Parenting The Devourer, Heir Of Evil

20260418

Prompt from DailyPrompt.com

Graham's and Louie's story started here.

Agent “Holly” knew she must remain vigilant. Must be prepared to enact wards and perhaps even a killing blast at any moment. But it was disquietingly disarming, watching The Devourer, Heir of Evil, He Who Is Fated To Destroy All, crawl around after his new toy train with a dopey grin while making “choo choo!” noises.
Just like an actual child.
It’d been remarkably peaceful so far, in fact. The Devourer had woken late (fittingly, he was largely nocturnal) and eaten his breakfast (sausages, hash browns, baked beans, and scrambled eggs - he only accepted a very limited range of foods. Interestingly, contrary to documentation, he did not insist on being purely carnivorous, though he did show no interest in sweet foods).
Then he was presented with his reward for not injuring his father yesterday. Graham claimed this sort of positive reinforcement helped. Which suggested The Devourer could be bribed. Useful information, if true.
So far, Holly was recording a tentative “maybe”. The real test was upcoming; it was time to stop for lunch. Graham had walked back in with a tray (though the Agents had offered to take care of all chores, he insisted on preparing his son’s food. He claimed it was because he knew how “Louie” wanted things. Holly suspected he was worried about drugging attempts).
“Lunch break for a hard-working train driver!” Graham said in a pathologically cheerful manner, putting The Devourer’s lunch down next to one of the stations. “And while you’re eating, I’ll refuel your train with a new battery. We don’t want either of you running out of steam, eh?”
The Devourer pouted - and growled. Clearly unhappy at the thought of stopping play, even just for a few minutes, and even with food sitting right in front of him.
“Well,” Graham said, very gently, “you don’t have to eat right now. But you don’t have fun when you’re hangry, do you? And it’d be a shame for your fun to get spoiled.”
‘Hangry’. Holly’s gaze flicked across Graham’s arms, his rolled-up sleeves revealing flesh criss-crossed with scars. Mostly bite marks. In varying sizes, a twisted growth record of the demon he insisted on thinking of as his son.
The Devourer’s aura pulsed and writhed, his teeth gnashing, childish inability to deal with conflicting wants boosted into rage by the demon’s innate capacity for violence. Holly could feel herself trembling. Though she’d faced many minor demons during her training, the force of this unearthly presence was…
Any doubts which had been creeping in were dispelled in an instant. This power, while certainly not at the level prophesied, was already terrifying. If the demon learned how to control it… or managed to tap into it instinctively… Well. The house, every brick of which had been thoroughly warded, might survive. But the mortals within would not.
It took everything she had not to throw a tranquillising spell. But Graham insisted that keeping The Devourer sedated wasn’t an option. “It’ll teach Louie to hate you.”
Admittedly, the thought of such a potent force of destruction acting with hate was a whole new level of terrifying, but-
The Devourer’s arm flew up, hurling his toy at his father’s face - and Graham snatched it out of the air with remarkable dexterity for someone missing his pointer finger and part of his pinky.
“Sure!” Graham said, still in that manically cheerful tone. “Let’s change the battery and eat right now.”
The Devourer gargled an inarticulate protest, reaching vainly for the now-distant toy. Or… was he trying to enact telekinesis??
Graham nabbed the tray with his free hand and plonked it just out of arm’s reach in front of “his son”. “Why don’t you refuel while I recharge the train, eh? All that driving’s got to be hard work.”
With the smell of porcine flesh wafting into his nose, The Devourer’s animalistic instincts took over and he started shovelling bacon into his mouth in messy, grasping handfuls. As he did so, his aura settled once more, until he could almost be mistaken for an actual child.
Holly softly exhaled. Still shaken.
Had the demon’s soul deliberately sought out someone with no magical sensitivity? Hard though it was to believe, they’d established that Graham was completely unable to detect how The Devourer warped magical fields. Perhaps that was part of what let him stay sane this long.
…Admittedly, it felt strange to call a man ‘sane’ when he insisted on treating a demon like a human child. Alright, so far it seemed to be working, but…
Graham was fiddling with the train by the side table, watching The Devourer out of the corner of his eye. Clearly waiting to time ‘being finished’ changing the battery with The Devourer having eaten all the food.
Sure enough, just as The Devourer shovelled down the last handful of crisps, Graham swooped in with a damp napkin to wipe the demon clean. Holly tensed as The Devourer’s aura roiled again, but that fury dissipated as his toy was placed in his freshly wiped hands.
“Ready when you are, Mr Driver!” How did the man muster so much energy?? Or at least project a facsimile of it. “Where are we going now?”
“Hmm…” The Devourer sat back and stared at the complex web of tracks filling the room. His blithe grin back, making him look disturbingly childlike.
Then he pointed at one of the stations and crowed “Let’s go beach!”
“That sounds nice.” Graham sat down and picked up his own waiting lunch. “Would you like me to put the ocean on the TV?”
“Yeah!” The Devourer beamed.
Was… was there truly enough of the hijacked soul remaining for the demon to feel joy? It was a troubling thought. Holly had been taught that The Devourer, well, devoured the helpless infant soul and completely supplanted it. That they might have been killing babies, even to hold back a demon…
She added another line to her notes, while The Devourer played with his toy train.

Prompt was “Write a story where, in one moment, an innocent child becomes a monstrous villain.”