The two, the demon and the priest, ate dinner together before returning to the auditorium of the church.
They had both been quiet and tense. However for once it wasn't because of each other. It was because whoever it was that was tormenting the church members.
Val slumped back onto a pew, propping his feet up and closing his eyes briefly.
"Please don't put your feet on the pews" Theo broke the silence that had covered the room.
Val raised an eyebrow with an almost joking look on his face. "We're going to be in here all night, I'm going to get comfortable"
Theo bit his tongue. He would never allow anyone to treat the house of God in such a way, but he wasn't willing to argue with Val.
Theo walked over and sat next to the demon. He made sure they were a fair distance apart, a good two and a half feet he guessed, but he wasn't too far as to make it obvious he didn't want to sit too near.
"How does your sensing thing work?" Theo asked suddenly.
"Hm?" Val hummed, tilting his head back to stare at the ceiling lazily.
Theo thought it was a bit rude how he didn't look at him while they were talking, but shrugged it off.
"Like when you sense a demon.. is it like a 6th sense? What does it feel like?" He spoke quietly.
Val remained silent for a moment, making Theo look at him curiously. He almost asked the demon why he didn't respond, but Val's mouth opened to talk before he got the chance.
"I dunno.." he took a deep breath, blinking slowly, "I guess it is kind of like a 6th sense in a way"
He finally lifted his head to look back at Theo, who was waiting impatiently for him to elaborate.
"You're a curious person, you know that?" Val chuckled.
Theo's eyes widened. He hadn't expected the conversation to turn on him and he certainly hadn't thought he was being nosey.
"I-" he tried to speak.
"It's alright, I don't mind" Val laughed once more. "It's hard to explain how sensing other demons works. It's like if I asked you how you taste the food you eat. Sure, there's a science behind it, but it is difficult to explain the feeling" Val smiled slightly, meeting Theo's eyes.
"That makes sense" Theo muttered, looking down at his lap.
The room got quiet once again and the two were left sitting awkwardly. Theo picked at loose skin on his thumb, wondering what the two would possibly do for the rest of the night. If Val was expecting him to stay awake surely they couldn't just sit there.
Theo, being in his 30s and also not being a night nor morning person, was already growing tired and having to hold his eyes open.
"It's going to be a long night" Val sighed, slouching back further into the chair. "You sure you're gonna make it? You look pretty tired" he half joked.
He raised a hand and tried to poke playfully at Theo's heavy eyelids, but Theo swatted his hand away.
He was going to defend his early tiredness, but another thought crossed his mind.
He couldn't help but notice how comfortable the demon looked on the cushioned pews. And he had notice multiple times before how tense he looked on the basement floor.
"I have a guest bedroom you can stay in if you'd like. I'm sure it's better than that dusty basement" he offered as casually as he could. "It's got its own bathroom in there so you can shower and everything"
The demon smirked a bit, staring at Theo with a glad look that seemed to be genuine.
"What?" Theo finally asked after a few seconds of Val's staring.
"Nothing," he laughed quietly, "I just didn't expect that kind of offer to come from you is all" he shrugged and let his head fall back so he was staring at the ceiling once more. "Sleeping in a bed would be nice though"
Theo smiled a bit without realizing.
Just then a few taps started coming from outside followed by a muffed shaaa sound.
Val tensed up immediately and in a second he was standing up and looking around frantically. His eyes were wide and his eyebrows were furrowed in fear and confusion.
"Hey, calm down" Theo advised.
He stood and held his hands out carefully to the demon, but Val only continued in his panic.
"It's just rain, Val, it's okay" he spoke again, raising his voice a bit.
Val finally stood still and looked back at Theo, but the fear remained in his eye.
"What?" He murmured.
"Rain" Theo repeated, "it's just rain. A sudden storm"
Val took a deep breath and the worry seemed to fade out of his expression.
The rain pounded hard outside. It wasn't unlikely that there would be a storm.
"Rain.. like water?" Val took a few steps to the door.
"Yeah," Theo chuckled, following behind the demon. "It comes from the clouds.. the ones in the sky" he explained, amusement seeping into his voice.
He couldn't help but find it funny how such simple things were so absurd to the demon. It got Theo thinking what Hell was like, and how he would react to it.
He noticed Val glancing at the windows, but it was too dark to see much of anything.
"Want to see it?" Theo asked, taking a stride towards the door.
The demon stayed silent, but his curiosity was clear.
Theo made his way to the door and Val followed not far behind.
"You don't sense any demons, right?" Theo half-joked.
Val shook his head, but didn't speak. He seemed to be listening intensely to the rain, though he stared impatiently at the door.
Theo smiled a bit as he opened the door. He watched Val's face as his mouth opened slightly and his eyes widened.
"We don't have this in Hell" he whispered, his gaze never leaving the rain that was pouring from the sky.
"I figured as much" Theo grinned. "It's really pouring" he commented, though he was watching the demon rather than the rain.
Just then, for a moment, he felt bad. Bad that he was enjoying his time with a demon. Bad that he had fallen so far from his Bible and studies. Bad that he hadn't felt guilty before.
The thought didn't last though. Matter of fact, the idea hardly lasted a second before he was once again trapped in the moment with Val, who had yet to look away from the rain.
Val took one last step towards the doorway, standing inches from it and gazing out. He extended a hand out but it was stopped before it could make it out by whatever invisible barrier that kept him from leaving.
"Earth is so fascinating" Val mumbled. "You have such a complex system in nature. A sky, and animals, and rain"
Theo finally pulled his eyes away from the demon and looked outside. It was incredible how the demons casual, non-caring attitude changed when he was around such simple things.
"I'm sure Hell has plenty things that would leave any human starstruck" Theo responded, his eyes returning to the demon once again.
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YOU ARE READING
Crossed (BxB)
RomanceA priest at a small church accidentally summons a demon into his home. Now he has problems lining up- from being conflicted with the demon to being told a member of his own church could be just as bad. He goes down a spiraling path of trust and dist...
