Tal'rith

Chapter Six

During their lunch break, Rylie went out to their car, telling Jessica that they needed a nap rather than food.

It wasn't a total lie; Rylie did, in fact, need a nap. Just not right now.

They sat in their little Nissan, snacking on the pretzels they always kept in their car. The salty flavor grounded Rylie in reality, along with a healthy dosage of fidgeting and leg-bouncing.

There was too much to worry about. Too much to even think about. Rylie wasn't even sure where to start thinking, much less what to do about anything.

Questions rattled them, crowding every other thought out of their mind.

Demons. Many cultures and religions across the world spoke of such creatures. And even though they studied theology in college, at the moment their head spun too much to make sense of, well, the nonsensical.

Absent-mindedly, Rylie reached up to pull their necklace out from beneath their blouse. The sunlight streaming in from their car windows caught the silver of the cross. It glinted, winking a bright flash of white light.

Rylie ran their fingers across the cross, upward and downward. Warmed by the skin over their heart, as it sat in the palm of their hand, Rylie couldn't help but liken it to a living being.

The cross their grandmother gave them. The one speck of Christianity they allowed themself to hold on to.

Rylie knew little about other religions. Even when they went to church, the pastor never spoke of demons. Certainly there was talk about Satan. The devil. The one who planted dinosaur bones in the Earth and spread lies regarding evolution, according to Rylie's parents and the church they had attended growing up. But even growing up, the devil wasn't just a demon. Satan's importance and his well of evil went further beyond any sort of supposedly demonic activity.

Rylie dropped the necklace back beneath the collar of their shirt. They sighed, shaking their head, and popped another pretzel into their mouth.

Casrath didn't seem evil. In fact, he seemed more confused than anything else.

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged," Rylie murmured under their breath. They rolled their eyes. Another small piece of Christianity they couldn't quite shake from their shoulders.

A small smile cracked their lips. Such a line. One rarely followed as well. Still, truth laid in those words. More truth than the rest of the Bible, at least. They didn't know about Casrath. Not well, at least.

True, he could be lying about some things. But being a demon wasn't one of those lies.

Sealing the bag of pretzels, Rylie tossed it back into their glove box. They sipped water from their water bottle.

To Rylie, the Bible was full of false reasonings and lies. Would it be such a stretch to believe that it didn't understand demons?

They almost laughed out loud. The Bible barely understood human nature. To think it would be correct regarding creatures from another plane of existence would be beyond laughable and cross the line straight into unreality.

Capping their water bottle, Rylie stepped out of their car. They had a few minutes before they needed to be back inside on their computer.

They didn't want to rush.

❖︎· · ─────── ·❖︎· ─────── · ·❖︎

The rest of Rylie's shift passed by them in a foggy haze. Even as they said goodbye to Jessica, Rylie floated on the foam of reality.