Nipan

Chapter 3

With that in mind he heads back upstairs, again debating whether he should tell Jessie or not. But then he asks himself: ''Why do I keep thinking of telling Jessie? Shouldn't I go to my mom for this?''. He walks out of the church and starts to look around the forest for the altar he was brought to last Monday. He remembers he could see the bridge when he woke up. Back at the bridge he retraced his steps and went back to the spot. Only to find absolutely nothing. ''welp, this was a waste of time.'' He says to himself out loud. He went back to the bridge and hung around there until what seemed like midnight. He was hoping to see those creatures again, as weird as it sounds. He figured they would have at least some type of answer. It has gotten so dark it would have to be pitch black around him, but Evan could see just fine. He figured it was because of the horns and tail thing.

He looks down at his watch to see it was 1AM, while checking the time he looks at his skin, it was slowly turning a different color, red to be precise. 'Am I turning into a stereotypical devil?' he asks himself. 'Okay I got my price from the bet, maybe it's time to tell Jessie what is going on.', He goes back to his car and goes home, his mother not there as per usual. But when he entered the house it felt like there was someone else there with him. Not taking the chance he keeps his hood on and his tail hidden as he goes up to his room. Which is where he sees him, Jessie, ''How did you...?'' Evan asks, ''Your mom let me in, since this isn't the first time we have an ''unfinished project'''' he answers. ''What? You're mad that I'm here?'' Jessie asks back looking at Evan suspiciously. ''No, it's good you're here, I was going to call you in the morning but this works better.'' Evan tells him, ''What about your parents, won't they wonder where you are?'', ''They think I am spending the night here to tutor you.'' Evan just nods and figures it works.

There is a moment of silence. ''By the way, you were right.'', Evan says making Jessie look up, ''I did lose the bet... In fact, you were right about everything and I am sorry for making fun of you and telling you that you lost.'' Evan starts apologizing about lying and making fun of everything, one apology for one joke at a time. But Jessie interrupts asking him how he knows for sure that he lost the bet. ''Because of this.'' Evan says as he takes his shirt off. Jessie looks at him with wide eyes. In front of him stood Evan but not the Evan he knew from his science projects. He had become slightly taller, his skin now fully a kind of maroon red, horns sticking out of his head and a tail. Evan himself hadn't noticed but his eyes had changed as well. The white in his eyes had become black, while his dark blue eyes had become something scaring yet beautiful. They went from a light red to orange to a golden yellow. ''Like the feather of a phoenix'' Jessie whispered to himself. Jessie had to admit, he was both terrified and amazed. ''You have to help me man!'' Evan pleads, Jessie snapped out of his stare and crossed his arms. ''You just admitted you made fun of me, lied to me and even manipulated me. I have no reason to help you.'' He says in quite an angry tone. He gets up and slings his bag over his shoulder as he walks out.

''Didn't you tell your parents you're spending the night here?'', Jessie stops and plops his bag down. ''Fine, what do you want me to do? I will help you but only for tonight.'' Evan smiles and tells him everything about what happened, from when Jessie left the bridge on Monday to the moment they are sitting in his room at that very moment. ''Damn'' Jessie replies to the story ''That explains why you were so pale on Tuesday.'', Evan just nods not really sure if that was the reason but he didn't think it still mattered. ''So, what do I do?'' Evan asks, ''You said there was a ton of books in that little church, right?'' He asks to which Evan nods again. ''Then I bet there is some answers in there, maybe- '' but before Jessie could continue Evan mentions they were very old and were probably in a different language. They decide that tomorrow after Jessie is done with school they'd go to the little church and try to figure something out. After that they believe it's better if they went to sleep. Evan looked at Jessie and asked him ''so... where are you going to sleep?'', ''Well I refuse to sleep on the couch or on the floor so I will sleep in the bed, if that is ok with you of course''. They looked at each other for a bit when Evan speaks up: ''you sure you're ok sleeping next to a demon?''. Another moment of silence when they both start laughing. ''At least I get to say I slept with the devil'' Jessie says making them laugh harder, ''You already made a deal with one!!'' Evan says making it worse. Their laughter dies down and they hear a car pull up. The front door opens and it surprised Evan so much he poofed away. Literally, he poofed away. ''Evan you might want to pop back up when your mother is here.'', but instead of ''popping up'' he comes walking out of the bathroom. Both boys are confused but forget about it as they hear Evan's mother walk up the stairs. Neither of them wasted time getting under the covers and pretend they are asleep. Evans mother walked in and saw both were asleep and walked out again. They look at the closed door and then at each other, they snicker and lay back down. ''Is that comfortable? With the horns I mean.'', ''only when I sleep on my side, not on my back, if I did that they'd be like a build-in headrest.'' Evan laughs. ''Fair enough, but what was that pooffie thing you just did?'' Jessie asks. Evan shrugs his shoulders. ''You have school in the morning, I don't really know how I can show up with red skin so I will have another sick day I guess.'', Evan says to which Jessie agrees. ''I don't have a long day, I should be done around 2PM. But the walk to the bridge takes quite a while.'', ''I have a car, I'll come pick you up but we need to make sure I am not seen.''. They think of a solution, Evan would wear a hoodie and a pair of sunglasses. They agree on that and Jessie finally gets some sleep.

The next morning Jessie wakes up by someone shaking him. ''Wake up or you'll be late for school.'' Evan tells him. ''I didn't hear your alarm?'' Jessie says questioningly, ''didn't need one,'' Evan replies, ''I couldn't sleep. I guess that's a thing now.'', ''yeah either that or simply nerves and stress.'' Jessie says, making a fair point. They go to the room that belongs to Evans mother and see she is asleep. ''Let's not wake her up.'' They both agree. They get ready for the day and eat some breakfast. ''Let's keep this between us, we don't know how our friends would react to this.'' Evan says to which Jessie nods. ''So what will you be doing all day? You can't stay here because your mom is here.'', ''I will first head to the library here, since I can actually read the languages in those books, try to get a head start on what is happening here.'' There is a moment of silence between them. ''I can also give you a ride to school if you want?'' Evan offers, ''That'd be great, but we would have to leave now if we don't want anyone to see you.'', they nod and get in the car. Evan drops him off and leaves for the library.

Jessie walks into the school building and sees something he thought would never happen. Maggie and her friends were fighting. He walks up to them and asks what is going on, ''This chick ditched us to go hang out with you last night.'' One of the girls says. ''But I wasn't with her last night...'' Jessie answers truthfully, after all, he was in Evans house, not that he'd tell them that. ''Told you! Girl I am telling you, we got set up'' Maggie tries to defend herself. But it doesn't help, her friends don't believe her. ''Do us all a favor and delete our numbers.'' Another one of the girls says before walking away with the others. Maggie looks down with a sad face, not understanding why they would do this. ''Don't worry, you still have me'' Jessie tries to cheer her up, ''you will always have me''. Maggie smiles knowing it's true, ''but it still hurts'' she says, ''yeah I bet, let's forget about them, they probably weren't worth it if they treat you like this. We have class, let's go'' He tries to distract her. It seems to work for now and they head to History, a class that they had together.

They got through their morning without much trouble but when lunch came Maggie didn't know where to sit so Jessie brought her over to the table where Evan and his friends, who weren't there yet, usually sat. ''And you are one hundred percent sure they are ok with me sitting here?'' Maggie asks, ''Of course, I mean, they didn't complain about me joining them out of nowhere.''. Maggie tried to argue against it, but Jessie came out victorious as Oliver and Adam approached not having any problem with her sitting there. ''Hey Maggie, why you not with your girls anymore?'' Adam asks. ''They thought I ditched them to hang out with Jessie when I didn't so they kicked me out.'' She replied. ''Harsh, well you're with us now and we have no such as drama at this table'' Oliver smiles at her ''unless you you make plans without us, then we will have a problem. We a group, we do group activities''. They eat their food and make Maggie feel as welcome as possible, which seems to work out. Jessie is glad they both got accepted into the group so fast. He always just had Maggie so he never thought he'd have multiple friends at once. He didn't mind, Maggie was right, this might be good for him.

After that they all go to class and finish their day. Oliver was already done but he stayed during lunch to not miss out on anything new. It was like a tradition they had. Next to go home were Jessie and Adam, they had their last class together, which was biology. They walk out and Adam tries to get him to hang out with him after school since he had nothing to do. ''Sorry, I already have plans for today. But maybe we can plan something with the group soon, when Evan is feeling better.'', Jessie couldn't believe he just said that, him, making plans with other people. He didn't think he would ever say it but he admitted it felt good. ''Yeah we probably should, Evan doesn't like missing out on stuff. I think by now you know how he can get.'' But jessie says he has no clue what he is talking about. ''Well last time Evan missed out on hanging out with us he decided to prank all of us by telling us all we were going to hang out somewhere, told us all a different spot at the same time and didn't show up to any of us. He send me to the bowling alley, and Oliver to the gym.'' Adam explains. And knowing this town these locations were pretty far apart. But Jessie could laugh about it. ''I mean I get he was hurt but come on, that is so extra for no reason.'', ''tell me about it, and we got plenty more stories but we will do that some other time. I'll let you get to your plans now, I will see you tomorrow!'' Adam waves as he walks away from Jessie, who jumps in the air out of fright when a car pulls up. ''Someone is making friends'' Evan says, ''Get in, everyone else has already left.''. Jessie wastes no time getting in the car and they drive off.