Dealing With Demons

Chapter 3: What Could it Hurt

For three weeks Riley didn't think about Avi, work kept them too busy to worry and when the demon hadn't shown up again they assumed that Avi felt that their earlier conversation was enough to get the Bureau off their back.

Riley had considered telling Coleman about the conversation, or at least that Avi knew where the base was and where Riley lived, but couldn't think of a way to phrase it that didn't make them seem idiotic for letting a demon drive them home.

Then people started dying. And the detector spells used at the scenes indicated demonic activity. At first Riley was convinced it was Avi doing the killing, but the profile that they put together didn't fit avarice motivated murders. For one, nothing was stolen from the victims, and their deaths didn't all lead to any one person getting wealthier or keeping what wealth they already had.

What the victims did have in common was their high social status, and their attendance at a highschool reunion a month before the killings started.

Despite this connection, the Bureau was out of leads. No former classmates of the victims seemed to have any involvement at all in the occult, and it was rare that the first magic someone ever did was to summon a demon, it was a pretty complex and obscure ritual.

The case was weighing heavy on everyone's minds, almost completely overshadowing the missing person cases that had been everyone's first priority before. And no one had any idea what to do next. Or how to deal with the demon if they needed to confront them. Knowing how to banish them was one thing, getting them inside the necessary rune was another.

Riley was doing extra research at home, combing through the suspects' social media for anything that might possibly be related to magic and finding nothing.

They pulled out their phone to order a pizza and opened up their contacts list. There it was, right at the top, Avi's number.

What could it hurt? A lot of things, actually, stupid question. It would be extremely dangerous to contact a demon and ask it for help hunting down another demon. And if Avi was the one doing the killings, it would just let them know the Bureau was onto them.

But Riley really didn't think Avi was the culprit, they trusted the profile they had created and, even though they had witnessed Avi kill a man, they didn't think serial murder really fit the demon's style. And a summoning spell brought the summoner the spirit that could best fulfill their desire, Riley just couldn't believe that Avi was the best fit for this.

And they also didn't know where else to go from here. Desperate times called for desperate measures.

Riley had a moment of clarity where they realized that they were the type of person who never initiated conversations with friends, but nonetheless they were about to do so with a demon. Something about Avi just brought out a boldness in them that didn't exist in any other situation. Maybe Riley just got stupid in the face of overwhelming danger.

Riley almost hit the call button, but that seemed more risky. What if they were the kind of person who hated talking on the phone? No, a text was safer. Less chance of interrupting something important.

Riley thought very hard about what exactly to say for several minutes, after they had something they thought might be okay they read it outloud.

"Hey, this is Riley. I was wondering if you might be able to help me out with a case I'm working on. I understand if you can't or don't want to, just thought I'd ask."

That sounded good enough. Send. Then instant regret as soon as they heard the whoosh signifying that the message had been delivered. With every passing second they started to panic more and more, but then their phone dinged.