Honest Talk

"Cerina! Hey...wait up!" You run to catch up with her walking down the street.

"Heyy..."

"Fuck off."

"Hey I'm trying to help you here."

"I don't need your help."

"Yes you do. Now more than ever. Hey...would you stop and talk for a minute? Heyy!!" you pull her arm and make her stop.

"Let go of my hand or I will break it."

"C'mon we can still sort this out. Look..." you let go of her hand and continue "...I am mad at you for playing tricks on me but I understand why you did them. Just come back home okay? We'll sort it out. Plus, you don't wanna be out at dark in this part of town. It might look nice, but that's how they get you."

"I'm not afraid of thugs. I'm a demoness remember."

"A fallen demoness. You're just as mortal as I am. Listen to me for once. I don't want you to get hurt, even though you've pissed me off. I'm willing to put everything that happened behind me. Just...come home...please?"

You both stand on the sidewalk for a while. She's looking at you and trying to figure out your intentions but can't seem to make heads or tails of the situation. You look past her disguise and see the apprehensive look on her beautiful demonic face. Calling it demonic seemed like an insult. You'd rather call it otherworldly than demonic.

She remains unmoving. You gently grab her hand and tug at it. She takes a step in your direction. Feeling a bit confident you lead the way back up the street, with her in tow, to your car. You open the front passenger seat and she quietly sits inside. You proceed to walk around and get in the drivers seat. Pulling the car out of the parked spot you start driving back home. Along the way it starts snowing and raining at the same time. Cerina does not make any eye contact and simply chooses to look out the window.

"How're you holding up?" you ask.

"I want to kill Mammon. That little half-breed piece of shit."

"Which reminds me, how did you get fooled by him in the first place? Isn't he supposed to be weaker than you?"

"Years of spending time in the human world has made him more shrewd. Normally he wouldn't have been a threat to me. I've humiliated him on quite a few occasions back when....Anyway, I was a fool to believe anything he said. I should've know he'd try to get back at me. What was I thinking?"

"Hmm...You seemed to be afraid of him when he first arrived through the portal and you'd lost your powers. What was that about?"

"I wasn't afraid of him. He was just a messenger. The one who issued the banishment decree is much more powerful than him and I though. He is the supreme leader of the underworld and is not to be trifled with."

"Listen...umm...I just wanted to say...I'm sorry....for everything. I realize that I'm not who I used to be anymore and if today and the past month has taught me anything, it's that there are tons of people much more stronger than I could ever hope to be again." she says.

A silence descends in the car with only the sound of rain and snow falling on the windshield with the periodic sweep of the wiper. You were not expecting her to apologize.

You just nod your head. You look at each other for a moment before you focus your eyes back on the road. "I accept your apology." you say after a while.