Me and Maggie arrive at Eleanor’s house to find Day waiting for us.
“What are you doing here?” I say. I’ve wanted to talk to him for so long, to ask him where he’s been and why he pushed me away, but I don’t care anymore. I’m in sync with the light. I’m pure.
“I’m here to warn you,” he says. “Neither of you answered your phones.”
“Warn us about what?” I ask, cold and uncaring.
“It’s a trap,” he says. “There’s someone very dangerous in there.”
I don’t know why Day is here, but I don’t trust him. I should want to ask him where he’s been, or why I should believe what he says, but neither matter. I have the light and it’s enough. “I have the light. I don’t need to be afraid anymore.”
“Yes you do,” Day says, “They are many. If they find you, they’ll come for you and they’ll destroy you. Let me take care of this. I can protect you.”
Every day I’ve been waking up feeling like my heart’s been torn from my chest because of him, and he wants me to believe he’s going to protect me. “Just stay out of it,” I say.
“Reason with him, Maggie,” Day pleads. “You can’t go in.”
“I have to go,” Maggie says. “He’s Aaron, and my Aunt’s in there.” She seems oddly calm. I guess I never realized how much faith she has in me.
“Call her, and tell her to come out,” Day says.
It seems like a reasonable option, but Maggie’s Aunt doesn’t answer the phone.
“We’re going in,” I say. I can feel a darkness from within the house, but it doesn't scare me.
“Alright,” Day says, “but I’m coming with you.”
I don’t care what he does. I’m not afraid. The angel told me that there were demons in the world that I’ll need the light to fight them.
I don’t knock on the door. I’m tempted to force it in, but it’s easier to use the light to unlock it. I just have to move a few pins and the door acquiesces to a gentle nudge.
Eleanor is sitting on the couch. Her face is bloody.
A boy is standing in front of the doorway. He has a gun pointed at me. “Stay where you are,” he says.
I don’t listen. I walk towards him. He pulls the trigger and the bullet races towards me, but it doesn’t matter, it’s held together by the light. I pull it apart as if I’m unhemming a piece of cloth by pulling on a loose string. The bullet is gone before it can hurt me.
The boy smiles. “We finally found you,” he says.
I reach out to him with the light. There is a darkness within him that offends me. It’s chaotic. I need to destroy it in order to preserve the light. In order to force it out of the boy, I reach out with the light. I’m going to purify him.
What I don’t grasp is that there isn’t a darkness in the boy. He isn’t possessed by an outside force. He is the darkness. As I try to bring light to him, I tear his very soul from his body.
“Stop!” Day screams. Day knows what I’m doing, and he understands the horror of it.
I don’t listen. I’m consumed.
I can see the agony on the boy’s face, but the darkness offends me. I can’t stop.
“Please!” Day cries out again. “You can’t do this.”
But I can do it. And then, when the darkness is gone, the boy’s lifeless body falls to the ground.
“You killed him,” Day says, mortified. He didn’t think I could be so heartless.
Maggie runs to the body. She checks for a pulse. “He’s dead,” she says.
I don’t feel anything, but I do. I think I’m in shock.
“He was a demon,” I say as if that is justification enough.
Day looks at me. I can’t read his expression. He looks like he just lost someone he loved. “He was a person.” He slaps me. “Wake up,” he says. There’s a tear going down his cheek. “Don’t be this person.”
He puts his hand on my face and I feel a surge of pain and regret. I feel the feelings that I buried under the light. It’s like I’m trapped in a powerful river and I just reached the surface of the water long enough to take a breath and then realize that I’m drowning.
What is wrong with me?
“Can we save him?” I ask.
Day looks a little relieved.
“Take Maggie and the woman and leave,” Day says. “I’ll take care of this.”
I do as I’m told. We take Eleanor’s car. Maggie drives.
I should have trusted Day from the start.