Demon

Brenda

“You are a genius,” I tell him breathlessly, lying together in the comfortable hotel bed, the sheets and blankets in a total jumble around us.

Ron laughs softly, rubbing his hand slowly up and down my arm as he lies behind me still. “Nah,” he says, “many other people have also figured out how to do that. It doesn’t take a genius.”

Ha! “Not that. Although, honestly, you’re so talented in that area that it’s possible you’re a genius there too.” He laughs again, his face buried in my hair so that I feel his breath warm my scalp. “I meant your idea to stay here at the hotel, and let the kids stay with my folks.”

“Yes, that I’ll accept credit for. Getting you to stay alone in a hotel with me for a whole week is a brilliant scheme, I admit.”

I roll over to face him, snuggling up to his chest. “As I said. Genius.”

“Mmmmm,” he murmurs, wrapping his arms around me, keeping me close to his heart, “feel free to admire the way that I intellectually take a nap now.”

Laura

I’m working again today, just for the morning. I told Timothy that I was going to work when I left, but I didn’t even bother waking up Michael. After his late night, I think with a bitter twinge, he wouldn’t have gotten up even if I had told him I was leaving. I did at least leave the bedroom door open, so if there is an emergency hopefully he will be aware. He’s making me bitter, I realize with some dismay.

I don’t know what to do about any of this. I’d try to continue ignoring it, but now I feel like Timothy has gotten involved. I was both mortified to have him see me crying last night, and deeply touched when he came over to hug me through it. I can’t have Timothy feeling like he needs to take care of me, though. He’s only seven, for God’s sake.

I know Mike goes back to work tomorrow, so maybe another week will go by without anything else happening. I’ll just be hanging around with Timothy most of the time. It’ll be quiet, peaceful, just the way he likes it. So, I have to admit, do I.

Timothy

When I start to wake up, I hear Guardian tell me, “Natalie enjoyed the wedding. Afterwards, she was so involved in a discussion with the pastor about the bible that she didn’t hear her family leave. They had to come back to get her.”

As always, as soon as I start to concentrate on what he’s saying, it wakes me up. “Thanks,” I tell him. I’m trying to figure out what that meant. I’m glad that she found somebody to talk to, since I’m not much help when it comes to bible stuff. But she didn’t hear her family leave? Well, here’s another thing to add to my list of stuff I will need to ask her about when she gets home.

While I’m writing that down on my list, Mom comes in to tell me that she’s going to work, and that she’ll only be gone a few hours today. And that Dad is still asleep. “Do you want me to make you some breakfast before I go?” she asks.

But I can tell that she’s in a hurry. “No, that’s fine. I can get cereal or something. I keep telling you, I’m old enough to take care of myself.”

She smiles and kisses my head. “Okay. Wake up your Dad if you need anything.” I just shake my head at her, then tell her goodbye.

I pick up the bible that she found for me in a box last night. I haven’t gotten very far into it yet. I go downstairs and set it on the table while I get some breakfast for myself. Yeah, I guess just cereal again. I sit down and start eating, and open up the book.

This bible is sure different from anything else I’ve read before. The paper is super thin, and the words are really small. I’m skimming through it, looking for names of places. I open my notebook so that I can take notes about any place names I find. I want to see if I can recognize any of the locations from the archeology book I’ve been reading. The stories don’t interest me - I’ll let Natalie think about those.

I flip through all the way to the back, and discover something unexpected. There’s actually a couple of maps back here! That’s much more useful. I know that the archeology book has some maps in it too. I’ll be able to compare them once I get back upstairs.

I finish my cereal quickly, because I want to compare the maps as soon as I can. I take the bible and notebook back upstairs, planning what to do next. I think I need to make a chart, showing the place names, where they are mentioned in the bible, and what the archeology book says about them.

I’m thinking hard about this as I get into my room. I sit down on the floor and start organizing my books.

“AAAAHHH!”

I jump a mile when I hear a loud yell coming from down the hallway. My heart starts pounding. I don’t know what’s wrong. I leap up off my bedroom floor and look around wildly.

“MMM AAAHH Mmmm.” More yelling, and some mumbling.

What is happening? After I get over the shock of the sudden noise, I realize that it has to be my Dad yelling. He’s the only other person in the house. Is he hurt?

I’m afraid to do it, but I have to go check to see what’s wrong. I wish that I could talk to Guardian as well as Natalie can talk to Angel, because it would make it easier to find out without having to go in there. But I can’t, so I have to do it.

I look out the door of my room and don’t see anything, so I walk slowly down the hallway towards my Mom’s room. The door is open.

I hear him breathing really heavy now. At least he isn’t yelling any more. I peek my head in the door.

I see my Dad sitting on the side of the bed. He is wearing pajama bottoms but no shirt. He is hanging his head down, and covering his face with his hands. He is breathing really hard.

I stay in the doorway, afraid to get closer. “Dad?” I ask in a small voice. He doesn’t move, so I don’t think he heard me. I make myself say it louder. “Dad?”

He looks up, his hands still covering his mouth. His forehead is all wrinkled, like he is really worried about something.

“What’s wrong, Dad?” I wonder if he needs medical attention. Am I supposed to call 911?

“Oh, hey Timothy.” He shakes his head back and forth really fast, like he’s trying to clear his mind. Then he runs his hands over his hair.

“Dad?”

“Sorry,” he says. “Did I yell? I was asleep. I had a bad dream.”

Oh. This is confusing. “You were just dreaming? There’s not anything wrong?”

“No, nothing’s wrong. I’m sorry I scared you.” His breathing has slowed down, I can’t hear it any more. My heart is still pounding though.

“Um, do you need anything?” I ask him.

He takes a deep breath, and slowly lets it out. “No. No thanks, kid. I’m good. Sorry about that.” He looks around. “Where’s your mother?”

“She went to work. She said she won’t be gone all day though.”

“Oh, okay. Well, I’ll get up now. Go on out so I can get dressed, okay?”

I stay in the doorway for a minute, staring at him. That was really scary and confusing and I’m not sure if I should really leave him alone.

He looks at me, and he gets a strange expression on his face. “I’m fine. Go.”

I nod, biting my lip, and back out of the door. I close it behind me.

Michael

Well, shit.

I haven’t had a nightmare like that for months. Not that bad. I thought that was behind me. Especially if I smoke weed, I usually sleep just fine afterwards. I’ve been trying to cut back a little, but not last night. I stayed over at Jim and Ethan’s place until ridiculously late, smoking and playing games on their XBox with them.

Maybe that was the problem? We were playing Halo, that first person shooter game, which seemed super fun, but I think it gave my crazy stupid brain ideas about new ways to torture me with nightmares.

And now I’ll always be stuck with the image of Timothy standing there staring at me, with his eyes as wide as saucers, like I had just done something really terrifying. I must have yelled before I woke up. It looked like I scared him half to death.

Ugh.