Daemonophobia; The Fear of Demons

Danny is a half step behind me as we enter the Science Room. When we get in the door, I stop short.

The room, which is normally cold and dark, has most of the shutters open. Sunlight defuses through layers of dust on the windows, basking the desks and chairs in soft, warm light.

Mrs. Jones. . . Charlotte. . . The teacher stands at her desk, shuffling papers. She looks up at us and smile. An actual smile.

" Hello. Welcome back." She says.

"Um. Mrs. Jo--

"Charlotte Coal. Ms.Charlotte Coal." Her smile widens, "I'm not a missus anymore."

"What? Really?!" My voice spikes, and I feel Danny's fingers press into the small of my back. My excitement clenches before it truly forms. Black haze pools into her desk.

"Yeah. Divorce papers and an arrest over winter break." She finishes.

I smile with her, but take note of the delicate Dragon Daemon resting now at her desk.

RRRRRIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNGGGGGGG

The shrill bell sends Danny and I to our chairs. Our Classmates come into the room. I watch each one pause, taking in the bright room. One even double checks the room number.

I feel a tapping at my elbow and look down at the notebook Danny is pushing against my arm.

The Daemon??
Isn't Gone Yet.
Weaker, right?
Yeah.

He picks up his pencil to write some thing else, but my attention is pulled to the Dragon. It flickers and stretches, black wisps flaring off. Almost like it knows it is the topic of conversation, both red glaring eyes fixate themselves on me.

I stare at it, fascinated by the subtle changes. It's feathered and softening looking. Still detailed, but the edges of the scales and points of fang and claw are dull and faded.

Its weaken state doesn't stop it from sitting up and sneering at me fiercely. Somehow, it's telling me it remembers the last time.

The last time. My brain brings this to the forefront of my awareness. My spine prickles and muscles cringe in an ache.

I tilt my head, making my hair fall to the side. My pale eye takes in the Dragon form. Go. Away. I feel my gaze harden, fighting against the red glare.

The Dragon huffs, plumes of black smoke coming from its flared nose. Then it shifts, dropping its form. The shape of the Black dragon lets go of its form and black smoke drips off the desk, like dry ice smoke. It's not casted, though.

The teacher continues on with her lesson, and I tune in on it. Near the end of class she gives us free time to start on the homework.

I watch her as she quietly erases 'Mrs. Jones' from the corner of the board where it's written next to the homework. Silently, "Ms. Charlotte' is written across the blackboard. in bold unashamed letters.

I smile and go back to my work. My eyes meet Danny's and he smiles back. We go back to science, not really---

"Gah!"

A shooting pain crackles up my leg. I look down and almost scream my lungs out. The Daemon hisses at me, seething with rage and vibrating in a haze black as coal smoke. So black, my eyes can only makes out the faint outlines around the blazing red eyes.

I scuffle away, knocking into Danny. It's trying to kill me. To legitimately kill me. My eyes go wide as the demon quakes on the floor, spitting off violent black plumes. By now the rest of the class is watching me. I can feel their eyes. Watching. But the raging demon is in my vision, alone.

It lunges, red mouth open wide. It's aiming for my heart! I kick out to stop it, catching it in the teeth. Black pointed Daemon teeth, which clamp down hard, ghosting through my shoe and stinging right into my flesh.

My leg convulses violently. Pins and needles tear at my nerves and my face contorts in pain. MY fist curl around Danny's hand. Help. Me. NOW! My eyes scream up at him.

"Enough! Stop This!" Ms. Coal says sternly.

I'm looking at her, my pale blue eye flickers rapidly. My mind seizes hold of my panic, strangling it. I turn to face the daemon with a new mind set.

It looks up at me with red, glaring, hateful eyes. It has stopped thrashing and sits there calmly, teeth clenching my foot and claws scraping my ankle.

Be banished from this place. Let go of me and plague me no longer. Ever.

It hisses. Then draws its black claws out of my skin. The red mouth, with its black sharp teeth, opens wides, sneering at me.

I flinch my foot away, but I can feel the blood soaking into my sock. I look over at my teacher and she looks relieved. Then I realize something. She's not letting go of the Daemon...That's why it's still here.

My eyes flicker back to the demon sitting on the floor. It looks back at me, red eyes less sinister and it fades. Drastically. Finally it looks like a loose gray smoke lizard, instead of the Dragon of Smoke.

It turns and walks up the row of desks and chairs, past students who are staring at me still, and then it leaps to the teachers desk. As it lands, a great mass of black smoke wisps away from it, then is disappears.

The air lightens and I sigh, leaning heavily onto Danny. He wraps his arms around me and we sit silently, ignoring everything else, everyone else.

Slowly, the stunned students and classmates lose interest. One by one they slowly forget what happened. At least Ihope they forget.

I look down at my ankle and draw in a sharp breath. My pant leg is a dull brown where the denim soaked up blood, but the wound is closed and scabbed over. It's still red and raw, dried blood cracking around the edges. I draw air into my lungs in a sharp hiss as I watch the skin knit together quickly.

Danny laces his fingers with mine and quietly runs his free hand through my hair. I tilt my head back and breath my thanks to him and he nods to me.

By the time the bell rings, people have gone back to ignoring us and my foot and ankle are healed, even the blood stains are fading quickly. I still limp slightly out the door.

I look back and smile at Ms. Charlotte Coal. She gives me a mixed worried, relived look, but smiles nonetheless. I step out the door and lose myself as just another student going to class, and not as some daemon caster.

I skim through the crowd and manage to float to my history class with out drowning in the tide of people. Luna looks up at me and her eyes go wide.

"Your eye is going crazy." She hisses in a harsh whisper, "it's flashing all different shades of blue. Really fast, too. No, really it is. Look."

She pulls out a pocket mirror from her bag and hands it to me. Sure enough, my pale eyes vibrates between various shades of blue, scaling from white to deep ocean blue. I look back up at Luna.

Do you think anyone else can see it shifting?" I whisper, leaning over the space between chairs.

Luna shrugs and waves around the room, encouraging me to test it. I nod and look at the people. Strange how you can go to school with these people for half a year and almost neverlook at them. I marvel silently to myself. Eventually one of the arriving students, a brown haired boy with deep honey colored eyes meets my gaze.

He meets my eyes in a shy manner, not staring at all. He walks to his seat at the front of the room, but twists around to looks at me again and smiles softly.

I smile nervously and look back down at my notebook. I flicker my eyes up and see that he's been pulled into a conversation with the people around him. I sigh in relief. Luna, on the other hand, has turned in her chair and faces me with a smug grin on her face.

"I don't think they can see it. I think it's just us." She says, "I also think that he likes you. Did you see how he looked at you and smiled."

She smirks and I just shrug and roll my eyes." That's the last thing I need."

Her laughter is over shadowed by the loud bell squealing its death cry. History plays out before us and we all sit silently for it.