'Listen. It's not one of those things where the kid teaches me how to love like a human and I renounce my demonic ways. It just isn't. You know what I like to do in my free time? Flay people. Trick people into killing the people they love. Inflict tax audits. This isn't how it's going to play.'

The other-me winced.

'I know. I'm not going to try to change you. Just... put up with it, OK? For a bit?'

'And another thing. I'm meant to be the evil one in this relationship! I'm meant to wreak havoc and destruction on all who - '

'Have the misfortune to encounter you, I know -'

'- And what you're doing to me right now is pure torture. I don't like her. Her communication skills are poor. Her reading comprehension is practically non-existent. She appears to believe her stuffed animals are sentient. The child's an idiot.'

'She's four.'

'Exactly.' I eyeballed the other-me furiously. 'You're planning something, and I don't like it.'

The other-me smiled angelically - revolting - and vanished.

***

When he entered the child's room, I sniffed. I recognise my allies. How had something so deliciously cruel ended up in human form? The child's gormless cheerfulness faded and something else replaced it, her face tight.

'Hello Bethany.'

'Hello papa.' The male adult didn't notice me, which was curious. A human then? Not a demon? But where did the stench of my kind come from?

'Come and sit on papa's knee.'

I noticed bruises on the creature's knuckles.

'Mama isn't feeling very well today. She crossed papa.' The child gasped softly. 'You know what happens when we cross papa, Bethany?'

'We - we get punished.'

'That's right, sweetheart. Mama will be lying down in bed for a little while. She needed to be taught a lesson.'

'Yes, papa.'

I looked up and saw the other-me across the room, face strained. I could sense the cruelties this man wanted to inflict on the child, on her mother, probably others, too. I was delighted.

But... Hmm. The other-me watched me, guarded, but it dawned on me... The other-me had brought me here for a reason, and the reason can't have been to torture me, because that's against the nature of our being. It had brought me to Bethany in order to achieve its own goals.

'And you need to remember that lesson too, honey. OK?'

'Yes, papa,' came the child's small voice.

***

'You want me to punish the human male!'

'The parent, yes.'

'You want me to achieve your nefarious goals! You want the child to be... ' I swallowed the nausea and couldn't say the words.

'Happy and safe. Protected. Yes.'

Grotesque. 'And you can't do it yourself because you cannot harm a living creature.'

'Correct.'

'Why should I? Why shouldn't I simply allow the Papa his cruelty? It's so delicious,' I crooned, sadly.

'Oh,' said the other me, smiling, 'but do you know what would be even more delicious?'

'Flaying the child myself?'

'No. Using the child to torture the man.'

I thought about this a little.

'Terrifying the man with his own blood, with the one thing he isn't afraid of,' I mused. 'Because ... he is doing this to his child - and his spouse - as he is too ... weak to do it to anyone else.'

The other-me nodded encouragingly.

'And if the child has some of my power - '

'Yes?'

'Oh!' I murmured softly, searching the other-me's eyes with interest. 'You aren't quite the bleeding-heart I took you for, are you?'

I tucked this away for later.

***

'This doesn't mean I renounce Satan,' I said. It had been quite a day. Surprisingly fun, taking on the form of a child; I was ashamed I hadn't thought of it earlier. Fire and brimstone is all well and good, but sometimes a little more... subtlety can work wonders.

'And this doesn't mean I renounce all that is good,' replied the other me, smiling. I grinned, and we looked down at the sleeping Bethany, a ward of both of us now. The child had no idea the terrifying power she now wielded; the dread protection of the dark and the light.

'We'll see, old friend,' I said softly, as Bethany stirred a little in her sleep. 'We'll see.'