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Jonathan woke with a start, heart racing and sweat beading his forehead. He stared at the shifting blue and silver-tinged shadows on the ceiling and wondering what had been in his dreams that had scared him awake at... he glanced over at his alarm clock, numbers glowing electric green in the darkness... three twenty in the morning. He couldn’t remember, only the terror remained, crawling along his spine with tiny claws of ice and whispering in the recesses of his mind.
The shadows on the ceiling shifted and a pair of glowing eyes, nearly the same electric green as the numbers on the clock, gleamed down at him.
Jonathan yelped and fumbled for the light.
Warm yellow light flooded his room, banishing the darkness and revealing Sock blinking in the sudden flare of light from where he’d been drifting near the ceiling.
The rush of adrenaline left Jonathan shaking and irrationally furious at the demon. “What the hell, Sock?”
Sock blinked blearily down at him, scrubbing at one eye with a knuckle. “What? I was just waiting for morning.”
“Hanging around my ceiling like a freaking bat? Seriously?” Jonathan threw the rumpled covers aside and sat up, glaring venomously at the surprisingly sleepy looking demon.
“Jonathan, honey, are you alright?” His door opened.
Jonathan spun to face the door, startled anew.
His mother stuck her head in, her eyes tired and hair escaping from the loose bun at the nape of her neck. Jonathan’s anger melted under her weary concern. “Um, sorry, mom. Did I wake you?”
She cracked a half-smile. “No. I just got in. We need to hire more people very soon. These double shifts are killing me.” She yawned. “I heard you yelling.”
Guiltily, Jonathan ducked his head. “Sorry. Had a nightmare, that’s all.”
She came into the room and reached down to ruffle his messy hair. “Did you want to talk about it? What was it?”
The last thing he wanted to do was try and remember the dream, especially with Sock quietly eavesdropping in one corner. “I don’t really remember. I just startled myself when I tried to turn on the lamp. Don’t worry about it.” Jonathan pasted on a smile, hoping it didn’t look as fake as it felt.
From the look on his mother’s face, she wasn’t buying it either. “You know you can always talk to me, right?”
Tell her about the demon that haunted him near constantly, encouraging his to kill himself? Jonathan shook his head, suppressing a wry laugh. Not in this lifetime. “I know, mom. I’m good, really. It was just a dumb dream.”
She sighed and ruffled his hair. “Alright, honey. As long as you’re sure—?”
Jonathan nodded. “I’m fine. Go to bed, mom. I’ll just get something to drink and go back to sleep myself before I have to catch the bus in the morning.”
“I could drive you—?” She offered. “Let you sleep in a little?”
Jonathan shook his head. “And short yourself? I’ll be okay. I can always nap in history,” he teased.
That got a laugh out of her and she affectionately kissed his forehead. “Fine, fine. I’ll get to bed. With a little luck I’ll get some time off soon and we can do something, maybe see a movie... if you’re not too cool to be seen with your mother?”
Jonathan snorted a laugh. “I’ve been that awesome since I was three. But I can still see a movie with a buddy, even if she’s my mom most of the time.”
Laughing, she tweaked his ear and rose. “Brat,” she scolded affectionately. She swept out the door, tired but cheerful.
Jonathan watched the door close behind his mother and felt his shoulders tighten. “Go ahead,” he growled.
Sock was silent.
Jonathan glanced up to see Sock gazing speculatively at his closed door. His normally smiling face was somber. “Sock?”
Sock twitched and glanced down at him. His eyes still looked surprisingly tired. “What?”
“You’re not—?” Jonathan shrugged. “Y’know what, nevermind. I’m going back to bed.”
Sock drifted a little closer to the floor, nodding.”Better go get that drink first or she’ll wonder why you didn’t. Maybe get up and come see.”
The demon had a point, Jonathan conceded, rising from his bed and padding out to the kitchen in the faint light from his open door.
Sock drifted along behind him, uncharacteristically silent.
Jonathan could see light coming from under his mother’s bedroom door and had to admit that she probably would have gotten up and checked if he hadn’t done as he said. He made sure to make faint noises; getting down a glass and filling it with cold water from the dispenser in the refrigerator door. He leaned against the counter and sipped. Sure enough, soon the light under her door went out. He rinsed out his glass and set it in the dish drainer.
After a quick stop in the bathroom, Jonathan returned to his room. Sock hung quietly in one corner.
It was a little unnerving, Sock being so weirdly mute and not annoying. “What are you doing here anyway?” Jonathan asked softly, keeping his voice low and trying to straighten out his tangled bedsheets. “Aren’t you usually back wherever it is you belong by now?”
Sock puffed out his cheeks in an exasperated noise. “Call it what it is, Jonathan; hell. And I was trying to rest. I can’t sleep anymore, but I still get tired. Sometimes, if I try, I can just kind of not-think for awhile, and that’s almost as good as getting some sleep. But it’s noisy in hell and hard to try and rest there.” He shrugged loosely. “You don’t snore too loudly, and otherwise it’s quiet here, so I was trying to rest. Then you woke up scared. That ‘woke’ me up.”
Jonathan settled back down on the edge of the bed, but didn’t lay down or turn off the light, staring instead at his demonic houseguest.
“What?” Sock asked after a moment, sounding disgruntled.
“You’re being quiet, you haven’t teased me about my mom, and you were actually letting me sleep in peace before... You’ll forgive me if I think something is wrong.” Jonathan scowled at Sock.
Sock sighed and drifted closer to the bed, dropping down until he was almost eye-level with Jonathan. “Nothing’s wrong.” He laughed shortly. “She’s nothing like my mom, but your mom... for a few minutes, she reminded me of her... the way she used to mess with me... worry about me... love me—” Sock’s voice dropped to a faint whisper.
For a moment, Jonathan thought this must be what he looked like before he became a demon, a lonely teenager, and one who missed his parents. Even though he killed them in his sleep, Jonathan’s mind unhelpfully provided. He shoved the thought aside and daring, held his hand out to Sock. “C’mon.”
Sock blinked at him, green eyes wide and startled. “Wha—?” Despite his confusion, he reached for Jonathan’s hand.
Jonathan caught Sock’s hand in a firm grip and tugged him closer to the bed. He’d touched Sock before, on occasion, and was pleased when the demon remained solid in his grasp.
“I’m tired, you’re tired and we both need some rest.” Jonathan explained., He scooted back on the bed, still keeping his grip on Sock. “So shut up and lie down, doofus.”
Sock eyed him warily, one eyebrow climbing into his hairline. Then he smirked— and pounced, curling himself up against Jonathan’s chest.
Jonathan fell backwards with a surprised ‘whoof,’ feeling Sock’s sudden and quite solid weight pressing him down into the mattress. He had to spit out a mouthful of ginger-brown hair, Sock’s colorful hat having fallen off in the pounce. “Sock! What the—?”
Sock giggled, tucking his face into the side of Jonathan’s neck. “You want to snuggle, you get the full package!” he said cheerily, all of his earlier sadness having vanished like snow in the summer sun. He wrapped his legs around Jonathan’s and squirmed until he’d managed to tuck Jonathan’s surprise-lax arms around himself.
Jonathan snorted. “Who said I wanted to snuggle?” He poked Sock in the side, amused when the demon twisted away, trying not to laugh.
Sock pinned his hand triumphantly. “You did when you held out your hand!”
Jonathan rolled his eyes and struggled to find a more comfortable position with the demon that had attached itself to his torso. “How you found that as an invitation to turn into a barnacle, I’ll never know.” Getting a pillow under his head at least, Jonathan gave up any further struggles. It wasn’t worth the fight.
Sock settled against him with a contented sigh.
“You realize I can’t reach the lamp from here,” Jonathan grumbled softly.
Sock chuckled. “It’s okay if you’re afraid of the dark. There are scary things in the dark.”
“Says someone who’s scarier in the light than anything in the dark.” Jonathan retorted.
Sock grinned against his neck. “Thanks!”
“That wasn’t a compliment, dummy.”
“Hey!”