Loyalty - Drabble

"You're lying," he says, immediately.

Ris merely giggles and replies with, "It's true."

He doesn't believe, not for a moment.

She laughs at his skepticism. "Believe what you want, Taint."

"It can't be true."

"Oh, but it is."

(Alice is gone.)

(Alice disappeared.)

(She isn't coming back.)

And, how, how, how in the world does he not know? Why is Ris, of all the demons, the first to realize? Why is she the one that always, always seems to know?

Taint is, without a doubt, the most powerful demon in the world, so why, why, why does Ris know first and not him?

"She doesn't trust me," Ris explains, lightly gleaning the chaotic thoughts from his mind, "that's why I know."

Taint glowers at the intrusion, angry at himself for dropping his barriers. "What does trust have to with anything?"

"Oh, dear, dear Taint, trust has to do with everything."

He still does not understand, and her riddles infuriates him. But, he knows how absolutely pointless it is to get angry, or even annoyed, at Ris. The only thing he is able to say is a weak protest of, "She doesn't trust me either."

"But, she trusts me the least."

Taint does not know how that has to do with anything. Alice treats every one of them the same way anyhow, with a mild interest that hid her constant apathy.

"See, Taint, though you might delude yourself into thinking that you understood Alice the best, the truth is that you understand nothing about her."

Suddenly, Taint realizes that he doesn't really care if it is pointless to get angry at Ris. He is angry. Enraged, in fact. And, he discovers that he now wants nothing more than to be able to strangle--multilate--completely destroy--the little demon in front of him.

But, of course he can't. Alice would be displeased.

(Even if Alice really is gone, she will definitely be back.)

(...won't she?)

Instead, he says, "That isn't important in this conversation," even though it is probably the most important thing in the world, much less the conversation.

She laughs that grating laugh as if she knows what he is thinking (even though she shouldn't; Taint had been meticulous about the mind barriers this time), and repeats, "Believe what you want, Taint."