“What is this?" Nort asked as he walked into the kitchen holding up the item in question so that Alex could see it. Who had been sitting at the dinner table his face bathed in the ghoulish blue Light of the laptop in front of him when his friend had walked in. But when he looked up and saw what Nort was holding he jumped back so hard that he fell right out of his chair with a rather loud thump.Startled by his friend's reaction Nort took a few steps towards him and asked "Are you Ok?". Which was a rather stupid question to be honest, because Alex was standing up, clearly unhurt, while he was asking that. Once Alex was back on his feet he pointed at the thing Nort was holding and said clearly agitated:"First of all, where did you even find that?" Confused Nort answered:" In the attic." Which only further agitated Alex as he nearly shouted:"We had one of those?" Confused Nort simply answered "It seems so yes, but what exactly is it?"

  "Satan's apprentice" Alex answered with a seriousness that made it clear to Nort that his friend was not joking. But that didn't make what he had said any easier to believe, so Nort pointed at the thing he was still holding up and asked "This is Satan's apprentice?" somewhat expecting his friend to start laughing before saying something along the Lines of "Nah just messing with ya." But that's not what happened, instead Alex simply looked him straight in the eyes and said "yes" in the same serious tone as before. Confused, Nort took another look at the strange big eared, armless and legless furball in his hand to check if he had missed something. However he couldn't find anything that would explain why his friend called it Satan's Apprentice. So he looked at his Friend and asked "Are you sure it looks like a plushie or toy to me?"

  "That's what it wants you to think!" Alex said, sounding just like a conspiracy theorist from one of those old movies they had watched together. Which of course only made what he had said sound even more ridiculous than it already was, to the point that Nort couldn't help but ask himself if his friend hadn't gone a bit crazy. Unfortunately his Friend was way too good at reading him to not notice this, causing him to let out a long sigh of disappointment before he said "Fine I guess you have to see it to believe it. Come take a seat and then I will show you the true nature of what you found." like he was a horror movie narrator. As weird as his Friends behavior was Nort decided to just play along,because this seemed to be the only way to get some answers. So he sat down at the head of the dinner table, while Alex got some old batteries from the fabricator, which took a while probably because it had to create such old tech. But once it was done Alex grabbed the batteries, put them into the toy and then placed it at the other end of the table. He then looked Nort straight into the eyes and asked " ready?" like they were about to do something that even he would call dangerous. Nort simply nodded, still unable to understand why his friend was acting like this. "You sure? Like really really really sure?" Alex asked, maybe hoping his friend would change his mind. But at this point Nort just wanted to get this over with so he said "Yes I'm sure, just get on with it." Alex simply sighed and shook his Head in response, before finally activating the Thing. However despite being switched on the thing remained utterly motionless, causing Nort to blurt out "Is it broken?" only for the thing to start rocking its body back and forth as soon as he had said that, almost as if it had heard him, before it then began to sing with its eyes still closed. He wouldn't call it good singing thanks to the poor quality of the old speakers the thing probably used, not helped by the rather audible whirring sounds the inner mechanism, that allowed it to move, made. But despite that it was still kinda cute, in the same way the singing of a small child sometimes was, but still cute. Making Nort wonder even more why his human friend had reacted to this, in his eyes, harmless thing so extremely. He knew however that just wondering about it wouldn't get him any answers, so he turned to Alex and asked: "Alex why did you call this thing Satan's apprentice?". But the only answer he got was a simple "See for yourself" followed by a nod towards the thing. Slightly confused Nort returned his attention to the thing, only to find that it had stopped singing, without him noticing, and had opened its eyes to stare directly into his. Normally something like that wouldn't scare Nort, after all it was an old toy so it was rather possible that it was simply broken or had some sort of malfunction. However it became clear rather quickly that the thing was still working, because when Nort moved his head the things eyes followed his so that as long as he remained in the things field of view or he didnt turn around its dull lifeless eyes were always staring directly into his soul and that just creeped him out. But as soon as he felt that way, as if it had felt it, the thing began to laugh. At first it was a high pitched giggle, perfectly fitting its appearance, but quickly became ever lower pitched, until it had transformed into, what Nort could only describe as, a demonic cackle, before it then said in the same demonic pitch "Let the dark harvest begin." Utterly shocked Nort couldn't do anything but simply stare at the thing as it continued to laugh at him. He remained like this for a good minute or two and would have probably stayed like this for a good few minutes more if Alex had not chosen this moment to say " Well I guess I better get rid of this little bugger, before he breaks anything." He then turned around and walked towards the door that led to the pantry. Confused and a little scared Nort asked "Where are you going?" without looking at him Alex said "Just getting something to deal with this. You just stay here and keep an eye on that little fucker." before he stepped into the pantry and closed the door behind him. Even more confused than before Nort simply stared at the Door for a second or two, but then just shook his head at his human friends annoying tendency to not explain things to him for one reason or another. However he knew that in times like these it was best to simply let the human do his thing and save the questions or complaints for when the situation was resolved. So he did as he was told and returned his attention to the thing. Only to nearly jump out of his skin, because the thing had moved from the other end of the table to the middle of the table. Utterly dumbfounded Nort rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things. But when he removed his hands and opened his eyes again he saw that the thing had moved towards him again crushing any doubt that he had just imagined it or that Alex had moved it without him noticing and causing him to let out a rather high pitched scream, before yelling "IT FUCKING MOVED." without really thinking to the clear enjoyment of the thing as it burst out laughing at his paniced reaction. "I KNOW THATS WHY I TOLD YOU TO KEEP AN EYE ON IT. IT CAN ONLY MOVE WHEN NOBODY IS LOOKING AT IT. SO JUST KEEP LOOKING AT IT AND IT CAN'T DO ANYTHING." Alex shouted from the other side of the pantry door sounding rather calm, despite how loud he had yelled to be heard. And it was that calmness that convinced Nort that the best thing he could do in this situation was to stare at this thing as if his life depended on it. Simply because Alex wouldn't be so calm if this situation was in any way dangerous or something he couldn't handle, meaning it was only a matter of time until he emerged from the pantry and dealt with this thing. Problem was the thing seemed to know this as well, because as soon as Alex had said that it had stopped laughing and was now just staring at him. Which was fine with Nort, if the thing wanted a staring contest it could have it. However that was a contest that Nort, a being of flesh and flood that had to blink, couldn't win and when he inevitably lost, the thing of course moved again. Not much mind you but enough that it was approaching the final quarter of the table. Placing it just outside of arms reach for Nort at which point he knew that he had to buy some time for Alex. So he tried to push himself away from the table to get some distance between him and the thing, while of course keeping an eye on it. Only to find that his chair wouldn't budge no matter how hard he tried and thanks to the things hearty laughter it wasn't hard to figure out who was behind it. How it was doing that he didnt have the slightest fucking clue. However that wasn't exactly anything new, after all he still had no clue how it was moving with just feet, that he was quite sure were just there for decoration, or what it wanted from him. But he knew with a cold dreadful certainty that it wasn't anything good. Something the thing was quite eager to prove, because as soon as the Feeling emerged it said "Your soul shall be mine." in its most demonic voice yet causing a vast pit the form in Norts gut when he realised that it was telling him the truth. His dread must have shown on his face, because the thing once more burst out laughing as soon as the feeling surfaced. But that laugh quickly died in its throat when the sound of a door opening and closing could be heard, announcing Alex's return. Never in his life would Nort have thought that he would be this happy to hear that sound and the reaction of the thing just made it even better. Because as soon as the door closed the thing began to repeatedly shout "Fuck" ever louder the closer Alex got to it and when he was just a arm′s length away it yelled "No I was so close!" before Alex poured a clear liquid over it. When that liquid touched the thing, it immediately went up in flames causing it to let out a scream of pure pain so loud that it startled Nort so much that he jumped out of his chair to get away. Meanwhile Alex just stood his ground, held out a wooden cross and repeatedly yelled "The power of Christ compels you!", which actually seemed to make the flames recoil in fear, but also made them grow ever taller. And when they were around a meter tall they somehow formed into the rough shape of a thin human with two small horns on its head and then it leapt at Alex. Who completely unfazed just splashed some more of the clear liquid at the flames causing them to recoil back with a howl of pain. Then he thrust his arm forward so that the cross was right in front of the "face" of the flame thing while repeating "The power of Christ compels you!" like it was a mantra, causing the flame thing to recoil once more but not without trying to slab the cross out of Alex hands only get splashed by more of the liquid. This clearly angered the flame thing leading it to point a crooked finger at him and scream "Your mother sucks cocks in hell!!!" at him. But Alex only smiled and sayed "Good tell her I said hi." before he then pulled out another bottle full of a clear Liquid and poured all of it over the flame thing's head. The flame thing then let out a howl of pain so guttural that Nort questioned if something alive could produce such a sound and the flames shrank until they were seemingly literally inside the thing, that had started all of this, but still spilling out of its mouth, eyes and ears. "Get back!" Alex said as he dragged Nort a good two meters away from the thing, before it exploded with an audible KABOOM and of course with the accompanying hollywood style fireball leaving nothing but ash behind. "Ah shit probably shouldn't have done that while it was still on the table. Oh well can probably still fix it." Alex said absentmindedly causing Nort to just stare at him for a good few seconds before shouting "WHAT WAS THAT?". Clearly confused Alex asked "What was what?" which just dumbfounded Nort until he remembered that Alex was a human and that they were kinda new to the galaxy so they had a habit of just accepting things without questioning them. So he just took a deep breath, before saying "Alex please just explain to me what that thing was, because I have no clue what just happened." which seemed to confuse Alex causing him to ask "You never had to deal with a demon before?". In Response Nort kinda just stared at him open-mouthed for a few seconds before he managed to ask "That was a demon?". Shrugging Alex said "At Least that's what they call themselves and with how much they go on about how they're gonna steal your soul the name kinda just stuck. But as far as I know they never managed to pull it off, though they tried really hard. I mean there are thousands of videos online of them trying and failing utterly to take somebody's soul even when folks offered their souls to them. So most people started to treat them like pests, mostly because of the damage they cause but besides that they are harmless." Following that explanation Nort was about to let out a sigh of relief until he remembered that humans didn't have access to the galactic net so instead he asked: "Alex did any of those videos feature any....well aliens?" Confused Alex answered "No we are not part of the Galactic Union remember and even if we were we are so far out in uncharted nowhere for most that barely any aliens find their way here." It was at that point that Nort got a really bad feeling about this. So he asked, while telling himself that it couldn't possibly be that bad, "Ok so theoretically and I know that you probably don't know but just humour me, what would happen if somebody got their soul stolen by one of these demons?" Slightly confused Alex simply once more shrugged before he said: "Depends on if they are like the demons from our mythology or not. If they are then the person who got their soul stolen would essentially become the demon's slave, because the demon contractually owns them now and because of that they can't really go against them, though that hasn't stopped People from trying to get out of the contract or sabotaging their master's plans. But the demon could also possess them, because in some stories a body without a soul is just a empty husk waiting for something like a ghost or demon to slip inside. Why do you ask?." To any other person the casualness with which Alex delivered this Explanation would have seemed odd to say the least. But to Nort it was rather normal, after all he had lived long enough among humans to know that they had a tendency to just well get used to shit like this. The best example of this were the humans that WILLINGLY lived on death worlds, that not even the most desperate species would colonise, where even in the cities they had to shake out their shoes to make sure no spider had crawled into them. So he didn't ask why Alex was so chill about a unknown creature LITERALLY possessing a toy, making it walk around in an attempt to steal Nort soul and then when it failed exploding in a rather big fireball leaving only ash behind. Instead he asked "Ok just three more questions. Firstly where did you discover them?" while trying his best not to panic as a rather big pit began to form in his stomach. His feelings must have shown on his face though because Alex became rather concerned after that question but answered nonetheless. "The first sightings were on the planets that were close to the territory of Galactic Union members.That's why we thought that this was just normal. After all, if there really were soul stealing demons running around somebody would have told us right?." Nort didn't really know what to say to that so he just said "Alright lastly do you have something that can detect these demons and can I borrow it?" Visibly confused Alex answered "Uh yes and sure. But why are you asking that and are you alright buddy you looking kinda pale there." Putting on his best fake smile Nort simply said "Oh yeah I'm fine and I just wanted to check out a hunch of mine that's all." One that he really hoped he was wrong about.

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