Part 3, Chapter 3_Losing My Religion

Part 3, Chapter 3

 Lily

 Once we’d secured a ce to stay, I rxed enough to let my mind wander and take in the sights. I was still waiting for Kelith to show any sign of impropriety, but I could take a moment to myself while we walked.

 My tired mind didn’t know where to start with absorbing the details surrounding me, so I stuck to people watching. The streets weren’t crowded, theck of space for cars providing more than enough room for everyone, but there were plenty of people to see. Most looked like they were thirty-ish by human standards, with a few visibly older people, Kelith included.

 Fashion was wild in Hell. I didn’t even have thenguage to describe most of what I saw, with some of the younger people having mboyant outfits that shimmered magically, warped colors, or writhed on their bodies. It was strange and a little scary, seeing what people could do with the magic I had hardly scratched the surface on. I wasn’t sure if the people I saw with more mundane clothing – at least in the sense that they seemed physically possible, not necessarily in taste – didn’t have the ability to manifest clothes, or if they had a more subdued style.

 By the time we arrived at a courtyard with a huge purple portal in the center, I was beyond overwhelmed. So it was no surprise that when Kelith exined what was going on, my mind didn’t have a response to give.

 “So we’ll be going through that portal – that’s a short range intuition-based type, so just hold onto my hand and think about following me and we’ll all end up together. If you get lost somehow, just ask around for the nearest phone booth, and dial me up.”

 Portal… Intuition? Phone booth?! I don’t…

 I nodded.

 Katie saw me, and followed my example.

 Going through the portal wasn’t as eventful as you’d think. There wasn’t a queue – people could approach from all sides – so it was just a matter of walking through it. Also, there weren’t any peopleing out of the portal, which initially made me think exit portals were their own thing, but then we popped out right before Kelith’s front door, a numbered entrance in the hall of what appeared to be the second floor of an apartment building.

 As curious as I was about how the portal worked, I knew I had no chance of understanding the mechanics, nor did I want to subject our benefactor to the torture of trying to teach me.

 Katie was likewise trying to be as polite as possible, following my lead as I removed my shoes once we entered.

 Kelith gave us a strange look, leading me to believe we’d messed something up, until I remembered that she knew we were subi.

 “We’re wearing physical clothes because we don’t have the energy to manifest our own,” I rified.

 She gasped, holding a hand over her mouth, “Gosh, you should’ve told me you were starving,e over here,” she held her arms open in an invitation to hug.

 I hesitated, “It’s not that bad… I just need to save my energy for the portal back home.”

 “Portal back? To the humans?” She dropped her arms.

 I nodded.

 “Why?”

 “My girlfriends are there, and our lives are there. We can’t just move ourselves to Hell on a whim.”

 “Your girlfriends?” her expression went from curious to ufortable, “They’re… are they… human?” Her voice was hesitant, like she was scared to even suggest it.

 What the hell does she think a human is?

 “Yea, it’s not that weird is it?”

 “There’s nothing wrong with it… Humans are rare around here, and the human world is… unpopr.” She finally entered the ce proper, leading us into her living room, a cozy space with a hand-knitted nket draped over every seat.

 My mother came to my mind. “If it’s unpopr, why do demons visit the human world at all?”

 Katie remained silent, but turned to focus on the conversation when she heard my question, having been previously looking around the room.

 “Well, some demons do truly unforgivable things and they’re punished by banishing them to the human world…” she grimaced, “It’s not the most popr of policies, some people argue it’s barbaric and antiquated, but that’s not important right now.”

 She sighed, “Demons that visit humans of their own will are usually driven by an insatiable wanderlust and curiosity, but that’s not something I could exin to you, given I don’t understand it myself.”

 I nodded, wondering which category my mother fell into. “Thank you for the information.”

 “Oh my, aren’t you two just the most polite,” she tittered, beckoning us further into her home, down the hall.

 My mind went back to my girlfriends, and what they were up to. Were they safe? Were they sticking together? Had they opened my letter? I had no idea.

 I really hope they opened the letter…

 I shook the thought from my head – being tired was messing with my libido in ways I hadn’t experienced since I’d changed. Thest time I’d been this tired, when Amber had been angry with me, I’d just felt depressed instead of horny, but the fact that I was being constantly bombarded with attractive demons made me miss my girlfriends even more.

 Ugh, Kelith was right, we should all move to Hell and not have to worry about stupid human stuff.

 She ushered us into a room as cozy as the rest of her home, a bedroom with a queen-sized mattress covered in cutesy plush animals, a fuzzy quilt underneath them. The single window was covered by a curtain with the texture of a bathrobe, and a desk sat in the corner, looking strangely professional and sleek, given the rest of the room.

 I shuffled my feet on the soft carpet, rxing further as my sleepiness started to catch up to me.

 Katie, on the other hand, was still concerned with propriety, “Miss, we couldn’t possibly take your daughter’s room right before she visits…”

 Kelithughed, “My daughter’s room is across the hall. This,” she did a spin, “is my office.”

 Katie blushed, “Oh.”

 “If you don’t mind sharing, then this room is yours – I don’t use it as an office anymore so don’t worry about me. I’ll get you what you need for tonight and then tomorrow we can worry about getting you girls some food.”

 Katie and I nodded shyly, submitting to Kelith’s motherliness.

 Is this what having a mom is like?

 Amber

 Sophia was gone.

 I’d woken up early, wanting to work out before going to ss, and as I stared bleary eyed at my empty dorm, it took longer than should’ve been necessary to convince myself that she wasn’t in any kind of danger.

 After reading her note several times, checking Lily’s room for signs of a fight, and pacing around for a few minutes, I ended up shooting her a text, asking if she was okay, before finally leaving for my run.

 Even with hundreds of worries floating through my brain, it was nice to get some much needed exercise, the cold morning air stinging my face as my feet pounded into the pavement. A rhythm quickly developed, a symphony of breath, step, and heartbeat, with asional interruptions by the waking city around me.

 I let my mind wander, finally freed from having anything urgent to deal with. For the rest of the day, I could go to ss, go home to an empty dorm, and marinate in my own thoughts.

 Everything was… fine? I had a lot of thoughts about my rtionship with Lily – mainly that I was still on thin ice from my earlier mistakes, but without her around for a week, there wasn’t much I could do, unless I wanted to n some kind of grand gesture when she got back.

 That wasn’t a terrible idea, but from what I understood about her, she would be ufortable with anything too extravagant, and would prefer if Sophia and I worked together on it, rather than trying to n our own things separately.

 I’ll text Sophia about nning a group date when Lily gets back, and then maybe Lily can take us on individual dates after. I hope not everything we do will be as three…

 As fun as our threesome had been, I wanted some individual time, if only so I didn’t keepparing myself to Sophia.

 She was just so… perfect.

 Sophia always knew what to say to reassure Lily, always kept a cool head and thought through things rationally. She wasn’t an impulsive moron like I was, so it was no wonder Lily had fallen for her.

 I couldn’t even nitpick her ws, because the only ones I could find, if you could even call them that, were that she had some niche interests – which I’m sure Lily thought was cute – and she was a bit rude to me – which I deserved.

 And beyond Lily thinking her weird obsessions were cute, it was insane that she managed to do any amount of research on demons on her own. That spoke to a dedication beyond a passing interest, at least by my standards, and it made me feel small and stupid, thinking about how hard it must have been to figure out demonic with nothing but a couple of books.

 I’m not even going to mention the fact that she’s a good kisser too…

 Of course, after all of that, it was just unfair for her to be so attractive. She had this pretty smile that probably made Lily’s insides turn to goo, and a body that was soft and curvy in all of the right ces.

 I didn’t consider myself a butch, given that I had a pretty conventional shoulder length hairstyle, wore feminine clothes, and used makeup asionally. However, I wasn’t particrly feminine either. I worked out enough to harden a lot of my natural curves, and when it came to chest size, I waspletely dwarfed by both my girlfriend, and my girlfriend’s girlfriend.

 It was easy for me to think I wasn’t Lily’s type, given how she had acted when we first dated, and the fact that she didn’t start exploring her sexuality until Chris… which, while he was a nice enough person, he was also Chris…

 So there was a chance that Lily liked Sophia more than me – for good reasons – and found her more attractive than me – also for good reasons – and that left the question of why I was even here.

 As in, ‘Why would Lily want to date Sophia, and also a woman less attractive than Sophia in every way?’

 That wasn’t a fun question to ask.

 I stopped mid run, bending over to ce my hands on my knees and huffing out tired breaths. I’d lost track of how long I’d been going, and I found myself in a park several miles away from my dorm.

 As I turned myself around, starting the trip back, the envelope popped into my head.

 My newest theory of why Lily had written it was that she knew how Sophia and I interacted, and she thought it would be funny to make us argue endlessly over it, only to find out it was all a ruse.

 Of course, that didn’t really line up with Lily’s character, but it was a more pleasant prospect than thinking the letter was her weird way of breaking up with me.

 No, for now the envelope would remain unopened, and I needed to just get it out of my head. My head needed to be focused on my mother and…

 I stumbled in my stride when I caught a glimpse of what looked like a rival witch down one of the side streets I passed.

 She was just standing there – was she waiting for me?

 I recognized her – May, I think her name was – from a scuffle we’d had a few years back when we’d both tried to collect the same bounty on a ghoul. Thankfully I’d managed to hit her with a sleep spell without inflicting her any permanent damage, but it wouldn’t surprise me if she held a grudge.

 I continued running, picking up the pace. Seeing her now could only be bad news, even if it was just a coincidence.

 It almost certainly wasn’t a coincidence.

AliNovel

Part 3, Chapter 3