Demons

Part three

By Robin

Kitsune

“I’m Kitsune,” I say. I extend my hand.

“Shannon Iggans,” the Native American woman says.  She gives me a firm handshake.

“Shenanigans? What? Isn’t that like a human word for… mischief or something?”

That’s weird. Who name’s their kid that?

“No,” she says with a smile. “It’s not real. The DEC told me not to let anyone know my real one.”

“What’s the real one?” I ask, as I lean down to pick up the little human girl.

Shannon frowns.

“I don’t want to say,” she says.

I nod. Better just to let it go.

“We should get this girl to a human hospital as soon as possible. Do you happen to have a Fear Recovery Unit?” I ask.

“Yeah,” Iggans says. “It’s a long walk. Hope you don’t mind.”

I can’t go with her. Humans hate me. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting Iggans to be this accepting.

“I should really stay here. Most humans don’t… like me.”

Iggans frowns. Then she walks over and takes the girl from me.

“Alright. I know how you feel. The rest of humanity is not very accepting of Navajo like me,” she says. Then she turns to leave.

Hmm. There’s something I’ve been thinking about. I want to join the DEC. Maybe if I joined, they wouldn’t hate me. Maybe I could even live with them, instead of in this super clean, isolated sector.

And then one day… maybe they could send me home.

“Wait!” I yell after her. “You don’t happen to be looking for any jobs, are you? Or at least, is the DEC?”

I almost immediately feel like an ass. Why would they hire someone they thought was demon?

But Iggans cocks her head to one side.

“As you can imagine, that doesn’t sound like the greatest idea. I happen to work alongside some of the more racist humans,” she says thoughtfully. “But… you seem to be good at… killing your own kind.”

I shake my head.

“They aren’t my kind. I’m as much human as I am daimonian.”

Iggans smiles.

“Then,” she says, “You have yourself a job. I’ll call if I need you.”

And then she takes off at a breakneck pace.

Jack

Rumor has it that a little girl was stolen from one of the human districts a couple hours ago. Thanks to some lady with a ridiculous name, the girl is in an FRU.

Weird shit like this happen all the time. The demons have really over taken the world. Now, they pretty much run rampant. And the Snakes who persecute us every day stand by and watch.

Now that that lady mentioned it, I sort of do want to join the DEC. I want take our world back.

Mom would be pissed if I did that, though. She works hard to help keep me out of harms way. I feel like enrolling for the most dangerous job on the planet might be a bad way to honor that.

But still…

Shannon Iggans

It was an interesting day.

I yelled an obscenity at a cop, I came face to face with Fear pedophilia, and talked with a Cambion.

That girl is strange as shit. She has horns and ears like a demon, but there is obviously something different about her. Something alien.

I read up on Cambience that night. Lotta weird stuff. Cambions don’t have a pulse till they’re seven. They weigh an obscene amount, but they don’t ever get fat.

The fact that she can kill a demon is almost… scary. We’d never even dreamed of doing something like that.

It’s definitely a bad idea to actually have her enlist for the SFDEC. The people of the world have become bitter. They hate the demons.

Me? Not so much. But I send them back to the Pit so that the human race can survive. The Snakes and the Octos trapped us in this huge ghetto. I just wanna get out.

Unfortunately, my kind has already died out. The Navajo have become non-existent. I am the last of them, I think. That’s why I use the tomahawks and put feathers in my hair.

I stop on the corner of 5th street and 4th Avenue. At the place where the sidewalks converge there is a manhole.

I look around. I don’t wanna get caught. Octos really start to prowl around at this time of night.

Once I check that no one can see me, I lift the manhole and slip awkwardly down into the SFDEC’s lobby. It’s funny how close the Octos are to catching us, but they never have.

A cold, severe looking woman sits at the front desk.

I walk past and she shoots her hand out and grabs my arm.

“Hey. I need ID,” she says.

“Are you kidding? I walk past you every day!” I half shout. I’m not in the mood to play the creepy-ass paranoia game right now.

“Ma’am, you know Cambion could just slink in here using your form, right?” she says with an air of contempt.

“Ma’am,” I say sarcastically. “Did you know she could also create a fake ID card?”

She lets go of my arm with a look of angry resignation.

I walk down a long dark hallway. At the end of the corridor, I take a right and walk nonchalantly into the chief’s office.

“Hello, Gaagi,” Mr. Canary says. The room smells weird. Like demon blood and Germex.

“Don’t call me that. Please,” I say. He always makes me feel uncomfortable.

He leans forward, and I can see his thin body shift in his oily yellow suit.

“You did well today, Gaagi,” he says with smile.

I hate being anywhere near him. It almost feels like he’s glaring at me from behind those dark little glasses.

“Thank you. Sir,” I say, making an effort to correct myself. He’s really frisky about the whole “Sir” thing.

“You managed to stop a fear daimonian from taking a new form. You also managed to safe a little girl’s life. But… one thing I would like to know is… how did you kill it? I noticed you hadn’t taken any of your Deadguns, ” Mr. Finch simply states, leaning forward in his chair.

Damn. I knew he’d ask this. I can’t tell him about the Cambion. I’ll probably lose my job.

By the way, Deadguns are the only known way to actually kill a demon for good. Usually we don’t resort to such drastic measures. A hell gun works well enough.

“I just acted fast, sir. I knew what needed to be done and did it,” I say, as firmly as I can.

“I see. And how did you know what needed to be done? I was aware that only Cambion magic could kill a daimonion.”

“Yes, well when he saw me, he let go of her. Then I shot him and he disappeared.”

“Thank you, Gaagi. That was very helpful.”

He leans back in his old leather chair. I know that this conversation is not over.