Paul Willson Fantasy

I first saw her was from my bedroom window playing in her back garden next door. She had red hair and looked like any other regular girl. Ordinary looking, neither pretty nor ugly, just a normal girl. I had only moved in the week before. I had met all the other kids in the street and she never hung out with them. Despite being next door to her I heard about her before I saw her.

“What number do you live at?” I was asked by one of the kids.

“Number 32.” I replied.

“Oh My God! You live next door to the demon girl!” said one of the girls in horror

“Demon girl?” I said sceptically. “What do you mean demon girl?”

“She is a demon. A real one. We’re not allowed to play with her. Our mums and dad’s say she is evil,” a boy explained trying to sound scary.

“Oh,” I said simply. It all seemed a bit weird to me. I wondered what she was like.

I first spoke to her when I saw her after I got home from school. She was outside the front of her house, sitting on the grass. I had to pass her house to get to mine. Remembering what the other kids said about her I walked towards her with a little trepidation.

“Hi” I said nervously.

“Hi” she said dismissively back not really looking at me.

“I just moved in next door. I’m Harry.”

“Hi, Harry.” She didn’t seem to want to talk. So, I went inside my house. I got changed out of my school uniform and left my house again to meet the other kids in the play area at the end of the street. As I passed, I said to her,

“Do you want to come and hang out with the other kids?”

For the first time, she looked at me. It was a look of disdain.

“Haven’t you heard I am evil? Who wants to play with someone who is evil?”

“I’m sure it is all a misunderstanding.”

She didn’t reply. She just returned to enjoying the sun.

“At least tell me your name.”

She didn’t reply again.

I saw her again at the weekend. She was walking home. She had, by the look of it shopping bag and obviously had been to the supermarket.

“Hi” I said again. “Do you want to hang out?”

“You’re not afraid of me? I’m evil remember,” she asked archly.

“You don’t look scary to me,” I replied. This girl was weird but a demon?

“Maybe you should be,” she told me, seeing if she could intimidate me. She was definitely weird but weird didn’t mean she was a demon.

“I’ll wait here for you. If you don’t come back out, I’ll assume you don’t want to hang out,” I offered. For some reason, I really wanted to become friends with her.

I waited for what felt like an age. I was just about to go inside when she came back outside. She seemed a bit nervous like she was unused to hanging out with children her own age.

“Where do you want to go?” she asked quietly.

“I don’t know. I’m new to the area. Where is good to go?”

“Let’s go to the woods,” she suggested. “We won’t meet anyone there. I don’t like meeting anyone, because, you know,” she shrugged but she looked a little tense. I didn’t know but I kept quiet.

I wasn’t sure why she didn’t want to meet anyone else but I walked with her anyway. We stayed silent as we walked. After all her warnings about her being evil, she now seemed shy. It all felt a little bit awkward. It was like she hadn’t gone with anyone else before.

“Do you go to the woods often?” I asked trying to break the silence.

“Sometimes.”

“Do you go with anyone else?”

“What do you think?” she snapped, that hurt a little bit. How other people treated her wasn’t my fault.

We went a small clearing in the woods. It looked like she had arranged the fallen branches and logs into a small den. Something told me she often came here. Despite her straight-talking, I had a feeling she was lonely. None of the kids in the street wanted to play with her and she didn’t know how to behave around someone her own age. We spent most of the afternoon there but we barely said a word to each other. I was slightly disappointed. We were the same age so I saw no reason why we couldn’t be friends.

When we returned home, I saw some adults talking to my parents. The girl stiffened when she saw them. The adults looked at her with hostility when they saw her.

“Thank you for hanging out with me. It was nice.” She said and hurried towards her door.

“Wait! What’s your name?”

“It doesn’t matter you won’t want to see me again.” She said as she closed her front door.

When I got inside my parents asked me to sit down for a talk.

“Harry,” my father said. “Perhaps it is best if you don’t see that girl again.”

“The neighbours say she’s trouble and they won’t let you play with their children if you do. We don’t want to upset the neighbours,” my mother explained trying to make sense of something that made no sense.

“Why? She seems alright to me.”

“She might be but we don’t want you to be with any bad influences.”

“What bad influences?” I countered. “To me, she seems just lonely.”

“Well, we don’t want you to be lonely.” My mother said. It sounded all a bit unfair. They had decided she was bad before even meeting her.

I met the other kids in the street that evening.

“Did you really hang out with the demon?” I was asked incredulously.

“Yeah, she seems alright. A bit shy and weird, though.”

“You shouldn’t hang out with her she is bad news.”

“Why what’s she done.”

“You know, she’s a demon.” Was all I got, whispered in reply in case the demon girl heard.

It was all a bit strange. This girl was supposed to be a bad influence, bad news, even a demon but no one would give any details. What had she done for everyone to hate her so much? No wonder she always looked unhappy.

I didn’t see her for a few days until I saw her walking down the street on my way home from school. I ran to catch up with her.

“Hi” I said.

She seemed startled by my greeting. I noticed that she wasn’t in a school uniform.

“Don’t you go to school?”

“No, I cause too much trouble for people if I go to school so I am home-schooled.”

“What’s it like?”

“Alright, I have online teachers which is cool because they don’t know what I am.”

The conversation was awkward again. I decided I was going to persist with her though we didn’t say anything more until we got home. As we parted, she told me,

“Listen Harry, you seem a nice guy but you shouldn’t hang out with me otherwise you won’t have any friends.”

“I would have you as a friend.”

She smiled at that.

“What is your name? How can we be friends if I don’t know your name?”

“It’s Lilith.” She quickly told me before shutting her front door just as quickly.

When I got changed, I went to the play area at the end of the street to hang out with the other kids in the street. I decided I was going to be friends with Lilith and the other kids even if we all don’t hang out together.

“Sorry Harry. You can’t hang out with us.”

“We warned you about demon girl.”

“If you want to be friends with us you need to ditch demon girl.”

“Her name is Lilith.” I said weakly as they walked off without me. I was dumbfounded. Why was it such a problem that I was friends with Lilith.

When I got home, I told my parents what had happened.

“You were warned, Harry,” My mother said. “You have caused some trouble for us in the street as well. I’m not going to tell you not to see her but be aware of the consequences.”

“But it’s unfair no one says what Lilith has done wrong.”

“I’m proud of you for making friends with her but sometimes doing the right thing can cost you.”

I didn’t see Lilith until the weekend. I asked her if she wanted to hang out.

“It looks like we are friends now. The other kids don’t want to be friends with me either.”

Lilith looked a bit sad when I said that but she also seemed happy to be called a friend.

We went to the woods again. Lilith seemed more relaxed with me after that.

“What did they say about me?” Lilith asked suddenly.

“They called you demon girl and said you were bad news, evil even but no one says what you have done.”

Lilith hung her head down. I had a feeling she had heard it all before but it still hurt all the same.

“I don’t know why they say those things, I think you’re nice,” I said to try and make her feel better.

Lilith smiled. She had a nice smile. I wasn’t sure I succeeded in making her feel better but she looked like she appreciated that I tried. She moved closer to me so that we were touching. It felt awkward but nice. I don’t know why but I leant towards her and kissed her on the lips and I could feel her kiss me back. When I opened my eyes, I gasped when I saw Lilith’s eyes were blacker than the night.

“What is it?” Lilith ask worriedly as her eyes went back to normal, “What is wrong with me?”

“Your eyes, they were black!” I blurted out clumsily.

Lilith stood up to run but I grabbed her hand.

“Don’t go! I want you to stay.”

“It didn’t scare you?”

“It did freak me out a little,” I admitted. “I didn’t expect the first girl I kiss to have black eyes.”

Lilith looked like she was happy with my honesty.

“The truth is that what they say is true.” Lilith said nervously.

“You really are a demon girl? You don’t look like a demon.”

“I am a demon! Well, half demon but I’m not bad news or evil at least I don’t think so,” Lilith explained quickly. “My mum is human; my dad is a demon but I have never met him. I don’t know the circumstances though. I have horns too. I have to cut them off every now had again so no one sees them.”

I looked at her sceptically. Seeing my expression, she took my hand and put it on her head in two places. I could feel what felt like bone. I stood up to get a better look and sure enough there were what looked like two horns that looked like they were cut off and filed down.

I realised I had been studying them for too long when I suddenly saw Lilith was getting embarrassed.

“I’m sorry,” I apologised. “It was just I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

“Don’t worry, I know it is a bit weird.” She said getting over her embarrassment. “Let’s go home.”

We walked home hand in hand. We kissed goodbye before going inside.

I saw that my parents had seen our kiss. I blushed with embarrassment as I prepared myself for another talk.