Holes

Ch. 1- two days after

"Does it bother you that he looks human? It bothers me he looks human"

Alice asks from across the room. I stare at the ceiling. It's as dusty as always.

"You know, as long as he doesn't kill us I couldn't care less."

I reply, watching dust blow. My sister sighs, dramatic as she always is.

"When did you become the optimist?"

She asks. It was, actually, the strangest thing to strike me about Alice- who used to be the silver-lining to my storm-cloud- now a pessimist if I've ever met one. A spider is crawling along a beam above me.

"When we exercised a demon from my brain, maybe?"

The spider crawls so that it is directly above me. It's thread is weaving a circular tapestry above me. Alice laughs.

"I'm glad you're back, Eric."

I smile. Suddenly, a thunk echoes through the house. The spider's thread breaks from the beam, and it lands squarely on my forehead. Alice squeaks.

"What do you think that was?!?"

I groan, pinching the spider up with two fingers and placing it on the wall as I stand up. I have so many theories already on what kind of thunk it was. 

"Resident demon expert says- something I don't want to think about but probably shouldn't let Uncle Victor clean up."

I head down the stairs to the kitchen. Eriez isn't there, as I expected. I look around for a hint, arrows drawn on the floor in strawberry jam 'blood', etc etc etc. All there is is a slight yellow sheen on the light coming from the bathroom. Knowing it will be entirely staged to gross whoever entered, I knock and push the unlocked door open. I am not prepared for the yellow light to be glowing blood. Nor for Eriez to be lying in a pool of it with a knife through his forehead. It takes me another second to take in the holes, diminishing by the second, glaring white-gold through his abdomen, shoulders, and chest. He looks exhausted as he twists the knife in his head. The golden sap-like blood continues to ooze out of him as the holes in his chest close completely. He chuckles weakly as I try not to gag.

"Hey kid. How do you kill this thing."

It takes me a while to respond. How to respond. Eriez chuckles again, more of the gleaming blood spewing from his mouth. It finally clicks in my head that I should be horrified.

"How many... how long..."

Eriez grins at my shocked non-response, but even more blood trickles down his face from the knife hole. He doesn't move to take it out.

"I passed out about six times. That should count for something."

He twists the knife another time, then takes it out. I refuse to gag in front of him, so I look away.

"Give me the knife."

I demand, glad for once that my body was out of my control for the duration of undermining voice-cracks. Eriez giggles.

"What, you won't just let me get rid of your problems? I thought you hated me. Or do you want to do the honors yourself hotshot?"

I hold out my hand for the knife, still not looking. I feel the slippery damp wetness on the hilt and try not to think too hard about it. I climb onto the toilet and put it on top of the cabinet. Eriez groans exaggeratedly.

"You're such a goody-two-shoes. You want to kill me, I give you the best chance you'll ever get, and you just walk away. Real genius, real smart. You should get an award."