Jeanne Tomlin 								Word Count: 800 
Email: jeannetomlin@gmail.com 


Guardian Demon 
By: J. R. Tomlin 
On the warmest afternoon in August, I sold my soul. 
The sun shone through the slats of the blinds in dusty bars. Sweat tickled as it ran down my face since I couldn’t afford to run up the electric bill by turning on the air. I held the statement from the bursar’s office in my hand. I’d known I wouldn’t have the money for the next semester but kept hoping that the money would come in from somewhere—a grant, some unexpected scholarship. Now here it was. Four thousand dollars or I was out on the street with my doctorate only half finished. My transcript would be good for paper training a puppy—if I had one. 
There had to be something I could do. Anything! I’d been a good girl all my life. Studied. Hardly ever got drunk. Never did drugs. Top grades--never cheated. Even went to church with my parents whenever I went home. Damn it, this wasn’t fair. 
I smelled the cigarette smoke and jerked my head up. I never smoked. The building didn’t allow smoking anyway. What the… 
A soft chuckle made me leap to my feet. My desk chair skittered away. A man stood in half shadow just inside the closed door of my apartment. I gasped and grabbed my chest as my heart leaped. Then the cigarette gave off an orange light, and I could see his face. It was an unearthly white—blank typewriter-paper white. He was bald and wore round-lens dark sunglasses and had a half-smile on his lips. 
I looked around frantically. Textbooks… stapler… the stupid bill... The only possible weapon within reach was the gooseneck lamp on my desk. When I grabbed it, he chuckled again. The silver bars that dangled from each of his earlobes jiggled, catching the faint light. 
He held up a thin hand palm, outward. “It’s all right, Mary.” 
I shuddered. His fingernails were long—more like talons than nails. 
“Who are you?” My voice croaked, my throat was so tight. 
“You can call me Aza if you like.” He took the cigarette from his mouth and smiled exposing pointed, shark-like teeth. His cigarette burned even brighter as he held it between his long fingers, lighting up that entire side of the room. 
I gripped the lamp and raised it higher, pretending not to notice its floppy neck. “What do you want?” 
He smiled even more broadly. “The Boss sent me to help you out.” He nodded toward my desk. “Look at that bill you were worrying over.” 
I inched my fingers to the piece of paper where I’d dropped it and slid it toward me. Now in bright red letters across it was stamped ‘Paid in Full.’ 
I shook my head. That was impossible. It had to all be a hallucination. I’d better call Psychological Services while I was still officially a student. I reached for my cell phone where it lay next to the pile of textbooks. 
“Wait,” he said. “You’re expecting an important call.” 
I narrowed my eyes. He didn’t want me to make a call, so maybe this wasn’t a hallucination after all. A hallucination wouldn’t care. “You keep back,” I said as my fingers closed around the phone. 
He tilted his head, his smile not changing at all. The phone buzzed. 
I flipped it open, gaped at the number and pressed the phone eagerly to my ear. “This is Mary.” 
“Mary, Dr. Shultz here. Great news. The grant came through after all.” His voice bubbled with excitement. “You’re on! With this new theory on how to use qubits, we’ll re-write physics. And you’re going to get a share of the credit.” 
I cleared my throat and managed to swallow. “Dr. Shultz. I don’t know what to say. That’s – wonderful doesn’t cover it.” 
“I’ll expect you in my office a nine tomorrow morning. We have schedules to set up and work to plan.” 
The phone clicked, and I stared at it in my hand. Lifting my eyes to my visitors face, I shook my head. “I don’t understand.” 
“Like I said, the Boss sent me to help you out. If you like what you’ve seen so far, I can do much, much more.” 
“You mean you'll be like…” My voice broke. My parents would kill me if they found out. What would my colleagues say if they knew? But he had saved my butt or at least my career. I had to find out what else he could do. “Like a guardian demon.” 
He stuck his cigarette back between his lips and held out his hand. “You could put it that way.” 
I reached mine out and we shook on it. 
THE END 

Also see "Seed of Healing" and Wings of Evil on www.Smashwords.com