The Reverse Will

Searing, stabbing pain in her lower abdomen was what woke her up. Her eyes snapped open and a strangled cry escaped her. Tears filled her eyes as she struggled to sit upright, a distinct wheezing sounding from her chest as she moved. Her trembling, unusually weak arms struggled to pull back her bedsheets and a sweat broke out across her forehead as she strained to complete the simplest of movements. She had barely even managed to lift up the blanket when a firm hand stopped her.

"Please stay in bed, Louise."

"But what have you done to me?" She rasped, letting out a cough as she was coerced into laying back down again. As she peered up at him, her vision began to blur, his image phasing in and out of focus like he was an apparition. Black receded her line of vision until all she could focus on the ghastly beast before her.

The demon, who usually appeared apathetic, now bore curious furrows along his brow. His butler uniform, normally immaculate, was creased and his hair was even more dishevelled than it usually was. His paper white face was cloaked in shadows, though she could see clearly the drills of his eyes peering down at her. Like blazing hot daggers, piercing into her flesh and forcing her to stay motionless. She couldn't help but note they didn't harbour their usual bright crimson glow – but rather, the slits of his pupils appeared to have engulfed his entire iris. This left his eyes a murky black, empty void. Inky black feathers lay strewn over the bed and floor, one of which brushed against Louise's arm when she moved. It burned to the touch. The bed sheet was also torn in several places.

"What is the last thing you recall?" Came from Sebastian. She failed to decipher any feeling in his tone.

"…I…was in the bath." She whimpered, feeling something warm and wet drip down from her abdomen down to the mattress. Her stomach twisted and for some inexplicable reason, she suddenly felt terrified.

"And that's all?" He took a step closer, appearing strangely hesitant, before bringing a hand up to his chin when she weakly nodded in conformation. "Interesting…" His gaze remained on her lower torso, right where she felt as though she had been stabbed.

Had Sebastian stabbed her? Why would he do that?

"What happened?" Again, she tried to pry the quilt off of her, so desperately needing to see what was causing the intense burning sensation across her lower stomach. But again, she was stopped.

This time, Sebastian's vice-like grip made her wince. When he spoke next his words could be construed as showing concern, though his terrifying serpent eyes were narrowed in warning, now their usual crimson colour. "Please. Do rest."

"But-"

He gritted his now elongated teeth together, his hand twitching as his frustration continued to build. Unluckily for Louise, this happened to be the hand which was holding her wrist and when a sickening crack made the girl screech, they both knew the fragile bone had been broken.

"Let me go!" She bellowed as loud as she could manage, mustering all of her strength to pull her arm away from the brute.

He dropped her arm as if it burned, a flash of surprise coming across his face before it morphed into a glower. Without sparing her a second glance the left the sobbing girl alone, slamming the door behind him.

For perhaps the first time in his existence, Sebastian found himself at a loss of what to do. Demon's were notoriously easy to rile up. Many times, in his own existence, had he been enraged with a contract bearer. Though never, had he found it so difficult to control his temper.

On the other hand, never had Sebastian gone so long without consuming a soul. And never, had he dealt with the aftermath of a contract being passed on before.

I should have taken her soul when I had the chance.

It hurt. The ache of hunger hurt; the feeling of betrayal left behind a searing distrust of the human female he had been charged with. So much so that a mere century ago he would have claimed that these things he was feeling, these emotions were exclusively mortal in their origin. Things which a being such as himself could never understand.

Except now, he could. If patience was a virtue, then he was now vice.

Nobody believed in demons anymore. Nobody willingly formed a contract these days, and those demons who had taken to indiscriminately consuming souls found the full force of the human armed forces brought to bare on them. After the invention of the tank and then the atomic bomb, the slow extinction of demon-kind was written in stone.

He clenched his fists. Not him. He would survive, no matter what he had to do.

He could hear her crying softly in the other room. The fight in her was disappearing as her mind and body became weaker. He had hoped that she would become more malleable as she deteriorated, and after what he had done now it was only a matter of time before her mind broke completely and her soul would be his for the taking. And she would taste divine.

After Sebastian left, Louise lay curled up, cradling her wrist until the tears eventually stopped. It was as though her body no longer had the energy to even allow her the luxury of crying. As though producing tears was an expense her body could no longer afford.

Hope was truly lost for her now. What on earth had he done to her now?

Tentatively, Louise pulled back the blanket to reveal the top she wore had been saturated in sticky crimson. She winced as she pulled her top up to reveal her stomach.

As soon as she saw the wound she groaned and fell back in a daze, her one hand swiftly pulling the top down again so she wouldn't have to see. She felt bile rise up in her throat when she caught sight of something moving under the skin over her stomach.

The walls creaked and groaned as they moved towards her and the howling wind outside became like whispering. The whispering came from all around, taunting her, aggressively calling her names, laughing when she squeezed her eyes shut and tried to cover her ears. Her mouth pulled down into a grimace as black ooze began to seep down the walls, from the ceiling all the way to the carpet where it would disintegrate into nothing.

She suddenly cried out, fingering the moving lumps under her skin which rippled and made tiny, high pitched screeches as she pushed down on them hard, audibly popping them beneath her fingers.

As she lay there, she knew that if she tried to call out for help, she would be sick everywhere. Even if she could call for help, some primal part within her refused to call upon Sebastian, to beckon that creature back to her. He did something to her, something unspeakable and while her mind could not remember what he did, her body certainly could. She felt a phantom stabbing pain in her gut, something sharp piercing into her, but it was not a knife. Knives where cold, and metal. No, the thing that had pierced her was warm and made of flesh.

A cold sweat broke across her entire body, saturating the sheets. The creaking from the walls grew louder and the whispering grew more frantic, thunderous and closer to where she was writhing in bed. Louise was able to pick out a single word which would be the last thing she heard just before she fell into oblivion;

Abomination.

It would not be until much later when Sebastian returned to deal with her. By then she had long-since lost consciousness. His appearance was much neater this time, his suit was ironed and his hair was less wild. Though only slightly. As he set about patching her up again, he began to ponder just how much damage one human body could take. His methods in trying to help her always seemed to harm her and create yet another issue he was responsible for dealing with. Never had he had his hands this full with a single human before. A female human of all things.

At least she was out cold again, it saved him having to deal with her constant snivelling for a little while longer. If she awoke, he could simply knock her out again.

As he stared down at her dire, almost corpse like appearance, a bizarre thought occurred to him. An unorthodox one by the standards of his kind. The more he looked at her, the more the thought grew into an idea, and the idea into a plan of action.

Human bodies were weak and feeble. They damaged too easily and after all, it was only her soul he wanted. What if he took her physical body out of the equation? What if she was already dead? He could take her to his home, would that not be easier? Then, he would be able to torment her and inflict as much damage onto her as he wanted, and she wouldn't die! She couldn't die no matter what was done to her!

He smirked at the thought.

It was a lot of trouble to put into one human. Unconventional, certainly. However, as he gazed at the unconscious, damaged body; with its wrist bent the wrong way, bruised neck and swollen nose, not to mention the hole in its abdomen, he thought that just maybe it would be easier. He could still mould her pathetic soul into something worth devouring and have his fun in the process. Not to mention, he would be free from human intervention which was increasingly likely as the days went on. Someone was bound to grow concerned that they hadn't seen Louise in a while, someone was bound to show up at the house.

Her stomach continued to move, three razor sharp talons protruding from underneath the skin, threatening to pierce right through. Sebastian quietly hissed at the creature inside of Louise, placing his own hand over her stomach where the claw could be seen through the flesh. His eyes were aglow, as if in warning.

"Now now, dear child. Killing a creature while it sleeps is most cowardice." He smiled a wide shark-like smile, black scales dotting and rippling across the outer portion of his face.

All he got in return was a small high-pitched screech, the creature retracting its hand obediently.

"We shall have to wait until she is awake. It will be much more… entertaining."