Chapter 7 – The plan

It crumbled onto the bed. Silk had been picked on throughout the lesson for being late. While everyone else was using dummies for practice the teacher had demonstrated on Silk and then expected him to practice after the onslaught.

"We need to get out." Silk said.

"I concur, however how can we do that with you being compelled to do what you're being told."

"If we aren't caught they can't command me to do shit."

"You just made this dialogue adult content by swearing," James said with a hint of anger in his voice. "Ask the guard how the whole thing works."

"That won't work, why would she help?"

"Ask nicely and the guard just might answer."

"You're insane." Silk got up and headed to the cell door. It raised its fist and began to beat at the door. "Guard, can we talk." It shouted over and over. Silk stopped after a minute as he heard footsteps, "this cell kind sir."

The slide on the door slid swiftly to the side striking the side with a loud thump. "What do you want?" the guard asked with a raised voice. It was the woman who had knocked him out and done the tests.

"Don't be too serious, this will help prevent the woman from quite knowing what you want." James advised.

"This must be fate, or maybe love." It faked a swoon, "so can I ask your name?"

"No," she went to close the door. Silk's face turned serious.

"Too far mate," James commented.

"I have a question, that person in your head is quite annoying. I think it's forcing me to obey the teachers."

The woman stopped, "It's not forcing you to obey the teachers, that's because of deep routed genetic code which the scientists kept as a failsafe so demons don't rebel against humans. Doctors will come in tomorrow to examine you, they might be able to get that thing in your head. If you are corrupted in any way you will be incinerated." She smiled indicating that the last part she had only told to frighten Silk.

"So a change in your mind and soul wouldn't stop the thing in my head." Silk realised he had been too obvious as the women tensed, "meditation seemed like such a good idea." She untensed.

"Any change in the mind would change the body, we are the next step for humanity," she said eyes gleaming, she had shown her true colours. "A sharp enough change in the mind could change the body to an extent it changes the repressive D.N.A." She looked at Silk coldly, "You don't need to know that though." She closed the slip hard and they heard the footsteps getting fainter as she walked away.

"We got what we wanted." James said, "Now how are we going to change our mind."

"I have an idea but I have to ask, am I bad."

"To start with you were but I like to think I have changed your opinion of humanity and with it you."

"A bit, I still think humans should have the abilities we have."

"Dangerous thoughts but I presume you don't have the means to convert people."

"I do, every demon does, it just takes longer depending on the power level, it would take me half an hour to convert someone."

"You aren't bad, not truly."

My idea is to fuse our minds, it should be a sharp enough jab and with that freedom we should escape easily."

James froze, it was obvious now he thought about it. James got up, he had to stall for time, "great idea but neither of us would be the same." James imagined a safe.

"It would be worth it for freedom." James opened the safe and focused at his hands.

"Freedom is good and all," James said with his voice straining. A tear appeared in his eye, a piece of paper with an image on it. He placed it into the safe.

"Were you straining your voice."

"Just thinking of my family." James closed the safe and changed the code. "How would you fuse our minds."

"Easily." Without permission Silk clicked his fingers and James looked down. The room was disappearing.

"You could do this all along." James watched as the room faded. He looked down at his hands, he could see the floor through them. Silk stood embracing the change with arms opened. James touched the safe and hoped, the safe started reclaiming its colour, his started receding at a more alarming rate. "Last words, huh." Four words appeared in his head, "Death by death sleep."

Silk stretched out his arm and ending with a flourish with his hands. He, it was a he now. He felt a wave of something come over him.

"Sadness, this is sadness, huh." Silk wiped away the tear. He felt significantly weaker, he tried to create an illusion but it failed. His ability was gone. He felt a sense of loss, the new emotions he felt were overwhelming. He jumped up and down, his jumping ability had been significantly diminished. "Now all I have to do is hide my transformation."

He crashed onto the bed only now feeling relief with the idea of sleeping. It only took a few seconds for him to drift off.

"Wake up sleepy head." An old grumpy guard shouted

Silk struggled out of his bed. "I'm more human." He didn't know if this was good or bad, he was on the ropes. He staggered up to his feet and the guard opened the door.

"You have your first match this morning."

"Nice to know sir. Fighting is my favourite thing to do and I'm not at all dreading the idea of hurting someone." His voice dripped with sarcasm.

"Sarcasm, you're an unusual one. I like that." He led him out.

"You seem to be a good man yourself, why do you do this as a job."

"You can't judge the quality of a man by first impressions." The man stopped at the door. "Through the door you will find an armoury, you can use whatever you like." He turned to leave.

"Thanks," Silk beamed.

The old man clicked his tongue, "you're the first demon I have ever felt any sort sympathy for. For what its worth I wish you the best of luck." He whistled as he strolled down the corridor.

Silk opened the door to reveal an impressive assortment of weapons. Blades of varying sorts from the sword to the trident lined the wall. He was not pleased by this, for some reason he didn't feel like he had the right to take a life. He closed the door, the door was hiding another weapon behind it, a staff.

"Perfect," he picked up the staff and took some experimental swings. Knowledge of the staff appeared in his mind and he instinctively knew how to use it. Taking a lunge forward he hit the wall, not expecting so much resistance the staff sprung back hitting him in the face.

"I still need a lot of practice." Knowledge was useless without practical experience. He stepped into an adjacent room which showed the arena. The floor was sandy, he stepped onto it to hear the roaring of the crowd.

"Here comes our new contender, now going by the name of Silk can he take on the champ." A voice commentated through a microphone. He was not happy about this. "Here comes the champion of all, the absolute of power, Nico." The crowd roared at the mention of Nico.

A creature floated into the arena, it only vaguely resembled human. It looked like a fly mixed with crab and a bit of fur. He hadn't controlled the transformation well, he had overdone it.

"These two demons will fight in three, two, one. Fight!" The commentator. Silk brandished the staff and expertly swung at the opponent who had closed the gap between them at a very alarming rate. The staff was blocked by the claw breaking it in two. The second pincers went around the neck and pushed him against the wall. The momentum made Silk shudder in pain, he could taste blood, most his ribs would have been broken by this.

"That wasn't very satisfying." The commentator announced. Nico released its grip, Silk fell to the floor. "Nico is the winner." The crowd cheered and Nico turned to bow to its adoring fans. Silk limped to the nearest low viewing point. He struggled to climb and pull himself over into the crowd. He rolled over landing on his side with significant pain.

"Stop," a random man shouted at Silk. He ignored the man.

"Do what that man said," a woman commanded. At least he now knew that the fusion had worked. He pulled himself up and dragged himself up the stairs.

"We have a stray demon," the commentator announced. "We need security."

Silk checked his arms, they were going dark, he tapped his skin to find it was hard as well. He was finding it harder to move in this skin. He lunged forwards into the public corridors, he scratched at the skin and it pealed of revealing a normal colour underneath. He took off his clothes and peeled the skin to reveal his normal colour. His body seemed to be stronger but only by a minute difference. He put ack on his prison clothes embarrassed by being naked.

"My wounds are healed, pretty good." Silk started running for the exit, guards were waiting to intercept halfway down the corridor. Silk confidently leapt finding a nook in the wall to propel himself over the guards.

"Stop you demon." They shouted. Silk found no impulse forcing him to do as they say. He was at the exit which had no special security, most likely because it was unexpected for a demon to not obey a human. Silk still couldn't work out what the demons at his school had done to overcome this.

Silk strode out and into the city. The sky of Edinburgh was crying like always. The sky seemed to always cry in Scotland.

"I'm weaker than demons but more powerful than the average human. I need to find out what my ability is." He surmised he should check back at his house to see if his mum and Emma were there. He needed new clothes as well so his house seemed to be the obvious place to head.