Chapter 14: The Implock – Chapter 12 – “Still Kicking”

∼ Still Kicking ∼

Chapter - 012

The room was dimly lit as there were no windows or apertures to make it possible for the setting light of the sun to cast away the dark. But from what the demon could squint with its somewhat decent night sight, it was a small room lined with rows of cages. Cages much bigger than the one the demon itself had been stuffed inside.

It now remembered how it occasionally heard the cries of miserable voices coming from inside this very room during the days of captivity and under the warlock's scrutiny, and as it looked closer, it could make out a bunch of shapes residing within them. Unmoving. But most notable - was the stench of something foul.

The cage closest to the demon all of a sudden rattled. "P-please..." The voice rasped, a feeble hand extending through the bars.

It took a few moments, but the impling finally did recognize the dirty and sickly-looking man to be one of the five humans it had stumbled into. It was that man who had been shot by the warlock's bolt and survived.

The realization brought an unexpected sense of relief for the demon as this was the first familiar thing it remembered before being subjected to the warlock's whims. But this relief was soon consumed by rage when it dawned that this human was responsible for everything.

It wanted to slaughter him for his impudence, so the impling called upon the same power that it had used to so effortlessly vanquish the warlock. But as it did so, its legs wobbled and it almost fell head over heels. Head swimming and a headache rampaging around in its skull, a sense of nausea and pain intermixed overwhelmed the small creature. It clutched its head in agony. The demon wanted answers to what in its red own name was happening, and as if in response to its internal question, a prompt sprung into its mind's eye to explain a moment later.

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