Link
hide block 'I will stay,' he'd meant to reply to what she's just said, but the words hadn't left his mouth. His eyes moved from hers to the ground and remained there. That made her stop for a moment, her brow furrowed slightly. She looked at a fragment on the floor, then back at him. 'So...' she started, and just like she was still a teenager, her sentence was left unfinished. 'Are you going to meet him?'
He looked up at her again, locking eyes. The air between them was getting almost unbearably still. In her eyes something sparked. 'Do you want me to go?' he said. 'I think you should.'
He saw her take a deep breath, but before she could reply, the air around him started to crackle. It was as if a fire was being built inside the air around him, like magnets were being attracted to one another. He imagined for a moment that he could feel the demon's presence inside him. He looked away from her face and looked inside his chest, where he was slowly but surely feeling the creature swelling inside him.
Then she shook her head and slightly raised her hand, as if to block something from him. He stared at her for a moment longer, almost afraid. The air around him was popping again. He took another breath and closed his eyes.
When he opened his eyes again, he saw her staring at him. 'Do you really want me to go?' He repeated his question.
'No,' she whispered.
'What?' He said, still not understanding what the problem was.
'No!' she said, this time more determinately. 'I can't let you go and meet him.'
He looked at her again, waiting for an explanation. She looked down, and turning her back to him for a moment, fumbled for words. 'You can't be like this,' she said, 'You can't just... sacrifice yourself. You can't-'
He interrupted her. 'I don't want to be like this,' he said.
She spun around to look at him. 'Don't just say that.'
'It's true.'
(10)
- hide block 'You just want to go home,' she said.
'No, I don't,' he said.
'You do,' she said.
'Do you?' he asked.
She looked at his face for a moment, before answering. 'I don't know. I want to stay here.'
'You want to stay here, like him?' he said.
She nodded. 'Yes. It's different. He's not a person any longer, he's just... a thing.' She raised her wrist to look at her ring. 'I don't think I ever will, but still... Can you believe that I'm saying what I'm saying?'
'People change,' he said.
'Eventually,' she said. 'Some circumstances may force that change, but even if they won't, you still change. Things change inside. Inside your heart, at least.'
She stared for a moment. 'Which is why I can't let you just...'
'No, you can't.'
'Yes, I can.'
'No, you can't. I'm talking to a demon now. I'm not letting her take me.'
'It's not about letting her take you,' she said. 'I just can't let you do it.'
'I can't do it either.'
(11)
- hide block 'What's the point of all of this, then?' she said. 'Do you want to waste your life like that, just running around the place?'
'No,' he said.
'You're not spending your time more wisely than that...'
'It's just a hobby,' he said.
'You're not thinking at all,' she said.
'I think I think too much.'
'Do you think I'm angry because I think of you as a meal ticket? Do you think that's why I'm concerned?'
'Are you?'
'Don't,' she said.
'Don't what?' he said.
'Don't think it, don't even voice it inside your head,' she said. 'I don't want to be thought of as that by you.'
She turned away from him again. He followed her with his eyes. 'I'd rather not meet him,' he said. 'Not at all.'
'It's too late already,' she whispered.