Torn

  She hopped up from the couch and made her way over to the door. A quick peek through the peephole revealed Walter and Phinneas standing out on the landing on top of the stairs. She turned the lock and then opened the door to greet them.

  "Hi," she said, a slightly confused look on her face.

  Walter frowned. "Did you forget that we planned to meet this morning?"

  "No no, I remembered," she said as she briefly shook her head. "I didn't expect you to knock, is all. I guess I just thought you would show up in my apartment."

  "We may not be human anymore, but we do still have manners," Phinneas piped up from behind Walter.

  Melina smiled and gestured for them to come inside.

  "How are you feeling today?" Walter asked as she led them into her living room.

  She rubbed the left side of her head as she sat back down on the couch and turned off the TV. Walter sat down next to her, and Phinneas took a seat in the recliner to her left. "My head still hurts a little, but other than that, I'm okay. I haven't been outside of my apartment yet today, though, so I guess there's a possibility that I could have another incident."

  "Speaking of that," said Phinneas. "I think I've changed my mind about having you go out and about with Dean to compare your powers."

  Melina's eyebrows scrunched together. "You think I should stay here? Why? What's changed?"

  "Well, at first I thought it would help us in figuring out what’s going on with you, but the toll it's taking on you is greatly outweighing any helpful information that we've gained," Phinneas said.

  Melina slowly nodded her head. "You think I'm doing it all for nothing because you don't think you've gained any helpful information." She paused for a moment and then continued. "That is what you're saying, right?"

  "No, not exactly," he replied.

  She sighed heavily and responded in a sharp tone. "Well I can't read your mind, so please explain!"

  Phinneas and Walter both stared at her with wide eyes.

  Melina's foot started to tap rapidly on the floor, and then suddenly she shot up from the couch and glared at Phinneas. "Not one of you elders has the slightest idea of what's going on with me. You really think that keeping me locked up in my own apartment like a prisoner is going to change that? You think that having me not do anything so that nothing happens to me is going to give you some sort of answer?" Her face was now a deep red as she leaned closer and closer to him. "I'm not going to turn into a hermit because of this. You can't make me stay here!" Her breathing had become fast and heavy, her fists were clenched at her sides.

  She kept her eyes on Phinneas, who continued to stare at her, and then she turned her hard gaze to Walter. "Do you agree with him on this?"

  Walter opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out. He and Phinneas both remained silent.

  Melina's rigid body posture suddenly relaxed as she stood up straight and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "I see," she said, a small smirk appearing on her face. "Neither one of you is going to talk to me now." She let out a short laugh as she started to pace back and forth. Then all of a sudden, the anger inside of her was forced out again. She abruptly dropped to her knees and buried her face in her hands as she started to cry.

  Walter immediately stood from the couch and knelt down by her side. "Melina?"

  "I'm so sorry," she whispered as she shook her head.

  "It's okay," said Walter in a soft voice.

  "Ahh!" Melina screamed and then raised her tear-stained face up from her hands. "No! Everyone needs to stop saying that to me because it's not okay." She let out a loud sob and then hastily wiped the moisture away from her cheeks. "I've had so much anger, and hate, and just plain evil feelings inside of me lately, and their presence is only growing stronger and more constant. They take over so quickly, and when they do, I'm not myself." She looked down at her clasped hands and shook her head again. "I don't know what's going on, but it's not okay."

  For the next several seconds, no one said a word. Then finally, Phinneas spoke up.

  "Was it what I said that triggered the anger?" he asked in a low voice.

  Melina slowly raised her head to look at him. "Maybe," she said. "Before, the anger has always come to the surface after I used one of my powers. But this time it just came out all on its own. I remember that I was somewhat upset by what you said, then all of a sudden I was filled with intense anger."

  "Hmm," Phinneas said as he narrowed his eyes and rubbed his chin.

  "It seems like everything has been on the fritz the past couple of days," Melina said.

  "What do you mean?" Walter asked as he helped her up off the floor and led her back over to the couch.

  Melina took a seat and explained the incident with Nina. "I had no pain after hearing her thoughts. I immediately went to being angry and lashed out at her. Then the burning sensation returned when I had the vision, but that made me have violent feelings instead of angry ones. And just now, I didn't even have to use one of my powers, let alone have any pain beforehand. Oh, and I've already told you about how I think I might be losing control of my angel powers." She sighed. "Everything seems to be all over the place, and I can't make sense of it anymore. Well, I couldn't really make sense of it before, but now it's worse."

  "I wish you would've told us all of this yesterday," said Phinneas.

  "I know," she said. "I meant to. I just forgot, seeing the condition I was in."

  Phinneas nodded.

  "Anything else you forgot to tell us about?" asked Walter. "You didn't see any more Noxin demons, did you?"

  "No, we didn't see any demons." As the words crossed her lips, she realized she hadn't seen any Noxin demons for the past three days, which was odd. Hmm… She started to think that maybe she wouldn't have to worry about them after all when suddenly her thoughts were ambushed by images of the raven-haired woman in the dark red coat. Her eyes shifted back and forth between Walter and Phinneas. "There is something else that happened, though."

  Both elders gave her a confused look.

  Melina cleared her throat and then told them about the strange woman she saw in the library and how she had mysteriously disappeared. "At first I thought she might be a guiding angel who had sensed Dean and me and was just checking us out, but then we couldn't understand why she would run from me."

  "You're right," said Phinneas. "An angel wouldn't have run from you. That is strange behavior for a human, though. Especially her disappearing like that. Did you notice anything else peculiar about her?"

  "No," Melina said with a quick shake of her head.

  "And you're sure you don't know her from somewhere?" Walter asked.

  "I've never seen her before," said Melina. "But she sure acted like she knew me. Or more like she knew something about me." The woman's mischievous smirk popped into her mind. "I just wish I knew what it was that she knows."

  "If she even does know anything," said Phinneas. "Pardon my lax term, but there are a lot of weirdos out there, and she could just be one of them."

  Melina nodded. "So, you really want me to not go anywhere and stay in my apartment?"

  Phinneas looked at her as if he were afraid to answer.

  She sighed. "For how long?"

  "Well, that depends."

  "On what?" she asked.

  He hesitated. "I didn't want to have to resort to this, but I do have a… oh what's the best way to describe it?" His hand went up to his chin, and his eyes drifted off in another direction as if he was thinking. Finally he returned his gaze to her and said, "I guess you could say that I have a source who I'd like to talk to about your new developments, but it may take some time to convince him to talk to me."

  "A source?" Her eyes narrowed. "What kind of source?"

  "Well," he paused to clear his throat. "You've described all of these feelings you're having as being evil, so I thought that maybe to find some answers we needed to talk to someone who would know all about evil feelings."

  Melina glanced over at Walt
er, but he appeared to be just as clueless and suspicious as she was, so she turned her attention back to Phinneas. "And who would that be?"

  Phinneas took in a deep breath and then let out a long exhale. "A demon."

  Chapter Twelve

  "A demon?" Walter asked, his eyes wide. "You can't be serious."

  "I wish I wasn't," said Phinneas. "But what other options do we have?"

  Walter remained silent.

  "Would this demon be a Noxin demon?" Melina asked Phinneas.

  His gaze shifted from Walter to her. "Yes, he's a Noxin demon."

  She swallowed hard. "I see. And is this demon one that you met when you were working with Adelia?"

  "I did meet him during the time I was working with Adelia," he said, "but he wasn't one of the demons who helped her. He's actually a lone Noxin demon, one who's been banned from the rest of his kind."

  Melina's forehead wrinkled in confusion. "He's been banned? Why?"

  "Because he's a demon who actually has a conscience." Phinneas ran a hand through his shoulder-length gray hair and leaned back in the recliner. "You see, he refuses to take humans' souls and kill them."

  "But, isn't that the main objective of a Noxin demon?" Melina asked.

  "Yes," answered Phinneas. "And that's exactly why he was banned."

  "Wow," said Melina, her eyebrows raised. "A demon who actually has some good in him."

  "We all have good and bad in us," said Phinneas. "We just have to choose which one is going to win."

  Melina held his gaze, taking in what he had just said. Finally, she broke her stare and cleared her throat. "So if he isn't evil then—"

  "Oh no," Phinneas interjected. "He's still plenty evil. He may not want to take human souls himself, but he doesn't care if other Noxins do it. And just because he doesn't take souls doesn't mean he's not a mischief maker."

  "Oh," she said. "Does he have a name?"

  Phinneas shook his head. "Most demons don't have names. They just have rankings."

  Her brow furrowed. The no name thing confused her, but it wasn't important right now. What was important was how Phinneas was going to find the demon. "So how are you going to find him?" she asked.

  "It's been years since I last saw him, but I'm pretty sure he still hangs around the same areas." Phinneas leaned forward again and motioned between himself and Walter. "Hopefully we'll get lucky and find him in one of the first areas we check."

  "Excuse me. We?" Walter asked, an incredulous expression on his face.

  "Yes, we," said Phinneas. "Meaning you and me."

  "No no," said Walter as he raised a hand in the air and shook his head. "I will not be consorting with any demon."

  "Come on now, Walter. We won't be consorting with him. Only asking him for his opinions on what's been happening with Melina."

  "That's if you can even convince him to talk to us," said Walter.

  "If he's banned from being with the other Noxin demons, then why would it be so hard to get him to talk to you?" asked Melina.

  "He may be banned," said Phinneas, "but he's peacefully banned, if that makes sense. As long as he doesn't interfere with the objectives of other Noxin demons then they just sort of ignore him. But, if he's caught talking to me, the other demons will assume he's somehow acting against their evil plans and will retaliate in a very violent fashion."

  "Well…," she said, hesitation in her voice. "I really don't want to be in the same room as a Noxin demon, but for the sake of getting some answers, maybe you could bring him here so you're not out in the open with him."

  Phinneas shook his head. "He won't come here. And besides, I wouldn't want him here. If he would end up being seen with me then he would use you as a way to save himself. We're a lot better off with him not knowing what you look like or where you live."

  Melina nodded. "Right. I didn't think of that."

  "Well then," said Walter as he stood up from the couch and looked right at Phinneas. "Let's get started on finding this demon. I'm only going along with you because I want to help Melina, so the sooner we get this over with the better."

  "All right, let's get going then," said Phinneas. His eyes met Melina's as they both stood up. "Will you please promise to—"

  "Stay holed up in my apartment?" she finished for him. "Yeah. I can do that. Except for Friday. We're hosting a poetry reading, and I need to show my face down in the store at least once or twice during the event. I've already put most of the work onto Tessa, so it's the least I can do. And besides, it's a poetry reading. The crowd will be much less than if it were a book signing."

  Phinneas glanced at Walter then back to her. "I guess that'll be okay. But I want you to head right back upstairs at the first sign of any pain or bad feelings, all right?"

  "Of course," she said. "But until you get back, what should we do about Dean?"

  "Well," Phinneas said with a sigh. "This isn't going quite like we wanted it to, so I may suggest that he go back home. He can come back later after we've gotten everything figured out with you."

  "No, don't do that," Melina said. "We still need to compare our light shields and teleportation powers."

  Phinneas held a hand up in the air, stopping her from saying anything else. "I thought we just agreed for you to stay here? We don't want to see you go through any more pain than you have to."

  "I know," she said. "But I want to have all possibilities explored before we cross them off the list. It's only two more powers, so it will only be two more painful episodes. And since we don't have to be around other people to use them, we can just stay here. So no lashing out at strangers. I'll only be around Dean."

  Walter's forehead creased. "I'm not sure I see how you'd be able to use your teleportation powers and stay here."

  "We wouldn't be able to teleport very far," she said. "But this building is actually pretty large, so we could try teleporting from one end of my apartment to the opposite side of the bookstore below."

  "That may not be far enough for you to compare much," said Walter, "but I guess it'll have to do for the time being."

  "Good. That's settled then." Melina clasped her hands together and turned her gaze down to the floor.

  "Is something bothering you?" Walter asked.

  "Well, it's something I wanted to ask Phinneas," she said as she raised her eyes up to look at him.

  "Yes, what is it?" asked Phinneas.

  "I…," she paused. "I was wondering what your theory is?"

  "My theory?"

  "Yeah. I mean, I'm assuming you have some type of theory about what's going on with me, and that's why you're going to talk to this demon. To see if you're right or not. Do you agree with what I said yesterday? That I'm not a good enough person to deserve the powers?" She looked at him expectantly.

  He held her gaze for a moment and then shook his head. "No, I don't agree with that. I actually don't have a complete theory, though, just an idea. But I think that all of these malicious feelings you've been having might have something to do with the fact that you've had a Noxin demon try to steal your soul, not only once but twice. I think it may have had an effect on you."

  "But how?" she asked. "How would that cause me to have evil feelings?"

  "I don't know," answered Phinneas. "Like I said, it's just an idea, but it's the first thing I'm going to talk to the demon about. And please remember that we're asking you to stay here because we want you to be safe."

  Melina gave him a weak smile as she slowly nodded her head. "I'm sure lounging around my apartment over the next several days won't be so bad anyway."

  Phinneas smiled. "Thank you for understanding."

  "And don't hesitate to call to one of us if you need anything," added Walter.

  She nodded again. "I will. And I hope to see you two again sooner rather than later."

  "So do we," said Phinneas. He then turned to Walter. "Are you ready?"

  "Lead the way," Walter replied.

  They both gave her a quick wave and then disappeared. For the ne
xt few seconds, Melina continued to stare at the spot where they had been standing. She had so many thoughts running through her head. If Phinneas was right, then what did that mean for her? Had the demon taken a part of her soul that was pure, hence tipping her internal scales from good to bad? Was that why all of these evil feelings were surfacing and trying to take over? She closed her eyes and shook her head, trying to clear her mind.

  After several seconds, she finally opened them again and then slowly walked back into the living room. She glanced at the photo of her parents on the end table and tried to remind herself to stay positive. It didn't seem to be helping much, though, so she grabbed a book off of the coffee table and settled back into the couch. An escape from her world was what she needed right now, so delving into another one seemed like the perfect idea. Before she opened the book, though, she picked up her phone and held down the power button until it turned off. If Walter, Phinneas, or Henry needed to contact her they could do so without her phone being on. But she didn't want any distractions from anyone else right now.

  ****

  When Walter and Phinneas reappeared, it was in the middle of a dark, foul-smelling alley.

  "Really?" said Walter.

  Phinneas shrugged. "We are trying to find a demon, are we not?"

  Walter shook his head. "I still can't believe I'm doing this." He gave the surrounding area a quick scan. "Where are we?"

  "New York City," Phinneas answered.

  Walter's forehead wrinkled and his eyes narrowed. "New York City? Why?"

  "It's the most populated city in the country."

  "I still don't understand," said Walter.

  Phinneas sighed and then pressed his lips together.

  "Don't give me that look," said Walter. "Unlike you, I'm not all that familiar with the ways of Noxin demons."

  Phinneas relaxed his face and explained. "Being in an area where there are a lot of humans who can take the fall for his mischief is essential for a demon, especially a lone one. He can blend in a lot better."