My Demon

September 19, 2015

I'm not even sure where to begin. Today started as expected, I was anxious as hell for when my Dad was to get here. Mom and Micheal made us (Hailey, Luke, and me) clean up the house for when he was to get here.

Then after that, we all went to get ready. I went to take a shower, and Hailey went to get Bethany and herself around. I don't know what Luke did, he stayed in the dining room, which was the room we finished in, when I went to take my shower.

I ended up taking twice as long as usual because half of the time I was staring at the wall. I was trying to prepare myself for what was to come, thinking of each possible outcome, conversation starters, and responses to anything I could think of. After I eventually finished my shower, dried my hair, and got dressed, I ended up deciding to just sit on the couch and read for a bit.

When Father did get here, Lidia was there as well, Micheal came and greeted them at the door, even starting a conversation with them. I went up to get my sisters and Luke.

Naturally, I went to get Luke first, but now that I look back on it, something seemed off about him. He put a hand on my arm and comforted me as usual, but it gave me this weird feeling. I was so caught up with the weird feeling, it wasn't like a bad weird but at the same time it was (does that make sense?), that I hadn't noticed the perpetually terrified look in Luke's gaze. Which only adds another layer of confusion to today.

When Luke had left to go downstairs, Bethany ran up to me and complained about how Hailey was "trying to burn her hair off". It was just a hair curler. We had a short conversation and then Hailey and Bethany went downstairs as well.

Now that everyone, except myself, was downstairs, I went to my room and quickly brushed my hair again because it got messy again! I know I complain about this a lot in this, but I hate how easily my hair gets tangly, like I can't even style it properly the least it could do is NOT TANGLE UP!

Then, when I did go downstairs, I saw Luke standing there like a lost puppy. So I went over and basically dragged him over to the dining room.

This is where things start going downhill. I ask about Domburr, though he's pretty sensitive about what I ask about. He did give me a lot of information though. I'll try and summarize it here.

The Curse of Domburr affects a certain species, in this case, the demonoids (they prefer to be called demons). The curse makes them cold-blooded, so I can only assume that the temperature there is really high because he said if they leave Domburr they'll freeze. I do know that cold-blooded animals don't actually die in cold weather, they're body just adapts (at least I think anyway), so that must mean that this curse is some kind of exception. Luke also told me that there are three punishments for crimes; torture, banning, and execution. He told me he was supposed to be executed because "he has no strength in their eyes" or something like that. He claimed he isn't able to use magic and didn't have super strength that apparently other demons have. But he got banned for some reason instead of being executed, which before I was confused as to why they would do that to someone like Luke, but I'm starting to understand. But, I do want to know who Luke is talking about when he says "they". Outside of Domburr, there are the four guardians of the borders, north, east, west, and south (Mom is the Guardian of the west side of the border), but I'm not sure about anyone ruling or protecting Domburr inside. If there is, those must have been the people to decide to lift the curse for Luke and make him leave. The process of being banned from Domburr is when a person (in this case, Luke) is forced to leave and the curse is lifted for them. This causes theirr temperature to go haywire for three days, the way Luke described is that"one moment it felt like I was a mile deep in a pile of snow, the next it felt like I was in the middle of the dessert in a heat way". So generally they expected Luke to die outside of Domburr, but Mom found him before anything happened.

That about sums it up, I didn't learn a whole lot but it is what it is.

This was when the adults came in, Bethany too. Father gave Luke a look when Bethany hugged him.

From there they all sat down to eat. We were served our food and began eating. Mom was worried it wouldn't be good because she isn't used to making so much, but it was delicious as usual.

For a little while, Luke was completely zoned out. While he was, Hailey, Father, and I all had a conversation about books because while Luke and I were talking Hailey was reading a book, and Father saw it so he asked about it. I like historical fiction and horror/thriller books, Hailey likes romance and slice of life, and Father likes sci-fi; Mom even chipped in and agreed with me that historical fiction and horror are the superior genres.

Then Hailey commented about how "awfully quiet" Luke was being. So, Father decided to start talking to Luke.

Father asked Luke to tell him about himself and Luke responded by saying how he doesn't think he's very interested. Which I gave him a look for because, whether he lied to me or not, he is a very interesting person. I've gotten the closest to him in the time he's been here, and even I don't know a lot about him. After shutting down Father's request, he pushed Luke to agree to tell him about himself, which he actually did. Luke explained that he likes to play the drums and draw. He draws nature because he admires it. He started playing the drums originally because he was angry, though claimed he doesn't remember why. From there, Luke explained that he is a passive demon and then Lidia asked if he could use magic.

This is where everything takes a turn.

Luke told me that he cannot use magic, that this was the reason he was supposed to be executed when he turned 18. But Mom, Hailey, and Bethany all claim to have seen Luke use magic before. He even used a poison tracker. A POISON TRACKER!!!  I'm a natural-born magic-user, as all elves are, and with 11-12 years of experience, I can't even use a poison tracker!

Luke and I got into this huge argument about whether he can use magic or not. Honestly, I don't care if he can use magic or not, but he lied to me. He kept insisting that he can't use magic, that he has some kind of voice in his head that can take control of him and he is the one using magic, not Luke. Which I find that hard to believe. If he can take control of Luke, I asked him to allow me to talk to him, and he told that he'd rather me not. He said that I was being "dramatic" and that I needed to calm down, and kept insisting he was telling the truth. I'm not sure if I believe him or not now, he told Father to "shut up" when he said that demons are deceitful, which only leads me to not believe him more (even if he claimed that he wasn't talking to Father). He said "what am I supposed to say then" when he was about to explain things, again, only further makes me believe he isn't telling the truth.

After dinner, I just plopped down on my bed and screamedd into a pillow, then stared at the ceiling trying to figure out what just happened.

I feel kind of bad now. I yelled at him and he winced and flinched when I did, which is never a good sign. But right now, I'm not sure if I believe him or not. Part of me is saying he's telling the truth, part of me is saying he isn't. I'm literally writing this in the middle of the night because I couldn't get it off my mind, I was going to write it tomorrow morning but it just kept gnawing at me so now I'm doing this. I wish I could say I'm writing this to someone and I could ask them what to do, maybe I'll ask Mom or Hailey what they think in the morning. For now, I'm just going to try and avoid him until I figure this all out.

Now I'm tired, and my wrist is sore, so I'm going to go to sleep now. I've almost fallen asleep two times writing this, so after what happened today, I think I deserve some actual rest.

~ Alexzander Wickham