The Eye Of The Hurricane

18:

"No! No, not you too!" Brendon jumped forward. He went to press his hands against the wound, but stopped himself. Tyler's eyes were glossed over. His chest wasn't rising and falling. The blood flow was slowing.

Brendon sat frozen, staring at his friend. Like Josh, Tyler's expression was missing something that made it Tyler. There was no Tyler behind it anymore; now it was just a mask.

"He was alive..." Brendon felt like a statue with his arms halfway stretched out for his friend. There had been a gurgling noise. That was what attracted Brendon to the room in the first place.

A noise.

A noise that Tyler had made while he was still alive.

Hadn't they just checked the room? It had been empty and the door had failed to close completely. It had just been dark... Or had the darkness taken him as a prisoner that couldn't be found?

"Another one bites the dust." Dallon commented behind him.

"Can't you do something?" Brendon's voice was quiet. He still hadn't moved. Despite Tyler being whole, he was so much harder to look at.

He had been right within reach when he died. Something could have been done.

"Can't you help him?!" Brendon snapped his head back to look at Dallon.

The demon made Dallon raise his hands. "Calm down."

A wave numbness swept over Brendon, making his eyelids drop. "Stop it..." Brendon's protest was a near whisper. The tears that had been building in his eyes spilled over as Dallon continued to speak.

"I am a demon. I can't just miracle someone back to life under these conditions." He knelt down to be at Brendon's level. "I warned you that I wasn't the only thing here. Apparently that other thing's endgame is all of you dead."

As he stared at Brandon, the rush of emotions came crashing back down upon him. Brendon gasped, eyes growing wide, as everything swirled together and in his chest. He felt as though he may go insane with the battling feelings running throughout him. Pain. Fear. Queasiness. Hopelessness. Horror. Sadness. He choked on a breath, holding a hand against his chest.

"You handled things better when you were smaller." Dallon commented.

"My friends weren't being murdered when I was smaller." Brendon spoke through gritted teeth. The weight of everything was crushing. He needed a moment. He just needed a second to breathe without the demon inside his boyfriend saying or doing anything.

Dallon shrugged. "Fair point."

Brendon his his face in his hands. What the hell were they going to do? They needed to get out, but the storm still raged outside. Not just that, everything inside of him seemed ready to rip his chest apart and burst. "STOP IT!"

Instantly, the pain was gone. Brendon pulled his face away from his hands and sucked in a gasp of air as the feelings dissipated into dull aches of what they had been.

"You only needed to ask nicely." The demon spoke with sugar coated words.

Brendon continued to gasp for air. It was as if he hadn't been breathing the entire time he had everything swirling inside. Everything ached. He felt as if he had just run a marathon.

"If I may offer something?"

"Please don't." Brendon's response was soft, but audible. "I'd rather you left his body and leave us alone."

Genuine hurt seemed to cross over Dallon's face. Not the faux act that the demon had put on earlier, but an actual look of feelings getting hurt. It only lasted for an instant, however, before it was replaced by a cold expression.

"Now now, Brendon." His lips rigged up. "That would violate the terms of my bargain. To do that, I'd need to strike a new one."

Brendon gulped. If this thing followed him around in his youth, no wonder his mother made him hum hallelujah when she took him to church. The question he wanted to ask was caught in his throat as he the demon's eyes shift between a consuming red and souly red irises.

"We could make a deal, old friend." The demon's eyes were consumed by red as he spoke. They glowed, compelling Brendon to keep his gaze on them. "Oh, the games we could play!"

Brendon snapped his eyes shut. He couldn't stand to stare into the red any longer. "I don't want games. I want my friends not fucking dead!"

"That's a bit out of my jurisdiction." The demon replied, "Let me offer you something else."

Brendon felt a hand on his shoulder. He kept his eyes closed, however, as the hand lightly squeezed.

"I'll keep the conditions of Dallon's deal along with your request, on one condition." When Brendon was quiet, the demon continued. "Like I said before, Brendon, you're special. You can see some things that no one else can. You can use that on your own, but I can multiply it. All you have to do is let me in."

Brendon finally opened his eyes to see a wicked grin that didn't belong on Dallon's face. It almost looked like the joker without makeup. There was too much of it and it made him want to shudder away from the face of the boy he loved.

"So you can wear me like a meat suit?" Brendon shook his head.

"So, you'd rather me wear your boyfriend like a meat suit?" The demon countered, "Kinky."

The air whooshed around Brendon, and the demon was beside him with an arm around his shoulder. "A simple yes is all I need." He held Brendon in a tight one armed hug. "I don't like that this thing is messing with you. I'm not sure what or where it is, especially with my attention being divided by the storm. You, on the other hand..."

"No!" Brendon tried to wiggle his way out of the demon's grip, but it held him firmly in place. "I may not be religious, but I know not to make deals with the devil."

That made the demon laugh. "High praise, but the devil is far worse than I am." The last of his words were whispered in Brendon's ear, making him flinch. The words sounded wrong on Dallon's tongue.

"If you can't figure it out, how the hell will I?" Brendon turned away from Dallon. Instead, his eyes fell upon Tyler's lifeless figure. The blood had stopped and it was darkening around him. "What the hell would do this?"

"Exactly what we could figure out together." The demon tempted, "Just give me the word and we can discover it."

Brendon tensed. Part of him wanted to do it. Part of him wanted to say yes so that thing would leave his boyfriend's body. Part of him wanted to say yes so he could stop whatever has killed his friends. Part of him really wanted to.

The other part, however, spoke louder.

"No." He shook his head. "I won't."

The demon released him from his grip. Dallon wore an expression of irritation. "It would just be until things have been taken care of." He insisted.

Brendon glared at him. "Talk to me when we actually figure out what the fuck is going on." He countered as the lantern went out.