“Restitution?” she whispered. She got the sense it wanted something from her.

We require more bodies, said the demon. It took another shaky step toward her, foot sliding on the frozen ground. Snow blew into its flames and evaporated. Droplets ran down the sides of its oversized ghoul head, glistening. It almost looked like a Jack-o'-lantern, except instead of a pumpkin, it was made out of snow.

Jenny glanced at the fields worth of frozen ghouls. “Well, you’ve got plenty of ghouls to pick from. So how about you leave us alone?” She chewed on the inside of her lip, blinking snowflakes from her eyes.

The demon didn’t waver. We require more.

“What? How’s that not enough?”

We number in billions. It cocked its head as if to size her up, the flames seemingly turning as it did so.

She shivered. She told herself that it was due to the cold, but when the demon took another step, she stumbled back. Jenny hadn’t meant to; she didn’t want to appear weak or frightened. But she couldn’t help it. She knew what the demon wanted. What they would want.

Your body is so warm, it said, mouth clacking open and shot. And the many behind you... so warm. They will suffer in this world without our flames.

“Suffer?” she repeated. She swallowed hard. “You’re just going to possess us, aren’t you?” Shit. Shit. Shit. Her mind raced, trying to figure out what to say or do. She couldn’t open another passageway again. Not yet at least. She’d have to fight them.

Could she eve fight them?

You cannot defeat us in battle, said the demon, straightening its head. You cannot escape. There is nowhere to run. Submit and your bodies will be of use. Your bodies will be relinquished when we are restored.

“No!” shouted Jenny, throwing her hatchet as hard as she could in the freezing cold. Savage Throw.

It whistled through the snow and struck the demon on its bulbous ghoul head with a thwack, snapping its head back. The long, white arms flailed like the creature was trying to find its balance. But then it slid on its heel and landed on the ice with a hard thud.

Did that... get it? Her lips stung from the cold, she balled up her fists, willing her armor to grow back over her fingers and cover them. It didn’t help much, but at least the wind wasn’t directly hitting her skin. She only wished she could go back and fetch her helmet.

Flames still flickered from the ghoul’s eyes, and there was no notification of having defeated a creature or of Energy gained. She hadn’t hurt it. The other demons, nearly two dozen of them, stepped forward in unison.

Their eyes burned in various shades. Two of them were red, they were stage i. She wasn’t afraid of them in the least, but some were yellow and white, stage ii and stage iii, and flames flickered all over their ghoul bodies like they were charging up for an attack.

But before they could make their move, the first demon’s arm shot up in the air, fingers stretched out. Refrain from attack! We require her light.

Jenny grimaced as the demon got to its feet, her hatchet’s handle sticking out from between its burning eyes like a bizarre unicorn horn. With a flash of light, she summoned it back, wishing the ghoul body would just disintegrate from the blow.

There was an ugly gash on its head, cracks stretching away from the point of impact. But it was glowing... it was liquid. It looked like glowing blue liquid that flowed thickly inside the creature like gelatinous blood.

I will retrieve her light.

Its blue flames pulses, growing larger and larger with every flicker, and Jenny couldn’t help but remember the bright blue light emanating from the Desecrated Angel she’d fought nearly to the death. She thought back to the blue of Susan's armor. Of Susan's hair. The blue of the sky on a sunny day. Then the flames went out. As though the demon had been a strange candle and someone had blown it out.

The ghoul, now free, stumbled forward, shivering, its mouth opened wide as it tried to stand. A scream formed at the base of its throat, but even as it straightened up, frost spread across its limbs, and the creature froze. The ugly crack no longer filled by blue light.

Before Jenny could respond – she wanted to hack the ghoul into tiny bits so that the demon couldn’t get back inside, she saw the sparkling, hovering array of lights again. Shimmering like little blue stars, they rose over the frozen ghoul before shooting toward her.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

She swung her hatchet. The edge sliced through the air, doing absolutely nothing to the sparkling lights that zipped past her weapon. For a second, she saw the brightness up close, a flash of blue dots, the ghost of an outline, like a blueprint of what almost appeared to be a person. The silhouette of a hand reached for her, and then it struck her in the face.

The force knocked her onto her back, and she could feel the demon. A wriggling crawling sensation burned into her face, as though the light was climbing up her nose or burrowing into her pores or dissolving into her eyes.

Wait, wait, wait!

She wanted to shout, but she could only think the words. Her body wouldn’t respond. Panic surged through her limbs, but she couldn’t even curl a finger. No matter what she tried to move, all she got was a tingling feeling, like pins and needles when her foot would fall asleep. It spread through her chest and up into her brain.

A choked breath slipped out of her throat as her lungs relinquished control to the demon. And then, as though someone had plugged a cable in, a jolt of electricity shot through her. She swore it flashed between every wrinkle of her brain and that she could see it. She could see the demon.

A demon! It was humanoid with long arms, but instead of flesh, it was made of rippling blue flames that curled and billowed inward and upward. Burning wings spread from its back; this was a creature of fire.

Get out, she whispered silently. A tear slipped out the corner of one eye, trailing down her face. Her body remained still on the ground, unmoving; she wasn’t even blinking. She stared up at the clouds as snowflakes stuck to her eyelashes, as they landed on the fluid of her eyeballs. Snow tickled her nose and her lips, and the coldness of the ground threatened to consume her.

Her eyes burned. Her lungs burned. She needed to blink. She needed to inhale. She needed to swallow the saliva pooling at the back of her throat. I’m going to drown! Her body was shutting down; did the demon want her to die? If it was possessing her, then shouldn’t it be doing all these things?

Blink!

Swallow!

Scream!

Then realization struck her: the demon wasn’t in control.

It couldn’t completely take over; all it had done was block her off. It couldn’t operate her body.

Surrender! it cried, its silhouette emerging in her thoughts again. Flames curled upward over its head. Its eyes were two bright dots of light. Its face was a mask of fury.

Jenny almost laughed. She wasn’t sure where they were; it seemed like some strange space inside her head. A dreamscape? Her imagination?

She felt disconnected from her body. From the world. From the pain.

I’m dying. She could see that through her open eyes, could feel it through her aching limbs. Her body was dying. She was sick of dying.

You are not human, said the demon, its form flickering, its voice bursting with static. She could feel its rage, as though she’d done the demon dirty, tricked it somehow.

I guess not, thought Jenny, wanting to berate the demon further. We’re both going to die in here. But then she realized what had happened. Why the demon couldn’t take complete control.

I’m Desecrated.

Something screamed inside her. Cold wind sent an involuntary shudder up her spine, something neither she nor the demon could control. She’d felt this before. When she’d been trapped within her own flesh, confined to some corner of her mind while something else had taken control. While that something else surrendered to her darkest desires.

But this time, there was nothing. Nothing was in control. The demon couldn’t take over, and she felt an odd sharpness, like a dagger cutting into her thoughts – it was cutting through the demon’s thoughts. The demon was afraid!

If her body died while it was inside, it would die too. And a part of her thought: this was her chance. To defeat it. To take it with her. But she didn’t want to die. She had to live. There was work to be done.

Just concentrate. With thought. With intention. The same way she’d used Severed Spirit on the pillars, the same way she’d cut through the fabric of the worlds – she concentrated and reached for the demon scrambling to seize control of her body. She hadn’t decided whether she wanted to push it out, force it out of her like a breath of foul air, but when her mind made contact with the demon’s, sparks ignited. Lights flickered through her mind, and Jenny saw into the creature’s soul.

No! cried the demon. Its blue flames rippled all around the thought space. Its wings spread. But Jenny’s arm twitched. Her toes curled inside her armor. She closed one eye and opened it again before doing the same with the other. After a small gasp, a tiny inhale, the pressure eased off her lungs. She could breathe. Ever so slightly, but she could breathe. Warm air escaped her lips.

The other demons lurched closely, standing over her, waiting. Orange and yellow flames spilled out of their eyes, but they didn’t speak. Could they speak?

No, they cannot. Demons are not creatures who speak in words. Demons communicate through fluctuations in temperature, through presence. Demons don't even have a concept of language. No societies. No genders.

But these words weren’t spoken. The demon wasn’t speaking to her... no. She was inside the demon’s mind. She was readings its thoughts as though it were an open book.

And she realized how the demon had gotten inside her: fear. It wanted her to be afraid... her fear, her worries, her emotions had given the demon an opening to access her. All demon communication was that. Emotions. Temperature. Light.

Another scream. A pained scream; she was falling through the demon’s mind. Blue flames and fear and rage. There was so much rage inside the demon. Another inhale. A shudder. She wasn’t sure who was shuddering, but images flashed through her mind.

It was the demon’s life:

It was born a tiny dot of darkness, no bigger than a speck of dust. It floated through emptiness for countless years, slowly growing larger, heavier and denser, soaking up the light and warmth around it until it folded into itself. Until it compressed and compressed, vibrating with an intense desire to unfold, to express itself on the space around it, to know, to feel, to understand – it exploded in a burst of brilliant colors, a supernova. Thus, the demon hatched.