It's Your Life: The Sleeping Demon

Karma and Confrontation

Light looked at the stained painting on the window as the raven-haired woman hauled both her and her child out of the cathedral. The angel squinted her eyes in suspicion as she noticed: The last painting looked VERY different. Instead of anything church related, it was of a small, sleeping demon man being thrown into a pit on some sort of lonely island. Above him, a shadow with sharp, neon green claws were pointed at him. The more the little angel looked at it, the more she thought she could hear the painting's wicked, deranged laugh. Taunting her and the toddler once more.

The whole car ride back the duo got an earful from Andrea. "You're lucky some men helped me with directions on where to find you. How could you be so irresponsible and stupid?"

"I was trying to wake up a demon!" Blake finally admitted

Andrea stayed in silent confusion before asking "What?"

"Light and I snuck away to church to see if I could wake up a demon. There! Are you happy now?"

Light bit her lip and watched Andrea's eyes as they drifted back at her son in shock. Behind those eyes she wondered and theorized on what the heck kind of child she has raised. "Blake, do you think joking about summoning demons is funny?"

"No, because I'm not joking! In fact, I raised the wrong one! The entire church turned black and-"

"I thought we had moved on from your silly outbursts, dear. I really did."

"No let me finish-"

"NO. Despite months of improvement you're still a little nuisance!" Anger roared in Andrea's stern voice, alarming Blake that when she pulls into the driveway, he had better run.

The mother unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of the car, making her way to Blake who was already squirming with fear in his car-seat. She unbuckled the boy and carried him out, ignoring his desperate protests as she barged in and headed straight for the laundry room. Blake didn't have time to acknowledge his sister's questions or father's concerns. He just wailed and begged and fought back hopelessly as Andrea opened the basement door.

"Stay in here and think about how your stupid actions led you to the dirt!" Those were her last words before once again tossing the child into darkness and locking the door behind him. Blake got up and saw a life-sized blue racoon wearing a tinfoil suit and tin can top hat staring at him with admiration. "Some help you were." The toddler grumbled at it.

"I thought you were very brave back there.."

"How would you know? You waited outside like a scaredy-cat."

"Even more reason why you're so brave. Brave and stupid."

Blake rolled his eyes and lay on the dust-ridden concrete. "I'm gonna be here all night, aren't I?"

"I would try help you escape again," Light said by his ear "But I believe a certain degree of karma is due for not listening to me in the first place."

Instead of being frustrated, Blake felt curious. He rolled on his stomach and lay his chin on the floor for eye-to-eye contact with the little angel. "Karma? What does that mean?"

"It's like a simple phrase. 'You get what you give.' You give kindness, you get kindness. You give harshness, harshness is given to you."

Blake pondered that for a moment before pouting "What did I give to have THIS given back to me?"

"Simple," The angel replied "You gave stubbornness, ignorance, deceit and disregard for other's consent." Despite her harsh words Light delivered them all eloquently without a hint of aggression. The toddler just stared blankly. Light sighed and spoke again "You gave a lot of harshness, this is all that harshness returned."

Blake sat up "Does shame come with returned harshness?"

"In spades, I'm afraid."

Blake slumped on his back again, tears welling up "I just wanted to know what he was dreaming about..."

Light rubbed the boy's cheek as an attempt of comfort. Tobias made his way over to console the boy, too. "Hey, chin up pal!"

That advice obviously hadn't worked the way the racoon wanted it to. "Woah, Blake. What's with the evil eye?"

"He needs some time alone, I think." Light stood on her feet. "We should let him have that. It's going to be a long night."

"Good point. Goodnight buddie."

Blake quietly wished them a goodnight before closing his eyes and preparing for his first entire night in the spooky room.

Light popped out first, now through with the chat and ready to let Blake sleep. Only she had no idea of the demonic horror waiting for her, until she appeared in her room with a stern hand covering her mouth just before a scream could escape through tit. The fiery eyes glaring at her of course meant big trouble.

"Where's Flare?" Mayhem snarled.

"Mmmm mmh, hmhhm mmmhhmmhm." Light said with her covered mouth.

Mayhem rolled his eyes and warned her not to scream, before slowly letting his hand down. "What was that, Blight?"

"Light."

"WHATEVER. Where's Flare, tell me now."

Lying to this guy would be a suicide attempt, Light knew that. But she wasn't sure what else to say. Would Mayhem kill her for getting his junior kidn*pped by some church spirit? It would be mainly the demon's fault for sleeping on the job in the first place. She wasn't going to lie, but she wasn't risking truth either. "Not here." She squeaked. Mayhem took a fast few steps forward, forcing Light to back-pace until the senior had her pinned to the wall. He had a firm grip on her arms which she wasn't even going to try and fight. Mayhem wasn't even that close, but she could still feel the heat of hell radiating from him. He reached across and his trident flew into his hand, the humidity from that making the air between the two even hotter. The demon pressed the spikes of the trident against the angel's neck, threatening the slit her throat if she didn't confess.

"Light, I'm gonna trust you're smarter than you look."

"I am, I am I swear!"

"Then you'll know lying to me is a suicide attempt."

"I'm sure it is, yeah." The woman stammered and half-jeered.

"Then tell me, where is he?"

The area had gotten so stuffy Light almost couldn't breathe. She had to think fast, Mayhem had her pinned completely. Well, honesty is the best policy right? "Blake and I had him sacrificed to a church shadow spirit of some sort. We went to church and Blake put him in holy water and everything went black for a few moments after a blob of shadows taunted us from the window and when the light returned Flare was gone with the holy water."

The man stared deep into her core, scanning for any kind of falsehoods. The trident pressed deeper into her skin. "AGH- What did I do wrong? I'm telling the truth."

"The truth? That a shadow took him? Please!"

"But that's what happened, we were in church and-"

BASH!

A hole in the wall formed across from the two. Mayhem spun his trident back to Light's neck, leaning in closer as he muttered "The truth."

"Okay, fine!" Light snapped, bringing her hands to his chest to push him away so she could breathe "You want the truth? Here's the truth: He quit his job and ran away!"

Mayhem at last lowered his weapon and backed away from Light, his rage simmering. Light stood up straight and saw the disbelief on the senior's face. "What?" He asked.

Light really hadn't meant to lie. She was telling the honest truth, he just didn't believe her. Plus, a few more seconds of that trident at her throat and it would've definitely left a scar. All she could do was nod in confirmation while Mayhem looked distraught and fumed. "That lazy lick-a*s has been home the WHOLE time I was covering for him up here?"

"Um, I guess so, sorry?"

"Ugh." Mayhem opened up another flaming portal and stood watching the red swirls. He bowed his head and without facing Light said "Thank you." And stepped through, vanishing.

Only when he was gone Light let herself breathe normally again. She popped out and lay herself by Blake, resting her back on his forehead. She could feel the toddler shift slightly before asking "Light?"

"Yeah, it's me."

"Are you okay?"

"Uhm, no. Let's get out of here. My old halo trick should do the works."

"But what about karma?"

"Maybe this much harshness IS too much harshness."

"I'm confused. But I won't argue escaping!"

Alas, even when out of the dark chill of the spooky room and back in the comfort of the bedroom, Light still had trouble getting to sleep. She insisted she stay by Blake's bedside for HIS own safety. 

When it was very much her own.