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So the immortal knows some pop culture after all.

CHAPTER NINE

We didn’t stay out for coffee too much longer. Jay took me back home and even though our conversation wasn’t as deep as before, I did pick up some interesting tidbits.

Such as:

- In time, not only would I be able to spot demons but I would be able to put them back where they belong, forever, through various methods he would one day explain to me.

- Life was going to get harder before it got easier.

- The Thin Veil was off-limits to me and visions of my mother weren’t real.

You know. The usual shit.

Can’t say I arrived home for dinner brimming with confidence. I was sullen and quiet over the meal, as was my father though I assumed for different reasons. Perry had texted and called a million times over the course of the day, checking up on me and assuming the worst when I didn’t answer right away. I didn’t tell her much though. If I didn’t understand it, neither would she and she’d be worrying even more over something she can’t control.

After dinner I cleaned up and thought briefly about enlisting Jay to help me move shit into the other room, but to be honest, I wanted some time to be alone to come to terms with things.

Not that I was coming to terms with anything. Because every time I started to think about what he told me, I laughed. It’s funny how your mind can be open, expansive, to almost anything but when there’s a hard limit, something your brain can’t make that extra leap for, it all shuts down. I believed in ghosts. I saw ghosts. I believed in demons. I’ve seen them a few times too. I believed in a lot of things, including the fact that I would never have your average, normal life, no matter how hard I tried.

But the fact that I wasn’t even like my sister, or my grandmother, the fact that my trials were different, that I was different from even them, was a hard thing to try and accept.

It made me feel fucking alone.

Not to mention scared.

Not to mention ridiculous.

Me, a demon fighter? Why? I mean, why was that even a thing? And why did they seek me? I’m tall and thin, but it’s not like I’m loaded with muscle. I’m coordinated, but for things like Dance Dance Revolution, maybe tennis. I’m smart but I’m not that smart, and my idea of a good time is smoking some pot and perusing fashion blogs until I feel inspired enough to put together an outfit. Why did I somehow possess the power to fight back against demons of all things and what the fuck was the goddamn power to begin with? What was in me that enabled me to do such a thing?

Who was I?

And more importantly, who was I becoming?

I had no answers. Jay had them all but I couldn’t think about them, face them, with him around me. He watches me in more ways than one. It’s not just that he’s looking out for me, it’s that he’s trying to know how I think, how I act. I can sense that behind his eyes.

And more than that, I can sense something else about him. I think he’s more human than he’d care to admit, even to himself. I think he’s had a peek behind that door once or twice. I think there’s a reason he keeps it locked.

So while my dad was in the garden, watering the hostas while there was still light in the sky, I filled a highball glass with his whisky and went upstairs to my old bedroom. I sipped the drink while pretending everything was still as it ever was. In fact, I went beyond that. I pretended my mom was downstairs and Perry was in her room and everything was normal. I wrote blog post after blog post, making up for lost time, all whilst getting drunk. Until I couldn’t type about fucking rompers and bucket bags anymore.

But now, now everything is different.

I’m back on the island.

In the red.

The Veil of my dreams.

The moon is full and disturbingly close. If I stare at it long enough, I can see faces trapped in the surface, mouths open and distorted in silent screams, blood seeping from terrified eyes.

I turn around, my heart already racing away from me.

Instead of being by the ocean this time, I’m on a rocky knoll above a steep slope of trees, a single, narrow path twisting down through salall bushes and shrubs.

Jay is nowhere to be found. I would have assumed that if I fell asleep again, he would be there in my dreams, to protect, to watch.

Jay? I cry out in my head.

There is nothing, no one. Just myself and the dark crimson trees and the horrible moon.