Chapter 1

Can you kill a Demon? What if that Demon lives within you? What if that Demon is a part of your very soul.

Sliding into the drivers seat I pulled the door shut and just leaned back into the leather seat. It was shockingly easy to remove the rear taillight and only a little harder to seal up the opening around the hose. Having a gas powered car sure comes in handy in a moment like this. I open the bottle of water and then pop the top off the medication bottle. No safety caps for me, no kids, no need.

Two at a time I pop the Valium into my mouth and swallow with a mouth full of water. 10 total I hope its enough. Leftover meds from to many flights and the anxiety that caused but dam handy today. As I sit there listening to the car idle I wonder how in the hell I let it get to this point. 50 years I had known and recognized the Demon that lived inside me and 50 years I had thwarted every effort It had put forward to control me and spread Its destruction to all around me.

20 years in the Navy with 15 of those at sea on a 5-2 sea/shore rotation then 2 with a lucky remote volunteers only mission and 3 at a regular shore base. After getting out I moved around a bit then settled in the Pacific Northwest. I met Terry in a downtown coffee shop when she asked if she could sit with me as the place was crowded at lunch time.

She asked if I worked nearby and I said No I just liked the Downtown energy and being polite I asked her what she did for a living. She was a Lawyer at large Corporation and worked in their Patent Department. I don’t know what she saw in me but she asked me out before she left to get back to the office.

Was she the most beautiful women I had ever seen, no but she was wicked smart and I had always found smart women attractive. So after 2 years of dating we married in Las Vegas. She never wanted kids and I feared them more than death itself.

26 years with way more good times than bad. I dragged her away from work and around the world when she needed it even if she didn’t think she ever needed it and she always came back recharged and better than ever and she gave me a focus and stability that allowed me to control the Demon. A win for me, a win for her and a win for the World around us.

So how did this all lead to me sitting in the front seat of her car with it at idle in the garage. That would be year 27. A much to long delayed Doctors visit the week before Valentines followed by a Cancer Diagnosis on the Friday before the Ides of March. Finally the Monday before Christmas 2036 I watched the casket slowly lower into the ground.