Flash Fiction: Jewel of the Nine Eyes

“Are you going to kill me?” There was defiance in her voice despite the fear she was oozing.

“Maybe,” I said.

I am the demon Ahaeserus, after all. I ate humans like her for breakfast. Quite literally.

But there was something different about this human. There was a strange aura coming off her, a blood-red mist that tickled all nine of my senses. It seeped through her shackles, and even the dank air of the dungeon seemed to fizz with it.

I knew that mist.

“Say, human,” I said. “You haven’t come across a red jewel, have you? A ruby-type thing, sounds like bells chiming when you tap on it?”

She scowled. “Why should I tell you?”

I wanted to wipe that scowl from her impudent pug face, but I had to play this right. I put on my most simpering smile. “Would you like to die instead?” I asked sweetly.

That changed her mind. “Fine. So maybe I did find something like that. So what?”

Aha! This was my lucky day. “Alright,” I said. “Hand over the ruby and I’ll spare your life.”

The human began to look sheepish. “Ah. Well. It’s kind of …gone.”

My eyes narrowed. “What do you mean gone?”

She shuffled around in her shackles. “Well… it’s small…right? So I had it on top of my purse while I was eating dinner…I mean, I didn’t even know until I started choking…”

“WHAT?!” I exploded. “You ate the Jewel of the Nine Eyes??”

“I thought it was a chunk of capsicum.”

It was beyond fathomable. This wretched human had swallowed the Jewel of the Nine Eyes. The very jewel that destroyed my grandfather, and my uncle, Versius  the Bloodthirsty. Now its power exuded from her like some kind of deadly miasma.

This was bad. This was very, very bad. I needed a way out of this, and fast. Think, Ahaeserus, think…

“I’ve been to the bathroom.”

“That’s not how the jewel works,” I snapped.

I had to find a way to trick her. This human was shackled in my dungeon, but I couldn’t kill her. The power of the jewel would cut me down.

And I had to kill her before she discovered the truth.

That with the magic of the jewel coursing through her veins, she had the power to destroy me.

(To be continued)

 

Daily Prompt:Hesitate