• Two weeks later.

    Three kids harbored Wasré’s secret (including Wasré himself) at school. Cason had settled down, mostly because he was so ashamed of cutting Jean. He had actually started crying when he saw the stitches, but she forgave him a million times (once for each time he begged her to). Cason had still hated the demon though, until Wasré told them both about his plan to get Seth back by possessing someone else. Once the details were explained and everything was sorted out, the small, three-person group looked almost exactly like it had before. After all, if Seth was being brought back by the demon’s own free will, what reason was there to hate him? Along the way, Seth had actually gone into a comatose state like he was supposed to; he gave in when he was sure that there was no need to fight anymore, so now Wasré had no trouble with violent headaches or nosebleeds or any of that. Everything seemed perfect…except one thing.

    Cason hung his feet over the edge of the ravine and swung them back and forth over the empty air. Wasré and Jean sat beside him, doing the same thing. The setup was a bit like pride rock in The Lion King, with one massive rock jutting out over an open expanse. Over to the right was the city, waiting for them in case they felt like taking up a mission. Wasré bent forward and stretched his wings out as far as they could go behind him. Jean stretches hers out too, bending them so that they just barely brushed Wasré’s. Cason watched them for a moment before commenting, “Your wings in real life are cooler. It’s too bad you can’t transform in the game.”

    “Hmph.” A hmph was Wasré’s kind of lazy laugh. He did it when something was funny, but he didn’t feel like laughing out loud. So he hmphed. Sometimes it was no more than a quick exhale, but Jean and Cason quickly learned to recognize it for what it was. “I guess the game designers didn’t plan on the players morphing into critters.” Wasré had taken them both on a flight in his demon form as well as showed them his natural wings, the ones that he had when he still wanted to look human, just with demon wings. “I’ll be glad to fly more often once I’m out of Seth,” he noted dreamily. Jean and Cason tensed as the proverbial elephant walked into the room.

    “Yeah. That’ll be so fun,” Cason quickly added. “I can’t wait.” Wasré sighed.

    “You know what I meant.” The one thing that remained imperfect, the one little flaw in the future, was that Wasré would go traveling after he possessed Jason, and neither Cason nor Jean wanted him to leave.

    “Are you sure you won’t change your mind?” Jean asked casually. “Maybe if you see how much fun it is to be a human, then you’ll want to stay with us and Seth.”

    “I already know how fun it is to be a human. I’ve been many, many humans all ready. This was the first time I’ve tried to imitate a human’s life, and look how much trouble it got me into. I’m losing a perfectly good host and I’ve given away the most potent weapon against us to the other side. It might do my species more good if I just did what demons do.” They sat quietly for a while, each thinking their own thoughts about what Wasré had said.

    Jean glanced over at him. Again, she got the split second feeling that she was sitting beside Seth and almost believed that it was him, but no, Seth would be back in two week’s time. April third. Two weeks wasn’t so long to wait. Jean wondered if she could still think of Wasré the same if he was in a different body. She’d never seen his next host before, which led her to wonder if she would recognize him before being told his identity.

    Without warning, she slid off the rock and spread her wings open wide. Wasré and Cason followed, almost looking like the move was synchronized. Jean swooped and whirled and dove and glided as if this was her last chance to do so with her friends, though it wasn’t. Wasré tried to control his agitation at the game when he couldn’t do a specific move that he could have in real life. Cason just felt extremely special as they flew. He was flying with a demon, which was no common thing. An edge of guilt crept into his mind. He felt like he should hate Wasré more for the fact that the demon was possessing Seth, his best friend since forever, but how could he when he knew that Seth was coming back anyway and Wasré wasn’t that bad after all? Cason pushed the thought from his mind as he went into a steep, twirling dive with one wing half-open.

    “Hey!” Jean called. “Do you want to go get some ice cream or something?”

    “Sure.”

    “Sounds good to me,” Wasré replied happily. The three players pulled out of their game and set the interceivers back in their cases.

    Fifteen minutes later, Wasré had flown Jean and Cason to the nearest Dairy Queen (being very careful not to be seen) and they sat outside at one of the round tables. An old, red and white striped umbrella blocked the bright sun and cast a calm shade over them. The cool breeze made everything perfect.

    “This stuff is heaven!” Wasré sighed as he took another bite of pure chocolate ice cream. “The last host I had was allergic to chocolate.” Cason laughed at Wasré’s misfortune.

    “So Jean,” he asked. “What gave you this fabulous idea?” She shrugged and licked her birthday cake ice cream.

    “We’re friends. Friends eat ice cream together; it’s part of the unwritten code of
    camaraderie.” Wasré stopped eating for a moment.

    Friends? Demons and humans?
    -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Nearly two weeks later, they sat again at the Dairy Queen, again eating ice cream. The three spent the last few days going any and everywhere that they could together. The beach, the mall, the fair again, the circus, the museum, McDonalds…and of course school and each others’ houses. This would be Wasré’s last ice cream as Seth, though he would be sure to relive the Dairy Queen (or Baskin Robins or McFlurry or Random Hole in the Wall Ice Cream Shop) experience again as Jason McElroy.

    “Where will you go?” Cason asked. This was the first time they had talked about Wasré going traveling since they played Sky Attack several days ago. Wasré thoughtfully took another bite out of his ice cream cone before answering.

    “I was thinking about the UK, or at least Europe. After that I’ll go to Tibet, and after that I don’t know.” He shrugged. “Maybe I’ll come back and visit the USA.”

    “How old are you?” Jean asked suddenly.

    “Four thousand two hundred seven.”

    “How many people have you possessed?”

    “Eighty or ninety.”

    “Then fifty or so years should be nothing to you, right? You could try something new, then move on.” Wasré gave her a level stare.

    “New meaning living like a human instead of sneaking around the world to see everything?” Jean crossed her arms on the table and rested her chin on them, pouting. She still held a cone of Superman ice cream (very colorful vanilla) in one hand, not noticing a line of blue and red swirls that dripped down her fingers. Wasré sighed deeply. “Fine. I’ll think about it, but only after I’ve possessed Jason.” Jean sat up and gave him a broad smile.

    “Yaaaaay!” she cheered.

    “Think being the keyword. Think doesn’t mean agreeing, or even considering.”

    “But it’s something,” she noted, still smiling. “And something is better than nothing at all. So,” she continued, unfazed, “what is there to see in the UK?”

    “Well, I wanted to check out the thing about werewolves and vampires; you know, see if it’s really true or not…”

    By the time everyone was finished with their ice cream, Wasré had told them stories about eight different countries and the random interesting things that could be found in them.
    “…And in Latvia, there are these flying people that can-”

    “Sorry to cut you off, but we need to get to the hospital,” Cason interrupted, holding up his watch for emphasis. Even though there was no set time that they were supposed to be there, they didn’t want to keep people waiting much longer than ten o’clock.

    Wasré’s pulse skyrocketed. The moment of truth was approaching. What truth, he didn’t really know, but he was nervous anyway. He’d never switched hosts before they had died of old age before, and he also knew that once he left Seth, he would never be able to get back in. Permanent immunity to the demon virus was a side effect of possession. “How are you guys getting home from the hospital?” he asked, trying to stretch out the time a little.

    “You’re taking us home of course. Do you think you could carry Cason, Seth, and I just one time?”

    “Oh…yeah. Right.”

    “Let’s go then,” Cason insisted. He took the initiative by standing up and walking around to the back of the Dairy Queen with Jean and Wasré following. Once they disappeared from sight, Wasré reverted to the equine/reptile/demon creature form and leapt into the sky with his friends on his back.

    If I get nothing else from these few days, he thought to himself, at least I got some friends from the other side.

    He had at last decided to accept the fact that human-demon relationships were possible. It was almost a breath of fresh air after so long of having only demons for companionship. “Co-workers” was the best term for demon-demon relationships. They all needed humans to survive and the species needed to continue, so they helped each other sometimes. Sometimes they planned things together or even traveled together for brief periods of time, but demons never really loved one another. Every single year of their seemingly endless lives was about surviving and evading the humans yet again. They filled up the times of peace by exploring and searching out the wonders of the world, most of them where humans normally do not go. Even after so many years, not everything could be discovered.

    “Are you nervous?” Jean shouted over the wind. The creature bobbed its head, so she leaned down and wrapped her arms around Wasré’s thick neck, ignoring the strange feel of his skin. When she reached back a little, she could feel his heart going rapid-fire with anxiety. Cason held on tighter to Wasré’s back when Jean leaned forward; he wasn’t as good with flying as she was, and he usually kept his eyes closed half the time.

    Wasré’s heart went even faster when the hospital appeared. The time for goodbyes was coming. He did a wide, gliding loop around the hospital campus before inclining downwards and transforming in the parking lot. “Ready?” Jean asked, giving him a reassuring smile.

    “No.” He started walking nonetheless and his friends flanked him on either side. Cool air blasted them when the hospital’s sliding glass doors opened, allowing them into an atrium with a high ceiling and lots of glass. It didn’t look very hospital-like.

    Wasré nervously approached the check-in desk and the lady behind it looked up. “Yes?” she asked sweetly, unlike the lady in the emergency room.

    “We’re here to see Jason McElroy.” The receptionist’s eyes widened just a bit before she smiled and asked him to wait a moment. She picked up a phone and rapidly started dialing a number.

    “Jason’s visitor is here,” she said before hanging up and turning back to the three kids. “They’re ready for you now. Do you know how to find his room?”

    “Yah. Thanks.” They wordlessly went to the elevators and chose the correct floor, then navigated the hallways until they stood outside Jason’s door. Through the window they could see him, lying perfectly still just like he had been a month ago. Wasré took a deep breath, but it was no use. He’d never done something like this before. Was this even legal by demon standards? Maybe he should just zip out of the hospital and evade this problem like he was born to do.

    Cason opened the door. “After you, Wasré.” Against all his better judgment, he walked in.

    Almost immediately, a needle was stabbed into his arm and a pink-ish liquid was shot into his veins.

    “Wasré!” Jean cried in alarm when he bent double and wrapped his arms around himself in pain. A sharply dressed man with slicked, brunette hair stepped into view. In one hand was an empty syringe.

    “Very sneaky, telling us that candy cane wrappers were potent enough,” the man said with a sneer. “One month with our few possessed test subjects was enough to show us that peppermint is extremely potent to your kind.” Wasré went down on his knees with his eyes wide and his mouth half open in shock. Jean put her hand on the demon’s shoulder and found that every muscle in his body was so tense that he was practically vibrating.

    “Wasré! What did he do to you?!”

    “It’s just a small dose of peppermint,” the man answered, even though she hadn’t asked him. “It’s not enough to kill him though. We need more test subjects.”

    “A demon was actually doing something good and you attacked him! You idiot!” Cason shouted, making each hand into a fist of rage.

    “I am Dr. Samuel Jenkins!” the man said angrily, pushing his nose into the air. “You have no right to call me stupid! I’m working for the good of the human race!”

    Wasré never heard anything after the liquid hit his bloodstream, and he didn’t really care who the man was. For the moment all he cared about was the poison that seemed to bind up his chest and crush it under a two-ton weight. Even worse than the pain was the feeling of becoming weaker and of being driven from his host. He was being crushed, and despite what the doctor said, he was being killed. A spark of fire flared up inside him as he thought, No human is going drive me out! If I want to leave, then I will do it! I will not break!

    Jean could only watch with mixed emotions while Wasré struggled, unmoving and almost not breathing. Black tears ran from his unblinking eyes and slowly wandered down his face. After a few more seconds a line of blood, red human blood, dripped from his mouth and he abruptly collapsed with his arms still wrapped around himself. Where Seth lay, for it was only Seth now, a puddle of black ink spread across the sterile tiles.

    “Wasré!” Jean cried, getting down on her knees and gently prodding the ink. Upon contact, it pulled together somewhat into the true form of Wasré. It was a rather plain looking creature, with one constant color for the body and a pure red for the eyes, and no pupil or iris. Four legs and a serpentine tail made up the body while a smooth, nearly featureless face with two long, backward-raked spikes made up the head.

    Dr. Jenkins lunged for the creature with a Plexiglas box, but Jean snatched it up first. It lay limp in her arms with half-lidded eyes as if it were no more than a sleeping cat. So these are the fearsome demons, she briefly thought, though she knew that Wasré was too weak to accurately represent his species. “Just let him go! He was trying to save a host.” Seth, the host in question, twitched as if on cue and moved his hand a little as he worked on returning from a comatose state and reconnecting to his own body.

    “It’s a demon,” the doctor argued.

    “We’re aware of this,” Cason snapped, crossing his arms. “But this one is off-limits.” Dr. Jenkins shifted from foot to foot.

    “If you don’t put it in here, the peppermint will were off and it’ll be able to escape.” He didn’t seem to want to acknowledge Wasré on anything more than an “it” level now that the demon had no human face. The doctor’s henchman, who had been sitting quietly in chairs around the room, now got up and moved towards Jean. She pulled Wasré tighter to her chest and threw a worried glance at Cason. What could two teenagers do against all these doctors and researches?
    ---------------------------------------------------------------
    Feeling your heart start again is a weird feeling. For too long, a demon controlled that precious, vital organ. Now it was mine again. I took a breath by my own power and relished the feeling of control it gave me. I was alive. The first sound to fill my ears was the noise of voices arguing. There was Jean, there was Cason, and there was…who?

    Ah! Glorious sight! And yet, what I actually saw when I opened my eyes was not glorious in the least. Jean was on her knees beside me, close to tears and cradling something limp and black in her arms. Towering overhead and cutting me off from her view were doctors, all reaching towards her. I couldn’t see Cason from my position, but I guessed that he was nearby. Looking through the forest of legs, I saw a man a few feet away. He had that smug smile that just made me want to punch somebody, preferably him. He was also holding an emptied syringe. So he had done this. I had only been able to feel the demon’s last few moments, but they were filled with panic, pain, and a hatred for the man that I saw. Wasré had spared my life. I wasn’t sure of the situation, but I felt like I should do something to pay him back.

    THWACK!

    Aside from a few weak hits on Cason, I’d never actually punched anybody before. I had decided to make Dr. Jenkins the guinea pig. The element of surprise gave me an edge despite the fact that my punch wasn’t very hard, and the repulsive man went straight to the ground. As expected, the other doctors turned around, temporarily forgetting about Jean and the demon.

    “You…you hit the doctor,” one of them noted, dumbfounded.

    “Security!” Dr. Jenkins spluttered from the floor. He looked like this was the biggest offense that anyone had ever given him. Good. I hoped it would get his snooty nose out of the air a little. No one should betray someone who’s trying to save a life, even they are a demon.

    “He’s trying to save mankind and you’re not helping!” one the doctors shouted. “Do you want to be possessed?!”

    “I already was, thank you very much, but that demon spared my life! You should at least return the favor instead of stabbing him in the arm like an jerk!” It suddenly hit me how muscular and huge this dedicated follower was when he raised a hand to jap-slap me. I braced myself when I realized that this guy could break my scrawny little neck.

    And yet, magically, the impact never came. When I opened my eyes, he was staring dumbfounded at a hand that was wrapped around his wrist. The hand belonged to a tall blond boy that was a few years older than I was and giving the man both a smile and a piercing stare.

    “I would appreciate it if you left my friends alone.” Wasré’s new, sparkling blue eyes narrowed dangerously. “Pestering them would be unwise, and you’ve already made me very angry.” His hand tensed as if he was about to break the man’s wrist, but he relaxed and let it fall. “Now,” he said, brightly addressing everybody, “I have possessed a medically dead human being that was willingly given for this purpose. My former host is alive and well and I don’t know of any human law that I’ve broken. Any objections to letting us peacefully get on with our lives?”

    The room went silent until Dr. Jenkins got up and started babbling again, somewhat resembling an agitated penguin (thinking of his tuxedo…). “I’m trained and certified to do this type of thing! I came here to try and help the human race and find a way to stop the demons and what do I get? The same bratty kid that should be on my side punches me in the face! I get punched for doing my JOB mind you, and what will I have to take back to the office? Nothing except for a bruise on my face! No results! Nothing to show! Not even a new test subject! Not even-”

    “Settle down for a moment,” Wasré snapped. “If you’ll listen, I’ll give you something to take back to the mud hole or wherever you go.” The man’s eyes brightened; he seemed to overlook the fact that his workplace had been insulted.

    “I’m listening…?”

    “Donations.” The doctor stared blankly for a moment, not comprehending. “It’s kind of like signing up to be an organ donor, except you donate your whole body in the unfortunate event that you die or you’re at the point where your family is ready to ‘pull the plug’ after you’ve been in a coma for three years or something. A person can still be infected with the virus after they’re dead, so that part is not a problem. Granted, this won’t help other humans in the way that donating a heart or liver would, but it will save them from being possessed by demons. As for keeping demons away from the living who are infected, I see you’ve already figured out the answer to that.” Wasré nodded to a box of assorted peppermint candies that sat on the table.

    “But…but… There will never be enough body donors to satisfy all the demons, and there are never enough organ donors to begin with! There would be mass shortages…”

    “Demons can heal like crazy. So if you took, say, a lung or a liver or something, a demon could grow it back in a minute or so. The organs will still work in an unpossessed human; they’ll just be a different color.” Dr. Jenkins appeared very interested now.

    “What about…a heart?”

    “That might be possible.”

    “Entire limbs?”

    “You’re pushing it. Maybe, but as for never being able to satisfy the demons; wouldn’t you take a chance of at least denting the number of possessions? We’re talking about thousands and thousands of lives saved here.” The doctor sat quietly, pondering this new information. He glanced up at Wasré again.

    “What if the demons don’t agree?” Wasré held up his arms.

    “You’ve got a mediator right here. I’ll talk to them.” He stuck out his hand, waiting for the doctor to agree to the proposition. “I’ll give you my word.”

    “Could you also sign a contract?”

    “It’s a handshake; are you kidding me? Giving your word is supposed to be as good as a contract!”

    “Fine.” Dr. Samuel Jenkins and Dewasré Sartre shook hands. “But if you go back on your word…”

    “Then you can go back to demon hunting. That’s fine with me.” Dr. Jenkins handed a business card to him.

    “If you have any more ideas or news on what the demons say, call or visit me. How will I contact you?”

    “Hey Seth, what’s your phone number?” I rolled my eyes and rattled off my number. Wasré stole Dr. Jenkins’ pen and wrote the number on his overly clean hands before the he could pull back. The doctor grimaced at the fact that there was ink on his carefully washed hands, but didn’t say anything. “You can contact Seth. I’ll never be very far away.” Jean and Cason gasped.

    “You’re staying?!” Cason asked in disbelief.

    “I knew it!” Jean said happily. “We’re too good to resist!”

    “You were right,” Wasré told her as he returned the doctor’s pen to its rightful pocket. “One lifetime isn’t that long to spend when I’ve got so many.” Dr. Jenkins gathered up his briefcase and the box of candies.

    “Well, I guess I’ll see you…” He thought for a moment. “Later.” He motioned to his fellow doctors and they all filed out the door, leaving the room quiet for once.

    “Wasré! What is this?!” I had my shirt pulled up, revealing a long, ragged scar across my torso that I had just noticed. Cason blushed a deep scarlet and shrank back behind Jean. Wasré jerked his thumb at Cason. “Were you trying to kill me or something?” I demanded.

    “Well… I was trying to kill him.” Cason pointed a finger back at Wasré. “It was when I first found out, and I went a little crazy, okay?” Before we could start arguing, Jean attacked me in a hug and, surprisingly enough, kissed me on the cheek for good measure.

    “I’m so glad you’re back,” she whispered. “I thought you were gone forever.” Cason took that chance to hug me as well since it seemed like the thing to do. He motioned to Wasré, now the tallest of us all, and we did a group hug in the middle of the hospital room. Jean looked at Cason and giggled.

    “Wipe your eyes, Cason. Your eyeliner is running.”

    “Oops…” We instantly broke apart when someone knocked on the open door. A woman and her daughter stood in the doorway, smiling but still looking a little sad.

    Wasré leaned over and whispered, “That’s my host’s mother and sister. The girl is Cynthia and the woman is Ms. McElroy. Thank them.”

    “You’re Seth, I assume?” Ms. McElroy asked before I could say anything. “And you’re the demon now?” she asked, turning to look at the boy that used to be her son.

    “Yes ma’am,” we said in unison. Cynthia was staring at Wasré with an open-mouthed fascination that quickly turned to misery when she realized that it wasn’t her brother anymore.

    “I wish he didn’t look like Jason,” she muttered to her mother. The girl gasped when she looked up and saw that he didn’t. His hair was brown and shaggy and his eyes were green. He also changed his face, messing with the composition so that he didn’t look anything like what Jason had.

    “Is this better?” he offered. Cynthia nodded.

    “The man that was leaving told us we could come in now if we wanted. I just wanted to see that Seth was okay, then everything would be worth it.” I blushed at her words. This woman and her daughter, along with a combination of other things, had saved my life.

    “I can’t thank you enough for-”

    “That’s all right. Everything’s over now.” She seemed like the kind of person that got uncomfortable with excessive thanks.

    “Could you visit us sometimes?” Cynthia timidly asked Wasré.

    “Whom do you want me to be when I visit?”

    “Somebody else first, then later you can try being Jason.”

    “Okay.” Ms. McElroy took her daughter’s hand in her own and adjusted her purse.

    “When I asked the doctor how everything went, he said there was hope. That means I did the right thing and my work at this place is finished.” We told each other goodbye before she disappeared down the hallways with Cynthia and the room was again quiet.

    “What should we do?” I asked casually.

    “Ice cream,” they all answered.


    That's all, folks. Hope you liked it! biggrin