Demons

She didn’t remember inventing them. They were just there, in the blue darkness. The invisible one talked, the other was silent. She named them Pan and Xan.
“They’re demons,” she said.
Her mother told her father, “They’re just imaginary friends.”
“If a demon gets inside you, it makes you evil,” her brother said.
They weren’t inside her. They lurked. At night Pan whispered to her, teaching her their strange language. When she went down the dark hallway, she could see Xan waiting for her at the stairs.
An adult now, she still sees Xan’s shadow. Pan whispers, we’re always here.