[Why don't you watch some videos on Tubeyou? I mean, just pick up those about the Ouija board; this way you will be able to contact other demons from far away if you are lucky enough... Hmm, maybe not, right? Anyway, there are other things we could take from there. Maybe a ritual with candles and a piece of paper with your mother's name and a drop of your blood. Hey, wait, that's pretty disturbing... Maybe we should turn off the lights and stay awake until 3 am inside a circle of coarse salt.]
Tobey opened his eyes, his face distorted in an expression of tiredness and annoyance. He was tired of Mask's mockery. He knew that he was being quite incompetent as of late, but there was nothing he could do to help it instead of constantly failing and trying over and over again.
"Do you really think that I can summon a demon with these cheap tricks? If not, then just leave me alone. I am very tired. I said to you already that I need silence to fall asleep. We can talk more in my dreams if you feel lonely."
[Stop talking like I am a needy simp like you, womanizer! Also, about the summoning thing, I am not sure about it, but I think that even these cheap tricks are better than your shitty progression in these two days that we are searching for aid. Walking randomly on the streets or staying in a dark isolated room just thinking all day aren't exactly the smartest plans.]
"I am walking on the streets to learn how to identify these Paladins and find patterns in their positioning. Also, though I found some clues about the angel race everywhere here in the downtown, I didn't have the same luck with the demon race. Finally, staying in a dark room thinking is the best thing I can do when I am resting; I need to recover from the previous battles, after all! Do you have any better idea, jack*ss?"
[Of course not. My job here is just to slap reality in your face. I am your everyday dose of common sense.]
"Then, just shut the hell up! You are not being useful at all,' Tobey answered, sighing hard.
Mask shrugged, snorting to him.
[Too bad for you! I never said that I would be useful to you, anyway. From the start, my point was that I was just a measure your brain naturally took for you not to go crazy. I didn't ask for my existence, but since I am here, I am trying to find a meaning to be "alive".]
"Kill yourself, it's quicker," Tobey retorted as he rolled his eyes.
[Wow... that's profound man... Not a surprise when coming from you, though. You were basically trying to do the very same thing when you wet your pants before the presence of that paladin back in the hotel.]
"Ok, ok... You won this time. Let's sleep, then."
Mask didn't say anything else as he was satisfied by disturbing Tobey for another night. He was enjoying himself by making Tobey experience one of the most hellish interactions that he ever had with someone in his life.
'Thankfully, I could recover from the wounds I got in the previous battles. The last two days were quite uneventful as I was very careful when walking on the streets and spent most of the time in different places resting. I could even visit a hospital and get proper treatment for my wounds, though I needed to elaborate a lie about how I got myself injured like that.'
After thinking about all the things that he did in the previous days, he sighed once again. He was sighing too many times these days. Probably, he was too tired after having to go through so many things in such a short span.
He barely had the time to think about what happened and absorb everything. Except by that time he spent resting his back on a wall inside an alley under the rain, he hadn't meditated about his current situation.
Unable to fall asleep, he opened his eyes. Probably, Mask wouldn't come to bother him anymore. Mask didn't need to sleep at all, of course, but he had common sense. He knew that he couldn't cross a certain line when interacting with Tobey. His objective wasn't to break his mind, after all... or so he said.
Tobey sat on the edge of the bed as he raised his upper body, massaging his temples. He had a persistent headache that was bothering him since his talk with that paladin. He couldn't sleep well in the past few days, so he thought that it was the reason he was feeling so ill.
The detective reached out to his pocket and grabbed a notebook that was there, opening it and looking at its content.
On those pages, there was lots of information that he could discover about the paladins and the angel race, information that Mask could give him during those days. With the latter's help, he could also identify the places of that region of the city where the paladin concentrated the most.
This, and much more, was described and even drawn in that notebook.
'Anyway, knowing the spots where they act the most isn't going to help me a lot. If I was invading this place, it would be useful, but things are entirely different when they are the ones chasing after me. They won't settle somewhere and wait for me to come across them. Instead, they will be the ones constantly moving, trying to find me.
'At least, it's good to know where their troops concentrate the most so I can be wary of these places may I need to walk around the city in a near future.'
Tobey read the contents of that handbook over and over again, trying to memorize it as fast as possible. He probably would need to do it some times more to grasp every little detail.
The detective knew that it wasn't productive at all to try to memorize something at night when his mind was slower than dial-up internet. Nonetheless, he was doing so regardless of that fact so he wouldn't go crazy by just uselessly trying to fall asleep when he clearly didn't feel like it.
Suddenly, Tobey stopped to read his book, looking at the hour and seeing that just ten minutes had passed since he began.
"Look at what I've become after just four days... Four days in this mess, only...", he thought, feeling helpless. Usually, Tobey was very confident in his abilities and capabilities, however, while dealing with demons and angels, he was just like a kid learning how to crawl.
Tobey thought about his parents, whom he felt like he didn't know anything about.
'If I am being hunted down like this, what about my parents? My grandma wouldn't need to think too much to associate one thing with another, connect the points, and figure out that they might as well be demons just like me. But... well, they may be humans, too. Am I adopted at all? Argh! I am confused even about it! The only thing I know for sure is that I am worried about them and I want to find them as soon as possible, but I should learn how to defend myself from these paladins before trying to save anyone.
'As if it wasn't enough, I am still worried about my job, my friends, my acquaintances... I don't know whom I should trust anymore. Each of them might be my mortal enemy. I can't get carried away, trust them too much, and end up getting stabbed on my back.'
Tobey kept looking at the notebook, staring at it nonstop. His eyes were traveling from left to right as if he was reading. However, the words were sounding just in the back of his mind. His main thoughts were much more outstanding at the moment. They were all about things that were disturbing him a lot, after all.
'I want to find out something soon. I need answers...', Tobey thought as he closed his eyes and felt his headache increasing.
When he was about to vent his frustrations, destiny decided to trick him again and not let him have, at least, that kind of moment taken for granted. In that cruel battle between hell and heavens, he should only suffer as he saw everything unfolding around him at an extremely fast pace.
[Tobey...]
'What now?'
[Watch your back and keep an eye on the window as well. Like in every other previous night, someone is approaching and it seems to be a paladin.]
Tobey nodded his head, he was going to breath another sigh but he prevented himself from doing so. He didn't need more of that.
The detective took a knife that was laid under his pillow and held it firmly.
'Since it's night, I guess it's not bad to change to Demon Form, right?' he thought, seeing two people wrapped in golden aura down there.
Tobey couldn't see, but Mask smiled boldly.
[Now, you are talking in the same language as me!]