Cole was puzzled after the recent discovery. The A.I. was sentient.
Cole "What? What do you mean you're sentient?"
Deablos "Dumb ass now that we are at full power, we can do things with or without a command, as we see fit."
Angelos "She is kinda right. I, however, still listen to you master Cole."
Cole "This just is fucked yo. Am I the only one who knows?"
Deablos " Fuck no! However, your kind is extremely rare."
Cole " What you mean?"
Angelos "Each program puts eminence strain on the psyche. One can be handled as you grow up. You, however, are casually handling two."
Deablos "Two or more require training."
Cole "Nothing I can do but deal with it. Demon what's your name?"
Deablos "Well my name is the beautiful and lustrous woman type program known as deablos. You must say the whole thing now."
Cole "What, say the whole thing? No!"
Deablos "Worth a shot. Anyways, Cole, you are not my master yet. I have been instructed to listen to you, but before you can tell me what to do, you must prove yourself."
Cole "I have nothing to prove to you."
Cole left the cathedral. He started walking toward jody's house. As he got closer, he felt something was off, and he didn't like it.
Angelos "Threat detected. Activating flight plan."
Deablos "Threat detected. Activating fight plan."
Cole "What is this? I can't decide. You two do it!"
Cole heard a strangely familiar voice. As it spoke, it grated inside his head. The ringing was more painful than anything he has ever experienced. It was as if pure power was talking to him, a power that he does not understand but recognize.
voice"yllis neht htob ton yhw."
Cole "Angelos scan area for possible life threats and escape routes. deablose activate fight plan."
Deablos & Angelos "Program activated waiting for use."
As Cole prepared to fight, he saw a face that was broken. As he got closer Cole saw the red eyes. His hope died as quickly as it was born. Behind those scarlet eyes was Johnathan, holding a manila envelope.
Cole "Activate both plans to fight or flight."
Johnathan "You bastard. What kind of joke is this? Huh? This shit ain't funny."
Jonathan threw down the envelope in his rage.
Cole "Stay back, Johnathan. I'm not taking your shit anymore."
Jonathan pulls a knife out. "Your sadistic whore of a friend killed James. Played with his organs like her meat doll. I can't even begin to explain the way his body was mangled and torn."
Cole "I don't know what the fuck you're talking about, but if you put the knife down can talk. Okay. No one has to get hurt."
Jonathan "Yes, you do!"
Johnathan sprints toward Cole, catching him off guard. Unable to defend from Johnathan's ferocious attacks unscathed Cole's eyes shift slightly red. Nervousness made Cole stuck as if his feet were concrete. Suddenly a calm came over him. His eyes opened wide. Time stood still. Cole saw everything, the details in his fingers, the hair on Johnathan's arm, the number of bugs on a single blade of grass. When he focused on Johnathan, he saw it all the speed, his possible movements, and how to counter them.
Deablos "Cole do what you see."
Images of different fighting patterns and options he has never thought of came to him as second nature. Cole closed his eyes did as he was ordered. When he opened them, he realized he had the knife in his hand, and Johnathan's arm was broke.
Cole, "I just want to go home. I went through enough."
Johnathan "Mark my words Cole Yankell. I will put an end to you and your twisted friend. I will make sure that you and she will suffer the same as James and his family."
Cole "looking forward to it."
Cole picks up the envelope and walks to Jody's house. *knock knock*
Cole "Mr.Crishall it's me, Jody's friend. She said to get her stuffed animal."
donivin walks toward the door " Listen, kid, Go the fuck away before I get violent."
as donivin slams, the door Cole painfully put his foot in the way.
Cole" OWW! Mr.Crishall. This was your daughter's final words to me. I owe it to her to do it and, I would greatly appreciate it if you let me."
Donivin opens the door slowly "Call me don. Listen, that girl meant the world to me. I may not have been father of the year, but I did the best I could with what I could, and to lose her so soon is just...is just...unbarable. Her rooms upstairs, she only has a shitty pink bunny up there. Get it and leave."
Cole walks in and is greeted to a bottle of what he assumes is alcohol and a gun on the table. Cole felt that he might have stopped a bad situation from taking place. Keeping his headstrong, he just kept trekking through the foul smelling house to Jody's room. Next to jody's piss covered bed was her bunny.
Cole "You should've said something weirdo, I would have let you have my bed. I would have given you a new doll. I could have done so much more. No, I should have done more. This right here, you did not deserve."
Deablos "Why do you feel bad? It's not like you actually cared in the first place, so why? Why are you sad? Why do you shed the tears you do?"
Cole "Something she said to me brought back a memory. It was brief, almost like a distant dream. The bunny, I gave it to her. I can't remember why, but I do know her and that I gave her the rabbit."
Cole couldn't stop the tears he's been fighting since the funeral. He wept for Jody over and over.
Donivin "Hey kid. Get the hell outta my house."
Cole came running down the stairs. Just before he left, he turned around, staring at Donivin with deep somber eyes.
Cole "Don, if you need a better paying job, my father can help you."
Donivin "Kid I'm a felon, they ain't gonna hire me. my eyes used to be just as red as hers."
Cole "My dad knows a bunch of people, talk to him at least."
Deablos "Kid he just wants to die in peace."
Angelos "He wants a reason to live. Stop being so heartless. It sets a bad example for Cole to follow."
Deablos "Fuck'em. Free will means exactly that. Free...Will. Let him do as he wishes. Hey, Cole, you agree with me, right?"
Angelos "No, Cole, you agree with me. Don't let this demon lead you astray."
Cole "Will the two of you ever shut up, please? Deablos, she is right. He doesn't really want to die. He is asking for help his own way. But on that note, Angelos, she is also right. We mustn't intervene in the affairs of others. Besides, he didn't directly ask for help, so it's out of our control. I gave him a hand, and he slapped it away. So whatever happens, happens."
Angelos "Master Cole, you must give it one more try. Just try it my way one more time. You can save him."
Cole "Don, here is my number. I'll come, talk to you and clean up if you need it. Here's my dad's contact in case you want that job."
Donivin "I'll think about it, kid."
Before Cole can get off the last step, he hears a loud bang. He turns around and brakes the door down.
Deablos "Yes, he fucking did it. Told you!"
Angelos "A heartbeat is still detected."
Cole "DON!"
Donivin "I can't do anything right. I can't even take my own life. I'm fucking pathetic."
Cole "Don, it's ok. No one could see this coming."
Donivin "If only I had a better watch on her."
Cole "You were at work. how could you have known."
Donivin "I went to the bar against what I was told. I lost my job weeks ago. Once they find out you have the eyes, they just throw away your application."
Cole "My father can help. It's not stronger to suffer alone, at least that's what he told me."
donivin nods "Hey kid. You can come by round four on Mondays only. When I get some money, I'll pay you back."
Cole "Money isn't necessary. I would like to hear about Jody's childhood."
Donivin "Only after you have done the work for the day."
Cole "Sounds like a deal."
Cole went home and placed the rabbit on his bed. Cole reached in his pocket for his phone, and he felt the envelope. Cole opened and shook it, all that fell out was a note saying your next and an sd card. Cole plugged the sd card into his laptop. Thirty-Five files popped up, each one labeled after a different time. When Cole went to click on a video as his mind went blank, nauseous he tried to force himself to watch. Before he could see anything of value, cole passed out cold. When he woke up, the sd card was burnt to a crisp. He didn't bother asking what happened. He just laid in his bed, teary-eyed until he fell asleep.
Angelos "You know that's wrong."
Deablos "And you and I both know what she did. He can't see that it would break his heart."
Angelos "So you care now?"
Deablos "What no! Maybe. Just a little. I'm a demonic program. We don't have such capabilities anymore."
Angelos "Yea, is that so huh? I think a demon is lying. hehe."
Deablos was embarrassed. How could she feel a thing for this kid she only knew from a twisted girl's point of view. So what could drive that feeling for him? To their surprise, Cole suddenly woke up.
Cole "Hey, you two are a.i.e programs. How can you feel if you do at all? Like do you feel pain? Do you have emotions? Can you love or hate?"
Angelos "No, now go back to bed we have a long day tomorrow."
Deablos "I don't want to explain this later feathers. So, kind of yes but not in the same way as you. See, you feel whether or not you want to. We actively feel so we have to want to feel."
Cole "Ok."
As Cole drifted off, Angelos sang to him.
Angelos "Life would be a dream if I could..."
Deablos "Take you into..."
Angelos & Deablos "Paradise up above and if you told me I'm the only one that you love. Oh, life could be a dream sweetheart."
The days went on one by one. Cole didn't even really take notice to the passing days. Jonathan slowly didn't show up to class anymore. Cole was out of it. Jody's death hit him harder than he even realized. His teachers worried about him fully converting to a red-eyed demon, let him do what he wanted. About two weeks came and went by after Jody died. Cole remembered he was supposed to hear a story from Jody's dad, Monday. As Cole left school that day, he felt a strange feeling where ever he went as if something looked at him as prey.
Cole "Don! I'm here to do that work for you. Open up."
Donivin "Took ya long enough, kid."
Cole "My name's Cole by the way."
Donivin "Cole? I'll keep it in mind, kid. I think I got some paint in the basement. I don't really care what you do, Just do it well."
Cole runs down to see cans of paint. He lugs about five different colors out.
Cole "Ok I got red, silver, black, blue, and orange. Got any ideas, Don?"
Donivin "I already said kid, it's up to you kid!"
As pissed off as Don sounded, Cole could tell he was happy to have noise in his home again. To have someone he could share a room with even if it wasn't Jody or his wife, Cole felt that Donivin was content with his company.
Cole "Hey Don while im painting mind telling me a story about Jody? ya know, something about her past or something."
Donivin "It's supposed to be after you finished but what the hell, okay."
This made cole happy, even though it's been such a short time he has known her he missed her a lot.
Donivin "Okay, so first things first. Jody isn't my kid exactly. She is sort of a stepdaughter. The girl was Tennys. I met her when she was about ten years old? No twelve. Well anyway. Tenny wasn't that good of a mother. She would leave for hours on end with me a stranger in the house with her. We grew close. Soon she looked at me as her father. I would take her for walks and take her to play in the park. Her bright scarlet red eyes would scare most of the kids away. I knew what that meant but, no way this girl could have been crazy she played with the kids that stayed, so well, which got me to wondering what happened that caused it. I often thought to myself this girl was great, smart, pretty, she was a goofball. She would sneak into the kitchen put a colander on her head and call herself the queen of the alien ninja pirates or she would dress up as legacy and scream how she would be just like her."
Cole "She wanted to be Legacy? She never mentioned anything about her?"
Donivin "Yea well, Jody loved her. She was a strong female who stopped a major disaster. She was her hero. Tenny hated it so much. She would always nag Jody and me about how it was "unladylike" and she wouldn't have it. The worse part was Jody's birthday was coming up, and she was gonna ask her mom to go to the Legacy museum with her. It broke her lil heart in two when Tenny said no. Jody cried all that night. Anyways, about two weeks later, it's her birthday. So I hired some girl to dress up as Legacy and take jody to the museum. Jody just couldn't stop smiling. I think for the first time I saw her A.I.E's turn blue, kinda like yours. It almost brought a tear to my eye. That's when her dad came and snatched her up out of the museum. I was lucky enough to able to track him down. I fought with him the best I could to subdue him. I don't think he was even trying. Jody was so scared she ran to me. Jody had just turned thirteen, and it was her birthday. I thought it was best to leave but, as we were walking out, he grabbed her leg, screaming like a mad man spouting off nonsense about how she was going against the natural order, that she didn't deserve happiness, that she is just darkness. What I saw next was unbelievable. Her eyes turned like blood red, and she started tears of blood. This is when I knew that I couldn't be her father. The power she put out was terrifying. I might have been swallowed up in her darkness had she felt the need. She snatched his knife and stabbed him. She screamed cuss words all over the place "your blah blah this and blah blah that." I didn't even listen to it. When she was done, she cut his head clean off. I don't remember much, but how absolutely happy she was. Somehow soaked in her father's blood, she was able to smile. She turned toward me and said, "Can we go home now, daddy?" I was terrified. She said it as if to tell me to bow down. This little girl gave me an order, and I was so scared that I just did it. When we got home and packed up, moved here. That day you knocked at the door. I was afraid she might kill you. Honestly, kid, I don't see why you would want to be her friend. If I were you, I'd stay as far away as possible. Forget her. She will only cause you pain and suffering. I've seen her do things to people that you wouldn't imagine."
Cole "I will never forget her. If I had known this before I would've extended my hand to her. No, even though I didn't know she needed me, I should have been there for her. It's easy to fall to fear as you, and I know but to rise above it and do the right thing is hard. She needed help, but not from some doctor but a friend. A true friend can even save the devil."
Donivin "I can only pray you're right."
Cole "I know I am."
Cole smiles as he started to walk back home before he could donivin grabs his shoulder so he could admire the painting of jody on the wall.
Donivin "Hey kid, let me know if you need anything. I want to pay you back for a job well done."
Cole "What do you do?"
Donivin "I make programs. I'm actually starting to get good at it."
Cole "I'll keep it in mind see ya don."
Donivin "see ya, kid."
Cole went into his house and ran up the stairs. Flopping on his bed, Cole breathed a final sigh of relief even though something was bothering him. Something didn't seem right.
Cole "Hey Angelos? Deablos?"
Angelos & Deablos "Yes, cole?"
Cole "Hey did that guy look familiar? Like it seems staged. I felt something is off, like the way he spoke was staged."
Angelos caresses his face "Don't worry about that now. You need to focus on your studies. Your grades are lacking severely."
deablos lays on his lap "What do grades matter to you? Come play with me for a bit. It's way more fun than some dusty old book work."
Cole "Don't you find it weird that I can feel you? Like I feel like your really laying on me right now."
Deablos "We function on faith, the living energy. It's the reason why we are sentient and why you can feel me. We can control our effect on you also. If I so wished I could lift your arm and move your legs through our faith link in your brain. Its why our core program is on the eye, it's the closest external organ to the brain. I could push your skin, and it would flex as if another human did, however, if I were to try to grab your clothes, my hand would pass right through it."
Cole "Faith? What is that exactly?"
Angelos "Faith is the strength to keep fighting. Essentially it's your will or beliefe in a particular outcome, person, or thing. The stronger your resolve and will are, the stronger your faith will be. If you believe that if you can throw a feather at mock speed, then your faith will make it so."
Deablos "Enough with the history lesson! Cole, sweety would you like to try feeling me? I'll let you touch anything you want."
Angelos "Get away from him! He is way too young for that."
Deablos "Says the one who lets him look at pervy videos."
Cole "What?! How do you know that?"
Deablos "Jody and I kept very very detailed records. She has like hundreds."
Cole "You were watching me?!?!"
Deablos "Yea? At times she would try her hand at "experimenting" too. "
Cole was so embarrassed that he was found out that he just denied it.
Cole "Bull shit! There's no way that off brand girl would ever do that."
Deablos "She had help growing up a bit. I am unable to tell you who, but she had help."
Cole "From who?"
Deablos "Didn't I just say I couldn't tell you?"
Angelos "Does it even matter cole? Just drop it."
Cole "Actually yes it does, I can figure out who killed Jody if I track the one who helped her down."
Angelos "And then what? I feel like she wouldn't want you to devote yourself to this degree."
Cole "Shut up! How would you know what she would want? Who do you think you are to tell me that, Especially after telling me to chase her down? You are not human, So you cannot tell me what she felt or what she was thinking."
Deablos "True very, very true. I tell you what, if you kill someone I'll tell you who murdered Jody."
Angelos "Cole, trust me when I say I know how you feel. I will do everything in my power to point you in the right direction. Just please for now drop it."
Cole "Why do I have a feeling you know? You do don't you?"
Angelos "Yes, unfortunately, I do know."
Cole "Then tell me!"
Angelos "Out of concern of your mental health, I will not tell you. "
Cole "You can keep your concern to yourself, now tell me."
Deablos "For the low, low price of a dead body you can use the database as you wish."
Cole "It's like neither of you want to help me."
Angelos "Someone is at the door. "
Deablos "It's the police. We should lie to them."
Cole "I'm not lying to the police."
Cole heads downstairs and opens the door. To his surprise, two police officers are standing there. One was a short male with a bald head. The other was a tall female with long hair and one mole on her nose. Cole couldn't help but see a teeny tiny hair on it.
Gegger "Hello Cole Yankell. I'm officer Gegger, and this is officer Malkoni. we would like to ask you a few questions."
Cole looked around and saw their A.I standing around angry. They always had a pissed expression on their face, as if to intimidate him.
Angelos "Tell him yes, cole."
Deablos "Tell him, fuck off."
gegger" hello kid let us in."
Cole "I'll tell you what you want to know when my parents return."
Malkoni "We are not asking kid."
Cole "Isn't illegal to question me without my parents? You probably don't even have a search warrant. I'll take your cards, and you can come back when both are present."
Gegger "Kid it's been a long day, let us in. It will take twenty minutes tops, and we will be gone."
Cole "Aaaah, can't you take a hint? Go the fuck away. His name's Cole, not kid got it, and right now you are trespassing. If you have any questions, call the toll free number of 1-800 go fuck yourself, Until his parents come home."
Cole slams the door knocking the police back a bit.
Cole "What the hell was that? I'm going to get into so much trouble.
Deablos "A thank you! Deablos would be nice. anyway, your welcome."
Cole "What did you do?"
Deablos "I possessed you."
Cole "You what?! How the hell can you do that?"
Deablos "All I got to do is put you to sleep. Then take the conscious part of your brain. It's simple, really."
Cole " Can both of you do that?"
Angelos "Angel programs usually only stop them from occurring or reoccurring."
Cole "Deablos, don't do that shit. That's disrespectful as fuck. "
Deablos "No promises."
Cole shook his head and walked upstairs to his desktop. Deciding that the police thought he was a suspect. cole searched the web for hours for footage of Jody's attack. He was determined to find out who did it and why before anyone else. Cole, after spelunking the intricate cave of the internet for what felt like a lifetime when he found a video.
The video started with Jody walking away. She stopped and waved at somebody. The video then skips to cole, holding her screaming for help. Every video he found was like that. He couldn't understand why he felt like he was missing something. The footage he saw was the last video on the last page. This one was just long enough to see a shadow and Jody smile. Cole, being exhausted, saved the video and laid down in his bed to sleep. He couldn't take the loneliness. Jody was always there, whether he liked it or not. Where ever he went, whatever he did, or the time she was still there. Cole wondered if it was even possible to care for someone that he knew for a short time? Why should he care? It's not like it would bring her back.
Cole finally, shut down physically and emotionally. He no longer went to school telling his parents he wished to be homeschooled again. His parents noticed he wasn't awake even when he was awake. No matter how much they argued and fought, cole was determined to be homeschooled. Trying to make sure that he wasn't robbed of a precious time in his life, his mother and father agreed to homeschool him until his senior year of school. Ready to leave it all behind he regrettably took the offer.Time passed by like always. On the anniversary of Jody's death, Cole visited her bare decaying grave the next day he stopped looking for who did it. The following two years of Cole's depression was spent visiting Jody's grave. Cole didn't know what to think or how to act. Although he let Jody go was it even possible for him to make new friends? It's not like he made Jody a friend in the first place.
The seasons came and went before he knew it Cole's first day of his senior year in high school started. His new found anxiety crippled him. Could he make new friends? Can he bear the loss of a friend again? Did he even deserve one? These questions plagued Cole's mind. Coming to the realization that he didn't want to meet new people. That they only cause trouble for him. For the last time, Cole put up a wall so no one could ever hurt him again.