Daemons in the Mist

Chapter 12 - Solid Reminder

12

Solid Reminder

Saturday, January 14th

NUALLA

                        

The past two days had completely drained me, so much so that lying in the middle of my floor and staring at the blank ceiling seemed like a perfectly logical way to spend the rest of Saturday night. My life wasn’t dull by any means, but it also wasn’t normally this chaotic either.

My relationship with Patrick had gone from zero to sixty in no time flat, but it wasn’t exactly his fault. I was the one who had dragged him to Vegas. I was the one who had gotten him wasted at the club. And I was the one who had brought up the stupid marriage thing. To be perfectly honest, I had been basically ruining this boy’s life for the last forty-eight hours.

Gods, I was a terrible person. And soon I was going to have to tell him everything. The truth about what I really was. The fact that he might die. The fact that very shortly he would no longer even be human…if he was lucky.

Nikki came in and sat on the edge of my bed. She fidgeted for a while before finally asking, “Nualla, what are you going to do about Patrick?”

“The only thing I can do Nikki, stay married to him and tell him the damn truth. Oh, and hope he doesn’t run screaming when I do.”

“Are you going to call him tomorrow?”

“How, Nikki? It’s not like I’ve got his phone number.” Geez that sounded bad.

“Oh…right.”

“I said I was going to meet him at school Monday,” I said, still staring up at the ceiling.

“Are you?”

“Of course I am, and since everyone will be staring anyways I might as well make a show of it,” I answered, smiling to myself.

“What exactly are you planning on doing?” Nikki asked suspiciously.

“Oh I don’t know, walking up and kissing him in front of everyone sounds like it would be a great idea.”

“You’re going to give that boy a heart attack.”

“Naw he’s probably over the shock by now. But his friends, on the other hand…” I said as I turned to grin mischievously at her.

“Oh, you’re evil.”

“Whatever do you mean?” I said, feigning innocence. The response I got back was a pillow in the face.

PATRICK

                        

Though Nualla had told me to go home, I didn’t—well not right away at least. Why? Because I knew what I would find there. Nothing. No welcoming hugs or even a stern faced, “Where the hell have you been all weekend?” My parents were always away on business.

Always.

Last summer I had tried to see how many days I could go without coming home just to see how long it would take before someone noticed. After two weeks I finally gave up. So mostly it was like living alone. Most teenagers would have loved it. I, on the other hand, hated it. I had thought about getting a pet for company, but my mother was allergic. Not that she was ever home enough for it to matter, of course.

I passed on the taxi and rode BART back into the city. I really needed the time to clear my head before I returned to the real world. So I wandered the streets until I finally decided to get myself some dinner and trudged home.

I opened the door to silence. I had a few missed calls from Connor, but I didn’t feel like talking to him. He could just watch Saturday night anime by himself. There were no missed calls from my parents, but there was no big surprise there.

I ate my dinner half-heartedly at the table before trudging up the stairs to my room. Kicking off my scuffed black All Stars I flopped on my bed and rolled over onto my back. With a sigh I opened my phone’s picture album and looked at the pictures again. Just to torture myself, really. These pictures were the only thing that proved that this weekend had not been a figment of my imagination. Well that, and the ring on my finger.

Looking at the ring, I decided I probably couldn’t wear it to school, but I also didn’t want to not wear it. After a lot of wrestling with myself, I opted to wear it under my shirt on a chain. It was probably silly, but I liked the idea of having a solid reminder that what I had gone through in the last week had been real.

I flopped back on the bed and flipped through the weekend’s pictures until I passed out. And dreamed of nothing.