To Love an Incubus

Chapter 15; Different Truths

"So, what did you tell your brother?" Willow asks. Her head was on her couch armrest and her legs were draped over my own. We had been lounging all day since I called in sick for work and she didn't work until late at night. Once I left the Ark house last night I had walked for about a mile before calling a taxi, taking it back home.

"I told him that Dorrian's aunt was sick with dementia or something and that I helped Dorrian calm her down after a particularly bad episode and then we had a fallout over what should be the right course of action," I tell her.

That night when I had gotten home Corrin was still on the couch waiting for me to explain. I had told him the story so he didn't start asking questions about Melik as I had done. I also didn't want to tell him out of embarrassment. I had let Dorrian fool me into trusting him, into a false hope that I could find out what happened to my dad and get answers to all of the questions I hadn't even been worried about until Dorrian came along.

"Isn't summer break starting for Corrin? I don't know how you're going to keep up with all of these lies, Ric," I scowl at Willow.

"What are you getting at?"

"All I'm trying to say is that sometimes what we think is right isn't always so."

"Is this your way of telling me that demons and magical things exist?" I snort. Willow lifts her head to look at me and gives me a scowl of her own.

"No, but maybe your truth is different from Dorrian's. God, Auric, I love you but you never give anyone a chance and you can be so close-minded," she says, laying her head back down, having said what she wanted to say. I didn't know exactly what Willow meant by that. I could look at it from different angles and come up with different possibilities but I didn't know which ones were actually probable. I didn't know which one she wanted me to believe. Willow wiggles her feet, trying to get me to scratch her legs, something she has done ever since I met her. I comply and she lets out a content sigh.

I couldn't help it. When I finally left Willow's, I stopped at the local library. It was quiet and empty now that everyone had their own wifi or read on their phones. Only a librarian and two college kids hovering over textbooks were to be seen. I sat at one of the computers, pushing a few quarters into a machine that allows you to access the wifi. The screen lights up brightly and I open the search bar.

I scoured different sites, reading until the timer beeped softly, then I added more change to the machine to read more. It was like an itch that I couldn't stop scratching, a bug bite for the horrid knowledge and details. The words and pictures were nothing short of horrifying; ape-like creatures assaulting and raping women in their sleep, gargoyle depictions impregnating women by hypnotizing them, large broken wings and blood dripping mouths. The text went into vivid detail, not leaving much to the imagination.

The thought of Dorrian believing in this stuff didn't bother me anymore, but the thought of him believing I was one of his ghastly creatures did.

When I got home it was late. I had spent hours at the library, then meandered around the city because I hadn't been ready to go home. Corrin sat on the couch, a steaming cup of what I would have guessed as tea fogging up his glasses. Lord of the Flies sat on his lap along with a notebook full of scribbles and circles with notes on the margins.

"What did you think?" I ask, making my way over to the couch to sit next to him.

"Well, I think that they were savages. I mean those kids were younger than me and I couldn't imagine doing some of that stuff, I mean, poor Simon," he rants.

"It was symbolic: for society, civilization, war, rage, evil, wisdom, etcetera. Simon was purity, purity is always destroyed."

Corrin looks thoughtful for a moment, then he hands me his tea and picks up his pencil. The pencil makes loud scratching sounds as he makes large 'x's and scribbles something down, circling it wildly. The tea is warm in my hands and I take a sip, then regret it instantly; it was sweeter than tea should be.

"I think you just gave me my end-of-the-year essay theme."

"Glad I could help. Don't stay up too late, okay?" I say, giving him his cup back and ruffling his hair. I get up and make my way to my room, ready for sleep to stall my thoughts.

"Yeah, I'll be in bed by eleven," he calls after me absently, once again scribbling in his notebook.

Later that night I was awoken by my phone ringing loudly from its position on my nightstand. For a second I thought of Dorrian's voice floating through the phone, then remembered that I had blocked his number.

"Yeah?" I ask into the phone. My voice sounded groggy and slightly irritated.

"Hey! You busy? I drank a lot of coffee to study earlier and now I'm too tired to sleep and wanted to know if you wanted to hang out," I pulled the phone from my ear to see the clock; it was two in the morning. I contemplated it for a moment before answering.

"Your place?" I could hear Jackie sigh in relief that I hadn't been mad about being woken up and would meet up with her. She tells me that she was going to the park to feed the ducks and I agreed to meet her there.

I threw on jeans and a thin hoodie, just in case the new summer air wasn't yet warm enough for an early morning stroll to the park.

The walk to the park was quiet and not many cars were out, only the street lights that hung over-head allowing me enough light to see.

"Hey," Jackie jumps in surprise. She was sitting on the ground next to the pond and had a bag of bread in her hand and had been ripping small pieces off of a slice to feed the ducks and birds that weren't afraid to get close enough for it. I sit next to her, folding my legs to sit criss-cross close enough that our knees touch. I almost feel disappointed when there is a lack of pleasant electrical static between us.

"There you are!" She smiles and hands me a piece of bread, I take it and rip a corner off. I hold my hand out for one of the ducks, but a squirrel runs up and snatches it out of my hand so quickly it looked as if I had imagined a shadow. Jackie laughs which makes me smile.

This continues until sunrise; us sitting beside each other feeding random animals and quietly laughing to ourselves. When we ran out of bread we laid down in the grass side-by-side, watching the sunrise and turn the sky into different shades of reds, oranges, pinks, and blues. When I looked at Jackie I could see the skies reflection in her pupils.

"I should get home so I can get ready for work," at the mention of leaving for work dread tugs at my insides.

"Yeah, my classes should be starting soon. This was fun, you should come over to mine again soon," she said somewhat suggestively. I nod and tell her to text me when she was free, but I wasn't in a rush. It was like some of the sex drive that I had felt less than days ago had diminished.

I left, thinking of everything yet nothing at the same time.