I woke to a clatter in the kitchen that sounded suspiciously like all my precious new glasses smashing all at once. I really just wanted to shrug the whole thing off and get back to sleep, and I probably would have done, had it been only one or two glasses. But that sound? That had nothing to do with my simply storing them badly.

So I dragged myself out of bed and crept towards the kitchen, tiptoeing until I accidentally stepped on the squeaky floorboard. As I drew closer, I could hear a low, continuous grumble coming right for the kitchen, and a very loud rustling.

I peered in, and there she was. A tiny red imp, rummaging through the kitchen cabinets and stuffing her face with all my crisps.
“Oi!” I shouted. “Get out of there!”. The imp turned suddenly, and leapt onto the table towards me.

“Hahahahaha!” she screamed, bits of crisp flying everywhere. “Now you shall meet your doom! I, Raksi the destroyer, shall eat you out of house and home, and then I shall help myself to your eyeballs as a lovely dessert!”

“There’s no meat in the fridge,” I pointed out calmly. “Surely the eyeballs would make a much better main course.”

The imp looked confused. In a way, I was too. I mean, it was obvious what had happened. One of my very own creations had simply come to life in my kitchen. But what I couldn’t work out was why, of all the fascinating, wondrous characters I’d created over the years, did it have to be this one, the most troublesome, and almost certainly one of the least mentally stimulating too.

She screamed again and leapt right towards me, her claws ready for the attach. I ducked, and she slammed straight into the wall.

“Look, settle down,” I said irritably as she pulled herself to her feet.

“Never! I am Raksi the intolerable, and I cannot be defeated!”

“Listen, Raksi, I created you on a whim. Even your name wasn’t particularly thought through. You were only meant to be the annoying little demon that gets everyone into trouble. Your powers were negligible to begin with!”

“I, Raksi the crazed, am not afraid of you and your puny words! I shall torture you before your death, by eating all your fingers!”

“You already did that,” I sighed, pointing towards the torn, empty box of chocolate fingers on the floor.

“Ah, well then I, Raksi the insatiable, shall munch on your hands.”

“Don’t you remember what happened, Raksi? Right after you betrayed all your friends, you were slain by humans. I’m a human too.”

“That is why I, Raksi the angry, am here for revenge!”

“Quiet down! This is an apartment building!”

“Nevernevernever!” she screamed, dancing round in circles and making her voice ever louder. I leapt for her, trying to catch her feet or something, but she dodged my grasp easily. But I didn’t give up, and the chase became a mad rumble through the kitchen. I kept trying, but she could not be caught. Those humans in the story had been trained soldiers, after all.

I was ready to keep this up all night until she started throwing my plates at me, screaming even louder with each throw. One or two of them hit me square in the chest, the rest shattering on the walls. Things were looking grim.

I threw a bag of crisps at her and dashed away towards the living room, locking the door behind me incase she got bored with the kitchen. There was only one thing for it now. I sat down at the computer, and began to write.

- What astonished Raksi the most was the way her voice suddenly broke down, just moments after she made her way into the human world -

I heard a desperate coughing sound from the kitchen, which gradually dissipated into complete silence. My plan was working!
But the silence was quickly shattered, along with every piece of cutlery in the apartment. Damn, I should have paralysed her first! But I was still in front of the computer, and so I continued writing.

- In the very midst commotion that ensued, the mischievous imp began to lose her grip on everything, and her strength began to fade –

Sure enough, the commotion died down. Now to finish things off. I grinned, and wrote on.

- The imp lay helpless on the floor. I dashed into the kitchen, and with a wicked grin, began to recite the ancient words, the words that would send this demon into the Great Void for all eternity. I shouted, feeling the ancient force within me. I aimed the force towards the demon. Suddenly, a huge wave of light gushed from my very being, towards the imp. The imp, caught in its rays, tried to scream, but failed miserable. She began to spin, as though being sucked through a plughole. And suddenly, with nothing but a small ‘pop’, she was gone. –

I heard the pop from the living room. There was no more sound to be heard. Raksi, my very own mischief demon, really was gone.
Then, as it dawned on me exactly what I’d just done, I rushed back into the kitchen.

“Hi Chris,” I said to myself, standing across the room from me.

I smiled back.