TNP's 1st One-Shot Story Writing Contest Pt. 2

Entry #203

Demon Next to Me

By CMB

I can't sleep. How could I? Despite working five times a week, 9 hours each day, tolerating my insensitive and borderline abusive boss and coworkers, I could not get a single moment of peace that will allow me to finally sleep. How dare I even try to sleep? There isn't really much of a choice. Not when there's a demon lying right beside me.

Light shining through the window, but I still haven't had the chance to put my mind to rest. As usual, my head hurts as I go do my morning routine. I fix myself up, to the degree I can, and go to work. It's simple really; I just need to look good enough.

After arriving, I immediately do my tasks for the day. It's surprising, to say the least, that my mind was clear while I'm busy following orders, mindlessly typing away at the same computer I have since I first started here. I was in a trance, an addictive one at that. I was devoid of any disturbing thoughts and I focused on what I set out to do.

Lunch was the same, packed lunch consisting of an ample of white rice, dried fish that was fried, some slices of tomato bought yesterday, and a small container which probably has soy sauce and Calamansi. It's tasteless, as usual. A communion wafer would've probably tasted better. She probably forgot that I like soy sauce and vinegar more than toyomansi.

Despite how tasteless it is, I tried to eat slower. I tried as slow as I possibly can. As slow as I can stretch out the time I use for lunch without getting reported to the higher ups.

After that long grueling lunch period, I'm quite glad I took the time to leisurely consume my lunch. When I came back, the tasks I needed to do piled up. As I saw the amount of work I had, a smile broke on my face. The higher the amount, the higher the edges of my mouth go. Some may say I'm crazy for being delighted in having multitudes of work to be done; some may say I'm masochistic. Maybe they're right, but all in my head was that I get to work and I may even have to go overtime.

After an hour of overtime, I drearily commute my way back to my house. Oh dear, I wouldn't know how much I'd pay just to stay out of my house that has a demon in it. In each and every step I take, I can feel strands of hair in my body standing up. Each time I get closer, I can feel my body burning up and feeling the heat radiating from the house - probably because of the demon. And as I step right in front of the front door, I whisper a small prayer. Oh God, please let save me from this demon.

Just when I finished the short prayer, the door opened. It was my son who opened the door with a smile on his face, finally seeing his father since the morning. He probably felt that I was there already, unlike the demon that was taking care of him the whole day.

Speaking of the devil, here she comes waltzing right through the living room and into my son's back. She taps his shoulder and they both greeted me for coming back home - something she must've taught my son to do. I do my best to smile and utter the words, "I'm back."

Dinner was as tasteless as lunch was. Good thing my son enjoyed it though, but it boggles my mind how he could stomach cuisine from the depths of hell made by a demon. Perhaps he's just used to it that it starts to become homely.

As I try to clean up the dishes after dinner, the demon approaches me. It seems that she wouldn't let me do the dishes and intend to clean them herself. I let her do it since I needed to take a shower badly anyways. It's just worrying how her scalding touch wouldn't break the plates, cups, and cutlery.

After staring at the wall for a few minutes in the shower, I walk out of it, started drying myself with my own towel, and dressed myself aptly for the night. I then walked myself over to the bed and just sat there for a while. The demon, on the other hand, was taking a shower herself. When she finished and started drying herself, I started to lay in bed and stare at the ceiling - preparing myself for another sleepless night.

It all started a few months you know? How clueless I was back then, believing that I had married the perfect woman when in fact, she is the devil herself!

It was the day after our anniversary celebration - a short museum date, coffee at the top of a hill in the afternoon, a romantic movie, a classic dinner at a well-known hotel I booked 5 months before, and a massage and spa session right after. Quite the effort I've spent on her, not knowing that the day after, while she's showering, a text would pop up on her phone saying "What are you up to dear? Call me if you want to go get dinner tonight and do something else. Preferably like last week's."

Keep in mind, I didn't know her password and she doesn't know mine either because we respect each other's privacy and we don't have anything to hide from each other - at least we used to.

My heart sank, my mind was shaken. All I could think of was to turn the screen off before she got back from the shower. It was then that I started to realize that I had been living under the same roof with a demon.

The following days, up until now, I cannot sleep a wink even if it costs me my life. How dare I even try to sleep? Not when there's a literal demon laying right beside me in bed.

One other thing, I gathered some more evidences and confronted her about it. Apparently she just 'explored' her feelings for her crush back when she was in high school. She said sorry, promised to never do it again, and that she would do everything to gain back my trust. It was too late.

Contrary to what common sense tells me - to leave her, I didn't. Of course we didn't go back to the way we were, I had to stay at my parent's place for a month before I went back. I just couldn't see her face without imagining the other dude and it makes me sick in the stomach, sick enough to vomit every time. Not even an empty stomach can stop me from vomiting.

No, it isn't because I still like this woman that I stayed. I am not that dumb and I have enough self-respect to know that staying with her isn't the right choice. It's because of my son.

I wouldn't want my son to grow up without a father or mother in his life. I want him to grow up with both parents and to live a normal, healthy, and happy life. I just wished that he grew up faster, so that when he's of age, I could finally move away from the demon without worrying if he was going to be alright.

Just 10 more years of this miserable, sleepless, loveless, trustless, and sickly life and I'm done.

Every family gathering, they smile and talk merrily about their lives and families, not knowing that my wife that they are talking to is the incarnation of the devil herself! How delightful it would be if I can finally tell others the truth about her and her world comes crumbling down in the future? How pleasurable would it be if my son, after growing up, would despise his mother so much that he doesn't even recognize her as his mother anymore? Maybe he won't invite her to his wedding, avoid letting her and her granddaughter meet, and deny the invitation to her future funeral. How wide would my grin be if all of that were to happen?

Of course that didn't happen. I made it so that it wouldn't. I put myself in this situation, a cold, hard, and harrowing place to be in. But none of that matters, if it's all for the sake of my son.

Each day pass by slowly. It was like time was a sadist and he knew just how to torment me. It was like he knew that making time move slower would let me feel even more excruciating pain that I felt being near this demon!

As I tried to sleep one day, she tried to put her arm over my body - like she was trying to hug me. I didn't know what to do, do I remove it because it felt burning hot or do I let her do what she wants so she's satisfied with what's happening, be happier, and treat my son better?

I decided to let her put her arm over me. I didn't know if she was asleep, whether she deliberately wanted to hug me in bed or not. Maybe she was awake, or maybe she was hugging me in her sleep. I don't know, nor do I care. It's all for my son, not me.

Again, I couldn't sleep.