Graeme McCann

Demon

We all have demons. I faced mine once. I was sat in my room. It was dark, but it wasn’t night time yet. I had been smoking a joint and listening to music and just thinking. There was nothing unusual about that.
  I remember everything went silent and I felt a presence in the room with me. I first spotted it from the corner of my eye, nothing more than a charcoal blur in front of the wardrobe.
  At first I was scared. I didn’t want to look at the creature directly. If only it wasn’t there. I wondered if there was a weapon nearby I could fight it with, or if there was someone I could call for help from, but I was alone and unarmed.
  Following the fear was resignation. There was a crushing feeling deep in my chest, taking my breath away and threatening to stop my heart from beating. I knew the time had come. I knew it had been inevitable for quite a while
now. The demon had been there all along but it was only now that it chose to present itself to me. I turned to face it.
  The beast was only small but coming from it an enormous, unrestrained strength. For a moment all my senses were blocked out. I was blind; I could not hear; I could not smell. Then I looked upon the demon with a clarity I had never experienced before. Its scaly skin was covered with a fine film of slime. There were many horns, many eyes and many faces.
  We all have demons and there comes a time in all our lives that we must face them. What defines us as people is what we gain from this encounter. As I was sat there in my silent room with a haze of smoke washing over my eyes I did not fight. I held out my hand for the demon to bite. The poor creature was only hungry, after all. I was hungry too.

Graeme McCann © 2008