I’m King

7) bad news comes with gifts

The two of them sit in silence. Gianna is curled with her knees to her chest on a chair in the boardroom. She is drenched in blood. Her hair starting to mat because of it. She chewed on the fleshy part of the inside of the corner of her lip. A horrible habit that results in thick skin on the inside corner of her cheek right where her lips begin.

“You are going to have to make a very difficult decision tomorrow,” her demon says these things so casually. The way he studies her is very intense. Almost as if he is gauging her reaction, her behaviours, finding her pattern.

“When do I not?” she replies sharply. Over the year since she first started having the dreams, she still was not used to them. They still petrified her. To her f*****g core!

Her demon chuckles, “You are not wrong. But you are doing well.”

“Am I?” It did not feel like it. Every day is a new cluster f**k (as her mom would say). At least 2 things go wrong with 5 people harassing her for something. The most recent being hair care products. That was the last straw! The most stupid request she had received in the year she had been running things. She told them, in no uncertain terms, that they could either have competent chemists working on medication for when they needed it or they could have hair care products. And then to duly f**k OFF! Sufficed to say, people now needed an appointment to place a complaint.

“You are,” his voice is steady and genuine, “But tomorrow is going to be difficult for you.”

“What am I going to have to do?” her voice is slightly shaky because of his words.

“You are going to have to make a decision about kicking people out,” again that casual tone. Like he is not talking about people's lives.

“Fan-f*****g-tastic,” Gia shook her head, “and just when I thought my week could not get worse.”

“I realise you have been in a slump for the past few weeks. Maybe tomorrow will be the day to turn things around?” his suggestive tone is making her feel even worse.

“Perhaps it won’t!” she snapped back.

“You never know,” he counters, “if you make the right call, I have a gift for you.”

“A gift?” this catches her interest. How could a demon give her a gift? What will it be?

“Yes,” she can see is unnaturally white teeth glinting beneath his cloak hood. A sure sign of a smile, “But I can’t tell you what it is.”

This makes her scowl at him.

“I don’t want you making the wrong decision because you want the gift too much.”

“Fine,” she shakes her head with a small smile, “But tomorrow night, when I make the right choice, I will be expecting you for my gift.”

“Deal.”

~

Conrad hated this. Hated watching her scream. It unsettled the whole house. He had never run so fast in his life the first time it had happened. He thought someone was trying to kill her just to find her writhing, unharmed, in her bed. He thought it was just a bad dream and tried to wake her up. Until Seren had come rushing in and told him not to touch her. She hadn’t said why, probably because she didn’t understand it herself. But Gia had told her not to.

After the 4th time, no one came rushing to her anymore. She had told them not to. The screaming usually only lasted a minute or two before she goes quiet and her body shivers. She explained it to him once: she was having a visit from her demon. What caused the screaming was a dream to create a connection between them. The actual screaming was so that everyone knew not to wake her. If she was woken up during his visit, it could leave her mind halfway between her body and her demon's mind. It was a difficult process to get that half back.

But, despite her warnings, Conrad still found himself sitting in a chair in her room, watching her body shiver. She wasn’t cold. Adding blankets only made her sweat and panic when she wakes up.

So, here he sits. Alone. In a dark room. Waiting for Gianna to wake up.

She suggested he listen to music if he insists on sitting here. He liked music but not like she did. No one liked music like Gianna did. It was annoying really. She was always listening to music. Or singing. Inflicting it on others. She even allowed some of the grade 10’s to start a music radio station. A strange thing really.

Some of the people studying and practicing engineering had found a way to broadcast radio waves almost across the entire country. That meant that instead of using satellites to communicate, we used radios. All of the council, heads of divisions and defence had their own radio. Otherwise, each household had one radio. They could change it to different channels, one of which being the music station.

He preferred to sit in silence though. Let his thought run wild. He worried about Gia. It pissed Kat off to no end, not that she would ever say that. Kat was too much of a lady to voice that she was unhappy with him and Gia. Nothing was going on between him and Gia. Gia was his friend. One of strange friendships that had popped up between all of the council members. Apparently, it was some type of trauma bonding. Conrad called BS. But how else would he be friends with these people he never would've been friends with otherwise? He would never have been friends with Aly, agh, and Kiki. Before he would rather gauge his eyeballs out than hold a conversation with someone like Kiki. But now, he found himself enjoying their early morning car ride to drop her at the university or power plant. And Aly was so wise, he imparted so much knowledge on Conrad in the houses evening conversations. Before he would have found Jared irritating and immature, but now that he knows Jared, Conrad finds him funny and so witty.

And Gianna? He knew her briefly through Kat. He didn't even recognise her the first moment they met. But Gia... she is brilliant. Smart and sharp. But fun and caring. And a bad influence on him. She spewed word vomit all over him and now his brain followed suit. Word vomit. A word he’d heard from Seren that explained Gianna so well.

Word vomit

She shot up right and grabbed her chest, gulping down air. She took a slow, steadying breathe while pulling her hair out of her face before flopping back onto the slack of pillows behind her.

“Do you not find it creepy the dark and watch me sleep?” her voice was breathy, like she'd been exercising.

“It’s not creepy because you’re not actually asleep,” he replied, “what did he say?”

It always worried Conrad when Gia spoke to her demon. Good things rarely came from it.

“That today is going to be s**t,” she sighed and flung her duvet off before standing up, “so, might as well get it over with.”