The pale, dusty body of a lifeless little girl is lying in the street. The street is in Academy Town, then Kabul, then Salem, then she steps toward her and it is Japan again. She is lifting the girl's wrist, pressing two fingers against it, closing her eyes and praying for a pulse. She knows she won't find one, but the little girl stands up. Her face is Rhoda's. She turns to run. Behind her is a pack of human ghouls and she is in a train tunnel. Far away she can see blue, flickering light. She tries to draw her blades but they won't come out. The ghouls are upon her, grabbing at her throat and—

Daphne jolted herself awake, but it wasn't the end of the REM cycle, so her body stayed stiff in sleep paralysis. She couldn't move. She couldn't speak. This had only happened to her a few times before, right when she'd come home from Afghanistan and hadn't been able to stomach the nightmares.

Rin was right next to her, probably drooling onto his pillow though she couldn't turn over to look. Her throat felt tight and choked, but there was nothing she could do. She didn't even try to move after a minute or two, knowing that it was pointless. Daphne pushed away the image of the little girl's hands peeking through the rubble, but what replaced it was Rhoda as her skin slowly peeled back from the tips of her fingers while she screamed.

Twelve agonizing minutes passed. Daphne counted every second since she was facing Rin's digital clock. By the end of it she was frantically sending signals to her fingers and toes to wiggle so she would know when she was free and the second she felt one of them move, she drew in a sharp breath of relief, the sting of tears rising to her eyes.

Goddamn it, hadn't she gotten over this?

Movement slowly returned to her body. She worked the stiffness out carefully, flexing her feet, her hands, her wrists and ankles. Eventually she was free enough to roll onto her back. She stared at the ceiling in the dark and took one deep breath after another, but her heartbeat wouldn't ease. A hiccup of a sob she couldn't stop sneaked between her lips. She covered her mouth, but the tears fell when she closed her eyes.

"Daph?"

Instinctively, she responded to her name, turning her head to look at Rin who was awake now, his eyes open and shining bright blue. The swelling in his cheek had gone down, replaced now by a dull yellow bruise, and the bandage on the cut over his eye pulled slightly when his eyebrows drew together in concern.

"I'm sorry," Daphne whispered.

She could even see the bruises on his wrist when he reached a hand over to move her hair away from her forehead. The wound on her own arm had settled into a deep, aching pain.

Rin propped himself up on an elbow. "What for?"

"Waking you up," Daphne replied.

He shook his head. "That's all right."

She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath in through her nose and letting it out through her mouth. Rin needed her to be strong. He needed her to be steady. He had so much on his shoulders with the demon transformation on top of everything else. There wasn't time or a spare thought for her mental and emotional instability right now. She had to help him lift that burden, but how was she supposed to do it when she was weighed down by her own? And how was he supposed to lift his if he was trying to help her? The speculation brought a fresh round of tears to her eyes.

"Today sucked," Rin remarked and just the way he said it, like none of it was actually a big deal, made her laugh. "Right?"

Daphne nodded. "It did."

"And that's today. Tomorrow will be different. And there are going to be some sucky days in the future, too."

She looked at him and he smiled, though it was colored by the events of the day. Damn it, how did he do that? Even after growing horns and sprouting two rows of fangs and fighting semicapers all through the afternoon he still had it in him to smile. In that respect, they couldn't have been more different. Rin leaned over to touch a kiss to her mouth, then snuggled up next to her.

"You're gonna have to give yourself the okay to feel bad about crappy days, Daphne."

She snorted softly. "Do you ever feel bad?"

"Of course I do."

She gave him a sideways glance. "Could have fooled me."

The only time she'd really seen him agitated or upset or worried that hadn't been directly related to her had had to do with the demon transformation, and even that was indirectly related to her. She, on the other hand, had been a sobbing, crying, blubbering, and inconsolable mess more than once in front of him. It wasn't fair.

"It must be exhausting to put up with me," she said.

"I don't 'put up' with you, Daph. I never have."

"I thought I was done with the nightmares and the panic, but I guess I was wrong."

"Don't take this the wrong way—"

"Whatever follows that sentence is guaranteed to get taken the wrong way."

"—but I don't think any of that was ever really going to go away."

Daphne stared at him. "What?"

Rin shrugged. "I don't know. Stuff like that doesn't just go away. It's not a cut you can put a bandage over and take off a week later and have nothing there. It's your life, it's what happened to you. That won't ever leave. So you have to learn to manage it. Obviously some days will be better than others."

Her eyes turned toward the ceiling. So much wisdom from someone so completely clueless. They were different in that regard as well—he so oblivious and wise, she too-aware and foolish. It was a wonder they'd managed to make a relationship work what with all the baggage both of them carted around.

Daphne drew in a breath. "Today sucked," she said.

Rin nodded. "It did."

She looked at him and managed to smile. In spite of the bruises, in spite of the bandages. There was so much bad in the world, but there was also so much good. She drew herself toward him, pressing a kiss to his lips, twining their legs together under the covers. She couldn't just ignore the good, and here was a very important good right in front of her face.

They settled down together, but even then Daphne couldn't fall back asleep. She waited until she was certain Rin was dead asleep, then carefully slipped out of his arms, grabbing a sweatshirt and her phone and heading downstairs. She took herself outside, but only went as far as the front stoop. Sitting down, Daphne looked up at the moon and the shadow of Academy Town and True Cross that loomed over the city this far down in the rings. It was quiet, the air chirping with crickets. The world was such a strange and lonely place at night, but Daphne had never minded it.

She opened the email app on her phone, waited for the inbox to refresh, and was relieved to find a reply from Father Michael once it finished loading. She clicked on the message.

Hey, kiddo.

Glad to hear from you, though I'm not thrilled about the news. Full demon transformation, huh? Heavy stuff. You're as good a researcher as any I know. Share your data with me. Take videos. Those are better. I'll see what I can rustle up.

You know your limits. Don't push them.

God's blessing on you both.

Call if you can.

Michael

Whatever she'd been expecting, that wasn't it. Words of comfort, maybe? A paragraph or two about how everything would be fine and Mephisto was just making the whole thing up and that thing you both saw today wasn't actually real it was just an elaborate prank. Instead he wanted data, facts. At least he wanted to help.

Daphne clicked the button to lock her phone. The crickets were still chirping. The rest of the city was still sleeping. The world was still turning. People were still being attacked by demons day and night. Morpheus was still on its way. And ever the fact remained that her boyfriend had pointed ears, fangs, and a tail. She was going to walk back upstairs and sleep next to a demon.

Father Michael had been right. There was no escaping Gehenna, but Daphne understood now how little that had to do with Rin. She'd been connected to Gehenna since she was two years old. There would be no escaping it no matter how hard she ran. At least now she could stand and fight with a capable partner at her side.

Getting up from the porch, Daphne went back inside. She shed the sweatshirt, dug a notebook and pencil out of one of the cupboards, and jotted down what she could remember of the trials she and Rin had run that morning. She also provided as detailed a description as she could manage of Rin's transformation and the way she'd felt during the process. Writing it all down was certainly a pain in the ass. Father Michael was right. Video would be better.

Author's Note: Happy New Year! I'm sorry it's short. I'm in the middle of a life-reorganization at the moment, so stick with me and I should be able to get some longer chapters out soon to bring this sucker home. Good news is I have an idea for what I'd like to do for the next one, so if you want more, PLEASE let me know so I will have outside pressure to write it! Also, if you have requests or suggestions, they are more than welcome. I want to deliver what you guys want to see. Here's to hoping 2017 will be a more merciful year than this last one. See you on the other side!