Riley's Box

Part 64

Most of my afternoon had been spent sketching, until I felt a shadow come over me and glanced up to find that Ira was stood right in front of me. 

He was wearing a slightly perturbed expression upon his face. 

Alright, who or what had upset the King of Wrath? 

"We might have some trouble," he said. 

I immediately closed my sketchbook. 

"What kind of trouble?" I asked. 

Ira came to sit down beside me and then continued explaining. 

"There's a way that shadow spirits can remain on Earth without destroying the entire planet," he said. 

I felt my forehead crease, in my confusion. 

Ira seemed to notice that I needed more information than that, so he continued to speak. "Shadow spirits can sacrifice a human to Hell in order to permanently exist on Earth. Yay!" he said the last part sarcastically. 

I rarely ever said bad words, but in that moment I really felt like saying one. 

"This is the problem with having magic accessible to beings of Hell, some of them really don't deserve it," Ira said. "Fortunately, we have magic too. We can put a stop to this, but we'll need to find the final shadow spirit, in order to do so. I'll do whatever I can to find this shadow spirit, Riley, believe me. Myself and the rest of the Sins are going to do all that we can until we find them. It's going to be alright, as long as I have anything to do with it," he informed me, with an expression of true bravery. "I'll be honest, the world is still in danger right now and finding the shadow spirit might not necessarily be an easy task, but it is something that we must do."  

"Agreed," I said. There was so much to process in that moment that I really didn't feel as though I could say much else. 

"That being said, I have a feeling that you might be onto something when you say that dog looked suspicious," he said. "And it can't be a mere coincidence that we have seen that same one twice, now, in two places that aren't really even all that close to each other! That dog could be the shadow spirit." 

Ira was really smart, too. 

His serious expression was soon replaced by a kind smile. 

"Don't worry, Riley. We will find them," he said. "I want to help you. You know, I really don't like most people but that doesn't apply to you. Some humans can be so naïve and annoying...you're friendly and you fight for the right thing. I admire that about you." 

I felt my lips quirk into a smile again in response to Ira's compliment. It really did mean a lot to me, especially coming form him. 

"Gah!" Ira said, as he stood up from the bed. "Having these feelings is so...weird. I'm not sure that I like it...but it also makes me feel slightly warm and fuzzy inside, which is kind of pleasant."

I tried not to release a chuckle. I failed. 

Ira's eyebrow shot up, in response to my laughter. 

"Hey, I think it's a good thing," I said. 

"Really?" Ira asked. 

"Definitely," I replied. 

Ira's dark eyes warmed, then. 

It was sort of endearing to see. 

Before Ira could say anything else, there was a knock at the front door. 

I quickly rushed down the stairs to answer it, as I had a feeling I knew who could be knocking the door at this time. 

Sure enough, I opened the door to find that Jason was stood outside waiting for me. 

I was greeted by two toned and exceptionally warm arms wrapping around my waist. 

"Hey. I missed you. The past two hours have been torture," he said. 

I knew that he was only being hyperbolic, but it caused my heart to warm. 

What was happening to me? I wasn't sure that I minded it, actually. 

Jason's hug was so strong. It made me feel comforted.

 It also made me never want to leave his warms, which I knew wasn't possible. After all, human beings had needs like eating and showering which meant that they couldn't remain cuddled up to another being all the time. Unless...

Not that I'm going to tell you exactly where my thoughts went, but I felt my cheeks grow hot thinking about showering. 

A couple more seconds passed before Jason took a step back from the hug. 

I didn't want him to let go. 

He noticed my expression and raised an eyebrow at me. 

"Are you okay, there, Riles?" he asked me. 

Was I? 

"Yeah, I'm all good," I managed to say. My voice sounded pretty clear. Good work, Riley, I thought to myself. "What's going on up there?" I said, gently tapping my fingers against Jason's forehead to divert his attention from the subject. 

"Thinking about you, just thinking about you," he said. 

I felt that there was more to it. 

In that moment, I folded my arms in front of my chest and tilted my head slightly to the side. 

"Alright, so I'm also hungry but you are way more important than food. You're my girlfriend. Girlfriends are the priority. Food can wait." 

"Deep," I said. 

Jason chuckled. 

"You're so sweet," I said. 

"Am I?" he asked me. 

"I don't know. I think you're like a cinnamon roll- everybody loves cinnamon rolls," I said. 

Jason's smile grew, revealing the dimple in his cheek that I loved so damn much. I reached out to poke it and his chest vibrated with a laugh again. 

"Anyway, want to come in?" I asked him. 

He responded with a nod of his head, and the two of us walked quietly past the living room and up towards my bedroom. 

I was glad that my parents were distracted by the television. 

Sure, they knew it was Jason, but my parents had a tendency towards not wanting me to have boys over, for one reason or another. 

"Now, Jason, I need to tell you some more things about the Sins," I said and sat down on my bed, patting the space beside me for him to sit down, too.