I cornered Damien as soon as we were alone in my room.

“What did you mean by that comment?” I asked, lowering my school bag off my shoulder to the floor.

Honestly, I didn’t expect him to actually answer the question, the most I could hope

“What comment? I say a lot of things.” He lifted any eyebrow at me.

I didn’t know if he was genuinely confused or playing with me. Irrespective, I was annoyed but I had to handle him carefully if I was going to get anything out of him. Damien was no fool. I was not convinced he would give me any useful information but it was worth a try. At this point I didn’t have anything to lose.

“The comment about the funeral.” I studied him, but he gave nothing away.

He gave a one arm shrug. It was the quickest way to shut him up. It was such a Damien move to be tightlipped when I needed him to answer my questions.

“What does it matter Tessa?” he asked. “He is just some random guy. Why do you care?” His stare was bold and unwavering.

I studied him, trying to figure out what his game was. Was he just trying to be obtuse or was there a reason he didn’t want me to know? My instinct went with the later option.

“Why don’t you want me to know?” I asked, moving closer as I openly studied him. For once I was turning the tables on him.

It wasn’t like I could read him any better than the day I frighteningly found him staring at me in the dark across from my bed in the middle of the night that had sent me screaming to my grandmother’s room.

I was feeling confrontational and braver than usual but Damien played this game better than I did. He was the most manipulative person, being, I had ever met. It had taken years of practice to be able to handle him at all.

“More importantly why do you want to know Tessa?” he asked, his forehead furrowed. He moved closer, making me falter a step back.

“Why is his aura gray?” I changed my questioning, determined to find out.

He gave another dismissive shrug. “Maybe he is just dull and boring.”

If that was true, he was the only dull and boring person I had ever met. My third grade science teacher could put an insomniac to sleep, he was the most boring person I had ever met. His aura hadn’t been gray. There was more to it than what he was telling me. But the question was didn’t he want to tell me? Why not just tell me?

If Damien wasn’t going to give me the answers I wanted I would have to find them elsewhere. But I wasn’t sure how to go about it.

“There is nothing there Tessa,” Damien said, trying to dismiss it but there was an edge to his tone of voice that I couldn’t dismiss. There was something there but he didn’t want me to find out. That was enough to pique my curiosity to another level.

The fact he was even trying to thwart me set off alarms. He was hiding something but the questions was. What?

“I know you’re not telling me the truth, I don’t know why you won’t tell me but I’ll figure it out.” It was so frustrating that he gave me no information whatsoever about it.

That meant I would have to try figure it out. I wasn’t even sure there was a way to do that.

I got out my homework and sat on my bed. Damien sat on the edge of the bed. His stare unavoidable.

“Stop it Damien,” I sighed, refusing to allow him to intimidate me. I said it, knowing there was little chance he would do as I instructed.

“Out of everyone you saw today I can’t believe the one that stuck was the boring guy. You know you could make it more interesting. How about the one who looked as high as a kite. He would probably be more fun and who knows maybe he might get you to loosen up.”

I pressed my lips together, refusing to even acknowledge what he suggested.

I had never done anything illegal which included any types of drugs or alcohol. To some those were part and parcel of growing up but to me they represented a risk I would never chance. Not with Damien breathing down my neck, waiting a moment of weakness to be able to manipulate me into going back. He was far too clever with his manipulation for me to risk not being at my strongest to thwart him.

I ignored him flat while I felt his gaze as I worked through the little homework I had been given today. My grades had been steadily deteriorating but I was determined to try my hardest to try my best this year to graduate well.

Not that I had any plans for college. It just wasn’t an option, not with a demon haunting my every waking moment.

Sometimes I allowed myself to wonder what it would be like not to have Damien around. It was something I didn’t allow myself to think about to often. Damien had been in my life for the last seven years and he didn’t plan on leaving unless I returned with him.

It was while I was finishing up my homework Damien moved from the bed to my bedroom room. He stood staring out the window. His features tight. This caught my attention and I watched him, my homework forgotten. What was he looking at?

Had something outside caught his attention? He stood for a few minutes before he turned. Our gazes met.

His eyes challenged me and he graced me with his usual smirk. It felt put on and not his usual mannerism.

“You’re hiding something from me Damien,” I said, taking myself by surprise, I had never been this confrontation with him. Usually an interaction with him, I kept to a minimum. Damien loved to illicit reactions from me, it didn’t matter what type as long as he knew he would get to me in some way. It was a victory for him and a way I believed he thought he would be able to get me to change my mind and give in and allow him to take me back with him. “I will figure it out so why don’t you save me the trouble and just tell me?”

His jaw tensed slightly, before his features eased. It was fascinating to see anything other than the usual arrogance or seriousness I received from him.

“I can’t tell you anything because there isn’t anything Tessa. You are seeing something where there is nothing but if you want to waste your time, I won’t stand in your way. But remember your time here is borrowed. Is it really worth it to waste whatever time you might have left on nothing?”

There was a bit of stare down before he walked over to the bed and sat down.

It was difficult sometimes to remember he wasn’t real, like a physical being. Maybe it was the dominance of his personalty that made him feel more real than he was.

“Say what you like Damien, I can feel that you’re hiding something. And if it’s something you don’t want me to know then I bet it is something that will help me get rid of you.”

He dramatically clutched his heart and gave me a pained expression. “That hurts Tessa. More than you’ll ever know.”

I rolled my eyes at him. He was being an ass. He chuckled as he stood.

“The only way I leave… is with you,” he stated, with the full force of his gaze.

To anyone who hadn’t dealt with him, he would be scary but not to me. The thing I feared most was my own will. That’s what all of this depended on. If I wasn’t strong he would win, each day was a battle that I had to find the strength to fight.

It would be so easy to give me and let him win but then I remember my only living family member, my grandmother. I couldn’t do it to her not matter how hard it was. She had experienced so much pain already, there was no way I would cause her more.

No matter what it took, I had to get through it. Every day.