Even though I can’t see his lips, the creases around his eyes show me how amused he is.
“Knock it off,” I demand before the door opens and my mother comes in to witness me with a man lying on my lap, my hand clamped firmly over his mouth, while her precious bird figurines are left in different states of intimacy.
“He fell,” I say as I hastily pull my hand off.
Asmodeus flips himself over my lap instead of getting up like a normal person. “Asmodeus Death at your service. But you already know me quite well. Your investigators… how have they been? That one who tripped into the toilet… is he still crying?”
My mother’s lips turn into a thin line. “Why is he here?”
“We are uncertain if someone is after my life, so Superheroes United hired him to be my bodyguard.”
“They should hire someone who can actually do their job,” she says.
Asmodeus just smiles at her before sliding onto the couch next to me. He’s so close that his thigh is pressed against mine. I want to tell him to remove it, since my mother has obviously taken note of its position, but I can’t find the words.
“Imagine if you hired all the people you hired to stalk me but paid them to find the man who nearly killed your son. That’d be funny,” Asmodeus comments.
I didn’t think her lips could get even thinner, but they sure do, and I sit here in this state of conflict. I want to yell at Asmodeus to stop this bullshit, to tell him to stop saying shit to my mother just to piss her off because I deserve anything she throws at me.
“Do you know what I found out about this man?” Mother asks. “He is not a good person.”
“Are any of us?” I whisper.
My head hurts. All of it hurts. I just want to leave. I hate this place. I hate it all.
“Ellison, after what you did to this family, you still think you should do this?” she asks. “You look at this man andchooseto frolic with people like him? You are a disappointment to this family.”
I sit here, knowing I have no right to say anything, but Asmodeus isn’t cowed by her. He stands up to face her and I find myself staring at the spot his leg had been pressed against, feeling it growing cold. “I’m not going to claim that I’m a good person. I’m not going to tell you that Ellison wouldn’t be better off with someone else. But I am going to tell you that because of your son, there are countless people who get to go back to their lives. Who get to go back to their families who love them and would miss them dearly if they were gone. What he’s doing is greater than anything you couldeverfathom him doing with your talons dug into him.”
Then he boops her nose and turns invisible.
I’m sure he’s still in the room somewhere but I take it as his declaration that he’s no longer a part of this conversation.
“You know where you belong,” Mother says. “And it’s not with that group. How much more can you hurt this family?”
“At the rate I’m going… quite a bit more. Is that all?”
“Get out of here.”
“Sounds delightful,” I say dryly as I get up and leave. I know she wanted to say more but she chose to hold back, and I don’t know whether it’s because of Asmodeus’s speech or his presence.
I head outside, where I find that I was quite wrong. Asmodeus is no longer in the house. Instead, he’s dunking a man’s head into the fountain the driveway wraps around.
I pretend I don’t see and hurry over to my car, but of course Asmodeus finishes up and slides into the passenger seat.
“I’m starting to think that guy is a masochist. Like how many times do I have to threaten him before he stops following me everywhere? He did go, ‘Harder, Demon Daddy,’ so what do you think?”
“I don’t want to talk to you or hear you or see you.”
“Good thing I can turn invisible then, eh?” he asks before he does so while that fucking ferret chills on his lap.
It’s like a wave of emotions is tearing through me but I have to stomp them all down. Stomp them down to that dark fucking hole where all of my problems go before I cover them up with the biggest weight I can find.
It also annoys me that Asmodeus is seeing this, and that he’s just sitting there playing with that ferret. I want him to say something that annoys me or do something so I can snipe at him.
About two miles from my mother’s house, I slam on the brakes and pull off to the side of the road before getting out of the car and briskly walking into the woods. I don’t get too far before my illusions flow out around me. I’m getting irritated and angry and losing my composure.
“So many angry Ellisons,” Asmodeus says as he pushes his way through them. He fist bumps one for some reason while I glower at them.
