Demon
Chapter 68

Jonathan

I’m really glad we’re going back to school today. I had a nice week hanging around with Dad, but being with my friends is more interesting. And I wonder with having Demon back, if maybe class won’t seem as boring.

When Dad drops me off he looks across the playground. I see him tilt his head down to look closer at something out the window over the steering wheel. “Huh,” he says.

“What?” I ask him.

“Is that … your friend Timothy on top of the jungle gym?”

Ha! “No,” I start to say, because obviously that could not possibly be true. Oh! “Good April Fools joke, Dad!” I tell him.

“No, seriously! Look!”

I can’t believe I’m letting him make me look, but I turn my head, and say, “Wha…?”

When I get over there, Timothy is sitting up on top of the jungle gym, holding on for dear life, and grinning from ear to ear.

“Timothy!” I yell at him, laughing. “What a great April Fools Trick! You knew how to do this all along!”

I dump my backpack next to his and climb up. When I get up there, I’m about to tell him about what happened yesterday, but he gets to it first.

“Is Demon really back?” he asks.

“Yeah. Did you talk to Natalie?”

“No, Guardian told me. I hear him in the mornings when I’m waking up.”

Really? Yeah, I think I remember hearing him and Natalie talking about this, but I’m not sure I was ever really paying attention to them before. I wonder how that works.

“So,” he asks me, “how do you feel?”

“I feel great,” I tell him. “There was a whole situation yesterday when Demon got all mad about seeing Natalie, but she fixed it. We’ll have to tell you the whole story when they get here.”

He raises his eyebrows. I think he’s about to start asking questions, but then we see Natalie and Gabe get dropped off. I wave at them like crazy, and laugh to see how amazed they look to discover Timothy and me up here together.

Gabe’s

The children have all climbed the jungle gym together, and are excitedly sharing with each other the stories of yesterday’s events. Their Guardians observe the group together.

I look at the group of us, the Guardians of this remarkable collection of children. The Seer with her brother and friends have changed us, altered our existence, in so many ways. Among many other changes, we have all designed detailed images to benefit our Guarded. Even I have altered my manifestation, adding details to the generic male image I had originally created. My appearance is now that of a young, athletic male, with curly hair like that of my beloved. It helps me feel at one with him.

It is amusing to behold the four of us surrounding the structure which holds the children. The angel, the demon, the scientist, and the athlete. All profoundly altered from the generic Guardians we had been before the Seer began to change us.

I begin to understand that this change will not be limited to her companions. Her abilities will only grow, her influence will only expand. Change is coming to the wider world.

Jonathan’s

My beloved balances at the top of the structure with his companions, happily explaining what he describes as my “awesome” appearance. When I created this demon image, I certainly had no expectation that Jonathan would be crowing about how “cool” it is to his friends. I am genuinely amused. I am happy to maintain this appearance, for his benefit. I had created it initially almost as a type of penance, or possibly retribution against the Seer for everything she had inflicted upon me. However, now that Jonathan understands what I have done, he is thrilled with it, and I will maintain this manifestation for as long as it makes him happy.

Everything for him. His happiness is all that matters. And maintaining his friendship with the Seer makes him happy.

Although I cannot say it makes me exactly happy, I acknowledge that her contact with me yesterday calmed my emotions enormously. I was infused with a peace and contentment that overlays the negative emotions which still exist. Her gift of joy does battle with the memories of the anguish I suffered.

However, I am better able to control my emotional response to the Seer’s presence. At least there is that. At least I can stop taking actions which might cause Jonathan to hate me. I will no longer control him. I did not previously appreciate that to control my Guarded in that way was a violation. Having experienced violation, even though I know that it was not intended, I am resolved to never again inflict it on him.

As Angel described, I have very complicated feelings regarding the Seer. I remember the rage, the hate, the disgust, but I do not feel them as keenly.

I will never forget the violation, the desire, the antipathy, the conflict that came from the ordeal in the void. But I attempt to follow the admonishment of my beloved, and “just get over it.” I am trying.

I no longer wish to stop the Seer from existing. Although she is very peculiar, she does not seem to be as much of an unnatural threat as I had believed. There must be some beneficial purpose to her existence. It appears that she has used her touch to help not only Jonathan, but others in her circle.

And me. She helped me. I will always retain the memory of the moment in the park, where she locked eyes with me even as she healed me through her inventive embrace with my beloved, while her kneeling Guardian flooded her with energy. I felt her touch heal me, and I felt the love in her heart.

I have added this to the list of complicated emotions that I feel about her. The list now contains … love.

Natalie’s

My beloved chats happily with her friends. Merely a child on the playground equipment. I know how much more she is, but I must remember that despite everything, she is still a young human child.

Her power grows as she does. Her compassion and love guide her to ever greater feats. In the past few days she has wrought miraculous healings of her grandfather, Timothy’s father, and even Jonathan’s Guardian. Her inspiration for how to use my energy to reach Demon was a breathtaking display of her increasing abilities.

Her group of supporters grows as well. The three boys surrounding her become increasingly devoted. They will help her, they will learn from her, they will protect her. They love her as brothers and friends, and, increasingly, as followers.

Her potential is limitless. How will she choose to use her gifts? Who will be helped next?

Her sense of self adapts to the new reality, in which she is aware that she can knowingly use her touch to help others. It enhances the marvel of who she is. She begins to understand that this is a gift that she can use widely, that she can help many people. She knows that she will need to explore this further, learn more about herself, and plan what to do next. She looks forward to discussing it all with her friends, especially Timothy, who she is confident can formulate an experiment to investigate any phenomenon. She is comfortable in the knowledge that her companions, including me, will accompany and help her along her path.

She is my beloved. She is an empath. She is a Seer.

She is a Healer.

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End of Book 3