Secret of The Night

I startled awake, my alarm blaring like the apocalypse was upon us. I looked around frantically. This wasn’t my room. No fireplace, no dim lights. Instead the window blinds let in the fragile morning beams, and the white furniture stared back at me. I stood up quickly and opened the blinds, almost breaking the cord in my haste. Outside, there was green. Actual vivid green. Green that I could see and feel. I was agog to do so.

There was the sidewalk that I remembered outside my house.

There was the basketball net that Liam and I used to play with as children.

There were my friendly neighbors whose names I still didn’t know, walking their dog.

I held a hand to my mouth.

Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god. Am I really back?

I threw open the door to my room and caught a sleepy Liam across the hall. There was my little brother, with his ruffled hair and rumpled clothing. I leaped on him and gave him a huge hug.

“Yo, Vivi, what’s up with you? You’re never this cheerful in the morning. Get off. You’re creepy.” Liam pushed me off him, annoyed. I laughed and got ready for everything. Even my old bristly toothbrush was a welcome sight.

I bounced down the stairs and met Mom and Dad in the kitchen. I hugged Dad tightly. “I’m so glad to you see you, Daddy!”

My father looked at me strangely. “I’m happy to see you, too, puppet.” Liam walked down just then, yawning. My father pointed at me and whispered loudly to my brother. “What’s wrong with her?”

Liam shrugged. “Beats me. She hugged me, too.”

I hugged Mom around the waist, but I received a brisk “Don’t do that, Vivi. You want me to spill the eggs on you?” I sat down, bummed.

Then Mom turned off the stove and plated the breakfast, setting it down in front of each of us. “Thanks, Mom!” I shouted, overly excited, then got up to give her a hug again. She laughed.

“Vivi, what’s up with you today?”

“Nothing! I’m just so glad to see you all!” I looked at my family. Mom and Dad looked at me with slightly worried yet happy expressions on their face, and Liam just looked downright pissed. I giggled.

I was back! For real!

I ate my breakfast and left for school with Liam. He drove me in his car, without saying a word, as usual. I was talking nonstop about what a great day it was today, until he glared at me ferociously and almost caused us to have a car accident. Then I shut up.

At school, everything was normal. Mari, Yvonne, Erica, and Rhia were at our lunch table in the morning, exchanging all the latest gossip.

Then I went to math class. And it was like usual. Jack, Danny, and Richard waited for me because they were the first ones there. Loki, of course, wasn’t there. And the teacher came in and gave us a droll lesson on logs and lns and their complements (exponent base 10 and exponent base e, respectively).

But then we were in the middle of learning how to solve an equation with an exponent variable on both sides, and then he walked in.

He looked so different from the obnoxious demon prince he once had been in my eyes. A pair of big blue Nike shoes, black pants, a white shirt with a long gold chain. His hair was covered by a gray snapback. Yoru looked, well, like a punk high school student. Everyone stared, and the girl sitting next to me, I think her name was Laura, all but started drooling. Even the teacher paused his lesson to take a look. “Darren? Welcome back, son. Take a seat. The one behind Vivi is free.”

I stared at the board, although I very much felt his eyes burning a hole through the back of my neck. I ignored him dutifully, at least, until class ended. The students flooded out the door, hurrying to their next class, but I grabbed Yoru by his chain and dragged him outside.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing here? You’re a demon! Go back to... there,” I gestured vaguely at the ground.

Yoru smiled. “Aren’t you even the slightest bit pleased to see me?”

I sneered at him. “No, not really. Now will you go back? And why did that teacher call you Darren? Where’s Loki?”

Yoru gave me a signature smirk. “No, I won’t go back. I’m Darren to everyone now. In their minds, at least. Mind wipe!” He said the last sentence in a sing-song voice. “Loki’s down there. Making up with the King, I guess. And Chikau’s in line now. Since I’m here. Now I have to get to -” He looks at the schedule in his hands. Darren’s name is printed at the top. “Physics, Room E35. See you, Vivi.”

I stood there, following Yoru’s strut through the hallway of Mica High. I sighed. I looked at my own schedule. “Latin, room A3.” I hefted my schoolbag and wondered why I let a demon prince walk around in my high school, knowing who he was.

I kind of go through the day in a blur. Everything melds together after that math class. Meeting and chatting with the girls wasn’t as exciting as it was in the morning. I walk home with them, because Liam had an after school activity, which meant I was home first. They were talking about something that I just had no interest in. Something about the new horror movie that just came out. Normally, the topic invigorated me. But, I guess after everything I’ve been through down in the demon realm, I’ve experienced enough of my own horror to care that much about watching others. Mom and Dad were out buying a new dryer, since our house had randomly decided to break down the home appliances. I was alone when I got back. Just me, myself, and I.

I went to my room. I threw my bag down and plopped my butt on my black swivel chair. Today was exhausting.

Especially seeing Yoru.

“Why the hell is he even here?” I muttered to myself. “Here and confusing me all over again. I thought it was over after he kissed me. Ugh.” I scratched my head fervently and stood up, ready to pace my room.

The little stuffed animals on my dresser mocked me. They grinned at me lecherously and I wrinkled my nose. “Yeah, so what. He’s hot and kind and perfect and he kissed me and I kinda liked it. So what! He’s a demon! He shouldn’t even be up here. What the hell?” I pressed a hand to my head. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me now. I shouldn’t be thinking of him. Why the frick am I thinking of him?”

“Because you like him.”

Crap. Liam must have come home and I was so drawn into my own monologue I didn’t hear the door open. Crap. He heard me? I turned around. “Liam, it’s not what you think.”

Ok. Not Liam.

Yoru grinned at me. “Hey, Vivi. Surprised to see me?”

I sputtered. “What-what? Why are you here? Wait, what? Why are you here? I don’t get it.”

Yoru looked around from where he stood in my doorway, one foot in, one foot out. “Well, that’s easy, kind of. I came here. For, um.” He bent his head, and squeezed his hands into fists. Which made me smile.

“For what?” I asked. Yoru put his other foot over the threshold.

“For you, Vivi. For you.”