Page 64 of Devil Inside

Like riding a bike.It’s still there, somewhere. The muscle memory of my heart.

“How?” I ask. I need to understand this. Understand her.

“How... what?”

How is this possible? How can you be here? How can you possibly be you and her and him and all these people all at once? How can I believe a word of what you say?

How can you be what you say you are? How can you be a... a...

“How can I trust you?” Let’s start there.

Trust. Faith.

Demon.

Her body fills the windowsill. She could easily crawl in. Pounce. But she doesn’t. She merely crouches. Her body remains in such an unfamiliar,inhuman, position, but she doesn’t move.

“Is it proof you want? Another vulgar display of power?”

“No,” I manage to say, swallowing back whatever fear is rising up my throat.

“What do you want, Jordan?”

What do I want?

Simple.

“You.”

my place or yours, your body or mine

Lilith

We crawl through the window. The air within is warmer than outside. All of Jordan’s exhales have made a miasma inside his room, this muggy atmosphere of spent breath.

We like it. The presence of his breath. A warm bath to wade through.

His bed is waiting for us, next to the sill. We remember it well. Pleasant memories of our night together seeped into the fabric. So many vessels ago. So many souls since. It feels like coming home, returning to something warm. Skin, nice and cozy, to slip in.

I’ve never come back. Not to a body. Certainly not toanybody. Why return?Love them and leave them,as they say. Why look back when there’s so much skin to swim in?

The idea of circling back to someone we’ve already tasted seems so silly. A waste of our time when this world has so much to offer us. And yet... here we are. Back.

What am I even doing here? Whyhim?

Because things felt different. A cold current. A spark. Something simmering at the very center of him sings to us. To me. A song yet to be written.

New territory, then. Uncharted terrain. I’ve gone my entire existence blissfully drifting from one body to next and never felt the compulsion, the urge, to return. To settle in.

To sink.

I’ve been trapped in relationships that didn’t work. Bodies I couldn’t break free from. Why would I ever want to settle for this? Forhim?

But here I am. Inside a body that swells with sensation. Feelings I’ve never felt.

For him. The shadows within. Is that what I want? To feel the warmth of a familiar body? To know Jordan, inside and out?

Our hands press down on the mattress, one after the other, as Jordan clambers away. From us.Interesting.He’s pushing himself back, the distance between us expands.