Chapter 1 - Demons

Ray awoke without the usual grogginess that would tell him that the demons had been again. That they had taken more of his thoughts away. Instead, he felt distant, out of his body. He stood, looking down at his hands. Ray clenched and unclenched them, he could control his body, but he couldn't feel it. His mind, however, was clear. Untouched by the demons that plague him and untouched by the doctors that drugged him.

Glancing up he found he was no longer in the confides of his room, but he was stood on a street surrounded by tall buildings. It had to be a trick, another game to torment him. He spun around looking for them, looking for those evil things, but he was all alone.

Then people started appearing from around corners, alleyways, everywhere. Hundreds thousands of them all running towards Ray. He stood feeling confident in his new found clarity. If he was going to die he would die, standing and facing it head on.

As the crowd got closer, Ray noticed they were pushing, shoving and knocking past each other. Some fell to the floor and were trampled by the others. It wasn't people running towards him, they were running from something.

The crowd reached Ray and he braced himself, but they passed right by him without, even so, much as a glance. More and more passed by without touching or even seeming to notice Ray at all. Each face Ray saw was panic stricken, scared so much that it could only be one thing they were running from, their own deaths.

Ray's instincts told him to run, to blend into the crowd and hope to god the demons were not following, but as much as he tried, he felt compelled, pulled almost, in the other direction.

Destiny was calling to him. He hadn't thought about destiny in a long time, in fact, he couldn't remember when such a clear thought had formed inside his mind.

Ray began to move against the crowd walking at first and then running, knocking past people, he felt strong. No one could knock him off his path. The mass of people blocked his view, but he could hear screams from up ahead and this, to his surprise, only spurned him on to move faster.

Ray broke free off the crowd and stopped horrified. The city was on fire. The screams of agony from the people burning on the streets and from inside buildings made Ray crumple to his knees. Pain, agony and suffering was all around. The flames continued to move forward consuming everything in their path.

A man of fire emerged from the flames. His body was consumed by them, but he was not in pain. He laughed, a high pitched hysterical laughter. He outstretched his hands and sent fire all around to consume more of the city and then his stare fell on Ray. Two blood red orbs bore into Ray's very soul. It was a man being controlled by demons.

Ray tried to get up, to run away, but he was frozen by the stare unable to break it, he was too weak to fight against the will of a demon.

The demon man sent fire out to Ray. It burned its way up his legs and then his torso covering him in flames, but before it covered his face Ray blacked out.