My Lovely Demon (Revised)

-🍂Prologue🍂-

"Mommy, where's daddy?" I asked my mom after she tucked me in.

I've asked her the same question ever since I can remember and her answer has always been: "He's away sweetie, now please go to sleep", before walking away and turning off my lights.

Unlike other children my age, I am not afraid of the dark. The dark is my friend, because it helps conceal my secret...

I have black wings. They are very big and feathered, like those of a bird.

A black bird.

I remember when I was smaller I used to like them and was very happy that I had them. I was special.

But then when I first went to school I realized that having wings wasn't normal, because none of the other children had some.

That first day of school I thought it would be fun to show my friends my wings. That turned out to be a big mistake. When I lifted my shirt and let them peak at the black feathers they ran away in fright, then told the teacher. She didn't believe them...but that didn't stop them from throwing rocks at me. Everyone thought I was a monster. A freak.

We had to move again after that day.

I remember my mom once telling me that my daddy is the same as me, but I didn't believe her one bit. Nobody is like me. Nobody else has black wings.

There is another question that I used to ask frequently, that is, before I realized it was no good asking. The answer would never change.

"Mom, are my wings ever going away?" I really hated my wings. I even tried cutting them off ones, it hurt a ton, but I had to try. My mom got really scared when she came into the restroom that day and saw all the blood. By the next day the nasty wings had grown back though.

"No" She would answer, with a weird sad look in her eyes. But then more gently she would add: "Luce baby, your wings are part of who you are."

She doesn't understand. 

The wings are not part of me. I am part of the wings.

I closed my angry red eyes.

Another thing to add to my hate list...though I never tried taking those off.

................................................................................

I will never forget that night.

"Baby wake up! Come on, wake up!" Mom was shaking me. I had never heard her sound so scared.

I got up half-asleep to see her standing over me. My mom was already a pale lady, but that day, she looked like a ghost. She was shaking and had a frantic look in her eyes.

I was scared.

Suddenly I was pulled off the bed and dragged outside into the cold night. The air was chili, and the ground wet from a light drizzling.

"Come on we have to go!" She was heading towards the woods.

"But mom, it's scary" I protested, pulling back "And I'm cold!"

Plus I wasn't even wearing shoes, we both weren't. She didn't seem to care, and instead of stopping she just picked me up into her arms and ran, ignoring my complaints.

We were in the woods and it was really dark and spooky, but mom kept on running. Sometimes she would trip and say truck. Did she want a truck?

I heard something.

A big whoosh and along with it came gusts of powerful wind seeming to come from behind us. It sounded very much like the noise my wings made when I fly, except a hundred times louder. They must be very big wings.

Whatever it was, it was following us. 

Suddenly it occurred to me that it must be my dad. Even though I had declined it, a small part of me had always hoped that my mom's words were true. That my dad had wings too and he would come back to be with me one day.

"Mommy! Mommy! Stop! It's daddy! It's daddy!" I yelled trying to jump out of her embrace but she just held on tighter.

"Shh! don't talk! We don't want him to find us," she whispered.

Oh! Now I know why we were running in the woods.

"Are we playing hide and seek?" I squeaked excitedly.

It was my favorite game of all time. Now I didn't want him to find me, I wanted him to see how good I was at the game.

"Yes, yes, it's hide and seek! So try to not make a sound sweetie," she answered in a whisper, but she didn't sound happy.

Suddenly the whooshing sound stopped and I felt my mom stop running. I looked up at my mom's face and noticed it was completely drained of color.

This time she started walking super carefully, like a true hide and seeker. She was walking towards a bush. She let me go and pushed me into it.

"Sweetie I want you to stay here and hide okay," she whispered. "Don't come out unless I tell you to and if you hear something wrong please run away as fast as you can okay, fly if you have to" I knew something was wrong, but at that time I was too small to understand what it was.

She kissed my forehead "Whatever happens...just do as I say baby" she used her inside voice for this, kissed my cheek, and then turned away with tears in her eyes. Why was she crying?

I watched her run the opposite direction, away from my bush. Making a lot of noise.

I did as she told me and stayed as quiet as possible. I was barely falling asleep when I heard a scream. Moms scream. She must have been found! If you hear something wrong, fly away she had said, but I really wanted to see daddy...

I got out of my bush and ran towards the noise. I could hear voices, one was my moms and the other...a stranger. When I saw a man I quickly hid in back of a tree. I didn't want daddy to find me yet.

At first, the only thing I paid attention to was the man in front of me. He was chuckling and looking at his hands...but I stopped paying attention to that because the man in front of me had wings. Black wings.

I was so happy that I didn't care what mom had told me. I didn't care about having to hide. All I cared about was that daddy was in front of me and that he was the same as me. I jumped up and was ready to run towards him when I noticed my mom. She was at his feet, covered in blood and not moving. Shocked, I looked up at the man and saw that the reason he was looking at his hands before was because they were covered in blood.

"You could have easily told me the child's whereabouts, Ximena. It didn't have to come to this" The black winged man said, but he sounded very far away.

My head was spinning.

Again, I turned towards my mom at his feet not believing what was happening. But...she wasn't moving...and her eyes...

I covered my mouth quickly, tears starting run down my face. Then I did what my mom had told me to do before leaving me in the bush.

I ran.

I ran like I never ran before in my life. All I wanted in that instant was to get as far away from the man and my mom...my mom that wasn't really my mom anymore. She had her eyes open when I looked at her. She never blinked and blood was running down the edge of her mouth...

I closed my eyes tightly.

DON'T THINK ABOUT IT!

I jumped the highest I could and let my wings out at the same time, ripping my Pokemon T-shirt in the process, but I didn't care.

That night I flew without knowing where. I flew without stopping. As if a demon himself was after me. And he was. And it was my dad.

I flapped my wings harder.