Demons and Magic

CHAPTER 4: The Unthinkable

“Nice wifebeater,” Alastair said under her breath to which Joshua, one of the other two tenants and Mrs. Pratchett’s grandson, snickered at.

Nathan inhaled a sharp breath, chewing loudly on his bacon. “This is not a wifebeater.”

“Yes, it is. I saw it on an American television,” she noted with much pride in her tone and gave Nathan a blank smile. ”Tell me, do you beat your wife?”

“No! And I don’t have a wife,” Nathan defended and almost choked on the fruit pulps in his juice as he finished it in one go.

Alastair and Joshua shared an incredulous look behind his back.

“Well, no wonder. No decent woman would marry someone whose n*****s you can see through.”

Joshua laughed so hard that Mrs. Pratchett had to cover his mouth with a serviette before he sprays everything else on the table. Nathan just glared at them both, half thankful for Keiffer and Mrs. Pratchett’s existence during breakfast that morning.

“You know, one of these days, I’m going to kill you,” he swore under his breath and clenched his jaw, forcing himself to smile up at Alastair who just winked at him.

“That’s not at all comforting.”

“So, Alastair, how did you and Nathan meet?” Mrs. Pratchett asked to break the tension between them both and popped a small piece of pancake in her mouth. “Are you two already in a relationship or are you just kissing?”

“What?” Nathan asked as he turned to her, and Alastair smiled at them both.

“Don’t mind him. He’s kinda deaf. But yeah … we met when him and his friends did a summoning ritual.”

For the first time since that morning, Keiffer took his eyes off of his phone and actually glanced at Nathan. “You do summoning rituals?”

“It was just for fun.”

Alastair nodded in agreement, eating the sixth pancake on her plate. “They summoned me and that’s how we met.”

“They … excuse me, they summoned you?” Mrs. Pratchett’s eyebrows narrowed by a fraction and turned to Nathan as if to ask him to make a translation.

Nathan just smiled. “She means that we — uh, we met during the summoning ritual. At the party.”

“The one with Jackson last night?”

He nodded, and Mrs. Pratchett was appalled.

“You mean to say that you brought her back from the party last night even though you just met her?” she questioned and let her fork drop on the table with a loud clatter. “Young man, have you no decency? This is not how you should treat a woman! If you wanted her to be your girlfriend, you should instead take her on a date and not ask her to bed.”

Now, Nathan was extremely confused. Wasn’t she the one who asked if they were already dating or if they were just kissing? What the hell was that, then?

“No!” Nathan blurted and shook Alastair’s arm, urging her to speak up. “We didn’t do anything. She left immediately. We just … ” He swallowed, his eyes on Alastair who barely gave any sh*t. “ … talking.”

“Then, why was she sleeping on the bed beside you?”

“What?”

“Stop lying to me, Nathan. I know you have your needs but Alastair here looks like a decent girl whom you should treat with equal decency as well.”

Alastair nodded with satisfaction as she ate the last bite on her pancake that was swimming with maple syrup.

“We’re not dating!” Nathan yelled in frustration and Mrs. Pratchett slapped him on the arm.

“Then, you must! I’m going to give your mother a call and tell her about how you’re behaving. I thought you were different. This is just highly disappointing.”

Nathan just melted in his chair, all of his energy seemingly draining out of his body as Joshua gave him a scandalous look. He has never been so humiliated in his entire life. Just last night, he had to endure a life-threatening situation and now his morals as a man was being questioned.

They could all hear Mrs. Pratchett talking on the phone from the other side of the wall, her voice shrill and frantic as she told his mom that she’d try to knock some sense into him.

Mrs. Pratchett wasn’t just his landlady. She was more of an actual grandmother rather than a stranger he met just a few years back.

“Why are you on your f*cking calculator? Are you joining a math convention?” Alastair asked out of nowhere and reached in to grab a bacon from Nathan’s plate.

Keiffer gazed up at her and for the first time since they met him, he chuckled. “This is a phone, not a calculator. Seriously, what century are you from?”

“I last visited here in the 1980’s. Bloody good year that was,” Alastair answered, and Keiffer laughed again.

“You’re funny.”

“Really, now … mortal.”

As soon as Nathan noticed the change in pitch on Alastair’s voice, he immediately stood up and dragged her away from them before she could even snatch Keiffer by the collar and toss him out the window.

Alastair’s got some kind of issue about being treated as a joke. And to be frank, he doesn’t really know how to deal with her all together.

“Why are you back?” Nathan hissed at her the moment they were finally alone back in his flat, his eyes on his uncharged phone that was the only thing that could possibly tell him what time it was now.

But maybe his first period class wasn’t that important anymore. After all, he just met an actual demon who has wings and can grant wishes like some kind of mutated genie or something.

That ought to be more important than whatever hokus pokus was going on in his history class.

“You wouldn’t believe what happened to me last night,” she said with a playful tone and gasped mockingly, plopping down on the bed.

“Well, try me.”

“I got teleported back here.”

“And why is that?”

She smiled, pulling something from the air, and pushed it towards him that he almost stumbled back.

“What the hell was that?” he asked, his eyes frantic as he tried to see what it was that she pushed forward.

“Your guardian angel. This holy cow will tell you why I’m about to murder you,” she said with no hint of sarcasm and crossed her arms, leaning against the off-white wall.

“My … my what?”

“Oh, wait, I forgot you’re dumb. This … ” She grabbed something in front again, probably an invisible wrist or something, and waved it around in the air. “ … is your angel. You know, those dumbass-looking ones with flappy wings and lightbulbs on their head.”

“Lightbulbs?”

“I think humans call it a halo.”

“Well, what’s he got to do with it, then?”

“He was the one who told me that you offered a drop of your blood on the goblet.” She smiled.

“So?”

“So, I will have to kill you now.”

And in one swift movement, Alastair pinned him against the wall, her hand wrapped tightly around his throat as her eyes glowed the same menacing gold.

“W— let me … go,” Nathan managed to say in a strained voice before an invisible force grabbed Alastair’s hands away from him, letting him drop on the floor as he gasped for air.

Alastair turned to Castiel with a seething glare, the glow on her eyes almost matching those of his. “You were the one who told me that I should look for Lucifer. How the hell am I supposed to do that if I was tied to him?”

“You shall not bring any harm to this mortal. If the great angel, Michael, hears of this, he shall have your head on a silver platter.”

“That’s a bit gory for an angel as pure as you are, don’t you think?”

Castiel just frowned. “It’s a figure of speech.”

“Oh, bravo. Didn’t know angels are well-versed on human language.”

He clenched his jaw and exhaled. “The point is, you cannot kill him or harm him in any way. And fix yourself. You should at least look human if you’re going to walk the mortal realm.”

“This wasn’t my idea, alright? It wasn’t my fault that these dumb earthlings decided to summon me.”

“We can’t do anything about it. His blood has been offered to you. As long as it flows through his veins, you shall be with him. Assist him.” And with that, he vanished.

Alastair just stood staring at the spot where he was just a couple seconds ago, her balled fist shaking as she imagined what kind of moronic chaos it would cause if she brought along the mortal.

She had a deadline she needed to meet. And having a human being by her side wouldn’t help at all in evading Michael’s wrath.

Nathan pushed himself up from being slumped on the floor and grabbed a book from the shelf beside him, his eyes filled with fear and rage all at the same time as he waved the book in her direction. “What the hell is wrong with you?” he asked, his voice still sporting a strain as he tried adjusting himself up, his hands tightly gripping the Bible that Mrs. Pratchett had given to him on his first day in his apartment.

“What’s that?” Alastair asked in a monotonous voice, her expression blank as though she didn’t just try to choke someone to death.

“A Bible,” he answered, and Alastair sneered.

“You think that can help you if I were to kill you right now?”

“This is holy. You will be punished by God if you hurt me. I didn’t even do anything to you—”

“YOU SUMMONED ME!”

Nathan couldn’t do anything but close his eyes as Alastair slammed him against the wall again, her face barely inches away from his.

“If you and your friends weren’t such morons, I wouldn’t be caught in this mess.”

He stopped himself from sobbing, just barely lifting the book up to cover his face in case Alastair plans to punch him in the nose.

At least with that, the Bible might be of help.

“I didn’t do anything. They just told me to give a drop of my blood. I didn’t know it was true—”

“Well, surprise! It’s f*cking true.” Alastair gritted her teeth and slapped the book away from him, not even flinching as she did and forced Nathan to stare up at her eyes. “Do me a favor. I know a cliff you can dive into. Once I find Lucifer, if you aren’t buried yet, I can bring you back to life.”

“What?”

“You really need to see a doctor for that. I think your mental incapacity is increasing by the hour. It’s concerning.”

Nathan was offended. But even if he was, he didn’t let it get to his head as he pushed her off of him and bolted towards the other side of the room where he kept an old wooden cross.

He wasn’t exactly someone who believed in a supreme being. But now that someone — who isn’t obviously joking — came to him claiming to be a demon, he ought to believe it now that he’s on the brink of dying.

Better die looking like a fool than live his next life in the deepest pits of hell. What would be worse is that he’d probably see her there, too.

Imagine the horror of dying twice.

Alastair started laughing and cornered him once again, her hand holding the cross that he was pretty sure would actually ward her off.

“How?” he asked in pure disbelief, disappointed that Alastair didn’t even reduce to ashes like in all of those horror movies.

Alastair just gave him a lopsided smile, her eyes on him. “You really think that a miniature image of an instrument of torture would ward someone like a demon off? I’m offended that you even call yourselves sons of God.”

“What will ward you off, then?”

“You think I’m stupid?” She narrowed her eyes at him and inched closer. “Even if I knew, why the hell should I tell you?”

Nathan just blinked away the tears and sniffed, trying so hard to think of anything that might be the answer to his question. And just then, as he gazed up at Alastair’s face that was so close to his that he could smell her breath, maybe it was the hangover … or it was just his stupid self’s suggestion … but he did the unthinkable.

And the unthinkable worked. He kissed her.