The Devil's Demeanor (2 page)

Stephen felt bad about what
he was doing to his father. When he
’
d asked Stephen what the dreams were about, Stephen lied
and said he could never remember.

He almost always dreamed
about that cavern, and those creatures. The last dream, however, involved him walking
through his neighborhood surrounded by people he knew. They all stood on their
lawns, staring at him as he walked by. No one had said a word to him, just
watched. Stephen felt some other presence behind their eyes, though, and knew
they
weren
’
t staring
at him; something else was.

All of his neighbors had
been possessed. He
’
d
known it in his gut.

One neighbor at the end of
the street, Mr. Miedzianowski, did walk up to Stephen and hug him before saying
in a voice that wasn
’
t
his,
“
Thank you
for helping us walk on the land above, brother.
”

The voice had been so cold,
yet so seductive, that it had forced Stephen awake, screaming. It had been like
the voice that lured him to the cave that night.

Things got so much weirder
after that dream.

One night, while watching TV
with Lucy, Stephen noticed everyone in the show staring at the camera and not
saying a word. At first he thought it was funny until it lasted a whole minute,
and then two, and then three. Lucy had laughed a few times at the TV during
this silent moment.

“
What
’
s going on?
”
he wondered out loud.

“
What do you mean?
”
she asked him, tearing her
eyes away from the TV.

They were sitting on the
floor, between the couch and coffee table. Dad was in his recliner, smoking a
pipe and reading a newspaper. He
’
d lowered the paper at that point and stared at his son;
Stephen could feel his gaze but didn
’
t look away from those staring TV faces.

“
Everyone is staring at me,
”
he whispered to Lucy.
“
Can
’
t you see it?
”

“Don’t let the
monsters kill them,” one of the male actors said. “If they die, the monsters
win.”

The actors suddenly went
back to what they were supposed to be doing: acting.

“
Are you all right, sweetie?
”
Lucy asked.
“
You look sick.
”

Stephen realized he was
sweating and panting heavily. His bangs were stuck to his forehead, so he
pushed them back.
“
I
’
m fine. I am feeling a
little sick. I think I
’
m
going to go to bed, if that
’
s
all right.
”

“
Alone,
”
Dad muttered behind his
paper.

“
Alone, of course,
”
Stephen agreed. He and Lucy
were still virgins at this point and old Willem White meant to keep it that way
for as long as he could, Stephen didn’t doubt.

Stephen drove Lucy home.
When he pulled up in front of her house, she sat there with him, watching and
waiting.

When he said nothing, she
finally asked,
“
What
happened back there?
”

“
I don
’
t know. I was watching the
show, and everyone in it just stopped talking and stared right at me.
”

“
I was there too, and I didn
’
t see that. The show didn
’
t stop.
”

“
I know, but it felt so real.
One of the actors said something to me.
”

“What did he say?”

“I don’t remember,” he lied.

Lucy touched his forehead
with the back of her hand.
“
You
’
re ice cold. Be sure to
bundle up when you get home.
”

“
It
’
s only March,
”
he joked.
“
It
’
s getting warmer outside. I
shouldn
’
t be
getting sick.
”

“
Maybe you’re just crazy.
”

He laughed along with her,
though that last word struck a chord in him.
Crazy
.

When he returned home, Dad
was standing in the living room, his paper discarded.
“
Go to church with me, son.
”

“
I
’
m losing my mind, Dad.
Prayer isn
’
t going
to help with that.
”
He grinned at his father, and though he
’
d been joking, Dad didn
’
t seem to find it funny.

“
You won
’
t know until you try. Just
once, at least.
”

Stephen agreed, and, boy,
did that turn out to be a mistake.

The next day, a Sunday, they
went to the closest church. As soon as Stephen stepped out of the car and saw
the building, he started sweating. He wasn
’
t sure why at first, but an anxious feeling grew in him the
closer he got to the entrance. By the time he stepped foot inside he was screaming
in pain and fear. Dad had to drag him back out onto the steps before Stephen
would calm down.

Stephen was so scared and
embarrassed that he ran back to the car. Dad took him back home.

If Dad had been worried
about Stephen before, that was nothing compared to what he was now. He wouldn’t
allow his son to hang out with Lucy after school unless they did so at his
house, in his presence. Stephen had to come straight home after school. At
first he thought he was being punished, that Dad thought he’d been acting out
at the church with that tantrum. As it turned out, Dad believed the complete
opposite: that Stephen had truly been harmed by stepping inside the building.

He believed his son was
possessed.

Stephen didn’t know what
happened to him that day, nearly a week ago. He had been overcome with a fear
greater than he’d ever felt before. He explained that to his father, who then
made the rules. Stephen knew this could only last until he went off to college.

But he didn’t care about the
limitations on his social life; he worried about his sanity. He didn’t think he
was possessed by a demon, but there was definitely something wrong. It had to
have something do with the thing that bit him.

One night, he dreamed not of
rape or murder but of a closed black door in what looked like the long cavern
he’d visited before.
He opened the door and walked through. Statues lined a vast
hall, statues of monstrous bats.

Stephen gasped. These
statues looked like the creatures from the vision, the ones that outran the
lightning. Was this their home, or some kind of shrine?

He wandered down the hall,
toward what looked like a throne. On the throne sat a book. He picked it up.
The book was large and black, and he couldn’t tell from what it had been made,
but it felt like skin. He opened the cover and saw crisp white pages. On them
were symbols he couldn’t read; they consisted of slashes and weird shapes.

He sat on the throne and
went through the tome. There were illustrations that made Stephen think of
caveman drawings. He continued looking through this book until a clearing voice
startled him.

There was something large
and squat standing at the entrance.

Stephen jumped up from the
throne, spilling the book onto the floor.

He recognized the creature
standing before him. It looked like a bat with a jackal’s face and red wings.
Its shiny, sunken eyes stared at him from across the large hall; Stephen could
see those eyes from fifty feet away.

“What are you doing here?”
the creature asked. Stephen didn’t see its lips move.

“I was just reading—”

“No!” it interrupted. “
How
did you get here?”

“I don’t know.”

It studied him, coming
closer on all fours. Stephen backed into the throne, accidentally falling into
the seat once again. The creature placed its hands on the arms of the chair.
Its horrible face was inches from his.

“This is unprecedented,” it
said, mostly to itself. “Man has never breached the fabric of reality the way
you have. You…you must be one of them.” It grew suddenly nervous.

“I’m just dreaming,” Stephen
offered.

The creature grinned. “Then,
please, wake up. You shouldn’t be here. I’m worried about what this could
mean.”

Its grin faded at those last
words. Stephen’s heart raced. It was unnerving hearing what sounded like an
intelligent voice coming from this thing, without its lips moving. The creature
backed away, picking up the book.

“You were reading our
history?” it asked, turning the pages.

“I can’t read any of that.”

“Then let me do it for you.”
It turned the book around so Stephen could see. “Before there was you, there
were us. We predate your race by millions of years. We were even here before
the dinosaurs.”

It showed drawings of tiny
black things crawling from an ocean.

“However,” it continued,
“before us, there were
them
.”

Another drawing showed men with
squiggles of light radiating from them.

“Who are they?” Stephen
asked.

“The gods. And they don’t
like us one bit. Things seemed fine until the lizards came and took over our
lands. So we wiped them out. The gods didn’t like that. They saw us as a parasite
that killed anything it came in contact with. We tried to kill everything that
attempted to replace us as the dominant species on this planet.”

Another drawing showed the
black creatures attacking dinosaurs and man.

“So the gods struck at us,
wiping out nearly our entire race. But we escaped below ground, where they
couldn’t reach us. For millions of years, they’ve been unable to get us because
they can’t step foot on earth without sacrificing what they truly are. They can
only watch.”

“How do you know there are
gods?” Stephen asked.

“The oldest of us says so.”

“So, the gods are like
God
?”
he asked the creature.

“No,” it whispered. “Though
I did get them confused the day you went to that holy place....” It looked
embarrassed.

“Wait—what?”

“It’s time for you to wake
up, little one. I’ve told you too much, though there’s nothing you can possibly
do with this information. Or can you? Are you another spy sent by the gods to
destroy us?”

The creature was suddenly
angry. It charged at Stephen, who fell, toppling the throne. He’d closed his
eyes when he fell, but when he opened them he found himself in bed, once again
on top of his covers. Safe and sound.

*
 
*
 
*

Stephen was relieved when he
graduated from high school. It had more to do with getting away from his father
than anything else. He hadn’t told Dad about the dreams or the creature, though
he felt he should have. What could Dad do, though? So far, nothing much
happened as a result of the bite beside the nightmares, but he feared his
father would put him in some kind of hospital.

Stephen didn’t think he was
crazy, but Dad did. He had to get away. While in college, he planned to study
his problem more. It would be safer then, where Dad couldn’t keep such a close
eye on him like he did now.

Unfortunately, Lucy would be
going to a different school. They had only been going out for five months, but
he believed he loved her. Neither of them had said the words, exactly, but he
felt she loved him too.

One weekend in August, they
went for a walk in a park near his house. Dad would be furious when he came
home from work and found his son gone. Stephen didn’t care. He was a
high-school graduate, and hadn’t had any episodes lately.

Dad still looked at him with
narrowed eyes, however.

They hadn’t returned to
church, but Stephen doubted he’d freak out the way he did last time. The demon,
or whatever it was, admitted it confused God with “the gods,” but Stephen still
shivered when he thought of that creature’s fear acting as his own. If it could
express its own terror through him, what else could it do? Could it see through
his eyes, smell what he smelled, feel what he felt?

Was it becoming him?

Stephen and Lucy sat on a
bench and stared at the trees across from them. The summer weather felt great,
a far cry from the chilly January night of the attack in the cave. Stephen was
comforted by Lucy’s presence next to him and didn’t want to lose it. If they
hadn’t already been accepted into their respective colleges, he would’ve gone
to hers.

“There’s something I have to
tell you,” she said to him, taking his hand.

He squeezed it. “What is
it?”

“I love you very much.”

He grinned. “I love you too,
sweet heart of mine.”

She placed her head on his
shoulder. “I’m going to miss you.”

“We’ll still be together,”
he promised.

“I know, but I’ll miss being
next to you, touching you.”

“Oh. I’ll miss that too.”

They sat with their fingers
locked for a quiet moment before she said, “I think I’m ready.”

“Ready for what?”

“Sex.”

Stephen gulped. “Are
you…sure?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. Um. I guess I am
too.”

“It will be a great way to
say farewell, until next we meet.”

He kissed her head. “I love
the way you talk, sometimes.”

“Sometimes?” She feigned
offense.

“Always.”

“When should we do it?” she
asked.

“Tonight?” He sounded a
little too eager and tried to hide it by coughing.

“Okay, but where? We can’t
go to your house because of your crazy dad. My parents are home, too, and they
would kill you if they knew what we were doing.”

Stephen contemplated for a
moment before saying, “Larry’s parents are out of town.”

Lucy rolled her eyes.
“Larry? Really? I can only imagine what his room smells like.”

They laughed.

“He has a guest room,”
Stephen added.

She nodded. “Sounds good.”

They sat together a little
longer, and Stephen couldn’t help thinking about the creature again. Would it
be able to experience sex? The thought almost diminished his excitement for
tonight. Almost.

*
 
*
 
*

It was in September that
Stephen got the call from Lucy. He took the call out in the hall on the
community phone, exposed to the passersby. He was happy to hear her voice. At
first, anyway.

“I miss you so much,” he
told her. It had been a month since they last saw each other, since that
wonderful night together.

“I’m pregnant.”

His chest suddenly burned
and he could hear his heart in his ears. “What?”

“I’m pregnant.”

He leaned against the wall
as students walked past him. Some looked at him as though they feared he was
dying. He regained his composure and said into the phone, “Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Oh my god.”

“Are you mad?” she asked.

He couldn’t find his voice.
He tried to say no, but he couldn’t. He wasn’t mad, but he wasn’t happy either.
“No,” he finally managed.

“What are we going to do?”
she asked.

“Do you want to keep it?”

“Of course I do!” She wasn’t
feigning offense this time. “Do you want to keep it?”

She sounded so far away and
he wanted to be close to her. He didn’t often think of being a father,
especially at his age, but he always hoped to be a more tolerant one than his
own. “Yes,” he found himself saying.

“What?”

He realized he’d whispered
the answer. “Yes,” he said louder.

“Really? Oh, I was so
worried about what you’d say. I’m so happy, Stephen.”

“Me too.”

“I’ll have to tell my
parents.”

“Oh, no.” He slapped his
head. “That means I have to tell my dad, too.”

“Oh, boy.” She laughed. “I
feel sorry for you.”

“Thanks, hon.”

*
 
*
 
*

Lucy’s parents took the news
fairly well, but weren’t completely happy with the situation. Stephen’s dad, on
the other hand, didn’t take the news well at all. He dropped to his knees in
the middle of the living room and prayed to God to protect his son and kill the
unborn child.

Lucy stood in horror as she
listened to his words. Stephen couldn’t have been more embarrassed or offended.
He tried talking to his father, but the man wouldn’t stop praying.

“You’re overreacting, Dad!”

“The baby will be evil,” Dad
said as he took a breath. Then he started praying again.

“You’re being ridiculous,
Willem!” Lucy yelled. She looked mad now.

“It’s not your fault,
honey,” he said to her. “It’s the demon possessing my son. It passed that evil
to your baby. I just know it.”

She looked at Stephen. “What
is he talking about?”

He pulled her away from his
praying father and took her to his room. “I’ll deal with you later,” he said to
Dad.

Once in his room, he closed
the door and turned to Lucy, who was standing in front of the bed. “I have
something to tell you,” he said as he sat down with her. “Earlier this year, I
was attacked by an animal in a cave. Ever since then, I’ve had really bad
nightmares. They were so bad that I would wake up screaming. Dad is worried
about me because of those dreams. He thinks I’m possessed. It’s nothing.”

“What kind of animal was
it?”

“I don’t know,” he lied. He
couldn’t tell her it was a giant bat, or a demon. “I didn’t see it very well. I
went to the hospital and got it taken care of, so I’m not sick or anything. My
dad’s just really religious and it’s making him talk crazy.”

“Being really religious
doesn’t make people crazy.” She still looked worried, but she nodded her
understanding. “He’ll never accept this, will he?”