Jeremiah skipped into the right door, it shined as he walked in– giggling.
One blink, and he was in a classroom. Children sat in rows like painted mannequins. The chalkboard read: I'll kill you. No one else reacted. The words shimmered into Nobody believes a psychic.
Jeremiah chuckled, "Is this what my challenge is?" a lollipop in his mouth representing a cigar as a toothy grin held it in place.
"No." An ethereal voice bellowed from above, even startling Jeremiah.
Jeremiah blinked once more and saw himself in front of two blacked out silhouettes, he winced as he looked at them. He touched one of their legs as he heard their thoughts.
Demon child, what do we do with this problem?
Once the adult noticed, they backhanded Jeremiah to the ground causing his helicopter hat to fall off and him to tumble to the ground.
The silhouette flickered from a Medean man with a beard to a Medean woman with a caterpillar earring, the people didn't matter, it all was the same to him.
He attempted to snarl at them but it got caught in his throat and all that was let out was a faint and quiet whimper. Jeremiah gripped onto the ground, concrete– his back in pain as he stared at the attacker– He craned his neck up, tears blurring his sight. The adult loomed, endless as a tower. He could hear muffled complaints as he saw the adults turn around– his eyes grew heavy as he lost consciousness.
Jeremiah awoke to being on a talk show with his hat returned to his head and spinning– one designated for celebrities as a man with a pompadour longer than Miles sat across from him, their teeth glistened white as he began to speak in a pompous way, "So Jeremiah Perkins, what led you to the road you've taken right now!" the host barked, pompadour bouncing. His grin glitched — one frame too wide, one frame too many teeth.
Jeremiah giggled, his former weakness dissipated, "Whatever do you mean host?".
The host laughed, "You're evil. How does a child like you become so evi-" his voice distorted and the room around them glitched. The spotlight fixtures snapped free and plummeted. Jeremiah flicked lollipops like grenades, sugar and shrapnel spraying the crowd.
The debris from the explosion splattered across the audience, shrapnel piercing into vitals killing majority of the spectators as the host saw– purple eyes trembling before uncontrollably bursting into spirals.
The corpses jerked upright, eyes purple, mouths spilling static as they chanted: DEMON CHILD. DEMON CHILD.
Jeremiah looked around as the phrase was screamed from across the room..
"Aha." A faint cackle was heard…
"AHAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Jeremiah began to uncontrollably cachinnate, tears streaming down his face as he began to throw lollipops from his letterman jacket– exploding everything around him.
….
A wheeze was heard.
"A challenge huh?" Jeremiah's voice was heard– rageful, "All I've gotten is an earful of shit. 'Demon Child'? I'll show you 'Demon Child', I'll leave this shithole then kill everyth-"
Jeremiah arose from a dream-like state. Around him, the cocoons pulsed — He counted them: eleven cocoons. Some pulsed– one pulsed violently, some shook. Two didn't move at all. His stomach twisted. He looked at the cocoon he was inside before readily getting up. He saw a familiar face standing there cluelessly. "Psylaiso?" Jeremiah beckoned hesitantly before getting out his cocoon and walking to her.
The girl turned around before shrieking, "Who are you?"
"I'm bloody Jeremiah.." The 'boy' spoke.
"No you aren't.." Her Saraline disguise melted away, skin dripping into clear black ichor. A feminine form of liquid glass stared back at him, reflective and sharp.
Jeremiah saw himself but with tiny red horns on his head, he had a ruby trident attached to his back– unremovable but that was all the change.
"Seriously? Let's just wait for Saraline to get up." Jeremiah muttered before standing alongside Psylaiso, "I wonder how Gabby is doing.. Wait, why are you out so early?"
"I have no past, I was only created to kill Saraline and you see how that went, I saw all of you enter and be snatched by tentacles.. Drawn into the cocoons without any reaction from you guys– it's as if you didn't see it coming." Psylaiso stood there shell shocked, gazing into nothing before looking into Jeremiah's eyes, "I hope nothing bad comes out of this."
Jeremiah chuckled, fiddling with his horns, "The Demon Child believes… Someone important will die soon."
The two stood there.. Waiting for Saraline…
One cocoon quivered violently, seams splitting. A little girl clawed her way out, gasping as if she'd been drowning. She looked at the duo before running over towards them, hugging Jeremiah.
"Who are you?" Jeremiah frightfully asked, attempting to push her off.
"M-my name's Dara Sepers. That was… scary." She clung to Jeremiah's sleeve, eyes wide. "I'm a… Hyde." Her skin was chestnut, an auburn ponytail flowed down her head as she desperately stared into Jeremiah's eyes.
Jeremiah's grin stretched wide, his new horns catching the light. "Perfect. The Demon Child finally has a family."