Clipped Horns and Brushed Wings Part 1

Clipped Horns and Brushed Wings
By T.

A fanfic of the internet Comic Wrong Number
Characters by DreaminInsomniac



Celia woke up early, groggy from last nights escapades. When had mosh-pits gotten so unruly and wild? The other question in her mind of course was, what ungodly hour had she awoken at? Grabbing her phone she looked at it and blew a sigh of frustration. It was 3:33 in the morning? She shouldn’t even be able to think at this time of day, and yet here she was. She was still aching from all the work she had done, shopping, helping out, partying and killing demons!

Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that? She kills demons as her day job. Focus please though, it’s important to do that.

Celie held her head looking out the window. It was dark and raining outside, just as it had been when she got in last night. She looked around the room, good thing she had one at least. A few weeks ago she had been close to being moved out into the streets. That was an amazing stroke of luck!
You see originally she wasn’t meant to be a demon killer of any kind. It had been a fluke, a mistake; a blunder from above that had made her fall into this lifestyle. Yet in an odd way it all fit seamlessly into a life of blunders. The only difference was that this blunder had left her happy and well instead of sad like previous mistakes had. There was no time to dwell on that crap though, why wasn’t she back to sleep?
Maybe it was thirst. Standing up she stumbled through the dark, grumbling angrily as she continued. If this was her old place she would have tripped on some piece of crap. Thankfully this whole place was immaculate compared to her to her place, no thanks to her of course. Her being a neatnik was as likely as her eating scorpions. IMPOSSIBLE. The reason that any of this was clean instead of a pigsty was because of Lily.
Lily was her roommate, and…well it was too soon to say anything else but she was very close to Celia. Lily was awesome though, she could fight, cook, clean, be stylish, and so many other things. When it came to those things you’d be lucky she didn’t burn a salad. She had a hard enough time being stylish.
Picking up a cup she filled it and drained it with one loud gulp, indeed thirsty. Filling it up again she stumbled to her futon mumbling. “Of all the stupidity I deal with mrrmmrr…”She was good at mumbling and grumbling that was true. Of all the team members she excelled at that art. She giggled imagining using her mumbling and grumbling in order to send demons running in fear and disappointment. She could see it now, Celia the Serial Grumbler is on the block, best run out of the way or she’ll grumble you into oblivion! Laying back down she jumped a little as something jumped on her lap. “WAH ooooh…silly cat” One of lily’s three pet cat’s had leaped onto the futon with her, and was now sitting comfortably on her stomach. Petting the fuzzball she smiled and closed her eyes attempting to sleep.

But sleep was not forthcoming, it didn’t make a visit, didn’t even poke it’s head into the apartment to let her go back to dreaming peacefully. Tossing and turning she stood frustrated. “Hell with it” Tossing the blanket off of her feet she stumbled to the kitchen grumbling more. Of all the people that could be awake why was she one of them? She started boiling water, looking through ramen packets, pondering which one to eat for her breakfast. Ramen, the breakfast of champions and college students was here again. She finally settled on pork when she stopped and looked around. Something was off. In the dark she could barely tell but something was…amiss. Then she heard it for a second. Well it was a strong word, she heard something. Tap tap tap. “Hello?” Turning off the burner she looked back into the entry room/her room.
It could be Matt, always coming at the oddest of times and showing up in the nick of time to help out. Matt was that annoying stalker-esque guy that cared sometimes too much. Going to the door, she looked out into the hall, but no one was there, not a single person at all. The tap-tap continued on though. Probably one of the cats playing with one of their toys, noisy little buggers sometimes. Going back to the kitchen she heard the noise get louder. It sounded like it was coming from the bathroom, probably a leak or the water dripping. Going to it, she felt an odd sensation, like that of her head itching on the inside. It was a chilling feeling, creepy and yet familiar.

Tap tap tap.

Why was this odd feeling increasing in her head as she walked to the bathroom though? She walked crookedly, itching her head trying to get the itching to stop. That annoying tapping was continuing to, getting more incessant and annoying with each passing second.

Tap tap tap.

When had this hallway gotten so damn long? She had been walking forward itching her head for what felt like a half hour now and it was getting old. Reaching out she finally felt her hand grasp the brazen doorknob. As soon as her hand touched the knob though, the tapping stopped, and the sound of glass being smashed came from the other side of the bathroom. The sound of glass shards hitting linoleum sounded like tinkling bells from the other side.
What had just been broken? She began turning the doorknob without realizing it, screaming at herself in her mind. WHY AM I OPENING THIS DOOR? THIS IS WHAT THOSE IDIOTS IN HORROR FILMS DO RIGHT BEFORE A DEMON COMES AND RIPS THEIR FACE OFF AND EATS IT! ONLY IDIOTS GO STRAIGHT TOWARDS THE MYSTERIOUS NOISE IN HOUSES! She however now felt like a moth going right to the light of a bug zapper, entranced by this thing that would probably destroy her. The door creaked open, and she flicked on the light hurriedly, her heart hammering in her chest. It was a normal bathroom though, nothing broken, the window to the outside was shut tight and was in one piece.

Turning to the mirror and sink she looked at herself in the mirror. She was the same nondescript punk girl she knew and was. Piercings a plenty in her ear, half of her hair shaved down, and those same eyes as always. Lily saw more in her though, and that was something. Lily...she had told her once in lot's of words that she was more, but couldn't for the life of her think of it now. Her head was itching even more, maybe lily could help out.
Leaving the bathroom she knocked on Lily's bedroom door gently. "Lily?" The door opened the inside lit up brightly, cold air moved out, even snow came out of the room, flurrying and moving at her feet. Shivering she stepped into the room confused. "Lily?"Lily stood in the center of this now empty white room, dressed in a large white duster with white jeans. The white clothing looked good on her but something was odd about it. Reaching out she tapped lily's shoulder, cautiously. "Lily...help me" The angel turned on a dime, spinning around, a callous sneer upon her face. Celia had never seen such a look of anger and dissapointment on her face.

"I don't need those with worm-eaten brains, we need good minds Artyom"

And with that the world spun and she found herself back in the bathroom, cold and looking again into the mirror. She was staring into it, watching in horror as a large black smoky being poured out of her head and skin. It had several long arms, and with these it restrained her, holding her arms down on the tiles by the highest ones, her head held in place by three other ones, forcing her to stare into the mirror. Bending over her head making itself into an upside down U over her head it whispered into her other ear, with a deep voice. "I'm going to do the best I can"It paused thoughtfully looking into the mirror at her eyes. they were twitching with fear as a large abhorrent grin split the oily black surface of its face, showing big thick tombstone teeth. It's mouth never moved as it spoke in an amused way. "What are you going to do?"
She felt it's grasp on her hand weaken and she took advantage of it immediately. Slapping her head where the being was pouring from her head. By doing this her hand sunk right through the being and revealed to her something horrifying. Half of her skull was missing, she felt her hand hit not skin but her own brains. She could feel something crawl and move between her fingers. looking away from the mirror now she looked down at her own blood-soaked fingers. A long red insect moved between her fingers. She had...worm-eaten brains. Looking back at the mirror she could see her exposed brains through the black creature and promptly screamed.


She sat bolt upright in the bed screaming covered in a cold sweat. "I have worms in my head!"Lily grumbled and woke up, rubbing her eyes looking at Celia. "I have...oh"She said in the middle of screaming it again. It had been a dream, all just a terrible dream. Lily looked at her oddly now.
"Say what now?" Celia looked around, in her room again. "Celia, you were dreaming, calm down ok?" Lily smiled, the usual gentle loving look on her face. That same lily that she trusted and cared for.
"Oh"Laying back down she touched her head now. No demon, no worms, just soft hair and fuzz. All was right again."It was a pretty crazy nightmare"she said weakly. Lily however stretched tiredly, not caring too much about nightmares or dreams. Dreams after all meant nothing in her life.
Hugging Celia she smiled. "Doesn't matter, it's 6 in the morning and i don't want to get up" Celia nodded and yawned too, the details of the nightmare slowly were fading away. "what was it about anyways?"Lily asked through half-lidded eyes, already drifting back to sleep. Too many details were drifting now, like sand through fingers.

...All accept for a challenge, and a smile that haunted her right now."What are you going to do?" A voice as amused with the question as with her had said that.

"I...Can't remember"She said simply, and fell back asleep in Lily's arms.