Burning You Down

That was it. I was going to fucking kill him, I swear.

After two agonizing seconds we found ourselves in front of a clean white fancy house. A bunch of expensive cars were parked outside but apart from that there weren’t many people around. I looked at my watch. Quarter past eight. The party had started, but there were kids still arriving. No one noticed us.

“You promised me we’re not going to teleport anymore! I’m gonna kick your ass for that later.”, I groaned.

“I dare you to try.”, Vic grinned challengingly.

I didn’t reply and changed the subject: “So how did you know where the party is?”

“While you were playing all shy and kicked me out of your room I stole your phone and called your sis to ask her.”, he shrugged, as if stealing other people’s phones is something normal.

“Awesome.”, I said ironically. “Can I have it back now, please?”

“I already put it back in your pocket without you noticing.”, he shrugged once more and headed to the house. I let out a deep, tired sigh and followed him.

The place was fucking huge. Whoever this Helen girl was, she seemed to have a lot of money. Outside in the garden, there was a small white wooden pavilion, where a couple was already making out. Even though the sun hadn’t gone down completely yet, colorful lamps were throwing pale light over the alley that was leading to the house. Teenage girls and boys were hanging out outside, every single one of them holding at least one glass of some alcoholic beverage. Mindless Self Indulgence was blaring from inside so loudly that I could hear the music clearly even here.

The ones, who weren’t afraid of crowded places and didn’t care if the music was too loud or not, were inside. I personally preferred to stay out and wait until the party is over, but Vic seemed to have other plans. Without letting my hand go, he dragged me along the alley straight towards the house, ignoring my objections. A few kids threw us curious looks, but in general everyone was too busy with themselves to notice the two strange newcomers. Honestly, now I was glad that Vic made me change clothes, because if I had come here dressed like I was before they would probably just kick me out. This was from that kind of parties where all the cool kids go – teenagers from rich families with designer shirts and modern hairstyles. I had never been to a place like this, because I didn’t fit in; I had always been a quiet, weird boy, who doesn’t know anyone and acts childishly all the time. No one would ever invite me to their party, not because they didn’t like me, but because they didn’t care about me.

Victor seemed to make himself at home, though, he was grinning widely and a glass had appeared in his hand out of nowhere. I wondered if he used his demon magic to get it, or he was just really fast, but it didn’t matter anyway.

We entered a large living room, which was now pretty much turned into a dance floor. In the far end, there was a counter which served for a bar and was covered with various bottles and more glasses. I noticed a “Happy birthday!” sign hung above it. Oh, so that Helen girl had a birthday today? Awesome. If I knew who she was I’d greet her, but I didn’t even know how she looked like. It didn’t matter anyway, because in the dimmed lights all the dancing guests looked the same – shadows, ghosts, metaphors of euphoria, blind enthusiasm and alcohol. The loud music was coming from a huge speaker set behind the “bar”. Vic yelled something, but I didn’t hear him.

“What?”, I shouted back, screaming over the noise.

“What is this music?”, he practically yelled in my ear. “I haven’t heard anything like this before!”

“This is what kids listen to these days!”, I replied as loudly as my vocal chords let me. I realized that seven hundred years ago people listened to Antonio Vivaldi or something like that.

“I like it!”, a grin stretched on his face. “I like the text!”

I lent an ear.

“I wanna take a chance
Deep in your underpants
All my little girls
Everybody kiss my ass…”, Jimmy Urine was just singing from the speaker.

Yeah, of course Vic would like such lyrics. Damn, he was the most immature demon ever. But then again, he was the only demon I knew, so perhaps all demons were immature? I didn’t know.

He yelled something else, but I couldn’t hear him over the music.

“I hate this place.”, I groaned and leaned closer to him to shout in his ear: “What did you say?”

“I said I love this place!”, he replied cheerfully. “What did you say?”

“Nothing.”, I muttered.

“Come on, let’s get ourselves some drinks!” The demon took me by the arm and started dragging me towards the bar.

“No, no, no, I don’t want a drink, Vic, let me go…”, I tried to break free, but he wouldn’t let me.

“You’re no fun.”, he pouted. “Come on.” Once we got to the bar he roughly pushed away a few girls who had taken over the drinks and were gulping them down at high speed. “Out of the way!”, he ordered and, surprisingly, they obeyed. I wasn’t kidding when I said he has an amazing effect on women. The moment they noticed him they completely forgot about the alcohol and stared at him. I couldn’t help but feel a little jealous. Girls never looked at me like that. But I guess this was just his demon charm or something.

Victor poured something in a small glass and handed it to me.

“Here you go.”, he smirked and poured one for himself too. “Cheers!”

“I don’t drink.”, I shook my head and tried to put the glass back on the bar, but he didn’t let me.

“Drink.”, he commanded, forcing my hand to my mouth. I didn’t want to, but I had no choice and let him pour the liquid inside. At first it burned my throat, but as it slipped down to my stomach it sent pleasant warmth all along my body and clouded my mind for a second, making me shudder slightly. I coughed, blinking rapidly.

“Motherf-”, I coughed again. “Holy fucking shit! What is this?!”

“Honestly? I have no idea.”, Vic giggled and swallowed his own shot. “But it’s nice. Want another one?”

To be honest, yes, I did, but knowing that I was inexperienced in this, I would get drunk pretty easily and I didn’t want that, so I shook head. He just shrugged and poured himself another one, which disappeared in his throat almost as quickly as the first one.

“Can demons get drunk?”, I asked loudly, not caring that someone else could hear me. Everyone around me were already really fucking high anyway, I bet they saw demons everywhere, along with unicorns and flying pigs.

“Nope. That’s the fun about it.”, Vic smirked proudly. “I can drink as much as I want but it won’t have any effect on me… well, at least not any negative effect.” He grabbed a whole bottle and winked at me. “C’mon. Let’s take a look around.”

I sighed and let him start dragging me through the room again. We had almost crossed the dance floor, when suddenly someone stood on our way. I narrowed my eyes at the figures and distinguished three girls at about my age. I had seen them in school before, but I had never talked to them, because, again, they were one of these popular students who never talk to “losers”.

“Hey!”, the girl in the middle, a tall redhead, giggled. “Sup?”

Uh. I never knew how to reply when someone asks me this. I just mumbled something in reply, it wasn’t even a real word, but it didn’t matter, because I knew they couldn’t hear me over the music anyway. This turned out to be an advantage, it seems.

“I’m Nicole, and those bitches here are Stephanie and Emma.”, the girl continued. Obviously the other two took ‘bitches’ as a compliment, because they laughed and one of them lightly nudged her. Huh. Girls are weird.

Victor took over from there.

“Hey, ladies, I’m Vic and this is my friend Kellin here, nice to meet ya.”

‘Vic’? Really? He had totally dumped his attempts to pretend to be Walter. It didn’t really matter, however – tomorrow most of the people here wouldn’t really remember what happened, hell, some wouldn’t even remember they’ve been here.

One of the other two girls, short and skinny, with straightened hair, dyed black, threw me an interested look. Wow, obviously my new outfit did miracles, she didn’t even seem to recognize me even though I had bumped into her, like, one thousand times in the corridor before.

“But hands off of him, girls,” Vic continued, “’cause he likes dicks.”

…Yeah, thank you very much for giving them this useful information, Vic. Here goes my new nickname, Kellin Queer. I could just feel it coming.

“Oh, that’s a pity.”, one of the girls pouted.

“I don’t like dicks!”, I made a desperate attempt to defend myself.

“Shut up, of course you do.”, he cut me off.

“I don’t!”, I insisted, even though it wasn’t exactly true. I had some trouble figuring out my sexual orientation, but I was certainly not straight, that was for sure. However, I didn’t want some random people finding that out.

“Okay, then, prove me wrong. I dare you to get yourself a chick before…” he looked down at his watch, “…eleven PM, tonight. If you do, I’ll admit I was wrong and I will apologize to you.”

I only rolled my eyes at him and walked away, irritated. I didn’t care that he wanted me to stay around and amuse him, I was sick of his shit and I didn’t want him to embarrass me any more. That was enough for tonight. Actually, scratch that. That was enough for a lifetime.

The more I thought about Vic the angrier I became at him, pushed by the small amount of alcohol I had drunk. He was so fucking annoying! Why was he teasing me and challenging me all the time?! Couldn’t he help it for at least two seconds?! And why did he keep trying to force me to have fun, when I clearly didn’t want to? What had I done to deserve this shit?

But right now you’re at a fancy popular kids’ party, another part of my brain reminded me. A few months ago you and Walt would laugh at the people who went to parties like this, but you’ve always wanted to have fun like they do, hm? Isn’t that right?

“Shut up.”, I murmured to the voice inside my head out loud.

I walked out of the living room and found myself in a crowded hallway. I made my way through the sweaty dancing bodies and got to an almost empty corridor. Great. I could find myself a free room now and stay there for awhile until I calm down and my irritation disappears. I opened the first door I reached. It was a kitchen and there were already a few boys inside. For some reasons they were searching the cupboards frantically. I stood at the door and watched them, slightly confused, and none of them seemed to notice me.

“Jake, found some more!”, one of the guys called out and pulled a bottle out.

“That’s not whiskey, you fucktard, it’s goddamn olive oil!”, another boy snapped at him. “Keep looking!”

I left them wonder where all the whiskey has gone and tried another door. This one led me to a bedroom. Unfortunately, it was already taken as well.

“Ah, yes, faster, faster!”

It was enough for me to hear the moans to slam the door back shut. That was it. Enough. I was going out in the garden, even though there were a lot of people there already. At least no one would be having rough sex outside.

Once I filled my lungs with the fresh air I realized how smoky it was in there. I finally got rid of the claustrophobic feeling too and I could relax a bit. Yeah. That was better. I headed to the pavilion where the couple was making out earlier, seeing that now it was free. Sweet. I could sit down a bit too. I quickened my pace so no one would get there before me (not that everyone was dying to go there, but still, you never know) It was when I reached it, though, when I saw that it wasn’t exactly empty. There was someone already inside.

At first I didn’t understand what the guy was doing. He had knelt in front of one of the benches and was making a strange noise… Jesus fucking Christ! He was doing drugs. Fuck. Just awesome. I didn’t want to deal with someone who was that stoned. In this case I would usually just turn around and leave, but right now I was so fed up with everything that I wasn’t going to give up that easily. I decided to try out what I had learned from Vic.

“Hey, you! Outta here, now!”, I yelled at him as peremptorily as I could, trying to copy the demon’s tone. It seemed to work, because, startled, the guy jumped on his feet, spilling white dust all over the place, and before I could say anything else to him he just ran away. I blinked after him and then nodded, as if I had expected this to happen. “…Yeah, thank you.”

I wiped what was left of the cocaine away and sat on the bench, stretching my legs. Yes, finally. I leaned back and closed my eyes, decided to take some rest.

I don’t know for how long I stayed there, maybe ten minutes or so, and I had just started to feel good, when suddenly two hands grabbed me and forced me to my feet. My eyes flickered open to see the face I hoped I wouldn’t encounter anytime soon, if ever.

Jesse Lawson.

“Hello, Bostwick.”, he spoke softly. “I’m surprised to see you at a place like this. How have you been?”, his grip around me tightened. “And how is my favorite punching bag Walter doing?”

I struggled to break free. This only made him chuckle at my weak attempts to run away.

“Oh, no, no, you’re not leaving just yet. Let’s talk.”

“Jesse, let me go. You’re fucking drunk, you don’t know what you’re doing.”, I said, managing to keep my voice steady and not starting to desperately scream for help (even though I felt the urge to do so)

Jesse Lawson. The wild, sassy boy, who used to be a good friend of mine until we turned fifteen and he started hanging out with the wrong people. And suddenly from one of my best friends he turned into the bully who never missed a chance to push me into the girls’ bathrooms or steal my notebooks so he could copy my homework (if he even bothered to write homework at all, which happened rarely). Now he had only found himself a reason to take his anger out on me. Not that I wasn’t used to it, but that didn’t mean I liked it.

“Let’s take a walk.”, Jesse grinned, but his smile was nothing but threatening.

“Jesse, don’t-” I stared, but I gave up. I could yell at stupid drugged boys all I wanted, but once I had Jesse gripping me by the shoulders all my courage vanished. He completely ignored me and started dragging me somewhere where he could have fun with me without worrying that someone might see him and stop him.

“Listen, Bostwick, you don’t simply come to parties like this uninvited.”, he started slowly, roughly leading me towards the narrow place between the house and the fence that surrounded the estate.

“Who said I’m not invited?”, I growled and I got a light punch in the face for that.

“I did.”, he hissed. “See, Helen, the birthday girl, she’s my sister. And I don’t want some creeps hanging around at her birthday party.”

…Shit. I never knew that Jesse had a sister. Since when did he have a sister?! Damn, damn, damn. Fucking fuck. That changed so many things, for example, he couldn’t get kicked out of the party if he starts hurting me, because the house was his. Actually, he had the full right to beat me up and then throw me out, claiming that I did some illegal shit, and I was sure he would use the opportunity to really do it. I was so screwed.

He pushed me to the wall.

“Fucking ouch.”, I frowned. “Pushing people is really rude, Jesse.”

Damn, why couldn’t I keep my stupid big mouth shut? This always made things worse, it did now, too. I received another punch, this one harder.

“Fucking ouch!”, I repeated, feeling the taste of blood inside my mouth. I had probably accidentally bitten the inside of my cheek when he hit me. “Even ruder, dude, punching people is a bad thing, especially when these people have been your friends for seven years!”

“Things change, smartass.” I received another punch, this time in the stomach. I moaned softly and tried not to throw up. “And if you think you can talk to me like this and get out alive, you’re fucking wrong.”

Another punch. I cried out, closing my eyes and wanting the pain to go away. A tear struggled to roll out of my eye, but I didn’t let it. I had to resist it. I tried to ignore my nose, which was now bleeding as well, and concentrate on something else. I felt that my face had started to get swollen at the places he hit me.

Suddenly the pressure where he had been gripping my shoulders disappeared and I realized I was free. Confused by the sudden change, I opened my eyes to see someone pinning Jesse to the wall now instead.

“And maybe you’re fucking wrong.”, Vic purred softly.

Jesse tried to hit him and get away, but Victor was a demon, after all, and you can’t escape him just like that. He locked his fingers around the other boy’s throat and lifted him from the ground, still holding him to the wall.

“I hate stupid little fucks like this one.”, he shared casually, as if holding Jesse didn’t cost him any effort at all. And maybe it really didn’t. “You okay, Kellin, darling?”

Still trying to get out of the shock and the pain, I just nodded quickly. “Yeah…”

“Glad to hear that. I don’t want some silly bully to break my favorite toy. It would be…” his grasp around Jesse’s throat tightened, making him choke, “…disappointing.”

I watched as my ex-friend’s face started turning blue and I realized that Vic was slowly strangling him. Damn. He was going to kill him, and he didn’t even give a fuck.

“Vic, stop!”, I finally found the strength to yell. He cast me a questioning look, but his grip loosened a bit. “Let him go.”

“Why? Aren’t you angry at him for treating you this way?”, the demon tilted head.

“Of course I am! But we don’t simply kill the ones we hate here, on Earth.”, I explained fast, trying not to stutter. Maybe I couldn’t stand Jesse, but I didn’t want him to die.

“You don’t? Well. That’s a pity. Can’t I at least torture him a bit?”, Vic asked hopefully.

“No! You’re not torturing anyone, Victor. Just let him go.”, I looked him in the eyes. “Please. It’s okay. I’m okay. There’s no need to hurt anyone.”

He watched me for a few seconds, then he moved his look to Jesse again.

“…I’m going to let you go now, but know that I can break this delicate neck of yours only if I want. You’re gonna keep your mouth shut about this and stay away from Kellin, or I’m gonna find out that you didn’t and I’m gonna come at your house at night… and I’ll bring some torture instruments along. Understood?”

The boy managed to cough something in reply and Victor carefully let his feet touch the ground. The moment he was free, Jesse stepped back quickly.

“Freaks! Y-you both are freaks!”, he pointed at us, his eyes open wide, and then, without turning around, he stumbled to the alley and quickly disappeared in the house.

When he was finally gone, I turned to Vic. He was looking extremely content with what he had just done, even though he was visibly disappointed that I didn’t let him kill the other guy. I was about to yell at him and pull a speech about how we don’t strangle everyone who annoys us, but then I realized something else. Victor had just saved me, and he was ready to kill the one, who had hurt me. This was actually kind of… sweet. In a strange, dark kind of way.

“…Thanks.”, I said instead, my voice sounded quieter than I expected it to.

Vic just nodded.

“You saved me…”, I continued, but this time he interrupted me:

“I did it, because if he did something bad to you I would have no one to amuse me. Just like I said, it would be like breaking my favorite toy. And I don’t want my favorite toy broken.” He put his hand on my cheek gently and the pain disappeared. As his fingertips moved to my nose, it stopped bleeding too. He was curing me. “Here you go. That’s better.”

He couldn’t cure one thing, though. Once the adrenalin began to wear off, I started shaking, the shock taking over. It had been like this for years, but I still couldn’t get over the fact that my friend would betray me like this. I just didn’t want to believe that Jesse hated me so much, even though I knew he did. I didn’t understand why. I hadn’t done anything to him, absolutely anything. And still, he treated me like shit. The tear I had been trying so hard to hold back finally slipped out of my eye and down my cheek. Vic noticed it.

“Shh, relax.” He pulled me closer in something like an awkward hug and rubbed my back. His hands moved down to my waist and the hug tightened, his fingers slipping under my shirt. I almost gasped as I felt his touch on my skin. His lips softly brushed my ear as he murmured: “Just listen to my voice… and relax… It’s okay…” He moved his hand to my thigh. I tensed up a bit. “You know what I’m doing now?”, he continued, his voice calm and steady. “By touching you I’m distracting your mind from the pain you just went through with something much more… pleasant… It’s simple human psychology I’ve come to understand through the years. You, humans, bury your bad experiences beneath the good ones, and one short moment of happiness or satisfaction is enough for you to forget pain, physical or mental. It’s really interesting…”, his fingertips danced up my thigh, making my skin crawl. And really, I felt myself calm down and I came to enjoy his touch, the way his breath tickled my face and his soft timbre purred in my ear. When he decided I was calm enough, he let me go.

“So I see you haven’t found yourself a girl yet, and it’s almost eleven thirty.”, he spoke up in his usual voice, his smirk returning to his face, erasing all the concern and softness. “Which means only one thing…” He poked me with his elbow.

“Shut up.”, I murmured. I knew he knew he was right anyway, I didn’t need to admit it, and I wasn’t going to.

“Where did you disappear anyway?”, he changed the subject. “You just ran off to the corridor and never came back.”

“I wanted to get out of all this noise for a bit.”, I shrugged. “And while I was trying to do this I ran into a couple fucking in a bedroom, some guys stole a bottle of olive oil and were about to drink it, and I kicked some stoned boy out the pavilion. Can’t say my evening wasn’t interesting.” I smiled a bit.

“Hah! Yeah, indeed.”, the demon patted my shoulder. “Not bad, hm?”

I just shrugged again. Now, when the adrenalin had completely left my system and I had stopped shaking I noticed some small details in him that made me raise my eyebrow. His hair was much messier than usual, and there were some suspicious marks all over his neck…

“And where did you disappear?”, I said, not sure if I want to hear the answer. He grinned widely, glad that I asked.

“I was having some fun with our dear birthday girl’s boyfriend in the bathrooms.”, he winked. “Well, or at least we were about to, but then I realized you’re in trouble and I had to dump him to get you out of this unfortunate situation.”

Wow, he gave up on the opportunity to get laid after seven hundred years of no sex, only to come to the rescue? Vic was definitely surprising me tonight. Not that he cared about me or anything, he just didn’t want to lose, as he said, his “favorite toy”. That was all. But still, what he did was really sweet, especially considering that he was a creature which is supposed to be evil.

“I suggest, let’s get outta here.”, he looked around. “People become boring when they’re too drunk. Let’s go to your place.”

“It’s late, dude, you have to go home.”, I reminded him. “Your… I mean, Walt’s parents are gonna be worried about you. You can’t stay at my house all the time.”

“Of course I can. Waltie’s little brother is far not as amusing as you. Come oooon, Kellin. I’ll call them to tell them I’m okay if I have to.”

I let out a deep sigh. No matter that he helped me with the Jesse accident, I still wanted to get rid of him at least for a few hours, but he was like stuck with me. He just wouldn’t leave me alone. It was like having to look after a really clingy little kid… well, an extremely dirty-minded and mean little kid, but still. He was like one big baby in our world. He didn’t know so many things. I was pretty sure he had never been in a car and that he had never seen a TV in his life. It was funny, how this a few thousand year old creature still had so much to learn.

“…Okay. Call Walter’s parents and tell them you’re staying for the night.”, I agreed a bit unwillingly. “But just for tonight.”, I added quickly.

“Sure thing. I’m busy tomorrow anyway. You know. With this Sarah girl.”, Vic poked me. “Come on now.”

He was about to take me by the arm, but I had learned his trick and stepped back. “Nope, no teleporting.”, I shot him a glare.

He rolled eyes.

“Okay, okay. We’ll walk if you insist. Even though walking is so boring.”, he pouted. “Whatever. Let’s go.”

We made our way through the garden. I had the feeling that even though it was late, the party was just starting – more people were coming, and I was pretty sure that this Helen, Jesse’s sister, didn’t even know most them. This was a typical example of a party going out of control. I was glad that Vic agreed to leave on time. I had begun to fear for my life, seriously.

Funny how for me walking alone with a demon at night was safer than staying at a party with a bunch of kids at about my age or even younger. Damn. There is something really wrong with this world.

END OF CHAPTER 5.