Slay Inc. Sophia's Story

Slay Inc. : Sophia’s story

Sophia, normal kid…

When Sophia got up on Monday morning, she thought well, today is a good day... mom is coming to pick me up from school after the art club, a few precious hours before going home to her dad and selfish stepmom’s house, not her favorite place: she wanted to live with her mom and stepdad full time. She wanted so much to just have some hours away from the darkness. In her small town there was not much entertainment. a lot of crime, but not much else to do. Mom’s town was far better.

Her and mom would probably go to the cemetery near the woods. That would be fun. Maybe the chains of depression would start to break, again. Usually with mom it did, and with stepdad Steven, who was always fun to be around. It was always fun to go to the cemetery during the day, not creepy at all. Scary thoughts had little power in bright summer sunshine. Reading the names and wondering how the person had died. What did they do for a living? Did they have a dog? Who were the other family members? What did they look like? Did they ever go to war? Did this person ever travel? A whole life that no one could possibly know just from standing there looking at a tombstone.

Sophia got the idea to break some water bamboo. silly thing, bamboo does not break... bends like crazy but won’t break like a pine or oak branch. stuff was so resilient. Only one kind grew in her climate and it was planted by someone. After about an hour of fun trying, Sophia finally got the idea it wasn’t going to happen and gave up. Usually she never lets anything get the better of her, especially a dumb tree branch. They head home, watching the northern lights dance with the stars. Nighttime in Alaska.

Sigh, she thought, another day. and of course the night was not going to be good... at all.

Because she had to work tonight and she was tired, and it is hard work when you are only 15..

Sophia, top tier slayer, slips into…

The supernatural. Sophia wondered if it was real at all. Certainly seemed real, the terror and fear would follow here into the waking hours many days. But sometimes dreams can be so scary and real. Her school friends, none of whom could Slip, would tell her about their dreams so she knew she was involved in something else. Dreams. Many made no sense at all. But these made sense. It was clearly a battle each time, and one that had to be won or a life could be lost, or someone would go insane. Or become murderous.

Sophia usually won these battles too, she would Slip into one at least once a week or so. Someone always needed rescuing, and she was always fearful of failing. Not too long ago, she wasn’t fast enough, she really needed some weapons, and a little boy ended up being stolen off to a far away galaxy where he was just a splinter of organic matter on a small planet. There was no way to bring him back into real time. At least she did not know how to, and no other Being had told her how. She had asked around. It haunted her.

She had a few demon friends, really just work acquaintances, beings that were not really happy with their jobs and were looking for an angle. The Being that took him was a demon that was ancient and experienced named Gaul. Stealing children was his specialty and Sophia had fought him before. She won the last time, keeping him from taking another little boy who was only 3 years old, who was destined to become a Light Giver, a different being in a different higher level of Slay. Sophia thought the name was hokey. But….

Light Givers were so important in the supernatural because once they helped a human, it was almost impossible to corrupt or kill them. Sophia often wished she could have been a Light Giver instead of a Fighter…. their jobs were so much easier than hers. Maybe it was those martial arts lessons that sealed her fate into becoming a fighter. It sort of gave her a channel for the anger she felt from her parents’ divorce anyway. But being a Light Giver... sorta like winning the supernatural Being lottery or being a celebrity. They all looked like elves from a Lord of the Rings movie. Had a superior stuck up attitude too, most of them But for them, everything was easier. Got a suicide? Just a quick tap on the shoulder or a little talking and boom, no more problem. The person was cured. Case of severe demon possession? Just a quick visit from a Light Giver and it was GONE. Light Givers got all the accolades. But no, Sophia had to fight pretty much every time. And fighting makes one tired, mentally and physically. When she found out she had this ability to go through portals, due to her Dissociative Identity Disorder, she knew she had to help fight evil. She could have refused, but the fighter in her and the part of her that could not stand injustice just would not be silent.

But, onto the job. Sophia meets up with a demon in a dark alley. Just where you would expect to meet one! She needed intel... did he know if there was a list of children? Or was it just random kids who wandered away from their parent’s safety? Faustis seemed pretty fearful, more fearful than usual. Short, fat and slow minded, Sophia thought they must be getting desperate in the demon recruiting ranks. But he was all she had at the moment, and sometimes he brought her some good intel. She just had to bring him a good reward. Last time she managed to get a slimy drug dealer; one less on the street. Apparently they tasted pretty good. Of course it crossed some moral lines, but hey, a fighter has to do what a fighter has to do to gain an advantage. It wasn’t always black and white and moral in the world of supernatural slay. Seems like in the demon ranks there might be a few spies in addition to the dissenters.

“So you don’t have much to tell me, but I expect you want payment”. She says to Faustis, a little sarcastically.

“Yeah there is a child abuser right down the street, how ‘bout him?”

Sophia replies, “sure thing, just give me a few minutes…” Children? No problem here. She will be generous and not make the piece of garbage suffer. She leaves and comes back with a man, with a sizable dent in his head, and hands him over to Faustis. “Ok, he has a bit of weight on him too, so it’s a juicy meal.” She throws down the despicable human for the demon to claim.

She got some info out of him and left him. So much for the side hustle. Tonight, it is a suicide off a bridge, and she has to get that demon off some guys back. Like literally.

She slips again and is transported to a bridge where a man, who is a husband and dad, is about to end his life on the river rocks below. She attacks the demon as it whispers in his ear, and with some minimal fighting, she can send it on its way. She stops for a minute, moving into the normal, and comforts the man. In the background, a man in a black hat backs away, not happy with the results. She just catches a glimpse of him, and he is gone.

She is happy that she made a difference, and checks in on the man later as he hugs his kids while they sleep. But seeing the black hat man is disturbing. She has heard of them, and makes a note to ask Nico or Brody about him. After another short walk, she slips back home, to bed, at 2am.