Page 45 of Demon's Desire
“Helen… I’m so sorry,” I said softly, putting my hand on her arm.
She shrugged. “Like I said, it’s been a while. I just don’t like when strange things start happening. I don’t want any of it happening to me or anyone else I know.”
I nodded quickly. “I understand… If I can ever do anything to help, let me know.”
“Well, for now, let’s move some boxes.” She gave me a weak smile.
I grabbed two of the milk carton boxes and started following her out to her car. I watched Suldeargan as I did, nodding at him to follow me. I wanted to know where he was at all times, especially around Helen and her things.
As we walked down the stairs toward the back door, I heard a soft sort of hissing sound behind me. Helen must have heard it too, because we both turned around. I saw Suldeargan dragging his razor sharp nails down the wall of the stairwell as we walked. Helen, of course, couldn’t see anything.
“Did you hear that?” she asked.
“Um… Yeah.” I nodded. “Must have been a pipe or something. Let’s go.”
She took me outside quickly and popped her trunk using a key fob. I rushed to put the boxes in. As soon as I set them down, a loud beeping met my ears. I jumped back and saw Suldeargan standing right beside Helen. He must have pushed the panic button on her car keys. She reached up with one hand to cover her ears and looked at the fob, trying to turn it off. I took a few steps back to minimize the noise and glared at Suldeargan. He looked at me like there wasn’t a thing wrong in the world.
After a few moments, Helen got the alarm turned off. She sighed and put her keys in her pocket. “My car does that sometimes. Random. I took it to the dealer, but they said there’s nothing wrong.”
“Right…” I swallowed hard. “Helen, I’m sorry, but I’m feeling a little lightheaded. I’m gonna go sit out front for a few minutes, and I’ll come help you again in a bit. Is that okay?”
“Oh, all right,” she said. “Do you need ibuprofen, or–?”
“No, I’m good.” I smiled at her and waved quickly before rushing down the alley so I could walk around to the front of the building. I closed my eyes for a second and rubbed my face. He was going to ruin my life. I would never be able to have a normal conversation ever again. I couldn’t even do the lady downstairs a favor without him scaring us both half to death!
“Are you all right?” he asked behind me.
“No!” I jumped at the sound of his voice as I came out of the alley and walked over to sit on the front stoop of the building. “No, I’m not all right! Helen is scared of you! You can’t leave things alone for five minutes! She needed my help, and you won’t let things sit! What is wrong with you?”
“I told you, this is what I am,” he explained, crossing his arms as I sat down on the steps. “This is what I have to do. Sitting still, being good, not causing any trouble, it’s not healthy for me. I’m not being an ass. I was born from chaos. If I don’t create more, I can die!”
“Oh, you will not die!” I rolled my eyes.
“Probably not!” he admitted. “But I’d rather not find out! I’ve been good ever since we were bound. I haven’t caused any problems for you or Kelly. So if I have to take things out on–” Suddenly, he froze, and his face fell. He dropped his arms and looked around.
“What?” I sighed.
“Mia, we need to go inside right now,” he said firmly, grabbing my arm and trying to tug me to my feet.
“Hey!” I glared, yanking my arm from his grasp. “I’m not going anywhere! If you want to go inside, then go inside! But if I’m in a confined space with you right now, I think I might explode, so–”
“Whatever,” he sneered, walking over to the door. I watched as he walked through it. I guessed existing in this world was a relative term.
“Whatever,” I repeated, rolling my eyes and facing forward again, resting my arms on my knees. “Fucking asshole.”
I sat on the stoop for a few minutes and tried to breathe normally, like I wasn’t absolutely pissed. There was no way this was going to work. He was going to get me killed somehow. I didn’t know how, but it would happen, I was sure.
A few people walked by while I was sitting there. That was normal. I didn’t look at anyone twice. I didn’t have a reason to. That was until one of them stopped walking on the sidewalk right in front of the apartment. I glanced up at him and paused. He looked familiar…
“Excuse me?” He took a step closer to me. “May I speak with you for a moment?”
I stood up slowly, keeping my arms crossed. As he got closer, I finally placed him. I’d seen him the night of the fire, outside Torie and Mica’s place. Then I’d seen him a couple of days ago at the grocery store, the day the car caught fire.
“Who are you?” I asked, keeping my feet on the second step. It put a small bit of distance between us that felt appropriate.
“My name is Jackson.” He extended his hand. I took it and shook it cautiously. “You actually look kind of familiar… I think I ran into you last week. There had been a fire, and I was out for a late night walk.”
“Yeah, that was me,” I muttered. “So you live in that area? Where the fire was?”