Everything moved rather quickly after Idsalis was disposed of, while the students and faculty were taking their time to wake up, the gang had raced to collect the torches, gas canister and hose. Anything that they thought might lead to them was quickly gathered, including the footage of the incident which Sarah spent a lot of extra time ensuring that it was erased.
Her faith in her own skills were shaken by the incident but after checking for what must have been the sixth time the gang had to practically pull her away from the terminal and away from the building before anyone showed up. Audrey and Elizabeth had left a little earlier to go dismantle and destroy the devices whilst the gang figured out what to do with the artifacts.
Max had awkwardly tagged along, still weirded out by the situation but they were at least going to need to get their stories straight for when the time came. They’d all managed to sneak their way back to Lena and Sarah’s dorm room through the pitch black of night. A brief discussion had ensued between them about what to do with the two golden objects in their possession, with the school likely to be descended upon and thoroughly searched it wasn’t likely that they were going to be able to hide it anywhere on campus.
Sarah volunteered her folks place which was only a short drive from the campus, without any other options the gang elected to do so.
“Yeah sure enough, it’s lighting up like a christmas tree down there.” Amber remarked before dropping the curtain and letting it fall back into place.
“Any sign of suits?” Andras asked from Lena.
“Nothing yet, it seems the faculty are running around like maniacs though.”
“Then they’ll be here before long, do we know when Sarah will get back?” Bianca asked.
“Lena says she shouldn’t be much longer, it’s only a short trip but she does have to stash the artifacts so that’s probably what held her up.” Andras relayed.
“What now?” Max asked, sitting awkwardly on the end of the bed. It was apparent to everyone with eyes that the girl was feeling out of place despite her earlier resolve in helping Andras.
“Well most of us have been through this before so it shouldn’t be too complicated. A bunch of people in suits are going to show up and take control of the situation.” Bianca began to explain.
“We will each be thoroughly questioned about recent events and assuming we evade suspicion, we’ll be sent on our way.” Amber continued.
“What kind of questions?” The brown haired girl enquired.
“Well the first time around we were asked all about our time on the island before and after we were possessed so we’d imagine something similar to that but it’s possible they might ask more direct questions about ourselves to try and weed out any straggling demons. That isn’t our problem though.” Keira said to the girl, folding her arms and leaning back.
“What is our problem?”
“This is the second time the five of us will have been publicly involved with demons, there are a handful of other students who happened to be on the island the first time around but we managed to draw a fair amount of attention the first time, it might not be so easy this time.” Andras frowned.
The group sat in silence after that, patiently waiting for their friends to return and after what felt like way longer than it should have been, Sarah walked in with Audrey and Elizabeth. The blonde girl carried two cases of beer.
“Hey everyone, we managed to destroy and dispose of everything we made for this endeavor, hopefully we didn’t miss anything.” Audrey announced.
“That will have to do.” Andras shrugged.
“What’s that for?” Amber asked, referring to the alcohol Sarah was currently carting inside.
“Yeah that’s unlike you, what gives Sarah?” Bianca chimed in.
Hefting the cases up onto her desk, Sarah let out a sigh of relief before replying, “Well I got it for two reasons. First, we need some form of alibi for tonight, I think this might be as good as any.”
“And the second?” Andras asked, eyeing the cases.
Sarah tore open one of the cardboard boxes before removing a handful of beers and starting to pass them out, “We just beat another group of demons, I think it’s time we celebrate.” She announced cheerily.
“Fuck yeah!” Bianca cheered, taking a swig.
“Eh why the heck not?” Audrey said, following suit.
As the rest of the gang started digging into their beverages, Elizabeth spoke up, “So… what do we do now?”
“What do you mean?” Sarah asked, plopping herself down on the bed.
“As in what do we do once we’re in the clear? Are we just going to go about our regular lives and keep him a secret?” She asked tilting her head towards Andras who paused upon finding himself the center of attention yet again. “I don’t think I’d want to join in on the little roster you guys have.” the scientist added.
“Nor do we expect you to, any of you.” Keira replied, looking at Audrey and Max, “We really appreciate the three of you helping out the way you did but we’ve taken responsibility for him and that’s the way it’s going to stay.” She said that last part with a soft look towards the demon, who smiled back at the gesture.
“Good because I don’t think I wanted to find out what it was like to have one of those things inside me, no offense.” Audrey said with a shiver.
“None taken.”
“I on the other hand might need to, for research purposes of course.” Elizabeth commented, eyeing Andras with the familiar hunger for knowledge. The scientist’s eyes flicked to Max who was just awkwardly nursing her beer on the end of the bed.
“Oh but you got to experience both! What was it like? The bad one, what did that feel like?” Elizabeth interrogated the young girl. Max looked to them for help but as much as they wanted to tell her to lay off, they were kind of curious as to what the girl might know.
Max just sighed, “It was… scary, that gigantic thing lorded over me before forcing its way inside my mouth. As soon as I felt the first bits of his form travel down my throat I could sense everything he was feeling. The malice was overpowering, he was relishing in my suffering every bit of the way.”
The room was deadly quiet as they listened to Max’s encounter. The five of them had experienced something similar in being ripped from their bodies and forced to watch as they were taken but what she had been through was something quite unique.
“After that it was all just a fever dream, I felt like I was neither dreaming nor awake. The only thing I can remember before Andras rescued me is a few barely decipherable moments. I think he was talking to the other demons at some point, no idea what he said and then I remember… shortly after taking me over he…” She trailed off.
Her tone made even the ever curious Elizabeth pause, Andras felt a pit of guilt form in his stomach. He might not have been the one who did that to her but he was definitely as guilty as the demon that had taken over Max.
“At least you changed.” Lena said simply.
“Yeah…” Amber replied, scratching the back of her neck, “They can be pretty… rough.” She said, avoiding voicing what they were all thinking directly.
“Just how on earth did you all decide to host him? Those two only had a little bit of time to explain your situation but I have no idea how you could all come to go through that on a regular basis.” Max asked, eyeing only her drink which she promptly took a sip of.
“Well tell me this.” Keira began, “How did you feel when Andras was in there with you?”
Max finally took her eyes off her drink to make eye contact with the young animator, “The two experiences are almost incomparable, I was awake and aware the entire time. He was careful when taking me over and there wasn’t that surge of disgusting emotions.” She relayed.
“Exactly, now it might not be ideal to not be in direct control of our bodies but we’ve each come to enjoy his company in our own way.” Keira explained confidently.
Bianca noticeably shied away at that last part, deciding to take a drink as a distraction.
“I guess I can understand that a little better now but I don’t think I could get used to it, no matter how much nicer he is than the other demons.” Max replied carefully.
“Well like we said, we don’t expect you to. All we ask is that you, all of you, keep our secret. I don’t think we have to stress the importance of never mentioning this to anyone.” Amber added.
“Of course.” Max and Audrey answered in unison.
“And that means no publishing any papers Elizabeth!” Sarah teased her friend.
“I know that!” Elizabeth defended herself.
“Just making sure.” Sarah replied, “Before we get too wasted, just how the heck did you make it inside of Lena before being incinerated? From what Max told us, we were expecting you to have been killed.” She asked the demon.
Andras paused for a moment, looking down at Lena’s hands, “You know, I’m not quite sure of that myself. He had me dead to rights, I felt myself bursting at the seams and then Lena hand connected with mine.”
“What happened then?” Bianca asked.
“Instead of exploding, my form almost instantaneously flowed into her chest and I was safe.” Andras revealed.
“Hold on, I know demons are typically expelled through the skin but none of you have mentioned him entering through the skin before, is that new?” Elizabeth enquired, stroking her chin in thought.
“Yeah that’s new.” Sarah answered, “That’s yet another thing added to the list I suppose.”
“Oohh I can’t wait to research it, If only I had a regular demon for a baseline comparison…” Elizabeth lamented.
“Oh you should have told us!” Bianca said mockingly, “Guys we really should have gone out of our way to secure a hostile test subject for Elizabeth here.” She taunted the girl.
“Oh come on, you know what I meant!” The scientist replied laughing.
“You know she’s going to want to subject us to god knows how many tests right?” Lena asked the demon.
“Yeah I imagine so, it will probably be at least a little torturous but if It can help us get to the bottom of whatever is going on with us then I guess we’ll have to.” He replied, finishing off his first beer and reaching for a second.
It hadn’t taken very long for the group to start passing out one by one, Elizabeth was the first to drop. Evidently not having partaken in a lot of alcohol before.
Amber, Bianca and Audrey had followed rather quickly with Max a little after that. Sarah and Kiera were the only ones who’d held themselves back a bit, Sarah had managed to throw some blankets over the sleeping girls before turning in herself. Now it was just Andras and Kiera left awake, the two sat on top of Sarah’s desk while they passively watched the suits run around like ants across the campus.
Andras’ thoughts were interrupted only by Lena who spoke up for the first time in about an hour, “Goddammit Andras, I’m really hoping that my lack of a buzz is due to your presence right about now. Because If I can’t get drunk again…” She trailed off.
He’d been wondering that himself, he had only ever gotten drunk in Lena once and that was during his training on the island. Perhaps it was another side effect of her new and improved body.
“This is not an improvement, mister!” She accused him, Andras chuckled internally. Sometimes he did forget for the briefest of moments that his thoughts weren’t his own when he was with Lena. “I’m sorry, hopefully we can find a way to get you drunk though I can’t imagine why you’d want to be, the one time I remember was an awful experience.”
Lena didn’t really have an answer for that one.
“What do you think they are thinking?” Keira asked him tipsily.
The demon turned her head to her, seeing she was eyeing him as well. “They are probably worrying about more demons lurking about.” He answered her.
“Well they’d be right about that.” She joked softly.
“That they would.”
A brief pause ensued before Keira spoke again, “You know, it’s a shame we haven’t had the time to go on anymore dates.”
“It is but now I suppose we have all the time in the world.” He replied.
Keira drew closer to him, he thought she was going to try and rest her head on his shoulder but her eyes remained locked on his as her face drew ever closer to his, she paused just an inch from his with a slight smile, seemingly asking for permission.
“Lena?” He asked.
“Just kiss her already!” Lena insisted.
And so he did.
