Chapter Two

The next morning, his brother woke up with a wide smile and a long forgotten twinkle in his eyes. He scrambled over the railing of his hospital bed, reaching out for Matthew and knocking their foreheads together, gently. They had been bumping foreheads since before they could walk. It was a special greeting; an acknowledgment just between twins.

Matthew almost burst into tears in relief.

The doctors were baffled, of course, when his bloodwork came back clean. They were huddled around the nurse's desk in heated discussion, comparing notes and scratching their heads.

"I feel great!" Alfred exclaimed, flexing his nonexistent muscles. He had lost ninety pounds to his therapy. He was skin and bones.

But he was smiling and that was what mattered.

"You always say that," Matthew laughed, examining his brother's intravenous lines, content that everything was in place.

"Yeah, but I actually mean it this time."

Matthew nodded. Alfred always told him he was feeling fine, even when he was vomiting blood or bent over in pain. He never wanted Matthew to worry.

Matthew worried anyway.

"Did you finish your homework?" He asked, rifling through his backpack. Matthew had stopped by the hospital on his way to high school. He had been stopping by at least twice a day since his brother had first been admitted in September. It was now March.

"Most of it…" Alfred said bashfully. He handed over a crinkled piece of paper. He had answered questions one, five, ten, and fifteen.

Matthew studied the piece of a paper and raised an eyebrow.

"You've only answered four questions, Al…"

"Yeah… I was hoping the teacher could grade me on a 'curve' and 'plot' the rest accordingly. You know, find the 'median grade average' based on my answers to those four questions."

Matthew frowned, incredulous. His brother looked particularly self satisfied with his latest attempt to get out of doing homework.

"Okay, fine," he sighed, "I'll fill in the blanks, but only because it sounds like you've actually been studying."

Alfred pumped his fist and grinned as Matthew jammed the assignment into his backpack and stood up. Matthew smiled back, amused and oh so relieved.

Alfred was feeling better. Alfred would live.

And all it had cost was his soul.

They bumped foreheads again and Matthew knew that it had been worth it. Absolutely.

Matthew slouched into the classroom and handed his homework, and his brother's now completed homework, in to the teacher. He sat down and threw his textbook onto his desk, already slipping into the background of teenage chaos. No one spoke to him at high school, besides a few select friends, and none of them were in this class with him.

He was as good as invisible... Just the way he liked it.

"Hey."

Matthew twirled in his seat and almost died of a heart attack. Sitting there, next to him, was the demon from last night. He seemed a little less pale, a little more real, and very, very arrogant. He lounged in his seat as if he owned the whole world and everyone in it; relaxed and unaffected by his surroundings.

For all Matthew knew, maybe he did.

"Gilbert," he croaked.

"The one and only," Gilbert kicked back in his chair and propped his feet onto the desk, examining his nails.

"What are youdoing here? You're not supposed to be here! You're going to get me into trouble!" He hissed, terrified. He hated drawing attention to himself.

"I doubt that," Gilbert cackled. He leaned over and tapped another student on the shoulder before Matthew could stop him. Matthew held his breath. "Hey man, can I borrow a pencil?"

The student smiled and passed it to him without hesitation.

"Sure, Gilbert. I have another one."

Gilbert saluted the student and turned back to Matthew with a 'ta-dah' gesture.

"See, as far as they're concerned, I've been your best friend for nine years and I'm a student here. Also, I'm awesome. Which is true, of course."

Matthew blinked.

"You… Altered the very fabric of reality…" He sounded it out slowly because it just seemed too fantastic. "Just to go to my… My high school?!"

"Nah," Gilbert shrugged. "I did it to hang out with you."

"… You said I had ten years."

"You do, but I also said that you were different, and I meant it. I'm not taking my eyes off of you."

"… For ten years?" Matthew was scrabbling desperately to make some sense of the nonsensical demon beside him. It was a lost cause.

"Mmhmm," Gilbert crossed his arms behind his head and settled further into his seat, smirking. "You're stuck with me for ten… Whole… Years."

Author's Notes:

A new beginning, for both of the twins, but for very different reasons. Alfred gets his health but Matthew? He gets Gilbert. Oh dear…

Obviously, I've attributed several supernatural talents to Gilbert as a demon, one of them being the ability to bend reality to suit his whims. Everyone in Matthew's life will think that they've known Gilbert for years; they'll have false memories of conversations that never happened and a relationship that never existed. A bit scary, sure, but Matthew drove out to the crossroads just to sell his soul on the slight chance that he could save his brother. That's dedication! I think he'll just roll with it.

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