The Devil's Haunting Ghost

Chapter 1

Xander

THE WOMAN’S WAIL PIERCED THE air, sending a surge of buzzing energy firing through my body.

A fanged grin stretched across my face from where I hid within the shadowed veil between the human world and the demonic one.

The mortal lady was none the wiser to my presence, which made her believe her rocking chair in the dark corner of her living room was creaking back and forth on its own.

Her terror as she fled the room made me cackle, but only for a moment. She ran out of the house, and as the seconds ticked by, I realized she wasn’t returning. The human was such a fucking quitter, running after I’d just started having my fun.

“Killjoy,” I grumbled and stood from the hard rocking chair.

With a sigh, I walked through the shadows and appeared in the street outside of the house. Homes lined the road, and I scanned them, wondering if any other would provide a good source of entertainment and energy to fill this lurking Mischief demon.

I raised my black-clawed finger and pointed at each house. “Eeny … meeny … miny … moe!”

Looked like the white colonial home with its pristine appearance and ostentatious playset out back was the winner.

Playsets meant kids, and that meant plenty of energy for me to soak up.

Children were easy to scare with their overactive imaginations and lack of reasoning skills.

They also drew the attention of any nearby adults, which meant even more opportunities to garner an array of responses to my antics.

The more humans reacted to the chaos I created, the more powerful I became, which meant the more I could do.

Instead of creating a gust of wind with a snap of my fingers, I could summon a storm.

Instead of lighting the wick of a single candle with a nod of my chin, I could conjure a flame to engulf an entire house.

Instead of breaking a human’s bone with a small tap of my finger, I could render their entire skeletal system into sawdust with a single thought.

Gaining power from human’s emotional and mental reactions to my fun was truly a sweet, sweet skill to possess, and I fucking loved it.

“Let’s see who will power my battery tonight,” I mused, running my claws through my messy black hair between my tall horns.

Smiling and humming happily, I shoved my hands into my jeans and stepped through shadows, appearing in the colonial home.

I chose a room at random as my starting point.

The Prince of Darkness Himself must’ve been smiling upon me tonight, because I found myself in a pitch-black closet, surrounded by frilly pink dresses and a toy bin of stuffed animals.

Tucked right beside the toy chest was a small child, who hugged her knees tightly to her chest and stared at the shut closet doors.

I didn’t even have to hunt for my prey!

I remained hidden in the shadowy world of the paranormal, invisible to the human eye.

Slowly, I knelt down to get level with the kid, snickering and formulating a plan on what I should do.

Move one of the teddy bears? Laugh quietly but menacingly?

Drag my claws slowly down the wooden door? The possibilities were endless!

Now squatted on the tiny human’s level, I grinned with a decisive nod. I’d pull on her hair with a small tug. It was a gesture that couldn’t be explained away, especially for a kid—a yank on your hair while alone in a dark closet? It was fucking horror gold. Already, I could picture the panic and—

“Boo!” she yelled, whipping around to face me with her hands splayed wide.

“Unholy fucking shit!” I yelled, jumping away so fast, I fell onto my ass and slammed my back into the closet wall.

The little she-devil covered her mouth with both hands and laughed so hard that she nearly toppled over. Meanwhile, my heart practically broke free of my chest in a mad dash to get away from what was happening.

When her giggles died down, she met my wide eyes. “You said bad words.”

I couldn’t regain control of my rapid heartbeat. Clutching my chest, I bellowed, “Damn right I did! You scared the shit out of me!”

She laughed quietly again and produced a small sparkly flashlight. It lit up her smiling face, framed by inky black hair. She shifted closer to me in her purple pajamas and fuzzy socks. “Why do you have horns? Are you a monster?”

“Yeah,” I replied flatly. “I’m a big, bad, scary monster.”

I closed my eyes and rubbed my forehead with my clawed fingers. I truly thought luck was on my side tonight, but apparently not. I honed in on the shadows around me, confirming that they were definitely in place. This kid shouldn’t have been able to see me.

Looking back at her, I questioned, “How can you see me?”

Her green eyes widened behind her purple-framed glasses, and her grin fell. She quickly whipped her face forward and pointed the flashlight up toward the ceiling. “I can’t.”

“Oh, no?” I queried sardonically. “So you’re talking to yourself right now?”

She opened her mouth but seemed to quickly realize responding would dig her into a deeper hole. She firmly shut her mouth, but being a little kid, she couldn’t resist. So she quickly glanced my way and declared, “You’re not real.”

“Hey. That’s rude.” Offended, I flicked her forehead.

“Ow!” she hissed, rubbing the red dot now adorning her face.

“Mhm,” I grumbled. “Still think I’m not real?”

Her hand remained over her forehead as she cautiously turned her head toward me again. “Everyone says you’re a filament of my imagination.”

I sighed. “I believe the word you’re looking for is ‘figment.’”

So I wasn’t the first thing she’d seen that she wasn’t supposed to?

Humans who had the ability to peer past the veil between the world of humans and the one of souls and demons were gifted with an ability known to demons as the Devil’s Eye—people who could see ghosts, demons, and all manner of things that went bump in the night.

Those who saw past the barrier could see demons like me, even if we were hidden by shadows.

It had been so long since I’d met a true Ghost Speaker, as we Mischief demons called them. Running into her would’ve been fucking cool if she wasn’t an annoying little kid who didn’t even know the difference between “filament” and “figment.”

“You don’t look like the others I usually see,” she announced slowly, waddling on her haunches as she faced me fully. She shined her stupid light into my eyes.

I didn’t doubt she was right. She was young, so I was most likely the first demon she’d stumbled across. With my tall black horns, glowing golden demon eyes, black claws, and two sharp canine teeth, I no doubt looked like a beast.

“Duh. I’m a monster, not a ghost. Didn’t we already establish this?” I looked around the cramped closet. “Why are you hanging out in here with a filament of your imagination, anyway?”

Her knuckles went white as her grip tightened on her flashlight. She drew her knees even closer to her chest and looked at the crack between the double closet doors. “I’m hiding from the scary man.”

“Scary man?”

I tilted my head closer to try to peer out of the crack myself.

Had another Mischief demon already beaten me here?

Was that the reason she was so unfazed by me?

I didn’t sense another presence of Hell, but maybe we’d just missed each other.

All was quiet on the other side of the door, and I detected no human or ghost, either.

A tiny grip suddenly latched onto my horn, tugging my head down and sideways. “Wow!”

“Woah. Woah, woah, woah,” I gasped, trying to glare through my dark bangs. “Let go of my horn!”

The tiny menace giggled but released me. I quickly sat back up to my full height while she wiggled happily in place.

“You’re funny, Mr. Monster.” She gave a hushed laugh.

I snarled my lip at her to expose my fangs and looked up at the ceiling with an incredulous huff. “I can’t believe I thought luck was on my side tonight. This is the weirdest—”

I froze when a pale finger prodded at my mouth.

Shock held me prisoner as irritation personified got on her knees and shined her light right into my face while grabbing my top lip to pull it back over my teeth.

Her eyes widened behind her glasses, and she gently poked one of my fanged canines. The gesture made the shock wear off.

Expression going bland, I managed to speak around her finger digging inside my mouth. “You don’t know what personal space is, do you?”

She finally pulled her hand back and sat on her knees again. Her big eyes peered up at me, and the longer she stared wordlessly, the pinker her cheeks became. Good. I hoped she was embarrassed about poking around in someone’s goddamn mouth like that.

The entire past fifteen minutes were absurd. She’d gotten more reactions out of me than I had out of her, which was the exact opposite of what was supposed to happen. My Mischief demon pride was wounded.

The stillness created the perfect backdrop for a scare, so in one final desperate attempt to get a reaction out of her, I whipped up my clawed hands and lunged forward while shouting. She didn’t flinch. A beat of silence followed. Then she smiled.

This fucking kid.

A weary sigh left me, and I dropped my hands in defeat. “Fine. I can see this is a lost cause. Well, as much fun as this has been, I’ve gotta go.”

Her smile dropped, replaced by distraught disappointment. “You’re leaving?”

I clasped my hands by my face and batted my lashes, asking sarcastically, “Was the Little Ghost hoping we could have a sleepover and tea party?”

The light in her green eyes dimmed, and her shoulders sagged. “Can I go with you?”

I curled my lip and raised a hand in flat rejection. “Eww. No. I don’t like kids.”

“Don’t like kids,” she whispered under her breath as she seemed to look through me, suddenly lost to her own thoughts.

Fucking weirdo.

“Yeah,” I drew awkwardly. “So … bye.”

“Wait!” she gasped, snapping out of her stupor. She moved lightning fast, reaching up to grab both of my horns with her flashlight now abandoned by her knees.

“Hey, you little shit,” I growled.

My gut reaction was to grab her wrists and pry them off me, but she was a kid.

Sure, I didn’t like the disgusting vermin, but breaking her wrists seemed a bit harsh, even for a demon like me.

So I kept my hands by my sides and put all the annoyance I felt into my snarl and narrowed golden slitted eyes.

“Will you come visit again?” she asked, her bottom lip quivering.

“Will you let go of my horns if I say yes?” I hissed.

She grinned and nodded.

Kids were so fucking dumb.

“Fine. Yeah. I’ll come visit again,” I lied sweetly.

“Will you take me away with you next time?”

“Yeah. Fucking sure. Let go.”

She gasped happily and let go of one horn to hold her left pinky out to me. “Pinky promise?”

I barely managed to contain my eyeroll and maintain my smile. I wrapped my pinky around hers, squeezing harder than necessary. “Pinky promise.”

She didn’t seem to give a shit that I nearly popped her little finger off.

She finally let me go. Footsteps sounded from somewhere in the house, and the unmistakable sound of her bedroom door opening followed.

She gasped and turned off her flashlight before facing the double closet doors.

One opened, and she peered up as a man hidden from my view chuckled softly.

“What are you doing in there, Princess?” A hand extended toward her. “Come on. Bedtime.”

She slowly looked my way while reaching to take his hand.

I waved with a bright smile, happy to be rid of this outrageous scenario I’d found myself in. “See ya, Ghost.”

She swallowed hard and gave me a half-hearted wave. “Bye, bye, Mr. Monster.”

With the vermin gone, I quickly ducked out.

My desire for an energy-fueled night vanished, thanks to the bizarre encounter, so I walked through shadows to appear in Hell’s Gate, the most popular club for demons within Hell.

Demons swarmed the dark and smoky club, and sensual music played overhead while red lighting lit up the large room.

The very air oozed sin, depravity, and sex, and I breathed it in, happy to be in a place where things made sense.

I looked down at Perseus, who I’d appeared next to upon arriving.

I pursed my lips and watched a Succubus go to town, sucking my best friend’s dick beneath the table.

The Incubus hadn’t even shed his dress pants.

The charcoal material was only unfastened enough to free his cock, and his dress shirt was still pristine over his muscular frame.

He held a mess of her red curls in a hand while pistoning his hips to shove in and out of her mouth.

“Looks like your night is going better than mine,” I noted, taking the seat next to him. I watched the female sex demon dribble spit around his cock as she took him deeper down her throat.

“No fun scares?” he asked me breathlessly without taking his eyes off her.

He fucked her mouth harder, and she moaned in delight as he came down her throat. She released his dick with a wet pop and licked her lips. “Thanks for the meal.”

Perseus waved her off wordlessly and faced me as he tucked himself away.

“No good scares,” I confirmed.

Unless you count the one I received.

“Well, the night is young.” Perseus tossed back some of his drink before handing me the glass so I could do the same. “I’m sure we could find you some mischief to get into around here.”

He wasn’t wrong. There was no shortage of debauchery or games to get into in Hell, but fucking with humans was so much more fun.

The high their fear gave a Mischief demon like me was incomparable, just like the buzz of pleasure their sex gave an Incubus like Perseus was unbeatable.

Demons were made to mess with humans, and maybe I still could’ve done that tonight if a certain twerp hadn’t killed my mood.

I sighed. It didn’t matter. Come tomorrow, I’d find a new game to play, a new soul to torment, a new prey to turn into my playground. The Ghost Speaker would become a forgotten memory and my pinky promise to her another one of my many lies.

Smirking, I met Perseus’s black-and-red slitted eyes. “Yeah. Let’s fucking party.”