Burning You Down

I hate hospitals. They smell weird and they’re full of sick people… but on the other hand, that’s what hospitals are for, right?

The walls were white, of course, bright venomously green wallpapers covering some of them. The contrast was just killing my eyes, especially considering that the wallpapers were floral patterned and the result was that the whole room seemed to be invaded by hostile poisonous plants. I suppose that whoever designed this hoped that it would brighten up the atmosphere, but it just made me want to throw up. I settled more comfortably, if that was even possible on my unbelievably uncomfortable chair. Uh. Hospitals.

“Mr. Bostwick?”

I looked up. A nurse dressed in white was peeking out of the nearest room with a polite smile.

“Yeah?”, I gave her a smile back, even though I felt a certain anxiousness deep in my guts.

“You can come in now, he’s awake. I let him know you came to visit him.”, she gave me a nod towards another door and disappeared back inside the room.

“Okay.”, I almost whispered, even though I knew she wasn’t here to hear me anymore. Oh well.

I took a deep breath and stood up, heading to the door the nurse had shown me. What if he got angry when I showed up? He probably didn’t want me here. But I just felt the need to come and see him. I needed to do it.

I had been feeling really lonely and guilty the last couple of days anyway – after our small picnic, Vic stopped coming to see me that often. I don’t know why. I just had the feeling that he… got scared of something. From time to time he’d drop by and order me to do something for him, and every morning he’d leave his boots in my room so I’d clean them up when I wake up, but that was pretty much it. In the meantime, he ran out of girls and started with the boys, and I’m pretty sure he’s already slept with half of our school, even some of the teachers. Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s been with absolutely everyone.

Everyone… but me. Ever since that night when he asked me to have sex with him and I tried to explain that not everyone’s manwhores like him, he never made another attempt. I wasn’t sure why I was feeling bad about that. I mean, I didn’t want to sleep with him anyway! But for some reason, I felt kind of… jealous? Yeah. Of course, not because I wanted to be with him, not at all, nope, it was just because I felt somehow neglected. I mean, why them, and not me?! Am I that unattractive?! Obviously.

I pushed the door open, revealing another white room, this one without any wallpapers at all. Just a boring, white room. It was pretty much empty if we don’t count the chair, the bed and the small nightstand. In the bed, there was lying a figure that was once a healthy, strong, normal boy, and now was a bandaged mess in a hospital robe. Jesse. It almost hurt, seeing him like this.

He was facing the other way, his eyes absent-mindedly staring out of the window. There were no bandages on his head, but his arms and what I saw from his body were practically firmly covered with them. I wasn’t sure if he noticed I was here, so I decided to announce my presence.

“Hey…”, I started, but my voice sounded really weak and quiet, so I coughed and started again: “Hey, Jesse.”

Jesse turned around to look at me, looking sincerely surprised to see me, even though I knew the nurse had told him he has a visitor. I suppose he just didn’t expect me to come, I mean, after all, I was the one he picked at, we weren’t exactly friends anymore, but since that accident happened to him I felt like it was all my fault and that I had to make it up to him somehow.

“…Kellin.”, he blinked after about thirty seconds of silence. “I didn’t expect you to come here. What do you want?”

I shrugged. “I just wanted to drop by and see if you’re doing alright. I would have done it earlier, right after I heard about what happened, but I had other things to deal with, so I couldn’t find the time.”

A small smile appeared on his face, but started fading quickly after that, making him look kind of sad.

“How are you?”, I asked quickly, deciding not to let him get upset, but I was a bit late with that.

“I’m… better.”, he said unsurely. It looked like he wanted t say he’s okay, but it would be a total lie, duh. “I’m gonna be alright. Sooner or later.”

“That’s good, I’m glad you’re gonna recover.”, I nodded.

“Thanks…”

We fell into silence and I decided to sit down on the chair, near his bed but not really close, because I still wasn’t sure if he enjoyed my presence or not.

“You know,” he started after a minute or two, “you’re the only one, who came, besides my parents and my sister. The only one who visited me.”

I raised my eyebrows. “Really? I thought you have a lot of friends!”

Jesse laughed bitterly and instantly made a face, I guessed because his chest hurt when he did it.

“Yeah, I thought that too, but it seems I was wrong…”, he shook his head. “It’s really fucking sad, man. Just imagine it. You think your life just got better and you have some awesome buddies, and then the only guy who comes to visit you in the hospital is the one who regularly gets his ass kicked by you… which I’m really sorry for, actually. I’ve been thinking about it lately and… yeah. I’ve been one hell of an asshole. I’m sorry.”

I just nodded again. I would say it’s fine, but it wasn’t really, so I kept my mouth shut. I mean, you can’t simply bully someone and then just apologize for it. It was good that he regretted it, though, he looked like he really meant what he said, so I couldn’t be angry at him. I guess I would forgive him.

“Listen, Kell…”, he started with a sigh.

“Forget it.”, I murmured, interrupting him. “It doesn’t matter anymore.”

Silence again. I could hear the doctors and nurses talking outside, I could hear the patients move in the other rooms that surrounded us. The sterile smell of a hospital, of all the chemicals, and medication, and pain, invaded my nose. Gosh, I really hated it here. I felt bad for Jesse having to spend all this time in here. I kind of felt guilty about it, too. Hesitantly, I moved my chair closer to his bed and gently ran my hand across his bandaged arm.

“Who did this to you, Jess?”, I moved my look up to his face and my eyes met his. He instantly looked away, his expression changing quickly. He looked anxious, almost scared, as if he was reliving the accident all over again. “…Was it Walt?”, I continued, saying my misgivings out loud.

Surprisingly, this just made Jesse laugh again. “Walt?! Are you fucking kidding me?!”, he shook his head. “He just talks big, but I doubt he’d hurt anyone seriously.”

“But he threatened you that night!”, I pointed out.

“Jesus Christ, Kellin. We were both drunk, and I suspect he was high, too, I mean, he called himself Vic, do you think that’s normal? And when two guys are drunk and stoned, they often do stupid things, like threatening each other and even hurting each other a bit. I admit it, I was surprised that he finally tried to fight back, after a year of… constant bullying. But that was all.”

“So it wasn’t him?”, I said, almost amazed.

“Of course not, stupid. I just told you. I… kinda saw the one who attacked me. I would know if it was Walter. So chill.”, he rolled his eyes.

So Vic was telling the truth, when he said he hadn’t touched Jesse. I never fully believed him, even though I told him it’s okay and even sort of apologized to him for blaming him. I guess I was just too convinced that he had a motive and the chance to do it. And now it seemed I was wrong… I felt almost guilty for being so mad at him, really. Even though he was asking for it sometimes… Okay, then, all the time.

“What’s with you doubting in your “best friend”, hm?”, Jesse continued, interested. “Is everything okay between you two?”

“Yeah, everything’s fine, I just… thought something. Doesn’t matter.”, I shook my head, a small smile appearing on my face. So the demon wasn’t as bad as I thought he was at first…

“…Fine.”, Jesse half-shrugged (because one of his shoulders was bandaged and he couldn’t really move it), not looking quite convinced. I didn’t care. I wasn’t obligated to explain myself to him.

I glanced down at my watch. Soon my time would run out, and I didn’t have anything else to say, so I’d better be going… Suddenly an idea popped into my head, though, and I remained there on the chair, leaning forward.

“…Jesse, I need you to tell me who did this to you. Please. It’s important.”, I looked him in the eyes.

“You can’t want this for me. No. I can’t. I can’t tell you.”, he shook head quickly, looking down, just like when I first brought up the question.

“Please, Jesse, you need t-”

“Stop asking me, Kellin.”, he sharply cut me off. “I can’t talk about it. If I do, they’d find out, and…”

“They?”, I repeated, glad I could actually get some information for him, even though he gave it unconsciously. “Who are they?”

“…Fuck this. I’m not saying anything more.”

I let out a deep sigh. “Alright, whatever.” I looked at my watch again. “I gotta go now, but I might drop by tomorrow. I can also bring you some stuff. What do you want me to get for you?”

His eyes lit up.

“Would you really do this for me?”, he asked hopefully. I nodded with a smile, glad to see him sort of happy. “Okay, awesome. Could you bring me some music, like your i-Pod or something? I lost mine. Also, I want some books…”

“Wow, books? I didn’t know you can read!”, I teased him, grinning. He chuckled weakly and showed me the finger.

“Fuck you, Bostwick, I’m not as dumb as you think I am. I also want some decent food. God, the food here is disgusting, seriously.”

“Alright. Will do.”, I winked. “Fine, then see you tomorrow?”

“Sounds good.”, he smiled.

I smiled back and headed to the door. I was just putting my hand on the doorknob when Jesse called out:

“Hey, Kellin?”

I stopped and looked back at him. “Yeah?”

“I’m sorry for being such a dick all these years. I wish I hadn’t wasted our friendship like this. It… it was a nice friendship.”

I looked down thoughtfully. “…It still is.”, I shrugged and looked at him. He was just lying there, smiling a little. Damn, he deserved a second chance. Everyone did.

None of us said anything so I pushed the door open and left the room, quickening my pace, hurrying to get out of this place more quickly. Fuck hospitals. It seems I had to get used to them, though, because I was going to visit Jesse here every day from now on.

* * *

“Good morning, good morning! It’s great to stay up late! Good morning… Good morning to you!”

I woke up in the middle of the night to the sounds of a cheerful song and someone jumping on my mattress. I groaned and buried my face in the pillow, hoping that the mysterious singer would disappear, but this didn’t happen.

“When Kellin Bostwick dreamed of me the stars were shining bright; now the milkman’s on his way and it’s too late to say goodnight!”, he continued.

I opened my eyes with a sigh to see Vic bouncing on my bed (and he hadn’t even taken his shoes off, goddammit), doing something like a stupid dance while singing a happy melody I recognized from some musical he had watched about a week ago.

“So good morning, good morning! Sunbeams will soon smile through! Good morning, good morning to you-”

“Shut up, you idiot!”, I hissed. “It’s not morning, it’s like three AM or something, it’s still night! What do you want?”

He stopped jumping and let himself drop down to the bed, grinning.

“Technically, it is morning, because it’s past midnight. It’s already Sunday! Cheer up!”

I groaned again, getting seriously annoyed.

“Don’t you have a boy to fuck or something?”, I rolled eyes. Waking me up in the middle of the night is not amusing, so I wasn’t in a quite good mood.

“Uh-oh, language!”, he snickered. “Trust me, I have about one hundred million boys to fuck, but I’m not in the mood right now.” He crawled to me and lay next to me, wrapping his arms around me. “Calm down, Kells, honey, I just want to show you something.”

“What?”, I tried to push him away from me, but he wouldn’t let me go.

“A thing.”, he shrugged and finally let go of me, rolling down to the floor. “Come on, get dressed!”

“I’m not gonna get dressed.”, I protested. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Oh, you’re damn wrong about that, darling.”, Vic giggled. Really now? He disappears for days and suddenly shows up at night ordering me to get dressed and go god-knows-where? This wasn’t going to happen.

“I’m not going anywhere with you!”, I repeated.

“Yes, you are. Don’t make me force you…”

I felt the urge to get up and punch him, but I knew that this wouldn’t impress him even a bit, it would just amuse him, and I definitely didn’t want to entertain him right now.

“Yeah, whatever. I’m going back to sleep.”, I muttered and turned my back on him, pulling the blanket up.

“That’s what you think!”

I felt him pull the blanket down, uncovering me. I turned around and shot him a glare. I’ve never had an annoying little brother, but I bet that’s how it feels like. For a five thousand-year-old, Victor was acting unbelievably immature.

“Leave me alone.”, I growled, turned to the side again and squeezed my eyes shut, determinate to fall asleep no matter what.

“Nope, nope, nope. We’ve talked about this already. I order, you obey. Period. Now get up, this is going to be really exciting, I promise.” He leaned down until his lips were touching my skin and he purred in my ear: “You know I have my other ways to get you out of bed…”

God, his suggestive tone made my heart beat faster and I opened my eyes again, now wide awake. His body was so close to mine, and I could feel its warmth, his breath slipping across the back of my neck. I knew he was doing this on purpose. He loved playing with me like this. His hand moved down the side of my waist…

“Leave me alone.”, I said once more, pushing him away and sitting up. “Alright. What do you want to show me?”

He grinned, soundlessly congratulating himself for his victory. He knew how to manipulate me, that was for sure.

“Get dressed.”, he repeated commandingly. I shook my head.

“First tell me what it is. I want to be prepared.”, I insisted.

“Oh, but if I tell you it wouldn’t be a surprise.”, he pouted childishly. “Come oooon, Kellin, you’re nooo fuuuuun.”

“But-”, I started, intending to object, but in the next moment Vic grabbed my hand and I knew what he was going to do. “Vic, no, wait a second-”

He had other plans, though, and he teleported us, making me gasp in pleasure. Yeah, I really had grown to like this. It was like… getting on an extremely fast rollercoaster or something. It was weird, kind of scary, almost painful, but at the same time amazing.

Next thing I knew was standing on the edge of a terrace of some sort. The sky above me was dark, the stars piercing it brightly. The horizon was looking ghostly-reddish pale, illuminated by the lights of the city that lay below it. It was mesmerizing… And that’s when I looked down.

“Shit!”, I almost squealed and stumbled back. Holy fucking crap, we were what seemed to me to be about 150 feet above the ground! We were standing at the fucking rooftop of a building.

“Beautiful, isn’t it.”, Vic calmly spoke next to me and I turned to him sharply.

“Why did you bring me here?!”, I exclaimed, horrified. I have to admit it – I’m afraid of heights. High places terrify me.

He ignored me and kept contemplating the city beneath us.

“I found this place a few days ago. Did you know that this is the tallest building in town? It’s a shopping center or something. Anyway, the view is stunning.”, he smiled a bit. “Here it goes, your beautiful world again.”

“Get me back to my room!”, I breathed out, unable to make my voice work, and stepped back again, away from the edge. Vic noticed my frightened look.

“What’s wrong?”, he blinked, confused.

“It’s… it’s nothing, really, I just want to go back home.”, I lied, trying not to look down.

He tilted head, observing me. “…You look scared. What are you afraid of?”

I bit my lower lip.

“I, erm, I feel… uncomfortable when I’m not standing on solid ground, let’s say.”, I mumbled. I didn’t want to show him how scared I actually was, because I knew he’d mock me about it later.

“You’re scared of heights.”, he translated to himself. “Why?”

“I-I-I don’t know.”, I stuttered. “It’s just how I am.”

“But that fear is irrational. You know I wouldn’t let you fall. You’re safe. Why are you still afraid?”, he continued, unable to understand me.

“Look, it’s just, like, a phobia, okay? I can’t control it.”, I replied firmly.

“That’s interesting…”, the demon blinked slowly. “You’re so weird. Humans, I mean.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard that speech already.”, I snapped, losing patience.

I was expecting him to laugh at me and say I’m stupid or something, but suddenly he did something really unexpected. He gently took my hand in his and squeezed it comfortingly.

“There’s nothing to fear of, though. I didn’t bring you here to hurt you.”, he said softly. I looked at him, stunned by the softness of his tone, and forgetting about where we were for a moment. “Let’s sit now, shall we? If you don’t look straight down everything will be alright… I suppose.”

I hesitated and nodded, letting him pull me down to the roof and help me settle next to him.

“Here you go.”, he smiled a bit, but then remembered he’s supposed to act all annoying and added teasingly: “…Chicken.”

“Shut up.”, I muttered, just making him chuckle.

“Whatever. Do you see that building over there?”, he suddenly changed the subject, pointing at something.

I traced his finger to see he’s showing me a tall building at the distance.

“Um, yeah? What about it?”, I asked quickly, still a bit nervous.

“That’s our school.”, he grinned. “Cool, isn’t it? And this…”, he pointed another way, “is your house, even though with your ordinary human eyes you can’t see it.”

“You’re saying you have a better night vision?”, I raised an eyebrow at him.

“Yup. All demons do. It’s one of our awesome special abilities.”, Victor winked, and then continued. “Over there, that’s my, or, well, Walter’s house. You see the pale light? That’s my room. I left the lamps on so you would be able to see it.”

“Mhm, yeah, I think I see it.”, I nodded. “And what’s that?”, I asked, pointing at another building.

“Umm…”, he furrowed his eyebrows. He obviously didn’t know what it is, but he decided to lie: “It’s the motel where I bring all my boys and girls to.”

“Liar.”, I frowned, holding back a giggle.

“Of course, my dear, I’m a fucking demon, duh.”, he rolled eyes.

I laughed a bit. No matter how annoying he was, spending time with Vic was fun.

“Why did you bring me here, anyway?”, I looked at him, smiling a bit.

“To help you see your own world through my eyes.”, the demon shrugged. “You, humans, live down there and are all so concentrated on your life that you don’t take time to look around. Your world surrounds you, so you’re so used to it that you don’t even notice it. I, on the other hand, am new here, and I can look at it from a distance. I can objectively see it for what it is. It’s… so perfect.”

There was something in his eyes that made a weird feeling appear in my stomach. He was looking so desperate to have what we do, to be one of us, one of the stupid humans, and yet, he was a demon. A monster. I remembered what Jesse had told me – that it wasn’t Vic who hurt him and that he has nothing to do with it. I felt the urge to hug the demon right now, but I fought it. Instead, I said:

“…You know, once I said you were just a torture instrument, that you’re just a monster that likes hurting others.”

“Yeah.”, his face darkened. “I remember this.

“Well… I was wrong. No matter what you might think, no matter what you’re created for, you’re a beautiful creature, Vic. Just as beautiful as our world is.”

He looked up at me, seemingly surprised by my words.

“Bullshit, you don’t mean it.”, he shook his head.

“You’re a professional liar. You would know if I wasn’t telling the truth, and you know this isn’t the case.”, I smiled a bit at him.

He blinked in confusion. God, he was almost cute now. He seriously had trouble with figuring out human feelings.

“You do realize that calling me a ‘beautiful creature’ is almost an insult for a demon?”, he finally giggled.

“Yeah, I know. But it’s the truth.”, I shrugged.

He looked down, somehow shyly, something really unlike for him.

“But I’m bad.”, he objected. “And we both know it.”

“Bad? You’re not bad.”, I shook my head, partly amused, partly serious. “Yeah, you’re annoying, lazy, sassy, rude and you basically fuck everything that moves, but you’re not bad. You’re just… what you are. With some effort, I bet you would be no different than any other normal human being. And trust me, for a demon you’re doing damn well.”

“I try my best.”, he rolled his eyes and nudged me lightly. “Hey, I have a riddle for you.”, he suddenly changed the topic.

“Huh…? What is it?”, I blinked.

“Okay, here it goes, listen carefully and let’s see if you’d know the answer. So… Demons have this certain… charm that automatically attracts people, like moths to a flame.”, he shifted a little closer to me so now our shoulders were touching. “It makes humans want them, it makes them want to be around them, and possibly into their beds. They just can’t help it. No matter how hard they’re trying to ignore it, it’s there and they can’t avoid it… My question is… why can you resist it?”

I looked at him to see his face is only a few inches away from mine. Unconsciously, I looked down at his lips.

“I… I don’t know…”, I half-whispered. “I just… can…”

“You sure…?” Victor slid his arm behind my back and his hand slipped under my shirt, his fingertips dancing on my bare skin and making me shudder. The whole time his eyes didn’t leave mine, as if he was watching me to see my reaction, as if he was trying to read my thoughts straight through my expressionless face. I tried to keep calm, I really did, but my heartbeats quickened and I was almost convinced he could hear them. I caught myself wanting to kiss him, and he obviously noticed this, because he leaned even closer, his face only inches away from mine. His fingers traced my spine and moved down, stopping at my hip. He was waiting for me to do something… I was just about to make a move, when he suddenly giggled.

“What?”, I asked, slightly annoyed he ruined the moment.

“…Interesting how easily I could cure your ‘phobia’ of heights.”, he laughed and pulled back a little, still keeping his hand under my shirt, though.

“Ah, damn you!”, I groaned, realizing that he was right, I had completely forgotten where we were, and I hated him for reminding me, instantly making my fear return. This just seemed to amuse him more.

“Aw, don’t be afraid, darling. Y’know, I can make you feel better…”, he winked suggestively and was just about to lean forward again, when a rough voice interrupted us:

“Hey! You! What are you doing up there?”

I flinched away from Vic, my eyes widening.

“Vic, are we actually allowed to be here?”, I hissed anxiously.

He shrugged casually with a calm playful smirk. “Nope, not really.”

“Hey!”, the voice repeated. It was too dark for me to see who was yelling, but I guess it was security or something. I could distinguish the figure of a man heading towards us across the roof. Obviously he had seen us on the video surveillance or something. “I’m talking to you, come here!”

“Uh-oh, seems we’re in trouble.”, Victor nudged me and chuckled.

“It’s not funny, they might arrest us for entering private property or something like that.”, I growled, getting seriously nervous.

He only shrugged again. He really didn’t seem to care, did he!

In the meantime the man had gotten closer and now I could see his uniform in the darkness. Yup. Security. Just awesome.

“What do we do now?”, I looked at the demon.

“Thought you’d never ask. Follow my lead and everything will be alright.”, he winked at me.

“What are you gonna do?”, I insisted to know. He didn’t reply, instead, he got up and turned to the security guy.

“Hello there!”, he greeted him cheerfully. “What a lovely night, isn’t it!”

The man stopped at some distance, a bit surprised that Vic dared to talk back.

“…How did you get here?”, he spoke up, choosing to ignore Vic’s casualness and stick to his rehearsed lines. “You do realize you’re not allowed to be here, right?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t know!”, the demon looked at him innocently. “I’m really sorry.”

The security guy hesitated. “I understand, sir, but I’m afraid I’d have to take you downstairs with me and call the police. You can’t be here, and I have no idea how you entered the building, but this is illegal and I’d have to show you your way out. Come with me.”

Vic turned to me and motioned at me to stand up. I did, and gave the guy an apologetic look, as if none of this was my fault (and it really wasn’t), but he wasn’t even looking at me. He was concentrated on Vic, looking sort of anxious, as if he expected him to do something. There was something in his mischievous smile that worried everyone around him and made them doubt in him. I understood them. I mean, I felt the same way, most of the time.

Victor took my hand, the whole time watching the security guy to make sure he doesn’t notice the little movement. Oh, so he was going to teleport us, how smart. Now the man was going to witness this and probably tell everyone and end up in a psychiatric clinic or something. Not a good idea. Vic always knew how to surprise me, though, because instead he took a step back. What now? What was he up to?

“Look, I can explain.”, he told the officer. “And I’d gladly do it now, but I’m really hurrying, see. My parents must be worried, so I gotta go. I have no time for police and stuff.”

“You’re not going anywhere before the police arrives.”, the man objected firmly.

“Oh, but I am.”, the demon grinned. “But hang on. I’m taking the shortcut.”

And with these words he took another step back, pulling me with him and the ground under my feet suddenly disappeared. For one short moment of silent horror I realized what his plan was. We weren’t going to teleport in front of the guy, instead, we’d do it in the air while flying down straight towards the street below us. We’d simply pretend to jump, yeah, just brilliant. This didn’t even make any sense. I bet he did it only to scare the crap out of me, because he knew perfectly well that I’m afraid of heights. Or probably because he had watched too many movies, and in some of them the main character dramatically seems to have jumped off of a building, but actually has come up with some kind of clever plan how to survive and get away before hitting the ground. Like, in Back to the Future or something. Whatever the reason was, it was a horrible idea.

As I felt the gravity pull us down I let out a high, horrified scream. The wind turned us around so now we were both facing the ground, as if we were skydiving, but without the parachutes. The air was hitting my face, playing with my hair, making me narrow my eyes and muffling my second scream. It’s really hard to describe how it felt to fall from a building, it happened so fast and at the same time it seemed like it took ages. My insides seemed to be turning, trying to get my dinner out but I squeezed my mouth shut, intent to keep the food in my stomach. My heart was beating really damn fast, my blood pulsing in my ears. The lights beneath me were getting bigger, probably because we were getting closer to them, and I felt really dizzy, the whole world turning before me. It was like being on a plane that is flying off, but reversed. The air resistance stuck my brain to the back of my head. I turned to look at Vic, who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying it, a wide grin stretched on his face. The anger pushed back my fear. Damn, how I wanted to punch him right now! How dares he, pushing me off of a building! What did he think he was doing! He had no right to do things like that, demon or not! I wanted to take back my words from before. Nope, he wasn’t a beautiful creature, he was a total asshole, at least most of the time. Reckless, stupid, annoying asshole who pushed people from fucking buildings.

When we were half the way down, his grip on my hand tightened and we teleported. I squeezed my eyes shut as the adrenalin blended with the pleasant feeling in one strange mixture of pleasure and horror. In the next moment we appeared in my room, about two feet above my bed. I dropped Vic’s hand and heavily fell on the mattress with a quiet “Ugh!”, as the demon landed on top of me. I needed a few seconds to make my heart slow down a bit and prevent the possible heart attack I was about to get, and then roughly pushed Vic off of me.

“Oh my fucking Satan, this was ah-mazing!”, he exclaimed and sat up quickly, looking excited as fuck, but the happy kind of excited. I, on the other hand, was feeling like killing someone, preferably him.

“You goddamn idiot! You could’ve killed me!”, I whisper-yelled at him, pissed. “What did you fucking think you’re doing?!”

“I saved our asses. Don’t tell me you preferred to get arrested.”, he shrugged.

“Of course not, but you could’ve done something else, you could’ve come up with some other stupid plan! You know damn well that I’m… not okay with tall buildings, especially with jumping off them!” I stood up, not wanting to be around him, afraid that I might completely lose my temper and really hit him.

“Oh, come on, admit it. Didn’t you enjoy it even a little bit?”, he smirked.

I opened my mouth to snap at him, but then thought about it. It was… actually quite fun, when you put it this way. Any rollercoaster compared to this was boring and not impressing. In fact, I would even try it again, even though I would never admit this in front of Victor.

“…Doesn’t matter, you can’t simply play with me like this! It’s just wrong!”, I hissed, remembering that I must keep it down so I wouldn’t wake up my sister who was sleeping in the next room. “Do you have any idea how much this scared me?! Do you have any idea what shock I went through, huh?! Of course you don’t! You’re so-”

He teleported right in front of me and put his finger on my lips.

“Shut up.”, he murmured, tangled his other hand in my hair and pulled me in roughly, making my lips collide with his. I gasped quietly, shocked for a moment, but Vic moved his lips against mine in such way that I couldn’t help but kiss back. At first the kiss was all sweet and innocent, but he quickly deepened it, his tongue making its way into my mouth, as the grip on my hair tightened as well. He lightly yanked at it, hurting my scalp a bit, but this just made the whole thing even better. The adrenalin from earlier hadn’t completely worn off yet and my heart started racing uncontrollably again. I shuddered slightly and slid my hand across Vic’s waist. He chuckled softly against my lips, glad to see me taking the lead, and let me do whatever I intended to. Honestly, I didn’t even know what I was doing, but suddenly kissing a demon seemed almost too hot for me to handle. I pulled him closer by the hips and he gladly grinded against me, making me moan barely audibly. I was just getting more into it, about to step into some further action, when he suddenly pulled back, letting me go.

He looked almost as confused as I was feeling. Now, when it was over, the blood rushed into my face, realizing what we had just done. This was wrong. So, so, so, so wrong. But at the same time it just felt right and I caught myself wanting him to continue, but he wasn’t going to.

“Vic, what…”, I started slowly, but he just shook his head. I had never seen him this silent and… almost scared. Of what, I had no idea.

Still without saying anything, he took another step back, biting his lower lip.

“…I have to leave.”, he whispered and before I could do anything to stop him, he disappeared.

“No, wait, come back! Vic!”, I said quickly, but he was already gone. “Dammit!”, I kicked the edge of the bed angrily. “Stupid, stupid, fucking stupid!”

What was the problem this time?! Was I such a bad kisser? Did I do something wrong? Fuck, maybe I shouldn’t have spoken up! Why did I care anyway? It wasn’t like I wanted or expected him to go any further. He was a demon, possessing my best friend’s body. I couldn’t do anything like this with him. No. Just… no.

…And I still regretted nothing, though. I just wished he hadn’t left. I hoped that tomorrow at school we’d have the chance to talk about it and probably decide what to do next. If this even mattered to him. I mean, he’s slept with so many people, why would he give a shit about one stupid kiss with the kid that cleaned his shoes and prepared him breakfast? This didn’t make any sense. But then again, nothing about this whole situation made sense.

Damn, my life is confusing.

END OF CHAPTER 10.