A Devil's Dealings

How long have I been here? A day? A week? Maybe even a year... This place, it's so dark, so quiet. I can't feel anything except for the frigidity of my surroundings; I don't even know if I have a body here since it was too dark to see my hands or legs. Was I standing? Falling? Walking? I don't know. Wait, who am I?

I felt nothing for a while, just alone with my thoughts for what felt like centuries. How did I even get here? All I remember was... something around my throat. My memory got fuzzier the harder I tried to recall it. But, well, as far as I was concerned, the more I forgot about it, the better I'd be. Soon, however, I had some company. "Just a bit more! Push!" A voice echoed in the nothingness as a bright light lit up the darkness. It looked like the end of a tunnel, and I walked toward it. "Ah, she's beautiful." It got dark just as I reached the light. I felt numb, my eyes shut as I struggled to breathe.

I felt something I haven't felt in a while, something that felt familiar to me: pain. It was honestly shocking, and it was a lot more painful than anything I've ever felt before. I started crying, unable to control my body anymore. "Can I see her?" A woman's voice rang out as I felt my body rocking around as something moved me. "Nathan, what do you want to name her?" The same voice asked as I felt something new touch me, gently taking me into its arms and gently holding me tenderly.

"Lily. She looks like a Lily." Another voice replied as I felt something caress my head. My senses started going fuzzy as I was overwhelmed by everything. The next thing I remember was me looking up at a human face, a woman's face, as she looked down at me with a loving smile. Where was I? It looked like a human hospital... and this woman... Wait, why did I know all of this stuff?

Was I a human? It was a question that would be answered in a few days when that woman and her husband took me home. It seemed like I was their child, but how would things go from here? In my current state, all I could do was watch as the world continued around me. It felt strange, being cared for. Have I felt this way before, I wonder? As with all other humans, I was sent to school when I got older.

Overall, things were going well. I don't know how, but everything seemed so familiar, so academics weren't a problem. My family and I went to church, went on vacations, and celebrated every little thing that happened in our lives. It was nice. Maybe it was too nice. It was surreal, how I could get a fresh start that easily...

"Fresh start?" I wondered. What did I mean by that? Well, it didn't matter, I had more important things to deal with at the moment. "Mommy, I need your permission for the camping trip! Sign here please!" I ran up to her, holding a piece of paper tightly in my hands.

"Camping trip?" She asked, looking down at me. "Are you sure that you can handle yourself? Your dad and I won't be coming with you." She teased, grabbing a pen from nearby, and writing her signature on the dotted line. "Take care of yourself, sweetheart. If something goes wrong, have your teachers call me." She said, messing up my hair with her hand before I ran off to my room and picked up my phone.

"Did you get it?" My friend asked from the other end of the call. I put my phone up to my ear to hear her better.

"Yeah! So, who's sharing our tent? There's you, me, Julie, Ema, and that new girl." I asked, lying down on my bed as I looked at the calendar I hung up on my wall. "It's a week away. I can't wait, you know. Just us five against the wild." I said, giddily flailing my feet as the conversation continued through the night. The intermediate days were normal classes, but nobody was really paying attention; the excitement took hold of the entire class and it only grew as the date approached. Finally, the day arrived when we boarded the bus with our things strapped to our backs, driving out into the city toward the camping ground that we'd be staying at for three days.

"Hey, hey. Are you guys excited?" Julie asked, the five of us sitting near each other on the ride. She was practically jumping out of her seat with how much she was moving. "Ema, did you bring your cards?" She turned over to our friend who was already playing a game of old maid with the new transfer student. "Hey, call me next time. I want to play too!" She whined loudly as I tried to quiet her down with my voice.

"Hey, Nat's sleeping. Try to not be so loud." I sad, looking over at Nat as her head leaned against the window. "Let me join in on the next round," I said, turning my attention back to them as the new kid drew a card from Ema's hand, winning the game with a smug look on her face. "Hana, can you move a bit?" I asked, moving closer to them to play.

"Sure..." She said meekly, scootching over to the side as we played until the bus came to a stop at our destination. We got off of the bus, heading to the camping ground in a forest clearing and pitching our tent. After that was set up, we split up in order to get things ready. Nat and Julie went off to get some firewood, Hana went over to our teacher as she led some of the class over to the river to catch some fish, and Ema and I went off on our own with a guidebook of mushrooms that would help us forage. After a few minutes of searching, we found another clearing in the forest nearby, a small shrine or grave-like thing resting over a cliff; it felt familiar, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

"Creepy..." Ema said, walking forward and kneeling down to look over the edge of the cliff. "That's one long fall..." She added, stepping back as I walked toward the graves. I call them graves, but they were just stacked stones; the only notable things were their engravings: messages or small titles of the person they were dedicated to. It was simple, archaic, but something was off about them. They made me feel... dizzy. My head throbbed the more I tried to think of them like there was something more to them than what I thought, but... it was too much. I felt my body seize up as I fell to the ground. "Lily!" I could hear Ema yell, but I couldn't move my head to look at her; it was as if hands held me in place. "Oh no... Oh no no no..." She tried lifting me up, carrying me over her shoulder back to our tent just as Hana and the teacher arrived to drop off the fish. "Ms. Madison! Lily fainted!"

"What? Bring her here! I'll call her parents." I felt my body get put down gently onto the ground, my face feeling the wind blow across me. A hand touched my forehead as I could hear murmuring around me. "She has a fever. Is this your tent? Quickly, bring her inside and let her rest." She said, the sound of her shoes against the soil implying that she ran off to call my mom and dad.

"What are you doing Hana? What's that book?" I could hear Ema's voice as I was dragged over to our tent. They put my head on a rolled-up sleeping bag and let me rest. A finger was placed on my forehead as another hand started touching areas of my face.

"I see my mom and dad doing this to each other often. Maybe I can... that's strange, it should be working now." Hana's voice was followed by the sound of flipping pages. What was in that book she was reading? What was she trying to do to me? My head started spinning and I felt my body burn up more the more I thought about it. It was like those rocks.

That new pain, along with the previous one, was too much and I could slowly feel myself losing consciousness. My vision faded just as I heard the sound of a bunch of branches dropping to the ground with the arrival of Nat and Julie. I don't know how much time passed after that, or what happened to the rest of my class for the remainder of the trip. I woke up back in my room at home, my mother asleep in a chair beside my bed with some towels resting in a bowl of water nearby. Before I could even think of anything else, I started tearing up as I mewled in sadness. "You're awake! How are you feeling?" I guess I woke her up with my crying since mom looked over to me and started wiping my forehead with a towel.

"What happened?" I asked, sitting up and placing my hand on my forehead; it was still pretty hot.

"You fainted while you and your classmate were walking around. I got a call and your dad and I took you home." She said as I looked out my window; it was dark outside. "It was a really high fever. Your father and I wanted to bring you to a hospital, but you kept insisting that it wasn't necessary."

"I did?" I brushed my hair with my hand. "What did I say?" Mom just looked away, rubbing her arm in an awkward way.

"It didn't sound like you. It came from your mouth, but the voice was different. It's like you were possessed or haunted by something." She said, looking me straight in the eye for her next question. "Lily. What did you find out in that forest?" She asked, placing her hands on my shoulders as she leaned in closer.

"I... I don't know." I mumbled, looking away as I felt her stare into my soul. "It looked like some sort of old grave. I guess."

"Maybe we should go to church. You might've been possessed by a demon or a ghost or something." Mom said, her tone completely serious despite the absurdity of her topic. It was hard to take her seriously like that; she looked like a crazy person.

"You actually believe that? Ghosts and demons aren't real, mom. You've been spending too much time on the internet." I said, hoping that she'll just play it off as a joke. She didn't.

"They are, Lily. They're always around us. Your teacher and I saw one when we were younger." She said. As much as I hate to say it, she didn't seem like she was lying. "We're going to church tomorrow. Get some rest." She said, tucking me back into bed and leaving my room. Why do I feel like I'm forgetting something?

True to their word, they drove me to our local church and had a talk with the priest there. "Is something the matter?" He asked, looking at us as the people slowly dwindled out of the building. His eyes looked at me curiously, as if he was looking at something inhuman.

"My wife thinks that our daughter is possessed by a spirit of some sort. She was really adamant, telling me over and over again to bring us here." My dad said, turning everyone's attention toward my mom as she gently nudged me forward. I gave the priest a shy wave as my mom started talking.

"I've seen one before when I was younger. Please, father, can you do an exorcism?" She asked as the priest looked at me again, calling an altar boy over that was holding a small amount of holy water on a tray. He took some into his hands, splashing me with small droplets from his fingers. It burned... why did it burn? "Lily!"

"I see. Foul demon, show your true colors." He said, dousing me with more water as steam started to surround me. Wherever the water touched, it burned away my flesh to reveal something underneath.

"Mom! Please! It hurts!" I screamed, blowing away the fog to see my parents. They looked at me, horrified by what they saw. "Make it stop! Please!" I screamed, trying to run to their side but noticing that I was shackled to the spot I was. I looked back, seeing my body lying on the ground, a black liquid oozing from my mouth. "What..." I asked, seeing that body's mouth move along with the one where the voice originated. I didn't have time to think about it since I got showered in more water.

"Lily..." Mom looked over at me. "You... you're the same demon as before..." She said, her mouth agape as her legs started shaking. What was she talking about? I don't know!

"Don't be fooled, this thing... your daughter was this demon from the start." The priest said, looking at me as he started praying. My body started crumbling as electric shocks coursed through all of me.

"Somebody... help me." I pleaded, calling out to anyone that would answer.

"As you wish, master." A voice reached my mind, a familiar one; who was he? "So, what's the deal? Lilith? What have they done to you?" Who's Lilith? I looked over at who was talking, finding a demon floating above all of us. He blew away the steam completely, allowing me the clearest view I could possibly get. Looking at my body, I saw similar demonic features on me. Horns, a tail, wings; was I really a demon? I looked back up at the demon that I unwittingly summoned, seeing him create some sort of orange ball in his hands. My gut started telling me that it wasn't good since it licked his fingers like a small flame. "I've been looking everywhere for you, you know? Ever since you went missing, dad's been giving me hell."

"What are you talking about?" I asked as he torched the priest, leaving only a skeleton in his place. "Ahh! Why! You killed him!" I said, standing between him and my parents as a small pillar of fire rose from the corpse; it was getting bigger. "Go away, don't hurt my family."

"So you've really forgotten. Oh well, Greg can fix this. I'll bring you to him." He said, pointing his finger toward us. I instinctively pushed mom and dad away, taking the brunt of the fire as I lost feeling in the lower half of my body. It was climbing up, and it was climbing fast.

"You've saved me again." Mom said, tears in her eyes as she held my head in her hands. "Thank you, Lily. I love you." Those were the last things I heard before I lost everything to the heat. I don't know what happened next in that church; I hope mom and dad are safe.

I found myself in a strange place: a white void with a long line of people from various places. It was unusually quiet, nobody talking even as the line moved forward. What met me at the end of the line was something unexpected. "Are you the grim reaper?" I asked, looking at the skeleton that was dressed like a secretary. He...she... they? They looked at me, unhinging their jaw as a voice escaped it.

"Ah, Lilith. It's about time. Drink this and take the first door on the left." He said, handing me a glass bottle of shimmering liquid. I pensively took a sip as I felt something enter my mind. They were... someone's memories; were they my memories?

"Greg?" I asked, trying to get my bearings.

"Welcome back. Now, the door." He said coldly, gesturing with his hand toward a golden door. I was still confused about everything. I have so many questions. Why did I turn into a human for all those years? Why did I forget about my past life? And why was I supposed to go to the other door; the door to paradise? Well, I could get the answer to one of those questions by opening the door... But it wasn't my place. I didn't belong there. I walked over to the door I was more familiar with, ready to meet my father again. "Don't be a runner." I heard Greg's voice from behind me as arms grabbed my legs, anchoring me to the floor before more arms started to pull me toward the other door. "Enjoy your stay." That fucker; I saw a small glint in his eyesockets before I was thrown through the golden door.