Dangerous Impact

• Sarah Batt, Grade 10
• Short Story
• 2011

You know what you have to do.
His voice remained in my head, like a song you got addicted to and you pretty much knew all the words to it in your head.
My dagger lied perfect and clean in my left-hand side jeans pocket. It was a great dagger, it had served me for all thirty-eight years of my demon life. Now, it sat in my pocket waiting to be withdrawn for my kill.
My name is Daniel Allen, or Danny for short. I wasn’t always a demon, just like most humans I was created by my father’s sperm and my mother’s egg. When I was born I was an adorable baby, just like all other baby boys and girls. But when I hit ten I died.
Not literally, but my angel form died. That’s right, I was a pure blood angel. I was attacked by an evil demon.
I still remember the memory in exact detail. I was walking home from school, or rather riding on my bike, when I saw this strange looking man hanging out by the bus stop looking suspicious.
He had thick wavy hair that had been bleached blonde, and the most tanned skin I had ever seen in my life. He looked like he was in his early twenties, maybe a university student because he held three or four books to his left thigh.
I had just passed him when the chain of my bike jammed. I pulled aside to the bus shelter, heaving myself off from the bike seat and plopped down onto the cold hard wood of the bus shelter seat.
The man I’d seen came over to where I was, trying to figure out how to attach the chain back to my bike. He flickered a smirk, for he seemed to know the answer to my problem. Within not even two milliseconds, the chain was back on my bike. I was astounded. No one was that fast.
I thanked him kindly, as I slowly stood to my feet and gazed into his eyes. He had the most amazing eyes I had ever seen. They were dark blue, but with a few traces of dark green in them.
It was on the word thank that he killed me. He grabbed me by my wrist firmly and pulled my body against his. Before I could even scream for help or attempt to push him away, he exposed his sharp teeth and sunk them into my wrist.
The rest of the memory is just a blur to me now. But I still shiver each time I think back to the pain I was in for days, weeks even. It felt like I was being burnt alive. My eyes, fingertips and mouth felt like barbed wire was being pulled through them. And as the days progressed, my skin darkened until it was fully tanned.
That was decades ago. I’m ninety-eight now, not by appearance though. With demons age is different, you stop growing when you reach a certain age. For me it was forty-eight.
I stood with my back against the jukebox. It was a typical winter night outside of the pub. Frost covered the outside of the windows, and condensation the inside. The heaters were up full capacity, but I couldn’t feel it as usual. Demons never felt the change of temperature. Some try to imagine how it would feel being a human or an angel, but I could never master it.
I was sent here by my master Ryan Stewart. He had saved my life when I was a newborn. He taught me the rules of being a demon, he kept me fed, and he kept me in shelter.
But this was different. I had to kill Jacob Harding, my ex-best friend. He had been apart of Ryan’s coven too, but he turned his back on us when his daughter Claire was born. He said he couldn’t stay because he wanted a better future for her, which at the time meant being with him and his wife Gail. They split up two years ago.
I tried not to look too different to the humans. If I rocked up in my uniform I’d look like a titan or something, and they’d all run out screaming. So I wore dark blue jeans, a plain black t-shirt and a leather jacket.
Jake was across the opposite side of the room to me, laughing and chatting loudly to his daughter Claire. It was her fifteenth birthday, and Jake had taken her out to see a movie and grab dinner afterwards as a special treat. He was a good father, better than my father was.
My father was a demon. And before I was one myself, he used to lose control when he was around me. He used to expose his teeth, ripple a snarl from the back of his throat and dive at me. Only I was able to save myself, by doing a quick roll to the side and bolting like hell.
I slowly withdrew my awaiting dagger for a brief inspection. The silver blade glistened from the lights, almost blinding me when I turned it over and over in my hands slowly. I slid it back into my belt, and locked my eyes on him.
This is what I was sent here to do. It was Jake’s time.
I slid backward behind the wall of the rest room. Jake was near me. His scent was hard to miss, because he had the purest blood I had ever inhaled.
He was dressed up tonight. Black leather pants, a sophisticated-looking top, and his long golden hair sat clean on the back of his neck. And to top it off, he still had the same light green eyes.
I braced myself, as I pushed my back into the wall more and clenched my fists tighter by my sides.
I was stopped.
I caught the scent of his daughter Claire, and at that exact moment a snarl rippled from the back of my throat. I was unable to control my hunger. Her scent was pure, sweeter than Jake’s.
I had to kill her too.
Jake passed me, and after that I was gone. I was headed for Claire, whom was sitting at the table alone staring at the bottom of her empty glass. Her medium brown hair blew across her face, from the fan that was close to her chair. Then it slumped back to where it was, on her collar bone.
I stopped just before I was about to collide with the table and send it through the window. I didn’t want to take her with me, not now at least.
Claire glanced up from her staring competition with the glass, and her jaw dropped in a small o shape. Probably because I had my hands planted firmly into the table, well my nails at least.
‘W-who are you?’ she gasped.
I didn’t know what to tell her. The truth, or a lie? I barely knew her, and she barely knew me. Was she trustworthy?
‘I-I-I’m Danny,’ I stuttered. Her scent was driving me nuts, I wanted to disassemble her right here and right now. But it would be an ugly scene, and the cops would come after me. Pfft like they could do anything, with their little pop guns.
‘I’m Claire,’ she smiled. She had nice white teeth, they must have been brushed daily and nightly. ‘Are you okay? You look… I don’t know, scared.’
I held back a laugh.
Me, scared of her? She was an angel, I was a demon. Demons won against angels, in a matter of seconds. Not even.
Jake was on his way back to the table. I had to scat, or throw him out the window and somehow make it seem like an accident. On second thought, scatting sounded more sensible. Something had changed inside me suddenly, I just didn’t know what.
‘It was nice meeting you, bye,’ I said. And I dived out the window.
Rains of glass fell upon me, and by the look spectators were giving me they must have thought I’d have broken a bone or something.
Stupid humans.
I ran away in a blur of speed. I was out of sight, and kept going when I heard the first sirens of police cars going off.
That was the night I realised why I couldn’t kill Jake.
Despite our differences, he had a beautiful, caring daughter to live for. I couldn’t take her father away from her, it was wrong. Even though I was assigned to this mission, I couldn’t go through with it.
I punched the numbers in my mobile and held it to my ear. It rung for a few seconds, then he answered.
‘Is he dead?’
‘I can’t do it,’ I sighed.
‘What? This is your mission Danny, you will do as I say. Now go and kill him, and bring back his body too. I’m getting hungry.’
‘You know what? I refuse to. Find somebody else.’
And with that, I smashed my mobile against the brick wall of my house.