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The rain–the fish rain–is getting worse.
Misha narrows his eyes as he looks at me. “Walk ahead,“ he says. “Don’t try to run.“
I believe him, but I don’t think he’d do anything without Trine’s permission. I can hear footsteps coming from behind me. I let go off my axe, which was a mistake, because it’s being pressed against my back by the fucking priest.
“You try to hurt her,“ he growls in my ear. “And I’ll kill you.“
I sigh, holding my hands out at my side. I meet Trine’s gaze, trying for a smile. “Hi,“ I say. “Sorry about this. Can we talk?“
TRINE
This isn’t exactly how I expected to meet Malon again. My heart is beating so fast I think I might faint, but I’m not going to before I go into my mom’s house and talk to them about all this.
I also really, really want to get away from this smell. It’s fucking disgusting and I really wish we were inside instead. Even then, they walk slowly. Luke is holding the weapon Malon had behind him. It’s pretty big for an axe, with a long wooden handle and a dark chrome plate, though it’s hard to see the coloring since it’s covered in darkened mud and the blood from the fish.
And the decapitated head…which is probably floating down the street at this point.
It’s also bloody from that.
I should really be afraid of this guy. I’m not; I trust him, I believe everything he said to me when I was being exorcised and, for some reason, I genuinely think that he has my best interest at heart. It’s one of those feelings–obviously, we had a conversation about it, and without our conversation, I wouldn’t be feeling quite as certain.
But when I look at him, or at least at the back of his head, I don’t think he means me any harm.
There’s no real way for me to know.
When the door swings open, I think we’re all going to sit around and have a nice conversation over a cup of tea. I don’t expect my mother to welcome us by pointing a shotgun right at Malon’s face.
The air is sucked out of the room, but the exorcists mostly seem cool with this while I’m freaking the fuck out.
“You,“ my mom says softly. “You’re one of them.“
She takes a step toward him. Malon, still with his hands by his side, tries to take a step back, but Luke is holding an axe to his back and I assume it could cut into his skin. Luke backs off at the same time. He’s pretty quick so I don’t think he’ll necessarily hurt Malon.
I really didn’t expect my mom to have a shotgun. I have no idea if she knows how to use it, but I definitely don’t want to find out. “It’s okay, Mom,“ I say. “He’s my…“
Therapist? Sleep demon? How do I even begin to describe this?
“He came here because he needs to talk to me,“ I finally say. “He needs to talk to all of us. He’s my guest, so I would really appreciate it if you weren’t pointing a gun at him.“
Her eyes narrow, her gaze flitting between the two of us. “Can you seriously not smell him?“ she says, her voice flaring with barely contained anger. “I’ve spent all my life trying to protect you and you’ve brought someone like this into our house.“
“Malon’s also been protecting me,“ I say. “I know that might be hard for you to believe, but I want you to put the gun down and hear him out. If all of you could stop threatening him, that might be helpful.“
“He came here with a head in his hand,“ Rei says. He sounds scared. I don’t like it at all. “I think this is the appropriate level of threat.“
Malon sighs. “In my defense, it wasn’t a human head,“ he says. “It looked like one, so I can see why you’d be skeptical, but that was a demon and he was on the way here. I stopped him.“
“What?“ Rei says. “You stopped him by…decapitating him?“
“Yes,“ Malon replies. “That’s the only way you can kill demons. There are other ways to stop human bodies from living, obviously, but decapitating is the only way the demon won’t just possess someone else after it gets chased back to hell.“
“So he beheaded a person because he thought they were a demon and now you want your mom to stop pointing a gun at him?“ Misha asks.
“No, I didn’t think he was a demon. I knew he was,“ Malon says. “I can sense them…“
I don’t think that’s going to impress my mother, but much to my surprise, she lowers her weapon as she glares at him. “This isn’t the only way I can hurt you,“ she says, taking a step toward him and staring him down. My mom is smaller than this guy by about a foot, but she’s always had a real knack for staring people down, and Malon seems intimidated by her.
Or maybe it’s by the fact that she just had a weapon pointed straight at his head, and that Luke still has an axe at Malon’s back, the sharp part of the blade close to cutting into his skin. His clothes look wet and tattered, with rips in the shoulders, and the fabric clings to his ripped muscles.
