The Demon I Used To Be

Chapter eight

  I was abashed as I gave him a puzzled look. It didn't take long for my perplexity to grow into vex. "Oh boy!" He exclaimed, dropping his hand, heavily, on my shoulder. I pushed it off. "I'm sorry okay? I didn't mean to get you angry, but man, you look like you're just about to get dressed for the dinner"
  He was probably right. Asides the dress I was able to get, my hair was as ruffled as usual and my face had not even been seen in a mirror.
  "So you called me out here to insult me"
  "C'mon, why would I?" He leaned across and opened the car's pigeonhole. He took out a cylindrical container. "Here. You should at least use some powder on your face"
  I snatched the container, rolling my eyes, then poured some of its content on my palm. "Are we having dinner in your car?"
"Maybe not dinner but..." He trailed off, placing his hand on my knee. The dress had grown shorter as I sat. I pushed it off again and he smirked. He finally turned on the car and moved.

    "You like it?" He asked. We sat at a round table in a small eatery further into town from where we lived. A mirror ball hung at the center of the white ceiling in the midst of the orange bulbs that lighted up the place and couples danced to the soul music that filled the atmosphere.
  "It's...okay." We'd been served fries with fish and mushroom ketchups which we had ordered immediately we sat. I held up a chip and dipped it in my bowl of fish ketchup then threw it into my mouth.
   "There's a fork for you to use"
I scowled at him then repeated my eating procedure. He sighed. The meal was delicious. It was the best I had had since the twenty-fourth of December, two thousand and eleven. He had his fries with the mushroom ketchup.
   "Are we just gonna eat quietly? Shouldn't get to know each other?" He asked, between munches then gulped down his masticated food. "You go first", I replied.
   "Ladies first girlie"
I stuffed my mouth with fries then muttered, "My mouth's full". He chuckled. "Alright then. I have a family of four: my parents, my sister and I."
  "Thought you said you had a large one"
"Well, that's cause my uncle's family was included. He passed away the moment he got news of his wife's death and now dad's left with the responsibility of his six kids." He sputtered then shoved some chips into his mouth and chewed quickly.
    "Also..." He continued after swallowing. His countenance became sour. "We actually used to be five in my family until a couple of years ago when my elder sister's twin was killed"
  I felt sympathetic for a second then pronged the last chip on my plate and tossed it into my mouth: I now had a fork in my hand. "Killed huh?" I replied dryly.
   "Yes, killed. We left her home with a family friends' daughter and were welcomed by her dead body with a bullet in her feet and bruises on her face. The girl she was babysitting also disappeared without trace"
  The story was familiar but I tried not to get emotional. I signaled one of the waiters. He wore an orange waistcoat on a lighter orange shirt to match with orange plain trousers. "Your fries were not enough, Mister" I said with a glare. He apologized with a bow and took my plate away. I looked back at the young man whose sister I'd killed years ago. "Your sister probably had enemies" I said. I didn't to look like a heartless chick.
  "I think Yvonne was the one with the enemy..." My eyes widened as her name left his lips. I dropped them to the table quickly to avoid an awkward scene. "...her five-year-old daughter was killed four years later."
   "She's... She's married"
  "Yea, she wasn't at that time tho. It was her late boyfriend's child"
   My gaze rose back to him as tears stung my eyes. 'No way'

**
April 2nd, 2016

  "You're so weird" a tiny voice echoed at my stream. I froze and tried to hide my naked self with my hands as I turned to see who it was. "I'm a girl like you so what's there to hide" the girl said as she came closer. She was no more than six years old; I could tell from her short chubby limbs, fat cheeks and the Mickey Mouse picture on the pink shirt she wore.
   "Leave this place this minute, you little thing!" I ordered. Instead of obedience, she mimicked. I ignored her, temporarily, to round up my bath and get dressed. She floated about. I wore a blue jean short with a red top with long sleeves then flung the arms of an ash sweater around my neck, letting the rest of the sweater cover my front; I hadn't gotten a bra at the time and my nipples had increased. Beneath her pink top was a pink trouser with similar Mickey Mouse pictures forming a pattern all over it and a pair of pink slippers on her feet. Her brown curly hair was tied with a pink scarf.
  "I'll call you Mickey Mouse. Stubborn...Mickey...Mouse" I trudged towards her. She was standing under one of the trees.
  "And I'll call you...umm...Miss Strange" she replied cheekily. She had tanned skin and dark eyes. "Besides, you live in our basement, go in and out through the window and have your bath at a stream. What would be a better name than strange?"
  "You know so much, don't you?"
  "Yup!" She spoke proudly. "I've not told anyone yet tho. I wanted to have a little chat with you first so we could decide how you'd keep me shut"
  I couldn't hold back my laughter. Her rudeness and pride tickled my fancy. I squeezed my tommy as I crouched to laugh.
  "What's so funny, Missie? Ain't you gonna make a deal cause I got other stuff to do?"
My laughter slowly died down and my gaze was back on the little girl. "Come here", I said with a gesture of my index finger.
  "Whoah! You're some pile a' guts, baby"
  Her words no longer sounded funny. I moved closer and gripped her wrist. "Hey!" She whined. I twisted her hand then loosened her scarf with my other hand. I maneuvered her other hand then tied them with the scarf. I ensured she'd never be able to untie it on her own. She screamed and stomped the ground. I pulled her and fell her facedown by the stream so that her face sank in the water whenever she tried to rest her head. She danced like a fish on land and wagged her head like a lizard during courtship. She slammed her legs against stones like a freestyle swimmer then let out a loud cry. I half smiled at my 'job well done' then left the environment.

**
April 1, 2020

     "How did the girl die?" My voice was cracked. The waiter interrupted with a plate of fries that he placed before me.
     "Well, her body, just like Yvette's, was dumped in front of the house after our search party. The doctor said she drowned. The stupid girl prolly went swimming at her age" he replied then emptied his plate. He reached for a glass on the table and gulped down it's content.
  "You just called your niece stupid"
I'd lost my appetite as I stared at him, lost in the conversation.
  "Yea, stupid. The reason her death hurt more was the disruption of our five-year-old plan" he blurted. He leaned over, lifting his plate then halved the content of mine into his. He was just as rude as the girl. She clearly had their blood and not ours. Sassy like Yvette. Although, Alex had never mentioned Yvonne's pregnancy to any of us. I wasn't even going to let them get married.
  I watched him eat more hurriedly than he did earlier. "The meals here are impeccable. We should come back some other time." He said before a sip of water from another glass.
  "A five-year-old plan" I said casually to keep up the discussion. I picked a chip and dipped it in my bowl of ketchup, glacially. He rose his head and our eyes met.
  "Yea...five...except the girl wasn't five, that is. Cause it was as old as her." He replied then faced his food.
   "What plan?"
  "Well...Yvonne's ex boyfriend, Alex who was the father of Alexa, was the son of a millionaire, Mr Smith. So here's what was supposed to happen: Yvonne gets married to Alex and then becomes his next of kin which means heir to most of the Smith property since Alex was the only son. The pregnancy was supposed to be a way to hold him down since he started acting uninterested in their relationship. Unfortunately for him, he and his entire family got wiped out in a single day which left Alexa to be the only Smith on earth. Do I still have to explain further?" He sputtered then ended with a smug smirk.
  "Anyway..." He shrugged, "...the girl decided to get killed which was actually good in a way because we were able to detect Yvonne's danger earlier and get her to safer place", he added then continued emptied his plate the second time. I raised mine and, with the fork that had been on my table mat, I poured the leftover into his plate.
   "So where's Yvonne now?"