Riley's Excellent and Not-at-all Fake Exorcism Service

Chapter 13

Spray These Mother Fuckers

I couldn't express how wonderful it was waking up in my own bed that morning. . . well, afternoon, technically. I turned over to find Andrea, her eyes wide and bloodshot, peering up at the ceiling. I reached out and took her hand in mine.

She jumped a bit, then met my gaze with a soft smile. "Finally awake?" she joked.

"Cut me some slack," I groaned. "It's been a crazy couple of days . . . and I did travel through literal Hell yesterday."

"That's fair." She let out a forced giggle, then gave my hand a squeeze.

"Did you . . . get any sleep?" She sure didn't look like she did.

"I might have drifted off every now and again," she said, her brows furrowing. "This has been . . . a lot to take in."

"Tell me about it . . . " It was my turn to stare at the ceiling with widening eyes. "What is life right now?"

"You have a demon in your living room." This time her giggle sounded real.

"I have a fucking demon in my living room," I said, laughing. As our joking faded, she squeezed my hand again.

"How are you doing, really?" She shifted her whole body toward me. "Are you okay?"

"Okay?" I turned toward her. "I'm trying to be."

She moved in closer, snuggling her head against my shoulder. I hated hugs. . . I really did, but not hers. She was always so warm, so comforting. Sometimes I used to think this was what a mother's hug must have felt like. . . not that I would really know. An image of my mother sitting at the dining room table, looking over a stack of bills came to mind. Her back hunched over; her head supported by calloused hands. No, her hugs probably wouldn't have felt like this. But I bet they would have been nice . . . in their own sort of way.

"Why would Daniel do this?" she mumbled into my shoulder.

I let that question linger in the air for a moment as I gathered my thoughts.

"He always wanted more," I started slowly. "To be better . . . To make something of himself. His parents . . . they always put a lot of pressure on him. And it seemed like no matter what job he got, no matter how many times he got promoted . . . it was never good enough. Maybe he felt this was the only way he could make them proud . . . I mean they went to Lilith's Gardens first; they met Dolion even earlier than that. I wouldn't be surprised if they influenced him into all this. Not that I blamed them completely. Clearly, Daniel chose this."

"I still have a hard time believing Daniel . . . or his parents... would agree to this," she said, trembling a little. "I always thought they were such good people. I knew they were tough on Daniel . . . and you, but I thought it was out of love."

"I think it was . . . in a way."

"If you love someone, you don't try to get them to sell their soul to the devil," she grumbled.

"Well, you wouldn't. I wouldn't . . . but I guess they would."

"You're not serious?" She shook her head as she ended our cuddle session and sat up. "You know I'm a hopeless romantic . . . I've watched so many trashy shows and movies about people falling in love and acting crazy, and I gotta say what Daniel did puts him closer to the husband in Rosemary's Baby than to any love interest in a romcom."

"Relax," I said, laughing. "I was joking . . . mostly."

"I'm going to take a shower," she said, sighing. "Can you make coffee? I feel like my head's about to split in two."