Demon
Chapter 13

Timothy’s

My beloved has pleaded with his parents to stay later at Natalie’s house, even after the other guests went home, and the luminaria candles finally burned out. They have agreed, and are having some last refreshments with Natalie’s parents downstairs.

The children are taking advantage of the opportunity to question Angel about the incident with Jonathan. Gabe and Natalie and Timothy rush upstairs, and sit on the floor of her bedroom together. They have a plate between them full of Christmas cookies, which Gabe snuck up the stairs for them to share. His injured ankle no longer presents a significant impediment to his movements.

Timothy had not brought his own notebook to the Christmas Eve celebration, so Natalie has supplied him with one of hers, and he is ready to take notes regarding the evening’s events.

“So,” Natalie tells the boys, selecting a frosted cookie to munch on. “I think you noticed that Jonathan did something different tonight.”

“Yeah,” Gabe replies, “just for a second he looked like the old Jonathan. He looked like all of the sudden he didn’t know why he was letting you touch him. Does that mean what I think it does?”

“Uh-huh,” she affirms. “Angel says that Demon was sort of back, just for a second.”

Timothy makes a notation. “Angel, please tell us exactly what happened.”

“For a moment, just the smallest measure of time, we detected that Demon’s presence had manifested, barely touching Jonathan’s soul before vanishing again.”

Timothy writes a note, then asks, “Was this when he yanked his arm away from Natalie?”

“It seemed to start in the moment just before he did so. He appeared to sense his Guardian, his natural temperament started to emerge, then he moved away from Natalie’s touch. The entire incident lasted only a few seconds. As soon as Natalie returned her hand to his arm, his sense of Demon subsided, and he reverted to his current state.”

The children share glances with each other.

“So,” Natalie asks, “what does this mean?”

“The other Guardians and I speculate that, as Jonathan’s soul has gradually mended due to your efforts and your touch, my dear, Demon has been drawn back to it. We still have no idea where he has been, or where he is now. But knowing that he is tied to Jonathan’s soul, we theorize that once that soul grew strong enough, it acted as something of a beacon to attract Demon’s return, if only briefly.”

After Natalie repeats my words, Timothy muses, “I guess it’s working, then. Natalie is healing Jonathan’s soul, and that is what is going to bring Demon back. That’s what I thought might happen.”

Gabe absently eats another cookie. “Is he going to be the same way? I mean, I really miss the way he used to be, because he hardly seems like my best friend anymore. But I don’t want him to go back to being mean all the time. I sure don’t want him to hurt you again, Nat.”

“I do not know, my children. We have no experience with anything even remotely resembling the current events. If Natalie continues her efforts, we can anticipate that it is possible that Jonathan’s soul will continue its healing process, eventually causing Demon to truly return. Whether or not that means he will resume his control over Jonathan, and force him to attempt to injure Natalie or others once again, I can not predict.”

My beloved is concerned about Natalie’s safety, as always. “I want the Jonathan Project to work, Natalie,” he tells her, “but I don’t know if you should keep going if it might be dangerous again. Jonathan already seems a lot better than he did at first. Maybe you should stop, and just let him stay the way he is now. At least he isn’t trying to hurt anybody.”

“My dearest,” I whisper to him, scarcely using the merest glimmer of energy so that he senses only my approval without being distracted by my words, “you are such a loving friend to Natalie. Even as you wish to proceed with the experiment in order to learn as much as you can, your first priority is her safety.”

Natalie firmly shakes her head. “No. Jonathan won’t be better until his guardian is back. I know that now. Whether or not he starts being mean again, we won’t know until it happens. We’ll just have to cross that bridge when we get to it.”

Gabe considers. “Well, even if he does try to start controlling Jonathan again, we aren’t helpless anymore. We know what to do now. The guardians were able to get rid of Demon before. I think they can just do it again if they have to.”

The child is correct. This is a topic which has been considered and discussed at great length by myself and the other Guardians in the Seer’s group. We learned how to use our joint efforts to draw power to ourselves, and direct it at another of our kind as an offensive weapon. This is another unprecedented occurrence, one of many which have followed the Seer’s efforts in discovering the truth of our nature.

We have deeply grieved the development, although of course Angel has not shared this fact with his dearest child. The idea of Guardians effectively doing battle with each other is an intensely horrifying concept. This has never before occurred. How could it have? We are in essence the same entity, only divided during our brief lifetimes of Guarding. It is incomprehensible that we have come to this. We all acknowledge that our action was necessary at the time, to protect the Seer from the attack being directed by Demon. However, the fact remains that we joined forces to overwhelm another Guardian by force, and that as a result both the Guardian and his attendant soul were injured.

We share an emotion never before experienced by any of us, by any Guardian to our knowledge.

Guilt.