The Birth of a Demon

This here is a short story I wrote for English on the background of a character I came up with in eighth grade with a couple other friends. This is one of my characters named Demon. I hope you enjoy her backstory!

She wasn’t born. She was created. Sure, she had been in a woman’s womb, but technically it didn’t count. Of course, she wasn’t technically supposed to disclose any of this information either, but who cares? The DNA was not the woman’s, nor a man’s. It was lab created. Derived from the woman’s appearance, of course, also Frankenstein’s monster. She was created for one reason, and one reason only. To be an experiment. Her whole life, that was all she had ever known. Surgery, shots, tests, nothing else. She knew this, of course, she had been told when she was younger. She had suffered through all this in America for the first five years of her life. Then, things took a turn for the worse. She was five and a half when she was told she would be moved to Japan for more experiments, what she wasn’t told was that these would be worse, hurt more, terrible. She almost died on many occasions.

On one particular occasion, they were testing a new idea they had come up with. Weapons inside the body that were fused to the bone, but came out on the master’s command. They went to her cell and roughly pulled her up by her hair.

“Hello 102325,” He smiled evilly and sadistically, “Are you ready for your next test?” He laughed maliciously, “This time, we came up with a new method to put the weapons inside you. We’re taking out the old ones,” He dragged her out of her cell by her hair, she cried out in pain, he just yanked harder. She was dragged through the halls by her hair, whimpering in pain. There was a dearth of Shadows in the halls, but the ones there just laughed and grinned at her pain.

They brought her into the lab, where they would do the same thing they had been doing for years. Since she could even remember. Twelve years she had suffered this pain. Many scars littered her body, reminders of what would happen, and was happening. They threw her onto the operating table, sealed her hands and feet so she couldn’t move, put a belt around her waist and head. She was immobile now. 

Then, the “Doctors” came in, they carried surgical tools, but she knew better. The last one came in carrying a weapons. Knives, to be exact. All sorts of blades, ones as long as her legs, short as her fingers. All different kinds.

The men put down all the stuff and got to work. First, they flipped over her arm, so the underside was showing, palm up. Then, they took the scalpel and cut open her arm, all the way down to the bone. She screamed. The blood wouldn’t be lost though, that was their last test, to make sure that she couldn’t lose blood. They took a dagger the length of her forearm and pushed it inside her. The pain, she couldn’t deal with it, but, they had a drug that kept her awake. This was her torture. Surgery, awake. Forever.  

The dagger was pushed onto her bone. The men shot a drug into her bone, then put a liquid on the dagger. She watched as the dagger became fused with her bone, and a new link in her mind opened up. She realized that she could control the weapon. That she was now dangerous.

They kept doing this: in her spine, a sword, one leg held three daggers, the other, a katana, her other arm held the smaller blades, her ribs were infused with ninja stars. Her head though, held the most dangerous weapon of all. The power to control all these. The power to kill. That was their next test. 

They took her to an arena. Inside, was a small girl. She couldn’t have been older than eight. Surrounding the arena were seats, filled with Shadows of all shapes, sizes, ages. They were all cheering for the fight, the blood. At the head of the arena, in a special chair, sat Shelak himself. The Devil. The King of Darkness. Lucifer. Any name you could think of, that was him.

“My dearest followers,” He spoke in a voice that was like honey, it was beautiful, alluring. You couldn’t help but want to obey whatever he said, that was his power, his evil, “We have come to see Experiments 102325 and 109634 fight to the death. Whomever wins, will be victorious, and possibly recruited to help us later on! Let us not defer any longer! Begin!” With those last words, the small girl lunged at 102325 with a cry.

102325 pulled out the sword in her back, and before the small girl could demonstrate her strength, cut her in half. The little girl died with a look of shock on her face. A single tear escaped her eye as she took her last breath and died. 102325 hated the blood, but she was used to it now. Nothing could change that. The guards came in and dragged her away to the cell where she lived. She curled up on the cold, hard, stone floor waiting for the torture to begin again.

The door clanged open, there, smiling with maliciously, was the one was claimed to have more bloodlust than Shelak himself, the one claimed to be more evil than Shelak, Mary Crimson. They say that her name was Crimson because it’s the color of blood, representing all the people she had mercilessly killed and tortured. She was, of course assigned to torture 102325 on a daily basis.

Mary stepped closer and quickly, without warning, put on a collar and laughed coldly.

“This collar, pet, will make it impossible for your powers to work. If you try, it’ll shock you. So don’t even try,” She laughed and pulled out a chain, her favorite thing for torture. She pulled it back behind her head, then like lightning, brought it down onto the body of the girl. Her skin tore open, bleeding a little, but not too much. It hurt, but she was used to it by now. Mary noticed this.

“Oh? The chain doesn’t work anymore? Well then. Let’s try sounds then. How does that sound?” Mary grinned, in a sweet girly way, but you could see in her eyes the bloodlust and love of torture. She pulled out a small box, something you wouldn’t expect to be able to hurt someone, and 102325 didn’t. She didn’t know what it was or what it could do.

Mary grabbed 102325’s arm and yanked her up, almost ripping her shoulder out of the socket, and dragged her to a sound proof room. She then locked the doors and plugged the little box into the speakers.

“Now then,” Mary murmured to herself, “let’s try this one, the highest pitch a human can hear,” Mary turned up the volume all the way, so only 102325 could hear it. The girl in the room jumped up. She grabbed her ears, squeezing her eyes shut, trying to block out the noise of the pitch. It was impossible though, it was too loud. After what seemed like months, but was really only two hours, Mary was forced to stop when her commander came in.

102325 was led back to her cell. She collapsed on the floor, silently crying. She had learned a long time ago that making sounds only made it worse for herself. The door slammed shut and was locked. 102325 cried herself to sleep for the first time since she had first been moved to Japan.

~.~.~.~

102325 woke up in the morning a year later, she was now thirteen and today was the day the “Doctors” would try their new idea out on her. She had been told about it, but it had not yet been explained about what it would do. They called it “The Demon Method” for some unknown reason she would soon find out.

The usual man came to her cell and grabbed her hair. She was used to it. It didn’t hurt anymore. She was pulled to the operating room and put on the table again. They cut her open, but this time, they pulled out the weapons from all her bones. It hurt, but she didn’t scream. She knew better by now. 

They put her skin back together and pulled out a large syringe. It was filled with a black liquid that had traces of silver. They put the needle near her head. 102325 was afraid, but she didn’t show it. They stuck the large needle in her ear and pumped the liquid into her brain, her blood. She felt all the information of this “Demon Method” entering her brain, what it did, what it was. 

The black liquid was blood. A new type of blood. When activated, it would be impossible to cut her, hurt her. It was virtually impossible to kill her by hurting her. She knew that Mary would now just torture her mind, perhaps with sound again. The silver in the liquid, though, that was different. The silver liquid was weapons, the blades of weapons. Mixed with the black blood, it was able to turn into any bladed weapon, and appear whenever she wanted them. Since the weapons had the black blood, they too, were invincible. 102325 now realized why they called it “The Demon Method” she was demon-like: impossible to hurt, impossible to kill, practically immortal.

“Now my little Demon, you will be put to the test,” The man said. Demon. She liked that. it was then she decided to be called that. She was, after all, their “special” one. She knew she was taking a risk here, but she couldn’t help it. Forgetting her training, what she had been taught here through torture, she spoke.

“S-Sir... C-C-Could I-I possibly b-be called Demon from now on? I-I don’t m-mean to offend Sir. I just was wondering b-because I’m special now aren’t I? I don’t want to be a number, just like everyone else,” She was taking a risk here. She cowered underneath his gaze and covered her head with her arms, waiting for the blow.

“Of course pet. Anything for you,” He smirked, “Now then ‘Demon’,” He drawled, “Let’s go test your new abilities shall we?” He led her to the arena. There was a boy there this time. He looked around 17. He had a Shadow mark. It was obvious the recruiter, dubbed “Hatter” as far as she knew, had taken him and they were testing his abilities. She smiled, almost. With her new tests, this would be easy.

“My followers, this is an exciting battle indeed!” Shelak stood, “This newfound soldier, number 796989, and our favorite experiment 102325, newly dubbed Demon, shall fight to the death as usual!” The new soldier looked nervous. Why was this little girl called “Demon”? She looked normal, at least for a Shadow, except for the many scars that littered her body and the pointed teeth of her smile. He gulped and pulled out his new sword. He let his new Shadow take over, he would know what to do.

Demon smirked at the boy. She wasn’t normal. She watched as his eyes turned red, his Shadow taking over. She talked to the new blood inside of her. A blob of blood appeared out of her hand, twisting and molding itself into the shape of a scythe. She stood there, looking almost like the daughter of a grim reaper. 

The new Shadow lunged at her, a bloodthirsty look on his face. He threw the blade at her neck, the blade struck, the crowd gasped. She had been hit! She had never been hit before! She always hit them the last second! The crowd looked closer. The skin was knitting itself back together, but something else was wrong. Her blood was black. She giggled, then swung her scythe. It hit the new Shadow. A look of shock overcame his face just like the countless others. He had been hit. He wasn’t expecting to die so soon. The man who had recruited him told him that he wouldn’t die so soon, that he would be able to protect his family. He saw that man in the crowd and flipped him off just as his top half slid off his legs and fell to the ground, dead.

Demon dragged the scythe back inside her body as the guards came to take her to the torture chamber. She was used to this. Everyday was the same. New experiment, kill someone new, then get tortured by Mary. It had been this way for a long time. She was used to it. This time, though, would be different. Mary would be forced to use mental torture with her new blood. This would be worse. Demon could tell.

She was put back into the same room that had been used for the sound torture. Mary stood at the window, she waved, then played the sound again. Demon cringed. Her ears were more sensitive now. 

The sound resonated in her head. It was terrible. She was soon released and brought to another room. In it, her greatest fear. A giant chasm in the floor. It was dark down there. She couldn’t see the bottom it was so dark. It was so high up also. It was a large, open, dark space. Combining her three worst fears into one. How clever of them.

She was forced into a cage, unable to escape, no matter how much she tried. The cage was lifted off the ledge and put into the middle of the chasm. It hung there, before being lowered, the walls became transparent, and all she could see was darkness, below, and the tall, wide walls around her. Above, the ceiling of the cage. She was being tortured in the worst way. She was having a panic attack, nothing could stop it. First, her heart started to race, then, she started to feel faint, but she was quickly shocked, preventing her from fainting. 

‘Damn you Mary,’ She thought. The thought was quickly covered by her sense of impending doom. She was terrorized. She couldn’t move out of fear. She started feeling sweaty, having chest pains, she couldn’t breathe right, she was gasping for breath. She could feel herself losing control.

Demon didn’t know how long it had been, it felt like hours, days, years, but she felt herself cracking. This was what they wanted, she realized, they wanted her to crack, to go insane. She didn’t know why. They always got what they wanted, and she couldn’t help it. Especially not now. She finally cracked. 

She was insane.

A maniacal giggle left her lips as her eyes turned red. She was thrown into the darkest part of her mind. There, she saw three clones of herself. One red, one black, and one silver. These, she assumed, must be Insanity, Weapon, and Black Blood. The red one giggled and nodded.

“I’m Insanity,” Its voice sounded like the crazy laughter from the insanity ward in a hospital. The silver one smiled, showing off razor sharp teeth that looked like little knives. The black one just sat down.

“So I’m in my mind, talking to myself? Seems like you’re not the only insane one,” Insanity giggled. Suddenly, Demon was ripped from her mind. She came to in her cell. Mary was standing over her, a blade in hand. Demon looked down and saw her wrist was cut and dripping blood, red and black mixed together. The black took over and pulled itself back inside, fixing up her wrist. Mary looked surprised, but quickly recovered.

“You will never leave this cell again unless we are under attack. Understood?” Mary growled at her. Demon nodded. She was fine. She had discovered three new friends. She didn’t need to leave, even if this did qualify as insanity. She heard an echo of giggles in her head and barely held back a smile.

~.~.~.~

It’s been three years since she had been inside her mind. Three years, only coming out to eat, and occasionally get slapped. She was tired of it. She wanted something else with her “life” she wanted to escape. She had a plan. Next time someone attacked, she knew they would, she had heard rumors of “The Army”, she would escape. Pretend to help at first, then side with the enemies and get away. That day came within a week of making plans. She was let out. She fought for a mere ten seconds before siding with the enemy and escaping. She had gotten her wish. Now, all she had to do, was get revenge on the woman who came up with the idea of her. The woman who had carried her genetically modified DNA for nine months. The woman who came up with the ideas for her experiments. The woman who everyone hated, yet feared. The new leader of The Shadows since Shelak died. Jade. Demon would denounce her in front of everyone, then, she would slowly torture to death. Demon would make sure she was the one to kill her, no matter what.

This here is Demon...