Why You Should Never Rescue Stray Demons Chapter 66

**OZ**

Well, that was… Depressing. The situation with Kacia’s father is far from ideal. A name, a vanished past, and a heavy implication that her family tree is wrapped up in blood and danger. Kasian. No last name. Also, her mother? She is lovely, but completely terrifying. It’s genuinely impressive how someone so human, so mortal, can command a room like that. Alice doesn’t have claws or horns or the ability to shoot fire from her eyes, but she still managed to make me feel like a badly behaved child in under three seconds flat. And I wasn’t even the one in trouble! It makes perfect sense that Kacia came from someone like that. That same mix of fire and steel, soft smiles wrapped around an iron will. She raised Kacia on her own. Protected her. And despite knowing her child was half-fae, and that danger might one day come knocking, she doesn't seem bitter about it. Only sad. Sad that the man she loved left her and didn’t come back. And she seems certain that he didn’t leave by choice. Her whole story was a little heartbreaking. A tragic romance. Raising her child alone, knowing that child will be different to everyone else and that she would have to hide forever or risk being in danger. All I can think is that Alice is one formidable woman, and for all her optimism, her life has been a little bit tragic. Still, it’s the look on Kacia’s face that breaks me the most. She’s been pretty quiet for the last few minutes. Her thoughts pulled too far inward to speak. I don’t press. I want to. But I know her well enough now to understand that pushing her won’t bring her back faster. I guess she just needs a little bit of time to process. We pull up to the house. She stops the engine and just sits there unmoving for a minute. 

“You good sweetheart?” I ask when she doesn’t move. Kacia exhales slowly. 

“Yeah.” She answers. I’m fairly sure that it’s a lie, but I don’t call her on it. Not yet. We head inside and we are greeted with what I can only describe as a minor household crisis. Angelo is pacing. Which would be funny except he looks genuinely unwell.

“What’s going on?” Kacia asks, stepping inside carefully. Angelo whirls on us. 

“I’ve cleaned everything.” He declares. I blink. 

“That’s... Great?” I offer, not sure what kind of reaction he’s looking for. 

“No! It’s awful! There’s nothing left to do! The floors are spotless. The furniture has been dusted twice. I reorganised the fridge, I scrubbed the walls. Do you know how desperate I had to be to do that?” He demands. 

Kacia blinks at him. 

“...Did you also clean the oven?” She asks awkwardly, probably naming the only thing in the house that she doesn’t keep clean herself. Everyone has at least one chore that they hate doing, and apparently for her it’s the oven. 

“I cleaned it twice.” Angelo answers flatly. Kacia winces. 

“Wow.” She responds. 

“I appreciate you letting me stay, but I don’t think I can survive like this. I’m too young to retire.” Angelo continues breathlessly. I grin despite myself. 

“You need chaos to thrive, huh?” I comment. He frowns. 

“I need mild disorder. Some scruff. Maybe a loose sock on the floor. Something to fix! I don’t want to be somewhere awful like that bar, but I DO want to have work to do. Preferably with people who appreciate me. You’re out of milk by the way…” Angelo runs his fingers through his hair, looking truly dismayed. Kacia groans and sits on the couch slowly. 

“We’ll figure something out. Maybe we can find you another place to stay soon.” She suggests. “ “What about with Tracey? He’s a vampire, but he’s chaotic enough to be messy.” Kacia suggests. Angelo scrunches up his face.

“I don’t want to stay with a vampire. I’m not nocturnal.” He grumbles. 

“Noted.” She says.

“What about Clarence?” I suggest. Kacia shakes her head. 

“I suspect that he is too much of a control freak to let anyone help him out like that.”

“Also noted.” I confirm. Kacia considers.

“What about that gnome run boarding house downtown?” She offers. Angelo looks horrified. 

“Do I look like I want to get hexed every time I forget to water a houseplant? Besides, gnomes are almost as ungrateful as ghouls.” He complains. I raise an eyebrow. I didn’t realise ghouls were particularly ungrateful. But I’m not going to question it. Kacia holds her hands up in surrender. 

“Alright, we’ll keep thinking.” She promises. Angelo nods, then mutters something about taking apart the vacuum just for fun and disappears into the kitchen, leaving me with Kacia, who’s looking… Tired. Not just physically. There’s this heaviness to her again. A quiet that isn’t just about a lack of energy. And I hate it.

I drop down on the couch beside her.

“Hey, talk to me lovely.” I say gently. 

“I’m fine.” She answers. That makes lie number two. I watch her face.

“You’re still thinking about what your mum said.” I point out, not giving her a chance to lie a third time. 

“Wouldn’t you be?” She questions. 

“Of course.” I agree. Kacia rubs her temples. 

“It’s just… I’ve spent my whole life believing he left. That he didn’t care. It made things easier, you know? It was easier to be angry than sad. Easier to pretend he was just some guy who didn’t want me.” She says quietly. 

“And now?” I ask. 

“And now I don’t know what to think. Because what if he DID want me? What if he WAS coming back and never got the chance?” Her voice cracks, just slightly. 

“What if he’s dead because of me?” She whispers, her voice barely loud enough to hear. I shift closer, resting a hand gently on her knee. 

“You didn’t ask for this. None of it is your fault.” I assure her, but the words sound like an empty platitude, even to me. 

“But if he stayed away to protect me, if he died because someone found out about me, then maybe I was the reason he disappeared. And now people are coming after me for the same reason. It would make me the reason my mum has been alone for my whole life as well.” She adds. 

“That doesn’t make it your fault.” I point out. She sighs. 

“I don’t know. It just feels like everything I thought I knew was a lie. Well, maybe not a lie. More like a carefully constructed delusion that I made for myself.” She decides. I hate seeing her like this. Lost. Weighed down by what ifs and doubts. So I make a decision right then and there.

“Okay. You’re not working today.” I announce. She gives me a side eye. 

“Excuse me?” She demands.

“You heard me. No stakeouts. No brooding research missions. No trying to decode ancient family trees.” I say firmly. 

“I’m not just going to sit here and do nothing, Oz.” Kacia says flatly. I grin. 

“Who said anything about nothing? You’re going to spend the day doing something fun. With me. Fun and completely pointless. It’ll be great.” I say optimistically. 

“Fun?” She repeats. I nod. 

“Yep. I’m putting on my emotional support demon hat. And I have plans.” I tell her. 

“Such as?” She asks. I stand and stretch. 

“Movie marathon assuming we can get the television to cooperate. Snacks. Comfy blankets. Dumb plotlines. Maybe a pillow fort.” I announce, throwing out ideas off the top of my head. The television might be hard to set up, but it’s not as bad as a phone because we don’t have to be touching it to use it. 

“A pillow fort?” She says dubiously. 

“I don’t do things halfway.” I respond. Kacia narrows her eyes.

“You just want an excuse to lounge around all day.” She accuses. 

“Guilty. But also, I want you to laugh. Or at least feel slightly less like the world is ending.” I inform her. She stares at me for a moment, then finally, a tiny smile tugs at the corner of her mouth.

“Okay, deal.” She agrees. 

“Perfect. I’ll grab the blankets and make popcorn. It’s your job to dig out some embarrassingly bad films. The worst of the worst. We want the most terrible movies we can find so that we can mock them viciously.” I clarify. Kacia’s smile grows a little. I head toward the hall to look for blankets. I glance back over my shoulder at Kacia. She’s already moving slowly, carefully arranging cushions and throwing Angelo’s carefully folded throws into a heap. Her hair falls across her face as she moves and catches light from the window, the purple more obvious than I’ve ever seen it. It’s stunning. She glances up at me and catches me staring. 

“What?” She asks, frowning. 

“Nothing. Just admiring you. Carry on.” I answer casually. She rolls her eyes but her cheeks flush a little, and just like that, I feel like things might actually be okay again, even if just for a few hours. Kacia is smiling, if only a little. And I’m going to hold onto that for as long as I possibly can.