“You could,” Knight agreed with a shrug. “But it’d be much easier for both of us—and faster—if I stuck by your side. Let me do my job properly.”
Saint squirmed, unsure why he felt so uncomfortable. Knight couldn’t just hang out with him all day. Surely, he’d get bored? And it felt ... humiliating, having the demon see every aspect of his pathetic life.
But Saint knew Knight’s argument made sense.
“No one else will be able to see me, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Knight said reassuringly.
“Fine,” Saint said. “Just ... stick close. And don’t distract me.”
“What kind of animals are those?”
“They’re not animals. They’re cars. Everything you see people inside is a vehicle of some kind. It isn’t alive.”
“What about the things they’re riding?”
“Still a vehicle, but a cycle. Motorcycle.” Saint pointed when one passed them by. “Bicycle.” He pointed again.
“Why are the ...vehicles ...different? Do they serve different purposes?”
“Not really. They’re made in different shapes and sizesandby different companies, but they do basically the same thing, which is get you from point A to point B faster than walking.”
“Flyingis faster than walking.”
“I’m sure once humans evolve in the next billion years, we’d have wings and fly everywhere. Until then, vehicles it is.”
Knight laughed. Saint ignored the way the warm, honest sound made his belly flutter.
“Everything is so much smaller here.”
Saint felt a spark of curiosity he just couldn’t bury. Every instinct was screaming at him not to ask questions, to pretend Knight wasn’t even there, to not foster his nor Knight’s inquisitiveness. Doing that would breed familiarity, familiarity would lead to ... attachments, and attachments—
It would be a mess, was what Saint’s instincts were getting.
“Ask me,” Knight said, his voice playful.
Saint jolted. How had he—? Was Saint just that obvious?
“Or don’t,” Knight continued, which Saint took as a challenge.
“What’s Hell like?”
A glance at the demon showed him grinning, looking pleased that Saint had asked. Saint quickly looked away, his heart pitter-pattering.
“It’s mostly the same,” Knight said. “Except greener. And bigger.”
“Bigger, how?” Saint asked helplessly, cursing himself as he did. Andgreener? What did thatmean?
“Bigger trees. Grass and greenery everywhere, our paths dirt smoothed over time rather than concrete.” Right, that answered that. “Bigger atmosphere, though I can’t explain how the atmosphere is bigger. It just is.”
Saint swallowed. “So it’s not ... it’s not a place of eternal fire? Demons don’t go around torturing the souls that have ... sinned, for the rest of eternity?”
Knight laughed, though the sound wasn’t mean. “No, we do not. Some humans, most specifically those whose souls are owned by a demon, when they pass on might eventually become an equal and natural part of a sect. Others serve as food, fuel, and cheap labour for the more traditional sects.”
“Sects?”
“They’re supposed to be places of community.” Knight sounded odd. “Family and worship. Mostly their sole purpose is for the harvesting and feeding on human souls and emotions.”
Saint shivered with revulsion, even as a small part of him thought it very much sounded like a church, apart from the whole feeding on human souls thing. Then again, considering the way most churches out there were, how they milked and sucked their congregations dry to keep themselves on top, it might as well be the same thing.
