Eva POV #4
“This is not funny,” I snapped.
“It’s a little funny.”
“There’s a DEMON in our apartment.”
“You bought him with vanilla candles, Eva.”
I opened my mouth, closed it again, then shook my head helplessly at the demon. “That is not how summoning works!”
The demon glanced down at his coffee for a second.
“…Technically it worked extremely well.”
Chapter 3
Eva POV
“That is not comforting,” I muttered while standing up from the floor.
The apartment was freezing again, which seemed less horrifying considering everything else already happening tonight.
Candlelight flickered around the living room while the demon still leaned against my kitchen counter drinking coffee like he hadn’t permanently ruined my understanding of reality.
Meanwhile Nina was still wrapped in a blanket staring at him like she was waiting for him to start eating souls.
I grabbed the nearest hoodie off the back of the couch and threw it toward him without really thinking about it. “Here. You’re making the apartment look haunted.”
He caught it automatically. But his face made me regret throwing it at him in the first place because apparently my survival instincts had stopped functioning tonight.
Nina noticed first. “Why did he stop moving?”
“I don’t know.”
The demon stared down at the hoodie in his hands like I’d just handed him classified military secrets of state.
“…You are offering me clothing?”
I frowned. “I heard Hell gets cold at night.”
The silence that followed was more dangerous. I pursed my lips and suddenly found the opposite wall more fascinating.
Nina lowered her coffee mug. “Eva.”
“What.”
“I think you did another thing.”
“I DIDN’T DO ANY THING.”
The demon was still gazing at the hoodie with a stunned expression on his face. Then carefully, like he was trying not to scare a wild animal, he asked, “Humans are aware of what clothing gifts symbolize, correct?”
I blinked at him bewildered.
“…Laundry?”
Nina snickered instantly. “Oh no.”
I pointed at her. “Stop saying ‘oh no’ like that. I hate that tone.”
The demon finally looked up from the hoodie, and he seemed even more confused than before. “In Hell, offering someone clothing is considered a highly intimate gesture.”
“How significant?”
He hesitated and that pause alone ruined my evening more than his presence.
“…Usually it implies long-term interest towards each other.”
I stared at him for a second while my brain continued failing to process whether I missed any part of dating lessons from Nina.
“That is my worn out hoodie with a hole in it.”
The demon expression tightened slightly at my lack of reaction to his dating culture. “That information does not improve the situation.”
Nina was already grabbing her phone off the couch. “No, wait, hold on. I’m googling demon courting rituals because clearly nobody in this apartment knows how to act.”
“You are not helping.”
“I need answers, Eva!”
While the demon calmly pulled the hoodie on like this was completely normal behavior. The sleeves were slightly too short on him, which was a personal attack to my size considering it was already an oversized hoodie.
Then my brain caught up with the reality that instead of sending this strange demon out of the apartment , I am offering him my clothes.
“Wait,” I said, gesturing to my clothes. “Take the hoodie off.”
“Absolutely not.”
“That is MY hoodie.”
“Which makes this entirely more significant.”
I laughed in disbelief while Nina made a sound that was dangerously close to choking from laughter.
“WHY ARE THERE RULES FOR THIS,” I snapped.
The demon took another sip of coffee completely calmly. “Courtship without rules becomes chaos in hell.”
I gestured at the candle circle still surrounding the coffee table. “You were literally summoned from a pentagram.”
“Romantically summoned.”
“STOP SAYING IT LIKE THAT.”
For the first time since appearing, amusement flickered across the demon’s face. His glowing red eyes crinkled with laughter as he watched me fume.
“You are enjoying this,” I accused.
“A little.”
“That’s evil.”
“I am literally a demon.”
I couldn’t really argue with that.
Nina was still aggressively scrolling through her phone beside me while muttering things under her breath like somebody cramming for an exam she deeply regretted taking.
“Oh my God,” she whispered, horrified.
I already hated that tone. “What now?”
She looked up from her phone. “Okay so apparently demons take clothing gifts very seriously.”
“I gathered that.”
“No, Eva, seriously seriously.”
“That sentence means nothing to me.”
Nina waved dramatically at the hoodie he was wearing. “Apparently offering personal clothing in demonic culture means symbolic commitment.”
I wasn't sure which part of this situation to panic about first: the strange demon with dating rules, or my best friend, who seemed far too interested in it now.
“It was cold.”
The demon quietly nodded into his coffee. “ Umm.. I believe it “
“I need both of you to stop talking.”
A sudden knock echoed through the apartment door, and all three of us froze. The sound came again a few seconds later three slow knocks this time. The demon’s expression changed the second he heard them. His grip tightening on the mug, his face dark enough as if his important date was disturbed.
Nina turned to him first. “Are you expecting someone?”
“No.”
Another knock. A little longer this time.
I gestured toward the door. “Absolutely not. We are already at maximum demon capacity.”
The demon sighed softly and set his coffee mug down on the counter. “Unfortunately, they probably sensed the summoning.”
Nina’s face went pale instantly. “THEY?”
We didn’t move for a second. Then another knock rattled the door hard enough to shake my cheap apartment frame. Considering I was unemployed at this moment, I will have to make the demon pay for damaged property from his colleagues .
Nina stood from the couch clutching her blanket around herself like armor. “I suddenly miss having normal problems.”
“You thought astrology girls were stressful,” I muttered.
The demon seemed briefly amused by that, and for a brief second his smile made my heart beat fast. Then the knocking stopped and the apartment fell silent again .
Then a voice from the hallway called out calmly, “We know you’re in there.”
I faced the demon. “Why does that sound more threatening than the actual summoning?”
“Because those are lower demons.”
“That sentence raised several concerns.”
Horror flashed across Nina’s face. “There are ranks?”
“There are spreadsheets.”
“What does THAT mean?”
“You do not want to know.”
Another voice spoke through the door. “We brought wine.”
I stood stunned there at the polite demons standing at my door like it’s a normal night for them. Then turned toward the demon again.
“…Why are demons acting like college friends visiting unexpectedly?”
The demon shifted uneasily for the first time all night. “Demonic society values social rituals very seriously.”
Before I could answer, Nina already reached the door and peeked through the little hole in the apartment door.
Then she froze.
“Oh no.”
I pointed at her. “STOP SAYING THAT.”
She turned around towards us with the expression of somebody witnessing the beginning of a national disaster.
“Eva…There are really more demons here.”
Chapter 4
Eva POV
And the next second the demon frowned slightly toward the apartment door. “That seems unlikely.”
Nina was still standing at the door staring through the peephole like she’d just witnessed a crime. “No, I’m serious. There are three more weirdly attractive people standing outside our apartment.”
I pointed at her. “Attractive? THAT sounds demonic.”
“They’re wearing robes.”
“…Okay that’s less comforting.”
Another knock sounded through the apartment making Nina flinch hard.
Then a familiar voice called through the hallway. “Please open the door before he notices us standing here awkwardly.”
I froze for a second. I was definitely sober enough to recognise that voice.
Slowly, almost painfully, I turned toward Nina. “They are the candle store people”
Nina went pale. “THE CANDLE PEOPLE FOUND OUR ADDRESS?”
“That feels illegal.”
The demon’s expression darkened beside the kitchen counter. “Of course it’s them.”
“You KNOW them?” I asked him curiously.
“They attempted to summon me for eleven years.”
I stood there in a stunned silence, while my attention shifted from him to the summoning circle still surrounding the coffee table.
“…I bought candles during a mental breakdown and succeeded accidentally?”
The demon’s smirk deepened. “Extremely successfully.”
“Wow, that feels insulting.”
Another knock interrupted us again. This time the younger cult guy yelled through the door, “We brought expensive wine and emotional support!”
Nina blinked twice. “I genuinely cannot tell if we’re being haunted or visited.”
I walked toward the door carefully while every survival instinct in my body begged me not to. The demon watched me over the rim of his coffee mug but didn’t move to stop me.
The second I opened the door, the younger guy from the shop lit up. “OH THANK GOD.”
Behind him stood the old shop owner looking exhausted as usual, along with the bandaged guy from the back room.
All three of them went quiet the second they noticed the demon wearing a very short girly hoodie. The younger guy pressed his lips together, fighting to keep a straight face.
The bandaged one whispered, “…He accepted a clothing offering?”
The old man closed his eyes like he was trying to survive the moment spiritually.
I glanced between all of them, horror creeping into my voice. “Why is everybody reacting like I accidentally proposed marriage?”
Their lack of reaction made my body cold. “I definitely hate this day,” I muttered rubbing my hands hard.
The younger cult guy was still staring at the hoodie like he was witnessing history happen in real time. “Do you understand how hard that is?”
“I DON’T EVEN UNDERSTAND WHAT I DID.”
The bandaged guy pointed dramatically at the demon standing in my kitchen. “He accepted the clothing offer.”
“It was cold!”