The Demon Catharsis
an excerpt

Lisa peered down over the edge of the tower of the Saint Mark's church building, just observing the life of the city below. She stretched her tawny wings before crouching down on the stony ledge and hugging her knees. The humans milled around on the sidewalks and across the streets like busy ants. They were selfish, worthless beings. Every one had no purpose but to make life better for himself. To live the best life possible, that was the dream of humans.

She'd been living among them for decades now but still hadn't grown tired of their squabbles and dealings. Humans worried about everything. They were easily vexed and a good majority of them thrived off of stress. Still, knowing how humans worked didn't deter her from being intrigued by them. She enjoyed watching them grasp endlessly for their dream of happiness, only to wallow in the redundancy of every day life. They were interesting to her, a point of fascination that would one day cost her own life, she was sure.

Without warning a loud crack like thunder ripped through the air. Lisa turned her face skyward and saw a figure plummeting from the dark grey clouds above. She glanced down at her watch. Tuesday, six seconds past six after six. At least Jace was predictable. She only hoped he hadn't landed in the middle of the park again.

Spreading her wings to their full span, Lisa dove off of the church roof she was perched on and caught a nice air current. She beat her wings to gain some altitude, then soared above the highrises and one way streets of downtown Atlanta. As she scanned the ground and buildings for the telltale smoke that marked Jace's fall she thought back on how she'd become entangled in the demon's strange cycle.

It had been a cold Tuesday evening in December and Lisa had been watching and listening to Christmas carolers in Centennial Park. Many of the singers had strong, beautiful voices. She'd had her eyes closed, enjoying the sounds of the chorus of voices from a comfortable distance. Then the crack of thunder sounded from out of nowhere. It was a cloudless sky that day. The noise disrupted the carolers for a moment, but they found their place in the hymn quickly.

Then amid the chorus of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" a boy fell out of the sky and landed behind the singers. His body gave off waves of smoke, as if he'd had to reenter the earth's atmosphere before plummeting to the dead grass below. The humans all scattered in a panic. A few stayed behind to see if the boy was still alive.

"He's burning up!" one man declared, jumping back and waving his hand emphatically after touching the boy's neck. "He has to be dead. Someone call nine one one!"

Lisa couldn't keep her curiosity in check and had approached the fallen body, which was still smoking, with a smirk on her thin lips. Just that morning she had drawn the strangest combinations of cards in a tarot spread she had done for herself. The Fool with an inverted Devil crossing over it. It was such a strong indication that the day would bring a change, a new direction to her life. Something big was going to happen.

The boy couldn't have been more than five foot five, and at first Lisa thought he was just a child. But when she crouched down and got a better look at his face she could tell he was in his late teens. His hair was blond, close cropped and had a slight wave to it. She was surprised to see that he wasn't covered in a layer of soot, especially because he smelled strongly of fireplace ashes and burning coals.

"I wouldn't touch him," the human man warned. He had a hand to his forehead and looked completely distraught. "Where could he have come from? I didn't see any planes?"

Lisa looked up at the man and simply gazed at him with a bland expression. He didn't sound as if he was really asking her those questions and she was glad of it. As much as she enjoyed watching humans live their lives, she didn't much care for interacting with them outside of her day job.

She watched the boy for a moment and saw that he was taking shallow breaths. Then she leaned down to put her mouth near his ear.

"Where did you come from?" she whispered. Her words, though breathed, had a faintly lyrical lilt.

"F**k if I know..." It was more of a groan than an answer, but the boy opened his ice blue eyes and stared right into Lisa's dull grey ones. "The f**k is going on, chick?"

Lisa merely stared back, eye to eye, unfazed by the foul language that came out of the boy's mouth.

"Is he alive?" the nearby man exclaimed, having heard the boy speak. He threw his hands up into the air. "Praise be to God! It has to be a miracle!"

Some of the other humans dashed back over to watch the boy struggle, groggily, to his feet. He stared at them all as if they'd lost their minds. Then he noticed that his black t-shirt and jeans were smoking.

"Holy sh*t! Am I on fire?" he shouted and started trying to look at every inch of himself for flames. Not noticing any he turned on the small crowd angrily. "What the hell is wrong with you people? And where the hell am I?"

"It's a miracle!" one of the women carolers said, gaping at the young man despite his use of expletives.

"A Christmas miracle!" someone else added, awed at the situation.

That was when Lisa became concerned for her own safety. She tried to pretend that she wasn't standing there in front of those people, next to miracle boy. Thankfully her long dirty blonde hair was covering most of her face, which helped her feel hidden though she was in plain view. But humans were predictable. They were governed by many natural rules and laws. One of those rules was that they tended to ignore anything out of the ordinary, which included the tan feathered wings folded against her back that peeked up over her shoulders. But once humans became aware of something otherworldly the law of faith kicked in. Suddenly many things that were imperceptible to them before would become clearly visible.

A shocked gasp from a teen girl who had been part of the singing group caused Lisa to look her way. All hopes of continuing to go unnoticed faded away at the astonished expression on the girl's face.

"Look... Mom... it's an angel!" the teen said in a quiet voice, one hand hovering over her mouth. "He has a guardian angel!"

In unison the boy and Lisa turned to look at one another again.

"These people are f**ked in the head," he said to her out of the side of his mouth and made a circular motion by his ear with his finger.

Lisa gave him a wry smile and leaned in close again. He flinched back for a moment, but she reached out and grabbed him gently by the upper arm. Contrary to what the human man had said, the boy felt just slightly warmer than the human norm.

"I have to leave before they start asking for blessings. Do you want to come with me?" she asked, again her voice nothing but a whisper.

The boy shrugged. "Yeah, whatever."

Then she pulled him into a quick hug and pushed off from the ground. They sprang into the air and with a few heavy wing beats they were high enough to avoid the awed crowd following after them.

"I didn't mean for you to f**king fly off with me!" the boy said in a gasp once his breath seemed to return. He clung to Lisa's thin frame as if his life depended on it. But Lisa doubted another fall would damage him any more than the last.

"Running wouldn't have stopped them from coming after us," she said.

"And what's up with this whispering sh*t? Huh? Speak up, damn it," the boy grumbled.

"I can't," Lisa said, her mouth still close to his ear. There was no cynicism or sadness to her whisper. It was just a fact.

"Why the hell not?"

But all further questions about her lack of real voice were quelled when she tilted her head back so that he could see her neck. There was a jagged scar in the middle of her throat.

Finally sighting the tell-tale smoke, Lisa returned to the present from her reverie. She dove down and landed lightly next to the smoking body that was her friend. Luckily he'd landed in a residential area this time, which seemed thankfully devoid of pedestrians.

She leaned down and tapped him on the shoulder. "Jace, wake up. It's time to start over."