Meals & Daydreams

"Because even a demon needs a friend."

I threw her out of the bed.

"How long was I out?" I combed my hair back frustrated with this child.

"Only for a few days." She stretched her arms still laying where she landed.

"Where is this?"

"Maryland." She rolled onto her back.

"You do realize that I was going to kill you that night, right?"

"Can we eat first?" She sat up. Hopping off the ground.

"What?"

She waved her arms about, walking over to the kitchen.

"Hey! I'm talking to you. Did you hear what I just said?!" I winced feeling a throbbing pain in my side.

"Be careful. You're still hurt." She turned the stove on.

I watched her from down the hall as she wobble around the kitchen. She searched through the bottom cabinets and grabbed a pan that looked like it weighed more than she did. She almost grazed the burner with her arm as she went to place it down.

"Hey!" I carefully got out of bed to snatch the frying pan away from this child.

"What do you think you're doing? You're too infant like to be messing around with a stove." I set the pan aside.

"It's okay. I do it all the time."

"Where's your parents? Why aren't they watching you, making sure you're not doing some dumb shit like this." I turned the stove off.

"I-I uh, I don't know. Sometimes they don't come home for days or even weeks. So I'm here alone a lot but s-sometimes my big brother will stay with me too." She played around with the hem of her yellow shirt.

The bruises on her arms and face caught my eye. Some looked old while the bigger ones seemed new.

"Oh. So, uh where is he now?" I looked around the room scratching the back of my head.

"I made him angry. I didn't mean to. I just wanted him to play with me. So he left me at the park that night and told me to get lost. But I didn't. I made it back home." She smiled up at me. Oblivious to the truth.

She's alone. Her little mind must be gripping onto hope like it's a lifeline. Believing that things will get better.

I very carefully crouched down to her level. Groaning as I held my side.

"I don't understand how you can still smile like that. You do understand he was trying to get rid of you right?"

In a world like this, it isn't safe to be oblivious to the evils around you. If you fail to take notice of them, you'll never know when they have you surrounded. Down on your hands and knees ready to eat you alive.

She has to wake up from her daydream and face reality. It's the only way she'll survive.

It's what I had to do.

"Nu-uh my big brother would never ever do that. He used to always say i-it was just him and me against the world. That I can always count on him. He protects me." She stood defensively.

"What if he hates you?"

"I-I don't care! I will always love him no matter what. H-he protects me from daddy when daddy gets really tired and angry." She puffed out her cheeks glaring at me.

Were the bruises from her brother or her father? Hm?

"Fine, fine, fine. Whatever you say. But I still won't let you cook." I pushed her away from the stove.

Slowly trying to stand up straight.

"But I-"

"Shut it and go sit on the couch." I pointed.

"But why? We eat at the table."

"Couch, now. I don't want you in my space."

She whined stomping out of the kitchen.

"Hey you little rat, do you have any of those little meat stringy things? You know the ones you fry or some shit." I searched the drawers for a spatula or at least some tongs. But I could only find spoons and baby forks.

"It's called bacon you dummy." She giggled.

"Yeah, I'm the dummy. Says the rat who almost burned their arm off."

"And my name is not rat. It's Ben."

I opened the fridge and let me just say, damn. There was barely anything in there. I felt kind of bad taking what little food this girl had. But hey, a guy's gotta eat. I cracked a couple of eggs into one pan and fried pieces of bacon in a smaller one.

"What kind of name is Ben for a girl anyway?" I stirred the eggs with a baby spoon.

"A good one. Why? Is your name any better?" She sassed back.

"Of course it is. It's Kai." I fried the eggs adding what little seasoning I could find.

"Eww, that's a nasty name." She giggled scrunching her face.

"Little rat where are the damn cups?"

"I'm not a rat!"

"Cups. Where?"

"All the way on top. To the, the uh right." She pointed.

I poured some orange juice into two teacups because why not. Spreading the eggs onto the plates next to one piece of bacon. I tried looking for some kind of bread but there was nothing so I had to improvise. I reached into my jacket pulling out a little pouch of pastry crackers from my hometown.

Just tossing a few of those on the plate.

"Now you may enter my space." I placed our breakfast on the small round table near the kitchen.

"Thank you." She ran over to me.

"What are these?" She pointed to the little pastries.

"They're sweet crackers. You had no bread so this is the next best thing." I threw a fork at her.

I sat across from her trying to find a good position to sit in. The chair was broken and leaning to one side. But that didn't stop me from devouring my food. I noticed that the little rat wasn't eating. Which pissed me off.

"What? Is it that bad? Look if you don't like it just throw it away." I rolled my eyes.

"N-no. That's not it." She sat there with her head hung low sniffling.

"Hey, you dying or something? What's wrong with you?" I place the handle of my spoon underneath her chin. Lifting her face to meet mine.

"N-no I'm not d-dying." She sobbed.

"Then why the hell are you crying?" I jerked my hand away. Wiping off the tears that touched me.

"B-because this is the f-first time in a long time that someone has made food for me." The rat cried

harder making me wish I'd let her starve.

"That's nothing to cry about. Get over it." I threw a cloth that was on the ground to her.

"Thank you for the food. It's really good." She stuffed her face.

"Then eat and shut up." I pushed my empty plate aside.

"Kai?" She sniffled.

"What now?" I sighed.

"Will you leave when you get better?"

"Yes." I saw her shoulders fall.

I don't know why but it irritated me.

"If I stay here too long another demon will find me and he won't only kill me. He'll kill you and everyone you love. So I have to go."

"A-are you better?" She nervously played with her eggs.

"Not yet. Maybe in a day or two, I'll be all good to go. Who knows it may take a week." I fake winced while holding my side.

At this point, I don't even know what I'm doing.

"Really?" Her face lit up like I just offered to take her to Disneyland.

"Yeah, but you'll have to take care of me."

"Yes! Yes! I promise I will." The little rat jumped up and down in her seat.

It pissed me off how much the little rat looked like her.

"So, how old are you anyway? What two?"

"No, you silly. I'm seven." She giggled to herself.

"So an infant."

"Haha, you're funny. I like having you with me."

I don't know what it was, but her words made something inside me convulse. Like it stabbed my heart but in a good way, I guess. If that's even possible.

The longer I spent with the little rat the more she annoyed me. She's too happy and my dead heart literally doesn't know how to handle it.

She was giggling while washing the dishes because the soap bubbles somehow amused her.

"Kai look! Look!" She turned to me blowing them at my face.

"Eww!" I swatted them away as she laughed even louder.

Her laughter stopped as her eyes scanned past me. Her smile fell and fear was the only thing I could see in her eyes.

"Who the hell is this?" A gruff voice spoke from behind me.

I turned around to see a drunken man glaring down at us with glossy eyes. Holding a whiskey bottle tightly in his dirtied hands as his eyes could barely stay open.

The little rat's body trembled as she spoke.

"D-dad."