8 V 2 2

I sighed and turned over to lay on my back, staring at the dimming sky.

He was alive. He was alive. "Household in the woods was not eradicated by these particular humans," demon's growl rolled off the cold stone and through my back. I rubbed my face tiredly. Of course. Should have just let them kick me unconscious and spare everybody the misery of my musings. He went on, "but they knew who you were talking about.""Knew as in found it like that?" I checked."Knew names."That didn't prove anything, neither had it laid the suspicions to rest. Quite the opposite.I blankly stared at the cloudy red sky again. This information didn't serve me in any way at all whatsoever. Such unnecessary bit of detail. I didn't even know why I bothered asking. I knew the soldiers would be coming in and establishing dominance here anyhow and that was already reason enough for the village to fight back, which they were willing to do in first place. There was only ever us or them. And I wasn't part of this anyhow. My people were out there.I found my vision obstructed by my own fingers and before I could rake my face again, donned a smile and turned to gawk at the horned statue in the shadow of grandeur house of worship."Why are you outside anyway?" I asked to get my mind off things. I really barely cared. Monster could sail himself down the stream if that made him happy. Surely would improve my mood and situation. All the villagers who suddenly took liking to the side entrances would appreciate it too."I am not human," demon grouched out slowly. "I do not need to eat or sit down.""But you do need to. Eat," I countered with some distaste."Only if I move a lot," demon explained solemnly.Circle of life. There goes that attempt at conversation. Work, stupid brain. Work on something that's not depressing. And something that didn't involve yesterday - because I wanted to come closer. To put my palms on the rough leather. The urge for that was unexpected and unreasonable, so I chased it off."You'll turn to stone if you keep this up. I mean, look, people already started thinking you're a statue and leaving flowers like it's some memorial," I said looking straight into the mess at his clawed boots. There were couple of candles, too. Apparently not everybody avoided the demon. I lamented the fact that I wasn't the one to think of this. The scene was genius.Priest's stealthy form quietly popped out of nowhere. This seemed a lot like business and I didn't care about that. I jumped onto my feet and went to look for more of the meaningless crap for the demon's altar. Do they have a funeral wreath somewhere in there? No, probably not. I'd need to pick those flowers myself, at least there were a lot of overgrown gardens nearby. Ribbons?Stepped inside the oppressive structure and breathed the cooler air. Sun wasn't able to permeate these solid walls, barely casting colourful light through the narrow high-set windows. Some people lounged around. Quite a number of them. In time of danger everyone relocated here, after all. They stared at the unwelcome eyesore who dared to brazenly walk past the monster on their porch and I felt exhausted. Grabbed several candles off the ledge and went back outside, where ancient horror at least didn't have the eyes to stare with.Everything was still so I figured the talk has concluded. That was fast, but those two could probably slap one another with onslaught of information and be done.I strode forward and began brazenly, "So, since I see you love the... Uh... Um. Am I interrupting...?"I was, wasn't I? Fuck. Pressed on my eyes. I hated this weird place. I just wanted to go home, curl up in our living room to all the annoying chirping and never leave.Priest was kneeling, forehead to the cobblestones, as though in a genuine worship. This instilled both fear and disgust in me. Was that my future? Was this what good pets did? Was this why the man had that completely spiritless look on his face? No wonder the others were bringing demon offerings - if even their leader treated this monstrosity so. Perhaps the government should bring the order back. Perhaps I should still burn myself alive and not risk bringing misfortune upon my house.The demon walked off without a word and Priest stood up, looking at me. "He hates those," man said nodding towards candles as though that was the main thing to be addressed here."What, because of the fire?" I replied coolly, as if it was every day that I came across a cult leader prostrating himself before his god. I did stumble upon plenty of fucked up shit in my life, so it was a well-practised skill."They stink," Priest informed me and I nodded. Makes sense, I suppose. They did seem to have sensitive noses."That's even better!" I said cheerfully, as though we weren't on completely opposing sides on the scale of pleasing the demon. The cultist-in-chief didn't seem to mind. "Where'd he go?" I waved the candle in the air, wondering if I was free to go the other way."To kill them," Priest said simply.One grovelling to take care of forty nuisances? I suppose it was worth it."Pretty ballsy. I've seen the military take down a lot of things."Perhaps my woes were fleeting and this will all be over in ten minutes? Watching city defence at work was an understated pleasure of life. Monsters came in all shapes and sizes and displayed all kinds of unseen tricks, most of which seemed like magic in the eyes of children. Fuck, might have been exactly that because even as adult I had no explanation for most of them. And yet, bastion of humanity still stood."That's why I didn't go myself," Priest informed me unhelpfully."What does the monster want with this village anyway?" I asked instead of going down the road of thinking creature did this to help these people. His people?"Nothing. It wouldn't care if every last one of them died."Charming. I scrunched up my nose. "So, what? Because you asked?"He sighed at the need to explain, "It's less of a hassle than putting me back together again, and then needing to go finish them off anyway."I nodded empathetically. Must suck when runaway body parts keep getting into trouble. I shrugged that thought off and ended up hugging myself in the chill brought on by darkness. If the creature doesn't care for the people, what does it want with me?Gunfire started crackling somewhere over the horizon. There was a lot of that incessant, dull noise. It didn't stop. I thought I heard screams, too, but perhaps that was just a vivid imagination.

"Show off," Priest whispered, inclining the head to listen better. "All that ammo," he said regretfully, but there was no heart in it. Who in their right mind would complain about the things their very corporeal deity did?

"That doesn't sound like it's going smoothly," I commented sceptically to the obvious sounds of distress.Dead eyes turned back at me with their own incredulity, intensifying explosions doing nothing to dissuade the fanatic. "They could have been dead without single one noticing," Priest spelled it out. I had to admit, he probably knew more than me."If it's so strong, why are the cities still standing?" I cut back, refusing to buy into the unseen things."Ash is not very interesting to play with," unblinking stare was hard to take when he particularly demanded it to be so. And it wasn't entirely pleasant to endure on a good day, either. Was I starting to rub this steadfast man wrong? About time."Hey," I called out holding that steely glare even though there was no reason to posture. He was a hardened gangster capable of many undesirable things and whilst I wouldn't be able to fight back, I thrived on general unwellness too. I guess I just wanted him to know. "What does it want with me?"Priest looked away unexpectedly as though to concentrate on the sounds of waning gunfire. "For you to live." This discomfort... the asshole knew something and deliberately hid it."He said he doesn't make people he'd just met into mouths. Is that where I'm headed?" I insisted."I don't know. Likely. Unnecessarily."I grit my teeth. "What if I burn myself?"The impassive eyes returned on me. "Probably too late for that now."Well, fuck. Chewed on my lip. "You're obligated to say that. Even more than normal amount," I insisted.Priest stared down at me still, his lips thinning some more. "Young man. Your only hope now is to become very dull." Oh, how I crave that. To just settle down on our beat-up couch and never move anymore."Is he a danger to the people I care about?""Are they interesting?" Was that supposed to be a joke? Either way, it just wasn't funny. Man who was dead on the inside was terrible at this, who knew?I had nothing else to ask and plenty to ponder. Priest nodded a semblance of a goodbye and made himself scarce, probably to check up on the meat grinder caused by his deity because there was no path where he set off to. It was all quiet now. The devil must still be leisurely munching on the dead bodies.