Daimon by DANIELLE BOLGER (e reader .txt) 📖

into the end of every bench. I gazed down that corridor, looking for its eerie splendor, and saw blackness.

I did manage to see, for a bit, golden specks, like miniature candle lights, guiding my movements. I saw energy; I navigated through it and now lost sight of it completely. I was all consumed within darkness once more. Everything was released, my power faded as I lay motionless on the floor, smiling.

With a quick flux of energy, I filled my core back with that twinkling power, sped it into my limbs, and with a small sideways shift, poured my spirit forward and upwards. Once I connected, blood rained down on my face. Smoke’s clammy hand tightly squeezed my own. I retracted that newly glowing limb and kicked the shocked-still Smoke back onto his ass. His heart pulsated furiously in my hand. It beat so hard that the hypertrophic organ would have proved too large for my small hand to contain without my nails anchoring into its flesh.

He sat on the floor, arm raised, with what looked to be a swarm of bees surrounding his body. The tiny golden pixies were losing their form. Soon, they would disperse like ash carried on a breeze.

This did not stop him from rising to his feet again. He made a move for the heart, but he was slow and I easily dodged. He swiped a few times, with the skill of a drunken brawler, and after each one he panted harder, little flies swarming in and out as if fighting between the two gravities of the earth, and his own great weight.

“How?” He groaned.

I kicked the pathetic creature to the ground, where he fell heavily, unable to resist even the minor force executed against him.

“I told you that you underestimated me,” I slurred through my broken jaw. The heart raged with scalding heat in my hand. “It's interesting…before this fight you had every advantage over me: strength, speed, control—then the lights went out and my cause appeared hopeless. Ironically, this darkness was just what I needed to gain an advantage over you. I noticed it a couple times before, the force, or energy, that was coming from all of us, but I could not truly sense it until my sight had been taken away. When Rose left, wiping out all those faint candles—that was the moment the advantage was spun in my favor. Perhaps...” I mused. “I should thank Rose for that.”

Smoke's particles spun around with greater radius, his form now barely definable. “So you learned how to sense, but...” He coughed. “I...was still more powerful. Sensing should not matter!”

I nodded, conceding. “Stronger, more controlled, and you definitely moved with greater speed, but you reacted slower. I noticed that, before each strike, energy had to be accumulated in that body part. As a result, this area became more densely concentrated of those interesting little particles. This, I assume, is somehow connected to the amount of power that may be commanded. That made it clear what attack you would take next, and, of course, you would have guessed the same for myself. That was why you always anticipated my moves.”

As I explained, the photos Zach showed me of the botanical garden shone back into my mind. I saw the golden glows of the figures, Zach thought them to be a malfunction of the camera, and since Smoke was depicted clearly in other shots that was entirely possible. However, I suspected somewhere through the malfunction, or by some other circumstance, the daimons were shown in their true forms. I remembered Smoke's density; so bright that, if it were not for his massive physique, recognition would have been rendered impossible. His glow had been second only to that white-hot glow I had little doubt was Rose.

I continued, “Your knowledge of this occurrence had previously given you the upper hand, and my obvious lack of sensing ability gave you no need to restrain your building force, no need to attempt to mask your attacks. That was the over-confidence that gave me this.” I tossed his heart in the air and it splattered blood in its circular motion before I recaptured it with my claws.

“The next part was simple, but it allowed me only one shot,” I gloated further. “I therefore suppressed all my energy, and let you think that you had won before making one last sudden, but powerful attack. Thanks to your speed, I managed to pull it off before you noticed my rising energy. You had me so many times, but failed. I had you once, and succeeded.” I dangled the organ in front of him, teasingly. “I told you that you underestimated me.”

There was no discernible human form left in front of me now, just a mass of twinkling, swarming dust. Some of the specks in the outer layers no longer held together and began to disperse into the air. It started; his death was occurring.

That evil laughter filled the room, spreading out like those flickering energy spots. “Dirty fighter,” he husked. “I see Sage's influence in you. He could never win a fair fight.”

“Battles aren't just about brawn,” I corrected. “Strategy is just another part of the play.”

“Yes, you are learning the game now. I wish...I could have seen how it ends.”

I turned to the heart in my hand where it was still beating stubbornly, and hotly, refusing to give up. “You may not see it, but rest assured that you will be there for the end.” We couldn't see one another's features, but I felt that he was watching my greedy lop-sided smile from across the room.

“I will destroy you,” he threatened as his heart beat faster.

“No, you will join me.” I opened my broken mouth wide with my free hand and squeezed the oversized organ inside. With a smooth gulp, it was mine.

The twinkling lights lost their center of gravity, and started streaming through the long room, sending the underground chapel into an illuminated splendor. Smoke's voice surrounded me: “We will destroy you.”

****

There was no pain, no sound, and no smell. There was no floor beneath my feet or light bulb overhead, but there was light. Bright speckles surrounded me in all directions, above and below. I thought this was Smoke's spirit apparition, but the stillness of these, and strange formations, made me doubt that. There were great clusters of white and red, blue and yellow hues, and areas of smoky clouds. I saw something like this before, except those lights had twinkled then. These were as steady as stone. However, these spots were not meager stone, but great emblazoned gas giants—they were stars.

I almost sighed with the beauty of my surroundings, disarmed by the tranquility that lurked in the heart of the frightening Smoke— my bone-chilling boogieman. I was also surprised by the emptiness of it, the solitude of the endless space. I breathed in deeply through my nose, but could detect no influx of air to fill my expanded lungs. I was hoping to catch a hint of some kind of scent, smoke perhaps, so I knew where to look for the fire, but there was no smell because there was no air. I was suspended in a void, with the only presence to keep me company that of billions of lights scattered all around me. The fight had taken me from a place where sight was stripped away, to a place that gifted sight, but took all other senses; it was an interesting turn.

“How, Smoke, will you destroy me then?” My voice was inaudible of course, because this was the vacuum of space.

As if in response to my question, one of those glowing lights dashed across the sky, but then froze as it settled upon a new position. Whatever that was, it was not a star.

I tried to kick off, but because there was no ground beneath my feet my legs simply waded on the spot, as if walking in water. I tried circling my arms, as if performing breaststroke, but they cupped no matter and, therefore, propelled me with no displacement.

I frowned as I concentrated on the little physics I remembered from school—I recalled someone called Newton who suggested that every force had an equal and opposite reaction. Movement was normally attained by pushing against the surface of the earth; as a person would push the earth, it would push back, resulting in a negligible displacement by the earth, but a measurable one by the person. Applying this to my situation gave me cause for concern. With no matter to push against, I would never move forward. My furrow deepened.

Again that light jumped across and then held still. What the hell is it?

I raised my hands and closed my eyes. Breathing deeply, but sucking in nothing, I concentrated once more on my newly acquired sensing ability and viewed my little sparkles spring to life. I clenched my hands and saw the pin points glow more fiercely, as they danced around, in and out of where my form was composed with excitement. I focused this energy to my fingertips; these shone brilliantly in response, and sent my little fairy embers out.

I gasped mutely as I was edged backward, my shock forcing my eyes open and causing me to lose insight of the particles. I decided then to call them photons, packets of energy. I thought that would have pleased my high school science teacher.

I twiddled my toes, summoning more energy to the area, and then I projected these photons and bounced up. I almost congratulated myself, until I realized that I was moving in the wrong direction. I frowned once more.

Okay. If I want to move forward, then I need to eject energy in the opposite direction, and this needs to be evenly distributed, or else I'll go all crazy directions. Crap, this is gonna be hard.

I rotated my shoulders, as if I were some wrestler about to jump into the ring, concentrated my force evenly across the back of my body, and sent it out behind. Instantly, I was projected forward, though slowly and pointing downward somewhat. I noticed I decelerated, but did not come to a complete stop.

Are you serious? Isn't this meant to be some kind of subconscious place? Does it really have to be so technically accurate? As if that brute is smart enough to conjure something like this up in his mind. I groaned silently.

Concentrate on spreading my energy evenly, I ordered myself, but the more I thought about what I was doing, I realized I was just aggregating power up into my skull. I rolled my eyes, forced myself to relax and distributed more of this sparkling grace to my legs. This was far from evenly spread, as I detected glowing clumps here and there, but I gave it a whirl regardless, and with a broad grin sent myself flying forward; in something close enough to a straight line.

The shiny spot moved again; left and right, then forward, towards me, and it swelled in size. All at once I saw a glowing body and reached out to it, but just sprinted past it. A quick turn behind me showed it to have diminished in size rapidly and become smaller and dimmer than ever.

I kept projecting my energy, and in a no-resistance realm that meant I was accelerating the whole time. I was accelerating! I streamed photons out in front of me, changing the direction of my momentum, and reversed. This time, I quelled my exiting force. The object became enlarged once more and I activated the breaks by shooting energy behind me, and managed to come to an almost-complete stop. Then I saw her—a little girl, glowing as if a ghost from an eighties horror film. She nibbled on a nail, and peered at me with wide, alarmed eyes.

What the hell…a girl? Smoke's psyche is messed up.

I reached out to her, but she recoiled instantly, flitting back like a butterfly so that her form suddenly became tiny. I was awed by the ease of her movement.

I moved myself forward by trickling just a small amount of energy behind me and placed the breaks in front. “It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you.” She couldn't hear me; I couldn't hear me.

The girl, wearing a simple cotton nightgown, lowered her hand and glared at me with hostility.

“I won't hurt you,” I continued in silence. Unless you're what's going to try to kill me.

Then she flew away, too fast and deft for me to follow. It did not stop me trying, however, though the process led me nowhere fast. It also caused me to expend too much energy. I found myself puffing once I slowed myself to another almost-stop. Again, what I huffed was not air, and gave no aid for my growing fatigue.

I threw my arms up, exasperated, wondering when my escape would show itself, or even the deathtrap. Was this not purgatory—a place where the power of daimons was decided to end in elevation or descent? The closest thing to that, the only possible thing to that scenario, kept itself at a distance from me. Was that Smoke's ploy, to hold me in limbo indefinitely?

With my next blink, an illuminated army appeared, suspended in the air, staring at me with cold silence. The little girl was with them and blended