Resus: And so here it is - next chapter… Slightly longer… and slightly faster…. but hey, it’s my finals week (sort of) so obviously as I have less time to write I’m gonna do it more…

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Chapter 3: I think I might be the demon child here

Damn, damn, damn! It’s bad, I am so screwed! For the first time in my not-so-short history of being in this world I’m forced into the spotlight. I had to do it, the alternative was even worse, but still! I am in deep shit right now! My father, my uncle, my grandfather, my cousin, the slaves in the room, my grandfather's bodyguards... all of them are looking at me with shock written on their faces. And then, my father speaks.

“Did you just say something?” Ah, damn it. Everything was going so well…

Last year was more or less good. Most of it was anyway. I spent it on… ‘bonding’ with my cousin practically everyday. The scenario for each day was similar, my host was playing alone and so was Iar’e. Although at first my cousin would always be careful and cautious, his… mean character would eventually win and he would do ‘something’ to my host. Throwing or stealing toys was common at the beginning and would always result in me taking control of the body and acting creepy.

At first I simply stared at Iar’e, trying not to blink, but that wasn’t enough in the long run. After first two weeks he begun to ignore my staring. I had to come up with new methods. And so, one day, when my host was hit with another toy and I got in control I stood up and started to walk towards Iar’e very, very slowly all the while staring at him. With that I regained his attention. He tried to retreat but soon the wall behind his back stopped him. Sliding against it he managed to get into the corner of the room.

The situation was utterly hilarious. I - about three years old at the moment - was just standing in front of a three years older, and a head taller, kid… who was pinned against the corner of the room and terrified. Pure comedy.

We were stuck like this for a while. I didn’t know how to end it and Iar’e just wasn’t doing anything. I honestly didn’t know he was already so scared of me. He didn’t show any signs of it earlier. At least nothing to suggest this extent of fear. Finally I just blinked a few times, turned around, got back to my host’s playing spot and gave up control. He resumed playing… But Iar’e stayed in his corner for a few minutes. Analysing the situation maybe?

I knew I was scaring him for life by acting that way. And I knew it was a bad thing. But he… wasn’t a good boy. I mean, what kind of kid finds pleasure in bullying his own mentally impaired cousin? The answer is - a bad one. And what happens when a bad and spoiled child grows older? We get a bad and spoiled adult, who has both money and power.

I had no doubts that it was all my uncle’s fault. All parents who allow their kids to do something like that should just drop dead. But I couldn’t do anything to him… yet. The limit of my capabilities at the moment was scaring my cousin for life. It isn’t a nice thing to do, but if that was going to save lives of innocent in the future, simply because my cousin was going to be deterred by a memory of fear he experienced in his childhood…. well I guess I could survive a guilty conscience.

I hate to admit it, but bullying him actually WAS somewhat enjoyable. Damn, it makes me sound like I was a villain here. Was I simply a bully who desperately searched for a justification to make himself believe he’s the good guy? I spent a week or two contemplating that thought and was about to end bullying him, but then I saw Iar’e venting his frustration on a random slave. Bad move cousin but I must sincerely thank you for helping me conquer my moral qualms.

Considering how harsh he treated that slave - yes I’m still talking about a seven-year-old brat - I even decided to kick it up a notch. Of course I didn’t mean to overdo it - it could be disastrously counterproductive. If I pressed too hard he might snap in a very inconvenient and dangerous way. Fear and desperation may push him to do something stupid… And the last thing I want is being stabbed in the middle of the night with a kitchen knife.

So, I tried to keep him in a state of unease and only from time to time I was doing something more to keep the memory of fear somewhat fresh. It prevented him from doing anything against me… at least directly. But even his attempts to persuade his father, some other family members and even slaves checking on us sometimes, that I, or rather my host, is acting in a weird and creepy way backfired. Everyone just ignored him and his occasional begging not to spend time with me.

Well… not quite ignored. Some rumors began to circulate but surprisingly enough they weren’t about me. It seemed like everyone - even slaves - thought that there’s something wrong with Iar’e. The moment I found out about it was simply priceless. But there was one time I even overheard him arguing with his father who told him in a mockingly soft way to shut the fuck up and stop his stupid jokes… and that was even better.

Next few months have been - once again - rather monothematic. I continued my ‘fear therapy’, and Iar’e was scared. All the time. It was quite surprising that even after all this time he still wasn’t able to ignore my behavior. I wasn’t sure whether he was so mentally strong - to withstand all that happened - or just too stupid to break.

Only noticeable change was that he learned to avoid mentioning anything about our ‘play time’ to slaves or family. Gossips and rumors about him could still be heard because he simply couldn’t hide his fear and generally tried to avoid any contact with me. Especially being alone with me was a no-no, so he was doing everything he could to keep someone in our room with us. Whether it was a nanny or slave responsible for cleaning, it didn’t matter to him, just ‘someone’ to keep me from doing anything.

After these months I finally decided that it’s time to… spice things a little. For starters I copied my cousin’s past behavior - I was throwing toys at him when he wasn’t looking. Every time I forced myself in control for a moment, just enough to grab a nearby toy and throw it. All that Iar’e could see after… impact… was my host peacefully playing as if nothing happened.

It took a few weeks but after that time my lovely cousin seemed to have been on the precipice of a nervous breakdown. Looking at me every five seconds or so was a hard to miss sign of his… justified paranoia.

Sometime in the next few months Iar’e also began to learn how to write. His main classes were held elsewhere - as it was before with reading - but here, with me, he was instructed to practice his speed all the while keeping nice handwriting. It almost immediately gave me an idea but at a time it would be too cruel and to difficult to pull of. Now, on the other hand, I was well past ‘too cruel’. So, whenever he went out of the room - potty breaks or looking for someone to pass his ‘homework’ to his dad - I would sketch something on his practice parchment.

I even had an idea for a theme of this sketches. I’d usually draw a boy sitting behind a desk - just like Iar’e was a lot lately - and another boy playing with a toy - my host of course. But, there was also another character - dark, more or less human shape silhouette standing beside the playing boy but looking towards the one behind the desk.

I must say this was one of my most ingenious ideas. When he found the first drawing Iar’e was happy because he finally got a proof. So he went to the nanny. Her reaction was telling him to show it to his father later, in the evening, when we were separated. For the rest of the day my cousin was visibly overjoyed - on his face was a look which could only be described as ‘Ha, now you are finished!’. The happiness disappeared overnight, after he was thoroughly scolded for ‘drawing something stupid and wasting ink and parchment and then trying to lie to everybody that his retarded cousin was an author’ - this was actually a quotation, as my uncle was quite loud and several slaves overheard the scolding.

And why was that so ingenious? Because then I continued to draw creepy sketches like that, and he kept getting scolded for it. Plus - the content of them was in itself scary enough to get him visibly afraid of the dark. Either I turned him schizophrenic, or that black bastard joined our ‘bonding time’ because few times I saw my cousin acting as if he actually saw something terrifying in the dark, especially behind the windows in the evening. I wasn’t the only one person to notice that, so the new gossips started to surface - about my cousin mental instability. Many of them blamed my uncle for it, saying that he intentionally fed Iar’e with some made up scary stories about me to sabotage my grandfather’s orders as a part of some greater scheme that backfired terribly.

And then it seemed like all hell broke loose. It all started - surprise, surprise - with a gossip. Well… not quite exactly a gossip… The important part is that I heard it from my nanny. One of these days when my time with what’s left of Iar’e was supervised by my nanny and some other slave, Iar’e’s teacher or caretaker maybe… Anyway, they were talking about my mother’s recent condition in regard of my safety. Or, to be more precise, and I quote ‘what’s gonna happen with this poor child now that milady is pregnant’...

Oh, fuckfuckfuckfuckfuckfuck. Not. Fucking. Good. All of my great plans for the next three-to-four years just… went to hell. I am, after all only an irritating and more or less useless retard, who for some reason is the only child of this family's main branch. And now there’s gonna be another potential successor. How long will it take for someone to have this brilliant idea of erasing me from existence? It’s easier to say ‘well, he died - fainted and drowned in a soup before someone noticed anything - what a terrible accident’ than to spend next forty or so years paying for my food, clothes and someone to take care of me.

I always knew there would be a moment in which I’d need to stop hiding behind my host. The moment in which I would have to say something along the line ‘Hey, I’m actually not a retarded! Yay!’. But despite knowing that it’s inevitable I really didn’t expect it to happen before my fifth birthday. It was still a whole year until that day and it seemed like I really didn’t have any other choice than to finally step into the spotlight.

Of course I wasn’t going to do that in any stupid way. Informing my nanny and telling her to go fetch my father/grandfather would be pretty risky, as she could ran into, for example, my uncle who may decide to do something… inconvenient for me. Like arranging a terrible accident for both me and my messenger. I would of course survive this - or rather get resurrected after - but it would create a hell of a lot of awkward questions. Not to mention that I could get back to life under two or three meters of dirt. So I was going to arrange some emergency family meeting. And my cousin was going to help me.

I had to end this whole thing with damaging my cousin in one clean move, coup de grâce. I waited for me and Iar’e to be left alone in the room. Fortunately it didn’t take long. This time there was no place for subtlety. I forced myself in control - it was surprisingly easy - and threw the toy my host was playing with directly at Iar’e. I managed to hit him in he head, which was really lucky because I didn’t even try to aim, but I had no time to appreciate it. Using my cousin's confusion in few big steps I reached his desk. When Iar’e understood the situation… i guess he tried to stand up and run away simultaneously and it ended as fall down alongside his chair.

But I was already drawing my last masterpiece. Sketch similar to those a drew before, only this time there was another character. A stick figure of myself standing over the playing kid controlling my host like a puppet. Also, that black human-like silhouette was standing over the other kid. I had to threw the parchment at Iar’e because he was already trying to crawl away backwards… I guess he saw the drawing coz he started to crawl faster. Not fast enough.

I caught up to him right as his back hit the wall. He was too terrified to do anything so I leaned over him and right to his ear whispered “You are next.” He practically catapulted towards the door screaming something I couldn’t understand and pushing me away in the process. I’m gonna miss our time together.

Anyway, it seemed like Iar’e made a big commotion in the mansion. Slaves and family members were running everywhere not bothering to close any doors. And I was just sitting in a playroom, waiting for all of this to end one way or another. It took a good hour before they finally found my cousin. Everyone was talking about it and that’s how I knew he was hiding in one of the broom closets… in a cupboard… with a bunch of lit candles… while blabbering something incomprehensibly to himself.

This finally catched the attention of my grandfather, who just couldn’t ignore gossips anymore. No more than two hours passed since finding Iar’e and he barged in our playroom together with two nasty looking men who I think were his bodyguards. Slaves quickly organized additional chairs and then he sat in one of them. He looked at me few times but other than that - he was simply sitting there, visibly waiting for something.

Maybe twenty minutes later my father joined us. He looked like he came in running, so most likely he was outside the mansion when the news reached him. Not long after him, my uncle and - still terrified - cousin also came. Iar’e instantly took his chair and sat in the farthest corner of the room, exactly as far from me as he could. Damn, I may have overdid it a little, but hey, at least everyone’s here!

As expected, it’s my grandfather who speaks first.

“Good, now that everyone is here… how about someone telling me what the fuck happened here today? Lenniel, maybe you will tell me why your son hid in a cupboard with some candles, risking starting a fire? Not to mention burning himself in the process?” Oh, so my uncle name’s Lenniel, good to know. For some reason I never heard it before. “Not to mention his constant blabbering about his cousin being possessed or something? Well?”

“Somebody decided to play some tricks at him. Looks like a particular someone didn’t like your decision and tried to undermine it by trying to scare my son. Most likely with magic. Did you, my dear brother, hire an illusion-capable magician lately?” Lenniel uses the situation to attack my father who decided to retaliate.

“No, I didn’t, what isn’t surprising, as there was no magic involved. Simply some idiot tried to fed his son with scary stories to sabotage our father’s plan. But he forgot that kids at that age have a vivid imagination, so his ingenious plan backfired terribly. Isn’t it, Lenniel?”

“It’s not that!” My cousin joins the quarrel. “He is a demon, a demon!”

All adults in the room seemed irritated by his intrusion. His father would most likely say something harsh, if not for the fact that there are other people with us and it’s hard to blame Iar’e for ‘joking’ now.

Suddenly my uncle stands and walks up to me. For a moment I was too surprised to react as he grabbed me by my clothes and lifted me to stand up. When I looked into his face I could see that he was really, really angry. His grip was so strong that it actually hurt.

“So? Are you just a demon or just a retard?” I mustered all my courage. It wasn’t easy to openly speak to him. “Well, I guess I can’t really expect any answer from you, can I now?”

And then… it happened.

“What’s a demon?” I knew I should have said something different but that was the first thing that came to my mind. My uncle was shocked to the point that his grip weakened and I was free. As I didn’t want to be anywhere near him - especially because my host, even weakened, still emanates his strong antipathy toward my uncle - I used this occasion to break free and move back a few steps. And then I noticed that everyone was shocked just as much as him. Damn, damn, damn, I hate being in the spotlight! I am generally a shy person, especially with strangers, and unfortunately here everyone’s a stranger. The silence continued for few seconds. The first one to regain his ability to speak was my father. He actually stands and comes up to me, while pushing my uncle away from me.

“Did you just say something?” At least I don’t need to imitate shyness or awkwardness. I really feel bad with being in the center of everyone’s attention.

“Y...yes, father.” I blurt after a moment. I can feel my cheeks getting red. Not literally, but I’m nearly sure it’s happening. I have problems looking at my ‘family’ so I’m just staring at my boots. Damnit, I’m supposed to be some sort of a demon lord, I shouldn’t behave like that! I’ll need to improve in that matter in the future… if I’ll have any future.

My family is still shocked. Only the slaves - the ones that brought chairs, and nannies - are whispering in the back of the room.

“So… is it true what Iar’e said about you? About you trying to scare him?” My father is surprised too, but he at least speak. I guess the question he wants to ask me right now would be ‘You’re not retarded?!’ but as he’s not sure if I will understand it, he tries to do it indirectly.

“Well… y-yes, it is.” On my cousin’s face I can see a mixture of ‘what the hell is happening?!’ and ‘See? See? I WAS RIGHT!’. I can’t blame him, I would feel the same if I was him. “But I only did it because he was mean to me.”

“Mean? In what way?” My father keeps inquiring me.

“He was saying mean things about me. And he was throwing things at me. And I heard his father telling him to do that. And i didn’t know what to do. Then I thought that if I act scary maybe he would stop it.” It’s actually quite hilarious to watch as all heads in the room suddenly turn to face my uncle. Their looks could be translated to ‘Holy fuck, you seriously did that?’. Lenniel blabbered out something I couldn’t understand. His face started getting red with a combination of anger and embarrassment. Well, it’s not like he could do anything - right now I had everyone’s attention and they have no reason to doubt my words. Now I just have to pray that nobody would ask me how I knew how to ‘act scary’.

“So,for a year you could behave like a, umm, normal child?” My father finally asks me the main question, though I guess it wasn’t easy for him as he wasn’t sure how to say it.

“Yes, but not all the time. At the beginning I felt… strange, like I couldn’t control my body, for most of the time. But it started getting better lately.” I gave him a weak smile, full of shyness. Then I am back to staring at my boots. And then… an ingenious and crazy idea enters my mind. “It gets worse only when… when... “ I pretend that my voice fails me. My father - who suddenly starts acting oh so fatherly - gives me a hug.

“...when what?” He tries to encourage me.

“W-when uncle stays with me… and… touches me…“ And then my voice fails for the second time. But I no longer need to say anything, as the deed was done. The room suddenly goes silent. I can see my uncle’s face suddenly losing all colors. He knows I am lying, but who will believe him? All other faces - even the ones belonging to slaves - are filled with disgust. What I see on my grandfather’s face can’t even be described.

But the scariest thing I see is my father’s face. He looks calm - but it’s only a facade. He stands and turns to face my uncle. Lenniel, after seeing him, squeals something and instantly starts running towards the door. Too slow - my father catches him when he’s still trying to open them and practically ramms them open with my uncle’s head who falls to the ground. My father proceeds by kicking him violently. He lands at least five kicks before grandfather’s bodyguards drag him away. Though in their faces I can see that they’d rather join him.

Thus ended our second ‘family meeting’. My uncle was dragged outside, leaving a trail of blood from his smashed nose. My cousin - with a face full of tears - accompanying him. Then my father and grandfather make a short but rather heated talk about me and my uncle. I didn’t understand some words, mostly used in conjecture with my uncle’s names (I guess they were profanities), but it looks like, while they can’t really do anything to him because of lack of evidence and all his backers - both inside and outside the Veles, he just lost his high standing in the family. At the same time my position raises from ‘useless and retarded trash’ to the potential heir, who will be treated as a normal child.

Of course ‘bonding time’ with my cousin is no more.

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Resus: So. Third chapter just ended. How are we doing - meeting your expectations? Do you like it? Your opinion won’t change anything later in the story… but nevertheless we would like to know your opinion so far. :P We’d appreciate if you comment your thoughts and rate our story so more people could find it… and read it.

Mirrond: Two or three chapters until the RPG kicks in… and one one more till not-so-pretty things starting to happen D: Brace yourself, assholes are coming.

Resus: Last time we said ‘1-2’ chapters till RPG… and now 2-3… Yeah… the amount of content stays the same… but it seems like we need more and more words to write down that content :P

Mirrond: At least it’s good content… I think.