The First Book of Demons
Page 52
Alexandra sat in the window seat of her bedroom at Sam’s home. She sat and she watched. Watched the neighbors take out the trash, or check the mail. She watched as the boys next door rode their bikes up and down the street, laughing and racing each other. She just sat and watched. Day in and day out. She watched as the same young woman in blue sweat pants jogged by at two in the afternoon everyday without fail.
Everyone thought she was crazy, so she might as well play the part. In all honesty, she didn’t really care what everyone thought. Sam, she did care about, because Sam knew she wasn’t crazy, but he acted like it.
Wild animals, they all said. Most likely bears. It was all over the local news for the past week. It even made a blip on the national level. A small group of friends went camping and were viciously mauled by bears in their sleep. Kat and Will were so mangled they could only identify them by their dental records. Alexandra and Sam were found miles away, and weeks later, unconscious and covered in blood and small injuries.
The doctors reasoned that they had hallucinated everything from a combination of their injuries and dehydration. Perhaps for Sam it was easier to believe that, but Alex knew the truth.
There was a soft knock on her door. Sam opened it a crack and stuck his head through, the disfiguring scar on his face still raw and unhealed. His eyes were dead, and it made Alex want to cry at the thought of what he must have gone through. He refused to talk about it. He would just say that it was all just a figment of their imaginations. He tried to act like everything was normal, but his eyes betrayed him.
“Let’s go eat,” he said, “I want Chinese.”
“Again?” Alex said. She turned back to the window. “We had Chinese twice this week.”
“Yes,” Sam said, “again.”
He shut the door behind him without giving Alex another chance to protest. He was meaner to her now. There was a distance between them, and Alex didn’t know how to close it. It pained her to think she would lose her best friend after everything else that had been lost to her.
As they walked into the restaurant and followed the waitress to their usual spot, Alex saw something that made her tune out everything else in the room. Sam was talking to her as they settled into the worn cushions, but she wasn’t listening. Her senses were honed in on unsuspecting prey, and her eyes narrowed. The very same guy that had caused her previous humiliation at this restaurant was now at the buffet, about to fill his plate with Orange Chicken. Alexandra stood from the table and made her way over to him, picking up a fresh plate on the way.
“That’s my favorite,” she said with a smile, as she closed in on him, “be sure and save me some.”
“Sure,” the guy said, his eyes taking in the sight of Alex. He stepped aside and offered the spatula to her with a charming smile on his face. “Here, you go first.”
“Thanks,” she said as she moved in on the steaming tray of food. “I’m Alexandra.”
Sam watched the entire interaction from their booth. His best friend returned to the table after chatting for a moment with the guy, a folded piece of a napkin in her hand. Her eyes were trained on the paper as she sat down.
“You got a number,” Sam said. He tried to sound enthusiastic but he failed miserably.
“Yeah,” she said as she tossed it onto the table and focused on her plate of food. “But I don’t think I even want it now.”
With a heavy sigh, Alex stood from her post at the window. She cracked it open a couple of inches to let in the crisp night air. Her eyes fell to the scar on her wrist that was finally scabbed over enough to begin healing. Her fingers prodded the soft flesh around it. It had been nearly a week since they had been back, but to Alex it felt like a year.
She thought this was what she wanted. All she had wanted was to get back home, back to her friends and her life. But now, things were different. Home wasn’t home anymore. She couldn’t forget everything that had happened, and she didn’t really want to. She was a changed person, and she could never go back to what she was before. She felt empty inside.
Her thoughts turned to the always impeccable demon lord as she settled into her bed for the night, hoping to get some sleep. Hoping to have a dream. A dream of that demon lord and that world so far away and out of her reach. The world that had made her feel more alive than ever before in her life.
She closed her eyes, focusing on the memories she had of Balthazar. A heavy weight settled on her chest, pressing the breath from her lungs. She remembered his touch, the warmth of his skin and the heat in his eyes as he watched her. She missed him more than she ever thought it was possible to miss someone. A blush heated her cheeks, and her body flushed hot. She kicked the sheets off, and sat up in the bed. The breath caught in her throat as her eyes fell on the statuesque form of Balthazar in the glow of the moonlight that filtered into her room.
“Did you think I would let you escape me so easily, girl?” the corners of Balthazar’s lips turned ever so slightly upward.
“You’re mine,” Balthazar said, stepping closer to her bed. “Wherever you go I will find you.”
The End
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