• Keri sat in the chair by the window, ignoring the howling wind and the heavy patter of raindrops against the glass. Although the chill in the apartment was ever-present, she stubbornly refused to acknowledge it by shivering or huddling in any way. If she did, then the cold would have won, and Keri could not stand losing to anything.

    Her deep-set, midnight-black eyes calmly scanned the gloomy street below. It was night-time, and to the casual observer, not a soul was out there in the wind and the rain and the dark. But Keri was not a casual observer.

    After many minutes of waiting, she finally spotted what perhaps might have been what she was looking for. A slim man dressed in a business suit, and, most importantly, a bowler hat. Keri watched him intently as he walked down the street, clinging to himself.

    Partway through, he paused, as if he could sense her staring, and looked up. There was no mistaking it, he was looking at her just as intently as she was staring at him. It was difficult to see his face in the darkness, but he had tangled white hair under that hat.

    After what seemed an eternity of staring-off at each other, the man began to rise into the air. Keri held her breath expectantly as he flew towards her, a malicious grin on his face becoming more and more pronounced as he floated towards her, moving faster and faster as he did so.

    Keri leaped backwards just as he crashed into the window, sending broken glass and bits of wood flying through the room. Keri winced as some shards hit her but calmly stood her ground as she picked up a bucket of holy water waiting on the ground.

    The man, now standing on the floor in front of the window, gazed at Keri and her bucket. Quickly, his maniacal expression turned into a horrified look of utter shock.

    Keri stared at his face one more time. He had light brown eyes and a little round mole under the lower left corner of his lips. He looked perfectly human, and Keri hesitated.

    She shouldn’t have. The man, sensing an opportunity, sprang towards her and pinned her up against the wall. Keri felt even colder, and yet duller somehow. She glanced down and noticed her fingers were turning blue, but somehow this didn’t seem to matter. It occurred to her, rather casually, that she was supposed to kill this man. With every ounce of willpower left in her, she half-heartedly slopped some of the holy water onto his leg.

    He immediately shrieked in a painfully shrill way and dropped Keri to the ground. Her mind rapidly shot back into her, and she hurled the rest of the water that remained in the bucket onto his face.

    There was a sizzling sound and a burnt smell, and he fell to his knees, and then forwards.

    Keri gently prodded him with the bucket, and when he didn’t respond she dropped the bucket, reached out, removed his hat, and turned him onto his back.

    His eyes had a misty film covering them, and his mouth was wide open. On his forehead were two small pointed horns. Not that Keri had needed any confirmation by this point that this man had been a demon, but still…

    Keri absently fiddled with the bowler hat in her hands and thought about what to do next. The walls of the apartment were relatively soundproof, but most likely somebody had heard the noise. While she could deny hearing the screaming, she had no idea how she was going to explain the window. And while she could clean up the bucket spills, getting rid of the dead body was going to be a bit tricky…

    ‘Ah well…’ Keri thought, replacing the bowler hat on the dead demon’s face. At least she’d managed to kill the demon.