay sming. Sil aive. I dot nw h. Hp."

What?

"Translation. Day something. Still alive. I don't know why...help."

Ohhhh, that made a lot more sense. But what does all this have to do with the ruins? That wasn't to say it wasn't a good story though. 

"We heard it y'know. We heard it coming. We laughed it off at first. A voice."

If you "heard" it coming, why didn't you just kill it first? Like throwing lots of magic at it. No more questions. Or running away. Both were good choices. They almost always worked in its remembers. 

"'hElLo? aRe YoU tHeRe?' it asked. 'peEK a BOO!' it screamed. And then it was there. Right in front of us. It crawled out of that corridor. It wasn't alive that was for sure. We could see its brain clearly after all. It's head was normal sized, but the body was massive. Easily as large as the passageway, and long like a worm. Squeezed in it was, thanks to its size. A blessing in a way."

Ohhh. Sounds fun. But if they could see the "brain," which was apparently not to be seen, why not hit it with lots of magic? Sometimes these stories didn't make sense to it. What was the point of having more people and having magic if not to kill everything without questions? To hit it so many times in first hit that it died before it could attack back.

"That was when we noticed all the voices. One just repeated that 'hello' over and over. The others, children from the sounds, like the main one, said 'peek a boo' or 'surprise!' It wasn't a monster unheard of. Some variant of an undead abomination. Then, as it came out of the passageway, there were the heads. More heads and eyes and arms and legs, jutting out here and there, along its length. The children were the only ones present though. The arms and legs were of adults from what I saw. The heads of children. His friends in life, and now in unlife as well."

It heard a swallow sound from one of the demons sitting in the listening group. Sun kept looking behind it now and the other demons too, were either looking around or moving closer to their friends. It was dark after all. Since it was night. 

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

The only light came from the fire on the ground and on the weird clubs that the demons on top of the weird things were holding. 

Why had it never thought of that? Fire and clubs would be even better than either on their own. 

"The main one looked right at me. I still remember locking gazes with that one rotted eye. Preserved by whatever magic kept the thing together. 'hY dID yOu TaKe So LoNG tO sEeK uS? bUt i cAn sTiLl tAg YoU!'"

That didn't sound good. Run! Run demon, RUN! Also it wasn't liking this. How come Styx was fastly doing something to his sword with a rock? It was looking nicer now. Somehow the sound it made when he moved it around was better...why was no one making it hit with that rock? Wouldn't it also become stronger then? Cut better? With...its arms. Or something. Where was that demon going?

"It grabbed one of my friends and ate him. Not with that head, no. A tear opened in it. A flap fell out with a wet thud, spraying some vile fluid everywhere, and inside, I could see more heads. There was a small cavity there, but it closed as soon as he was stuffed in. Another arm came out of its side right after. Trase, the fool, ran forwards and slashed it hard. Nothing happened but more of that vile fluid splashing out of the tear. It didn't heal, but it simply grabbed Trase and pushed him in through the cut, as he choked and fell from the touch of the fiend's blood. New flesh sealed it soon after."

Seeing as demons with names were dying now, one would think this would be a good point to run. Though it felt like it wasn't that bad. This thing wouldn't be able to touch its actual body. All was well. Also what were those things one of the demons was giving to everyone? The one who went before was now handing out weird looking things to everyone. Everyone. And they put them around themselves, covering up. Even the demons on the weird things got them. This was not ok. If everyone got one, then it wanted one too!

"The weapons and armor just disappeared. It was hit with fire and ice, lightning, acid, even holy, but nothing worked. The affected flesh would just fall off. And all the while the heads kept talking. There was no way we could run either. Ghosts of some kind were blocking the door. 'Join us,' I remember them saying. When Jarx ran for it, they pulled out his soul and pulled it apart. Ate it. 'Join us?' In their stomachs or something probably. I couldn't understand why they hadn't just come at us from the start. Why they waited until we read the diary. Why that freak smiled and sang as it killed us. The heads cackled in glee, singing some butchered nursery rhyme. Ah, how I regretted signing up. I thought right then, that I was dead."

Well, considering what was happening it was pretty sure it should be dead too. But he was here right? Wasn't it obvious it didn't die? And it still didn't get one of those things. 

But Styx was moving his head in, holding the weird thing that the demon gave everyone up to his mouth but not doing that swallow thing with it. Sun on the other hand made the weird thing's bottom point up and fastly ate all of what was inside. 

"But then, the other teams came in. They lost men to the ghosts too, but pushed through with numbers. Unlike us, they had an organized attack. I at the time, hadn't even realized that I wasn't moving properly. Fear? I had thought so at first, but I looked down and realized there were some...things sprouting from my shadow, curling gently along my legs. And some...thing, on my neck. I noticed it when one of them shot an arrow at my neck. The new teams weren't bound yet and quickly shredded the ghosts and...things from the shadows. Many fell in the push. People I remembered talking to on the way to the site, ones I remembered fighting with and laughing with. Then they met that thing. That monstrosity."

Then they died. But so. The demon was alive because of other people? It would not lie, it thought the demon would do something. Like. Some magic or whatever. Not other demons coming. Well, whatever worked. 

"It grabbed and ate many of them. Still more were crushed and suffocated by it as it pushed itself into the chamber. But, there we stopped it. We hit it, over and over. Stabbed and smashed and burned it. Fire, was really a useful one. Every now and then, it would grab someone, and they would die. Sometimes we managed to cut the arms and free them. Other times...but we couldn't let it push us back. Trapped in the corridor, we could steadily wear it down. Any more bulk into the chamber and we'd be pushed into the corridor and unable to hit it nearly as much."

Sun was making and breaking some fire in his hands. Was he getting ready to fight it? Heh. Styx was touching his sword. 

All the demons were closer to the fire now. 

"Ouch," came from one demon who touched the fire. But it stayed there and pulled out a fire club. The others did the same, holding them close. Even if they said 'ouch' or 'ow' every now and then. 

"With the supply line from the city, we burned it down. We killed it, but at the cost of most of the mercenaries at the site. My own team was practically wiped out. Even the support that came afterwards actually had serious casualties. And what did we get as loot? Nothing. It was just an emergency shelter from long ago, where the undead had festered for Azaraath knows how long. I took my pay, and the diary, and left. Not that it was worth enough to cover the damages. Not nearly enough..."

The demon took a long time eating from that weird thing. 

Wow. A nice story. Very fun. Especially the parts with the 'day' whatever! Ok. Next!

"So," sun started, "was it really, the owner of the diary?"

 "Was it? Perhaps the main head. Perhaps at first. But at that time? No, that was an amalgamation of all those damned souls."

Styx took a long sigh, "Then, what happened after?"

"Nothing." The demon shook its head. "We were told to keep it secret to the residents for whatever reason and paid. That was all."

It waited for more talking but there was none. Everyone just was there, silent, and looking around. Sun even throwed a little fire out into the night. 

"Anybody else?" Yes demon. Good. More stories.

"If not, we'll go to bed."

Ohhhhhh....

"I! I, have a story." Sun fastly went up and said loudly. 

Oh, sun? You were talking now? What story could you have?

"It was a dark and stormy night."

That already sounded stupid sun. Get off that place. Just because the story demon moved for him didn't mean he should just go there. He was not a story demon. Get out. 

"I uh, I don't really have a good normal story. This one is still about ghosts and undead."

Ohhhh, ghosts. What was a ghost anyway?

"We all know ghosts sometimes can't be seen. That they float around and mess with you. Watching you silently all the time."

That sounded scary. Was there a ghost watching it too? It sure hoped not. It might even be worried if that happened.

"One day, I was outside late. It was after curfew because I was busy finishing up some experiments in the lab. I mean, you can't just leave something like that in the middle, right? And so, I stayed late to finish up. It was when I went outside that I realized something was wrong. There was blood all over the ground and walls of the school too. I could hear a weak call for help, 'help, oh please help!' I walked faster. I wouldn't be caught dead in some creepy stuff. Like. You never know right? But then the voice got louder."

Oh no. RUN! RUN FASTER! This was the same as the demon in the story! Why did they never run! Come on sun, you run when you see anything strong! Like back when they first came to the camp! Why didn't you run then!? 

"It got louder and I could hear a dragging sound behind me. Then, something grabbed my leg. I turned around to see a zombie clutching my leg. Quickly I kicked my leg free, but its arm came with me."

Good job sun. Well done. 

"'That's not nice,' I heard a voice say from above me. Some bloody corpse was hung from one of the flagpoles. It still dripped, but it was see through. Then, the one on the ground came and bear hugged me from behind while the one that was hanging started laughing."

Styx sighed, but one of the other demons moved in. "Then what? What happened? How did you survive?" 

Sun nodded. "That, was my first encounter with the undead dormitories students. Chad and Jeff were pranking me for fun. I reflexively killed Chad with a fireball when he caught me though. Jeff picked a fight with me later but I killed him too. You have no idea how scared I was. Not to mention, my dorm supervisor lectured me a lot for being late afterwards and killing students without a licence. I got fined."

"How horrible," one of the other demons said, shaking his head. 

"Horrible" indeed. To think he broke the "curfew." Whatever that was. 

"Thanks for listening. So. Anyone else wanna give one?"

Well, it wasn't sure. Was there? It would be ok with it for sure. Stories were fun. 

But even after a while it looked like no one was coming up. 

Spoiler: Status

Unnamed Pseudo-void Spirit Level: 3/10 Species: Pseudo-void Armor Avatar of Soul Bewitching Shadow Domain Spirit (C-) Affinities: Darkness, Death, Pseudo-void, Pseudo-Space Age: 664 years

Titles:

Body Status:

Normal

Status Points: 48 Health Points (HP): 467/467 Mana Points (MP): 423/423 Intelligence 74 Wisdom 16 Strength 10  Dexterity 5  Endurance 15