The Short Demon King

Chapter 33

I awoke in a panic, eyes darting across the room. I clutched the center of my shirt and yanked it away from me; the fabric trapped me and left me engulfed in flames. I panted heavily and forced all the blankets off me with my other hand.

No, no, no, no, no... Not here, not now. I need to hold it together! I can't accomplish anything like this!

The tears I'd held back in my dream streamed down my face as I screamed internally. I had worked so hard and done such a good job at keeping it together recently, but now all that built-up stress poured out of me through these tears.

I ripped my shirt off, covering my entire face with it in hopes it would stop the burning tears in their tracks. I bent over and kept repeating the same word in my head: no, no, no... Yet no matter what I tried, the tears wouldn't stop.

"Oh my god Jaye, are you okay?" Kevin rushed over to my side.

I looked up at him with puffy eyes, but immediately buried my head again when I saw that look again. Pity. Everyone always pitied me. The false king, the short demon who pretends to be strong. I couldn't bear to see another person's pity.

"What's wrong? What happened?"

The tips of his finger brushed my back and I immediately recoiled, nearly falling over to escape his touch. I accidentally dropped the shirt so I could stabilize myself and not completely fall over. I curled more into a ball and shivered slightly, using all the willpower I had left to not completely lose myself.

Kevin mumbled something under his breath, but I couldn't hear him anymore. I could barely even hear the appliances in the house humming. All I could make out was an intense ringing in my ear, vibrating at a frequency that could make ones' ears bleed.

That voice also laughed at me, mocking the pathetic state I now found myself in.

That's more like it. This is what you actually deserve after everything you put the others through. This is who you truly are: a pathetic wreck of a demon.

I clutched the sides of my head and tried to scream, but no sound came out. Or maybe it did, I wouldn't have been able to hear it either way. The only thing I could sense was something fluffy suddenly being wrapped around me.

I opened my eyes and through blurry vision was able to see one of the blankets had been draped over my back. Confused, I looked over to my side and saw Kevin watching me intently, waiting before making another move. I stayed staring at him, unable to really do much else in this sorry state.

Very slowly, and even more cautiously, Kevin slowly wrapped his arms around me to bring me into a hug. My chest tightened and my whole body stiffened, but I didn't try to escape this time. There was no cruelty on his face, nor any hostility in his actions. All Kevin wanted to do was the same thing he wanted to from the first day we met, to protect and comfort me.

My tears flowed even faster, but I barely noticed them. I buried my head against Kevin's chest and let him comfort me, as only my mother ever had before. I never realized how much I needed someone to hold and console me—never let anyone try. Not until this moment.

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There was no way of knowing how much time I spent in his arms that morning. All I knew was that by the time I finally lifted my head back up, Maya already went to school without me. I never noticed her leaving, but I could tell from just the general location of the big hand on the clock that school would already have started.

I rubbed at my eyes and slowly blinked them to adjust my vision to the bright lights. My face was a complete mess, and Kevin's shirt was no better. My whole face turned pink and I avoided making eye-contact.