Chapter Text
Act I
Damages
“Bout to start the shower because taking one together was your idea, remember?” I called out to her from beyond the bathroom.
“I heard you the first f*cking time! Just start the damn thing.” She yelled back.
“Last time I did that, you were bitching and moaning cause it was lukewarm.” I replied.
“It’s always lukewarm when we shower together.”
“So you acknowledge the elephant in the room, then? So how about we—”
“WE ARE NOT TAKING SEPARATE SHOWERS YOU f*ckING MORON!!! Start the water up and shut up!”
“What’s that? I can’t hear you over the sound of roaring water!” By now I cut the shower water on but Loona’s voice is so distinct and perceptive enough, that I could hear her even with the water on full blast. Not a lot, but enough to kind of discern her words. Something along the lines strangling me.
Shower was hot and ready, dunno what’s taking her so long so I hopped in ahead of schedule. But I made sure to turn on my bluetooth device to connect to my phone and play my music. I know she prefers the water to be much hotter than this but my body will be burned, well, be more burned if I tried to accommodate her needs. Since Loona is obviously a hellhound, a demon, her body can far withstand higher and higher temperatures, ones that are audaciously dangerous for human contact is “normal” for one of her kind. Highest I can kind of do for a select amount of time ( I know because I tried) is about 140° and that was pushing it. Meanwhile this girl was telling me she can go swim in freaking lava without so much as a mark or a burn. The only reason she doesn’t do so regularly is because, “nine hundred degrees is the sweet spot for me”.
Unbelievable.
Moving on, temp was at a right one for me, grabbed ahold of the body wash, dabbed some on the bath sponge and got to scrubbing. All the while jamming to one of my favorite artists and the song just entered its second verse. Which, for a short song like this, is actually the best part of the song as a whole.
I don't f*ck with too much of y'all's sh*t
Judging by the pants and the mall grip
Gully, in the vans with the dark tints
I'm a start-sh*t type nigg*, night life living
Riding in the Jeep, I'mma side-swipe nigg*s
What's your life like? That's aight nigg*
Hammer in the left ready when the price isn't
Right got the whip and I ain't got the license for it
And Jill got me living like my life is golden
Sitting on the sofa feeling high and dormant…
“Smoke another…nicest doing it…the f*ck you starin’ at…” I mumbled to myself the rest of the lines of the second verse, disjointed and completely off flow. No way I could ever get on his level, dude is just too damn good of a rapper, underrated some might say. Ducked my head to the right, nearly got the soap in my eye and that would’ve been a whole ass problem on its own. There is a towel outside close to the curtain but that belongs to Loona. I don't think she'd be upset if I attempted to dry my eyes with it but she generally is upset with me as it is and that is discounting the stupid shower banter earlier.
The shower as a whole wasn’t planned, it’s just that she roped me in on this “special day”. Just a general clean up, no need to wash my hair but I do plan on putting in some moisturizer and conditioner after I’m done. Before or after…probably after since this…no because right after this we gotta go see Cal’al about the bill thing. Yeah, she likes to take her time and at the rate I’m going, I’ll be done before her. Well, sorta. Still have to do that thing when she gets in here.
“Aghh…damn.” Ran out of soap for my little sponge and the water coming down hit a little too close for my liking, got a few drops dripping down my eyebrows. Usually I’m more careful than this but when the music is good, I tend to get carried away. “Sonova….! Great. Now I got f*ckin water in my hair so I have to put the damn…sh*t man.” Still wasn’t gonna wash my hair but I definitely do need to moisturize it after this. I reached behind me to grab the bottle of body wash.
Only the bottle felt eerily similar to something hairy. I stopped moving altogether. Not hair…fur. I scrubbed my eyes as best could before any water would get into my eyes. Then turned all the way around.
“Oh..”
“‘Oh’ nothing. I should make you wipe my ass clean like the f*cking booty licking simp you are for the other night.” The silver-grey backed hellhound stood in front of me, hands on her hips, fur hardly wet and completely in the nude. And mad. As mad as she was, she knew how reckless it is to act angry in a hazardous environment as this so what she did was gently pick me up then had us swap places. “Really should too. Figured some weirdo like you would love the thought of cleaning my butt. Hmph. Bet licking it clean is more your speed, right?”
“How long you’re gonna be mad at me? It’s been about six days now.” There are plenty of things I’d like to do with her but licking her ass clean as a means of a legitimate effort to cleanse it? I’m not that much of a degenerate. I don’t mind doing it if she came back from a long day of work at her new job for the car wash, coming home smelling like an outdoor dog that’s been sitting in the heat for eight hours and licking her butt then. That I don’t mind. But say after she’s done taking a sh*t? Hell no. Which I’m pretty she did because her ass smelled ostensibly worse when she farted in my face this morning to wake me.
“Depends on how hard you go and how many times you make me cum after this. If not, better get used to it bestie.” She handed me her comb, a large tool with thick teeth to handle thick strands of hair. Afterwards, she sat down directly under the water, facing away and letting the water dampen her hair and body.
The mere sight of seeing my hellhound friend, wet, nude and visibly pissed off was raising a boner in me that shouldn’t be possible. “You said I had to do this for three days.” I complained, yet kneeling down and getting ready to comb this brat’s hair. “It’s been three days, girl.”
“And I meant it. Doesn’t mean I’m still not mad at you.” She rolled her shoulders, did a quick sweep of her large and bushy tailbone, then turned her head slightly. “I’m waiting, Josh.” The bitterness in her voice had not dissipated at all these past few days though at times she would feign kindness in her words whenever she knew I was pissed off with her. It was a rare occurrence for me to be so upset with her.
Following the christmas evening of the very first kiss me and Loona ever shared (small spoiler, she roped me into another round that evening with this particular round being far more than just pent up lust; it felt genuine, spectacular, and I believe she felt the same, a feeling both of us haven’t exactly felt since the night she let me take her virginity), just as Her Majesty ordained, we were teleported home the second the clock hit midnight. Good timing too because I don’t think I could do another hour of dancing with this girl. Whole time we were going back to back with the dances, the only thing on my mind was: Where the hell does she get all this energy??
In any case, once the twenty minute counter ran its course, she ran up to the DJ, selected her own songs that she personally loves to jam to and rejoined me back on the floor.
Longest four hours of my life. I don’t care how good she is at belly dancing or whatever, I was hardly keeping up with her monstrous stamina. By half past ten, I was at my limit and had to threaten to publicly spank her in order to get her to give me a thirty minute break. She laughed it off, saying if I could get one successful hit off then she’d let me have the break. Had to trick her but I got it done.
About nineteen days later, fast forwarding through new years and all that, Hell returned to normal. As normal as it could get down there. The purists were still around being obnoxious but eventually they were pushed back to the lower rings or wherever they stayed in Chronesborough. A few places other than my job got hit on the night of ol St Nick, including a car dealership, a laundry mat and even a mattress warehouse. All struck around midnight and of those unlucky stars, ours was the least damaged because Baela smartly colluded with our neighboring stores to defend it.
Except for me cause f*ck that job. Speaking of, the old pig kept true to her promise and awarded the prize just as she said she did. That lucky bastard is probably enjoying his month-long vacation with pay at Centurion’s Retreat, I bet. Seriously, f*ck that turtle.
Loona did rag on about it, nagging to me that I should’ve taken the chance to seize that prize but the big con with that was not having the time of my life with her at the swanky party the Goddess directed us to. Give and take, give and take. On that note, Loona did illuminate me on what exactly she and her former coworkers did the day she quit her job at the theater. Toya and the girl with multiple sets of boobs quietly locked their boss in the faculty lounge when he went inside to grab his bat. Apparently, the asshat was hellbent on shattering both of her knees for “daring to quit on him” in one of the busiest times of the year. The two shoved a chair and a few other pieces of furniture in front of the door and rushed to where she was at.
So there is footage of what they did because one of them recorded the entire scene but let’s just say, whoever has to clean up after their mess will need gloves, a shovel and a mask for the horrid stench. I do not pity the soul who has to fix all that up. Crazy thing is? Both girls still work there. Yeah, even after locking the store manager behind doors while they did things (not the sexual kind) on the front desk and trailed it all the way to his office desk too. When the entire theater stunk of it, Loona took her share of the footage for extra laughs later then made her way to my job, finally free of her old, dull, painfully mind-numbing occupation. At least with her new job she’ll be getting some exercise.
Naturally, I worried for her because this job’s risks of harassment were far higher than her previous one. She says she’ll gladly won’t accept the tips if it meant not being groped. Catcalling she accepts, some people even pay her just to sit and look pretty while they wank it as long they don’t get it on her, very, very few have paid her to insult them. That last part I’m not even joking about; girl got paid hundreds sometimes just for insulting the losers who received some form of gratification from being ridiculed by a pretty woman.
Crazy world I live in. And here I am making pennies while she consistently rakes in that kind of dough on the regular. Speaking of switch ups, she now gets paid weekly instead of daily like I do. So that is a plus, I’d say.
Onto why the girl is upset with me. It should be prefaced that women in general have this uncanny fondness over their hair. A woman’s beauty is her bread and butter, because it is virtually the first thing she is judged for the moment she opens the door to the outside world. A crucial part of this that helps maintain the foundation of a woman’s looks is their hair. Is it combed? Is it agreeable? Does it need to be tied in a bun? Is it better straightened out or curled? Would her face match the style of being permed? Would long hair suit the woman or is short hair more their style? As a woman grows, these questions are prompted up to them by their peers, their mothers and sisters, their brothers sometimes and most importantly, themselves.
Which brings me to Loona. It was already prevalent in the show that she is very socially awkward and is highly self-conscious of her beauty judging by how she reacted around Vortex for the first time. She seems to be bereft of her social anxiety and can hold a conversation with me no problem. Her self-consciousness? She’s good at hiding it, I’ll give her that but little signs like her ears folding back, her tonal shift, the direction where her eyes go when speaking, things like that. There were also moments where I intentionally toned down the fat comments because I noticed her either eating less or eating slowly. So instead, my insults relegated to calling her butt fat and nothing else.
I digress.
Six days ago she was giving me a surprise blowj*b during movie night. New monster movie came out, we pirated it because to hell with going out on a work night but anyway, she asked me to do a facial when I was getting close. No problem, we’ve done facials before, should be easy as pie like the last few times. But there was an issue. When I came, the load was a lot bigger than normal, shooting out ropes all over her face, ears, mouth, tongue, over her eyes and of course, her hair. After that, she flipped the f*ck out.
The problem wasn’t me getting my man ji*zz on her hair, no, we’ve done this before and she hasn’t had an issue with it in the past. The reason why she was ready to tear my dick off was because she just took a shower and did her hair before I came home and made dinner. To pile on this, she specifically asked me to not get it in her hair. After spending what felt like an eternity with her strong-arming my johnson, professing every reason under the sun I can think of for her to not rip it off, she let go and stomped off to take another shower.
She did not speak to me for three days and the only reason she did on the fourth was because I got off the phone with Cal’al. The conversation was about setting up a meeting about the billing starting next month. The end of it, I should say, is when the bills begin. What happened afterwards, went a little like this. I was getting off of the phone and the call itself took place in my room while she was in the living room. What I should have accounted for is her strong sense of hearing.
“Yeah I…no problem! We’ll both be there. Yeah. Yeah. Alright, see you soon.” I remember thinking about how I was going to bring it up to her since she hasn’t spoken to me in three days, until I saw her open the door. “Wh—”
The freaking demon wolf pounced on me like she was a cheetah that caught its prey. Landing us both on the bed and judging by the slight unhinged look in her eyes, it was best I kept as still as possible. Sitting on me with all four of her appendages, eyes wide, but mysteriously calm. Way too calm for my liking.
“Who was that?” She asked not an octave higher than her normal monotone voice.
“It was Cal’al.” I answered.
“Why?”
“For the billing thing.” Felt like I was being interrogated.
“What did he say?” She asks, blinking once.
“Says he wants to discuss the particulars.”
“When?”
“Three days from now.” I answered once again, keeping things brief.
There was a minute pause in her next response. “Remember your promise?”
Every moment it took me to recall the closer it felt like she was going to shred my nape out. “Yes.”
“Time?” She asked, a little slowly this time.
“11:30 in the morning. Earliest slot I could pick but Loona, don’t you have work that day?” We shared work schedules recently, as mad as she is, she still holds my safety in high regard. I think.
“I’ll call out.” She shrugged.
“But—” She snapped her jaws terrifyingly close to my ears. Hardly an inch away too, my heartbeat sped up several notches and for the first time in a long, long time, she successfully scared me to the point I could feel my bladder rush up at an unnatural speed.
“I’ll. Call. Out. I’ll wake you up at eight.” She hopped up from the bed, whipping her hair about beautifully before making her leave. And that was that. With me rushing to the bathroom as soon as she left.
Strangest thing about all of this, no matter how upset she was or the length of the silent treatment, she always wanted to cuddle before bed or sex even. I thought someone like her with such a restrictive hold over her body would use sex against me if I ever upset her but it turns out that no, she wouldn’t hold it against me. However, there was a slight drawback; Loona, while she did willingly, albeit silently, comply with the session for coitus, she had two moods when we went at it: petty or unforgiving. Basically in a way to show that she’s still upset with me and letting it out through sex. Besides the moans and howls when she would explosively climax all over me or in my face. (When I did go down on her, I was a little more than scared because she would hold me in place while I ate her out, long after she came.)
Doggystyle is our favorite position and pretty much our go-to when we do it. Over the couch, under the covers, in the shower, over the bed, over the coffee table and whenever we both save up enough money, we’d buy that balcony she’s been clammering about and probably do doggy over the edge. What was different was that when she was in position and I was inside her, she “took control” by delivering backshots so strong that it made it hard for me to walk the day after. I tried to gain control of the situation and reign her in, but she merely sit up on her knees, grab my wrists, clutching them to her waist and made me take every backshot she gave until I came or more realistically, her legs became so weak from the climbing org*sms that she either blacked out or just collapsed with me finally cumming inside of her.
So after that night (the second day after the facial) I have been hesitant about sleeping with her. Regardless of how willing she is, until I resolved her anger issue in some way, it was best I keep things somewhat platonic. Although, going on four days since that day, she had been giving cues here and there that she wanted it from me.
As it stands presently, I gripped the comb with authority, tilted her head to the left under the downpour of water and began raking through her thick, silver locks of hair. “Let me know if I’m pulling too hard on ya.” It should go without saying but Loona being seven feet tall, sitting on her knees is nearly as tall as I am standing up if not just as tall.
Her only response was a small shrug. Truthfully, I wish this wasn’t the only way to relieve her anger and I thought what she did the other night would be enough to simmer her down but nope, seems not. After a few days no less. The combing on her right side went smoothly and when she felt it was time for me to move on, she reached back and poked my stomach.
Under the rain, I always had love for the contrast in her colors. Silver front with a grey back, stretching from shoulder to her hind legs. Wet fur on any canine always gives off this somber look to the colors; hers was no different. In its own unique way, it perceptibly had its own beauty unchallenged as opposed to the dry air. Though I suppose she might feel different. I moved on to the center, combing thoroughly through the thick locks. So far, she didn’t seem to be bothered by the pain, if any were to be felt. Was too nervous to speak or think of anything this time so I moved on when she gave me the signal.
This time, I thought of something appropriate. “Have you done all the steps beforehand?”
“We’ll go over them before we start. Missionary or doggy?” While she sat pretty patiently on the tub floor, seeing how tightly her fists clenched themselves told me to ease up on her.
She actually spoke. I’ll be. Better ease up too. “Your favorite seems to be doggy so we’ll go with that.”
“Afraid I’ll rake your back open like you’re doing my hair?” There was a miniscule sliver of snideness in her voice, suggesting some amusem*nt. Her ears twitched under the wet assault from above.
While doggystyle is our favorite, missionary tends to be a close second behind curled angel. That said, I have a lot of scratch marks over my sides and back from her. She teases me by calling them “love marks”. She is so wrong for that.
“A little, yes. I’ll be honest. Scratches are fine, I can handle those. I’m afraid of what you might do when you’re this angry.” Come to think of it, haven’t seen her this angry since that time with Leonard. I have to be better in the future.
She harrumphed. “Hmph. Don’t be.” Her overly large tailbone swished lackadaisically on the floor and against my feet.
“Yes but you’re so mad I can fry an egg on your ass and that bitch would be done in two minutes.” I don’t know if I need to get my hearing checked but did she giggle? Yeah it sounded like it but I might be wrong. “Which is odd, how'd there be any medicine in Hell in the first place.”
“Mmm mm. There isn’t. Demons, sinners, hellborn and even the Old Lords of Hell rely too much on their ‘immortality’ to solve any of their problems. While all it does is make them worse after rebirth.”
“How worse we—” She pushed my hands away from her hair then stood up.
“Hair is done. Let’s hurry this part up.” By this part, she meant wiping her butt as clean as possible and me as well; was almost finished until she snuck in. I don’t know how she gets the jump on me like that, especially with paws? One would think I’d hear them clink against the tiled floor coming in or entering but she’s like a ninja because she’s so quiet.
Guess she really is an assassin and not in name either. The hellhound finished faster than I could do my own finishing touches which meant one thing. “Wait…no…no…Loona don’t you—”
She flashed me her first grin in days, albeit full of shrewish pride, turned the dial back to zero, cut the water off, got down on all fours, showing off her bare ass and goods and shook herself. Sending a volcanic eruption of droplets everywhere with most of them landing on me. Hundreds of little water droplets fell upon me, making me wetter than I already am right now and forcing me to avert my eyes and try to cover myself just a little.
“Aghh! Ptthfgpp! Ptthppthh! Son of a…you couldn’t have waited?! Jesus girl. Would’ve took you two hot—” She grabbed me by my poofy hair and then shoved my face where the sun don’t shine. Out from her glorious gluteus maximus, rippled about a dozen wet farts and the angsty grunts that followed with it. Flooding the entire bathroom with her stank ass and what was worse (better for me) was that the humidity from the shower, the odor intensified about three times as much. The only issue I had with this was trying not to cum from the rancid stench. I was already stiff, as in super stiff from staring at her naked body, this just pushed me towards the edge.
Loved every second of it though I did tap her butt a couple times because I needed some oxygen. She didn’t listen and kept going until she felt like she was done. When the hellhound was finally done, she let go, inhaled her own stink through her snout and laughed at it.
“Now those are some ripe ones! Haha! Come on. Shower’s done, let’s get it started.” Her fur wasn’t completely dried, still damp but not nearly as wet as before the shaking. She gripped her hair with both of her hands, twisted and squeezed the remaining water out of her thick locks.
I suppressed a cough and used some of the water she flaked on me to rub my eyes. “Is this what I get for feeding you Mexican food last night? Feels like it.” The scent was heavily mired in beans. I heard her slide the shower door open and cut the music to my speaker off. “Hey! I like that song!”
“If you want, we can play it while you f*ck me. Now come on, oh, and you can bet on more where that came from.” She took one of the towels off the rack and began drying herself off. Loona had to buy those towels that are handcrafted and specialized for wolf hellhound breeds because it does a great job at absorbing the moisture of the fur. Small side effect is that it leaves her fur very, very poofy for about ten minutes.
Would love to smush her cheeks together when she is that soft but now kinda is not the best time to be tempting fate by sudden testicular torsion. The edge in her voice was still present and yeah, best not to test the waters until the sea has fully calmed. I stepped out of the shower to grab my towel and dry myself off from face to groin to toe. A few thoughts running through my head, more about the conference with the landlord than what’s about to occur soon. Then some thoughts of the song just now and how I adore how the artist prefers using real instruments while in the recording studio. Got me thinking, thinking about if it was possible to—
Smack! Her tail whipped across my face, jolting me from my random assortment of thoughts. “Ow! I’m still drying off here, I’m coming alright?” I rubbed the spot where her tailbone struck me.
She turned around, lifting her eyebrow in modest confusion. Rolled her eyes, grabbed both my phone and the speaker before heading into the bedroom.
“Oh…I thought you did that on purpose!” She didn’t answer so I hurried up and walked into the bedroom to see her standing by the bed. On said bed was a jar of vaseline and in her hand was her crimson phone, thumbs scrolling through pages or even articles at this point. On the nightstand was my phone and speaker.
Her velvet-white eyes glanced at me for a hot second, the hellhound took a long breath with much of her furry bosom expounding in the effort, quickly becoming fluffy in her exertion. “Let’s go over a few things before we start since this will be my first time doing this.”
I thought back to the time when I explained to her about anal as best and as thoroughly as I could without giving any misinformation. “Absolutely. First things first, clean up. Did you clean yourself well back there?”
“I still say I should’ve made you licked my ass crack clean…” She muttered.
“Excuse me?”
She rolled her eyes. “Yes. My ass is sparkly clean. You wanna check it for yourself?” She was already turning around before I could answer her. Which is a little humorous because it’s as though she was looking for a reason to show me her bare, damp asshole. She bent herself over, lifted her tail and showed it all to me. “There! Does that look clean enough for you? Huh? I’m waiting Mr. I Know Everything About f*cking Bitches In Their Asses.”
That particular edge in her voice remained but there was something else too; like a lidded cap hiding the festering emotions underneath. Or she could just be annoyed. “I have a way to inspect it. One moment.”
Since Loona, even bending over, is nearly my height, there was no need for me to bend my knees. A simple lean in would suffice. Coming closer, her butt smelled of the bizarre combination of fruitful (from her body wash) and straight up foul from her gas. Staring at the dampened furred cheeks up close, I could not see a spec of fecal matter anywhere, not even caught in her surrounding fur at all. Around her pink hole I mean. And the hole itself, besides looking very inviting, appeared very clean. Hmm…maybe this could calm her down a little? I hope. I leaned in closer, puckering my lips and…
Loona’s tail stood up, spiked from the contact then a moment later, began wagging quite quickly. She awkwardly stepped forward, walking away from me then turned around, face as red as a chili pepper, even spreading up to her ears where her silver fur met the grey edges. Her expression changed dramatically; swiftly changing from incessant, haughty, irritable and on edge to flabbergasted, mortified, turned on, and even at a loss for words. For a few seconds anyway, I find it a challenge to shut her up for more than ten minutes sometimes. Excluding my muck up a few days ago.
“Wh…Did you just…did you just kiss my asshole? Like literally?” The redness in her face was too much for her and she had to begin pacing while fanning herself.
“This isn’t the first time my mouth has touched your butthole, Loona. I’m pretty sure I—”
“Yeah but this felt weirdly…uhm, personal? I guess you could call it. There’s probably a better word for it but I just, that was totally out of the blue. Asshole. You. You’re the asshole, not my…you know what I mean!” She managed to fan away some of the embarrassment from her face and sashayed over to our bed, sitting in front of me with her legs crossed. The hellhound still needed to blow the rest of the heat burning through her face to dissipate before she can proceed further.
“All you have to say is no. That’s it and I’ll stop. Did it make you feel uncomfortable? Cause I know how you feel if I do intimate things suddenly; you turn into all this.” Gesturing to all of her body, all of her awkwardness in full effect and on display.
She snapped her fingers. “That’s the word. I don’t mind, it just came out of nowhere. That’s all. Let’s uh, let’s continue before I turn into a cherry.”
“A cute cherry.” I added.
Her eyelids lowered but a small smile crept along her lips. “Just keep going, with all of your know-it-all knowledge about butts. f*ckin nerd.”
I chuckled mildly, it seemed like that little kiss at her butt got her to loosen up. “Did you clean yourself out beforehand? This means all fecal matter or most of it has been emptied from your ass beforehand.”
Her scarlet-white eyes looked up, likely in remembrance of the past few hours. “Remember when I woke you up? Yeah, I took a fat dump before then and yes I wiped after that. My ass just stunk is all, even after using a bidet. I’m not too hungry but not exactly full either so…I should be good for the next…” She stopped fanning herself and picked up her phone, sliding it unlocked. “Look at that! Three hours on the dot.” She set the device on the nightstand to my right.
I could see her tail swishing back and forth on the bed, she was growing antsy from the anticipation. That and her face was moderately flustered, not as it was before so she’s likely turned on. “Good to know. Let’s speedrun it then. Dry or lubed up?”
She pointed at the tub of vaseline to her left.
“Slow or fast?”
“One hundred percent slow.” She reached forward to gently stroke my dick, getting me hard in seconds. “Just like when you first broke me in, I’ll need time to adjust.”
“Speaking of, any safe words? I’ll stop as soon as you say it. No questions asked.” Her hand felt soft and the strokes gentle and warm with some playful rubbing along the base of my balls. Causing my manhood to throb in response.
Loona’s eyes beamed, that snideness returning the longer this dragged out. “Oooo I got the perfe—”
“Loona, on god and the Goddess, if you pick that five letter word as the freaking safe word I’ll…” I didn’t get a chance to finish the sentence because the girl let go of my member, grabbed me by the collarbone with a grip hard enough to shatter a pumpkin and brought me to her eye level. Which is almost feral.
“You’ll what? Go ahead, finish the sentence.” She challenged me. Her snout expanded and closed rapidly, showing off her blatant agitation.
And I accepted. “Simple. I’ll stop cooking for you for two weeks.”
Her eyes immediately softened. “Dude…that’s not fair.” She let go and went right back to stroking me gently, this time, she was putting on her puppy dog act. Big eyes, ears folded backwards and even a little lip quivering. “I’d rather you slap the sh*t out of me than go three days without your cooking.”
That took me out of it. “Hold on, what?” I don’t know if it’s the routine she’s doing but I am instantly feeling sorry right now. “I wouldn’t…I’d never hurt you Loo…” It took me a solid ten to maybe fifteen seconds to realize what just happened. “Okay, I’d never hurt you but holy sh*t you almost got me there.”
“Damn!” She giggled mischievously, but full of privileged elation. “Almost had you there but Josh? I mean that part. I’d much rather you slap the barking piss out of me than go too long without your meals. I mean dude, have you tasted your meals? They’re so—”
“We’re getting off track and yes, I’m well aware I have room to grow. So what else is there…” While I rubbed and pulled on my beard in somewhat deep contemplation for what else is there in regards for preparation, the hellhound’s large tailbone wagged lazily back and forth on the bed as she stroked me. Licking her chops hungrily. “Oh yeah, the safe word. How about ‘cheese’?”
Her eyelids lowered in massive disappointment. “Yeah, no. We’re going with ‘sweaty’.”
“Why?”
She shrugged indifferently. “My butthole, my safe word, my choice. Simple as. Anything else?”
Girl has a point. “No, I think we’re ready. Oh, music? Let’s see what we got here. Think I saw you scrolling on it before you set it down.” She let go before I went over to check the song and the selection and made me give her that “ are you serious” look before marching back over to her. “Alright, let’s not waste anymore time. Go ahead and turn around, I’ll dab as much lube as needed.”
Just as my hand dipped itself into the smooth gel, she seized it by my wrist. “Loona, I think we’ve wasted enough time. Don’t ya think?”
“I changed my mind about the position. Let’s do missionary with my legs up. Kay?” Her hands shook, just a little bit. Her eyes appeared uncertain and the blush overcoming her cheeks grew redder. “And…grab your phone. Have your music on standby. Cause the song you were about to play doesn’t sound like complete cow sh*t.” She chuckled nervously.
“Whoa now, that is some straight up heresy, you know that? About as fickle as a damn…anyway, I better stop. Slow and steady wins the race, as the old saying goes.” No reason to argue, I know why. Did she really have to diss that song? That is banger in my eyes and ears. The f*ck. However embarrassing it may seem, if it makes her more comfortable, then I will not throw a fuss. I lifted her legs up after she scooted further on the bed. She used her foot paws to stroke me a few more times before lifting her hips up as much as possible. She sometimes does this to keep up my erection, even though when I’m horny, I’m very much ready to get it on. Although, I’m beginning to wonder if she’s developing a foot fetish.
“And yet, I bet that fat*ss turtle can outrun you any day of the week.” Was her little rebuttal.
“Hmph. Who’s side are you on anyway?” I grabbed my phone and set it to the side while I dipped my hand in the gel then began applying the stuff both on and slightly in her butthole. At most, the girl would grunt but nothing extreme. I applied as much as physically possible and what I thought was necessary. As I was applying the ointment to it, a sudden thought hit me, a point that should’ve hit me much sooner: helping the girl relax her sphincter muscles.
“Loona? Do you want me to finger you a little to help with the insertion process?”
She almost chuckled. “Never gets old, I swear.” When I had a look of overt confusion painted on my face, she waved her hand, dismissing it. “It’s cute that you’re willing to be so caring with me and that’s honestly turning me on, if you couldn’t already tell,” her eyes shifted down to her nethers then back up to me, “but no, no. Just go in slow and keep it slow until I’m ready for something faster. Alright?”
I did take a glance at her pink oasis and to no one’s shock, it was positively leaking her love juices. “You sure?”
“Positive.” She affirmed with ninety-five percent certainty.
I nodded, then carried on to the next step; putting the gel on my dick. Lathering my member from the head down to the entire base. With the exception being my balls. With utter certainty I knew ol’ girl can take the entire thing up to the base, it’s the deepthroating she has trouble with. Only managing to get up to ten inches and not all fourteen. I motioned her to stop jerking me off with her feet paws so that I could apply it properly.
During this, Loona would entertain herself by tapping her nails on the mattress. Hopefully, she wouldn’t scratch it up but given what happened when she let me take her virginity? Yeah, no hope on that front. She reached for my phone and played the song a little prematurely because I was almost done.
When I was, I aligned the tip with her anal entrance. “You ready?”
She took a deep gulp and tossed my phone to the side before grabbing the sheets. “Whew…whew…whew. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, yeah I’m ready.”
“Remember. Safe word is ‘sweaty’ and at any time, I repeat, at any time it hurts too much, you tell me and I’ll pull out. Got it?”
She nodded quickly. “Don’t worry daddy, I’ll like it.”
“And if you don’t?” I asked legitimately.
She shrugged half-heartedly. “At best the pain will last for…maybe five minutes. Worst? A day. But I’m sure it won’t be too bad.” She smiled hopefully.
“Cool. And if you don’t?” I repeated. I am genuinely concerned she will never like it because her first experience was horrible.
“Simple Josh. I’ll let you have it anytime you want it without complaint. Far as I’m concerned, you practically own me. Now, no more talking, go in nice and slow, okay?” She braced herself for impact. Breathing in and out at an accelerated rate.
I…don’t agree with that sentiment. A friendship shouldn’t be about ownership. Think she’s got some of this mixed up. She’s right; the time for talk has long passed and the song had just entered its chorus for the second time.
Open your heart, express the malt, baby
Don't turn a frown, make an ass out yourself, baby
Open your heart
What's behind them tig-ol-bitties
As the song progressed from that point, I grabbed ahold of her right foot paws, gingerly massaging her metacarpal pads (also for grip), hearing the hellhound slightly moan from my sensual touch, I slowly began to push into her.
All things considered, as far as entry is going, she was taking it pretty well: the hellhound’s tail, while dampened, didn’t fritz up as much, she didn’t dig her nails too deeply into the sheets, her body appeared relaxed, much more relaxed compared to our first night last month. So it appears she really has taken what I advised to heart by not tensing up as much and relaxing her muscles as much as an anal virgin could muster. But to be fair, the tip was barely in and I was meeting a lot of resistance upon entry. Enough so that I would have to put more effort into my force.
When I looked down at Loona on the bed, she opened her eyes and nodded, ever so slowly, absolutely giving me the okay to push forward. Which may have been more than what she bargained for.
“NNNGNNGGGGGFFFFFFUUUUUUUAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!” The hellhound scratched and sunk her claws into the sheets, not howling like a wolf, but howling and screeching incoherently into the void of our bedroom. The pressure of feeling the head of my member pushing itself, forcing its way into her bunghole, threw nearly all tension and control she had out of the window. The pain, as I could see it plainly on her face, etched every line, every strand of fur and every one the two lines under each of her eyes. From the corners of her agony ridden face, her eyes specifically, small bubbling lines of liquid film rose to her vermillion-white eyes.
That’s when I completely stopped, I want to make her feel good not writhe in perpetual anguish. While she hasn’t said the safe word, I was too hesitant on pushing forward; this pain she feels, it must feel ten times worse than when I took her virginity. Has to be, just looking on her face tells me the entire story. This must feel like hell to her. Maybe I should…
However, Loona caught on to my indecisiveness and flashed her agonized glare on me. “Who…the f*ck…told you to stop?!”
“I…you just, you looked like you were in so much pain and I—” She held her hand up, cutting me off.
“Did I say the safe word? DID I??!” She roared, almost her entire bottom and top row of teeth were on full display, accentuating the menacing tone she was putting on.
“No! But…no, no you’re right. No excuses. I’m ready when you are.” I tugged her foot paws, both of them, and wrapped my hands around her ankle area for stronger grip. As it stands, the head is only halfway in and from here, I should be able to push the rest in without slipping out.
“Good.” She affirmed, her tone only marginally softer than before. She laid her head back down, puffing her cheeks, once, twice, then thrice, breathing in and out for good measure. “Again. Be slow and I’ll tell you when you can drill me like a jackhammer. Horny little f*cker.” Insults or no, the blush spread across her face, likely from me holding her in an otherwise compromising position.
I nodded to her and returned the gesture in kind and closed her eyes. Then I pushed forward and just as I believed, I was able to get the rest of the head inside without slipping out. That was the easy part. The hard part was trying my best to make sure Loona’s gargantuan, athlete, freaking demigod strength didn’t flat out break my arms or back for how much she struggled to close her legs. The only reason I had a fighting chance in the first place was the fact that she, on some mental level, realized this would either cripple or kill me, and so held herself back.
After the head was inside, the hellhound still grunted like a boar and growled twice as fierce. Tearing up more of the sheets in the process. Part of me knew that was inevitable but didn’t make me feel any less annoyed with her. She growled at me with those near feral, ruby-white eyes of hers and I knew exactly why; shoveling aside any doubt and following her instructions, I pushed myself very slowly inside of her ass from that point on. I didn’t exactly need her positive reinforcement with the growling, I had my own.
That being that the tightness of her asshole was suffocating my lower man but in a good way. I mean, I’m only a third of the way in her and by the Goddess, I could feel the rush coming already; holding it back was the goal because I do not want to become a one-pump chump for her when she has been waiting weeks to try this. What made this process a sad*stic one, besides her groaning and grunting the whole entire way, was she would reach up to me, tuck my chin down and make me look at her as I slowly drove the train home in her dirty tunnel. The hellhound absolutely loves it when I am in an utterly pleasured state and I wouldn’t be surprised if she could get off on it but to see her capitalizing off of me struggling to hold back my org*sm in her overtly tight gas trapper was especially arousing. For me and her. But I also think she’s doing this is because she needs a focus point away from the pain.
Around the halfway point, Loona’s grunts maintained themselves and grew into full on growls, the sheer size and girth of my member must be a harrowing experience. Yet I think for all the progress we made so far, she has stopped screaming but not growling. Which is good but on the flip side, the way she’s coping with the uphill creep of pain burrowing in her bunghole, inching deeper and deeper into her, is keeping my eyes centered on her. In these moments, her growling would slow and simmer down into a groan, at times it even sounded like a moan to me. Sometimes digging her nails a little too deep into my chin and I had to pull away just to see her thumbnail and index fingernail dripping in blood and small follicles of hair.
By that point, she got the hint and tried her best to hold me gently as I pushed for the final stretch and goodness gracious, I had to stop two times so I wouldn’t cum. Which in turn, fed the silver-and-grey backed hellhound’s ego and slight sad*stic filter. Never the matter, I finally pushed the last of my length inside of her, hitting her prostate if I’m not mistaken, turning her face beet red and the sheets are in tatters from how much the pain ailing her.
However, I did not move. Needed her green light, plus? Her rectum muscles were squeezing me every few seconds and I couldn’t tell if she was doing it on purpose or trying to adjust to my size or her means of enduring the stress. I took a few short breaths, reigning any desire, natural or forced, to shoot my load like a railgun.
“Just…just let me…” sh*t, she is tight! I’ve done anal with one girl before her and I don’t remember my dick being f*cking choked by her ass!
She held up one finger, puffing her cheeks and blowing out air. Attempting to regain some composure before resuming. Then after a moment of clarity. “Fu….dude you are freaking HUGE. Feels like my ass is being split in f*cking two!” She closed her eyes.
“Yeah? Well, it ain’t an easy picnic for me either, ya know. God girl, had to stop myself from cumming like five times already..” I hugged her ankles tighter, sometimes reaching up to massage her pads on her paws but mostly just to lean and hold.
She opened one eye and both of her ears popped open. “Really? Well…looks like we’ll be doing this…more often. A-As soon as my body stops messing with me and we can get to the good…good part..” Loona took a few more moments to gather herself then closed her once opened eye. “Remember, do—”
“I remember, I freaking remember, alright?” I repositioned myself, grounding my footing on the carpet floor, tugging her hind legs close for a firmer grip (causing the hellhound to blush harder) but before doing anything more, I had to lift her butt up again, she was slipping off the edge and sometimes had to readjust herself or I had to do it manually. After that quick adjustment, I began slowly stroking her, in and out slowly.
“Ex-Excuse m-me biiiaaaahhhh!” The girl yelped mid-sentence, tightening her grip ever more on the sheets. Only, when she realized she had already shredded the ones she had, she quickly made a grab for another thick wad by swiftly, almost scrambling too, winding and balling the fabric in her hands. Miniature stress balls it seems.
On the other hand, she was doing her best to hang in there until things would eventually get good for her. After that initial screech that interrupted her, she screamed no more and even growls became less and less consistent. It was becoming apparent that, with some time and patience, the hellhound’s anal tunnel was adjusting and each plunge on my end was gradually delivering pleasure. If only in very small, minute doses. Even her facial expressions lethargically spinned from pained and agonized to intermediary aggravation and minimal joy.
I, on the other hand, was going through my own “struggle”. Every hair and cell in my body was aching me to really piston her wolf hole to its absolute limit. Sweet Goddess above! Why does she…why does she feel so good?!! I screamed in my head, struggling against my instincts to plow her further and harder. My right hand slid closer to her thigh muscles and delivered ever so slightly, faster strokes. No doubt, she’d notice but it is incredibly hard to maintain any patience. That is, I was forced to and it wasn’t by her growling of which she was doing as I humped her. It was the rush of an org*sm that forced me to slow it down back to its original pace, teaching me not to underestimate a hole as tight as this. Plus the lube did me no favors either, made the experience two times better sensory wise.
“S-So…s-so good…” I muttered under my breath while going in for a much longer stroke by pulling out about eight inches before putting it all back in. Amounting to her signature sigh/moan when it reached the end of the tunnel. Which I find odd because wasn’t she growling like a tiger a second ago? Curious, I looked down to see that her face was far, far more relaxed than before and her growling naturally transitioned finally from predatory growling to lustful moaning and groaning. Some sighing here and there too. The shock from seeing her finally adjust to my size actually caused me to cease all of my strokes.
“Mmm…don’t stop…keep hah…going…cum…in me daddy…” She pushed her left leg up to wrap around me, both eyes spouted open, her breaths quickened and she appeared beyond enthused to keep going. Mouth half opened, tongue out and ready to start panting, her eyes were hardwired and zoned in on me exclusively, and most of all, the juices from her lovely pink honeypot were leaking onto my member. A definitive showcase of her licentious exhilaration to resume at earnest.
“Can I…? Can I go faster?” I asked. I made it this far, it would be impolite not to ask beforehand.
She reached up to boop me on the nose. “Not too fast, now. It’s too tight for you to be going so fast, you’ll cum in five pumps. I want you to work me… slowly .” The same hand drifted down to rub the shaft of my dick, moaning from just touching the thick, pulsing veins of the organ. She’d wrap her hand around the upper half of the shaft and tease herself and me by pushing it in a little then pulling it out. Throughout, she’d moan while arching her back up until she had to stop. “f*ck…this feels so damn…next round is gonna be crazy. I can feel it! Anyway, up until the last second then go hogwild. Deal?”
Glancing between her modest breasts, her flustered visage that ached for more then down to her puss* and butthole. “Only if you don’t play with yourself. I’ll do my best to make you cum with the time we have.” I mentioned this because I exclusively want to make her howl without any additional impetus, her hands included.
A big toothy grin split across her lupine face. “Dude, I’d never insult you like that. You got yourself a deal.” Her large, bushy tail swayed heavily behind her and under her. She let go of my member and latched onto the blanket wad she was holding onto before the conversation started up. “Now pull out and let’s get this show on the road. I wanna go at least two more rounds before we see that old goat.”
Couldn’t help but smile, this girl was going to kill me with her libido one of these days. “Simple enough. Hang tight now.” Going by her advice, I pulled almost all the way out, about twelve inches before sliding all the way back in. Well, almost. About the ten inch mark, Loona let loose a huge toot from her glutes, it didn’t stink as much. Initially, I thought this was on purpose until I saw her face.
Bright red. Embarrassed beyond belief and folded ears. “I…uhm…”
Normally, I don’t mind and even at this moment, still don’t mind her farting. One because she does it a lot and two, it’s my fetish so I wasn’t so much offended by the toot, only I found the situation so ironically humorous that I busted out laughing. Legitimately laying down on her stomach, huffing up air and fur alike because for a girl who proudly toots in public and private, she sure has a problem doing it during sex.
“It’s not funny! What the hell you laughing at you asshole?! Farting during anal is perfectly natural!” I felt her patting my back which is my cue to get up. Also stop laughing too, I suppose.
Both I took though the chuckling took a little longer to subside. “Sorry, sorry! I just found it ironic. Is all.” I got back into position.
She puffed up her cheeks. “Whatever. Big ol jerk.” She lifted her legs up more for me, silently complying with my request.
Aside from that little mishap, we resumed with little issue. Although I had to contain my laughter so I wouldn’t ruin the mood for her again, not that I needed to because she felt too damn good to laugh at to begin with. The toots from her tight hole also continued for whatever reason but I wasn’t bothered in the least, in fact, the very sounds of them were driving me mad. In the sense it was so hard not ram her through and through and completely stretch her out. Smell is one factor that contributes to my interest, sound and warmth are another and those I could feel my dick throbbing in her for the third or fifth time.
Loona’s smile broadened several margins in between her huffs and pants, eager to see me fold under the weight of the pleasure that her body brung me. And it was gradually working as my pace increased ever so slightly, mashing against her furred bodice with rapturous delight, with the juices from her sweet pink nectar leaking onto my bulging member. The secretion glistened against the thick, dark veins of it as it pumped her body again and again. Each time I dove in with one pump, reaching the end of her anal tunnel, the hellhound moaned softly or harshly depending on the force of my thrusts. All of them sounded just as sweet to me.
I could only infer that I was hitting her prostate, it had to be that if the pleasure she felt was that great each time. She wasn’t squeezing the blankets and sheets as hard as before seemingly but when the going gets good, she’s gonna shred them. “Feels good…doesn’t i…it? Hah..hah, oh f*ck me..” She closed her eyes, embracing the pleasure fully, absolutely, letting her body absorb it all with every passing stroke. Her breasts and the deep black areolas that consumed her perked up nipple, swirled around in circles as her body was rocked timelessly by my own.
Was starting to sweat from the activity and every time I held back from my base urges weakened my resolve the more I did it. Can’t hold out much longer…can hardly think and she…she didn’t cum yet…she’s close but…f*ck man.. I wanted to hang in there, just a little longer. Though my pace was a little faster now, the slapping, plapping sounds of our flesh meeting together in the middle echoed throughout the bedroom, mixing with the current ambiance into something that felt like a sensual combination of lust and passion. It was attractive, it was erotic, it was a shared zeal of unbridled ecstasy.
Loona lifted my chin up, shifting my gaze to her eyes, moaning and staring at me with those sweet, sweet bedroom eyes of hers. The hellhound needed no words to express herself other than that gesture, the licentious moans reverberating from her maw and the heavy panting from it as well. Her gaze was too intoxicating for me to resist when only one of my two good brain cells are working at full capacity during sex. I knew what she wanted me to do but I was desperate to make her feel good, get her to her happy place before me. Strangely, I started shaking my head.
Only for her to nod in return then lean up and lightly chew on my ear. After that, I completely lost all focus and in the next six pumps, dumped everything in her, with a resounding fart rippling from her butthole. A blitzkrieg of pleasure rippling through my body from that certain focal point, booming throughout like a psionic shockwave. In the midst of the euphoric flurry, I had to wonder if she came or not but I was going through it on my end for certain, grunting and even foaming at the mouth from the paralyzing org*sm. And the echoing sensation I felt should be outlawed across the universe. Something like this should not feel this good and yet her ass made me accomplish the impossible. It got to the point where I nearly yelled myself, the hellhound in turn wrapped her arms around my back and playfully bit at my neck, as my throbbing member plowed and pumped every rope it could muster into her anal cavity. So much so, that some of it started leaking out the way it came.
When it finally ended, my toes hurt from curling on the carpet and I don’t know if an org*sm can warp a person’s sense of gravity or memory but how the hell did I end up on her? I could’ve sworn I was still standing up on my own two legs but here I am: having my furry best friend rub my back like I’m some big baby while she hummed the melody of the song we started on. “That…is a lot..I’ve felt you cum in me dozens of times…but this…!” She panted, rubbing my back and closing both of her legs around me. “Now I know a way to make you cum f*cking rivers…I’m never letting it go.”
“My toes hurt…” They still did, that only happens if the org*sm was really strong. Or at least the feeling before it was. Neck didn’t hurt but the phantom marks of her teeth could still be felt. Did…did she give me a hickey?
“When they’re better, we’re going again. We still got…oh hell yeah dude! Two and a half hours to go! That’s enough for three rounds at least.” Her tail wagged swiftly underneath her, enough so that I could feel it through her.
And she calls me a horny rabbit? Granted, she’s out in three or four rounds but that’s exhausting in and of itself. Most nights we just do one or two then call it a night. I was fine with all of that although there was something resting in the back of my mind that bothered quite fiercely.
“Loona. Did I make you…ya know.” I tugged my arm around her torso with the other drifting up to massage one of her breasts. Didn’t matter which one, she enjoyed it all the same.
Case in point, the horny wolf moaned through her humming. “Your shyness is f*cking adorable dude. But no, I didn’t cum. Almost did but no turkey.”
“Oh…that’s, guess I’ll try harder then.” I did my best to hide my disappointment. It’s never fun to have all the fun when bedplay is concerned. I’m a selfish prick, sure, the Goddess is right on the money with that, but never with sex. That is just foul in every sense of the word.
However, Loona’s intuition is as sharp as her nose. Occasionally that is. “Don’t sweat it, you big idiot. You have three more rounds to make it up to me. So go ahead and rest those toes cause you’re gonna make me howl a few times before we go.”
Her reassurance put a big smile on my face, enough that I accidentally got some of her fur on my tongue. “Aghhkk! Dammit! Son of a!” Had to lift my head up and to the side so I wouldn’t spit on the girl who got caught up in a fit of unrelenting laughter.
***
To say my legs hurt would be the understatement of the century; the wolf demon had me running ragged for those three rounds. Loona loved doing anal just as much, if not more, than traditional vagin*l sex. For comparison sake, she adored it because it was “more intense than holding in your sh*t after a taco bell night”. And that intensity, plus the pain and the fact her org*sms made her squirt like a summer sprinkler made it all the more worthwhile. The only downside that she pointed out was that doing it dry was far, far too painful for now. Yes, even after the first two rounds with the lube, we tried it without and she immediately noped out after I barely poked the head in.
That is to say, she is willing to try it again at a later date and after some practice (I saw her looking online for some sex toys). If there is one thing I do bluntly adore about Loona, one attribute that most people would also commend, is her ability to commit to an idea once she has it in her head. That is a winner’s mindset if I ever saw one. She also let me know by the end of it when we were getting dressed that she is comfortable with me putting it in her ass so long as I lube it up first. Given the prep rules I know of, I don’t know how consistent I’ll be when plowing her ass but I’m a brave soul, so it might be a 50/50 shot that I’ll just nut up and shut up.
Almost forgot the other downside to all of our fun: exhaustion. Both me and Loona were thrashed by the time we got our rounds out and when we did, it was hardly forty minutes till the appointment. Worse yet, the girl had the nerve to fall asleep while holding me. I almost wanted to scream. Yet, I thought she deserved at least a few minutes of shut eye so I woke her up twenty minutes till the deadline.
At present, me and Loona were riding the elevator down to the first floor, her stomach rumbling occasionally, yawning often and leaning on me. Smacking her lips too. “Loona, up! Up dammit! You are too heavy to be leaning on me like this.” I tried pushing her up off of me, getting her to stand on her own two feet.
Her counterpoint? Wrap both of her arms around me, forcing all of her weight on me in the same maneuver which lead us crashing into the wall. “Just five…five more minutes daddy.”
She was shoving her whole torso in my face, boobs too but more so her upper belly than those two. “Loona, c’mon…”
“Mmm mmm…don wanna…” She grumbled. Clutching onto me tighter like I’m her big teddy or plushie. “Soft hair…smell good..” One of her arms drifted up to my fuzzy hair and started pulling on it. Sniffing too with that curious snout of hers.
Elevator hit a hiccup, stopping momentarily with the girl shoving more of her body into me and sparking a near odorless gas from her cheeks. She is too big and too hot to be on me like this. This freaking realm is too hot as it is, the added temperature of a living, talking bipedal helldog is cutting it too close. “Off or no enchiladas tonight.”
A tired but playful snarl rippled from her lips before she finally leaned off then went fishing for something in one of her pockets. “You’re no fun.”
“I am plenty fun or was the last two hours not fun enough for ya?” I saw her really digging for whatever it was in her pockets. Having difficulty apparently. The hellhound wore a short pair of pants that stopped down a few inches past her shins, colored grey. For today, she put on a yellow, low-cut, short-sleeved top with a decent portion of her cleavage showing though she would routinely adjust it. It also had this string or lace of some kind that strapped to her shoulder and neck with the pattern very reminiscent of a hexagon at the center just below her neck. Quite the change for her to be wearing colors, especially brighter colors, out in public. Also, she decided to tie her hair in a ponytail before we headed out.
Seems the conversation was waking her up, her eyes going from droopy to wider and wider awake. “Well, it could be more fun if you’d let me rest for a little while then we could…god f*cking dammit, get out of there already!” With one final yank, she managed to pull it free and lo and behold, it was a pack of cigarettes. Then a moment later, the lighter.
Oh yeah, I forgot that she smokes. Wonder what’s the special occasion since she has never done it a day before now. At least, not around me. Thought I might as well come out with it. “What’s the occasion? Never seen you smoke before.”
Her eyes shifted over to me as she fumbled with the flicker mechanism. “This is why.” She lifted her tail and pointed at her butt. “Anal is f*cking intense, dude. Full pun intended.” She chuckled to herself. “Even when losing my virginity to you, it didn’t feel that freaking strong some of the time. Cumming, I mean. Come on you stupid, co*ck sucking…there we go.” A blue flame popped free from the little thing, handed me the box so that she could freely take one out, stuck the brown tip in her mouth then lit it aflame.
She wasn’t entirely wrong and it’s not subjective. Loona had about ten to thirteen to maybe even nineteen org*sms (best way I kept track was either her attempts at howling or the way her claws dig into the sheets and mattress) throughout all possibly nineteen instances. In at least four of those that I saw, the girl would arch her back up, her hair would stand on all ends, her tail floofed up as though it were hit by a bolt of static electricity and the eye rolling. To be fair, the eye rolling is fairly consistent with vagin*l intercourse but that is neither here nor there. It should be mentioned that she can experience powerful org*sms like those during traditional sex but it isn’t as common.
And this is coming from weeks of “data” and personal experience.
The smell of smoke quickly flooded the elevator and that to me, was worse than any of her farts. Just not a fan of people smoking around me. “Guessing you wanted to smoke right after the third round but passed out before you could do it?” I handed her the box back and the elevator doors buzzed open. I wrapped my arm around her waist, guiding her outside. The gesture caused her tail to wag softly.
She blew out a puff of smoke, the small plume drifted about in the air. “Bingo daddy-o. That, and I know you don’t like smoking.” Loona took the cigarette from her lips for a moment, tapped it, letting the ashes hit the ground as we walked to the landlord’s office.
“That obvious, huh?” As if I wasn’t already turning my head away from the plumes when they came my way, sucking in my breath too.
She took another puff, doing a lazy eye roll simultaneously. “I hope you know by the way my eyes are rolling is a tiny indication of how I know.”
I chuckled, tempted to spank her here and now. “Alright, you f*cking smartass. I hear you loud and clear. I heard that smoking relieves stress so that must be why you finally done it in front of me.”
She reached down and playfully pinched my cheek. We are about halfway to the office. “You know what we should buy? For some kinky stuff as well as…well, when you take me for a walk another time.”
Guess that’s her way of saying yes. Kind of treating me like a kid almost, kind of condescending but also…not? It’s weird. Her voice is a lot calmer too, guess smoking for her does help with the stress thing. Just hope there’s no side effects. Wait, does smoking have long-term effects on hellborn? Like it would for us humans? I hope not, my lifespan is pitifully short to demons but I would want her to live a long life. “Kinky stuff? Whatcha mean? That last part sounded like—”
“Exactly what you think.” She took another puff of her cigarette, though her newfound coolness couldn’t conceal her blushing. “I’d like to buy a leash, like an actual dog collar and a leash. Then have you walk me through the neighborhood. Not on fours though, just on two legs for now and absolutely, nothing sexual. You know how I feel about outdoor stuff.”
“No worries, I’ll always respect your boundaries but this? I’m not so sure, Loona. Doesn’t that seem disrespectful to hellhounds to be treated like actual dogs instead of intelligent beings.” Office was coming up and I knocked on it three times.
She shrugged, taking another, smaller puff of her cig. “We’re really just big dogs, Josh. That’s all. And it’s kind of like that thing of how some people, guys and girls so you don’t get it on one side, get off to being humiliated. Some guys like being tools, some girls like being cumrags for some domineering Joe Blow they met two blocks down from their job on a random Tuesday night. Is it really that difficult believing that walking, talking literal hell dogs want to act like dogs?”
“Baa-aa! Who is it?” Thank goodness Cal’al answered because I need some time before making a rebuttal.
“It’s Josh and Loona. Here for the 11:30 appointment.” I reached up to play with her ponytail, with her looking down at me in negligible confusion. “What? I can’t play with your hair but you can do the same to mine? I see how it is.”
The hellhound grinned slyly, shaking her head.
“Ah! I’ve been expecting you two. Please come in.” He answered from beyond the door.
I opened the door for the Loona to enter first then followed right after. There was no need to forcefully shut the door because this door was heavy enough to close on its own. The office wasn’t a mess by any means but it could use some cleaning up here and there. Some candy wrappers were lying on the floor, trash was piling up in the medium sized bin by the desk but there was a large bag waiting by the door waiting to be taken out on trash day. Ceiling fan over us was on max setting, a little too fast for my tastes for how fast that thing seemed to swing in the air as the arms rotated. That always gave me an uneasy feeling and I told Loona the same, thus the setting was usually put on medium and almost never on high. Never the matter, the blinders were a little dusty but nothing too opaque or distracting, it still allowed the red rays above to poke through and I’d say the most egregious thing about this place that stuck out was the paperwork on the old goat’s desk. Aside from the laptop and the monitor, there were five whole stacks of paperwork at the least in the center of the desk.
That was bad enough that he had to consolidate two of them and move them out of the way so he could talk to us directly as we sat down in the two vacant seats in front of the furniture. I should have mentioned this earlier along with the pain I was enduring. Since my legs were still under much stress from the last three rounds, especially the last one from how fast she wanted me to go, my thighs were burning. Begging me to walk slowly and take it easy. Naturally, if my body is having problems, then it stands to reason that hers was as well.
Part of the reason why Loona completely collapsed into a deep slumber before I woke her ass up was because of the pain in her butt. In the most factual sense do I mean this. Loona’s ass was on fire from the agony, which half of it was her fault since she encouraged/baited me to go faster. Yet it’s as the old saying goes: “be careful of what you wish for.” She could hardly sit down without yelping when she attempted to sit on the bed to put on her high socks and asked me to help her put on her pants. That alone took about five or seven minutes.
That said, I had to help her sit down as slowly as possible without her yelping or whining out in pain. Which did warrant some concern from the old goat but I assured him she’s fine. So he was more or less content waiting until we were ready. The most she did was wince in sheer agony but no noises whatsoever. For not whining or suddenly yelling after that, I gave her some complimentary headpats and chin scratches. Much to her liking, speedy tail wagging and kicking. Or stomping. After all that, I sat down myself, somewhat ignoring the pain. Wincing here and there.
The landlord bleeted a couple times, brushed any dust and lint off of his slacks before laying his hands on the desk. They weren’t human hands, they were akin to goat hooves which in itself made me question how he accomplished anything in his position or acquired this job but I shouldn’t worry too much about the specifics.
But how does he pick up the phone though? I cleared my throat and adjusted my seat while waving the smoke out of my face. “So! Mr. Cal’al, it’s good that you were able to schedule us on short notice. Hopefully, the morning hasn’t been too hectic for you.”
“The pleasure is all mine, young man. Miss, if you don’t mind.” He delved into one of his drawers and plucked out an ashtray and pushed it as far as his arms allowed towards her. She took the hint and tapped the ashes into the tray. “You’d be surprised by how many demons smoke these days. Or ever since the first pipe was made. But traffic here is always busy and it’s only gotten worse with the new constituents and issues from other companies penny pinching or attempting to swindle more than what I owe.”
Loona blew a long puff of smoke. “How’s that working out for ya?”
The plume reached him but he didn’t seem the least perturbed by it. “Not well, considering most companies here in this Ring have been contaminated by the Clerks or have been receiving orders from the old lords from Below. It’s…messy. To say the least.” He shrugged, almost as though he’d given up already. “Only a matter of time, I suppose.”
“More taxes and stuff? Orders from them like cuts from the profits you make, pushing certain demons out and letting others in because nepotism?” I proposed.
The goat demon fluffed his wool then tugged his beard. “More or less. But we’re getting off track. You two are here for a sneak peek on what the prices will look like next month. Correct?”
“That’s right, goat f*ck. And they better be the ‘right’ kind of price..” Loona muttered, loud enough for me to hear but enough for Cal’al to squint his eyes in mild confusion.
“Pardon?” He asked.
I elbowed her in her side, without saying anything, my message was clear: behave . She rolled her eyes at me, lapping one leg over the other. That would only hold the girl’s emotions back for so long, knowing her, if something sets her off, then I’d have to physically hold her back. for all the good that does me but I can’t let her hurt our landlord after his reformation by the Goddess’ will. She doesn’t do well when things don’t go her way. Can’t say I blame her but there are more constructive ways of dealing with stress and frustration. I myself have been worrying about this day for a long while now, it’s the whole reason I've been busting my ass saving up as much as possible so we can be ready. But just in case of a rainy day, the money we had on earth that she swiped from the rich jackass who bought her was converted into grutzies and the currency is nearly three times the worth of the USD. And I ain’t good at math but I’m hoping 56k in grutzies is enough to cover the cost of any potential bill he’ll throw at us.
“Nothing, she’s just a little cranky that I had to wake her up this morning. Just needs some food in her, that’s all. As you were saying.”
“Yeah, could go for some sausage links.” She added, smiling. The urge to facepalm was entirely too strong. Gripping my knees was all I could do. “The really big ones, ya know? Nice, big and juicy, really good once you wrap your entire—”
“Can you not for three whole seconds?” I pleaded.
“Literally or figuratively?” She asked, that co*cky grin never fading.
“Ahem!” The landlord cleared his throat, disrupting all conversation. “If I may?” I covered her mouth and nodded for us both. “Good. Now, tenants who live here pay for the standard rent fee, which is,” pulling up on his laptop, squinting then swiftly grabbing a pair of reading glasses, returning to the screen, “two hundred-eighty Yvgrutz. Then there are additional fees, water, electricity, plumbing, which has been happening in your and three other tenants apartments but never mind that plus you two seem to handle it efficiently enough, air conditioning, internet and lastly, the move-in fees. I’m not including parking because neither of you two own a car, the same goes for having a space to park. But generally, that is what everyone pays here per month. Totaling up to seven hundred and eighty Yvgrutz. The price, of course, is subject to fluctuate depending on the usage of each utility.
“Now for you two specifically, I have to include one additional fee to the applicable charges. In addition to what you two would have owed us, your total is one hundred and sixteen thousand, and ninety-four Yvgrutz.” The goat demon folded his hands over the desk, overlapping his hooves together in expectancy.
Now me, being the selfish, penny pincher that I am, already loathe the idea of spending money on pretty much anything. Except when it’s cheap. I know it, I know I’m cheap and it physically hurts sometimes spending so much money. But I can admit there are times where making a big purchase feels good, like when I spent nearly two hundred grutzies on Loona’s gift for Christmas before Thanksgiving. Or after. I forget which. That all being said, my jaw practically fell to the damn floor after hearing that.
Loona was no better; ever wonder how hard it is to get her not only shut the hell up but also stun her so hard she loses all focus and forgets she has a cigarette in her mouth? Indeed, the girl was so starstruck by the price of that which we owe that the entire cigarette fell out of her mouth and hit the floor. And the only reason any of this even registered on a conscious level was because Cal’al had to yell at me to stomp the thing out before it could potentially start a fire.
Like any of that mattered because not one moment after the burned end was stamped out, I had a new problem to contend with. And stop before she turns our kind landlord into stew.
“You…YOU MOTHERf*ckER!!!” The hellhound roared from her seat, loud enough that I believe everyone two floors above us could hear the commotion.
“Miss if you just allow me—”
“Loona, give him a f*cking chance to—”
“f*ck that noise! I’m gonna turn this f*cking bastard into lamb chowder if he doesn’t fix this!” She hopped up from her seat, fists balled, ready to start swinging on him. Mercy was not an option. The only thing keeping our landlord alive was me holding onto her waist in vain, doing my best to hold this girl back from committing manslaughter. Or goat slaughter. “LET GO JOSH! LET GO RIGHT f*ckING NOW!!”
“Dammit girl, sit down and l—”
“To Hell with that bullsh*t! We’ve been saving up for ten f*cking months, I almost got raped three f*cking times, you got shot and got your sh*t pushed in, I almost got f*cking sold by goddamn traffickers just to owe this piece of sh*t a hundred grand?! For what?!! No! Someone is going to—
To be quite honest, my grip was slipping and I wasn’t going to tolerate this behavior any longer. I reached up, grabbed her by those strand things or strings whatever they were and brought her down to my level and boy, the girl looked one step away from becoming nothing more than a mindless beast.
“Sit down.” Putting every ounce of force in my voice.
To little effect, it seems. “Let go of me right f*cking—”
“ This is not a discussion! ” I shouted straight into her face. The tone of which I enunciated was so impactful that it quieted the entire room until the only squeaky spinning of Cal’al’s fan could be heard above. Neither of the two dared speak. The anger and frustration in her eyes did not fade but I saw something else. Something like trepidation or caution. “The time for you to act like a f*cking brat who doesn’t get her way is not how to conduct yourself as a full grown adult. Do you hear me?! I ain’t gonna tolerate it. Not now. Sit your ass down and listen.”
There was this half awkward, half fearful moment of silence where the imminent and perilous eyes of a half-crazed hellhound my own. Mine, I imagine, were filled with enough determination to match her wrathful gaze. I was not gonna let her bully me or the goat (especially after the Goddess made him turn over a new leaf after our arrival) demon just because we’re in a bind. She wants to solve this? I’m with all of that but as things stand, we have to do things somewhat right. And that means for now, hearing him out then assessing the situation after.
Eventually, she conceded by swiping my hand away. Yet in the same token, made a huge mistake. She folded her arms and sat down in her seat. Hitting her spot like a falling rock. What followed was the demon desperately trying not to scream in pain while emitting this low squealing sound with her lips barely parted.
“Loona? You…are you…?” It’s a stupid question to ask because I know the answer.
And her response, although wincing in agony, handled it well enough without being snarky about it. Ears pinned back, eyes wide as pearls, she slowly shook her head back and forth, her face growing redder by the second, the pain was probably unbearable at this point with her squinting her eyes harshly, so much so, that a film of tears began welling up in the corners of her red scleras.
“Does she need any assistance?” Asked the landlord, who should be the last person to say anything in this situation.
I turned to him. “I got this, just, just hold on a sec.” He replied with a nod and I edged closer to my friend who gripped the arm rests so hard, cracks were forming from her unnatural strength.Then I held her by her cheeks, massaging them, rubbing them in circles. “Hey, look at me, alright? Look at me, you’re okay. You’re the toughest hellhound around, right?” Feeding the ego of this bratty woman is never the way to go but I needed to distract her in the best way I knew how while also giving some encouragement. And it was working. In spite of the pure torment her butt was going through, she blinked several times, took several deep breaths, puffing her cheeks and blowing the excess air into my face. “That’s it, you got this. I’m right here with you, I ain’t going anywhere. Not ever.” Speaking cooly, calmly was the correct path I believe to console her through her anguish.
The added bonus was her tail slowly began wagging from my praises. It took the better part of I believe maybe five to ten minutes but finally, she calmed down enough to speak. I think. She never spoke to me, just that she wiped away her tears and, I’m assuming, she either numbed the pain by mental force or it dissipated on its own.
Whichever the case, Loona calmed down considerably enough to light another cigarette from her pack and use my hair as something like a stress ball. Or stress curler or something. Cigarette also seemed to be helping as gradually her eyebrows would become less and less furrowed.
When a couple minutes passed in tranquility, that is when the landlord spoke. “May we resume?”
I glanced up at her, who moved her eyes down at me before taking another long puff and tapping the ashes into the ashtray. “Yeah, yeah, I’ll listen. No more freak outs.”
“Hope not because we need answers right now, okay?” I reached up to itch behind her ears, the girl immediately responded by furiously wagging her tail and resisting the adorable whines that come with it. I leaned up to whisper in her ear, just for extra measure. “Remember, bad girls get punished.” Then sat back down before she could reply. Not that she needed to, the mad blushing from her cheeks were all I needed to know that she’d behave from now on.
Cal’al probably understood on some conscious level what was going on between us but remained neutral. And respectfully silent on the matter. “Right. So the outrageous bill you two owe. There’s probably a pun to be made with those words but I’ll refrain from such backhanded suppositions.”
“Oh no, by all means. This furry weirdo loves a good pun.” It was meant to be a harmless tease but I should’ve read the room better because I had a hard time breathing from that elbow she dished out. “Su…such……a..” Was wheezing out every word because it hurt like a freaking soccer ball came at me at 40 mph.
“Keep at it and you better believe I’m buying two shovels.” She blew a short plume, aimed directly at the goat.
Between my wheezing and glaring at this bratty woman child, I could see the landlord was deeply regretting his choice of words or even mentioning a pun given what just occurred. “Baaa-aaa! My apologies. Sorry. But resuming the matter at hand, you two recall the black out that happened sometime back?”
It’s been awhile since I thought about it but that was a freak incident. Suddenly, right after Loona climaxes, the sign she bought short circuits and cuts the power for several blocks. We don’t know if that’s exactly the catalyst but it seems likely. A few hours afterwards, following the blackout and while the two of us were sleeping off the night, dozens upon dozens of home invasions happened, several stores around us were looted, two were burned down, Keith had to close down his shop early and the way I heard it, the demon was escorted privately by a few gang members watching him to a private location for his safety. His place of work, the burger stand, was also shoved away. For insurance reasons, I’m sure. He didn’t return to work for about a week, maybe two weeks if I’m not mistaken. It was a mess and some places to this day still have not recovered. Particularly those who experienced a violent home invasion during the blackout.
It’s not as though a blackout is stopping demons from committing the act in broad daylight, because I have seen it myself on my way to work with Loona a few times. Some demons posted outside while their buddies ransack the resident’s home. Smartly, none have bothered with our home because it’s practically impossible to get in without the code. The one time we thought it might happen, the girl was alright with fighting me with that metal pipe she had but once she got a look at Loona, she made some comment about us not being worth it and walked away empty handed.
I digress. Demons are unafraid of committing evil acts in the open, the reason it happened en masse was due to the mass confusion. Opportunistic bastards.
“Yeah, I remember.” I said.
“Same. Couldn’t forget about that night. It was a good time.” Loona smiled, her tail wagging, probably reminiscing of the fond memories of that night. She leaned forward after taking another small inhale. “What about it?”
Cal’al flapped his gums before speaking. “Well, take a look at this.” He turned his monitor around for us to see. It was a graph showing an enormous spike at one point before returning to regularity a couple sections later. “Before this upstart in activity as you can see here,” he used his cursor to show the activity before the big spike, “electrical usage was normal. And this accounts for the entirety of the complex I run. Down at the bottom details each month, accounting for the average electrical usage for that month.” He moved the mouse over to the spike. “This here shows the immense power surge that occurred two months ago, on November 29th in the year of our benevolent Goddess, is when it happened. I had some electricians and other engineers, even some IT people too come trace down the source of the catastrophe. It happened in your two’s bedroom at around 2:56 a.m.” He turned to us, his expression quite serious.
“Could either of you tell me exactly what caused this or could you give me your best guess? I have over half a dozen companies breathing down my neck for answers on how this was caused. Measures need to be put into place so it cannot happen again. Why? Well, because of all the looting and killing, they lost millions, one even tens of millions of Yvgrutz because of it.”
Slowly but very surely, I craned my neck towards my friend who just so happened to turn into a model citizen before my eyes. She stamped out her current cigarette, straightened out her posture, placed both of her hands on upper knee while crossing her legs over another and developed a sudden interest at how fast the ceiling fan was going. Surprisingly, she blushed but not as much as I thought she would. The point is, this girl is in a lot of trouble for the stunt she pulled, well intentioned or not.
I am not letting this go. You hear me, Loona? That ass is grass and no amount of begging is saving you. I cleared my throat and turned my gaze back to him. “Sad to say it, but I’ve no clue how it happened. If I’m a betting man, which I’m not, I’d say it was the new lights I installed into our bedroom.”
“Lights? As in, new bulbs?” He asked, slowly. His wary eyes drifted between me and Loona.
Just keep talking, make it up as you go. “Yeah, new lights. Lightbulbs. Same difference. Bought it off of a website, checked the reviews and everything. Adjustable from supernova to dim as a dimly lit, uhh, cavern or something. Bought them cause the ones we had blew out and I thought those would do a better job than the one we already had. Turns out, they weren’t since they short circuited a couple days after use.” I fidgeted with my hands before stopping altogether.
“Which site did you purchase it from?” He turned his monitor back around and began typing on his laptop.
Either he’s actually buying into the bologna sandwich I’m feeding him or he’s going with it because someone has to take the blame for this. “The uhh, what’s it called…starts with a ‘r’? Ends with a—”
“Is it runedragon.com?” He suggested, making a few clicks with his mouse.
“Yeah! That one. Usually purchase my stuff from there. So will they pay our debt or?” I didn’t do it physically but mentally, I was crossing my fingers hoping it was true.
He shook his head. “What you two owe was the minimum I was able to talk down the companies, investors and other greedy fools about the price. Initially, you two would have owed them upwards to fifty million in damages and stolen goods, plus them being out of business for a few days hurt them deeper than you’d expect.” He seemed busy with his mouse, clicking furiously between whatever was going on his screen, eyes darting quickly between different selections.
I nervously began raising my hand, like I was back in school sheepishly about to ask a question. “Uhh…Cal’al? Can I—”
He held up one patient hoof. “One moment, Mr Joshua.” Then picked up a phone, one of those old curly, wired phones and stepped out of his seat, speaking with whoever was on the other line.
Judging by Loona’s ears, that flipped up and side to side, it’s possible she could hear some things from the conversation. She glanced my way, narrowing her eyes, seeing something that truly bothered her by how closely she pushed her muzzle in my face. She pulled away and began digging in her left back pocket for something. Normally, in these types of situations I wouldn’t have minded helping her dig whatever out of her pocket but I was still mad about the whole thing two months ago that landed us in a sh*t ton of debt. I completely understand the motive and what she was going for and yet I can’t stop myself from being mad at her for buying the stupid thing. Am I wrong for being mad at her? I feel like I am but I can’t change how I feel about this. Accident or not, debt ain’t no joke; it’s the whole reason why I avoided going to college and started working immediately after high school. Even got a government job while I was learning a trade on the side.
The hellhound ended up growing frustrated enough, huffing and all, leaning forward to grab the item she was foraging for and handed it to me. “Here. Your lips are a little chapped.”
I made an “excuse me” face at her. I wasn’t offended but this really wasn’t the time for that. “What in the, girl put that away. We don’t got time for that.”
“Look, I know you’re mad at me but taking care of your health is important.” She pushed the cosmetic item further my way.
“It’s just lips, for f*ck’s sake.” I groaned and took the thing, applied it immediately. Was hoping the goat would hurry up with the phone call. I was in a mood and I needed to be alone for a minute, yes, even away from Loona for now. Just need some silence. Need time to think.
“Sure but,” She leaned downwards to whisper in my ear, “I like my kisses to be buttery smooth from those beautiful lips you got.” She pulled back and lucky for her, Cal’al was wrapping up with his phone call.
Loona meant it that the kiss we shared on that Christmas party was the only time she’d let me kiss her on the lips. So any other time that I stupidly got too close to hers, she’d either push me away, cover my lips with her fingers or redirect me to her cheek. I’d always apologize for my behavior and breach of contract but she never took it too harshly or in a way that screams I offended her. Instead, all I saw was a sweet smile and a tease for what was to come later.
Assuming she’s developing any feelings for me, that is.
I didn’t reply even with her words burning up my face, instead, all I did was hand her her lip balm back and straightened my back because it seemed like the goat had some news to share with us.
He cleared his throat, scooted his chair closer to the desk then overlaid his hooves over the other. “That was one of the companies involved in the current kerfuffle we all find ourselves in. I pinpointed the culprit of runedragon.com and they are ready to seize all of their assets within the next few days.”
A pint of hope filled what little space left in my soul. “Does that mean, does it mean we—”
“It means, Mr. Joshua, you two still owe the aforementioned amount in full by the deadline given.”
Feels like that pint just missed its mark, spilling over onto the floor. Sinking into the cracks, never to rise again. Seems like my jaw was hanging again because I felt Loona push my jaw up. “Uhh, thank you.” She winked at me, trying on her best smile in light of the grim news. “What happens if we fail to meet the deadline?”
Cal’al looked away for a moment then back at us. “They stated that the two of you will lose all of your assets: home, food, home appliances, jewelry, everything and anything of value. Furthermore, she,” gesturing at Loona without pointing or even looking her way, “will be sold to one of the old lords in the second Ring as collateral. Raziel. One of Lucifer’s first followers. He…has a peculiar interest in hellhounds. Bipedal or otherwise.”
This time, Loona’s was more than justified and twice as fiery. Standing up so swiftly she knocked down her chair. Her tail spiked and her claws ready to cleave and lacerate any and all. “And you’re just going to let them?!! I am NOT anyone’s f*cking pet! Do you f*cking hear me??!” She slammed her palms on the desk, causing the landlord to bleet and shrink in his chair. “I belong to no one but him. I would rather die a thousand deaths than to ever be with some prick who defected from Heaven. YOU GOT THAT?!!” She roared at the top of her lungs.
Cal’al was understandably fearful of his immortal life and if what my furry friend says is true, sometimes when demons are “killed” they come back worse than before. And I don’t think she meant in the power up way but in the mentally debilitating sort of way. Physically also. The goat’s yellow eyes looked at me, pleading for help. And to be honest? I truly was thinking about letting this play out, maybe even letting her kill him and we’ll find a way to skirt everyone. Staying together, keeping the both of us afloat and defying everyone.
But that is the stuff for dreamers and I often think of myself as a realist. This is the reality I live in and debts have to be paid once they are made. It’s unfortunate but it is the way of things. Additionally, I do not think we could outrun multimillion dollar companies in Hell who are not afraid to use violence to get what they want. In fact, I think they endorse it. In any case, I got up from my seat and gently pulled her back, growling and snarling at the landlord.
Thankfully, she listened but I stood in front of her to be certain she didn't try anything. “You mentioned a deadline, when is the money due?” I seriously don’t know how the f*ck we’re going to pay all of that back. At best if the two of us work overtime for the next two months, we’ll make about ten grand. And that is being generous while discounting costs for food cause that girl eats up almost everything I buy.
With some courage mustered, Cal’al finally sat up but scooted the wheels on his chair back. “Y-Yes, ahem, the deadline. Normally, we, er, we expect all of our constituents to bring their dues by the first of every month and—”
“Excuse me? The f*cking what now?!” The hellhound bellowed and once more, I had to hold her back and was barely managing that much.
He pulled up the laptop, folded it and used it to cover his face. Completely shutting off the visual for the monitor. “I-I can make an exception! In the name of Her Majesty, of course. Instead of the first you two will have until the eighth but I cannot extend it any longer.” Loona’s snarling intensified by bearing all of her flesh-tearing teeth yet as the goat stated, he couldn’t lengthen it any longer. “I’m sorry miss, but that’s as far as I can go.” Had to give it to the old man, even in the face of a woman who’d legitimately rip his body in bloody shreds, he feared the consequences of the higher ups than what she could ever do.
Enough to deny her when she’s ready to make a meal out of him. I spoke before she could. “It’s fine. We’ll have the money by then. Be seein’ you.” I grabbed her by her arm. “Come on you, we need to make plans. After your punishment.”
Reluctantly, the girl huffed and turned on her heel, following me out of the door, undoing her ponytail and whipping elongated hair around, fluffing it with her hands. As we left, I thought I heard the landlord breathe a heavy sigh of relief just as the heavy door slammed behind us. In that he can find solace in.
Loona snatched her arm from me only to bump her elbow into my side. “I know I f*cked up with the light thing back during your birthday, but do I really need to be punished for it? I’ve been a good girl otherwise.”
“You bullied the landlord into giving us more days and threatened to kill him.” I pointed out.
She sucked her teeth. “Tch! Oh I’m sorry, sorry I wanted extra days so we’d figure this sh*t out. Sorry I don’t want to be sold to some traitor angel, sorry I don’t want to be some butt slave to someone who isn’t my f*cking bff. Sorry if I don’t want to lose the only person who—”
“Okay! I f*cking get it Loona! Thank you.” The girl didn’t believe me and began walking ahead until I grabbed her by the arm, halting both of our movements. “I mean it, you gave us more breathing room and I couldn’t be more grateful.”
“Sure have a funny way showing it.” She added, turning around, taking her arm back and folding both of them under her chest.
“You have your moments to be angry, let me have mine.” She appeared as though she had more to say but thought better of it seemingly, and let it go. “Besides, before we talk about your punishment, there’s something else. Loona, I don’t own you. You’re your own person. Thoughts, feelings, emotions, all that bullsh*t.”
Her gaze shifted from the door to the landlord’s office then back to me. Her crimson-white hot eyes appeared very mesmerizing under the red glow that is Hell’s unwithering light. In this crimson shade, they made her eyes “pop” more than usual, especially her pupils. They almost looked purple in a way.
“Thought I made it clear, didn’t I? As your friend with benefits, I swore to never sleep with another guy other than you. So in a way, yeah, you do own my body.” The end of that sentence cause her tailbone to swish left to right in gratification. “Also, it’s cause I find the idea more hot that way, endearing, but sexy as hell.”
I almost wanted to reprimand her for this but there’ll be time for that later. “Big ass weirdo.” I say, moving closer while wrapping my arm around her waist, much to her comfort. The rest of the walk to the elevator then to our apartment door in complete silence. My thoughts were encapsulated with my false bravado that I put up in the office in front of Cal’al and Loona about how I’ll have the money by the eighth of the next month. When in truth, I was freaking the f*ck out internally. Screaming at myself in my head of how freaking stupid how I’ve been acting, how I did act just then.
Was I high? Or freaking drunk?! What the f*ck was I thinking! Where the hell are we gonna get that kind of money? Have to think, need a way to solve this, we don’t got the kind of money to settle the debt we owe. Maybe, maybe we start…no, no, no, no! Just because we live down here or I live down here to be specific, does not mean I have to stoop to their level. Yet part of me wondered, that one part of me that was brave enough to ask the question. But what if there is no other choice? It’s you or them and they have this mentality every day, you’ve seen it day in and day out: live kidnappings, home invasions, muggings, rapes, children sold to some weirdos, hangings, public executions, gang executions, brawls, they don’t care about morality. Never have. So why should you?
Maybe I was wrong earlier. Maybe it is a bad idea to be alone with my thoughts for too long. When I finally realized where I was and what exactly was happening, I felt even more grateful she was nearby.
I was sitting in the middle of the sofa, head facing the ceiling while out of the southern left corner of my eye, Loona laid her back against the arm of the furniture with her legs resting over my lap and her hair drifting down the side. My mind was so frazzled by the current dilemma we face that I didn’t even register when or how we entered our apartment. There was no speaking between us but it is evident that the two of us had our minds full of questions but never quite the right amount of answers. Particularly the one to settle our biggest predicament.
Then after a long, long silence, she asked. “You still mad at me?”
“A little.” I answered.
“Still plan on punishing me?”
“Yeah.” I answered.
She nodded then allowed for another gap of silence to pass before speaking again. This time, with far more worry in her voice and turning my gaze towards her. “Josh. What are we going to do?”
Truth was, I don’t know. Not yet. “We’ll be alright, Loona. We’ll figure something out.”
Act II
Setting the Price
When me and Loona had the meeting to see the landlord, that was the 14th of January, today it is the 2nd of February and I’m currently waiting in the living room, ready to go. The time is half past six, I have my pistol on me as part of our rules for going out only she never said this was a date. All she said was that she wanted to head somewhere that might help us get out of our current debt situation. And I don’t know exactly where we’re going either. Much has happened since then.
For starters, let me speak of the lascivious activities that we engaged in since then. So Loona was dead serious about buying the collar and leash. Which felt sort of redundant because she already wears a choker daily (the one I bought her and she almost never takes it off except to wash) because that would have potentially been used as a collar. Minus the hook. Still, I liked what she got; a gold-buttoned collar with a black overlay as the main theme. As always the girl likes things or all things that are edgy so the “buttons” while gold were spiked up and the little hook to attach the leash had a maneuverable angle. Essentially, the hook can be spinned around to the back, side or front. The leash had a couple of functions like administering a small shock to her if she didn’t behave or listen, a full stop button, adjustable length with even a custom button to allow a certain amount of length at one time. With a maximum of 4.4 meters in length and a standby length of 1.5 meters.
She also said we can do it casually instead of making it a special occasion deal. Me personally, I still felt weird about all of this but given that I am an individual who gets off to the rancid gas of a woman’s hindquarters, I don’t really have any room to shame others in the kink world. Except foot fetishes. I will never miss a beat to shame the foot people and not a thing, human or demon could ever stop me from doing it.
Jokes aside, we haven’t done anything like that, not with our looming problem lingering over us. Not yet that is. We made it our mission to do it after the debt has been solved.
Regarding another matter is Loona’s pestering of when or how I would punish her. Initially, she thought I would be spanking her, as she bent herself over the couch the moment we came home and waited for me to do it, but instead, I pulled up her garments and told her it’s not spanking or rough sex with a lot of choking (she loves getting choked, albeit, not too fiercely and it can involve my hands or my schlong). That’s when she got on her knees and tried the other method, that is to say, giving me a bj in exchange to not do any chores. Performing a very provocative gesture with her thumb and index finger, tongue drooping out and a look that almost made me buckle. When I refused, she attempted begging like a puppy would. Amusing as it was to picture her struggling in the kitchen, I honestly felt offended that she’d go that far not to do it so I brought her up to her two feet and assured her that as long she does her chores and mine for the following two weeks, except cooking and without fail, she won’t be in charge preparing the food at all. Along with one other thing.
“What other thing?” She said to me.
I felt myself grinning. “Just one thing that you are uncomfortable with doing. No, it’s not any sleep stuff, not public sex, and it’s certainly not breaking your one and only dealbreaker.”
She sniffed, eyes narrowing in on me. The skepticism practically oozed off of her. “Then, what? I don’t understand.” Her ears flattened, displaying a sense of confusion or slight sadness.
“Simple.” I remember not trying to fall for her tricks. “You,” I poked her chest lightly, touching her right breast, “at the time of my choosing, will be on top.”
Loona spent the better half of that day and the next few days trying to convince me of any other kinky thing we can do that does not involve her being on top. Her bottom ass is too spooked to be a cowgirl for one night. But the truth is she’s affrighted of the possibility she might kill me. Her strength is beyond that of your typical female hellhound and what happens when a physically gifted woman is on top of a man one evening and gets too excited during the act? Yes, that is correct. Broken pelvis. Contrary to what the internet preaches or jokes about, it is not a sight nor a pleasure anyone would ever want to experience. And she doesn’t want to lose control of herself in that moment or moments while on top.
Which is why I had to levy the punishment somewhat to ease her nerves. She’ll still be on top but I’ll be the one driving the stick home. The time of her punishment has not yet come. Not yet.
On the other side of things, some interesting developments have occurred. Besides the growing headache that is the debt we had to pay, me the hellhound would pass around ideas on how to make money quicker. Because even if the both of us were working overtime to help raise money to pay off the debt, it would barely scratch 10k in the next three weeks. She suggested picking up a couple contracts the day after. It took me a solid five seconds to realize what kind of “contracts” she had in mind. It was a direct reference to her work before being brought to life.
I was hesitant to allow this and actually, I stood against it because outside of that one episode, it doesn’t really prove much. The episode was purposely propped up to show what the members could do (given the budget) against a small army of barely trained agents as they were not taken seriously at all. Now I fully understand that she is strong, agile and all of that but this Hell is a different playground. Some of these demons do not play around, others possess powers, and there are those whose influence runs deep. Very deep. She doesn’t strike me as a quiet killer and I said as much but she protested that she could work on it.
In the end, I was being selfish and didn’t allow it. I was much too concerned for her safety to give her a chance. She didn’t speak to me for the rest of the day as a consequence. Her silence seemed to say, “why don’t you believe in me?” And to that I would’ve answered, “I do, but this kind of work comes back to us, one way or another and I can’t have you place not just yourself but me in jeopardy if you get into it.”
That was more or less how I interpreted her quietude.
Another thing that happened about two days after that talk is the rampant gun lessons she drilled into me. Before, the lessons were done sparingly such as the weekends or if we had some time to kill. An example would be if she were to pick me up, she’d pick our favorite spot which was an abandoned sewer drain pipe, big enough to house entire camps of homeless demons if they wanted to. We discovered this place on one of our detours when the gang violence would ramp up some nights and stayed inside until it was safe to exit. It’s actually very out of the way as well, not quite out of Clerk territory but far enough that their reach is negligible at best.
Yeah, it was that far away.
Anyway, we’d head there and pick out bottles, jars, cans, watermelons in some cases, plastic containers and use them as target practice. That was how target practice went before but since that day, she ramped it up to a twenty. Drilling me on taking cover, aiming down the sights, keeping my breath steady as I shoot, understanding the recoil of my gun, never shoot from the hip unless I am guaranteed to hit the target and more. Ducking, diving, hitting moving targets, she even bought a few things online to help with the obstacle course she trained me to use within that tunnel, how to clean and maintain my pistol, what to do if the gun is jammed, so on and so forth. One of the more important ones was the quickdraw.
For more than three weeks she did not let up with the lessons and sometimes used it against me when I was feeling frisky. If I wanted to bang her? Ten laps around the course and my shots have to be at minimum within the third ring for the painted targets or no hellhound puss* (or ass) for me. The least she’d do is jerk me off in bed and clean me up with a tissue after but that was it. Throughout all this time, I had no idea why she was so hellbent on making my aim as perfect as possible. Because her goal was for my aim to be like hers or as close to hers as she can get me.
“It goes like this,” she said to me, while sitting on an empty oil barrel, checking the magazine to her pistol before slipping it back in, “Moxxie, Blitzø, me then Millie. Millie can use a gun but her aim is atrocious at times and she generally prefers to cut her targets up. That big red axe being her go-to for pretty much all occasions. My aim is fine, not the best, not the worst but much more consistent than Millie’s and can one hand it. In that case, don’t. Two hands to keep your aim steady. Blitzø is on the higher end since he can use rifles and marksmen weapons, which take a lot of precision and patience. That takes a lot of practice, specifically with those kinds of guns and we can’t afford to spend that kind of money as most of our checks go to buying ammo these days.
“Then there’s fatty. He is the absolute best shot of the four of us and can use pretty much any weapon to its fullest potential. Even Blitzø compliments him on how good his aim is and that’s because that little sh*t is too hyper focused on guns in the first place. That and he grew up in a mob family so there’s that. Blitzø boiling his skills down to ‘give him any gun and he’ll get the job done.’ You don’t have to worry about getting on those guys’ levels, just get on mine and you’ll be decent.”
And as the thrilling drilling sessions and obstacle courses flew by, my aim got better and better. Even when there were days I just wanted to give up and throw the damn gun as far as I possibly could. But I stuck with it because I believe this is all for self-preservation as well as for her protection. In terms of how good I was it’s a lot better than Millie’s but not quite there to Loona’s aim. Almost but not quite. Straight from the wolf’s mouth.
Which finally brings us to the present with me leaning against the partition while she uses the bathroom before we go. I told her not to have any of the brownies right after she just had eight pieces of jerk chicken, a small bowl of chili, fries, and a healthy bowl of salad stacked with tomatoes, peppered onion slices, olives, cucumbers and red peppers. Told her fat ass not to eat them because the concoction would not mix well with her stomach. Hyper metabolism be damned; it would not sit well with her but she didn’t listen to a damn word I said and ate four of them. Now look at her, the girl stuck to her stubborn ways and has been on the toilet for the past fifteen minutes.
I harrumphed to myself. Serves her right. Dumb dog wouldn’t listen. Anyway, she still hasn’t told me where we’re going. Maybe it’s just more practice? Nah, can’t be. We’ve been lazing around all day from yesterday’s lessons. sh*t that one was brutal. Finally, I could hear the toilet doing its work. More than once. Goddammit please tell me she didn’t clog the f*cking thing again…
Oh boy, do I have news for you. The Goddess's cheery voice, nearly chuckling with every word she enunciated, rang strongly in my head.
You just love seeing me suffer, don’t you? It was rhetorical, the cosmic woman above is a well-known sad*st at this point. After I asked the question, by no means is this an exaggeration, I felt my cheek being pinched by her. The woman was obviously very entertained by all of this. Like we’re some television show and she’s laid back in her throne watching it all unfold. Bet she has popcorn on standby too.
A few moments later, the silver-grey backed hellhound finally emerged from our bedroom looking extremely relieved. “Okay, next time, I’ll take your advice on the brownie thing. But can you blame me?” She approached me, her paws barely making a sound on the cheap carpet. As she came closer, the pleasant aroma from her hands brushed gently against my nose.
“Yes. It’s your own damn fault and I told you the mixture wouldn’t sit well with your stomach. No matter how fast it digests food, some things—”
She held her hands up in defense, trying to stop me from lecturing her. “Okay, okay! I get it daddy. I’ll listen from now on. Oh wait, hold on a sec…” The wolf demon lifted her leg up and a slew of foul, nose wrenching dirty bombs echoed from her furry ass for a solid fifteen seconds. As if the clogged toilet wasn’t enough but now I have to endure and hide my erection from her ass blasts. When it ended, she sniffed it and from the looks on her expression, she liked them. “Whew! Lucy’s big fat man titt*es! Those are some ripe ones!” She laughed, wafting the stench towards me.
I made no attempt to appear “disgusted” because I truly liked them, also because I had to confirm something with her. The only thing I did do, was attempt to hide my erection by leaning against the counter facing forward. God they smell so good. “Nice. But you’re unclogging the toilet when we get back. And stop calling me that.”
“Affirmative on the first thing and negative on the second.” She brushed her bangs out of the way. Loona tonight was wearing a long pair of purple velvet leggings, very breathable by the looks of them, stretchy too, and a pink short-sleeved top to go with it, showing very little cleavage. A deep red buckle over her waist with a silver outline for the metal, and she was wearing her choker this evening. No makeup tonight. I won’t lie, it’s been sometime since I’ve seen her dress so brightly and with modesty.
Something’s up. Ain’t no way she’s dressed like that for no reason. And no makeup? Not even a little eyeshadow or mascara? Aw hell naw, something ain’t right. She still looked beautiful, there is no doubt about that but it’s a little odd seeing her without it. As for me, just a simple relaxed-fit pair of deep blue jeans and a plain black tee. Didn’t feel like embracing my inner weeb or nerd tonight. Tonight is the night to be semi-normal.
“How very ladylike of you.” I leaned back on the divider, flipping from forward to leaning it on my back. Mainly because my erection had vanished, though the smell remained pungent in the air.
The gothic hellhound scoffed.“Tch. Acting ‘like a lady’ is overrated anyway. At least in that way. Don’t see why most chicks have a problem with it anyhow, knowing I can smell their funky asses 24/7. Eugh.” She drew closer, rubbing the stubble on my chin, her grin faded then pulled away. The demon pouted, putting up her lower lip and creasing her pretty eyebrows.
“What?” I asked, shrugging.
“Did you have to get a trim? I miss your beard.”
“I mean, it’ll grow back. Sides, do you know how itchy that thing was?” I rubbed the side of my face, consciously refusing to dig my nails in the stubble otherwise the itch would worsen. got the trim a couple days ago though i made it a point to the barber to not touch my hair.
She lifted an eyebrow and shifted her weight to one leg. “Dude, you’re talking to a literal dog from Hell. With fur . I itch way more than you do. Speaking of,” she turned around, slightly bending over and made the signal for me to itch her butt. To make things easier, she lifted her tail for me too.
I didn’t mind it and itched her round behind. “Fine, fine. Point taken. You gonna tell me where the hell we’re going tonight? I didn’t shower and get dressed just to itch your ass and walk around all night.”
“Higher…a little to the left…ooo! Yes! Yes! Right f*ckin…!” Now she was kicking or stomping from the relief, tail swinging frantically left to right. “Whew, needed that.” I caught the hint and stopped itching as she turned around. Her expression was different. Not agonized or disappointed, no, aside from the relief, she appeared nervous. “It’s a surprise and something I think would help us with the debt situation.”
“That doesn’t answer my question. What are you hiding, Loona?” I folded my arms and leaned off the partition, suspicious of that look she had on her face.
“Pfft! Dude, don’t worry, it’s nothing too big, unless we’re talking about what’s inside your pants cause damn! That thing is a lady killer.” More giggling but they also seemed troubled, if a little forced. “Come on, I see you’re locked and loaded and so am I so let’s get a move on while the night is still young.”
***
On the way to our destination (she still wouldn’t tell me) I couldn’t help but notice a gradual theme setting in. And that would be the presence of one of, if not the most powerful crime syndicate in the Ninth Ring: the Clerks. Wanna know how I know they’re affiliated with the gang? All members either have tattoos, merchandise or attire of their trademark symbol. Which is a man (sometimes demon) sitting behind a desk holding out his hand for a wad of cash to be placed in it. Which makes sense since that’s a core function of being a clerk in an ordinary job which is handling money transactions, especially cash related ones.
Yet it is used in the manner of the people owing them money or it could be in an ironic taste. I digress.
They were everywhere, you could hardly step two feet past one concrete block without seeing one of them. They were the bikers, the bouncers, the strippers, the tenants, some acting as loiters, the younger demons would wear the merchandise of their parents and play cop and robber. With real weapons judging from the blood and cuts I’ve seen. The shoe cobblers, the tailors, the car mechanics, the penny pinchers, the brokers, the landlords, and tons more. This entire section of the Ninth Ring is dense with their presence which made me grip Loona’s waist a little tighter. Most, if not all, were packing heat in some kind of way, handguns, submachine guns, revolvers, automatic rifles, some even held rocket launchers, some held sniper rifles in rarer cases. I made the mistake of looking up at the building to my far left and saw two demons smoking and talking. Posted up by them were two high caliber rifles.
The mistake part came into play when one of them noticed me and intentionally shot at my foot and missed by a hair. Could hear the two of them laughing it off from afar while Loona urged me to cross the street with her. Don’t know the deal with the two assholes on the top of the roof that wanted to shoot at me but I ain’t about to find out.
If I could describe the place, the building infrastructure partially reminded me of Five Points in Manhattan and in other parts, Seneca. The main differences are obvious but it is surprisingly cleaner than the area we live in. Guess the gang here aren’t fans of a dirty city. Or maybe their boss is. Which called into question how is crime handled here if the criminals are in charge? Well, minus Lōd that is. And some speculate that he is deep in the Clerks’ pockets as far as financing them. Could see it, with all this weaponry and merchandise they’re selling. No doubt that cheap bastard isn’t raking in some of the profit.
When we arrived at our destination, assuming this is it, I was so glad because one, my nerves were on edge and two, I was beyond ready to confront her why we’re here. The only reason why I didn’t was because I was too concerned with making sure she was safe and no one was eyeing her in a perverse way. Bloodshed this deep in criminal territory would be the dumbest mistake of the century. Yet in a twist of shocking events, any aggressors turned out to be not so aggressive after all. Who woulda thunk?
At best, the demons in this area would’ve done some catcalling, whistling, flashing themselves to get some sort of reaction out of her. I’m surprised the demons here have so much self-constraint; if it were back in our neighborhood, there would have been at least four or more rape attempts. Really made me question the morality of this part of the Ring.
The building Loona was eyeing up from across the street was lit with brighter lights for all the windows, greatly illuminating the night sky, heavily manned with guards at every level from just this point of view and who knows how many were out of view. The structure itself was centered in between two main roads so that when cars come from the road coming from the front, the street branches off into two different streets altogether. It also has its own sidewalk. I dunno if that’s a flex or not but I can dig it. The name of the building itself was in a bright red logo in all cursive: Second Sun .
With all that said, I was barely holding in my frustration with her and her stubbornness. So the moment she tried to cross to the other side even when it was clear, I held her back. “Uhh, Josh? We’re supposed to cross? You know, to get to the other—”
Unfortunately, I was all out of patience. I needed answers on why we’re in Clerk f*cking central where virtually any reaction we do can land us on the sh*t list of the mob. “Loona. Right now. Tell me.”
The hellhound could sense the rage brewing in my voice so she intentionally softened her own voice. “Look, I’ll tell you when we’re inside to see the guy we need to talk to. So can w—”
“Right. Now.” I ordered.
She held up her hands, letting her ears flatten. “So…don’t be mad…”
“You already done f*cked up by bringing me to one of the most dangerous areas in Chronesborough. If it’s not the most dangerous. And I’m all out of patience.”
She clasped her hands nervously together. “Well technically, we’re not in Chr—”
This time, I wasn’t the one who interrupted her. Some demoness with the head of an angry pumpkin and saggy breasts, stalks for limbs and smelling like cheap beer. “Move already! Ya mangy, carpet munching, sh*t eating, f*ckin mutt!” She took another swig of her drink after shoving the hellhound away but I pulled the girl closer to me. “Jeez louise! Tryna’ cross and a stupid dog and her stupid owner won’t pop socking move…dumbass…tourists who can’t even…” The rest of her ramblings became lost as she walked away from us. Along with the rest of any demons who wanted to cross. I saw her take another huge sip of her drink, then held her stomach before burping out fire.
“Rude ass bitch!” She yelled, flipping up her middle finger while the pumpkin headed woman did the same in return. “Thanks for that. Have I told you I really like the smell of your hair? Which oil did you—”
It was a little tough but I managed to pull her face down some, cupping her furry visage in my hands. Much to her flustering and slight tail wagging. “You know I don’t like repeating myself. So tell me now or if you don’t, not only are we heading back home but you’re also making your own dinner for the rest of the short ass time we got until the deadline.”
She sighed softly, pulling herself away, her breath smelled of the dinner we ate before leaving. Hot brownies coming after. “This part of the Ninth is called the Green Kings. Supposedly where all the mob bosses for the Clerks live.” Her tail was on the fritz, possibly due to strong anxiety or fear. But what does she have to fear? The hellhound hugged her underside of her arms. “Here on this street, one of the big, I’m talking big big, mob bosses for the Clerks is inside that building. Word was from what I gathered from taunting and more or less, tricking some loser customers at my job for information, he likes to frequent the place.”
“This place?” I took a long gander at the building, how it divided the two streets on its own merit. It appeared imposing to be truthful, important, vital even. What conversations could be held at a gargantuan station like this? “What’s it for? Is it a casino or something?”
She shook her hand, as if to say “ maybe ”. “The guy said it’s rumored to have an exclusive underground casino a couple floors below or in the basem*nt, like how people on earth skate around the law when the US outlawed alcohol. Anyway, it’s more like a club. Pool, drinks, hookers, all of that and more. He hangs out here due to ‘sentimental’ reasons.” She put in air quotes.
“Whatever that means.” I finished for her. Then it hit me hard enough for me to do a double take. “Wait, time out for a second. How do you know about the Prohibition era?”
“I know right?” She shrugged, it was clear she was becoming more and more comfortable speaking. “You-know-who didn’t just supply me with a crap ton of knowledge about this Hell’s history, ya know. She put some stuff about earth’s history in my head too. Plus this.” She took out her phone, demonstrating the mini computer in her hands before shelving it back in her pocket. “I’m not always surfing social media while on my phone, doofus.”
“Right, cause you’re only surfing social media ninety percent of the time. And the other ten percent is looking up positions we can try in bed.” Her only response was blowing a few strands of hair from her right eye. “What was your plan, then? Go in and ask for a loan? I do not like the idea of debts, Loona. It’s the whole f*cking reason I refused going to college after high school. It’s a never ending battle with these institutions for ‘higher education’ and they always want more. Greedy sons of bitches..”
She held her hand up, trying to calm me down. “Easy there, just breathe and let’s stay on track. A loan isn’t what I had in mind. My thinking was go in, talk to the big guy in charge and ask to do a job big enough that he’ll use his connections to clear us of our debt. Or pay it off completely.”
And why the f*ck would that work? We’re nobodies, why would one of the head honchos trust us to do a high stakes job other than to be fodder or a no loose ends deal? We get caught and die? No skin off his back and he doesn’t have to lose a single penny. But… I took a small step away from her, glancing at the large building in the distance, compared to the other lights in this district or square, that building burned the brightest. The shiniest star in a field of dimming lights.
Can’t hesitate now, especially with her sniffing my hair for some reason. Time is running out and this very well could be…wait a second! “That’s why you’ve been on my ass about gun training!” I pushed her muzzle away from my hair. “You needed me to be ready for a dangerous job the fastest way you knew. You sleaky motherf—”
“Hey, it worked, didn’t it? You’re a much better shooter than you were before although you still need actual field experience. So for this one, you might want to take the back seat.” Her tail wagged behind her, not out of exhilaration but from anxiety I believe. “So! Ready to meet the big man now?”
“Yes. I am. I’ll go talk to him, you wait here, I’ll make sure he’ll listen.”
Loona’s tail stopped wagging altogether and her expression changed from fidgety anxiety to eye-twitching frustration that solidified itself into a hardened glare. “Might wanna run by that me again? I didn’t hear that the first time.”
Tread carefully. Need to give her a reason to trust me on this one. “I’m a relatively smooth talker, and demons usually don’t pay attention to me where I go. No time for puny humans, right? Sneaking in is a no go, obviously, just need to get an audience with the guy. Talk him up, tell him the deal—”
“No. No, no and hell no! It’s too damn dangerous for you to go in alone!” She stamped her foot then came closer and pulled me up by my shirt, enough that I had to stand on my toes. Beyond those angry eyes screamed worry to me and that made more sense than anger shining in her vermillion eyes. “That entire place is crawling with Clerks. With one of the main heads in there too? Are you f*cking crazy?!”
“Look who’s f*cking talking! Bringing me here without telling me a damn thing to one of the most dangerous areas in Hell, then trying to play it down like you didn’t set me up for this sh*t weeks in advance. No! I am not sitting in the backseat on this one. Not on any front.”
She shoved her snout in my face, baring her teeth and snarling so much, coats of drool lined her lower jaw. “You…lack field experience. I’m trying to keep your stupid ass safe. What part of that don’t you understand?”
I didn’t back down and it was becoming harder and harder to simmer down. “The part where I ‘hang back and let you do all the work and possibly get killed’. Or was the training you gave me just for sh*ts and giggles too?”
The hellhound’s growling grew in intensity. “The part where I take the loss and come back. You don’t have that luxury, dipsh*t. Or did you forget that you’ll end up down here too?”
“Don’t hand me that sh*t, Loona. Don’t you dare put your death on me and expect me to f*cking accept it. Does the idea not frighten you? Dying and then coming back worse or even losing part of yourself to the other girl? I didn’t forget that sh*t and neither should you.”
“I never said I forgot!” She barked.
“That’s not the goddamn point! You are putting this all on yourself by sacrificing yourself if we were to do this suicide mission. Or whatever the f*ck it is meant to get us out of this debt. Instead of giving me a chance and putting all that training you put me through. What the f*ck was all that for if not for this moment?”
Loona’s snarling slowly came to a close but not before pushing me away and pacing back and forth, trying to calm herself down. Meanwhile, I did some mild breathing exercises of my own. Of the two of us, Loona is the hot-head and I am the voice of reason in most cases. This dynamic can only work if we maintain said status and I needed to fulfill my role. Being mad at her and she vice-versa isn’t going to solve our current crisis. Above all, I still need to convince her that I’m going in alone while she waits outside and nearby. In case things go south.
I took several more breaths, breathe in, breathe out, I’d tell myself. I’m not some child who needs to be protected all the time. I have to show her I can do sh*t on my own. “Would it make you feel any better if you stayed somewhat closer to the main entrance door? While I go in and speak with him.”
She sighed, it sounded miles calmer than before and she wasn’t smoking either. “I’d feel better if I was with you. I don’t like the idea of you going in alone. Any time you’re alone, you get into trouble or in some cases like at your job, you stir sh*t up. You’re like a—”
“A child?” I finished. My gaze shifted over to the bright club from across the street. Speaking of, the walkway turned green again and Loona was once again standing in the way so I motioned her to come closer.
She listened and stood by my side, rubbing my back affectionately. “That’s not what I was going to say.”
“Sure as hell felt like it.” I grumbled.
“I…that’s not…” The hellhound’s words trailed off, seemingly unable to speak. She pulled her hand away from me, feeling the gesture was inappropriate for the occasion. A silence birthed in between the gaps and pauses, it was a while before she spoke again. “I want you to remain as you are. A human. Not some disfigured freak with ten eyes and tentacles for arms. I don’t ask for much Josh, and I mean it when I say that aside from the bullsh*t I pull on the daily, but I just can’t lose you. You’re my best friend.”
I placed my hand over the small of her back, rubbing it. her tail softly wagged from the reassurance. “I know, you big furball. I know. But have some faith in me, okay? I’ll get us the deal and when we do it, we don’t ever have to worry about doing something like this ever again. Alright?”
The silver-and-grey backed hellhound took a long, long sigh, taking in the silence and looking up in the bleak, dark sky. Whispering something under her muzzle. My guess? Probably speaking to the Goddess or attempting to get through to her. When she finally looked down my way then back at the Second Sun and then finally back at me. “Just don’t take too long, got it? I don’t want to make enemies with these guys all because you said something stupid.”
“I won’t. Come on, light is about to turn green again.” There were three lights which pedestrian demons could walk to and from, all leading to and from the main building from three different angles. We crossed the middle one with my arm never leaving her side. She stuck as close to me as possible.
The place was a lot brighter up close than way back there almost a block away. Which is saying something since Loona and several other demons occasionally shied away from it. This light isn’t holy or anything of the sort but it kind of makes sense why demons are naturally averse to it. Aside from the uncomfortability of the straining lights and my eyes feeling like they’ll be struck with astigmatism. There were eight freaking restless ones acting as bodyguards to the place. I’ve seen other demons try and fight these things and they almost never go the former’s way.
Restless ones can be described as faceless, cycloptic creatures with fossil grey pigmentation. They bear no nose, mouth, nor ears, and they have no eye, only a socket. Hollow and dark. Their skin is not like skin, it is closer to rock and stone but without the drawbacks of being sluggish and lethargic; they average out to be six to eight feet tall. They are strong, surprisingly swift and dangerously durable. The reason why restless ones are feared so much is because they do not register pain and have no hesitation when it comes to violence. They do not think, they act immediately. Heaven help those who think they can one up a lone restless one by themselves. These things, I’ve heard from Loona and from others, take up to multiple mags of gunfire before being put down. However, they are not a bright race of hellborn and can easily be swindled though that is not advised.
For if the slow being finally realizes they’ve been had, well, they are said to be a vindictive people. Cross one and you can be sure they’ll spend decades or even centuries hunting that individual down. Not stopping at one death but as much as ten.
They didn’t block our entrance or any other demon’s for that matter but their heads did turn our way. With one reaching over to pet Loona, calling her a “pretty dog”.
“Uhh huh, s-sure thing b-big guy.” She replied nervously, her eyes wide as moons and screaming for help.
You know you hit the genetic jackpot when you can go outside with no makeup, dressing and covering up most of your body and still get hit on. Kind of wish I had the same magnetism back in high school. Would’ve got so many dates if I did. I leaned closer to her and whispered in her ear. “I think you should head back to the other side of the street.”
“No, no, I’ll just stand away from these guys. Ow! Easy there, b-big guy. I’m fragile.” Her eyes twitched and the hairs on her fur were standing up. No doubt every one of her instincts was telling her to run away.
“Alright, be safe and don’t antagonize the guys. Oh and one more thing.” She managed to distract the one petting her by telling it that more guests are arriving.
“What’s that? Quick, while it’s distracted.” She shooed me closer to the edge of the sidewalk but still fairly close to the walkway.
“The boss. What’s his name?” I asked, while rubbing the small of her back.
“Oh f*ck! Thanks for reminding me. The big wigs for the syndicate all share more or less the same subsidiary word for their titles. Don’t ask why, f*ck if I know. Anyway, guy you’re looking for is Librarian Manager Johann.”
I stared up at the hellhound for a solid ten seconds before responding. “Librarian…manager? Girl what in the ever loving confusing f*ck…”
She shrugged, holding her arms up in a way to absolve her of any knowledge on the subject. “I dunno! They just call themselves that. First is something weird like ‘librarian’ then ‘manager’ then their name. You know what? Since you wanna ask so many f*cking questions, why don’t you—”
“Way ahead of you.” I gave her butt a light tap which caused a heavy fart to slip out between her cheeks, then quickly evaded out of her reach before she could grab me.
“Seriously?” The silver-and-grey hellhound asked in a monotone voice, hands on her hips.
“I’ll be back in twenty.” I announced to her before entering the building although I heard her say something along the lines of “make it ten” or something. To be clear, I will do my best to be in and out as soon as possible. Don’t like her being out there with the restless ones, even if she doesn’t antagonize them, there’s still a chance something could go wrong. Be it the big lugs or the other guests entering the club.
The club itself was slightly dimmer on the inside but by far, it was extremely lively. Every demon was welcome and having a good time: imps, hellhounds, succubi, fallen angels like cherubim, red devils, serpent sires, sinners and even offspring of sinners were having a ball here (straight up drinking too). There were even a couple restless ones having drinks at the bar (apparently as I am witnessing it firsthand, they pour the drinks straight into their eye socket, scream in agony, then do it again). Demons of every shape and size and color were having a blast, within reason because there was a large sign off to the right after entering displaying the rules.
- No stealing private stock. Thieves will be shot and have three quarters of their income funneled to the Librarian for the next four decades when they are resurrected.
- Fighting is permitted but only in the bronze arena. Killing is allowed but the victor will clean up the body.
- You break it, you buy it. Anything broken can and will be reimbursed by the party responsible. We accept grutzies, jewelery, homes, cars, bikes, souls, leases, deeds, family heirlooms, as alternative avenues of recompense.
- If you’re gonna do “the do”, either pay for a room or clean up when you’re done.
- No messes. At all. Dispose of your trash or you WILL be beaten to an inch of your immortal suffering.
Pretty standard stuff I suppose, easy enough to follow. Looks like the Librarian really doesn’t like the idea of messes being anywhere near them. Which is understandable in some ways. With how clean the streets are in this part of the Ninth Ring? Would not be surprised in the slightest if they’re a germaphobe. What did she call this place again? The Green Kings? What’s the story there, I wonder. Rules are the easy part, the hard part is finding the big guy himself and convincing him to make the deal. Nearest bar was completely occupied, pool tables too and I even saw some demons squabbling too. There were a couple tables where demons were sitting where the main focus was a game of poker. The waitresses and waiters bustling between the tables and the multiple bars scattered on each side of the building.
Really got me scratching my head on if tonight was a special occasion or if this place is usually a catastrophic fun house brimming with debauchery where gang members from all over this part of town just come here to take a load off. Which reminds me, how did she know about this place to begin with? The Second Sun and all that or that she knew the mob boss would be here this evening. The Goddess maybe? Nah, she’s not that generous. That’s what I get for not asking that dumb dog before entering. Ah well. Might as well ask around for the big guy.
That was much easier said than done. Asking questions in a giant hotel party or whatever this place is wasn’t a walk in the park. For starters, half the conversations I attempted to have were with demons who were drunk off their asses, some even puking straight into garbage bins. Which made my stomach do a few revolutions on its own but the amusing part I suppose was those that missed the garbage bin were immediately beat down for breaking the fifth rule. I’m talking about some tough, mafioso red devils showing up seemingly out of nowhere and beating the living daylights out of the unsuspecting party goers. Then stomping them into the carpet, spitting on them and sometimes they were pissed on. Which somehow was allowed? Look, I’m not about to bring this up after seeing that at least twice.
The other party goers were high or telling me to buzz off, because I was “killing the mood” and personally, I don’t want to be a co*ck block to any guy or girl, but dammit I needed some answers and that almost landed me in the bronze arena. And after seeing my fair share of the aftermath of those who duked it out down there, yeah, I’ll let the guys and gals who were trying to get off be. It’s not worth it.
Now parties as far as they go are not always the best for everyone. There are some who attend because their friends peer pressured them to come and end up becoming so socially awkward or standoffish that they don’t socialize with anyone. That’s how I noticed a couple fallen angels, wings charred to black, molten lines burning through faces and the bright lights that once illuminated their eyes now have become very human. In some cases, dark. These two haven’t fallen too far into the Pit so there’s hope yet. Above their heads, were blackened halos with small singes of light remaining. Yet to be consumed by the dark. I wonder what that means.
They huddled close together in a booth drinking from their drinks and speaking to each other occasionally. I don’t know if they know anything but I’m running out of time.
“Hey! Hey there, uhh, can I ask you two a question? It’ll be really quick, I just need—”
One of them, with silver streaks in her hair, held her finger up to stop me. “He’s in the basem*nt. Go down that way, past the pug hellhound getting his testicl*s stomped in by the two hussies, and that bar with the giant C over it. See that door there? Guarded by three restless goons? That’s where the Librarian is. Password is ‘Ripley is drop dead gorgeous’.”
How…just how they did they… I was stunned for no longer than fifteen seconds. “H…How did you…what?”
Her male companion tapped his glass. “If you’re expecting an explanation of how that is possible, don’t. We do not wish to speak with anyone until our friend is done partying so that we may go home. You are part of that disruption.”
“At least some small talk would be nice.” I complained, although I shouldn’t be.
The woman spoke up, appearing mildly fascinated with my stubbornness. “Don’t waste time, human. Your little pup outside is already thinking about coming inside to look for you. Go. We will not waste another word on you.”
This entire exchange was both frightening and a little appalling. Do fallen angels possess telepathy? Short term sight into the future? Voyeurism? Partial omniscience? Aren’t their powers supposed to be stripped away after falling to Hell for violating Heaven’s laws or going against this universe’s god? Well, I guessed, no, knew I wouldn’t receive the answers from them because they’re done talking to me. I shrugged, trying to shake off that highly unusual banter and followed their directions to the letter. Dodging a group of cherubim doing an aerial race while not dropping their drinks. Still wondering how the cherubim got kicked out of heaven but that ain’t my business.
Turns out from what I gathered by just passing the pug demon that the girls stomping his nuts in, the guy was enjoying it. co*ck and ball torture is so weird. Anyway, just as they said, three restless ones guarded the entrance and wouldn’t allow my entry.
I cleared my throat and readied my answer. “Ripley is drop dead gorgeous.” This sounded way more ridiculous saying it out loud than in my head. The biggest restless one who stood in the center of the door while the other two stood on each end, standing at no shorter than 8’1, peered down at me with its hollow “eye” for a long moment. The moments passing by while the general camaraderie and impropriety going on behind me paled in comparison to the silence that encompassed this moment between this potential mass murdering machine and myself.
I remember the first time I saw one in action and it never stopped. Not even when the demon was less than a pile of blood and broken bones condensed into shards and crumbling dust, it still did not stop. Reducing the very spot where the demon used to be into a bloody crater dealt by its massive arms and power. Everyone who witnessed it that day, Loona included, backed away when it lumbered along coming down our way in the aftermath. She kept her hand over me as we and everyone else stuck to the wall and out of its path. Crazy thing is, this happened inside a mall and to this day, I still don’t understand why or what pissed the grey demon off so much.
The longer it went on, the more I could feel my bladder rising up. Then it nodded. “Come in.” It said, standing aside and grabbing the door handle with its chunky finger and thumb. Perhaps not to break the handle off.
“T-Thanks!” I hurried on in but I caught a glimpse of the door handle and yep, there were signs of repair using lime and something else. Cement? I dunno, I just hurried down the steps.
Okay, homegirl was right on the money from whatever source she had. The main hall where all the action is going up upstairs was about twice as big as the underground casino. Seems like big shots were only allowed down here, I visually checked to see if my pistol was still in my holster and it still was. Not here to fight, just need to find the Librarian and get to the part where he can potentially save our asses from eviction and Loona from becoming a prostitute.
There were over ten active tables, twenty slot machines, at least one bar and a couple pool tables. There were also a few characters playing blackjack in the nearby corner. And that’s just from what I could see from the base of the stairs. “Great. Where the hell do I even begin to…maybe the bar? If the boss came here to relax then a drink is likely where they’ll be. Unless he’s a fan of blackjack.” I muttered to myself, tapping my foot on the bronze floor to phase out my anxiety, then waltzed my way there, hoping to see him there or nearby.
Along the way, moseying around, a sudden thought hit me. Enough to completely halt me and almost bump into a green demon boy carrying a tray full of some sort of pasta dish with a lot of noodles. “sh*t! My bad, dude.”
Kid wasn’t hearing it and ran off faster and I hated what I saw next. A red devil who was on the slot machine noticed the kid running by and copped a feel and then…no. It’s best I don’t go into that. I took several shaky breaths and walked away, collecting myself, trying not to think about it. Trying not to think about, trying not to think about it.
Hell doesn’t reward heroics, just keep moving, don’t be an idiot, just keep moving… A mantra drummed up in my head until I bumped into the counter of the bar, gut first. Whipping me out of it, the hit was enough to keep my mind a little occupied and go back to think on what I was on about earlier. Okay, look for a guy or girl, in between, whichever, that is surrounded by the most security or having the most fun. A mean looking mug ain’t gonna settle it. Has to be something to distinguish them from the rest of these f*cking weirdos.
A demon bumped me, startling me out of my thoughts, one of a large stature by belly weight which told me this guy likes to drink, a black Homburg hat on his head with a matching overcoat and slacks, white dress shirt underneath, smoking one of the fattest cigars I’ve ever seen, sporting moss green skin, thick arms, an orange chin badger and a diamond ring on his left ring finger. His arms were thick but underneath that overcoat I couldn’t tell if it was muscle or just fat. But if those triple chins were any indication on his weight problem, it’s fat. In all honesty, wouldn’t be surprised if it’s straight up, years of strong muscle, powerful enough to bend steel beams under that coat. What’s more, he’s about 6’4. Behind him was one red devil, one fallen angel and two sinner demons, well built and ready to rumble. That’s if pulling out the MP40s wasn’t an option.
“What,” he pulled out a lighter to light his cartoonishly large cigar, flicking the mechanism but once to light it then burn the tip of the cigar, “are you doing here, kid?” His accent was thick, grouchy, muddled in this stiff toughness that was hard to shake. And if I’m not mistaken, there was this slight German accent in there too.
Everything about this guy screamed that he’s the guy I’m looking for. The Librarian Manager. Johann. I had to resist the instinct to grab my gun and instead cleared my throat. “Ahem, yeah, uh, I came down here looking for the Librarian Manager? Mister Johann.”
“For?” He asked dryly, blowing a plume of smoke down in my face.
The thick cloud was heavy enough to thrust me into a mild fit of coughing, with his goons behind him, minus the grey big guy, laughing at my expense. “It’s a private matter that I’m hoping he can help me with. That’s all.”
The stout demon in front me puffed another billow of smoke and the moment lasted longer than it needed to be. He was staring up at the ceiling for a large duration of it, possibly because of the ruckus going on the first floor. Then his eyes trailed back to me, blinking. Not normally but by the sides. Like how a reptile blinks. “Wanna know why I stopped ya?”
At this moment, the two brawny sinner demons surrounded me on both sides yet they did nothing. They knew the drill which had to be that they wouldn’t act unless their boss gave them the word. I gulped, glanced between the two demons then back up at him. “Guess it’s because I didn’t bring enough money?”
“Fair guess.” He shrugged. “But no. Ya ain’t on the list and no one gets down here without being on the list. Get him out of here.”
That’s when the two grabbed me by both of my arms and began dragging me to the stairwell. It was utterly futile to resist; the strength of a moderately strong human is no match for a couple of demons that skips neither leg nor arm days. These guys were built like machines, sturdy, robust, unyielding. At the bare minimum, the dragging of my feet slowed them down by a very small margin.
“Wait! Please! I just need to talk to him! If I can—”
A wallop to my gut shut me up, swift and precise, the blow executed almost every ounce of air in my lungs and I just knew the bastard was holding back. A lot. He must’ve hit my diaphragm cause it was taking too long for me to breathe again. “Shut the f*ck up! Boss wants ya out, ya’s gets the f*ck out!”
So it IS him! That’s Johann! “...Please…” Another blow, this time to my right leg. The pain was so blinding that I could feel eyes rolling to the back of my head and the urge to scream until my lungs were hoarse was maddening. But I grit my teeth and held it back, saving my breath for my last and possible shot.
“Bye bye junior. Make sure that little punk never shows up here again. Matta o’ fact, find out how the shrimp got down here in the first place.” The man who I suspect is Johann turned to speak to the fallen angel behind him about something just after that announcement. Then the stocky guy turned around and was beginning to make way to the bar with the angel and grey musclehead in tow.
We reached the steps and I knew, I just knew, that if I didn’t try again, it’s over. All of it is over. I sucked in every ounce and pint of air I could muster, after steadying my breath as best I possibly could under this arduous circ*mstance. My legs hurt and my chest still feels like it's been caved in by a meteor; the damn demon broke a couple ribs I think but I had to risk it. It’s now or never! Get that fat f*ck to listen to you or see the woman you love be turned into a f*cking plaything!
With that last, insightful piece of motivation, I managed to shout it, in perhaps the most commanding voice I could muster. “IF YOU NEED ANY MAN OR WOMAN DEAD, ANYONE AT ALL, I’LL HAND YOU THEIR HEADS ON A SILVER PLATTER!! YOU GIVE ME THEIR NAMES, I’LL GET IT DONE IN THREE HOURS!!!”
My voice seemed to strike harder than I thought it would, rasping under the constraints of two burly demons and a possibly cracked rib. It caught the attention of a lot of the gamblers in the basem*nt area, all apparently enticed by this prospect, though the smarter ones paid no mind or laughed at it. And they had every right to write it off; I am human, a race that it is at a severe disadvantage against demons over seventy percent of the time with the fairly “normal” ones being more my level like imps, other weaker sinners, demon children, some species of hellhounds, and succubi/incubi. The chances of me winning against anything else in combat, unless I’m well equipped, is very, very unlikely to succeed.
Some of the gamblers who had some thoughtful expressions on them began discussing it quietly with others. Yet the most noticeable one was Johann himself. My desperate cry for help actually got the tub of green lard and moldy cheese to cease his steps.
Then the demon turned halfway around. “Stop. Stop, I said! Bring the runt here.” Couldn’t hear what he said, even with murmurs and the occasional slot machine making the rounds.
“Aghh, fine. Come on ya brick of sh*t. Looks like the boss has taken a liking to ya’s.” One of the musclemen said before they hefted me off the stairs and back over to their boss, still holding me by my arms, without my arms, I’m as good as dead. These things could mutilate me by ripping my arms off here and now if they chose to. Only reason they didn’t was out of respect to their boss.
Can’t reach my gun so at least tweedle dee and tweedle f*ck here actually have two brain cells to rub together. Still didn’t like the situation anymore than before, felt too vulnerable, too fresh to kill or be made an example of. Maybe I should’ve brought the girl with me. Damn it.
Johann crouched down on his legs, cigar in his right hand and his breath smelling of smoke. A thick heep of it too. “Alright kid, I’ll bite. Why should I hire you?”
Don’t hesitate. Guys like these appreciate certainty not what ifs or “probably’s”. I looked up at the gangster’s face, maintaining my gaze throughout. “I’m a good shot.”
The two lackeys holding me and about several other big shot demons within earshot chuckled. Until the big man held his hand up. “I got loads of guys that are ‘good shots’, you’re gonna have to do better than that.”
“Put my money where my mouth is, right? Give me a test then. Have me go up against five of your best and if I come out on top then you’ll hear me out.”
Johann shrugged but he appeared modestly impressed by my boasting. “Whatcha bettin’?” He put the cigar up to his lips, taking in a longer puff than the last one.
This caught me off guard. “I…how do you mean?”
“Money, kid. How much are you willing to bet you’d win?” He pulled the cigar away, allowing the smoke to seamlessly stream from his green lips.
Don’t hesitate. My mental coach is kicking in again and I don’t like it when he does. “My savings. All of it.”
“How much?” He asked.
“12k. Just a little over that.” I lowballed it so that even if I lose, there is still some to fall back on.
“He’s lying.” The voice didn’t come from Johann, it came from the fallen angel behind him. At which the demonic gangster turned his eyes to.
How did he…no! Don’t react! Fallen angels have some sort of truth power or whatever, don’t let the fat f*ck know. I scoffed, trying to play it off. “He’s talking out his ass. I don’t see you working twelve hour shifts five to six days a week, com—”
With a minor gesture of tapping his cigar at his lackeys, the gangster ordered one of the men holding me to assault me again and this time, I’m pretty sure one of my ribs is broken. Was blacking out, losing focus on the situation until another hit brought me back to full consciousness. My chest felt like it was on fire and every breath freaking hurt to take. What I’d give for a break from the damn punches or better yet, some water. I’d kill for some water right about now.
What I found intriguing was that the gangster was generous enough to let me wade through the pain until I was conscious enough to understand the conversation from then on. “Explain.” Johann ordered.
The angel nodded. “This is for your benefit, human. I am unable to decipher the exact truth behind a lie, only that I can tell when one is lying to me. Your dishonesty comes from hoarding your true wealth and did you not say you were willing to forfeit your entire wealth in exchange for this chance at speaking with the Librarian?”
I’ve been had or somehow hoodwinked. I just know I’ve been. It reeks like a set up at just how the damn angel roped me into revealing the truth. Got no choice now. “Yeah, that’s true.” I coughed, lungs were on fire and just breathing felt like a chore. Goddess Almighty, my chest hurts! “What is that? Some trademark power all fallen angels possess or something? Thought you guys fell from the Big Guy’s grace or do I have my information mixed up?”
Before the angel could make a retort, Johann held up his hand, silencing any further conversation from him then returned to me. “What are you bettin’?” He repeated.
I bit my lip, nearly hard enough to pierce the skin. Loona is gonna strangle me if she finds out if I botch this entire thing but I can’t back out now. I clenched my hands into fists and sighed. “56k…”
The demon gangster whistled sharply while some others started murmuring a little louder, curious how I could accumulate that amount of money I assume. “A pretty grutzie, I’ll say.” He reached down, tugging my Smith & Wesson free from the holster. co*cked it, aimed down the sight, inspected the magazine and seemed mildly impressed. “Got good taste. Not bad at all. Stand him up and let him be.”
This time, the two goons who held me lifted me up without a word though I had some trouble standing and breathing. Bastards hit hard, really hard, my chest hasn’t fully recovered and neither has my leg. Sucked in breath nonetheless and held my hands to my chest, trying to numb the pain out somehow. Then surprisingly, he handed me the gun back. At first, I thought this was a trick of some kind, that if I took he was going to swipe it back or toss it across the casino or something. He did nothing of the sort at all, in fact, his eyes reassured me that he wouldn’t try anything. How can I trust him? I don’t know this green piece of sh*t. He’s a damn crime lord, a demon too, placing trust into one of his kind without getting to know ‘em is like walking into a dark hallway of a flooding basem*nt and expecting not to get your feet wet.
Still, I chanced it. Took my gun back and just like he silently promised, no harm came to me. “So. Do you want me to test my aim against your men in target practice? There a shooting range we can try out?”
He shook his large green head swiftly without tipping his Homburg hat over. “Nah. Got somethin’ better in mind. This way.” He turned around, his belly slightly jiggling from the impetus and carried on, his heavy boots squeaking lightly with each step against the floor. The red devil was the first to follow, the fallen angel’s eyes lingered a little longer on me then folded his blackened wings before following the stout demon.
I was in no mood to be shoved by the two lackeys behind me so I got to walking, despite the lingering anguish and stiffness in my leg. Didn’t speak any further cause my body hurt plenty enough as it is. Past the machines, the hookers, waitresses, blackjack tables and other gambling sites where demons were willing to bet some or it all, depending on what’s at stake. Actually heard a couple big shots bet their souls on a game. That frightened my own soul and made a promise to myself that among all the things to bet in this hellscape, my eternal soul is not one of them.
We wound up shuffling into some cafe looking area where some demons were conversing with others over food, drinks, cigars and other drugs. Some outright snorting a whole line of co*ke then and there and the others didn’t so much as blink. A few tapped their arms with a couple flicks of the finger, then with bandage or cloth wrapped over their arm, tentacle, or whatever limb available, then inserted a needle in them. Heroin. That was my guess. Because after the substance was admitted into their bloodstream, their eyes rolled to the back of their heads, their muscles relaxed and laid back in their chairs, allowing the drug to do its job. Sending them on a trip, possibly to Above.
Place appeared to be modeled off a buffet where the food was prepared close by and set into large heaps and piles on the counters in neat piles. Forks, knives, spoons, were all at the disposal for the guests along with napkins, trays, drinks, glasses and juice dispensers for custom or for the self-initiating. One area was primarily seafood, another desserts, one for salads and the types of additions one would see when preparing one. Lettuce, olives, tomatoes (both cut and whole), sliced cucumbers, onions, croutons, shredded chunks of chicken, and more. And everything else between dinner foods and breakfast were all in between with plenty of demons coming back for seconds, thirds, fourths or even fifths.
Along the way, my body got better and by that I mean the aches gradually faded and I could walk without limping or holding my chest. I was not going to risk another hit by one of those idiots again. Not that it mattered much longer or could, I should say because if I mess this up, I’ll be broke, homeless and with less options than I do now. Besides, the big man stopped before waltzing back to me with the red devil and angel stepping aside for him. He handed his cigar to the angel to hold.
“Alright kid. Pay close attention ‘cause I ain’t in the habit of doin’ this type of thing often.” He leaned down, enough to pull back his collar, exposing his thick, fat neck. Johann rubbed his thick hands over his beefy neck, then promptly pointed at something small. Something very inconsequential but noticeable all the same. It’s that type of thing a person doesn’t particularly notice, much less pay attention to on a daily basis but when they’re alone? Not really doing anything and just look in the mirror and see that blemish? That’s when they know. He pointed at it with his meaty index finger.
I leaned up, squinting my eyes keeping my firearm pointed away from all the individuals present yet one of the lackeys still pressed their hand on my shoulder to keep my feet on their flats. Yet I saw what he wanted me to see. “A mole?” The thing was no bigger than the head of a pencil eraser.
Boss Johann nodded, chuckling. “Haha, kid does have a lightbulb in there after all. Yeah, it’s a mole so here’s what’s gonna happen. You want your shot to prove you got moxie? The hutzpa to negotiate a deal with me? By all means, boy, entertain me with your skills. I want you to shoot it off.”
The demons behind me laughed at my misery, my impossible task. I could picture them right now without even turning around, giant sacks of sh*t that they are. My anger didn’t amount to much, not as much as the rising tide of fear that’s running through my body. Nearly lost the grip of the pistol in my hand due to the level of nervousness creeping through me. Somehow, I managed to hang on, hang in there.
You’ve gotten this far, that girl trusts you with everything. Don’t let her down! If you do, what was all this for? With that bit of advice and positive reinforcement, my hand tightened itself over the grip and it did not shake. “That’s,” I cleared my throat, “sorry, isn’t that a little unsafe, Mr. Johann?”
The gangster got a kick out of the question, with his whole belly flopping and bouncing everywhere from it. “ Wunderbar! Exactly, boy, exactly!” He says, had a feeling from the slight accent in his voice that he's German. Meaning this guy is a sinner. “I ain’t much for explainin’ but that’s the deal. You want a deal, sittin’ with the VIPs, then blow this little blemish off my neck. Oh and let’s make it interesting.” The jolly demon lumbered on into the cafe past many of the round tables, a few that were occupied straight up left and took their game or food farther away. Seems like they have their priorities screwed on tight. Though I did notice one tried to take a peak and the other guy caught a glimpse of him and, let’s say the man is a faster quickdraw than me.
“Hey! Clean that up! All of it or I’ll sick Tiny at ya!” Johann pointing his thumb at the restless one that stayed with us back here close to the serving counters. “I better not see a single drop of blood or brain fluid on the floor! Got It?!” He bellowed and the demon in question, unapologetically rolled his eyes before sodding off to find a bucket, a mop, and a cloth. Some disinfectant too for good measure. Johann shook his head, grumbling and kept moving until he reached the last table on the farthest end which was occupied but the residents there wised up and took their food to another table.
Once the gangster sat his ginormous ass down and laid back comfortably on the leather seats, he pulled his collar partially back to expose his neck and the mole. “Alright boy! Whenever you’d like!” He yelled from across the room.
This is insane! He wants me to shoot it off from all the way back here??! That’s at least…I think thirty meters? I could feel the gun shaking my hand again, so much that I had to use my other hand to hold it steady. Already I could hear them, aside from the goons who mercilessly punched my sh*t in, the other demons who were spectating this fiasco were snigg*ring themselves, a couple were placing bets. Maybe more, my mind was too stressed to count just how many.
Johann himself was relaxed as ever; arms spread across the backseat, a confident smile split across his chunky veneer. As though he knew the outcome of this preposterous deal to begin with. The gangster called my bluff and wanted to get a quick chuckle and some money out of this. Then toss my ass out. Bet my savings is like chump change to him. With this much power and wealth, yeah, I doubt he’d be remiss if he won or lost. It’s basically extra spending money to him. Calculating bastard. And I could not discount the other downside to this deal.
If I miss, I lose, simple as that. Hit too close and the bullet goes through his neck, he’ll die and I’ll spend a very, very long time being tortured by all of his cohorts until he eventually resurrects. Assuming he’s the same man as before. Or they’ll hold me captive until he does and then the torment for years begins. I can’t even count on Loona in either situation because I don’t know if she could pull it off and if by some divine miracle without the Goddess’ help she did, we’d be on the run forever. Both the debt collectors and from the Clerks. There is just no winning this situation.
Except for this one. Unless I nail this shot perfectly but my hand won’t stop shaking. I can’t even calm myself down enough to steel myself. There was just so much, so much was riding on this one shot, this one chance I got to help us both get out of this and…and…
When I looked over to my right, I don’t know if I was hallucinating or not but I swear I could see myself and Loona on one of our training exercises. Was I losing it? Yet I can hear her words, clear as day. It was one of our first lessons and she was tutoring me on arm positions and breathing.
“Mmm mm. Lock your arms out completely then inward slightly. This helps with shock absorption when speed shooting. Feet apart…a little wider now…yep that’s it. Arms out, breathe in, then out. If you’re attempting to make a longshot, breathing is super important, especially if you want to use a rifle later on. There you go, that’s what they call the isosceles position. Good, now straighten up and we’ll do some tests on how fast you can assume the position.”
It was almost like she was with me, in spirit. As super corny as that sounds but she drilled that lesson into me and the same goes for the breathing exercises. Just that brief revisit to that day helped me steady myself and I didn’t need to hold my other hand over my dominant one.
Inhale. Exhale. Locked my arms up, then slightly out. Faced the big bad himself and zeroed in on the little mole sticking out of his absurdly chunky neck. Feet apart, eyes focused. The grin on the fat man grew wider, expecting me to shoot soon. And miss.
I won’t miss. I uttered in my head with confidence suddenly surging within me. She trained me for weeks for a moment like this, to fail is to dishonor her teachings and trust. I will not miss. My breath slowed, things seemed around me to slow and fizzle, until only the target remained. Nothing else mattered. None of my worries, or my concerns, the laughs of the demons, the clicking of coins clanking together, the boiling oil pans from the back, the steam from boiling lobsters or any other delicacies. None of it did. All that did was that black, awful blemish sticking out of his neck.
I took aim and my hands did not shake.
It was quick as bullets ought to be, faster than the speeding eye could follow but when my ears stopped ringing from the gunshot, all I heard was commotion from the demons around me. Not of jeering or mockery but amazement and stunning jubilation. As well as some discontent profanity of those who lost which was quite a few.
I felt a pat on my back and I hardly turned to see who it was but I recognized his voice well enough. “A blessing. It seems that He saw that you are worthy.” The angel spoke and there was not a hint of resentment in his voice. Which had me believe for a moment that he did not resent or hate the God of this universe. As opposed to the fallen angels I saw earlier, through their boredom and irritability in their tones, I could almost feel the hatred behind each word.
Meanwhile, I just couldn’t believe my own achievement: the bullet flew harmlessly through the mole, obliterating it entirely without causing permanent harm to the demon himself. In its wake, only a small line of blood trailed from its spot and the demon was more or less astonished by my marksmanship, taking up a napkin to wipe the blood clean off his neck. I just couldn’t believe my eyes when it was done, I did the impossible and saved myself and Loona from a dastardly scenario that could and should have f*cked both of us forevermore. Never was there a moment more appropriate to drop to my knees and thank the Goddess for this success. Whether it was her showing her mercy or just blind luck, I was grateful all the same.
Though I much rather believe it was luck than her power. Given her hands-off approach in matters when we get ourselves into danger, minus the tragedy that could have been with Anthony, I do not expect her to help me in any way, shape or form. Not unless my life was in inescapable peril and the same goes for Loona.
I don’t know when I tucked my pistol away but the shakiness from my hand must’ve switched to my legs because suddenly, I found it excessively hard to move them. Especially now when the head honcho was beckoning me to the table he sat at.
It was “Tiny” who pushed me forward. A little too hard and sent me into this small dance of attempting to keep my balance before straightening myself out. Burning embarrassment and shameless guffawing from the present audience aside, I shoved it all away and sauntered towards Johann, taking a seat close by. The fallen angel and red devil sat down nearby with the angel being the closest. The two sinners who beat the sh*t out of me every time I spoke earlier disappeared into the line of demons grabbing food from the seafood section. Tiny stood idly by, picking up a fork and using his big thumbs to bend and rebend the metal.
“Hmph, gotta give you credit when it's due. To be honest, didn’t think you had it in ya. What’s your name, kid?” Johann asked. Then his eyes shifted over at one of the nearby waiters. “You! Bring us some drinks, eh? Say kid, what do you like? Whiskey? Jack? After that shot, it’s on the house.”
The shakiness in my legs never left and breathing wasn’t doing much to calm me down. “I’ll uh, ahem, I don’t drink so I’ll just have some water. And my name is Joshua.”
“Powerful name.” Remarked the angel.
“Huh, figured you for a ‘Dexter’ or a ‘Damian’ type.” He shrugged. “Bring us some water and a bottle of Jack. I plan on getting absolutely fritzed tonight.” The demon chuckled, showing off his teeth. I never noticed until now but they weren’t spikey or edgy, like a carnivore’s but rather like something meant for breaking bones or munching on rocks. They were yellow, broad and ostensibly sturdy.
As the waiter skedaddled off, he leaned forward, hands folded together on the table and I felt his demeanor switch up. From a laxed gangster acting on a whim to a calculating businessman. “Alright Joshua, mind if I call you Josh? Let’s talk business. Why did you come here?”
I didn’t want to appear unassuming nor rude so I mimicked the gesture and attempted to appear as confident as possible. And I also decided to keep her name out of the conversation. “Got myself into some debt. Over something stupid that the collectors aren’t willing to forgive.”
“Dumb move for one with an aim as sharp as yours.” He retorted.
“Yeah, I’m not disputing that. Point is, I owe a lot of money to these people and my time grows finite the longer this goes on. Borrowed time basically. So I came to you in the hopes of doing a job big enough that you, Librarian Johann—”
“Librarian Manager Johann.” The mobster corrected.
I went with it. “Librarian Manager Johann would think appropriate enough to clear my debt completely. With a man of your prestige and influence, I’ve no doubt this wouldn’t be too much of an issue.”
Johann did not reply, particularly because the waiter returned with the drinks, passing me my cup of iced water and the gangster took the bottle, uncorked the cap which flung right in the eye of the waiter, who consequently dropped the empty tray. He hurriedly picked it up and scurried off. The man, however, didn’t so much as blink as the mishap, taking a large swig of the drink before setting it down, reassuming his previous stance. Interlocking his fingers and mildly smacking.
“You really know how to butter someone up, do ya kid?” The demon finally spoke, signaling the angel for something. Then I saw just what it was; the cigar he was tasked to hold onto. Tucking the fat thing between his fat fingers, his eyes sized me up. “Heh, smart. When’s the deadline for ya?”
“The 8th.” I answered.
He took a brief puff of the thing before glancing back at me. “Six days. Cutting it kind of close, huh?”
“Mom always said I had a bad habit of procrastinating.” Admittedly, this is kind of embarrassing to say to a mob boss. But hey, it’s true.
The demon chortled, all three or four or five chins shaking as he laughed. “Mother knows best, right? Fine kid, I’ll give you a job that even we find ourselves in a bind with.”
The red devil who had kept his silence up until this point, finally spoke. “Sir? Are you certain about this? Handing this job to an outsider?”
“What? The kid has the guts, he has the skills, why not? Ain’t no better chance to prove himself than this.”
The red devil seemed discontent with the answer but kept his silence on the matter. Me? I was a little confused. “A job that even you guys can’t do? Who is it?” I took a brief sip of water to help still my nerves. Worked wonders really.
“They call him,” Johann started before taking a smaller swig of his drink, “ The Ventriloquist . Which I’m sure you already know about, sh*t, everyone knows the f*cker by now. Kluger narr is by no means someone you want to mess with. On any given day. He’s holed up on 23rd and Marco’s Galley, in an abandoned factory for making sweets and desserts. Me and the boys thought to renovate the place after its foreclosure and permanent eviction of the previous owners. That was, what? Some forty-odd years ago? Anyway, not important. Problem is, once he showed up there, there was no way of getting in. Every hole , every entrance sealed up tighter than a virgin’s ass crack.
“Wanna know the worst thing, Josh boy? That puppet making prick is arrogant, dare I say more than the big cheese down below. This guy, heh, this guy has the nerve to sit in front of a glass window on the eighth floor. Overseeing everything in view of the front entrance. Stück scheiße!” He slammed his fist on the table, causing the bottle of liquor to pop up in the air for a short moment before harmlessly coming back down. “Anyway…he sees it all through the eyes of his puppets too. Failures included.”
This didn’t make any sense to me. “You’re part of a wealthy syndicate, right? I saw riflemen on the way here in fact. Why not use them to take him out?”
“Tried that.” Said the red devil. “Whatever windows he replaced the old ones with, it’s more than strong enough to withstand a 50 cal, rockets and high powered drills. Without so much as a dent. Could be magic but we ain’t too sure.”
“It is magic. Particularly strong magic in fact.” The nameless fallen angel added. “The likes we haven’t seen since the time of Neb—”
“Hey! Cut the chit-chat. Kid don’t need no history lesson. Just the essentials.” Johann took a longer puff of the cigar, this time far more irritated than before. Then he leaned in, gesturing with said drug with the burning tip pointed my way. “Eighth floor, sinner with a top hat and a mustache thicker than sheep wool. You pull this off, you bring me that prick’s head on a platter, I’ll clear you of all your debt. I’ll guarantee it.” He leaned back, setting the thing back at the tip of his mouth, shuffling to the left corner afterwards.
There’s something neither of these three were telling me and whatever the angel meant to say was conveniently cut off before he could finish. I don’t like it, not one bit. It’s beyond stupid; entering any danger zone without information. Information is how battles are won, instinct and everything else comes afterwards. But, I’m not left with any choice here. I’ll have to rely on that living encyclopedia waiting for me outside for additional help.
But first things first. “You’re a man of your word?” I asked.
The demon shrugged, a faint smile running across his thick face. “For a job like this? It would hurt my reputation if I didn’t hold up to my end of the bargain.”
I held out my hand for him to shake. “Then you have a deal.” The mobster grinned shrewdly and shook my hand, despite all that fat he has, dude was far stronger than I gave him credit for. Felt like I was shaking hands with a titan. “So. I got about a day to figure this out. Grab some supplies, make a call or two and…why are you laughing?”
Indeed, whatever it is I said had the demon in stitches. So much so, he had to take the cigar out of his mouth before he choked on it. “Whew! Kid, you are a riot! Look at ‘em! Poor bastard doesn’t even realize it yet!” He threw his head back, more volcanic laughter erupted, shaking his jolly, gelatinous belly so much that it almost tipped the table twice. Slamming his fist on the surface multiple times, tipping over his bottle and almost causing it to fall off the edge. Luckily, he placed an auxiliary cap on it after his last swig. And it doesn’t seem like he was going to calm down any time soon.
I didn’t know how to act or what to say to get his attention. What the f*ck is so funny? What is going on here?? And who the hell is this Neb guy the angel mentioned before tubby here cut him off? I looked at both of the demons nearby for some kind of assistance but they merely glanced at me or in the red devil’s case, was on his phone. The angel kept his silence for reasons unknown to me, only that he would occasionally shift his mismatched, silver-and-coal eyes at me if I stared for too long. Something about fallen angels, this one and the two above on the main floor, unnerved me more than my own roommate at times. With her, I can tell it is meant to impart fear into me, with the angels, I get this sense of posh, subtly supercilious-ness while also delivering a glare of utter indifference.
When the jolly green giant did calm down enough to speak, he was wiping his eyes of any residual tears. “Aha…ahahaha…good grief. Haven’t had a good laugh like that since that singer blew his own head off. ‘Depression.’ What a punk.” He sat upright from his earlier slouched position, brought the bottle up to his lips for another sip, downing a significant portion this time.
I had a feeling who he was referencing but I had more important things to worry about. “May I ask what was that about?”
He held up one finger before setting the bottle down. “Ah Josh, right? You were the one who set the time at the start of this, weren’t ya?” The mobster said no more, looking like he was ready to burst into another fit of unmitigated howling.
It took three long minutes for it to hit me and when it did, I stood out of my seat so fast, I nearly tipped the table over. My face must’ve been a sight to behold cause Johann lost his sh*t again. I’m an idiot and Loona is gonna slap me all the way to Heaven just to storm the white gates to slap me back down to Hell.
“I suggest you make haste. And best of luck to you.” The angel spoke, cordial as ever.
All that was left was for me to nod at his suggestion, thank the Librarian for his time and hightail it out of there. Blitzing past everything from the cafe, past the casino, zipping past every lower mob boss, waiter/waitress and slot machine and poker table, up the stairs only to see the stupid fallen cherubim still doing their races but I skated past them easily enough. Or more accurately, around them. Felt like I was an all-star member of a football team for how fast I moved and slipped beyond the grasp of anyone who tried to grab me or even trip me for that matter.
Bursted through the front entrance to see Loona pacing back and forth with a suspiciously wide berth of room as seldom few demons wanted to go near her. It wasn’t until I neared her did I understand why. Smelled it too.
But that didn’t matter as much as when she fixed her scarlet-white eyes on me and snatched me up by the collar of my shirt. “YOU sh*tf*ck!!” She bellowed into my face, aside from the slight ringing in my ears, either my ears were playing tricks on me or I heard some snickering in the background. “You said you’d be in there for twenty, wanna know how long you’ve been in there? Huh?! Go on, guess!”
She set me down, tapping her left foot paw impatiently on the ground while I got my bearings. By that I mean my eyes were watering from the appalling stench of her rank farts she dispersed. Not just before I arrived but also now as well. Girl was so livid that she is subconsciously loosing those cannons between those cheeks of hers. And I was uncomfortably hard from it. Now isn’t the time to be popping a freaking boner, for f*ck’s sake. But man, wouldn’t it be awesome if she let me get just one sniff of her…No! Stop being horny and focus!
I held my hands up, trying to get her attention. “Look, I’m sorry late cause some sh*t happened in there and I did botch the deal while also guaranteeing it if we succeed. But all that matters is—”
“Wait, wait, wait, hold on a f*cking second. The f*ck do you mean you botched the deal but you also didn’t? Do you know how retarded that sounds?”
“It’s contradictory, I get it but we need to get moving. We need to head to 23rd and Marco’s Galley. Pronto, you get me?” I pulled out my phone, searching the area up and the distance between us and it. Didn’t have any wifi way out here and I didn’t know the password to any of the stores but I was shocked that the wifi service for the big hotel place I was just in was free to use.
The hellhound appeared confused, which siphoned off her boiling frustration somewhat. “I don’t…what the hell’s at 23rd a…” Loona’s eyes grew wide with realization, suddenly understanding more about the situation with the scraps of context given. “Please don’t tell me he told you what I think he told you.”
Finally got the search engine up and was punched in the address between here and there. Problem is, it’s taking forever. Too many people using the bandwidth I imagine. “Damn this sh*t is taking a while to load. Huh? Yeah, some puppet guy the mob is having trouble with. You’d think with all the weaponry we’ve seen, all this modern technology, they’d be able to get to him already.”
The hellhound marched up to me, lifted my face up to hers, lifting me up off the ground matter of fact, forcing me to engage with her directly. Face to face. Her eyes were a tender mix of confusion, concern, and lingering indignation. “Please…please tell me you actually know something about him other than what they told you? If they told you, wait, what did they tell you exactly?” I couldn’t exactly speak like this so I pointed my finger down so I could talk normally. Having my face scrunched up and all by her nails that consistently threatened to poke holes in my cheeks if she lost control or wasn’t careful.
She met me halfway; by putting me down yet keeping my face directed upwards. Needed to rub the pain out before speaking. “Not much, really. Just somethings about puppets, glass too thick to penetrate…I see that smile, you perverted dog, hush. They theorized it could be reinforced by magic. The fallen angel that was with them mentioned it was an ancient power? I dunno, he got cut off before he could finish.”
Loona lowered her eyelids down to where they nearly smooched the bottom and let me go to walk around to snoop over my shoulder. I won’t lie, I hate it when she does this. Not leaning over my shoulder but the eye thing. I’d rather have this angry horndog of a demon be pissed at me for days instead of being disappointed in me. Disappointment is just another level of indifference. And while it can be seen as a motivator by some, myself included, it hurts to see it. Especially in someone I care about so deeply.
She sighed. “Looks like I’ll have to explain it to you. f*ck me, this is gonna be a headache.” I felt her lay her head on top of my own head. “Oh, looks like the map finally loaded up. The wifi f*cking sucks out here. sh*t.”
I can feel a huge lore dump coming up but lemme check on… “What the f*ck?! Two f*cking hours away by foot??” I tried to move forward but the girl kept me in place by her claws so I couldn’t even vent out my frustration how I wanted to. “We don’t got time for this Loona! We need to—”
“Why the rush? We have a few days before the deadline, right?” She leaned up off of me and circled back into my field of vision, though that left me to pace back and forth. The hellhound stuck her hands to her hips. “You’re not easing anyone’s anxiety by doing that, you know? Goddammit Josh, how badly did you f*ck this up?”
It was hard to say it, oh so hard but I made this bed and now I have to lie in it. “Fine! Fine. It’s…f*ck it, we only got three hours to do it.”
Only stole a couple glances of the demon in my frantic pacing but the ones I did see, the widening of her crimson eyes and the furrowing of her brows, coupled with the rippling motion of her lips, the girl was pissed at me. Weird thing is, I heard no growling, she started looking for something out in the crowd of people and passing cars. Then she partially stuck two fingers in her mouth and whistled. “TAXI!!” She waved her hand and the one that heard her striking voice veered its way towards the curb, running over a few people that actually made me stop my pacing. The demon was already making her way towards the yellow vehicle and opened the backseat door. “Get in.”
“What? Loona, do you know how much that’s gonna cost? We can just jog there and save us the money.”
This is one of the times I greatly underestimate just how fast or strong the girl can be if she chooses to. We were a few meters from the curb on the custom sidewalk for the building, I’d say about six to about nine meters away. Loona made her way to the taxi as it barreled its way to the curb, screeching and all. The moment I voiced my issues, she bounded from the curb to me in one leap in a single blink. I am not kidding, I blinked once and she was already in front of me with her eyes as feral as a honey badger that is looking for an excuse to fight.
“You have zero say in this so get in or I’ll drag you in.” She pointed at the car.
“I’m just concerned about how much money we’ll lose, that’s all.” Keeping my voice steady and cordial is key to not losing my limbs. Also, that shakiness was returning in my legs and it was becoming hard to move on my own.
All she did was point again, gruffing this time. All I could do was sigh and force my legs to walk to the taxi, me going in the middle and her on my right. Arms folded and all. I’m no stranger to an angry woman so I took the hint and moved over to the farther end of the backseat. That is until she pulled me back to her side and folded her arms again.
“I’ll fill you in when we get there. Not another word until then.” She demanded, crossing one leg over the other while putting on a seatbelt.
“Okay folks, where to?” The driver inquired, adjusting his mirror to see us through the glass. He whistled. “Quite the date you got there, pal. Wish my gal was half as gorgeous as she was.”
As someone in the metaphorical doghouse, the most I did was force a smile back and nod. Gonna be a long ride. Following her example, if that little stunt with this driver just running over demons in a heavily secure area like this is any indication, then a seatbelt is paramount. Strapped that bad boy on and kept my silence.
The compliment did him no favors. The hellhound merely narrowed her eyes at him, like he had the audacity to do such a thing. “23rd and Marco’s Galley. On the double and as fast as you can.”
The driver freezed his scaled, prickly hand. “Beg pardon? Y-You know that’s—”
“I’m paying you to drive, not ask questions. Now f*cking drive.” She commanded.
And with a defeated sigh, the driver revved up the engine, checked his mirrors one more time while muttering something under his breath and drove off. Beginning our trip to the infamous street, home to a very dangerous and ancient demon.
Act III
A Final Bow
The car ride there cut the time in half essentially, with getting to the infamous street within the hour. While I do remember everything Johann said to me, the fat lard of t-rex sh*t never mentioned that the entire ten or so blocks around it were completely deserted.
Shops, food centers, infirmaries (yeah they exist down here and are far more upfront on their intentions about keeping their patients alive for more profit though some use the institution to torture their patients), shoe stores, thrift stores, tech stores, phone shops, malls, kiosks, toy shops and warehouses, delivery services and their vehicles all left behind, hellhound shelters, kissing booths (a popular business for succubi I hear), mobile food stands were also abandoned, there were even some ice cream trucks about. And not a single soul in sight, this entire place feels like something out of a horror game. Yet there was nothing. No music, no cars beeping, no phones buzzing with tunes.
Our only companion here was the silence. And it smiled at us.
On the way here, in some lighter news, if I can call it that, Loona remained very adamant on not saying a word to me and I refused to upset her anymore. However, I remembered what she told me some time ago about her silent treatment, that she is perfectly fine with me rubbing her backside. It calms her down. Another thing I know for sure would have calmed her down was telling heavily sexual, horrible in taste puns after learning a couple months back that they put her in a good mood quickly.
That aside, I stuck to rubbing the small of her back for a long while until she made it clear that she wanted me to rub her butt as well. No room to argue, I did as she implied when she leaned forward, arching her back enough to let me rub it. It was about fifty minutes into the drive and us getting a first look at the place I saw that her scowl was softening up.
Driver was shaking for about five blocks until he had enough. “Nope! Nah uh! That’s it, I can’t take it anymore. No damn way I’m turning into a freak! Not worth the money. You two, out. Now!”
This kind of set the effort of calming the girl down back a few notches. “What the f*ck? We’re not even there!”
He adjusted the mirror so that we could see his expressions through the mirror. “No way, Jose. I’m not gonna end up like them. Lucy’s man jugs, that sh*t is not happenin’. Look, you wanna deal with that crazy nutjob? Yeah, I see what you and your little gimp, boy toy are packin’, I ain’t stupid. Get your asses out.”
“UGH!! Come on, Josh!” She got out of the vehicle, kicking the seat in frustration along the way. After I got out, she slammed the door so hard, the window broke and in the distance, carrions could be heard cawing. And some, quite closer than I thought they’d be. “Scared, little sh*t! Unlike you, we know how to finish the job. Go on! f*cking fa*ggot ass loser! Cause while we’re on the subject of outing each other out, your breath smells like you’ve been sucking co*ck the past two hours. Or did you forget how sensitive a dog’s nose can be?”
“f*ck you!” The driver yelled.
“f*ck you bitch!!” She screamed back as the driver peeled off, tires screeching on the pavement as he did the roughest u-turn I’ve seen in a while then drove off, tires screeching. Leaving us alone and me alone to deal with an even angrier hellhound than before. “AND TELL YOUR WIFE I SAID HOW MUCH OF DICK SLOBBING slu*t YOU ARE!!” She roared at the cab just as it disappeared into the night.
Seeing her huff and puffing, shoulders rising and lowering in livid fashion, I wasn't more certain how to calm her down than the way she told me. That being said, I kept my hands to myself and looked around, scanning and keeping an eye for any potential puppets like this place is rumored to have. Though what the taxi driver said worried me. The way he worded it, it doesn’t sound like the Ventriloquist is using the traditional method of amassing an army of puppets. Sounds like he can turn demons into puppets. Living ones too. If that’s true then why the f*ck didn’t he mention that?!
Now I’m getting angry at this, balling my fists and trying to keep it together. Wondering how something this huge, something this famous got by me. It’s infuriating. The anger didn’t last too long, the final rays of the red gloom faded into obscurity and it became nearly, if not completely pitch-black. Could barely see my own hands in front of me, all I could hear was the caws of the crows and the angry huffs of my furry friend. Not one to stand in total darkness unless it’s my bedroom, I took out my phone and used the flashlight function, thankfully I charged the thing before coming out and what’s even better is that the Goddess enhanced the battery by ten times its normal lifespan.
It would take weeks for it to die on its own. So far, waving my flashlight around in the middle of the street, nothing was coming for us and I couldn’t see anything that was attempting to hide. We were alone but we needed to get to the abandoned factory. Quickly. First I need to see about an angry girl though. Not sure how but I need to calm her down enough so we’ll make it there in one piece.
Took a deep breath before waltzing over to her and gently massaging her back. “Hey there girl,” I spoke in my most cordial speaking voice, showing no aggression at all, “up till now, you’ve been—”
“Been what?” Her snarling tone dripped of a barbaric desire to tear, kill and claw all that was in the vicinity. Violence became her and the trial to cool this melting pot began.
I just hope I can. “Been a good girl. And that’s all I can ever ask of you. You did nothing wrong and said nothing wrong. I’m proud of you.”
The successive rise and fall of her shoulders slowly, gradually came to a halt and some tantalizing moments afterwards, came the soft wagging of her voluminous, overly bushy and unkempt tail. Which does need some combing by the bristly look of it. She slowly turned my way, her red velvet-ivory eye much softer than before. Half of it was obscured by her bangs but that much I can tell. Still on edge but not nearly to the point where she desires to commit a dozen murders on a whim. “You’re a smooth talking SOB, you know that?”
This girl is a whole mystery and then some. Just calling her those two words managed to calm her down enough to talk. “Comes with the perk of being human, I suppose. But you good? No more angry, rip the nape out of everyone in sight Loona I have to worry about?” We really need to keep moving. Time waits for no man. Or demon dog for that matter.
Loona turned all the way around, brushing her hair to the side out of view, bent over with one hand on her knee then flicked me across the nose with the other. “Ow!”
“I’m still mad at you, dumb f*ck.” Despite her crass words and narrowed eyes, her tail wagged behind still. “You got a lot of making up to do after this.”
“Alright, fine. I’ll order us pizza as celebration.” To add onto this, I pulled her face closer and while she admittedly snarled on reflex, I braved through it to kiss her on the cheek before she pushed me back. Seems to be working. She always did have to have a huge soft spot for displays of affection. The snarling lowered but didn’t go away completely. “How’s that?”
She turned me around and gently nudged me forward. “It’s a start. I want a foot massage too. Butt rubs also and vanilla pudding. At least four cartons of that stuff.” The hellhound made certain to walk beside me, very close too and when I flashed the flashlight towards her tail, it seemed to be flaring up more than wagging as it was moments before. A possible sign that she is nervous or scared.
“Pudding will take a minute but the rest can be done easily enough. I got you.” Didn’t need the light to see the motion of her eyes going up and down along with her head. Sometimes, it really does feel like we’re a couple. We argue like one, share the same bed, go shopping together, make deals, cuddle, all that’s really missing is the title. I just really need to ask her one of these days. I enjoy sleeping with her but I want things to move forward. I want to proudly say that she’s my girl. Is that really so much to ask? I shook my head when the girl turned her head elsewhere. Look, I can figure this sh*t out if I survive this night wholly with my mind intact. Free as a bird and not on the strings of some puppet master.
Our walk continued for a few minutes in silence, I checked to be sure, about twenty something minutes passed before I brought it up. “I know you have questions, go ahead.”
“From the top, explain what happened after you entered. And keep your arm around me. We need to get to the point where I don’t have to remind you. It’s annoying.”
So I did, after the moment I read the rules at the front door to me searching around for Johann. Nearly getting into fights, avoiding drunk demons, watching all the debauchery happen, seeing a few couples or trios getting it on in booths, even saw an orgy of imps at one point, watching restless ones enjoy pouring liquor into their eye sockets, screaming then asking the bartenders for more just to do it again. This got a chuckle out of the girl but also, got us to talk about a little if that was the only way for their species to actually feel any sort of pain. Loona was doubtful but I remained optimistic about the self-imposed agony treatment they brought upon themselves.
I digress. The explanation resumed until the point when I mentioned I ran into two fallen angels who somehow knew about my mission. my reasoning for being in the club, and even knowing that Loona was thinking about coming in.
“Yeah…it’s best you keep your distance from those bastards. Angels who have fallen always do fall because they’ve committed some highly treasonous sh*t against Heaven. Like really, really bad stuff. Dating all the way back to the war and whatnot.While they are stripped of pretty much all of their divine power, they usually retain one ability that is ‘divine’, so to speak. In rarer cases, two. In gamerspeak, it's nerfed. A shadow of a shadow of its former self. That’s how much of a downgrade being dropped down here from up there is.”
“Don’t even remind me, you know how I feel about long falls. It’s also food for thought for just how powerful they really were at the height of their original power. It’s something to wonder, in all honesty.”
She shook her head, at least I think she did. “You don’t wanna know, dude. These angels are massively more powerful than the ones from Viv’s universe. Biblical angels are a different breed of power. Let’s just be thankful for the nerf they got when you met them.”
Personally, I thought they wouldn’t be an enemy to me and instead would try to guide me from falling for a demon to lead a normal life. A shivering thought. “What power do you think they got to keep when they fell? Voyeurism? Future sight? Telepathy? Maybe even a form of empathy? Cause there are some versions of the power where they can see entire memories just from the emotions around them. Maybe it’s something like that.”
“Easy there nerd, if you want an explanation, go ask them. I have no clue. Now continue the story.”
Going off from that point, with the password in mind, I greeted the guardians going downstairs and entered the underground casino. Which is where things spiraled, I hesitated to note the part where the young boy was assaulted so I left it out entirely, omitting it from the story and moving on to when I had an epiphany the boss might be at the bar. Only the big man himself caught me unawares and had his goons beat me down before dragging me out.
“Felt like those two broke my ribs with just a couple punches and they weren’t even the restless dudes. They were jacked kind of but—”
“See! This is why I told you I should’ve went in with you. To keep your ass from getting into trouble and sniffing out the guy we need.” She broke free from my grip, spreading her arms out into the bleak sky, letting the exaltation wash over her as though she were cleansed of all sin. “HA! I was so f*cking right about everything!” Then had the nerve to rub it in further by pushing her stank ass in my face. Unleashing another unholy slew of ass bombs to celebrate her vindication.
I slapped her butt two times to get her to behave. Sort of. “Would you keep your voice down! Who knows what’s out there in these buildings!” My voice was no higher than a stressed whisper but I wasn’t risking sh*t. With the light on my phone still on, I waved the device around, shining it as much as I needed to, just to be assured that nothing was stalking us. Especially from behind. Every building and food stand appeared empty, dead, no more than a husk of its former self. “Can never be too sure. Can never be—”
She grabbed hold of my wrist to stabilize my jitteriness. “Relax dummy. I always got your back, remember? Everything has a smell and my ears are better than you think. Haven’t heard anything or smelled anything coming our way. We’re fine.”
“Besides your own ass, you mean.” I commented, reassuming my grip around her waist, acutely aware of her wagging tailbone beating a mile a second.
She bumped her hip into me before motioning me to follow her. “Don’t lie daddy, you know you love it when I throw it back on you. The farts are just an…added spice to the mix. No different than adding salt and pepper to meatloaf or mashed potatoes. So, what happened next?”
I almost wanted to comment about the food analogy but I kept it going, delving into the deal I made with the mob boss out of unfiltered desperation, the laughter of the demons around me, the pressure that filled my head with doubtful thoughts, then the moment where I swore I was having a hallucination of us during our first few lessons. Seemingly, just in the nick of time. During this part, I had a striking feeling in my gut that Loona was blushing with pride for she already knew what came next. And after explaining how the challenge was won in my favor, she picked me up and kissed me about a dozen times on the cheek, proud that I nailed the shot with excellency and showed that her lessons were worth every hour spent And even incentivized that I deserve a long, “sloppy” reward for that shot.
The feeling that I had the entire time was utter embarrassment but also this strange sense of warmth from her. And also, to her as well. At that moment, I almost cracked and told her those three words but I held it off, thankfully. What really kept me together was the mission before us and the fear of potentially ruining all that I have built up with her in a split-second. After she put me down with one more little peck on my cheek, I resumed the story.
It was about the sit-down. It was brief, all things considered, but I got the boss’ approval to do this mission with the guarantee he’ll clear our debt should we succeed. Then I ran out of there when I learned how I messed up with the timing situation. Johann used my own desperation against me as a timer.
“Fatso is clever but I’m still blaming you that we have to get this done in…” She pulled out her phone to check the time then did some mental math in her head before turning her glowing eyes back down on me. Though she quickly averted her eyes.“Would you stop shoving that f*cking light in my eyes?” I apologized and pointed the light ahead. “Anyway, we have about an hour and thirty to get this done, which is close to half past midnight and we’re about ten minutes away from the warehouse.”
I turned my head and almost froze in place when I heard a crow cawing. The damn bird was too close for my liking. Almost as though it knew we were walking into a death trap. “It wasn’t like I was trying to mess things up, I just needed to get his attention and that was the only way I saw the walking buttertoast motherf*cker would listen. His two sh*t for brains goons were already kicking my sh*t in and dragging across the ground to the stairway. My options weren’t exactly plentiful, you know.”
“You could’ve at least said four hours.” She complained.
“No, no, that would be too merciful. Would give your guts too much time to brew up a storm that would give the guy an aneurysm.”
“Pfftfpf!” She cackled horrendously before covering her mouth. Think I heard her snort too. “Okay, you are forbidden from making me laugh until this is over. Goofy ass nerd.” She chuckled behind her muzzle.
A small chortle rippled from me as well. “Noted. Kinky ass doofus.” The hellhound rolled her eyes while I continued to massage her back. Then she looked at her phone then motioned me to take a right on the nearest corner on a narrow street. Even in the dark, I could start to make out a formation in the distance. “There’s something that’s been bothering me about this whole thing. Well, a couple things.”
“Hmm?” Loona seemed to have calmed down from her laughter. “What’s that?”
“Something the angel said before Johann cut him off. He said the power the Ventriloquist has or whatever hasn’t been seen in a very long time. Since the days of ‘Neb’.”
“Neb?” She echoed.
“Neb.” I affirmed. Just saying the word almost made me chuckle. “This Neb guy must’ve been something fierce back in the day then.”
Loona’s eyes became curious, a moment of introspection glazed over her as she walked with me. Whatever it was, it was enough that she slowed her steps to try and recollect it. After a couple minutes in total silence with her dragging her feet (or paws in this case), she snapped her fingers when the epiphany struck her. “Got it! His name was Nebuchadnezzar.”
This opened up a core memory that I thought had laid buried for a long, long time. Reason being is my mother and father are devout Christians, more so on my mother’s side but that’s a whole other story. Point is, I attended several private schools that were all faith oriented for most of my childhood, had Bible study from three to fifteen, and also had regular attendance to at least eight different churches up until I was about sixteen. A year after the divorce. Bible study kind of fizzled out a year later after that. Though those times felt like a lifetime ago, the name rung like the biggest bell in my head. Setting off types of alarms and memories. Like that one time when I was six or seven and mom wanted to do a pop quiz out of nowhere and went to go grab some paper and pencils, knowing damn well we were only paying attention to like six percent of what she was saying. And in that time, me and my siblings scrambled to try and rehearse the entire book of Psalms just so she wouldn’t restrict our tv privileges the oncoming weekend.
Couldn’t let that happen. Saturday morning cartoons were the best part of waking up early. “Oh yeah…I remember that name. Been a while since I did any bible study but I remember him. Sort of. Wasn’t he a close consultant of Daniel for his dreams?”
“Mhm. That’s right.” She confirmed.
“Then…wait, are you saying he went to Hell? Why? Thought he was doing the Lord’s work, why did he go down under? I remember some things here and there but it’s been so long since the days I had bible study with the boys.”
Judging from her eye movement combined with the strands of hair blocking her sight, it looked like she was shaking her head. “You have to separate the history you know from your universe with this one. For one, there is no reigning deity in your universe, only the concept of reincarnation.”
“So in my universe, it’s all a bunch of bullsh*t?”
“Always has been.” She tapped the back of my head.
I pushed her fingers away, sparking a little giggle from her. “Damn. That…honestly sucks. Mom is gonna be real pissed when she’s reborn as a bird or a frog. Imagine spending your whole life in devoutness or believing in a higher power only to end up as a lillypad for a toad to occasionally hop on and croak for five minutes.”
The hellhound giggled harder this time. “Dude, I said stop making me laugh.” She shook her head again, then resumed more seriously this time. “So ol’ Neb, right? He eventually became a believer in Daniel’s god, the one from Christianity that is, towards the end of part four of his story. That’s pretty much the point where he became a true believer in the Christian faith. In this universe? It’s a little different.”
“How so?” I made the miscalculated error of stepping in a puddle. Graciously, it didn’t wet my shoes too much. “Watch your step. Come this way.” The structure up ahead was in sight and even from this far, it looked massive. I guided my friend around the puddle and continued moving forward.
“Thanks bestie. Remember how the bearded fellow up above struck him with insanity for seven years? Which more or less made him acknowledge him?” She posed the question and I’ve noticed in the brief lapses of silence, she would sniff the air intently.
Would also count on her moving her ears back and forth too. “That part I recall, yeah.”
“Yeah. The exact opposite happened. Like in the worst way imaginable. Good ol Neb instead of giving thanks to him and all that sh*t, got the one billion IQ move to curse his name. Had Daniel and the three Jews with him crucified to mock him. So long-story short, bearded guy above torched the city in holy fire by sending in a few angels to do the job. To no one’s shock, he ended up down here.
“Now here’s the part you were wondering about. When Neb was reborn a sinner, he was reborn with a power that can turn virtually any sinners into his puppet or slave, doesn’t matter what you call it, by melting his crown and ripping the eye from an infant restless one (they are born with one but they always lose it ten days after birth), then welding the two together. ‘The Eye of Babylon’ he called it. Neb is still around but the Eye was personally destroyed by one of Lucifer’s first followers, then left him in a tree in the Third Ring in the freezing rain to hang for the rest of eternity. Rumors are his tormentors would intentionally starve him to the point of lunacy then try to feed him something. Only to toy with him for days before giving him a bite.”
As if this situation couldn’t get any more grim. Didn’t think the lore dump would be dark but that’s what I get for being an optimist. That’s what we’re up against though?! A demon that can turn any sinner into a living puppet? And that is horrific but that’s what happens when you defy a power beyond your comprehension. I also think it goes without saying that hellborn are immune to his puppeteering abilities. So that’s good for Loona but still doesn’t clear me out of the woods. “Other than that horrifying sentence you so casually slipped out, I’m assuming that history is sort of repeating itself. In the sense that the Ventriloquist needs a construct or a conduit to house the power of turning others.”
“Ooo daddy is smart, that’s exactly right. Neb couldn’t use his power straight out the gate, it came with a few limiters so he couldn’t run rampant with it. Making a welded, bronze eye as the house of his power was how he could do it.”
“And the supposed magic shield around the warehouse? Was that also his doing?” I asked.
In the dark, I could tell her head was bobbing up and down. “No doubt in my mind he’s behind it. But remember those limiters I mentioned? I’m guessing he can either focus it one thing at a time or it takes up too much concentration to let go or refocus.”
“That,” I guided her past a pothole I nearly sunk my entire right foot in, “or putting up the field itself takes too much time. I’m hoping it’s the last option because that might give us the edge in killing him.”
Warehouse was in view now, even with the thin line of my flashlight, I could tell that much. Place was large, not as big as the club where Johann was but still quite expansive on its own. The property around it was worthy of boasting; I’m no expert on judging massive plots of land, but I’d say it has at least fifteen acres of land by itself with a metal fence erected around it. Whether to keep demons in or out is irrelevant, what was is that the fence had been torn down and countless bodies littered the ground with a few puppets roaming aimlessly about. Thankfully, we were still some distance from the horror show but that didn’t mean we still shouldn’t exercise any caution.
“This opens up some new questions like…oh sh*t. What if Johann had some sort of eye beam power? Or, or even telekinesis or some sh*t. If he did, he must’ve taken it easy on me while—”
“Josh, please try not to cum in your pants from the thought. And no, it’s very, very unlikely he had any powers after death.” She lifted her head up, sniffing a few times. “This way, think I know a way in but it’ll be messy. Head down, okay?” Leading by example, the hellhound lowered her head and when she spoke, it was all in whispers. She slipped from my grasp and trailed off to the right of the shattered fence. Keeping her head down and presumably making quick glances at the puppets wandering about.
Following her and her directive to keep my head low, we skated by the fence into muddier ground. The asphalt swiftly disappeared from underneath my feet. It felt gross with all the squishing and there was no telling if the mud was full of parasites or demonic worms and such. “What makes you so sure that he doesn’t have powers? Sure he’s fatter than a hippo but that don’t mean he got something up his sleeve.” Had to hold my tongue there and quit while I was ahead, Loona has an odd sense of humor and will laugh at some of the stupid stuff I say.
“Because dumbass, it is extremely and I mean, extremely rare for a sinner to be reincarnated with powers beyond themselves. We’re talking maybe, just maybe four percent of all sinners here. Under the broken fence there. If I remember correctly, this should get us to where we need to be. And keep that damn light out of sight. Pretty sure these things can still see us.” Sure enough, there was a broken fence up ahead in a curved archway. But it wasn’t natural, it appeared as though it was two different parts torn in two then thrown there with very little space to crawl underneath. It stretched from that point which was near the end of it all the way back to almost near the main branch. But that was as far as I was willing to test my or her patience with the flashlight.
Worse yet, the metal reflected the light so I solely aimed the light as the muddy ground which sickeningly grew more and more in depth the longer we walked. The squishing only intensified and my socks were starting to feel concerningly moist underneath. Absolutely disgusting to feel as we crept up to the gate. To say that I hated the sensation would be a drastic understatement. Just the thought of slimy, gushy, disease ridden sinking between my toes with every step was making my spine shiver and made me grit my teeth harder. “Aiming it at the floor. Sorry.” I replied in the same whisper level as her.
“Mmm.” She hummed, it sounded like she had something to say but kept it to herself for the moment. We carried on in silence until we reached it. “Stop. Now lemme check on it…” Her way of checking on it was bending all the way over with her butt straight in my face. The worst part? The smell of it was giving me the hardest erection I’ve had since I returned to her outside Second Sun . Other than this, judging by the chingling and clunking from the metal, it sounds like she was testing it. How? I am not exactly sure. “Okay,” she turned my way, “the way under is pretty tight and I do not want to risk any noise that might alert the muppets. I’ll go down under first and hopefully my fat ass will slip through with no issue.”
My gaze shifted down to her hips then to the crevice and a small grin crept its way along my face. Before I could say anything, the silver-and-grey hellhound put two fingers to my lips, silencing any and all foolishness that may come out.
“Not one word until we’re on the other side. If I need help, you push. Got it?” I nodded. “Good.” She turned around, breathed in and out several times, preparing herself for the inevitable stickiness that would cloud her cleavage and knees, then got down flat on the ground, proceeding to army-crawl through.
So far so good, all was well going under, creeping through with her violet leggings and neon pink shirt becoming clouded with the dirty gunk. But it seems the girl jinxed herself because her butt was in fact having trouble getting through. I needed no additional signal or means of encouragement, time was all the encouragement I needed. Getting down on bended knee, grabbing the demon by her hips, sparking a moan in the process, and pushed. Every impulse told me to grunt or groan while straining myself and if I didn’t know any better, I’d say the same was for her as well.
My arms burned with agony until she finally popped through the crevice with my face landing straight into the back of her knees. My nose instantly inhaling the smell of wet ground and partial remains of a weak fart she might’ve slipped. “Hey!” She whispered as loud as can be. “Off my leg, dipsh*t. I still need to get through.”
As if I needed any encouragement. Didn’t know mud could stink this bad. Or it could be her butt. That’s always a possibility. Quickly, I lifted my head up then pushed for the rest of my body too. “There, now go on already.”
She huffed, waving her butt at me haughtily with her bushy tail flicking itself left and right before bringing the rest of her lower body through then almost immediately slipping on something. “sh*t…okay, be careful when you come through. Ground is unstable. Ugh…Ruined a perfectly good pair of leggings…goddammit..”
Amidst her complaining and after she wiggled through, I got down and instantly wanted to back out. Laying down in sludge, dirty, and very possibly infested with vermin mud is giving me the chills but in the worst way. Just bare through it. Don’t stop. I recalled how mom and dad taught me the army crawl, something they more or less drilled into me when I was around four or five. Me and my siblings did obstacle courses they paid for or made themselves in the backyard at the time. Nonetheless, I slugged it through, shoving all feelings of disgust aside and the constant murmurings of my female cohort who has yet to shut up about her clothes being ruined.
After crawling my way through the barely viable crevice, I very slowly stood on my own two feet as advised and even with the extra caution, I could see and feel why she told me so. Going forward was a slope heading downwards. But where?
“Mind me asking where the hell are we going? On top of that, how do you know so much about this secret entrance you’re leading me to?” Keeping my voice low and wiping as much mud off of my chest and legs as possible then checking if my gun was still in my holster. Could breathe a heavy sigh of relief to know it was still there.
“Short answer? Internet. Come on dude, you really think we’re the first? Shine your light that way, on your right.” Her silhouette was hardly visible in all this darkness but she is tall and I just managed to catch her pointing hand.
“Actually, you know what? I’ll take your word for it and would like a longer explanation.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m not going to explain everything to you but I will say this: where we’re going, is by far the most popular point of entry. Enough that it blew up on social media several times with demons, kids and teenagers too, turning into puppets in real time. Let’s head down. Slowly. ” She heavily emphasized that last part and I could feel the urgency in her voice too. Slowly but inevitably, she began to descend, whining to herself that she’ll have to scrub her feet for weeks after this.
I almost wanted to rub it in that she should start wearing shoes to protect her paws but would she listen? Nope. Stubborn girl hardly ever does. Except in certain situations. My descent followed soon after hers, and I had to use my hands in conjunction with my leg muscles to slow everything down. The hill didn’t feel big, it certainly wasn’t steep at all but one can never be too sure of themselves. That’s how accidents happen.
Yet my instincts were right, sliding down the slope didn’t last longer than maybe a minute. Didn’t make the solid ground any less squishy or uncomfortable though. Loona pulled me to my feet once I fully slid down and lifted her nose up, sniffing a couple times before motioning me to follow.
“Should mention this before we go any further. The main reason why we need to be extra, extra careful of the puppets.”
At this point, almost nothing will surprise me. “Go on, chief.” I noticed with my light that in the short distance off to the left, the building stood. Only, there was a large hole in the side of it and bizarre as it was, a green light emanating through the cracked lines of said hole. It appeared to me someone set off a pack of C4 before entry. “The f*ck is that green light? Should we be going near it?”
“One thing at a time. sh*t, you’re making me more nervous than I already am.” The distance between us and the entryway wasn’t too far but she stopped about ten meters before it, holding her arm out to hold me back. Poking her head slightly in, sniffing the musty air some more before pulling back. Seems like she had more to say. “The puppets, right? Treat them like zombies; you’ll be one of them if you’re not careful.”
Oh NOW she’s deciding to tell me this? I was trying not to appear annoyed but it still slipped out somehow. “How the hell do you know all of this? Why don’t I know sh*t about this guy? Or his history? No one ever told me, no said a damn thing about him. No rumors, no news, that motherf*cker wasn’t even in any articles I’ve seen and yet you, Johann’s fat ass, the Goddess’ fat ass and the rest of the freaking mob knows about him, plus their moms and brothers and uncles but me! Why am I the only—”
She covered my mouth and strange enough, she wasn’t upset. “Keep your voice down. Please.” I was still huffing from the frustration burning through me while she took the time to look around and then check her phone too. “Thing is, Josh, he only made the news some of the time, like the times some dumbass teenagers went viral. He wasn’t important enough to keep in the media circle because everyone was losing hope of reclaiming this part of the Ring.” She scoffed. “Yeah, I know, imagine a demon having any kind of hope for anything.”
When I finally was allowed to speak, I needed a moment to calm myself so I wouldn’t explode. She once said wolves like dominance. She is no different. I need to be calmer, more composed instead of mouthing off when things get too rough for me. I sighed, running my hands through my thick hair then realized I was dirtying it with the mud stuck to my fingers. Goddammit . “Christ on a f*ckin—then why didn’t you tell me about it? If it was as viral as you said it was, why not show me?”
Good thing her clothes were somewhat still bright in the dark because I could actually see her putting her hand on her hip. In spite of all the sticky, funky mud stains sticking to her that is. “Uhh, last I checked, neither one of us are particularly big fans of horror dude. Some of these demons actually look like reanimated corpses. And,” she lifted up one finger, “it wasn’t really relevant to speak on. Even if I did tell you, I doubt you’d remember because either you were working, busy f*cking me, cooking, reading like the nerd you are, or just playing your games. Let’s not forget your memory can be sh*t sometimes.”
That part about her describing that some demons that have appearances akin to reanimated dead people got me glancing around, almost scratching my neck even like an addict. My memory isn’t THAT bad. I’m not some dementia patient. Damn. “You don’t say…okay fine, I can accept that. Fair is fair. Do they really bite us?”
“Say what now?”
“You heard me you f*cking horndog, you said the puppets are like zombies. Which leads me to believe that these hoes will bite me to infect me. Is that how it works?”
Her eyes widened with realization. “Ohhh. No, not at all. It happens when…” Suddenly, she started snarling and pulled out her piece and pointed it at something behind us.
Not even three meters from us, was a small demon child whose eyes glowed blue, half of his face showed the skeleton underneath and not one bit of it resembled a human skull. It was far too alien to resemble an animal skull as well. Any animal that I know of either. I yanked my pistol out about a second after she loosed hers, ready to shoot.
Just before either one of us could shoot, something else happened. “Joshua, dear, your reflexes could use some brushing up.” The voice sounded nothing like a child and the voice itself was unmistakably familiar to the both of us.
But why the half burned corpse of a child? Jesus. “Goddess?”
The child that is possessed by the omnipotent deity nodded. “In our first meeting, just before I left the two of you alone, I announced that I would appear before you two at different intervals and not always in my favorite avatar.” It glanced at its nails, rotting and all I suppose but I can hardly get a good look at it in the dark. Most of it is covered in dark besides the glowing eyes. And maybe that’s for the best.
“Told you your memory sucks.” Loona added.
“Shut up already. But may I ask—”
“You may, child.” The deity spoke.
“Yeah, uhh, yes. Why are you here? Is there something you need to tell us?” My posture slowly began to relax, even though I shouldn’t in the case if she lets go of the kid, he might attack. Loona’s stance is already relaxed but I know by the way she is looking at her claws, she isn’t out of options.
The Goddess clasped her hands behind her back and paced to the left, kicking a rock lazily away. “You were right in your earlier assessment, my dear. I do not interfere in my children’s messes or scraps or battles, especially,” she turned her head, craning her head down and back, almost to her spine, “ones they’ve created. This spill on the floor is the work of you two’s poor planning and haste to rush to quick conclusions.”
The hellhound stomped her paw in the mud impetuously. “Eugh, gross. It wasn’t my fault, dammit. He already gave me an earful and blasted my ass hard enough that I couldn’t sit for a week. I don’t need anymore lectures.”
“And so, you will not have them. I am here to give you a hint that may or may not be critical to your survival. That is this: five seconds.” She straightened her posture then returned to her original spot.
We waited for her to continue but after almost two minutes and Loona’s constant tapping of the moist ground beneath her paws, we realized that was the hint. Zero explanation, no more exposition or even some vague body mannerism that could allude to something more, just two words. What exactly are we to do with that? Come to think of it, Loona was going to say something about the puppets until the Goddess showed up. Wonder if there’s some correlation or just a coincidence. Then again, to an all-knowing, all powerful deity, I don’t think coincidences are actually a thing.
“Oh you gotta be f*cking kidding me…” The hellhound bemoaned, fully faceplanting.
No lie, I was heavily disconcerted myself but time is wasting and too much of it has been spent talking. “Right, we’ll try to remember that. Sure you can’t give us any directions or any weapons that could help?”
She shook her head. “No. The bed has been made by the two of you alone. What kind of mother would I be if I let my children fail to amend their predicaments? Either lie in it or count this as our final meeting. Farewell.” The light vanished from the child’s eyes and for a moment, they seemed confused, looking around, at us, at the building until he faded. Just faded into dust.
“Well, that just happened.” Loona checked her phone again, sucking her teeth at the screen. “We better get moving. Only got about an hour left to kill him and get out. Did you bring any extra mags with you?”
In all fairness, between my obsessive need to dissolve the mystery behind the Goddess’ words and what the hell happened to the child she possessed, it was hard coming out of my own head to speak. But I did hear her speak, however. “No. No, cause I wasn’t expecting to do the mission tonight.”
“Yeah, me neither. Think we better change that in the future if we survive this.” She sighs, shaking her head then holstering her firearm. “Let’s find something blunt and hard as we go. Conserve ammo better that way.”
I nodded, still keeping my pistol in my hands. Wasn’t too comfortable with going in unarmed just yet. Loona on the other hand, she can fight just fine without a weapon. “Guessing this is the basem*nt or bottom floor. Which means there are eight floors between us and the Ventriloquist. Ready?”
She shrugged, trying for a co*cksure smile. “Nope, but let’s do this.” The hellhound took a deep sigh then entered and I followed at her heel.
First issue after walking in: utter darkness. Even with the flashlight from my phone, the darkness around it was so opaque that it was miraculous that anything could pierce it. So I had no choice but to hug Loona’s ass (not in the literal textbook definition, just uncomfortably close to her bum) until we found our way to the first exit going up. She didn’t seem to mind me being so close and would wordlessly, through her actions, guide me through the basem*nt floor. Every so often she’d mutter to me, barely above a whisper, “body there, watch your feet” or “ink on the floor”, or another would be “maggots, co*ckroaches and other bugs that way”.
That last one almost made me want to actually hug her from behind but the only thing that stopped me was from the outside looking in, I’d look like a little bitch. And that can’t happen. Never in front of her.
Insecurities aside, the smell in this room was horrid. I mean, just downright deplorable and this is coming from someone who routinely wakes up to his friend shoving her butt in his face every morning and dropping gas bombs like it’s WWI. And that’s not accounting for the times after dinner when it is at its worst. Yet this made me wonder: when a demon is killed here in Hell, does the body instantly just evaporate or does it naturally decompose like how a human would? Thinking back on the times when death was involved: Cal’al, the worker in the clothing store I worked in who almost strangled me to death, the hellborn purists who invaded the store on Christmas eve, the bodies never decomposed or turned to dust or cinders.
“They don’t turn to ash or cinders, just lay there long after they were killed. Wouldn’t it be more efficient if the bodies turned to embers or something…” I rambled under my breath as Loona led the way through the dark room, still not sure where she’s leading us but I trust her to know what she’s doing. Amidst my senseless mumbling, my ears would alert me to that sound again. It sounded like dripping, like something was dripping from a long distance going down into a large puddle. And it was too distinct, too visceral for me to say it was completely a hallucination.
“Josh…my senses are dialed up to twenty-two as it is. You’re rambling isn’t helping.” The hellhound muttered to me in the darkness. She sniffed again, making a subtle gagging noise before shaking herself. “Ugh. But I think everything in this room is dead.”
“Yeah. But from what? Is there a light switch or something?” After a moment to reflect and a little rubbing to her back to keep her calm, I realized how crazy that sounded. “Never mind. You can see in the dark, right? See the stairs going up?”
Due to how long her hair is, I actually felt multiple strands of her hair sweep across my hands a couple times. Given her height, that is enormous. “We passed it actually. It’s completely barred by corpses, stacking almost to the ceiling but judging from the arrows painted in blood down that way. Unfortunately, that’s where we need to go. Come on, we’re almost there.”
I maintained the back rub for a few more meters before letting go altogether. Every so often, my ears would play tricks on me, tricking me into believing that I heard something when that wasn’t the case at all. More pressingly, the blood arrows? This feels a little too on the nose to be the true and correct way going up. And why were there so many bodies on this floor? Still, I am left with so many questions and not enough answers to satisfy me. Lack of information will be the death of me and if this pup doesn’t start talking soon, she as well will die with me.
Neither are good scenarios. A few moments later in unified silence, I heard her wet paws touch creaking metal and then, ascend. Steps. Just a small pair of steps then. I followed her up, going as slowly as I could while making as little noise as possible. Until that crimson-white pair of eyes grew annoyed at my sluggishness and started tapping the floor impatiently. Impatient dog. Just bark and let all the damn puppets know we’re here, why don’t you? Couldn’t be too mad at her though, we need to get to the eighth floor as quickly as we can within the hour.
Closer to whatever entrance we were at, the stench of blood grew incredibly stronger. However, that didn’t alert me as much as what I heard on the other side. Without speaking, I messaged Loona.
Me: puppets?
She was a little startled by the notification but thankfully, she turned her phone on rumble. She answered a moment after.
Loona: yea…just 1 tho..
I took a deep breath, holstered my pistol and searched for the handle, assuming there is a door in front of me with all of this darkness surrounding me. Apparently, there is one. A double-sided one by the looks of it. No handle but there was a rough feeling, rectangle shape in front of me. I pushed, the door grating so hard against the floor that I stopped altogether for a moment, terrified if the sound would alert more puppets to this entrance. I’m hoping not but one look at my female companion told me that time is limited and I needed to hurry up.
“Maybe I should—” She started.
“No, no, I got this. Just have my back if sh*t goes south.” I saw her nod then as I turned back to the door, something seemed to have caught her eye and moved towards it. Didn’t have time to worry about it so I shoved and shoved with all my might to get the door open as quickly as possible.As it peeled open, lines of sticky liquid came apart at the seams which truly disgusted me but I shoved it all down to finish the job. Once the door was finally open, I could catch my breath a little before letting the girl know we could resume.
However, Loona’s assumption earlier when the Goddess was around had been more correct than I wanted it to be. Because I somehow forgot the stupid puppet was on the other side, or more aptly, I thought he’d be farther away. He was a tall one, with tendrils for a beard and hair. The demon edged closer to me and his eyes suddenly began to glow white and I’m not exactly sure why then I knew when the lights from his eyes grew to the point where they were like miniature security lights. Whiting out a large area of darkness in their wake.
While standing in that ray for that brief moment, I began to lose all sense of self, all sense of individuality. “I….L…..h…” I remembered muttering until the lights suddenly and violently vanished from my eyes.
Bless her black, horny heart, had slid past and under me, ducking to the side of the white rays with a bat with dozens of bloodied nails aligning the later half of the weapon and socked the puppet over the head, splattering blood across the walls and floor as the demon collapsed to the floor. It twitched once and that was all the verification Loona needed to beat his head in four more times. For good measure and to be certain the thing no longer moved ever again. She did a swift motion of the bat, flinging some of the blood off of it before coming back to me.
“Hey! Hey! Can you hear me? Josh?” She lightly tapped my face a few times. Smartly, she kept the bat over her shoulder and away from me.
Took a few seconds but I came to. “Yeah…yeah. I’m fine, I’m…what the hell was that? What was that light?”
The “lights”, in the hallway that followed the corpse room, weren’t stagnant. They blipped at either quick intervals or long ones. In those brief flashes, I could see many things. Wires from the ceiling that sparked from the receiving end, countless bloodstains littered and painted the walls, a few bodies of demons lined the walls, a few looked as though they attempted to try to leave before they were killed. Gunshot wounds by the look of them. There were also shell casings of bullets cluttering up the floor, other bludgeoning weapons like metal pipes, chains, as well as a few designed for cutting like sickles. But the main takeaway for imminent and quick kills was guns and there weren’t too many on this floor.
All of this to say that I could see her body and silhouette far more easily than in that horror show back there. “Sorry, I meant to tell you earlier.” Her ears lifted up, one going up and the other slightly going down. “There’s two, no…five coming this way. They’re all slow too. Grab that pipe, we’ll make short work of them.”
“Dammit.” I saw the pipe she was referring to, it was between two dead demons, one whose head was stuck in the trash bin, the other got his bashed in. Picked it up and it felt heavier than I gave it credit for. “Some good an—”
“Yes, I know, Josh. And I’m sorry but they’re gonna have to wait.” The groans were closer now and so were the sluggish steps. “ Good these are the slow ones I’ve read about. All you have to do is kill or hit them in the head before their eyes glow. That’s it.”
I still hate that she knows freaking everything. Through f*cking social media of all things. God dammit. Mental bitching aside, I sauntered over to the metal pipe laying on the ground in a pool of dried blood between two demons, yanking it off the ground. “Where are they coming from? My hearing’s not as good as yours.”
She stood up straight and pointed her bat at the entryway off to the right. “That way. We’ll do this the fun and easy way. Pick them off as soon as they’re all through. Quick and fast.” She spit out some saliva then stood on one side, holding the nailed bat by the grip with two hands.
“Cool. Got dibs on the next plan though.” Quietly, I moved to the other side of the entryway, trying to get a better feel of the weight. The pipe felt heavy, as it should, just that I held a pipe back in my old life a couple of times. Maybe a handful. Don’t remember them being almost twenty-five pounds. Whatever material this thing is made out of is dense. Wonder what though. Then again, I was younger back then and the pipe itself was fairly thin and small.
Loona made a face at me then shook her head, her silver hair flowing back and forth before leaning against the wall, to further push herself out of sight. I did the same, waiting for the puppets to come forth. It took some time for the lumbering, slow-witted things to come our way. First one was a shorter demon, about five inches shorter than me, next came two really, really tall ones, I’m talking these things were both fat and tall. Even taller than Loona and she herself is a 7 ft tall hellhound. And speaking of demonic animals, the last two had the heads of a feline with one of them being a 5’8 raccoon and the other a 5’9 quadruped thing with eagle wings and the body of a panther and the head of a lion.
Once the puppet hybrid demons were just a couple meters in front of us, she gave the nod. One small breath later, I swung with all of my might, my metal clashed with the skull of the hypnotized lion-headed demon, the very impact shook my arms like nothing I’ve ever felt before. What’s more titillating, or some would say haunting is that I heard bones breaking during the exchange. Felt them too. Then it crumpled to the floor like an uneasy, archaic temple. Blood, fresh blood, dripped from the metal pipe as well as the former demon on the floor. A trail of leaking out from one end of its head. The same could be said on Loona’s end, only, she wasn’t as affected like I was and leaped up to bash one of the taller ones.
Haven’t killed a demon in months, only beat a few up but…can’t freeze up now. Nor would I as I could see I still had loads of time before the other lumbering giant came to realize two of its friends are dead and his match is currently having his brains rearranged. Swiftly my feet moved faster than I thought they would and I swung at its knees, again, with a great deal of my strength. Crashing and breaking something within. While the lumbering, obese giant did not scream, it did fall to one knee and with that sudden momentum, fell flat on the ground. Now was no better time and I ran back over to take two good cracks at its skull. Splashes of blood inked my muddy clothes, my arms shook with each impact.
Then I had this familiar yet impending feeling treading upon me, one that I have felt just moments before all of this. “NOT TODAY!!!” I screamed, hefting the pipe in one hand, twisting my body instantaneously and threw the blunt object at my aggressor. As lady luck would have it, it crashed and hit the puppet straight into its cranium. With a splatter of blood as an added bonus to show the effectiveness of its domineering weight. However, there was an issue.
The second and last demon puppet of the bunch. Its eyes were starting to glow bright and I just tossed my only blunt force weapon in a fit of desperation. sh*t! I was about to pull my Smith and Wesson out but I was fumbling with the straps and time was ticking like a grandfather clock. Growing ever closer to the final hour. And that hour was getting brighter and brighter by the looks of it.
SQUISH!! A loud smushing sound erupted soon after my hellhound friend pounced on the demon and bashed its brains in with her fists. Factually speaking too, several brain parts scattered across the floor from the blow in front of its head and more blood sprayed in her face. Part of me was wondering where her nailed bat went but the other part of me was just thankful she came to my rescue on time. Allowing me to catch my breath and put the straps back in place.
She spit out some blood and shook herself loose of any demon blood that got on her head, hair and neck. The rest seemed to not have mattered as much. She stood up, picked up my pipe and tossed it to me, then crossed to the other side where the other big puppet lay dead, scooped up her bat and swung again to make sure it was dead. “Double tap the big guys.” She said at last.
I caught the pipe, almost fumbling it due to its weight before adjusting it to a swinging position. “‘Treat them like zombies.’ I hear you loud and clear.” I stepped over to the one I bashed down and just as the hellhound feared, the creature was still attempting to make an effort to move and stand on its feet. At least turn his head around. I bashed it three more times to be certain it was dead. I was going to swing another time but Loona kept my hands from swinging a fourth time. Shaking her head.
She let go. “Was the screaming necessary?” The demon asked in a quieter tone.
Truthfully, it wasn’t but it was more so a spur of the moment. “Felt it in my bones that something bad was gonna happen and that just popped up. Seemed appropriate if you ask me.”
“Uh huh, sure it wasn’t an excuse to use that line from that game you’ve been playing recently?” She rolled her eyes then held her hand up to prevent further discussion on the topic. “Anywho, you probably figured it out, haven’t you?”
Yeah, best not to get sidetracked. “The lights from their eyes. That’s how the puppets turned more sinners into puppets, isn’t it? That’s what I-I felt when being in that light for about two or three seconds. Felt like I was losing everything about me that made me… me . I…I don’t want to feel like that again.” f*ckers caught me slipping. Can’t let it happen again.
She shifted her weight over to her left leg.“You won’t, not if I have anything to say about it. Although, it couldn't have been more than a second. Maybe two.” She looked between two ways, the entryway where we ambushed the puppets and the direction going straight down the hall. “Let’s not stay here too long. Which way you wanna go?” She hefted her bat over her shoulder, sniffing lightly.
I glanced between the two directions she looked over, a little confused. Other than the time issue. “Is there a difference? Our objective is to head up, we just need to find the quickest way.”
“Mhm.” Loona sniffed again, once pointing her nose down the hall then another past the entryway we stood next to. “That way where the puppets came from? There’s more down that way though it doesn’t smell like they’re coming this way. Also, it doesn’t smell or sound like there are many more, much less moving. Possibly less than what we encountered her. Slow ones too.”
“And down yonder?” I pointed with my thumb in the other direction.
She shrugged anxiously. “No puppets but I smell machinery: iron, rust, and then other nastier stuff like mold, mildew, bugs and spiders.” She visibly cringed, shaking her body at the thought. Which, I too, did the same. “Hehe, glad we’re on the same boat with insects but that way seems to be the safest way going up.”
She could be right, her sense of hearing is remarkably strong, and her smell far, far more so. Yet, when I look down this hallway, I don’t know why but everything is telling me this is the right way. The path with least resistance isn’t always correct. I thought to myself with zero evidence. Human instinct does come in handy sometimes, I wager. What shook me from my thoughts was the helldog herself, shaking my shoulder not so gently.
“Hey, dummy!” She whispered as loud as she could without breaking through another octave. “Let’s head down that dir—”
“Actually Loona,” I gently pushed her hand away, turning my head down the corridor. “I think the stairs going up will be found faster if we went this way.”
“Oh?” She lifted an eyebrow and leaned down, shoving her muzzle in my face. Her hot breath barreled down on my own nose and goatee. “I’m trying to pick the path of least resistance, sh*tface. This isn’t a video game where following the direction of the enemies means you’re going the right way.”
“Yeah, no sh*t.” She opened her mouth to speak but I covered her muzzle just in time. “Just humor me on this, matter of fact, let’s make a deal. If we go down this way and find the stairway going up in less than five minutes, you owe me an hour long blowj*b on top of the one you said you’d give me for making that shot back at the Second Sun .” Ordinarily, I don’t like to make sex-related deals because it feels just wrong but I’m counting on her shamelessness to override her sense of reason.
“Hmph.” She harrumphed then stood up straight. “I should say no, you little horny f*cker. But,” judging by the way her eyes shaped themselves, it appeared she was smiling, a snarky one too, “I’m not passing up this opportunity as well.”
This confused me. “What? I don’t—”
“If we don’t find the stairs going up in five minutes and have to come back through that way,” she pointed with her bat, “then not only do you drop the whole spiel of me riding your co*ck, but I get to edge you for two whole hours in any way I choose. Deal?” She held out her pinky finger.
In the short moments that followed, I was tempted heavily to call it off and just go the way she picked out. However, proud idiot that I am, my stubbornness wouldn’t allow me to reverse the decision. I shook pinkies with her, it felt akin to a binding contract.
“After you, Mr ‘I’ll come up with the next plan to kill the demons’.” She slightly bowed, taunting me with a shake of her hips. With not as much light shining or brightening up the massacre of this hallway, I just know she still has that snarky ass smile on her lupine visage of hers.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Come on.” I held the heavy pipe halfway and walked into the corridor, sly hellhound in tow. Going down this way, a musty smell filled the air, replacing the odor of blood and guts earlier. And possibly worse since the body will naturally loosen its bowels upon death. Although this applies to humans, not to sinners. It may but I’m not a mortician or someone qualified enough to do an autopsy or even examine them up close for several days after death. Nor do I want to.
Surprised the girl is holding in her gas for this long, smelly or not, she likes letting them out around this hour. We took a turn at the nearest corner and going past it, the off-and-on lights from earlier didn’t resonate well enough to light the way. Instead, I had to rely on my phone flashlight and the oh-so occasional dim ceiling light going forward. Keeping the pipe at the ready and any and all commentary at the bare minimum. None at all if it can be helped.
When we came across the closest T intersection, I was a little confused where to go and the smell of blood wasn’t reassuring. What was assuring was Loona pointing in the direction where the next group of puppets were along with telling me I have three minutes left and counting. We made a right and kept moving. Then made a left after that as the hallway was short and seemingly the smell of blood and mustiness was thinning out. Didn’t make the feeling of creeping through an abandoned factory full of pseudo-zombies any better.
Always wondered how’d I fare in a zombie apocalypse. A pipe for a blunt weapon isn’t exactly what I’d go for and I always wanted to use a shotgun. But beggars can’t be choosers. There were a couple doors here and there but I didn’t have time to go through all of them, but I sure as hell tried. Went through about six or seven of them before we kept moving forward with a sly hellhound telling me that I have one minute left.
In the middle of mentally panicking just after she told me that, she gestured to me to point the light down and quickly. I saw why; up ahead past the corner we just came around was a long rectangular window stretching until it met the door. With Loona’s ears doing that twitching thing, it’s clear to say that some puppets were inside. Couldn’t see how many because that would risk them coming our way, albeit slowly.
I felt a tap on my shoulder. “Forty seconds. Wanna bet it all on this room or just admit my way is better?” The amount of co*ckiness in her voice was annoying.
“Nah, f*ck that. I’m winning this bet so pipe down. I’ll shine the light through the window, draw their attention to me. Before doing that, you creep in and when their eyes are on me, you take them out. One by one if needed though I’m hoping there’s not too many.”
She sniffed again. “I count two. Not too bad. Yeah, we’ll go with your plan and when this room doesn’t have the stairs daddy? Oh you can bet your sweaty balls I’m gonna shake my ass in your face for five whole minutes. Get your light ready, I’ll head on in.” I heard some shuffling and if the blinking light from down the hall is any indication, it appeared she was not only pulling the bat farther down her back while going in on all fours.
I need to have a long talk with this girl about the timing with specific words in serious situations. Once her large tail vanished within the room, I waited five seconds before extending my arm upwards with the phone’s light facing the window. Couldn’t exactly tell what’s happening so I took a small peak over. It appeared as though they’ve taken the bait but their eyes didn’t glow white hot when they used it to hypnotize others. In fact, they seem to be growing closer, curious to what the light was.
Before I could make a hypothesis, Loona’s crazy ass bashed the left one’s head in then just as quickly for the one on the right, just when it turned around. The sounds of a hardened utensil breaking bones and organic matter never failed to make me shutter.
“Come on in, the water’s fine.” She popped her head out from the doorway to my left. Her hair swinging. “Come on, time for you to lose a bet.”
“In your dreams.” I stood up and followed her inside, not-so-secretly wishing there was a door or something going up. Waving my flashlight around while she paced back and forth by the door, keeping an eye out for any more surprise puppets coming our way.
About twenty or so seconds later, searching high and low in every corner of this room, I found a red door at the right corner of the room. And what do my little eyes see right beside it? “Yo! Come here, look at this.”
“Is it a cupcake?” She asked.
“Just get over here.” Once the girl hopped her way here, I flashed my light on the little sign next to it. It’s one of those signs for a stairway going up.
“No f*cking way…” She muttered.
“Gotcho ass.” I felt so damn proud of myself and felt even more pride when I opened the door. Space was a little tight but there was a flight of stairs going up to the next floor. No more than that, however, path seemed barred by something. Nonetheless, a win is a win.
Loona groaned, slumping her shoulders in defeat. “God f*cking dammit..” She reached forward and tugged on the thin piece of string, igniting the lights. Surprised they’re still working for the stairs actually.
I slapped her butt, still feeling myself. “Ha! Told yo ass. After you little lady.”
“Oh whatevs!” She grunted, swatting her tail in my face as she passed me by. Then proceeding to taunt her butt again in front of me indignantly, defiantly even before letting out an obnoxiously clamorous butt bomb. “Do I at least get little breaks then?”
The tail slap did hurt somewhat but not nearly enough to make my smile recede nor dampen my mood. “Course you do, I think a five minute break will do before you return to it.” I climbed up after her, hoping her fart just now didn’t alert any demons on the second floor. Still don’t feel comfortable about deals revolving around sex. Feels like I’m forcing her into it. “Thought you didn’t have any left in the can, to be honest.”
“Ohhh trust me, I have a lot I’m holding back to worsen the smell.” Two steps later and it felt like I was hallucinating because to me, she was slowing down her steps to make me watch her butt in slow motion sashaying up the steps. “You know this deal kind of backfires on you, ya know.” She reached the halfway point to turn around to wink coquettishly at me before resuming her pace upwards.
My steps continued without balking at her shameless degree of teasing and I’ve no doubt she’ll find a way to tease me even in a dire situation we find ourselves in. “What are you on about now?”
“Well,” she began, then when one of her ears lifted, she motioned me to quiet my steps, “you don’t exactly last long when that fat thing is in my mouth. Now do you?” Her tone noticeably lower.
“I’m decent.” I replied, catching on and cushioning my steps as much as my sneakers would allow.
“Yeah, when you’re trying to give me a whole litter of puppies to pop out. blowj*bs? Not so much, I’m afraid.” She reached the top before me, crouching down beside the door, signaling me to go to the other side.
I do too last long! I have no idea what this girl is talking about. She’s just making sh*t up. My mood was souring but I wondered why she wanted me on the other side. The door pulls outward with her being in the crossfire. “We can talk about this later. Stop giggling, dammit. Anyway, there’s one behind here?”
She did stop giggling but her smile remained. “Two.” The hellhound sniffed again, then waved her hand in front of her face. “They smell like four month old milk that’s been sitting out in the desert heat. Eugh. Once I open the door, I’ll whack one, you take the other when it tries to follow me. Simple, right?”
It does sound simple on paper, true. Just hope nothing stupid happens. I readied my handy pipe, cracking my neck. I started a silent countdown with my fingers.
Three…
She gripped the handle.
Two…
Another silent sigh, her smile fading. The hellhound’s composure adopted a serious as death expression.
One…
She pulled the door open as lethargically as she could, searched for the puppet to her immediate left then swiftly, callously, swung her nailed bat and shattered its skull in that dreadful swing of hers. All I could hear was the familiar sound of a blunt object meeting the slightly tough surface of flesh and bone. Breaking through the surface, destroying and rupturing everything underneath. The hellhound triumphantly backed away now in full view, at least in my view that is, waiting on the rails for the other creature to take notice.
However, we did not account for one thing.
This next puppet was a fast one. It did not walk like the classic zombie would, no, this thing came running at breakneck speed after her, freaking the girl out, trying to grab her. Her focus stunted and thrown into panic mode, Loona’s instincts told her to run not to fight back. The puppet’s frantic advance forced her back and against the railing while it attempted several times to grab her. Failing each time and she retreated to the steps going down. Only fighting on the steps was never the most brilliant method of defeating any opponent. The hellhound tripped on one stair, and the thing grabbed her by her wrist and lifted her up, attempting to make her look at it in its dreadful ivory gaze. The thing was tall enough to lift her over the freaking rails as well, it appeared sentient enough to try and goad her with a silent ultimatum.
There was never a better opportunity. I shoved the door aside and quicker than the thing could twist around or recenter its attention, I brought down the pipe so hard on the back of its skull, four of its eyes popped out and several rotting teeth as well. The demon collapsed and the issue was resolved as quick as that. Its body crumpling down on the floor and tumbling down the steps, blood splattering with each impact. However, there was another.
Loona had dropped as a consequence going down and although she would have survived the drop, neither she nor I was willing to take the risk of injury. “Hang on! I’m coming!” She held onto the rail and I had to drop my pipe to help pull her heavy butt back up. Grabbed hold of her free arm and pulled with all of my might to bring her back up and over the railing.
Once she was up and safe, she socked me in the arm. “Ow! Goddammit, I need that arm.”
“You couldn’t have killed it sooner?” She asked shakily.
“That thing…it was fast. Not faster…than what I can see but…” Needed a moment to catch my breath after pulling her up.
“Yeah, no sh*t but try not to be so late next time? We’re a team here, we work together so that we will survive this night.” She felt around for her bat and realized it had fallen down a few steps due to the laws of gravity. Rolling her eyes, she made a stand to go down and grab it.
The teamwork thing, I get and she has shown she’s a team player. Meanwhile, I stood up myself to check both directions if anything was coming our way. Then pulled back in. “What about you, huh? I saw that.”
She caught up with her bat in hand, checking to see if her pistol was still where it was. The hellhound sniffed a few times, then sniffed me, hair, shoulders and neck. “Yeah, and I’m…” She sighed walking out, already heading left. “I didn’t expect it to move that fast either so…yeah, I’m sorry.”
I followed her closer. “This doesn’t make sense, Loona. You’ve been in bar fights with other demons, I’ve seen you fight demons about nine feet tall, scare away other folks with just that mean mug of yours, yet this scares you?”
“It’s just—”
“Good evening, my latest and least prepared guests! I do hope you’re finding my little abode to be quite comfortable!” The obvious was neither of ours and especially not the Goddess. Which leaves just one other choice.
Almost on queue, like we practiced a dozen or more times in the training rounds, me and Loona went back-to-back, pistols drawn, safety’s off and aiming at both sides of the hallway. Both of us checking any movements, anything that twitches and even remotely comes off as a demon, we shoot to kill.
“See anything?” I whispered.
“Mmm mmm. Don’t hear or smell nothin’ either.” She replied back.
“Ohoho! Perhaps I will gain some laughs from yet another stale attempt to come up here! Oh but don’t look so down in the dumps, my dear gentleman and fair lady! This will be a fun experience for all! Sooner than later, we’ll all be together. Bye bye now!” The intercom cut off, leaving us alone again.
“Well, that was—”
“A waste of time. No need to waste any bullets, Josh, as far as my nose tells me, those two were the only ones on the second floor. But we'll still need to be careful.” She had already holstered her pistol and began walking off to the left, knowing that I’d follow.
Only that there were a couple things to address. After doing the same with my firearm, I yoinked her by the tail and pulled her back. Causing her to yelp suddenly in response. “No, not yet. I need you to spill it.”
In contrast to the first floor, more lights were actually functional on this floor and so it became easier to see the hellhound’s face. Flustered and bashful as it was. “From earlier? Look, I—”
“We’ll get to that later. What I want to know is what else do you know about this funhouse? I don’t buy that a heavily resourced crime organization couldn’t have penetrated through these defenses as easily as we have. There has to be something else here that has killed mountains of these guys.” I did let go of her tail because I am somewhat aware of the effect it was having on her.
Anxiously, she began brushing it with her free hand after coiling it around her person. “You’re right, I should have told you much sooner but I was angry at you during the ride and…no. No, no more excuses.” She took another breath, meting out the unsteady ones. “Traps. There are many, many traps here on the second floor. A lot of them have been tripped but some speculate they’re could be dozens more waiting. And that’s assuming they haven’t laid any more down yet. From here going up, it’s a mixed bag of traps and puppets and just like you saw, there are faster ones waiting for us.”
Oh this is just f*cking great. Bullsh*t really. On top of ducking and weaving puppets that alternate between retard speeds and going faster than Usain Bolt, we have to worry about environmental sh*t too. I pinched my nose, shaking my head and glancing at the corridor going down the other way. “This just keeps getting better and better, doesn’t it? Now I know and that counts for something. But Loona? Next time we get into a mess like this again, I don’t want any of this ‘I’ll tell you later’ bullsh*t. Absolutely not. You tell me before we even step two feet inside that motherf*cker. Got it?”
She quickly nodded. “Yes d…yes Josh.”
For once, she actually restrained herself. Won’t last for long though. “How far has anyone gotten? Up to him, I mean.”
She unfurled her tail, appearing uncertain, blinking three to five times. “You’re not going to like the answer.”
“We’re wasting time, Loona.”
“Okay, okay! Third floor. No one has ever made it past the third floor because…” She tilted her head with “pointed” her left ear going up. It twitched subtly. “Something big is up there. According to everything I know, that thing up there guards the doorway going up to the fourth. No one has gotten past it yet. Not in forty years or however long that bastard has been here.” She straightened her head out, took out her phone and motioned me to follow.
What the hell could be so terrifying that not even the mob boss’ top shelf of henchmen couldn’t shove their way through? I’ve seen some of their artillery, motherf*ckers have rocket launchers and…no wait, firing that indoors would probably be bad. Then there’s whatever magic barrier around this building. “Why? Is it fast? Please tell me it’s not fast.” I picked up the pace to keep up with her.
“I heard it’s fast, tanky and angry. There were some other details about it that made it dangerous but I’m drawing a blank right now so I’ll let you know once I remember. If that makes it any better.” Her eyes shifted high and low, wary of any traps that may be hidden.
Kind of doesn’t but I’ll take what I can get. I was doing the same and found remnants of blood, large daggers coated in green stuff, and from what I could see up ahead, or smell really, the smell of death. “Sounds like a restless one. Slow your roll, I think there’s a pitfall up ahead.”
“There is, yeah. Really obvious one so just hop on my back and I’ll jump us across.” She paused mid-step and waited for me to climb aboard.
“This still feels weird, ya know.” Felt like a little kid going for a piggy-back ride on his mom’s back. Only mom’s piggy-back rides never involved life or death scenarios where I could end up a shishkebab. Griping aside, I climbed on Loona’s back and crossed my arms past her neck.
“Hush dummy. One piggy-back ride isn’t gonna kill you.” I don’t know how much distance we were from the pitfall, but it was enough for the girl to go full predator mode and get on all fours, bracing her muscles.
“Uhh…what are you doiiiiiinnngggggg!!!!??” She bounded off, hard and fast as her powerful four legs could muster her. Swiftly moving across the blinking room and dusty floors where her canine nails raked across the floors with every trot. Being up on her like she was my mount didn’t feel weird as much as it felt super hectic and I had to balance out not trying to choke her in my panic and holding on tight enough so I wouldn’t fall off. So far, I was managing to do both just fine.
Then the jump happened. I’ve never been good with heights, my whole family knows this and the mere feeling of being above ground for too long always makes my chest feel like it’s about to cave in due to an unknown pressure from the world. Or from gravity to be more precise. Time seemed to slow too, making the trip across the gap even more heart thumping than it needed to be. Everything felt slower, even my breaths felt sluggish in these fleeting moments. I just hoped it would pass soon.
Unfortunately, my wish came true. While Loona did stick the landing well, the foundation under her crumbled just as quickly as her weight pressed upon it. “sh*t!!” She scrambled to grip something, anything, to pull us back up. The tarp concealing the ground a couple feet behind us fell at the slightest set of pounds. We began to fall and the smell of rotting and rotten corpses became ever stronger.
There was no time to think on my end, it was do or die and I was not prepared to die. Not yet. I lunged up just moments after the girl missed her chance to grip on something and managed to hold onto a jagged edge. The concrete, broken and uneven, I could feel it digging into my palm upon impact yet I grit my teeth and held back any groans and grunts. Loona saw my success in this moment and immediately latched onto my waist but that didn’t last long, even as the searing pain dug deeper into my palm. She quickly used our momentum to hop upwards, then her nails to sink into the walls and climbed her way up.
Next came her hand pulling me up without issue and onto her chest. My hands still burned with agony and I longed to quiet the pain. Wondering just how deep the edge cut me.
“sh*t…! Didn’t see that coming. Hold on, let me get that, can smell the blood on you.” She gently pushed me off her and tore off a piece of her leggings then tore it again in two with her carnivorous teeth. Then did the same with her leg, wrapped both hands in the fabric and watched the blood be absorbed. “How do you feel?”
I formed my hand into a fist, it hurt like a bitch and a half but I could still grunt through it. “Hurts but I can still hold a gun. Didn’t cut me too deeply. Let’s keep moving.” I made the effort to stand and was grateful for her assist. “Thanks a bunch.”
Her eyes brimmed with concern but nodded nonetheless. “No problem, what are friends for?” She started walking with me walking beside her.
We were much more careful from then on and Loona was absolutely correct in her assessment earlier. There was not a single puppet on this floor but the dozens of traps is what slowed us down time and time again. Thankfully, the most we got from any of them was a couple of cuts, if that, but nothing severe or life threatening. One room where upon entering, a mechanism dropped, locking the door from the inside. No puppets came but the room began filling up with carbon monoxide. A slow but lethal death. She found a way to break the window and get me out of there before I passed out.
Another trap was accidentally tripped by me when I tried to get an ax off a body only to trigger a sequence of events that lead to, and I’m not joking when I say this, eight boxes full of spiders dropping. Me and Loona sh*t the bed with this one and ran for the nearest hallway. After we finally stopped running and did a thorough check for each of our bodies (we both stripped naked just for insurance sake) to make sure none of the eight-legged freaks followed us. One did and it was a brown recluse spider. Meaning every spider in there could have been the same species or worse as that is one of the deadliest species of spiders known to human kind.
In the end, causing me to dread what is the poisonous spider known to demonkind. There were a few others but not as notorious as the two listed above concerning traps. Some included falling scythes, others included small chunks of dry ice shooting from the walls at unholy speeds, threatening to rip our faces off. However, they were only triggered once and never again when we explored the room in question.
Found the stairway going up and I could just tell by the smell of rot, molded meat, the scarce lighting and the sound that something was breathing , I just knew I was going to have a bad time. That and there were skeletons still up here. As in after walking past the door and there were about six of them in various positions. It was hard to see them with the lack of light but I was able to figure out the numbers via the outlines of their bones.
“Well, they look like they’re having a fun time.” I coughed afterwards, sad to say that I’m slowly getting used to the smell of dead things.
She sniffed, tapping me on the shoulder. “No time for that. Whatever is blocking the entrance,” her voice was incredibly low now, “is literally down the hall that way. Explains the bodies, the skeletons and this sh*tty smell.”
“Which way? Kind of hard to see with barely functioning lights.” I heard her scoff, grab my head and craned it to my immediate right. The sounds were ostensibly even louder now. “Oh. Oh no. How close is it? What does it look like?” I glanced up at her.
Looks like the hellhound was squinting. “A lot of…teeth. Kind of like a star—”
Wakey wakey my little sourpop! Two new candidates have successfully made it up here to become your new friend! Be a good sport and show them some love?” The intercom cut off and the breathing noises ceased.
Then a roar, boisterous and deafening, booming through the hallway corridor.
“Loona?” I asked, my legs began to shake and suddenly, I could feel my bladder more succinctly.
“Yeah Josh?” Poor girl sounded just as shaken as I was.
“Got any plans?”
“Yeah, just one. RUN!!” She grabbed me, not by the wrist or even tried to push me ahead of her, the hellhound legitimately picked me up and carried me over her shoulder. All the while the sounds of bones being crushed, the ear splitting dissonance of screeching metal and murderous roar came at us like a charging rhino. Only this “rhino” had teeth on every part of its body presumably. Even with the blinking lights and the unsteadiness of the hellhound running, that much I was able to determine.
Fear and the instinct to survive had seized both of us at an unyielding chokehold but we had to find a way to keep breathing. I don’t know where she was going or where she intended to hide but she needed to do it quick be—
Zooming just past my head, missing by mere hairs was a rectangular object that lodged itself into a nearby wall. Yet, strange as it was, the object didn’t stay lodged forever, it slowly popped back out before being crumpled into small boulders by the beast. “Loona! You have to throw this thing off faster!”
“I’m trying!” She yelled back, sliding using her claws around the corner but stopped so suddenly that I fell off but was caught just in time. “sh*t! It’s another one of those traps with the darts coming out of the walls.” She pointed at multiple examples of dead demons lying around, skewered to swiss cheese. Holes big enough to fit an entire soccer ball for some of them.
“Where’s the tripping mechanism?” It was a long shot but it could slow the thing down enough to give us some breathing room. I recognized this type; if I’m correct, this specific type of trap is triggered by a pressure plate in the wall. On the ground, for at least eight or so meters, there should be three to five similar pressure plates that will be triggered by a step. The one on the wall is a manual one and can be tripped to use up all the current traps, if applicable, at the time.
“What? You want to use it on—” She turned back, eyes growing wider upon hearing the beast drawing closer. It doesn’t take a supernatural dog to know that death is near. “To hell with it.” She muttered, sniffing, veering her head in several directions before zeroing in on her left going forward. “There! There’s a hidden button in the wall. We just need to hit it when we’re out of range.” She veered her head quickly then pointed five times. “There, there, there, there, and there. Avoid those spots, got it?”
I nodded. There was a nearby, nearly decomposed body of a demon wearing a brown leather jacket. Hastily, I began yanking the article off of him then grabbed his shoulder socket and pulled his skeletal arm free. No time to shake off the maggots however. The thing was too close. “Go! Go! Go!” I yelled at the girl, making sure she got through first then I ran at the fastest speed I could ever muster to get across with the creature now pulling around the corner and not stopping for anything except to smash and break us apart like a little boy with anger issues after losing a match.
It was gaining on us, far too quickly for my tastes but thankfully she already made it to the other side, just out of the darts’ range should the trap be triggered. “Hit it! Hit the f*cking thing!” She screamed at me from afar but I couldn’t, I wasn’t out of range, not yet and to add on to my heart just about leap out of my chest is that I could feel the thing breathing with every exerted breath behind. Hot, moist, damp and foul. It made the hairs on every part of my body stand up from the sheer terror and anxiety.
Every impulse, every thought told me to not, under no conditions, look back. Didn’t have to for long, the adrenaline must’ve kicked in and gave me a small burst of energy to outrun the beast by a few margins and that was all that was needed. Just a few meters away from Loona, I twisted sharply on one foot and threw the bone at the pressure point in the wall, triggering the mechanism and the trap by consequence. All at once, hundreds of darts, small and large, volleyed themselves out of the near invisible crevices directly at the beast. Whether it punctured the creature’s skin, made it bleed or hurt it was beyond my scope, all that mattered was that the trap did exactly as we wanted: slow it down.
The hellhound patted me on the back and motioned me to follow, I was still high on adrenaline so keeping up with her to some degree wasn’t too hard.
Dunno how far we ran but it was enough that Loona needed a full moment to pant away the heat burning through her body, I lied against the wall, shirt drenched in sweat and clutching onto the pipe. Trying to recuperate myself, not often I sweat this much. Only in recent times due to a certain activity is the cause of such rampant perspiration. And the occasional running away when there’s some gang violence going on.
Loona crashed down beside me, keeping her up and alert. Our location? A broom closet. “Any ideas?”
“Wish I had a grenade or something. I need several showers after this, goddamn.” My pits were reeking after that sprint, good lord in the morning.
She chuckled mildly. “Let’s try to survive this before we romanticize bright futures, okay?”
“Sure thing.” I patted her knee. “Can’t stay here for long but you said it was looking like a star?”
“Star fish . Until that asshole woke him up. We probably could have killed it in its sleep somehow if we found its weak point.” She looked at her nailed bat, possibly realizing how useless it is in this situation.
“Maybe, maybe not. That thing strikes me as something that doesn’t go down so easily. Is there a light in here?” I tried to stand in spite of the burning going on in my legs. “A starfish? Seriously? Of all things…” I felt around, looking for a light switch.
“Don’t. I’ll be your eyes, idiot.” She stood up with me and it was obvious she had no desire to, sighing and groaning the whole way. “We’re in a broom closet, unless you wanna become that thing’s poop scooper then I suggest we both sit down and think about our next move.”
She did have a point about resting, both of us were wiped out from running so much. Taking refuge in a room full of dustpans, brooms, some keyboard cleaners I bet,window cleaners, dusting tools, trash bins, plastic bags, large and small, cleaning chemicals and other… Wait a second…chemicals? I started tapping my chin since my beard is nowhere near grown back yet. It still itches from time to time after the trim. Sometimes unbearably so.
The hellhound sighed again before sitting back down, sounding like she is close to passing out. “Don’t know what you’re tapping on about, nothing in here stuff to clean, a couple of brooms and some bleach over there.”
“How much?” I asked inquisitively.
“How much what?” She asked wearily.
“Chemicals. How much is there in here?”
She rolled her eyes. “I don’t know, I guess like ten, maybe? Maybe twelve? What about them?”
“Got an idea. It’ll be risky though.” I suggested, turning around to face her.
She glanced up at me, blowing her messy bangs out of the way. “If it gets us out of this room that smells like the perpetually sweaty ass of a human, then I’m all ears.”
***
After some discussion of the plan, a minor walk to discover another trap we could use to slow it down, all that was left was to set it up. To my absolute non-shock, Loona hated every bit of it. Not the preparation or the time used to set it up, oh no, she was fine with that, the part she despised was that I was the bait for the monster. She argued with me the entire time, bickering with me at every step but I refused to be moved and I’d rather it be me than her. Even though this entire operation is my doing with her as the propeller from months back, I felt the responsibility to do the potential dying if need be.
If I fail, she is to run, escape the place, go back to our apartment, collect all of our savings and go on the run. But that’s only in the worst possible scenario.
We weren’t too far from the beast actually, it was on the patrol, so-to-speak. Knowing that we were around and not dead must’ve driven a hard wrench in its sleeping plans. I do feel him on that, I’d be pissed too if two assholes showed up wanting to cause nothing but ruckus. Before putting our plan into action, something made me wonder about the beast: would gunfire work? I asked this of Loona and she claimed bullets, no matter the type, do not work on it. She proved this by going off bringing me along, then shooting it once when its back was turned. I saw why. The starfish beast seemed to have some precognitive response to anything that sounded like gunfire and from that conditioning, thousands more teeth popped up all around it until it formed a nigh invincible layer over the skin. And the bullet? Bounced harmlessly off it. And in that small frame of time, the teeth shield popped up faster than the bullet could reach it.
Now that guns were out of the question, we had to move before it spotted us.
After that demonstration, we managed to track it and follow its movements, calculating some form of trajectory of where it was going to head. Unfortunately, this meant we had to wait at least three revolutions through three different hallways in a circle for the setup and plan the trap. The trap was twofold: the first one isn’t ours and is by design of the Ventriloquist, once tripped or pulled, several molotovs will drop. Demons are immune to fire, lava and all of that but that isn’t the function. It’s to get the beast to open its mouth and rush at me in anger. Basically, piss it off in a blind frenzy. This is where the second trap comes into play. Me and Loona got all the chemicals from the closet, tied it all up in a large bundle of fragile glass bottles we scavenged while the creature was doing its revolutions and had it on standby. She throws it, I, as the volunteer for this project, had to remain neutral yet hostile enough for the beast to focus its attention on.
Once the chemicals are lobbed, I’m to book it and run for the hills. Sounds simple but extremely dangerous and stupid. But Loona is the only one of us two to carry the bundle with one arm and not crumple like a ball of paper under its weight. This was an arguing point actually and the one she begrudgingly accepted. Because when all that liquid chemical is put together at once? I could barely lift it past her knee without straining myself after maybe five to ten seconds. Loona lifted it up with very little signs of struggle. She made a comment about me hitting the gym after all of this but I just poked her side and told her to keep moving.
Currently, she’s waiting around the corner with the chemicals ready to go. “I hear it coming. This better work and you better not f*cking die on me.”
“Stick to the plan and I’ll serve you some cupcakes when we go home.” She groaned from the reply, both her lips and her stomach. Burning that many calories after all the running we did, she must be beyond hungry.
And so is the beast, it seems. Could hear it circling the corner in the darkness, only sparingly shone by the blinking lights that hung lopsidedly by the ceiling wires. Its teeth were terrifying to behold, huge, thick and massive tendrils, six of them by my count, snaking away and pulling it around. It paused momentarily when it saw me, my hand tightened around the first trap. All I had to do was wait.
One second later, an ear rupturing roar blared through the corridor once again, so loud this time, both me and Loona had to cover our ears (she could only cover one unfortunately). Then it began its manic run against me, its tendrils slipping and creeping across the floors as the beast hungrily, crazily desired to either eat or kill me. Or perhaps both. I stood my ground, counting in my head, just waiting for the right moment to shed some light in its eyes.
“Wait…wait…” I muttered, looking at the hanging ceiling lights off to the right in the distance, just when it reached the point of being in range of the trap,I yanked the string. The molotovs fell from their spot and hit the beast around its…head? Starfish don’t have heads but it was as close to having one as I could tell. But! It seemed to have worked, the big starfish got pissed off, screeching even louder this time then double timed it. Flailing its massive appendages around, in its ravenous pursuit to destroy its singular target. Crush it, grind it up and devour it.
I glanced over between it and Loona who was rubbing the inside of her ears from the screams, holding up five fingers. The creature kept coming, not even slowing down.
Four…
Ravenous and baleful, it desired to pour every ounce of the burning light onto me.
Three…
Loona seemed to be recovering, catching on to the signal and dropping fingers. She hefted the bundle in her arm.
Two…
Drooling, malevolent, it screamed some more. Was it hatred? Hunger? Annoyance? Or laughably and presumably, pain? It was nearly upon me, with its cavernous, teeth riddled maw stretched wide open.
“NOW!!” I bellowed at the top of my lungs and right on cue, the hellhound hopped out of her hiding spot and lobbed the chemicals straight into the beast’s mouth and even better, swallowed it by pure instinct. Crushing the bottles effortlessly and spilling the nasty, destructive and most importantly, hazardous chemicals into its body.
That didn’t stop it from trying to take me in there too and it would have if it weren’t for my faithful hellhound friend. Just in the nick of time, forcefully pulled me just out of reach before its teeth could so much as tear a hair from me. Only managing to tear apart partially my shirt however. We both crashed on the floor, scooting backwards at the sight in front of us, and she kept her arms tightly around me as I did the same.
The chemical plan worked; the dangerous amount of acids forcibly and through trickery, lodged into its stomach didn’t mix well. In fact, the thing threw a tantrum or something close to that, whopping around, chucking up foam from its mouth, desperately trying to breathe fresh air or erase the source of the pain. It even attempted to bash itself against the glass, to try and break out but the magic around this place worked out as well as in. Whatever force the beast had, it was nowhere near enough to break through, ricocheting harmlessly off the surface time and time again. Yet that didn’t mean it was a picnic for us.
For me and Loona, we had to hope the toxins would kill it quickly before it leveled the floor beneath us or else all of this would have been for nothing.
It scratched, it clawed, it bit everything in sight, threw its tendrils in every direction, crushing a lot of miscellaneous things. Cracking the ceiling but never fully breaking it wide open, the same goes for the floor, damaged the only good few lights in this corridor, tore down a few walls on the interior and more. Until finally, finally the chemicals completed their task to the utmost degree. The thing finally fell to the ground, trying its damndest to breath again but the acids melted through its intestines and innards, burning it from the inside out.
And then, it moved no more.
Me and Loona were so visibly shocked at how this stupid and hectic plan worked, that we made no sounds for about perhaps twenty or so seconds. Then out of nowhere, she pulled me in for a bear hug, squeezing the life out of me, licking my ear and neck out of deep concern. But my concern was that the girl didn’t do the starfish’s job for it. Had to tap her shoulder a few times for her to get the message. All that did was get her to let up on the pressure.
Eventually the girl eased up and stood up first, offering her hand. I took it gently, hands were still cut from earlier, couldn’t grip things too harshly without feeling a thunderbolt of pain. Neither one of us were in a speaking mood, we just grabbed our things, found our way back to the once guarded doorway, shoved the doors open, and made our way up to the 4th floor.
Me and Loona weren’t in the mood to fight or kill anything so we more or less agreed to sneak past everything. I pushed the door open, checked both ways and once it was verifiably safe to come out, I let her know. Keeping both of our heads low and out of sight.
“How many do you think is on this floor?” I whispered.
She held up one finger.
“Wait, just one? You serious? Thought there was—” She covered my mouth.
“Shhhh. Just wait for him to say something.” She let go, keeping an eye out on our left while I did for our right. I had a feeling who she was referencing, so I kept my lips sealed and waited.
It didn’t take long. “...No one has ever come this far. I did not think my beautiful sourpop would be bested! Unfortunate, but! The show must go on. If the two of you have the moxie to keep it up, assuming you’re not bleeding all over my floors, then keep on. So many have come to claim my head, will you be the first? Or will your streak end and I’ll either add you to the piles or to my collection? Don’t keep me waiting now!” With that, the Ventriloquist ended his monologue and cut the intercom.
“He seems…”
“Surprised? Shocked? Flabbergasted?” She suggested.
“On edge. Like his pet was the biggest deterrent on keeping everyone out. What do you think?” I turned to her.
Loona sniffed once then made a little sound with her tongue, to garner my attention. “I think that I’m hungry, I’m tired, I need a freaking medic because that cut from earlier still hurts and that a few are coming from your direction. I only smell one in this direction.”
So that was a f*cking lie. “Wanna rock-paper-scissors it?”
She looked at me like I was crazy. “Hell no. Just keep your hand on my ass and follow me. God I need to…” She didn’t finish the sentence but I had a good idea what she was alluding to. The girl sighed and crept along.
And I more or less took her advice and kept my hand over her bum, slightly tugging the outer rim of her panties and leggings while she led the way. No reason to speak nor was it in my best interest. Her tail is very large and even tired, starving and bleeding, she’s liable to laugh if I say something stupid. Or giggle at the very least.
Heading down the corridor was simple enough, too dark to wander on my own, even with a hellhound with glowing red-white eyes, too much of a risk to trip on something. Or even worse, stub my toe. Which she was more than happy to sometimes warn me of though part of me knew if she was actually pissed off at me, she’d be tripping me constantly or letting me stub my toe nonstop. She can be very petty. I couldn’t hear this one and only puppet she spoke of but she whispered every now and then that it was a big one. Not big, big like the beast one floor below us but enough to give us trouble. Admittedly, with her skills, she should be able to take it on her own.
If she wasn’t exhausted that is. I was wondering how her hair was looking at this time, provided the earlier excitement with the beast that we barely escaped/found a way to defeat, it had to have been a whole mess. It was a little tricky while creeping around with her about to turn the corner but I managed to brush some of her silky hair back. Pulling some of the locks from her sight and trying to straighten it out.
Below, I could feel her thick tail sweeping softly against me. She only paused when we were about to turn the corner. “Thanks but why?”
“Just felt like it, really. Do I really need a reason to straighten your hair out?” My hand drifted down to rubbing her back and not going any lower than that. As fun as it is playing with her butt, it’s uncalled for in this situation.
“Suppose not.” She shrugged, whispering as she peaked around the corner. “Just don’t pull my tail. You know how I get when you do that, especially at random.”
I remember the blushing from earlier and a few times before then. “Gotcha. See the demon or are we clear to move?”
“He’s there, really far down the hall it seems. Good news is he’s just staring at a wall. Bad news is the guy has more muscle on him than a bodybuilder.”
“I hear some better news in your voice that you’re leading into.” Sometimes Loona does this odd, higher inflection in her voice when she feels jittery or enthusiastic about a subject matter. Other times it signifies that she’s just really, really nervous but that more aligns to her nearly squeaking with every tonal inflection in her voice. I know this because every time she gets in trouble with me, the latter is usually the result.
The former resonates well with this occasion, coupled with the swifter movement of her tail. “Better news is that it looks like there's no traps going this way and there’s a chance that the door at the end is our way up.”
I tilted my head back and forth, lightly tapping my pipe weapon in my other hand while gently patting her back. Which she seems to like too. “Okay, hallway with a big scary puppet, possible way of going up and neither of us in the mood to kill anything.”
“That’s the dealy-o, daddy-o.”
Please Goddess, strike that word from her vocabulary. All I heard in my head was the deity was chuckling sardonically at my plea. “Are there any doors we can hide in just in case it sees us? Any small pockets of space we can use?”
There was a pause in her response. “Three. Just three. Hopefully we don’t have to use any of them.”
“Agreed on that. Ready when you are.” Her answer to this was moving my hand down to her butt but before I could complain, she started to move. Why is it her shrewdness only kicks in when it’s something lewd related?
Bitching aside, us two crept as softly as we could along the ground. In the blanket of darkness clouding my vision, every so often, the low hanging bulb on the right side of the hall would flicker like a match. Momentarily alighting the darkness for a moment before going out again and in those moments I’d get a glimpse of the puppet ahead. Loona was not kidding; the bastard was more than one story tall and looked like he could bench press Dwayne Johnson like a twig and tear him apart twice as fast. Oily, mulberry skin, muscles looked twisted with bulky, pumping veins. Free will or no, if that thing is one of the faster ones, we are definitely sticking to sliding past it as quietly as possible.
There was an issue though. One I could smell from the hellhound’s funky behind. It stunk to high heaven and felt pleasantly warm on my hand. While it doesn’t or wouldn’t actually cause any problems in the average scenario due to its silent nature, part of me worried that the demon ahead might actually register the smell and actually turn around. Additionally, she seemed to be doing that “I really gotta pee/sh*t” dance with her legs as she moved. Which can’t be good for the present, not now at this crucial piece in time. Like, I have to go and have to take the longest piss two stories ago myself but priorities come first.
No sense in beating around the bush, I think. “Loona? Wanna tell me something? You know what I’m talking about.”
The hellhound craned herself to face me, sharply and decisively, without uttering a single word I knew exactly what she was saying. Her angry red-velvet-ivory eyes told all. Josh! For f*ck’s sake, shut your goddamn mouth or that thing will hear us! This is NOT the time to make small talk. And she was completely right, it was stupid of me to ask.
With that unsaid conversation made clear, I mouthed the word sorry and made the zipping motion with my index and thumb, symbolizing my silence. Her reply was a slow roll of her eyes and shake her head, her voluminous bangs swaying back and forth over her eyes and head. However, just at that moment, amidst the swaying when her head dipped in frustration, the blinking light over yonder rightwards turned on for a couple of seconds. And in those moments, I saw the giant turning his head our way. Inexplicably and out of pure fear, I grabbed Loona and pulled us out of sight. Not into the nearest room, but the small little gap just before it, the girl in my lap and one of my hands over her mouth while the other rested over her lower abdomen.
I did everything to slow my breaths, slow down everything and she seemed to catch on as well, trying to keep herself calm too. She kept her tail out of sight and didn’t seem to mind me covering her mouth. I could feel her breaths grow slower the longer we remained in this awkward position. The moments passed slowly, every heartbeat on my end and presumably hers felt louder and significantly amplified. Much like drums in my own ears, thumping again and again, as we waited for the thing to turn back around to the very engaging he was staring at for who knows how long.
More rumbling, not from me but from her and I could feel all of it. The way her body was so stiff on my lap, it was only a matter of time. Please girl, just hold it in a little longer. Please, please hold it. I took a peak over the corner, the giant demon puppet appeared to be glancing in our direction but hadn't noticed us. Seemingly so. Its giant dome of a cranium began slowly turning ar—
Loud, long, wet and folding and to the user herself, extremely relieving, came possibly the loudest fart I have ever felt the girl produce in such a close proximity. What confirmed the last part was the hot breath melting into my hand after release. Loona was extremely relieved but when she caught wind of my eyes, they became bigger than bowling balls. She pulled my hand away, mouthing to me, Sorry, sorry, sorry! I couldn’t hold it and I still need to go! As utterly gratifying as it would be to grill her on her lack of control and to possibly get one off from her gas, there was a bigger problem that netted both of our attentions.
Giant footsteps approaching. Slow but harrowing nonetheless.
Thinking quickly, she grabbed a hold of the knob next to us, turned it slowly and pushed it open. The worst part was the door creaking but that didn’t stop us from approaching this as delicately as possible. She didn’t open it all the way, just enough for her to crawl through. I needed no incentive and crawled in after her, taking good care that my pipe did not hit the ground on the way in. Afterwards, as we tried not to panic from the looming footsteps coming our way, pushed the door closed then very meticulously, backed away from it.
The giant approached the door finally, and from what we could see from the small ovaline shimmering glass fairly high up, it appeared his head was moving back and forth. Searching for the sound. Before the oaf could realize what’s going on beyond the glass, Loona slid to one side and I, the other. Out of his field of vision should he look inside.
We waited for about a minute before the thing gave up completely, walking away and neither of us spoke until the steps ceased. I let my head hit the back of the wall, which hurt but I didn’t mind.
“sh*t that was close. What room is this anyway?” I whispered to her, the room was too dim to perceive anything with my eyes. Much, much too dim.
“Don’t know, don’t care. I’m going to the other side and taking a sh*t. I’ll be back so watch the door.” The pair of eyes rose from her spot, letting down her bat as caringly as she could. A moment after, I could hear her paws softly clinking against the floor as she made her way over.
“What? I don’t think…” Even from this distance just after the grunts started, I could smell the gas flooding the room and that’s not counting what came after.
I put all of the sounds I heard from that moment after to let my mind wander while keeping an eye out for the big guy. It’s still a puzzle to me. Okay, sure, I could buy them not being able to penetrate the factory with C4, RPGs, or whatever. Magic was too strong and that hole outside, she still didn’t explain that part. Or that I didn’t ask but anyway. How did none of them figure out a way to kill the starfish monster? You mean to tell me with all of their resources, some being fallen angels and a lot being sinners mixed with some hellborn, that no one, absolutely no one found a way to kill that thing for four decades? That is…just beyond absurd.
So far, the big guy hasn’t come to check in on the girl causing a mess on the other side. Which does prop the question, these things respond to motion and by that logic, sound and hearing. Is it plausible to theorize as well they can respond to smell? If so, then the abhorrent stench of hellhound sh*t should attract him. Or maybe repel him? I dunno, there’s only like one disgusting thing I am horrendously attracted to about Loona and I’m trying to keep my fetishes contained. In any case, I kept my imagination and thoughts on the matter to a minimum while keeping an eye out for the big guy.
A few moments later, or however long it was, the hellhound returned to me and even though it was far too dark to see her face, her eyes gave me the impression she was immensely assuaged and ready to keep pushing. She knelt down to me, sniffing my neck and hair curiously.
When she pulled back, I got the sense she was a little confused. “You gotta piss? Now’s a better time than any.”
How in the… I turned my head back to the glass when I thought I heard something only for it to be a false alarm. “Like a bitch but I can hold it. We’ve spent too much time here as it is.”
“Dude, just pee already. Seeing that thing isn’t new, ya know.” Her eyelids lowered a little.
“What? On you?” The question was obviously rhetorical and I was expecting a snarky comeback. Only, she didn’t. “Your silence worries me.”
“I don’t mind. Do you?” There was no snarkiness in her voice, no sarcasm, not a drop of cynicism, it was plain and direct. Genuine curiosity.
“Okay, you know what? You keep an eye on the door while I, uhh, look for some place to get it done.” Good God in the morning I need to piss. Only issue is I can’t see sh*t in this place. Makes me wish I could see in the dark like her.
“Whatever. Just hurry up, we’re on the clock, remember? Here, let me help with that.” Thankfully she didn’t mean undressing or unzipping me, just pushing me off to the side, away from the door but within arm’s reach. “Go ahead. I’ll wait.”
Once that slice of business was done and over with, we crept past the big guy and Loona’s intuition was right on the money; the doorway just passed him is a staircase heading up.
From the 5th to the 6th floors we blitzed our way through. With thirty minutes left on the clock to get the job done and behead the puppeteer out of all of this madness. We wasted no time, running and killing everything in our paths, proving my theory correct; that the true gatekeeper from the higher floors was the starfish demon on the 3rd. The good news in all of this helped build our trust in one another far more than I realized. Every time when one of us was pinned or came close to being the controlling light of a puppet, the other assisted however they could. Especially with the faster ones who chased us down. On that same note, Loona never balked again in the face of a fast puppet, she always managed a “retreat” around a corner, used her surroundings to block off the rays or swung just when their eyes glowed. Risky but effective since they needed to be in close range for the magic to work.
I was no slouch either; overall demons are taller than humans, sinners included, and more often than not that worked to my advantage by using their own momentum against them. Sometimes just tripping them down a small flight of steps was enough to topple them. And the higher levels were overrun with the faster puppets, leaving the slow ones in the minority. Which is bad but they lacked intelligence and common sense (both categories). Thoroughly making them a joke half the time for us both.
However, I will say the biggest hurdles for us were twofold: tons and I mean tons of the aforementioned speedy puppets and the traps were so plentiful and superfluous, it was on par with Looney Tunes level of stupidity. While that presumably isn’t saying much, we almost died about eight or nine times on our way to the seventh floor. I don’t know how the Ventriloquist orchestrated all of this with his mindless puppets but I will say those poor boys need a raise.
Tripwire mines, molotov co*cktails filled with holy fire (don’t know he acquired it but according to Loona after she calmed down after nearly burning her tail off, very, very few holy items remained in Hell or were brought to Hell after the first war), oil drums filled with acid would drop if the trap was triggered, at least two rooms had gigantic spider demons ready and waiting for any intruder to waltz in to become their new prey (Loona took one peak in one room, memorized the scent and we noped out of there, did the same with second room with a spider demon hanging in the darkest corner of the room), in one of the conference rooms, there was what I thought to be slime everywhere sticking to most surface areas in the room. Until they began to move . We also noped out of there. There were other traps that we encountered, plenty of them that were giving me a severe headache.
I think the most hilarious thing out of all this was the Ventriloquist steadily becoming more and more frustrated with our ascension and repeated success. He knows we’re coming and he knows his time is now finite. Yet he played it off with some grace like a host would when their party experiences any inconveniences.
The most debilitating negatives out of this was our recklessness, and that was mostly attributed due to our haste. I suffered several cuts to my body, two along my upper torso and one on my collar bone. They weren’t too deep but they stung and bled like crazy. I could endure these but I would need medical attention soon. Loona endured five thinner cuts, three along her right thigh, one on her elbow and one slightly deeper one along her stomach. She was hanging in there and I was worried she might pass out from the blood loss but she appeared more annoyed than anything else. Tough girl, this one. Though I had to stop her dumbass from licking the wound on her elbow three or four times.
After we made it to the seventh floor, things just kept getting worse. I actually had to use my gun on three puppets because they began to swarm us when passing by the bathrooms, two were to get two off of Loona’s back, one was because it was slightly clever enough to knock my pipe weapon out of my hand. Leaving only ten bullets left, my friend hasn’t even fired one bullet yet beyond the time she tested it on the beast to prove her point. The traps became more and more dangerous and there were tons of puppets. Just far too many for us to try and handle or kill our way through. I don’t know how much time is left but we have to make it to the eighth floor soon.
“Come on! Come on! Loona, you gotta work faster!” Idiot that I am, I tripped another trap. Now the walls aren’t just closing in on each other but spikes are popping up arbitrarily out from the floor. Loona found a way to disable a trap that contained holy fire from the sixth floor but the issue was she had trouble trying to ignite with her lighter. The trap itself was another molotov one, she had to tear off another piece of her leggings to use as an incendiary additive for when she throws it. By now, half of her leggings are torn up from those two incidents and her tail is constantly wrapped around her being for fear of getting it burned off again.
“It’s not working, get off my ass! Stupid f*cking, cheap ass thing!” The wolf demon flicked the lighter again and again. The demonic puppets were gradually pushing past the makeshift barrier of furniture we set up in the span of perhaps three or two minutes while we tried to figure out the pattern of the spikes popping up. Only now, the time limit has accelerated because the walls are now closing in and if we fail to cross then the guy on the next floor can count me as one of his puppets and Loona a dead dog.
Unfortunately, we’re just gonna have to hail mary this one.
“Getting kind of thin in here!” The walls were sluggish, which I’m grateful for, it allowed me to find some stuff to stockpile just in case things did get too close. Yet, even though the walls weren’t even close to touching the contingency objects, they showed no signs of slowing or stopping.
“Got it!” The blue flame burned mechanically and she quickly used it to light the cloth attached to the bottle before throwing it. White, pure white flames blessed the souls of the damned with its fiery might, freeing them of their eternal torment forevermore. The puppets did not screech, nor lament, nor scream, nor shout, they crumpled and shriveled into thousands of tiny embers and shards of ashes. Piling up on the dusty and dried blood-stained floors.
The good thing about holy fire in a molotov co*cktail, the flames die out quickly. The bad thing about a holy fire in a molotov co*cktail, is the flames die out quickly. And the other puppets behind them were smart enough not to cross over when the fires were burning strong.
But that was all the time we needed. “Loona, let’s go!” Once she caught up, we began the sprint, trying to avoid the spikes popping up from the ground. The worst thing about this is that there’s no rhyme or reason with them. No pattern. They popped up from the ground at any turn.
Two times I nearly lost my foot or ankle because I tripped in my haste with Loona barely snagging me up to my feet just in time to avoid the trap. She so far was fairing better than me with avoiding the traps by focusing her hearing on below. Yet that didn’t mean she didn’t have any close calls of her own.
My chest hurt from running so much and that goes for the past three floors but I kept going. One shot up in front of me, I hopped over it just in time, doing my best to make it to the end. And it was in sight, growing closer and closer with every step, every breath I took, every blood dropped from my still leaking wounds meant that this chance to save my friend still existed. Still within reach. All I needed to do was to press on, keep going. Keep going, keep going, almost there, wait…okay, she’s still running with me. She’s still okay and that’s—
“AAAH!!” A spike erupted from the ground, skating across my leg just as my foot touched, marking a deeper gash than most of the other cuts to my body. “sh*t! That hurt!”
“You okay?” She yelled, looking over at me. Nearly stopping in her steps, slowing them down to skips and hops, avoiding the spike popping from the ground. Sometimes deftly, sometimes out of pure luck, and sometimes by a hair.
“Fine! Just…sh*t, it hurts! Yeah, just…arghh f*ck! Just keep going! Keep going!” Replying back with the wound aching and stinging worse than it had any right to. I crossed the barrier, thanking the Goddess in the process and the hellhound behind me though I didn’t understand why. Perhaps to let me cross first? She wasn’t that far behind when I looked back but once. Nonetheless, I kicked it into high gear and rushed over to the end, spilling blood along the way and gritting my teeth as hard as can be without shattering them. Only I was alone in my shallow victory. Weird, she was running just a couple meters behind me, wasn’t she? I could tell at a glance, looking down at my wound, that the laceration will, assuming we succeed in the end, take a few weeks to heal. Then I heard the strangest sounds coming from behind me.
Sounds like, it sounds like a dog whi… My eyes widened with horror as I knew the end of that sentence confirmed my fears. Turning around to see my friend on the ground, bleeding.
Like any canine would, they will whimper when met with extreme agony and Loona was no different. The wound itself was a spike lodged into her ankle and the anguish was so deep, there were tears gleaming from her red crescent eyes, try as she might for her pride, attempting to blink them back.
“LOONA!!!” I bellowed, sprinting back over to her, suddenly the pain in my leg was gone and it felt like I was walking on air. Once I got to her, I could see her conundrum loud and clear, not only was the thing stuck in her leg, but it also attempted to pull itself down, causing more grief.
“Just go! Leave me! f*ck! It hurts!” She whimpered, raking her nails across the ground.
I was vaguely aware from my peripherals that the walls have been temporarily slowed by the stockpile of furniture pieces up front. But they will only buy us so much time. I moved over to her leg, it was still bent normally, like she was attempting to hug her knee. None of that matters, just get her out of here! I yelled at myself, gently grabbing both sides of the wounded leg. “Lay your leg on its flat and lift with me!”
“What are you crazy? Just go! Get the hell out of here!” She screamed, still afraid to move a muscle.
“LAY YOUR f*ckING LEG FLAT DAMMIT!!!” She snarled at me for shouting but reluctantly, slowly did as I asked. Arduously, stretching her body along, no longer coiling up like a roll and gently as she could, laid her leg flat. Much to her agony when the spike repeatedly attempted to pull itself down. Whimpering all the while and possibly shedding more tears from the pain. I hate yelling at her like this but there is no way in this dreadful, stupid universe am I abandoning my best friend like this. Not in this one or in any other one. “Okay, this is gonna hurt.” I warned.
“Just do it!!” She screamed and I nodded grimly. With one extreme tug, I yanked her leg free, blood splurting on my face and shirt and the hole in her leg was big enough to drop a pen in. “SHIIIIIIIITTTTT!!”
“Alright, good. Now come on. Up you go.” With her leg free, I can carry her ass out of here but I had to do it quick cause the walls aren’t stopping and the pathway forward is becoming more and more narrow. Picked her up by the shoulder and began lugging her towards the exit. She’s still whimpering too, walking with one leg and limping with the other. “That’s it, lean on me. I got you girl. Always got your back.”
“sh*t it hurts so f*cking bad…feel like I’ll die or something…” The wolf demon lamented, limping along, even when we’re so close to the end of this crazy journey. “I just want this night to f*cking end.”
Girl is preachin to the choir here. “Don’t give up yet, we’re almost there. Almost there! Fight it! Fight through the pain!” It could be that the girl was almost passing out but she can’t give up when we’re this close. Not just to the end of the passageway but the end of this suicide mission. The walls were getting closer, never stopping, never ceasing it slid on both sides approaching us with the intent to crush all. Like an army of thousands marching at the command of their leader, they will stop only when ordered to. The closer they got the harder it became to breathe in here. Coming to the point where the walls were just bare eight meters from each side. Just a few more steps, just a few more…
There! We made it through and just when the walls were about to turn us into ground beef. The walls closed with a resounding, thunderous slam. No sound from past that point and usually the puppets' moans could be heard to some degree, especially in a place that is susceptible to echoes. Now? Just silence. “sh*t…that was too close.”
She sniffed a couple times. “Up ahead, there’s a closet or something you can hide me in.”
“Wait what?” I looked up at her.
“I’m useless to you like this. There’s a whole…f*ck this hurts…freaking hole in my ankle and it burns like battery acid. Just…put me in there.” She sniffled, licking her nose to cover up her tears. Missing some, as I noticed more than a few dripped down from her snout tugging through the claustrophobic hall just back there. This must be hard for her; she sees herself as my protector and has been that way for months to be shot down like this must be a detriment to her pride.
“Okay, I got you.” Readjusted my hold over her and walked over to the place, her lazy finger guiding me there. In my head, I was still wondering how this guy somehow remodeled entire sections of a freaking factory into death traps. Free labor is one thing but this kind of renovation told me that this guy is some sort of genius, a very competent mathematician or builder. Something I guess. After turning the second corner, she pointed to the left. The reason she could point and not say anything other than to conserve her energy and breath is that the 6th floor going up, the lights were working. Mostly.
I opened the door and clicked on the light which barely worked at all. Blinking several times before it turned on the right way. Even then, it would flicker occasionally, even going out before coming back on randomly. “Mmm mmm. No lights. I see fine in the dark.”
“Yeah, just…yeah. Alright. Okay, here we go.” I grunted, laying her down on her bum against the wall with her wounded leg stretched out. Suddenly, I could feel the agony coming back in my leg and christ, it hurt like a motherf*cker. Feels like that short burst of numbness ran its course and now things are back to normal. But I’m pretty sure normal doesn’t involve us nearly dying every two seconds. “How much…damn, how much calisbane do we have back at home?” I didn’t want to stand back up fully, the pain from the gash stretching across my calf is lessened slightly when kneeling.
Half of her bangs were covering her eyes but she didn’t bother pushing them away. A weak shrug was all I got. “Dunno. Hoping it's enough but if not? I might have to fork over four to five thousand for a decent amount of the stuff.” She laid her head against the wall, blinking slowly.
I shook my head, knowing that it would hurt our pockets but if it’s to get her back to full health, it’s worth it. “You right about that. What now?”
Taking her head off the wall for a moment, sniffling and wiping her tears away, she reached over and under, undoing the strap for her pistol, flipped it to where the handle is facing me and handed it over. “Now? Now you finish this. I can still smell him through the pain and blood of both of us. He smells rotten, worse than anything I’ve smelled tonight. Get up there and double tap that motherf*cker.”
I peered down at the firearm, gradually taking it. My hands…my hands were shaking again. No! Not again. Too much is riding on this, just breathe. Easier said than done when my body is bleeding out of several orifices and my friend is, by all accounts, paralyzed until we get our hands on some calisbane to heal her wound completely. For a heavy price.
“What about you? I can’t just leave you here defenseless?”
She groaned at me, letting her head hit the wall again and it took me until now to notice it but her tail is slowly uncoiling itself around her waist. “They can’t turn hellborn into puppets and I have this,” showing off the bloody nailed bat she still has but its wear is showing now. Won’t be long until she has to use her claws and fangs. “I’ll be fine. Toughest hellhound in Hell, remember?” She tried for a smile, forced or not, makeup or not, hair disheveled, clothes in tatters, blood smeared across her chest fur and stomach, eyes as sad as the coldest night.
And still, she is beyond beautiful. I stuffed the auxiliary pistol in the back then stood up. The pain spiking in my leg as the effort was more than I anticipated. Yet, I was grateful I could still move and talk. “I’m going now. Stay here and stay quiet with your bat ready. If I come back with four knocks, he’s dead. If it’s three, that means I failed and I’m getting you out of here.”
She nodded. “Josh?”
“Yeah?” I looked back at her.
For a long moment, it looked like she was struggling to say something. “I…I, uhm…” She dug through her pocket for her phone. “You have less than thirteen minutes to kill him and collect his head. And remember, destroy his conduit, the source of his power. Once that’s gone, no more puppets and maybe the barrier around the factory too. Go.”
There was this feeling in my chest that she changed her mind about saying what she wanted to say but whatever it was, didn’t matter as much as the mission before me. Yet, there was one other thing, one last thing that needed to be addressed before heading out and frankly, I couldn’t give a damn about the time limit. But could I say it? Even in these conditions, is it possible to lay it all out before her? Would she acknowledge them, shelve them altogether, or ignore them in the worst possible way? I had to know. Here and now.
“Josh? Shouldn’t you be going?” The hellhound asked but something in her eyes told me that she wanted to know more than she wanted me to go.
“Loona. There’s something you should know…” I began.
Say it.
“It’s more than embarrassing but in a time like this…”
She deserves to know!
“You are…you should know that…”
This could be your last chance. There is no guarantee you’ll survive against the Ventriloquist and not become his puppet. Tell her!
I rushed over to her with an embrace stronger than I had any right to give. The scent of blood, heavenly smoke, and outdoor dog smell burned through my nostrils. And I couldn’t be happier being this close to her. To the one I love the most. “I appreciate you. A lot. I…I hope you know this.”
Coward.
I felt the familiar slimy feeling gloss over the stubble on my cheek. Once, then twice before gently pushing me away. “And I…I also appreciate you too. Okay? But you should get going. Go! Time is running out!” She shooed me away, watching me rise troublingly to my feet and hissed as she noticed the display of blood leaking from multiple cavities on my body. “Yeah…yeah please go and kill him already before you pass out.”
One final nod later, I closed the door quietly and was off, doing my best to ignore the wet, disgusting feeling of blood blending in with my jeans, soaking through the fabric. My pipe felt ostensibly heavier than before but I gripped it hard enough that my knuckles hurt. Time to end this.
Finding the stairs going up wasn’t hard at all, not by a long shot, it was the traps that were the problem. The seventh floor lacked any fast puppets to boot, practically all of them were slow ones that could be killed without issue. Even then, getting past the quicker ones wasn’t too hard after fighting them for two levels straight. Needless to say, I either killed them if they got in my way or ran right past them. I was not in the mood to spend anymore time with these things any longer than I had to. I’m exhausted, I’m hurt, bleeding and my arms ache terribly from swinging this thing around the past hour too many times.
There’s the door. I told myself after sliding around the corner after avoiding the white glare of two slow puppets that were steadily approaching. The way looked clear from this point of view and I could see no traps. No wires, no barely visible strings, no pitfalls, no discernable holes in the walls for darts, tarps, hanging glass shards, molotovs hanging from the ceiling, no entire colonies of spiders, nothing that spelled that this clear hallway is a trap.
I’m not an idiot so I took long leaps over to the doorway. One leap. Okay. so far so good. Two leaps. Nothing. All good, I don’t hear any mechanisms moving behind the walls. Third leap, landing awkwardly and I felt the sharpest pain burrow across my back just nanoseconds after I readjusted my posture from the leap. It ripped through my shirt, tearing my skin and leaving a thin cut across my back but for some reason, it hurt worse than I thought. Christ! Just one room, just one f*cking room without any traps! Loona had the right of it, this night needs to end. I took one more leap, stretching the exposed muscles of my back, sending shockwaves of pain throughout my body, and graciously enough, no traps. And the door was not three feet from my face. Opened it up and proceeded upwards.
The eighth floor as of entering it now, had no puppets. None whatsoever. “You’d think a guy like this would have some security…” I muttered.
“Welcome sir! The first ever demon to ever make it up here! I must offer my most humble congratulations! But now, the question remains, can you do what hundreds of others before you failed to? Or will you finally prove yourself a puppet and clip me of my own strings as ordained by your master? Either way, I think the finale to this dreary night is long overdue.” The intercom cut off, not as if he needed it. I could actually hear him from the doorway coming up.
I took out my Smith and Wesson, carrying it one hand with my pipe in the other. Which goes against her teachings but time is short. The shakiness was still present in my hand and I hated it but after a few, serene breaths, it fizzled out. Stabilizing.
This floor was different; cleaner, had a more refined and executive look to it, even the carpet appeared somewhat fluffy. There wasn’t as much blood on the walls as I thought there’d be, stacks of documents lying on the floor, dust bunnies gathering in the corners, desks split in half, file cabinets knocked down or their drawers pulled all the way open. The worst of it all was exactly as Loona described it as. A horrible, horrible stench was coming from here, somewhere on this floor. And I trust her words but can someone really go that long without bathing?
It’s not even just lack of hygiene, it’s almost like something died up in here and the corpse was kept in stasis mid decomposition. It wasn’t enough to make me lose my dinner so I kept the pistol off safety and the pipe ready. Johann said the guy was so arrogant that he stayed front and center on the eighth floor, overlooking everything. And had a big mustache for whatever reason that detail was admitted. That means he’s… At the turn of the corner, stepping over some boxes and a skeleton of a some sort of canine fiend, I could see him. And he smelled worse even at this distance. He’s exactly where the Librarian said he’d be.
“Welcome chum! Let’s get this show on the road, shall we?” He announced, turning his chair around, sporting his ghoulish visage. Now I saw why they call him “The Ventriloquist” and the reason why he stunk so horribly.
He was a living corpse, from his peeled flesh on toes, to his exposed ribcage with half his lungs turning grey and black, to his skeletal face and unhinged jaw that would lazily reattach itself every time he spoke. Or attempted to speak. His eyeballs were completely exposed, both of them and the disturbing thing about this guy is that half of his right eye has completely eroded away with the other half remaining. It almost looked like it was bubbling , as though it were water that just reached its boiling point. I know that some demons in hell retain their human bodies in a partial sense but always in some twisted form to make them suffer in one way or a hundred. His is perhaps the most human looking I have seen thus far. The only nonhuman thing I could discern from his body, besides the blatant body horror that has the nerve to exist, is the horn growing in a straight row along the center of his skull. His flesh appeared twisted, muscles contorted and misshapen, fingernails bloodied and leaking pus and blood, boils on his neck and more. Oh so much more. His suit was a sky grey tuxedo that was well worn, faded, the material torn in several sections, which explains why I can see his muscles and ribcage, ruined by some food stains on the arms and knee sections, buttons were missing and half the collar was missing.
The puppet on his lap, like in the traditional sense for any ventriloquist, wasn’t made of wood or even metal. It was erected from flesh and some visible bone poking through. It too, resembled a human form. Two blank holes for eyes, its body a nasty mix of fresh flesh and charred human flesh welded through in some places. The small bones mentioned earlier poked through the elbows and knee joints, like the bones themselves were overgrown somehow. Overall, a disgusting puppet for a demon fitting his title.
Stupidly I was out in the open just after turning the corner, in his field of vision but I saw it just then. That half, malformed eye of his? It reformed in seconds and began to glow white and as soon as I saw the rims glow, I hid back behind the corner. sh*t, that was close! My hand began to shake again and I didn’t need that. Not now. I held my hand in a fist, though wounded and hurting, I had to stop shaking. I can’t freeze.
He snapped his fingers. “A human! Amazing! I heard tell of those simpletons from below that some human was living in Chronesborough with his mortal coil and soul intact. How…queer. Come now, my honorable gent, won't you come out and tell me your tale?” The light faded and even from behind the wall without so much as peeking past it, I could feel the rays hitting me to a much, much lesser degree.
Still, the fact I can feel it at all, means this guy and his eye are way, way stronger than his puppets. They had to get within three meters to make use of their rays, he can use it from across the room at over what feels like twenty. Maybe twenty-five meters. Smartass prick. But I had to get closer and the lights just shut off so maybe I should risk it. I swallowed my spit and took one look out from the edge and saw his eye immediately begin to reform again. I ducked back behind the wall and allowed the white rays to go by.
“Honestly ol’ chap, I just like to know your story. Honest! We’ll set up some tea, a small palette of salt free crackers, anything you’d like. Well, almost anything, I’m craving salty crackers and that has been a bother on my conscience as of late.”
I don’t know why he’s talking so much but now I understand why Johann was so pissed off he subconsciously started speaking German. This guy is an arrogant piece of sh*t. Doesn’t matter, I have to get closer to him, there’s some furniture between me and him, just gotta hit the deck as soon as the light vanishes.
Without looking around the bend, I pointed my Smith and Wesson out and fired blindly, not hoping to hit him exactly, just to give him some pause. Just four shots, with a couple ricocheting off the reinforced windows behind the corpse guy. After the fourth shot, I made a break for it, diving just behind a vertically tipped wooden desk with a huge portion missing from the top, like something took a gargantuan bite out of it. Enough so that I had to shrink behind the furniture to protect myself from the next ray of hypnosis. Same as before, behind a solid barrier or surface, the effects were minimized.
But it still was terrifying that I could feel it all. This is fine. All I have to do is keep advancing like this until I can get a clear shot of his eye. The light ended and the madman continued ranting.
“I do not know what you hoped with those shots earlier and I’m no James Bond myself but I’m sure you have to be looking at your target to hit it. Poor sportsmanship! Three out of ten!” His jaw always made this disgusting, click-sticking noise whenever he finished speaking.
Can’t wait to shut this mo’f*cker up. Counting all the shots I have left, minus Loona’s piece, I have six shots left and the pain from the gash escalated tremendously in that dive. It’s not enough to make me pass out but it sure as hell is making it difficult getting closer to him. The cuts around my back and other places weren’t helping either and it’s only by my own drive that I haven’t passed out yet. I stuck my head out casually, just after he finished talking and, strangely, his eye didn’t reform. Was he waiting for me? No, no, can’t be that simple. Up until now, he’s been firing every second I—
His eye reformed then immediately glowed and I had less than seconds to pull myself back to avoid the light. Let it pass, let it pass. The hell was that? Why didn’t he fire the ray the second I poked my head out? As soon as the light vanished and I had a clear line of sight, I ran to the next piece of furniture lying down. A half broken table, only problem was it was lying flat which meant I fell right into his trap! I expected him to shine his light on me, turn me into one of his puppets like the countless others who tried to take him down or his pet five floors below. It was all over from here.
Only, nothing happened? I was still holding onto the table at the moment. Surprised he was just looking at me. “What the…” Then suddenly, his eye began to form, and what’s when I hastily pulled the thing up on its horizontal side. Absolutely obstructing the rays blown in from the ghoulish host of this nightmarish night. All throughout it, my hand felt…mysteriously not my own. Numb, distant, like it wasn’t mine at all. It’s almost like it’s been amputated. Yet it still felt like my own? All of it was too disorientating, so much so, I nearly dropped my pistol several times while holding the table up. It was a feeling that I genuinely wished to never to feel again.
Keeping my head low and my mind racing on what just happened aside from waiting for the ghost hand syndrome to wear off. Why didn’t he fire? I don’t… A theory was forming in my head but before I could test it, I needed to get away from this spot. It’s not working for me.
The chair on which he sat creaked, bones popped unceremoniously as the demon stood up. “Is that all you can do? Surely! For someone who conquered all of my subjects and my prized pet, this should be easy! Why don’t you show me more of your DEDICATION!!!” He exclaimed, the rays blasting again and I could understand why he was standing up even if his legs could barely support him.
Bastard saw that my hand was slipping the last time and if it does slip, it’s over. The light was overbearing and I would wager it felt worse than the last five times but that would be a lie. It only felt more difficult because it was a struggle keeping up the table while holding up my gun. Hold on! Hold…f*ck it! I remembered that my middle finger was on the trigger and if I could just pull the damn thing. Christ, it feels like I really am wrestling with myself here. Come on, come on!
One squeeze was enough to get him to stop or at least, it seemed that way. The gunshot felt longer to pull off in comparison to the four before due to grappling with the phantom feeling. Using the success of that shot and shrugging off the sensation as best I could, I rushed to the nearest furniture piece which was a toppled sofa made for resting one’s feet, holding my numbed hand all the way and trying to wave the numbness off without firing the weapon. After slumping behind the thing, I heard him crumple back into his seat. That’s what I thought. He can’t stand up for long. But let me test this theory first, see if I’m right.
I waited until my hand recovered and then poked my head out, baiting him to do it again and he did, only for me to retreat once more. One…two…three…four…five. I poked my head out again and he flashed it again. This time, I counted the seconds of me keeping my head out for him for two seconds before pulling it back for another three. When I poked my head out again immediately after, he shined it on me. This confirms two things. One, he can only fire that hypnotizing ray for five seconds and two, the time it takes for it to cool down also takes five seconds. And if I were to apply this theory to how long it takes for a sinner to become his puppet, also five seconds.
Five seconds…son of a bitch. I hung my head back, almost smiling.
I can still hear you, child. Excuse you. The Goddess replied, though it was just a minor jest. A little poke really, judging by facetiousness in her tone.
Two words but that’s all it takes. Thank you, Goddess. The rest is up to me. The pipe was still in my hand, rock solid and still in one piece after all the carnage and bloodshed I put it through. Besides it being full of dents, I only used it on the puppets coming up. Additionally, I managed to close the gap between me and that horror show in front of me. At the beginning of this fight, he was roughly twenty to twenty-five meters from me. Now he is about ten which is perfect for me, all I need to do is concentrate on steadying my hand. No biggie, it’ll be just like shooting the boil off an obese gangster, cause if I fail, I lose the love of my life and become a zombie. Absolutely no pressure. Nothing to worry about…f*cking hate my life sometimes.
The pipe itself is riddled with dents and dried demon blood, it is a wonder how it lasted this long. Maybe the Goddess had something to do with its longevity? Not likely, even she sounded disappointed in herself for aiding us. At all. “God I hope this works.”
Meanwhile, the orchestrator clacked his unhinged jaw in place. “What? No more steam left in the ye ol’ keester? Poor sport, I say! Poor sport! What happened? Oh, pray tell, tell me what happened? You were so full of life, my friend, so full of energy and aspiration! Are you not one of the chosen? Sent down here by His Grace above in those silly little clouds while feathered infants and others inflate his ego with songs of His might? For shame, good sir! For—”
Didn’t know how long he intended to go on but time to cut things short, here and now. Before he could utter another word in his long-winded monologue that I’m sure he spent days writing down, I popped out from the corner, waited for him to take notice and attempt to reform his eye. When he did, I stretched my arm all the way back and threw it as hard as I could straight at his dome.
Just when the light began to begin at earnest, the pipe hit him straight across his face, hard enough that his jaw permanently dislocated and hung from the straps of fleshy hinges. The metal piece bouncing off to the right just next to the chair. Now was no better time; I quieted all else around me, just like before, took several breaths, which in turn slowed down my heart rate to the level I needed it to be. I held my Smith and Wesson up and waited for him to turn his face around.
“Aiiugh…vvvhhha—?” He attempted to say in his broken English.
One final breath was all I needed before pulling the trigger. My aim hit home and the conduit for his power was eviscerated in a single shot. The bullet pierced through it and hit the glass. This time, the glass cracked at its impact.
The demon howled back in agony, so much so that he flung himself off the chair, screaming. But I just about had enough and rushed him, ignoring the spiking pain in my leg and the blood that seeped from the multiple gashes over my body with every step. Nothing mattered as much as killing him and ending this night. Grabbed the bloody pipe from earlier and swung. And swung. And swung until my arms grew tired and was hitting nothing but the carpet underneath where his head once was. Blood splattered all over my face, my hands hurt and my arms trembled in a terrifying mix of anguish, bloodrush and adrenaline. And with that last note, though tired and thoroughly thrashed with no fight left in me, I stared out the cracked window, seeing that Loona’s theory was correct: with the conduit of his power destroyed, any defenses he erected had been nullified.
My eyes drew back to the puppetmaster beneath me, remembering the condition of how I got here in the first place. Except there was something missing from all of this.
The puppet…? Wasn’t there a puppet on his lap? I glanced wildly about, making assumptions in my head while looking all over. There was a hallway going down to the right and there was something running down that way. “Oh hell no..” I muttered and sprinted after it, little bastard was halfway down the hall by the time I noticed him and I could see where he was going. There was a low hanging air conditioning vent that would lead to another part of the factory. If he gets in there, then I lose.
Had to squeeze out every bit of adrenaline I had left in me, everything was riding on this little chase. sh*t! He’s close! Almost there….almost! I screamed in my head, panicking about the outcome should I fail to catch the slippery sh*t. He was getting too close, too close to the vent. In an effort of pure madness and desperation, I dove after him, just barely catching him by his disgustingly moist torso. My stomach hurt, my leg and chest hurt from all of that running. My clothes were soaked in sweat and demon blood but I have to end this.
Shakingly, I brought my head up then my hand to his head and was ready to yank it off. Until he raised his hand at me. “It’s over.”
“Yes, yes my good sir, it is. Just one question before you hit the ol’ reset button. Tell me, who is pulling your strings? Was it the mobsters? The stiffy stickler and lord of Chronesborough? Couldn’t imagine it was him, oh no, no, he’s far too stingy to send anyone after me. Too much of a coward. Just humor me before you do it. Who is the one dangling your strings?” The puppet blinked with its hollow eyes.
I know better, Loona never says her name or title outside of private company. The same goes for me. “Sorry, even that is above my pay grade.”
It blinked again. “Well, it was worth the try! Good show, I will say ol chap. Damn good show indeed.”
And that was that. I plucked the head off the meaty puppet, the true Ventriloquist for that matter, and fell to the floor, ready to pass out. Even cry, smiling to myself. Knowing that it’s all finally over.
***
Made my way downstairs to the 7th floor with the head in my pocket, back to the room where I left Loona in. I knocked four times as we agreed upon, then opened the door and against all odds, she risked worsening her injury to hug me even though I scolded her for her stupidity, I couldn’t help but feel the love and relief in her embrace. Tears welled up within my own eyes as well, not just her own this time. It felt good to hold her again, even if she did smell a rotting corpse herself. Or maybe that was my nose conflating her with the Ventriloquist because I was bashing his rotten skull in for a while.
She wanted to know about how the fight went but I just told her the story can wait until tomorrow. Graciously, she agreed though she did ask what was in my pocket that stunk so badly. That too, I told her, will have to wait. The trap walls that nearly killed us earlier still remained an issue of how we were going to return and go back the way we came. It took us a minute to find the hidden pulley mechanism to reverse the trap itself but we wondered if it was even worth doing since we would have to navigate through it again. This time, both of us were wounded. So resorted to finding an alternative way back down.
With the Ventriloquist dead and the source of his power destroyed, all puppets were lifted from his iron grasp and the barrier over the factory had also dissipated. Those we left alive or ran from anyway. For instance, the giant tarantulas we avoided earlier, apparently they were under his thumb as they exited the rooms they stayed in and just waved at us (we awkwardly waved back) before crashing through several walls to climb down. Nice to know that giant demon spiders are somewhat friendly in this realm. That or they were just showing their gratitude by not immediately eating us. Cause one of them devoured six other recovering demons before moving on.
Most who were freed were having difficulties moving or even comprehending their newfound freedom, others who have been here longer, were so starved they had little to no energy to move, much less walk. They were emaciated, near death, some were content on dying just to escape the pain of living in their current state. Speaking of functioning limbs, it wasn’t easy lumbering through the place with a crippled wolf demon and my back was ready to give out just searching for an alternative to go down to the 6th floor. She was pulling her weight but the issue was she solely wanted to lean on me. Had to bribe her with a spanking just to get her off of me and limp with me.
Griping aside, we discovered a pathway going downstairs to the 6th and after touching down just outside the doorway, I realized how much of an idiot I was. And Loona, ever the opportunist when it comes to teasing or saying “I told you so”, gave my ear a little chewing. In the most literal sense but without any blood. Guessing she didn’t feel like talking so the ear nibbling was her way of saying so. I digress. We actually passed by this doorway on our way to the trap walls further in, she was the one who suggested this way was faster but the reason I felt apprehensive about it was the door itself felt ominous to me. I don’t know why, but my gut told me that that door wasn’t the way. She only backed off because my instincts haven’t been wrong up until that point.
Boy do I feel like a class clown for that decision. Might as well put on some clown shoes, makeup and nose to go with it.
Beyond this, nothing spectacular happened going down until we reached the fourth floor where the big demon was. The big guy seemed to recover faster from his hypnosis than others though he still appeared out of it. And hungry. Other than that, he seemed amicable enough to have some small talk; for instance, asking him how long he’s been there. All he could remember was coming in on orders from his boss (he couldn’t recollect his name) to put an end to the mastermind on the 8th only to be seized and placed under his direct control. Beyond this, he doesn’t remember almost anything else, even his name. Only the thought of serving kept haunting him.
We left soon afterwards, hearing some sobbing not too long after.
The front entrance was, of course, on the front floor and walking out and onto the front yard without consequence felt surreal. As well as the constant murmuring, weeping from other demons and there were at least two that killed themselves by impaling themselves on sharpened beams that have been broken off. Some corpses were newly found, giant chunks of demon flesh and blood painted the ground red. Making it mushy, or mushier than before. That was all Loona was willing to describe to me since I could only make out some things on my own. Couldn’t take out my phone to use the light so I had to rely on her eyes.
After exiting the premises and returning to the broad, empty street before it, she told me to halt as she heard someone coming our way. Then bright lights from three different directions, front, left and right, shine on us. Illuminating the area from the darkness but that didn’t alleviate my concerns on who or what is behind this surprise visit. The lights came from the high beams of three cars, the ones that were popular in the 50s and 60s I imagine.
Then the center one turned on their low beams and someone climbed out. Not just in that car, but two others from the cars around us, one from each. Behind me, I could feel Loona grabbing her pistol that was still tucked in the small of my back.
“ Wunderfulles kind, einfach wunderbar!” The accent rung ten or twenty bells in my head. “Little late coming out but you lived up to your reputation. And that,” he took out a thick cigar, lighting it with a match before dropping it, “is worthy of respect.”
There he was, in all of his gluttonous glory, the one who gave us this contract: Librarian Manager Johann. How did he know we were here? Were we followed? That’s likely but Loona would have known, especially the emptiness of this particular street and the ten blocks preceding it. Me and Loona looked at each other before turning our heads back to him.
“How…how long were you guys out here?” I asked.
“We were actually going to leave until,” he gestured to the demon on the right. Or should I say angel. The mobster shrugged. “Birdie here told us ten minutes ago the magic barrier fell and that could only mean one thing. But, first things first, the head that was promised. You bring it?”
“Yeah, I got you. Hey, can you stand on your own for a sec?” The most she could lean off of me as best she could without completely letting go. I pulled the puppet’s head from my pocket, showing it to all.
“That’s it? Our intel said there was a corpse that never left the 8th floor and you,” pointing at the fallen angel, “said that was our guy. And where’s the mustache?” The gangster puffed out a plume of heavy smoke.
“We were all fooled.” I spoke up. “The corpse was the real puppet in all of this. A host for the conduit of his powers. Nothing more. Cause as soon as I destroyed it, the real Ventriloquist ran. Almost got away too. My guess is if I didn’t catch him on time, he would have found a new host and the whole thing would have started all over again.” There was no need to defend the angel, he was a traitor to Heaven but tonight has carried on long enough. I’m tired as hell, still bleeding out of multiple holes, my clothes are caked in mud, blood and sweat, I stink worse than any sh*t Loona has taken in the past four weeks and my arms hurt. Above all of those things, I need to get Loona some medical attention.
The angel turned his silver gaze towards us but kept his silence. Which was odd but I didn’t question it.
“Huh. Smart. I’d do the same were I him.” The Librarian marched forward on his thick legs, the demon on the left quietly approaching as backup as if either of us were in any condition to fight back, and plucked the head from my palm, holding the head in his thick hand, intrigued by the fleshy design before stuffing it in his inner coat pocket. “What was your name again?”
“Joshua. And this here is—” Loona covered my mouth, shaking her head. I got the message, even though I didn’t like it.
Apparently, Johann did too. Or didn’t seem to care at all. “Ha! Birdie was right on the money, your name isn’t just for show. Now then, about your debt situation, who’re you in debt to?” I gave him the name of the apartment complex we lived at, the name of our landlord and the companies we owed that sum of money to (I was given the particulars by Cal’al a few days after the meeting). “Alright, one sec.” He took out his cell phone, dialed a number and got to talking, gradually stepping away from us.
At that moment, the angel closed the gap between us, kneeling down and began to recite something in another language. It sounded old, very old but somehow I knew it. Like I’m certain I’ve heard the language before at least once. His hands were close to Loona’s wounded leg and like any wounded animal when a stranger comes near them, their instinct is to growl or snarl.
“Be at ease, wolf. Consider this my thanks, if you allow me to continue.” He paused, glancing backwards at the mobster, still sorting out the particulars in his native language.
“Not until I know what you’re doing.” She retorted, almost snapping her jaws at him.
“Healing you. It will take a while for your leg to be fully healed, I’m afraid.”
“Hmph. How long?” She whispered.
“Before my fall this mere blight would have been mended with but a thought; in the blink of an eye, healed in an instant. Now, the measure can take up to five days. But rest assured, you will walk again. May I resume?” He asked.
Loona looked down at me for consideration and perhaps, permission.
“It beats using calisbane.” Was all I said, shrugging.
She nearly shivered at the thought of using that extreme form of medicine. Instead, her tail spiked up in severe anxiousness. “True, yeah that’s true. Okay angel, go for it.”
“And so, by His Grace, it will be done.” The fallen angel continued his verses up until he finally concluded with a light clap of his hands. “Amen.” He stood up, nodding to us then sauntered back to his original position. All the while, the red devil observed all that transpired but I guess even he had to let it slide since we did their organization a huge favor.
Part of me is discovering more and more about these individuals without them even saying anything to me. The angel, with all of his actions and pleasantness, strikes me as one who may or may not have been framed for a crime he didn’t commit. It’s a working theory but it’s fun to daydream sometimes. The two before I met back at the club? Those angels I can fully believe broke the worst laws in heaven before being casted out.
Coincidentally, Johann concluded his phone call, in plain English, before shoving the device back into his pocket. “It’s done, kiddo. Or should I say, ‘Puppet Killer’? Yeah, think that’ll do. Anyhow, you’re cleared of all debt, as I promised. Alright boys! We’re done here, let’s head back for a hundred drinks, eh?” The gangsters cheered maniacally, and, with his declaration, I heard more cars, outside of the three here, rev up their engines. The mob boss himself, took another puff of his cigar and marched back to his car. The angel and red devil sauntered back to their cars on cue.
“Hey! Can we at least get a ride back?” I called.
Johann opened the car door with his foot on the bottom. “Can’t, ya see, the crew is anxious to hear all about the famous Puppet Killer and I’d be a horrible host if I weren’t present.”
This time Loona spoke up. “Then at least can we come by to the club sometime to hang out and drink?”
The boss hummed for a minute then nodded. “Sure! Why not? Free drinks once per month as a bonus.”
“VIP too?” Now she was just pushing her luck.
“Hey whoa there kinder , haven’t I been generous enough? Auf wiedersehen.” With that final farewell, the Librarian Manager took his leave, the lights flickered from high beam to low beam, the cars behind him, reverse drove and parked until they were out of his way then he peeled off. Switching from reverse driving to normal midway through. The rest followed him leaving the two of us stranded in the dark once again.
We stood there, in the dark, absolutely befuddled by that entire exchange. “We did all of that…” I trailed off.
“Just for them…” She continued.
“To leave us stranded here. In the dark.” I finished before it clicked that me and Loona’s brain cells were so in sync, that we were finishing each other's sentences. The two of us glanced at each other all over, until we just started laughing. Laughing so stupidly at the ridiculousness of it all; fighting off swarms of puppet demons, killing their leader, surviving dozens upon dozens of traps, were spared by giant, monstrous demon spiders, all just so we have to walk all the way home in the middle of the night. The hilarity and absurdity of it possibly stems from the fact that we survived at all is nothing short of a miracle. But Loona would laugh in the face of such a concept, yes, even if she was given life by an omnipotent deity.
When we finally calmed down enough, wiping our tears away, it’s best that I address the obvious. “So. Should we rest here for the night? It’s probably—ow!” The dumb girl chewed a little too hard on my ear before letting go.
“As long as I can still limp, we’re walking and I really want to sleep in our bed. Come on, hup two, three, four! Hup two, three, four!”
I groaned, still smiling. The angel’s magic must be working if she’s feeling this energetic. “Alright, alright! Calm down already.” We started walking, carrying this girl over my shoulder was a challenge but I was willing to put up with it. For about ten or so minutes, it was quiet until she began to randomly hum. “What?”
“You.” She happily answered.
“What about me?”
“Oh just that I am gonna spoil the f*ck out of you. Mhm,” her tail wagged weakly behind her, sort of as an afterthought, “daddy is gonna be spoiled for a long time. And don’t think you’re not gonna tell me the story of how you killed that sh*thead in detail.”
There were a few thoughts that ran through my head of what her definition of spoiling me was but I think I have a decent idea what she is implying. To be honest, I just wanted to rest and eat hot food all night. “Fine, fine. I’ll tell you the story you damn brat. After we’re both healed up, had some hot food and it’s an off day.”
“Hell yeah! And you’d better believe I’m sitting on your lap like it’s Christmas.” She paused, taking in a breath. “Haven’t I been a good girl though? You said it yourself back before this sh*t started.”
“I have no clue what you’re talking about.” I explained.
The excitable hellhound wrapped her arms around me tighter, licking my face and stubby hairs on my chin and cheek. “Say it.”
“No.” I replied tiredly.
“Saaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy itttttt…..” She pleaded, giggling sweetly with that buttercup tone of hers.
I sighed, I don’t want to give in but if I don’t, my face will be stinking of dog spit for the next ten miles. “If I do, will you lean up and stop licking me?”
“Sure thing. To one of those anyway.” She stopped temporarily, the licking anyhow. Our paces never stopped and her limping kept up with my steps.
Better than nothing. Clearing my throat and wincing slightly at the pain in my leg. “You’re a good girl, Loona.”
Her grip intensified, hopping up and down. Next thing I felt was a sweet kiss on my cheek. “See? That wasn’t so hard, now was it?”
