His Guardian Demon

Chapter Twenty

After I confirmed Winnie's beliefs, he untangled himself from me, got up and moved to his bed. I was about to leave through the window to give him some space when he patted the spot next to him, an invitation to sit by him. I was relieved, to say the least. 

"What was that?"

"What was what?"

"The, uh, other guy?" 

I sighed, knowing exactly what he was trying to say. "It was me. Well, not exactly. It was a repressed part of me, the evil demon side. It only comes out when I have too much of an emotion or when I feel cornered."

Winnie's mouth made a silent 'o'. "I'm sorry I made you feel that way."

I shook my head. "It's not your fault. It would have happened sooner or later. I'm glad it didn't happen in school or on the street."

A moment of silence passed between us. 

"So, uh, why are you so concerned about your wings? Were you ever actually going to tell me about them?" Winnie asked quietly.

"Contrary to what everyone thinks, demons aren't supposed to have wings. It's unnatural for us," I answered, "and yes, I was planning on telling you tonight, just not like this."

"Has this happened before?"

"Once. His name was Jaxon. Dexter found out about it and killed him."

"Oh." Winnie looked down at his lap. A silence passed between us for a moment before Winnie spoke up again. "But what does any of this have to do with me?"

I sighed. "At first, I had no idea. I had to do a lot of research. I got a lot of weird looks from the bookstore clerk," a smile tugged at the corners of Winnie's lips, "but eventually I found an answer. Apparently, when a special human gets filled with—"

"What? Special human?"

I held up a hand and continued my explanation. "—a strong desire, they can transfer that desire into a physical means to do whatever they desired. So in mine and your's case, you must have wanted something so badly I grew wings to accomplish what you wanted."

"I wanted you to live."

I turned to Winnie with a quizzical look on my face. "What?"

He pulled his knees to his chest before continuing. "I thought you were going to jump off the bridge. I didn't want that to happen. It happens to too many," he finished.

Winnie broke our silence with another question. "What did you mean by 'special human'? What does that mean?"

I turned to him. Explaining why I was here without freaking him out would be difficult. Granted, he had been taking everything well so far, but that was probably due to shock. I took a deep breath before beginning my explanation.

"Okay, so there are three major realms: the Human, Demon, and Angel. There is another realm, but it's not exactly a realm. It's more like a wormhole of sorts. No one knows much about it other than that's where the reapers are. Anyway, you probably know about how demons and angels hate each other, right? Well, demons are really petty and like to piss off angels any chance they get. So they do whatever they can to accomplish this.

"Humans aren't really that great. I'm sure you know that. But occasionally, we find a special human, one that isn't like the others. We like to call them 'Pure of Hearts', or POH for short. They are so special, angels like to reside in them until the POH dies so that they can become an angel.

"Going back to demons pissing off angels, we also like to get POHs, but only so the angels can't get them and build their ranks. So we take the POH with us before the angel can establish a residency within the POH. The problem is, a POH's soul is so powerful, in addition to being able to transfer desires, like you did, normal demons will disintegrate with just one touch. So only a select few demons are able to bring back a POH."

Winnie nodded before quietly asking, "Um, when you say 'bring back', what exactly do you mean?"

"I mean it's that demon's job to kill the POH, harvest the soul, and bring it back to hell," I answered bluntly. No use in sugarcoating it.

Winnie curled up into an even smaller ball. "W-was that your job? Is that why you're here?"

I sighed. "Yeah, that was my job. Don't think I'll be doing that anymore."

"What do you mean?"

"If I go back to hell, it doesn't matter if I have you with me or not, I'll be killed."

"Is that why you wanted me to help you so badly? So you wouldn't be killed?" I nodded. Winnie bit his lip and asked, "If I were to help you get rid of them, would you still kill me?"

I looked at him in shock. 

Is he serious? He'd be willing to do that? Even after I threatened to kill him?

"Ash?"

"No."

"No?"

"No, I wouldn't kill you. I would go back and say I was too late, that you had died in a car accident or there was an angel inside you. You'll never have to see me again."

A few minutes passed in silence. "But I want to see you again," his hushed voice said.

I looked over at Winnie in shock. "What?"

"I know it's probably not the smartest idea, but I do like your company. You're the nicest person―well, demon―at school. You don't have to leave. I don't want you to. Besides," he said, his ears turning pink, "you should always be nice when you have the chance. I don't know if it's possible, but can you make it so I'm not a target? So they don't just send out another demon to get me?"

Yeah, I can. You probably won't like it, though.

"Yeah. I can do that."

***

Okay, hopefully, this chapter cleared some things up. Please tell me what you think, like if  you liked this chapter (or if you're wondering/think you know what Ash is thinking of >:D)