Chapter 5

Paint dripped from the paintbrush on to the white tarp bunched on the floor. The canvas on the easel in front of her was still white. Angie sighed and leaned forward on to her hand as the chair under her creaked threateningly. The paints in front were brand new and yet, they weren't really since she had bought them a year ago. She just hasn't had the motivation or the creativity to actually paint with them. Today, she had gotten herself up out of bed, showered and dressed into her painting clothes, and sat down in her little artist shed on the side of the house. She opened her new paints excitedly but when she sat down and dipped her brush into the green, everything seemed to stop. No thoughts came to her as to what to do with the green on her brush. The white canvas in front of her seemed to mock her with hideous laughter.

"Nothing coming to mind?"

"Holy shit!" Angie bucked forward out of the chair. Her paintbrush flew out of her hand, splattering green everywhere, and she knocked into the canvas as she fell. She whined as she hit the hard ground of her shed and rubbed at the left side of her ribs that had hit the canvas that was now on the floor with random splatters of green over it. She huffed and looked back to see a grinning Jasper who was scratching the back of his neck.

"Sorry. Should I have knocked on the door instead of warping into the room?"

"You think?" She snarled and rolled over on to her butt. She blew some hair out of her face and asked, "What do you want?"

"I said I would begin your training within a couple of days since we last spoke and well… it certainly has been a couple of days."

"It's been a week," She pointed out, getting up off the floor and dusting herself off. "I was beginning to think you had forgotten about me."

Jasper shook his head. "No. Not in the slightest. Mother had me on a mission with another who had just recently lost his partner."

Angie quirked her head. "Partner?"

"Demons work in pairs," Jasper explained. "Snatchers are tricky things and even Mother always works with another when dealing with them. You just happen to be my new partner. That is why I found you in the first place and that is why I am the one training you."

"That's just great," Angie groaned, leaning against the wall of the shed. "The one that doesn't explain much is training a newbie."

"Sometimes, you have to find things out for yourself," Jasper said with a shrug. "That's a part of every life."

"I'll be here to help you as well," Cordelia pipped up.

"That's true," Jasper said.

"Wait, you can hear her? Even when she's uh… inside me?"

"Of course. I am your partner and a demon," Jasper explained. "A human wouldn't be able to hear her but other demons will be."

Angie rubbed her temples and groaned. "Okay, so if these things called snatchers are so dangerous to the point where even Mother has to have a partner, then why does she think that I, a divorced artist, will be able to fight these things?"

"I believe in Mother's choices," Jasper said, moving to pick up the easel and canvas. "The first thing that I have to teach you is confidence I suppose. You'll never live long enough against the snatchers with all this negativity."

"What do you want from me?" Angie sobbed, sitting back in her artist stool with a pout and folded arms. "I'm 30 years old and I've lived five years in a sucky marriage. I am an artist but I've been in a rut with my art for a while now. Art is my passion and I can't even do my passion! What positivity do you seen out of that?"

"I suppose none," Jasper said. "But you need to move past that. This is a new part of your life and with that comes positivity experiences." He turned to her with a concerned expression. "Do you think you can move on from your current life?"

"Well," Angie's face relaxed and she slumped on her stool, letting her arms fall from their place over her chest. "I want to. It's difficult when James doesn't look for his own housing and when art is not just my passion but it is my livelihood, and it's not like I'm drowning in debt or something, but I would like to put out new paintings for reoccurring clients and new clients as well."

Jasper looked back at the canvas, pursing his lips at it as though it had offended him, then looked back at Angie. "Well, there is not much I can do to help with your creativity, but I can surely help you with your ex-husband. Has he started packing?"

Angie cocked an eyebrow at him and twitched her nose. "Of course not. He has no place to go as of yet. Why would he pack everything up?"

The corner of Jasper's mouth twitched up into a smirk. He turned on his heels and went out the door, beckoning her to follow. She shrugged and did as she was told, following him from her artist shed to the back door of the house as he explained;

"If he isn't doing anything to move himself out, you have to show him that you want him out. You have to show him that he is not welcomed her anymore. You and I are going to pack up his things for him."

"Woah! Wait! Hold it!" Angie yelped, lashing her hand out and taking a hold of Jasper's shoulder. "I don't dare go into his office nor his bedroom and I don't really want to!"

Jasper shrugged off her hand with ease and walked into her home on a mission. "You'll never get him out if you keep giving him the time of day and you'll never be rid of this negativity."

Angie bit her lip and shuffled behind him as he made his way to James' office. How he knew where to go was lost on her, but she wasn't about to question it. Some demon power she chalked it up to. As Jasper put his hand on the office door, she felt a stirring in her chest then a bright light beamed from her chest. As quick as it came, it vanished just as quick and Cordelia was in attendance.

"I'll keep watch, dear," Cordelia twirled and flew past them towards the front door.

"Ah, to have a helpful weapon even outside of battle,��� Jasper swooned and turned the office doorknob.

"Who are you calling unhelpful?" Angie could hear Jasper's weapon growl within his chest, but Jasper ignored it and waltzed right into the office.

The office was completely spotless as per the norm with James. He was a perfectionist in his work and how organized he was. There was not a speck of dust nor even a paperclip out of place on his desk. Angie took a hesitant step into the room and looked from Jasper to the desk in the corner. The chair was in between the desk and the wall so she couldn't see what was in the picture frames scattered on the edges of his desk. She could hear Jasper snap his fingers and when she looked, he was going through his filing cabinet, taking out contracts one by one and looking them over out of curiosity.

"So, we don't have boxes or anything to pack this place up with," Angie said, slowly heading towards the desk.

Jasper hummed. "Oh," He smirked as he watched out of his peripherals what Angie was doing. ��I think we will have some soon enough."

"What do you-."

Angie halted when she got behind the desk. The pictures in the frames were not what she was expecting to see. There was one just of him in a black suit. Then, there was one of him holding a new born. Angie thought for a moment, but couldn't think of any of James' brothers having a baby in the past few years. She looked towards the other pictures of him with this child. The most recent one had the child, a boy, looking a little over a year old. The last picture on his desk was of him and a woman in a wedding dress. She was surprised that he would have kept a picture of their wedding day on his desk when they were at the end of a divorce, but as she looked closer at the picture. It wasn't of her. She grabbed the frame and tore the back off to see the date. It was the date of their own wedding but three years later.

Jasper could see the fire in her eyes as she tore off the back of each picture frame and threw it back on the desk with a scowling curse. Once all the picture frames were ruined, she slammed her hands on the desk and let out a roaring cry.

"For five years… for five years I tried to make this marriage work just to find out he gave up after three! Maybe even less if he took forever to propose to this woman like he did with me!" Angie grit her teeth and tightly closed her eyes in pain. "He needs to get out!"

"Well, look at that!" Jasper exclaimed. "Look at all these boxes we have! Now we can get started!"

Angie's eyes popped open and she stood in shock at the dozen or so boxes that were sitting on the floor, waiting for James' things to be packed up. She whipped her head at Jasper who was making quick work of the filing cabinet. "How…?"

"You wished for it," He said in a calm manner. "Demons have the power to wish for the things that they really desire. You truly desire for James to move out and you needed boxes, so you wished for boxes. That's all there is to it."

"If it's that simple then-."

"It will not work for you artistic rut. That is a concept, not a physical matter in this plane," Jasper explained who had finished packing the filing cabinet. "Now help me pack this office up so we can head to the bedroom."

Jasper tended to the desk, not wanting Angie getting any angrier than she was, while she plucked books off the shelves and tossed them in a box. She didn't really care to see that they were organized, but Jasper grumbled at her and once he was done with the desk, he organized everything that she had haphazardly thrown into the boxes.

"That's everything in here," Angie said, putting her hands on her hips and a grin on her lips with pride. "Now to get his bedroom packed."

"My, you're quite different than the Angie that I saw earlier," Jasper teased, closing the final box up.

"I just found my push, that's all," Angie snorted and led the way upstairs to James' bedroom, pushing the pictures that she had found in her pocket.

"Dearies! Dearies!��� They could hear Cordelia screaming from the entrance way. "He's back! He's back!" As she informed them, she zoomed back towards them and went straight into Angie's chest, leaving her breathless for a moment. "Sorry about that, hun."

"Shit," She wheezed, rubbing at her chest. "He's home and we didn't finish packing him up. What do we do now?"

"Has your resolve faltered already?" Jasper asked with a raised brow and his hands clasped behind his back. "Tell him to do it himself and kick him out."

Angie slowly nodded her head and took a step down. "R-right… do it himself…."

Angie has stood up to James plenty of times before. Why was she nervous now? This wasn't like her. This was not Angela Valencia Gordin. She steeled herself. She shook herself out of her negative thoughts of what he would do when she had to assert herself in that talk and made her way to the kitchen to meet with James. She heard the door click open and close shut, and then footsteps heading her way. She took out the pictures from her pocket and put them face down under her hand on the kitchen island and glared as he walked into the kitchen reading the mail.

"Our divorce papers came," James said, throwing the manila envelope on the island with a 'fumf'. "We have to sign them and mail them back to that exact address."

"Good," Angie said, tipping her head slightly up with a scowl on her lips. "Now that it's practically official, you'll want to explain these, yes?" She threw the pictures across the island towards him.

James glanced at them, then picked the one up with him holding the new born. "These were… were you in my office? Why were you in my office?"

"Let's answer my questions first," Angie practically growled at him. "Basically, this whole time you've been cheating on me?"

"Listen Angie-."

Angie slammed her hands on the island and screamed, "Answer my fucking question James!"

James stared at her for a moment, then pushed a hand threw his perfectly gel-ed back hair and sighed. "I knew our marriage was going downhill right from the beginning but I wanted to give us a chance. Then you said that you didn't want kids right away because of your art and I just couldn't accept that."

"So, you have another fucking marriage just because I didn't want to have kids right away?" Angie could have killed him with a kitchen knife right then and there, but she was able to hold herself back.

"You're 30 Angie! You don't have that much time to have all the kids I want!" James yelled, his voice breaking at the end.

"It's not the 15th century anymore! I can have kids well into my 40's!"

"What's done is done," James huffed, pocketing the pictures. "Now I want an answer as to why you were in my office."

Angie folded her arms over her chest and turned away from him. "I packed it up! I was going to pack your bedroom up to, but since your home now you can do it!"

"You did what now?"

"You heard me!" Angie snapped and twirled around to look at him. "I packed it up! Go pack up your bedroom! I'm throwing you the fuck out of my house! You have three days or else I'm calling the cops!"

James' eyes narrowed at her and she did the same. They both glared at each for a while. No one moved. No one even blinked. It was like two gunslingers facing off. James scrunched his nose, snorted and grabbed the manila envelope from the table and headed to his room.

"I'll sign these and have them for you later."

James marched up the stairs and slammed his door hard. Angie leaned back against the kitchen island. Her arms crossed over her chest and her head down looking at the floor. Jasper popped out from his hiding place and came into the kitchen with a proud smile.

"You can do anything you set your mind on, Angie," He smiled but then faltered as he could see tears falling from her eyes. He took a step forward. Slipping a finger under her chin he lifted her face so he could look into her eyes. "What's the matter?"

Angie rubbed at her eyes and shooed his hand away from her chin. "It's a lot of things… The fact that he's been cheated half way into our marriage. The fact that I was the only one trying in this marriage. The fact that our divorce is actually real and coming to a close… I guess I was bottling it up and then finding out that he was cheating was just the final straw."

Jasper moaned. "Please do not weep. I haven't comforted a weeping human in years."

"You just being here is comfort enough," Angie said, bringing him into a tight squeeze.

"Oh," Jasper gasped at the unexpected intimacy and froze for a moment, then he relaxed and wrapped his arms around her as well.

"Angie, have you seen my… uh."

Angie pushed away from Jasper slightly and cocked an eyebrow at James who was standing shocked on the bottom step of the stairs. "Have I seen your what?"

Jasper pointed the papers in his hands at Jasper who had also pushed away from Angie but kept his hands on her arms, and had turned his head to look at James.

"Who is this?"

Angie scoffed and rolled her eyes. "What's it to you?"

Jasper side-eyed her then responded, "My name is Jasper Liege and I'm a good friend of Angie's."

"Good friend?" Jasper hummed, thinking about the name then shook his head. "Never heard of you before."

"Ah, well, it seems like more than one secret was being kept between you two," Jasper smirked and turned back to Angie with a wink.

James scoffed and went back up the stairs, slamming his door again.

"I never found out what he wanted," Angie chuckled. "But I'm not sure that I care."

"There she is," Jasper smiled and squeezed her upper arms supportively. Then his smile faded into a serious look. "I'm glad that I made you throw him out now rather than let you keep him here. His soul has a snatcher attached to it."

"What? How could you tell?"

"It'll be hard for you right now to determine whether he has a snatcher or not. Not only is this snatcher a more powerful one, but it is also in hibernation."

"Hibernation? What?"

Jasper rolled his eyes and sighed. "The reason why snatchers are so hard to eradicate from the world is because most are asleep in their host until something triggers them awake. This sleep is called hibernation. While in hibernation, it is hard for demons to sense them. They also cannot be killed while in hibernation unless you… kill the host but that is not what we are trying to do. The stronger the snatcher, the longer they can stay in hibernation, the more powerful the trigger needs to be in order to wake it up, and the easier it is to conceal itself from demons, especially low-ranking demons such as yourself."

"Ah… okay. So, James' snatcher is in hibernation. Okay," Angie tried to wrap her head around the information. She leaned in to Jasper and rubbed her forehead on his chest with a sigh. "This is all too much."

Jasper nodded and placed his chin on the top of her head. "Yes, this has been quite the training session for you. I'll be back in a few days' time for you second training session, but for now I have an assignment for you."

Angie pushed her head away from him and looked up with a curious expression. "An assignment?"

"I would like you to seriously meditate each morning and night for at least 10 minutes. As long as you are trying, I'll be happy."

"I didn't think meditation was a demon thing… but I'll do it," Angie said. She suddenly flushed and pushed away from Jasper even more. "Uh… I think we can stop holding each other."

Jasper blinked at her redden face then let his hands drop to his side. "Ah, I suppose you are right. I'll see you in a few days." He nodded, smiled and snapped his fingers then disappeared into thin air.

Angie sighed and hugged herself for a moment. She suddenly felt lost without Jasper near. She felt cold and out of place. She took a deep breath and went back out to her artist shed to put the paints and brushes away for another day. She opened the door and started the process of putting the tops on the cans of paint and one by one pushed the cans with her foot into a corner. She went to grab the brushes but spilled them all over the floor. She groaned and bent down to pick them up. When she stood back up, her eyes were focused on the canvas that had been splattered with green paint and slowly started to drip downwards. She cocked her head to the side, she felt a spark light up the flame that she had been missing for a while and immediately ran for the paints that she had just put back.