The Demon Within

By Ian Oldfield

Set in a far and distant land and time, follow our group of survivors as they battle between themselves and demons that appear in mirrors that will kill them. The survivors are suicide characters who suffer from depression but fight those feelings within to fight for themselves and their friends to survive. Every step leads to a dangerous situation. You will be gripped by their friendship. Gripped by the personal stories of despair and how they cope and live. A fantasy horror that explores many ideals of today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jun 19, 2018
• ISBN: 9780244994792

Book preview

The Demon Within

The Demon Within

Prologue

The shadowy kitchen was dim with only a glimmer of light falling between the vertical wooden blind and the window.  One hundred painkiller tablets and a box of anti-depressant pills were carefully placed on the table. Placed next to the pills was a glass, half full of cheap blended whiskey that had been bought from the local supermarket. The glass contained no ice nor any mixer with the whiskey.

Propped up against a vase, there was a hand-written note, with the correct grammar and no spelling mistakes.  It had been eloquently written.  The vase contained a solitary, lonely wilting rose. It summed up the bleak atmosphere in the dark kitchen.

In front of the pills and whiskey glass laid a photograph of a man in his early thirties with a woman.  Both were smiling radiantly.  They both appeared happy and content being together.  The photograph wasn't in pristine condition.  It was weathered and had been held and looked at for a while.

The blinds in the kitchen are down, making the kitchen dark and menacing but enclosed and away from society and the world. 

A woman, in her early thirties, was sitting uncomfortably at the table.  She looked dejected and downhearted.  Tears fell from her weary and overwrought eyes. She gazed at the photo. Her mouth quivered.  

She reached for the photo and held it tightly to her chest.

‘I miss you so much my love, but soon I will be by his side.’

With a deep breath, she closed her eyes and nodded.  Then she opened her tearful eyes and reached for the painkillers, where she individually placed each pill in her dry mouth without the whiskey. She shook her head every time, as the bitter, dry, powdery taste of each pill was unbearable, to the point she thought she may vomit.  But, she was going to go through with this and kept staring at the picture in her other hand. 

Once she had taken all the painkillers, she then took a mouthful of whiskey, before starting on the anti-depressants. These were not so disgusting to taste.  With clockwork, after every ten pills, she took another gulp of whiskey. After she had swallowed the last anti-depressant, she drank the rest of the whiskey that was in the glass. 

‘In for a penny in for a pound,’ she muttered. She held the bottle and began to drink the contents entirely.

Sarah scrunched her face, as she did not even like whiskey. She then sat back in her chair, holding the photograph tightly and waited for the inevitable.

‘I will be with you shortly darling. We will then have eternity to laugh, like we used to.’ 

The photo fell out of her hand and floated to the floor, and Sarah slumped onto the table.

Chapter 1

Sarah opened her eyes and drew a deep breath in and leant upwards, completely bewildered and at a loss as to where she was. She looked around but could not recognise where she was.  She looked straight up into the sky but there were no stars, no moon, no sun. The sky was a black void.

She tried her best to remember how she had got to where she was now, but then she was overcome by having no memories at all including where she came from.  She was a blank canvas.

Sarah started to panic, became anxious and scared. She started to cry.  Her breathing became perilously fast.  She then started to get palpitations and felt as though her heart was going to explode from her chest. 

‘What am I to do? Where and who the blazes am I?’ She screamed into the endless hollowness above her.

She closed her eyes and tried to self-compose herself.  She took some deep breaths, drawing in huge gulps of air.  She counted to one hundred, tightened her fists and then slowly opened her eyes. Hoping this was a dream and she would wake up in her own bed.  But she was still there. After a few more deep breaths, her palpitations had dissipated, and she was now a little more relaxed.

‘I must get to know my surroundings.  I must calm down and become one with this situation I am now in. Come on.  Tighten your grip and don’t be a pussy!  Take control.  Take control!’

She stood up and looked up and down from where she was standing and then moved 360 degrees.  Everything in this new environment was clearly visible to her.  She could see as far as she possibly could.  Everything was in colour and it was as though the sun was shining. She even placed her hand six inches from her face and she could see her clearly! 

However, above her the sky was pitch black, so logic dictated that it should be completely dark, but it wasn’t.  This horrified her.

Even though Sarah had no idea who she was and how she got there, she still was of sound mind and could speak, think, breathe and even all her senses were working overtime.

‘Wonder if I am dead?’ She asked herself.  She pinched herself.

‘Ouch. I suppose I am alive unless this is a warped person’s version heaven or god forbid hell? And do I swear, oh goodness me is that me, I swear like a trooper? Wow it's pitch black and I can still see? This is so wrong! Maybe my consciousness has been uploaded to a virtual reality game, so logic and normal physics would not apply, or…. come-on, get a grip! You will go insane thinking about this.  Right, this is all wrong but I am here.  What now?’

Before her was a trail, surrounded by trees and undergrowth.  There were no street lights, but in the distance, she could ascertain a wall of light that seemed to rise from the ground and grow upwards into the sky and beyond. Sarah was astounded by its beauty and calm covered her body and soul when she looked at it.   The wall of light also travelled in the distance from left to right as far as her eyes could see. 

‘so, maybe this wall of light is what is making the darkness so bright.  Okay I am really freaked now.  I can’t remember where I come from, but I know that this would not exist in my reality, so maybe I am right, this is heaven, hell or a virtual reality game or even I have been abducted by aliens.  Oh god, stop thinking!’ Sarah screamed to herself.

‘Hello, hello, is anyone here?  Hello?’ She screamed at the top of her voice. 

‘Come on, surely I am not the only living soul here? There must be someone in the vicinity of me?’

Sarah sat on the path and hoped that sooner or later someone would pass and her and all would be revealed.

‘Right, I am going to sit here like a petulant child and wait.  Someone will see me and maybe rescue me?’

After what seemed an age, Sarah felt her hairs on the back of her tingle.  She shivered like someone had walked over her grave.  She quickly stood up and looked to the left and to the right of her.

In the corner of her right eye, she stopped moving and held her breathe.  To her astonishment she noticed someone in the distance. The figure was standing still, but staring at her.

‘Hello, hello, are you okay?  Where are we? Please do not be a stranger? I do not know where I am or who I am.  Can you help?  Please?’ Sarah asked.  

There was no reply.

‘Hello, hello, are you okay?  Where are we? Please do not be a stranger? I do not know where I am or who I am.  Can you help?  Please?’ Sarah asked again, louder this time.  

She noticed the figure in the distance was speaking at the exact same time she was.  It was then she realised that the figure was miming her exact words, and then it struck her that this was her reflection.

She shook her head in disbelief. She assumed it was a mirror. 

‘What else can reflect my image apart from a blasted mirror? Are you actually telling me that someone has placed a mirror here, amongst the trees and undergrowth? What sort of sick person does that? Is anyone there? Are you trying to scare me?  Is this some sort of sick joke you are trying on me because I will retaliate? I like humour, I think, but this is too much!’

She decided that she really ought to investigate this pathetic, sick and idiotic phenomenon.  On one hand, she thought that it may be dangerous and that ‘curiosity killed the cat,’ but on the other hand, life is to short and sometimes you have to go out on a fling and investigate.  And anyway, she thought, it’s only a mirror possibly, what can go wrong?

She did get a sense of apprehension, as she realised she had liked horror films and in any horror film, people lose any sense of logic and do the opposite what any sane person would do and always investigate rather than run away.  They always die.  She shook her head.  She was being stupid now.

‘Right, pull yourself together and let’s investigate.  It could be fun?’

She hesitantly moved towards her reflection in the possible mirror. Each step was a calculated movement. She did not know what lay beneath her feet, nor if anyone was hiding and would jump at her.  She now understood logic and reason does not exist here and anything good or bad could happen.

She reached 3 feet away from her reflection. It was her and it mirrored everything she did.  She raised her hand and at the same time the reflection did as well.  And before her was actually a mirror.

‘So that’s what I look like?  Wow, I am pretty!  I am also having a bad hair day though.  Interesting clothes sense.  I do have a lovely figure.’

After some more self-indulgent compliments to herself, she detected that the reflection was of her and imitated her exactly, but there was a blackness, a darkness, a harrowing emptiness behind her reflection.  There were no trees or sky or wall of light.  Just a nothingness.  She looked behind her.  Nothing had changed so why was this mirror not reflecting the environment behind her?

"Shit, what is this place?’ 

She moved a little closer to the mirror, becoming more and more curious.

As she stared at her reflection, the reflection started to flicker, and Sarah’s

face frowned as she now became scared.  She endeavoured to move back from the mirror but found she was immovable and felt trapped. 

She looked down with her eyes. There were no weeds, vines or branches holding her feet tight where she was, but she still couldn’t move her feet. She felt paralysed, empty, fearful and dread. She was alone and her humour and well-being drained out of her. Her positive mental attitude turned to negativity.  Her time was up, and the darkness engulfed her.

With a mammoth amount of effort, she clenched her fists and tried to move herself backwards, but she just couldn't.  And then, unable to control what was happening, her left leg moved forward.

She started to cry.  She started to hate herself. She had the feeling of failure and ‘what is the point of going on’ consume her. Deep within herself she felt as though she had had these feeling before!

‘I am glad to die!’ she screamed.

Her body became heavy with anxiety. The feeling that her time was up now made her smile as she was now going to die for whatever reason and will now find peace. Nothing and no one would harm her once she is dead. 

In the depths of her consciousness, she understood that all of what was happening and how she as feeling was wrong. She was a prisoner within herself akin to being behind a glass screen, where she was battering the glass screen and screaming to herself to stop being drawn and into the darkness that was presented before her.  Her soul was being manipulated.

As her right leg now moved forward towards the mirror, from somewhere within, she managed to move her head and eyes away from the mirror and caught sight of the wall of light.

With every molecule of effort left in her, she stretched out her hand and reached for the curtain of light.

Sarah then lost consciousness.

Sarah awoke to find she was facing towards the curtain of light, lying on the floor with her hand still outstretched.

Sarah sat herself up and sighed.

‘What the hell was that? I really am getting fed up with this place.  Why the hell am here?’

Nonetheless, she immediately felt drawn to the mirror behind yet again, so she tried to move away quickly and kept on going until she could not feel the black and claustrophobic effects of the mirror.  The effect of the curtain of light on her was enough to give her the strength to crawl away and she kept on crawling.

As she moved further way form the mirror, her happiness slowly returned slowly, and the sad, dark and empty emotions gradually faded.

She made a mental note in her head

‘So, this type of mirror situated near a path in a dark but clearly visible environment, has a physical and emotional evil presence that causes you to involuntarily move towards it.  Luckily you can escape this dark magnetism by facing and reaching for the curtain of light. This time anyway.’

She had now crawled 20 metres from the mirror and the mirror’s dominance was over and gone.

She smirked to herself because she still had no idea of where she was.

She asked herself –

‘Who am I? Am I dead?  Is this heaven or hell or am I walking down (or up) the steps to purgatory?