21. A demon unleashed #2
When I’m adequately clothed, I stumble to the door and pull it open, then stare in shock at the two officers glaring at me.
“Uhh,” I say, rubbing my eyes again. What the hell is going on? “Can I help you?”
“Foras Cromwell?” one of them says.
“Yes?”
“You’re under arrest.”
Lor
My mind has been spinning for days, but this afternoon it finally seems to have settled. Kahlo is on the counter next to me as I fix my coffee, and they head-butt my hand for pets. It’s something new we’ve been trying, and I quirk a smile at the temperamental feline.
Ro hasn’t been quite as up-in-my-space the last few days, which has allowed me the time I didn’t know I needed to reflect on everything. Of course, he hasn’t been absent, but I think we’ve both been processing.
Or at least, that’s what I’ve been doing.
Then when I woke up this morning, things finally clicked in my brain. It’s been weeks, and Ro hasn’t wavered even once. I’ve shared more with him than I have with anyone else, and despite knowing I’ll end up losing my mind, he hasn’t balked.
In fact, it didn’t seem to bother him at all. I don’t know how that’s possible, but at this point, I don’t bother trying to understand the infuriatingly chipper demon. He somehow takes everything in stride and makes good out of the bad.
So if he knows pretty much all of my bad, and still hasn’t gone anywhere… I need to tell him the rest.
The decision rests across my shoulders like a comforting blanket, his previous actions giving me the strength I need to share this one final piece with him. The danger I’m in, and the danger it would put him in, if we were to move forward with a relationship.
He’s an adult, perfectly capable of making his own decision if given all the information.
My heart shudders with anxiety at the idea of him leaving, but then it pangs with fear at the thought of him staying, too. Fear and longing, they both swell side by side as I think about what it would mean for him to choose me.
What if he doesn’t leave?
I truly don’t know what that would be like.
I’ve never experienced it before, but I desperately want to.
My heart feels like it’s crying out for him, and I absently stroke down Kahlo’s back and twirl their tale around my finger as the emotions surge and sweep through me.
A relentless tide that stalls the breath in my lungs as I contemplate it.
I’m startled back into my body when my phone rings with an unknown number. I normally don’t answer unknown numbers, but something has me picking it up.
“Hello?” I say.
The call connects, and I hear Ro’s strained voice on the other end. “So, uh, hey.”
“Ro? What’s going on?”
“Don’t freak out, but I got arrested—”
“What!”
“Lor, listen, I need you to contact an attorney for me. The ones they provide, well, they’re no good for…” His voice is hesitant, and he lowers it so I have to turn the volume all the way up to hear the rest. “Someone like me.”
A supernatural, he means, and a demon at that. Shit shit shit.
“Okay, right.” I’m already opening my laptop. “Are they charging you? What do they have you on? Wait, don’t say anything that could get you in trouble. Just tell me…” I pause to think for a moment.
“Remember when we talked the other night?” he says.
“Yeah,” I say, relieved to have confirmation. “Yeah, okay, I got it. I’ll do some quick research, can you call back in a few minutes, or do we need to stay on the line?”
There’s some muffled talking on the other end.
“He says I can call back, but…”
“You’d rather stay on if you can.”
I’m only half paying attention to him as I scroll, searching for an attorney who can actually help.
I’ve got nothing against the court appointed public defenders.
It’s a thankless and much-needed job, but their work is hard enough for regular folks.
Defending a demon is going to be near impossible, so we need someone who has done it before.
My eyes skip over listings until finally I land on one that looks promising.
“Got it, you ready to write down this number?”
I slump in my seat after hanging up with Ro, exhausted by this day already.
I’ve managed to convince myself that it was probably a small charge; he got caught stealing something most likely.
He said he would sign a release for the attorney to contact me, so I turn my phone volume up and check it constantly, even though I know they likely won’t call today.
Naturally, I turn to the internet, as one does when they’re trying not to panic while knowing the internet inherently makes everything worse.
I search for other cases involving demon defendants, going down a rabbit hole of information that becomes less and less comprehensible with my limited understanding of legalities.
I do my best to parse through the dense information, but it only serves to confuse and worry me more, so I turn to my own research instead.
I pull up all the usual websites: American Meteor Society, NASA, the Global Meteor Network, a couple different meteor maps run by independent research companies, and a handful of user-based forums. There’s nothing new, as I feared, so I expand my search across the entire midwest and southern Canada, hoping against hope for anything I might have previously missed.
All the while, I ignore the little voice in my head taunting me about how I had just convinced myself Ro wasn’t going to leave me, only for him to get arrested.