The Gift of the Demons

by Mette Ivie Harrison

  “Tell me about him,” he said.

  And that had to be step 2. Don’t accuse. Don’t lecture. Just ask for information. Because that lowers the barriers.

  I shrugged. “Like I told Mom, he’s a substitute teacher from school.”

  “Uh-huh,” said Dad.

  And the silence felt so uncomfortable that I had to fill it. “He came in the day Mr. Barry died,” I said.

  “I see,” said Dad. “And you really liked Mr. Barry.”

  “Yes, I did.” The more I said, the more trouble I was going to get into here.

  “But you can see your mother’s concern.”

  “He just came over to give me some help,” I said. “He doesn’t think of me like I can see you’re thinking.” Maybe if he did, I would like it, I thought. But I didn’t say that. I definitely didn’t. Or remind Dad that we’d just talked about how nice he would be if I brought any boys home for him to meet.

  “And why couldn’t he call you on the phone? Or email you? Or just wait until he saw you at school?” Dad asked.

  “He just saw me on the street and I asked him a question, and it took him a few minutes to answer it so I asked him to come in for lemonade. It was lemonade, Dad. Nothing else.” I really hoped that no one who had seen us at the park would say something to Dad about it. I hadn’t noticed anyone staring, but you never knew. Sometimes people were looking out the window behind a curtain.

  “Of course. I trust you absolutely, Fallin. I want you to know that.”

  Yeah, he trusted me. But he thought I was stupid enough to let myself be taken advantage of by some old guy. It was kind of insulting, and not just to Nick. “Nothing happened!” I said. Again.

  “I believe that. You would have told us if something happened, I’m sure. If he tried—anything. Right?”

  “I would, Dad. I’m not an idiot.”

  “So what would you do if you had a friend who told you about inviting an older man, who had been in a position of authority over her, a teacher or a counselor or something, and he came to her house to visit? Would that make you ask your friend some annoying questions?”

  I sighed. “Dad, you just don’t understand.”

  “I know I don’t. That’s why I’m asking you to help me to understand.”

  “He was tired and thirsty. I wanted to talk to him. I invited him in and gave him lemonade. He stayed for maybe ten minutes. That’s all. End of story.”

  “You don’t think he will ever come over again?” asked Dad.

  I hesitated to answer that, which was exactly the wrong thing to do. “He won’t, Dad, I promise,” I said quickly.

  Dad waited.

  “I don’t see why there has to be a big investigation over this. Can’t he just be a good teacher who cares about his students?”

  “It’s possible,” said Dad. “In fact, I certainly hope that it is more likely than the other. But with what has already happened at your school, and the fact that I know you have felt—well, neglected by boys your own age—you have to forgive us for being suspicious. There are laws against this sort of thing, you know. Laws I helped draft not many years ago, never imagining they would be in place to protect my own daughter.”

  “This isn’t about me being neglected by boys my age or my wanting some attention from some older guy.” Blech! This was about demons. “It’s about school work.”

  “But there are people who go into the teaching profession to have access to children, Fallin. You have to know that.”

  “I’m not a child,” I said sharply.

  Dad put up his hands and shrugged. “Maybe not, but you are vulnerable.”

  “You know, he doesn’t treat me like that. Like I’m going to break. He treats me like I’m grown up. Like we’re equals.” As soon as it came out of my mouth, I knew it was the wrong thing to say. It was true, but it didn’t sound good at all.

  “Fallin, you have to see this from my perspective,” said Dad.

  “Looks bad, doesn’t it?” I said, sighing.

  He nodded. “I want you to promise not to see him again.”

  “Dad, what if he’s at school? What if he’s a substitute again?”

  “At school, you can’t avoid him, but I don’t want you to seek him out. I don’t want you to invite him to this house or to spend time alone with him again. Is that clear? I’m doing this for your own good.”

  “It’s stupid,” I said. “You don’t understand him. If you just met him and talked to him a little, you’d see.” Or he wouldn’t, depending on if a demon showed up and we had to throw knives at him to take him down. I was thinking Dad wouldn’t like that anymore than what he thought was going on.

  “Maybe there will be an opportunity for that. But for now, make me this little promise.”

  I hated lying to my parents. I hadn’t told them everything, but I was pretty sure that trying to explain about demon bargains was not going to make either me or Nick sound better. So I nodded my head. “Fine,” I said softly.

  Dad let out a long breath. “Thank you, Fallin.” He put an arm around me.

  I stiffened up, and thought again about parenting classes. This was probably what they told you to end any tense discussion with. Make sure that your kid knew that you loved her. Well, I didn’t doubt that with my parents. I knew they loved me.

  It was funny, because when I was little, other kids used to ask me how I knew, since I wasn’t “really” their child. We didn’t look alike, they’d point out. We weren’t alike inside, either. But to me, my parents had picked me out of all the other kids in the whole world. With “real” parents, it’s not that way. You never know who you’re going to get. My parents had decided to love me. They hadn’t been forced to be my parents by biology, and that made it feel all the more secure to me.

  But that didn’t mean we didn’t have problems. Just because we loved each other didn’t mean that Mom and Dad trusted me. No, they still thought I was this stupid teenager. Sometimes it felt like they thought I’d gotten more stupid since I was a little kid, like puberty had made me turn into a raging maniac. They treated me half the time like they didn’t want to get too close to me, and the other half of the time like they were going to squeeze me to death with love. I didn’t want much. I just wanted to be treated like an equal, like my ideas and thoughts counted as much as theirs did.

  The next morning, Georgia met me at my locker. “What is up with your parents?” she asked.

  I felt suddenly sick. “What happened?” I asked.

  “They called and talked to my parents. About some substitute teacher from your German class.”

  “Oh,” I said. I still didn’t know his last name.

  “So who are they talking about? I said I knew all about him and whatever, that he was fine. But my mom and dad still freaked out. They made me talk to your dad on the phone. And then they lectured me for about an hour afterward.”

  “Sorry,” I said. I hadn’t meant it to go that far. “It’s Rumpy.”

  “They saw Rumpy?”

  “He was teaching me some more lessons on demon fighting and we were by my house. I just asked him to come in to get a glass of lemonade. That’s all.”

  Georgia rolled her eyes. “Oh, him. Well, now I know why your parents were so worried.”

  “Hey, don’t start with me about that,” I said. “What did my dad ask you, anyway?”

  “Your dad wanted to know how often you met him, what you did together, how serious I thought you were, if I had ever seen you doing anything together that he could take to the police for action.”

  My ears were starting to burn. “What did you tell him?”

  She shrugged. “I told him that there was nothing going on. That was it.”

  “Thanks,” I said.

  When I got home before my parents, I went into my dad’s office and checked the history on his internet use. It turned out he had been trying to track Nick. He had checked into all the houses in the neighborhood to see who was new. He’d also gone to the sex offender
registry to see if we had any offenders in the area. Nick wasn’t on the list.

  But it gave me an idea. Maybe I could find out who Nick was, if I had his full name. Or if I cross-referenced enough other stuff I knew about him. I know I’d said I wasn’t going to find the girl he was in love with and tell her he was still waiting for her, but I wanted to know who she was at least for myself, if for no one else. What was wrong with that?

  Chapter 17

  A few days later, when I was at the mall with Georgia, I saw Nick sitting down on the other side of the food court. He didn’t say anything or motion to me, just waited.

  He had to be here for a reason. And his reasons always had to do with demons. I didn’t think this was a demon fighting practice venue.

  So I told Georgia I had to go to the bathroom, and I walked outside instead. Nick came out and met me there.

  “Your father is angry,” said Nick.

  “Is that what you’re here for? He’ll get over it. He’s overreacting,” I said. I was embarrassed. I didn’t want to talk about what my dad thought Nick was interested in.

  “There’s a demon here. Right now.”

  “How do you know? Did you see it?” Why hadn’t he gone after it on his own?

  “It’s in the mall right now, but it’s heading outside to the parking lot. I thought you might like to have a chance at it. Make it your first official demon fight.”

  “Sure,” I said, absurdly happy at the idea. “Look, give me a few mintues and I’ll get rid of Georgia and meet you on the west end of the parking lot, by Sears,” I told him. “Will that work?”

  “Perfect,” he said.

  I went back to the table and sat by Georgia, wondering what I was going to tell her.

  “He’s here, isn’t he?” she said.

  “Who?” I asked, all innocence.

  “Him. Rumpy or whatever his name is.”

  “Nick,” I said.

  “Oh?” She raised an eyebrow. “He finally told you that?”

  “Yeah.”

  “So now you really know each other.”

  “Georgia, it’s not like that. He came because there’s a demon here and he wants me to have my first chance at fighting it.”

  “Cool,” said Georgia. “What are you waiting for? Let’s go?” She stood up and grabbed all our food, dumping it into the trash can.

  “Um. You can’t come with me,” I said.

  “Oh, yes, I can. No way are you going to keep me out of this. I already know all the stuff you’re not supposed to tell people, anyway. So don’t tell me it’s so you can keep things secret.”

  “You could get hurt,” I said.

  “With you and Nick there? The expert and the new hot thing with muscles out to here?” she asked. “I don’t think so. I didn’t get hurt last time.”

  “Last time you were lucky,” I said.

  “And this time I’m going to know enough to be smart. You think I want to die, Fallin? I’ll keep back, but I want to watch. Come on, this is the perk of being your best friend. I get to see the once in a lifetime stuff you do. I trust you. Don’t you trust me?”

  When she put it like that, I couldn’t refuse, no matter how mad I thought Nick would be about it.

  The truth was, Georgia had always been the person I trusted most in the world. I’d told her about being accused of shoplifting and being frisked that time at Walmart three years ago. She’d had a fit about it and boycotted the store for months. She got everyone else she knew to do it, too.

  So we went out to the west side, by Sears. Nick was there.

  “Why is she here?” he asked.

  “She has a name. Georgia,” said Georgia. “And I’m here because I’m Fallin’s friend and I want to be have her back.”

  “She doesn’t know anything about demon fighting,” Nick pointed out. “And I don’t have time to teach her. Plus she isn’t—well, she doesn’t seem the type.”

  “Nobody ever told you about judging a book by its color?” she asked. “Anyway, I’m just watching. I’m going to stay right here.” She nodded to the windows by Sears. “You two go on.”

  Nick looked back once, but Georgia stayed where she was.

  “You can trust her,” I said.

  “I hope so,” he said. “The demon is heading out to her car right now. You can see her if you look just that way.” From behind, he reached around, and tilted my head in the right direction. His hand was on my cheek and it felt warm and strong.

  “You going to let me do this on my own?” I asked.

  “I said I’d be your back-up. All right?”

  I nodded and got out the knife. It felt warm in my hand, like it knew already what it was supposed to do.

  We made our way over a few rows of cars. I could see the woman/demon. She was wearing a skirt and a nice blouse, but she walked strangely. Bonelessly, I guess would be the right way to put it. It was like watching a snake stand upright and slither more than watching a person move.

  Nick nodded to me and gave me a thumbs up sign.

  She was not a human. She was a demon, I told myself several times. It was still hard to think about killing her cold-bloodedly like this.

  “Hey you!” I said, which was all I could think of at the moment.

  She glanced up at me, and then she stopped very still, frozen in a pose that no human could hold. She wasn’t breathing. She wasn’t blinking.

  My hands were slick with sweat. I knew I should run at her, but it was different, training with Nick and actually facing a demon in real life. She wasn’t threatening me. She was just there.

  Finally, I got close enough that I could smell the faint hint of brimstone smoke around her, and that was enough to get me moving forward. I slashed at her and she batted my hand away. She moved amazingly quickly. But that’s one of the advantages of having no bones. You don’t have to worry about breaking them.

  Nick was my backup, I told myself. If I was really in danger, he’d come and help me, right?

  I gripped the knife more tightly in my hand and whirled at her again.

  “You fool!” she hissed at me.

  I slashed again, and this time I got her hand. It sizzled, and hissed like a balloon losing air, but she shook at it, and the puncture was somehow filled again. Then she looked at me with a long, appraising stare.

  “Let me go,” she said. “I will give you anything you ask for.”

  “At what cost?” I said.

  “No cost. No bargain. I swear to you. I will pay for it with my own life. Only let me go free.”

  “Anything?” I asked. I was intrigued by this offer. Maybe I should have been more wary, but after the last demon, I had been thinking about what I wanted. It wasn’t anything he had suggested.

  “Anything,” she said. She was breathing in great, heaving breaths, and her eyes were close to mine.

  “Fallin,” called Nick, running up beside me.

  I ignored him.

  “Can you change a bargain that has already been made?” I asked.

  “Fallin, don’t ask that. You’re giving her time. She’ll try to tJayden you,” said Nick.

  “I want to know this.” I waved him back. “Can you?” I asked the demon.

  “What kind of bargain?” she asked.

  “A demon bargain.” Obviously. What other kinds of bargains were there?

  “But what demon? A lower demon cannot undo the bargains of a higher demon.”

  “But it can be done? A higher demon could undo another demon’s bargains?” I asked.

  “Fallin, it doesn’t matter. I don’t want that,” said Nick.

  I whirled at Nick. “Who says it’s about you, anyway? What if I want to undo Mr. Barry’s bargain?”

  “He’s already dead,” said Nick.

  “I can’t revive dead people, technically,” said the demon. “Although I can make it seem as though he is alive again, if you wish it. Either in corporeal or ghostly form. Tell me the name of this person, and I will do it. You need never feel grief for
him again.”

  “We’re talking in hypotheticals here,” I said. “Could you nullify a bargain and in so doing release the hold of hell on a soul?”

  “Fallin, you don’t need to worry about me. I’ll be fine. Just kill her,” said Nick.

  “I want to know if you could undo the bargain my friend here has made. And what would happen if you did so,” I said.

  The demon’s attention turned to Nick.

  I worried every moment that someone else would come and see us in the parking lot. It wasn’t a busy time of day, and I had trapped her between two cars, on the ground, so anyone who saw us would have to be looking right at us. It could happen, though.

  “What was your bargain? And who was it with?” asked the demon.

  Nick shook his head. “This is a bad idea. I won’t have anything to do with it. What’s done is done.”

  “He traded something—I don’t know what exactly—but it was for the knowledge of who was his true love.”

  The demon stared at Nick. “And when was this bargain made?” she asked.

  Nick didn’t answer.

  “I might be able to undo it,” she said to Nick.

  He could have taken his own knife out and stabbed her himself. The fact that he didn’t seemed to indicate to me that he was actually interested in the answer.

  “And then what?” I asked. “Does he go back in time to the moment when he made the bargain? Does he get his life back to live over again?”

  “Fallin, I’m glad I know,” said Nick. “I don’t want to undo it.”

  “You could undo any part of the bargain,” said the demon. “And leave any intact, as well.”

  “Would he be young again?” I asked the demon.

  “If you wished it,” said the demon.

  “She’s just telling you what you want to hear. That’s what demons do,” said Nick.

  “Please, Fallin, don’t do this.” Nick pleaded with me, leaning forward, his eyes looking deep into mine. “I’m a demon fighter now. That’s what my life is. It gives meaning to everything else I do.”

  He was right. And besides, the demon had told me as much as was useful. I didn’t believe she could undo Nick’s bargain in any useful way. I needed either the demon Nick had bargained with in the first place or a more powerful. Which she, in her blubbering, had made obvious was not her.