"Just think about it," Steve said as the two best friends sat at the kitchen table. Soda slightly rolled his eyes. He was really having trouble keeping an open mind about this one. "He feels ill one day, and he's getting these symptoms that leave everyone baffled. That's because the demon lives in a different setting than us, and that book said the human body could withstand a lot of things, so it's one of the best hosts to change into what the demon needs to survive. This is just the beginning though, because if the human body doesn't shut down from just that, the demon continues doing it's job. It could have a target, sometimes they don't. The target could have been this house, could have been the family, could have been one of us who is here all the time. If there is a target, it has to be Ponyboy, because none of us are getting sick or anything. We are just getting toyed with. Anyway, if Pony is the target, the demon is going to keep doing this until something happens. And that could be either Pony just goes crazy and does away with himself, he gets too sick and his body just shuts down, or we do something about it. I don't know what we could do, but if we did the demon would go away."
Soda just stared as Steve spoke. The more he said, the more Soda felt chills in his back.
"Now the target could be one of us and we just don't know it. The demon is just using Pony's body to get to us, because Pony's body is stronger or something."
Soda swallowed, "And Two-Bit told you all this? From that book?"
Steve nodded, "But one more thing." He was speaking more quietly as if remembering something.
"What?" Soda whispered.
"We can't let the demon know we are onto him. Or it could get worse. Demons are so powerful and if they sense that they could get any weakness from any sources, they will leap on that right away and eliminate the weakness."
Both boys leaned from the table to peak in the living room. Pony was still asleep.
"Okay," Soda said trying to think, "Can Two-Bit get that book do you think?"
Steve gave him a look, "It's Two-Bit, remember?"
Soda laughed, "Well let's go find him."
Late in the night, both boys tried all the hangouts, but surprisingly found Two-Bit at home. "You're home?" Steve asked as Two-Bit answered the door, "You should put a memo out when you are home."
Two-Bit chuckled, "What are you guys up to?"
"I need you to swipe that book," Soda said with a straight face. He suddenly felt bad for not believing Steve, because even Two-Bit looked worried on the task.
"Well..."
"Come on Two-Bit, please," Soda begged.
"Man, I wouldn't want to piss off a demon, would you?" Two-Bit asked.
"Then we'll read it here," Soda said quickly, "Can you go back to the library tomorrow and get it? We can all meet back here at lunch?"
Two-Bit sighed.
"Come on man," Steve said, "You know if you don't, Soda will go break into that library and get the book himself. And that's all we need is Soda trying to steal when he's losing his mind and can't focus."
Two-Bit looked around as if expecting someone watching, "Okay fine. You guys come here at noon tomorrow. Because believe it or not, this is one item I will probably return."
"We don't blame you," Steve commented.
"Okay, but one thing guys," Soda said, "Don't tell Darry, or Dally, don't tell anyone else. Let's just keep this between us until we know something for sure."
"Deal," both boys said unison.
The next day lunch was nearing and Soda began slipping his shoes on.
"Where are you going?" Pony asked from the couch.
"Well," Soda began watching his words, "I'm just going to hang with Steve for a little while. I'll be back in a couple hours. Darry is just upstairs taking a shower."
Pony slowly nodded, "Where are you guys going to be?"
Soda's eyebrows lowered, "Just around."
Pony swallowed, "Darry's just going to ask you know."
Soda nodded, "I know buddy." Soda walked over and hugged his little brother. "I'll be back soon okay? How are you feeling anyway?"
"Really tired...no matter how much sleep I get it doesn't help."
"Still cold?" Soda asked noticing all the blankets on him.
Pony nodded.
"Are you eating?" Soda asked peeling back the blankets. Soda almost jumped back. Pony could have been a skeleton. Aside from being pale white, he had lost tons of weight really quick. Bones were just begging to poke out it seemed. Soda put the blankets back on.
"I can't eat," Pony said becoming teary eyed, "It doesn't stay down."
Soda hugged his little brother again, "Don't worry. Help is on the way."
With that, Soda hurried out and made it to Two-Bit's in record time.
The three boys sat in Two-Bit's living room with a thankfully empty house.
"How much of this did you read?" Soda asked flipping through some pages.
"I read a good chunk of it. I looked at each chapter title and read the ones that made sense to what was happening to Pony," Two-Bit explained.
"And you got as far as not letting the demon on about everything? You didn't read ways to get rid of it?" Soda asked. Two-Bit nodded. Soda flipped through some pages until he found a chapter. "Here Steve, you look at it. I can't read worth shit."
Steve took the book slowly, almost afraid of what he would find out. He skimmed the first few pages until he got into deeper information. "Okay, listen to this. It says how there are many different ways to drive a demon out, but each one is a very sensitive process and could damage the host or shut them down completely."
Soda gulped, "Go on."
"Well," Steve continued to skim, "There's trying to contact the demon through Ponyboy and forcing him to leave. While Pony is sleeping, we try to get him to come out and do one of those acts he keeps committing and pour holy water on him or put a cross on him or something religious. We could bless the house with holy water so the demon is forced away. We could...oh god..."
"What?" Two-Bit asked.
Steve gulped, "We fill a bathtub with holy water, and put Pony in it while he's asleep. And...hopefully the demon leaves before Pony drowns."
"Oh god," Soda said putting his face in his hands."
Steve sighed, "There is also an exorcism. We get a priest and he performs a ceremonial exorcism to drive the demon out."
"If any priests actually believe us," Two-Bit pointed out.
"Any of these acts could leave to success or the demon could lash out and attack us or even get a new host. So we need to keep ourselves protected so that the demon doesn't take one of us over next," Steve explained.
"How do we do that?" Soda asked.
Steve skimmed a few lines, "Bless our bodies."
Before anything else could be said, there was the sound of constant glass breaking from the kitchen.