Demon Dairy

Chapter 1: pick your poison?

A library burns down of the thousands on thousands of books only one survived, it was not registered in the library system so it was assumed someone forgot it there it was written an language no one understood some words upside down and others sideways but with the mysterious fire destroying the city library no one cared that much of the book and it was left amongst the rubble of the fallen library where it was beaten by the elements

It was only 5 years later when a volunteer group decided to clean up that the book was discovered by two high schoolers , Teo and Lee they dusted the dirt off the book , Teo lifted a silver ring that laid at the centre of the book with a scratched symbol on it his attention fell completely on the ring as in the next minute he slid it onto his finger " perfect fit " he chuckled sweeping gravel away and ignoring the book as he had seen hundreds at this point but Lee on the other hand felt the book call to him in a way when he lifted it a shot of Adrenaline rushed through his blood over and over again till he slid it into his side bag and continued picking up trash. After what felt like hours of tedious work the group of 15 stopped for the day everyone passed by a table with a tall, white woman each taking a sandwich and canned drink before taking off . Lee and Teo take off in the same direction along with a third friend Alex who was assigned to a different floor then them Teo wasted no time in bragging about the dazzling silver ring while Lee never mentioned the book , he did not know why but he had a strong feeling to keep the book a secret so he follows his gut instinct and keeps the book tucked while they joked and laughed about the ring faster than they thought they were soon at the junction where Lee separated from the group he dapped Alex then Teo feeling a quick sharp pain when touching the ring he didn't think much of it and went off in his direction.

Walking alone Lee repeatedly looks back gradually building a paranoia that someone was following him , he speeds up constantly wiping his sweaty palms on the sides of his trousers , he kept reassuring himself that no one is following him all in vain as he almost could hear the footsteps and faintly feel the presence at certain points felt someone's warm breathe on his neck he soon reaches his house rushing in and shutting the door as fast as he could, his family who had all already gathered at the dining table all raised their heads Lee was the second youngest in a family of 12 despite the many mouths to feed the family lived wealthy each of the ten children had their very own room equipped with a 41' TV a gaming console, a computer and a small desk for school work needless to say they did not stress financially. Lee finally feels at ease as he walks in giving his jacket and bags to a maid than taking a seat at the dining table. Teo shuffles his keys , unlocking the door and stepping into his three room house which includes his room, his sister room and the centre room being combination of a living room and kitchen separated by two steps of an invisible wall while walking in he noticed a note on the kitchen counter he walked past it " working late again " he assumed, opening the fridge and reaching for one of two energy drinks which sadly was the only thing in the fridge they were part of a six pack Lee bought him he cracks it open and reaches for the breadbin finding a prepared sandwich made of the last two slices and the last of each ingredient " explains why she is working late so much " he proclaims taking the sandwich he climbs into his bed and opens a mobile game .

Lee's family dinner ends with everyone laughing at something his father said while three maids clear the plates , they sat at the empty table for thirty more minutes till finally the mother remarked " Everyone still in school should be off now " Lee goes to his room , a maid had sorted the books for tomorrow's schedule and packed the one's he wouldn't be using on the desktop on top of this pile was the charred library book Lee had stolen he opens it up " I think I could figure this out " He opens a draw taking out an empty notebook then his Mac book and begins research on dead languages.

Chapter 2: The fire

After dinner with his family, Lee slithers up the stairs laying the demon dairy on his desk and begins analysing it he ran it through all the golden languages like Hebrew and Latin yet none where a match he spent the entire night flipping and turning the book when the sun begun to raise a look of accomplishment painted his face he had beside him a transcript for the demon dairy having exhausted all his energy on creating the transcript he could not muster anymore to use so he gave in and fell into his bed. In minutes Lee begins to feel warm, toasty then hot then in a snap the entire house was engulfed in flames Lee was waken up by his younger sister as well as the entire family screaming in agony while the fire spreads he ran up and down the halls , on and off the stairs looking for his family but no one was there he paused for a moment to look at himself now realising he himself was engulfed in flames but he could not feel them " Adrenaline? " but no his skin was not damaged or showing any signs of actually being on fire while he pondered falling debris hit his head knocking him unconscious.

Lee came to it in hospital bed at his side was a gloomy looking Teo and a shaken Alex upon opening his eyes Lee screamed for his younger sister " where is Mary? Where's everyone? Are they okay" the room was quiet Alex looks to Teo who refused to raise his head instead staring down at the marble floor the silence lingered for a moment till a doctor accompanied by a firefighter came in " Lee? Is it? How are you feeling " the doctor asked with his pen scraping over a checkboard Lee ignores the question " where is my family? I want to see them " the doctor and firefighter exchange a look of concern , the firefighter clears her throat and steps closer to Lee " Lee , was there anyone else in your house when the fire started? " Lee looks to Alex and Teo who still faced the marble floor " Yes, my whole family and the maids were home where are they? " the fire fighter nods her head stepping away from Lee her face turning stoic " Lee am sorry but when my team and I checked the property we found no one else , no signs of life or remains, it's possible your family escaped the fire and retreated to a safe point " For a second a look of relief took his face but quickly shaken off " No no no I heard them I heard them scream " Lee begins shaking " And they would not leave me to die and and an-ddd w—ee we live on a large private property on the hills there is no designated safe point " the firefighter sighs " am sorry " she announced walking out soon followed by the doctor Alex and Teo stand and embrace Lee as he breaks down into tears they stay there in a cold silence till visitation hours were over Teo left him a bag of clothes " unfortunately all your clothes were destroyed in the fire , so I brought some of mine for while you are in here " while walking out Alex looks over to Teo and whispered " Why did you give him your new hoodies? Your sister worked a lot of extra time to get you those new clothes " Teo ignores him .

Late night, Lee sits up on his hospital bed staring at the ceiling holding back the tears he reaches for a glass of water on the bedrest and now notices the demon dairy and his transcript he could not remember if they were there during the day or if he had them when running out of his room he takes the book laying it over his laps and placing the transcript just above it he flips the book open and immediately he hears the aggressively crackling of a wildfire and his family's screams he quickly shut the book and fell into tears in the resulting silence till he fell asleep he woke up later in the night and his first instinct was to open the book and again he was overwhelmed by the sounds of a untamed flame and his family in agony he ignores the sounds allowing them only a single tear while he reads the first page of the book as soon as he finishes the first paragraph his world turned upside down he could not believe so he crosschecked over and over again with his transcript but nothing change the first paragraph in the old book he picked up in the rubbles of the fallen city library was " Hey Lee sorry for burning down your house and leaving you in the hospital but worry not child your family is not lost nor are they hurt YET but that can change in a heartbeat if you do not help me " a seizure ensued with Lee foaming at the mouth , his body flapping and flipping while his air pipes tightened and his pulse weaken the nurses marched in to restrain and treat him with all the movement the book was tossed on the ground and kicked beneath the bed .

Chapter 3: Join the party

After leaving Lee in the hospital Teo walks Alex home then rushes home to throw himself onto the bed and sink into it in a matter of minutes he was deep asleep beginning to drool over his pillow he was then jotted awake by his body temperature drastically dropping below freezing he opened his eyes to find himself falling deep into water he panics and starts kicking his legs and waving his arms the water gushing into his mouth and nose slowly and painfully suffocating him till his lungs were filled with water and his body gave up but each time he died the whole scene would rewind he would become conscious while underwater , kick his legs, wave his arms then die over and over again till he would not fight it anymore he would not resist he would breathe in the water, die then repeat over and over again till finally he took a deep breathe ready to relive his nightmare but he would wake up on his bed completely drenched, his whole room was covered in a 12 inches of water ,he laid on his bed breathing heavily trying to make sense of what was happening when he was beginning to recover the silver ring on his finger felt to be getting smaller crushing his finger between it it unfolded almost like paper and covered his entire hand still squishing it , the sound of bones shattering was chased by Teo's violent screams the ring which now more resembled a silver blob or slime was crawling up his arm contracting and relaxing violently piercing his skin and breaking his bones , Teo blacks out from the pain.

Lee wakes up in his hospital room yet again with the sun gently laying on his skin , he sits up from his bed feeling a light weight on his lap beneath the blankets he scouts them over finding the demon dairy there he opens it slow and steady " free me and I'll free your family " the first page read Lee closes the book " maybe my transcript is wrong " he laid back down " No it is not " a gentle voice answer from Lee's right he slowly turns his head fearful of what he might see but there was well dressed man, hair combed back, a nice clean white suit, polished shoes and a dazzling " unfortunately Teo, you're not as smart as you think you are, really though, do you really believe in a single night, you could decipher a language that existed a thousand years before your very species ? Of course not, my charming boy, I wrote the transcript for you , I actually could have just changed the words to English but I thought it'd be interesting to see how long it'd take you to give up but you didn't and when your body and mind were tired, I was able to steal just your hand and write the transcript for you, see how nice I am? I fed your little ego now how about you do me a favour" Lee screams , quickly calling the nurses in and they all seemed to ignore the man completely

Chapter 4: Where's the Family?

Teo learns his ring was more then an accessory, he could shape it however he wants, it would expand to any limits to match whatever he imagines, he lays his back on his bed repeatedly forcing the ring across his entire arm then back to a ring again over and over again, giggling none stop he rolled over and the can from yesterday fell off giving him an idea he stands at his bedroom door, stretches out the ring to the fridge opening it and getting the last energy drink thrilled over this, Teo never stops to consider the logic of this, he makes a sword, a staff and tries to force the ring as far as he could but eventually it stopped so there was a limit to how much of the ring he could manifest, and when he tried to remove it from his finger, it felt like he was trying to pull out his own bone.

The night before Lee was discharged from the hospital, he laid awake staring at the ceiling as he tries to ignore the sharply dressed magic man that came out from a charred old book he picked up whom was sat ever so patiently at the feet of his bed , ever so careful not to press onto Lee's legs ,because the nurses never acknowledged the man and let him stay past visting hours,it was clear only Lee could see him 'Did you really take my family?',Lee asks ,still staring at the ceiling as he had for the last 4hrs in silence,the man smirks 'Yes' he answers ,staring at the wall just as Lee to the ceiling but he was just merely imitating Lee while Lee was battling looking at the man because that would mean acknowledging him and acknowledging him would be acknowledging his family was gone .

Teo sits on a couch next to his sister , despite the sister being 3 years older they could pass as twins, black hair with dreadlocks , caramel brown eyes and dark chocalate skin . The twins were in their PJs watching a horror movie, this was their weekly tradition ,every friday night they would get into their PJS, each pick a movie or series to watch, his sister would always pick a horror movie and he would always pick a series but would spend most of their sessions pointing out flaws like bad acting, plot holes and how dumb some the characters . While handing her a cup of coffee,Teo opens a conversation about the ring 'the new ring has powers' he said it casually while sitting down next to her , she did'nt seem to care much either ,she was not engulfed in the TV, she was looking right at Teo and his magical ring while accepting the coffee, he continues to demonstrate the ring's power by conjuring an arm that stretches out and starts the movie, she still remains calm responding with a monotone 'finds ring in old ruins and puts it on' this was usually how they point out flaws in a character logic especially in horror movies, they both laugh and at the end of their laughter Teo 'Can't get it off, so we cant sell it '

Lee and his new friend sat in silence for another hour or so till finally Lee looked down at the man, tears now flooding out , his mouth trembling while he chooses his words , the man cuts his tantrum short by annoucing his name 'Leo' a silence lingers for abit 'I know its usually a nickname for leonardo but since you and your friendgroup go bynicknames, I thought Leo would do, I considered other, cooler names but they would need me to be a different ethnic group but believe it or not , not one character in this book belongs to THAT ethnic group' Leo held up the book ,it now looked like a regular storybook, with a beautiful cover , titled in a playful font'hills' but Lee knew somehow it was the same evil book that burned down his house maybe because it was held by the evil man that may have killed his family .'

Hills? Lee had read that book, it was something about a hero who had to save a princess trapped in a genie lamp or something , the villian was the owner of the lamp who needed the princess for his wealth and success ,seeing the book cover made him realise,Leo was in the body of that hero but the suit of the rich villian.The cursed book was a regular book before Leo was bound to it so while he could manipulate his appearance , he is limited to the imagery in the book, the same applies to his speech but luckily it was a lengthy book.

Lee,Leo and Teo

'he is a multi-millionaire' a nurse announces in the breakroom ,fixing her makeup, squashing her breast together and rolling up her skirt 'he also is 16' another nurse adds,'he also is a patient' a different nurse adds,'he also would not' yet another nurse adds gesturing her open palm over the first nurse ,this was followed by all the opposing nurses snapping their fingers interuppted by the head nurse walking in, everyone stiffens as she comes into view,the room fading into a cold silence, she dots between the nurses, lingering a second longer on the first nurse 'Leonardo will be discharged today ,Yes he'll leave here a multi-millionaire but he'll also be living a orphan, this child lost his entire family in a single night ,he does not even get the closure of burying them , he does not even know if they are really dead or not so as you can imagine, he is going through alot so please see him as that not a big fat cash cow...' she pauses for abit switching to a much more warmer tone while lingering over the first nurse 'OHh and he is being discharged by nurse joy as we speak'

Teo came to fetch Lee from the hospital, he sits in the hallway anxiously rubbing his hands together,periodacally wiping the accumalating sweat on the sides of his pants then repeating, Lee was going to come out of that room as the most broken version of himself, there was no written script of how to comfort someone on losing his entire family and even if it was, it would not cover Lee's circumstances , should he steer him into accepting their deaths ? or help him pursue the 4% chance that his family all escaped the fire unharmed and went somewhere safer? but then that would imply they willingly abandoned him but maybe they believed he did not survive , Teo was snapped out of these thoughts by nurse joy clapping at him , Lee was behind her, visibly thinner , holding nothing but the three hoodies Alex and Teo brought and he looked.....okay...ish he was still broken, his eyes were stained red by all the crying which really was only stopped by his tear ducts giving out but he was okay , he looked more than a teenage going through his first breakup rather then someone that just lost everything.The friends hug , this actually being the first time they ever hugged, Teo holds on till Lee breaks the hug .

Having a friend be there for him at the hospital was a blessing but Lee would've preferred to just teleport to his house but instead he had to shake off Teo then get a driver to go the house . Lee's family had many houses split across the global, some they even forgot bout so Lee chose to move to one of the houses

Finally alone ,Lee opens the demon dairy, which was what he decided to name the book after having to call it his dairy when the nurses asked, as soon as the book opened, Leo manifests,his eyes dot around for awhile 'nic...' he nods 'I want my Family,how do I get them back'_Lee interupts ,his voice firm and his eyes piercing through Leo

'Your family is trapped in the book just as I am , free me and you free the family '_Leo

'And how do I free you'_Lee

'Get me human souls'_Leo

After