The monster flapped its wings, carrying Zara higher up into the sky as it flew. She ground her teeth against the pain of it's hands against her skin. Tears streamed from her eyes as they flew through the hot, putrid air. The monster itself smelled like burning flesh and the smell burned her nose as much as its hands burned her skin.

As they flew she turned her head to the side and got glimpses of the ground below, crawling with other monsters like the ones she had been surrounded by moments ago. They stumbled along the land, seemingly all heading in the same direction that she was traveling now. It was dark but there seemed to be a dull light coming from somewhere beyond the creature holding her but she couldn't see around it's body.

She didn't really care about much. She just wanted the pain to end. To wake up from this horrible dream that she knew was now more than a dream. This was some terrible alternate reality to her own. It was terrifying. The sounds, smells and sights worse than any nightmare her mind had ever dared to create. She still felt pain along her arms and abdomen where the other monsters had ripped through her skin with their claws. Those cuts were dull compared to the burning she felt through her shoulders now though.

The monster started to descend, cutting sharply through the sky in a jagged arch. The journey was making her head swim and she felt sick between all of her senses being assaulted with terrible foreign stimulants. However, she also somehow knew she couldn't be sick. Her body felt strange. Almost like it wasn't whole somehow. She could feel pain, that much was clear. She could see and smell and hear. But there was something strange about the way she couldn't really sense her body where there wasn't pain.

The creature landed on some type of ridge of stone. It did not release her when they landed but started walking instead. She whipped her head from side to side, tears still streaming down her cheeks. What was going to happen to her now? Where was this demon taking her?

As the word demon came to her mind, she couldn't help but think it fit better than monster had. She realized then that she knew that's what these creatures were. The demon didn't look down at her as they traveled. It's grip stayed tight and painful, claws just barely digging into her skin as it held her tightly. She knew those razor sharp claws could easily rip through her skin if he - it - wanted them to. She wished she didn't know it was a he but it didn't seem clothes exist wherever she was. She realized she knew she was naked too but didn't care. She just wanted the pain to end.

She was plunged into darkness as she were carried into some kind of cave or tunnel cut into the rock. Her body swung as she were carried, the demon not seeming to want to pull her closer to hold her more securely. She briefly wondered if touching her hurt it as much as it hurt her. She doubted it.

They traveled deep into the cave in complete darkness for a while. The shrieking wails were cut off when they entered and the only sound now was Zara's own panting and occasional whimper from the pain. She was doing all she could not to break down into straight sobbing. She would beg for her life if she had to, though she doubted it would make much of a difference.

Soon they were bathed in light once again as they came around a bend. There were fires burning within carved out areas of the walls of the cave. She couldn't see what was burning within the hallows but it smelled horrible, like it had smelled outside just stronger. As they passed by, the fires flared, almost it seemed, in acknowledgment of their passage. Nothing made any sense in this strange world.

Before long they reached the end of the corridor and the demon turned around to push open a large set of ornate double wooden doors with his shoulder so he didn't have to adjust his grip on Zara to do so. They entered a large chamber, the only light came from the entrance they just came through. The room was circular from what Zara could see of it, facing the demon holding her as she was.

To her relief he pushed her roughly into a chair in the center of the room. Her shoulders throbbed and ached from where he had held her and she raised her arms to rub the areas that hurt. Just like earlier, it was hard to move her arms, like her body was submerged in thick mud. Odd, she thought, since she could move her head from side to side without any problem. She tried to move her legs and noticed they were similarly sluggish.

She moved her head to look down at where she had been sliced open, expecting to see herself covered in blood. To her surprise she could see gaping, blackened wounds where the claws had ripped through her but there was no blood. The skin was ragged and torn like it should look but not bloody. It almost looked like the claws had seared her when they cut through, sealing the skin closed and turning it black.

The demon loomed over her, watching her every move. He stood facing her, arms crossed over his broad chest. His privates were directly in front of Zara's face where she sat but she refused to look at the creature at all. She focused on breathing, closing her eyes and willing this terrible nightmare to end. She tried to control the shaking that was wracking her body.

Suddenly there was a creaking as a door opened. She turned her head toward the sound and opened her eyes a little. They grew wide with shock as she observed another demon joining them. This one was completely black, one set of glowing red eyes took her in as he approached. He had two long horns that curved back over his head and jutted out behind him. He was more human-like in shape than some of the others but still very much a demon. He was muscular and had long black hair that nearly blended in with his skin. Huge black, leathery wings were folded on his back. He had a spiked tail that swished as he walked. He frowned at her as he approached and then turned to the demon that had brought her here.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Zara cringed as he addressed the red one in front of her. The black one had a voice as deep as the red one, not high and shrieking like the other demons. It still hurt her ears for some reason as he spoke in a strange, harsh language. When he was done, the red demon turned and left the way he had brought her in, closing the door behind him on the way out. For one terrifying moment, the only thing Zara could see in the dark was the black one's glowing red eyes.

Then he ignited a flame in his hand, just as Yuli had. This was a violent, sizzling red flame, though, that bathed the room in red light. He pushed his arm out and the flame flew wildly around the room, igniting the torches hung along the stone walls. Soon the room was glowing in bright red light, making it look more eery and otherworldly than it had already felt. In the middle of the glowing, flickering red light, the demon somehow looked right. Chaos, Zara thought watching him with scared, huge eyes.

He looked down at her and kneeled in front of her. He reached out and with his giant hand, black as midnight, tilted her chin up to look into his horrible eyes. At the contact, his hand burned her just as the others had and she cried out at the sudden shock of pain. Tears flowed freely down her cheeks again as she stared up at him.

"Pl-please," she managed in a tiny voice.

His eyes narrowed as he watched her, finally letting go with a look of disgust on face. He released her and stood once again. He walked back across the room and started muttering in the same strange language as earlier but quieter this time. It sounded like he were chanting to Zara but it was hard to tell as every word seemed to burn her ears. He paced back and forth as the words continued to flow. When he was done he stopped and bent to place his palm flat on the ground in front of him. The whole room shuddered as a surge of some kind come from where the demon had touched the floor. Around his hand suddenly glowed red and symbols started to glow out in lines away from where he touched. They branched out all around him and then started sideways, meeting where the other lines had done the same. When complete the demon stood up straight and walked to the outside of the odd hexagon of glowing red symbols that was now seemingly burned into the floor.

As Zara watched, smoke began to rise from the center where all the symbols had started where the demons hand had been. It got thicker and to her amazement and horror, turned into the vague shape of a person. The smoke kept thickening until it completely formed a person and then it condensed, giving them features. It was a man Zara noted, a human man. They smoke was compact as it swirled inside this new being. They didn't have a face, the smoke just contoured into a profile where a nose and lips would be but there were no nostrils or slit for a mouth.

There were eyes though. They didn't glow red like the demons had but were a dull orange ember, like seeing into a fire that was dying out. They stared at her as the smoke creature looked down at its body. Then, it took a tentative step toward her. Then, more confidently, another, until it was standing right in front of her. She leaned back, not knowing what to expect but expecting it to painful somehow.

Then, the smoke figure spoke.

"She is injured," it said, sounded disgruntled. It was a distinctly male voice but it was muffled, like they were speaking from far away. It also wasn't a question as it observed the deep cuts in her sides.

"Yes," the demon answered in common tongue. "We weren't expecting to have located her again so soon after her disappearing earlier today. She reappeared within the masses in the trench."

The smoke figured sighed, turning wearily toward the demon and nodded in acknowledgment.

"I suppose it can't be helped," he agreed. "She is in one piece luckily."

The demon suddenly started speaking in the strange language again, making Zara wince away in pain. The smoke man watched her now. It was hard to tell what they thought of the situation as their face didn't have normal features.

To Zara's surprise he spoke back to the demon in the strange, harsh tongue and this time it didn't hurt her ears to hear it. Then the smoke man laughed and clapped his hands. Except when he clapped, his hands made no sound, being made of smoke.

"I agree," he said in common, "the resemblance is uncanny, even from my hazy point of view."

He gestured to Zara and spoke to the demon in words she couldn't understand again and suddenly the demon was gripping her arm painfully. He yanked her out of the chair and made her stand in front of the smoke man. Then he pulled her arm up and turned it, forcing her to turn with it or have it broken. She started sobbing as she did so, the pain so bad she wanted to rip her arm away but knew she had no chance of doing so. When he was done spinning her slowly while the smoke man watched, the demon let her go, letting her body sag to the floor and lay in a sobbing heap.

The smoke man sighed again. "Though, looks are the only resemblance, really," he said. "The crying is something I'm not used to. Make her stand to face me again."

Zara looked up and tried to push up to stand on her own but she still couldn't make her arms and legs work properly. The big hand yanked her to her feet once again and she cried out again.

This time it just held her up as the smoke man walked around her in observation.

"My, my," he said, his far-away voice taking on a mocking tone. "You sure have grown into a fine young lady though, Zara. I'll give you that. It's been so long since I've seen you that I'd almost forgotten about how beautiful you are. Though, back then you were only a child. You beauty then doesn't hold compared to your beauty in adulthood. Exquisite."

He continued to circle them, observing.

"Who are you?" Zara managed to choke out through the pain, her voice hoarse.

The man chuckled again, the sound making Zara shudder.

"All in due time, my dear," the smoke mad said, stopping in front of her again. "All in due time."

He turned toward the demon and started speaking in the other language again. The demon nodded and suddenly hauled Zara up until his hands to carry her like a baby. He hugged her close to his chest and it was her turn to shriek as it burned along her whole body now where their skin met. She looked over to where the smoke man had been standing and saw that the smoke had dispersed and the glowing symbols on the floor were fading away. The demon turned to go toward the door he had come through, opposite the ones Zara had been brought through. She wanted to ask where he was taking her but she couldn't get any words out through the pain.

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