The Club

Thirty- Six

It’s been a couple of weeks since that dreadful day. I got better over the past couple days, and I convinced Naberius to help train me to control my powers a little. He didn’t like to be a teacher, but he agreed once I told him it would help save Joz. The first week was horrible. I couldn’t grasp the power or control it all, and even Hector tried to help a little. By, the third week I grasped one power, which was to control that raging fire I have. I still have struggles with it, but I control it better than I did before. I still wish Joz was here. I still feel what he’s going through in that pit of fire, but thanks to Naberius it’s faded. I still feel a few stings and burns but not as bad as I’m sure poor Joz is going through. No matter what I have to work harder to control these powers faster.
“When is the ritual supposed to happen again?” Finn asks breaking me from my thoughts.
“The end of the month.” I whispered.
“So, in about two weeks then?” Finn asks furrowing his eyebrows.
“Yeah.” I say bitting the bottom of my lip nervously. 
“Don’t worry Lonnie. We will stop the ritual and you won’t have to worry about the devil or Tynan.” Hector says. 
I nod but something about everything is making me feel odd. The ritual is practically among us, but I haven’t seen Mr. Dubuik or Tynan at all. I haven’t even seen Kedron who appeared a day before I burned down the school. I wonder if he even made out of the academy. I wonder who even survived and who I killed that day. I still have nightmares. I remember little of that day, but I just remember feeling so much emotion and feeling so much power building up inside of me. Then, nothing. There was just darkness and coldness. I lost Joz and then I gained his brother Naberius. So much has happened and I feel like my life has been moving so quickly lately.
“Naberius. What is your plan to save Joz?” I ask him in my mind.
“You will find out in due time.” Naberius answers. 
“Naberius tell me your plan.” I say firmly. 
“Are you always this bossy with Jozannon?” Naberius asks annoyed.
“No. Just you.” I answer still waiting for him to answer me.
“You really want to know the plan that badly?” Naberius asks sighing in annoyance.
“Well, of course. How am I supposed to help you save Joz if I don’t even know the plan Naberius?” I ask seriously. 
“Fine. You won’t like it though.” Naberius says sighing. 
“What do you mean?” I ask. 
“I mean, with my plan to work you will have to go through with the ritual and bring forth my lord.” Naberius tells me dead serious.
“What!” I blurt out loud making everyone turn towards me.
“Are you okay Lonnie?” Hector asks furrowing his eyebrows in concern.
“I-uh yeah.” I say uncertainly.
“She was probably talking to that demon again.” Iridiana say disgusted.
Hector and Finn look over at her, and this time I even looked at her. I get that she’s a light user but what’s with all this rude remarks that she keeps making? She didn’t make these when I had Joz in my head. So, why is she making them now? Is it because I voluntarily let a demon inside of my mind this time? If that’s the case then she needs to get over it, because this is my life now. Unfortunately, and I need to save Joz. I don’t care what anyone else says. Joz is my friend, demon or not he will always be my friend and I will save him. I had a part when that stupid devil threw Joz in that pit of fire, he wouldn’t be there if it wasn’t for me. I should’ve just listened to him sooner.
“Hector, how much do you trust your demon?” I ask him making him look over at me.
“Trust is something you shouldn’t give too easily to demons. I give my demon a small ounce of trust. We don’t talk very often, not like you did with Joz or with your new demon. Why do you ask Lonnie?” Hector explains to me.
“Naberius just told me his plan to get Joz back.” I tell them softly. 
“Okay, and?” Finn asks watching me closely. 
“He, he wants the ritual to happen and for the devil to rise.” I tell them looking at them all.
“What! Hell no! We can’t let that happen Lonnie, you understand that don’t you?” Hector tells me seriously. 
“I-I do it’s just.” I say but stop as I feel so conflicted now. 
“No. Seriously Lonnie, we can’t let the devil rise. If he ever does, then all hell will break loose. The end of the world will be here and we won’t be able to stop it. That demon that you made a deal with, he’s not to be trusted Lonnie. You need to break your deal with him now.” Hector tells me firmly. 
“But, what about Joz? We have to save him.” I say feeling so conflicted. 
“Save him? How did you expect to save a demon from hell Lonnie? They belong down there!” Hector yells making me flinch. 
“But Joz doesn’t belong in that pit of fire!” I yell back as I stood up. 
“Look, I’m sorry that Joz is in that pit of fire, but is really worth it to save him and in return have the end of the world rain upon us? Lonnie, think clearly about this. It’s not risk the end just for one demon.” Hector tells me firmly. 
“How dare you? Joz isn’t just a demon. He’s my friend and I trust him.” I tell him feeling tears falling down.
“You trust him more than us?” Hector asks watching me closely. 
“That’s not fair Hector. Why should I choose between my friends?” I ask feeling more tears falling down.
“Lonnie this is serious! Joz is a demon, and you honestly shouldn’t even trust him. This Naberius demon, you definitely can’t trust him. Why are you so keen on trusting demons but not us?” Hector growls. 
“Hector. That’s enough.” Finn spoke up stepping in between us. 
“But am I wrong?” Hector asks turning towards Finn before looking back towards me.
“Hector. I think you’ve said enough.” Finn says firmly. 
“I agree. You went too far.” Iridiana says coming up next to Finn. 
Hector opens his mouth to say something, but closes it after looking between them and then back at me. Hector’s eyes flashes from anger to realizations to concern in a quick instant. I felt more tears fall as his words hurt, and feeling so conflicted on what to do hurts too. Hector steps towards me as he opens his mouth again, but I step away from him. I do trust them. I do. But I trust Joz too. Why is that so wrong? I just know that he won’t turn his back on me and betray me. I can just sense it. I don’t know if it’s because of his magic but in my heart I know he won’t betray me. I thought Hector understood that. I thought he was by my side on my decisions. Why is he backing out now? I get it. Rising the devil isn’t a keen choice in bringing Joz back, but if it’s the only way then what other choice do I have? I can’t let Joz suffer because of my choices.
“Lonnie, I’m sorry.” Hector apologizes making me look up at him.
“Don’t. I understand why you said it, but also I don’t. I thought you of all people would understand. I guess I was wrong.” I say to him making him flinch at my words.
“Lonnie. Please, I’m sorry, I-we are just worried about you and I didn’t think.” Hector apologizes.
“Hector. When I first met you. You were this scary, powerful quiet guy who were friends with Grimshaw. I didn’t know if I could trust you. But I do now. I can feel you have good intentions, but please never try to make me choose my friends. Demon or not. I wouldn’t have been this concerned about Joz if I didn’t know I couldn’t trust him.” I explain it to him as calmly as I could.
Hector nods as everyone becomes silent once again. I look away from them as I try to wipe away my tears. I hate crying. I hate feeling weak in front of them. But I think most of all, I hate feeling conflicted about everything. What can I do? The devil can not rise, but how else can we save Joz? I don’t know what to do. Why does everything have to be so hard and so, well so conflicting? I just want Joz back safe and sound. After everything we’ve been through, he still being punished. Joz once told me that him being in my mind was his punishment, but I don’t think he minded it at all. Now, they are burning him alive repeatedly and that’s just plain wrong. I don’t care if they are demons or the devil. You don’t just do that to your own family, to your own what? Your own kind I guess?
“Did you mean by what you said?”
I jump not expecting Naberius to speak suddenly, but I quickly compose myself before answering, “Did I mean what?”
“About what you said about Jozannon. That he’s your friend no matter if he’s a demon or not. Did you mean that?” Naberius asks again but more annoyed.
“I meant every word Naberius.” I answer honestly.
“How can you be so stupid?” Naberius asks sighing.
“Excuse me?” I ask insulted.
“Mortal. Us demons don’t become friends with you mortals. We use them, kill them and sometimes possess them. But, we never become friends with them.” Naberius tells me firmly.
“You don’t know our relationship Naberius! Joz and I have really become friends! It’s you who I don’t trust, and it’s you who isn’t my friend!” I yell at him through my mind.
“Ouch. But at least now we are clear on our relationship.” Naberius remarks and I can tell he’s smirking.
“Go to hell!” I growled feeling my fingers tingling again.
“Already been there, mortal.” Naberius answers.
I growled at his response but I should’ve known better to just tell him to go to-oh my god! I said the H word! I slammed my hands over my mouth in shock before looking over at my friends with wide eyes. They too have shocked expressions. I said it out loud too. I didn’t know what to do or what to say. We all just stood there in shock, and I knew I’m definitely not the little good girl that my parents used to know. I’m changing or something. I’m getting-angrier and faster too. It almost feels like my emotions are out of control and I don’t know if it’s just this whole ritual coming up or if it’s Joz’s magic that are making me like this. If it is, then once we save him then he needs to take his magic back. I don’t want to be like this anymore. I’m becoming a completely different person, and it’s honestly scaring me. I don’t like this new me.

It’s been two days since that incident. I haven’t heard from Naberius since then, and my friends seem to just push it back in their minds. I can’t seem to forget what I said. It’s sticking to me like glue and I can’t shake this feeling that something is going to happen today. I’m not sure what, but it doesn’t feel good. It makes me feel uneasy, and I wasn’t sure if I should tell my friends about it or not. Would they even believe me? Honestly, I wouldn’t if it was vice versa. I just hope that maybe I’m just being paranoid since it’s getting closer to when the ritual is supposed to happen. That’s got to be it, otherwise I do not know what else it could be.
On a good note though. Hector has been teaching on how to control my fire ability again. Since Naberius went mute. I’m slowly getting there, but I just feel weird learning to control these powers if I’m just going to lose them in the end. But, I guess it is good to know how to control it as well. Then I don’t have to worry about hurting anyone ever again. I swallow nervously as I try to concentrate on making a fire ball appear. It’s gotten easier, but I’m still nervous that I will one day just lose concentration. I don’t want to hurt anyone else. I don’t want to kill anymore people. I just want to be me again. Well, as me as I ever was at least.
“That’s a good practice Lonnie. Your getting better. We will move on to whatever other abilities you have soon.” Hector tells me proudly.
“So far I only ever used three abilities with Joz. So I don’t exactly know how much I have inside of me.” I tell him the truth.
“Don’t worry. You more than likely only have three. Each demon has up to four powers inside of them. You have Joz’s main three and he got left with one of his weaker power. That’s usually how deals work, anyway.” Hector explains to me.
“So that freezing of my muscles and body? That’s his weaker power? I don’t know, seems pretty handy to me.” I tell him shrugging.
“It can be, but it’s still not as powerful as that fire ability that you just learned to control.” Hector tells me seriously.
“Yeah, yeah I know.” I say already knowing what he’s hinting at.
“Let’s take a break and we can get something to eat shall we?” Hector asks.
I shrug again as we’ve been eating berries and wild animals since I burned down the academy. Hector said that they have to stay hidden for a while. I didn’t understand why and didn’t get why we didn’t just go to one of their houses for shelter. But, Finn and Iridiana both agreed with Hector, so I didn’t say anymore about the subject. I’m just sick of berries and cooked rabbits. I miss the meals we used to get. Like tacos, or hamburgers or pizza! I miss them all, and I miss sleeping on a comfy bed and in a nice warm house.
We all lost some weight and lost some sleep since well, you know since we’ve been living outside for a couple weeks now. I noticed all of my friends become paler than they usually are, and they all have dark circles. I’m sure I look the same. We can’t keep living like this. There has to be a better way to live than out here like this. I let out a sigh as I sat down on the ground and grabbed a bowl of blueberries. I popped some in with no taste as I’m just so tired of blueberries. It’s like my tongue is immune to the taste now as we’ve had them every day. Day and night. It’s all that we could find. The guys occasionally catch a rabbit or a deer and they cook them on the fire. But it’s like all the animals know that there’s dark magic here. They keep their distance from us, and from this area. It makes me wonder, something about my past and how animals always avoid me like I had the plague.