The Devil's Prey (The Demon Within) (21 page)

‘
You really know how to push it, Summer.’ And more pressure was put into my head.

‘A
nd so do you, Lauren. How long did you think it would take me to figure it out? The moment you put pressure in my head, I knew it was you, but why do you want me dead?’ I felt the ultimate betrayal. I’d had my problems with Lauren, but I’d still trusted her.

S
he pushed so much more pressure into my head that I think I blacked out for a little bit. When I came to, she was talking. ‘Summer so sweet, the reason is that I believe that no one should be higher than anyone else, especially not in the world of fairies. I was very surprised when you managed to survive the attack last year.  I kept telling everyone there was no hope, but you managed to pull through. Not this time, though. I won’t make the same mistake twice and kill you straight away. I will take my time. It may be four years until I decide to kill you.’

I opened my eyes to see Michel pinned up against the wall
. Lauren continued, ‘I was very surprised when I went to your house and found you with someone else. I had thought it would have been Ethan, but this one is so much prettier.’ She ran her finger along his face.

‘Don’t touch him
, or I will make sure I kill you!’ I yelled at Lauren, knowing that this time, there was nothing stopping me from killing her.

‘A
h, don’t you see? I can hurt you, but you can’t touch me.’ She put pressure into my head, and I cried out.

‘Lauren
, stop! What you are doing? You’re going to kill her!’ Michel snapped.

‘H
e cares about you, Summer, and you care about him, but what I want to know is…what is he?’ She was running her fingers along his arm.

‘I said
, leave him alone!’ I got up and lunged at Lauren, but when I smacked into her, it was like running into a brick wall, and I hit the floor, the wind knocked out of me.

‘Summer
, Summer. What am I going to do with you? How about some role playing, where I stab you and see if you live? But then there is the risk of killing you…let’s not.’ She turned to face Michel. ‘But you, pretty boy…it will kill Summer to watch you die, so let’s role play with you.’

I saw
a knife in her hand, and my body froze up. I can’t move- not because of Lauren, but because of the knife. It was the same knife the devil had used on me.

‘A
h, Summer, you recognize this? I sure do. It is my favorite out of all of my collections. But I think you know it a bit better than I do.’ She waved the knife in front of me, then slashed my leg. I didn’t scream or move. I was paralyzed with my own fear. No matter how much I had worked with Liam to get me over my fears, none of his methods seemed to be working now.

‘W
ho knew that all I had to do was bring out a knife, and you would be still and silent.’ She slashed me in the other leg, and like before, I didn’t even flinch.

‘S
ummer, you need to snap out of it! Summer, listen to me! You are strong. Think of it as any normal knife, ok? There is nothing special. You have never seen it before. Summer, you need to listen!’ I could hear Michel, but I couldn’t take in what he was saying.

‘S
hut up, boy,’ Lauren growled, and turned her attention back to me.

‘W
hat I love about this knife is that I have never cleaned it. I think I can still see some blood from last time.’ Lauren laughed at the idea she had just planted in my head. I looked at the knife to see it dripping in blood…my blood. I could feel the knife slide down my arm, but I didn’t feel any pain. ‘I will leave you two now, but I will be back.’ She left the room, and Michel was dropped to the floor.

‘S
ummer, look at me. You have lost a lot of blood, ok?’ He got up, moved into his room, and brought in a thin sheet. He started ripping it up. ‘Holy Jesus, Summer.’ His hands were covered in blood. I still sat there, feeling paralyzed, unable to move. Michel wiped his hands and cupped my face. ‘Summer, I need you to come back to me. I am going to get us out, but I need you to listen to what I am about to tell you.’

I was
staring right into his blue eyes, and they were glittering with unshed tears. ‘I know you are strong, Summer,” he said. “I have seen you in action. I need you to fight it- for yourself, for your friends, for everyone. I won’t lie. She is going to come back, and we need to be ready for her. You can do this.’ I felt something warm on my lips. It took me a second to realize that Michel was kissing me, or at least trying. For some reason, I wanted to kiss him back, but I ended up slapping him in the face instead.

‘O
k, I guess I had that coming.’ He rubbed the side of his cheek, where I had slapped him. ‘I guess it worked.’ He smiled. I went to move, but my legs were in too much pain. ‘Don’t try and move. Can you remember anything that just happened?’

I was puzzled a first, wondering
how I’d gotten slashes in my legs and arm. ‘I think so. Lauren. The knife.’ I stopped talking, and Michel looked at me. ‘The knife… it was the same, Michel, the same as before. Lauren is in league with the devil.’ I could feel my body start to lock down again, but this time I knew there would be no coming out.

‘S
ummer, don’t you dare go into shock again. Nod if you understand.’

I nod
ded my head slightly.

‘C
an you try and heal yourself?’

I tried, but nothing happened.
‘Michel, I am scared,’ I whispered to him.

‘I know
, Summer. So am I, ok? But we can’t show it.’  He took my hand and squeezed it.

‘L
ook how cute this is.’ Lauren walked into the room.

‘Y
ou stay away from her!’ This time Michel was doing the threatening.

‘I left our little friend outside
. I thought it would be best to talk it out like civilized people.’ She took a seat next to me.

‘H
a! Civilized? What you mean is, talk until we are at each other’s throats. Remember how well that went last time.’ I spat my words at her.

‘And…
you’re back, the feisty Summer that I know.’

‘A
nd I guess the bitch is back then, as well.’ I smirked at her.

‘S
ummer, watch what you say. I hold all the power here.’ She tapped her head. ‘Now you are going to tell me what you are.’ She pointed her finger at Michel.

‘N
ever,’ he said.

‘H
ave it your way.’ And suddenly Michel was screaming, holding his head.

‘Lauren
, stop. The war is between you and me, not Michel. He has nothing to do with this,’ I said, hoping she would stop, and she did.

‘Michel
? So that is your name.’ She had a worried look on her face. ‘I shall be back.’ She left the room in a hurry.

‘S
ummer, this is our chance. We are going to run at the door.’ Michel helped me up.

‘W
ait. I have a better idea.’ I closed my eyes and searched deep down for my power. I felt something very small, but big enough. I could hear Michel telling me not to, but if it could get us out, I had to try. I worked the power through my veins, and I commanded it to open the door. It hurt every muscle, but I could feel it working, and the door flew open.

The moment the door opened, I could feel a huge amount of power come back to me. I started to glow, and I could feel my wounds healing themselves. It was like I had been lifted to heaven.

‘Y
ou did it, Summer,’ Michel said.

I took a step forward and felt
all my powers leave my body. ‘Michel, we can’t leave. If we do, we won’t have much power. The room is designed that if we escape, we won’t get far, as we will have very little power.’ I took a step forward, and felt my powers drain again.

‘H
ow long until they come back?’ Michel was standing next to me, looking at our exit.

‘M
aybe a day or two.’ I could hear someone coming, and there was no time for thinking. I grabbed Michel’s hand and made a run for the exit.

We mad
e it outside, but we didn’t get far before I fell to the ground. ‘Summer, you ok?’ Michel asked, concerned.

I look
ed down to see the wound in my left leg opening up again. ‘My powers have gone, and my leg must not have finished healing.’ There was a lot of blood coming out of it.

‘H
ere, take this.’ Michel ripped the bottom of his shirt off, and tied it above my wound.

‘T
hanks,’ I said when he was done.

‘N
o problem. Now we better get moving, before Lauren gets back. When my powers are restored, we will disappear.’ He helped me up, and we started to move through the unknown woods.

‘Michel
, where are we going?’

‘T
o my place. It is protected by this weird…thing. We will be safe there, but I just need to find it from here.’ We stopped walking. Michel drew a circle in the dirt, and looked at the setting sun. ‘We have to go this way. My house is right on the horizon. It makes sense when you see it.’ We started to walk again, stopping a lot because of my leg.

Finally I told him,
‘Michel, we have to stop for today. I can’t move anymore.’ We sat down under a tree.

‘Y
ou think you can make a fire?’ he asked. I tried to flick my hand, but all I got was a spark.

‘N
ope, no use.’  I tried again, but still nothing. ‘I guess it is going to be a cold night.’  I smiled at Michel and tried to fall asleep.

I didn’t get much sleep
, as it was very cold. Halfway through the night, it started to snow softly. I tried to make a fire again, but all I got was a spark. For some reason, Lauren had dressed me in shorts and a singlet, and parts of them were burnt away from the acid. Michel was a bit more lucky. He had jeans and a shirt on, but we were still both cold.

‘You ok
, Summer?’ he asked through his chattering teeth.

‘I guess
, if you don’t count freezing.’ I tried to smile, but the skin on my face was too stiff from the cold.

‘Y
ou think Lauren is looking for us?’ Michel moved closer to me to keep me warm.

‘Probably
not.’ I shrugged when I felt a sharp pain in my left shoulder. ‘Great, another message.’

‘
Don’t think you can hide, Summer. I know what Michel is, and I am not letting you have him. If you’re not back in one hour, the hunt begins.

This message wa
s right across my shoulder. ‘So Michel, I guess we better get moving to your place.’ I got up, even though it was still dark. ‘
Amanda, can you hear me?’
I spoke to Amanda, hoping she could hear.

‘
Summer, is that you? What a relief. We are being held hostage at the house by Lauren, and she said she had you and some guy named Michel. Ethan is talking with her now, because she asked if anyone has heard of him, and Ethan said you called him Michel. Summer, we are all scared, and we haven’t heard from Ethan in hours.’

Michel looked at me and shook
his head.

‘S
o what, you are reading my thoughts?’ I said to him.

‘N
o, sometimes you don’t even know what you are doing. While you were talking to Amanda, you were also sending me the conversation in your own words.’ At least we were on the same page. We both heard a twig snap in the distance. ‘We have to move,’ he whispered to me, and I started to follow him deeper into the woods.

‘H
ow do you know where you are going?’ I whispered, because I didn’t want to get lost in here.

‘I live around here
, and I have been through every part of theses woods. They lead on to where you are staying, but that is like a two-day walk. From here, it is like a day and a half, but I have never come across the torture place. They must have had it hidden.’ We kept walking until the sun had risen.

‘Michel
, we need to stop. My leg…’ I looked down to see blood dripping onto the white snow. Wait- white snow? I looked around to see that this was the place from my dream. ‘Michel, we have to hide! I had a dream, and this is where it started.’ I started to hobble my way over to some long grass.

‘Summer
, what are you talking about? It was just a dream.’ He was following me, not having a clue what I was saying.

‘Michel
, listen. All of last year, I had dreams about me being stabbed, tortured, and…you know the rest. I just thought they were bad dreams until they became real. In my dreams this year, we are here hiding. We are both out of breath from running. You call my name, but I don’t respond. Then you call it again…I run towards you…then we are found by someone.  You are very close on my left, and you call my name, then you are dragged off by someone. You can’t materialize, and then there is a knife at your throat- and I know the person holding the knife, because I feel paralyzed.’ I had finally found a decent hiding spot when we heard a voice. Lauren’s voice.