Demon

Gabe

“Okay, bye kids, be good for Grandma and Grandpa. We’ll pick you up tomorrow after breakfast.”

Mom and Dad stayed to talk for a while when they dropped us back off, to tell our grandparents all about our visit with our other grandfather.

Honestly, I’m just waiting for them to go, so that I can have a chance to talk to Natalie. I totally could tell that she and Angel were up to something with Grandfather. The way that she was touching him the whole time, and staring at him like he was a science experiment, reminded me a lot of how everything happened with Jonathan. So I want to know what’s up.

We get our chance easier than I expected. After our parents leave, Grandpa goes outside to do some yardwork or something. Grandma says that she needs to start working on dinner, so we should entertain ourselves for a while.

“Hey Nat, let’s go hang out in our room, okay?” Grandma smiles at us and shoos us out of the kitchen.

Perfect.

We get in there, and she immediately hauls her notebook out of her backpack. “Well?” I ask her.

She opens the notebook to the page after that big chart that Timothy had made for her to fill in while we were flying, about the guardians being able to hear each other.

“I need to take notes about everything that just happened with Grandfather.”

“Okay. What just happened?”

She starts writing, and looks over to the side, and I can tell she’s listening to Angel. She writes some more.

“Wait, wait, wait,” I tell her. “Hold on. I want to hear too.”

She looks at me. “Well, I was trying to see whether touching Grandfather could help him. Angel thinks it really did. I need to write everything down that I can remember.” She sighs. “I wish Timothy was here. He’s the one who usually takes the notes. And who thinks of all the right questions.”

“Hello!” I wave my hand under her nose. “How about me? I might not come up with the right questions, but I can definitely take notes. I’ll be in middle school next year, remember. I can probably write a lot better than you second-graders, you know. Just tell me what to write.”

Her eyes get all bright. “That’s a great idea! Thanks Gabe!”

She hands me the notebook, and I have to smile when I see her clunky writing. I mean, she might be some kind of spooky genius or whatever, but she still writes like a seven-year-old.

I hold the pencil ready. “Okay, you tell me what happened, and what Angel is saying, and I’ll write it all down. Go!”

Jonathan

This is going to be so awesome. The lady at Mom’s work gave her a couple of tickets to the zoo, and me and Dad are going there today. Mom is leaving for work, getting her purse, and feeling around with her feet to slip them into her shoes. I guess that she can’t really reach down there any more.

I go over and give her a hug, I’m so happy about the zoo tickets. I wrap my arms around her big belly, which is right in my face. “Tell the work lady thank you for the zoo tickets!” I say.

She rubs my back. “Yes, I will tell MEG thank you.”

Ha!

Oh! My cheek is still laying right on my Mom’s belly, and it kicks me! Right in the face! I lean back and stare at it in amazement.

“You felt that, didn’t you?” she asks me. “That was the baby kicking. It won’t be long before you’re a big brother.”

“Hey kid,” I say right to her belly, “no kicking your big brother! Show some respect!”

Mom and Dad look at each other and bust out laughing.

Brad

It’s been a while since we’ve taken Jonathan to the zoo. I don’t know why we haven’t thought about coming here lately - it really is a perfect way to spend a day. I wish Stef could have come with us, though. Maybe next time. Although, I realize, next time the baby will be here. An image flashes through my head of the three of us walking along, with a baby in a stroller. It makes me so happy to think of it.

For now though, it is nice to spend the day just with Jonathan. He is still super excited and energetic about everything, like he’s been the last couple of days. Good thing, because this place is absolutely huge, it takes a lot of energy to walk through the whole thing.

We’ve walked down the giant hill to check out the hippos, then back up the giant hill to see the polar bears. Now we’re finally back towards the top, where the elephants are, and are resting and eating lunch while looking at them. Jonathan is full of questions about every animal. Thank God for the signs they have posted everywhere with information about everything - I sure wouldn’t be able to answer his questions without them.

Jonathan’s

I accompany my beloved during his day of viewing beasts of every kind. It amuses me, as I, myself, have transformed into a beast overnight.

It takes time to generate a physical manifestation. I must contemplate each facet of my new appearance, and craft my nebulous matter into a form, concentrating in order to hold the new structure in place. When I have made an image in the past, it was always basically of a human being, not of another kind of creature. Since I have never created this sort of image before, I must consider each aspect more carefully as I generate it.

I am guided by Jonathan’s image of myself. Each time the idea of me crosses his mind, a flash of that likeness appears, and I am able to consult his thoughts in order to design my new body.

It is an interesting exercise. Especially after the agonizing eternity spent in the void, it is delightful to assume a tangible embodiment. I am quite enjoying the experience of creating such a singular form, more precise than any I have known or seen before.

Except, of course, for the Seer’s Guardian, whose angel form is incredibly elaborate, created for her, and used extensively by the Guardian as a tool of communication just as much as are the words spoken to her.

I believe my form might just be as comprehensive, though, by the time I am finished.

I consider my progress. I believe that the upper half of the image is complete. The head is large, with a belligerent human face, leading to long horns twisting above. The leering mouth is full of fangs, beneath sharply pronounced cheekbones. The eyes blaze with fire.

It seems that Jonathan imagines demons with wings, so of course I accommodate him. I have leathery, batlike, pointed wings, stretching far above my head.

My torso has rows of chiseled muscles, my shoulders and arms are brawny and powerful, my hands end in fearsome claws.

The entire image is a deep red color, just as Jonathan pictures the worst demon he can imagine.

And now, the expedition to the zoo provides the finishing touch. As we pass through the area labeled as “horn and hoof mesa”, Jonathan views the cloven hooves of the beasts, and remembers that he saw a cartoon once of a devil with such feet. Yes, I will have those too. And a swishing tail, like that on the lion we passed earlier.

I stalk alongside my beloved, a towering nightmare from hell, exactly as the Seer forced him to envision me. This is her doing.

I love my Guarded more than ever, and long for him to know that I have done this for him. Everything for him.

I notice the other Guardians we pass by viewing me with perturbation. The Guardian of Jonathan’s father looks at me askance as my image becomes clearer, darker, more terrible in its detail.

Fine. Let them stare. I do this for my beloved, I do this because he knows of me, I do this because such is how I appear within his mind. My image is for him. I am his. I am Jonathan’s.

I am Demon.