A yelp comes from Ray as he grabs the ball before tossing it at Mikey, whose distraction earns him the ball across his face. He curses loudly, taking messy steps back until steadying up; he glares at Ray and the latter immediately freezes, starting to run away, barely a second before Mikey's going after him.
"C'mon!" Gerard throws his arms in the air. "The game, you dumbasses!" The two are on their way to the front yard when we last see them, leaving us back with frustrated sighs at the discontinued game. "Well, then."
"Let's continue, I guess." I glance at the way the two went and grab the ball, throwing it at Gerard despite he's not even aware of it. The motherfucker catches it without even needing to move anything aside from his arms. "No! Fuck you, you were supposed to play without demon powers!"
"And you were supposed to play fairly!" Gerard twists his mouth, though he isn't able to say a lot; a scream escapes his lips when I tackle him to the ground, both of us falling to the grass, earning us a little wrestling before I kneel him between the legs, giving me enough time to stand up, laughing, while he curses on the ground and rolls around.
I'm about to speak up when a noise from the back porch startles me and I turn to see Frank standing there, eyebrows knitted together. "I... I don't even want to know what's going on, but I hope it hurts enough." He shakes his head with a groan, stepping closer, and wraps an arm around my waist with his head resting on my shoulder. "Anyways, I was going to tell you that..." He trails off and sighs, clicking his tongue. "Fuck it, I forgot what I was going to say. Where are Ray and Mikey, anyways?"
"Ray hit Mikey with the ball, so Mikey chased him off to the front yard." I shrug my free shoulder, glancing back at the way the two had gone before I turn to hug Frank properly and press a kiss to his head, nuzzling him softly. "What were you doing?"
Frank stares into the distance for a second before raising his eyebrows lightly. "Right, that's what it was about. Um, y'know, you wouldn't be able to turn into a type of demon like we are, you see, so— Do you remember when I explained to you the kind of demons there are?"
"Yeah, about nosferatu and stuff," I hum with a nod, remembering at least a great part of it.
"'Kay, so do you want to choose a kind of demon or what?" He raises an eyebrow. "I don't want you stuck in a form you don't like and... I never really needed to go through this before to be honest. Not a lot of people ask to be turned into demons, at least not like this. So... what do you think?"
"Well, I suppose taking a look won't do any bad." I smile; my heart flutters at how Frank smiles back and leans in to press his lips to mine softly, cupping my face lightly. Pulling back, I'm immediately hit by a ball against my upper back, compelling me to glare back at Gerard at the same moment, but he's already running off the same way Mikey and Ray had gone. Funny thing.
.
It's later, at night, that Frank pulls out that book, Creatures of the dark and the light and the in between. Long time since I last saw it, and it makes me think about how I never went too deep into it, only read some superficial parts of it, but the book seems to be a lot more complete than I judged it to be, given the images that decorate it along with detailed illustrations and explanations while Frank skips through the pages.
"Sit here!" He pats the space next to him on the bed and I hum, grabbing my phone from the pocket of my hoodie—or better, Frank's—that hangs on the desk chair, then take a seat next to him, taking a closer look at the beautifully inked pages of the book. It has some notes on it, in a black that's stronger than the one that prints the letters against the yellowish pages. "So, take a look," he mumbles, finally reaching the page he seemed to want and smoothing it over with his hand.
Somehow, it feels wrong, to a level. Forced. Something in the back of my mind reminds me I'm doing it for Frank and myself, and I wonder if we'll ever get tired of each other. On the other hand, the thought of being away from Frank hurts a little too much, so it's easy to give up on the doubt and clean my mind before I pay attention to what Frank says. The sooner we do this, the sooner it all will be over, not to mention that Frank has been putting so much effort into helping me through all of this. I feel like I need to show that I'm at least invested into it, even if not as much as him, though what clouds my thoughts is just the insecurity, I believe. Or choose to believe. Fuck.
Choosing the type of demon that can potentially suit me is almost embarrassing, given all the points we need to consider so I'll be completely comfortable with it—or as much as possible. Still, we finally get over it and make a choice, and it's quite simple. Generic, but still good.
Ray and Mikey's seriousness about the subject is contrasted by how Gerard and Frank practically vibrate in excitement as they almost jump around whenever the topic comes up, which is mostly when I ask how things are going or when they update me on their own since they're dealing with the preparations by themselves. Not like I really want to know what is needed to turn someone into a demon, at least not before we do anything, whatever we will get ourselves into.
The guys' calendar has a few differences from the normal ones, mainly with the solstices and equinoxes highlighted instead of the other holidays, also with specific notes about significant changes in the planets' position and the moon phases in detail. Quite interesting, to be honest. It had me standing in front of where it hangs in the kitchen for about an hour or more, with the initial goal of checking Samhain's date quickly forgotten.
Frank walked into the kitchen claiming he was looking for me and asking what I was doing. "Did you know my birthday used to be on Samhain?" He asked after I let him know. "Like, it ended up changing over the years to November, but yeah," he told me with a smile and that excited gaze he has whenever telling us something new—or something he judges to be new to us, at least; I tend to find myself sometimes pretending not to know stuff just so I don't kill his excitement.
"Oh?" I raised an eyebrow at him. "You must have a really powerful... energy." Is that the word?
"Yeah, and it's also easier for me to adapt to this realm and stuff." He smiled before starting to bombard me with curiosities regarding it, and while it wasn't boring, it had Frank forgetting to do a few shores while I ended up getting late on my assignment, something we only got aware of when a confused Ray walked into the room what we were doing there at such a time.
Nevertheless, I can feel anxiety already buzzing under my skin from the moment I noticed Samhain was just around the corner—it is, I mean. September flies by exceptionally fast, given the new college year, and I make sure to make visits to my mother more often before October finally kicks in and all of us get really busy during the couple last weeks of it.
Something thicker hangers in the atmosphere everywhere, as if I were the one to change it in the first place, but am I wrong to be weird about all of this? I want to keep the simplicity of a few things in life, so I think I can keep it given how the four themselves do, right? Then, again, they're another type of demon. I remember Mikey giving me a whole explanation about it, another burst of information I buried in the back of my mind to be able to absorb at least just enough of what I need from college. College. Hell, it's the only thing keeping my mind away from thinking too much about the whole demon thing all the time, it's almost a fucking shame.
I'm sitting outside at the table on the back yard, reading one of the books we need for the next assignment with the cup of coffee Ray prepared for me on the table, when a couple of hands are placed on top of my shoulders and I must be spending way too much time with them if I can recognize Gerard just by that.
"Hi, bestie," I hum, cracking a smile when I look up at him and our gazes meet; he snorts and rolls his eyes, eventually occupying the seat next to me at the table. He stares into the distance at first and sighs as he leans back against the chair, maybe not even noticing how I observe him. I make sure the bookmarker is in the right place before I put the book down, instead taking my cup in hand. "So?"
"So what?" He raises an eyebrow at me.
I shrug with a hum. The wind goes through the trees softly, each time taking away more and more of its dry leaves, covering the yard's green grass with the copper, hot tones. "Does it hurt?"
Gerard hums with a light shrug, scratching a spot by his chin. "Well, your whole body and soul are being changed into something else... you must feel something, I think." He hums, and the silence that falls over becomes thick unusually quickly, but this tension is somehow familiar to me—it reminds me of the night I last said goodbye to Frank on that graduation night, to a level.
"Did it hurt?" I ask practically without feeling it. Well, I don't think I feel anything whenever this weird mood settles over me. I think I was also somewhat numb that day when I said I didn't want to live forever with him, after all.
Silence follows again, though it's shorter, interrupted by how Gerard sighs and shifts on the chair. "It did, of course. I mean, you had your reasons and all that stuff, but I, at least, couldn't help but to wonder if there was something wrong with us or whatever. We got used to it. We came back. Frank is the one who was hurt the most. What matters is that everyone is here and fine right now, though, don't you think?"
It is true, for sure, but it still heaves in my chest at the thought of having hurt Frank so bad, even if not directly or consciously. I won't be alone if I live forever; I will be with them, and they're enough. My mind wanders back to my old 'friends', and it just gives me certainty that being with the four is one of the best choices, if not the best. Maybe I wasn't ready for it at the time, and now is the right time.
"Do you want to go out someday?" Gerard cuts through my thoughts. "Maybe just wander around the mall like we used to, or go to a local concert, or pub. I know some places you'll like."
"Sure." I nod with a smile. "That'll be wonderful."
Some people still don't know about our plans, and I wonder what they'll think of it. I look down at my phone on the table as it lightens up and see it's Bert texting the group about something.
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