A Demon For Christmas

Ch-5

During the drive back to her parent’s house, Amelia has enough time to think. There had to be something could do to free herself from this…this burden.

That was what the demon was to her. A burden. She couldn’t take care of a demon alongside everything else she had to do. She barely had time for herself with having to take care of Ethan.

Since thinking about it would only make her mad, she tuned her thoughts out. It was difficult but she managed to get to her parents without trying to strangle herself with the seatbelt or something.

She needed to distract herself so she turned on the radio but it only reminded her of what he had said earlier and she turned it back off. Even when she couldn’t see him, nearly everything reminded her of the– she couldn’t call him a man– she had met for less than twenty minutes.

She could only drive in the company of her own silence so she did everything she could to think of something other than him. It was not an easy feat, but she was able to get home without thinking of him once.

It was really late by the time she got to her parent’s house and she could already smell the roasting turkey as she walked up to the door. Her growling belly lead her immediately to the kitchen where she paused to watch her mother cook and try to get the kids to stop stealing from the batch of cookies she had made.

Ethan noticed her and swiped one more cookie, narrowly escaping his grandmother’s hand pat. He walked up to Amelia and offered it to her.

“Here you go, Mom. I could hear your tummy growling all the way from when you were outside.” Amelia giggled and accepted the cookie, biting into it. He was right, she WAS hungry.

“How did your day go, baby?” She asked him, bending a little so she was at face level with him.

He shrugged. “Just the usual. I played and ate.” He rolled his eyes at her as though her questions were annoying him when it was usually the other way around.

Amelia could feel that he wanted to go play so she let him go and turned to her mother. “Hey, Mom.”

Kat turned around to face her daughter, her face glistening with sweat from all the cooking. “How did it go, love?”

Amelia’s face flushed. She knew she couldn’t tell her mom about the demon who now lived in her grandmother’s cottage and was now tethered to her until the new year’s. Not like she would be believed anyway.

“It was fine. She left the cottage to me, I just had to sign some papers” Kat nodded, believing her daughter. She knew Amelia would need the place anyway, she knew how queasy she was about staying with them here.

“You were always her favorite anyway. Do you need help with cleaning it? I can mobilize a few people to help.” The words were barely out of Kat’s mouth when Amelia yelled.

“NO.” Her mother’s look made her realize she had shouted and calmed herself before repeating her answer. “No, thank you. I have everything covered.”

She couldn’t risk anyone finding out about Thalrik. Not when she could barely believe he existed herself.

“Okay. Well, I need your help at the moment though. I’ll need you to go set up the dining table. The food is ready to serve.” Kat said as she nodded towards the stack of plates she had taken out.

“Sure” Amelia agreed as she picked up the stack and headed to the dining.

Only by sheer luck did the plates not fall from her hands and break when she reached the dining room. Her smile dropped and she felt as though she was about to pass out again.

She knew her mother had invited Kyle but she didn’t realize he was actually going to go through with the invitation? Didn’t he have something better to do?

He must have noticed her because he gave her a small smile, one she couldn’t bring herself to return. With shaky hands, she set down the plates and proceeded to put them in their places, pointedly refusing to look in his direction again.

Kyle wanted to talk to her but his attention was monopolized by her father and he didn’t want to seem rude to his host so he only watched her from the corner of his eyes.

Once Amelia was done, she rushed immediately back to the kitchen, almost bumping into her mother was was carrying the turkey.

“What is Kyle doing here, mom?” She asked, her heart thumping in her chest.

“What do you mean? I invited him over for dinner. You were there when I invited him and when he accepted. You can’t tell me who and who not to invite to my own home,Amelia, just because you don’t want them there” Kat admonished, pushing Amelia out of the way as she went to the dining room.

Amelia groaned. She probably still had time to escape she would just pretend she had something else to do and leave before anyone question her.

As though she knew what Amelia was planning, Kat came into the kitchen. “Get out there and get seated. We’re about to start dinner and don’t you think about leaving.”

With no other choice, but to stay, Amelia went back into the dining room and sat as far away as possible from Kyle. The entire night, she avoided being in a conversation with him, even though her mother tried to make them talk to each other.

When she was done, Amelia made up an excuse and rushed immediately to her room. Staying in there with Kyle had been one of the most painful things she had done in a while, and that included Greg.

That night, when she slept, Amelia did not dream of Kyle neither did she dream of her family, rather, she dreamt or to better put it. She was haunted by a certain demon.

Thalrik was chasing her and he didn’t look like he would stop until he caught her.