This is Episode 2-1 of a serial urban fantasy & paranormal story. You are at the start of an Episode, but in the middle of the story.

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Part 2-1: Sanity

When I moved away from the big city three months ago, my aspirations were lofty but realistic. I wanted to try and open a restaurant. I did not anticipate being dragged into an invisible war with a demon and its minions. It’s frustrating, and I can’t even complain on social media about it, because it’s difficult enough doing this without being carted away to a psychiatric ward.

Even if I thought a Twitter rant could help the cause, it’d be a challenge capturing any evidence, as this particular demon seems to hate technology. One of the first things we discovered was how wifi signals mess it up. When Eden—that’s what it calls itself—shows up, it disrupts routers and other computer devices in the area before doing nasty things like blowing up buses.

My friends and I wounded Eden. It thought we were helping it, so we went along with the idea and turned off the wifi. Eden started doing its evil stuff then we switched the routers back on. This caught it off guard and hurt it. We doubt the trick will work twice. We know we didn’t kill it, because about a week after the little trick, it murdered Persimmon’s brother, Willy.

Also, its home is still intact. Eden lives in a creepy, Gothic grandfather clock.

Yup, it lives in a clock. Or is bound to it, or something like that. Look, I don’t presume to understand how demons pick their dwellings. Maybe the rent was reasonable. For the safety and sanity of the town (and our own sorry hides), our little group decided to try to learn more. After we learned that Willy died, we returned to the clock, intent on getting answers.

The big, longcase timekeeper sits in a fake room on the fifth floor of an abandoned office building. On the front of its dark body, there’s a door. In the normal, un-demented varieties, you’d find the pendulum behind it. Persi opened it before. She followed Willy to the clock, not knowing that Eden was possessing his body. ‘Willy’ asked her to open it, and she did. It was a trap: she was caught in the building, unable to leave—until we’d defeated Eden.

I opened it too, on that very same evening that Deluxe and I learned Willy had died.

 

Continued in Part 2-2

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Thank you for reading. I own the license for all images in this post. Episode 2 cover art was made with a Canvo Pro license as well as a Midjourney AI art generator prompt. Follow me or the #huntingmidnight tag so you don't miss new parts! I can also @ tag folks to alert you, just ask in the comments to join the readlist.