Level and oblique

The power of the Book of the Dead had repaired his congenital deformities, but it could not smooth away the mire and scars he had suffered at Crystal Lake over the decades.

He had looked at his own face in the mirror before, but he was not particularly satisfied. Even though no one dared mock or bully him anymore, those memories followed him like a shadow, so even after his face had recovered, he still refused to leave it exposed.

He liked Luo Ya's face best: pale, clean, with eyes like glass marbles. Jason still thought he looked like a doll, a doll that belonged to him.

I reached out and carefully felt around for a long time, finally getting a rough idea of what he looked like before withdrawing my hands.

Jason immediately put his mask back on. Only after making sure it fit snugly did he remove the hand covering my face, unwilling to expose his own face for even a moment.

Of course I knew what he was thinking. I cupped his face and gently kissed the mask over his forehead. He deserved that.

Winter arrived soon. Jason was very hardworking. Even though I barely even stepped outside, he still cleared every bit of snow from the yard without complaint. Even if another snowfall that afternoon would cover the path he had cleared, Jason would still go out and shovel again once it stopped.

I was quite the opposite. I had no pressure whatsoever, with money, leisure, and someone by my side, so I became very lazy. Even cooking, which I thought had become my lifelong hobby, was something I would only properly do once a day, making dinner run very late, though Jason had no objections.

Dinner was very late today. To make it up to Jason for having only sandwiches in the morning and simple pasta at noon, I made a lavish dinner, which made it even later.

Pan-seared oysters with chive butter, and a creamy chowder with scallops, sea cucumber, and fresh shrimp. For the main dishes, I made slow-roasted French herb lamb chops, pan-seared sea bass, cheesy baked mashed potatoes, and Caesar salad with double the butter-toasted croutons.

Jason still ate very earnestly. Compared to when he had simply grabbed things with his hands, he was much more refined now. At least he used utensils, didn't he?

His mask was lifted slightly, revealing his thick, darker-colored lips. There was also a shallow cleft in his chin, not very pronounced. I had always thought butt chins were rather ugly, but it looked all right on Jason. At least he didn't pair it with a beard stretching from his cheeks to his neck, I thought.

I also served some red wine, a dry Cabernet Sauvignon. I liked its fruity and spicy notes. I had once tried pouring Jason a glass. He could drink it, but he didn't like it.

I ate a lot at dinner today and drank an unusual amount, too, so I went to bed early. Jason had a habit of watching television. He didn't sleep anyway, and he couldn't be with me, so he chose to stay downstairs and keep watching.

He couldn't read, and he didn't really understand any of the buttons other than the two for changing channels left and right. But he remembered that Luo Ya had told him to press the round button in the very middle if the picture stopped moving. So that was what Jason did.

It was eleven at night now. In the United States, this was when adults put their children to bed and watched certain programs alone. Some of those programs required payment, which fell under rich people's problems, such as bank cards without passwords.

There were all kinds of things on offer, with increasingly elaborate ideas to attract viewers. This one, for instance, looked fairly normal: just two men sitting in chairs, seemingly discussing something important.

But listening closely, how was any of it serious business? They were holding forth about their understanding of "love," the kind between two men. Jason was sensitive to that word, and it piqued his curiosity.

The two men on television declared righteously that the two things were different. First, one of them expressed his opposition and disgust toward this behavior, even inserting a sequence of pictures. Jason grew furious. He loathed this behavior. It was an affront to him. People like that all deserved to die.

But the clip lasted only a few seconds, not long enough for Jason to do anything to the television. The man's contempt for this behavior gave Jason a faint sense of agreement.

Then the man changed tack, saying proudly and smugly that what he was doing now was what people who truly loved each other did to one another.

This was enough to shake Jason's worldview, and there were even viewers voicing their agreement, leaving Jason bewildered.

These shocking statements were essentially meant to spark arguments and grab attention, increasing viewership. Most people would either curse a couple of times or treat it as entertainment. At most, they could fool a few idiots...

Meanwhile, I was asleep, unaware that even $12.66 had been deducted from my bank account.

I didn't wake up until nearly noon the next day and went downstairs to make lunch. But what awaited me downstairs was a television smashed to pieces, completely beyond repair, and a very strange Jason.

Of course, I couldn't get anything out of him. But thinking it over carefully-late-night programs-I had a rough idea of what sorts of shows aired at night.

A new rule: Jason was not allowed to watch television after ten at night. The matter came to a close with the delivery of a new television the following day.

For me, that was the end of it, but the two men's utterly shocking conversation had planted a tiny seed in Jason's heart.

Jason and I grew increasingly close. He liked having me pressed against him, and I liked lying on his thick, solid flesh for a nap.

I still contacted Ash occasionally and learned that he had spent more than half his money developing his hometown, which surprised me quite a bit.

Then he used another small portion to open a little hardware store in Jacksonville, Florida, in the United States, the sort right next to a resort bar. He had also brought two friends along, who usually worked either at his hardware store or at the bar.

There was also a special service, simple and efficient. I stripped away all his fancy talk-it seemed decades of selling furniture had given him quite a way with words. In short, it came down to two words: physical exorcism.

Despite our very different personalities, we had become good friends. The only drawback was that he was always probing indirectly, asking questions like whether I wanted to gnaw on his head.

I knew better than anyone that I was incredibly mentally healthy now. At least forty percent healthier than during those years in my twenties when I had the car accident. Sixty percent healthier than when I first met Jason.

He spared no effort in sharing the new things he had seen and heard, and my heart softened somewhat.

Some idiot engineer's operational error had sent an unmanned freight train racing sixty-six miles through Ohio. It was practically a real-life comedy of errors... He rambled on.

"Thank you, my friend."

I thanked him sincerely. I cherished everyone who treated me sincerely.

Ash seemed to stall for a moment on the other end. That was how people like him were. He could easily say "I love you," or blurt out sweet words to strangers he had only seen a few times, but he couldn't handle this, either. Sincerity was too precious to him.

"Ah... uh... if you're not saying that because you're interested in some part of my body, then you're welcome, buddy."

Yes, he still suspected that I had some appetite-related interest in his head or other body parts.

My response to that was:

"My teeth are bad. Can't chew old meat."

Our quiet life was, in the eyes of certain beings, a desecration, a betrayal, something absolutely forbidden.

Apart from the power the Necronomicon itself had been granted by the darkness, logically, it should have been like the countless devils: however powerful it was, it could only follow the ancient principles and drift through hell. So why had it appeared in the human realm?

This was the work of certain dark forces, a scheme of the Necronomicon, making humans bring it out of that dark dimension under what they believed were accidental circumstances.

But this also required the help of other devils. In a certain sense, it was a contract: we will send you out of this dark world, and you will carry us.

As long as the words recorded in the book were read aloud, those powers would have a medium, a passage, allowing them to descend in some form.

But now the Necronomicon had been destroyed, and those contracts had vanished with it. The thousand-year plan they had so painstakingly devised had also been annihilated. Naturally, this displeased certain things among them-displeased them intensely.

But without a medium, after many twists and turns, they could barely release a few wisps of avatars. They circled the area and searched several times, only to discover there were no humans at all. They could only settle for the next best thing and possess some animals at random.

In that state, of course they could not deal with Jason. Even concealing themselves from him consumed most of their power. A head-on confrontation would not end well for them.

But they discovered Luo Ya. Finding weaknesses was what they did best. Yet around the cabin where he lived, they also discovered tightly woven protective runes, layer nested within layer, set nested within set, denser than the stitches in clothing.

So they lay low, waiting for an opportunity. One night, Luo Ya finally appeared alone in the yard. They sent out the most silver-tongued among them, one who could control hearts and alter thoughts and perceptions, and he was possessing a fox at the time.

I had simply drunk too much at dinner again. My face was burning, and the fire inside was blazing, so I went out for some air. Then I heard someone speaking to me. Looking closely, I found it was actually an orange fox, standing outside the fence with its eyes wide, talking to me.

My head suddenly felt heavy and my feet light. Had I drunk that much?

Meanwhile, the demon possessing the fox used every honeyed word he could, enticing and inciting me. They were inwardly thrilled. As long as he stepped out of that circle of runes, as long as he stepped beyond that fence, they would have leverage, enough leverage to command Jason. Yes, they still needed Jason's power.