Asher’s thoughts tumbled with the wind as he tried to sleep. “Promise you won’t hurt me” his brother had said. Adrian was scared of him. There was no other way to say it. Asher sighed as he realized that tonight would be yet another sleepless one.
“He’s scared of you. How sad,” one voice taunted.
“I wish he wasn’t.”
“Oh, boo-hoo. Life isn’t fair.”
“I know that.”
“Yeah? Then stop complaining about it!”
“Where are your friends anyways?”
“They didn't bother coming. We could tell you weren’t going to get mad right now.”
“Then why are you here? Are you bored?”
“Precisely.”
“Ah, so they didn’t invite you to their party. Is that it?”
“I- well, uh-SHUT UP!”
“Tsk tsk tsk. Just as I thought. So, are you going to be coming to visit me whenever you’re bored until the day I die?”
“Ah, you could get rid of us if you wanted to.”
“Really? I doubt that.”
“No, It’s easy. You just have to satisfy our souls.”
“Yeah, that’s never going to happen.”
“We’ll see. Sleep well.”
And then the voice was gone. Asher turned on his side and pulled his blanket above his head. He listened to the wind rolling outside, and slowly closed his eyes. His mind still ran with thoughts and worries, but he pushed them away and fell asleep.
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Asher woke to thunder and lightning shaking his house. He got up and headed downstairs, following the smell of breakfast. He found Adrian sitting against the window, looking outside.
“Hi.”
“Hey.”
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“You enjoying the rain?”
“Yah”
“You know you don’t have to be scared of me.”
“Yah.”
“Okay, I was just making sure. Because you asked me to promise not to hurt you.”
“MmmHmm”
“You know I never would. That would break my ‘Older Brother Rules’”
Adrian smiled, and Asher, seeing this, relaxed. He took a seat at the table before continuing.
“Sorry we can’t play outside today. You still wanna do it inside?”
“Definitely!”
“NO, no, no!” Cedric said, coming into the room with a cup of coffee. “There will be no playing inside my house today. Not while I have a splitting headache.”
“Awwww, Dad, you’re no fun!” Adrian pouted.
Asher smiled and patted his brother's head, messing up Adrian's hair. “Aw, sorry buddy, but we don’t want to make Dad upset. That would be much worse than this storm. Maybe tomorrow.”
“Fine.” he grumbled.
Asher had broken his promise. They would not play guitar today.
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Asher spent the day playing games with his brother, and purposely losing most of them. Although they tried their best, their dad yelled at them many times for being too loud. Eventually, they were banished to their rooms.
Now alone with his thoughts, Asher found the voice from the night before once more talking to him. They made small conversation for a few minutes, which mostly consisted of them insulting each other. Eventually, Asher asked the voice a question.
“What’s your name?”
“My my my...my n-name? Wow, no one has asked my name before! Um, I’m Wymer.” the voice stumbled.
“Wymer? That’s a nice name.”
“You really think so?”
“Yeah.”
“Wow, I’m flattered!”
“Do you want to tell me your story?”
“Oh, I don’t know about that.”
“Well, you seem different from the rest of them. Why?”
Adrian had been passing by in the hallway, but at that moment he turned and came into the room to begin to question his brother.
“Ash, are you talking to the voices?”
“Yeah.”
“Can I talk to them?”
“Uh, I guess. Wymer, this is my brother, Adrian.”
“Tell him it’s a pleasure to meet him.” Wymer cooed.
“He says it’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Oh wow!” Adrian gushed. “Can you pass a message on for me?”
“Yeah, of course.”
“Tell him to LEAVE MY BROTHER ALONE!” Adrian screamed. “I WANT MY BROTHER BACK YOU HORRIBLE DEMONS!” Adrian began to sob and ran out of the room.
Asher’s head was silent.
Adrian had driven the demons away.