Memories

More Than A Name

Chapter 3

 Suddenly from the other end of the alleyway a man came stomping towards the boy and his mother. The man was thin and shaggy like a dog that lived off of table scraps; he even had the same crazed look in his eyes. Before the boy could protest the man shoved him backwards and grabbed his mother by the shoulders. The daemon reached forward and caught the boy mid air, quickly setting him rightly on his feet.

 The man began to yell at the unconscious woman, “Where’s my money Sophie?” he lifted his hand and slapped her across the face, “Wake up you little bitch! Or I’ll start having some quality time with your boy here!” He raised his hand to strike her again but the daemon grabbed him by the collar and yanked him off her, throwing him backwards at a wall.

 “You will not hit her again.”

 “This is none of your business ass hole! It’s between me and the whore.” The man made an attempt to get up and shove the daemon away. But the daemon stood immovable, staring at the dog of a man as he snarled and growled at him.

 “You won’t hurt either of these people, and I won’t hurt you. You are just going to walk away and forget any money they owe you.”

 The man laughed sinisterly, reminding the daemon of the malicious laughter he had always heard in Hell, and spit the words in the daemon’s face, “I’m not going anywhere. In fact, now I believe her debt has just gone up.” The daemon sensed the boy crawling towards his mother, where he sat holding her. He would never leave her side. The daemon couldn’t let anything happen to someone with so much love for another that they were willing to go through anything for them.

 In two steps the gap between them was gone and the daemon had the man a foot off the ground pressed against the wall. He stared into his eyes, eyes so cold and empty he was one step from being a torturer of Hell, but he could still see the human fear and surprise clouding around the edges. The daemon could collapse his whole rib cage with one shove, sending him to Hell where he rightfully belonged and most likely become a torturer of others. But what would it solve? The man didn’t understand what was in store for him and still held what little humanity he had left.

 The daemon started reaching out with his spirit, while keeping the control of his present body, into the eyes of the man. He felt himself fraying at the edges but he held the stretch. He did inflict pain onto him or say that he would be damned to Hell but showed him the pain he had experienced, the endless aspect of it and how he could never escape it. The man slowly grew more and more horrified with each second he saw into the daemon’s spirit. Gradually the daemon pulled back from the man and lowered him to his feet.

 He sternly said, “You have a chance to escape this fate. I suggest you do whatever you have,” he leaned in close and whispered, “That was five seconds of what I have endured for decades.” The daemon released the man, who scrambled off the ground and ran off into the distance.

 He could even hear him calling out, “I must escape!”

 The daemon turned back to the boy who gazed up at him with confusion and fear.

 “I am here to help,” was the all daemon said.

 The boy slowly nodded and stuttered as he turned his attention back towards his mother, “Okay, this is my mom, Sophia, and I’m Nathaniel, but everyone calls me Nate.”

 The daemon opened his mouth but paused. Not because he was having second thoughts, but because his own body was a stranger to him, he had no idea what the name of the man whose body he occupied and he had long since forgotten his own, even if he ever had one. He was nameless. So he instead began to say, “I don’t—,” but was cut off by a whisper in his ear, a whisper that matched the laughter from the morning before, which called for him.