Jonathan came running towards the bus stop the rest of the usual crew and I were waiting for our ride downtown, his smile beaming.
"Guys, guys, guys, I did it! I did the thing!"
"The thing with the cheese and your armpits?" Carol asked, mildly disgusted.
"No, wait, it's got to be the one where he puts on roller skates, an apron, and nothing else!" Jason objected.
"Didn't that one involve a meteor shower somewhat?" I asked.
We were quite used to his zany schemes by now, but they were a constant source of both puzzlement and mirth, wether it be him planning them for weeks or retelling them.
"Guyyyys! You know the thing, the one with the shadow demon! I told you about it all week!" Whined Jones.
He had, but we were having fun pretending we didn't remember. Then Alice broke the spell. She was either too nice or too curious.
"Of course we do, you doofus! So, how did it go?"
"Well, I had prepared the summoning circle, the one I'd found when I went to explore the half-burnt manor, all week, being extra careful drawing the runes, so yesterday it was ready. So when I went to bed, I laid down, took the potion and started the chant. Good thing I learned Arabic when I spent three months working as a sailor on an Indonesian cargo on a misunderstanding. The prononciation was hard, but I managed it quite well. Well, I think I made a mistake somewhere, but not a very important one."
"You made a mistake summoning a demon and it wasn't "a very important one"?" I interrupted him.
To my surprise, he blushed furiously before answering.
"Well, some parts of the body sound awfully similar, I don't think I used the right dialect... But that's not what's important, the important thing is it worked! I had barely finished the chant when all of the shadows of the bedroom started to move on their own, and gathered at the foot of the bed. Then they took shape, and slowly, ta daa ! A demon! A real, honest to God, demon! Well, probably honest to Satan or something! It was as big as a child, roughly human in shape, but with longer arms, a henched back and horns like a ram. And a tongue almost as long as my forearm, that divided in three at the end."
"Dude, I'd have run away as fast as I could the minute the shadows started gathering! How did you have the nerves to stay?" Asked Alice.
"Well, that's a combination of being more scared to move an inch than of the demon and of the aftereffects of the potion."
"What did you put in that potion, and why were you so afraid to move?" Inquired Jason.
"One explains the other: if I had moved by the barest inch while the demon was there, I'd have forfeited my soul, so I finally got to use that "fake your own death" tetrodotoxin potion that the Yakuza guy gave me after I saved his dog last year during the flood. It's not that I didn't want to run away, it's that I couldn't!"
Carol looked particularly incredulous. "Wait, so you made yourself immobile, at the mercy of a shadow demon, and you're still here, presumably with your own soul?"
"Well, yes! That's the cool part! The demon was unable to hurt me, and if I didn't move, they couldn't take my soul! So it was a win-win situation for me! I planned that well, guys, and it mostly worked out."
I had caught on the weasel word. "Mostly?" I smirked.
"Yeah, well, I was paralyzed, so I couldn't really order it around. So it kinda acted like it wanted within the confines of the circle. It decided that it wanted to make me move, and well..."
He looked quite embarrassed. Alice put a hand on his shoulder and asked him.
"What did it do to you?"
"Nothing too bad, I think they wanted to tickle me, make me jerk or something, and honestly, it would have worked except for the potion's effects."
"OK, yeah but what DID they do?" Jason insisted.
"Well, the demon... Sucked on my toes... For like two hours. That was very awkward. And then they disappeared."
We all burst into laughter at yet another trademark Jonathan tale, just as the bus arrived at our stop.
(PS: I don't know any Arabic, so don't blame me if Jonathan's mistake doesn't make sense)
I am currently at my grandmother's house to help out with a few things, and last time I was here, a shadow demon, an honest to god shadow demon, attacked me in the night and sucked on my toes (this is not a joke, they were wet when I felt them). It is 2:11 AM where I am and I am too terrified to sleep with the light off tonight, and not tired enough to sleep with it on. So in leiu of that, we have this prompt.
Premise:
Johnathan Valbarr recounts his encounter with a humanoid shadow demon.
Task:
Write what the shadow demon did and how johnathan coped with it while he could not move and was screaming internally in 400-2,000 words.
By the way, I love your prompts, keep them coming! I don't know how long my answers are (on mobile, no word count), but I have fun putting my own spin on them.
Hope you like what I do, and I'd really like to see more takes on those prompts!
