Demonspawn (5 page)

On the third day Alicia stuck her head into
my bedroom. She was dressed and ready for school, dressed to
impress like she always was.

“Hey bro,” she said. “You awake?”

“Yeah.”

“Cindy’s picking me up and taking me to
school. Then she’s coming over.”

I didn’t respond. I just waved a hand. She
sighed with sadness. I heard her go down the stairs, then the front
door open and close. I was alone.

Over the last few days I spent a lot of time
in my room alone. I half-expected Susan to just pop up. She’d
explain what was going on with me, talk about the afterlife, how I
was able to help her, blah blah. But that didn’t happen. I was left
alone with my questions that I still couldn’t wrap my head
around.

How long was Susan in that house?

Did she know how much time had passed since
she’d died?

Could she actually see Tammy and her parents
all the time? Walk right through them, like in the movies?

The demon. Was it like a person? Did it have
arms and legs and a body, or just a voice that controlled
Richard?

What did I do to Richard? I only touched him,
but it seemed to do the trick.

Was that really Richard in there, being
controlled? Or did the demon make itself look like Richard?

How could I hear and see them so clearly?

Am I psychic?

What the hell is going on with me?

I was so depressed after Alicia left. So many
questions with no answers, and as I laid there more questions kept
coming up. I knew I’d never have the answers to all of them. Maybe
not even
any
of them.

I heard the door open and close downstairs,
followed by some footsteps coming up the stairs. I saw a shadow
fall against the wall. I knew who it was, but turned in bed to
greet her anyway.

Cindy leaned in the doorway with her arms
crossed. When our eyes met she smiled and shook her head at the
sight of me. I imagine I looked pretty bad. No one ever looks good
in the morning, and when they’re depressed, it shows even more.

“Girls are just lining up outside to jump in
bed with you,” she said.

I tried to manage a smile, but couldn’t quite
pull it off. Cindy saw my mood and got serious.

“I’ll be downstairs. If you need anything
just holler.”

I nodded.

After she left I sat up in bed. For the first
time in a few days my thoughts drifted to something besides my
situation. I wondered about Cindy. This would be the second day she
took off school to stay with me. How did her boyfriend Daryl feel
about that? Hopefully he wasn’t making a big deal out of it. Cindy
and I were just friends. But I remember a girlfriend I had in ninth
grade. Donna was her name. She got crazy-jealous over Cindy. She
said we spent too much time together.

I pulled myself out of bed and stretched. A
few minutes later I was in the shower, my first in quite a while.
The questions were still in the back of my mind, but the truth in
its simplest form started to settle in as I lost myself in the hot
water.

Ghosts are real.

Demons are real.

Somehow, I can interact with both.

In the end, this didn’t change anything. I
still had to go to school. I still needed to get dressed and work
out later in the day. I still had to get ready for Homecoming. I
still had to make dinner for Alicia and me.

After my shower I threw on a simple pair of
shorts and a tee-shirt. I smelled breakfast cooking as I walked
down the stairs. Cindy must have been watching a movie as a DVD
still played in the living room. I could see her in the kitchen
hovering over the stove.

“Hope you’re making enough for two.”

She turned around to give me a smile. “I
heard you upstairs. You haven’t been eating a lot. I’m not that
good a cook, but you’ll get over it.”

I laughed. I couldn’t remember the last time
I laughed.

“I don’t even cook for Daryl, so keep this a
secret.”

I pointed at her. “Speaking of Daryl.
Homecoming next Friday, right?”

“You’re still going?”

“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I?”

“Well, you know. We thought you might not
go.”

“Nah. You guys wouldn’t have any fun without
me.”

“You’re probably right.” She paused for a
moment. There was a bit of uncomfortable silence. “Listen, I’ll
never bring it up. But if you want to talk about what happened, you
know I’m here for you, right?”

I smiled. My best friend since kindergarten.
We knew things about each other that we didn’t even share with our
boyfriends and girlfriends, when we had them. We teased each other
a lot. Our friendship was full of humor and practical jokes. But we
knew when to be serious, and we took care of each other.

“Thanks, Cindy. I appreciate it.”

“Now shut up and help me finish
breakfast.”

*****

Things quickly got back to normal. It’s funny
how life does that. After a full day of school and hanging out with
my sister and Cindy, my mind went from dwelling on haunted houses
to getting ready for Homecoming. I did get a quick update from
Tammy that her house was now “normal”, but besides that, I didn’t
think about it too much.

I did think about Homecoming. Much more than
I really wanted to. I blame that on Cindy and Alicia. They kept
putting it in my head on how I needed to look my best. Since I was
going alone, they made it their personal goal to make sure I left
Homecoming with someone. The funny part is the more they kept
putting the focus of Homecoming on me, the more I stopped caring. I
was only going to spend time with my two best friends. And I hate
to admit it, but their argument of “This will be the only time we
get to do this” worked. Cindy and I were seniors, this was it for
us. Alicia would spend the next three high school years without us.
I didn’t want to be the one to keep our little group apart on our
only Homecoming night.

The big day came up quick. Three hours before
the dance, Alicia was in her room doing whatever it is ladies do to
get ready for something important. Me, I was downstairs working out
in a pair of shorts. That shows how much I was stressing over the
dance compared to Alicia. I couldn’t help but laugh as every now
and then I’d hear a scream followed by “My fucking hair!” from
upstairs.

It didn’t take me long to get ready at all.
After I was dressed and happy enough with what I saw in the mirror
I went downstairs. It took Alicia another twenty minutes to get
ready.

“Are you excited?” she asked.

“Eh, it should be fun.”

“Oh, come on, Alex. You aren’t pumped up at
all at seeing every hot girl in school dress up to impress
guys?”

“Aren’t they dressing up to impress their
dates?”

She smiled fiendishly. “Well, yeah. But let’s
put it this way. I’m going with Tom from my algebra class. But he’s
not my boyfriend.”

I just rolled my eyes.

There was a honk outside. Alicia took a deep
breath.

“How do I look?”

She looked great, as usual. My sister and I
were nothing alike physically. I always thought she had the looks
in the family. I gave her a thumbs-up.

“Remember to grab the camera. Mom said she
wants enough pictures to fill a book.”

I grabbed the digital camera from the dining
room table and followed Alicia outside. Cindy stood there in front
of a white limousine. I still felt renting a limousine was
overboard, but there was no arguing with them.

I tried to keep my mouth from opening as I
approached Cindy. I spend so much time with her that I forget how
hot she is sometimes. She wore a white dress that stopped at the
knees. Her hair was done up nice. She had the top of a red rose in
her hair. She looked amazing.

She gave Alicia a quick hug and they fawned
over each other for a minute. I just laughed. Finally, Cindy looked
me up and down. I had on a pair of dress pants and a white collared
shirt, nothing too fancy.

“Wow. You’re not ugly.”

“Ha ha. You’re hilarious.”

“Where’s Daryl?” Alicia asked.

“He’s in here, enjoying the limo.”

Cindy said it as straight as could be, but
that was the first clue that something was wrong. I missed it
completely. He should have been with his girlfriend.

I waved the camera around. “Let’s go pick up
Alicia’s guy. Then we got pictures to take.”

“He’s not my
guy
,” she snapped. “He’s
just my
date
.”

We piled into the limo. Daryl looked sharp.
He was busy talking on a cell phone. He nodded a simple greeting to
all of us, then went back to his conversation.

Alicia’s date Tom didn’t live too far away.
Daryl didn’t say a word to any of us during the drive over. He was
more interested in calling his boys.

Tom seemed like a nice enough guy. He gave
Alicia an awkward hug when she greeted him in front of his house. I
caught him checking her out a few times, but he didn’t act like a
sleaze.

We got Tom’s mother to take pictures of all
of us in front of the limo. I felt a little out of place since I
was the only one without a date. But things got even more
awkward.

After about ten pictures Cindy had a
request.

“Miss Madison, would you mind taking a few
pictures of Alex, Leese, and me?”

If Alicia felt like I did, she did a great
job of hiding it. I stole a quick glance at Daryl. He already
focused his attention back to his cell phone. If I were him, I’d be
a little upset. Cindy didn’t ask for any pictures taken with her
boyfriend, but with her best friend and his sister.

Miss Madison, Tom’s mother, smiled and
nodded. “Sure, hon.”

We posed for a few pictures. Cindy put her
arm around my shoulders once. Just a playful gesture, but still
made me nervous enough to glance at Daryl. He didn't seem to care,
or hid it well.

One of the fears I had about Homecoming was
how our group would do. Cindy, Alicia, and I got along great. But
what would it be like when two other guys, especially boyfriends
and dates, were brought into the picture? Even when we were all
seeing people at the same time, we didn't double-date or anything
like that. Would Cindy and Alicia ignore me? Would Tom and Daryl
not like the best friend and older brother being there?

It wasn't too bad. I did feel a little like
an extra wheel, but everyone talked to me, even Daryl. He seemed
distracted, but alright for the most part. I didn't notice until
later that he and Cindy were barely talking to each other.

The limousine was nice. Plenty of room for us
to stretch out. I kept an eye on Tom, simply because he was funny,
although he didn't mean to be. I could see he wanted to scoot
closer to Alicia, but didn't quite know how to do it.

The dance itself started out pretty well for
me. I was actually surprised to see other people rented limos as
well. Weird. We went into the school gym together. Whoever was
responsible for putting the dance together did a great job. The gym
looked great. Nice lighting, plenty to drink, a band playing near
the back. Kids and teachers danced, badly, I might add, on the
floor.

“Wow!” Alicia said when we stepped inside.
She elbowed me. “And you wanted to skip out on this?”

“That's cause he's stupid,” Cindy said.

“You guys thirsty?” Tom asked. He walked over
to the punch table.

I actually had fun. I mingled and talked to
some people I knew in my classes. Every now and then Alicia and Tom
would go out and dance. Daryl and Cindy didn't dance, which I
thought was weird because I'd seen them dance before. Hell, Cindy
loved to dance. I would try to work out in the basement only to
have her screw with my radio and start dancing. Very distracting,
for obvious reasons.

Throughout the night we ended up splitting up
a few times. We'd see people we knew and would break away to talk.
After talking to a girl named Lisa who pulled me aside to say
hello, I ended up alone on the side of the dance floor. I looked
around, trying to find the group. I spotted Tom and Alicia on the
floor sharing a slow dance. I smiled, it was their first of the
night. I wondered if Tom finally got up the nerve to ask her to
dance or if she did. Alicia did seem to like him.

I couldn't see Cindy and Daryl anywhere. So I
sat down on one of the chairs lined up along the wall. It actually
felt good. My legs were killing me. I was starting to want to get
to the next phase of the night. Cindy and Alicia mentioned
something earlier about getting dinner after the dance.

I was having fun, but I don't dance. I also
didn't have a date, so slow dancing was out of the question. I
leaned back and watched the couples. I loved watching some of the
pairings out there that I never would have dreamed of. Lou, a
brainy guy from my psychics class, apparently came with Crystal,
one of the senior cheerleaders. I'd love to know how he pulled that
off. Such an odd pair, but she was actually laughing and dancing
close to him. It made me smile and gave hope that a semi-quiet
weightlifting baseball fan might find his match.

I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned to see
Cindy standing there with her hands on her hips.

“What are you doing?” she asked. “The dance
is out there. Come on, Alex, there's gotta be one girl here who
drank too much spiked punch and is looking for a guy to dance
with.”

I laughed. “My legs are hurting. Give me a
break.”

She sat next to me. “You work out twenty-five
hours a day and can't handle a school dance?”

“Man, you're on a roll tonight.”

She smiled. “Thank you. I try. Seriously
though, you having fun?”

“Yeah. What's not to like?”

She pointed at Alicia. “Looks like someone
else is having fun too.”

“Yeah. She spent all week talking about this
thing, but never really talked about Tom. But it looks like she
might like him.”