His first memory went back a little before the Ancient Egypt, even though he knew he had lived longer than that. His childhood was hard to remember. Yes, Hunson Abadeer had also been a child once, the first of Abraham Abadeer children. The childhood of a demon, tho, is a little longer than that of a human being could even conceive; the later are kids just around 13 years, meanwhile David and Hunson were young for at least 200. That was one of the things Hunson didn't understand about humans: their finitude.
It was not the only thing about humans that got him confused, of course. It was not the weirdest either. No, it got to be the way people always seems to crave for love so desperately. Love could do more than hunger for humanity and that didn't make sense to the young prince. He was sure he had never felt that way about nobody and he didn't know if he was even capable of doing anyway.
Against all the things were used to be said around the topic, the Abadeer family was just fine without such things. Love as the glue that keeps people together was totally unnecessary. Do not encourage the idea of they not being a united family, they certainly were, but their blood ties were based on significant stuff like respect, fear, duty, tradition, ambition, expectation, willing, even the evilness itself was enough for them to not need love at all.
He has been along his father and brother since he could remember, or, at least, before the biblical seven plagues the younger demons made at the Ancient Egypt and were attributed (unfairly) to Glob. That's why he was not attending his history class. He could not stand the idea of hearing a nerd like Petrikov talking about one of the multiple pranks that were played by David the past century. Who was this nerd teacher to tell him about the Archduke death when his own brother created the atmosphere that led all the leaders (how ironically) to the conflict? Plus, human history, by rejecting the existence of magic, were damned to be anything but precise. So, it makes no sense to pay attention.
There were a lot of things he would rather focus on as Simons babbling kept going. He was focused, for example, in the way his classmate's hair fall through her back wall the way to her hips. This, of course, emphasized her waist, not to mention the fact that when she leaned over her desk, the fabric of her blouse would rise a little, just enough for he to see the lower back skin…
"Hey… pst!" he heard a voice next to him. It was one of the boys he was used to skip classes with. Hunson realized he was zoned out and turned to Brian. His classmate pointed with a flick of his chin to the front of the classroom. It was then when Abadeer saw all the eyes on him.
"I beg your pardon?" he said to the teacher so he could repeat the question Hunson definitely didn't hear.
"I was asking you, young man, which countries were on a civil conflict while the First World War was going on in Europe."
"Oh…" he exclaimed before giving a proper answer. "Those have to be Russia, China and Mexico. That's why they didn't participate in the conflict."
For everyone surprise, the answer was correct, so Petrikov just nodded twice and turned back to the blackboard.
"Ugh! I hate him so much" Elise told Patience once they were on lunch hours. She held a black coffee in her right hand. "He just never gets caught! How could be possible his answer was ok if he's never paying attention?"
"I think you're overreacting" they were taking seats at one of the tables in the building's outside, just before the soccer field. "What is the big deal if he actually knew how to answer that? It is not like your scores will rise if he fails"
"Didn't you see him? He was practically undressing her with his gaze"
"So…?"
"It was so disrespectful! He should get expelled or failed at least!" Elise was moving her hands to emphasize her point, as it was the most obvious conclusion.
"So, he should be expelled for doing something every single teenager does?" Elise didn't answer. "C'mon, how old are you? Where do you think you are? Everyone at high school is a bunch of hormones. Plus, you pay too much attention to him to honestly hate him. Are you sure you're not jealous?"
"Shut up" the simple idea made her feel sick.
"Is it too hot?" Patience decided to change the subject when she noticed Elise has barely touched her coffee.
"I told you. I got not a thing for him."
"I was talking about the coffee, you dumbass." They looked at each other for a moment as Elise's checks were rising red. Both girls burst out laughing.
"Of course you were talking about the coffee!" she almost yelled totally embarrassed and proceeded to hide her face behind her hands.
"Told you. You spent a lot of time thinking about him."
"So…" she hurried to change the subject "you asked about the coffee…"
"You've barely drank any, is it too hot?"
"A little" she landed the cup to her friend so she could try it. "Wanna try?"
Patience didn't hesitate and drank a bit before giving it back to the owner.
"Ugh!" She almost spit the drink. "Why would you drink it without sugar?"
"You're just too used to candy. Grow up! Learn hoy to taste real coffee and not a diabetes soup!" she took the cup between her hands and brought it to her lips to take another sip. It was considerably colder.
Carefully, he placed on his desk the box he had kept at home for a while since he came back from his summer trip. Now, he arrived to his office for the first time after the last semester's end. Even though those artifacts were the University's property, they will stay at his office so he could work on them for his PhD thesis.
He was taking all the objects one by one and began sorting them on the brown shelves behind his desk. The first one consisted of one tiny penguin not bigger than seven inches. Then, he picked some jade jewelry that probably was worn by the multiple priests during the rituals. Those were followed by a couple of rock mortars that, if were well preserved, could even have some substances remaining. Everything was priceless, that's for sure, so he better be meticulous. Cleaning was required for every piece and special brushes were used carefully. Every single movement has to be calculated so the item´s integrity wouldn't be compromised in any way.
After assigning a space for each thing, the next step was taking a label and write a serial number he must also register in a data base. This part was Simon's favorite. Small statues were labeled with a tiny sign in front of them so they looked like they were in a congress about to tell their stories. Yes, he was that kind of nerd. And no, he was not ashamed at all.
Any student has been in Petrikov's office has thought it was a small museum.
He was invested in his archeological activities when the door slightly opened, causing him to turns towards it.
"Knock knock" Betty said once he saw her. Simon smiled ear to ear. It didn't matter he was able to be with her his whole life, he would be happy anytime she appeared as it was the first time they meet. "I came to see how everything was going."
"Princess! Please, come in!" His voice was filled with the same joy it was that time they touched their hand at the library trying to get the same book.
She closed the door behind her and walked towards him. Anyone watching the scene in third person would notice she was looking at him just the same way he was looking at her.
Her sole presence was enough for Simon to turn into nerd mood, as she used to call it, which consisted of him talking about any topic over his thesis or research and basically there was no human way to stop it. Not that she would try it, tho.
"… and now let me show you the crown jewel, our Holy Grail" he pointed a couple of items still in the box. He already explained Betty the ones that rested on the shelves. She took a look inside to contemplate the remaining content. "This, right here…" he took between his hand a golden crown ornated whit three big rubies on it, one per each peak "…seems like it was worn all sort of rituals. Some pictures of the temple walls were taken. We found it near a lot of illustrations that always showed it on an old man's head. We think it was reserved for the elder man in the tribe, maybe because he was the more experienced.
"That actually make sense" she admitted.
"And this one…" now his hands were on a big book whom thick wood covers had silver corners and were overly ornated "… this is called the Enchiridion of souls. I'd not unpacked it yet because it will not stay with me at my office. Not by now, at least. Do you remember Marian?"
"The linguist from the humanities department?" Simon nodded. "Of course I remember her! She is the best language expert at the whole campus!
"Well, how you maybe figured out already, the Enchiridion is written in an ancient language. It's not even related to Greek or Latin, so it's hard to begin with. Fortunately…" he opened the book on a random page.
"It's illustrated!"
"Yup!" He dropped the "p" at the end. "Marian says it could be possible to decipher the manuscript."
He looked more like a little child jumping over a new toy than a PhD student.
Betty decided she definitely was hopelessly devoted to him.
Hunson got out of the house holding hands with… which was her name, again? It didn't matter, the one he was looking over Petrikov's class. He smiled at her as she was the most beautiful woman in the entire world. How could she not be totally convinced he actually loved her? There was no doubt in the kiss he gave her to say goodbye. There was no doubt when he told her he would call. There was no doubt in the moment he spent staring the door, waiting for her to get into her house and, finally, break the spell that kept him tied to the front door.
It was an open secret that Hunson finds some pleasure in taking away the purity from the women around him. His strategy was infallible: women would not warn other girls about dating him because they would find shameful to be ignored the next morning by said guy; men, in the other hand, had no credibility at all. No girl will ever believe a shit they'll say because every single one in the school was totally capable of ruining any girl's reputation to get revenge about being rejected or something like that. Every time there were rumors or gossip about Hunson, those were assumed as, precisely, just rumors and gossip. That's why he never had any qualms about his conquests going on.
She finally disappeared behind the door, and as soon she was no where to be seen, he changed his face to a so much more careless one. He held the steering wheel of his Mustang and started the car. If Hunson were a normal person, it would take him only five minutes to get home. He was not a normal person, but the prince of hell and took the chance to contribute to the global warming by making a travel longer than needed. Plus, such car would arouse the envy of those uncapable of affording it.
It had been past an hour before he arrived to his address. Leaving the Mustang in the garage, he entered his house.
Saying Abadeer's house was unusual didn't do justice to the place. There was a lot of weird things inside: in first place, the total absence of any furniture would call the attention of some; others would be more concerned about the monkey paw or the medieval torture machines. Let's not forget about the blood jars on the shelves, black magic books, etc. The most ordinary items inside were a couple of family photos hanging on the walls, but still those were absolutely scary when you focus on the death filled gaze in the Abadeers' eyes.
If you were lucky enough to reach the basement, you would find the most bizarre thing in there: a portal. The one who allowed him to reach his real home in the Nightosphere.
It was the same as always. He changed his clothes to an outfit more appropriate to see his father: a shirt, a tie around his neck, a black coat. He made his way to the mentioned portal. He heard every single step against the wood.
He finally stopped in front of the only photo in the whole building starring not by three, but four people: a middle-aged man was sitting in a pharaonic chair accompanied by one of his children on each side. Behind his back, a pale woman's presence shone.
Once again, as always, Hunson felt a pinch in his chest under his mother's gaze.