Among Demons : Succubus Divine

Ch. 11 : Black Salt

Detective Izaak rang the doorbell while I stood off to the side, hoping to be let in with them if she didn’t see me right away.

“Ah!” The sound of her voice made me flinch a bit and I clenched my fists to fight against the painful memories that surfaced. “You must be the Detectives that had called yesterday about some questions. Come in, come in.” Her voice was peppy as the three men began to move, filtering into the home. “Please follow me to the…” I looked up from my feet and slipped on a mask to hide my emotions, locking eyes with an older brunette with olive colored eyes.

“It’s good to see you again, Aunty.” I greeted, feeling oh-so satisfied by the dark look of disgust that erased her smile.

“What is that thing doing in my house?” She asked no one, glaring at me while her tone turned cold and sharp.

“She is a member of my team.” Detective Marcus said, looking angry and annoyed as he glanced between me and my aunt. “Is there a reason why she shouldn’t be here?”

Olivia scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest. “Of course there is! That thing is not welcome in my home or in my presence.” She shook her head looking more and more irritated. “And if you wish to stay here and request my help, or expect me to answer any questions, you will remove her from my home.”

“She’s your niece.” Detective Daniel stated, looking confused and on the verge of anger. “Why hold so much hostility towards your sister's daughter?”

“That thing is not my blood!” She snapped, her face going a little pink. “And my sister never had any children, that thing lied to you.”

Both Detective Daniel and Detective Marcus looked ready to argue with her, though I didn’t understand why. So I just stepped forwards and patted their arms as I passed, stopping them so I could speak.

“Just tell me where I need to go.” I said, looking her in the eye as an excited gleam took over her face. “I know you’ll answer their questions if I’m out of the way, so just tell me which room you’ve booby-trapped and I’ll wait there.”

“Down there.” She pointed a delicately manicured finger to a deep hallway on the right side of the house, smiling happily at me. “Last door on the left.”

I nodded, glancing back and smiling a bit at the men that were now looking at me with so much confusion and even a bit of concern. It was strange to see such expressions on Humans other than Nick so I was distracted as I walked into the hallway. But when I stopped in front of the door my aunt had mentioned, I froze, feeling something heavy, thick and almost acidic emanating from the other side of the door.

Carefully, with a nervous twist of my wrist, I turned the knob and opened the door, gasping as something inside forced me back against the wall behind me.

It was a small spare bedroom that held a desk, a chair, a dresser and a bunk bed. No decorations were hung up and not a single sheet of bedding covered the small mattresses. I looked down and found the first source of the overwhelming heaviness that was spilling from this room, gasping as it became harder to breath. Slowly, I stepped over a thin trail of fine black powder that lined the entire room, with a few cotton pouches hanging here and there that I knew held more of it inside. This was something Humans called Demon Salt, though my people just called it Black Salt.

It was a fine, deep black mineral that was said to be found at the bottom of the oceans in our home world of Aether. And in our world, this harmless looking powder was used as a security measure in prisons. It was mixed into the cement and used to line the buildings of cells so that the prisoners wouldn’t be able to use their powers to escape. The reason it worked so well was because of its effects on the Demon body once this mineral was exposed to the open air and out of the ocean. It would become highly acidic and held properties that allowed it to weigh down and mute a Demons power as long as one was near it. Of course, this wasn’t a nice sensation and being near too much of it can actually be quite painful. Touching it was much worse though and could cause burn marks on the skin similar to those Humans get when cooking with oil.

My mind reeled at the weight I was being crushed with and I wheezed and coughed in an attempt to fill my lungs with air as I entered the room.

How did Olivia get her hands on so much of it?

It was true that Humans used to sneak out bags full of Black Salt when the portals were open, everyone knew that. But it’s been over three hundred years since then and a lot of the Black Salt was stolen away from the Humans that were selling it to protect the remaining Demons still trapped on Earth. So how did this b***h get her hands on enough of it to seal off this room and hang pouches with it like some makeshift Demon prison cell?

I fell back on the chair by the desk and looked around some more, feeling my body grow cold as it was coated in thick beads of sweat. My eyes soon locked onto a few dark red markings on the wall that held the door and my questions only increased.

There were a handful of symbols and markings that I recognized as those used by Sorcerers painted all over the wall. All of them were made in red paint and if I had the strength to get up and move closer, I would bet that each marking held at least a drop of Human blood to make them work. It was something that needed to be done if my aunt expected those amplifying sigils to work with the effects of the Black Salt. Which meant that this room was being boosted by those markings and making my body feel double the pain of the minerals scattered around me. Maybe even more so, since there was already so much spilled all over the room.

Panting, gasping and wheezing, I stayed there.

I sat in that damned room surrounded by something I never thought I would have to experience first hand. I stayed there hoping that the questions the others asked were soon over and that I would get to leave this room after just a little while. But I knew my aunt and how happy she probably was that I was in here suffering. She would no doubt stretch out her answers and play host for as long as possible so I would stay in here. Yet even knowing that this was all being done to torment me more, I still stayed.

I fought to breathe and I pushed against the weight and pressure that filled the room I sat in so that we would get the answers we needed to help the Nymphs that were dying. I wiped away the sweat on my face and felt my clothes become damp so the Detectives could do their jobs and get one step closer to the person killing and hurting my people. I shed a few drops of blood from my nose, struggling against the dizziness that grabbed hold of my body so I could plan my next move. I needed to figure out a way to remove this harmful tool from my aunt's home while also finding out how she got her hands on it in the first place. This way, no one else could be hurt and tormented with it, though I’m still not sure how she would even use this in the first place.

“Aren’t you a filthy sight?”

I jumped a bit and turned to find my cousin Samuel, my aunt's eldest son standing in the doorway. My senses were muted thanks to the Black Salt so I hadn’t heard him open the door. Even his voice sounded a little muffled to me too, which wasn’t a good sign. His dark smile made me think of a snake and the venom in his eyes looked exactly like his mother’s, though there was anger hidden in them too, mixed with a little shame. I flinched as he stepped into the room unbothered by the Black Salt that was slowly suffocating me, his hand reaching out and grabbing my jaw painfully.

“I would’ve preferred it if you’d stayed in here for much, much longer.” He murmured to himself, tilting my head this way and that before shoving me away. “Maybe next time, when you’re alone, we’ll get to have a bit more fun with the toys we have saved up just for Demon trash like you.”

He roughly grabbed my arm and jerked me to my feet, laughing when I failed to maintain my balance and slipped to my knees as we neared the door. He shoved me out of the room and continued to laugh at me while I crawled, sucking in a deep, almost painful breath once I was out of the ring of Black Salt. I then used the walls of the hallway on either side of me to support myself so I could get to my feet, turning to watch Sam as he closed the door and watched me, still smiling maliciously.

“Go on.” He said a second later, nodding towards the end of the hall. “Go back with your little friends now.” He leaned in close and sneered at me, forgetting to mask his emotions for a moment as he glared into my eyes. “Go pretend to be that innocent little slut you claim to be, walking around as if you're no better than a dirty skank that w****s herself around just to survive.”

I raised my chin a bit and glared back, seeing and smelling exactly what it was that he had been trying to hide this entire time. Something that I had known and figured out a long, long time ago. Something that had been a big factor in why I stayed away from this house.

“At least I’m not a pathetic, sick bastard that dreams about f*****g his cousin.” His eyes widened and a look of pure rage spilled over his face, making me smile darkly right back. “Don’t act so high and mighty around me Sam. I know you’ve stroked yourself to thoughts of me countless times… isn’t that why you tore through my things that last time I was forced to stay here?” I leaned in closer as he stumbled back, slamming into the wall behind him. “I mean, who else would take my lingerie in this house? You’re mom sure as hell wouldn’t fit anything, and your dad’s always away from home, just like your sisters.”

“Shut your f*****g mouth!” He snapped, lunging forward as he raised his hand.

I was still too weak to react in time to avoid him, so I braced myself as he moved towards me. The sound of the impact against my cheek was sharp and my body violently slid down against the wall, my legs too worn out to support me. My neck ached from the force of the slap, having been painfully made to snap in one direction. And the entire left side of my face stung and throbbed, making tears spring free from my eyes when I touched the tender skin. But it was all worth it, and I glanced up at him while I laughed as the sound of rapid footsteps grew closer.

“What the hell?!” Exclaimed Detective Daniel while I used the wall again to get back to my feet. “Did you just–”

“I’m fine.” I cut in, going numb to everything and wanting nothing more than to leave. “I just fell.” I weakly stumbled towards them and waved their offered hands away, ignoring them all while I continued towards the door.

Once I was finally outside I could hear their footsteps behind me, rushing to catch up while they called out to me.

“Hold up!” Detective Daniel insisted, sounding annoyed and weirdly concerned. “Wait a moment… Did that guy in there hit you?” He looked at my face and I watched as his eyes went wide, zeroing in on the side of my face that still stung. “Holy s**t, your face.”

The other two leaned in at his words and reacted the same way, slowly narrowing their eyes in anger before turning to look back at the house. Detective Marcus made a move as if to return to the porch and make use of his anger, but he glanced my way and stopped, seeing something in my eyes that made him stop while his comrade prattled on.

“That f*****g bastard!” Shouted the blond Detective, getting all bird-chested as if he was about to rush back in there and fight my cousin like his Leader had appeared mere seconds ago. “We’ll see if he’s brave enough to raise his hand at me. f*****g cowards like him never pick a fight with someone that can fight back, I’ll...”

I stared at them all in silence, feeling my own anger rise and that bottomless pit of darkness begin to pull me under.

“f*****g stop.” I told them, glaring at each one in turn as I reached for the back passenger door. “Quit acting like you give a shit.” I turned away and shook my head, pulling the door open while they stood there quietly. “I don’t need your false pity, sympathy or any of that crap.” I climbed in slowly, hating that my body was still so weak. “It’s f*****g disgusting.”

I slammed the door then and waited, watching how it took them all a moment to gather themselves before they filtered into the car.

The heavy silence that filled the space around us was uncomfortable and I tried my best to dig myself out of the pit of darkness that I had slipped into. But dealing with my aunt, my cousin, the effects of the Black Salt on my body and then the useless anger and pity of the Humans in the car was getting to be too much for me. So I pulled out my phone and texted my brother, hoping he could get to me quickly to help me get out of the overwhelming abyss that was swallowing me whole. I could already feel a dry ache in the back of my throat start to spread and a pressure behind my eyes grew alongside it. Panic filled me at the thought of getting sick again and I tried even harder to push against those feelings as they clung to me.

But when we arrived back at the station and parked the car, I jumped out and looked around, feeling the prick of tears in the corners of my eyes when I spotted Nick in the distance.

At that moment I didn’t care if it looked weird to the three men behind me. I didn’t care that I most likely looked like a little kid running towards their parents for comfort. I didn’t care about anything as I ran with all my remaining strength towards my brother who caught me as I crashed into him. I clung to him as I buried my weeping face into his chest and hiccuped through the tears when he tightened his hold on me. And though I could hear the footsteps of the three men coming closer to us, Nick continued to whisper softly to me, doing everything he could to make me feel better.

“It’s ok Little Droplet.” He said, rubbing my back as the footfalls passed us. “Everything’s ok now.”