Deamons

Chapter 6 The Land of Mean Mothers part 3

Fear rules that night. The deamons decide to throw their first ever masquerade ball. In his dreams they visit. Rejection plays his mother. "I'm from the land of mean mothers and we want to eat you." All the deamons dress wearing clothing and masks to look like mothers he recognizes. They dance around a cauldron in all manner of disgust. As they do they throw things in like frog's eyes, chopped off toes, some even shaking large beetles out of their clothing to toss in. They boys pulse quickens and his temperature grows as fear wells within. The deamons feast off this. Their frenzy building as they ready for more horrific imagery.

The gifts look to Strength. He is slowly becoming their leader. He cannot help though. He is doing all he can. His hands gripping the walls his fingers pulsing. "I am giving the boy all I have just so he stays alive. They are going to scare him to death if they have their way." The gifts look back at the deamons, death is out. He puts on the mask of a snake and images for the boy him biting his leg and then borrowing himself inside where he can eat his way up to his heart. The deamons are in a wild hedonistic frenzy now. Fighting to be the most horrifying to the host. The gifts look to each other. Strength has turned red looking as if he will collapse at any moment. They know if that happens with the state the boy is in, his body heating, his pulse racing, he will surely die. So, they turn to Hope who gets them singing. Mimicking a choir of angels, the best they can, but not so much. Hope wants to summon the light. They also desperately want to reach the boys mind and calm his spirit. The boy is not able to turn his attention to them. The deamons prosper as the gifts weaken.

The singing as beautiful and loud as it is, is just more noise with the clamor of the deamon frenzy going on right along side of them. It is a battle not only for his attention but for his heart now, during the war for his soul. The gifts are losing. Starke terribly frightened, especially as he watches helplessly in his dream as the lump under his skin slithers up towards his belly. He just wants to die. He cannot though; not yet. His adrenaline is going full on, even if he does not know what that is. It just feels like he has so much energy with nothing to spend it on. He cannot stop the snake. Having such a gross thing in his body sickens him. He wants to throw up but cannot even move to do that. On the outside he is sweating profusely trying hard to move his arms and legs which are all tangled in his sheets. Then he just stops.

In his dream the snake has made its way to his belly. Death is feasting now like a ravenous wolf at the end of a bloody hunt. The other deamons are losing out on their meal as Death has fear monopolized now. They dance on wilder and wilder trying on all sort of masks hoping to be the one to take back the focus of the dream. It is then then that he rises.

They whole place takes on a red hue. The walls tremble. The cauldron falls over the wet contents boil off the floor from the sharp rise in heat. Outside Starke shakes violently throwing off the sheets. Then suddenly inside it falls silent as none move. That is except Death who still slithers toward heart. Then they see him. Bigger and stronger then ever. Anger is back and he is pissed. He stomps with a thud straight over to Strength who still has his hands on the walls trying as best he can to give the boy his last bit of energy. "I'm not afraid of you," Strength strains to say when Anger approaches. "Good," Anger retorts laying hands on Strength's shoulders. Strength grows bigger. Larger than he has ever been. Instead of collapsing as he was about to, he leans in now revitalized and pushes the boy to take back control of his mind and dreams.

Anger turns toward Death who still slithering ever closer to the heart oblivious to the goings in the great hall. Outside now able to move but still asleep Starke moves reaching down towards his leg where the imagined snake bit and slithered in. In unison the boy and Anger move as one. Anger grabs the snake cloaked Death and is choking him with just one hand. Starke sees himself in the dream, bolstered by courage who now presses on the inner walls alongside strength, pulling the snake from his body by the tail. He then flings it through the air. Death gurgles in Anger's grip. He is a powerful deamon, old and ancient not used to being handled like this. Rejection takes off his mask, pleading with Anger, begging in fact, which is nothing like him, for Anger to let go of Death. Anger is taken aback by his tone. He never heard Rejection talk this way. The rest of the deamons take off their masks as well, perhaps not wishing to be choked out. All may be vulnerable if the big bad Death is so weak and Rejection is reduced to begging. "Go back to your hiding places," Rejection commands to them all. They obey and all that are left are Rejection, Anger and Death who has stopped wriggling and is now hanging limp in Anger's hold. "Let him go Anger," Rejection insists but Anger still keeps his hold. "We made the jump together. It's me and you so let him go. Trust me." "Did we make the jump together because I don't remember jumping?" Anger asks. "You remember the other side though, don't you?" He did and is shrinking now. His energy fading. He lets go of Death dropping him to the ground where he lays still. Rejection grabs ahold of Death's feet dragging him away somewhere into the darkness. Anger goes away as well, possibly back down into the bowels.

The boy is awake now. He gets down alongside his bed and prays to God just as he had seen someone on television do. Hope grasps the opportunity of quietness to whisper across the darkness outside. Reaching to something within the father. Something in there deep. He asks if he would take the boy to catechism and give him the chance to learn as he had.