In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I’ll explain my plan to you.
Phases One and Two were about building momentum. Getting Toll’s hopes up, getting him emotionally invested in me, getting him to believe that he and his “son” might actually take over the world together. Baking soda in the volcano.
Phase Three was just me quitting. Vinegar.
I could have just said no to begin with, like I’d done when he first brought me here. But that wouldn’t have made him mad in the right way. He’d just be “confident-mad”, and focus his energy on torturing me until I cracked.
What I needed was “crazy-mad”. I needed him to be so angry that he’d forget all about his plan. He’d forget to act superior to me; forget to be clever. All he’d want to do would be to catch me and rip me to shreds. The volcano would erupt.
And it did.
I’d never run so much in my entire life. It was like playing one of those endless video games where you have to keep running and jumping or else you die. And I only had one life…
It would have been better for me to hide somewhere and play dead, but Blare would never be able to find me and get me out of there unless I kept mentally calling them. Which meant that Toll would always know where I was.
Speaking of Toll, he was screaming something at me the whole time, probably threats and insults that would make “wastes of flesh” sound like a nursery rhyme. But I didn’t listen. I couldn’t listen. The easiest way to defeat any demon is to psyche them out first, after all. I was already terrified; I didn’t need any more mental handicaps.
As I ran, I ripped the burnt patches off my arm and shoulders and grew the parts back. Since I’d gotten the silver out of most of my body, my shapeshifting was almost back to normal.
But I lied when I told Blare that I’d gotten all the silver out. The spot in my chest was smaller, but it was still there. I needed the pain to communicate with the demons, so I’d decided to keep it. Now it was time to use it.
I dug my fingers into the spot until I made myself scream. From somewhere, I heard the demons scream back in reply. Glass shattered, something exploded. Toll would have his hands full, at least for a minute.
I decided to take that minute to rest and breathe. I didn’t actually need the oxygen, but old human survival instincts are hard to shake. Besides, the calmer I got, the stronger I would be later.
“Kid, what the hell are you doing??” asked a voice behind me.
I was so scared, I jumped. But instead of Toll standing there, it was a girl with a hat and curly hair.
“Hey, now’s not the time to get tongue-tied!” she yelled at me in Blare’s voice. “Please tell me what’s going on, before we both die!”
I guessed that was Blare. “Um, Toll is chasing me,” I said. “And unless you show me the exit soon, we really will die.”
She took off running. “Let’s go; right this way!”
“Is THIS seriously what you wanted??” she asked me while we were running. “What was wrong with the plan that would’ve slipped you out of here quietly, without any drama?!”
“I need drama. Like I said, escape isn’t enough. Just trust me.”
Something broke a door down behind us.
Blare pulled her curls. “Oh my god…I changed my mind; this ain’t exciting anymore. I hate you! And if we survive this, I’ll kill you myself!”
I decided I liked her. She was like Clarion, but funnier.
“I KNEW YOU WERE COMMUNICATING WITH SOMEONE FROM THE OUTSIDE!” Toll yelled behind us. “I NEVER CAUGHT YOU AT IT, BUT SOMEHOW I KNEW…JUST WAIT FOR ME, BOY. I’LL MAKE YOU SUFFER! NO MATTER HOW FAR YOU RUN, YOU’LL NEVER ESCAPE ME!”
“…Where next?” I asked her.
“Go straight down this hallway, through three sets of double doors. The third one is the last one, but it’ll be locked; you’re gonna have to break it down. You can do that, right?”
“I’ll find a way. Anyway, when I get out there, I need you to show me to the docks!”
“The docks? Like, for the spaceships?”
“Yeah! That’s the last thing you’ll have to do, I promise!”
“If you say so…but if you don’t mind, I’ll meet you outside!” Then she disappeared into the wall.
So that’s how she’d been able to get around the lab without Toll noticing. I wondered where Clarion managed to find someone like that. Was she a half-demon, too?
I guess I got distracted thinking about it, because just then Toll grabbed my leg.
For a second, my nonexistent heart stopped. Then I let the leg go, stumbling a little, and grew another one. I was better off losing some body mass than letting him cause me any pain.
Still, I’d never expected him to get that close to me. I had to run faster, or he’d trap me at the locked door.
Then I had an idea.
As soon as I got close enough to the last set of double doors, I clawed the silver spot out of my chest and threw it at him to distract him. Then I shapeshifted into a tiny dot.
I skidded to a stop and bounced off the doors. Unfortunately, they were airtight, so even a dot like me couldn’t squeeze between them. If I tried to make myself any smaller, though, I was afraid I might explode. I already felt like an atomic bomb. I wondered how long I would have to wait for Toll to do my work for me.
It didn’t really take long at all. Thinking I’d somehow gone through the door while he was busy getting the silver off his face, he broke it down himself, roaring angrily. I grew back to my normal size and launched myself over his head. “Blare!” I yelled.
“Over here!” she yelled back. She stood beside a hole in the floor with a sign over it in angel language.
We jumped through it together.
“So…this is the part where I might actually die!” I shouted to her as we were falling.
“Well…you better not die! ‘Cause then I won’t get to kill you later!” she shouted back.
We both probably wanted to say other things, but there wasn’t time. The floor came up to us, and she disappeared again. I dropped and rolled.
The view from the docks was amazing. It was like being in an airplane hangar, but outside the door you could see Earth, floating in space. It was big and blue and beautiful.
I didn’t have time to stare, though. A ship was taking off just then, and I needed all the help I could get. I ran to catch up to it.
I clamped myself onto a wing, trying my best to hold on as it left the Satellite, speeding towards Earth. I wondered how long I needed to wait before letting go. I didn’t know a whole lot about space and orbits, other than what I’d seen in movies. Sometimes I really wish I’d at least gotten to go to high school before I got turned into a demon…
I started to feel warm. Was now the time? Before I could do anything, the decision was made for me: a hand grabbed me from behind and pulled me off the ship. I had to watch it fly off without me.
“…Would you really rather die than work with me?” a voice said.
I knew it was Toll without even looking. “I wasn’t planning on dying,” I said back.
“That’s good, because I don’t want you to die. However, leaving you alive doesn’t seem to be working either.”
“What are you going to do, then?”
“Something I never wanted to do.”
He turned me around to make me look at him. His face…wasn’t really there anymore. It was just a molten mess of colors with two eyeballs suspended in it. Falling slowly in space, looking at that thing…it felt like a bad dream.
“I did love you, Knell. I’d hoped you would be my successor in the new world,” he said. “Even now, I can’t imagine removing you from existence forever. How could anyone, looking at this sweet face…”
He stuck one of his claws through my torso. “But I don’t have any other choice. In order for my plan to succeed, I’ll have to take your powers for my own.”
He stuck his other claw through. He was going to eat me.
I actually hadn’t expected this. “B-but, you can’t…if you do this, won’t you just destroy me??”
“When you consume another demon, you can either take its body and destroy its mind, or take its mind and destroy its body. There’s still so much I could have taught you, it seems…but it’s too late now.”
Then he ripped me in half and stuffed me down his throat.
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