Daemon

Rain danced ballet across the forest canopy, to slide down the blackened bark like tears. The loamy earth beneath his feet sighed and spluttered as he trudged. Dewy drops sparkled amidst his raven locks, evoking soft shivers. 



Every part of him cried. With him the forest sympathised.



         The monotonous dripping from the tears above his head caused him to halt. Mist billowed from his lips whilst the wind wailed in his ears. Fingers folded into each other like the feathers of a dove. He glanced up, his brows furrowing at the germinating darkness. Its black blanket cradled him. 



This was what he sought after enduring the day. To keep the demons at bay. 

        

         A single tear glistened a path upon his cheek. The air was still now. Almost silent. The rain thrummed upon his body. The earth was grey. The trees dark. Their plumages began to disintegrate. The vibrancy of the nature he created for himself dissipated like a tear upon skin. The noise of his forest; the wails, hums, cries and sighs were replaced by a dull void. He was alone. Helpless. Trapped in the haven he had grown by a need for safety and security. Depression coiled its grey tendrils around his mind. It constricted any happiness he had felt until it withered away. 

“What is the point?”

         ‘You’re just not good enough. Everything you do ends up turning against you. Loneliness is what you need; it’s not a setback, just a need. Feel blue.
Feel down. Plunge yourself into the waters Akheilos controls.’

He twisted his fingers about in his black hair, grunting at the sharp bites of pain. What if the demon were right? The forest said nothing as he stumbled about the muddied path. Whenever he seemed to reach out his hand for balance, the bark recoiled from him like he was a fungus. The damp air smelled sour rather than the sweet earthly scent of wet fern and soil. Every step he took, he could feel the frozen aura follow him like a gloomy shadow. It loomed over him with the imposing power of a manticore but it decided to withhold the poison from its tail. Depression wanted him to suffer.

             He lurched over a root embedded within the soggy soil. With a furrowed brow, he rose upwards in a staggered way like a rag-doll. Depression’s tendrils controlled his ligaments as he moved, lifting up his legs and determining the direction they took. The lifeless trees bowed over as they passed, dripping water atop his hair once more. The man grimaced as the forest grew denser so that vines grappled at him whilst he lumbered and grasping branches pinched at his skin and snagged the material on his frame.

             
            Depression suddenly halted his movement, making him gaze around like a wary stag. Light around him began to flicker like the sun was drowned by the clouds. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a blotted shadow dash behind the thick trunk of an ancient tree. He ripped away from the demon’s cords to investigate. He waded through the sea of nettles that snarled at his feet as he crushed them. Cautiously, he peeped behind the tree and only found the scenery of the endless forest around him. He began to fret. 

           Terror swooped in on his mind like a bird of prey, snatching away his sanity in their sharp, black talons. He backtracked to the sludgy path, feeling Depression’s strings wrap around his wooden body once more. It insisted they continue onwards, but still fright beated at him. Thoughts of uncertainty flickered in the abyss the bird had created by removing ‘sanity’.

‘Think of all those you called friends. They’re not really your friends. Look at how they stare with resentment in their eye, burning with the
fire Zeus stole from his people in retribution. They lie to you as punishment.
They don’t really like you.’

          Adrenaline burned in his veins and seared the pits of his tummy. This demon had to be right. He imagined scorched faces lying in the pit of his memory. They sneered with fangs and whispered in tongues. He couldn’t remember a time being happy with them. He whipped around frantically whilst Depression drove him forward. He did not feel safe in the haven he had created. The second demon followed suit, beating its heavy wings. It wanted to capture him and carry him away to the fiery hell that he could only imagine. Imagination had caused this after all, he knew. It cawed above his head, giving him terrible thoughts that made him nervous. Every tree cast a sinister shadow and would morph into a creature that made him squeal. When he blinked, it would disappear until anxiety coursed through his veins once more.

          “Stop! Stop it please!” he begged, dragging his heels through the globules of mud. No matter how much he fought, the tendrils were frozen on his body. Anxiety circled over head, screeching imperatives at him to warn. Was it rather to threaten him? Someone was coming for him. He fell limp in Depression’s grasp, who continued to shove him forward until the dense forest began to thin out to wisps of foliage like the snuffing of a flame. 

         The vines retracted away from his snagged clothes and the speckled shadows died away from his frame. They were out of the open. Was he safe? No... He could never be safe. Someone was always after him. The demons always controlled him. Every time he went out, he reconsidered and went home. Never could he be truly happy.

‘Die in the fleet of Aeneas. Get lost in the winds by Aeolus. Be
battered. Bruised. Suffocated and blown away.’

          Fear was a gale in his body. His body felt like air. It was an abstract feeling. An out of body experience. He closed his eyes as the smallest of light filtered through the darkened clouds to puddle on his face. The demons gathered around him like a ritualistic circle.

“I’m not ready!”

          With a jolt, he shot upwards in his bed like Zeus’ bolt. He breathed heavily as he gazed around the sunny room. Watery rays of light peered through the curtains, illuminating his bed and body. His lips curved into a soft smile of relief. 

           

The demons were going
to kill him. 

It was inevitable. Depression, Anxiety and Fear.