I didn’t know what was in the box, but I knew it’d be bad. The Yeros hate the Black Hands, and carting a gift to the latter from the former felt off from the start. I didn’t know it’d be a demon. Summoned right there in the heart of the Black Hand bar at the edge of Callow Market. The place was teeming with people, most of whom weren’t Black Hand, and one of whom was me.
I heard a lot of it, from outside. They must have opened it after I left, as I was walking through Callow. The sound was impossible. A kind of scream that was many screams, that resonated in the bones and the blood, and for a moment the air itself felt like molten glass. Then the human screams began.
I didn’t see it. You can’t see a demon, you can only imagine what you might have seen if your mind could comprehend it. But I didn’t even do that, I just ran, leaving the Black Hands and the people of Callow Market to deal with what I’d just delivered from the Yeros.
And it’s to them that I return, noting their knowing grins. A grin I return. I am one of them now, in their eyes. But I shall not forget the blood they poured onto my hands, nor how to return it in kind.
Paddy Dobson
15th August 2023