Entanglement

burn

Phil POV

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I could easily say that Dan and I were now friends. Admittedly, he was a bit much to handle sometimes, but I knew it was just his nature since he was a demon.

The way he acted always made me wonder what his past was like, both living and not. He was your usual angry demon, and yet I could feel that before the transformation to a being inhumane, he had had some sort of good in him. It didn't make sense to me; what had he done in his human life to deserve to become one of those creatures? As time went on, it felt like he didn't belong anymore.

I knew it was nonsense. When we first met, he hadn't been different at all. Still angry and mean and ruthless, and I was only feeling like this because he had actually tried to talk to me. The whole situation had been weird and still was, but our interactions were the only reason I could even think of as to why I thought he was good. After a whole three weeks of talking to him every day, my opinion on him was sure to change, and that was what had happened. Nothing more.

After Dan had pulled me aside at that last meeting, I'd expected Louise to question it, and she had.

"Why were you talking to that demon?" She'd asked during our flight home. "What was his name, David? Dylan?"

"Dan," I corrected her, "And no reason. He just said something rude because he hates me, but it doesn't bother me." It was a blatant lie, but I had always been a good liar. This was a great trait since no one ever expected angels to lie about anything.

My friend shrugged, and I immediately felt bad for lying to her. She was my closest friend, the one I had always told everything. But I knew this crossed the line. She was already on my back for acting the way I was and her nagging would only get worse if she knew I was becoming friends with our enemy.

By now, she hadn't asked again. Louise didn't have work on Earth, which I was grateful for, because I knew she would want to stick by me. This way, I could do whatever I wanted, which included talking to Dan, because no one saw me, watched me, or even suspected it. Because why would anyone suspect something like that?

Today, I was running late to Dan and I's meeting, but I usually was. I was surprised he hadn't snapped at me for it; in fact, I had expected it since every single day I showed up he was already sitting there. But I suppose he didn't care, which was another weird thing I had questions about. The reason this time was because I had to talk to Korey. I could tell he was stalling while explaining how statistics were doing, and I wondered why he was trying to stop me from spending more time on Earth. I knew he couldn't presume what I was doing; no one could, so I didn't understand what was up with him. He always seemed anxious these days.

I still made it to Earth within my expected time frame, creating three angels on the way to the farmhouse. It was always so great to see the smiles on people's faces as they died peacefully and I sent them up to Heaven. I wondered how horrifying it was to have a demon kill you and find out you were headed to Hell without a choice in the matter. I guessed that some deserved it, but I knew that demons didn't care if you deserved it. That's why it was our job to get to those who didn't before they did.

When I arrived at the farmhouse and looked at the steps, Dan was sitting in the same spot he always was. There was a very large amount of anger in the air, and I walked up to the demon tentatively. I had never felt him this angry, even when we'd first met and hated each other. This was a whole new level of rage, and the air felt stuffy.

The closer I got, the worse the stench of irritability was. And the closer I got, the closer I looked at him. My eyes widened as I noticed something strange; his arms were on fire.