Sunrise

Mirror to "At The End of It All"

Alize tugged the covers up over his head. His parents were too loud. He couldn’t sleep. He wished his father would stop yelling. The bed shifted as someone laid at his side, sliding next to him under the covers. They were sniffling quietly like they’d been crying. Alize peaked over the edge of his blanket to see that his brother Aubrey was awake. Alize sat upright immediately.
“Hey,” He said softly, not sure exactly what else he was meant to say.
Aubrey shook his head, burying his face in the pillow below him. “Make it stop. Make it stop. I’m scared.”
Alize furrowed his eyebrows. He brought his small hands up to squish Aubrey’s cheeks affectionately. Aubrey’s eyes were still red and puffy with tears, but the child, barely four, couldn’t help but grin. A harsh crash sounded from outside their room, causing the smile to falter and fade almost instantly. Alize wished there was a way he could make it better for his smaller twin brother, but he wasn’t strong enough to stand up to their father. Not yet.
His father’s voice raised impossibly in volume, and his mother’s trembling voice responded, much quieter-- meeker. It wasn’t like their mother at all. Alize flinched as something banged against their door. He glanced between Aubrey and the door a few times. He sighed, scooting over so his brother could lay down and tucking him into the covers.
He paused. Leaning over the right side of the bed, he retrieved a stuffed animal. Aubrey would sleep better if he had something to hold onto, Alize thought. The strawberry blond child practically shoved it in his brother’s face, who stumbled back a bit in surprise but clutched it gratefully. Alize tucked him in gently, handing him one of his spare pillows. He didn’t fall asleep that night until he was sure Aubrey had.

It all began one weekend in July. Alize was sixteen, going on seventeen in August. After his mother’s death, it was just the three of them. His father, thank God, had been called away on business, so his brother was at a sleepover with his friend Logan. Or maybe it was Dakota. He honestly didn’t care enough to remember which it was. That left him all alone. He tread downstairs to fix himself a bit of a midnight snack. To his surprise, there was something waiting for him in the dark, dimly-lit living room.
“Please,” it said, gesturing to the cushion next to it, “Have a seat.”
Alize eyed the couch where he-- he had decided that this humanoid creature looked and sounded masculine-- sat, warily. “No, thanks.”
As he began to back away from him in horror, the creature growled, “I believe you misunderstood me. That wasn’t a question.”
His gaze turned dark as he leaned forward, resting his arms on his knees. “Sit down, or I will turn your insides into outsides. You see these?” He flashed a set of pointed, claw-like fingers. “These are very sharp. If I were to, say, cut you, it would be absolutely excruciating.”
Alize sat down.
“Very good,” the creature said, smiling. “Saved us a lot of trouble there. No excruciating pain for you, and I don’t have to get this nice, brand new suit ruined. Quite the dry-cleaning bill it would be, let me tell you that.”
“What do you want?” He managed to sputter out.
“W-w-what do you want?” The creature stuttered back, mockingly. “How about introductions, for starters? Let’s be civilized here. I’ll go first. My name is Endor.”
He held out a clawed hand, as if expecting the boy to shake it. Alize did, hesitantly. This thing had a name?
“This thing can hear you,” Endor spat, offended. Alize apologized immediately, ducking his head meekly.
“I’m Alize.”
“Yeah, I know who you are. Just formalities. You understand.” Endor leaned back against the pillows behind him. The nearby lamp illuminated the right side of his face, on which Alize saw he sported patches of lighter colored skin amongst the deep tan. What startled Alize most about him, other than the glowing blue horns atop the guy’s head, were his matching glowing blue eyes. Startlingly, they were entirely blue. No irises, no pupils. Staring at him. Hauntingly.
“Are you… a demon or something?”
“No,” He replied, “but I understand your confusion.”
Alize nodded solemnly.
“To answer your question,” Endor said, “I see your potential. I need your help, boy.”
“What’s in it for me?” He asked.
Endor stared at him blankly for a moment. “Ooh, ballsy, are we? I suppose… it would help your current situation.”
Alize paused. “What do you mean?”
“That father of yours,” He replied. “It would get rid of him. For good.”
“You’re going to kill him?”
Endor laughed, throwing his head back as though this was the funniest thing he’d ever heard. “Oh, don’t be daft, dear boy. I’m not going to do anything. You are.”
“Why, is that a problem?” Endor inquired when the near-sighted teenager didn’t respond right away.
Said boy pondered this for a bit before smirking. “No. No, not at all.”

“You’re sure about this, Endor?” Alize asked the creature following him, feeling less confident in his decision than he had been three nights ago. He stared disbelievingly at the silver knife in his left hand. Wasn’t patricide a sin or something?
“Absolutely.”
Alize tucked the knife behind his back, took a deep breath, and knocked on the door. It didn’t take long for his father to answer. He seemed surprised.
“Alize?” The burly man asked, his words slightly slurred. He’d definitely been drinking. Oi. This would be easier than he’d thought it would be. “What’re you doin’ here? You should be with yer Aunt Meg and Uncle Kian.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not,” chuckled Alize darkly, “Mind if I come in?”
“Actually--”
“Great,” he said, gently pushing his father, who swayed and stumbled over his own feet, back into the house and closing the door behind him. Endor materialized next to him, arms crossed and eyebrows furrowed in aggravation.
“You locked me out!” The dark haired whatever-he-was growled.
“Sorry,” Alize said dryly. He wasn’t feeling sorry in the slightest, but of course Endor knew that. The blond pushed his glasses up on his nose.
His drunkard of a father’s eyes drifted lazily between Alize and a space just over his shoulder, slightly to the right of where Endor stood. “Sorry for what, Al? You talkin’ to me?”
“I bet he killed your mother,” Endor whispered in his ear, apparently no longer angry with him, “Bet he poisoned her food. Just look how guilty he looks. He deserves it.”
Alize hardened his gaze, his grip on the blade tightened. With a shout, he plunged the knife deep between his father’s ribs.

“Oh, my god,” Alize murmured, frightened, anxiously fisting handfuls of his clean-cut blond hair with bloodsoaked hands. His father was strewn across the white bedsheets, lifeless. He may have gone a bit overboard. “I just killed my dad. Oh, my god.”
Endor sighed in annoyance, rubbing his temples. “Relax.”
“What do I do? I need to clean up anything I’ve touched. Oh, my god--”
“Relax!” The creature hissed again, throwing an arm around the boy’s shoulders. “You live here, idiot. Your fingerprints wouldn’t be out of place. You need to calm down. The knife and your clothes are all you need to take care of.”
Alize steadied his breathing. Endor was right. His clothes… anyone would notice the deep red that stained them now. Oh, God. It was on his face. He stepped over his father’s feet and fumbled his way downstairs to the kitchen. The knife, the knife, the knife…

Beep! Beep! Bee--!
Alize turned off his alarm without a second thought and swung his legs over the side of his bed. Aubrey, surprisingly, was nowhere to be seen. He must have already headed downstairs. He glanced at his phone. 7:05 a.m. Blue had been texting him again, all night. Groaning, Alize forcefully heaved himself out of bed. It had been a rough night.
When he was fully dressed, he walked downstairs and turned left into the kitchen. Aubrey was already eating something Meg had probably set out for him. Since their father’s funeral, Aubrey had dyed his hair twice, pierced his ears in three different places, and had started asking people to call him by his middle name, Lee. Aubrey, he proclaimed, was a girl’s name. Alize wholeheartedly disagreed with him. He thought Aubrey was a wonderful name.
The older brother poured himself a bowl of cereal and sat across from ‘Lee,’ who he’d decided he would continue to call Aubrey. Although Aubrey protested this, he hadn’t hit him yet, so he assumed Aubrey didn’t actually mind his first name, so long as Alize was the only one who used it. Aubrey was drinking his coffee black, which made Alize wrinkle his nose in disgust. He didn’t understand how his brother could drink that crap, but he found himself smiling at the fact that Aubrey had already made him tea as a replacement. It would most likely be cold by now, but he appreciated the sentiment.
There was a knock at the door, which made his brother jump. If Aubrey hadn’t been awake before, with a quick chug of his coffee, he certainly was now.
“Ah, your girlfriend’s here,” Alize chuckled.
“She’s not my girlfriend!” Aubrey’s glare bore holes in his brother’s forehead as he opened the door to let her in.
“Good Morning, Sleeping Beauty,” yawned Ruby, Aubrey’s best friend since their freshman year. Her thick, dark, curly hair bounced as she lazily embraced him.
Lee grumbled out a “Morning, Frankenstein,” which earned him a solid punch to the gut.
“Happy birthday, by the way, boys,” She said, handing them each an envelope. Aubrey’s was a light purple and Alize’s was a dark blue. Ruby marched past them both to raid their kitchen.
“You know,” Endor had faded into existence again next to him. He was leaning back in his chair, his feet resting on the table in front of him, and his suit’s jacket had been removed. “Aubrey would be able to spend more time with you if Ruby weren’t around. You could kill her. You should kill her. It’s the right thing to do.”
Alize furrowed his eyebrows and tried his best to tune him out, focusing instead on his brother’s voice that drifted through the haze. “Thanks, Rubes. Are we taking the bus again?”
“Uh, I think Ross is picking us up,” Ruby called from somewhere inside their pantry. “He was still asleep when I left, though. Do y’all have any cereal?”
“Counter,” Alize replied simply, swallowing the bite of food in his mouth and jerking his thumb in that general direction. Endor sighed. He snapped and appeared to melt into the air around them. Ah. So that was how he did it.
Before she had a chance to pour herself a bowl, a car horn sounded from outside. “Damn.”
“Shotgun!” Aubrey shouted, much louder than necessary. Ruby sighed, and as Alize drained his bowl of the almond milk at the bottom, they all made their way outside and got in her brother’s car.

He set his lunch tray down at a table in a quiet, secluded corner of the library and pulled his laptop out of his messenger bag. No one ever bothered him here. No one ever would. Alize had gained a unique ability to blend into his surroundings from years of moving schools. He was pretty sure this was the longest they’d stayed in one place before-- a whopping two years-- and he bitterly acknowledged that the reason for that could very well be that his father’s job wouldn’t cause them to move around so much anymore. Of course, nothing about his father would affect him or his brother ever again. He was gone. Dead. Alize didn’t have to worry about him anymore.
“Why the long face?” Chuckled a deep, sardonic voice to his left. He snapped his head in its direction, although he would never admit that he’d been alarmed. Endor was crouched next to him, leaning over his shoulder to look at his computer screen. Alize cocked an eyebrow quizzically and made a point of looking away from him.
“Don’t know what you’re talking about,” Alize mumbled, keeping his eyes fixed firmly on the screen. He knew exactly what he was talking about. He’d been pretty miffed the entire day.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about,” Endor concluded gruffly. He leaned in next to his ear, his sharp fingers digging into Alize’s shoulder, even though Alize was perfectly aware that Endor wasn’t actually present at the moment and therefore shouldn’t be able to hurt him. Endor pointed across the room. “You should kill him.”
Alize huffed, partially in annoyance, partially out of pain. “I should avoid killing anyone I’m close to.”
“You killed your own father.”
Alize hated to admit it, but Endor had a point.
“Of course I do,” the creature grumbled, releasing his grip. He pulled out the chair across from the teenager and sat down. Alize had half a mind to tell him to leave him alone and stop crawling around in his brain. So he did.
“I can’t help it, even if I wanted to. I’m literally tethered to your mind. I can’t leave.”
Alize shut the laptop in frustration, lifting his eyes to glare at him. “Why do you want me to kill, anyway? Aren’t you some… all-powerful being or something? Can’t you do it yourself?”
Endor furrowed his slender eyebrows, his pupil-less, iris-less turquoise eyes somehow conveying his annoyance. “I just want what’s best.”
He was obviously being sarcastic, and definitely avoiding the question, thoughtfully stirring his cup of tea that had appeared out of nowhere.
“Besides,” Endor continued, taking a tentative sip, “I’m a Bai’il: I can’t kill a human. I can inflict a great, wonderful, amount of pain and suffering, but the laws my people are bound by actually restrain me. It’s aggravating. We’re…” -- He trailed off momentarily, spitting the last word out hatefully-- “peaceful. We deal in knowledge, not death. I suppose you could say we’re the good guys. My people don’t believe I’m helping.”
“Oh, please. You are anything but peaceful.”
“Guess I’m an outlier, then,” He shrugged, grinning menacingly. His teeth, Alize noted curiously, were grotesquely sharp. “Kill him.”

Alize trudged up the coarsely carpeted stairs of the house that would never be his home and paused by the door of the bedroom that would never truly be his. He held his breath, his hand apprehensively hovering just slightly above the doorknob. He should knock first, shouldn’t he? But perhaps his brother was still asleep; he shouldn’t wake him. Alize glanced briefly at his watch. It was roughly eleven-thirty. If Aubrey wasn’t awake by now, then it really wasn’t his problem. At this rate, the younger O’Connor would have missed breakfast, anyway.
Alize twisted the handle and pulled, side-stepping to narrowly avoid pulling the door directly into his face. The room was pitch black, and he nearly had a heart attack when he flipped the light on to see his brother staring at him from the other side of the room. Good God, Lee needed to get organized. Alize’s fingers twitched, but something inside him prevented him from cleaning his side of the room for him. Pushing down the startled lump in his throat, he grumbled, “You’re up.”
“Uh-huh,” Aubrey agreed with a nod, stretching. Alize could almost feel his own back pop sympathetically. His eyes flickered to his desk. He would need his notebooks. Alize hadn’t thought of it until now, but he wasn’t sure how he’d excuse the dutiful notations he’d been keeping on Endor. He’d even taken the time to measure the creature’s horns. They were an astounding, and admittedly quite terrifying, 9 inches long and an inch and a half in diameter each. He supposed he could write it off as a story attempt he was working on, but if Aubrey knew him as well as he knew Aubrey, he’d remember that English had never been Alize’s strong suit. Besides, the details were much too specific. He stuffed the journals into his computer bag, which was slung over his torso.
“I really wish you’d stop referring to me as a creature. It’s insulting.”
Alize nearly jumped out of his skin but he managed to ignore Endor, who sounded like he was hovering mid-air somewhere behind him. He removed his glasses, fogging them with his breath before using the hem of his shirt to wipe them off.
“Where are you going?” Aubrey grumbled sleepily, running a hand lazily through his hair.
“Don’t worry about it. Just going somewhere with Blue. Some coffee shop I passed earlier.”
This woke Aubrey up enough to smirk at him, wiggling his eyebrows. “Alright, have fun with your little girlfriend.”
Okay, he deserved that one. He groaned nevertheless. “Ugh, don’t remind me. As soon as this semester’s over, she’s gone.”
Endor whistled, flipping upside down in the air. “What? Are you gonna kill her, too?”
Alize didn’t say anything to that, just shot him a glare over his shoulder.
“You should. She’s annoying. You’d be doing us all a favor,” The Bai’il whined, “You don’t really love her, anyway! She’ll only be getting in our way. Kill her.”
Alize ignored him again, nodding goodbye to his little brother and quickly shutting the door behind him on his way out.

“He had blood on his shirt, Ruby!” Lee whispered harshly into the phone being held by his shoulder. “Blood! I don’t want to believe it, but I’m thinking he might have… Yeah, yeah, I know. Murders? What? Oh, my god. Yeah. Alize was out.. But he was with his girlfriend, there’s no way--”
With a flick of his wrist, Endor sent his brother’s cellphone careaning in the wall across the room, causing a startled yelp to erupt from him. Alize watched from the shadows. Endor’s voice was powerful, circling him. It was all he could hear, all he could think.
“Kill him,” it screamed, “He knows. Kill him. He cannot live. He’ll ruin everything.”
“No!” Alize shouted, covering his ears in a pathetic attempt to drown Endor out. “I won’t. I won’t hurt him.”
Aubrey was staring at him in horror. Endor laughed maniacally.
“Oh,” He snickered, “You don’t have a choice. We made a deal, remember?”
The horns atop the Bai’il’s head glowed brighter with a newfound flame. He raised his hands, cackling, and Alize’s limbs were suddenly bound by some sort of glowing string. His arm was forced to aim a swing at his little brother, who ducked down just in time.
“You can’t do this,” Alize said, straining against the binds, “You aren’t allowed to kill, remember?”
“Oh, I know,” Endor said, tugging one of them so that Alize’s arm shot forward. Thankfully, Aubrey dodged that one, too. “But I’m not killing him. You are. I’m just--” He tugged again and Aubrey rolled to the opposite side, “--pulling the strings.”
THWAP!
Endor screamed, the side of his face sizzling. There, just behind him, stood Ruby in all her glory, shivering as though she’d seen a ghost.
“What the hell?” The Bai’il paused, scowling as the skin on his face bubbled horrifically, then squinted at Ruby. He was bleeding from his lip, which had gotten caught on his teeth when she hit him. “You… you think I’m a fairy?”
“Oh, my god, I can’t believe that worked.”
“You hit him with a frying pan,” Alize said incredulously.
“Cast iron skillet,” Ruby corrected breathlessly, twirling it in preparation for another well-timed strike, “Lucky guess.”
Aubrey’s eyes had glazed over, as though he was in a trance of some sort. He sighed, relieved. “I love you.”
“What?” She asked, gawking at him silently.
He blinked back at her. “What?”
“Wait, wait, hang on, hang on-- hold up! What we think can hurt you?” Alize sputtered, belatedly recognizing he was free from the strange luminescent strings that had previously bound him (and interrupting his brother’s chick-flick moment of teen drama). He rubbed his wrists, trying to regain circulation and stared at the creature in wonder.
“No, you moron. When you manage to tap into the endless ignorance of the human race, however… then what you think can hurt us.” Endor ranted, cradling his cheek. “We are beings of knowledge! Your stupidity burns. Why couldn’t you have just killed him? Humanity is so worthless. You must understand that. You’ve seen what they can do! I’m not your enemy. They are.”
Alize eyed him cautiously. Endor’s shirt was now torn at the sleeve. “What do you mean? You… you never did tell me what you were doing.”
“Have you ever heard of a little thing called Noah’s Ark?” He snarled, enunciating the ‘k’ harshly. “It’s like that. Only instead of a boat saving a few, humanity was going to wipe itself out. Starting with you. In this pitiful little meaningless town. In Ohio. It would’ve been much more impressive if my people had backed me up on the idea. They think it’s not our place.”
“Huh,” Aubrey said, snapping himself out of his daze, “I wonder why that is. Could be because it’s not your place.”
“But it is!” Endor exclaimed. “Every single, pathetic thought you ants have, create, gets added to our internal library of knowledge. It’s disgusting.”
Ruby snickered at the creature, who suddenly began fading into translucency. “So you’re gonna try to wipe us out? Good luck with that.”
Endor tried to grip Alize by the shoulder, but his arms appeared to pass through his body each time, and he pleaded with him. “But.. but I’d spare you, Alize. You’re useful. I like you: you’re a good mortal companion. I couldn’t give that up. I could make you a Bai’il!”
Alize faltered. Endor picked up the seventeen-year-old’s glasses from where they’d fallen earlier, delicately placing them back on his face. Alize touched the boiled skin where the iron had touched him and Endor winced with a sharp intake of breath. It looked painful. Maybe ice would help him. Endor began to regain his previous opaqueness.
Endor’s eyes squeezed shut as Ruby swung again. This time, Alize caught her by the forearm. “No--! I don’t think we need to kill him.”
Ruby twisted her wrist in his grasp, staring at him with her mouth agape. Aubrey stepped in, tearing Ruby’s arm from his brother’s grasp. “Are you insane?”
“Look,” Alize said, nodding at the Bai’il before him, “I think.. I think he needs me to want him here. If I-- If I don’t want him, he can’t stay. He has to go back where he came from.”
Endor’s eyes snapped back open, frightened. He shook his head vigorously. “No, no--no.”
“I don’t want you,” the boy stated, confidently. “You aren’t needed here. Go back. I don’t want you here.”
Endor shouted as his arms became ghostly once more. He desperately tried to keep his grip, but to no avail. Alize was chanting the words like a mantra now. He wasn’t needed, he wasn’t wanted, go home. Go back. “I don’t want you here.”
“No!” With one last horrified glance around him, Endor vanished. It was over.

Reviews

[Al. S. Neworth]

Hmmm ... not as good as 'The End of it All'. I found the relationship between the three humans confusing.
OK, I know the lad could get away with the murder of his father, even with forensics (provided the forensics team were careless). But what of the second murder? Would 'Aubrey' really ignore the blood on Alize's shirt? The knife in the sink?
Even allowing for 'Aubrey' and Ruby seeing Endor, I doubt they would so easily overlook another murder, of someone who was an innocent.
And the police: wouldn't they at last make a connection between their father's stabbing, the death of a friend, and Alize?
Still, it's fairly good, if a trifle confusing.