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Alex was scouring through their bookshelf, trying to look for a book to read. They had read all of them countless times – the consequences of locking themself in the house – so it was just a matter of which one was worth reading again. Clyde was laying on the sofa. If they didn’t know better, they’d assume it was just a large stuffed toy with the lack of any motion.
A book fell down from the bookshelf. Clyde sat up, alerted by the sudden noise. Alex bent down and picked it up. They moved their hand across the cover. It was the homemade photo album their dad had made for them. Alex smiled. Both them and their dad shared green as their favourite colour, so he had made sure to choose that when making it. They could feel Clyde looking over their shoulder, studying it with them.
“What is that?” it asked, eyes still on the book.
“It’s a photo album,” Alex replied.
“Can I see inside?”
They walked over to the sofa with the Eastridge demon close behind them and sat down. It crept up beside them, resting its head on their shoulder. It wasn’t allowed to be so close, but Alex had given up correcting it and just let it. They needed some form of contact with another living being anyway; there was not much to do in isolation.
As they flipped through the pages, memories flooded back from their childhood. Trips in the forest, birthday parties, when they lost their first tooth. They smiled as they remembered every single one. Clyde watched with intrigue as their eyes filled up with so much joy. It couldn’t even remember if it had seen them so happy before.
“Why is there a picture of a frog?”
“Hm? Oh!” Alex laughed. “It was a frog I’d brought into the house. My parents freaked out about it.”
“Do they not like frogs?”
“No, they were upset because I had tracked mud all over the house.”
“I see.”
They continued flipping through the pages. Clyde observed the aging of Alex from photo to photo, going from a young child to a teenager to a young adult. Then, Alex stopped flipping the pages. They fixated on a specific photo. Clyde looked at what it was. It recognised the kid immediately. That light brown hair, missing tooth, and those freckles and brown eyes filled with dreams. It was William Lewis.
“What’s so special about that kid?” Clyde asked.
“Many things,” Alex said, smiling.
“Like what?”
“Oh, where do I even begin? He loved exploring the forest and making up stories only based on how the slugs moved. He made robots out of old cans and wire and placed them around the house. He said they would protect us from nightmares and evil.”
“He lived with you? He doesn’t even resemble you at all.”
“Well, kind of. We were his foster family in the weekends. His parents didn’t know how to raise him, so they asked mine to do so. But I think he got more attached to us, because he started referring to my parents as his own. He even got us to call him Lewis instead of William because then he could “be a real part of the family”. My mom was against the idea at first, but she quickly started to call him Lewis too. We all did.”
Clyde could see how Alex’s eyes became glossy, yet they were stilled filled with joy and nostalgia. They looked so happy.
“Why didn’t you just adopt him?”
“I don’t know, I wish we had. I think it was just because my parents were too afraid to ask, but I always wonder. I still miss him.”
“What happened?”
“He went missing along with a few other kids. We never found the perpetrator-” Alex interrupted themself. They slowly looked at Clyde, realising who they were talking to. The nostalgic yearning they had felt before was quickly switched out with a terrified sorrow. “Why do you even ask when you know the answer?”
Clyde grinned. “You seemed so invested. I’d hate to snap you out of it.”
Alex pushed it away, standing up from the sofa and taking a few steps back. “What is wrong with you!?”
The veldigun slowly rose up from the sofa, towering over the puny human as it stared them down. “I just want to see you happy, Alex.”
“No, you’re making it worse,” they said, tears starting to stream down their face. “Leave me alone!”
Clyde tried to stop them, but they stormed out of the room and into their bedroom, locking the door. It could hear them breaking down in there. It looked down on the photo album, now laying open on the sofa, alone. The face of that kid was taunting it, reminding it of how much agony Alex was going through because of him. Clyde couldn’t bear it. It couldn’t handle the thought of another living being causing distress to the only human it had learned how to care for.
It could feel the kid’s anguish somewhere deep inside it as it went over to the sofa and picked up the book, flipping through all the photos featuring William Lewis and erasing his face on every single one.
Alex was sitting on the floor, leaned up against the door, crying. They couldn’t remember the last time they had cried so much, but it wouldn’t stop. They didn’t think it would affect them that much; how could they forget Clyde was the one to cause this whole mess? Why did they see it as just some cat or friend? It was a demon.
The memories of Lewis were still circling in their head. The way he had laughed, his love for baking but how he hated getting flour on his hands, his favourite buttoned shirt he had gotten from their dad, his… why couldn’t they remember his face? As they tried their hardest, they still couldn’t remember it. How was that possible? They had just looked at his face in the photo album. Alex stood up. They needed to see that photo again.
Clyde could hear the bedroom door unlock and thrown open, quick footsteps, and suddenly Alex was in the living room again. They hurried over to the photo album, frantically flipping through the pages before realising what had happened. They dropped the book, their hand shaking. Their entire body was. As they turned to look at the demon in their house, Clyde could see their eyes filled with tears and dread.
“What did you do?”
“I made him disappear,” it responded, no emotion in its voice.
“No, you… why did you do that?”
“To make you happy, Alex.”
They were terrified of the thing before them. Clyde seemed so much more menacing now. The way its body stood so unnaturally yet so animalistic. Not only that, but they could recognise the voice it used. It wasn’t its usual voice; it was more like that of Lewis’.
“He brought you joy, but now…” It leaned closer. “Now you’re upset.”
Alex shook their head. “He hasn’t done anything wrong, Clyde.”
“If it wasn’t for him, you wouldn’t be upset right now,” it hissed.
They stared into its eyes with a mix of terror and hatred. “You’re the one making me upset,” they wheezed.
Clyde shrieked, a horrible sound of fury and the mix of thousands of agonising screams. The yellow in its eyes glowed brighter, casting a golden glow on the entire room. Alex covered their face. It grabbed their arms and pulled them down, forcing them to look into its eyes as it spoke.
“I have been doing nothing but try to keep you safe! By removing his memory, I am helping you! You won’t need to be upset, and this is the thanks I get?!” Its voice was unstable, a thousand voices yelling at the same time.
Its grip around Alex’s wrists tightened. They could feel their bones crack, and they let out an agonising wail.
“Why can you not see the gift I am bringing you by getting rid of him?! Without him you can be happy! We can be happy!”
Alex desperately tried to get free from Clyde’s grip, but the more they fought, the more its claws pierced into their skin, and blood was starting to seep out. Their mind was in a panic. If it didn’t let go, it would rip off their hands. Clyde seemed to be knocked out of its rage and quickly let go of their wrists, sending them tumbling to the floor. Out of instinct, they tried to stop the falling with their hands, but their broken wrists instead sent a piercing agony through their body, making them let out a pained cry.
Clyde looked down on its hands. Its claws were covered in blood. It glanced down on Alex who was curled up into a ball like a dying bug. “Let me get some bandages for you,” it said. It left the room, licking its claws clean of the blood. It couldn’t let it go to waste after all.
It returned with a roll of bandages and got to work patching up the human’s mangled wrists. They weakly tried to get away from the Eastridge demon, but it wrapped its tail around their leg, making them unable to leave it. As they should. It wrapped the bandages around Alex’s wrists, studied its work before letting them go. It helped them up on their feet since they wouldn’t be able to do it by themself for a while.
They were both silent for a while after. Alex didn’t know what to say. The memories of Lewis still cycled through their mind, but the gut-wrenching feeling whenever they tried to remember his face persisted too. They glanced down at Clyde who was huddled up next to them, then down at their wrists.
It suddenly sat up, alerted by something. Alex flinched at the movement.
“What is it?” they asked.
It looked at them. They could see anger in its gaze, but it wasn’t directed at them. “Where is the last photo?”
Alex looked at it, confused. “W- what?”
“I have all of that kid’s memories, but he remembers a photo being taken that isn’t in the album.” It leaned closer to Alex. They leaned away, but it just crawled closer. “So where is it?”
“I- I- I don’t know what you’re talking about!”
“Why isn’t it there?”
Alex was confused and terrified, but a memory slowly faded in. It was the evening of the 31st of October 1986. They were following Lewis out of the door to go meet his friends when their dad suggested they took a picture of Lewis. He was so proud of his costume after all; it would be a shame not to save the memory. And with that memory, Alex slowly regained the image of Lewis’ face. They smiled.
But Clyde wasn’t happy. It got up from the sofa and ran around the house, searching every nook and cranny for any trace of the picture. Meanwhile, Alex was laying there on the sofa, re-adding Lewis’ face to every single memory they had of him.
The veldigun finally stopped and returned to the human. It looked much calmer now, and that worried them more than anything. It grinned. “I remember where he put it.”
“Where?”
“I think I’ll have to pay your parents a visit.”
Alex went pale. They shook their head. “No, you can’t do that.”
“It’s even better! Then you won’t have to remember anyone,” it said, its grin unnaturally widening. “Then it can just be you and me.”
“No, you’ll make it worse!”
“You won’t be able to be sad about it if you can’t remember it.”
“Clyde, please, I’ll… I’ll do anything! I’ll stop talking about Lewis! I won’t talk with other people; I’ll just be with you! Just, please… leave my parents out of this.”
The demon looked at them, studying their expression. Then it nodded. “Okay, I will leave them alone.”
Alex let out a sigh of relief.
“But… if I hear you mention that little brat again, I’ll make sure you know no one but me.”
Alex nodded. “Yes, of course!”
“Good.” Clyde turned and walked over to the front entrance.
“Where are you going?”
They watched as its form shifted, getting shorter, its claws growing smaller and becoming hands, the orange onesie turning into a buttoned shirt, its horns disappearing and being replaced with hair. Alex’s eyes widened.
Clyde, now wearing the skin of Lewis, turned to look at them with its own eyes. “But I won’t leave his birth parents alone. They have too many pictures of him.”
Alex wanted to protest. They wanted to do anything to stop it from hurting anymore people, but their whole body was too tired to do anything. They closed their eyes. “Okay.”
When they opened them again, the door slammed shut. They locked it and went into their room, carefully laying down on their bed to avoid hurting their wrists. They stared up at the ceiling. As they thought of Lewis again, they realised that his eyes were not his own anymore. They were Clyde’s in every single memory.