FORTY-ONE
The official inquiry into the horrendous events of that night confirmed that all told, the death toll from the last ever episode of demon time was thirty seven, with a further seventy three injured.
It was easy for a world not yet ready to accept the supernatural to believe the official statement (heavily edited on the quiet by a Vatican priest by the name of Father Mendez) that the whole horrific nightmare had been sparked off not by demonic influence, but by hallucinogens put into the free water handed out before the show by the production under the instructions of the show’s producer Michael Davis to help maintain the show’s illusion. A stunt that had gone horrendously wrong, resulting in such death, mayhem and murder.
The fact that Davis himself had now disappeared added fuel to this as did the reported missing hundreds of thousands of Euros that had disappeared from the production company’s bank account at the same time. (These funds had actually been frozen and seized by Interpol, but that was on a need to know basis, which it was concluded, again on consultation with the Vatican. The public did not need to know.
And thus, those who had survived that nightmare and may have ‘allegedly’ taken part in the slaughter could not themselves be held accountable for their actions. And so, despite the great loss of life no charges would be brought against any of the protagonists, who it was decided were as much victims of the whole sorry debacle as the dead or maimed.
No, the only person held directly responsible for the horrific events of that night was Michael Davis. Davis’s name was added to the Interpol most wanted list, but so far it was as if he had completely disappeared off the face of the earth. As if the ground had just opened up and swallowed him if you would.
The demon time website was shut down soon after, but as with most things on the internet, ripped copies of the previous shows, and some tantalizing saved footage from the last, were available for those web surfers interested, or ghoulish enough to seek them out.
It wasn’t long before the show and its contentious ‘star’ became the stuff of internet myth. As the years went on, you would even find caricatures of the creature popping up in memes and e-cards particularly around Halloween time.
The strange thing was though, after that last doomed show, those around the world who had once been positively obsessed with the so-called real demon but had never had the chance to see the show live, suddenly found themselves completely disinterested in the whole affair afterwards.
And if you were to ask them now what had fuelled their almost rabid devotion to a clearly fictional creation. They would not have been able to tell you. ‘Guess it was just a faze,’ many might say with an embarrassed reddening of the cheeks, just like an adolescent teenage pop sensation crush.
Although deep down they knew it was much, much more than that. It had been an addiction of sorts, and one they had now gladly kicked.