Chapter 07

“I was thinking we could go to the amusement park tomorrow.”

“Why there?” Lily asked as she hid under a blanket.

More accurately, the blanket was draping over her as her now permanent wings were perked up acting like a pair of poles.

It was my blanket as well. We had returned to my home before six o’clock. My mom was still there so I had to sneak Lily in without getting noticed. Especially now that Lily now mostly looked like the demoness save for her personality.

“Well, if you think about it, that demoness only appeared when we were indoors”, I replied to her question.

“We were outside in my backyard the first time it happened though”, she argued.

“But we were covered in smoke that time, blocking the sun”, I countered. “I have a feeling she won’t appear under direct sunlight.”

“What about my wings? The horns? We can’t hide it.”

“We can try passing it off as cosplay. You know, maybe wear something black and frilly so you can look like a goth chick.”

“...”

Lily didn’t answer. I didn’t know if she seemed convinced or not since she was still under the blanket.

“So what do you say?” I tried prying for an answer. “We don’t have much time left, so why not try to enjoy what’s left of it regardless of the result?”

“Okay”, she said faintly.

I tried making small talk afterwards, but she remained silent.

I hesitated taking a peek through the blanket to see if she'd fallen asleep, but decided against it.

“Let’s head out at nine tomorrow”, I said before leaving the room.

I wouldn’t see Lily again until she transformed into the demoness on schedule.

This time, however, the demoness seemed stronger and I was unable to even delay her on reaching my lips. I would guess, after feeding on my soul at least once a day, she’s able to gain more power. That would probably be why most of her features didn’t disappear earlier today when she returned control of Lily’s body.

I don’t know how to quantify it, but the amount of energy taken out from me felt more as well. It seems like she’s growing in appetite.

Due to this, I overslept.

“Get up”, I was greeted in the morning by Lily sounding impatient. “How long are you going to sleep there?”

I jumped up from the couch and immediately checked my phone for the time. It was a few minutes past ten.

“Oh crap, I’m sorry. Just give me ten minutes to get ready”, I said.

“Don’t bother”, she replied. “We’re not going to the amusement park.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Just follow me outside”, she commanded as she handed me an ice pick.

She didn’t waste time moving to the sliding door leading to the backyard of my house once I took the thing from her.

I groggily followed.

Outside, what was waiting for me was an ice cooler filled with ice tubes.

“Start crushing the ice”, Lily said as she pointed towards it. “The ice cubes hurt before, so I want it smaller this time.”

“Uh, what’s happening?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“We’re doing the ice bucket thing again”, she replied.

“What? Why?”

“Instead of playing to that demoness’ rules, we should try to exorcise it using other means.”

“I’m still not following. How would dumping a bucket of ice on yourself help?”

“I don’t know either, but I figured we could send her back to where she came from the same way she entered me.”

She then crouched beside the cooler. On its other end, there was a plastic bag. Lily dragged it into my view and widened its mouth for me to see the four large bottles inside it.

“This is four liters of holy water”, she said matter-of-factly.

It didn’t do anything to allay my confusion. In fact, I had more questions.

“Where did you get that?”

“Online.”

“Do you even know if it’s real?”

“It should be. I ordered it directly from the Vatican. It’s blessed by the pope as well.”

I was at a loss as to what to ask next, but Lily didn’t give me time to think about it as she barked, “Less talking and more crunching!”

I took a knee and complied.

I tried crushing the ice as fast as I could, but it still took more than fifteen minutes to break it down to the size Lily wanted.

Once satisfied, she placed a one gallon bucket in front of me. Inside it was a small mountain of salt and a dozen bulbs of garlic.

It seems she had made her own preparations without my knowing.

She then told me to pour all the holy water into the bucket. Meanwhile, she was mixed the contents as the liquids were added.

After that, we added the ice.

We were good to go.

“Are we not going to film this?” I asked

“I don’t think we don’t need to”, Lily answered. “Just pour that thing on me.”

“Alright, brace yourself”, I said as I started to raise the bucket.

However, unexpectedly, Lily tried to stop me.

“What’s wrong?” I asked her, but I immediately realized what’s wrong as soon as I saw her face.

Most of the demoness’ features stayed with Lily except for one thing. Her eyes didn’t glow when Lily was in control.

Her eyes were glowing red now.

“Hey now”, she said with her face contorted. “What happened to our game? Aren’t you going to make this girl fall in love with you?”

“Well, I still plan to make Lily fall in love with me”, I replied. “But, nobody said I couldn’t give you a bath.”

She wasn’t as strong as she was when she’s assaulting me. The sunlight was probably affecting her. Regardless, I could barely feel any force from her hold on the bucket. I was able to lift it overhead and pour the contents on her.

As soon as I did, thick white smoke puffed out and engulfed us like before. The new ice bucket concoction did something, but what it is, I still didn’t know so I stayed alert.

Moments later, I could hear Lily’s elated voice.

“We did it! We did it!” she shouted.

When the smoke dissipated, I could start to see Lily’s figure - her normal figure without horns and wings.

Once it started to clear, I could see Lily had returned to normal. Her eyes were no longer red. Her hair reverted to its original length. Her teeth no longer had sharp fangs.

She was back!

I couldn’t help but embrace her and shout, “We did it!”

We jumped around a bit, and once we calmed down, still embracing each other, we kind of just stared into each other’s eyes.

It seemed like the mood for me to go for a kiss. But, since our relationship barely progressed due to the demoness getting in our way during the dates, I didn’t know if I should.

Without warning, Lily did it herself, standing on tiptoes so her lips could reach mine.

It was a long and passionate one so I closed my eyes.

When it was over, Lily said, “Delicious.”

That one word made me jump back in surprise. The cooler was behind me so I tripped over backwards.

“Oh my, you don’t have to be so afraid of me”, Lily said, pouting.

My eyes were now wide open and I noticed her eyes glowing gold.

“It didn’t work?” I gasped.

“Oh, so you think I’m still that demon”, she said, sounding relieved. “You don’t have to worry, your exorcism worked. The bad guy is gone now.”

“You’re not fooling anyone”, I replied as I took one bottle that contained holy water beside the cooler.

It was empty and made of plastic, but it was better than nothing.

Pouting again, she said, “It hurts that you don’t believe me. I mean you no harm.”

“Then, what are you? What are you doing in Lily’s body?”

“I’m an angel, but I don’t know why I’m possessing this girl right now”, she replied, genuinely looking perplexed. “I was in heaven minding my own business and suddenly I’m here.”

“Don’t tell me it was the ice bucket that did it again.” I couldn’t help but laugh a little as I stood up. Turning back to the conversation, “I’m sorry for calling you here, but it was purely by accident. Can you go back to heaven?”

“I don’t want to”, she playfully said.

“W-what? Why?”

“What do you mean why? You mean to tell me that kiss didn’t mean anything to you?” She asked, sounding hurt.

I could feel my face flush as I replied, “I-I was kissing Lily not you!”

“Oh, but I was the one who initiated the kiss for you two”, she said, back to her playful tone. “I didn’t want to get involved, but it was frustrating watching you two not go for it when the atmosphere seemed right. Especially when it’s obvious you two have feelings for each other.”

“W-what do you mean?”

“She meant nothing!” Lily shouted, which took me by surprise. Then, seemingly talking to herself, “Who are you? Get out of my body right now!”

“Like I said, I’m an angel and I don’t want to”, Lily replied to herself but not as aggressively. “I found the taste of your kisses very lovely and I wanna be here to taste them whenever you do it.”

She then turned to me to say, “Oh, but that doesn’t mean I want to eat your soul or anything. I just want to savor the taste. In fact, most of the flavor comes from this girl’s-”

“AHHH!” Lily then shouted, interrupting herself.

She then continued to argue with herself.

I still wasn’t sure what’s going on, but it seemed like we were no longer in immediate danger.