Chapter Two – The home we once knew

It was already night, and New York city was still brimming with lights ever more. Not far from the city, the mid-twenties Italian man walked on the street of what used to be a quiet neighbourhood. He observed the surroundings, and the erected apartments were a new sight for him. He continued walking along the street, in his barely dried jacket and clothes. In his hands was a key, which he held as he walked.

Olen then suddenly stopped at a particular spot. He turned to his right, and saw what seems to be an abandoned, dark apartment. It was almost unrecognizable for him, had him not remember how to walk back to his old home, he would have missed the place. Olen stood there a while, reminiscing how the place used to look when he still lived there. He could remember the bright paints on the walls, and how some tenants would decorate their windows and their balconies. The worn, abandoned and dark building before him struck a disappointment in his heart. He noticed the board beside, confirming a new plan for the site, a small new plaza.

With a little curiosity, he decided to venture inside to see what his old place look like. He ignored the warning signs blocking the entrance and entered the building. Dusts were piling up, and some dripped on his head as he made his way to the stairs. As Olen made his way up the stairs, pushing aside webs on the way, he heard faint noises coming for above. Intrigued and yet cautious at the same time, he slowly climb the remaining stairs to the floor where the noise was coming.
As he crept along the halfway, he followed to where the noise was coming. It became clearer to him that it was the noise of somebody moving. He reached to a door and to his surprise it was his old unit.
This made him even more wary but he was puzzled at the same time. Why would anyone come to this apartment such a late night and even more particularly his old unit?

Olen took his key out, and slowly inserted it in the door lock. His hand was gently twisting the key sideways as to not make any noise to alert the person inside. While he was not sure what he would be facing next, but at the same time, he wasn’t afraid. Olen then quickly open the door, hoping to ambush the person, or some bandit inside.

He wasn’t expecting what he saw inside his unit. Inside were his furniture, photos, antiques and his old grandfather clock sitting there near the table. That wasn’t what surprised him, though.
It was that his unit that was clean and tidied. It appeared someone had been taking care of his old home while he was gone. On the table, was a lighted lamp, the only source of light in the place.

Olen looked around, hoping to locate the source of the noise. Then he heard a sniffling.
He saw a little boy, wearing a plain garment hiding under the table in front of him. The boy appeared to be shaking in fear.
A huge relief came upon him when he learnt that it was only a boy.
He approached the boy, asking “Little boy, are you living here?”
The boy looked at him with more fear, shaking even more. Olen offered his hand to the boy, “Hey there mate. Don’t worry, I won’t harm you,”
Seeing that the strange man offering his hand, the boy slowly took out his hand to reach Olen’s.

“That right,” Olen smiled. “I’m not going to hurt you,”

But he did not expect what would happen next. The boy’s face turned into demonic as their hands touched. The boy let out a demonic shriek, causing Olen to step back. But, the boy’s hands turned into sharp claws landing a big scratch on Olen’s wrist as he withdraws his hand.

Shit… Olen cursed.

The boy demon now recklessly overturned the table as he got out under it. It jumped around, damaging and destroying the furniture and antiques that were in place.

“An enslaved boy, huh?” Olen said as his hand reached for his cross which was on his belt. The demon boy continued rampaging the place while shrieking.

“Truth…” Olen muttered. The small cross on his belt glowed and materialized into a sword. Clutching his sword, he pointed it straight at the demon boy.

“Leave this boy at once or otherwise I’ll make you pay real bad,” he threatened.

The demon boy stopped at its tracks, and stared at Olen. It growled fiercely in response.

Hmph… a minor demon who doesn’t know it’s role in the spiritual realm… Olen thought.
“Well, looks like I’ve got to force you out of him, no matter what,” Olen said.
The demon boy jumped towards Olen at high speed, but Olen vanished before it could reach him.

“Here,” Olen said as he swinged his sword behind the demon boy. It clashed upon an invisible barrier.

A low class spiritual barrier… Olen thought to himself. He knew he must be careful in handling the demon boy, so he would not injure the boy’s body.
He moved in an instant, this time appearing above the demon boy. He grabbed his sword with his two hands, plunging it down straight at the demon boy. The barrier broke upon impact, and the demon boy barely dodged and fell further into the room.

“There’s no escape for you. Leave the boy now,” Olen said again as he faced the demon boy who was trying to get on its knees.

The demon boy muttered a few words that weren’t recognizable to Olen. Olen again moved in inhumane speed and appeared behind the boy and pointed his sword directly at him.

“I don’t understand your demon language. Speak in English, otherwise just die” Olen said. His eyes was filled with anger as he was furious that a demon would possess a little boy to its advantage.

The demon boy showed some fear, and tried to speak out… It managed to only mutter some understandable words… “..No… Choice”

“What?!” Olen exclaimed. He became more impatient. But then he was alerted by incoming footsteps.

“What in the blazes in going on here?!” a woman’s voice was heard. This took him totally off guard, the demon boy took this advantage and leap out through a nearby window. When he noticed it, it was too late, the demon boy had escaped.

…S… he tried to stop swearing. He quickly focused his attention to this new intruder. He walked out and saw a lady, who a slightly pretty face but one with a fierce, and an unpleasant emotion expressed. She was wearing rather worn clothes. She looked at him intently, and started yelling, “Who the **** are you? Get out of my house!”

This drove Olen even madder. He was already furious at the fact that he lost the boy, and now this strange lady was claiming the house was hers.

“What?” he replied, trying not to yell back. “This is my house, I live here,” he explained.

“No you DO NOT!” she yanked back. “I have been living here for 4 years!”

“Oh yeah?” Olen replied. “How about my pictures that is in this unit?”

She wanted to yell back but stopped upon hearing those words. She thought for a moment, and then suddenly her suddenly expression changed.

“So you are the weird ex-tenant who ran away from his mounting debts,” she joyfully asked.

Her remarks made him furious, but at the same time, he was instantly reminded of some of his old problems.

…That wasn’t the reason I left America… he thought upon himself, feeling slightly irritated that the strange lady knew about his debt problems and was making fun of him.

“Oh well,” she said. “I thought it was one of those homeless bums coming into my place again,”

She observed the place and made unpleasant remarks about the rampaged room.

“Ouh…” she muttered. “Why in the world are you rampaging your own place?!” she exclaimed suddenly.

It struck Olen and he knew he couldn’t tell her the real reason as she wouldn’t believe it. Regular human beings can’t see demons or fallen angels. It would be pointless for him to explain it to her.

“And…why are you carrying a sword?” she asked as she pointed at Olen’s sword.

“Uh… that…” Olen muttered to himself. He felt as if a weight dropped on him. There’s no way he could explain to her that it was used to kill demons. The idea of finding the right excuses were just out of his league. He was never good at making up lies. However, strangely, he realised that the girl wasn’t afraid of him at all, even when she didn’t knew that he was the original tenant of the place. In fact, she seemed fearless about anything, but rather a stinky attitude, he would put it. While his thoughts were trying to place up an excuse, the lady came walking towards him.

“Is that one your antiques?” she said.

Those words hit him. That’s right, he thought. He could use that up as a great excuse to cover up the whole story. It never deemed upon him.

“Yes…this belongs to my father,” he replied, confidently. “In fact all those antiques in this place belongs to my fathers,”

The lady was rather amused by his words. “Ohh…. But you destroyed them all by yourself, didn’t you. You must be going through a sad time,”
Again, her ridiculous provoking remarks angered Olen. He thought to himself that since he was a gentleman, he would not show his “other” side.

“No, I’m NOT going through a sad time or any depressing state in that matter,” he calmly replied. “The room was in a mess when I got here,”

Finally, he managed to convince her about the mess in the room. She enthusiastically introduced herself, as Tricia, while Olen reluctantly revealed his name. They eventually talked about how she got to live in his place. Apparently, she came from a little town from the countryside, hoping to find a better life in New York. Olen upon hearing that wasn’t surprised at all. Her boyish behaviour explained everything. The apartment owner decided to sell off Olen’s unit to her at a very cheap price, guessing that Olen won’t ever come back. But when the entire land was bought up by another company, Tricia wouldn’t leave as she had nowhere else to go. Thus, she had planned on staying in the apartment until the day of the demolition arrives. It has been almost six months since the apartment had been vacant.
Our conversations came until a point where personal questions were asked.

“So… what are doing for a living? You know, you still haven’t explained why you left your own apartment. Where did you go?” Tricia asked with eagerness.

Olen didn’t really want to answer, but he had no choice given he was confronted.

“I’m a archaeologist,” he said. Tricia responded with a wild look on her face.

“I’ve been in China for 5 years, on an excavation trip,” Olen continued, knowing he was lying.

“An excavation trip in China for 5 years? Wow. You must be joking!” she exclaimed. “What have you been digging? An ancient civilization?” she laughed.

Olen intentionally led out a cough at her remark.

“I’m sorry…” Tricia said as he tried to control her laughter. “Its just that I’ve never met someone quite like you…”

“Well… the same here,” Olen replied. “I guess I better get going. This isn’t my home anymore,” he said as he started walking away.

“Wait,” Tricia said. Olen stopped and turned to her. “You better be careful out there,”

“Why?” he asked.

“Over these months, the streets ain’t safe anymore. There have been increasing rate of deaths lately. It isn’t safe to wander alone at this time of the night. Crazy people comes out,”

“Crazy people?” Olen asked as he looked at his watch. It shows midnight.

“Yea. They will mug or kill you if you resist,” she warned. Olen observed her eyes, they were serious. He was shocked to hear that. The neighbourhood he knew was always safe.

“I see… Thank you for your warning. Do not worry about me, I can take care of myself,” he said as he turned to leave.

“Okay…” Tricia said. “Don’t stay out there too long. Everybody hides back in their home at this time,”

Olen nodded and left. As he left the apartment, a strange feeling hit him. He observed his surroundings. Tricia was right; there wasn’t a single soul on the street. He felt an uncanny aura, like the presence of demons. He expected those crazy people Tricia were referring to be demons. It puzzled him that demons could gather around in a mass populated area so easily. It became clear that New York was no longer safe. First, a fallen angel, then a demon boy, and now, the presence of more demons. He felt extremely disappointed and sad as the place he used to call safe home was no more.

I guess I better find a cheap hotel for the night… he thought to himself. He didn’t want to remain outside too long as well.