17
William
A dull silence.
It hangs with an air of disappointment and a growing sense of frustration. Siara lets out a deep sigh as the portal’s beaming lines simmer till no longer visible beneath our feet. Another place. Another dead end. If Charlotte was connected to Siara in some way, it doesn’t seem like she is anymore.
‘Oh, Heret-Kau must’ve found them.’
Siara sways over to the familiar pouch of pills that sit on the dining room table. Opening the bag, she throws one up to catch it in her mouth. She grimaces as she realises her error. ‘And they’re still horrible.’
Their sudden appearance doesn’t sit right. Heret-Kau has always made her good deeds known. If you were granted a favour from her, there would be a song and dance to go along with it. You had to know how fortunate you were and if you didn’t, she would make a point to show you. Not to mention there was no point to the pills anymore. Humans can eat human food and luckily for Siara, she has a smitten human boy to treat her to that now.
My teeth clench at the sound of familiar footsteps walking up the street. Speak of the devil.
The same rhythmic knock I’ve heard every day for the past few weeks dances from the front door. Siara had made it abundantly clear before we had left this morning that she was to be back by a certain time. Now I know why. Typical. I’m not sure at what point we as demons became dictated by the whims of a human, but it is what it is. It bothers me but not enough to do something about it. After all, we just got her voluntary cooperation – just a bit longer and we won’t need her at all.
Siara answers the door, greeting the boy with a coy smile but disallowing him entry. Smart move. Despite my own very real indifference, Xander is not such a safe bet. Even now, the small demon fights his desire to tantrum, a convincing charade put on to gather favour from Siara.
‘I’ll be back in a second. I just need to get dressed,’ she whispers through the cracked door before closing it and scurrying up the steps.
As per usual, this provides Xander time to divert his green feelings into something more productive, at least to him. Usually, this entails stealing her items and hiding them in a hope of delaying their outing. Childish, and doesn’t particularly make sense, but that’s to be expected. On this occasion it’s a small messenger bag that was given to Siara by no other than the white knight himself. Her religious use of the mundane item makes it a prime victim in the eyes of the small demonic child. I don’t bother to watch, just as I don’t bother to interfere.
Siara spills down the stairs, her hair tied back messily, gentle waves of cinnamon fall from her bizarre updo. Style has definitely degraded over time. Not that I’m one to talk. I never really cared about it anyway.
Her hand swings in habit to scoop up her bag from the corner of the chair but passes through air instead. She pauses before looking back in confusion.
‘I guess that means you can’t go out today,’ Xander says, making sure to eradicate any malicious intent that may accidentally seep into his words. She shrugs, just as I thought she would.
‘No, it’s fine. I’ll just go without it. It’s not like I have anything important to carry with me.’
Xander’s nose twitches. Naïve to his intentions, Siara waves a rushed goodbye before darting through the door and pulling it closed behind her with an accidental slam. Silence lingers. It doesn’t take long for Xander’s internal tantrum to spill over into the external, mucus forming on his body and dripping down to the floorboards.
‘Xander.’
He looks over to me in a moment of surprise, clearly forgetting that I’m present. Reason clears his expression. He tilts his head, curious. ‘Where do we go from here? We’ve taken Siara to all the places that we went to.’ Xander likes our recent expeditions; it takes away from Siara’s time with the human boy and naturally gravitates her closer to Xander.
Stepping over the pooled mucus, I make my way to the stairs. ‘There’s one more.’
I won’t elaborate. I don’t need to. Xander gets told what he needs to be told. To him, I’m only security, a means of being protected. If it wasn’t for Heret-Kau’s protection, he would surely have been consumed by other demons. Heret-Kau has always taken a special interest in weak things, which explains her fondness for Siara and Xander – a mortal and a demon child.
The boy looks away, his hesitancy to speak displaying in his awkward manner. ‘I-I’m starting to get hungry.’
I nod, not surprised. In fact, I have noticed his growing irritability – his demonic eyes surfacing more often than usual. ‘There’s a forest behind the next location,’ I say, hoping he understands my intention. His red eyes resurface instantly at the thought, proving he does.
I have never brought Xander there before. The manor has always been off-limits due to the nature of the residents living within it. Hopefully now, enough time has passed so that new owners occupy the estate.
The usual bitter feeling arises, sending waves of uneasiness as I think of having to return. Xander gives me a puzzled look. Escaping the possibility of follow up questions, I disappear up the stairs.
It isn’t that much later when the human boy returns Siara to the house. I can hear the murmurs of muffled conversation through the window in my room on the second floor. Their voices from the pavement below grate against my thoughts like coarse gravel. Organising the documents, I plan the next and final stop in the search for Charlotte. Or at least I try to. I keep losing my train of thought. The two humans stand hovering outside the front door, enveloped in their meaningless conversation. How nice it must be to be mundanely mortal. A flash of heated annoyance runs through me.
This human kid is annoying.
Maybe it’s not just Xander. Maybe I’m starting to get hungry too. I look back down to the desk. The papers I’m touching have frozen over. I was careless. A simple accident. The photo of the cliffside manor, forest surrounding its grounds, lies in full view, unable to be moved and stuck like glass to the desk. No matter. I don’t need the photo anymore.
During the day, I visited the rather unpleasant estate, despite the bitter memories it contains. Better to check it out now rather than turn up later to another disappointment. Siara has made a displeasing habit out of pinning absent buildings and failed quests on my poor planning skills. Most of the time, this is conveyed through sarcastic comments. Even worse still is when she makes no comment at all, instead, an arrogant smirk creeping across her face. It is almost as if she knows that irritates me more, which is impossible since I make a point not to show it. Nonetheless, this time I have ensured that won’t happen.
Not that I particularly care what she thinks, of course.
Siara’s heart skips a beat. I turn my head. The voices outside have stopped and for the first time, I am regretting not eavesdropping into their conversation. Although unsteady, Siara’s breath regulates through the silence; the human boy, on the other hand, can’t seem to calm down. His heart races, panicked and flustered. Leaving the desk, I walk over to the window, relinquishing myself to my curiosity. My eyes fall on the human couple.
Ah, well that explains that. It’s not like I didn’t guess his motives from the beginning – the white knight here to save the damsel from the claws of the horrible demons. Although, Siara is not much of a damsel, and to suggest as much feels like a mortal sin. The concept becomes more humorous the more I think about it. That girl can be just as heinous as the rest of us.
It sure is irritating though. He sure is irritating.
I freeze. Siara’s emerald eyes stare through the window. At me. In a single crass motion, her hand rejects the human boy’s advances. I cringe. It seems I do have some degree of empathy for the human boy after all. Before she has time to look back, I move away from the window, curtain drawn. That was an unfortunate thing to witness.
I can’t seem to focus. Ice forms like delicate designs over the window, trailing and spiralling in different directions across the frame and onto the walls. I place my hand on the wall in an attempt to call it back. I stare in disbelief, unable to stop its sprawling growth. The couple’s conversation below rings like jarring static in my mind. They’re what’s causing this. Fragments of relief start to settle as I manage to block out the snippets of conversation that my curiosity keeps clutching to. The ice finally stops its exploration through the room. Thank God.
‘What happened?’ a voice whispers from just behind me. I flinch. Since when was Xander there? I didn’t notice his presence at all. ‘I felt a disturbance and came up to see if everything was okay.’
‘Nothing. It’s fine,’ I say, maybe a little too eagerly. I take a deep breath to compose myself, a retained human habit. ‘Everything is fine.’
Xander continues to look at me for a few moments, a small pinch in his brow arising before returning back down the stairs to greet Siara.
