Captured by a Demon

I Chapter - The Fog

I blinked and found myself once again gazing out the dusty window.

He always wore a mask, was always my first thought.  

He always wore a mask. He always did - a black cloth of some sort that had been pulled over his face. Therefore, I could never see his eyes or attempt to guess what he was thinking or how I could influence him. Everything I had said, was for nothing, I might as well have been talking to a wall. No matter, what I said or asked or begged, he kept on asking me the same questions over and over again like a machine programmed to repeat a sequence. When I answered one, he replaced it with another and when I stayed silent, he got angry and... I felt my eyes starting to tear up, so I tried to focus on the faint sounds of the wind that were barely audible through the thick glass of the small window. 

The humiliation, the helplessness and knowledge that I had little to no chances of controlling my fate was unbearable, but every time I had a little time to calm down, to think on my own, I would again grow bolder and start to rationally devise a strategy to get myself out... if there was a way out. 

I flinched when I heard the door creak open. The guard stood there silent, waiting for me. As for his face, he mind as well could have been wearing a mask as well, because his face was so stiff and robotic that it could of been made of marble.

"No," I whispered, slowly crouching down against the wall, trying to put as much distance as possible between myself and the door. "Please, no!" My bold strategies, everything I had decided to do beforehand, slipped away as easily as a light feather in the morning breeze. Fear overtook me and I could not stop my uncontrollable shaking. Not again. That was everything I could think of. I hugged myself making myself as small as possible as if hoping to disappear from the guard's view. I tried to stifle the sobs that were threatening to escape my mouth.

Not again.

The silent guard, seeing my still body in the corner, looked to his left as if he was waiting for someone's instructions.

"Take her," she heard that chilling voice speak in the darkness. The guard immediately came towards her, heavy steps like earthquakes on the cold stone floor. 

"NO!" I screamed after hearing his voice and then everything went dark.

...

Rachel woke up, her body covered in cold sweat.

Although the nightmares came often, it was not something anyone could get used to. It took her a few minutes to reassure herself that nobody was coming. It was just a dream, she was in her bedroom. She was safe. 

As her breathing calmed, she went to the kitchen and drank a large glass of water after which she threw her drenched pyjamas to the laundry basket and took a warm shower. This had turned into a kind of a routine for Rachel, who experienced the nightmares at least a couple of times a week. She would wake up, covered in sweat in the early morning hours, drank water, took a long shower and go over her course materials until it was time to leave for work or a lecture. Although she was already working as a research assistant for two renowned microbiologists, she was still in her last year of college. The hours were long and the homework load was heavy, but she never complained. In fact, she was pleased to have her days full as she had plenty of things to keep her busy. Rachel, unlike her course mates, dreaded going to sleep, which is why she was at the top of her class - all those hours at home going over the course materials and lecture notes just to avoid going to sleep. She had had an incident some weeks ago, where she had fainted in class due to exhaustion and doctors had prescribed some sleeping pills and recommended herbal teas for her. Since she did not want that to happen in front of her bosses at work, she took the incident seriously and tried to keep with a precise sleeping schedule.

She got out of the shower, got dressed and downed a smoothie already waiting for her in the fridge. Rachel looked at the clock - 5.15. Good enough, she thought as five hours of sleep was an above average accomplishment.

It was a crisp Thursday morning and the lab usually opened at six o'clock, although even the early birds never got in before 8.00. As the sun began to rise, Rachel went over her notes from Wednesday's lectures and hoped Doctor Doyle would allow her to help with his stem research this time, because he constantly tried to keep her busy with more menial tasks like washing the beakers and disinfecting the worktops. She found that frustrating, but knew better than to complain.

When Rachel got in the lab after beeping her two cards in front of two different doors, she was surprised to find Margaret already crouched over the samples to be organised today for Doctor Shelly's algae study. Although Doctor Shelly also gave many menial tasks for her new assistants, she was usually more forthcoming when assistants asked for more difficult tasks. That's why Rachel missed working under Doctor Shelly as she got to learn more with her. But as there was an established rotation in the lab, then after every 2 months, the doctors switched their research assistants. That was to continue until they had graduated and could choose their own studies.  There were three of them - Rachel and Henry, who also happened to be in the last year of college and Rachel's classmate, and Margaret, a star student, who had barely finished her bachelor's and had already had many offers for future positions. Margaret and Henry currently worked under Doctor Shelly and Rachel under Doctor Doyle. While Henry was rather lazy, he was also smart as a whip and dreamed of working for a big pharmaceutical company, which in this smallish town was out of the question. The college was doing solid research, but not a lot of big companies had offices here, so for microbiology students, the only real place of work in this town, was the university itself.

"Good morning, girl," said Margaret without taking her eyes off the samples she was marking down.

"Back at ya," said Rachel casually after taking her jacket off and going to wash her hands. 

"How much today?" Margaret asked, still keeping her focus on the task at hand. She was also aware of Rachel's fainting incident, since they had the Virology class together and it had happened after one.

"Five hours," Rachel shrugged, "so it's getting better."

"Good for you, but I don't know how you do it," said Margaret, "if I got as little sleep as you every day, I would already be one foot in the grave." She yawned. 

"Why are you here at this ungodly hour then?" Rachel teased with a smile, putting on her lab coat as she searched for the files to be arranged before doctor Doyle arrived.

"Doctor Shelly needed these samples organised before we can move on to the next step of the study. And there are so many." Margaret yawned again. "God, would you keep it down?"

"Sure thing." Rachel laughed and turned the volume down on the radio she had just switched on. She always put music on while working. She hated the silence as she began to hear steps and voices that weren't there. Silence made her paranoid, made her feel less safe, but she never told anyone. They couldn't possible understand and she had no desire to explain the cause for her fears. Usually, she had earphones on pretty much everywhere, but since they broke down a week ago, she had convinced everybody at work to let her play a little music from the radio. After few hours of working in silence, Margaret raised her head.

"Henry's not coming in today, by the way."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah, feeling under the weather or something." Margaret grinned and continued: "But it is obvious that he ended up at Christine's again. He is unable to let go, I think."

"He is?" Rachel furrowed an eyebrow. "I think you're talking about her, she makes herself the damsel in distress every time she gets even a bit bored and like a good little bunny, Henry runs to her rescue." Rachel scoffed and Margaret laughed.

"Doyle and Shelly are not coming in at least until the afternoon and I still have to finish this before they come," Margaret pointed at the hundreds of samples on her desk, yawning for the hundredth time. "Do you mind grabbing me something to eat, I didn't really have a chance to eat in the morning."

"Sure thing," said Rachel closing the files. "I was feeling hungry myself anyways."

"Thanks, Rach."

Leaving the building, Rachel shivered for a moment, when the sudden cold wind brushed over her, but quickly put her hat and gloves on. She went towards a small deli down the street, where she used to work briefly before getting the chance to do some specialised work. While walking, she heard a louder bang behind her somewhere, but knew better than to blow it out of proportion. But, god, she wished, she had earphones on. The music always carried her to a better state of mind. She noted to herself to buy them after work. A few years ago she would have screamed at any such sound and tried to frantically hide herself. Now, she only flinched and didn't even look back. It was always a car door, a shop sign in the wind or something else trivial. She had trained herself to never give it more attention than it needed. She had still fallen short of stopping the flinching though.

Rachel entered the deli and a big smile lit up her face as she greeted her best friend, who stood behind the counter - Ella. Ella was an engineering major, but still found time to help her mother out at the sweet little deli her parents owned. The place was rather empty since it was way past breakfast and not quite yet lunchtime, so the two friends hugged each other over the counter. They truly were friends in every sense of the word. Ella was there for Rachel after... after these horrible months all these years ago. Rachel was there to support Ella when her fiancé got injured in a car accident and needed physical therapy for a year. They were there for the happy times and the bad times, and although they did not see each other as often as they would have liked, they always continued where they had left off the last time. Though recently, Ella had gotten into the habit of always opening with the same question.

"How did you sleep today?"

"Better, the doctor gave me sleeping pills," said Rachel giving the order in for her and Margaret's club sandwiches.

Ella sighed typing in Rachel's order. "I wish you didn't have to take that crap."

"It's better than not sleeping," Rachel shrugged wanting to change the topic.

"I guess," Ella said understanding her friend's tone. "By the way," she said tactfully changing the subject, "Simon is celebrating his birthday on Saturday, as you know, but since he plans on doing a little hard partying with dancing and stuff, he decided to celebrate big this time." 

Rachel smiled. Simon was Ella's long-time boyfriend, now fiancé, and he had been working hard these couple of months with his physiotherapist to be able to dance freely on his birthday. Although he walked and ran quite effortlessly now, dancing did not come so easily as it took more effort to make his body move in such a versatile manner.

"Invite your friends from work and school too and although there's no need for gifts, they can always bring old sporting equipment that they aren't usi..."

Ella stopped talking as the sudden sound of a chair scraping against the floor made Rachel flinch. Neither of them looked toward the client taking his leave from the deli, but gave each other a slight knowing look.

"Anyway, Simon is really into trying all kinds of different sports now, so as I said..." continued Ella.

"Party Saturday, old sporting equipment, got it," Rachel repeated, thankful that her friend ignored her reaction to the small noise. She took the sandwiches for her and Margaret and hugged Ella again, wishing she had more time to talk, but duty called and she had to rush back to the lab.

Stepping outside, she put the sandwiches in her back-pack and adjusted her scarf that had fallen loose, exposing her neck to the cold air. She continued walking towards the university, when she suddenly realised her heart had started to race like crazy. Like someone was watching her from behind... 

No! Rachel cursed under her breath. No, she said to herself, you are just imagining it. God, I wish I had my earphones on. Just keep walking, Rachel, and don't pay attention to your delusions, she thought. 

Rachel ordered herself to move on, but her body didn't listen. With every passing second, her steps grew slower and her heartbeats faster. 

No, she thought again, pull yourself together, woman. 

But to no avail, Rachel came to a halt. She just stood there in the middle of the sidewalk, almost frozen - not able to look back, but equally unable to move forward. The iciness in the air was almost palpable for her now and her fingers started turning numb from the cold. 

Someone is watching you, the voice in Rachel's head spoke. And as a new gust of chilling breeze went over her, she discovered that she was no longer arguing with herself. 

"Quick like a band-aid, quick like a band-aid," Rachel muttered to herself and quickly turned around, her heart threatening to jump out of her chest. 

There was no one there. The street was relatively empty and a light fog had settled in between the houses masking the street lights within. Rachel sighed a sigh of relief and laughed at herself. "You moron," she called herself and without looking back, walked towards the university building at a more normal pace.

The branch in the nearby park snapped as the hidden figure standing by a big oak tree very slowly turned around and vanished into the fog.