Daemonophobia; The Fear of Demons

~|| Friday Afternoon ||~

I leave my study hall and start walking to the bus line. Danny appears out of the crowd and I look to see what his listening to. He tilts the screen of the mp3 so I can see, before starting up the steps of a bus.

Danny slides into an emergency exit window seat, and I cower next to him. I say cower because the bus has several swirling black wisps.

"When is your stop?" I whisper to him.

In responds, Danny leans close to me, bringing his mouth close to my ear, "Second stop."

I sigh, then turn to look across Danny and out the window. Black smoke wisps at the edges of my vision. My fists clench and I bite my lip.

"Here."

Out of nowhere, Danny hands me one ear bud, his fingers opening one of my fists. I give him a blank look and he rolls his eyes. I put in the headphone and a guitar rift streams into my ear.

I feel my lips turn up in a smile and Danny notices and lets the song play through. It distracts me from the now glaring red eyes around the bus.

At the first stop a group of six girls leave and the haze of black smoke clears. I watch them and each has a small demon sparrows fluttering about them. My fists uncurl as they walk away and I'm able to relax while I wait for stop two.

Danny nudges me and we get off the bus at said second stop. I take a deep breath of untainted air and look around.

"Hey... I know where we are." I say,

Danny nods and starts walking down a side street. Since the ear bud is still in, I choose to follow to avoid having it yanked from my head.

Because, I'm walk right next to him, my fingers brush against his. I bit my bottom lip and hope he hadn't noticed. In the back of my head, I laugh a little at the moment and it's cliche quality.

"My house is kinda far from the afternoon stop. Sorry for making you walk so far." Danny says, barely loud enough for me to hear over the music.

I just give a little half smile and a shrug. The motion from shrugging makes the back of my hand collide softly into his fingers.

"And, to tell you the truth, " Danny hooks his pinky finger around mine, making my skin jump and a blush appear on my cheeks, "I sorta didn't expect you to say yes."

Danny leaves our fingers laces together, with his free hand he gently takes out the ear bud and whispers softly into my ear.

"I'm very glad you did, though."

I grin and the blush goes a shade deeper. I turn away to hide it and Danny seems satisfied with my reaction. I hear him chuckle softly as he returns the headphone to me.

"We have arrived." Daniel Elliot Andrews says as he turns us to walk up to the front door. "Watch your step."

~ + ~. . . . . . . . . . ~ + ~ . . . . . . . . . . ~ + ~ + ~ + ~. . . . . . . . . . ~ + ~ . . . . . . . . . . ~ + ~

"Well, um. . . Yeah. Like I said, I didn't really expect you to say yes." Danny says from the center of his room, kicking things out of the way.

The reason I'm at his house is that we agreed to hang out here before going to the party that's a block from his house. So now, I'm standing at the door frame smiling as he clears a small amount of floor space.

Books, Art supplies, clothes... more clothes lay in scattered piles. So far most of the stuff has been relocated to under the bed and against the walls. It reminds me of my room, which also shares the 'lived-in' style of organized chaos.

I bite back a laugh as Danny finally gets the room somewhat presentable. He looks around and when he has his back turned I hear him mumble something along the lines of 'wow, I'm making this awkward.'

I hide my snicker by looking at the bookshelf next to the door. The shelves are full of Cd's and books and little knicks and a few knacks. Get it? There is only one shelf that isn't overflowing.

"Hey Danny." I call him, "Do you play this?"

He looks at the saxophone that I'm pointing to. He smiles and nods. I lightly finger the instrument and meet Danny's gaze.

"That's really..." My sentence hovers in the air before crashing into silence. Shoot. I can't say that I think sax players are the coolest thing since sliced bread.

"Yeah... I know. It's kinda pathetic, I know." He says, misreading my cut-off sentence.

"NO! No, no!" I walk over to him and touch his wrist, making him look up at me, "It's not pathetic. It is the single most amazing thing ever."

Danny smiles and gently takes my hand."Thank you. . . Would you like to hear something?"

I nod and we walk to the bookshelf. Danny takes the Saxophone and for the next two minutes I get serenaded. My heart melted, reformed and sped up to patter hard against my ribs.

Slowly, Danny puts down the instrument, and I sigh contently. I hear Danny laugh softly. I look up at him and his blue eyes dance. My heart races slightly, and I smile.

He leans close to me and lightly his lips brush against my cheek. My fingers brush against the spot as he pulls away and I watch his eyes flicker.

"We'd better get going if we still wanna hit that party." Danny says. He starts to lace up his shoe, then looks over his shoulder at me, "Do we still wanna hit that party?"

"Yeah!" I smile wide and excitement courses into my bloodstream.

We walk out of the room, and Danny holds out his hand for me and I surprise myself when I take it. The house is empty; Danny told me his mother works long hours at the clinic as head nurse.

"The house is a few blocks over."Danny says, slowly swinging our interlocked hands, "We'll be there in like... five minutes."

I smile softly, revealing in the feel of or fingers laced together. I flex my fingers, gently taking in the curve and line of his under my fingerprints.

"Hey, Gry. . ."

My eyes shoot up from the sidewalk and connect with Danny's. I can tell he's thinking over something, but in the end he just smiles and squeezes my hand. We round the corner and the faint pulse of music vibrates through the air.

Within mere seconds, Danny and I find ourselves in the thick of a swirling mass of heat and bodies and music, all pulsing together, blending and twirling as one great living thing.

Danny leads me through the house and into the kitchen. There are maybe half a dozen kids in the room, but I barely bother to count them. I recognize a few people from school, but there are a lot of new faces.

I take the plastic cup Danny hands me and sip at it silently, still watching the room. The soda flows over my tongue, washing it with the faint spike of alcohol. It surprises me, but I swallow and then look up at Danny, who is pouring his own drink.

His eyes dart between me and the cup and he winces, realizing what he'd done. He offers out his hand to take back the drink, but I shake my head. He gives me an apologetic smile and turns to look around the ro-

"DANNY!!!!!!"

A petite girl around my age races past me and throws her arms around him. My eyes widen as they take in her multi-colored hair. I think it was blond to begin with, but it's hard to tell around the green, pink and blue.

My body coils in, overwhelmed and overloaded with what's all happening. Loud music, spiked soda, clingy girls, I'm starting to regret coming.

With a lurch, I notice that the girl has taken my arm and Danny's and is leading us through the house and up the stairs.

The haze of black wisps become lighter as we go into a room that looks like the study. I look around at the two leather chairs, a desk, many shelves of books and a fireplace. The two chairs are occupied by boys I don't know, although one I've seen around school.

The music is still shaking the floor, but it's possible to carry on a conversation without the need to yell. And that's what we do.

"Hey, I'm Luna. How ya likin' my party?"

"We just got here, Loon." Danny answers, "How come you haven't been in school?"

She tells him how she fell down the stairs first day and dislocated her shoulder, but I get lost because I'm not really paying attention, on her anyway.

One of the boys as a forming demon by his arm. I try not to watch it because I don't want the guy who's acting host to think I'm looking at him. But The wispy smoky shape drops to the ground, watching me with a bleary red eye.

It's faint and dull, not even close to the upper class of Daemons that I've seen. It barely has a shape; it is only a puff of black haze. I narrow my eyes and glare at it, willing it away.

The host stands and walks out of the room, making the wisp disperse and emptying a chair. Danny crosses the room and sits on the arm, letting me have the seat. I wonder if it was me that made it leave. Was it doing what I'd said, or was it something else.

"So, what's the name of your date?" Luna's high pitched words pull my focus back to her.

"My name is Gry." My eyes, pale and green, dart to hers.

I wait for the snide remark or a sneer, like almost everyone else, but instead Luna smiles at me. She smiles and tips her cup to me.

"Awesome name. It's nice not to have another Heather, Emily, or Brittany running around." She smiles, leaning against the arm of the other chair. {A/N these are great names. Not trying to be mean, but they were the first ones I thought of.}

I smile back to her, taking another sip of tainted soda. Again, the alcohol bites my tongue, but I let it slide down easily. Then, I notice something strange about Luna. Her eyes don't match. The right one is a deep rich brown, while the left glimmers a Light grassy green. I open my mouth to ask her abou---

"Hey, Danny. You in for tonight?" The boy occupying the chair speaks, barely above the music. I look at him and I feel my eyes widen at the cigarette he twirls between his fingers.

I turn my wide eyes to Danny, amazed at this new side of him. But his attention is turned to the other boy. His face, Danny's, falls a little and he no longer has a smile playing in his eyes.

"No, Kevin. You know I'm getting out of that stuff." Danny calmly puts an arm around my shoulder, "Besides I've gotta look out for Gry."

He smiles and when our eyes meet I feel I a little of his calmness gifted to me and I smile back. Danny leans close, kissing my cheek. As he pulls away, he starts to whisper something into my ear, but Luna's cooing interrupts him.

"Awwwww.... you two are so cute." She says, sinking into the chair, which meant curling up into Kevin's lap. He doesn't seem to mind, and I look away as they. . . make out. Ew.

"Thanks Luna." Danny mumbles, then he turns to me again. "Would you like to go downstairs? To get something to eat, or drink , or... uh... dance?"

"Food sounds good." I reply, standing up and moving towards the door, trying to ignore the smooching couple.

In the hall, Danny's arm snakes around my waist. He brings his lips close to my ear so that his words don't get lost in the throbbing music. I feel my spine crawl from his closeness, but I stiffen and don't let myself flinch away.

"Are you doing okay?"

I'm only able to nod. Again, my body is overloaded; between the music, the smoky haze and Danny's hot breath tickling my neck, I'm surprised I'm even able to respond with a nod.

The sky outside the windows in dark and the house is dimly lit, casing strange and lingering shadows over the hosts and their Daemons. I shiver, but Danny leads us through with skilled precision. He still has his arm around my waist as we enter the kitchen.

I fill my cup with only soda and I notice Danny do the same. I touch his arm gently and he flicks his calm blue eyes up to me. I smile and point to a bowl of chocolate-covered pretzels. Danny follows my gaze and releases me.

As I move across the tiled expanse, I see someone catch his attention and start to talk. Well, it's more like yell. But they're trying to have a conversation. ... It feels odd not having Danny near me. Odd indeed. I hope it's easy to find him. I'd hate to get lost in this house.

With that thought, I pick up a few pretzels, put them in a napkin, and turn to find Danny.A relieved sigh escapes my lungs when I see him right where he was before.

I make my feet move back towards him, but a mass of heat and flesh, a drunken party-goer, puts a hand on the counter on either side of me, pinning me in place.

"Hello, pretty thing. Had enough to drink yet?" He looks down at me, eyes clouded over. The dark wisp daemon on his shoulder sneer down at me with its red eye.

My eyes flash between the host and the black Daemon monkey. I can't stand the sharp breath and I feel my knees buckling. Go away! GO AWAY! My thoughts scream out, but my throat closes off as the boy leans his face towards me.

"Get Off Her!"

I open my eyes, not realizing I'd closed them in my terror. Daniel stands in front of me, the mass sprawled out on the floor. I look to find Danny's fingers curled in tight fists. He must've punched him.

My fingers gently take the fabric of Danny's shirt. His fists uncurl and he turns to look at me. The room around us swirls on, undisturbed by us and the fallen mass. It still overwhelms my mind, blocking my thoughts from forming. Silently, we leave the kitchen.

Danny looks at me, and gently brushes some hair out of my right, pale, eye. It falls back into place, but Danny smiles and leans close to whisper in my ear.

"One dance?" His words almost get lost in the music.

I flick my eyes around to torrent of motion and then back to Danny's eyes. He waits for my answers. I nod, barely, but Danny's smile widens and he kisses my cheek. "Brave girl." He shoats of the cacophony of sound as he leads me to floor.

I feel him place is hand on my hips and together we let the music take us. We stay for more than one dance. Soon a shoat goes out for a slow dance and the music changes. Couples get closer together and the tide of music swells. I look up at Danny, kinda clueless as to what we're going to do.

He smiles and curls his arms around my waist, pulling me close. My heart kicks from inside my chest and I put my hands on his shoulders. He's so close. I close my eyes, the excitement of it all wearing me thin. That, and Danny feels so comfortable. I feel so safe.

I open my eyes and smile. Danny has dipped his head close to mine, his eye closed too. I bite my bottom lip as I study his face, so calm and serene. Almost like he can sense my gaze he opens his eyes and returns my smile.

One hand releases my waist and his finger trail along my cheek. Again, my heart knocks against my ribs. Danny leans closer and I feel his breath brush against my lips. I close my eyes and -_-

The song ends.

I sigh and look down at my shoes as everyone starts to pull away from each other. I start to turn and leave, but the grip around my waist stops me. Danny pulls me back against his chest and tilts my chin up gently.

His lips press against mine and my heart stops for a beat. As his fingers lace behind my neck, my heart starts to race spasticly. My hands grip into fist around handfuls of his shirt, pulling him closer.

Whoa. Wait a second. What's this? Stop THAT!

I pull away and gasp, my lungs burning. Gradually, my senses start to work again. I'm still pressed against Danny's chest and the music starts to rage again, load and pounding. My throat feels rough, and my mouth is open in surprise and pulls in air.

Danny places his hand over mine, and I realize they're still balled into fists. I flinch back and he takes my hand. I see him chuckle a little, but I can't hear it over the music. The dance floor starts to fill again and Danny whispers in my ear. I nod and we leave the dance floor.

Together, we leave the party so that I can get home before 12. It's already past 11:30. I smile and Danny catches it and returns it. My heart, the darn thing, smacks into my chest again. We walk, our arms around each others waist, to the end of the street. I point in the direction of my house.

Danny leans close and whispers in my ear, "Did you have fun?"

"Lot's. Thanks for asking me...well... out, I guess." I look up at him, his calm blue eyes meet mine. "Danny, why did you ki-"

My sentence halts as Danny puts a fingers across my lips, gently stopping me. I roll my eyes and tilt away. He smiles sheepishly and drops his hand, tucking his thumb into the pockets of his jeans.

We reach my house, which is only a few streets over and a block or so up from Danny's. I look at the front door, and feel my heart collide within me, pounding everywhere from my throat to my head, to my gut. Is it always this way?

Danny turns me so I'm facing him. I manage a nervous shy smile, and it makes him chuckle softly. It's a beautiful sound. He leans close and gently brushes his lips across my cheek. My spine shivers from the contact, and a smile spreads over my face.

"Good night, Gry." Danny whispers into my ear, "Sweet Dreams."

With that he releases me hands and I start towards the door. Then I thought strikes me and I turn on my heels.

Danny wraps his arms around me as I hug him close to me. Then I go into the house before I have a chance to make a fool of my self.

I smile like an idiot and go off to bed, the happiest girl in the world.