Demons

Ana's jaw dropped to the floor and she stared at Lucas like whatever he said just now didn't register in her head. Ana thought maybe she heard him wrong or he might've misspoke.

"I'm sorry, what?", she asked him a little confused after Lucas didn't speak anything else for a long time and the silence was worse than whatever happened before.

"Um…. We're demons, Ana…. Those humans who died just now, they are mages…or in other words wizards….", he pointed to the pile of bodies nearby to make her understand further.

She was frozen again, "No, I'm sorry… What?", and this time Lucas gave an understanding look at her and saw how her brain was trying to process this weird bit of information and made her sit again.

Ana's head was really spinning this time. She had gazillion questions to ask them and needed another gazillion explanations, but as if everything in a PC crashes together from overload, her brain froze because of too much unrelated and nonsensical information.

Lucas clearly understood that and gave her time to process. He was better at understanding humans, he always pitied them as they were neither here nor there. Instead of speaking anything further which will confuse her more, he kept quiet and just observed her little brain to come up with an explanation.

After what seemed like an hour, Ana looked up at Lucas who was holding out a glass of water and Oliver had already gone to his room discarding the pile of corpse to decorate his living room forever.

When did that happen?! She thought to herself.

She fixed her eyes on Lucas's brown eyes, not able to believe that she just saw them change into laser red ones, "What do you mean, demon? Are you in a cult?"

He chuckled a little but soon regained composure and told her patiently, "First drink this…" and passed on the glass to her hand.

She looked down at the water and decided to trust in the things she knew and drank it at once.

"What do you mean by demon?", she asked again but this time somewhat calmer than before as if she was ready to listen to his answer.

"I mean…. A real demon, from hell, Ana…. Yeah, we exist..", he said jokingly hoping to lighten the mood, that did nothing but make her scrunch her face more in confusion.

"Lucas…. What the hell? Do I look that dumb to you? See, yes it was dark and maybe I didn't see things properly but what do you mean by you're a demon? Then, you mean to say that you're a real demon from real hell? If hell exists, then heaven exists? What are you even talking about? Did you hurt your head?", Ana blabbered continuously but when she was hearing all that, she felt that there was a high chance that the person who hurt their head was Ana and not Lucas.

"Look… I know it's difficult to process all this and it's happening in a blur… But, trust me… First of all, you're safe.. and second of all, it's all true…", Lucas said searching for Ana's expression.

"So, you….. You're a demon? And Oliver's a demon? So, just now when your eyes changed colour, and everything became dark, you were being a demon?", she asked trying to arrive at an understanding with the facts.

"All yes!", Lucas declared feeling happy that she was getting it.

"No! No!", she chuckled a bit and saw him again with horror in her eyes, "No! Nooooo! No! No! No...!", she started freaking out and Lucas bit his lips not knowing what to do. It was back to square one.

She held her head with both hands because it felt like it could explode any minute now. She was looking down trying to think something good but failing. How could all these be real? She thought it was just some childhood stories adults told children to instil fear. If demons and hell was real, then….

"Is god real?", she suddenly shot up the question to Lucas startling him a little.

"Yes!", he said coolly like it was no big deal.

"So, is Santa real?", she saw him with puppy eyes like a little kid scared of getting her name in the naughty list.

Lucas chuckled and said, "Yes!" again.

"Oh my god! I feel…. I don't know…. Then right now, whatever that red glow thingy which came from you both…. What was that? Was that someone's soul? Oh my god! Are you going to take my soul or am I already dead and only you both can see me? I'm going crazy…..", she said going back to holding her head in hands.

"Ana… look….", Lucas slowly removed her hands, stopping her from spiralling out of control and forced her to look up at him.

Once he knew he had her full attention, he spoke steadily, "There are many myths… But, there are also some truths among them… Right now, the facts you need to know are, Oliver and I are both demons from the underworld. Oliver is Satan's son and I'm his sworn brother. We don't kill humans or take their souls unnecessarily. You are safe with us, I can guarantee that much… Now, please try to calm yourself down without overthinking. I know all this is extremely confusing and overwhelming…And trust me! We don't know how you got tangled up in all this either…. But we're trying to find it out....", he said flashing his famous all known smile at her.

She felt a little bit of ease because of Lucas's sweet voice and his smile but that didn't do much good to her gut which was in a knot.

Was she really safe with them? How could he say that after Oliver tried to kill her? But she hesitated asking him about it. He will obviously deny.

What was she thinking, demons are bad news! She had never heard one good thing about a demon even if those stories were fake. They were evil creatures. This was crazy, she had to escape from there first.

"I need….. I need some time…..", she said looking down at her feet. She had problems believing him but also had problems not believing him.

If it wasn't true, there was no explanation for the sudden darkness and chill, their bodies changing, Lucas's leg healing magically, those people trying to kill them with a golden glow…But, if she decided to believe, although it was possible, it was completely absurd. Do these mythical creatures like demons, angels and god really exist?

"Okay…. Sure… I can give you that…..", Lucas told interrupting her stream of thoughts.

"Can I go to my place? I feel….. weird….. and uncomfortable here….", she wanted to flee before dying miserably.

"Um…. I can't do that as of now…. We….. need you Ana. We were performing a ritual and the pendant which you're wearing somehow disrupted the flow. You'll have to stay here until we figure out how to get that off you…. Also, you saw those dangerous people right? There's no guarantee that they'll not be back", although he knew that they didn't come to kill Ana and it was more likely an attempt at Oliver, he lied to instil fear in her so that she'll stay.

"Oh…..", she felt flabbergasted because of what he just said. She looked down and saw the pendant again. It was beautiful and shimmering like the first time she saw it.

Ana wanted to be alone, sort her thoughts, come to terms with reality or whatever Lucas was trying to communicate but she was also going crazy because of the pendant. Why did she get those images while touching it? Something was stopping her from removing it and that wasn't normal.

When she was pondering over, Oliver came out of the room dressed in a blue faded skinny jean and a black turtleneck t-shirt. He looked well rested, calm and perfect like a magazine model. Ana was mesmerized for a moment that her thoughts shifted from everything Lucas just said to Oliver. She couldn't believe that he tried to kill her but also saved her life just now. Which was an act among the two?

This was the first time she saw him in such casual clothing. Whenever he was in office, he'd be in a suit with a menacing and threatening look, but now he seemed almost approachable, almost human. The thought caught in her head!

Almost human!

She always had the feeling that Oliver was too good to be a human. His skin smooth, perfect and radiating almost godlike, his features just angled in the right exact way, perfectly symmetrical like that of a figurine. Was that all because he wasn't a human, after all? Worse, they were demons. Did that explain his bad temper somehow?

She suddenly realized that Oliver was now looking at her with the same curiosity mirrored in his eyes. He was wondering how she ended up with such an important piece of his life, why they were not able to remove it from her, why he was suddenly finding himself on the crossroads with a human when everything should be going in his favour?

"We should eat…..", he uttered as nonchalantly as possible, his deep voice slicing through the silence that was settled around them. His eyes locked up with Ana's never leaving her gaze.

Lucas put himself in between Ana and Oliver to stop their staring contest and flashed his ever kind smile at her. "I think Oliver is right. We must all eat.. We've had a rather rough day. So, it's better if you change. I've picked out some clothes for you and they're in the bedroom. We'll discuss more on the way. I promise…."