Every inch of the beach was covered in a deep dark blue shade of evening. Trudy was sitting cross legged in the sand, staring up at her friend Perry. The demon boy was standing at the top edge of a wind carved rock with his hands in the air. The wind whipped viciously all around him, eventually ripping his green beanie from his head and causing his thick black hair to wave wildly in the wind. He closed his fists and pulled them in towards himself. A low rumble of thunder followed him as if at his command.
“He can change the weather,” David casually mentioned to awe-struck Trudy, who looked as if she was barely able to take in such a feat. “If you ask me, it’s not as cool as conjuring fire out of thin air, but he didn’t get to choose. I didn’t get to, either, I was just lucky.” He flipped his clumpy black bangs out of his face, though the wind would certainly send them back into his eyes soon enough, and continued, “rain and lightning get boring after a while, but the ability to torment somebody else from the inside...” his eyes glowed as a lightning bolt struck a nearby rock, sending sparks toward the four children. The edge of Trudy’s cream overcoat got singed, but she didn’t care. She was immortal, and couldn’t feel pain...feeling threatened, however, was an entirely different story.
“How come you don’t have special powers, Trudy?” Kathulla, the only female demon of the group, asked as sat down next to the pink-haired angel child.
Trudy shrugged. She had never thought that she needed special powers. They seemed too flashy for someone whose only goals were to please and help others, not that Trudy wasn’t ever so slowly becoming a different kind of person. “Maybe when I grow up I'll get some.”
“You wanna grow up?” David asked, chuckling at such a stupid statement. “You don’t get to grow up unless you screw up like Perry."
Trudy frowned. Her mother said she would grow up, so it couldn’t possibly be as bad as her new friends described.
"What was it you did, Perry? Smile at a pretty girl? Save a puppy from traffic?”
“Bite me, Dave.” The rumbling of the thunder shook the ground so much the sand shifted. Uncovered crabs scurried quickly to hide once again beneath the warm surface. Lightning dramatically cracked as Perry peered over his shoulder to snarl at his younger friend. “How could I torment it more if I just let it die then and there?”
“Psh, results don’t lie, Perry.” David stuck out his arm as if to show off the obvious to Trudy, then leaned over to her and whispered, “sometimes his voice cracks, because he’s in perpetual puberty.” He cackled. “It’s so great!”
“Hey Dave,” Perry interrupted him. David looked back as Perry pulled his green beanie back over his long pointed white ears. “Remember the reason we came to this miserable place?” He waited until David quieted himself down and went on, “and how it’ll definitely require one of us, specifically a boy like you or me? I’m thinkin’ it’s gonna be you. Kath thinks so, too.”
David cringed and pretended to gag. “Dude, that’s gross. Why would you even suggest that?”
“Oh, I don’t know. It just seems to be more than fate that you have a crush on her, of all the available girls.”
“I dunno who told you that, but it’s a load of crap.”
Kathulla giggled at David. He was blushing quite a bit. Trudy tilted her head. The more Kathulla and Perry picked on David about this supposed crush he had on her, the more intrigued she became. Maybe she could have a friendship with David just like the friendship between angel kids Chelsea and Caspio. David wasn’t the nicest person she had met since she returned to Earth, but he was indeed the most fascinating.
***
From the cliff that overlooked the beach, two copper brown eyes peered down. Clauss’s winged ears pricked excitedly over the news he could hear below. As a result of ‘scientific’ experimentation, he had grown physically older, physically further away from immortality, just like this ‘Perry’ boy Trudy had been sneaking around with.
Clauss had a super power. Unbeknownst to the doctors and scientists at IOTH, he had grown small clusters of feathers on his shoulder blades, and though he could not use the mere five or six feathers to fly, he could levitate. Caspio LeBlanc had also grown feathers, but he had not committed any sin, and therefor was not rewarded.
Clauss knew that Trudy’s friend David had this ability as well; he had spied on the sneaky group of misfits during recess and at night when the other angel children were asleep. Knowing that he could gain extra supernatural abilities simply by disobeying— sinning, fascinated him. He would listen closely every time he caught Trudy with them from now on.
***
It was sunset. Caspio glowered angrily down from Clauss’s lookout spot outside the railing. He, Chelsea and Merrily were invited by Clauss to spy on Trudy and her new friends, something Clauss had already been doing for a little while by himself. Caspio was the most disappointed of the four because he could have sworn he just told Trudy these demon children were bad news. She had nearly died during her first encounter with one, which was after he had proven to her that they could do physical and mental harm to the angel children, and now she had deliberately gone against his warning to be friends with their kind.
Merrily, the youngest of the group by birth date, sighed and wiped her forehead free of sweat. “It’s hot,” she complained. Clauss's lookout spot was just a few feet down the mountain the school and hospital sat on, on the side of the road outside of the guardrail, overlooking the beach. All three of Clauss's guests had never ventured that far down the mountain, and the change in altitude was not doing them any good.
“How come when she goes down there, she doesn’t overheat?” Caspio grumbled at Clauss. He was laying down, looking over the cliff side with binoculars, grinding his teeth every time one of the group below so much as smiled.
Clauss squinted down at the group of children on the beach. They had been congregating down there for about two weeks. None of the adults knew, or Trudy would have been caught and punished. So far, she remained on good terms with the IOTH staff. “They train us here to be good so that we can live forever. If we misbehave, we can leave. Trudy misbehaved. They forced it on me.”
“I’m sorry, Clauss,” Merrily said, staring up at him with her large, circular dark brown eyes. “Are you going to die?”
“No, I’m not going to die. It would take a lot of screwing up to die...though I’m kind of scared for Trudy, but it’s not up to me to save her. Besides, if she won’t listen to Caspio, she for sure won’t listen to me. She’ll misbehave no matter what any of us say. Not that it isn’t in our nature, but to be completely honest to you half breeds, I’ve been watching her for the past few days to make sure how much I can do without being hurt.”
“We have to tell doctor Sing!” Chelsea exclaimed. She had been anxiously pacing back and forth, grabbing onto the railing between the road and the small stretch of cliff her three friends were perched upon. She knew what she was doing was wrong, and her long wavy hair was getting frizzy with sweat.
“Tell her what? That Trudy’s seeing demons?” Clauss said, rolling his eyes and crossing his arms.
“The teachers can’t see them.” Caspio added. “I’ve tried to explain it but they did more tests on me.” He pulled his fingers down his face to emphasize the large gray bags under his eyes. “They think I’m crazy. Why do you think Clauss avoids them?”
“I think she means we need to tell dean Sing Trudy's leaving the Institution all the time without permission! What if Trudy gets really hurt?” Merrily asked, moving closer to Clauss and involuntarily grabbing onto his pant leg. “We should try to keep her safe.”
“I told you, Merrily, I don’t think it’s up to us. Something tells me she’s different than we are. I’ve heard them talking about a ‘prophet’ and a ‘plan’ since they first arrived. They’re as convinced as us natives that Trudy could be the one to bring us home.”
“Home is here,” Chelsea firmly stated. Her face was pink with angry blush. “I don’t wanna leave. I wanna stay here with Caspio and help dean Sing and Mr. Branch.”
“We won’t have a choice if what I think is true. Me and some of the other natives are pretty sure about her being the one. Some of us even decided that we might as well screw around while we have the time. I'm going to. If I have to shuffle off this mortal coil, I’m gonna make the best of my last couple of years.” At this point he had his index finger out at Chelsea’s face and she had backed into the metal railing.
“I think you’re right,” Caspio said to Clauss. “Chelsea, it’s no use to go telling on her, or us for that matter...nobody’s gonna believe you.”
Chelsea started to snivel.
“Don’t be upset. At least for now you still have us.” He stood up and brushed the dirt and tiny leaves from his shirt. He placed his hand on Clauss’s shoulder. “Clauss, I wanna join you. I think I deserve to have some fun before returning home.”
***
Allek had never been so mercilessly shouted at and berated in his life. His best friend Mark had forwarded a very personal and embarrassing photograph to all the staff members associated with IOTH and it had finally reached the other person in the photograph: dean Sing. The photograph was of Allek with the dean, both asleep in the top story faculty room, dean Sing’s arm on his leg like a prize of battle to his Conan the Barbarian. He thought it was cute, but dean Sing’s opinion of the photo was quite the opposite. Mark had nearly been fired, but he didn’t get nearly the verbal lashing that Allek had received.
He didn’t really know why he had been yelled at, but he assumed dean Sing was just embarrassed that she had finally been found out. He knew she had a crush on him for a long time. Unfortunately, her screaming was still echoing in his skull and he couldn’t for a moment focus on the cozy image the photograph portrayed on his cell phone.
He was sitting on his couch in his tiny trailer of a home, eyes wide open staring down at his cell phone. His ears were ringing and his brain was sore. Good thing his only child was doing well in school and making nice with the staff and other children, or else he’d have nothing to think of to make the ringing stop.
His phone rang. The noise was so sudden, he dropped the phone and quickly picked it back up. It was dean Sing. He was still emotionally scarred from before, but he knew nothing could be worse than what had already happened.
“I’m sorry...?” he said instinctively, after picking up.
“Hi...” came dean Sing’s voice. She was calmer than before, and sounding, amazingly, kind of guilty.
There was a break of about six seconds, when Allek spoke up, “listen, Liu, can we just forget this ever happened? I’m not gonna bring it up ever again, so you don’t have to worry about it. Besides, no one really thinks anything happened. As if I can go a day without completely screwing up. You with me? Ha ha...”
“Allek, I miss you.”
Allek was out the door and on his way up the mountain as soon as a man could put foot to pedal.
***
As the school year ended, Trudy spent less time sleeping and more time hanging out with her new friends at night, especially David. She very much liked David, even though he was changing, and changing her in the process.
On the evening last day of school, Trudy found herself sitting on the IOTH bridge with her legs dangling over the edge. She was very happy with herself. She had a lovely relationship with her daddy, and three of the greatest friends on the planet spending time with her every night.
"Hey cutie."
Trudy looked up. Her favorite friend, David, a demon boy with the most distractingly bright eyes, was standing on the bridge behind her. He had given in to the rude comments the other two demons always gave him about his crush on Trudy and had been calling her all sorts of flowery things for the last few weeks. Although he still looked and acted mostly like a child, he indeed had several centuries' worth of practice when it came to wooing girls. He sat down next to her and they both smiled broadly into the cloudy sunset.
"So. What do you think about a suicide pact?" he said flatly.
"What's that mean?" Trudy asked, knowing virtually nothing about death.
"It means when I become mortal, you have to become mortal too. So that we can die together."
"Why do we have to become mortal?" Trudy asked.
"Well..." It seemed as though David was holding back what he really wanted to say, so Trudy planted a tiny kiss on his cheek. He blushed and backed away, still smiling. "Nobody wants to tell you 'cause they're scared of you."
"I'm not that scary. I have pink hair," Trudy insisted, rolling her big blue eyes.
"You're not. You're pretty and sweet and all that me or anybody else could possibly want. I dunno why they can't just tell you. Trudy..." he swung one of his feet nervously. "You're destined to have a child someday. With a demon like me. We weren't so sure about it before but after finding out that the angel kids are scared of you, we know that it's you. Your kid is supposed to bring all the angels and demons back home...you know, to heaven...or in my case, hell...that's why they're so scared."
"I love kids!" Trudy gladly chirped. "Davy, that doesn't sound bad at all. You never saw heaven, but I did. It's very pretty. I'm sure hell is pretty too, though. Kath and Perry would love it there, I just know it!"
"Angel...we can't reproduce like this...angels and demons don't exactly have the right...parts."
"What do you mean? What kind of parts do you need to have a baby? I have a tummy in here somewhere." Her hands were both on her stomach, sincerely squeezing her pudge, while her face showed the utmost seriousness about what she had just said.
David sighed. "I don't have the parts, Trudy."
"Boys can't have babies, silly," Trudy said, lightly pushing David's shoulder.
He let out an awkward laugh. "Sometimes I forget how young and simpleminded you are. Let's just say we have to both be at least somewhat human to be able to have a baby, and we aren't human enough yet. When we get there, we'll both know, and we'll both know when the time is right to be having babies."
They both laughed, Trudy's laughter much more carefree than David's.
"Trudy, I love you. Please say you'll do this with me."
"I love you too, Davy. I'll do anything for you."
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