My Demon (11 page)

Clive couldn’t help but smirk. “Can’t drink here. If I could, I’d want one. And I can’t tell you the last one.”

“Why not?” She disappeared back into the kitchen again, and filled a cup with water. She drank half, poured the rest down the drain, and placed the glass upside-down on the drainer. “Can I do anything to change your mind?”

Clive walked in, and sat at the table. “I’d explode in front of your eyes.”

“Hmm.” Alex rolled the idea over in her mind. “I suppose that’d be a worthwhile risk.”

“I’d be all over your clothes before a single word left my mouth.” He drummed his fingers on the tablecloth.

“Ick!” Alex shuddered, thinking about how long an exploded demon might take to clean up. Would the leftover gore and inevitable stains remain invisible to everyone else? She shook her head and joined him at the table, finally noticing a note tucked halfway under the fruit bowl. “Hey, what’s that?” Alex opened the folded paper, scanned the contents and let out a gasp. “It may not be so easy to keep this under wraps,” she whispered and handed it to Clive.

Dear Alexandra,

Hello my darling. I’m sorry to be writing to you like this, but things have been strained between us and I thought this note might start us talking again. It’s either that or let you avoid me for days, and I have things to say that really can’t wait. Mr. Duggan from No 17 came by and spoke with me. According to him, you’ve been behaving oddly. I also had some other friends stop by and tell me you’re talking to an imaginary friend. Aren’t you a bit old, dear?

Anyway, I spoke with Becky to see if she could enlighten me, and she informed me of some worrying information. Apparently you do have an imaginary friend. I’m no expert, so I telephoned the surgery, and they want you to come in tomorrow. This is important, Alexandra dear.

I’m sorry about our argument yesterday, and I want you to know just how much I love you. I do realize you have been my crutch for a long time, and you should know I went to bed tonight having not drunk a drop of alcohol. Although I’m keeping this new job of mine. It has good hours, pays well, and doesn’t hurt anyone. Besides, I find my customers can sometimes be quite amusing!

I’ll see you in the morning dear.

Love Mum xxx

 
“She’s keeping the job then,” Clive remarked, and slapped the note down on the table.

“She didn’t drink last night.” Alex stared guiltily at her mother’s curly script. “I thought the worst of her, and she didn’t do anything wrong.” She leaned on the tabletop and held her head limply in her hands. “My life keeps getting worse and worse. I just need something to go wrong with Jeremy and me, and I’ll have a straight flush.” She sighed. “That would probably be the last straw. You can call the men in white jackets, and tell them to sling me into a padded room. Of course, they won’t hear you, ‘cos you’re not real.” Alex collapsed on the table, and let out a noise somewhere between a laugh and a cry.

Clive sat beside her, waiting until she quieted to great hiccupping breaths.

“I can’t tell you about God, but I can tell you some things. I am from another dimension, or at least that’s the best explanation I’ve heard. We kind of live amongst you, yet we’re not like you.”

Alex sat up, sniffing and red eyed, and asked, “How’re you different?”

“We can’t die, for a start.” Clive chuckled, but there wasn’t any cheer in his expression. “Not always the blessing you might think. Also, life gets bloody boring hanging out with the same demons day in and day out. That’s why I come here. I get to meet new people, do different things. You know, break up the tedium.”

“So what about that apocalyptic shit going down?”

Clive scratched at his chin as he pondered how to answer. “Where we are—and I mean my kind—time is a strange thing. It’s… fluid. No, it’s more than that, time acts alive, and if you’re lucky, and paying attention, when one of us is looking in the right places, we can glimpse more.”

“More?” Alex sounded doubtful. She closed her eyes for a moment and tried to clear her mind. Remember he’s not real, she thought.

“Like little flashes of what’s to come. The future is a range of possibilities, and sometimes we can help the outcome towards one version rather than that of another.”

He leaned back in his chair and watched as Alex’s brain attempted to digest this strange bounty of information.

“All I can say is I have seen two possibilities for your future. One is world destroying. The other is like a rebirth. You hold a key for change. Help me alter things for the better. Work with me.”

He got up and went behind her. The demon swept her blond hair from her neck, and squeezed the knotted muscles between her shoulder blades until she groaned. His hot hands gave double the pleasure, and she succumbed to a few sexy thoughts. He was so real—so convincing. What if he was speaking the truth? She couldn’t risk ignoring him. As he rubbed, her doubts disappeared. How could he not be real?

“So what do I need to do?” Alex spoke in a gasp. Electric currents seemed to pulse from his fingers, and it took everything she had not to turn around and grab him. Clive’s hand disappeared from her neck, and Alex twisted in her chair, thinking he’d puffed into nothingness again.

“For now, wait for my lead. I’ll be able to direct you, make things go the right way, make things better.” He leaned against the counter. “How does that sound, babydoll?”

Alex sat still for a moment, not responding. Then slowly, she pushed back her chair and stood up to face her demon. “Okay, I suppose. Do I have a choice?”

She approached him with small, unsure steps, and put her arms around him. He must not have expected that, as he stiffened. Then he relaxed, and Alex received a powerful bear hug in return. For a few seconds, they shared a friendly cuddle. Suddenly Clive tightened his grip, pressing the whole length of his body against hers. Fighting a dozen differing urges, modesty won, and Alex pushed him back.

“What is it with you?”

“It’s the heat,” Clive replied with a wink and puffed away in a cloud of smoke.

Alex waited for her mother to crawl out of bed. By eleven o’clock she’d drunk three cups of tea, developed a caffeine tremble in her hands, and couldn’t keep her feet still. The shows on the television bored her. She’d had enough of talk show hosts and their foul-mouthed guests. How can people sleep around so much? Alex had dated Jeremy for nearly two years. He was the only one she’d slept with, and they planned to marry one day. First, she wanted to go to college, and learn how to make stain glass windows. Upstairs in her bedroom, in one of her desk drawers, she had four sketchbooks full of designs. She needed to save just a little more for the courses.

Alex remembered the money stuffed under her mattress. Maybe tomorrow she’d put together a portfolio and call the head of the department at Reading University.

The clock on the VCR ticked over to eleven-thirty. Alex drummed her fingers on the arm of the sofa. Her thoughts drifted to Clive. She shook her head and got up to switch the telly off. Becky would be at home, knocking about with nothing to do. Alex pulled the charger cable out of her phone, checked for full bars, and dialed a number.

“Hi Alex,” Becky answered.

“Bec, where are you?” Alex asked.

“In my living room. And the telly’s boring my tits off,” Becky replied.

“You’re so bloody vulgar.”

“And you love me for it, don’t ya?” Becky said.

“Fancy coming with me into town?”

“Anything to stop the telly melting my brain. Who actually watches these shows, anyway?” Becky laughed. A background noise of chattering people got louder, then stopped suddenly. “How long before you’re ready?”

“I’ll leave the house in a sec.” Alex grabbed her bag, and nipped up the stairs. The sounds of her mother’s snores emanated from her room.

“I’ll meet you at your bus stop in ten. No way I’m playing lemon waiting for you again.” Becky said.

“Okay, okay.” Alex rolled her eyes. “See you there.” She hung up and dropped the phone into her bag. She lifted the edge of her mattress, and grabbed a thick wad of cash. A decent layer of notes covered the base. She should count how much money she had, plan where it needed to be spent, before she whittled it away to nothing.

Alex got to the bus stop first. Somehow she had to convince Bec that the demon tale was made up. Convince her she was sane. Because for now, she wasn’t sure of anything, and she’d certainly not let some doctor force feed her pills and take away her choice in the matter. She perched on the stone wall by the bus stop, and waited for Becky. Every flash of the color red she spotted sent icicles of fear and worry around her body. Would Clive materialize and ruin another day? He had to stay away. Becky rounded the corner, her black hair long and straight, blowing out in the breeze as if she were in a music video. She raised a hand in greeting, a cigarette clamped between two fingers.

“Hey, lovey,” Bec said, and sat next to Alex. “How’s you?” She leaned close. “Any more demon sightings?”

Alex let out the best laugh she could muster. “He’s gone, thank God. Must have been stress with my mum, mixed in with your boyfriend’s bad dope.”

Becky let out a long sigh. “Thank fuck for that. Didn’t want to be visiting the loony bin, even for you.” She nudged Alex with her elbow and grinned.

“Well everything is fine now…” Alex leaned over and whispered conspiratorially, “I have some cash. Can I treat you to something?”

Becky raised an eyebrow and removed the cigarette from between her lips. “How much you got?” She didn’t require much encouragement.

“About a hundred pounds each?”

Becky’s mouth dropped open, a cloud of smoke drifting into the wind. “How much?” She blinked, unbelieving. “Did you win the lottery or something?”

An idea triggered in Alex’s brain. Clive’s instant lies must be rubbing off on her. “I got a couple of those National Lottery scratch cards, and won £400.” Lie to the excess, she thought. Somehow it’s more believable.

“Cor!” Becky said. She sucked on the last of her Silk Cut, and flicked the butt into the road. “Me—I get accused of stealing a fuck-load of cash and don’t get to keep any. You pick up a card and get £400. Bet it was a pounder as well. Lucky shit.”

Not so much, Alex thought, and said, “Where’re we going to shop?”

“I don’t know. Let’s go where the window displays lead us.” Becky jumped up off the wall as a number thirty-two bus pulled up. “Just nowhere near The Closet. That shop’s on the banned list.”

The girls got on-board still gabbing.

“We can accessorize, make everything match. When was the last time you had this much to spend?” Alex dragged Bec up to the top floor of the double decker.

Becky laughed. “Certainly not for a while, and not likely any time soon. Look, no job!”

They chatted all the way into town. Alex pushed back at the darkness as depressing thoughts tried to creep in. Not today, Alex thought. Not today. No Clive. No madness. She touched the notes in her bag, guilt money given to her best friend to make up for getting her fired.

They shopped until dinnertime, and with bags weighing down their limbs, the thin plastic handles scoring their palms, they finally ducked into their favorite little café in Reading. They found an empty table, and Alex slid onto the padded bench that ran along the wall.

“Oh, wow. What an incredible day.” Becky collapsed opposite her friend in one of the two chairs. “Thank you.”

They ordered baked potatoes, salad, and drinks. A few minutes later, their waitress delivered a couple of pint glasses of Diet Coke.

Becky took a deep drink. She leaned back in her chair, and said, “I know, why don’t we go clubbing tonight? We could go to The Deep?”

“Any chance those mountains could be moved so we can sit down?” Melissa strutted up to the table, Alicia trailing two steps behind. Melissa eyeballed the numerous bags.