A/N Thanks for reading! I was surprised by the amount of follows I got for this story, more than all my other stories combined. I appreciate your feedback, and remember, reviews are love.
A beautiful young woman was talking to a sales clerk, holding onto the hand of an energetic young boy with curly brown hair. The woman was Elaine Anderson and she was running a few Christmas errands in town, her 5 year old son, Blaine, tagging along behind her. Elaine had gone to pick up her son from school, something she usually sent his nanny to do, but she wanted to spend some time with him. A rare occurrence. Elaine was not a bad parent by far, she was a rather good mother in her acquaintances' eyes, a model parent. However, her husband's busy schedule left her bustling about on most days, leaving her with very little time to spend with her younger son. She was negotiating the price of something with the sales woman, when Blaine tugged on her arm impatiently, as he had been waiting for something to eat for over an hour.
"Mommy, I'm hungry." said the small boy, his triangular eyebrows scrunched together in annoyance. "You promised we'd get hot chocolate an hour ago!"
"Blaine, be patient. We will get some hot chocolate after I finish talking to this lady." chastised his mother, not impressed with her son's attitude. Blaine pouted, but said nothing further on the matter.
His mother went back to her negotiations, leaving Blaine to occupy himself with looking around the shop. He let go of his mother's hand and wandered over to a knick knack display. He picked up a snow globe with a Christmas tree with little lights on it, turning it up side down so he could see it snow. It was almost Christmas time and Blaine was excited. Christmas for Blaine meant hot chocolate, seeing his family, and plenty of expensive presents. Not that the price mattered to Blaine, he just loved to receive gifts. Blaine's stomach grumbled at the thought of hot chocolate, and he looked over to where his mother was still talking to the sales woman.
Blaine moved on to a shelf full of crosses, some made with beautiful silver, wood, and glass. He had never seen a cross up close, his parents didn't go to church, but his nanny did. She would talk to Blaine about God, and Jesus, but Blaine would never pay much attention. His mind was always elsewhere. Blaine delicately picked one up to take a closer look. It had lovely carvings on it, and it was smooth in his hand. Something, however, didn't seem right about it. It felt weird in his hand, almost as if it didn't want him to touch it, a strange feeling to come off of something so beautiful. The feeling kept growing until Blaine couldn't stand to hold it anymore, and he dropped it back on the shelf with a clatter.
Hearing the clatter, Elaine called her son over, telling him not to touch things. When she had finished with the sale, they left the shop to check out the hot beverage vendor that had been next to a quaint bakery. Elaine ordered a hot apple cider for herself, and a hot chocolate with extra marshmallows for Blaine, who thanked her delightedly. Blaine sat on the bench with his mother, happily sipping his drink. He watched the townspeople go about their business, in that moment, he was content. Just as he was about to doze off, Blaine noticed something, or someone, staring at him from across the street.
It was a man, a homeless man, with raggedy clothes, and missing teeth. The man leered at him with an unusual glint in his eyes, as if he saw something disgusting on the bottom of his shoe. Blaine couldn't tear his eyes away from the man, who licked his rotting gums and made a lewd gesture at him. Blaine was about to turn to his mother and tell her about the man, when something about the man caught his attention. The man's eyes began to roll back into their sockets, and the man's skin began to melt, bubbling and oozing. Blaine barely held in a scream as the man began to disintegrate right before his eyes, leaving a grotesque creature where the man once sat. Blaine was terrified to the core, he had never seen something so monstrous before. What confused him was the fact that no one else seemed to see it.
"Blaine, honey, what are you staring at?" asked Elaine, making her son jump in his seat and start crying, clutching her arm tightly. Blaine was pointing across the street, babbling about a monster, or a man, she couldn't tell. She looked over to where he was pointing, but didn't see any man. He was clearly upset by the matter, and it made her worry. Therefore, she figured it was time for them to head home. It was getting late, and Blaine wasn't pleasant when he was tired.
Elaine had put her son into bed, taking twice as long because Blaine refused to sleep without the light on. He kept arguing about the monster he had seen earlier, and whining when she refused to lay down with him. By the time Elaine left his room, she was at her wit's end. She had never seen Blaine refuse one of her orders so blatantly before. After a while, she made sure that he was asleep, and poured herself a glass of wine. She didn't usually drink, but she felt as though she would go insane if she didn't at least have a drink. She had just gotten settled in her favorite chaise lounge, when her husband came home from his office. He kissed her on the cheek and poured himself a glass of brandy. He sat down in the chair across from his wife, sipping his brandy with a look of contentment on his face.
"James, I need to talk to you." Elaine's voice cut through the amicable silence. James glanced up at his wife with an inquisitive look. He nodded his head to her to let her know he was listening. "It's about Blaine. He's been acting rather odd lately."
"He's a child Elaine, you know how boys are. Remember how Cooper was at his age?" countered James, the last thing he wanted to hear about was how unusual Blaine was. It was hard enough to ignore the feeling in his gut whenever the boy was near.
"It's not the same," Elaine argued to her barely listening husband. She hated how he would tune her out unless he thought she was talking about something important. "He's not like the other boys his age. He has no friends, no one will talk to him. His teachers told me that none of the other kids want to be around him. They're afraid of him! A five year old boy!"
"That's ridiculous, Elaine, he's just shy. It's a phase, I'm positive that he will grow out of it. Please stop over reacting." James all but yelled at his wife, he didn't want to listen to her rant. He had heard enough, he knew that what she was talking about was probably true. That was what Blaine was after all, unusual and strange. It was in his blood to be a loner, to invoke fear in the hearts of his peers. However, James hadn't expected to see that side of Blaine for years to come. To think that Blaine was showing his true nature at such a young age was frightening to James.
"God dammit, James! Would you listen to me for once?" Elaine yelled at her husband, who gave her one of his unimpressed looks. She was determined to make him listen, this was serious. "He's never been sick, even when all the kids in his class got the chicken pox, not a mark on his body, James. That's not normal!"
James didn't want to hear anymore of her ridiculous ideas, he started arguing with her about what she should be worrying about. Not soon after, they were yelling at each other, a common occurrence in their house. James' work had been stressful lately, making him grumpy once he got home, add Elaine's worrisome personality and you had a recipe for disaster. They were arguing so loudly, that their voices carried all the way up the stairs of their stately home.
Blaine sat at the top of the stairs, having been woken up by the monster in his closet. When he heard his parents' raised voices, he wandered down the hall to sit and listen. They were arguing about him, how he had no friends, how no one wanted to talk to him. His father disagreed with his mother, he said there was nothing wrong with him, that he was just a normal boy. Blaine wished he was right. He himself didn't even believe it. It wasn't his fault that no one would talk to him, it was something about him that made them wary. There was only one person in his class who would talk to him, but everyone called her stupid all the time because she didn't know how to spell her own name. Blaine, however didn't care, a friend was a friend, even if you were a freak in everyone else's eyes. Blaine grew weary of listening to his parents yell at each other, and slowly walked back to his room. He wondered if he could convince the monster in his closet to go away long enough to let him sleep, but he doubted it.
He made his way back into his bedroom, stepping cautiously, trying not to be too loud. Very quietly, he made his way ever to his closet, pulling the door open just a crack. He was greeted by a pair of ruby red eyes, eyes that had haunted his nightmares. Blaine gulped, trying to find the courage to speak to the nearly invisible creature. It blinked at him menacingly, and raised a clawed finger to beckon him closer. Blaine nodded his head in affirmation, and took a tentative step closer to the creature. It didn't appear to have a distinct shape, only a red set of eyes, and the clawed hands that had beckoned him. Blaine cleared his throat, surprised that the creature hadn't tried to eat him yet.
"Wh-what are you?" he asked the creature, who just blinked at him. He could hear the thing breathing, a raspy sound emanating from what he assumed was its mouth.
"I'm a demon, little boy, what else would I be?" asked the creature in an inquisitive voice. Blaine gave the creature a thoughtful look, trying to figure out if it was a trick question.
"You're not a monster? It thought you wanted to eat me, or steal my soul. Something like that." he asked the creature, who just gave a raspy laugh in response. Blaine shuddered at the sound, he was still terrified that the demon was going to hurt him.
"Be calm, child." said the demon, who laid a clawed hand on Blaine's shoulder. Blaine tried not to flinch, but he couldn't help himself. The demon notices, and removed his hand from the boy's shoulder. "I'm not going to hurt you, I'm here to protect you. I'm your friend."
"If you're supposed to be my friend, then will you leave me alone so I can sleep?" asked Blaine curiously, looking up into the creature's red eyes. The creature nodded slowly at him, which made the creature's eyes flicker in the darkness. "Say, what's your name, Mr. Demon?"
"You can call me Sammy, Blaine. Don't worry though, child, the next time you see me, I will be in a less frightening form." Sammy reassured Blaine, patting him on the back and guiding him out of the closet. Blaine made his way back up to his bed and settled himself under the covers. He started to doze off, watching the red eyes peering at him from the crack in his closet door. Just as he fell asleep, he felt a hand rustling his hair. He looked up to see a man with eyes like his own, looking down at him with a smile on his face.