Chapter 2 - Demon Lord
Demon Lord
The quietest place in the library was on the second floor, in the corner of the old research wing that hadn’t been restocked yet.
Warm light shone through the multi-paneled windows, each pane of glass tinted slightly different for a beautiful array of golden light.
It was a remnant from before the wild magic storm had changed this library and it was my favorite place to hide away from the world.
Nobody came up here, so it was just me and blissful silence.
Or at least, that used to be true, but on top of the stack of epic fantasies Lisa had found for me was a handwritten novel titled Love in the Shadows: a fanfiction with a note scribbled across the front.
You’re my favorite character! I hope you love my story.
I sank onto a chair, tossing the cursed story back on the table.
The fans were getting out of control. It would be so much easier to chase them off the mountain and be done with it, but the new rules forbade me from scaring people.
What a joke. I was the Demon Lord; scaring people was what I should be doing.
Instead, I hid myself away upstairs reading books all day. Thankfully Lisa took her role as a librarian seriously even though she was a story spirit like me, so she always managed to find stories worthy of my time.
Each one was full of love and heartache, joy and sorrow, good and evil.
Reading let me feel what those characters felt in a way that I never could with my own story since my book series wasn’t about me.
I was just a footnote in the hero’s claim to fame, the big villain he’d eventually defeat to save the world.
He’d been fighting against my demonic forces for seven books while I conquered territory after territory, building an army.
He was humanity’s golden hero ready to save the world from my evil plans.
Too bad I didn’t know what those plans were yet.
The author hadn’t written me on the page, and he’d passed away before finishing the last book, so my side of things were a little fuzzy.
All I knew was that I had to beat that hero into the dirt.
I picked up another epic fantasy and dove in, hoping to find inspiration for my villain quest. The endings were always so impressive, but the bad guys never seemed to win.
I should ask Lisa if there were any stories told from the villain’s point of view next.
As I was reading, a tiny purple dragon landed on my horns, flapping his wings to keep his balance. They’d been doing that a lot lately, landing on every available body part like I was some kind of flying lizard perch.
“How many times do I have to tell you not to do that?” I swatted the dragon away and he tumbled through the air. “I don’t want your company.”
The dragon roared at me, but it came out more adorable than he’d probably intended due to his size. The glare on his face was clear though: he was not happy with me.
“Oh fine, come burn something for me.” I snatched up the fanfiction, holding it out to him like a treat. “Just don’t sit on my horns. Give me that much dignity at least.”
He swooped down, flaming the papers quickly so I never had to see that abomination again.
Writing fanfiction about me might have been okay before I stepped out of my book, but I was a real person now and that was just weird.
Even weirder to give it to me like some kind of love letter.
I was a Demon Lord, not somebody’s crush.
Villains never got their happily ever after anyway, it always doom and gloom for us.
Flames danced across the pages, devouring any chance of me reading that story.
Burning love letters was exactly something a villain would do, so at least I was getting one thing right today.
I dropped the last bits on a plate so I didn’t burn my fingers and leaned back in my chair with a grin.
The dragon took that as an opening and settled on my lap, snuggling closer as I groaned.
It was better than sitting on my horns at least, so I let him be and went back to reading, absently stroking his scales.
My gaze kept drifting to the ashes of that fanfiction though. What if that was the author’s only copy? My stomach clenched. No way would they have given me the original. It had to be a duplicate...
Well, there was no saving it now either way, so I’d just have to embrace it as an evil deed marked off my list for today.
It would be extra evil if it was the original, so I should feel good about that.
Too bad my stomach didn’t agree. Thankfully squeals of joy from downstairs distracted me, drawing me over to the second-floor railing against my better judgement.
A group of patrons filled the lobby, talking excitedly with Lisa and Nyssa.
I squinted, recognizing a few of them as my so-called fans.
They hounded me, day after day, asking questions and wanting to know more about my books.
They somehow expected me to know how it should end just because I was a character from the series, but I only knew as much as the author had written, just like everyone else.
“Demon Lord,” Lisa shouted up at me, “they’ve got good news to share with you. Come down here.”
The urge to pretend like I hadn’t heard her was strong, but she’d probably march up here and drag me down if I didn’t answer. I’d rather the fans didn’t realize this was my secret hiding spot either, so I walked downstairs filled with trepidation.
“What’s going on?” I asked gruffly, trying to keep my interest low.
One of the fans had a flyer gripped in her hands so tight it was crinkling.
“Um, there’s a contest, for your um, your book series.” She handed me the crumpled piece of paper, blushing. “Sorry.”
I shrugged. “It will read just as well, crinkled or not.”
Lisa smirked behind her teacup as the girl beamed at me. Oh no, had I somehow just made her even more interested? I never knew what would set these fans off in shrieks of joy or anguish, so I shut my mouth and read the flyer. Humans were far too much work.
A publishing company was announcing a contest to write the last book in my series. The author’s family would choose the winner, so everyone would finally know how it ended. I swallowed hard, trying to process what that meant.
Somebody, a total stranger, was going to be deciding my fate, telling me who I should be and why.
Not my author, just some random fan. A chill sank into my bones.
What would happen to me once the last book was written?
Would I change based on how they portrayed me?
I couldn’t risk that. There had to be a way to stop this.
“They’re going to finish your story.” Lisa gripped my arm encouragingly, smiling like this was something amazing. “You’ll finally get to know more about yourself.”
The fans started chattering, filling my head with nonsense about all the ways the books could end. Everyone obviously wanted this, but the idea of the contest settled into my stomach like lead.
Didn’t they realize that having an ending might be even worse than never knowing?
What if the author they chose never gave me a good reason for all my villainous acts or made me lose the final battle in a pathetic way?
They might make me trip over a rock and accidentally fall off a cliff like in the last story I read. I deserved a better ending than that.
Panic raced through me as people crowded in so close I could barely breathe. I needed to get out of here, away from all of this.
“How do you think the hero will win?” the fan from earlier asked. “I mean, the good guys always win right?”
My chest tightened. Every book I’d read had ended like that.
There were so many ways for the heroes to slay the villains, so many ways for them to crush us under their boots.
That was not how my story was supposed to end.
It couldn’t be. I was the Demon Lord who’d been whispered about for seven books!
My end should be mind-blowing and memorable, not a joke or an easy fight.
“If you really think the hero can defeat me, then what are you even doing here?” My hands shook as my shadows plunged the room into darkness, snapping and coiling until they snuffed out every light.
“I’m the Demon Lord for a reason. There’s no way a puny hero can defeat me so easily.
I’ll snuff out the sun if I have to and drag every human into a world of everlasting shadows if he even dares to lay a hand on me. ”
There. That should intimidate them, right?
“He did it!” A woman squealed. “The Demon Lord cast his shadow magic on us just like that general did in book 3!”
Screams of delight crashed over me as the entire library filled with excitement. I cringed. My shadows used to make people flee in terror, screaming down the mountain as they ran for safety. But now they just made the fans love me.
I was a terrible villain.
My shadows dissipated in an instant as my fans’ happiness doused every bit of rage I’d managed to muster up.
They snapped a few pictures, standing next to me and hanging off my side like I was some kind of display piece.
This was not what my author had had in mind when he was planning my big ending. I was sure of that.
Lisa’s shoulders shook with silent laughter as a grin spread across her face. “And that’s the kind of darkness you’ll see in the final book everyone. I wish you all the best entering the contest!”
“Gee, thanks for your help.” I rolled my eyes, jerking away from the newest fan who was clutching at me. “As if I need a group of amateurs writing my book.”
“Oh, he’s just kidding, you know how he gets.” Lisa waved the rest of the fans away with a smile before focusing her attention on me. “What were you thinking? You’re lucky they enjoyed that.”
“I’m the bad guy, what do you expect? I know the library needs patrons, but these fans are getting too forward. I can’t deal with them every day, not when a contest means there’s going to be even more of them prying into my life.”
She sighed. “I know this has been an adjustment, but we’ll make it work somehow.”
The library used to be a quiet, wonderful place, until the Tales and Tomes Festival.
It had been such a success that our home was now filled to the brim with people wanting to talk to us, poking and prodding as if we were a carnival act just because we were characters from their favorite books come to life.
I rubbed my hand over my face, leaning against a bookshelf. “I just...miss when there was nobody here but us. Is that so wrong?”
“No, but scaring patrons is,” she said softly. “I thought we moved past that. Let me talk to Nyssa and see what we can come up with. You shouldn’t have to feel this uncomfortable. I really thought you’d be happy...”
She glanced away, busying herself with reorganizing books on a shelf.
She’d been the one finding me all the fantasy books I’d been reading, helping me see what kind of stories were out there.
She wanted me to figure out my story just as much as I did.
She’d understand if I told her my fears about being a joke of a Demon Lord, but somehow, I just couldn’t bring myself to do it.
Saying it out loud would make it real and ruin all my hard work trying to be evil.
I took a deep breath. “I am happy. Thanks for letting me know about the contest.”
“You’re welcome.” She frowned at me like she could sense I wasn’t telling the truth. “Look, if you’re that worried about it, you should just find your own writer and work with them on the story.”
I blinked at her, frozen in place. What an absurd idea. “You want me to find my own writer?”
“Of course, take your story into your own hands. Make it what you want it to be. You deserve whatever kind of ending you see fit, and you’ve got the rare opportunity to make it happen.
” She smiled, hugging a book tight to her chest. “We’re characters from stories, but that doesn’t mean we have to be governed by those stories. You can be whoever you want to be.”
That didn’t feel right. Characters were written by somebody else. I couldn’t just go rogue and become something my author hadn’t intended. We might have stepped out of our books, but we were still part of them.
Finding my own writer wasn’t a bad idea though.
Somebody who would do my story justice while staying true to the original author’s plans.
I wanted to go out with such a bang that everyone would remember it.
I wanted an epic ending, one full of meaning and emotion that explained why I did all the things they claimed.
I wanted a real story. And maybe, just maybe, I’d even get a name.
It felt a little crazy, but a tiny spark of hope flickered in my chest. This contest might be exactly what I needed after all.