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I watch her as she takes a deep breath.
“Yeah, so he was the one in them,“ Trine says. “He asked me to keep a dream journal, but…I don’t understand why. He was the one in my dreams, surely he knows what’s happening in them. But I…I see him everywhere. Not just when I’m asleep. Like, when I went to the crisis center, he was the one to greet me. When I was committed, he was there. He knows where I’m going to be before I’m going to be there because, I don’t know, I guess he lives in my head or something.“
That doesn’t sound good.
“What do you mean?“ Woods asks.
“When I was…when you guys were doing the exorcism, I was stuck inside my mind, and he was helping me,“ she says. Her hands go on her lap, where she bunches up the quilt under her. “I think he was there to save my life. He said that he’d been helping me ever since the first exorcism. He’s been the one defending me from, I don’t know, whatever’s going on inside my head.“
“Demons lie all the time,“ Salinas says.
“I know,“ she replies. “But he could’ve killed me before, and he hasn’t. He didn’t. Maybe I’m being naive, but I think he’s telling the truth.“
“Why do you think that?“ Salinas asks. “He might just be playing—“
“Luke, if he wanted to hurt me, he would’ve already hurt me,“ she replies.
He opens his mouth to argue, but I shake my head at him. He sets his jaw and I can see the anger flashing in his eyes. I can deal with that later. Trine being able to do this is far more important than Luke’s feelings right now.
If someone’s protecting her…well, fuck, I might not trust them, but it’s not about me.
“So what does he say you need to do?“ I ask her.
“He says that if you continue with the exorcism, you might get rid of him, and he’s the one who helped me escape when I thought they were going to kill me,“ she replies, her gaze flitting between the three of us. She takes a deep breath then her face goes in her hands. “I know some people are unlucky, but why is this happening to me? Mal said he’d been watching over me for a long time, and…I mean, why the fuck am I involved in any of this? What the fuck makes me special?“
“We don’t know,“ Salinas says, getting to his feet. “I can ask the demons, if you want, but only after I make sure they’re not affecting you anymore.“
“If you do that, then whatever stays behind might kill me,“ Trine says. “I know you’re trying to help, but I’m not ready to die.“
He’s about to say something else, but I stop him. “Okay,“ I say. “It’s up to you. If you trust him, we’ll try to find another way around this. But we need to talk to him first. I know it would make me feel a lot better if I spoke to this demon stalker.“
She looks at me for a long second, skepticism written all over her face. “Are you going to hurt him?“
“Not unless he gives me a reason to. Do you think he’s going to give me a reason to?“
“No,“ she says. “I mean, look, I don’t really know him. But I’m not…scared of him or anything. He could’ve taken advantage of me a lot and he never did. I think he’s genuinely trying to help. I don’t know why, I don’t know if he cares about me, I just…“
“He doesn’t care about you,“ Luke says. “He’s a demon, right?“
“Or a stalker,“ Rei says. “You might have seen him before and dreamt about him when your consciousness couldn’t fill in the gaps of what was happening.“
Good old Rei–coming up with a rational explanation when we just watched Trine fucking levitate.
“Or he is a demon…“ I say, trailing off when I see Trine’s face. If he is a demon, that means I can do away with him.
She might not like it, but…demons don’t really have a place amongst the living. I already know how much damage they can do and I’m not just going to sit here and pretend to collaborate with one of them just for the sake of Trine’s feelings. She can process what it means later, when she’s healthy again.
The demons might have already robbed her of her ability to make sensible decisions.
It would be pointless questioning her about this right now, though. I think it would be best to meet this Malon she speaks about with surprising fondness.
Maybe it’s the fact that I’m naturally inclined to be jealous, but fuck, I don’t think this is just a nice guy trying to help her. If Trine doesn’t have all the information about him that she thinks she does, he might be dangerous.
Trine rubs her temple. “And what do we do after we talk to him?“
“You go home,“ Woods says. “You rest.“
“And the three of you?“
