Meet The Demons

"Who said that?" Derrick asked as he quickly turned around to reveal seven pale looking boys, if he hadn't known better he would have deduced they were just his age .

One of the boys gave him a sly grin in return, and spoke up in what was probably supposed to be a mocking voice: "The Devil."

"No," Derrick said slowly, still not quite believing this was happening to him. "How did you get into my house?" Derrick asked as he searched the room for a usable weapon he could use to defend himself.  He spotted his bedside lamp sitting on one of the couches, and grabbed it from where it lay innocently beside the seat.

The boys exchanged glances, seemingly unsure about whether or not to answer his question before finally giving in.

"We're demons," one of them said plainly, almost as though speaking to someone he'd never met before.

"Demons?" Derrick repeated. "You know how I feel about that crap! This is your last chance, tell me who you all are!" He shouted as he brandished his makeshift weapon, hoping it would scare the other boys away.

A boy with curly, dark green hair stepped forward. He held up both hands, palm outward. His skin looked like raw parchment, almost scaly but slightly less so, and even as he stared Derrick could see that he had no eyes. The only thing holding his expression together was a faint smile. It made the scar on his face look like it was bleeding, and Derrick's stomach flipped unpleasantly.

"My name is Greed" he said softly, "and this is Envy and Gluttony, and those three are Sloth, Lust and Pride."

At least three of them started laughing at that, which confused Derrick.

"What?" he cried, "Why do you find it funny? What's wrong with my name?"

Envy raised an eyebrow. "I don't think there's anything wrong with it" he said, "but why did you come here?"

"What do you mean why did I come here? I live here!" Derrick said becoming impatient as his grip on the lamp intensified.

Greed rolled his eyes. "Sure you do" he said "But that can hardly be considered living when you spend most of your days doing nothing but lazing about doing absolutely nothing."

Derrick scowled as he tried to decide whether or not he should take offense to Greed's remarks. "I'm not lazy!" he huffed indignantly, feeling anger starting to rise within him. "If I wasn't doing something useful then I wouldn't be here!"

"Oh really? Would you mind enlightening us then, Derrick?" Lust drawled, his voice dripping with sarcasm. "What exactly did you plan to achieve by getting yourself locked inside here?"

He felt his shoulders sag slightly. "I... I thought that maybe if I stayed here long enough that one day I would wake up and everything would be back to normal."

The demon laughed derisively. "Right." said Sloth as he found a couch to sit on. "Look, I don't know who you all are or what you're all doing here but you need to leave now or I'm calling the police." Derrick said as he gave them a serious look.

"Enough!" screamed one of the demons as he stood up from where he'd been observing the scene before him.  "You may be a kid but you're a big idiot!" He snarled.

"What?" Derrick asked, unable to comprehend the insult directed his way.

"It means he's an idiot," explained Greed, sounding rather bored with the entire conversation.

Derrick scowled, but didn't respond. He was far too angry to argue.

"Do any of you have names?" he asked, his voice much calmer than he felt.

Silence.

"Seriously?" he scoffed. "Okay, let's see if we can figure this out. What's your real name, Greed? "I already told you it's Greed, you could call me Covet but that's a bit archaic now isn't it? Okay look, how about we do this one more time yeah?" My name's Greed, and those two are Sloth and Gluttony, the other two by the corner are Lust and Pride. And he... he's Anger. You can tell by his facial expression can't you?" Greed said as he introduced his brothers to Derrick one more time.  As if waiting for Derrick to give him the same reply once again, he added, "See? They already said their names."

He crossed his arms and leaned back against the sofa. "Are you going to say anything else?" Greed continued after Derrick continued staring blankly at him. Finally shaking his head slightly. "You guys can't be real, this is a dream I have to be dreaming." Derrick said as he slowly sat on his bed, analysing the events that unfolded before him. "This is insane, none of this makes sense."

Sloth sighed. "It doesn't make sense that any of us exist in our dreams either" He said with annoyance evident in his voice.

Pride laughed loudly, "Yeah, because dreaming about being born from the ground is such a logical explanation." The laughter increased as Pride noticed the glare Lust threw in his direction. "Hey, I'm joking!"

"Yeah right" replied Pride. "Like your jokes can actually get any worse."

Gluttony, who had been watching everything unfold silently until now, suddenly jumped up from the floor. "Oh my God can you guys tell him why we're here already?! I'm getting tired from all this chit chat." Gluttony said as he raised his hands up in frustration. "Wait a minute, Why ARE you here?" Derrick asked as he stood up immediately. "Oh yeah  I'm getting there, relax." Greed said as he rubbed his palms together.  "Well..." Greed started and stopped to think.  "Alright, so basically when we were born we were given our powers, which is sort of like when a human has their first tooth. Along the line we messed up and got our dad the Devil pissed and so as punishment he kinda bound us to this house till he feels we deserve forgiveness. It's been a bit lonely since then, well till you came along that is-" "Get to the point already." Derrick said interrupting Greed. "I'm getting there, jeez! So anyways we see you're going through a hard time and we'd love to help... if that's okay with you." Greed said as he looked at his brothers. "And how do you intend to do that? Derrick asked obviously puzzled by what had been said to him. Greed and the others shared another glance before Greed answered: "By getting you back on your feet, duh." Greed said casually as he pointed to the others.  Lust glared daggers at Greed before replying: "I suppose that's fine with me." Lust said in a surprisingly calm tone. "And what's in it for you guys?" Derrick asked still doubtful about Greed's proposal. "Oh your soul." Lust said as a wide grin grew on his face. "What?!" Derrick screamed as he took a step back. "Relax man, Jeez! We don't need your soul, we'll make our demands known in due time." Greed said patting Gluttony on the back.  "But until then, I think we should try to get to know you. So till then... go to sleep." Greed said as he caused Derrick to fall unconscious.