The Demon's Game (7 page)

“That’s good for you.”

The highlight of the morning was making chocolate
cookies in FACS, which Hail loved. I was barely able to set one aside for Drake
before Hail ate them all. Then my brother complained all during lunch that my
food was way better than cafeteria food.

Mrs. Sharp was polite, though she seemed very
distracted during class that day. She gave Drake a pat on the back, but didn’t
say anything to him. Luckily, he was doing better. It wasn’t until archery that
things went bad.

Once again, the seventh and eighth grade students
were gathered together, but this time they were surrounding someone. I pointed
them out to Hail. When we saw one student hold up a little red, wool hat, we
both ran to them, stopping just outside the circle. The group consisted of boys
who were laughing, but we could hear Drake crying. Hail inhaled quickly and
with a voice and volume similar to Mordon’s when the dragon was angry, he
barked, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

The boys spooked and separated to face the threat
until they saw us. One of them laughed. “Get the fuck out of here, kid, unless
you want your face smashed in.”

Hail ignored the stranger, checked Drake over with
his eyes, and held out his hand. Drake was kneeling in the mud, his face red
with tears. When he didn’t move, I started to help him. The lead boy moved
towards me. He may have just been trying to block my way, but Hail never took
chances when it came to my safety. Before the tall boy could take two steps
towards me, Hail had him on the ground and was pounding into him.

“Hail! No!” I yelled at my brother, but it was too
late.

The guy was screaming, probably with broken ribs.
Other boys tried unsuccessfully to get Hail off him, for my brother was far
stronger than any human. I finally got close enough to put my arms around him
and he instantly froze. He wouldn’t risk hurting me with his quick and powerful
movements. I put my head on his shoulder and sent calming thoughts to him. I
didn’t know many calming thoughts, though, so I just thought about the hot
springs at home.

It would help me to calm him down if the boy
underneath him would stop screaming.

Then there were teachers pulling us apart. One of
them was calling an ambulance for the screaming kid while Hail was being taken
to the office. I pulled Drake up and took him, still crying, to the office. I
didn’t wait for the secretary to send me in; I just went straight to the
principal. When I opened the door to find the big man glaring at Hail, I
scoffed. Glaring at my brother would just add fuel to his fire.

The principal studied Drake with concern. “Drake,
what happened, buddy?”

“The eighth graders took my hat and called me baldy.”

For the first time I realized that he didn’t have any
hair. His hat was cute and when he was on the ground, there were more important
matters than his hair… or lack of.
Did he shave his head because he was
sick?
Dad told me about cultures that did funny things with their hair, but
Drake seemed really upset about it.

“The same eighth graders that Samhail got in a fight
with?”

Drake nodded, a fresh load of tears dripping down his
cheeks. “He was protecting me and Ron.”

“Fighting is still wrong,” the principal said.

“But self-defense isn’t.”

We all turned to see Dad standing there in the
doorway, wearing his light blue pajamas. Dad explained to me that the doctors
wore light blue scrubs and the nurses wore dark blue ones. I knew Dad hated
leaving work with his work pajamas on, so he must have been very worried.

“Dr. Yatunus?”

“That’s me. Want to explain why my nine-year-old
needed protection from your eighth graders?”

“You came quickly.”

“You said my son was in a fight and an ambulance was
called. I figured it was for the other kid, but I thought I should head over
anyway. Now, I know very well Hell will protect his brother to the ends of the
Earth and I also know he has every right to. If you want to teach your students
not to stand up against bullying, that’s your business, but my boys know better
and they’ll do what they feel is right.”

“You call him ‘Hell’?”

“It’s a loving nickname for my hellion. Don’t get me
wrong, this is only the second time he got in trouble for fighting at school.”

Dad started calling my brother “Hell” when my brother
inadvertently scared Dad about wanting to leave. Hail may roll his eyes on
occasion, but I knew he secretly loved it. When his powers first developed, he
didn’t know the difference between a vision, a nightmare, or reality. One
bright spot of his babyhood was that he saw Dylan and Mordon in his visions.
Thus, when he finally met them, he already trusted them explicitly. To my
brother, Dad was always his one and only father.

“I thought this was his first time in public school.”

“No, actually, he spent a few days in a small
villiage school when he was six.”

“I understand that he was defending his brother, but
he sent a student to the hospital. I have to suspend him for fighting.”

“If that is your policy, go for it, but every one of
those eighth graders who were bullying Drake gets suspended, too. Bullying is
against school policy.”

The principal sighed and nodded. “
Some days aren’t
worth getting out of bed
,” the man thought.

“So we’re staying home?” I asked.

Dad nodded. “I can’t make you go to school when Hell
is suspended. How long has he got?” he asked.

“Three days. It’s the minimum I can give him for
fighting.”

“Okay. They’ll be back on Monday. I assume work will
be sent home for them?”

“For Samhail, yes. Ronez doesn’t need to miss school;
he wasn’t fighting.”

“If you hadn’t noticed, the boys stick together. If I
send Ron to school, either Hell will break in or Ron with skip out. I’ll save
us both the trouble.”

 “If you have a minute, can I speak with you in
private?” the principal asked.

“I don’t have a minute; I have to get back to the
hospital. You want to talk about them being homeschooled and being too close.
Yeah, they were homeschooled and no, they weren’t socialized properly, but
they’re not dogs and they’re not feral, so they’ll figure it out. As far as
being too close, oh well, they’ll stay that way. They’re only two years apart
and grew up together; they are best friends. There is nothing wrong with either
of them. Now, can you send them home on the bus or do they need to leave
early?”

“I think it’s best they leave early.”

“Then I’ll have to call my neighbor to pick them up.”

“What about their mother?”

“She’s at work,” Hail, Dad, and I all said at the
exact same time.

Dad left to get back to the hospital, which he had to
have flashed from to make it here so fast. About ten minutes later, Stacy
walked into the office and took all three of us home. Hail and I explained to
her what happened as Drake cried with his head in her lap. His red hat was all
muddy, but his mom had a bright blue one in the car for him.

She took us into her apartment and got a bubble bath
for Drake. While he was playing in the tub, Stacy told us that Drake had to go
through chemotherapy to get rid of his cancer and it made his hair fall out. I
looked at Hail’s beautiful red hair and shuddered at the thought of him bald.
Poor
Drake.
I made a mental note to ask my FACS teacher if we were going to do
any knitting because I wanted to learn to make a Superman hat for Drake.

Once again, nobody came home until very late. Even
when Dad did come home, we stayed at Drake’s for a little while. Dad and
Drake’s parents talked in the kitchen as we did homework. Well… Hail and Drake
did homework while I scribbled mathematical formulas in my science book.
Science could be so much fun if they weren’t teaching boring stuff. My dad
walked in and took my book to look at it.

“Why are you doing physics in a fifth grade life
science book?” he asked.

I shrugged. “I don’t know what physics is. All I’m
doing is trying to find the math to explain the dimensions. That’s science, and
this is a science book.”

“You’re trying to explain string theory, sweetheart,
but nobody’s taught you how to do the math. You can see it, but you don’t know
how to explain it. Try this,” he said, taking my pencil and adding a few pieces
to my work. “I’ll start teaching you physics tomorrow.”

“What about work?” I asked, taking my book. The top
three buttons of Dad’s business suit were undone and his tie was open like a
scarf. He was obviously tired, but he needed Mordon to heal him, not me.

“I’m off tomorrow. We’re going to go do something fun,
but it’s a surprise.”

“We’re going swimming!” Hail yelled, his eyes vaguely
glowing purple.

He never meant to ruin surprises, but he didn’t try
to prevent his visions, either. Mom had to use magic to stop him from seeing
our birthday and Christmas presents. One Christmas, every time he tried to see
our Christmas presents, he would only see coal. We thought it was some kind of
trick, but when we opened our presents that was actually what was in them.
After
everyone
laughed
forever
over our disappointment and shock,
they brought out our real presents, which Hail hadn’t seen because of the fake
ones.

Mordon would scoff every Christmas that we celebrated
something we didn’t even understand, but we did understand; Dad explained it to
us. Christmas was a time of love, giving, and peace, where families joined
together in their homes, ate way too much food, and told stories about family
history. The parents would feed the kids tons of sweets to fatten them up and
leave them underneath the chimney as sacrifices. Apparently the goal was to put
them in a sugar coma. Of course, only the rich and noble houses had chimneys,
so some children had to be left out on the doorstep.

A giant named Santa would roam the Earth, every
Christmas Eve night, looking for the worst children, which he would then take
to his factory at the North Pole. The selected children would be his slaves,
forever making toys for the more well-behaved boys and girls. He magically knew
who was good or bad and watched them when they slept. Children prayed for
months before Christmas to get presents instead of being taken as slaves. The
giant only lived on Earth, but now that we were on Earth, we would have to
build a magical defense to protect ourselves.

At this point, Mom explained that we would bring a
special tree into the house and decorate it with lights and ornaments. If we
decorated it very well, it would please the giant and he would be more likely
to leave a present instead of taking us. 

Dad assured us both that once we were old enough to
defeat Santa in battle, he would stop coming to our home and we would stop
believing he even existed. According to Dad, it was a magical form of
self-defense that once a person was too old or strong for him to kidnap, they
would suddenly stop believing in him. That way, people wouldn’t attack him. It
occurred to me to ask why parents would put their children out as sacrifices if
they didn’t believe in Santa, but I was a little afraid of the answer. Either
way, Hail and I avoided eating a lot of candy or going anywhere near the
chimney during the holiday.

“That’s right,” Dad said.

Wait… that was too easy.
I knew that look. Dad
had something else up his sleeve, something my brother missed. The problem with
Hail’s visions was that they were based on decisions made and fateful paths. He
could see the consequences of a choice somebody made, or even things that
weren’t chosen, but his visions weren’t very specific. If Dad decided we should
go another day to swim, Hail could actually see that.

“I don’t get this!” Drake exclaimed, throwing his
book away from him.

Dad took the book, glanced at the page, and saw that
Drake had to add fractions with unlike denominators. He sat down next to Drake
and took a piece of scratch paper before drawing a few circles. “At the
hospital, they ordered a few pizzas… Two of them were large, but one of them
was small.” Dad went on to patiently explain the reason he had to find the
common denominator and how to do so.

“You should have been a teacher,” John said, handing
Dad a soda.

Dad gave him a scowl. “No way. I’m not that brave;
far too much bloodshed. I’ll stick to being a doctor, thank you.” There was a
knock on the door and Dad grinned.

I wasn’t surprised when John opened the door to
reveal Mom. Dad always knew when Mom or Mordon were near. After Mom was
introduced to Drake and his parents, she sat next to Dad. Stacy offered to warm
her up some dinner.

“That would be nice if it isn’t too much trouble,”
Mom said tiredly, leaning her shoulder against Dad’s.

“I’ll help!” Hail said, jumping up and running into
the kitchen after Stacy. I scoffed, irritated that he left my side.

“Poor kid,” Dad said, shaking his head.

John laughed. “Give it a couple of years. Girls will
be breaking your door down to get to him. With boys, I think if you can keep
teach them to treat women right and not get a girl pregnant before they
graduate, you’re doing a good job.”

I was growling before I realized it annoyed me. They
both frowned at me. “Hail is mine!” I explained loudly.

“You realize he’s going to grow up and want to get
married someday, right?” Dad asked.

The darkness stirred in my chest, like a soft
hissing. I stood with anger. “No girl is going to take Hail away! He’s my
brother; he’ll never leave me! We still have to decide if we’re going to rule
Raktusha together.”

Dad sighed and John looked confused. Having heard my
shouting, Hail ran back into the living room and hugged me. I could feel him
searching the room with magic for the source of my anger.

John patted my dad’s shoulder. “Good luck,” he said
before joining Stacy.