The Demon Girl by Penelope Fletcher (each kindness read aloud TXT) 📕

I straightened and ordered my feet to freeze mid step back. My heart pounded double time as every instinct I had screeched at me to run and hide. They really were looking for me, and knew the one they sought was a Disciple. The Lady Cleric’s gaze slowly passed over every female face in the group as she replied to Cleric Tu. My stomach clenched and sweat beaded my brow. Did her gaze linger on me? Did she hesitate to move on, or was it my imagination?

I wanted to scream at her that it was an accident. That I had no idea what all the crazy stuff happening around me meant, nor did I want to. I wanted to rewind a day, back to when things were simple. Where my life made sense and where boys spoke and acted normally. Where Clerics were the good guys who protected us from demons and my teachers were not heartless murderers.

The Lady Cleric scanned our faces once more than shook her head once. She left with Tu close behind her, whispering something to him.

What did I do? Surely if they had identified the Disciple in the forest was me, they would have hauled me out the class.

Alex glanced over her shoulder at the retreating Cleric, but was otherwise uninterested. Ro was more on ball, and his eyes narrowed as he watched me. Too messed in the head to try and be subtle, I glared at him, daring him to comment. Well, there was nothing I could do. I’d had enough of being stressed out. Slouching back into my chair, I kicked up a leg on the empty seat opposite and mud fell off my soles.

“Are you even listening to me?” Alex asked.

“I’m sorry, what? Oh, yes,” I said. “Yes, I do remember.”

The Rupture was a global slaughter that had nearly wiped the entire human race of the face of the planet. It had changed everything. Vampires had emerged from the shadows one winter dragging all manner of wicked with them, and in one clean sweep had consumed the earth. Shapeshifters had prowled the streets in daylight. Hunting were-bears, were-lions and were-whatever-the-hell-you-can-think-of had feasted on human flesh. Goblins tore people limb from limb and roasted them in dumpster-sized stew pots. Raped the screaming women, and produced more deformed offspring. Powerful witches cast spells that stopped the hearts of entire cities, made all things in a thousand-mile radius just stop.

Within weeks governments had fallen. Monarchy’s had been eliminated, a warped genocide, madness. No one but the crazies who had believed in such things was prepared. They knew how to protect themselves with stakes and silver, hiding places underground. Otherwise only the strong, quick and the smart had survived. The barbaric culling of the human race left us scattered across the world in tiny pockets of civilization. Communities of people who put aside old hates based on colour and religion, and blended together until the human race was a convergence unlike anything ever predicted. We lived in an overcrowded region of land surrounded by electricity, a patch of city untouched by the horror Outside.

At least, that’s what the Priests told us in their sermons. Most people alive now-a-days were too young to remember what had happened, and the old ones who had experienced it had died of old age years before. Against all odds endangered humankind had survived and had the Sect to thank. A group of human men and women had erected the Wall, and set the strongest of us as guardians. Determined to keep fighting and to survive at all costs, they selected new protectors from the masses seeking sanctuary and trained them to hunt the monsters that had stolen the planet. Those protectors were the Clerics. They hunted down any demon that dared step on our territory. Of course I remembered the Rupture; it was something I, nor any other being, would ever forget.

Clicking her fingers in front of my face, Alex flicked my nose and I recoiled. She smirked, happy to have broken into my down time. “You wanna end up like the people who lost their lives for nothing?”

“Wouldn’t call marching up to the closest demon and trying to kill it, nothing,” I said. Chewing my bottom lip, I cautioned myself to be careful. “I ran that’s all. I just ran.”

“Thinking on it, I don’t believe you,” Ro said.

I shrugged. I couldn’t tell them, it was too big.

Alex placed her palms on the table. My eyes darted from hers to the small runes that decorated the back of her hands. “The Wall keeps us safe. It keeps those demons out and us humans in. That’s the way it be, Rae. If a vampire or goblin were to lay hands on you-” She shuddered, her eyes becoming hollow with visions of death and gore from years past. “Your life here means something. Don’t throw it away.”

“The Rupture happened lifetime’s ago. Who knows what it’s like out there?” I leaned forward and lowered my voice to match hers. “They may have changed, evolved.” I thought of Breandan and Tomas. “Y’know, I don’t think he Sect have been honest about what they’re like.”

“Evolved? Demons be animals, dangerous animals driven by need, nothing more.” She took a deep breath. “The Doctrine of the Sect is law. Clerics keep the law, and Doctrine says going beyond the Wall is forbidden. The rules keep us safe.” She visibly relaxed as she said the words.

Familiar frustration bubbled inside me at her lack of curiosity. “What if that’s not how it’s supposed to-Forget it,” I said and ducked my head. I felt her eyes on my face and I carefully kept it blank, my gaze cast down to the floor.

I couldn’t force her to change her mind in a minute, nor did I want to. She was the one making sense and thinking clearly. I was the one making waves, and allowing dangerous beings to run riot unchecked and unopposed.

A voice said close to my ear, “Am I to keep the vampire in your wardrobe a secret?”

I jerked up and Devlin leaned back, grinning impishly. I swear, if I had not spent a lifetime controlling my face and emotions, I probably would have launched myself at him shrieking. Ro had wandered off across the room, and I hadn’t seen Devlin sidle up, too lost in my thoughts. How the hell did he find out? He must have seen Tomas carrying me across the Temple, but Tomas was sure we would be moving to fast to be seen. Panicked, I opened my mouth, but nothing came out. I didn’t know what to say. Oh Gods. Devlin gazed at me, green eyes clear and sharp. I decided the best plan was to deny it. To call him deluded or whatever I had to get him off my back. It was his word against mine, and though I was considered freaky, the mere suggestion I had a vampire in a wardrobe was just crazy. But then hadn’t my behavior had been somewhat suspect? I glanced around. Devlin coming over to talk to me captured the attention of the entire class, but no one seemed overly alarmed.

“What?” I said in a perfection imitation of cluelessness, but I knew my face was white as snow and my voice brittle.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell anybody. What fun would that be?”

He was still leaning close over me, speaking right into my ear so no one else could here. To the casual observer it may have looked like he whispered sweet nothings in my ear. My heart sunk. What did he have in mind? Blackmail?

“Why are you doing this?” I asked in a low voice. “Just go away.”

I sank further into my seat and turned my head away slightly, clearly giving the message I didn’t want to talk anymore. Childish tactics, but confrontation didn’t seem to work, maybe ignoring him would. He had that amused smirk that made his face look smug and I found myself detesting his presence. There was something decidedly off about him, and the perfection of his face was making me sick.

He turned to Alex, narrowed his eyes and moved his lips without sound. Maybe if I acted bored of this theatrics he would get the message and leave. I watched him with cool detachment.

He spoke to me whilst keeping his gaze on her, “This is a female of strength. You choose your friends well.” His fingers, seemingly infused with light, brushed her check.

I didn’t like that and I smacked his had away. Alex started, as if coming to from a trance and sent me a baffled look.

“Who’s the boy outside?” Ro said from across the class.

I shot up. Devlin backed away a pace, as if I was suddenly too close for comfort. I excused myself and walked speedily to Ro’s side, all the while telling myself the fairy-boy I’d met that morning would never dare. He would know he could not show up here at Temple, and parade around half naked, and glowing. I reached the window and made a strangled noise. Breandan. At least he’d had the good sense to glamour himself human. His eyes flicked from me to behind me, and then he beckoned to me.

“Rae, you know him?” Ro asked and eyed me head to toe. A slow smile spread across his face, and the green beads he’d tied into the end of his cornrow plaits clicked together as he laughed. “You be keeping secrets, eh?”

“Yes,” I said, took a step backwards. “I mean I don’t know” In truth I was not surprised Breandan was there. I just wondered how long he intended to follow me and if his ultimate goal was to have me strung up Outside by the Clerics.

Breandan waved at me, impatient this time.

“He seems to know you.” Ro ran his tongue over his top teeth. “If you don’t want him, I’ll take