Briony bounced a little in her seat, getting Looks (the kind other kids called Evils, but she figured she really couldn't call them that herself without giggle-snorting in the middle of Daniel's sentence) from that old lady sat in front of her. Which was a really stupid place to sit and the little demon would have said as much if she had been asked. But she hadn't been, so she didn't, and instead just kept swinging her legs all through the mass and letting her feet just swing right into the pew in front. See, stupid place to sit. Even stupider when you'd already gone and given her one Look, so every now and then she just went and kicked even harder. Except her version of kicking harder was like her Daddy's version of kicking. Her Hard Kick -- that came when the woman tried to tell her Mommy that no, Briony should not be singing the words to the Lizzy Borden rhyme to hymns, had caught the attention of at least five people on that row. It'd shut the old lady up for a while too, because how many little kids could actually do that? Her and Bubbles. And Bubbles wasn't a really real kid, she was a grown up in a kid costume. Oh, and then -- and then! -- there was the other reason that was a bad place to sit. Like how the seat just behind her was empty and there were gaps between her and Mommy and Daddy (she got to sit with the parents because she was the favourite). But little details like that weren't obvious until they were really, really scared enough, prone to paranoia and smart enough to actually notice. Old Lady's snapping at her parents had eventually stopped completely and eventually turned into Looks with a vague sense of unease that Briony wanted to roll her eyes at because shouting at demons just doesn't work like that.
Wait, was she supposed to have been listening to any of that? She forgot. Not because she didn't pay attention -- although she didn't -- but because she was nine, she'd been up all day and Hayden wouldn't let her stay asleep for her church-nap. So she had thrown the doorstop at his head and now there was a big bump on his forehead and he wouldn't stop snivelling. Okay, so the last part was because of her in general, but he still messed up her nap! Ignoring whatever her parents were saying about going home for bedtime, Briony hopped off the pew, stopping in the aisle for a yawn. It was necessary. It was also necessary that she stretched.
"No, you go to the car or wherever, I wanna talk to the Pastor!" She tried to shake her sister's grip off of her sleeve, finally dissuading her by grabbing her bare wrist and feeling the prickles shoot straight up her own arm. Everyone always described the spread of ice cold tingles on your skin as being horrible. Briony liked it. It was like menthol only weirder. The moment Airla had let go, she bolted towards Daniel and stowed herself behind his legs without bothering to explain. "Hi!" She opened up a half-clenched palm in a covert wave. "Did you hear me kicking the bench?" Yes, she knew it was called a pew. But that was a stupid word so she wasn't using it.