Daemonophobia; The Fear of Demons

~|| Thursday ||~

I lean against the row of lockers outside Algabra 1 Honors and stare out the rain splattered window. My eyes flick over to the hall as I hear footsteps coming.

Danny looks up from his mp3 player as he walks up to me. I try to stretch my neck around to see it. Danny tilts it towards me and I hear him chuckle lightly.

"So, did you... um" He pauses, "'ask permission?'"

I roll my eyes at the influx he puts on the words,but I nod anyway.

"I can go with you, and I must be home by 12, and 'Be safe'. Got it?" I mimic Mrs. Hale's maternal instructions.

I look up at him, and he gets a wide smile.

"This is a good way to start off my day." He smiles, looking out the window across the hall and watching the rain pelt against the pane of glass.

The bell rings and we go into math class. The homework gives us all problems so we're stuck on it for the rest of class.

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"Today, we are finishing our self-portraits. If everyone finished within ten or fifteen minutes to the end, I'll explain the next project. If not, it can wait till tomorrow." Mrs. Moon strolls around the room, seeing where everyone is. "Please remember that there is no real rush. Art should be fun."

She finishes with a smile and everyone bends over their paper. I look around the room before turning to my own. The rain hasn't let up, and the room is freckled by the shadows and I'm light of the rain speckling the windows.

My paper, with its almost finished portrait, looks lifeless. All that's left are the eyes. I frown, knitting my brow together in frustration. My breath heaves out of me, frustrated as well.

Finally, I put my pencil to paper and start to sketch the eyebrows. That only takes a few minutes, so then I'm left right back at the start, staring at my paper.

I scrunch my nose, and then force the lead to lay down the shape of my eyes. However, there is no iris or pupil, only the blank white eyes. I prop my elbow on the table and lean my head into my hand.

I don't know why I find it so hard to draw my right eye, but I've never liked depicting my pale blue eye along side its forest green counter part.

My pencil hovers over the page, waiting for my brain to put it to action. I look up and watch the clock as it ticks away the time. The class is barely half over.

I close my eyes and breath in deep. Then, I open my eyes and start to draw the iris and pupil of my left green eye. I lean in close to my paper, working on the details of the eye. Once it's finished, all I'm left with now is the blankness of the other eye.

Out of the corner of my eye, my pale one, I catch the movement of black smoke. Without moving my head, I flick my eyes up to the forming Daemon butterfly.

Its red eyes form and the spiky wings open and close slowly. It is dense and dark. The black wisp spikes almost seem to throb in the air.

My fist clenches, and I glare down at it in annoyance. I don't want to deal with you now. I stare down at it, almost demanding it to disperse and vanish.

It quivers and the opening and closing of its wing becomes more rapid. Then, the black smoke wisps start to unravel. Quickly the black smoke disperses, and the Daemon butterfly disappears.

My eyes go wide as I stare at the now vacant spot on my desk. Without really thinking about it, I turn in my chair and look at the girl who is the host.

She's sitting up straight and her eye blink a little, like she's just stepped out into sunlight. Then, she bends over her paper and a smiles spreads over her her face as she starts to work steadily at her portrait.

I twist back around, my thoughts going crazy, my heart speed up and my lungs pull in short ragged gasps of air.

"Ms. Moon, I need to go to the bathroom." I explain while I make a swift exit.

When I get to the bathroom, I lean over the sink, willing my breath to slow down. My forehead rests against the cold mirror.

After a while, I'm able to breath normally. My mind, instead of darting between hundreds of paths, picks up one train.

What did I just do? I told it to leave, and it did. It's not gone, it's not casted off. It's just not there in the room. Can I control these things, or was this a one time deal?

I lean away from the mirror and look at my reflection. With one hand, I pull my black bangs out of my right eye. At the core of it seems calm, and I lean forward to stare at it closely.

The muscles of the iris pull to refocus my vision. The color shimmers and flickers. The colors shifts gently between pale white blue to a more natural blue. It's not luminescent or dramatic; my eyes shift colors all the time. However, these shifts in color are in hyper speed, which startles me.

I drop my bangs and close my eyes. My head shakes as I try to clear my head. Then, I look back up at the mirror. My eye is it's normal pale blue, tinted with the more natural blue, like normal. Which is an odd term to apply to it, but it fits.

I drop my bangs and and take a deep, deep breath. I try to calm down, still gripping the edge of the cold sink. I shake my head clear and walk back to class.

I quickly draw in my right eye for my portrait, finishing it as the bell rings for Lunch. I put it away and James and I walk out. In the hall he starts to ask me me a question.

"Um. . . Gry? I was wondering if you wouldn't mind. . . er. . ." James stammers through the start of the sentence that I don't think I want to hear.

Please don't ask me out. That would be bad. Please,Please please don't ask me out.

By now, we're in the cafeteria lobby and I've totally psyched myself out. The pattering rain on the windows doesn't help, because it means I can't sit outside. I'm gonna die!

James turns to me, trying to finish his sentence, "Gry? Are you busy on--Ugh HEY!"

The cause for the broken sentence is Danny, who choose this moment to shove James away from my side and take his place.

My eyes dart between the two of them as Danny places his arm around my shoulders and starts leading me away.

"Do you think Mikey'll mind if ya sit with me?" He says, whispering the words into my ear.

I notice at how Danny excludes James from the question. I shake my head and Danny smiles, guiding us through food line and then out of the cafeteria.

"Awesome." Danny, arm still around my shoulders, walks us into the hall and to a staircase, "Come, Come."

I walk up the stairs with him and barely notice as he takes his arm away from my shoulders. Out of the corner of my eye, I see him look behind us and the turn back smiling.

"And another successful rescue, brought to you by Daniel Elliot Andrews." His words sparkle as he smiles. I blink a couple times, and then look at him, meeting his blue eyes.

"Your middle name is Elliot?" I ask as we start walking down the hall on the second floor.

"Yeah." Danny looks down and smiles shyly, "Here we are."

He opens the door to the balcony of the gymnasium, ushering me into the empty open space. We take seats on the metal bleachers and start eating. A couple people are playing basketball below on the gun floor. Because we're in the balcony the noise has a sort of muffled suspension to it.

"This is cool." I say absentmindedly as I watch the rain dance down the shatterproof windows. I look over at Danny and smile, "Are you blushing?"

"No." He says quickly, a little too quickly, and kinda turns his head away, curtaining his face with his hair.

"Yeah, you are." I breath a soft laugh, but leave him be after that.

A little while later, I feel someone watching me, so I flick my eyes up to meet Danny's gaze. He smiles and offers me a Skittle from the bag he'd bought at lunch. It's quiet, with the exception of the basketball down on the floor of the gym.

I slide close to him and nab two from the bag. Danny rests his arm around my shoulders lightly, his eyes asking me if he should move away. After a moment of tension, I relax against his side, and his arm relaxes around me.

We listen to the rain against the windows for the rest of lunch passes.