Page 15 of Hellfire & Tinsel
It was all very fascinating, and Beau couldn’t get enough. He asked about Hell, demons, Heaven, his mind spinning with five hundred more questions as soon as one was answered.
It was Kassel who had to prompt Beau about the time in the end. The dawn had long since crept into the room by that point. In fact, it had taken up a seat on the couch after making itself a coffee for another job well done.
Beau had gotten showered and ready at lightning speed, coming back to find Kassel eating raw bacon from the fridge with his hands. His offer to cook was firmly rebuffed, the entire package inhaled with a blank face, as if daring him to try and take it.
Demons were serious about bacon. Another mental note to add to the rest.
It was handy that they were going grocery shopping, Beau could buy several more packages of it. He wrote it on his list, gathered up his bags and outerwear, and burst out the door.
Kassel ducked through the doorway and followed him, grit and snow crunching underfoot.
Beau was halfway to the bus station, giddily chatting about this and that, before he realized that people might have an issue with an eight-foot demon following him like a duckling. He glanced back over his shoulder and found Kassel as blank-faced as ever, then glanced around at the suburban houses surrounding them, half expecting a housewife in her robe and slippers to stumble upon them and screech in hysteria.
“Can other people see you?” he asked.
Kassel shook his head. “Not if I don’t want them to.”
“Oh.”
That was certainly handy, but also made him wonder if there were demons walking all over without Beau ever knowing. Were they here now? Had Beau ever passed by one on the street? Had he ever passed Kassel and never known it? Could they have met earlier? Would it have been different? More natural? Maybe they could have bumped into each other and laughed and then gone for coffee, ankles twining under the table…
“The grocery store?” Kassel prompted.
“Right.” Beau flushed, his meet cute evaporating in front of his eyes. “This way. We need to get on a bus to get there.”
“A bus,” Kassel repeated, following him. “Transportation?”
Beau nodded, taking the rest of the journey to explain the ins and outs of buses and their purpose. Kassel didn’t look any more bored than he had before, so Beau was satisfied that he was as close to riveted as the demon could manage.
Only when they reached the bus stop did he stop to draw breath, allowing Kassel a small gap to ask, “Where is your preferred seating?”
Beau blinked. “On the bus? Oh… I don’t mind. I just try to stay out of the way of people.”
“That’s not your own preference. That’s giving in to someone else’s. I asked whatyoursis,” Kassel said.
Beau bit his lip, thrown off balance. “I guess the back? I never got to sit there as a kid. Only the popular kids got to, you know.”
When Kassel’s many eyes simply stared at him, Beau figured he didn’t in fact know, and it tickled his never-ending curiosity again.
“Do you have schools in Hell? Do they teach you to, I don’t know, torture and maim or something? Subjugate the damned? Were you even a child? Can demons be children? Can demons have children? Can—”
Beau was interrupted by the chug and hiss of the bus approaching. He rushed to his feet, sliding on a patch of ice, and held his arm out to signal it. He made a choked sound when Kassel suddenly grabbed him by the back of his coat and hauled him backward.
The demon was frowning. “Why are you trying to remove your arm? I do not think that would cause you happiness. Humans like having their limbs. That’s why we remove them in Hell.”
It probably should have been more alarming, dismemberment talk and all, but he felt warmth tingle down his spine at Kassel’s attention and care for his well-being. Was he worried about him? “I wasn’t. I was just calling the bus. See?”
The bus coughed to a stop, dirty slush kicking up around its heavy wheels. Kassel observed its poorly decorated surface with every eye before approaching the opening doors. The demon’s huge form knocked into the people trying to disembark as he boarded, sending them sprawling against the doors with a look of utter confusion on their faces as they hit the invisible barrier of Kassel’s body.
Kassel didn’t seem to notice.
Them. The bus fare. The other passengers. The swinging handles attached to the rail overhead hitting him in his many eyes as he walked through them instead of ducking.
Beau scrambled on after him before the doors closed in his face, pulling his wallet out. “Two, please.”
The driver eyed him strangely, glancing behind him. “Two?”
Beau nodded, before he froze.
