Another day of feeling better, although another start later than I meant to, but here we are again.
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Prompt: A character is possessed by a demon.
Genre: Supernatural/Horror
Source: 20 creative writing prompts that you can do in 10 minutes |
Time Spent: 45 minutes
Word Count: 1211
Prompt: A character is possessed by a demon.
Brian Sojourn loved collecting rare and strange antiques and displaying them in various creative and macabre fashions in the house that had been in his family for more than 100 years. He was well known for his eccentricity in his small town, and increasingly around the internet as he did videos displaying his rare finds and researching their history. Finding a strange mirror for sale online, that was made of black metal and molded to look like a gaping maw with glaring eyes at the top, was just another day for him.
Brian placed his cup of earl grey tea on the coaster next to his computer, made sure that his camera and microphone were ready for live-streaming him opening the package, and stretched his back before sitting in his chair. Especially fast approaching fifty, he really needed to not stay up so late anymore, even if it was doing research. He took a sip of his tea and a deep breath, and clicked to begin his live stream.
“Welcome to another unboxing today with me, Brian Sojourn the Occult Collector. I hope today finds all of you occult fans well! Some of you may know that I have been in a bit of a back and forth with the sellers of what they are calling the Demon Mirror, but I’ve finally got them to sell it to me, and now we are going to take a look at it! Before I get started here, I would like to ask you all to Like, Share, and Subscribe, it would really help out my channel, and if you have any details that I missed on the item, or that any others I should look at, please drop them in the comments below. Now, let’s get started!”
Brian fumbled with the heavy cardboard box for a few moments, trying to find the edge, and then opening it with his fang designed letter opener that was said to have originally been owned by Alestair Crowley, which he mentioned while he was working. At last, the box was open, and he pulled the heavy, metal mirror from it. Especially with black tape over the glass, likely to protect it while shipping, the strange, black metal was shaped so that, up close, it really looked like a fanged, gaping maw of some horrific beast with eyes that, he had not realized, were red crystals that seemed to gleam, almost as if they were aflame, in the light in his room.
“Well then, here we are, the Demon Mirror, an item that I have spent at least half a decade chasing rumors of. It is said to date back to at least the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, making this about 1500 years old. If that is legitimate, then its previous owners have kept pristine care of it, because I have a hard time believing it is that old. Right, now, it is time for the real test. It is said that there should be a Latin inscription etched around the edge of the mirror if this is the real Demon Mirror.”
Brian did not notice that one of his oldest and most loyal patrons, TheSoulParagon, was repeatedly, begging, in all caps, that Brian not take the tape off the mirror. The whole stream, thousands strong by this point waited with various levels of excitement as Brian found the edge of the tape, and peeled it away.
“Here we are everyone, the moment of truth. Wow, I would not have expected the glass of this mirror to be so clear and blemish free and ah, here is the Latin writing this is definitely. . .are you guys seeing this on the stream? I don’t know what kind of trick this is, but I am getting some weird shadows on this and. . .why is my reflection smiling like that. . .”
The next one minute, 43 seconds, before the stream was suddenly cut off, quickly went viral, and was the center of numerous and spirited discussion of what they were seeing and how exactly Brian Sojourn had managed to stage what was seen. When he returned to streaming, about four weeks later, Brian would not speak or answer questions and only went over the history of items, and no longer showed them on screen. This too caused its own questions but all was soon forgotten, things rarely lasted long these days.
What was seen in the infamous video was Brian going back and forth between screaming, laughing maniacally, grinning in a most unnatural fashion for nearly thirty seconds. Then it seemed to may people like a shadow passed from the mirror into Brian, who gasped, dropped the mirror, and then began writhing around. His face seemed to change and shift in ways that normally took extensive preparation and a talented makeup or VFX team to achieve. He then seemed to drop to his knees, only to be stopped and then seemingly rise to hover nearly two feet in the air. There was a strange burst of fire that seemed to come from the eyes and mouth before Brian dropped back to the ground. Brian then looked at the camera, formally green eyes seemingly blood red and flickering with their own flames, and grinning in a way that even the most stoic person found extraordinarily unnerving. Then the feed cut out.
Alina Gala watched the ‘Stream has ended’ message for a moment, waiting to see if anything new would happen for several minutes before sighing, leaning back, and shutting her laptop. She had just gotten back home from another such case, and did not relish having to go back out again. When would these mortal fools ever learn.
“What troubles you, blood sister?” called a woman from the next room.
Alina sighed again, “I’ve got another one, some idiot online bought, uncovered, and looked into a Demon Mirror. He lives somewhere in Maine, I believe, I am going to work on getting a ticket out there and see that the demon gets expelled.”
“Why would he do that?” came the incredulous reply.
Alina pinched the bridge of her nose and leaned back in her chair. “Usual story, man was fascinated by the occult, and wanted to add to his collection. As often, he claimed to have done research, and I don’t doubt he did, but he seems to have wholly failed to understand what he found.”
There was a brief pause, and both Alina and blood sister scoffed and said, “foolish mortals.”
Alina took another drink of her tea and began looking for a cost-effective flight to Maine. Finding one for early the next morning, Alina went to take a nap with two of their cats, before it was time to eat and do some more game planning with her compatriots. As she drifted to sleep, the video replayed in her head (aided by three friends, from three different backgrounds, sending her the video to see). It was too bad Brian was not paying attention, he might have saved himself a lot of torment, and her a lot of hassle had he been available. He seemed a nice enough man, and naturally and admirably curious. She wondered if he would ever be the same once they were expelled. Few people were.
Another one that I had fun with and really got into righting. Please leave your thoughts and feedback! I would love to hear it and hear from you!
Hope you enjoyed and that you are having a wonderful day and get to do, or experience, something creative.
– Jon
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