The Slayers.
When no sound of tearing flesh or screams met their ears, Harry and Matilda turned back around.
The demon was hunched over the twins, the sharp end of a staff protruding out of his back, the staff held by Vida. Vida twisted the staff and the demon disintegrated into ash. Vida then held up her staff ready to combat the other demons. Layla reached into her bag and produced a dagger with a silver blade and a veil with clear liquid in it.
The demons hissed in anger.
"Slayer children." one growled.
"They'll only be in training, let's nip them at the bud before they become too large of a threat.
But Vida and Layla proved to be a tougher challenge than the demons first thought. Layla threw the liquid over the demons that acted like acid to them, and her dagger sliced through them like a knife through butter. Vida handled her staff with ease, blocking the attacks and stabbing at them with the ends.
Eventually all the demons became ash. But the twins had sustained some heavy injuries from their fight. Harry went to support Layla while Matilda went to support Vida, keeping them from falling down because of the extent of their injuries.
"What just happened? What were those things?" Harry asked.
"We'll explain once we're to safety." Vida gasped out. "There might be more of them, we need to go."
"Do you think both of you can make it to the house?" Matilda asked.
"Not the house, the church. It's closer." Vida gasped.
Harry and Matilda didn't question why they were going to the church because of the twins not being in the best of conditions.
When they arrived at the church they knocked on the side door. The reverend, by the name of John, answered it.
"Yes…Oh Lord! Quickly, in children!" he cried once he saw the twins, ushering the children inside.
Once inside John took the into a small dark room, they waited for a bit and then he opened the door again, the door no longer leading to the church but a large room decorated with many things. The walls were painted gold with symbols etched into them, cabinets and draws were scattered around the room.
"This way." he instructed Harry and Matilda, leading them to a collection of beds where they lay down Vida and Layla.
"I'll need your help children." John said to Harry and Matilda.
"You, get some warm water." he said to Matilda. "You, get some clean cloth." he said to Harry.
While the siblings ran to get what they were asked for, John fetched other things he would need to treat the twins.
John cleaned the twins wounds, stitched up the serious ones and wrapped all of the wounds in bandages. The twins were lucky enough to get away with no broken bones.
"Can you tell us what's going on?" Matilda asked once the twins had been fixed up and put to sleep.
"Well, what happed to make the twins like this?" John asked.
"We were cornered by five men who transformed into demon-like thing and attacked us, Layla and Vida took out weapons and fought them, turning them to ash." Harry quickly.
"Ah." John said. "Those things were demons. Fortunately weak ones if the twins could take down all of them."
"But how did the twins do that?"
"That is their secret to tell." John said shaking his head. "I must contact their guardians and tell them of what's happened. Stay here with the twins."
John then left through another door.
Harry and Vida turned back to see the twins looking uncomfortable in their sleep, their hands twitching. They knew what the problem was. The twins had admitted they slept in the same bed during their first sleep over, they had become so accustomed to it that they found it hard to sleep without each other. Careful not to wake them, the siblings pushed the twins' beds together until the sisters could grasp hands, as soon as the held each others hand they immediately relaxed.
After the Saxtons came and picked the children up they went back to their house and called Jenny over as well. Vida and Layla had woken up and were making an unnatural speedy recovery. The Saxtons had a conversation before turning back to the Honeys.
"We'd usually replace your memories of what happened to you but we've agreed it's better if you know since your so close to us." Kenny finally said after a tense silence. "Those things that Vida and Layla fought were demons, and we are demon slayers."
"So demons are real as well." Matilda asked.
"Yes, but very few people who aren't slayers know that they exist. We keep ourselves hidden from both muggles and magic people. If everyone knew about slayers they would not trust us, try to treat us like criminals because of the way we train, etc. In short, the worlds prejudice gives us reason to keep hidden."
"We're not demon slayers yet, we're still in training. We were lucky those were low level demons or the fight would have been lost." Vida said. She then turned to Kenny. "Uncle Kenny, can we take our glamour off since we're not going to keep secrets?"
"Yes." Kenny answered.
Vida and Layla closed their eyes and worked their magic to remove the glamour that was on them. Vida's hair turned white and it fell in front of the left side of her face, when she and Layla opened their eyes Layla's were red.
"Thanks, glamour's uncomfortable." Vida said.
Layla nodded her head in agreement.
"Girls, why don't you take Matilda and Harry to your room while we talk to Miss Honey?" Martha suggested.
Okay." Vida answered.
The children then disappeared to the twin's room.
While the children were in the twins room, lying on the twins' queen sized bed, Matilda asked Vida a question.
"Vida, why is your hair over your face now?" Matilda asked.
Vida looked down with a small look of sadness on her face.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked." Matilda quickly said when she saw Vida's reaction.
"No, it's okay, it's just a bit personal, but you should know." Vida said. "Layla and I were attacked by a demon before we were taken in by our aunt and uncle, therefore we had no knowledge of how to fight it or to defend ourselves. The demon left a scar on both of us. Layla got a slash across her neck, it damaged her vocal chords beyond repair, causing her to become mute." as Vida said this, Layla removed her always present bandana to reveal a scar across her throat. "I got a slash over my left eye, it blinded me on my left side." Vida then moved her hair to show her left eye, a scar went right over the closed eyelid over it that went from the bottom of her eyebrow to just above her cheek, her left eye was scared shut, the eye itself was probably sliced as well. "Anyway, after Layla was struck down and didn't move - I thought her dead because of her getting sliced through the neck - I felt supreme anger and then saw a white light. Next thing I know is I wake up in a hospital from a three month coma, the demon is dead and Layla is alive. We guessed that my natural magic acted on my feelings when I saw Layla go down and defeated the demon, and I then slipped into the coma due to extensive magic exhaustion. Layla and I were then taken in by our aunt and uncle, told about magic and demons, then started our training."
"That sort of sounds like Harry's story." Matilda said. "Something evil tried to kill you, but your magic saved you and killed the evil, you've both even got scars."
"You're right, I never noticed that till now." Vida said.
"Small world." Harry said.
They then began to laugh, a welcome distraction from the twins' sad tale.
Vida then remembered something. "Check out what Layla's been working on."
Vida took out a cassette player and put it in Layla's hands. "Go on." she urged her sister.
Layla sighed, switched the player on and closed her eyes in concentration. The cassette play began to play static but then everyone heard a girls voice behind it.
#…h…hel…hello…# they heard through the static. #…m…my…nam…name…is…La…Layla…#
Layla then switched the cassette player off and placed it down, her face flushed.
"Amazing." Matilda gasped.
"We know." Vida laughed. "She keeps getting better at it, once she perfects it she'll be able to speak to people with out using sign language or a translator."
Layla grinned at the prospect of being able to 'talk' again.
"So, what can you tell us about the demons?" Matilda asked.
"The most important thing to remember is all demons' number one weakness is faith," Vida said. "A religion is a powerful weapon against a demon. Even if the religion is false, if there's enough belief behind it, it will work against them. For example, what do you think this is?" Layla took out the veil of liquid she had used against the demons and handed it to the siblings.
They examined and found it to be harmless to them.
"Is this water?" they asked.
"Close, it's holy water. No difference between it and water for us, but since it's part of a religion and is meant to harm demons, it's like acid to them." Vida explained. "Another example is that a demon can't pass onto hallowed ground, unless the demon is very strong, but even then it will be weakened from being on hallowed ground. So I'd think of carrying around a crucifix or another form of warding away evil."
Vida continued on. "Another thing to remember is that they don't have souls, they're bodies are vessels for creatures of chaos and anarchy. Yes, they used to be human, but once they sign their souls away they aren't anymore. As you've seen, they can appear to be human, but they always show their true forms in their reflection or shadow. So always carry around a mirror or flashlight, preferably the mirror since you'll look less suspicious."
"It's getting late." Harry pointed out when he saw the time.
"Let's get some rest until the adults finish talking." Vida said.
Layla yawned in agreement.
The twins took out two inflatable beds from their closet and pumped them up and put sleeping bags on them. Layla and Vida slept on their bed while Harry and Matilda slept in the sleeping bags.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter.
If anyone's wondering why Vida and Layla wear glamour, white hair and red eyes aren't normal and are easy to recognise, Vida hides her scar because she's self-conscious about it.
Any ideas about what should happen in the story?