The Prince of Demons

I lay staring at the ceiling. Five minutes twelve seconds left. My mouth was dry, not unusual for when I woke up. In five minutes three seconds I had to get out of bed. Was there supposed to be a feeling or motivation when I woke up? As I lay here, all that went through my mind was the dread of the day to come. The 24th job interview I had. Why was getting a job so hard? Why do you want this job? If I answered honestly, I was not a fan of starvation. I am also a large proponent of having a roof over my head. In another four minutes forty-seven seconds somehow I needed the power to get out of bed. I heard the muffled yelling of my parents in the other room.

After waiting my remaining four minutes five seconds I dragged myself from my mattress. It wasn’t all that comfortable, but at least it wasn’t the day. I needed to get out of my house in the next twenty-three minutes or I would be late. I walked to the restroom, passing through the hall of ‘family photos’ that decorated them. Each was faker than the smile on my face. In the hall, my parents' screaming match was louder and easier to determine what the yelling was about. As usual, I droned it out. I lost the ability to care or find it interesting when I was still in high school. I took a shower, which lasted six minutes seventeen seconds, about four seconds less than average. I dried myself and heard a loud impact sound. Wonder what my mother threw this time? It didn’t sound like something broke, so it likely wasn’t as fragile as the vase of three days ago. I put my suit on, struggled with the tie, which added a minute nine seconds to the three minutes fifty-one seconds it took me to put on the suit. I had allotted myself five minutes exactly anticipating this, so it was fine. Currently, I was on my determined pace, and was looking to leave early. Half my time had elapsed, and all I had left to do was grab breakfast, coffee, and leave.

Walking to the kitchen, I left the small little enclave where my room and bathroom were. I grabbed myself a toaster pastry and grabbed the pot so I could pour my coffee into my mug. Today my father had brewed the morning blend. The sound as I poured my coffee was accented by him prattling off names my mother was, showing the same creativity he had shown two days ago. It had only taken me two minutes thirty-four seconds to secure breakfast and I was moving to leave the house. I passed a wall covered with awards, and a case filled with trophies I had obtained. I looked at them for a few moments. Nothing. Not a spark. Not a flicker of something. No joy. No sense of accomplishment. Even as I looked at them, they felt as hollow as when I had gotten them. Just emptiness when I looked at them. My parents had expected them out of me, it was only my job to make sure I got them. A lot of good they were currently doing me in this job search. A long sigh escaped my lungs as I continued to the door. I grabbed the backpack hung in the entry closet and left my parents’ house. My morning routine with the break to gaze at the worthless metal had taken me seventeen minutes almost exactly. I unclipped my umbrella from my backpack and opened it. Today was dim, dreary, and depressing. The weather too. It was a freak storm that rolled in out of nowhere. Today was supposed to be sunny, but life was just full of disappointments.

I arrived at the bus station and sat on the bench. From my backpack, I pulled out my headphones so I could listen to music as I waited. By my current estimate, it should be about three songs until the bus arrives. Now that I was free from the house, time wasn’t as important. I let out a deep sigh as I started a random playlist; time never stops marching. As the fourth song started up, the bus had arrived. I closed my umbrella, hopped on, showed the driver my pass, and took a seat by the window. The bus was scheduled to reach my destination in thirty-seven minutes. The walk from the stop to the building was roughly seven minutes forty-five seconds. Time just kept slipping away. Is it going to be this way until I eventually die? Time feels like it is moving so much faster than when I was a kid. Time really never stops marching. It was suffocating. Time truly was a merciless master. But it was at least consistent. Keeping time was one of the few things that kept me sane, somehow knowing how much passed and how much longer always calmed me.

As the bus entered the inner city, I saw the typical sights: an idiot getting mugged in an alley, drivers blasting horns like that was going to fix traffic, some teenagers getting on being all rowdy and noisy, people rushing along the sidewalk to work, and a few homeless people getting chased out of a spot by the police. I just felt this odd sense of loathing and disgust when I looked out at the people. Even when they did nothing to me, I just always got pissed off when I dealt with people. People just sucked. I couldn’t even remember a time I interacted with people and thought, wow, this is fun! I honestly just wanted it to end. This world was crap to the core. I got off at my designated stop, opened my umbrella back up, and started walking to my destination. My phone started buzzing, so I pulled it out of my pocket and saw it was my mother trying to call me. I took off my headphones, unplugged them from my phone, and with a sigh I answered.

“Hello?” I asked, holding the ear a tentative distance from my ear, while turning to face the brick wall I was near to try and dampen out the background noise a bit.

“YOU LEFT WITHOUT SAYING GOODBYE THIS MORNING YOU INGR-” she started before I hung up the phone. Was not in the mood to deal with that. Immediately my phone began buzzing again. This time it was my father calling. There was just going to be no winning today, was there? I picked up the phone, again holding it at a distance from my ear.

“Hello?” I asked, my voice sounding robotic to even me.

“When your mom calls you, you answer. Is that so hard for you to grasp? I thought you were supposed to be smart.” he chided, as if that was somehow going to motivate me.

“I did answer. I just hung up.” I replied. I was not in the mood right now for their crap.

“WHY WOULD YOU HANG UP ON YOUR MOTHER WITH HOW MUCH WE DO FO-” my father started before I hung up.

Turned my phone off. This was going to be a fun yelling match later. Free migraine included! I just sighed as I returned my phone to my pocket, just shaking my head. That was about two minutes of my life I was never getting back, and the yelling match was bound to last several hours. I just sighed heavily and began to turn around. As I began to turn around, all I heard was some screaming. Then came the pain as it felt like a train hit me through the wall. I was inside the building, vaguely aware of the massive hole in the wall I had led the charge for. The world was spinning, my entire body seemed broken. I didn’t have time for this. Time just stop for me just this once, please I just need more time. I couldn’t afford this. I tried moving but was met with excruciating agony. It was starting to feel quite cold. Something touching me was a warm liquid, but it couldn’t be the rain. Rain wouldn’t puddle like this was the last thought that went through my mind as all faded to black.

*

In what appeared to be an instant I was conscious again, but the world seemed so much larger. I opened my eyes, and I was very clearly in a brick room, being held by a giant. I looked around, and there were two other people. One had an immensely regal feel, looking on with a happy expression on his face. The other was congratulating him on a healthy baby boy. Baby? Boy? WHAT?! I remember reading when being held captive taking a few moments to gather your surroundings and being quiet could be immensely helpful, but I was so confused. I lifted my arm, which seemed to be the equivalent of lifting the world. What was in front of me was a tiny, pudgy little hand that was oddly pale. I was pale, but this was deathly pale, my skin looked like bone. It also looked almost, ceramic; human skin wasn't supposed to look like that. I looked at the figures again; they all clearly had horns. I looked at the giant holding me, and there were clearly amber eyes looking at me with the joy of the world. The regal one had the same pale skin I did. Either I was reborn in a different world, or I am on the best drugs the hospital has to offer.

“He is not crying dear. Is something wrong?” the giant (my mother?) asked. It was strange, I didn’t recognize the language, but I clearly understood what they were saying.

“That is strange. Try rubbing him more with the towel, and if that fails try a light pat on the back.” the third person instructed. This was such an odd dream.

“Hold up! What is going on?” I tried to ask, but it just came out as a cry. It was the only sound my poor control over my vocal cords could make.

There was a collective sigh of relief when I made that pathetic cry. I sensed this odd sensation in the air around me as well, like it was part of me, but not physically part of me. The distinct feeling that this was not a hallucination came over me when I glanced outside; there was no way I could imagine that. There were two moons: one was blood red, the other was deep ocean blue. The stars absolutely covered the night; I had never seen a picture of the sky that clear. I tried reaching out, trying to pull myself to the window to see better, but my arm barely wiggled. I looked at what I presumed was my mother and tried beckoning to the window.

“Do you want to see the night sky?” she asked, sounding relieved I was making noise and moving.

“Yes please.” I tried to reply. All that came out was an unintelligible series of cries.

“Dear, can you show him? I feel a bit too weak to bring him close to the window.” my mother directed at who I presumed my father to be.

He came over and cradled me in his arms. His regal aura was much more intense with him holding me; I could tell even as he gingerly held me, he was immensely strong. Unnaturally strong. Maybe it was because I was a baby but some part of me had a feeling that was not correct. He moved over to the window so I could look at the sky. I was clearly in a massive castle, made out of some black bricks that loomed over a large fantasy looking town that sprawled out around it. It was hard to make out more details as for the most part, I was staring up at the sky. It was breathtakingly clear. The purple light created by the moons had a mesmerizing beauty to it.

“Your Imperial Highnesses, what will you name him?” the third person in the room asked. Did he say Imperial Highnesses?

“We decided to name him after his grandfather Nil.” my mother replied as my father nodded in agreement.

“And Sathanas for his middle name to follow tradition as well.” my father added, which my mother seemed pretty happy about.

Nil? As in nothing? What kind of name was that? It was after my grandfather? Sathanas? At least it was my middle name, Nil was better than that for sure. Was it some tradition to name people after their grandparents? What kind of naming convention was this? Now that I was thinking about it, looking at my mother and father, they were definitely not human. Obviously, they had horns which should have been a large clue. The odd weight around me wasn’t going away either; it definitely wasn’t my body being a baby. The sensation was odd, like the presence of something I could just feel but there was nothing it could be. By the window was getting chilly, so I looked at my mother. I tried doing the same motion with my hand trying to pull myself to her. I felt this sensation of a grip, or having anchored something, and tried to pull myself towards it. This time however, there was this odd surge. The world distorted, like it stretched out before I was in my mother's arms; it lasted all of a brief second.

What the hell was that? I thought as a wave of nausea slammed into me. My head felt like it was about to split in half. The odd feeling I felt was completely gone, just replaced by this odd emptiness. It hurt; my body just radiated pain. I tried asking what was happening, but only cries would leave my mouth. This is humiliating, this hurts so much.

“Did he just?!” my mother exclaimed in surprise while trying to comfort me. She lifted her hand and this odd, green light pulsed from her hand to me, easing my pain. What was that? What is she doing? How is she healing me? They have horns, there are two moons, unnatural coloration of eyes and skin, why wouldn’t it be possible? Magic? Am I really in a land of magic?

“That’s my boy!” my father proclaimed loudly which might as well have been nails on a chalkboard. Whatever my new mother was doing was making my body feel better but did little to put a dent on the headache. Wow this sensation was unpleasant.

“The Night of Fire and Ice truly does provide , my Imperial Highnesses. He seems to have inherited your Emperor Azzeck.” the third person in the room stated. Emperor? Does that mean I’m a prince?!

“Aren’t you supposed to make a or something by now Cesar?” my mother inquired, still maintaining the soothing green light.

“I am. I, Cesar Asmodeus Armstrong, make that today, on the Unified Year 1624, in the Month of the Moon, on the twenty eighth day, I announce to the world born of Emperor Azzeck Lucifer Crowthorne and Empress Senna Sathanas Crowthorne, Crown Prince of the Speranza Empire, Nil Sathanas Crowthorne!” Cesar boomed with a surprising amount of authority.

His voice seemed to carry an immense weight and presence, clearly amplified by what I assumed to be magic, as a piece of paper seemed to materialize from thin air after he finished speaking. My father walked over and touched it with his finger which caused an immense surge of light burst forth, leaving an insignia on the paper. From what I could tell, were some form of magical documentation, probably similar to a birth certificate in this case. My head was feeling a lot clearer, and my body no longer had that odd emptiness to it. My body felt oddly full. I repeated Nil Sathanas Crowthrorne to myself over and over again. For some reason it made me, what was this feeling? Happy?

I looked at my father, who seemed to be over the moon (moons?) at the moment. This is going to hurt, but there is only one way to find out. I thought to myself as I gestured towards my father. I felt the same thing as before; it was definitely like I anchored something, and pulled towards it. Like last time, the world seemed to invert and I was at my father, or more accurately, about two feet off my target outside the window. Uh oh. Gravity definitely worked. Before I moved more than a foot however, my father had already caught me. The same empty feeling and pain returned, even worse than last time. I’d like to say I toughed it out, but that would be a lie. Maybe becoming a baby messed with me in some way. Look, it hurt. A lot. There was an odd and extremely uncomfortable sensation that accompanied the skull splitting headache, waves of nausea, and my body feeling like it had just been hooked up to a car battery. I bawled my eyes out. Azzeck carefully walked over to Senna and handed me to her, where she proceeded to produce that calming green light again. Azzeck sat next to her making little baby faces and noises at me. Note to self, don’t test my ability to teleport with the intended destination being next to an open window. Would I be able to go through the window if it were closed? I am not testing that on this floor though.

“Twice in less than an hour since he was born. You have quite the troublemaker there, your Imperial Highnesses.” Cesar exclaimed, smiling a bit wide.

“I thought I felt him start to form into a again, so I was ready to catch Nil. I think the deflected off me unintentionally and was redirected unfortunately out the window.” Father explained, while trying to do little peek-a-boos with me.

“Lucky for you that you caught him. We are going to need a different maid to help look after him if he is already able to use ; there is no telling what mischief he can get into.” Mother snapped at him, sounding annoyed I took an unexpected trip.

I was less than thirty minutes old and already branded a problem child. As the pain subsided, my body began to feel extremely heavy. I think I just needed to close my eyes for a minute. It will only be a nap. I thought to myself as I sank into my mothers’ arms.