To Feed The Devil

"You should have seen your face! Priceless." After hearing those sirens, I'd meant to stop dead in my tracks... but panic kicked in and I ran to the backyard of that creepy old Hilton house. Layers of the white paint peeled off, winding into thin curls.

"That's not funny, Harry!" He was standing behind me with a flashing police light in his hands. "Now, turn that thing off before you wake the entire neighborhood!" Remember when I said no one just talks to anyone around here? Yeah, most, if not all, citizens are asleep by this time, also.

"We'll be fine." He muttered, but flipped the light off anyway. The eerie glow of the individual candles made me shiver.

"What's that for?" I pointed to the circle of candles. What the hell is this?

"That," He smiled, mischievously, "is so Abrexius can finally meet you." Then, he turned his back to me. Once his words sunk in, I realized that this wasn't a joke to him. He really thought there were Demons and you could summon them and all that. I stepped to his side to watch him but his eyes were closed and his lips were, wordlessly, moving. The wind whipped hard, making my hair smack my eyes.

"Abrexius, great Lord of the Dead, I summon thee!" He was saying, his arms raising as the wind's velocity increased. His voice got louder, begging to be heard over the rustling air. "Abrexius, great Lord of the Dead, I summon thee!" He was almost screaming. All the candles lit at the same time, showing the path of a pentagram, burned into the grass. A funnel type shape started to spin in the center point of the pentagram, forming feet. My mouth dropped open.

"Abrexius, great Lord of the Dead, I summon thee!" Harry screamed one last time, before the winds ceased. The candles blew out and the fiery glare of the pentagram disappeared. There was no one in the middle. I finally managed to close my mouth and Harry scratched at his head. "What happened? It always works. It's never not worked!" He mumbled, more to himself than me. He began walking back in forth in the yard, mumbling to himself.

"Harry! My favorite little loner!" A deep voice echoed around us. Harry stopped pacing in his tracks and I turned slowly to face the dark circle.

"God, I thought it didn't work!" Harry ran over to the circle, moving the candles, breaking the circle and letting Abrexius out. Is he supposed to do that?

I tamped down my shock long enough to ask, "Are you supposed to be letting that Demon out, Harry?"

"Demon? What demon?" Abrexius looked around and then laughed, "Oh! You mean me!" Demi-Demon, sweetheart. My other half is pure Angel, I promise." He held up his hand and I took the time to look him from head to toe. He had dark skin, Indian maybe, and bright tan colored eyes. His teeth were overly straight and very white. He had a nice smile, framed by a slight goatee. His hair was in short waves. He looked good, for the dead, at least.

"Sure." I murmured, crossing my arms but smiling slightly.

"Scout's honor!" He'd said, showing all his teeth. "Who am I kidding, I was never a scout!" He laughed harder

"Anyway," Harry said, talking over his huge Kool-Aid smile, "Abrexius, this is Tilly; Tilly, Abrexius." He motioned between us.

"Ahh, so this is the girl with the, umm..."

"Shh!" Abrexius gave Harry a sly smile before being interrupted.

"I was just gonna say 'attitude'." He feigned innocence and hurt.

"Sure you were." Harry said. I narrowed my eyes. He'd talked about me?

"I was! Now, kid, I gotta go. But call me up later and we can discuss Missy's attitude over here."

"My name is Tilly." I'm not a big fan of it, but it's the name I was given.

"I know your name but I like Missy better. Shows you have more attitude." And then, he was gone.

"What the hell was that?" I asked, looking at Harry.

"That... that's my best friend." Harry smiled, sadly. I had never seen this side of Harry. Usually, he was mysterious, a bit creepy, dangerous.

"Your best friend?" A tear slipped down his cheek and I sat in the grass and crossed my legs. "Sit right here." I patted the seat next to me.

"You wanna know about me, Tilly?" He sat down.

"Sure." Whatever was on his mind, he needed to talk about it more for himself, than for me.

"When I was three, my dad got really sick. He, umm... he died of AIDS when I was six, which he caught from one of his many flings. He was never faithful to my mom but I was still a kid. So, I never understood. After that, even though he'd done her wrong, my mom took care of him. She was lucky she hadn't caught it. I was lucky she hadn't caught it. I watched her tear herself apart working to support both of us. When he died, she still loved him so much that..." His bottom lip quivered and shook, signalling that this was more emotional than he'd like.

"That what? It's okay. You can tell me." I rubbed his back. It wasn't hard to comfort people, especially after all Cara's episodes but this... it felt different. More personal.

"She k-killed herself. She killed herself a year after he died... and I'm the one who found her." He clenched his fists, making the skin around his knuckles tinge white.

"I'm so sor-"

"Let me finish... or else I'll never get this out. After that, I stayed with my aunt. She... she did things to me that no seven year old should have to go through." Tears stained his face, drying quickly in the wind chilled night. "I was finally emancipated at 16. When I was in court, I met a kid who told me about all the devil business. Once I was on my own, I tried it and it worked. I summoned Abrexius and he let me use his power. I got whatever I wanted and... a friend." He sniffled and wiped his face. "And we've been together the last two years." The color started to come back to his skin as he calmed down.

"Whatever you want?" If I could get whatever I wanted... life wouldn't be so boring anymore. Maybe... maybe it'd work for me to.

"Yeah. Darkbane, the power I use from him, is like a magic command I guess. I ask for it, and it appears. Depending on how big it is, it takes some time." All that was unnecessary. I had already made up my mind.

"I wanna do it."

"You?" He almost laughed, shaking away the last trace of sadness reliving his past had caused. I stood up fast, defensively, and he followed right after.

"Yeah, me. Why?" I crossed my arms and shifted my weight.

"No reason. Who are you gonna summon though?"
"The Seven Deadly." We had just covered them in class and they had all the power I needed.

"Okay... are you sure?"

"Yeah! Can you just show me how?" I was starting to get upset. It sounded like he was saying I wasn't capable of doing this. The prick.

"Sure, Princess." He stepped close to me, throwing me off guard and almost making me drop my arms. Almost. He leaned close, his lips almost touching my ear, causing a shudder to escape my body.

"But are you positive this is what you want? I mean, all it takes is one day. The day when the moon is fullest, the sky is darkest, the atmosphere at it's most sinister point. That day, with a candle in your hand, the spell coursing through your brain, you call upon the Seven Deadly." I felt him smile against the soft cartilage on my ear that his lips were now touching.

"You know what could happen, you know that it may not go as planned. But all that is completely necessary for what you've planned to do, ya know. Whatever you have planned, anyway. When you've evoked their power, and you've let them past their locked gates of hell, you realize that you really have let all hell break loose." I shivered at his words.

"Is that a fair price to pay, to take things where you want them to go?"

Notes