Chapter 12

Erin sat under the bleachers, placing a folded hoodie underneath her knees to avoid dusting up her black tights. She eyed the familiar graffiti, etched into the wood or drawn on with markers. Most were so old the students in question had probably moved on to college or even jobs. She imagined what Devin from Devin loves Hayley 4EVA might be doing these days. 

'Probably married to someone else,' Erin shrugged to herself, ever the cynic. 

As she waited for her friends to catch her up, clunky footsteps sounded above her head. It had to be Damien because no one else was quite so heavy-footed.

Another pair of feet chased shortly after, scraping to a stop that caused mud and dust to fall and land in Erin's hair.

'Great,' Erin thought, making an exaggerated dejected face despite the fact nobody could see.

"Damien!" the second person shouted.

'Is that Toby Connor?' Erin thought, recognising his unusually low-pitched voice. Her heart fluttered as it always did when Toby was within ten feet of her. He was the only male in the school she couldn't talk to without turning an uncomfortable shade of red. It was embarrassing to admit, but every time he even looked in her direction she transformed from an ordinary person into a blathering idiot. 

It wasn't her fault; the guy was perfection. At six foot two with an athletic build, golden-brown skin with hair to match and eyes the most beautiful shade of green, he was beyond handsome. 

'And you will never be in his league so there is no point even thinking about it,' Erin reminded herself.

"What do you want?" Damien asked in his usual grumpy voice.

"I, erm, I just, I thought we were cool now," Toby stammered.

Damien scoffed at this. "We'll never be cool."

"But...stealing my girlfriend? Really? Come on man, you know this isn't right," Toby whined.

Everyone knew that Morgan had been dating Toby before flipping to Damien in a strange 180 that had almost everyone confused.

"Maybe I'll let you have her back when I get bored of her," Damien said.

After a moment of silence, Toby spoke quietly, "She's a person, Damien, not a toy."

From the sound of it, Toby was trying his best to reason with Damien.

'Good luck with that,' Erin thought. She knew from experience that there was no reasoning with him. Even if you were right, he would somehow twist the narrative to make you feel like you were in the wrong. 

"I gave her a fair chance," Damien said. "You warned her also. So did my friend Erin."

Erin jumped at the mention of her name, temporarily scared she'd been caught eavesdropping. It wasn't exactly her fault. She just happened to be here, but if caught, Damien would probably make it her fault. 

'He'll say I should have announced my presence,' Erin realised. 'Should I announce my presence?'

Erin thought about it and decided the moment to pop up like a creepy meerkat had passed when Toby started to plead. Now it would just be weird.

"Please, please, Damien," Toby asked in a quiet, beseeching voice. "Please let me have her back."

"Like I just said, I might let you have her back when I get bored of fucking her," Damien said. 

Erin had to clasp her hand to her lips to stifle her gasp. 

"You fu—" Toby seethed. He sucked his teeth and tutted as he trailed off.

"You can hit me if you like," Damien told him calmly. "Or you put down your fist and avoid whatever punishment I decide to dish out for punching me."

When everything went silent, Erin figured there wasn't going to be a fistfight. 

She saw her other friends approaching across the field as Damien jumped down to meet them, leading them away. 

Seconds later, she heard Toby climbing down.

He dropped onto his feet and turned to her, muttering, "Oh, shit."

"Sorry," Erin said, feeling her cheeks turning pink. Feeling about as awkward as was humanly possible she turned to leave. "I wasn’t spying by the way. I was going to pop up but then it got... weird."

As she shifted her weight to her heels, she heard a hiccupping sound. 

Turning back, she saw Toby drop to the dust in tears. 

'What do I do? What do I do?' Erin panicked.

"I—It will be okay," Erin said, dropping to her knee beside him.

"I hate him," Toby choked out the words between angry sobs. "I hate him so fucking much."

When Toby began to punch the wooden beam at his side, she placed her small hand out to catch his fist.

"That won't make you feel better," Erin said.

"Yeah, right," Toby scoffed. "Says the girl from the self-harm brigade."

"Wow." Erin made a surrendering gesture, raising her hands. "I'm just trying to help. No need to attack me with your... stereotypes."

"If you want to help, tell your friend to get a girlfriend of his own and leave Morgan alone," Toby shot back, but he also stopped punching the wooden scaffold. 

"I don't get to tell Damien what to do." Erin laughed sadly. "We all just sort of have to, erm, placate him, I guess."

"Did he tell you what he did to me?" Toby asked. He swallowed, wiping the tears from his face and the splinters from his knuckles.

"No." Erin shook her head. She didn't know Damien had done anything to Toby. She wanted to ask about it, but also didn't want to pry. 

Staying quiet, she decided to wait for him to offer up the story.

Toby turned to look at her, shook his head and explained he had no idea what Damien had done to him.

"It was like I was having a nightmare, but I was awake." Toby looked down. "This is so hard to explain. It... it was like he did something to my brain. I don't know."

"How do you know it was him?" Erin asked.

Toby gave her an odd look, as though the question was stupid. "Because he said, 'Once I click my fingers your world will be a waking nightmare.'"

"Oh." Erin wasn't sure how to respond. She knew Damien believed he had powers and had seen some weird things happen in his presence. The problem was, she didn't want to believe it.

"But it... erm... the world went back to normal eventually I'm guessing," Erin said. 

"Only because I begged and begged and begged." Toby sighed. "I have a feeling he would have and could have left me that way forever."

"Oh."

Erin stared down at her hands, absentmindedly picking at the purple stripe on her freshly polished nails. She wasn't sure what to tell him. 

"I guess I should be grateful, but when I think about him touching Morgan, I just want to kill him," Toby said.

"You don't have to be grateful about not being tortured," Erin said. "Still... it's best not to make him angry. I have a feeling he can do a lot worse than mess with people's heads."

"What do you mean?" Toby asked.

Erin shook her head. "Do you remember Dougie Hargreaves?"

Toby nodded.

Dougie and his entire family had died in a car accident a couple of years ago. He'd been a student in their year; a big, red-haired kid with a fiery temper. A few weeks after deciding to pick on Damien for whatever reason—Erin couldn't remember how it started—Dougie had been dead.

"You don’t think?" Toby asked, frowning deeply as the cogs turned.

"I think Damien didn't even give him a chance to apologise or beg for his life," Erin answered. "Just... please don't ever say anything. There's a chance I'm wrong and it was a coincidence."

“Right,” Toby said.

"I mean, he does good stuff too. He's not... evil. I'm pretty sure he wasn't joking about curing Mrs. Helen's daughter. She ran over and thanked him in the courtyard," Erin said. She didn't want to sound like she was slagging Damien off or painting him as a monster. He wasn't all bad.

The pair sat in silence for a moment. 

'This is the longest conversation I've had with him,' Erin thought. 

"I miss her," he said at last. "Will you... erm... keep an eye on Morgan for me?"

"Of course, I'll do my best," Erin said. She owed the popular boy nothing, yet somehow the idea of helping him made her feel valued. 

'I'm such a pathetic loser.'

When her phone beeped, she saw the message was from Morgan. It felt weird to be sitting with the popular boy and having the most popular girl in the school messaging her. Almost as if she herself was part of the in-crowd.

'Losers forever,' Damien would always say, as if their group should be proud of their lack of social skills and friends. Erin always smiled along with the sentiment, but secretly she wished to be just like Morgan—pretty, perfect, and beloved.

When she read the message, she felt a prick of guilt.

"The double date is on!!!" it read.

'Jay,' Erin thought. He was a lovely guy. He didn't make her heart flutter the way Toby did, but he was sweet to her and she could do a lot worse. Weirdly, Erin was more excited about the prospect of spending time with Morgan.

"I'll look after her," Erin promised, smiling at Toby. "And I'll talk to Damien. Maybe he will listen to me."