"Demon Fire |Prologue|" by Kelsey Lynn Reed

She watched the flames stretch towards the sky, listened to the demon screaming in fury and exaltation.

I told them, she thought. No one believes Witches anymore. We're just a thing of the past they say. Simple fairy tales to scare children. Well the fairies are laughing at the idiots now and so am I.

Screaming people, men, woman, and children, fled from the toxic smoke that was descending on the city. Blazing embers exploded from the burning buildings, picking and choosing their targets at their own will. The black sky glowed a bloody red-orange color and she watched the sparks fly up to the heavens. She, herself, sat on top of a building far away, out of reach of the demon's clutches. She sneered down at the humans that ran through the streets below her. She had no pity for such stupid creatures. In her mind they deserved to die. She had warned them of the demon. She had sensed it weeks before it arrived from the darkest depths of the earth's core. She told them all of the death and destruction it would wreak if they didn't leave the city immediately. But no. They were selfish and refused to believe their lives could be destroyed in only seconds.

She had been there when the demon emerged from hiding. She had watched it crawl through the building, nothing human about it. The fiery depths of it's eyes had looked at her, had understood she would not let it kill her. Most of all, it had seen her as a friend that shouldn't be killed. The demon didn't have any real form. It's shape flickered between many types of animals, beings, and mythological creatures. The entire body was slightly transparent, enough so that she could see the burning embers inside of it waiting to escape.

The demon had struck with massive force not known to the humans of earth. The explosion took a quarter of the city within seconds, the aftershock crushing buildings and shattering all glass.

'Demons are to be taken seriously,' she had warned the people. 'They aren't like they appear to be in your childish stories. They don't look human and they don't act human. None of you could stand to live through the destruction it will unleash on your city.'

She had told them hundreds of times. Someone screamed on the street below her. When she looked down she realized how close the blaze was getting. A wicked grin spread over her face as the fire began creeping up the building she was standing on. She could see the flames leaping up with a life of their own. They twisted and curled into shapes, words from ancient languages, and images she couldn't comprehend. The energy from the fire and devastation lent her the power to help the demon in it's mission to destroy the city. She forced the wind to blow harder and harder until a massive tornado emerged from the flames. It was all fire and debris, the heat catching everything on fire within a mile. She escalated strength of the tornado, making it spin faster and faster.

White noise, something you can hear but is so loud and overwhelming that you stop hearing any noise at all, echoed through the city. The quiet lasted only a moment. Then the tornado reached the center of the city where the demon waited. The demon cried out as it greeted it's friend, it's power and strength. Pressure built and everyone left in the city screamed in fear, amazement, and insanity.

The last explosion was always the best. There was no fire, no debris flying through the air. It was sound and light. A huge sound wave ripped the city to shreds, leaving nothing and no one alive. Then the white light blinded her, making it impossible to see what had happened.

It was over. The city and people were gone. All that was left was the ruins of a once-beautiful city. She surveyed the devastation, content knowing she was finally alone. She had never liked humans but she hadn't wished for such a thing to happen to so many of them at once. That was why she had warned them, why she had tried to tell the woman and children to flee for their lives. But they hadn't. Now they were all dead, probably never to be found or identified in such chaos that was to come when others discovered what had happened.

She jumped off the only building that still stood tall. Landing gently on her feet she began her journey. Perhaps the next city would listen to her when she told them they didn't have much time.

The grey light of dawn was just beginning to illuminate the still-burning city as she stepped passed the city limits and into the dark forest that no one ever entered. It was guarded by the creatures of the night, myth, and fairy tale. Until the next demon emerged she would stay there, waiting for another day to come when maybe, just maybe, she would be trusted enough to help someone survive the attack of a demon.