Sunny's Angel - 8. Chapter 8: The Awakening of Demons

He moved impatiently up the stairs of the old building and knocked eagerly on the door, still a tad pissed off that he had stood outside the movie theatre for an hour before he acknowledged that he'd been stood up, again. It wasn't the first time it had happened to him, but he didn't understand why it was happening more and more, lately. He had thought everything had been going well. He was in love with Evan, and Evan was in love with him. And that's what mattered, right?

Fireworks exploded in the air behind him, lighting up the darkness surrounding the door briefly before the light faded away as the townsfolk continued their celebration of Independence Day.

The door of the old building swung open at his knock. The only light came from kerosene lanterns hung from brackets in the hallway. The power to this old warehouse had been turned off years ago. It was the perfect place for dispossessed youth: some of whom made it their home, some made it their hangout, and some just needed a refuge to get away from parents who no longer had the ability to care for them.

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"Damn it, Sunny! You can't skip detention just because Andy's the one that gave it to you!" Ian said loudly.

"Then maybe he should quit being my teacher!" Sunny responded.

"And you definitely can't mouth off to him in class just because he's one of your guardians!"

"He's not my guardian, Ian! You and Peter are! He's your boyfriend! And just because you're practically married to him doesn't mean he gets to tell me what to do, because I never asked..." Sunny shouted.

"You will not talk to me like that in my own home, Sunny!" Ian said, interrupting Sunny's tirade.

Sunny couldn't stop himself. He had no idea what came over him. All he knew was he was sick of everyone trying to act like they were his parents. That didn't stop him though. He threw out the last ammo he had.

"Your home? It's not your home Ian. It's my home! My money paid for it, the money that you were disinherited from ever having! So don't you dare tell me it's your home, because I never asked for you to move in with us! And, in case you forgot why it's my money and not yours, it's because mom and dad disinherited you for being a sick, perverted fu..."

The rest of the words got lost in the resounding echo of Ian's palm connecting with Sunny's face.

Sunny froze, shocked. He had never been hit before.

He looked at Ian, and saw Ian's mouth opening. While Ian looked like he was ready to say something, Sunny had two thoughts going through his mind. He could go next door and see Devin, or he could go to his room and do something else.

But he hadn't seen Devin in over three weeks now, not since Kyle had gotten in a fight with that one boy. He didn't think Sammy and Dallas had seen much of him either, because they had said Devin had taken to sleeping a lot lately, plus Savannah had been ignoring them in school. He supposed that he could go see Sammy and Dallas, but he knew Sammy and Dallas didn't know what to make of his change in behavior. All they knew was that Ian and he had been fighting a lot lately, they just didn't know why.

Sunny wasn't sure why either; except that he seriously was sick of everyone trying to act like they were his parents. He'd had parents once, and they had ignored him. Why should someone else get to be his parents now? As far as he was concerned, he was sixteen years old, his parents were dead, and he got to make the rules, now.

Sunny didn't take much more than a second to make up his mind.

He turned around and ran away from Ian, up the stairs and into his bedroom, where he slammed the door shut and locked it behind him. Ian had followed him up the stairs but didn't make it in time, practically running into the locked door before he could stop himself.

"Sunny! Wait! I didn't mean..." Ian shouted through the closed door.

Sunny was angry, and provoked enough to do something he didn't care for.

He turned his stereo on as loud as he could and played the one thing that everyone in the house seriously disliked.

Rap music blared through his speakers, drowning out the sound of both Ian's voice and his pounding fist on the door.

Sunny opened the chest lying on the closet floor, grabbed the nearest bottle and sank to the floor, leaning against his bed. He pulled the cap off and took a swig off the bottle.

It took a long time, but the bottle finally swallowed his anger at his brothers, and the misery that they were causing him.

Across the way, at the neighbor's home, Devin stirred briefly in his bed, trying to escape the memories and pain that his nightmares brought.

The rap music that came blaring out of Sunny's bedroom pulled him back into his nightmares.

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He walked in; the thumping of the speakers from the boom box grated against his ears as the latest wanna' be without street cred spouted off some rap nonsense that he couldn't seem to take a liking too. Actually, he couldn't take a liking to it because to him it wasn't music, and he definitely didn't like coming to this place. Running around in an abandoned warehouse seemed too dangerous to him.

It didn't matter though, as long as Evan was there. That's all he really cared about. Anything else could be worked out.

A sharp bark of laughter cut through the air and caught his attention. He turned his head, and looked around until he made out the imposing figure of Roger in the dim lights of the many kerosene lamps in the room.

Roger nodded to him, gesturing with his head toward a hallway that was more crowded than most of the others by a bunch of people. Some were young, others were old. He didn't care though; he just nodded to Roger, pleased that he wasn't being a jackass this time around, even if he didn't quite like the look on Roger's face. He wasn't sure, but it seemed to him that Roger was eagerly anticipating something.

He shook his head, as if to shake away the distracting thoughts, and headed through the crowd, down the hallway Roger had pointed to.

He passed several doors that were open; the sounds coming from the rooms making it very obvious what was going on inside. He came to one that he knew well. Behind this door was his goal, his reason for being. He knew this with certainty; he felt it with every beat of his heart.

Ready to celebrate his birthday with the one person he wanted to be with, he eagerly opened the door.

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"Devin! Dinner's ready!" Suzie shouted into the intercom that connected the pool house with the main house.

Devin gasped. He sat up in bed. The sweat dripped from his body.

"Devin?"

Devin blinked as reality hit him. He wasn't there anymore. That was the past. It was all over. Nothing could hurt him anymore.

He shivered, and kept shivering, feeling the insane urge to cry.

"Devin!"

He reacted to his mother's voice, pulling his blankets tighter about his body as he did so.

"Yeah, I'm awake. I'll be there in a few minutes," he said in a voice that felt thick with cotton.

"All right, dear."

Devin rolled out of bed, pulling the sheets off as he did so and dragged them behind him as he padded, naked, across the floor of his bedroom.

He'd stopped wearing clothes to bed two and a half weeks ago, after four days of waking up soaked in a cold-sweat. He'd also ended up going out and buying more sheets and blankets.

It wouldn't do to have his mom figure out how much laundry he had to do on a daily basis.

He shoved the bedding into the closet beside his dresser and then proceeded to get dressed. Making his way out the door of the pool house, he paused, shivering as the lyrics of "Stan" by Eminem blasted out Sunny's bedroom window.

He sighed. Sunny and Ian had been fighting again.

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Sunny let out a groan as the alcohol wore off enough for him to make sense of his surroundings. It was dark in his bedroom. A quick look at the clock told him it was a five after midnight.

That was okay, though, tomorrow, ehr, today actually, was Saturday. That meant he could stay up and drink all night if he wanted too. He got up slowly and looked around, trying to decide where he wanted to drink. He definitely didn't feel like spending another week-end drinking alone in his bedroom.

The sound of splashing water caught his attention, making him head toward his bedroom. In the pale moonlight, he saw a dark-haired boy sitting on the edge of a pool, splashing his feet softly.

He sighed and felt his heart lift a bit in his chest.

Devin. He'd missed him for the last few weeks, and suddenly wanted to know why he hadn't seen him lately.

That decided it.

His plan to drink all night long forgotten, Sunny slid open the bedroom window and slowly crawled out, trying to make as little noise as possible. Grabbing a drainpipe, Sunny slid slowly to the ground, dropping the last couple of feet onto his butt.

He grunted, pleased he hadn't broken any bones and got up, slipped around the side of the house, and made his way around the privacy fence into Devin's back yard, moving as quietly as possible so that Devin wouldn't hear him and sneak away. He wasn't quite sure why Devin was avoiding him.

And Sunny wanted to know why his boyfriend was avoiding him. The thought of Devin being his boyfriend made Sunny freeze as a sudden thought occurred to him. He couldn't ever actually remember an agreement being made that Devin was indeed his boyfriend. He frowned. It was definitely something he'd have to fix. But something else occurred to him as well. Well, there was no other way; he'd just have to ask Devin.

Just as he finished sneaking his way across Devin's back yard something else made him freeze in place. Devin wasn't there anymore.

He sighed. A finger tapped him on the shoulder. Sunny jumped, and would have yelled except that a strong hand clamped over his mouth.

"Shhh, you'll wake everyone up, though with as much noise as you make, I'm surprised you haven't, already," Devin whispered into Sunny's ear.

Sunny relaxed, allowing his head to sink into Devin's shoulder as a slight shiver racked his body from Devin's breath tickling his ear.

Devin removed his hand from Sunny's mouth and took a step back, forcing Sunny to stand on his own. Sunny turned around, and stepped back as he saw the frown on Devin's face.

Devin inhaled sharply and then let out a soft sigh.

"You're drunk again," he said softly, sounding annoyed.

"Yeah," Sunny agreed.

Sunny began to feel annoyed. He didn't know why it was such a big deal if he had a couple drinks every now and then, but this was the second time Devin had seemed upset with him over it. He just hoped Devin wouldn't tell him had to wait until he was sober before he would kiss him.

Because that would seriously piss him off.

"Mind if I ask why?" Devin asked.

Reaching out, Devin grabbed Sunny's hand and led him to the side of the pool. He sat down, and then pulled Sunny down next to him.

Sunny let out another sigh, not sure if he felt like talking about it.

"Because, they think they're my parents, and they're driving me crazy. It's so bad I think I'm gonna run away," Sunny finally replied, letting his annoyance show a bit in his voice.

Devin frowned and shook his head, not saying anything.

Sunny waited for a couple of seconds.

"You should come with me," Sunny murmured softly, "we could run off and live like kings..."

Devin snorted. Sunny stopped speaking and looked at Devin. Devin looked right back at him and shook his head at the same time.

"Homeless kids don't live like kings on the street, Sunny. If you think it's all glory out there on the road...." Devin closed his eyes briefly. "It's not, you know, there's nothing but trouble out there, especially for a good looking kid like you."

Sunny blinked, startled.

"Are you my boyfriend, Devin?"

It was Devin's turn to look startled. His surprise turned into a frown as Sunny watched. Sunny's heart was in his throat as he waited for Devin to say something, anything.

It was hard for him to sit silently and wait, especially since the only thing he could see was Devin's dark grey eyes, eyes that were almost black. Devin drew back; his blank face gave Sunny his answer. Sunny sighed.

"Never mind. I guess that answers my question," Sunny whispered. Feeling embarrassed and disappointed, he decided that now was a good time to go back home and get into the rest of that bottle, as loneliness swirled up around him to join the rest of his feelings.

Sunny got up and turned away. He had taken only a single step toward his house before a hand reached out and grabbed his wrist, yanking him around and into Devin's arms.

"I dunno, kid," Devin whispered. He hugged Sunny tighter to his body. "I think there are a few things that need to be worked out before we can take that step, but it's a possibility, if we work on it."

Sunny leaned away from Devin and looked hard at the older boy's face.

"What kind of things?" Sunny asked.

Devin smiled tightly at him. Sunny saw pain in that smile.

"It's not you, not really. It's me. There are a few things I need to work on before I'm ready to place myself in a relationship, I think," Devin said in a soft voice.

"Like what?" Sunny whispered back.

Devin sighed. He turned his eyes upward to look for a moment at the thin pinpoints that lit the sky with soft flickers, and then looked back at Sunny.

"We'll discuss it in the morning..." Devin whispered, feeling uncomfortable with this boy who was stirring up all these emotions in him.

"Oh. Okay," Sunny whispered. He leaned forward and rested his head against Devin's chest as the alcohol hit him once more and exhaustion took its toll on his body.

"C'mon, let's get some sleep," Devin said.

Sunny nodded and relaxed as Devin led him inside the pool house up the stairs into the loft that had become Devin's bedroom. Wrapped tightly in Devin's arms, naked, Sunny had barely closed his eyes before sleep greeted him.

It took longer for Devin to fall asleep, but when sleep did claim him, he slept peacefully for the first time in three years.