Originally, she had wanted the creature to be kept within the solitary confinement building. It was isolated from the rest of the prison and had fairly heavy-duty doors and walls. Devon, in his infinite wisdom, had decided that he could handle the creature’s containment in the building adjacent to his own. He had said it was for the convenience of study, but Eva was mostly sure that he was just too lazy to walk to the opposite side of the compound anytime he wanted to inspect the thing.
Looking into the cell, Eva curled her lip into a slight frown. The enigma hadn’t escaped. Devon had made good on his promise to keep it contained at least. Of course, that wasn’t for lack of trying. The interior of the cell, worn down and time-damaged before its occupant entered the picture, had been clawed and scratched almost to the point of light coming through the sandstone walls. Even the floor and ceiling had deep gouges. Dust littered the floor from the marks above. The metal frame of the bed, once attached to the wall with hinges and a chain allowing it to fold up, had been torn from its fixture and had apparently been used as a battering ram against the metal bars on the front of the cell.
The bars were bent. One had come out of its socket, only standing thanks to the crossbars. The one out of its socket had bent inwards. Teeth marks marred the entire bent portion. In fact, looking at it closer, Eva was fairly sure that a good chunk was missing. If the bar were bent back to its proper position, it would be too short by almost a foot. She couldn’t see any bar lying around the room, but she supposed Devon might have taken it away.
However, standing in front of the cell, Eva could scarcely believe that the creature inside had caused all the damage. For as long as she had been pacing, the creature had done nothing but cower in the back of the cell. It used the twisted metal of the bed frame as cover, hiding behind it. Every few seconds, it popped its eyes over the top to peek at what was going on. If Eva was in the middle of pacing, it would watch for a second or two. The moment that Eva turned to look at it, it ducked back behind the frame and clawed at the ground. Its claws didn’t do much good. After all the destruction of the cell, Devon had done something. Now, the tips of its claws scraped over the floor without actually coming into contact with it. Some slight membrane protected the cell from its occupant.
“Interesting, Eva. Interesting” Devon scratched at his scraggly beard as he peered into the cell, staring with his beady eyes. Normally, Devon kept his goatee trimmed short. It was always a little unkempt. However, today’s beard looked like he hadn’t trimmed it in a full week. Maybe more. Coincidentally, that fit roughly in the same time window as Eva introducing Catherine to the ritual circle. He had yet to say a word about it to Eva, but she couldn’t help but wonder if he was worried about it. “This is the first time I’ve seen it calm down,” he said.
However, she turned her attention to his words rather than her musings and watched the enigma frantically claw at the ground for a moment as it attempted to find some escape. Or to create an exit. “This is calm?”
“Well, it isn’t trying to tear apart the cell. Much. But the other few times I’ve observed it, it bounced off the walls like a rubber ball between trying to claw me through the bars. And,” he paused to rub a finger down one of the heavily bent bars, “gnaw on the door. Something I’ve noticed is its fur. When it first came here, it was dark and fluffy looking.”
Devon didn’t need to continue. Though it was hiding behind the metal bed, the bed had been twisted and broken. It didn’t cover the entirety of the creature. Like a child playing peekaboo. The fur covering the enigma’s arms and legs had turned from the fluff Eva had first seen to a bristly metallic coloration. She wouldn’t be able to tell without actually touching it, but she highly doubted that they would be quite as soft. Its fur wasn’t all that had changed. Both tails, which had been just as furry as its arms and legs, had slimmed out. Scales covered both. Stone scales, by the looks of things. Perhaps sandstone. The tan color nearly matched the walls.
“You were right as far as I can tell,” Devon said. “It ate some demons and essentially became them.”
“My question, what happened to the demons it ate? Are they dead-dead or just the usual mostly dead?”
“Wouldn’t know. If we could summon demons at will, I would consider sacrificing an imp or another hellhound. Just to see what happens. I
