22

You’re A Devil

Our ride back home was pretty uneventful and while I wanted to sketch a few more things into existence, I didn’t want to accidentally create things from something important like the bolts holding the carriage together or my own heart! We decided to keep our lips sealed for the time being. After all when someone’s out to kill you, maybe it’s best to keep a few things hidden. I planned to take Alais to the tailor to have her clothing designed but I wanted to get her mask first. And now that I had Kimi, I felt a little more comfortable. The goal was to head straight to my sister’s room to ask for it back or take it back if she wasn’t there… maybe. While it was mine, I didn’t like the idea of rummaging through her things. Anyway, that was the goal, however, when I entered the carriage I went straight to sleep. I jerked awake, my gaze immediately locking on the fireplace. Watching the fire for a good long while, I finally realized I was in my room and it was the middle of the night. Looking around, Alais didn’t seem to be here, neither was Apple. You know having a good memory is okay sometimes but it’s useless if things happen while you’re sleeping. I looked to my side to see Kimi’s sharp eyes cutting through the darkness.

“I’m sorry… did I wake you?” I said.

“You did, but don’t worry, I’ll be sure to kill you later. But for now, you can rub my belly,” She said while lifting her nightgown showing off her fuzzy underside and now large breasts. I glanced at her crown that was resting on the side of the bed.

“Your crown… Maybe… we should make you something that doesn’t slip off easily.”

I reached for it to try and put it back on her but she bit me. Luckily it didn’t break the skin but it still hurt. Finally letting go, she wore a look of confused guilt as she swatted the crown against the headboard making a ping noise before it fell back onto the bed.

“Fucking thing messes with my head, makes me feel weak. If I can’t fix my own head, what kind of Queen would I be?” We sat there silently, as she glared at me. “I asked you a question.” She said, through gritted teeth.

“You’d… be a genius!” I yelled excitedly in hushed tones.

Pulling back the blankets I went to slide out of bed but I was pulled back in, by my hair. As painful as it was, I covered my mouth to not yell. The last thing I wanted was for another fight to break out in the palace. However, now that I was on my back, she wrapped her paws around my throat.

“I’m the Queen you understand? If you turn your back on me, I’ll simply peel your skin off.” She chuckled, straddling my lap once again. “What’s that? Can’t talk your way out of this can you?”

For about an hour, fear and pain washed over me, but with it came euphoria, again and again threatening my grasp on reality. While I’ve read about such things, experiencing it was a different story. I suppose what scared me the most was… trying to wrap my mind around it only for my “power” of thought to elude me. When it was temporarily over, tears ran down my flushed cheeks. However, they weren’t mine. “I can’t.” She whimpered.

I took a moment to regain my thoughts before I said;

“Perhaps it’s better not to be who you once were… You can still be a Queen…” I said, trying to console her.

“A Queen… of what?” She wrapped her hands around my throat once again, jerking my neck, in a way I’ve only ever seen Mary do to her dolls when frustrated. “Since you got all the answers, tell me you fuck.”

As I faded into unconsciousness, a crunch could be heard when my neck was crushed in her grip. At least I think I heard it. In that small moment, I was too preoccupied with the sharp pain of… having my neck broken, and then nothing… It was like sleeping… but better. Maybe this is what Kimi wanted, I thought. A complete release from everything, and then I thought to myself… if I’m dead… how am I thinking? It all came rushing back to me and I opened my eyes. What I saw was a dark place, much like Mother’s throne room but the light came from black candles, and the guards that lined the wall were tall scantily dressed women with horns who stood at attention. I stared closer at one of them to see if they were statues or not. Wouldn’t say I was the best at staring contests but… I proudly say I’ve never lost to Alais even though I felt like I was the only one playing. Finally, one of the guard’s eyes darted down and connected with mine. Although what caused me concern was the warm smile that formed on her face as she crouched down and held out her hand to me. Not necessarily the smile that promised to take away all my troubles, but it was the fact I saw that look before from my sister’s chambermaid, and like before, I was most definitely not, taking her hand. While for some reason looking away felt like the hardest thing in the world for me to do, my gaze broke from her and over to the throne where a small board-looking girl gazed at me with half-asleep eyes. She seemed to be dressed a bit like the guards and also had horns. Giving the guard a small bow before approaching the throne, I finally gave another bow.

“If I might make a suggestion…” I began, “Naked guards might… not be very effective at protecting, Your Majesty.” She blinked a few times with eyes that felt… empty. She lifted her hand slowly, motioning towards the guards. Instantly they were covered in armor, I’ll be it revealing armor but armor nonetheless. “That’s… amazing. Maybe give them weapons? I’d suggest spears and shields.” And just like that, she made it so. Excitement seemed to overcome me as I said, “Perhaps pistols as well on their belts?”

Pausing for a moment, her hand finally fell back to her lap, as she asked, “What is that?”

Her voice was soft but with it came a bone-chilling chorus of other voices.

“Uhm… a pistol is… perhaps it would be easier for me to draw it for you, Your Majesty.” Staring at me for a bit longer she finally motioned for a guard to bring me a black book. While the book might have appeared in the guard’s hands, I wondered why it couldn’t just appear in my hands. I noticed the guard who originally smiled at me, was tasked with bringing me the supplies. She kneeled uncomfortably close to my right. My rule of thumb has always been… if someone can hear you breathing or feel the heat radiating off your privates, maybe you’re standing too close. Be sure to quote me on that one as well. She palmed the book in her right hand as a black tail came from behind her and up between her legs to open it. Inside was a pencil. “Thank you,” I said. I dared not look into her eyes directly. Not sure why, just an instinct I suppose. It’s not that I’m afraid of a smile but… I can say I would much rather look at Alais’s grumpy face. Maybe I’m just strange that way. I started drawing from memory, kind of getting lost in the process. “Done,” I chimed. When I looked up to the throne, she was gone. I scanned around before landing on the guard still holding the book. While her tail slowly rubbed against her nethers, it pointed up, guiding my gaze to see the girl floating upside down, her tired eyes fixed on my drawing. “I see.” I gave an uneasy chuckle. “I must be dreaming.”

“You’re dead… you were raped… and your neck was broken,” She said, with no empathy.

I paused for a moment before my calm gaze fell onto my horrible drawing. Using it to push away such information, I smiled.

“Your Majesty… this here is a pistol. The real thing looks much better of course. But its purpose is to… I believe, fire small objects from the barrel once the trigger right here is pulled. Preferably at those who wish to do you harm, to make them stop.”

“Why would I want to stop them?” She asked.

I frowned, doing my best to provide a small smile.

“Well… because pain hurts?”

“Did you not enjoy it?” She asked, making me recall such a memory.

“… Kimi is hurting… and she’s alone for the moment… It’s going to take me some time to help her… and maybe others like her.”

“You’re dead… you can’t help anyone… not even yourself,” She explained.

“I’ll be fine… I’m sure of it.” I took a deep breath before placing the pencil down in the book. “Might I ask what happens now?”

“I can have you tortured forever if you’re bored?”

“I don’t know… so far this all seems pretty exciting. While a tad frightened, I’m standing here talking to the… devil’s daughter. That right there is interesting in and of itself.”

She floated down to the floor, finally standing right side up.

“What makes you think I’m the daughter?” She asked.

“Because… I’m sure the Devil knows what a gun is.” Her tail stabbed me in the ribs, causing me to fall into the smiling guard’s embrace. Pain shot through my body, causing me to tremble. I gritted my teeth and gripped the guard’s body as tight as I could, feeling one stab after another until the pain finally stopped. Or at least new pain finally stopped coming in. “Apologies… Your Majesty… here… let me… let me draw you another picture.”

Perhaps I was just in shock but I quickly resorted to what didn’t cause me such pain. My hand trembled as I reached for the pencil, and turned the page slowly before starting. She watched me finish before finally asking;

“Is that supposed to be me?”

“Yes.”

The moment I said it, I felt another painful stab in my chest. Fighting back tears, I muffled my cries of pain through gritted teeth and closed lips.

“It looks nothing like me… Your drawing is horrible… Who are the other figures?”

“It’s you… me… and my friends. This one is Kimi… she’s funny but is sometimes a bit rude. Here’s… here’s Apple, he’s very kind but… I think my sister Violet might have him under a spell. Here’s Elyon… she’s an elf… who raised me. And… my best friend… Alais, she doesn’t smile but I love her regardless. I’ve known her ever since I was a baby.”

Her eyes seemed to scan my drawing intensely, looking for something. While she did that, I looked over my stab marks, shockingly I was bleeding.

“Your Highness, why… am I bleeding?” She may as well heard, can you stab me some more because her tail came up and stuck me in the belly a few more times. I stepped back, only to press into the guard a bit more. Taking a moment to deal with the new pain, I finally said, “N… no, I mean… If I’m dead… why would I bleed, or feel pain for that matter? And… why would I be in hell? There’s…” I took a deep breath to calm myself. “There’s also the question, why am I fully clothed? Did my clothes die as well?… If I knew that could happen… I would of… I would have… treated my clothing a little nicer.” A small smile formed on my lips as my legs started to grow heavy. She looked up from my drawing, gazing over me for a bit longer. “What happens if… if I were to die here? Would I go to super hell?”

“If you die here… you’ll be reborn,” She said.

“Back home?”

My tired eyes opened wide at the small hope of getting back.

“Back here… birthed from a guard… or shat out by a hellhound… whichever I prefer.”

“I see… well I wouldn’t want that…” My gaze landed on my drawing. “If that happened, Alais might start calling me dog shit… again.”

My eyes flinched when I heard her chuckle before going into a laughing fit. The once sleepy-eyed girl was now wide awake and laughing harder than I’d ever seen before. I might have started laughing with her but there was something strange about having been molested, raped, your neck broken, sent to hell, stabbed by the tail of a half-naked girl a bunch of times, and then laughed at in an unsettling demonic tone. So no, I wasn’t very much in a… giggly mood.

“Your best friend!” She began, trying to catch her breath. “She doesn’t sound very much like a best friend, stupid!”

Her laugh seemed a tad uncontrollable.

“She is… she’s just… has a little trouble expressing herself. Being alone for so many years can do that; Kimi is proof of that.” As I spoke she laughed at me, even going far as pointing in my face. Her laugh turned into a small coughing fit but shifted back into laughter. “Your Majesty? Please stop laughing, it wasn’t that funny.”

“Your so-called best friend… called you dog shit! I bet she’s calling you a cat toy now! She sounds like a bitch!”

Annoyance seemed to be the only thing I felt at the time but the moment she called Alais such a thing, my foot swung back as I took a step forward, kicking her in the crotch. She quickly stopped laughing, looking down at herself before back at me. Our eyes locked for a moment before she broke out into another laughing fit. One of the guards stepped up behind her, kneeling.

“It’s time for bed, Your Highness.”

Highness, I thought. So that means she’s a Princess. If I sat on my Mother’s throne, I’m sure I would have gotten all the lashes in the world. Her laughing quickly stopped as she turned her red eyes in the woman’s direction.

“I’m having fun.” With a wave of her hand, the guard’s body popped into a bloody mist. “I like you.” She said to me. “Here you are, a dead boy surrounded by women and a devil that could make you feel all sorts of wonderful pain… and you kick me in the cunt.” She leaned in close. “For a little boy, you must have some pretty big balls. You could have begged me to send you back, clung to my thigh like a pathetic pervert. Tried to make a deal with me, but no, you kicked me. You know if I kick you, I can easily make your balls explode, right?”

“You called Alais out her name,” I said while meeting her amused gaze with an unwavering glare.

“And your point?! If I recall, she ate kids like you alive. What makes you so confident anyway?”

“Because, when I leave this place… I’ll tell her about you.”

“If you could leave, why should a devil be afraid of a depressed Orc?” She mused the question.

“Was your Kingdom a part of the war all those years ago?” I asked.

“Sure,” She said seaming to humor me for the moment.

“What side was the kingdom on? The winning or losing?”

“The… losing,” She said as her smile turned into a cold stare.

“Then there are two things that could happen to you the longer I stay here… and their names are Alais and Kimi.”

“This is hell, mortals have no authority here.”

“And yet your kingdom joined the world in a losing war against the Orcs and Chaton. Something that should be impossible. But you’re just a kid, what do you know about a war that your parents started? Any moment, I’ll wake in my bed… perhaps as a zombie and I’ll tell Kimi and Alais that a little devil called their Kingdom’s weak and pathetic. Surely not very useful information now but… as I’m sure you know, they were cursed with immortality. One day, while you’re tucked away in your warm blankets… a new war could spring to life right here in hell, and I promise… they will remember the little princess… who pretended she was a Queen.”

Our eyes stayed glued to one another for what felt like an eternity. I refused to blink until she finally spoke.

“Fine, I’ll send you back.”

“I never requested to go back home,” I said immediately.

She turned to look around as if she couldn’t believable what she was hearing.

“Than what?” She said calmly, perhaps a tad too calm.

“This is literal hell. I would humbly request that Her Majesty explore with me.” My stomach started to growl and I grew flush with embarrassment. And questions like… why am I dead and hungry. “Maybe we could even start by exploring the pantry? Sadly the only things I’ve eaten today have been… stabbings.”

She snorted and burst out into another laughing fit. It’s heartwarming to see anyone filled with joy to the point of laughter but… it was annoying. I couldn’t tell if it was because I was in pain from being stabbed or because her voice was being echoed by a bunch of other damned souls.

“Well, you may call me Lucy and as I’m sure you can tell, this is the throne room.” Lucy finally explained in a monotone after she finished her laughing fit. “And the guards. They don’t do much but stand around all day and night.”

“Day and night? Doesn’t that get a little boring?”

“Yea, I guess… But their main purpose is to protect, suffer and look sexy. This may be hell but it doesn’t have to look ugly. Next…”

We disappeared and reappeared in what appeared to be the kitchen. Much like the kitchen in my home, however… the color scheme was black and red. It was full of people, frantically preparing dinner.

“You know… just because you live in the underworld, doesn’t mean you have to… live with such dark colors.”

“Don’t worry, it gets worse,” She said cheerfully.

One of the cooks gave Lucy an apple before also giving one to me.

“Thank you…” I said, offering a warm smile.

Lucy on the other hand tossed it to the side and said;

“Next…” Before I could tell where we were, I was in mid-bite when my ears were filled with loud barking. Covering my ears as best I could, I yelled to tell Lucy it was too loud but I wasn’t even able to hear myself. “Shut up,” Lucy said softly, quickly making the barking stop but replaced with a low grumble, that I could feel in my feet. I looked down for a moment before looking over at Lucy.

“What was that just now?”

“The family hellhound.”

Lucy motioned for me to look straight ahead where massive bars were and on the other side was a massive rage-fueled beast covered in fur.

“Oh, my goddess! I’ve never seen so much fluff. Is that a dog?” I asked.

“Pretty much.”

“I’ve never seen one in real life before. They are so adorable and I’ve always wanted one.” Approaching the bars I held out my apple. “Here puppy… would you like a bite of my apple?” It lunged out to bite my hand off with the apple, but luckily I pulled away in time, only giving it the apple. “Hey!” I yelled with anger in my eyes.

“Don’t be mad at the stupid dog. You’re the one who put your hand in her cage.”

“I’m not mad at her. I’m mad at you for not feeding your puppy. Pets take a lot of love and attention and if you can’t do that… I don’t think you deserve a family dog. I think you should release her.”

She stared at me for a long while before finally snapping her fingers, making the bars disappear.

“Fine…”

The beast quickly moved its wet snout into my field of view with a deep growl. I remained there with a smile on my face but my hands behind my back. Sure it was scary but, Alais still had the monster beat. It sniffed me a few times before finally leaping over our heads. My eyes followed her as she went falling over an edge. It came to my attention that we were high up on a mountain. With how black the sky was, I figured we were still indoors but inside some massive palace. We both stepped over to the edge watching the massive beast land on an even larger city. There were already screams in the distance but now there were screams and sounds of crumbling buildings.

“Oh, my goddess,” I gasped, covering my mouth.

“Don’t worry about her, she’ll return. When a hellhound gets your scent it can hunt you down no matter where you are. I saw one find its way up to heaven once.”

“Why?”

“To find my son… But somehow she lost his scent.”

“That… brings up a few questions.”

“Next…”

We ended up sitting at a stone dining table, however, the dining room wasn’t much of a room at all. It was outside under the smoky black sky. We were at the tip-top of a mountain looking down on… what appeared to be ruins of cities… where some were on fire. Horrible flying creatures dive-bombed our table one after another but were struck down by the guards. It was as if we were eating in the middle of a war zone. However, to my left she was the only one eating, on the count the meals given to us were naked humans who were still very much alive; Bound and gagged.

“What’s wrong?” She asked, licking the blood and flesh from her lips. “I thought you said you were hungry?”

“This… isn’t what I had in mind.”

“Oh…”

She cleaned her lips, staring blankly at her plate before looking my way again.

“Would you prefer a male? I don’t like how women taste… too much fat and bitch and cunt. Women, am I right?” She said.

“Wha? N… no. I don’t think that’s the problem here.”

“Well, we don’t have kids on the menu. Someone came and took every young soul we had and no new ones seem to be coming in.”

“Your Majesty, I fear you may be missing the point, uhm… wait… someone… took the souls from hell?”

“Yes…” She took another bite causing her meal to let out muffled screams. “At first we thought it was a necromancer who had a thing for young corpses but… mmm… but when every young soul across the board disappeared suddenly, we realized it couldn’t just be one necromancer, maybe even hundreds. After Hell’s alliance, we hoped to find what Kingdom was behind it. And with the humans putting everyone under their thumb we might have been able to get the information we needed.”

“And what did you find?” I asked.

“Nothing… You’re the only young soul to end up here in hundreds of years.”

“If that’s… true, then that would mean, someone deliberately brought me here.”

“Yes… luckily for you, I’m temporarily in charge.”

“Alais and Kimi said someone wants me dead. You… wouldn’t happen to know who… brought me here… would you?”

Her gaze fell on me as if I said something stupid.

“Kimi did kill you, I hope you know. Shouldn’t you solve that problem first?”

“That’s… not very easy to do when the problem is in her head. I made her a crown that helps calm her but it’s a liability if it falls off. And putting it around her neck is something she doesn’t want.”

“Then kill her.”

A frown came to my face as I started to say, “That’s not…”

“What, you’re too afraid to kill someone that will most likely take your life the moment you wake up? Her life was forfeit for almost destroying heaven, hell, and everything else in between. You know, the places you go to when you die? She forfeited her second chance when she killed you. And that Alais isn’t any better. If you ask me, I think the one trying to kill you… is you.”

“I’ve… never seen it that way… Thank you, Your Majesty.”

“You can drop the Majesty thing… My name is Lucy… I’m no Queen.”

She started stuffing her face with more cut-off pieces of meat. I… probably should have been more disturbed by all this but… maybe I was still thinking it was a dream. After all, a large-chested guard crash-landed next to my chair and filled up my glass with ice-cold milk from her breasts before going back to fighting the continuous horde of monsters that assaulted our table. I hope Elyon never finds out I was here because she will make me figure out how any of this is possible. She’ll also make me figure out why most of my experience with the world is so… provocative, in nature. Assuming there was any other way of living. And she’ll make me explain it down to a science.

“You looked like a Queen to me when I woke up here. And how you could just change your guards with just a wave, that’s simply amazing. There has to be a catch right? Is your power like Kimi’s, only as strong as the essence you take from the living?”

With a small blush, she looked at me side-eyed and said;

“Ugh… yeah, pretty much. But I get mine just by eating people. Kimi is just a sexual deviant like my mother.” She glanced off to the side. “Shit… don’t say a thing.”

She cleaned her lips with a rag before turning to face me. Reaching out and pulling me in, our lips met. I could taste what she ate and I wanted to vomit. I did gag all the while, but that didn’t seem to stop her from kissing me. What made things worse was this unbelievable pressure washing over me. Kind of like having a gun to my head but worse.

“Lucy, who is this strange woman you’re kissing?”

Lucy broke the vomit-inducing kiss, causing me to reach for my drink. I glanced in the direction of the voice only to see a gigantic well-dressed man with black wings. His eyes were red and black just like Lucy’s. The man’s gaze was full of, what I could only describe as an… innocent interest or a cold rage like I’d never seen. Walking up from behind him was a woman just as big as him in a formal dress. The both of them stood even taller than the guards. Not just necessarily taller but just… bigger. The woman who walked up next to him looked to be in a bad mood. A bit like my mother somehow.

“You’re an idiot, that’s a man,” The woman said.

These must be Lucy’s parents. And they didn’t seem to have the strange echo to their voices like Lucy. At least not until she finally turned it off.

“Both of you are fucking idiots, this is a boy,” Lucy said.

The mother flips the massive stone table, tossing it high into the sky. She got up close to Lucy, all in one smooth step.

“You forget your place, girl. I’ll lock you in the pit again.”

“Fuck… your… pit…” Lucy Said.

While they were having a loving mother-and-daughter conversation, her father kneeled in front of my chair, looking me over.

“Honey, this is… a boy.”

“I said that you fuck!” Lucy Said.

“Really, darling, I think your years are starting to catch up to you,” The woman said.

He gave a defeated sigh.

“I know that. I’m saying… This is the only young soul we have here. Why do you think that is?”

“Really?” The mother leaned in close to me as well. I said nothing as I held my glass of milk. The mother reached for me but a small spark drew everyone’s attention to a ring on my index finger that I hadn’t noticed before. The small spark turned into a loud crack of lightning that forced her hand back. It was strong enough to destroy the woman’s hand, though in seconds it grew back. The father’s eyes grew wider, studying me and the ring but he said nothing. “I’ve had about enough of you.” The woman barked. “I let you watch over the Kingdom and you thank me by blowing up my hand? You’re going into the pit, and you’ll stay there indefinitely.”

Lucy grabbed my hand and said;

“You see this engagement ring? It means he’s my property so you can’t touch. It also means fuck you and your pit!”

“Making a contract is not an engagement, you little bitch.”

That was the last thing I heard before everything went dark, silent, cold. I opened my eyes wider still unable to make out anything. However, I could hear someone’s breathing.

“Kimi?”

“Nope, it’s me,” Lucy said.

“Lucy! Wha, what happened?! I can’t see and it’s cramped. Please don’t tell me this is the pit.”

“This is pretty much the pit. Although a tad more cramped than I remember,” She mused.

“I assume you have a way of getting out?”

“If you get revived, sure! But until then, we’re waiting on that bitch to let us out…”

“And how long would that take?”

“A few hundred years to forever.”

I took a deep breath as she went on to say;

“However you are the only young soul here so… we might get let out early. I bet they’ll have questions for you.”

“You seem pretty calm about being stuck here,” I said.

“Well, first off, before you arrived I was already exhausted. And that dinner we had made me even more tired. Also… having you here with me is better than being alone,” She yawned softly.

“I… don’t very much feel like sleeping.”

“Sounds a bit like me when I first got put in the pit eighteen hundred years ago.”

“Eighteen hundred years?! That sounds like you just took your real age and multiplied it a hundred times just to mess with me.”

“I’m telling the truth.”

“Like in… hell years?”

“Maybe…”

I took another deep breath and exhaled slowly.

“Elyon’s gonna give me tests on my time here, I know it.”

“Is she your teacher?”

“Nursery maid. A bit like a mother and teacher… but without them being related part… nor the teaching part. She just makes me find the answer to questions that aren’t even there.”

“Sounds… boring… But hey, can you shut up?” She sounded as if she was dozing off. “I can put you to sleep if you want… but you’ll have some bad dreams.”

“I’ll… just try and sleep.”