The trip from England to America had been long and tiresome for Ethan, not only for the usual reasons but also thanks to Jack-of-Smiles, the horrible demon that Ethan had the great luck to have confined within his head.

It was a long story, one that involved urban exploration and disturbing an ancient magical binding that ended with him being sent to Ravenhold for “Monitoring.”

“Look at all these pathetic would-be heroes!” Jack said, “We could slaughter them all easily!”

“Shut up…” Ethan mumbled, his head had already started to hurt hours ago.

The demon was contained within him but could manifest in any of his reflections, but only Ethan and a few mystically aware individuals could see or hear him.

Ethan climbed aboard the bus, being among the last, and cautiously chose a place to sit. He saw a black teen with vitiligo and eir eyes closed and sat down. Ey wore eir hair in extremely long braids that pooled a bit on the seat.

“Hi, sorry, there wasn’t much space left elsewhere.” Although he was Indian in ethnicity, Ethan’s accent was unmistakably the Queen’s English, it tended to surprise people, especially the racists. 

“It’s fine,” the teen said, eir voice deep and somewhat cavernous even.

“I’m Ethan,” he offered a hand but the closed-eyed teen didn’t notice.

“Why did you have to sit next to the strange one?” Jack said, appearing upon the window, “His aura is unusual.”

“Shut up jack, people will think I’m crazy…” Ethan mumbled to himself.

It was then that the teen finally opened eir eyes, turned to the reflection, and spoke, “And I think you are stranger than I, demon.”

“You can see him?” Ethan asked.

The teen turned to him, eyes now open. The scleras were pitch black but one eye was gold and the other silver, not in shades normal among humans. 

“You are not the only one who has made a deal with deities or demons,” Ey said, eyes wandering around. Ethan looked and surely a few other magical beings were around, one kid had some sort of half-monkey and half-sphynx-cat creature perched on their shoulder.

“Everyone kind of thinks I’m crazy at home, only this wizard dude I met knew I wasn’t,” Ethan sighed, “Anyway, this is Jack, he’s an asshole, please ignore him.”

“You’ll do no such thing!” Jack protested

 “And what can you do to force me to pay attention to you?” 

“Smallpox, Leprosy, Consumption,” Jack listed, making Ethan shudder. “I could have flesh-eating bugs eat your eyeballs too.”

“And how much of this one’s,” the teen tilted eir head towards Ethan, “permission do you need?”

“We are absolutely not doing any of that,” Ethan scolded Jack in a hushed tone.

“The boy might be in control, but I can wrest it from him long enough if I must.” Jack grinned, revealing his filthy yellow and rotten teeth with maggots dangling out of cavities

The teen grinned and everything became darker, washed out of color, eir skin going from human-black to pitch-black. 

“Eh… you okay?” Ethan asked. This didn’t bode well… A fight between two mystical beings on a public bus…

“What about herpes! Or syphilis!” Jack kept brainstorming.

“Those sound truly terrible.” The teen looked at Ethan, ey were still smiling but something about it sent shudders down Ethan’s spine. “You should keep a tight leash on him.”

“I’m trying, mate, but I can’t exactly make him shut up.” 

“Me a leash? Says the entity that’s way off their leash, possessing that kid, how hypocritical!” Jack said, hamming it up.

“What?” Ethan looked at the teen. Was he not speaking to someone like him?

“Perhaps that is the nature of my deal with the child? Who are you to judge, little plague.”

“Little?” Jack said, “Oh now you’ve done it!”

Jack disappeared from the window and leaped back into Ethan’s mind, forcing his way through Ethan’s will and pushing him out of the driver’s seat, Ethan became nothing but a spectator in his own body.

Ethan’s face distorted into a sickening grin as bugs emerged out in a projectile vomit upon the other teen. 

“I am Jack of Smiles, bringer of plague, the scourge of the world! I have slain hundreds of millions with plagues of my own creation! And you will listen to me you little shit!

Ethan tried to take over, managing to say but a few words “Stop— That—” He coughed out more bugs, “You idiot.”

However the entity was unimpressed, shadows blackened the bus for but a second, and then all of the insects were gone, swallowed by darkness itself into only the entity knew where. 

“This isn’t over!” Jack promised as Ethan took back control. Unfortunately for him, Jack couldn’t wrestle control for more than a moment at a time.

To say everyone was glaring at them was an understatement. “Sorry, minor technical issues!” Ethan said getting up, “It’s all over!”  He then sat back,  “I am so sorry,” he added, retching, “you don’t happen to have mouthwash do you?”

The teen calmly reached into eir pocket. “Will tic-tacs do?”

“I’ll take them.” 

Ethan took some, then rinsed his mouth with a water bottle, spitting out of the window before popping a handful of tic-tacs in. “Thanks.”

Jack was still present but his stunt had cost him a lot of energy. 

“So… are you a demon or something too?”

A twitch passed over the teen’s face, “I am a god.”

“Right, god.” Ethan said, “I’m Hindu we have a lot of those, so what’s one more? Come to think of it, I don’t know your name.”

“Enozi,” Ey said after a pause, “The Devouring Dark, god of night and shadows”

It was not one Ethan had heard of, “Neat?”

“Oh, another wannabe god pretender, don’t listen to his crap,” Jack said, “it’s like a lesser-G god.” 

“If I am a god pretender then what are you? A bottom feeder demon?” Enozi said.

“Bottom Feeder? I was the terror of Victorian Britain! I have slain millions and enjoyed their sweet delightful suffering! I was greater than you could have ever possibly been!

“There he goes again,” Ethan sighed.

“Victorian Britain.” Enozi scoffed, “you are almost as much a child as the one who holds your leash. I don’t squabble with children.” Enozi closed eir eyes again

“Oh you—” Jack starts.

“Okay, that’s it,” Ethan took out a bottle of rubbing alcohol and started washing his hands and face. Immediately he felt Jack’s intense discomfort and pain. It was petty but Ethan took satisfaction from that.

“Ew, no, stop that!” Jack begged.

“You act like a child, you get antiseptic.”

Enozi’s lip ever so slightly quirked up into a smirk.

“And now I stink,” Ethan says, “Anyway, sorry for all of this.”

“Caleb feels sorry for you. Ey rather hate bugs.” Enozi said.

“So, Caleb’s your… host?

“Yes. Ey are still here. Eir soul intact.”

“That’s not super reassuring… Did ey consent to this?” Ethan asked.

Enozi seemed to ponder what that meant, but nodded once.

“Would you mind if I have a chat with… eym? em? I don’t know what’s the right pronoun here…”

Enozi considered the request and then eir voice changed, the more recognizable cracked voice of an AMAB teenager.  “No!” Caleb, or so Ethan presumed, covered eir face with eir hands, “You can’t just swap with me on a dime.” Ey whined, “I need 3-5 business days to prepare!” Ey peeked at Ethan thru eir fingers, “At least he seems nice.” Ey muttered vaguely.

“Hi? You must be Caleb?” Ethan asked

Caleb lowers eir hands, “yeah… “

“Ah, the unwitting pawn of that god. Quick, strike while it is weak!” Jack declared.

“Shut up Jack…” Ethan sighed. It had become a mantra of sorts by now.  “So, you’re the vessel for some god of darkness? And you’re okay with that or…”

“The whole ‘intact soul’ thing wasn’t part of the plan…” Caleb mumbled, “I was supposed to die. Enozi didn’t get the memo.”

Ethan blinked. Ey wanted to die? Had it been some kind of suicide or evil sacrifice? “Oh… Oh… I’m sorry…?

“Enozi isn’t the worst headmate to have… better than yours anyway,” Caleb shuddered, “and Enozi is going to use my body to help people and be a hero! So maybe I’ll be useful then and people will like me… and it’ll be less painful to be around.”

“Well, thankfully Jack stays out of my head for the most part,” Ethan said. “And I’m sorry you feel that way. I’m Ethan, I’m not sure if you could hear us before, or how much.”

“During the day I can hear and see at least. Sometimes I sleep at night because Enozi is too strong and it hurts a bit to be conscious.”

Ethan nodded, “Well, it was nice to meet you, I do hope we see each other again, you know if you need someone to talk to about magical headmates and all.” He smiled. 

Caleb smiled with relief before the smile fades into Enozi’s calm arrogance.

“Thanks, I guess, and sorry again for Jack.” 

“I do not blame you for your little plague’s audacity.”

“Most gracious of you,” Ethan said, opening his bag, “are cool ranch Doritos an appropriate deific offering?” He asked, obviously teasing, “Repayment for the tic-tacs and patience?”

“Yes,” Enozi said, eir expression as solid as stone.

Ethan shared his bag with him, his mind preoccupied with Caleb, part of him wanted to save poor Caleb, free them, but if ey had consented… Was it right? Ey seemed so miserable and sad…

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