Seer
Chapter 44

Jonathan’s

My beloved is sitting in his spot in the school play yard, on top of the domed jungle gym. As always on school mornings, he waits here for his friend Gabe. He is nervous, because the last time he saw Gabe was Saturday morning after their altercation.

I mourn for his unsettled emotions, but I do not try to command him to feel otherwise. I have paused my use of energy in my communications to him. Since Saturday morning, I have reverted to my former method, simply whispering to him, knowing that he does not perceive my messages. It is unsatisfactory, after the delight of witnessing him follow my instructions, even unknowingly.

However, his mind has been in such turmoil that I have resolved to refrain from utilizing my new power over him. Up until Saturday, each time he surrendered his will to mine, his soul blazed ever more brilliantly, deliciously. But suddenly, in the wake of the regret that washed over him due to the unwelcome intervention of the Seer and her brother, his soul began dimming, most alarmingly.

I wish to allow him time to return to a state of normalcy before reasserting my influence. I know that the moment will come. I already feel his natural personality beginning to re-emerge.

He watches the drive in front of the school, and tenses when he sees his friend arrive. He worries that Gabe will not wish to speak to him. However, Gabe immediately begins walking toward Jonathan.

And what is this? The Seer and her friend, rather than departing to their own classroom as usual, accompany Gabe as he walks in this direction. They are filled with a sense of grim purpose. I perceive at once their intent.

Preposterous. They have determined that they are going to inform Jonathan of my existence. And even more ridiculous, they have assigned a name to me. How presumptuous.

Demon. The Seer has the arrogance to label me with such an insulting moniker. I have no need of a name. I am Jonathan’s. I reject her attempt to impose such an epithet upon me.

“My darling, be pleased that your friend wishes to continue your relationship. But pay no attention to the rantings of the strange girl and her weakling friend. You do not need anything from her. You should simply ignore her. Perhaps you can tell her to go away.”

As tempting as it is to command him to do this, I refrain. I won’t use my power unless I need to. I see his soul glowing brighter already, regaining its former strength. I shall be judicious in my use of power to control him. I must find that delicate balance between dominance and destruction.

Jonathan

Phew. I thought Gabe would totally ignore me from now on. But here he comes. I don’t know why Natalie and Timothy are coming too. That’s a bummer. But at least Gabe is coming over here. I wait for him to get here.

“Hi,” I tell him, when he gets to the monkey bars and starts climbing up to me. Natalie and Timothy don’t climb up, they just stand there staring at me. Sometimes I like Natalie okay, but when she’s with Timothy they can just seem like a couple of weirdos.

Gabe looks at me with a funny expression on his face. “Are you okay?” he asks me.

“Yeah,” I say. “Um, sorry about fighting you. Are we cool?”

He looks down at Natalie for some reason. “Yeah, but, uh, we have something to tell you. Can you come down?”

“Pfsh. No. I like it up here.” I wish Natalie and Timothy would just go away. Instead, they look at each other, and then good grief here they are climbing up on the jungle gym too. Timothy looks like some kind of awkward spider. He’s clearly never done this before. I laugh at how ridiculous he looks. He stops before he gets up to the top with the rest of us.

“Don’t hurt yourself, Timothy,” I say, then look over at Gabe so we can share a laugh about how goofy Timothy looks. But Gabe isn’t laughing. He looks super serious instead. Huh.

I roll my eyes and look at Natalie. “Aren’t you guys worried you’re going to be late to class?”

Timothy balances uncomfortably on the bars below us, and pushes his jacket sleeve up so he can look at the big dorky watch he has on his skinny arm. A second-grader wearing a watch. What a nerd.

“No,” he says. “We still have almost 20 minutes before the final bell rings. That’s enough time.”

“Sheesh. Enough time for what?”

Timothy and Gabe both look at Natalie. Apparently she’s the one who has something to tell me. Good grief. So much for playing with Gabe before class.

“Fine,” I say. “What? Just spit it out.”

Natalie’s expression isn’t what I would expect, in response to me being kind of rude to her. She looks like she really cares about me, and really wants to help me. Her big dark green eyes look into mine, very serious. Her dark brown bangs are getting long enough again to fall into them. I don’t know what to expect, but I feel like I want to hear what she has to say.

“Jonathan,” she starts, “I know that you have been having trouble lately. I know that you have felt like you can’t stop yourself from being mean to people, like what happened in the library. I know what is causing your problem.”

What? I start to tell her that my only problem is that she is crazy, but I hesitate for some reason. Actually, she isn’t wrong. She has really described what’s happening. After the library I really felt awful, because I hadn’t actually wanted to do what I did, and afterwards it didn’t make me feel good at all like that stuff usually does. I felt like I had lost control of myself.

She is weirdly waiting, like she is following along with my thoughts. Gabe and Timothy wait too, watching her.

“Okay, fine,” I say. “What do you think is causing my problem?”

“This will sound weird to you, but please listen. If you give me a chance I can prove what I am about to tell you.”

What the heck. I put my hands up, shake my head, and open my eyes and mouth, to tell her to just say it. Whatever it is.

“Do you remember a couple of months ago, when you pushed me into the flowers? The day of your lizard funeral?”

“Um, yeah, I guess.”

“Do you remember what I said?”

“Not really.” I do though. She said some weird nonsense about having a guardian angel.

“Yes, you do remember. That I said that you have a guardian angel, and he wouldn’t like to see you doing mean stuff like that.”

I look over at Gabe, worried that he’ll believe what she’s saying, about me pushing her. I don’t want him to think even worse of me than he did after the library. But he is just watching her, like he’s not surprised at all by what she said. I suppose not, he did say that they had something to tell me. Holy cow is this all some big plan?

“Okay, fine, I remember that part. I remember thinking you were crazy. You aren’t doing anything to convince me otherwise now.”

She smiles and shakes her head. “Well, I was telling you the truth. You do have a guardian angel.”

I roll my eyes. OMG, why can’t she let this go? I look at Gabe, and he nods his head at me. “She’s right,” he says. “She’s shown me proof. We all have guardian angels.” Even Gabe really believes this? Can it be true?

I suddenly feel boiling angry, out of nowhere. “Oh, shut up. You’re all crazy. Go away and stop bothering me.”

Timothy and Gabe look at Natalie, and she nods at them. Ugh. “Seriously. Get out of here, you weirdos. You too Gabe. You’re just as bad as them!”

Instead of leaving, Natalie reaches out and touches my hand, using her other hand to help her balance on the bars. “You’re only feeling mad because your guardian is making you. He doesn’t want you to know about him.”

I jerk my hand away. I don’t know why. I’ve started to like it lately when Natalie touches me, but this time it was almost like it burned me. Not like physical pain, but I suddenly just had to get away from her. So weird.

I stare at her, but don’t know what to say. She’s freaking me out. I want to believe she’s just crazy, but here is Gabe nodding his head, agreeing with her. And I realize that she’s right, I do keep getting feelings out of nowhere. Like when I wanted to hit her at the library. And when I got mad just now, and when her hand felt like it was burning me.

I start to feel scared, on top of mad, and most of all confused.

“It’s okay, Jonathan, I know it’s scary and confusing, but I can explain.” She looks at me with her big sincere eyes, so full of concern that it almost hurts. “Your guardian angel started liking it when you were being mean, so he started wanting you to do it more. He has learned a way to make you do stuff. Stuff that you don’t actually want to do. But I think that you knowing about it will help you control yourself better.”

Then the rage boils up in me again. Just like in the library. It’s like I fall off a cliff into an ocean, an ocean of anger, and I’m drowning in it. I scream “Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!” as loud as I can, and reach over to push her. But Gabe is ready, I think that’s what he’s been waiting for, and he yanks my arm back before I can touch her. That’s when I go crazy. I’m not in control any more.

Gabe

I see it when Demon takes control again, now that I know what I’m looking for. It’s just like in the library. Jonathan’s face goes all red and dark, and his lips peel back in a snarl like an aggressive dog. He screams for her to shut up, and I start reaching out just as he is moving to push her. I’m able to grab his arm to stop him from getting to her.

And he loses it. He starts kicking and punching and pushing me. There’s no way I can keep my balance, and I fall straight through the bars of the jungle gym onto the ground below. I’m all off balance when I fall, so I can’t land properly like I normally would. I feel my ankle twist under me when I hit the ground, there’s a gross sounding crack, and a terrible pain shoots up my leg. I fall over and grab my ankle, yelling. But I don’t have time to worry about this, even though the pain is making me feel faint and sick. I try to stand back up, but my ankle won’t hold my weight and I fall back down.

He’s up there with Natalie, moving towards her, that evil expression on his face. She holds her hands up, and says, “Jonathan, wait! It’s going to be okay! I am trying to help you!”

That just makes it worse. He starts shrieking like a banshee, not words, just screaming, as he grabs her hands. Timothy is trying to climb up to them, but he is obviously no good at climbing and he isn’t going to reach them in time to do anything about it.

I try to hobble over to the side to start climbing too. I know I won’t get there before he hurts her.

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