[ WP ] Everybody 's got ta have friends and you are blessed with one really good friend , an 8 foot tall , 500 pound demon ... .

“ Mom! ” I blurted through my cereal, spitting milk across the table, “ Can Pazuzu stay over tonight? ” 
 
 Pazuzu lifted his bulky head from his own bowl of milk-covered flakes, his grim face awash with cautious optimism. His red eyes, normally unmistakably menacing, nearly welled with tears at the hope of a sleep-over. Mom shifted uneasily. She put down the dish she was drying, and looked Pazuzu up and down, assessing his hulking grey frame. 
 
 For his part, Pazuzu did his best to tuck his leathery wings tight to his back. His horns nearly scraped the ceiling, even as he crouched over the table, slurping up cereal. 
 
 “ Uh… ” Mom hesitated. 
 
 “ Please! ” I begged. “ Pleeeeeaaaaaassssssseeeee. ” Pazuzu joined my passionate pleading. The dissonant harmony of my squeaky 8 year old voice, and Pazuzu ’ s unearthly growling filled the kitchen. 
 
 “ Oh, alright. ” Mom finally relented. I jumped up in celebration, and Pazuzu joined me with a triumphant flourishing of his massive wings, bashing into the ceiling and the light overhead. He immediately cowered back down, and cast a sheepish glance towards my Mom. 
 
 “ Sorry. ” Pazuzu growled, as apologetically as he could. 
 
 ____ 
 
 I stood in the dark, the soft lawn cushioning beneath my feet. The world was dark with night, and I gently tossed a small stone at the house window above. Jessica came to the window, her beautiful smile glowing in the darkness. She slid the window open, and silently waved for me to come up. 
 
 Pazuzu was pressed tight against the exterior wall, his large wings spread out along the wall, covering the main floor windows. I quickly jogged towards him in my adolescent excitement, and he deftly lifted me up to the second story, and held his hand flat as I climbed into Jessica ’ s room. 
 
 Jessica and I embraced in our clumsy passion, and silently slid beneath the covers of her bed. This was our first time, and the air of her small room was thick with our eagerness and lust. I darted a quick glance back to the window, as one of Pazuzu ’ s thick claws gently slid the window back shut. His eyes glowed red as he peered into the dark room. 
 
 He contorted his claws as best he could to motion me a thumbs-up, then I saw his hulking frame alight into the night sky, his wings powerful in their silence. Jessica kissed my neck, and I returned my attention to our passion. 
 
 _____ 
 
 Pazuzu held his hands over his ears. The crying of babies was so high-pitched and harsh, it drilled into his brain. Apparently, the sound was much worse for him than for us humans. But he braved the sound, and the towering flames causing our daughter to make them. 
 
 The house was burning, but Pazuzu didn ’ t fear the pain of burning. He had spent a near eternity burning before making his way to this world. He had dragged Jessica and our son out first, and then he had tossed me out through the window as I tried in vain to reach our daughter ’ s room. 
 
 My skin carried the shocking electric pain of burns, and I gasped for air. Jessica ran over to me, our son crying in her arms, as flames and smoke towered into the sky. I desperately looked back to our burning house, as long moments passed. 
 
 Suddenly, Pazuzu burst through the side of the house, his mighty frame smashing the simple human construction to splinters. In his arm rested our infant daughter, terrified, but unharmed. Both Jessica and I scrambled to our feet, and despite my pain, I scooped our daughter from Pazuzu ’ s grasp. He immediately put his hands back over his ears, the piercing shriek of our children filling the night. 
 
 “ I.. ” my voice cracked and gasped, smoke still stinging my lungs, “ I…thank you. ” I coughed hard, nearly collapsing in my exhaustion. 
 
 Pazuzu flew off into the dark, covering his ears from the painful cries, as the wail of fire truck sirens rapidly approached in the night. 
 
 _____ 
 
 Everyone was gathered around my bed. 
 
 Jessica held my hand, and the kids and grandkids all looked on with tears in their eyes. The various machines that held me to this world made their various whirring and beeping noises, lending an almost comical insensitivity to this moment. 
 
 I felt my heart slowing, my breath fading. I could see Jessica speaking to me, the last loving words of this world. But I couldn ’ t hear anything beyond the whirring and beeping. Whirring and beeping. I felt as though I were sinking down into the sounds themselves. 
 
 As my eyes closed, I could see through the window out into the rain, Pazuzu perched on a far rooftop, fearful of this mortal spectacle that he could never understand. 
 
 As the light dimmed, and the whirring and beeping drowned down into silence, the last thing I heard was Jessica ’ s profession of love, and Pazuzu ’ s otherworldly cries of confused anguish. 
 
 _____ 
 
 As the universe inched ever closer to its end, Pazuzu remained perched atop the simple stone monument to my insignificance in the grand order of existence. His scaly skin long ago turned to stone itself, his eyes faded to a dull grey, their fiery red long since dimmed. 
 
 While the galaxies and stars sorrowfully blinked out for the last time, Pazuzu maintained his loving vigil, forever by my side, forever my friend. 
 
 EDIT: formatting 

