Daemonophobia; The Fear of Demons

~||Thursday||~

I walk into History and the seat next to mine is occupied by a familiar head of hair. Luna. Her eyes are closed and her head bobs in time to the music in her head phones.

As I slide into my seat, she seems to notice me. "Hay! Gry, I'm so glad I've got a friend in at least one class." Her smile is genuine.

"No problem. Glad you could finally come. " I smirk, and Luna laughs, a twinkle lighting her eyes.

Her eyes. Wow. They really are different colors. One Grassy green and the other deep brown. I flick my eyes between them and bit my bottom lip at the train of thought that is pounding away in my head. Can she see them too? Luna notices my stare and stops laughing, but a wide grin spreads over her face.

"Yeah, my eyes are cool. huh?" She turns to her notebook and taps her pencil against it. "But yours are amazing. I bet the world looks different to you too, right?"

I watch her eyes shift slowly over, watching me, watching my reaction. She's testing me. She can see Daemons, but she doesn't want to give it away if I don't.

"Yeah. It does." I turn away from her too, but I keep watching her in the corner of my eye. "Wanna sit with us tomorrow?" She nods and opens her mouth to speak.

"CLASS! The bells isn't working so we're just going to start now. Please pull out your notes for the quiz -- Class collectively groans -- "That I told you about yesterday. Sheesh, people. You'd think I didn't warn you about these things."

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~|| Friday ||~

Art drags on and the charcoal sketch of the dress is giving everyone trouble. I'm not paying attention to my sketch I've got other things on my mind. More pressing things.

The bell rings and I'm ready for it, darting out of the room. I get my food from the cafeteria and head up the stairs to the balcony. I'm the last one there; Mikey's already reading and eating while Danny and Luna talk over their food.

Danny looks up at me and smiles. Luna has a slightly worried look on her face, which I'm sure mirrors my own. I sit with them and from the corner of my eye, I see Mikey look up from his book. The air tingles with tension and words unsaid.

"Hey, Gry." Luna smiles and I return it. "So... about your eyes...."

"Can you see them?" I whisper, hoping that I can play this off as a joke if I need to. I'm looking down at my plate, so I can't see her or Danny.

A moment of silence hangs in the room and I start to feel regret and panic swelling inside me. The pain of it makes my stomach knots and I'm on the verge of throwing up. I can feel it coming... the bile is burning my throat. I canfeel it rising! I'm gonna throw up.

"See. I told you, Loon. You're not the only one."

I snap my head up and look at Danny when he says this. My eyes flick to Luna and then to Mikey, who is now sitting straight up. Luna looks at me, and the panic subsides in me.

"Yeah. I can see them." Luna answers me and smiles. The rest of lunch we sit side by side, talking and consoling each other.

She tells me that two years ago a car accident with a drunk driver knocked her into a coma for a week. She woke up and there was a Crow Daemon on her headboard. It reached down, screeching with its purple-black beak and ...

"Well, you know the rest I guess." Luna says, "After six months of blindness and a flash of light, I got my sight back. I saw more and more of them. I didn't know what to do, so I would just scream and tell them to go away. Sometimes they would just vanish, but other times... other time, after I'd talk to the person and asked how they were doing and then told the daemon to leave, the daemon would never come back."

"Wait..." Mikey interrupts, speaking for the first time, "You mean, you've casted a Daemon before?"

Luna looks at him and we all go silent for our own reasons. I look over at Danny, who is sitting beside me. He smiles at me and leans close, kissing my cheek softly.

"Yeah. I have. If that's what you call it, then." Luna says, "It's not really that hard. You just have to have the person tell you what the problem is. They have to want it --"

"Gone." I finish for her, and she nods, "How well can you see them? I mean... I can see them all the way down to the smoke haze, which is when they're weak, along with the really detailed ones."

"Oh... Well, I think they have to be pretty strong for me to see them. They're kinda blurry though. Now, let's suspend this little Twilight Zone episode and go back to lunch. " Luna says and starts to eat her lunch.

"Wow." Mikey says under his breath and goes back to his book.

I dart my eyes to the side to look at Danny. He's smirking with a twinkle is his calm blue eyes. Did he know all along? I shake my head clear and try to finish my untouched food before the bell rings.

RRRRRIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNGGGGGGG

The bell startles me, causing me to jump so hard I almost land in Danny's lap. I turn bright red from embarrassment as Danny chuckles softly, wrapping an arm around my waist.

"Come, Come. The wonderful world of science awaits us." He smirks and we leave the balcony of the gymnasium.

I wave to Luna and she waves back. She just so happens to share the next class with Mikey. I twist around so I'm walking backwards and then, when I'm sure he's looking, I make a heart with my hands. I see Mikey laugh and return my gesture.

Because I'm walking backwards, I slam right into someone. The force of it pitches me forward, landing hard on my knees and making the contents of my messenger bag slide out onto the floor. I look around and brush my hair away from my face to see who it is.

The girl from art.

She is... or rather, was carrying a large stack of books and papers, which is now splashed all over the hallway. The flood of students returning from lunch is unforgiving and sneers at the two of us. Danny stoops over and hands me my books. I take them and stuff them quickly into my bag.

I stand and brace against the waves of people. I can see that the girl hasn't had any luck getting her things together. Some people are stepping on the papers and some of the nastier ones are kicking the books.

I set my jaw and move around people to pick up books and papers. I turn and smile to see Danny helping the girl up from the floor. I look around and snatch one last paper. It's a sketch, just like the rest or the papers. They're really good, too.

"Here. I'm really sorry for running into you." I say, handing the things over to her, "My name is Gry. We have the same--"

"Art class. Yeah. Well, um... thanks but I got to get to class." With that she turns and disappears into the crowd. But I saw the black wisp butterfly on her shoulder all the same.

I sigh and let Danny take my hand. We make it into our class right before the bell. I prop my messenger bag on my lap and try to organize the mess in my bag. Somehow, my science homework surfaces, with major wrinkle and a minor rip. I smooth out the worst of it before going back to the chaos that seemingly exploded in my bag.

My focus finally snaps up when Mrs. Jones, our science teacher, steps up to our desk to check my work. With her drifted the smell of cigarette smoke, and the black wisp Dragon swirls on her shoulder. I smile up to her and turn my paper so she can see it.

She reaches for it, her eyebrows furrowed together at the wrinkles. I grit my teeth as the daemon strolls down her outstretch arm and sits on my desk. As the teacher moves about the room, the Daemon looks at me with its red eyes.

It's stronger. There are wings forming and a trail of smoky black spikes hovers along its spine. It tail has barbs on it now and it twitches around lazily like the tail of a cat. It tilts its head, and looks at me intently. Go away. Leave me alone. I glare right back at it. I try to command it away, but I'm scared. What if I can't do this and it back fires?

It opens its mouth and the rows of black teeth sneer at me. The little forked tongue, a bright red like the eyes, snakes out and licks one of the eyes. I cringe. I'd seen geckos do that, but seeing a Daemon clean its eye somehow causes a shiver to crackle down my spine.

The demon starts towards me, each foot fall making a little haze of black smoke curl around its feet.. No. No. NO. NO! Get away from me! I choke the scream in my throat and don't make a sound. The Daemon tilts its head again...

And then looks at Danny.

"No. Go away."

My voice is firm and leaves no room for loopholes. It grins at me and then disappears. I sigh in relief. Then I look up and feel my blood freeze. The class is staring at me and the teacher is giving me a cold glare.

"And why, Ms. Gry Willow do you think it is acceptable to respond to me that way when I ask you to come to the board?" Mrs. Jones asks with ice in her words.

I am speechless. My eyes fall to my desk and don't go up again till Mrs. Jones continues to teach. I dare a glance at Danny, who flicks his eyes to me. Under the desk he reaches out to me and intertwines our fingers. It helps calm me, but not enough.

The bell rings and I leap for the door. . . too late. The teacher's voice chills the air.

"Gry. Stay behind please."

My body goes numb. The black haze of the room thickens, and Danny's fingers slip from mine and I turn to go up to her desk.

"I wish to speak with you."