Lost in Demon's Eyes

13 - Time to get ready

“Who are you?” Ellena’s voice sounded like thunder in this dream-like place with no clouds and azure blue sky.

“Oh, someone’s here as well? Guess I should get down here…” It sounded like the guy was thinking out loud about what his next steps should be. I was frozen in place, just looking around as all I could see was nature. But I was definitely hearing voices. Logically, there had to be people or some speaking beings around.

“That being said… What would you want me to look like? It’s your world, after all…” The male voice came closer to me and the breeze stroked my nose this time, making it tickle.

“I don’t really know… Why can’t you show yourself the way you are?” I asked, not having a clue what the guy actually wanted from me.

“That’s sadly not really possible. If you want the thundering voice to be gone, you have to tell me what you want me to look like. And then, of course, call me.” The voice sounded very happy about it. But why should I invite just anyone into my world, into my subconsciousness? Wasn’t it dangerous?

It got me thinking. Was it really wise to let him in? I didn’t know who he was, he didn’t tell me his name, either. It was just plain weird. It was supposed to be me and Ellena’s voice, nobody else’s.

“Get lost, you’re just a weird voice around here. You’re not even supposed to be here. I’m not in the mood for some weird jokes.” I brushed away the breeze with my hand, not caring about it not even in the slightest. Somehow, the voice disappeared and it was calm here once again.

“Ellena, I think I want to get out now. How do I get out of here? There’s nothing going on.” I sighed, squatting down in the gazebo.

“You’re here? Are you awake?” I heard Ellena’s voice while seeing a blurry face above me. I smelled some weird thing in the air. I moved a bit. It felt like I just came back from the dead. My body was all heavy, lifting my arms was harder than I ever thought it could be.

“Zia, say something!” Ansel sounded quite desperate, was I really dead?

“What?” I murmured, feeling it was even difficult to articulate the word properly. It was as if my mouth was a jelly, which wasn’t moving the way I would want it to.

“Good, she’s back. Take it easy, give it a few minutes to wake up properly. You’ve been in a deep sleep to get into your higher self, or how you call it…” Ellena paused for a while, trying to find the right word for what she was talking about. I had no idea.

“The soul!” She finally exclaimed, as if proclaiming it was her eureka moment.

“What’s the weird smell?” I asked, pushing myself up on the sofa, so I would sit up straight. I was basically nearly lying down on the couch as if I was knocked out on the spot.

“Oh, that’s a burning incense stick, which makes your consciousness come back from the inner world. It smells bad to anyone who was caught up inside… It usually smells similar to cherries or apples… I made the incense with orange essential oil this time, the smell should be quite pleasant for anyone who isn’t a feline. Cats hate citruses.” Ellena was like an unstoppable talking train. She kept talking and talking and talking. On top of that, her words were jumping quite quickly one after another. It seemed like she liked babbling a lot.

“I see,” I said, still battling the difficulty to speak and move. However, it was getting better with each minute that had passed.

“You’ll be fine soon enough. Let me get you another mug of tea to calm you down. Some people experience quite a bad stomachache afterward, sometimes they even run to the toilet to throw up. The tea should prevent it…” She was talking while even walking to the kitchen and getting another mug out. I turned my head to the left, seeing Ansel’s alert and worried face.

“Stop it.” I wanted to push his face away, it was annoying. But my hand fell short of him and just dropped on the sofa.

“Well, no way you can get rid of me, at least for now.” He proudly widened his chest, showing me that this time it was him setting the rules and winning our sibling rivalry game.

“Here, drink this.” A mug with Ellena’s hand landed in front of my face, short of spilling the hot tea on my body.

“Thank you.” I carefully held the mug to not drop it.

“I will have to go through a few scriptures first, to see what exactly to do about your condition at the moment. I will also need to set up a training plan to buy us some more time.” Ellena kept thinking out loud but also telling us at the same time that this wasn’t going to be easy.

“Is it serious?” Ansel’s worriedness got the best out of him, making him abruptly stand up and nearly yell at her.

“It’s not too serious. It’s not like she’s dying or anything… But it can get difficult in the future, depending on his plans. The demon doesn’t have complete control over her yet. In fact, I’d say there is nearly no control over her at this point, just that he can be quite annoying to her in a way…” She paused, trying to figure out Ansel’s reaction as she was speaking more carefully now. And she had a reason to. When Ansel got too angry or very protective, he was quite scary. Even I was scared of him as his older sister sometimes. Reading Ansel’s face, Ellena took a deep breath to start speaking once again.

“Well, he might appear in her dreams, for example. That happens a lot to people, who have made direct contact with one of the higher demons. By contact, I mean not meeting them on the street, but invoking them, or somehow getting in touch with them.” She finally exhaled in relief, seeing that Ansel got a bit less tense. I was slowly sipping the warm tea, which was making my stomach feel better.

“Can I talk to you about something, Ellena?... Alone.” Ansel made sure to stress the alone part as if I was going to be a big nuisance to him in whatever he wanted to discuss.

“Sure thing. You can come to the kitchen with me.” A faint smile on her lips showed that she was quite a good diplomat. Even though she didn’t know what he wanted from her, she was making sure to seem pleasant and nice.

Evening, 20:00

“Ansel, you getting ready? They’ll pick us up soon!” I was just finishing the last touches to my makeup, making sure I was ready to go and have fun with my friends.

“Yeah, I’m going!” He called out to me from his room, all over the whole flat. I sighed. I checked my lipstick for the last time, making sure the color was even and it wasn’t running away from my lips, closed the powder, and put it in my handbag.

“Ready?” He was sticking half of his shirt in the pants, letting the other half out. His skinny jeans were showing his muscular legs, while the shirt showed his beefed-up chest. He had just finished tucking in the black half of the shirt, while the white half was out dangling above his pockets. Ansel was ready to stuff the white half in his pants as well.

“Keep it, it looks good that way. You might meet some girls in the club like that! That is if you don’t hang around me all the time as if you are my tail.” I murmured the last sentence as I wasn’t happy about his clinginess whenever we went out together.

“No way. I’m too young to be dating!” The touchy voice that escaped his throat told me he definitely wasn’t planning on getting a girlfriend probably in the next ten years or so.

“Are you ten? You are old enough to finally find yourself a girl! Even if she’s not your mate!” I kept pushing his back out of the hallway, so we could get in the car and get to the club on time.

“What do you know about that…” I heard him mumbling very quietly. Yikes. Guess I touched his soft spot about him not being able to even sense his mate as his wolf is still quiet! I clenched my teeth together, slapping my mouth in my head for saying such things loudly.

“Exactly, what do I know about that! So get yourself out there and live your life until you get your mate! Life isn’t just about one girl, is it? You should get out and try different things!” I kept pushing him out of the door, but he was so heavy he didn’t even budge. He suddenly turned around to face me, his tall body staring down at me as if I was a dwarf.

“Says the girl, who never even had a boyfriend in her life.” His sarcasm was on spot. Directly on the spot.

“It… It’s different for girls.” I tried talking myself out of this, but from the look he gave me, I directly knew he wasn’t buying any of it.

“Mind your own business! We’re going!” I exclaimed, running around him and going down the stairs.

“You’re the one, who’s not!” I heard him calling out to me before he caught up to me in less than a second. He was getting stronger and faster nearly every single day, yet his wolf wasn’t appearing. And nobody knew why, not our shaman, let alone the witch Ellena.