The Boy Who Killed Demons: A Novel Read online

  This had to be connected with Vincent Gilman. Most likely after they killed Gilman they searched his apartment and found out about the message board. They knew he was in communication with someone else who saw demons, and that had to be why they searched my home. Because I was one of their suspects. But this meant that there were others on their list. If I was the only one they suspected, they wouldn’t have bothered to plant a demon in my school—they would’ve simply found a way to get rid of me like they did Gilman. And just like with Gilman, they would’ve made my death look like an accident. The fact that they were going to all this trouble made me think something big enough was up that they couldn’t risk killing me and bringing the police into it unless they were certain I was the one they were looking for. It made me think more about what happened in Brooklyn, and whether the something big was connected with the abductions of Ginny Cataldo, Trey Wilkerson and God knows how many other four-year-old children they might’ve stolen from other states and brought here.

  After the initial shock wore off, another thought stunned me. I had assumed that these demons came from some sort of hellish region or another dimension, and that when they slipped into this world they were able to create a kind of hypnotic trance that fooled almost everyone into seeing them as human. But for whatever reason, I and a few others, like Virgil, weren’t susceptible to it, and saw them instead as what they really were. My theory explained why the demons I’ve encountered all live alone without any immediate family. But how could the demon Connor Devin be masquerading as a fifteen-year-old kid? Did they send up other demons to also masquerade as his parents? Or does this demon thing work in a completely different way? Maybe instead of the demons being actual physical demons, it’s something else. Maybe it’s more of a spiritual thing, where a demon spirit takes over a human host, and somehow what I’m seeing is what they’re like inside—sort of like their essence. I realized that I’d have to look into Connor Devin’s home situation. I was going to have to see whether his parents were demons, too. The thought of having to do that made me sick, but I had no choice.

  I was a nervous wreck by the time school ended. Seeing Sally helped, but she sensed something was wrong and tried to get me to talk about it. First I tried telling her it was nothing, just schoolwork, but she knew me well enough already not to believe that, and kept pushing me. I was just too exhausted from the day’s events to come up with a convincing lie, and instead just got quiet, which really pissed Sally off. Instead of the two of us going to the golf course like we’d been doing, she had me stop the bike so she could get off. I got off my bike also, and for a couple of blocks walked my bike alongside her, but Sally just kept getting angrier and angrier at me for not telling her what was bothering me, and my mind just wasn’t working well enough to come up with a good lie. After we walked another block together (although not really together because the gulf growing between us seemed like miles) she told me in a voice icy enough to cause frostbite that she wanted to walk by herself without my company. There was nothing I could say to her, so I got on my bike and rode off. I felt kind of dead inside, like maybe things were over between us. I probably would’ve been crushed by this if I wasn’t so confused and worried about the demon Connor Devin.

  I don’t want to make a joke of this and quote Al Pacino from Godfather III. I know it’s clichéd and it’s been done to death already, but it fits my situation so well right now that I have to do it. Just when I thought I was out those damn demons had to drag me back in!

  Monday, September 26th 8:20 PM

  I’VE BEEN PREOCCUPIED ALL DAY, BOTH ABOUT WHAT TO DO about the demon Connor Devin and also what to say to Sally so I don’t lose her. During dinner my parents made several comments about how preoccupied I looked, and it didn’t help that they had to repeat those comments several times before I realized what they were saying. The first time I grunted out something unintelligible. When they pressed me for an answer, I told them I was trying to figure out how to solve my math homework. They seemed to buy that. Even with their high income jobs, they’re not the most astute people around.

  I figured out what to tell Sally. I didn’t like the idea of lying to her—the thought of doing that made me queasy inside, so I played around with telling her a variation of the truth, something like how the new kid made me feel uneasy. But I realized that wouldn’t work. Either she’d press me about why he made me uneasy, which would eventually force me to lie to her, or worse, she’d confront the demon at school, or otherwise tip him off, which would put her life in danger. So instead I came up with another variation of the truth. That I suffered from depression at times. It wasn’t that much of a stretch. Those demons depress the hell out of me. I called Sally up twenty minutes ago to explain myself to her. The line got deathly quiet as I told her this. I could barely stand it, my heart racing as I waited for her to say something. Finally, she asked me why I didn’t tell her that earlier.

  “I was afraid you might not want to be involved with me if you knew that,” I said.

  “Do you think I’m that shallow?”

  This wasn’t said out of anger, but more hurt. Like I didn’t trust her. Her reaction surprised me, and I stammered out that that wasn’t it. “I just don’t want you thinking less of me. This isn’t an easy thing to tell people.”

  “Henry, I won’t think any less of you. I wish you had told me this this afternoon, but I’m glad you trust me enough to confide in me with something this serious.” She hesitated before asking me whether I’d told my parents.

  “No. If I told them they’d take me to a psychiatrist and have me all drugged up. I’m trying to figure out a way to solve this myself.”

  “Is anything helping?”

  “Well, yeah. Seeing you again has helped.”

  “Be serious.”

  “I am. There are other things I’ve been doing, too, and it’s been getting better. I’ll talk to you more about it tomorrow. Maybe at the golf course?”

  “We’ll see.” She hesitated, then asked how long I’d been suffering from this, and I told her since I was thirteen. So while I wasn’t entirely truthful with Sally, it wasn’t really a lie either. At least it seemed to solve the problem between us. I also figured out what I was going to have to do about the demon Connor Devin. I was either going to have to get him kicked out of school, or failing that, I’d have to kill him. Not that I had any moral issue with killing a demon. I just had no idea how to go about doing it. So for now I’ll focus on the first approach.

  Tuesday, September 27th 6:15 PM

  IT’S IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO EXPLAIN JUST HOW MUCH IT SUCKS having a demon shadow you for almost an entire fucking day. I just can’t describe what something like that does to your emotional and mental well-being. And what makes it all that more unbearable is knowing that the demon is there to study me and is just waiting to see if he can trip me up. The only way I was able to keep things together today was to tell myself over and over again that his days were numbered.

  No surprise that he’s in my Italian class, too, and the cherry to top it off—the teacher assigned him to sit next to Sally. I could barely stand the thought of that, and I heard him trying to hit on her a few times. Of course what I really heard were his animal hisses and snarls, which were barely understandable as words. Sally was polite to him but made it clear she had no interest. As angry as I was over this, I was also relieved that I hadn’t said anything about Devin to her. He knew she was my girlfriend, and he was testing her, trying to determine from her response whether I’d told her about him. At least he didn’t get anything from that.

  The whole day was close to intolerable having him always nearby. Even during lunch he chose a table near us. A flock of girls who didn’t know better joined him, and I had to listen to his demon hisses and snarls as he played his part and flirted with them. Maybe he was doing more than just playing his part. Maybe he’d use the opportunity to despoil as many of these girls as he could. I wanted to know what he looked like to his crowd of new admirers, so
I took his picture with my iPhone while he wasn’t paying attention, and it turns out he looks enough like Justin Bieber that his creators must’ve used Bieber as a model to craft his human appearance.

  As you can probably guess, dealing with the demon Connor Devin left me in a rotten mood, and it was Ralph Malphi’s bad luck that he finally found me in the boy’s room late that afternoon. It was just the two of us in there—I was at the sink washing my hands when he came in, and as he recognized me, a big ugly grin filled his face. He pushed the door closed behind him and came charging at me, announcing how he’d been looking for me and how he was going to teach me a lesson for messing with him.

  I guess he thought I would just stand there and let him pound on me or whatever he was planning on doing. But while he might’ve had two years and eighty pounds on me, he didn’t know about my athletic abilities. I may not have competed in anything in some time, but quickness and agility could go a long way. Also, while Ralph Malphi might’ve looked like a gorilla, he looked as much like a soft and privileged rich kid, while I’d been spending my winters shoveling snow and my summers mowing lawns, which hardened me and made me stronger than he probably guessed. Third and last, I’d spent two and a half years dealing with demons, which hardened me far more than anything else ever could’ve. There wasn’t a chance in hell someone like Malphi would’ve ever worried me.

  I waited until he got within a few feet of me, and then I flew at him furiously, first kicking him in the balls, then grabbing his fat head and slamming it against one of the sinks. He went down to the floor hard before he ever knew what happened, and I went down with him, punching him in the ear over and over again until he was crying and begging me not to hurt him anymore. If it wasn’t because of the demon Connor Devin putting me in such an awful mood, I would’ve eased up, but instead I kept at it, letting him know I’d cut out his eyes and fuck each of his empty eye sockets if he even as much as looked at me again.

  I had him so scared that he pissed his pants. I’m not kidding; a puddle of urine leaked out under him. I got off him then, not wanting to get my own pants soiled by him, and gave him a few kicks to the ribs. When I left the boy’s room, he was a bloody, urine-soaked mess, curled up in a fetal position and still crying like a baby. I didn’t feel sorry for him in the least. For him, bullying and terrorizing other students was a game. For me survival had become something far more serious. He picked the wrong person to bully. It was bound to happen eventually.

  My encounter with Malphi occurred near the end of the school day. I got some of his blood on my hands, but I’d been able to shake the demon Connor Devin off of me by then, which was lucky, since he probably would’ve smelled Malphi’s blood on me. A minute later, I was able to wash it off in a different bathroom without anyone noticing. Otherwise, not even a drop on my pants or shirt. If anyone other than Malphi had found out about what happened, nobody mentioned it to me. I don’t think Malphi reported it—I’m pretty sure I left him too scared and embarrassed to do that. If he did report it, nobody called my house, at least not yet. I guess I’ll find out more about it tomorrow.

  It was raining when Sally and I left school. Not a hard rain, but hard enough where we couldn’t go to the golf course, so I rode Sally home. During the ride I told her about Malphi. I was keeping enough secrets from her regarding demons and Connor Devin that I didn’t want to keep any additional ones. Still, though, I downplayed what I did to Malphi, although I did tell her that he was crying by the time I left the boy’s room.

  “You’re making this up,” she said.

  “Would I make up something like that?”

  I held my right hand back so she could see the bruises on my knuckles.

  “Wow,” she said, “Malphi’s a senior. And he’s so huge and scary-looking.”

  “Not huge and scary-looking enough to tangle with the likes of me!”

  Sally got quiet after that. Nor did she say anything about the depression I supposedly suffered from. Instead, she just held me tighter. I felt her shiver, but it might’ve only been because of the rain and not from what I had told her.

  Her mom was home, so all we could do was study Italian together at their kitchen table. Sally’s mom hovered nearby and kept a watchful eye on me, just as the demon Connor Devin had done all day, but she also made us hot chocolate, which is something Devin never would have done, so I can’t complain too much.

  Wednesday, September 28th 7:30 PM

  I TOOK THE BUS TO SCHOOL TODAY. LAST NIGHT I TRIED TO find the demon Connor Devin’s home address, but had no luck finding any Devins living in Newton. I wanted to see if he took the bus, and if he did, what direction he came from, so I got to the stop early this morning before either Curt or Wesley. Malphi, too.

  Wesley beat both Curt and Malphi to the stop, and when he showed up, he gave me this scared, worried look and told me Malphi was still making threats about me. “Maybe you shouldn’t be taking the bus right now?” he said.

  I told him straight-faced that I’d take my chances and asked him if he saw Malphi on the bus home last night. Wesley shook his head and his mouth continued to twitch in this nervous and worried way. He was trying to think of some argument to give me, but nothing came to him.

  When Curt showed up a few minutes later he gave me an exaggerated double take. “Whoa,” he said, “you’re taking your life in your hands coming here. And not much chance on this short notice that I’ll be able to conjure up Cthulhu to save your ass.”

  “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Malphi. Big muscle-bound ape. Been clamoring for your scalp.”

  I gave him a confused look that was every bit as exaggerated as the double-take he had given me.

  “Your funeral,” Curt said pursing his lips and shrugging in an unconcerned manner, but he contradicted his nonchalant attitude when he started to fidget nervously.

  Malphi arrived at the stop ten minutes after Curt. He looked battered and bruised with his right ear swollen to almost twice the size of his left. He also looked shrunken, with this defeated air about him, like a whipped dog. When he saw me he flinched and averted his eyes. Wesley and Curt both caught this and gave me an astonished look, and then I saw the machinery clicking on in their eyes. Their expressions shifted to show their curiosity, but neither of them asked what was going on, or whether I might’ve been responsible for the damage that was so obviously done to Malphi. Malphi himself stood frozen facing the street, as if he were afraid to let his eyes wander and catch a glimpse of me. One of the ideas I’d been playing with to get rid of the demon Connor Devin was coercing Malphi into blaming Devin for the beating he took, but as I watched him I decided I couldn’t take that chance. Malphi was on the verge of crumbling apart, and I couldn’t trust what he might say if pressed. So that idea was out, but I had others. One in particular that I liked.

  The bus arrived without the demon Connor Devin making it to the stop. That was disappointing, but I took it in stride. I let Malphi get on first. He took a seat near the back of the bus and I took one near the front. I didn’t want to push things with him. The reason I was able to get the upper hand over him so quickly was because he had been too cocky and careless with me. He was afraid of me now, which was good. If I were to push him into another fight, he’d be more cautious and there would be no guaranteeing the outcome. So as long as he kept away from me, I’d do the same with him.

  When we got to the school, I hung around outside for a while hoping to see which direction the demon Connor Devin arrived from, as well as how he was getting to school. After I gave up, I went straight to my homeroom and found Devin already there sitting next to Sally in the seat I usually sat in. It might have been my imagination, but I could swear Sally flashed me a guilty look when I walked into the room. I took the other seat next to her and wondered about that look I thought I caught, like maybe she didn’t mind the attention Devin had been paying her. When I looked his way he gave me what I guessed was a smirk. Demon jaws are so grotesque it’s har
d to tell for sure, but I was pretty sure that was his intention. Sally and Devin sat next to each other in Italian class, and maybe she was beginning to find herself attracted to him; maybe even developing some sort of crush. Since I saw him as he really was, to me he was ghastly looking, but I had to keep reminding myself of the way others saw him, which was with a Justin Bieber façade. I reminded myself again that his days were numbered.

  Later at lunch, Sally seemed distracted, which made me feel sick to my stomach. So she was beginning to have conflicted feelings. Maybe she was already planning to break up with me so she could date the Bieber lookalike. There was no way I would ever let that happen. Not out of jealously, but to protect her. I couldn’t let him spread his demon foulness to her. I would kill him if I had to, regardless of what the consequences might be. Somehow there has to be a way to kill a demon, and I would figure it out if I needed to do that for Sally’s sake.

  The rest of the day was just as miserable. Before my last class, Sally found me in the hallway to tell me that something had come up and she wouldn’t be seeing me after school. That I’d have to ride my bike home by myself. I didn’t push her on what had come up. I didn’t even have a chance to tell her that I hadn’t ridden my bike, but had instead taken the school bus. Before I could process what she had told me, she was already moving away from me.

  I was reeling from that encounter when I got to my classroom for my last class of the day and saw what I assumed was Devin smirking at me. I somehow kept things under control, but I couldn’t concentrate on a word the teacher said. All I could think about was Sally falling into Devin’s clutches and what he would do to her in all his horrific demon glory. How if he didn’t kill her, he’d still be ruining her for the rest of her life, ripping and mutilating her insides and spreading his demon foulness throughout her. For a long moment the thought of all this made me feel like I was going to pass out, but again, I held it together enough not to show Devin what I was going through. While the teacher was scribbling something on the whiteboard with her back to the class, I took out my phone and texted Sally a message, asking her not to go out with anyone else, that if she’s planning on doing that to at least break up with me first. I knew this wasn’t the brightest thing in the world to do, but I couldn’t help myself. The next fifteen minutes while I waited for a text back were absolute agony. Maybe I started sweating then. Maybe Devin even noticed, though I’m not sure. When Sally texted me back it was to tell me that she wasn’t seeing anyone else and that she had a school event to do. She didn’t volunteer anything more.