by Joshua Laack
Chapter 10
In what had almost become normal for him over the course of the previous week, English the next morning was a blur in which Andrew floated, unaware of his surroundings. He spent almost the entire class staring at a clock that didn't seem to be moving. He stared long enough that the clock blurred past the point of recognition. The bell to end class surprised him so much that he almost fell out of his chair. In breathless anticipation mixed with desperation, he rushed to his locker and on to second hour.
The relief Andrew felt upon seeing Josefina in her chair filled him and he let out a loud breath that he didn't even know he had been holding.
“Thank God you are here. I honestly don't know what I would have done,” Andrew said as he collapsed in his own seat. Josefina smiled a small half smile at him, though her eyes looked uncertain.
“I wasn't certain that you would want to see me after I couldn't tell you anything.”
“I'm certain you had your reasons, and I don't want to be the one to make you violate them, but I believe that I have figured some things out that might change that.”
“And what do you think that you have discovered,” she asked him?
“I still don't know exactly what you are, but I believe...” Andrew realized how ridiculous his theory would sound aloud. He glanced around, but no one was paying attention to them as they waited for the bell to ring to start class. As his eyes came back to Josefina, he decided he didn't care how silly it sounded. She was his only hope.
“You are a fool. You should be quiet and go back to minding your own business.” The words reverberated through Andrew and he shuddered under the force of those words in his mind. The demon in him didn't want this conversation to continue. Josefina's eyebrows climbed her forhead.
“What do you believe? Are you alright?” She paused, “I'm afraid something might be wrong with you.” Josefina sounded concerned, but Andrew knew that for some reason she had to protect her secret. He just hoped his news would allow her to change her mind enough to help him. He just had to tell her what he knew.
“Everything is fine. I am fine. It was all a joke. I don't really know anything.” A smile formed on his face that stretched his lips farther than normal. Inside of his own body, Andrew watched in horror through his own eyes as the demon turned back to the front of the class and pretended to pay attention. He fought as hard as he could to turn his face back to hers, to try to let some sign out to her that he was trapped, but he couldn't even make his own eyes blink.
“Andrew?” The whispered question beside him caused the demon to turn his head toward the sound.
“What do you want, I'm trying to pay attention to the class?” Andrew fought as hard as he could to move his face or his hands, or something, but it was useless. Andrew was no more than an awareness living inside of a shell. The demon frowned at her.
“Sorry,” she muttered, facing front herself as the demon forced Andrew's head to do the same thing.
The rest of the day passed in much the same way. Every time anyone he knew was in front of him, Andrew struggled as hard as he could to show some sign that something was wrong. He figured any attention was better than nothing. But no matter what he did, he wasn't able to make any change to his own body. By the end of the last class of the day, he was so scared and frustrated that he wanted to cry, but he couldn't do that either.
The demon drove him home and parked his car on the street in front of his house. It jiggled the key in the lock and opened his front door. When the door shut behind it, the demon began to laugh.
“Andy my boy. You are done for. My master will reward me beyond anything you can even imagine for you. I was just supposed to stop you in any way I could, but now I can deliver you directly to him.” Andrew felt a darkness all his own fill him. He had hoped that one day he would beat this darkness, but it seemed that the darkness had won. He felt himself beginning to give up and fade even farther into the dark recesses of a body that was no longer his.
“I'm afraid it just isn't going to happen that way.” The soft bells came from behind Andrew, but the voice reached deep inside of him and lifted him back up. Andrew's body spun and the demon let out a growl at the sight of Josefina standing there. Words came from his mouth, but they sounded nothing like Andrew anymore. The gravelly words grated on Andrew's ears.
“What are you going to do about it? You think that just because you are Blood that you are invincible.” Andrew's face twisted into an evil grin. “Allow me to show you how wrong you are.” Andrew's fist came up ten times faster than he had ever moved before. It struck Josefina square in the face. The blow that would have broken both a normal hand and a normal face did nothing to either.
It did something else that Andrew did not expect. The touch of their skin did the same thing it had done each time in the past. It sent an electric current between them. This time was a bit different though. The size of the current was a million times as powerful as it had been before and the blast it created lifted both Andrew and Josefina up and launched them apart. Andrew's body went through the wall behind him and into the living room on the other side. Electrical wires, wall studs and parts of the wall were scattered all around him. Josefina crashed through the front door and landed on the sidewalk by the street, the metal door still underneath her.
At the same time, the lights of all the houses on the block flickered on and then in almost the same instant, every bulb exploded. Screams echoed down the block as the shock of the unexpected lights and following blasts took residents by surprise.
Back inside the house, the demon and Andrew were both dazed as his body lay on the ground. Andrew struggled as hard as he could to move his body, to regain control. As he did, he felt a shift within himself and he once again took over his body. A small part of him regretted it because he felt a great deal of pain from the damage that his body had just endured. But more than anything he felt joy to be once more at the helm of a body he never expected to have to fight for.
He groaned as he sat up. He felt like his entire backside was one giant bruise. From what had just happened though, he was shocked that there didn't seem to be any other damage. He started to move, trying to sit up, but found his way blocked.
Where there had been no one moments before, Josefina stood above him, looking down as if she were about to smash him back to the ground, or beyond.
“Wait! It's me,” Andrew said, trying to hold back the blow that would likely kill him without the demon in charge. Josefina hesitated, looking cautious, but optimistic.
“How can I be sure,” she asked after a moment? Andrew held up his hand.
“Help me up, apparently you and the demon can't touch without the world exploding.” Josefina gingerly took his hand. There was the slight tingle of current that had occurred at every touch, but no other reaction. She started to pull and Andrew's body protested. “Slowly please. My body isn't as strong as yours seems to be.” She pulled with a little less force and brought Andrew to his feet. He checked himself over again now that he was standing.
Despite the force at which he had gone through that wall, he seemed to be in good shape with only some bruising. Apparently there was some benefit to being possessed. Wait. That last thought hadn't been his own. Even though he was once again in control, Andrew still had two in a body made for one. He looked up at Josefina.
Josefina pulled out a phone and opened it. She shook her head and closed it.
“I don't suppose you have a phone that isn't fried.” Andrew's phone was in his book bag. He looked around and realized that the demon hadn't bothered to bring it in.
“Maybe. It should be in my bag in the car. I can go get...” Josefina stood in the entry in almost the same spot she had been a moment before, but she now held his bag in her hands. She was rummaging inside and came out with the phone. “What happens now,” asked Andrew after a moment? Despite knowing she was different than he was, seeing it still surprised him.
“I have to talk to my superiors and find out.” She glance
d around the broken house. “Let's go to my house if you don't mind.” Andrew nodded. They climbed into his car with her at the wheel. The car was once again subjected to high speeds that it was not used to enduring. On the way, Josefina made a phone call. She spoke so fast that Andrew couldn't even follow where one word ended and the next began. He also had no idea what the words were since they were a different language. After a few moments of rapid speech, the phone beeped as she ended the call and she tossed the phone into the center console.
Josefina's house was about a mile outside of town. The driveway was winding gravel and it led back into a large wooded lot, not unlike the one behind Andrew's house. As the driveway curved around a last little bunch of trees into a clearing in the center, the house came into view. His jaw dropped. It wasn't a huge house, but it was the most amazing one he had ever seen.
It looked like a houses that an architect might design after becoming rich from success on other projects. It was difficult to describe. It looked a little like several different building blocks that had been stacked precariously on top of each other by a young child. None of the outside corners lined up. Some of the blocks had glass sides in them, others were plain or had smaller windows in them. The building material looked like concrete that had been stained a brown cedar color.
Josefina parked the car on the circular slab of concrete in front of the house.
“Wow,” Andrew exclaimed! “This place looks incredible.” Josefina grinned at him.
“Just a little something I have had in my head for a while. I had it built here about three years ago by some out of town contractors that I know.” That wasn't right. Hadn't she just moved here? What else had she told him that wasn't true? Was she who she claimed to be at all? Was she even safe? He reluctantly climbed out of the car and followed her to the front door.
Josefina typed in a code on the door and the deadbolt receded into the heavy steel door with a whir and a click. She opened the door and ushered Andrew in ahead of herself.
Once inside, the door snapped shut like the clank of a prison door. He was trapped. His heart started to race and he felt his hands get clammy. Her hand touched his arm and he jumped.
“You are safe here,” Josefina said in a soft soothing tone. “I know you don't understand anything yet and I will tell you what I can as soon as I can, but I would never do anything to hurt you.” The words were reassuring for a moment, but Andrew's dark thoughts quickly overrode any comfort he received from them.
A small part of him whispered that the thoughts might not be his, but they made a lot of sense and Andrew found himself listening more and more to the darkness within him. It warned him to run at his first opportunity from this dangerous creature that he knew nothing about. He nodded his agreement. He had to get out of here, as soon as he could.
Josefina's home phone rang. She moved over to it and picked it up. Her movements were as quick as they had been the other day in his room and again today in grabbing his bag. It was unnatural and it frightened Andrew. Her back was to him as she answered and began to speak, once again in that strange language that Andrew didn't understand. A thought crashed through his brain.
Maybe she was the demon. Maybe the thing with him was just trying to protect him from her. How could he be sure that she was the one telling him the truth? He felt the room start to spin and knew that now was his only chance to survive. He grabbed the knob behind him, yanked the door open and made a dash for the car.
She had the keys. Andrew ran past the car and down the long driveway as fast as he could, his thoughts whirling in fear and darkness. She could run faster than he could. He had no chance. She would catch him before he even reached the end of the driveway. He didn't know what to do.
“Let me run for you,” the voice in his head whispered. “I can run faster than you can.” It was right. Andrew knew it was stronger and faster than he was. It might be his only hope at getting away from her and whatever she intended to do to him. He nodded. Before he even finished agreeing, it was done. The demon chuckled as it took an even stronger grasp than before.
The world blurred as Andrew's body ran faster than he had ever moved in his life. The demon had been right about one thing. It could run faster than he could. Now that it was in control again though, it stopped pretending to be his friend. It howled laughter at him in his head as it described horrific things that its master would do to him when he was delivered.
“You will suffer for all eternity for what you might have become. My master will see to it and if he allows it, I will help.”
A single tear fell from the demon's eye as Andrew realized that he had allowed this evil thing to dupe him. He had listened to the darkness with the light and the truth so evident in front of him. He was lost.