A Demon Made Me Do It(65)

“Oh, come on, I liked it,” I lie. “I just don’t think that I would exactly want to model my love life after it is all…I mean demons…eww.”

“He was pretty sexy when he was pretending to be a human, though,” Corinne giggles. “I’d almost be willing to overlook the whole demony-thing to have a guy that good-looking be interested in me.”

I send her a sideways glance and wink. “Be careful what you wish for… you never know what might come creeping in your room late at night…”

She laughs. “I know, I know, you’re right. That movie was pretty lame, I guess…I mean, who ever heard of a demon that looked like some sort of male underwear model? Puhleeze.”

I have to smile. That was the only part the stupid movie actually got right. As a rule, demons, male and female, are far more beautiful than normal humans. And humans are so weakened by beauty, they’re practically powerless against it; it’s in their DNA. So physical perfection is in ours. That’s just how things work. When She takes over, even I become more attractive than I normally am. I know, because I’ve peeked in her world once or twice and have seen the way the guys look at her…with such lust and desire. Especially her friend, Bones. No one ever looks at me the way they look at Lucky.

“Totally ridiculous,” I laugh.

******





We take a break from window shopping and head to the food court. I order corndogs and a strawberry lemonade, and then pay for Corrine’s Chinese food, even though she keeps insisting I’ve done too much already. I’d bought her a charm necklace earlier and got such a kick from her squeals of delight. After all, what good is the money I have from Lucky’s extortions if it doesn’t make someone less fortunate happy?

We sit off to the side of the food court, by the planters. The mall is crowded today, and I see a few faces I recognize.

“So, have you heard anything new about what happened at school?” Neither Corrine nor I have mentioned the tragedy earlier this week, but it’s still on my mind. Tatiana is good for a lot of information, but human stuff…not so much. “I wonder if the police have any leads,” I add, nibbling the breading of my corndog.

Corrine grimaces and fiddles with her chopsticks. After dropping her noodles several times, she gives up, picks up her fork, and begins twirling. “I saw Jake Wheeler at the Suds-n-Spin yesterday. His uncle works for the Pine Canyon police department. Apparently they think the murders in Pine Canyon last week and what happened at school are related.”

“So it’s like a serial killer thing?”

She pokes at her sweet-n-sour chicken. “Guess so. But he says they think it’s more than just one person. And I guess they found some weird stuff that makes them think it’s not normal killings.”

I chuckle at her choice of words. ‘Normal killings’.

“Like what?”

“He couldn’t say much for details, just they suspect that it’s a few people at least, and that they’re into witchcraft or devil worship or something.”

My heart skips a beat. I slowly eat several French fries and drink some lemonade before speaking again. “What makes them think that?” I hope my voice sounds casual.

She shrugs. “Dunno, he didn’t really say. Just something they saw. Weird markings, maybe? I don’t really believe in that stuff. Probably just a couple of sick psychopaths…like that movie Kalifornia with Brad Pitt…you ever see it?”

I shake my head, and squirt some mustard on my corndog.

“It’s really weird. Brad Pitt plays a serial killer, and—”

“Corrine, focus.”

She takes a sip of her coke. “I don’t know what to say…that’s all Jake told me.”

“Do they know who the girl is yet?”

She shrugs again and stands up, gathering her trash. “He didn’t say anything about that. Look, I’m sorry, but I really don’t wanna talk about this anymore…it freaks me out too much.”

I nod, following her lead. We toss our stuff away and head back to the main mall. A few stores down, we pause to look at some pretty gowns in the window. Corrine grabs my arm. “Oooh, let’s go in there and try some on…just for fun.”

Ugh. I can’t think of anything less fun than that. But it’s still her day, so I follow her inside.

We enter the fancy boutique, ignoring the looks of disdain from the salesclerk who sizes us up and dismisses us, realizing there’s no commission to be made here. I laugh to myself thinking how differently she’d treat us if she only knew that less than one week ago, I had more money in my hand than she’ll make in five years. She greets us with an icy smile, then moves away to watch us from a distance, making sure we don’t do anything to harm one of her precious dresses.