"I-if I give you this information, will you leave? Like... immediately?" Zeph could hear the huffs and growls of the imps surrounding them. Each one of them was small and maybe frail from undernourishment, but there were hundreds of them. A crowd of undulating, feral creatures, drooling and snarling over their next meal
"A deal is a deal, Zeph." Nico stepped a little closer to Zeph, making it clear that if he didn't tell all, the imps would be the least of his worries.
"I know, I know. I just- These guys are gonna rip apart the moment y-you leave." Zeph tried his best not to sound mortified.
"Should've bargained more. Now, do I need to remind you whose turn it is?" Nico's face darkened as he took another step.
Zeph paused for a moment, considering his options, though he wasn't thinking too. Nico's imposing presence and the army of imps surrounding him didn't keep his train of thought on track. "Okay!" He finally announced, but took a weary breath before speaking again.
"I was stabbed," Zeph declared. Nico's eyebrows raised expectantly, waiting to hear how a stabbing is anything but normal, especially for Hell's residents. But Zeph faltered. He couldn't find the words to convey how terribly "not normal" it truly was. He knew the name of the blade was special and maybe it had a reputation in the underworld. However, the name that boiled up from stomach at Heaven's gates wouldn't come to him now. "St-stabbed with a- um. Like a dark-ass blade."
Nico's muscles didn't tense but there was the slightest shift in his weight as if he was about to strike.
"It was made of darkness or something!" Zeph rushed to get the words out while he still could. "It had a name. She called it something. It was 'Dunder' – no, um. 'Dumb Ball?"
"The fuck?" The demon's face pinched into confusion.
"That's what she called it! I think." He added, losing any semblance of confidence by the end.
"Who?" Nico's voice was a razor, slicing through layers of emotion to find the fact beneath it all.
"I don't know." Zeph winced, "It was my friend– my best friend's wife. She stabbed me and tried to kill Dylan- her son!"
Zeph's voice climbed to the next octave as he continued. To his surprise, he felt Nico's soft hand rest on his cheek. The demon spoke softly, and smiled, as if consoling a child. "Zeph, none of this shit gets you rejected from heaven. If you don't start making sense, I will have to seek reimbursement."
"Wait wait wait!" Zephaniah backed up but too quickly. He stumbled and fell backward with a gasp into the scorched sand. The beach relented, accepting him and wrapping around his bracing hand as he fell, but that wasn't all that grabbed him. A brave imp entered the circle, hazarding the chance to get first dibs on the mortal soul.
The grip was too tight, pulling him by his hair. He instinctively wrapped his fingers around the foreign wrist to keep from ripping the scalp from his skull. He tried to resist but was too off-balance. He kicked up sand and fought to escape to no avail. He was dragged back a couple feet before the pulling stopped and he plopped into the sand. He was confused, still holding the imp's wrist, but for some reason it wasn't pulling him anymore.
The hand was severed at the wrist, just above where he was holding it. It wasn't a clean cut either. It was singed at the edges as if the rest of the imp spontaneously combusted. He looked up at the hand as it dissolved to ash, flittering away into the air as he met Nico's stern gaze.
"Let's try this again. Slowly, shall we?" Nico offered a cordial hand to Zephaniah and helped him to his feet. Zeph felt ice in Nico's fingers and heard the same in his voice, despite the clear attempt at warmth. "There is more to the story and I don't think you are deliberately wasting my time, fallen. Start from the beginning and make sure you don't leave out any details."
Zephaniah managed to fumble through the entire series of events leading up to his recent arrival to hell with an audience of starved imps and one Niquitius. He recounted his return to Jodie's house, the strange possession, floating Dylan, and the life and limb he literally sacrificed across two different realms of existence.
"That's the Soul Cauldron. Interesting." Nico touched his chin in a way that seemed a little rehearsed. It looked like an honest "human" reaction but somehow smoother and more human than all the other mannerisms he had done since the beginning of their conversation.
Zephaniah continued on about his brief stay at Heaven's gates and how some angel put an angelic sword to his neck and a guy named Pete kicked him out. After some mild intimidation, he also detailed what the angel said about his soul and how it was "tainted."
"I see. Well, that does explain a lot." Nico straightened his dapper attire and gave Zeph a small nod. "Pleasure doing business! Good luck."
"Wait! Nico!" Zephaniah took a big step closer to Nico.
"I do not wait for Mortals, Zeph. That's for the birds." Nico said.
"I'll die. Again!" Zeph grabbed Nico's wrist.
"Deal's a deal, fallen. Welcome to hell." Nico ignored Zeph's grip and started towards the edge of the clearing. Zeph's fingers loosened, falling to his knees as the only thing standing between him and the hoard walked away.
"I should've known. They told me demons shouldn't be trusted." Zeph could practically feel the hot breath on his neck from the looming predators behind him. "Heartless fiend. Just like these things."
Sand spilled between his fingers as his fist tightened onto the beach and Nico abandoned him. His knuckles whitened and his eyes widened, staring intently at the grains beneath him. He has fought before, and he wouldn't go down without a fight. It wouldn't be pretty but he knew that the next shadow to darken his periphery was going to find out how hard he is to put down.
Just as quickly as the thought entered his head, shade fell over him and his plot of beach. He placed one foot beneath him and pushed it down deep. Like a spring, he used his whole body to propel as fast as possible from the ground and thrust his sandy fist upward to where the first imp's jaw should be. He could feel his new muscles accept the load far easier than he was used to and he rose much faster than he could have moved before he died.
Wind rushed around his head, buffeting his ears as his whole body seemed to fly upwards and his fist connected with the unfortunate imp. The sound of meat slapped in the air and he pushed for a follow-through but the connection wouldn't budge. The immense kinetic energy that he found deep within him manifested into one, inhumanly strong punch.
But it was stopped. The punch came to an abrupt, aching halt.
It was like he tried to uppercut a falling elephant. Somehow, this imp was the immovable object to his unstoppable punch. Could they all be this strong?
When he finally looked at the creature, it spoke.
"Not to be trusted? You really think I am anything like these hapless, pathetic worms?" The imp looked and sounded a lot like Nico. Sand trickled back to the beach as Zeph fist was caught in a flagrant demon hand that interrupted the blow to its owner's face by mere inches.
"Don't fucking talk down to me, mortal. I have walked this plane for hundreds of years longer than you've even existed. I am no stranger to the insults and accusations. Hell! This is hell after all! But it's fucking rich to hear it from someone who was rejected from Heaven within minutes of showing up." The imp must've been listening well, Zeph thought, as that verbal jab cut a little deeper than he would like. "Don't 'high and mighty' me when you happily ate the souls of the damned just to get your body back."
Zephaniah stared with the expression of someone trying to perform mental calculus. From what he could tell, he was face to face with what he thought was a better-looking version of an imp.
"And another thing. Heartless? Don't pretend you know a single soul down here because guess what, all the Fallen that you just joined the ranks of used to be angels. That's right. Angels. How's that for original sin? Do you think I had even a single chance to squander? Nope! I had to crawl out a hole in the middle of fuckin' nowhere and the first asshole I met was my own brother and he tried to eat me." Nico-imp breathed, only to take in the perplexed face Zeph was giving him. He dismissed it before emphasizing it again. "Eat me, Zeph"
It dawned on Zeph that this was not an imp at all. Instead, it was the powerful Niquitius, now much more angry with him, but nevertheless present.
"You came back." Zeph managed to verbalize his perception of the obvious. "I thought you left. Don't let me die to these things."
Nico searched for any intelligence in Zeph's eyes and appeared to be disappointed. "What? Listen to what I am saying to you!"
Something awoke the dormant synapses in Zeph's head when the words left Nico's lips. Two conditions. An even trade, he was certain. One that Nico didn't catch in his heightened emotion.
"Deal!"11Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ38satP0QQw
and then Add to home screen.