Chapter Seventeen

'Eddie! Eddie!' Eddie could hear his name being called out. It seemed so distant. Who was it calling him? 'Eddie! Eddie!' It was Jim. Eddie started to come around. 'Eddie, you've fallen asleep again!' Eddie was lying flat in the playground. He started to vaguely remember. He was playing basketball with the rest of the guys. It was lunch. He just ran out of energy. Down he went. This was happening a lot. Jim and some others helped him to his feet and walked him over to some seats. They sat him down. 'You Okay Eddie?' Jim asked. 'Yeah,' replied Eddie. 'I'm fine.' 'Hey, look over there. It's Stephanie.' 'Who's Stephanie?' 'You know! Stephanie. The girl I like. I've told you like a million times. Don't you remember?' 'No. When was that?' 'Everyday, dude,' Jim shot a wondering look at Eddie. He had told Eddie almost everyday about his crush on Stephanie. She was in a different class to Eddie and Jim, but in the same grade. Eddie was having some major memory problems. Jim and the other guys would often talk about things which happened in the past, and Eddie had no recollection of them. It obviously had something to do with the accident, Jim figured. 'Which one is she?' Eddie enquired. 'The tall one. The one with the long light brown hair,' Jim paused. 'The one in the blue dress!' 'Oh, yeah! I see her now.' 'Don't you think she's pretty?' 'I don't know.' 'You don't know. Are those demons messing with your brain again?' 'No, not today. I haven't seen them today.' Eddie had told Jim about the demons. Eddie was convinced the accident had allowed him to see into peoples souls. He had seen Slim carried off by the demons and the demons would come to visit him often. Normally when he awoke or when he was going to bed. Jim had been unconvinced about the demons. That was until Eddie told him about his Tag watch. The demons had taken his watch. It had been placed next to him on the bedside table. Nurse Jane had always made it so that he could see the time. Then, the demons came to him one night. When he awoke the next morning, the Tag was gone. He had not seen them take it, but he knew they had. How else could he explain it? At first, Jim had suggested that he had just misplaced it. Misplacing things was extremely difficult when you were lying in a hospital bed in plaster. Then there was the issue of Slim. Everyone had known that Slim and Bob were gay lovers. Eddie was convinced that was why God had let the demons carry Slim's soul away. Jim was pretty convinced it was true too. After all, Slim and Bob used to hang out together. There was two years difference. Why would a guy hang out with another guy when there was two years difference? They had to be gay! Eddie had other problems too. He had arrived home from the hospital, and on his dresser there had been a packet of amphetamines. Eddie had no recollection of how they had got there. Half of them had been used. He had no idea how his mother had missed them. Surely his parents would have given him a stern talking to if they thought he was doing drugs. He wasn't even sure they were his own. He just remembered seeing them there, and he quickly hid them in his bottom draw in the hope that they would not be found. In the meantime, he didn't take any in case they were someone else's. Maybe they were Slim's? He wasn't sure. It came as a bit of a shock to him when a new packet of them turned up on top of his dresser. He quickly hid them too. Who had put them there? What would have happened if his mother had seen them? She obviously had not seen them, or else she might have asked about them. Eddie was not even sure how he knew they were amphetamines. They did not actually say amphetamines on the packet. They had the brand name. Though he knew somewhere deep inside him that he had seen them before and that they indeed amphetamines. He had much bigger problems anyway. The demons would constantly attack him in his sleep, and he was sure that was why he was always falling asleep. At night they would come for him. Some nights he just felt their presence. An evil that he could feel all around him. Other nights, they actually attacked him. In his dreams he would go to the Nacropolis and hide, or they would come looking for him. He desperately needed an ally in the war against the demons. He needed someone to help. Someone who could see them too. He had spent a lot of time talking to Jim about it. Maybe he could convince Bob and Akane to help him get Slim's soul to help. Maybe he was just in some sort of purgatory or something. Somewhere that they could pray him out of. If he could get them to help him. Have them pray for Slim's soul and then he and Slim could do battle against the demons side by side. He needed someone to help, so that he would not keep falling asleep in the day time. There had to be some way to get a friend into the same realm as him. Someway to make it happen. He was tired. He decided to sleep some more.