Guardian Demon (Original BL (Kinda) Story)
They follow him. Cowards, hiding in the shadow of the crowd and the curtain of falling snow. Pursuing a boy with one hand firmly gripping a large stuffed goat and the other holding cotton candy.
They're carnies. The type who wear clown makeup only to creep people out. The type who rig their games. The bad type.
These two have kept an eye on Sera ever since he played their game. It's hard to lose Sera in a crowd. He's so lanky he practically floats above everyone else and his smile is magnetic to the eye. They couldn't look away even if they wanted to.
I've decided to name the one with the big red nose and the knife ‘Bippo’ and the one with the lead pipe and the scar over one eye ‘Boppo’.
The carnies look at each other, silently deciding now is the time to strike as Sera turns down an alleyway.
Won't let that happen.
I hop down from the rooftops I've followed from, onto a fire escape. Sera's already about midway down the alley; halfway to safety. But as they make the turn into the deserted shadows, Bippo and Boppo break into a run.
Not much time to think. They'll be on him in seconds. I could jump down, but then Sera would see me. Can't do that. Need cover of some kind.
There's a steam valve on the other side of the alley, close to the ground. It hums with the energy of constant Winter-time use, like it's begging to burst.
Clutching my metal bat I drop from the fire escape, right between the carnies and Sera. Snow crunches under my boots and I take a second to glance back at Sera, praying to the angels he's as oblivious as he usually is and he hasn't heard me. Luckily, he's too distracted by taking another chunk out of his sugary snack. The cotton sticks to his face in an embarrassingly cute way.
It's almost enough for me to forget about the carnies. Almost.
I don't even bother to turn back to them before I duck. Bippo's blade nearly slices open my neck, but instead it doesn't even snag my hair. He stumbles as he whiffs it and begins to fall into the snow.
Even Sera would hear that and the fight that's about to begin. Gotta act fast.
Before Bippo's bulging belly hits the snow, I grip my bat and swing at the steel pipes and jump out of the way of Boppo's own pipe. Instead of bashing my brains in, he gets a faceful of hot steam.
He screams, but it's covered up by the hiss of the steam as it quickly fills the alleyway. Sera has to have noticed it by now, but all he should see is the low-covering cloud of hot smoke as it spreads from the alley.
I rest my bat on my shoulder as the two get back on their feet and glare at me. I glare back.
“Oh, now who the hell is this kid?” Boppo asks.
“Friend of that little weirdo, I guess.” Bippo answers. “Looks like we've gotta take this bozo out too.”
Odd words coming from two wannabe clowns. Don't wanna waste the time or breath on that, though. Let's keep this as short as possible before the cops get called.
“Leave the kid alone and I'll leave you alone,” I say, voice muffled underneath my bandana.
Boppo pounds his pipe against his palm. “The brat scammed us. We're just getting even.”
“Don't see how it's scamming when your games are unbearable,” I say. Besides, I don't know what Sera did but it wasn't a scam. He did the same thing that he always does to these kinds of losers.
He tried playing by their rules. That stupid ring game that's at every carnival that everyone with a working brain cell knows can't be won. And yet Sera still managed to be surprised when he wasted ten bucks on it to win a stuffed goat. He'd have never caught on if I didn't happen to pass by and tell him it was a scam.
“That's cheating!” He pouted at the two like they were supposed to have any shame. “That's unfair.”
“Life's unfair, kid.” One of them said.
And then Sera frowned and leaned over the booth. He put a hand on both of the carnies’ hands and soothingly said, “Life shouldn't be unfair. It might be a little hard sometimes, but we should be helping each other instead of tricking and cheating them.”
The two's eyes shrunk a little and their words lacked that grumpy energy. Same every time Sera does this trick, it was like they were in a daze and their words were a vague haze of apology that I can't remember clearly. But soon enough Sera had his stupid smile back and was holding his goat.
These carnies must really want that goat back if they're going to these extremes. That, or they just like hurting people who outwit them. They must have a lot of assault charges, then.
Bippo charges to slash at me, but I block with my bat. His knife nearly falls out of his hand but he grips onto it tight, thrusting it at me on the rebound. I step away from it and thrust my own bat back at him and sending him stumbling.
While he thinks I'm distracted, Boppo comes from behind for another swing at me. I drop to the ground and roll away through the snow. Though there's enough air to see each other standing up, I'm invisible beneath all the steam covering the ground.
The real sad thing is that they could have actually been a threat if they were smarter. Have bulky brute Boppo keep me busy with the pipe while Bippo goes for the sneak and stab. But these two have no coordination or thoughts other than wanting my blood and so now they're looking around the alley like a confused toddler who is still surprised by peek-a-boo.
I pop out of the steam beside Bippo, drawing my bat as he rears back in surprise. Need to take him out so he's not a threat. I swing low, away from his stomach like he expects. Right at his kneecaps.
I don't know if I'm hearing things or if they really made that disgusting of a CRUNCH when impact was made. For a second his pained scream rises above the hissing of the steam.
Before I can get my bat back in ready position, Boppo is already charging at me. He throws his weapon forward, out of his hands and right toward my face. I bend backwards just in time to avoid it as he launches at me, grappling my throat and hoisting me into the air. My bat falls to the snow with a plup.
“Think you're so tough, little punk?” Boppo asks, squeezing the air from my lungs.
Oh good, he's a talker. Talkers can be tricked so easily.
“No-- Just smarter.”
“If you're so smart, why're you in the air?” His spit lands in my face as he yells.
“If you were-- so smart-- you'd-- hold me higher.”
Boppo glares harder and his muscles shift as he raises me up and up and up until-- Bingo.
I swing my foot back and kick hard at Boppo's unmentionables. The impact is enough for him to drop me and I land softly on the snow as he stumbles back.
There's no time for him to recover as I grab my bat and swing hard at his head. Once. Twice. Thrice. Enough to send him crashing down to ground and out of commission.
I use his shirt to wipe the blood from his head off my bat and return it to my backpack. The steam begins to die away, leaving the red snow visible to anyone that looks into the alley. But I've slunk into the crowd by the time I hear any sirens.
-----
Sera holds his phone to my face. It's clean and pristine like he only got it yesterday. The headline of Carny Head Cracked in Vicious Assault would be indecipherable behind all the broken glass on mine.
He's utterly heartbroken as he speaks. “This town gets more and more dangerous every day. These were the two carnies who changed their lying ways just yesterday.”
I take a bite out of what the lunch workers qualify as pizza. The breading is more stale than cooked. “At least you're not the one getting hurt.”
“I just wish nobody had to be hurt at all.”
I roll my eyes as he leans onto his hands, all sad that I saved him from an assault. Well, one yesterday. Dozens over the course of the last year. Whenever he pulls that weird trick on people, they always snap out of it a few minutes later and go on the hunt for him. Something about that trick wearing off makes people violent. He doesn't know how lucky he is to have me looking after him.
A jolt runs through my body as he grabs me by the hands. “Benji, please don't get hurt out there.”
Despite the winter cold drifting into the school building, I'm as hot as being stuck in a car in the summer. “Y-- Yeah, Sera. I promise.”
That, at least, gets him to smile a little. But I don't see him much for the rest of the day. We don't have the same classes in the second half of X-days so I'm used to it. I just have to hope he hasn't gotten himself into any trouble while I'm not looking out for him. At least bullying attempts stopped after the first year of middle school when his assaulters would wake up with their arms mysteriously bent backwards.
I catch up with him at the end of the day. It's not like we hang out after school every day, but it's not unusual to run errands together or see a movie. But today…
“I'm sorry,” he says, hastily. “I have to get home early. Like, right now.”
He doesn't even wait for me to say anything back; he just takes off and runs home. Normally he'd be sobbing his eyes out and asking if he did something wrong if I ever did something like that. Whatever is going on must be serious.
What exactly it could be turns over in my mind as I make my way to my locker. A death in the family? Someone in the hospital? Does he need to water his plants? I nearly yank the top shelf of my locker down as the thought he's scared of something that will happen if he doesn't come home and I remember him always avoiding the topic of his parents and for some reason he's never invited me over despite us being friends for so long.
… Maybe I should do a surprise check-in.
After all, it's not like I don't know where he lives even if he hasn't told me. Watching after someone for so long, you just learn things naturally.
And so soon enough I'm at Heavenly Heights, an apartment complex just north of the shopping center. Apartment 503, its door facing toward the open-air stairs.
My heart pounds as I approach it. I've been here so many times before, but never this close. Usually from trees, staking out for the night to make sure people who knew where he lived didn't try and pick a fight after the sun went down. They tend not to notice the red stains on the concrete from those who tried it before.
But here I am. Now. About to knock on the door. Of his house. Not because I'm trying to pry or anything but because I have a concern about him.
And only now do I realize that these things I'm saying to reassure myself that I'm not overstepping my bounds are true for the first time in ever. Right now, I am doing the right thing.
Now if only I could bring my hand to knock on the door. It just sits there, frozen in the air like I'm a statue and completely unable to move.
I can't do this. I can't just knock on Sera's door like this. I'm not strong enough.
But maybe I'm sneaky enough. I just want to check in on him. He doesn't have to know I'm here, does he?
That comforting feeling of doing the wrong thing washes over me as I reach for the doorknob and successfully turn it. Of course Sera wouldn't lock it behind him; he'd never think of what dangerous people could get in if he did. Luckily for him it's just me.
And so I push open the door, slowly so that it doesn't creak, and am blinded by the light as reality falls to pieces in front of me.
It is, impossibly, not an apartment on the other side of the door. Instead it's pure blue sky, so different from the gray of the ongoing snow of the town, and a floor made of fluffy white blankets. It feels not like Winter, but not like Summer or Fall. It's the perfect Spring day.
A voice booms over everything and for a second I think I'm caught. But then I realize it's not directed at me.
“Seraphim 2,507Δ,” the voice says.
“Yes, my Lord.”
It's Sera's voice that snaps me back to my senses. I jump ahead and hide behind a grass-green vine poking through the cloud.
“You are here to report in your mission?”
“Yes, my Lord.” He talks to a ball of pure light that hangs above the cloud, watching over him. “Just yesterday I have overturned the hearts of two scam artists working for a carnival that has come to town. Unfortunately, they too have been struck down by a demon.”
A demon? He's not one to use hyperbole and considering how heaven-ish this place is…
The orb remains silent for a moment, leaving space for Sera…phim… to ramble on.
“It appears that your theories have been correct. This demon is targeting me, seeking to hurt those who I have saved. Trying to undo the work I have done in the mortal world.” His voice hitches as he speaks, as if he's blaming himself for this.
“Then you must know what to do, don't you?” The voice asks.
Sera pauses before answering, searching his mind for any other answer before muttering out the only one there ever was. “Kill them, my Lord.”
“Be reassured that your actions are holy and bring our mission one step forward to victory with each passing day. No matter how awful they may seem in the moment, Goodness will prevail.”
“And if I am unable to do so, my Lord?”
“Then you will be deemed unworthy as an angel and we will be meeting Seraphim 2,507ε soon enough.”
“Y-- Yes, my Lord. Of course, my Lord.”
“Good. Now away with you.”
The orb of light blinks out of the sky, the holy aura of cruel mercy it radiated replaced with birdsong.
My heart pounds hard in my chest as I try and make sense of all that. Reality as I know it is completely false, but that's not important right now. What's important is the same as always: Sera is in danger.
That ‘Lord’ or whatever it's called wants Sera to keep using that power of his, but it's making people hostile when it wears off. And now Sera needs to find out who is behind it… and kill me. But Sera would never do that, they'd die before they do that. Which I can't let happen.
So even if reality just got a lot more complicated, it's the same as usual. Protect Sera.
And if it means beating down God, I'll do it.
If it means fighting angels to protect him, then I'll be Sera's guardian demon.
