A Winter at the Earth's Core
It was a chilly Friday afternoon in Endsville that marked the last day of the school semester. Kids swarmed out of every door as the bell rang, all too eager to enjoy the first snow of winter. Billy and Mandy were among the last to leave the school on account of Mandy's slight headache, which made her exponentially more sensitive to noise. Between incessant chatter of the season vacation and the full schedule of semester exams, she had zero tolerance for Billy's usual nonsense. "Hey Mandy," Billy piped up as they began their trek home through a couple inches of snow. "Do you want to build a—"
"No," Mandy snapped back. Short and simple. Billy shrugged and let a moment pass before trying a second attempt to make conversation.
"It doesn't have to be a—"
"I said no!" she repeated louder with all seriousness.
"Aww, but why not?" Billy frowned, a bit hurt. "Don't-cha wanna make a snow angel? Or a snowball fort? Or-Or we can do that thing when we have those metal sticks on our shoes and we run around on a frozen lake!" he half-screamed with enthusiasm. The slap from Mandy was powerful enough to make his head turn.
"I told you: I have a headache." She poked his chest with a commanding finger. "That means I want peace and quiet. Got it?"
"Mm-hmm." Billy nodded, conveying that he understood. They continued to walk in perfect silence for a couple of minutes until Billy had the urge to ask one more question. "Hey Mandy?" he asked, being sure to keep his volume to a decibel above a whisper. "Where'd you say you were going again for break?"
"Hawaii," she answered automatically, staring at all the boot-prints on the snowy sidewalk with her coal-black eyes. She knew that there would be a follow-up question from her friend.
"Ohhh. Why are you going there?"
"It's too cold here," she replied in an uninterested tone. "My parents wanted a "family trip" to Hawaii for the longest time, so I finally said yes. School breaks are ideal for those sorts of vacations." As physically small as she was, everyone—friends and family alike—knew that Mandy made the rules for pretty much every occasion. She carried an aura of power with her wherever she went, and she knew exactly how to utilize it.
"Is it warm in Hawaii?"
"It's in the Ring of Fire, so yes. At least, it's less cold there."
"Sounds nice," Billy mused thoughtfully. His nose was bright red and began to run in reaction to a biting breeze of frost. The two friends finally came to the fork in the road that separated their houses. After a brief exchange of goodbyes, Billy continued to walk solo to his front door, now bereft of one friend to share his winter break with.
Deep within the center of the Earth, two demons were having a light conversation between father and son, the latter having just arrived home from school and was emptying out his backpack now that the semester was over. "Hello, son!" came the endearing voice of Nergal—the nearly shapeless black creature of the night, with lime-green eyes, dull purple pupils, and dressed in a black business suit over a blood-red dress shirt. His smile comprised of a mouthful of shark teeth that matched his eyes, but despite his appearance, his inner demonic nature was always carefully tucked away in front of his only child. He stood a little over six feet tall in the doorway of his son's bedroom. "How was your last day?"
Nergal Junior—most just call him "Junior" these days—casually tossed his science folder over his shoulder and turned to his father. "Great, Dad," he spoke softly in a shakily unstable monotone that carried a hint of eerie inhumanness. He pulled himself up on his bed and laid back. "Same as any other day." Junior was rightfully named so, for he took after his father in practically all aspects from his physical features to his supernatural abilities. He, too, had lime-green eyes behind circular, black-rimmed spectacles, a pointy smile, and a tolerance to an inferno's heat. Furthermore, he inherited the ability to shape shift into any form he wanted, though he preferred people. His favorite form was that of the first human boy he met a few winters ago. He acquired the pale human skin and a full head of black hair that curled back in the front. Junior knew that he would never be "normal," but his human persona was the closest that he'd ever get to being like the other kids. Therefore, he decided to keep it in hopes of one day being seen as a "normal" member of society, and not just some four-eyed freak from the center of the Earth.
Nergal sat on the edge of his son's bed. "So, did you make any plans with your friends like I asked you to?" Junior averted his eyes to the wall, frowning slightly.
"W-Well, ah…uhm…"
"You didn't," the older demon correctly deduced with disappointment. He sighed and shook his head. "You have two whole weeks to have fun without school getting in the way. Isn't there anyone you'd like to spend more time with? Play games with? See a movie with? Embark on a world conquest with?!" he suggested with a belligerent grin and flaming eyes. Junior raised an eyebrow at him and shrugged.
"Not really, Dad. No one would want to be seen with the freak." This made Nergal upset, right to the point where an electric black snake sprouted involuntarily from his back, snapping at the air. He hated to see his son unhappy, especially a boy so good, so deserving of friends.
"Nonsense, Junior. Who's been calling you names?"
"Everyone," came the quiet, nearly inaudible reply. Nergal wrapped a comforting arm around Junior's shoulders.
"You know what?" he started in a dangerously low tone as another snake grew out of the other side of his back. "They're all jealous of you, every single one of them." His hand clenched into a black fist. "They're too proud to accept you, so they've turned on you in a pathetic effort to make themselves look better in their own eyes. It's that selfish narcissism that humans have that makes them hate the things that they cannot understand." Two more snakes grew up and out for a total of four additional slithering bodies, each ready to fight and defend until kingdom come. "They don't deserve your friendship."
"But what about Mom?" Junior queried, unphased by the snakes. He had grown used to his dad getting so worked up so easily. Nergal let the question linger in the air for just enough time to pull his snakes back into his being.
"The one exception," he explained, holding up a hasty finger. "Your mother loves me for my personality just as I am, "freak" or not." A tender smile appeared on his lips as he tousled Junior's hair. "Ah, son…I sure hope that you'll find a companion who loves you unconditionally too." He gave a light chuckle as an optimistic gleam shined in his green eyes. "What am I talking about? Of course, you will. I have not entirely given up on humanity yet!"
"I wish I wasn't so lonely, Dad. I had hoped that just one person would reach out and plan something for us to do." Junior folded his hands in his lap and stared at his curled fingers. "But nobody did. Not even Billy."
"Billy?" Nergal repeated, tapping his chin as an idea came to mind. "Well, why don't you ask him? He is family, after all, and there are no friends like family." Technically, Junior and Billy were cousins by marriage. Nergal's human wife just happened to be Billy's aunt on his father's side.
"He wouldn't want to hang out with me," Junior sulked, already suspecting the worst. His father simply grinned with the enthusiasm of a businessman that refused to take 'no' for an answer.
"Oh, really? Well, we'll see about that!" He jumped up from the bed and headed for the telephone before stopping himself. No…he mused. I can do better than that. I'll make a personal visit myself.
Billy was sitting at the table in his kitchen and sipping hot cocoa through a crazy straw when the doorbell rang. He had wrapped himself up in several blankets that he found around the house in an effort to keep warm against the increasingly cold weather. His nose kept running, no matter how many tissues he used to keep it dry. "I'll get it," Harold—Billy's dad—volunteered. Harold looked very similar to his son, only distinctly more obese and with a lazier glaze in his eyes. He slowly rose from the comfy couch cushion that faced a television set and answered the door. He smiled in surprise when he saw who it was. "Oh! Hello, delivery man." An average-looking guy in his thirties and dressed in postal blue tipped his hat.
"Package for Billy's family," he announced, jutting out a clipboard for a signature. Beside him sat a large package that could have held a fake Christmas tree, which wasn't uncommon to see around the holidays.
"We're Billy's family," Harold readily parroted back, scrawling a messy attempt at signing his name. The other gentleman didn't seem to care in the least.
"Thank you. Have a nice day." With that, the delivery man turned on his heel and drove away in his truck. Harold took the top corners of the tall package and began to lug it inside, grunting loudly with each pull. The straining noises caught Billy's attention, who peeked inside the foyer to see what was going on.
"Hey, Dad. What's—oooh!" His eyes widened with curiosity at the massive box. "Is that an early Christmas present? Is it for me? Is it a lifetime supply of chocolate bars?!" His dad finally got it all the way in and closed the front door, taking a moment to examine the box.
"There's no return address, so I guess we'll have to open it to find out. Go get the scissors!" Harold gave the box a powerful shove so as to cut it better, knocking it over on its side.
"Oww," came a richly sophisticated voice from the inside of the package. Harold's jaw nearly dropped as the box began to rock back and forth by itself.
"It's alive!" he shrieked, darting away as fast as he could. The box gave in to the pressure at last and busted open, revealing a slightly disheveled Nergal.
"Wait a minute; it's just me," Nergal stated, waving his hands to calm Harold down. He smiled at Billy as the boy ran into the room. "Hello, Billy," he cheerfully greeted his only nephew. "Please be careful with those scissors." Billy froze in place and waved weakly.
"Hi, Uncle Nergal." He moved closer to his dad and whispered into his ear. "Uhh, Dad, what is he doing in our house?" It wasn't that Billy didn't like Nergal, but no one could deny that he was a bit odd and kind of creepy. Years of loneliness living in the Earth's core had gotten to his head at one time or another, depriving him of all social skills and leaving him with a deep desire to make friends of his own. He had to learn the hard way that force was never the answer to get others to like him.
"I was about to ask the same thing," Harold whispered back, feeling duped that something cool and fun could have been in the box, like a mini refrigerator.
"I can hear both of you," Nergal said, raising an eyebrow. Nothing got past his supernatural senses; that, and no one in Billy's family ever grasped the sacred art of being discreet. He decided to answer the question anyway. "I am here because I wanted to…" He had to choose his words carefully and rationally as he had a tendency to blurt out awkward and socially inappropriate randomness. First, he thought of his goal: get Billy a play-date with Junior. Second, he needed a rationale. Loneliness was the obvious one, but he deliberately wanted to stay away from that word so as not to sound desperate. He looked at Billy, all bundled up in blankets, and thought of the freezing weather. "I just wanted to invite you all over for the weekend," he started out. "Since you've never spent the night at my place before, I thought that this winter vacation would be the most delightful opportunity for a little get-together with family." Billy and his dad glanced at each other with blank expressions. Nergal's sharp-edged smile did not seem to convince anyone.
"Uhh, no thanks, Nergal," Harold bluntly replied. "We're perfectly happy up here where the sun shines, thank you very much."
"But you haven't even given the idea a chance!" the demon pointed out, crossing his arms. "I can prove to you that it is just as fun…no, more fun down there than it is up here. Not to mention," he added tactfully. "The center of the world is quite warm and very comfortable." He smiled at Billy in particular. "You could drink all the hot chocolate you'd like."
"We-ell," Billy mused. "Is it better than Hawaii?"
"Absolutely!" Nergal nodded with blind confidence. He had never been to Hawaii, so he assumed that it was also snowing heavily this time of year.
"I guess it could be a good idea," Harold added, his thoughts revolving around sinking into a toasty Jacuzzi while listening to classic rock n' roll music. "After all, it's just for the weekend." Nergal watched intently as the two humans left him to go pack their things. That was easier than I thought, he mentally celebrated. His grin stretched from ear to ear. I'm finally going to have company!