Demon Watch

Harfa was a town faced with unimaginable horrors, the likes of which left lasting effects.

Many years ago, Harfa was a peaceful town, endowed with rich soil, vegetation and favourable weather. They lived in harmony and peace. Harfa was an isolated town by location, but they were self-sustaining enough to live on their own.

One day, everything changed for Harfa. Weird looking creatures appeared from nowhere and attacked the town. These monsters ravaged the town with an indescribable hunger. They were aberrations that weren't meant to exist. They looked like dead creatures with decayed flesh and sharp teeth. They had a characteristic eerie growl that seemed to announce their presence.

On that day, they attacked any Harfan they saw. They didn't have any coordination whatsoever, just a burning hunger for destruction and death. The Harfans call them Demons. Many Harfans lost their lives, but the Harfans were able to fight back. They killed as many of these demons as they could, and were able to push them back out of the town. Those who remained began rebuilding. They built a giant wall around the town to prevent recurring attacks.

Source

A group was formed by the town's leadership to man the walls and be on the lookout for any demon. This group was called the demonwatch. Occasionally, young were recruited to demonwatch and they were well trained to fight against a demon. Being a member of the demonwatch was a lifelong duty. Once you were in, you were devoted to watching out for demons for the rest of your life.

It has been 50 years since a demon was last sighted. Most of the young ones, including a good number of the demonwatch members have never seen a demon. They’ve only heard stories and descriptions of those creatures. One thing was certain, the demons struck fear in the hearts of people. Harfa had enjoyed peace and tranquility for those 50 years. One night, Hartley, the young demonwatcher on duty for the night spotted something moving just outside the walls. Although he couldn’t get a clear view of what it was, he observed it closely from the top of the wall where he stood. It seemed to move like a demon. After watching closely, he broke a sweat on realizing that it could actually be a demon. There was great fear in his eyes because he knew that once a demon was spotted, the others weren’t far away.

Immediately, he rang the bell that could be heard across the town. That was the bell that signaled that a demon had been sighted. Many had never heard that bell ring in their lifetime. They had only been told what it meant. As the bell rang, panic ensued in the whole of Harfa. The dreaded day had arrived. People were worried, trying to know if an invasion was imminent.

Belzar, the leader of the demonwatch, immediately ran to the Town’s gate to know the scale of the threat.

“You were the one who rang the bell?” Belzar asked Hartley.
“Yes I did. I think I saw a demon. It roamed just outside and collapsed.” Hartley replied.

Belzar took some demonwatchers with him as the gate was opened and they went outside the wall. They slowed their pace as they got closer to the creature lying on the floor. It was dark and windy. They couldn’t clearly see what it was but they approached with caution, each man with a sword in his hand.
As they got to where it was, they saw that it was just a dead animal lying there.

“It was a false alarm” Belzar said, looking delighted.

Belzar shot a green smoke in the sky indicating to those back in town that it was a false alarm. The news that it was a false alarm spread quickly across the town and everyone relaxed.

“Let’s get back to the city. It’s not safe out here” Belzar said.

As they made their way back to the gate, suddenly, they began to feel the ground tremble. They looked behind and they saw thousands of demons running towards them. The demonwatchers got scared out of their minds.

"Demons!" Belzar screamed, alerting his team and those by the gate and walls

They picked up pace and began running towards the gate for safety. The collective growls of these monsters was resounding and frightening to everyone who heard it.

The men were able to cross the gate but unfortunately, a good number of demons were able to cross the gate also, before it was shut. The men fought the demons that crossed like their lives depended on it. Their lives indeed depended on it. The battle was intense. They didn’t want any demon to make its way to the heart of town, where people lived.

As they struggled to contain the demons, more demons started climbing the giant wall. The demonwatchers tried to shoot them down but they were too much. One by one, the demons were able to get over the wall, into the town.

The demonwatchers were engaged in fighting off the ferocious demons, but they were getting more overwhelmed. Every Demonwatcher was engaged in battle at the gate and front wall of the town.

Suddenly, Belzar realized that this was a coordinated attack. The demons never climbed the walls before. They didn't have the intelligence to do so. Now, they can climb walls and it looks as if the demons are luring every demonwatcher towards the gate.
Belzar realized that the heart of the town was left unprotected and the demons may have climbed over the other walls.

"The town is unprotected!" Belzar screamed.
Belzar instructed his second in command to take some men and head into town just in case there had been a breach. At this point, a lot of men had lost their lives, and a lot of demons killed, but the demons kept coming, wave after wave.

Back in town, a boy was playing with his ball that night and it rolled to a dark spot. As he went to pick it up, he heard the growl of a demon just in front of him, he managed to scream before it pounced on him. Like Belzar feared, the demons had made it into the heart of the city by climbing from the other walls while the demonwatchers were occupied in front.
They began ravaging everyone and everything in their path. Screaming and wailing could be heard miles away. Fortunately, some of the demonwatchers arrived just in time to fight the demons.

The demons were like grains of sand. Too many to quantify. It seemed as if they spent the last 50 years multiplying and getting smarter. A battle and destruction went on simultaneously, Belzar noticed one demon in particular that looked different. It stood at a place and seemed to be their leader, coordinating their attacks. Belzar took a bow and shot an arrow at it from behind. The demon died, and all of sudden the others seemed to lose their coordination and focus. This was the chance for the people to fight back.

Eventually the town was able to wipe out the demons because they were now vulnerable. A lot of destruction had been done and there was a lot of deaths, but the town was ready to mourn their losses, rebuild again, and move forward.