He ended up bringing me back to the Box. I guessed it was time for the “next experiments”.
“Let me tell you a story,” he said. “I’m sure you’re already aware that no two demons are alike. Nevertheless, they can be sorted into classes.
“There are the demons like yours who are simply meant to consume and reproduce. They make up roughly 80% of the population. Then there are the Fonts, which are not only the eggs from which mother demons hatch, but also organisms in and of themselves. Their role is to produce large pools of colors to attract mature demons that will protect the newborns. These make up about 19% of the population.
“Finally, the remaining one percent comprises what we call ‘Starship demons’. They spend their entire lives consuming as much as they can but never dividing, so that they will be prepared for their one special task: interplanetary travel.
“As soon as they have enough mass, the Starships leave their native population and take off for space alone, combusting their own colors like rocket fuel. When they find a planet of a suitable temperature, they land there, usually destroying themselves in the process. Every cell of their body that makes it to the surface becomes a Font, to start the new population of demons. But…”
He looked at me. “If enough of the original body is left, the Starship can live on as an individual. Free to walk the earth again, consume…or potentially Synthesize.”
I looked back at him. “Your demon was a Starship,” I said.
“That’s right,” he said. “Which means I can do this.”
He grabbed my left arm and seared it off.
I didn’t really feel the pain until I realized the limb was gone. When I did, I screamed.
He threw me on the floor. “This is a warning,” he said. “I heard what you were thinking before, about killing me. You think you can ‘fuse with me and control me’, like I’m some ordinary demon? Even if I hadn’t poisoned you, you’d only succeed in getting yourself burned alive. For your sake, I hope you won’t get any more foolish ideas in your head.”
I just laid there on the floor and squeezed my eyes shut as tight as I could. I heard him close the door and lock it. As soon as he walked away, I cried.
Later, I got what he meant when he said I was poisoned. Ever since he gave me those shots, I’d felt like something was wrong with my body, and now it was obvious. The arm he burnt off wouldn’t grow back. I couldn’t shapeshift anymore, and whenever I tried, it hurt.
But he made me fight anyway. Every few hours he would let demons into the Box, and I would have to fight them. I guessed it was his way of feeding me and “experimenting” at the same time.
Even though I was miserable, the fighting wasn’t really hard. I just did what I did back when I was pretending to be an angel for Clarion: I’d claw my way into the demons and take them down one by one. I even came up with a strategy where I’d control the biggest demon in the room, make it eat all the others, and then eat it myself from the inside out. That made things even easier.
It also made me mad. I didn’t understand why Toll was keeping me here and making me do stuff I already knew how to do. It felt pointless, and I was tired of it and I just wanted to get out. But I was afraid of what he would do if he heard me thinking that, so I had to make myself stop. I mostly just laid in the Box and pretended to be dead.
One day, I heard something in my head. It was a voice saying, “Hey kid.”
I thought maybe one of the demons I ate wasn’t fully “digested” yet. I had nothing else to do, so I decided to talk to it. “Hey,” I thought back.
“Yes, I finally found you! I’ve been swimming around in here for hours…so, anyway, are you okay?”
“Not really.”
“…What does ‘not really’ mean? Like, are you still in one piece or what? I can’t see you, so you gotta give me more to go on.”
“Why do you care?”
“Uh…well, technically I’m being paid to care. But I’m not a monster or anything; I don’t want to see a little kid get hacked up any more than the next guy.”
The voice was starting to not sound like a demon. “Wait…who are you?” I asked it.
“Name’s Blare. Your demon hunter friend asked me to find ya.”
Hearing that was like winning the lottery. Clarion didn’t forget me! I was so happy, I almost laughed out loud…Then I remembered where I was.
“Wait, don’t tell me any more,” I thought. “The less I know, the better.”
“Okay…got a status report for the big guy?”
“Um…you can tell him I lost my arm, but other than that I’m okay. Now I am, anyway. Also, I’m kind of poisoned, so I can’t shapeshift anymore.”
“’Poisoned’, huh? They shoot you up with something?”
“I guess. You talk kind of funny.”
“So does your face. Look, I think I know what kind of poison you’re talking about. It’s the silver nitrate. They inject it into you to keep you nice and quiet. You won’t be 100% again until you get it out of your body.”
“How do I do that??”
“You gotta collect all the silver in one place, and then spit it out. Like, physically spit it out. Hurts like hell and takes ages, but it’s the only way.”
“Okay…I’ll try.”
“Well, since you don’t want me to tell you any more…I guess I’ll just head back now.”
“Wait; one more thing! Tell Clarion that…Toll is a hybrid, too.”
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