Mimi's Demons

Chapter 9: The Bad Demon

Mimi wanted to be strong. She wanted to not need friends or anyone else.

Then why did she have to get lonely? Why did it have to hurt when no one wanted to play with her? Why did it feel like her mother was too busy with work or her brother to give Mimi her undivided attention? Why did Mimi even need her mom's undivided attention? Was she selfish? She knew her mom loved her. Didn't she love her mom to understand and not be hurt by the fact she was busy? Little kids were a lot of work.

One night, aching and aching and just wanting it all to go away, Mimi took her favorite stuffed lion and hung off the side of the bed.

"Hey," she put the lion down. "Want to come out? I'm not going to do anything to you."

Though she couldn't imagine why any demon would be afraid of her. What could she do to them? They never actually looked afraid, they just didn't like being seen, like they were self-conscious about how ugly they looked, which, she didn't blame them.

She hung there until her head started to hurt, peering into the darkness for green eyes or claws.

Just as she was about to give up and reel herself back into bed, green, faintly glowing eyes turned her way.

They stared at each other. All the hair on Mimi's body stood on end and she felt her mouth go dry.

Then Mimi blinked and saw a clawed hand, one about the same size as hers, slowly reach out to the lion, though its eyes never left hers. Its eyes weren't pupil-less like many of the demons she'd seen. They were round and dark, like hers would be.

She couldn't help but tense when the black, clawed hand touched her precious lion. She wanted to say it was okay for the demon to take the lion as a peace offering, she was getting too old for it anyway, but she was afraid it might taste like a lie and she didn't want to see what her strange boogey man demon might do with the air tainted with dishonesty.

The claws, however, took the lion very gently and then gave it to her.

She took it in shock.

"Do...do you want to come out?"

The green eyes blinked slowly. She thought she saw them shiver a bit.

"You're a demon, right? Why do you hang out under my bed?" If she hadn't heard that demon talk to her when she scraped her knee, she would wonder if whatever it was even understood her.

It just blinked again. She thought maybe it was as shocked by her actions as she was by its.

Carefully, while keeping her eyes under the bed, she slipped down to the floor and laid on her tummy to see better, her lion tucked under her chin.

"I'm Mimi," she said.

She waited, wondering and anxious and achy and desperate and oh so lonely.

Then, so soft she wondered if she'd actually heard it, the demon spoke.

"Honrye," it hissed.

"Hahn-rye," she repeated. "Is that your name?"

The green eyes blinked and went up and down in a nod.

"Why are you under my bed?" she asked.

"Dark," he sighed. "Smells good. Something."

"Why haven't you talked to me until now?"

Its green eyes narrowed and the kneading of carpet increased.

"Fear. Mimi fear." It hesitated. "Fear taste good."

"Wouldn't that make me afraid of you more if you talked?"

"Unknown scary. Known not so."

"I don't know, I've been scared of things I know before. I see all the other demons and I'm still afraid of them." But it still seemed to have a point. Her fear of it had lessened now that she was talking to it. "Besides, you kept giving me my stuffed animals and tucking me in. I'd say being nice ruined my fear of you."