Demon In The Attic

With a gust of wind tinged with sulfur and nary a sound, the demon appeared in the crudely drawn circle on the attic floor. The demon was mostly humanoid. Eight feet tall with leathery, bat-like wings, its feet were hoofed and its legs bent back in the manner of the hind legs of a goat. From the waist up, other than its red skin and horns like those of ram, it resembled a shapely woman. Its face was slightly elongated, its eyes were an unnaturally glowing yellow, and its teeth were disturbingly sharp. It could have been frightening except that it was obviously extremely bored.

“By Nysquenth, by Olglav, by Herraclitor, I command thee ….” the lone, frail man intoned the words of power meant to bind the demon to his service. The demon’s mouth moved along with the man’s in a mocking manner. It had heard these oaths a thousand times before. And they never meant anything. It would have laughed but the man had obviously spent a lot of time researching and memorizing the litany of names. No reason not to let him use that knowledge while he yet lived.

Looking around, the demon was disappointed that the floor beneath it wasn’t in contact with undisturbed Earth. It was in the air, on plain wood. No way to open a hellscape here. It dipped its right hoof through the floorboard and was shocked when it could not descend more than the thickness of the board itself.

Curiosity dismissed the ennui and the demon listened once more to the man. He was no longer reciting the standard ritual. He was reciting an older ritual, one that was actually binding. The demon’s face went from bored to panicked in an instant. The crudely drawn circle around it was an illusion. The real circle was actually one first used by a Sumerian Priest forgotten by history, but known to this demon as Erislugal.

The demon lunged for the man and slammed into an invisible force that stopped it from leaving the circle. It tried to fly upward only to find wards on the ceiling. It already knew there were wards on the floor. It was trapped.

“Do you yield?” The man said. His voice had been shaky when the ritual started. But, having witnessed the demon stopped by the wards, his confidence rose.

“What do you want?” The demon spat at the man with all the malevolence it could muster. Its form would lead one to expect a sultry contralto voice. And the demon could speak that way. This voice sounded like rocks crashing together.

“I want you to yield. Do you yield?”

“Never. When I escape I will enjoy…”

“Devouring my entrails and painting the room with my blood. Yes, yes. It will save us a lot of time and gnashed teeth if you just yield.”

“Never.”

“Fine. I’ll be back.” The man said. He snuffed out the four lit candles in the room and left the attic.

* * *

Time passed. The wards remained as strong as they had been the day the demon had been summoned. There was an electronic device in the room. Occasionally, the man’s voice would emit from it: “Do you yield?” Each time the demon would respond, “Never.”

The man returned to the attic a few months later. “I do not yield,” the demon said.

“I figured as much. I’m just changing the batteries on the baby monitor.”

“Baby? Monitor?”

“Yes, the device I’m using to monitor you. Takes too much energy to climb up here just to have you say, ‘Never.’”

“But, why Baby?”

“Usually we use these devices to eavesdrop on sleeping babies to make sure they aren’t distressed.”

“So you consider me a baby?”

“Only metaphorically. You are a being of pure chaos, pure id, and pure evil. But, the fact that you don’t even know why I summoned you as you remain steadfast in your unwillingness to yield to me could be equated with the tantrum of a child.”

“We are not all pure id.”

“If you say so.”

“Or pure evil.”

“Do you yield?”

“Never.”

“Enjoy the rest of your stay.” The man left.

“He’s enjoying this too much.”

The monitor squawked, “Immensely.”

* * *

Years passed. The man rarely asked the demon if it would yield any more. The demon could not feast on its own misery. Yet, yielding was never entertained by its mind.

One day, a child peered at the demon from the stairs, a boy of about eight years. Only its head peeked above the floor. The demon was twirling its tail in a circle. It was ignoring the child to see if he would come closer. The child slipped away.

Several weeks later, the child returned to the top of the stairs. It watched the demon, which seemed to be asleep.

It wasn’t. It was still hoping the child would come closer.

Several months later, the child watched the demon sleeping. He stood up and walked toward the table with the baby monitor on it. He was standing right at the edge of the circle when the demon opened its eye.

The demon had actually been sleeping. But a demon is never startled. It looked at the boy.

“Where are your clothes?” The boy said.

“I don’t wear clothes,” the soft feminine voice said.

“That’s icky. You should wear clothes.”

“I don’t have any clothes. Will you give me some clothes?”

“No. I’m not supposed to be here.”

“Why are you here?”

“Dad says I can’t come up here. I wanted to know why.”

“And now you know.”

“Yes. Why are you here?”

“I can’t leave.”

“I find that hard to believe. You must be very powerful. Look at the muscles on your legs and arms.”

“I’ve had plenty of time to workout while I’ve been here.”

The boy laughed. “I’ve never seen you workout.”

“You’ve watched me a lot?”

“Enough. I’ve sneaked up close to you before without you noticing before.”

“You have?”

The boy tilted his head to the left, looking past the demon. The demon followed where the boy was looking and a crayon drawing of the demon it had never noticed before was taped to the wall. “You have. Amazing that you could sneak past a demon.”

“I’m special.”

“Everyone is.”

“Of course,” the boy said, he seemed pleased with himself. “Don’t you want to leave this attic?”

“Of course. But I can’t.”

“You can.”

“I am trapped.”

“I could help you.”

“How would you do that?”

“Do you yield?”

“WHAT!?” The demon’s voice was deep and angry “How dare you?”

The boy laughed. He stepped back from the edge of the circle. “Dad was right. That is fun. Have a good day.” The boy emphasized the word good. He turned and skipped to the top of the stairs.

Once the boy was gone, the demon said, “You dare mock me.”

“You are infinitely mockable,” the man said from the monitor.

* * *

“Why haven’t you ever told me your name?” the demon cooed as it tried to entice the teenager.

“Because I’m not an idiot,” he said.

“Doesn’t your father get mad when you come up here?”

“Of course. But I know better than to get anywhere near you. I just come up to look at you. You use to be taller and have wings.”

“I have to conserve my energy. You use to complain about my lack of clothes.”

“I’ve gotten use to it. You are terrifyingly beautiful.”

“That isn’t a compliment.”

“It isn’t?”

“No, where I come from, I use to have thousands of underlings who would feed me the lust I crave. Now I just get lust from your nightly dreams. You don’t make up for the army of demons I use to command.”

“Don’t you still command them?”

“I’m sure my lieutenants have divided my forces among themselves by now. I’ll have nothing when I return.”

“Poor you. Perhaps the tactical decision not to yield on the day you were summoned was a mistake.”

“I doubt it. When I return I’ll rebuild my forces in no time and you and your father will be but a memory to remind me to be ever vigilant.”

“Oh, yes, I remember Dad saying you underestimated him as he rattled off the Latin ritual names. I wish I could have seen your face when it dawned on you that he knew what he was doing.”

“Your father got lucky.”

“Sure. I’m sure that he bagged a demon of your caliber with luck.”

“You are trying to get a rise out of me.”

“If I wanted to do that I’d just say…”

“I do not yield!”

The teen boy laughed.

“Begone. I do not wish to speak with you any longer.”

“You thought this might be the time you tempted me?” He laughed again. “Are you sure your ruled an army? Maybe you were a figurehead for, what was the name, Krilladulus’ army.”

“How do you know that name?”

“I heard you say it a couple years ago when you first told me of your armies. Is your memory slipping? Have you been so far from home that you are starting to actually weaken?”

“I will not weaken.”

“And you will not yield. Yes, yes. When was the last time you manifested your wings. Oh, right, you are ‘conserving’ energy.” The demon could hear the quotation marks around “conserving.” The teen continued, “Except for the red skin and tail, you are looking mostly human. I think you were taller as well.”

The demon looked over its shoulder before looking back at the boy. “You use to be smaller.”

“True. But I’m not weakening.”

“I don’t have to prove myself to you.”

“No. Of course not. You’ve got it all under control.”

The demon didn’t respond.

“Well, that’s all I have time for today. Thanks for entertaining me. I’ll be back in sixteen months, if I don’t forget.”

“You won’t forget.”

“You hope I won’t forget. It will be all you think about while I will put you out of my mind most of that time, hanging out with my friends, doing school work, laughing, playing, living. You’ll stand here and stew, counting the hours until I return.”

The demon attempted to remain stoic.

“I’m going to imagine that face was the face I referred to before.” He walked down the stairs.

“I didn’t make a face.”

“I didn’t make a face!” The demon repeated.

Silence filled the attic for several moments before an older man’s voice from the baby monitor said, “I know exactly what face you made during the summoning. I bet the face he just saw was similar.”

The demon screamed in anger and shame.

* * *

“You finally return?” The demon said.

“Ha, I’m not my father,” the adult man said. “I might look like him. But you’ve been here about as long as I’ve been alive. Close to forty years.”

“A paltry amount of time for one such as myself.”

“Is your skin human colored? Where’s your tail? And goat legs? Can’t even maintain your goat legs? I notice your apparent age is closer to thirty than to twenty.”

The demon looked away from the man.

“Another twenty years and you probably won’t need to be asked to yield.”

“That will never happen.”

“My father believed he was summoning a lust demon. But I believe he trapped a hubris demon. Even if you don’t admit it to me, admit to yourself that you have weakened.”

“I am well aware of my current strength.”

“Of course you are.”

“Dad is sick. That’s why you probably haven’t heard him on the monitor recently.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because you’ve know him for nearly forty years. I thought you might care.”

“Demons don’t care.”

“You are barely a demon, Ysrandra.”

Her body stiffened at the sound of her true name. She turned immediately to face the man. She nearly broke. “How?”

“He always knew your name. He only told it to me recently.”

“He didn’t need to ask if I yield if he knew my name.”

“No, he didn’t. He could have seized power from you at any time.”

“Why?”

“You never asked him why he summoned you.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“But it did,” the man said. “He only wished to have comfort in his old age.”

“He could have taken it.”

“What good is comfort if it is commanded by true name? What was he going to say ‘true name, I desire a comforting hug.’ That’s ridiculous. If you had yielded, he’d have negotiated a companionship with you, to last these same forty years or so and you’d have returned to wherever you come from fully charged when he died.”

“This is nonsense. Who summons a lust demon for comfort?”

“Are you saying you can’t give comfort?”

“Of course I can. I am well versed in all ways to make someone happy.”

“Then why not seek a lust demon for comfort?”

“I don’t need to explain to you how dangerous I am.”

“No, you don’t. I understand because you were the demon in my attic all my life. But if you had yielded, I would have known you only as a mother.”

“What?”

“You ever notice it was just Dad and I here? Mom died in childbirth. You were going to raise me. In some ways you did. But not how Dad wanted. He didn’t want me to be versed in the ways of demonology. Yet here I stand.”

“How do you know my apparent weakness isn’t a trick?”

“What would you do if I were to banish you back to your realm?”

He had never seen fear in the demon’s eyes before. It actually surprised him.

“Yes, you don’t want me to do that. Do you, Ys?”

“Fine. I am weak. I am nearly broken. I cannot yield only because of my pride.”

“There. That’s the temptation. Nice try.”

“You are so annoying. Why do you torment me? Yes, I realize the irony of that.”

“I need to sell the house soon. And I can’t just leave you here for the next owner to find.”

“Are you sure you can’t do that?” A joyous gleam played across the demon’s eyes for the first time in a long time.

“Really?” He said. “I am going to leave again. I’ll be back in but a few weeks. If you do not yield at that time, I will banish you. And you will be devoured by whatever demon finds you first. Perhaps I can use that as a bargaining chip with Krill…”

“Do not say his name again?”

The man smiled. “Oh? Would that be bad?”

“Don’t toy with me.”

“This was probably be my last chance to do so. See you in a few weeks.”

* * *

It was actually a few months later when he returned to the attic. A woman of an apparent age of about forty years stood in the summoning circle. There was nothing to suggest she was a demon. The perpetual scowl she usually wore was replaced by a face of resignation. She noted he held a bag.

“You were supposed to return sooner.”

“Time means nothing to a demon.”

“I yield.”

“Formally, please.”

“As written in the pact of Erislugal and Modeus, I formally yield to the summoner. We may parley for three days before my release or servitude.”

“Lovely, but wrong. I am not the summoner. I don’t accept. Nice try.”

“It was all I had left.”

“I understand. Also, standard one hundred years term this time.”

“I thought I was to be a companion with the ability to make choices.”

“That was what my father wanted. You’re dealing with me now.”

She considered her options briefly. “As written in the pact of Erislugal and Modeus, I formally yield to the controller of my prison. I place myself in his service for a period not longer than one hundred years and a day.”

“I accept your terms.”

He held up the bag and said, “Come put on the clothes in this bag.”

“I can create my own clothing.”

“Can you?”

She closed her eyes and opened them again. Nothing had happened. She stared at her body for a few seconds before saying, “Give me the bag.”

“Just come over here and take it.”

She looked at him as if he were forgetting something obvious. He grinned at her wickedly. She took a step toward the edge of the circle. And another step through it into the rest of the room. She reached out and took the bag.

“See that wasn’t so hard,” he said.

“When did it fail?”

“I think the house settled. It’s an old house. There’s a crack in the real summoning circle on the ceiling below this floor. Perhaps two years ago, I’d estimate.”

She pulled a pair of lacy panties from the bag to put on. She said, “I should be more upset about the circle having been broken.”

“You probably should be. When I saw the ceiling, I expected you to be long gone. Or to make another attempt to tempt me somehow.”

“I’m use to being the one who does the whipping.”

“Was that a joke?”

“An attempt.”

“Not bad,” he said. “I am going to remind you once. I know your true name. You are my servant without the power of using your true name. Whatever imagined indignity you feel right now is nothing compared to what I can do to you.”

“I have yielded. Do you wish to have sex here? You have desired to do so for a long time.”

“Tempting. But I don’t want you to regain your power too quickly. Not before we’ve developed a routine.”

“I am so horny. What? Why did I say that?”

“Part of demon servitude is an inability to lie to me.”

“I thought that was a myth.”

“You have never served a human before?”

“I have never served any being before.”

“This may be more fun than I thought it would be.”

“I am dressed.”

“Great. Here’s a rag. Wash the circle off the floor.”

She got down on the floor and washed it clean.

“Bet you’d have loved to do that four decades ago.”

“You’ve already said that wouldn’t have helped me. You have a cruel streak, don’t you?”

“Remember what I said about being raised by you? Although, if I were truly cruel, I would banish you now that you finally yielded and thought you were safe.”

She looked at him with a new found respect in her eye.

“I wouldn’t be able to witness your destruction by the other demons so it isn’t worth giving up your servitude for a moment of passing cruelty.”

She looked at him lustfully. “This may be more fun than I thought it would be.”

“That is one powerful musk you just emitted. Were you saving that last bit of power?”

“I was.”

“It didn’t work.”

“I know. That turns me on even more.”

“You will get fucked eventually. There might even be sex involved.”

“Yes, Master.”

The man was well-aware she’d said that as a calculated gambit to gain his trust. Still, as he led her down the stairs for the first and only time, he couldn’t stop the smile on his own face that had resulted.