So I made a decision.

The day after the late night argument, Gary moped around all day, occasionally tripping over my legs as I sat on the couch.

M and K lay around gibbering and refusing to speak to each other. They won’t leave the house. STILL don’t get why this is. The worst that would happen is they’d be haunted be a demon and get some fresh air.

I wanted to look up some inspirational music – some early Sade, some Steve Winwood – on the PC, but I knew that M would freak if ‘Higher Love’ started ‘mysteriously’ playing on the laptop, so screw that.

Things were at a pretty low ebb, so I decided to break the rules.

I switched the camera off.

“HEY YOU GUYS” I said, in as human a voice as I could, hoping they’d hear. M squawked like a parrot and tried to punch a space about eight feet from where I was standing. Even glassy-eyed K sat up.

“OKAY CAN YOU HEAR ME” I said, pretty sure that my voice was coming through all demonised, like a thrash metal singer. They sort of jerked and looked at each other, which I think meant that they could.

“SO WHATEVER IT’S BEEN FUN,” I said, clearing my throat, which didn’t help. Made me almost long for the Ouija days. “BUT THINGS HAVE GOT TO CHANGE. IN SHORT, I’M LEAVING.”

It didn’t sink in for a while, and I’m not sure if they heard Gary’s “What the fuck, no way,” either.

“I’M NOT HELPING HERE, YOU TWO HAVE MANY… ISSUES, SO IT’S BEST IF I DUCK OUT, LEAVE YOU TO IT. NO HARD FEELINGS, OKAY? COME ON, GARY. WE’RE OUT OF HERE.”

“Jeez. Okay, okay,” said Gary. “This is all kinds of messed up, man. ” We headed for the door. At least as an invisible demon, there are no costs associated with moving. Swings and roundabouts, I guess.

“You’ve pushed away the only thing that ever understood me,” I heard K say to M as I left. “I’m going to kill you for this.”

“GUYS I AM TOTALLY STILL HERE,” I said. Embarrassing! “GOING RIGHT NOW THOUGH.”

We stepped out into the wide suburban street and blinked in the light.

“I’m going to miss those guys,” I said to Gary. “But maybe now they can work it out. I mean, what’s the worst that can happen?”

Demon out.

XXX