Roth was such a stark contrast to the remote and peaceful conditions of the temple. The city was loud, bright, busy, and exciting. People milled about in every direction. An angry driver would leave their car and yell at the other, or some people on the sidewalk laughed in abandon as they headed to some unknown destination. It was truly freedom.
The man and woman who had left the temple forever could only stare in awe. People passed by them on the sidewalk giving them strange looks. No doubt they looked out of place in their temple robes and sandals.
They had rushed to the city to escape the ire of the temple elders, disciples, and the gods. They suddenly found themselves in a strange new city. The man and woman were alone in the world and had no one but each other now. Being exiled from their temple meant they could never return. They had to build a new life.
The man's betrayal was still a painful reality for the woman, but she had no one else to turn to. The man didn't even seem sorry for what he did, but instead grabbed the woman's hands and led her to their new life. They had to make do with what cards life had dealt them. Eventually, the couple found a small rundown townhome to settle in. It was tiny and cramped but it was all they could obtain given their meager resources. The man immediately set out to find work, while the pregnant woman stayed at home to prepare for birth.
The man eventually found work, but it was barely enough for both he and the woman to get by. And with a baby on the way it was just not going to be enough. The man became determined to work even harder, taking on multiple jobs to help his new family. As the man spent more and more time away from home, the woman grew more depressed. Life at home became unbearable for her. Her mind was heavy with stress and worry and her mental state rapidly deteriorated. Some nights, as she lay alone in her bed, she could even swear she heard strange whispers, speaking to her in the dark. This only disrupted her spirits even further as she thought she was slowly losing her mind.
The voices came and went over months, whispering dark thoughts to her at random. The voices would come while she cleaned, while she slept and even while she would go out to gather groceries and other items for their home. It became so severe, she decided to stop leaving the house all together and lock herself in her room. The man would come home sometimes to find the woman huddled in the dark corner of the room they shared.
He would assist her back into their bed, gently tucking her back in, as she was now heavily pregnant. He hadn't noticed before, but now he could see. The woman was sickly thin and her bulging belly was in stark contrast with her thin frame. She had heavy bags and dark circles under her eyes. Her once pretty face was sullen and sunken in while her eyes were dead. She looked ill and he had barely noticed. The man barely spent much time at home due to work, but now in the moment, he had began to regret it.
The woman laid back on her pillow with her eyelids hung low whispering to herself. The man couldn't make out what she was saying so he leaned down lower toward her face to hear her. "shh, shh, I heard you the first time…so loud…," The woman murmured.
The man was dumbfounded. Was she talking to herself? Who was it that she was talking to? The man couldn't figure out what was happening in that moment. Perhaps, he had stayed away from home too much and in this strange new place, the woman could only feel alone and neglected. He blamed himself for his former lover's condition but didn't know what to do about it.
Over the next few weeks, the woman's condition continued to deteriorate. The man would come home and catch the woman talking to herself while rubbing her swollen baby. He would plead with her to lie down, but it was no use. The woman was determined to ignore him and talk to this imaginary person the man could not see. And that was when the man felt it. He could feel a slight presence in the house with them. He did not know where it was and when exactly it came to their home, but it was there with them.
One afternoon, the man came home to a shocking scene. He heard wails from the woman he once loved, coming from their bedroom. Upon opening their bedroom door he found the woman kneeling with a knife in her hands. The knife was pressed to her protruding belly as if she were about to slash her abdomen open. He barely made it to her in time as she began to cut. A deep gash was left from where the woman had pressed the knife into her flesh before the man had stopped her. Throwing the knife away, he grabbed the woman and whispered prayers into her ear, hoping to calm her disturbed mind.
He grew concerned wondering if he should contact the temple. But with both he and the woman being exiled, there was no point. The temple elders would surely turn them away and leave them to their own devices. The man decided to take matters into his own hands. After all, he was once a disciple in training. He gathered up the woman and took her to their small basement beneath the house.
Tying the woman to a lone mattress on the floor, he placed ritualistic candles at her bedside and placed a charm necklace around the woman's neck. The woman was completely out of it as she moaned and thrashed on the mattress. She continued to speak nonsense and talk to someone that the man could not see. But that presence he felt earlier was there in the room with them both.
The man tied the woman's hands to the sides of the mattress and subdued her as she still thrashed about. The woman suddenly stilled and clear liquid suddenly flooded the mattress upon which she lay. Her water had broken. The man was conflicted as to what to do, but knew he had to prepare for the worst. Still whispering prayers to the woman, he prepared for the birth of their baby.
Over the next several hours the woman screamed in pain and tried to break free of her restraints while the man held her down. He placed a hand in the middle of her chest while reciting ancient scripture to subdue whatever spirit was clearly residing inside her. How did it come to this? Performing an exorcism on his former lover. It's not what he expected, but he had figured out that the woman's strange behavior was due to whatever evil spirit was dwelling inside her now. He had to exorcise it before it did any real damage.
The recitation of scripture went on for quite some time while the woman screamed through her labor pains. Suddenly, the woman spread her legs and bared down on the mattress as she began to push. The man was startled but then began to assist the woman during birth.
She groaned in pain and yelled as she pushed and pushed until finally, the head of the baby appeared. The man was waiting with his hands cupped as he held the head of his baby. She continued until she had finally given birth to her child. The woman's face was pale and frozen as if from shock and realization that she had just given birth. It was a boy. The man who was now holding his baby boy in his hands was staring in disbelief.
His face was one of shock and suddenly his hands trembled. The woman overcame her daze and sat up while grunting in pain. She wanted to see her baby. As she held her arms out for her newborn she suddenly stopped. Both mother and father stared at their child in horror.
The baby was breathing already with no assistance and didn't even cry. Instead, it stared at both mother and father with a face formed in displeasure. Immediately the man and woman knew something was amiss. This was no normal baby, but a baby with the essence of evil surrounding it. It was so overwhelming that the father couldn't stand to hold him any longer. He gave the boy to the mother and left the basement, leaving mother and child alone.
The woman now held her child in wariness. She didn't know what to make of the overwhelming weight of evil she now held in her arms. His umbilical cord was still attached and she wanted nothing more than to sever the ties to this baby. Feeling lost and not knowing how to love her son she held, she began to sob. Crying until there was nothing left.
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Over the next few years the man and woman had tried to maintain a somewhat normal life. He continued to work while the woman stayed home with their son, Rin. They had given him that name because he was quiet, unapproachable and seemed almost otherworldly. At first, both parents did what they had to do to take care of their child, but noticed over time that there was nothing they could do to rid their selves of the trepidation they felt around their son.
Even at the age of four he was hard to be around. Both man and woman didn't know how to interact with him and usually, just left him to his own devices. They would barely feed him and provide clothes for him but neither parent could stand being near him. They feared he was the spawn of Satan himself.
After a while, the father would openly show contempt for his son. Coming home from another day of work to a son who had the presence of evil was a hard pill for the former disciple to swallow. He had cultivated in his path to ensure he ascended as a god, only to father a son who was evil incarnate. He didn't know how to deal with the child so he became angry and then abusive toward Rin.
The mother would do little to stop it. She had retreated into herself and only cared about her scriptures from the temple. It was all she could focus on and became obsessed with it. Now Rin was being neglected and abused by both of his parents.
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The years went by and Rin grew older. Not much had changed in his home except that now his father was a drunkard who had essentially ignored his family. He even stopped praying to the gods. Completely giving himself over to secular life, he would stay out late and drink not coming home until the early hours of the morning.
The mother, on the other hand, hardly cared. The house they lived in was a mess. Dirty dishes stayed in the sink, trash piled on the floor and dirty clothes had been tossed in every direction. The rodents would invade the rooms and make the living conditions hazardous for the family of three to live in. However, the mother stayed in her room, tucked away from the reality of life, reading her scriptures.
Thus, Rin was often left alone to fend for himself. He was now twelve and having to find food on his own so he wouldn't starve. Ever since he was born, he was aware of everything that went on around him. Even before then…
He had come to the Human Plane to escape from the pursuit of a god that had injured him in the Demon Plane. When he arrived in Human Plane, he had no destination in mind and found a secluded place in the middle of a forest to rest and recuperate. He was in his spirit form and could not be seen by humans in the plane, unless he made himself noticeable. He found a little abandoned dilapidated outbuilding that looked to be a small shrine.
He stayed there and tried to recover his energy. It took him several nights before he could start to feel only a drop of energy being restored. He knew it was going to take several years before he would be at full power again.
One night while recovering his energy he had noticed a man enter the wooded outbuilding. He had a lantern with him and waited impatiently by the doors. The clothes he wore were similar to what he had seen some humans wear in Demon Plane. The man must have been a Spiritualist.
After a while, the man opened the door and pulled a beautiful young woman into the shrine. The woman was barely settled, before he was already undressing her and himself and pounced on the woman. The temperature of that little shrine was getting higher as Rin became a voyeur. Before long, the woman stopped the man's advances and her eyes settled on Rin. He knew she couldn't see him, but she most definitely felt his presence. The man either, could not feel Rin's presence, or chose to ignore it altogether because he whispered words in the woman's ear before grabbing her leg and thrusting into her.
It was quite the sight for Rin, and he couldn't say he was sorry to see it. Rin had enjoyed a fair amount of sex before coming to Human Plane and wasn't exactly trying to shy away from the scene in front of him, when suddenly he had an idea. Clearly, the man and woman threw passion to the wind and didn't think of the consequences of their union. He decided he would use that to his advantage.
While the man and woman were still entangled with each other when Rin, in his spirit form, inserted himself in the woman's womb. He decided he would wait until the woman became pregnant and then make his move.
He didn't wait long before a baby was conceived and started to grow in the womb of the woman. As the fetus continued to grow it finally obtained a soul and it was at that moment that Rin decided to act. He devoured the soul of the fetus whole and inserted himself inside the fetus' growing form and waited until he was birthed. As he grew in a body that did not belong to him, he would speak to his mother while in the womb, telling her all sorts of things which made her grow more and more paranoid.
All of these strange events that took place led to where Rin was now in this moment. Standing inside the borrowed body of a twelve year old. He was tired of his predicament but mostly tired of the humans who were supposed to be his caregivers. He did not think kindly of humans before he came to this plane, but after witnessing the man and woman's neglect and abuse, he absolutely loathed humans. Back on Demon Plane, he wasn't known for his kindness or for being generous, in fact, he had a ruthless reputation. However, humans in comparison were supposed to be different. The gods protected them after all. Hearing their prayers and shielding them from the demons that ran rampant in Demon Plane.
And while it was true that the Human Plane did not have as many evil spirits and demons as the Demon Plane, what havoc they did wreak in this plane was justified in Rin's eyes. His father was once a devout Spiritualist in training and now was reduced to an abusive and drunken man who was mad at the world and the gods for dealing him such a shitty hand. Meanwhile his mother barely registered his existence and wouldn't even try to protect him in any way. If this was human's true nature, Rin did not care what happened to humanity.
Life for Rin, continued like this until one fateful night. Rin had come home from picking up food from the local food drive when he noticed the door to the house was wide open. He slowly approached the doorway and peered inside the dark home. He knew that his parents were usually behind on paying bills but he felt this time was different. The hairs on the back of his neck stood as he walked further into the home.
Feeling his way around he finally made it into the kitchen and placed the bags on the table. He didn't call out to anyone because he knew that no one would answer anyway. Instead, he went further into the house until he made it to the living room. It was still messy and unclean but nothing seemed out of the norm. So why was he feeling so tense?
Rin walked down the hall, feeling his way using the walls until he caught a slight movement to his left. His bedroom door was slightly ajar when suddenly he saw something moving behind the door. He turned toward his room and placed a hand on the doorknob before pushing the door open. He came face to face with his father holding a large kitchen knife. He was being ambushed!
The man lunged towards Rin with all his might and tried to stab his son in the neck. Rin, despite being twelve, had abnormally strong physical strength and managed to stop the force of the knife from penetrating his neck. Kicking his father off him hard, he ran back down the hall while his father shouted, "JUST DIE ALREADY! YOU'VE RUINED EVERYTHING!"
Rin ignored him and ran back toward the kitchen where he looked for a weapon of his own. He was searching in drawers when he suddenly noticed his mother standing at the threshold of the kitchen. She had her hands behind her back swaying gently. Her calm demeanor had Rin's heckles up as he abandoned his search and turned to face her.
"Rin, sweet boy. Come to your mother," she said gently.
Rin did not trust her. She began to fidget and shift on her feet before taking a cautious step toward Rin. "I know we haven't been the ideal parents, but it'll be over soon, I promise Rin," she cooed.
Rin couldn't take it anymore and tried to look desperately for a weapon. Suddenly the woman's face changed from an anxious expression to one of pure contempt. She was determined to get rid of the root of her pain. The reason she no longer had a home, a family. It was Rin's fault in her eyes and she had to destroy the source of her misery.
"YOU DAMNED DEMON! WE KNOW WHAT YOU ARE!!" she said as she revealed a short knife in her hand. She sliced towards Rin's direction, catching him across the chest and ripping his shirt in the process. He stood bleeding from his wound in shock before becoming he finally snapped.
He lunged at his mother, tackling her to the ground. He wrestled with the woman to try to get the knife from her grip. Taking his knee and slamming it down on the woman's chest, she let out a strangled cough and groan before her grip on the knife loosened. Grabbing the knife he yelled out in frustration before plunging it deep into her chest. All resistance from her ceased as her cold eyes settled on his face as Rin watched the life drain out of them. Standing up Rin looked up into the face of his father. He couldn't see his face clearly, but he could tell the man had a pained look in his eyes as he started to cry. After a beat the man finally said through angry tears, "You will die here with us this night, hell spawn."
Rin could only say in response, "You both deserve this fate."
Dropping the small knife in his hand, Rin lifted his hands and made hand signs. This momentarily confused the man before he realized what Rin was doing. He was trying to incapacitate the man. The disciples had learned about the demonic powers of demons and how they often used hand signs to kill their enemies. But before the man could react, Rin stopped his hand signs and lifted his index and middle finger on his left hand. When he did this, the man suddenly froze in place. He couldn't move a muscle.
With his fingers still maintaining the sign, Rin took this opportunity to slowly walk towards his prey. As he walked a slow smile crept across his face before he finally stood before the man who was his father. The man's face was starting to pale and beads of sweat poured down his temples.
Rin took the knife from the man's hand and used it to slit his throat. The blood poured from the wound, down his neck and onto the floor as he stood their unmoving. Only the man's gagging could be heard in that quiet kitchen. Rin finally released the sign and lowered his fingers as the man dropped to the floor dead. He had killed both of his parents. He felt nothing from their deaths and was in fact, quite satisfied.
Sensing movement from the hall, Rin clutched the knife in his right hand and proceeded to see who else was in their home. The front door was left open, so anyone could've made their way in. This was not good. Rin wanted to maintain a low profile while he recovered, but it seems he would now be found out. He then thought since he had already murdered two people, one other person wouldn't hurt.
Just then, the lights suddenly flickered on. And he saw the silhouette of the person in the hallway suddenly change to the sight of an old greying man standing in the hall with his hand extended out to Rin. He looked human, but something about him felt off to Rin. Before he could make a move to attack the voice spoke.
"Little demon, do not worry. Your secret is safe with me. Let me take care of you."