Nothing in this World

Chapter 6

     Walking with the trio of Imps revealed to Damien how regular young Demons interact with their friends. Smoke had a naturally cowering posture, hunched over with wringing hands. His voice was also very whiny and whimpery overall, so it sounded like he was in danger when he wasn't. Blaise and Yana are simply so tall that they have to look down at their much shorter friend, and today they were playing a strange game where they wanted to see who hit the hardest. Even though he wasn't playing, Damien had won.

     Now the group of four was walking towards the more residential area of Hell, past a courtyard, past the prison of human sinners. The three Imps who were already friends walked slightly ahead of Damien, talking to each other. They had slowly cut him out of the group, so now he walked a few steps behind. A bit ticked, he kicked off the ground and flew over their heads. He hung upside down in front of them, causing them to stop, his long shaggy hair dangling down.

     "So, where are we going?" Damien asked, twisting around to land again after he spoke. The other three Imps looked in mild surprise at him, as if they had forgotten he was there. But, they didn't forget, right? Obviously they didn't.

     "I dunno, just home I think," Blaise sniffed around his broken snout.

     "Well, we have homework, so..." Smoke trailed off.

     "Since when do you nerds do homework?" Yana laughed, "I wanna keep punchin' people!"

     She raised a fist threateningly towards Smoke, the usual friendly punching bag. He held up his hands, laughing, and she landed a couple practice hits on his open palms.

     "I'm at least goin' to the doctor, talkin' hurts." The dog waved as he spoke, breaking off from the path and away from his friends. Damien waved as well, trying to maintain the excitement he felt from making friends.

     "Y'know, maybe I should actually do my homework for once. The pile's big enough t'make a bonfire if I wanted." The rat quickly scurried away, in a different direction from Blaise. Damien waved to him as well, but Smoke didn't look back at either of them.

     "I think I'm gonna go to the gym, then," Yana said as she slapped Damien on the back. He staggered a bit. "Ya be safe now, y'hear?"

     "Oh yeah, no, totally," Damien stammered. "I'm just gonna go home, too. See you tomorrow!"

     With a toothy, tusk-widened smile, Yana waved and turned away, jogging in yet another different direction. Damien watched as her muscular form shrank into the distance, his smile falling. With a soft sigh, he continued down the path towards his house. Should I have tried harder? I think these guys actually wanna be friends, so why did they leave so fast?

     His house was a large one, because his family was. He was damn lucky to have his own room, but then again it might have been because the "room" was actually a large closet. Hopping up the steps to the front door, wiping his dusty hooves on the worn out mat, he took a deep, steadying breath before opening the door.

     It was chaos, of course. Loud, fast, movement everywhere. His many, many siblings clamored for a wide variety of things. A toy that one kid wanted but another had, a piece of food, the attention of a parent. Damien's eyes quickly found his mother, a Succubus, belly swollen once again with yet another child. Heaven and Hell, condoms exist, dad! Thinking of his father, he looked around again to see if he could see the Incubus. He didn't, which made sense. Kicking off the wood floor, Damien skipped the stairs and flew up to the third floor where his room was. He snatched a slice of pizza from the held up hands of one of his older sisters, eating quickly so it didn't get taken from him too.

     As soon as he reached his room, he flung open the door and slammed it behind him, settling into his hammock with a satisfied sigh. He pushed against the wall with his tail to start swinging. His thoughts raced, flowing so fast that he hardly even had time to think them. Not really knowing when it happened, he drifted to sleep.

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     The next day was another school day. Damien couldn't manage to get either parent to look his way long enough to give him some breakfast, so he took a few pomegranates from trees in the courtyard on the way to school. Cracking them open and slurping out the seeds, there was a certain spring in his step that wasn't there normally. There, a few feet up the road, stood the trio of Imps he had befriended. Wings fluttering with his heartbeat, Damien ran to them.

     "Hey guys! Hi! What's up?" Grinning a wide, fang-toothed grin, he looked at each Imp in turn. His smile faltered when he noticed the confusion contorting each of their faces.

     "Sorry, who are you?" Smoke cocked his head to the side as he asked. Damien felt an ice cold knife stab through his chest, his heart. Why did I expect anything different, he thought bitterly.

     The bitterness crept onto his face, one corner of his mouth peeling into a snarl. Yana snapped her fingers in recognition, making him look at her.

     "Ohh, I remember! Yer that Dalton guy, right?"

     "Damien!" he shouted, louder than he intended. The three Imps each stepped back. "It's Damien! We talked literally yesterday! You- you guys- I thought that-" He was cut off by hiccupping sobs catching in his throat. Tears stung his eyes, though they glowed with angry fire. His tail lashed as he whipped around, an arm rubbing the water from his eyes.

     "W-wait! I didn'- we didn' mean to! Donovan, wait!" Yana called out, attempting to be placating. It didn't work.

     Damien sprinted away, dropping uneaten pomegranates as he took off into the air. He couldn't hear what they were saying, wind whistled around his ears, his heartbeat pounded in his head. He found a large tree quickly, landing unsteadily on a thick branch. He clung to the trunk, choking back further sobbing as long as he could.

     Eighteen years. Eighteen damn years of being forgotten, being ignored, being overlooked. I don't need to go to school, none of my teachers will notice my absence. No one would notice if I left, if I died! I should just die, just get it over with! Spiraling, spiraling, terrible thoughts, Damien bit into his fist to cover the wail he felt coming, hardly noticing the harshly bitter taste of the black ichor that flowed forth.

     Then something caught his eye, a flash of red and orange fire. A Demon descended from a portal, returning from some time on Earth. From Earth, among the humans... a new start, Damien thought, almost hopeful. Wiping the tears from his eyes again, taking in shaking breaths, he started a plan. A plan to escape and be noticed, once and for all.