The lounge was dark, the curtains wide open to reveal the streetlamps were on, casting pools of yellow light against the night. Martin was back in his rags, but she barely saw him before mum grabbed her for another hug. Normally, this much proximity to her would have led to shouting and possibly throwing things, but it wasn’t so bad this time around. Mum pushed her back, staring at her with the same eyes she got after a bad parent’s evening at school, kinda worry mixed with the threat of death.
‘You shouldn’t have come, you shouldn’t have, what could have happened?’
‘Well, let’s think, shall we? I could have gone into hell, faced down a demon, and rescued you. Or, you know, I could have stayed here and become some scary blimp creature, living on microwave pizza and staring blankly at the walls when they shut the TV off after I failed to pay any bills.’
The sentence was slightly too long for mum to take in, so she just hugged her again. When she escaped this one, she turned to speak to Martin. The lounge was empty but for the two of them, and she ran to the front door. It was closed, and when she yanked it open, the street was deserted. With a shake of her head, she closed it slowly, and turned back into the house. They had a lot to talk about, her and Martin and her and Mum. But it could wait until the morning.
‘Mum, I’m going to bed.’
‘OK, honey.’
‘You aren’t going to do anything stupid whilst I’m sleeping, are you? You know, like get sucked into hell or anything.’
She was met with silence, and managed a smile as she made her slow way upstairs. Slumping onto her bed, she reached with one hand for her laptop as she kicked off her shoes. Dragging it onto her lap, she logged in. The screen went black, the cursor appearing. She almost howled as the words appeared.
…There, doesn’t that feel better? Now, after all that, does Tumblr really feel so important?…
Actually, yes, it really does. She sighed in pleasure as the blackness went and the screen lit up to windows. She clicked on the Internet explorer symbol, and watched in horror as it dissolved, followed by the rest of the screen. A face appeared in the resulting blackness, thin and pale with heavy, dark brows. ‘You haven’t destroyed my name, little girl, you promised–‘
She screamed, and threw the computer across the room…
