Our Demon Helpers

Demon's Guardianship - intro

Once upon a time there was a Demon. He had a simple and happy life because his person had kept him in such high esteem since childhood! He deftly ran his person's life with the greatest of ease protecting him from all sorts of dangerous people and events. If Demon couldn't fill his person's fear spaces, he would use triggers to keep his person safe and well taken care of.

As a child, his person had been physically abused by the mother. The father had left him when he was three and the stepfather was too busy working to notice the bruises. Demon's person had learned to stay quiet and out of the way so as not to upset the mother. Demon had shown up one day when his person was just four and locked in a closet. "When she puts us in the closet, she isn't hurting us." was Demon's first words to his person.

They grew up together learning many things about how to stay safe and keep out of the way of most abusive situations. Once, when his person was twelve, a teacher almost reported the abuse but Demon was able to get his person to be extra clumsy that day so the teacher decided that he clearly had caused his own bruises.

On the whole, it was a safe life until one day, when his person was thirty-two, someone new came to live in the same apartment building in which his person lived. Demon didn't know why but he immediately didn't like this person. There was something off about her. It didn't help that Demon's person was fascinated by her. She was upbeat, friendly and smart, all the things Demon taught his person not to be so he could keep his person safe.

Against Demon's best efforts, his person spent more and more time with this other person and Demon's hold started to loosen. Through this new friend, his person learned that one of the truths Demon had taught him was actually a lie and his person began trying to change, what he considered were "bad habits".

It's not like his person hadn't tried to change his habits before, he had, but this time was different. This time he had a friend that taught him that it was up to him to choose his actions instead of just doing things safely, the way Demon had taught him his entire life. His person first decided to change his bad habit of drinking too much. "This is an easy one." thought Demon. "His friends will bring him back to reality and I will continue to encourage him to do what is right and familiar as I have so many times before."

But his person moved to a different city with his new friend. "No worries." thought demon. "I'll just get him to make new friends that think the same way as his last set. That won't be hard because his desires are the same as before." But his new friend introduced Demon's person to her friends and through them he made other friends who thought more like her. Many of these new friends were also trying to change the habit of drinking too much. Demon's person was learning to feel safe without drinking.

"Alright, this calls for extra help!" thought Demon and he called on some of his person's other Demons to create havoc so his person would be too stressed out to continue down this new and clearly unsafe path he was on. His person became depressed from all the stress he was feeling and his mind was once again darkening. "Good, now we can finally get back to our safe place and live the way we should." thought Demon.

But his person's new friends threw him a surprise birthday party. "They didn't even get the date right." explained Demon to his person, but his person didn't seem to care that the birthday celebration was three and a half months off his actual birthday. It was nothing like anything he had experienced before and it boosted his confidence seven fold filling him with light from his friends. That was the first time Demon felt serious concern that he was losing his control over his person.

"We have to stay dark! It isn't safe to be lit up! You know this!!" Demon admonished his person. "I've been keeping him safe his whole life! Doesn't he know I'm keeping him safe?" cried Demon. "I am the one who kept him in the dark and filled his lonely nights with thoughts! I am the one who kept him safe all these years! Who does she think she is, telling him he is the only one responsible for his life?"

It wasn't too long before Demon's worst nightmares came true. "I knew I didn't like this new person!" Demon thought as he realized his person was seeing him for the first time. As his person began noticing him more and more, Demon started hiding among all the past abuses and traumas his person had experienced as a child.

As light filled his person's dark mind holes, Demon began having less and less power. He didn't completely disappear but Demon knew life would never be as simple as it had been in the beginning. Alyssia Rhys

When You Make Life Hard 2

    It was a simple stop. My mother had died a few weeks before and my stepfather, Rudy, and I had finished packing up his possessions from his eighty-three years of life, fitting them all into a fifteen foot U-Haul truck. He also had a 2000 Saturn, which maybe the last one in existence since they are no longer manufactured. It was on a car dolly behind the truck. This made the whole thing about eight feet longer than the truck alone. 

    Rudy got a text that said he could have his wife's death certificate mailed, which could take months, or pick it up that same day. We had already driven as far as the town in which the court house was located so we decided to quickly pick it up.

    I drove past the front entrance of the court house building and noticed a very nice half circle drive way. Could it be that easy? I thought to myself. No, it will take him too long to pick up the certificate. I won't be able to stay there the whole time. I had better park somewhere else. I let my stepfather out and I turned the corner and drove into a parking lot full of cars. I got around the first line, and then the second. I can do this. Why was I worried? Then I came to the third, and last turn. Not going to happen! 

    I tried to pull forward, back up a bit, pull forward, back up a bit, pull forward and then I just sat there with no idea how I was going to get out of the mess I had gotten myself into. Why didn't I just park in that half circle? I thought as I sat perplexed in the driver's seat. A man walked up to the driver's window who knew my name. "Are you Lisa?" My stepfather had passed him on his way into the court house. "Yes." I said sheepishly. I knew exactly who this person was, even though I didn't know him personally. He was a friend of a friend from the church I attended.

    Your stepfather told me you might need some help. "Um, yeah. Thank you. I have no idea what to do next to get out of this parking lot that I should not have driven into." That last part didn't even need to be said. It was pretty clear I was way out of my league.

    He tried to help me figure it out but I finally had to simply ask him do it. He got the truck and trailer a little farther than I and then...

    There was a car that was parked at the front edge of a parking space. Two feet farther into the parking space would have allowed us to barely get by but that was not happening. I took the license plate number and went into the front entrance of the court house to find the person and ask them to move their car. Yeah, like that is realistic. I was desperate! 

    One of the officers followed me out to the truck to assess the situation. Rudy came out a few minutes later and the four of us talked about the hopelessness of it all for about fifteen minutes. We determined that the only thing to do was to take the car off the dolly, move the truck and then reconnect the car and dolly after they were on the street. 

    Just as I started the long process of disconnecting all the car dolly parts, the owner of the vehicle that was blocking us came out. What are the odds? He was to be in court all day and only came out to get his water bottle he had left in his car. He moved his car and we didn't have to disconnect anything. The truck and trailer was driven out of the parking lot without any more problems and we were on our way. 

    Next time I'm using the driveway and only moving if they ask me to.

When You Make Life Hard

    I woke up smelling bacon that my stepfather's best friend and wife had prepared for he and I. I slowly realized I had just slept at least five hours straight in an actual bed. That's a new one. I usually sleep for only two hours at a time. 

    After thinking about it, it wasn't too surprising since my eighty-three-year-old stepfather, Rudy, and I had spent the last three days packing his and my mother's hoarding house. Rudy and I were ready to drive to Texas with our newly packed, fifteen foot, U-Haul truck. We would pick up my mother's death certificate on our way out of town. 

    My mother had passed away from cancer a few weeks prior on March 25th, 2022. My half sister and brother had already been there and had been able to say goodbye to her before she was gone. That was the best thing for them. Since I had already said my goodbyes to my mother three weeks prior, it worked out perfectly for me to show up the day after her passing and give them time together. 

    My husband and I drove up the next day where I found Rudy taking Mom's clothing off of their hangers and stuffing them into large black bags. "We'll take these to a donation center," I could tell he was quite ready to be done with all the hoarding! 

    Thank you! I thought. There was so much stuff. My sister had cleaned some of the living room area by the time my husband and I arrived so we could at least have somewhere to narrowly walk. Every other room of the house was quite literally knee deep in a lifetime’s accumulation of "stuff!" She thought it would make her happy. 

    My brother took my sister to the airport that afternoon, so I only got to see them for a couple of hours. That was enough time to begin the discussion of what had been done so far and what still needed to be done now that Mom was gone, like finding a realtor to sell the house. Neither my brother nor my sister had the space to re-home my stepfather, so it became my pleasure to bring him home with me, just not yet. We still had work to do. 

    Richard, my husband, and I proceeded to spend the next four days packing, organizing, and cleaning non-stop so we could sell the house. 

    There was evidence of rat infestations in every closet, under every shelf and cabinet, and in almost every corner. Most of the furniture’s fabric was chewed through and many sofas and chairs had been used as homes for the creatures. Many of the unending piles of magazines were also chewed up and used as bedding. The entire house smelled like a rodent toilet.

    I had to leave after four days because I had to get a grip on the depth to which my parents’ living situation had sunk. I used the excuse that I had to get back to work and so I left Rudy to fend for himself for a couple of weeks. In the meantime, he found a realtor, packed up the books he wanted to take (he had seven bookshelves of them), and generally tried to clean. 

    Almost two weeks later my husband and I had figured out our plan for bringing my stepfather home to live with us. I would fly out on Easter Sunday, pack up any remaining items, rent a fifteen foot U-Haul truck, and Rudy and I would drive to Texas from his North Carolina home. 

    Upon arriving Easter Day, the house didn’t look much different from when I had left three weeks before. Upon closer examination I saw a few more details of how much my stepfather had actually done like sorting through his seven bookshelves, pulling out stuff from many kitchen cabinets and finding a few boxes of items he actually did want to keep for himself. 

    There was still too much to finish and drive away in two days time so we allowed for an extra day of sorting and packing before we had people come help move furniture into the moving truck. Once packed, having expended an enormous amount of energy, we had been invited to stay the night with Rudy's best friend and wife in their clean home. 

    I felt like a queen having a shower, eating a home cooked meal and sleeping in a real bed.