#the premise itself is a bitch and a half so maybe i should change it to be something simpler

[yellowocaballero]

skgk u Naruto dweeb

Sure I'll fucking post the first scene don't fucking test me. It bangs and one should never be ashamed of the things that bang. You're never getting that PJO fic at this rate.

First scene of a fic that bangs under the cut. There's an actual premise for the fic but I think it's funner if that's not obvious.

“Hey, kid. Wanna join a gang?”

Sakura halted, kunai half-buried in the hard packed dirt. She looked upwards, blinking owlishly. 

Obito didn’t have to fight the urge to sweat, because he was partly wood and wasn’t capable of it. The desire persisted. Sakura blinked at him.

He was being ridiculous. The girl couldn’t level mountains with a punch or stop hearts with a touch. She wasn’t head of a hospital and inventor of a dozen medical techniques. She wasn’t even married. Not even to idiots. This was a whole-ass civilian child. She could barely stick a leaf to her abnormally large forehead.

“What kind of gang?” Sakura paused a beat. “I’m not supposed to talk to strangers.”

“I’m not a stranger, I’m a ninja. That’s trustworthy.” Ninjas were pretty famous for being trustworthy, straightforward people. Granted, there was an outlier that should not be counted. “And it’s a fun gang. With…uh, candy.”

Sakura narrowed her eyes. “Where’s your headband?”

“Laundry day.”

Sakura applied every ounce of her genius intellect towards considering this. Obito carefully crouched down across from her, looking down at the small and crumbling hole she’d created. Wasn’t she a bit too old to dig in the dirt for fun? 

Finally, she said, “Sorry, Suspicious Ninja-san. I have school, homework, and chores. And a class project due next week. I have no time in my schedule for a gang.”

“Not even if it’s a really good one?” Obito wheedled.

Sakura shook her head solemnly.

Obito sighed dramatically, poking a gloved finger into the small hole. He allowed Sakura to smack his finger away with the kunai, ignoring her glare. It was super cute and potentially deadly. “So you’re too busy learning away, huh? Guess you’re just another kid with no intellectual curiosity. If you’re perfectly happy with the normal classes, I guess you don’t need advanced ones…”

Obviously, that got her attention. Obito knew full well that classes weren’t challenging her. Acing all of them across the board was a point of pride, but she knew that she wasn’t reaching her potential. She wanted to ace more difficult exams, which was more pride, and continue onwards towards higher difficulty in her quest for self-esteem. She searched unceasingly for the most difficult questions so she could experience the vain victory of knowing she was better than everybody else. Gifted kids. They were all the same.

“Is your gang a class?” Sakura demanded. “Is it special tutoring? Like the clan kids get?”

Ah. And maybe she wanted to do the impossible just to be as good as everybody else. That had always been the life of Sakura Haruno.

“It’s a group of people bound together by a shared dream,” Obito said mysteriously. Sakura’s eyes widened. “Yeah, we teach each other things. Special secret techniques that only we know. Here, I’ll show you one.” He looked down at the hole, brushing away stray rocks. “You weren’t using this hole for anything, right?”

“I was digging for worms,” Sakura said, frank and even. Somehow, her little dress didn’t have a speck of mud on it. 

“Cool. Uh, why?”

“They have really simple chakra networks.”

“Sorry I asked.” Obito dug his finger a little deeper into the hole, forming a small cavity, before raising his hand and cupping it over the hole. “Watch carefully. A true ninja looks underneath the underneath.”

Anybody looking from a distance - anybody from ANBU to nosy mothers - would have assumed he dug into the hole and pulled it out. But Sakura, ear to the ground and big green eyes fixed on the magic underneath Obito’s hand, saw it clearly.

A wisp of green pushed through the bottom of the hole. It slowly rose upwards, leaves growing and unfurling, as it reached the top of the hole and continued to grow. Petals budded at the top of the plant and unfurled, spreading pink. Spring passed in an instant, and in a slight of hand Obito pulled the plant up by the stem and pretended it had been there all along.

It was a camilla, petals dyed as pink as Sakura’s hair. Obito ceremoniously presented it to her. She was almost unable to take it: she was stupified, surprised stiff. She knew exactly what she had just seen.

She mouthed three syllables to herself: Mokuton. Obito smiled slyly. 

Sakura finally took the flower, inspecting it closely. Somewhat critically, she said, “Camillas don’t come in pink.”

“I thought I’d cater to my audience.” Obito leaned in, and Sakura ducked her head to match him. “I can teach you how to do it.”

Sakura’s eyes narrowed, twirling the flower between her finger and thumb. “It’s a kekkai genkai. You can’t teach kekkai genkais. And nobody would, anyway.”

“I would. I’m even offering.”

“Who are you?”

“Guy who wants to put together a gang. With fun and candy.”

Sakura’s eyes narrowed further into slits. “You said the gang already existed.”

“Let’s just say that we’re getting the gang back together for the very first time.”

“Why would we say that?”

She had not warned him that it would be this difficult. Obito remembered little girls as being way more pliable than this. But most little girls would have run away from strangers offering free rides, so maybe Sakura was more gullible than most. Or more susceptible to temptation. But every great ninja was.

“Flowers have simple chakra systems too.” Obito put his hand over the pit again. “Feel for my chakra this time. Earth and water. Watch what I do.”

He made a small sapling this time, which was far simpler and straightforward than creating a flower that didn’t exist. Sakura watched him carefully, eyes closed shut, and when he finished she reached in and ripped out the sapling herself. She studied the sapling carefully before sticking it in her mouth, running her tongue over the leaves and stem. Then she spat it out, brushing dirt over the plant as if burying a body and placing her hand over the hole.

Sakura screwed her eyes shut and lay there for a long time. Obito’s mind was almost spiraling into megalomania again before she began drawing her hand up. She made several small motions with her fingers, almost pinching, and Obito watched in marked interest as a small sapling rose from the soil. It only grew an inch out of the soil, and it was nothing more than a sprout, but so was Sakura. 

When she opened her eyes and saw what she had made - when she realized that the no-name and do-nothing girl could create a mokuton as mighty as the god’s - Obito knew that he had hooked her.

Obito smiled at her, stiff and unyielding. “I have a dream. I’m dreaming of a world filled with meadows of beautiful flowers and forests of the tallest trees. You could help me create this dream, Sakura. I can teach you some of it, but you’ll have to make it the rest of the way on your own.”

The sapling sat in Sakura’s palm, and Obito knew that she found it far more beautiful than any flower. When she spoke, she stared at the sapling. “How?”

“Well…” Obito scratched at the back of his neck, laughing slightly. “How do you feel about crime?”

“Crime?!”

In the end, he had to kidnap her a bit. Technically he could have kidnapped her from the beginning, but a little work now saved a lot of work later. She complained a lot at first about her ‘family’ and ‘school’ and ‘desertion’, but she got over all of that predictably quickly. Her village did too: a disappearing child was not noteworthy in Konoha. Worst case scenario they’d accidentally stir up some ‘but I thought you kidnapped her for your child army’ situations.

Obito would create a heaven on earth, come hell or high water. Anybody who got in his way would die, from the lowliest Suna ninja to the Hokage himself. That was what it meant to be an optimist. And this little girl would be key to it all.

[blandacheadcanons]

Let’s talk about AC: Odyssey

Overall, the game was a 7/10. I liked it, primarily because it’s shiny new content and because i get to play as a woman for the whole game (and Kassandra hnngggnng) but there were some issues which, for me, undercut the emotion of the whole thing, especially the ending.

spoilers and bitching below, proceed at your own risk

An ADHD dream and nightmare

in general, the way i played Black Flag, Origins, and Odyssey was tantamount to “Okay, gotta go to - squirrel!”

Now, that problem (not really much of a problem but y’know) starts with me. I have ADHD, so I’m already prone to being unfocused in my game play. But it doesn’t help that the map is littered with side missions, collectibles, and shiny things.

That, on it’s own, is not much of an issue. So it’s a bloated game; that just means there’s more to love. and I do love this game. however, the overwhelming amount of side missions and the fact that you’re practically required to play them in order to level up enough, means that the game loses its focus.

in Black Flag, this was somewhat remedied by the fact you’re never really under-leveled, so much as under-prepared. In Origins, it was offset by the intensely emotional story and clear motivations. In Odyssey, neither of those things were present.

Breaking the game

Throughout its life as a series, Assassin’s Creed has done something few other games have done: justified the fact that it’s a video game. We, the player, play as Desmond/Layla/whomever, who is playing through the memories of the historical character. The Animus can essentially take a puzzle and build the edges and group the pieces by color, but it still needs a human to put the pieces in place. the puzzle - the memory - itself cannot be changed.

Now, in Odyssey, there is no more justification. Yes, I’m talking about the choice mechanic.

This aspect of the game just... breaks everything we know about the series. the way the animus works. the way we play the game. the lore went from decently put together to flat out incoherent.

I love Kassandra. and I love that she’s the canon character. but if female leads for some reason come at the cost of consistent story-telling, i’ll take the consistent lore.

Way too big

traveling takes for-fucking-ever. Look, Ubisoft, I know people loved the naval portions of your games. but that’s not an excuse to make everything fucking HUGE and spread out over a dozen islands. If you must have such a huge game, give us fast travel to an island right away. restrict it however else you like, but for FUCKS SAKE.

Clash of the Titans (and the original premise for this series)

from AC1 to AC: Black Flag, each game has been defined by its historical setting. It was the Crusade Game, the Renaissance Game, the Victorian Game...

Origins began to lay the framework for a more mythology-based portion of the series.

Well, Origins walked so that Odyssey could fly by it on a motorcycle. Throughout the game, i wasn’t about the historical figures i would meet. I was wondering where and how the mythology would be making an appearance.

On its own, this is not a bad thing. It also makes sense, given that Ubisoft seems to be shifting to the Isu for plot in the wake of Juno’s death.

It is, however, still rather jarring. It also doesn’t look like we’ll be getting more of the historical thing because AC: Ragnorak is looking like the next game.

I love mythology as much as the next person, but...I don’t even know what to say.

The Ending

the aforementioned lack of focus and emotional intensity led to a...lackluster ending. I went for the best ending where Kassandra saves Alexios and the family is reunited.

Alexios’s heel-face turn seemed so sudden. Like he’s furious up until he touches Leonidas’s spear, and he suddenly sees the light? I’m not saying that it can’t happen, but in a game brimming with mythology and magic, this was the thing that strained my suspension of disbelief.

And this was right after Kleon shot him in the back, too. but is it ever brought up? is his faith in the cult shaken by the fact that one of his “family” just tried to kill him? does Kassandra use it as evidence that the cult is using him?

nope. not once. not even a little bit.

And these are just some nitpicks, but for me, both Alexios’s subpar voice acting and Kassandra’s quiver disappearing (idk if that was a common thing or just my game) undercut the emotion of the scene.

cutscenes are not the time for errors like this, people!

too short

As much as I complain about a bloated game, the main storyline was way too short. If you play only the main story line, you’ll probably have uncovered about half the map. maybe less. Why do i care about the map? I don’t. But i do care about an underdeveloped story.

Maybe there was more plot that ended up on the cutting room floor, but ultimately, it doesn’t matter whether the game was slashed to ribbons or wasn’t there in the first place. We got a game that was too short.

The lack of length also exacerbates the tone problem. Had we had a longer story with more Deimos/PC interaction where cracks appear in Deimos’s armor, and he maybe even does something uncharacteristically charitable (out of more than pure shock), i could then buy his behavior on Taygetos as a last-ditch effort to maintain his self image in the face of his shifting world view.

If we’d had cutscenes like Syndicate where we could see a few moments from Alexios’s perspective, I could understand how that world view shifts and how the cult treats him.

but instead, we get an exponential graph of Alexios’s development. and it’s a damn shame.

Loss of Identity

for every AC game, there’s a million video essays laying out the problems with it. And in every one of those essays, there’s a line to the effect of “this game doesn’t feel like an Assassin’s Creed game.”

Previously, i was always of the school of thought that were was no “feel” of an AC game. the nature of the games is to change, in big ways and small ways, between games. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

But now, if you had me play this game and then AC1 and told me they were in the same series, i would never fucking believe you. The already thin common threads between games has been completely broken, even more so by going back in time. Origins had a similar problem, but it at least referenced the rest of the series with the hidden blade and the establishment of the Assassin Order. the only things “Assassin’s Creed” about Odyssey are the Isu and the title.

Other Nitpicks

Layla does not get out of the Animus nearly enough. I know most people hate the modern day line, but i like the break from all the historical action.

not calling Deimos Alexios/Kassandra in the subtitles. I know it was probably easier on the devs but just imagine the feels if the name changed when Deimos was being more vulnerable/letting his compassion show.

Kassandra can full-on see Atlantis and a Sphinx and still be amazed by every mythological creature that crosses her path.

people move way too much in dialogue cutscenes

animation and cgi are becoming so real that it’s creepy again

i appreciate the move to Actual Eagle’s Vision, but leave it in these games. I don’t want to get to the middle ages and be seeing out of a raven within a century of Atair’s Color Coding Eagle Vision. That’s not how evolution works.

While cool, the introduction of literally magical armor and weapons further proves that this isn’t a historical series anymore.

There is barely a stealth mechanic in this game, and when it’s used, it’s just used to pick people off before we’re noticed, not to avoid being noticed.

in a world where there are mercenaries and those mercenaries have to kill each other either for money or just to move up in rankings, mercenaries killing each other should not be illegal. if i try to fight one more mercenary and end up getting killed by the swarm of soldiers that just pony up out of no where, i swear to God...

why are soldiers acting as cops anyway doesn’t Athens have real, actual cops or equivalent

I think Ubisoft finally remembered they were rated M in Origins and Odyssey but it honestly just makes it harder to play around my parents

That’s as much as i can think of off the top of my head if i can think of more i’ll add it

[davidmann95]

Now...Thoughts on Night 3?

Anonymous said: Well…Thoughts on Night 3?

adudewholikescomicsandotherstuff said: So night 3 was freakin AMAZING

cheerfullynihilistic said: Night 3?

vanguard2814 said: Thoughts on night 3?

Anonymous said: Any thoughts on night 3 of Crisis?

Anonymous said: Thoughts on night 3 ?

Anonymous said: How about that third night?

Anonymous said: Thoughts on Part 3 of the Crisis? 

Good lord, a guy’s a little too tired a few evenings in a row to feel the call of the muse and I end up with all this. Very well children, come and suckle at the teat of my take at last: it was good.

Before that however, I actually watched the Crisis tie-in episode of Black Lightning, and having never seen that show before, it was really good! Notably slicker and more professionally put together than the surrounding DC CW shows, solid premise executed well; reminded me a touch of Multiversity with being dropped into this radically different narrative and seeing the reverberations of the big cosmic dust-up echoing through it. Clearly quite a good show, hope it’s getting good ratings.

Anyway, onto the spoilery good stuff:

* I don’t know that I enjoyed it as much as the last one, but this was probably the best episode thus far in terms of balancing plot, character, and the fanservice inherent to the entire proposition.

* Certainly, this was notably the best-directed of the batch: there’s a horror to the antimatter wave in the opening and closing that simply hadn’t been conveyed before.

* The bit regarding Choi’s kid was cute.

* I hate to say it, but that little Super-speech from Routh on hope making the rounds on Twitter is…stiff. He’s still good in general but he’s trying too hard in places to sell a sense of gravitas to the point of his eyebrow arching up like an unironic Colbert, though the explanation itself on why he changed the S is one I prefer to the original Kingdom Come clearly presenting it as a symbol of mourning. Still team Hoechlin as #1, I’m afraid - there’s an ease and sincerity to his performance that sets him apart, but I’ll leave that spiel to Twitter since everyone here’s seen me weigh in plenty on him. Glad Tulloch’s Lois got some more time to shine in that scene though, I liked her a lot in Elseworlds and she’s only been growing on me more in here.

* Much as the basic setup of Lucifer as an in-name-only adaptation rubs me the wrong way given how amazing what I’ve read of the source material is I wouldn’t have expected to be happy to see that guy, but heck if I wasn’t delighted. Maybe it’s because of said distance, which makes it feel like Crisis is simply crossing over into unrelated genre television at this point, which is cool as hell. Or maybe it’s just the way Tom Ellis says “Jjjjjjjjjohnnyyy!!!”

* Sidebar: before I saw this episode I briefly saw Earth-666 was trending on Twitter before snapping my head away, and while clearly it was a Crisis thing, the two possibilities that leapt to mind were Damian as future Batman or some sort of utterly savage swing at the DCEU. All but slapped my head at the obviousness once we actually got to that scene.

* Small as his role was, Cress Williams’ Black Lightning manages to wring all the emotion he can out of it, and him flipping out a little at Superman being real is exactly the sort of thing I want to see out of a premise like this.

* So THAT’S why they’re going through all these shenanigans with Oliver. Pulling a Hal Jordan on him’s a really neat idea for keeping him relevant in the fight against a mad god and keeping him around in the universe as a whole in whatever capacity Amell’s interested in post-mortem that caught me completely off-guard.

* Was it cheap to very sincerely send off Gustin’s Barry Allen and then take the obvious out in the end after all? Totally, but lackluster as an adaptation of that moment in the original Crisis though it was, I have to admit that little flashback to the old show went a long way in making me care anyway. Not for nostalgic reasons, I never watched the series, but in the sense of getting us to look at him at his close not as a stock alternate universe casualty, but a person with decades of life behind who was young and vulnerable once and loved and was loved in turn, and you’re watching his final moments. Whiffed on the effects end, but emotionally they really did make that work as well as it possibly could and very efficiently at that, color me impressed somewhat in spite of myself.

* Okay I said I’d stop talking about Hoechlin but him getting in the final word against the Anti-Monitor and being the last to fade away with a look of reassuring, determined confidence on his face…look, I’ll change my tune a bit if he doesn’t even get one solid punch in in the finale, but I just cannot sympathize with the notion that Superman’s being underserved here given his role.

* Jon Cryer’s Lex Luthor is a goddamned international treasure and should be acknowledged as such, that monstrous son of a bitch. Cannot wait for the opening of the next episode being him looking around and more than half-seriously going “So, you’re welcome. You have two other alien freaks anyway, what you NEED is a Luthor.”

Dang this next month of waiting is going to drag.

[buckskinblues]

Wait, I've lost interest in the game a while ago. Whats the problem with Arcana? If you could link me a post/article about that be great.

I don't really have any articles and I haven't played recently. What I know about it is mostly from my experiencing playing it and listening to other players. I have seen sources for stuff but I'll pull them up later because I'm on mobile going back and forth to add links and shit on mobile is a pain in the ass TBH.

First, I really like the characters in the game and the setting and the premise for the story! The art is distinct and colorful. The reason the bad aspects are so frustrating is because the good are so good. And the bad aspects are mostly outside of the game itself. As in I don't really have a problem with the content in it.

But! For one thing the updates for each new chapter are slow for an app whose coding was apparently finished a long time ago so the bulk of the work is adding more artwork and story. Which if that's, like, even just a half-time job on the side is something that shouldn't take as long as it does when considering the length of each chapter. I don't know about artwork but when it comes to writing it shouldn't take that long. Like, keep in mind they're getting paid for this. And keep in mind the writing is mostly dialogue because it's a VN. I know from experience writing myself and observing other's work that someone who is at least decent at writing can put out a lot more than that on the daily (especially when it's their, like, you know... actual job). And there are multiple people on the writing team to share the work? Why does it take so long then? Do they have to wait on the artwork even though the art is mostly just changed facial expressions for the characters and maybe some backgrounds? There are people who do full, entirely detailed commission pieces multiple times a week. Like...just seems like they're not putting in the work and effort that a professional project they're getting paid for would constitute.

The app is way overpriced. Which isn't uncommon for mobile apps. But like, seriously in this game you could spend money to unlock a chapter but after you're done with it you'd...have to buy it AGAIN if you wanted to replay. Some of the more romantic scenes of the game are, again, locked behind a paywall basically and that's...you know...after you pay to unlock the chapter anyway. It makes it seem like the game keeps making you pay for something you should already own. And then they have the gall to be like "uwu why are people complaining we have to be compensated uwu" like...bitch. The money people can rack up spending on this game is in the hundreds. I could buy a new gaming console and a few games with a price tag like that. And I'm not shitting you, some other people have done the math for if you payed for the coins/keys required to get all the content in the game. The money someone could spend playing this game is laughable in comparison to how much content is actually in it. By ratio of price to content a game like Cyberpunk would cost less. And this is especially shitty when you take into account the game obviously caters to a younger audience.

Which is another thing to get into I honestly think the game should've had a bit of a higher rating or they should've just not added all the barely disguised innuendo or "risque" scenes. Which usually isn't a complaint I have but I always got the feeling they wanted to make a game with more mature content but also wanted to be able to have a potentially larger audience by having it be accessible to younger people.

Basically I think they take advantage of their audience and put in little effort compared to other dev teams and then brush off legit criticism as "b-but we made game...be nice and spend money on it uwu we worked".

[tiny-ruby-seeds]

Sinister Kid

Fem!Witch turned Hunter Reader x Michael Langdon fic

This is also a Supernatural × AHS: Apocalypse crossover AU of sorts but don't worry, you don't need to be 100% knowledgeable in both as I’m doing a bit of lore blending anyway

Loosely Inspired by Supernatural season 3 Episode 4 “Sin City”

AKA... This is what happens when "Carry On My Wayward Son" shows up on my iPod's Shuffle after a listening to my Michael inspired playlist. And yes “Sinister Kid” is on said playlist. I mean, of course!

TW-Mentions of multiple gruesome murders, mentions of (what can possibly be seen as) cannibalism, demonic/paranormal stuff, Sass, language, possible UST, & heresy (cause the Antichrist & Supernatural… duh)

Premise- A simple exorcism case for you goes terribly wrong when the demon burns your exorcism parchment... And traps you both underground. Forced to wait until help arrives you strike up a conversation with the demon you've been hunting since Lawrence... Only to discover this "demon" maybe something else entirely...

“...A sinister kid is a kid who

Runs to meet his maker

A drop dead sprint from the day he's born

Straight into his maker's arms

And that's me, that's me

The boy with the broken halo

That's me, that's me

The devil won't let me be...”

- The Black Keys, Sinister Kid

Now I’ve been on some bad jobs since I started hunting.

It happens!

Hell, I’d even say it’s in the job description of hunting in general. Right next to crappy hotel rooms, more bumps and bruises then you’d want to deal with, and the metric tons of salt you have to run around with. Not everything is a simple case or as cut and dry, some of it is even life and death as I had learned on the job. Bad things happen, it’s Murphy’s Law after all.

But this hunt…

This hunt was already turning out to be one of the top ten worst I’ve been on.

Or that’s what I was thinking as I cleared another stone. My arms starting to get strained and sore from tossing a few already, trying to clear out the rubble before me. I really gotta do some strength training don’t I? I thought.

I could feel the dirt and dust that puffed from each stone I moved start to cake itself on my skin thanks to the sweat. I also really didn’t want to think of the state of my clothes only that my black tank top and jeans would probably have to go through the wash at least a few times along with everything else I had on.

All of it left me feeling disgusting, and that didn’t help my mood as I breathed in the stale air that came from being underground. I could smell earth and stone, tinged with the echoes of incense and something… Heavy and sickeningly metallic smelling that I made my stomach turn coldy. I quickly tried to put my mind on something else.

Luckily, or maybe not so luckily,  it came in the form of another sharp twinge up my arm as I reached for another bit of rubble. I tried not to hiss or whimper as I picked it up. Tossing the brick behind me blindly.

Okay, maybe not so blindly as I was half aiming for a certain target standing behind me...

“You missed, Hunter,” I could hear a silky voice say proudly behind my back after I heard the tell tale smack as it hit the floor.

I could feel a few curses bubbling under my breath. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of snapping at him (I was enjoying how annoyed he was as I tried to ignore him) but I could hear the smile in his voice. I didn’t want to look back and see it but my rebellious brain decided to imagine it anyway. That slight gleam of teeth crossing a his face making him look even more handsome than-.

Okay. Stop. That. Train. Of. Thought. Right. There, I thought wanting to kick myself for the umpteeth time since I saw him, hating I couldn’t get it out of my mind no matter how hard I tried.

That was probably my biggest bitch with this whole thing. I was in this situation with a demon who got under my skin in more ways than one, but that wasn’t the worst of it. Oh No... I had the gut feeling he fucking knew he was getting under my skin too with every stupid smirk and boy was he playing on it.

I grabbed another stone and threw it- hopefully- a bit closer in the direction of his voice (not gonna look back dammit!). I could, sadly, hear the clap as the stone hit the floor once again and but the annoyed huff from behind me made me smile to myself.

Getting closer am I, your highness? Good. I thought stretching out my back.

“Must you keep tossing those around like that?” I could hear him say in that haughty tone like he was a prince talking to a peasant.

That smooth voice of his both made my heart thrum and annoyed the holy hell out of me at the same time. Luckily the annoyance was winning over as I had been listening to him whining for a bit now and I just about had it.

So much for trying to ignore him, I thought swinging around to face him. I could swear he smirked but it was so brief I must have imagined it.

“Oh trust me, Sir,” I hissed. “This was not how I planned on spending my Friday night either. But some black eyed ass decided ‘let’s throw a temper tantrum’-”

I jerked a thumb at the rubble behind me that I had just cleared enough to make a dent in. Did I mention that it was the only easy entrance to this place and just a few minutes ago? Oh sure, it had been particularly less dirt and rock filled then until a certain someone decided I wasn’t going back anytime soon to that stupid car I had to borrow while my ride was in the shop (god I missed that car).

Yeah, say what you want about me throwing rocks at him but I think I was in the right for being pissed off.

“- ‘Cause the mean hunter trapped my dumbass in a devil’ trap and tried to exorcise me’. So pardon me, your highness, if I make a mess of your wannabe Satanic Vampire Lair.”

I motioned the great underground chamber around us as my voice echoed off the golden colored stone.  

From what info I could gather before I let this demon “talk me into coming here” this was originally built in the cold war by some really rich, really paranoid holy man with a small congregation under his lavish mansion. There had been a few updates like the small windows that lined the  left wall when you walked in (they were probably lined with bullet proof glass back in the day or something), but other then that… It still really screamed church.

This main room was the was the size of smaller chapel sanctuary, with enough horribly uncomfortable dark wooden benches to support it (they didn’t have that pew look so I’m calling them benches). It was even complete with an arched gothic ceiling above us and lined in alabaster that glowed. Along the left side were painting, like stained glass windows below the actual grated windows themselves. It you probably wouldn’t even know it was underground and would have thought it was just some random chapel somewhere. I would probably even find the place pretty too.

Shame that the room also boasted the skulls of goat heads and skeletons of snakes on pedestals along the walls. Above them in highly suspected paint (okay I’m betting it was dried blood but.. ew) were symbols. Some inverted pentagrams, some Sigils of Lucifer, and some Leviathan Crosses. Complete with a black alter that wafted that metallic sickly perfume of blood, sulfur, and death.

You know all signs that point to umm… Evil Yahtzee as it were. The same evil I was here to take down.

The demon, Langdon -or so I had heard him called at the bar I had met him at (the meatsuit’s last name maybe?)- let out a long low exhale in response, like he was dealing with a particularly stupid child (Dick… Wait... Don’t think about that you horny idiot!). Rolling his eyes as he leaned back, arms crossing in front of his chest. He gave me a scathing look from where he stood on a deep wine colored rug. A corner of that same rug was still lifted to show just a small part of a vivid angry red Devil’s Trap painted on the marble floor below him. A little bit of handy work I had started when I broken in a few days back after I suspected him and had just finished with a line from a spray can I had tossed in some far corner of the room.

I couldn’t be too proud of my handiwork right then as he looked annoyed. I hated that him annoyed made him look little just a bit hotter if possible. Oh who was I kidding? He just had to be one of the hottest guys I had ever seen! Dressed all in black, he was fairly tall and lithely muscled like a jungle cat with the presence of a rock star. I could see why he passed as a pretty successful server at the local upscale place nearby (think high end mobster/ politician/ vampire feel and you’re pretty damn close).  

His eyes were a startling cerulean that was breathtaking to see and hard look away from. His ginger gold hair, fell in waves and curls across his brow but a few inches short of his strong shoulders, catching the candle light like a halo. Those locks framed a face that you would have sworn an artist cut and sculpted for a statue. That square jaw that you’d want to trace with your finger tips, that proud nose, and those soft lips that would probably tempt an angel if such a thing were possible.

Now, I wasn’t one to go crazy over guys like this but I utterly utterly hated he was so damn attractive. It figures that a guy like him would be possessed by one of the worst demons I’ve come across. One I had been hunting for weeks now. One whom I had been having one hell of a time tracking until recently.

I had thought I had him on the ropes before but I guess should have known better. He had all but vanished... Until now. I half wondered if that was his game in this town (as he seemed to change with each new one)- possessing attractive men before feeding his victims their own intestines. If so I guess I can give that monster points. Even I would be pretty tempted tell him a few places he could put that tongue of his if he wanted if I hadn’t known…

Uggh, I really need to stop asking Madison how she was doing when I called for Zoe. She’s giving me terrible ideas and I don’t like it, I thought, ignoring the familiar pang of missing home that I was still trying to get used to even now. Thankfully (or probably not thankfully seeing where it came from) that train of thought was stopped when he spoke.

“Yes, because you were so keen to free me when I politely, kindly, asked to be released and to stop with that pitiful excuse of an exorcism,” Langdon quipped as he propped one of his hands under his chin.

The demon was looking at me in a way that reminded me of the way a cat did when watching a mildly interesting mouse. Debating if if would be worth the effort to kill it or not. I gave him one of my patent you-gotta-be-shitting-me looks that I had learned from the best.

“Well, when you find a dead body in the back room you tell me if I should be so keen,” I snapped, getting pretty fed up with his bullshit.

He rolled his eyes with an almighty sigh. As if I were testing his patience, like he wasn’t already testing mine… The asshole.

“Once again I told you,” Langdon said, almost groaning aloud (I had the feeling he was very tempted to groan but didn’t want to make it seem like I was getting to him) “I didn’t kill that man back there.”

He tilted his head to motion over to the closed door to the back room where the corpse was. Last I looked it was a few hours old, still stinking of sulfur, still pretty bloody seeing as his chest was carved open.

“So... What? He just fell on the knife and accidently carved his own heart out just in time for your little Black Mass?” I said pointing to the altar on the far wall.

Last I looked blood was starting to congeal in that black stone bowl (yeah… ew), the ritual athames nearby not yet clean from it as well. Blood that wasn’t there I broke in a day or so ago to paint most of the seal. Now, I had done the research in the lore all seemed to say the same thing: A stone bowl, plus a black Satanic altar, with ritual knives equals...

A heart had been in that bowl a few mere hours ago.

Probably from the poor bastard in that back room that I had been too late to save.  

Just another name to add to this bastard’s kill list.

The thought made my blood run cold from the guilt. Once again, I was glad he was stuck on that cheap ass rug thanks to the trap. Not so glad that the fucker had torched my damn exorcism earlier though, the bits of ash that were once my leatherbound book were still right before the altar. You know, the exorcism I had done all of that research on and had spent hours trying to make sure I got the damn Latin right (Gods, I hate Latin).

Fucking demons.

“Odd…” Langdon said, the ghost of a smirk crossing his face, I could swear his pretty blue eyes flickered black for a moment. “...I don’t recall ever saying his death was an accident.”

I snorted. Yeah rude, but a pretty, killer demon with a sassy sense of humor? Must be Christmas. I restrained myself from cursing at him, going back to the stones, grabbing another and tossing it- hopefully more in his direction.

“Missed once more, Hunter,” He said in a singsong tone that I promptly ignored (asshole) as I grabbed another.

I started to tune out his chiming in every now and then on my aim (I wasn’t aiming at him, per say... But I wouldn’t be upset if I did hit him) as the only thing I wanted to think about was getting out of here. Getting this asshole exorcised, getting his meatsuit somewhere safe if he was still alive (I hoped he was cause -gods- that would suck out loud. I’d have no chance at all with a guy like that seeing as I’m a bit of a hot mess right now, but still...), and maybe crashing for a week or two after a long hot shower.

I don’t know how much rubble I had cleared when suddenly the demon’s voice caught my attention. For some reason, he sounded rather insistant.

“-Should really start taking them from the top.” Langdon advised suddenly. “You keep taking the stones from the bottom and it will eventually cave in on you.”

So I got a pretty, killer, sassy, know-it-all demon on my hands.I thought sarcastically. Oh happy day!

“Look, why don’t you just shove it, you-.” I was snapping at him when I heard a tell tale shift of stone above me.

Oh crap-!

I just managed to get away from the small landslide of debris. Instinct from years of training helped me tuck and roll out of the way as a load of stones, brick, and dirt started to tumble down where I had been. A terrible jolt had me wincing as I could feel the tell tale pain of rolling on my spine on a stone floor would have me even sorer than before. But I wasn’t under that rubble so there was that.

Although I kinda wished I was when I looked back. The past hour of work was gone. Buried under stone and earth. I was back where I started.

Fuck.

“God Dammit!” I cursed heatedly, kicking a small rock at the pile

“I told you-.” I could hear the demon start with that superior tone but I wasn’t having anymore of that crap.

I rounded on Langdon half wishing I had one of those rocks in my hand, there was no way I would miss facing him now.

“Oh just fuck off already, your highness! That would have happened even if I had grabbed them from the top! We’re mostly underground in case you haven’t noticed! Or did you forget when you buried us here?!” I snapped.

He gave me one of those looks I was used to getting from demons, that cool impassive look that left me with the feeling that he would happily rip my tounge out if he had the chance. I had probably annoyed him enough.

Good, I thought. That makes two of us.

I stared at the new pile of rubble and sighed. Yeah there was no damn way I was gonna clear it in just a few hours. Maybe if I had my spells but some of my useful ones where among those ashes or back in my car. Yeah pretty useless right now. I could try transmutation but… I really wasn’t sure if trying one of the “Wonders” was a good idea. I hadn’t tried any of them- save for my personal gift- since…

… Well since.

I glanced over to one of the high windows that I had propped a bench under a few moments ago, the dim light of a nearby street lamp shining through the barred grate. I could try one of those again as I hadn’t tried the other two but seeing as those grates were made of iron and I didn’t really have a strength spell at my disposal (do we have one of those? I’ll have to bug Zoe as I think we should), I had the feeling it would be nothing more then really yanking at already pretty strained muscles.

It looked like my best option was to wait for backup. So here I was in the romantic candle light…

With one of the biggest pain in the ass demon’s I’ve hunted yet.

Yeah, this hunt was slowly way up the list to the “top 5 worst hunts I’ve been on.”

Just my luck.

I trudged over with a sigh to my favorite deep burgundy leather jacket I had on a nearby bench, leaving it there to keep it (mostly) clean as it had been a gift from my friends when I started with this life (they had said I had to look the part after all).  Quickly I grabbed it and started fishing through the pockets both on the outside and the trick pockets a certain someone (I suspect Nan as she always agreed when I bitched- both verbally and not- about not having enough pockets) had sewn for my phone and the other odds an ends.

Finally finding it, I clicking it on and was met with a weak service sign. I shouldn’t be surprised, it was just as it had been a minutes earlier. I thought about trying to call Stu, my backup for this hunt, once more but the last time I had just managed to get through I had been met with the voicemail instantly.

Either the Stu’s phone had died or he was holed up somewhere with that hot waiter he was eyeing...

God, I hoped the phone died. Stu’s flirting made me sigh and headdesk on a normal basis, he was kinda like a brother I didn’t want but got stuck with. Has been ever since I met him on that old Miller job back when I started. So the last thing I needed was to even think of him having sex cause… Yeah no, hot guy or not- ew.  If I was going to be trapped here with a demon I wanted to be on my guard, not puking my guts up.

I let out a low groan in frustration and had to keep from running my hand over my face as it would probably feel disgusting. Well more so then I already did.

“I suppose this is where we both wait and see who comes first then: The cavalry... Or the Indians,” The demon I had trapped lilted suddenly, obviously putting two and two together.

I glanced over to to see Langdon watching me curiously with a tilt of his head. Guess he knew he didn’t need to ask about the cell service. Well he probably already knew about it, it had probably been part of his plan when he brought me here…

The asshole.

“Or…” I started, seeing an opening. “You could, you know, wave your hand and clear it all up like you did when you made it all fall down.”

Yeah... It was a long shot, I know, but you bet your butt I was gonna try to annoy him enough for it. Telekinesis was not one of my stronger gifts compared to a few other things. Besides it was barely a push compared to what he had showed he could do even stuck in that trap that bound him at his powers on the spot.

And besides, stubbornly annoying people was something I knew I was good at. Hell a certain teacher of mine once said it was one of my gifts, witchcraft not included.

“That would be up to you, Hunter. Perhaps I would consider if you took care of my little problem here,” Langdon insisted, tapping the rug below him with his boot.

I snorted. Yeah right, like I’m going to let your ass out.

“Aww what’s wrong? Can’t use your right hand for that? Don’t know what to tell you, sweet heart...” I told the demon with a grin.

Okay… Not my best comeback and I get the feeling I’d hate myself later (cause, ugh, really? Didn’t we already say we’re not going to go there with him? The hell is with your brain today?) but it was so worth it for his reaction.

He gave me a disgusted look, eyes narrowing, his lips tightened into a line. I have to admit I was a bit gleeful to see it (oh did I make you feel uncomfortable? Good. Cause you’re doing the same for me with your cheap trick demon pheromones, bastard)- but I continued.

“...Besides, I’m not stupid. Don’t insult us both by pretending you wouldn’t skin me alive right after I got you out of there, Demon.”

Just like you did the others.

The words where on the tip of my tongue but for some reason I didn’t say it. Probably because he knew exactly what he did, hell he knew it the second he introduced himself to me. I had been so damn close before he had run last time. Have to admit I was impressed it took him so long to take the bait though. Usually I snag quite a few demons with the whole “Hitchhiking newly Grad Student” bit and I was that age it worked for me. But that’s neither here nor there. He was finally in that damn trap. I finally got him.

I couldn’t help but take step back and almost fall against the wall behind me. I slid down to the floor letting myself breath for a bit.

Not sure if it was pure relief from finally trapping that asshole or from the earlier adrenaline burst- We had a small little tiff before I trapped him, I had a few bruises forming but the asshole barely looked like I touched him, there were a few bullet holes in the far wall that show I sure as hell tried- but I was exhausted. My body was starting to feel heavier, and heavier each moment.

Yeah not good. Not good at all.

I tried to keep myself awake by trying to review my very few options. I could keep calling but what good would a full voicemail do Stu or myself if it even went through? Best way for him to find me would be by leaving my phone on for the GPS signal. He knew I always had my phone and he was a genius with his computer after all. Plus he knew I was working this lead after some curious bits of info came from the most recent found body by the police as well as a little bit of spellwork.

He’d come. I knew he would.

All I could do was wait.

On the floor I was fishing through my jacket again, this time for my earbuds. If I was going to have to sit here and play the waiting game then the least I could do was listen to music until I needed to use the spare battery. With any luck it would wake me up. If Stu didn’t show up quickly and if my demonic friend here did have back up show up before him…

Well...  There was a gun on my left hip holster and a few bullets left in my clip with their names on it. Not like a phone would help me then either.

“And if I were to promise to slit your throat as opposed to skinning you?”  Langdon asked after a bit, an eyebrow raised as he looked down at me appraisingly on the floor.  “It would be faster than the other ways I could kill you with and less painful than what the others would most likely propose.”

I shook my head. Nice try, I thought. But you’re going to have to do better, you bastard.

“Oooh so tempting, let me think… Hmmm, that’s gonna be a hell no.” I said, finally finding my blue earbuds.

Yes!

I went right to the music app on my phone, going right to the playlist that I had saved on there per the insistence of certain close friend (God, I missed her). I made a show of putting in the earbuds as the demon watched. I could see him starting to glare at me coldly as I clicked on the playlist. I was even nice enough to flash a winning smile as I flipped him off, grabbing my jacket and threw it on myself like a small blanket. Yeah I know, will probably need to clean that jacket too but I’d worry more about it later.

Before you ask, no, I normally don’t rest in the room with a demon. That’s like hunting common sense with the use of salt and to always click the safety off before firing a gun. But this demon was locked tightly in the strongest Devil’s Trap I could find, he couldn’t leave that unless the seal was broken either. And that would take me or someone outside the trap scraping the paint off or by cracking the marble floor and I sure as hell wasn’t going to do it. Plus, I seriously doubted he had as many friends he claimed.

A low level black eyed demon like him?

Yeah, right.

Besides the adrenaline crash was really starting to creep in and kick me hard, it was becoming a fight to keep my eyes open, and my vision was blurring. If I pushed it would make things worse or so experience and a few earned scars had taught me.

Meditation, that’s what I can do, I decided. A certain red-haired witch had once said it would help in situations like this. It would be restful but I wouldn’t be sleeping. I tried to clear my mind, ignoring how sticky and dirty I felt and the demon’s cold gaze. It wasn’t easy but slowly I tried to sink into the lyrics from the melodic tones of Stevie Nicks singing…

“...Maybe it’s only a dream

I don’t want to feel that

Well it’s one more link- in the chain

I don’t believe that…”

***

Guess I really need to practice the whole meditation thing as the next time I opened my eyes I was curled in a ball on my right side on the cold stone floor. My phone was utterly dead, and the earbud on my right side was starting to press against my inner ear painfully. I must have dozed off, the songs of playlist lulling me like a lullaby. Yeah, I could almost hear the shaded lecture and the well placed smack up the head from a certain witch if she were here.

I ached from sleeping on the floor but it was an ache I had grown used to since I started hunting. So the pain was familiar at least even if the place I was in wasn’t. I pulled the ear buds out of my ear carefully, trying not to yawn as I reached up slowly, feeling my black tank top creep up my stomach as I stretched out sore muscles. As I did, I gave a bit of a moan that probably sounded pretty pornagraphic. I would be a little embarrassed by it if I wasn’t alone but it felt so damn good.

Too bad my half awake brain completely forgot I wasn’t alone in the least...

“I must admit I’m almost astonished that you don’t snore,” A now familiar velvety voice lilted around me, snapping me awake faster then any cup of coffee could. “You’re a women full of... Surprises, aren’t you?”

I swung over to see Langdon, lounging on the rug like a cat on a lavish throne. There was a devilish smirk on his (already) far too handsome face that made my cheeks burn. His blazing blue eyes running over my form as thought I had invited him to take all the time the the world to do so. A pink tongue suddenly running over his top teeth as though he saw something he was half tempted to bite into...

Oh fucking hell…I thought as I all but clapped my arms to my sides, feeling my face burn and a part of me start to thrum hungrily, start to ache in a way that I really really didn’t need right now. There was that strange pull to him again, starting to kick into overdrive. Beckoning me to his side.

Just kill me now please .

“Were you watching me sleep this whole time, you asshole?!” I almost screeched, wishing my cheeks would stop burning already.

Use it, get angry, I thought. Anger was good, not lust for a damn demon… That’s bad! Seriously, his meatsuit is a snack, I get it! But he’s possessed by a douchebag whose using every damn trick in the book to get under your skin, so...

Let’s not, please.

“Yes, because there is oh so much to do when in a Devil’s Trap.” He replied sarcastically, blue eyes looking away (thank god, I could start breathing again, seriously I’ve dealt with other demons before. Why was this stupid trick getting to me? Don’t blame his looks on this one, I’ve kicked the ass of a few attractive werewolves in the past) as he leaned up to examine his fingernails.

The rings on his hand caught the dim light, onyx and ruby gem’s glinting as I huffed.

“Couldn’t you speak in tongues, twist your head around and spew out pea soup, or find some other way to amuse yourself?” I grumped, trying to fish through my jacket for my spare phone battery.  

Thankfully, my heart rate was starting to go back to normal and my body was cooling down. But the pull to him was still there but I was trying not to be bothered by it or at least trying to not draw attention to it…

Although later I would notice I had inched closer. I was leaning more against the bench then the wall then, slowly drawing closer and closer to him. An unconscious decision I would wonder about later but there was something else that had caught my immediate attention then.

My phone hadn’t gone off yet.

I knew it hadn’t, the ringtone would have cut through the music and woken me up automatically if it had. I had the most annoying one I could think of for Stu after all. I started to go through another pocket as I quickly calculated in my head, it had been more or less fully charged when I turned it on for the music so... I must have been out for a few hours.

Instantly, I wanted to smack myself. Did I seriously leave myself venerable for that long in a room with a demon? What the hell was wrong with me?! Just when I was about to bang my head on the nearby bench when the demon in the room spoke up.

“Oh, I did after a bit,” Langdon told me, getting my attention once more. “In particular I examined the trap you have me in.”

I couldn’t help but shake my head at him, doubtful.

“Cause you know all about Devil’s Traps now do you?” I said snidely as I tore through another pocket.

Not there either. Don’t tell me I left it at the hotel.I felt a jolt of panic that I tried to keep hidden. Crap...

“A bit here and there. I know there are different kinds, of course, befitting the demons of different cultures, religions, and pantheons,” I could hear him drawl on as I searched, cursing the gods if I did leave it behind.

There it is! I thought. Finding the small white battery case next to a spare bullet clip. I put the clip in one of my front pockets (just in case) and I was just about to pop off the back of my cell and change the battery when he continued.

“But I know far more about sigils, seals and.. Keys. Certainly more than most of my kind anyway,” Langdon piped up suddenly.  

I froze, catching his words right away.

How did he-?

...Oh hell.

I looked over to him to see him turn to me fully, a cat-that-caught-the-canary smile forming on his face for a minute before he spoke.

“A normal Devil’s Trap wouldn’t be able to fully... Contain me,” He said confidently. “But the Key of Solomon is something else entirely. This one in particular has been used to bind and control both the demonic and the dead after all. Not many know of it of course only religious scholars or…”

That smile that crossed his face suddenly became a hint darker and that made my blood run cold.

“Those who practice and study magic.”

Oh shit...

“Is that so?” I said trying to sound nonchalant, putting the phone and battery in my jacket pocket, slowly reaching for the gun on my hip.

The bullets in that clip were all carved with the standard Devil’s Trap, but they would do in a pinch; plus “can’t full contain him” my foot, I’d like to see him dig a few of those out of his ass.

“Very smart of you to wait until we were both here alone to finish the Key. I would have notice it earlier during the Black Mass. So tell me, my dear Witch,” He almost spat out that last word as though it were a curse. “Did someone from your Coven tell you to use the Key or was it just a lucky guess on your part?”

The gun on my hip felt cold in my hand but it’s weight was comforting all the same. But I didn’t draw it out. Not yet.

“Just thought a son of a bitch that was as sick and as evil as you deserved a bit of heavy duty work.” I told him cooly.

It was a lie… I had called Bobby Singer a few times, and even made a slew of quick calls home to get the lettering and such of the trap right (Thank gods for Zoe, seriously). I had a feeling he would know I was bullshitting but I was hoping to distract him from the question. I wasn’t going to tell him I had help from the Coven, no matter what.

I had left for a reason. If he thought I was going to spill the beans on my family, my sisters, he had another thing coming

“Oh did you now?” He lilted in mock interest, eyebrow raised as if to ask me to go on.

I could tell he was ready to call me on the fib, but I was ready with the slight curve I would need to throw him off. Or so I hoped…

Demon’s loved to brag after all...

The sick bastards.

“Most monsters kill for food, or because someone pissed them off.” I told him icily. “It takes a special kind of sick son of a bitch though carve up and eat a few kids like you did, just for kicks.”

It looked like it worked, that caught his attention. But what happened next kind of threw me off as well.

As opposed to that stupid disgusting prideful look I had expected, the superiority faded away from his face and he turned to me fully, he looked…

Was he... Stunned?

“Pardon?” Langdon asked, voice suddenly so very different.

Did he sound surprised?

Huh? I wasn’t sure but he had lost that mocking edge entirely. But that wasn’t all, he had a look on his face, like I had told him the sky was anything other then blue. That careful cool of his shaken a bit, not a lot but enough to make him look something a bit more touchable then the high and mighty creature he seemed to portray himself as.

Instantly, I wanted to throw something very sharp and heavy at him.

Was he fucking with me? Did he think he could just pretend it didn’t happen?! All those corpses he left behind. Even normal people were taking notice! They were saying it was the work of a serial killer but those who really knew.. Knew better. He was one hell of an actor. I’ll give him that.  But it didn’t stop me from seeing red.

Getting caught by my own curveball, yeah, later I would appreciate the irony.

“Don’t play dumb with me!” I snapped at him heatedly, unable to stop myself now. “Margaret was eight and Jason was barely three! You remember them now?! They lived just past fucking Lawrence, and you butchered them! Innocent children, you sick fuck! I can even give you the goddamn list of the others!”

I remember the police reports, I remember speaking to the coroners over small mutilated bodies that almost made me vomit.

This demon...

He always started from their feet, their wrists bound, their little voices screaming...

There was a fucking trail of these kind of bodies to this fucking place as he kept it up, learning more…

Perfecting it.

All of which I would be sure to add onto my list of nightmares the legions of hell spewed out on a daily basis. I could hear the names of the lost echoing in my mind like a sick, pitchy, off key song you couldn’t get out of your head. Enraged and shaking, I yanked the gun out of my hip holster, clicking off the safety aiming it right at him. Muzzled pointed right at his forehead, not seeing anything but the monster in front of me I couldn’t see the man he possessed… Not any more.

“I tracked the demon who did this, here to this shithole town. There’s only been one demon I’ve come across, three guesses but you only need one on who that is, asshole.”

Suddenly a dark look crossed the demon’s face.

“I see now,” He said evenly suddenly glancing over to the door that led to the back room before he spoke once more.

“Of course that disgusting insolent coward would try to appeal to me for help... He was running from you.”

Wait...

What?

Did he just…?

“Shame,” Langdon continued. “If I had known that, things would have been interesting earlier.”

Interesting? What the fuck?

“What the hell are you going on about?” I finally said, not quite understanding as my brain was whirring like a hamster in a wheel.

Was he saying-?

“Our little friend in the back room.” He said suddenly, I could swear I heard a low growl in his voice at the word ‘friend’. “He had deviated from the plan and then had the gall to come to me for help thinking he could appeal to my hatred for... Your kind. Unfortunately, he underestimated the weight of his own crimes in my eyes. I felt a suitable punishment was needed. So I let the Satanist’s use him for their Mass to Lucifer earlier. Suppose that Black Mass satisfied more then just one hunger...”

He glanced over to me, the ghost of that terrible smile crossing his face, eyes shining as though he were talking about… I don’t know, lollipops and rainbows or something other then cutting out the heart of a demon.

For some reason that was more terrifying than the normal demonic cole-black eyes.

“I carved the binding link in his arm myself. He was trapped in - what do you hunters call them so eloquently? Ah yes.- His ‘meatsuit’ when they carved out his heart so he would feel every bit of it. No harm no foul, the meatsuit was already dead after all, he had made sure of that.”

Langdon tilted his head as he examined me once more before he spoke. I suddenly felt my throat tighten as it was like I was under a microscope with how his too blue eyes looked at me. Like he wasn’t just looking at me but…

Into me, through me.

“If I had known that you were here for him I would have insisted we kept him alive,” He said. “It would have been fascinating to see what you would have done in that circumstance.”

I lowered my gun slightly. Was he serious?

“And I’m supposed to believe this bullshit... Why?” I asked him.

The demon shrugged, I had the feeling he frankly didn’t care if I believed him or not.

“You can call it bullshit all you’d like but know this, Hunter: I’ve never been a fan of getting my hand’s dirty, Learned that from my father. Besides...”

A slow wicked smile crossed Langdon’s face, it was terrifying and oddly sexy in a way that made me wonder, what the hell was wrong with me today?  

“... Always more fun to entice men and women to dirty deeds. I’m surprised though, I had through you and your friend understood that from visiting my sleepy -as you put it- shithole town above.”

I raised an eyebrow, “sleepy” was most certainly not what I would describe this particular town we were in. Between a growing number of drug busts, and number of illegal brothels, and the fact it was slowly creeping up the list for murder capital… Yeah I think “shithole” was probably a bit more accurate. Although that wasn’t all. In the course of barely few months this place had gone from barely being a blip on the GPS to being almost infamous for crazy shit, almost on par with Las- Freaking-Vegas. It was like… Something was drawing it all here. And that’s disregarding the supernatural signs that had cropped up in the area.

There had been a few freak storms of stones (yeah, it rained stones), a few strang bird patterns. But the big one was an odd number of snakes that had appeared. Some which weren’t native to the area much less the US. Seriously, how the hell do the locals explain a freaking Egyptian Asp in someone’s backyard? Muggles are weird yo.

In fact that was why Stu had been here in the first place when I ran into him. He had suspected some crazy stuff was the cause, but...

“So the whole thing with town, that’s all you?” I asked.

That smile was still on his face as he shrugged so nonchalantly you’d think we were talking about something other than an entire town going dark side.

“I can’t claim credit for all of it.” He said sitting up straighter as he addressed me. “The ideas were already in their simple little heads. I just merely made a suggestion to the owner of a bar or two and… applied the right pressure and stimulus and the God fearing folks of this little tiny town came to sin in droves like moths to the flame. However that discredits your theory that I was ripping children apart in Lawrence though I suppose, doesn’t it?”

I paused, trying to think, my finger still on the trigger of the gun. He could be lying. Demon’s did that but… What he was saying made a hella ton of sense.

Whispers of this place had cropped up long before Lawrence. Hell, we had even heard stories of a few hunters disappearing near here too. But I hadn’t paid them any mind as most hunters took what pleasure they could when they could. Never knew when something would gut you after all.

Besides, that stiff in the back room... He did smell a lot of sulfur, a lot more than normal demonic victims did. I had been enough cases to know demons only left traces of it on their victims, they didn’t reek of it. I hadn’t heard of a binding link before but, I wouldn’t put it past a hellspawn to come up with some way to do it. Trapping a fellow demon in their meatsuit while they tortured them… Yeah I could buy it. Plus, Stu had said something had turned this place into a paranormal magnet, it’s another reason why everyone was so ramped up.  

Right pressure and stimulus.

Oh yeah, demonic energy would do just that. So maybe he wasn’t bullshitting me.

Well… Shit.

I lowered the gun, clicking the safety back on and cursing venomously under my breath. As much as I hated to admit it (and, boy, did I hate to admit it), he had a point.

Plus... Tracking Langdon had felt different. In fact, all the way up until he invited me here, it had felt like he was… Curious. Like a kid poking a passed out animal with a stick, a bit different from the whole come and get me crap the demon from Lawrence had laid at my feet with the last body that was found. I had thought it was strange but just chalked it up to the demon trying to throw me for a loop like it had a few times before.

But if it was true then… I had trapped a very different demon.

So I was pretty much shooting blind here.  Stuck in a underground room with a monster who had almost convinced an entire town to give in to it’s darker impulses. Yeah it was not something I liked. Not at all.

I reached for my phone in my pocket once more, about to change the battery in a hurry to maybe make another call to Stu. I was really hoping he was on his way right about then when suddenly Langdon broke the silence between us.

"Have there been others?" He asked suddenly, lowly. I raised an eyebrow turning back to him. He wasn’t giving me that, haughty look as he had before, rather there was something oddly even in his gaze. It’s strange but… I had a feeling I wasn’t talking to the pompous demon he had been a few moments ago. "Others?" I said questioningly with an eyebrow raised, trying to understand what he was meaning. "Other demons like him-.” -He motioned curtly with nodd of the head to the backroom with the body “-On your hunts.” I stared at him as it took me a bit for his question to sink in. If you want to know the god’s honest truth, I couldn’t believe it at first. Was he really asking if I had encountered demonic kinds of demons? You know, the ones that you had only dreamed of in your nightmares.

For fucking real?

And when it finally did hit me what he was asking I couldn't help but laugh loudly, sarcastically. He had to be joking right? "Wait wait wait! Are you trying to tell me not all you demons are like him?" I snorted.

He gave me a dirty look and I couldn’t help but crack up. Was he really giving me a “Not All Demons” speech here? Seriously!? And here I thought his kind didn’t have a sense of humor! The lights flickered which cut my laughter off. That should have been my warning to tread cautious before he spoke once more. "Answer my fucking question, Hunter," He demanded, his silky voice icy cold, a dangerous edge in his tone that reminded me what he was. I could see barely restrained anger on his face and any humor I had dropped as I leaned forward. So the pretty boy demon wanted the truth? Fine then… “You want to know? Okay…  You’re worse than the fucking monsters I’ve dealt with. I've seen demons like you tear people apart for just existing.” I said cooly.

“Most monsters do it because they are hungry or just to survive in this damn world. But you demons… I’ve seen you kind kill for kicks either cause you could or get your sadistic rocks off. Plane crashes, subway accidents, mass shooters all of it is just a day in the office for you isn’t it? But no… You all aren’t satisfied with that shit are you? You think we haven’t noticed all the disappearances? The deals cashed in early? The murders? The rapes? As far as I’m concerned you can stick your ‘Not All Demons’ bullshit so far up your ass you can choke on it cause as far as I can tell all you fucking demons are the same twisted-.” I stopped my rant as… I felt it then.

The air was... Charged. Like the atmosphere before a terrible storm ready to finally crack the sky itself apart. In fact when I noticed, it didn’t stop rather it was only getting heavier and hotter. Until was so stifling that I was starting to have trouble breathing. I could feel sweat started to bead on my skin like I was sitting out on the blacktop in summer. The candles lit around the room were flickering and fluttering in the still air in a way that made my hunter instincts kick into overdrive. The scent of sulfur was becoming stronger then I had ever smelled it before, it was like sitting in the middle of a mine or some biblical brimstone scene. I looked over to where Langdon sat once more and...

I admit I gasped and stumbled back almost into the bench behind me.  I had to blink, had to convince myself that was I was seeing was real as it was like reality I knew was bending and cracking apart before my eyes. With each flicker of the the light around us it was like Langdon’s appearance seemed to... Flicker with it.

He was starting to look like something other.

I couldn’t really see it very well from the distance but... I could tell his skin was changing from sun kissed gold to something pale. No he was even more pallid than a corpse. In fact I’d dare say his skin was… Stark lifeless white with veins like cracks of gray or black on his skin like it barely kept the darkness back. But that wasn’t all each time his appearance flickered to this… This form he seemed to pull all light out of the darkness and leaving nothing but an empty void devoid of all life, color and form. A void that was only matched  those familiar fathomless demonic black eyes he bore.  He looked something beyond human, something...Very much not from this realm. In fact he looked…

Like a damn demon, not one in hiding. Holy shit.

Was this just peek at what of the real demon inside?! But… All of the lore and stories from other hunters said that only those marked for hell could see it’s minions through the meatsuits. I sure as hell hadn’t made any deals! So how could I-? Wait…

Was he doing that?

Could he be...

Altering his physical form?!

No… My mind and body all but shuddered at the thought. That’s impossible. Demon’s take the bodies of humans because they can’t take their true forms up here. They couldn’t alter their meatsuits to look like their real demonic selves save for the black eyes because it wasn’t their body in the first place!

That was the deal! It couldn’t be done!

But what I was seeing.  It shouldn’t been happening...  

Unless…  

Unless he wasn’t in a meatsuit at all.

If so that meant that body he was in right now was…

No fucking way.

The hair on the back of my neck was standing up, my blood was starting to run cold, I started shaking despite the heat around me. I could taste my heart beating in the back of my throat along with the bile as the sulfur made my stomach turn.

I grabbed the gun in my holster, when it hit me. He said a normal Devil's Trap wouldn't work on him. God, what if he wasn't just bullshitting me? After seeing… this, I think I was a little more inclined to believe him.

This demon wasn’t like the normal black eyes level of demon…

This was almost like… Like…

… A pair of sickly golden yellow eyes shining in the dark as they looked at me seemingly through space and time itself, a terrible grin on the demon’s as they held a bleeding wrist above the small rosey mouth of a tiny baby who was wearing a very very familiar pink onesie...

… My mind was screaming, no no no no no! As I willed myself to raise the gun. Yet... I was frozen. I… I couldn’t move, I could barely breathe, I was starting to shake uncontrollably. I wasn’t sure I could hold the gun steady. And then…   

Abruptly, as if he just realized what was happening Langdon let out a long low exhale. It was... As though he were trying to get a reign on himself. As he did the temperature slowly, carefully started to cool and steady itself to normal. The heaviness in the air... Faded, the flickering stopped, and he once again looked like the handsome man he was before. But I had a gut feeling that appearances were deceiving, and in his case- terribly so. "My apologies," he said suddenly looking up, cerulean eyes (as they were once again) finally meeting mine, the ghost of a wry almost sheepish smile on his face. "It appears my temper almost got the better of me." I had to think a bit before I spoke, the air between us was pregnant with shock and horror. I could feel the echo of tremors still in my body yet they were starting to calm down as I was trying to find the words. My brain still trying to comprehend the creature I had seen just a few mere moments ago, wearing a very very similar face to him yet so very very different. Maybe that was why I decided need to dance around the subject a little as I was trying to understand what I had seen had been real and not some fever dream. "That happened cause you were pissed?" I was able to breathe.

He gave something akin to a shrug before he spoke. "It can, on occasion," Langdon admitted. “I have done far worse when I was angry in the past. You’re lucky I want you alive, Hunter. You wouldn’t have been the first I burst into flame with my temper if I hadn’t.” I snorted but I didn't take my grip off the gun. Although he said that so offhandedly… I had a feeling he wasn’t entirely joking.

Memo to self: Let’s not piss off the demon anymore then we already have cause that scared the hell out of me. Speaking of…

Just what the hell kind of demon was he? "I see you are on your guard once more." Langdon noted, he glanced telling at the gun still in my hand before he spoke once more. “I am sorry if I alarmed you but I do appreciate you telling me all the same…”

He let out a tired sigh that surprised me as it seemed… rather honest and rather real for a fake, lying, cold blooded demon.

“The other demon’s… They would have me believing otherwise, perhaps I should have known better then to fully trust them. I had been warned that some didn’t have the true faith in the plan. We are supposed to be better than your kind but… It appears some of us are worse than the mindless monsters of this world. As much as I hate to say it, you are in the right in hunting those demons.”

I admit-I half thought he was mocking me and was half tempted to raise the gun and point it at him for all the good it would do me but…  Something kept it at my side. Maybe because he seemed to mean it when he said sorry? I don’t know...

This demon was already proving to be… Odd compared to the others. And that was... Well… One part curious and one part troubling.  I wasn’t sure still that he wasn’t being polite because he was trying to earn my trust before gutting me or if it was because he actually was this way. It was the flip of the coin to be honest although I bet it was more heads than tails. Yet… I found myself even more drawn to him.

The pull was strong enough that I found myself taking a few more steps closer to the trap. Maybe to see if I could see him do that again or to see if maybe there was some track of that pale face on him. Either way he terrified me… And I was always oddly fascinated with things that terrified me, even as a kid. "Could you blame me?" I asked him, finally sitting down once more on the marble floor, 5 feet before him in the trap.

"Before this the craziest thing I had seen was when I found a demon with yellow eyes. I thought they were high tier but this… Well, they didn't do whatever it was you did to their face." He chuckled, it was a rich sound that filled the chamber and… It was strange but I found myself rather liking it when it wasn’t terribly sarcastic. "No other demon will, besides me." Langdon said to me almost proudly I rolled my eyes. Pompous much?

“Right," I said sarcastically. "Like I haven't heard that line before."

But I was sure to note that in my mind right away. Cause if he wasn’t a normal black eyed demon then… What was he exactly? I would need to grab as much information on him as I could. Maybe play an angle and see what he would spill? We were stuck here after all.

It was worth a try. Langdon meanwhile flashed a grin that seemed to light up his face. It was strange but I would have almost called it charming if it weren’t for the fact I could see just a trace of darkness in those eyes, like storm clouds in a otherwise clear sky.

“I can assure you it’s true, just as I can assure you no harm when I’m trapped here. Burning your exorcism and the cave in is the most I will want to do while being bound to the Key. Anything else would be rather petty and lead me nowhere in the long run anyway.”

“And if you get out?” I asked him. “What will you do then?”

“Well…” He started, that smile still on his face. “... Possibly a little maiming. You did trap me after all and your terrible Latin burned my ears. I cannot let that go unpunished after all, mild annoyance or no.”

I rolled my eyes at the insult of my Latin (I’m working on it, okay!). Figures, you can take the demon out of hell but you can’t take the demonic out of the demon. I thought before he continued on and I admit… He surprised me for the second time.

“But -I confess- I find you... Intriguing, perhaps a little more so than when I took you here. A Witch turned hunter is curious enough, but not many humans alive can say they have Azazel.”

Intriguing? Me? My thoughts spun before I could stop them

And...Azazel?  The name didn’t ring any bells. Who the hell was that?

“Uhh pardon but, who?” I asked confused, really trying not to get caught on the fact he found me… Intriguing (He’s a demon dammit! Don’t you start feeling all fluttery, you weirdo!).

I released hold of the gun in my holster but kept my hand close by if I need it.

“Oh the ‘yellow eyed demon’ you mentioned. If it is who I suspect, his name was Azazel.” He told me.

I rolled the name around in my head a bit. Guess I shouldn’t be surprised, I doubt demon’s like to be named “Mark” or something. But… Wasn’t Azazel mentioned in a demonology book I had picked up sometime ago? I’d have to look it up later.

“That was his name?” I asked him incredulously, raising an eyebrow. “Really?”

Langdon gave a bit of a chuckle.

“He can’t really be called ‘Yellow Eyes’ to his peers, you know.” He told me knowingly.

Too knowingly, so much I almost gasped. No freaking way.

“Wait… Did you know him?” I asked, leaning forward interested.

Have to admit I was disappointed when Langdon shook his head.

“Only from correspondence.” He told me. “He was of the rank that ruled over the demon’s in hell and on earth. And he ruled with an iron fist, so of course I’ve heard of him. You’ll be hard pressed to find a demon who doesn’t.”

Disappointment bit me, hard. I shouldn’t have hoped. Of course my luck wouldn’t let me find the answers I had been running for after a bit of a fuck up like this. But still…

This was new info.

Yellow Eyes was one of the higher ranks…He had led them. No wonder we had been dealing with crazier demons then usual, My thoughts spun.

A part of me instantly thought of two brothers I had met before I started. Who had had told me they were hunting that same Yellow Eyed demon sometime back. I didn’t really remember their names for the life of me but the tall one had urged me to stay at the Coven… But then Hell Gate had been kicked open by someone who was... Like me. And I saw other things when looking in the black mirror…

Things that I made me know I couldn’t stay any at the Coven longer…

As much as it hurt…

I couldn’t.

I wondered if I could find the number the brothers had left. I didn’t know if they were alive as I had heard rumors… But if they were and they didn’t know their quarry had been a high rank freaking demon, plus if the younger of the two was… Like me and didn’t know the truth of what the demon had done to him… Well we may have a slew of problems here soon enough if we didn’t already. But before I could dwell on this any longer, Langdon interrupted my thoughts once more.

“However that begs the question: how did you know him?” He asked.

My eyes snapped up to Langdon’s face. There wasn’t that mocking look or that superior look on his features, he seemed genuinely curious when he tilted his head to look at me.  Like he was actually interested.

I wondered if it was maybe because he was utterly bored or because he hadn’t been stuck in a room with a hunter like this. Then again… I had to admit if it was the latter I couldn’t blame him. I was curious about him as well even though I shouldn’t be. He was already showing to be a strange exception to the rule and I wanted to know why that was.

Maybe he saw the same in me?

Maybe...

I bit my bottom lip, thinking about what to say. I was stuck in a room with him for who knows for how long now and who knew how much longer I would be stuck here. May as well see if I could get more information, more answers. He thus far had been the most informative than most I had spoken to (or interrogated I suppose). And besides…

I needed to play this angle, lemonade out of lemons or something right? Or that’s what I was telling myself then. But what could I say to maybe move this along?

There was only one thought that ran through my head and- as I was want to do on occasion- that thought, of course, ran right out of my stupid mouth.

“Well, a man with yellow eyes killed my family when I was one so you could say I might know him a little. Unless there’s another yellow eyed bastard running around,” I told Langdon bluntly.

Okay…

Maybe not like that but… Okay, I thought with a mental smack. Why the hell had I told him that? It was true of course but… still. He didn’t need to know that!  

I was bracing for the usual demonic bullshit when I swear I had heard someone’s breath catch. I glanced over to see Langdon’s eyes drop to the floor,  a look on his face like he was just reeling after getting smacked. I could see his thought racing through the windows of too blue eyes.

“I see,” He said, suddenly. “I didn’t know he had… That you... I apologize for that.”

His face was now unreadable, yet there was a glint in his cerulean eyes that left me with the feeling that he was anything but emotionless at this. In fact I had a feeling in my gut he… Somehow understood. It was strange, I think he actually meant it once again (two in a row for a demon… Shocking right?). But, he looked almost awkward, as if he couldn’t meet my eyes then as he looked to the plush red carpet he sat on.

“Don‘t be,” I told him with a shrug. “There’s nothing to be sorry for. It was... So long ago. Besides, I was lucky enough to be adopted by my godmother. Growing up sucked- sure- but it wasn’t too bad all things considering.”

I didn’t dare tell him my godmother was currently in the Coven of New Orleans, even though I hadn’t spoken to her since… Since the day I crossed the threshold of the Academy. No need to tell the demon any more than I already had. Besides… I needed to protect my family, even though most of them probably hated me being here.

If they didn’t hate my guts in general.

“That makes you one of the lucky ones then,” Langdon said suddenly almost making me jump. “Not many can claim that after... Losing a family.”

It was his tone that had me looking to him that strange… Knowing he had that caught me off guard. I guess I turned expecting to see a lie all over his face but instead there was a strange look on his features that startled me.

It was as though he were thinking of something else. Something terrible but long ago and far away,  a memory that had come from the darkness of the past to stab him in the back once more.  I almost lost my breath at how utterly... Human he looked then. Hell, maybe even more human than most humans I had dealt with. Most demons wouldn’t dare look like that in front of anyone. It was a weakness, or so I had learned while hunting them. But what was even stranger was…

I could feel my heart ache for him.

“Speaking from experience?” I asked softly, my voice probably a bit more gentle then advised but I didn’t have the heart to kick myself for it.

He looked up to give gave a empty and blank expression that spoke as many volumes as it hid so much. I wondered what his history was. A history I had a feeling he was kicking himself for just hinting at as much as I was kicking myself for saying what little I had said.

Was he one of those who sold their soul as a human and became a demon? Did he…  Still remember being human? Was that why he was able to change his appearance because it was his own body before?

No, didn’t make sense. Why hadn’t other demons done the same? Besides I think you had to be a certain rank to leave hell and by the time most did their bodies were long rotten, but I couldn’t say that for sure. My demonology was spotty at best save for the whole warding and exorcism part and the best books were days away. I wouldn’t probably have to hit them as I still had more questions than answers

“... Maybe,” Langdon answered with a shrug, his tone may show he didn’t care and I could visibly see his walls start to go back up, but for a brief moment his eyes…

There was a deep pain there,  a deep hurt in his too blue eyes that I could understand. That I could sympathize with. Yeah a hunter with “Sympathy for the Devil”… Irony of ironies. But it didn’t make it any less true.

“I’m sorry,” I told him gently, meaning it so honestly that it startled me…

And yet I meant it with everything I was.

Langdon looked to at me in surprise, eyes not moving from mine suddenly. I felt something strange then… A strange feeling like I was being x-rayed in some way or another. But… I must have imagined it. But I could see he was looking at me carefully. Like he was examining me for any kind of bullshit, any trace of a lie. It left me with the feeling he didn’t really experience things like sympathy often. If my guess was right, demons must not reach out like this to each other with their own kind.

It was... Kinda sad if you thought of it. He must have always been alone.

Suddenly Langdon tore his eyes away with a sigh, long and tired.

“There’s nothing to be sorry for,” He said dismissively, yet there was something in the way he wouldn’t look me in the eyes now.

I had a feeling he was uncomfortable, he wasn’t the only one either. I was… Actually starting to like him.

Not good, not good at all. Should probably draw the line in the sand… Anymore and it could be a problem for us both. As much as I didn’t want to do it- something told me that he didn’t experience kindness often, before or after becoming a demon was hard to say- It didn’t change the fact he was a demon and I was a hunter. I would have to try to exorcise him if Stu showed up. And then… If it worked, if he didn’t put on that binding link or whatever…

He would be gone.

I wasn’t sure why that stung a little but it did.

No, it didn’t just sting… I hated it, more than I really wanted to get into.

Yeah, better to stop this now before something stupid happened.

“Whatever you say, Black Eyed Asshole,” I relented with a sigh, I had meant that to be a bit more forceful but I could hear that fond edge that I wouldn’t let myself even begin to examine.

Fuck.

I could swear I saw the corners of the demon’s mouth draw up at that. I wonder if he had caught that poorly hidden edge. Or if maybe he was relieved that I was drawing the line again, thinking the same thing or if it was just me.

It probably was just me…

Lord I hope it was.

It would be easy to go back to before then. Didn’t need two idiots in this situation.

“Still? Just because we are on different sides doesn’t mean we can’t be civil while we’re trapped, Hunter,” Langdon pointed out, yet there wasn’t a snide edge in his tone there.

Rather, He almost sounded almost teasing.

Seriously, your supposed to hate my guts. Remember?

“Did you say you were going to maim me if you got out first?” I pointed out with a smirk.

He gave me a smirk in return.

“... I may have.”  Langdon admitted.

“Guess it’s just in my nature but can’t really be civil to people who want to maim me and not in a fun way.”

Fun way? I thought to myself, What the hell is going on with my mouth?

“I suppose I should count myself lucky you have been polite for as long as you have then.”

I shrugged

“I am curious, did you ever discover why Azazel was at your home all those years ago?” Langdon asked me.

I thought a bit before I answered, leaning back.

“Think either my folks made a deal and he came for payment and one neglected to tell the other,” I said flatly. “Can’t say I know other then that.”

I glanced over to him.

“Am I warm?” I asked

“Perhaps. He had a plan he was enacting involving the children of men.” Langdon told me.

This I knew. This I knew all too well.

“You mean the Hell Gate and the Demonic Army?” I asked him.

Langdon raised an eyebrow but nodded in agreement before he spoke.

“Not just that, they were just a small parts of the grand plan.” He told me.

Now...

This I didn’t know.

“Grand plan?” I repeated, leaning forward once more.

Langdon nodded, I could swear I saw the smirk growing.

I was just about to ask what he met when suddenly he held his hand up.

“That’s classified,” He told me cooly, that regal demon making a come back from before.

I must have given him a look as he all but chuckled before he continued.

“It would spoil the surprise. Although... Those idiots you spoke of earlier may be doing that already.”

I raised an eyebrow as he all but spat out the word idiots. He was pretty pissed at the demonic demons wasn’t he? Huh... Wasn’t sure what to think of this. But, yep, I was really starting to like him. As stupid as it was for doing so.

“What are demons suppose to do then?” I asked him flatly. “You keep saying they are supposed to be doing something for this grand plan. You’d think they were supposed to be… I don’t know, demonic.”

He turned to me, I could see the annoyance in every line of his face. But I don’t think it was directed at me this time.

“There are various form of demonic energy as I’m sure you know,” He told me with a look. “Most must be given the expressed permission of hell to use this earth as … The garden for their carnal pleasures. And even those who do so serve a purpose, chaotic as it maybe, it’s a purpose nonetheless.”

I could see his ringed fingers clenched into fists when he spoke

“The leaders of hell don’t care much for unpredictability, unless they are responsible.” He said.

Hmm… You sure do seem to know a bit about them. I thought but I kept that thought to myself.

“So, that’s going to spoil the surprise somehow? That’s what got you pissed?” I asked.

“Something like that.” Langdon replied. “It also answers the question I’ve have of what I need to do next for the plan to come to fruition...”

For some reason that didn’t sound all that encouraging. I was half tempted to ask but I had a feeling that he wouldn’t answer anyway.

“Either way, that explains why you caught my attention when I first saw you.” Langdon said suddenly.

That was so out of left field I wasn’t sure if he knew he had said that.

“What do you mean?” I asked

For a moment I could see a odd look cross his face. I could see him thinking carefully about what he was going to say next.

“Let’s just simply say I have a talent, a certain ‘night vision of the soul’. I can see into the dark places that most try to keep hidden It’s a gift that has served me well. But you… There’s something about you in particular caught my eye and I wanted to understand what it was.”

Huh? Not sure what to make of that. I thought but I filed the information away for later.

“So… What? Do I have a beacon that only animals and pain in the ass demon’s can hear and I not know of it or are you just special?” I asked.

Now this time I could definitely see he was trying hard not to smile. Not sure why I felt a little disappointed for a minute that he didn’t.

“To a point, perhaps,” He confessed. “Only certain demon’s will sense it. However most of the rabble won’t.”

“There a reason for that one?”

“...Quite possibly.”

“But you’re not going to tell me are you? Has something to with the ‘Grand Plan’ anyway?” I said with air quotes around two certain words.

“And here they say you hunter’s aren’t an intelligent lot.” Langdon said with the shadow of a smirk.

I shook my head, I could feel a slight smile on my own face that I was careful to hide. Or I at least tried to when a thought came to me.

“But don’t I screw over that over anyway?” I asked.

Langdon looked at me curiously.

“Why do you say that?” He asked.

He was going to make me say it wasn’t he? Say what I knew. What little I knew.

I took a deep breath, about to admit something I didn’t want to but… He maybe the best lead I had. A simple question that- I confess- I may have also left home to find answers for.

“You don’t have to tiptoe around with me, Langdon, I know.” I told him. “I saw it. You all had a Battle Royale for all of us freaks with demon blood so you could find the one that was supposed to survive and lead the demon army.”

I could swear I heard his breath catch, shock written all over his features. This time I didn’t hide my smile, although it was probably pretty forced.

“You all seemed to forget about there was a witch with the demon blood too,” I told him. “I may have been with the Coven when it happened but… You can’t tell me a few Aura Shields hid me from you guys entirely.”

Don’t think I’m that stupid, I thought. Meanwhile, Langdon was looking at me like I was something else.

“I see you have quite the a talent yourself if you saw that.” Langdon reasoned. “Isn’t the Sight or Divination one of the Seven Wonders?”

“Divination is yes. But I wouldn’t call it that,” I shrugged. “I never see anything good much less a wonder but... Don’t change the subject, Langdon.”

The demon sighed long and low. I had a feeling it was taking a bit for him to say what he was about to say. I would wonder why later.

“I know very little as to why they spared you from the Battle Royale. Perhaps you were already present where they needed you to be for the time?”

That… Wasn’t reassuring. What were they doing that they were keeping in the wings for another day?

And those hunting brothers urged me to stay at the Coven? Should I have told those brothers of what I saw in the black mirror? Did they already know? Wait… The young brother. He was like me, a boy with demon blood…  

Oh God, were they okay?!

These thoughts ran through my head dizzily, I had to push them aside for now. I would try to answer them when I got out of here. When... I wasn’t going to let myself think of an if in this situation.

“You really believe that?” I asked him.

“Truthfully, I’m not entirely sure myself. Azazel… Made a point to not tell me all of the particulars of that part of the plan in our correspondence. In case they could be overheard.” Langdon told me rather honestly. “There were rumors of a ‘Wayward Daughter’ of course, but I had thought them nothing but just rumors… Until now that is.”

Wayward Daughter? I thought. Hmm… I kind of liked the ring of that. Wonder if I could embroider that on the back of a jacket or something.

“So demon’s have a rumor mill?” I said giving him a surprised look. “Aren’t you supposed to be better than us or something?”

“May I remind you of your kind has racked up a body count in the past century that surprised even us?” Langdon said giving me a look.  

I winced.

“Touche,” I replied.

Langdon shook his head a ghost of a smile, a real smile not a smug smirk or grin,  on his face. I found myself wondering if he would look even more stunning if he smiled but I only let myself think it for a brief moment. Just a moment.

“I am curious though,” Langdon said suddenly.

“Oh?” I said. “What now?”

“How much you have seen of our plan in your black mirror.”

I shook my head.

“Obviously not enough if I’m asking you,” I pointed out.

“Indeed, you’re here after all. As opposed to being with them.”

Them?

Suddenly I felt a wave of cold dread at those words sunk in. Was he going to ask me about the Coven? Oh no.

“What do you mean?” I asked him.

I was trying to keep my voice steady, even. But I could feel my throat tightening in the face of those fathomless blue eyes. Langdon meanwhile didn’t seem to notice. At least not yet as he looked to me, curiosity written all over his features.

“Is that not the reason you are here?” He asked, with a raised eyebrow. “You want answers, you want to know why Azazel chose you. Why you were singled out with a different role to play.”

Before I could answer he suddenly spoke, a look on his face like he had just noticed something.

“No… It’s not just that isn’t it?”

Out of nowhere, I was frozen. Unable to move under the laser focus of his too cerulean eyes. This time I knew it wasn’t my mind playing tricks on me. He was… He was doing something. Wasn’t he? But what-?

Suddenly something he had said came back to me.

“Let’s just simply say I have a talent, a certain ‘night vision of the soul’. I can see into the dark places that most try to keep hidden…”

Did that mean…?

Oh…

Oh shit.

I wanted to yell at him then, to jerk away from the terrible feeling like my insides were suddenly being scrutinized. At the same time I wanted to rung into the trap and beat the holy hell out of him for looking into something I didn’t want anyone to look into. I was alone for a reason damn it! But… I couldn’t move. Fear or maybe something else made it so I could barely breathe.

All I could do was sit there as a demon was examining my damn soul.

No… No please don’t!

“It’s more than that.” Langdon breathed as I could feel him start to see what I didn’t want anyone seeing. “It’s one of the reasons you are here but it’s not the true reason you are here. Not the only reason you do this…”

Stop! I screamed in my head as if he could hear me. Shut up and stop! I’ll… I’ll let you out just please!

DON’T!

“You’re here for them.” Langdon breathed, leaning forward as he seemed to see something else. Something that I couldn’t see as opposed to feel.

Stop...I could hear my heartbeat before he spoke once more.

“The pain you feel, the loneliness in your soul... You think doing this will keep them safe. That if you stay away you will protect them and you don’t care if they hate you for it. In fact… It makes things easier for you doesn’t it? Because… The truth is you fear what you are. What you can do. What the demon blood has helped you to do… The power you have with it. The power unlike any witch has ever had… Save for one that only comes with each new generation. Hunting and being alone is your penance… Your absolution...”

Suddenly the strange lazer focus, the feeling of being examined from the inside out was gone but I was still frozen. I still could barely breathe as I felt my heart pound. I couldn’t meet his eyes. I didn’t dare.

Just like that a demon had cut my soul open and dissected it it. Peeling back layer upon layer of armor I had built to protect myself.

I pretended I was okay with this life. That this was a choice I had made.

… But it wasn’t.

Not really.

No one really chooses to be a hunter. That’s what the hunting brother’s had told me. No, this life chooses you.

And what other life could I live with this… This thing!?

I had thought my growing powers to be a gift, that with our Supreme lost or dead, that maybe... In fact when we were taking the test of Seven Wonders I had thought…

Maybe it was supposed to be me?

I wasn’t much of a leader but I had those around me. I could try to do the things that they wanted. Maybe save the Coven from the darkness. After all… I had convinced Bobby Singer that we witches weren’t the monsters that they all hunted hadn’t I? But then when I went to perform Concilium… I had felt it.

I had pretended I was having trouble with it but that wasn’t true. I could do it but… It had wanted more more than just Madison. It had wanted Kyle, it had wanted Zoe. It had wanted Queenie, Myrtle, Misty…

It had wanted Cordelia.  

And the urge it had. What it wanted me to make them do to themselves… To each other...

This wasn’t the power of the Supreme. It couldn’t be. This was something else.

It had been fate the brothers had come that night. And it was that very night… I discovered I couldn’t stay. Not after that. Even now I was terrified to use magic as I could feel it still, in the background. Waiting… Begging.

And now… The demon… Langdon…

He knew.

I could feel it in how he was looking at me but I didn’t dare look him in the eye.  I felt hollowed out,  aching, empty, and alone. So very very alone. And angry…

So very very angry.

“I bet you think I’m pathetic don’t you?” I said suddenly, my voice surprising even me even as I refused to look Langdon in the face.

I all but jumped to my feet, glaring at the marble floor as I finally jerked on my jacket. I ignored the feeling of fabric of the lining rubbing against dirt and dust as well as the guilt that I had done the one thing I was trying to protect this jacket from but… I needed the feeling it gave me.

Myrtle had joked it was my armor when she and the girls gave it to me. And I needed all the armor I could get right now.

“Maybe I am pathetic.” I continued. “A stupid little witch bitch for protecting a group of women who aren’t even my blood when I could have ruled them all. But they are my family and what this shit in my veins was wanting me to do to them… I wouldn’t expect you to understand and- personally- I think you can go straight to hell or whatever festering pit you called out of fucker cause I can assure you, I’m going to make it my damn mission to make sure you won’t go anywhere else.”  

I didn’t dare look at his face as the bastard all but pinned me to a wall and I didn’t dare try punching him across his damn handsome jaw as I wanted as all bets were off if I crossed into the Devil’s Trap. Shooting him was out of the question… I may need the bullets here soon enough. Instead I stepped on the bench I had set under the high barred window, reaching for the iron bars and looking up at the moonlight.

Seriously where the fuck was Stu?

“... I don’t.” Langdon breathed suddenly.

I felt a flash of anger at his voice and I took everything in me to not scream at him.

“What?!” I snapped at him instead over my shoulder.

And then he said a few words that cooled my anger like throwing a candle in a pond.

“I don’t find you pathetic.”

I took a deep breath, my hand starting to clench on the iron bar above me as I slowly turned to look at him behind me. I could feel feel any words I was about to say stop at my throat.

Langdon looked… different now.

He was still the haughty demon but… There was something in his face that was strangely bare as he looked up at me from the floor. Something as bare and as naked as I felt before him.

“You want to keep them safe,” He told me knowingly. “Even though everything in you wants to be with them… You choose not to. You make a point to try to make the best of your situation, even though a part of you hates it, you do it anyway. How can I see that as pathetic? Stupidly selfless perhaps but… I must admit I admire you for doing it. Not most can do such a thing… Run away from a family that accepts them for the sake of said family.”

I couldn’t help but turn to him fully now. I was baffled, stunned. And yet… Something in his voice. Something in the way he looked up at me… It caused my heart to stop for a moment.

It was as if he knew how I felt…

“I… I don’t know what to say to that,” I admitted.

It was true. I really didn’t know what to say. What could I say?

“Take it how you wish… Perhaps Azazel was wrong and should have named you to be the one to lead the army. You certainly have the qualities of a leader But he had…  Other plans for you.” I stepped off the bench and strode over to the trap.

“I thought you said you didn’t know what he wanted me for or why they didn’t come for me.” I pointed out, a slight smirk on my face.

“I don’t, but... I have my suspicions.” Langdon admitted getting to his feet.

“And they are?” I gave him a look.

Come on share with the class here. You had to do your Soul X-ray on me.

You owe me this Langdon.

But of course Langdon had to remind me he was a damn demon.

“Also classified.” Langdon said with that damn smile.

I couldn’t decide if I wanted to smack him for or… Do something else. It’s strange but I wasn’t kicking myself as hard on that now as I don’t think it was just demon pheromones this time. At least I didn’t think so.

I still made a show of sighing loudly.

“You’re a damn tease, do you know that?” I told him, rubbing my temple, half wondering if this strange switch he kept pulling on me was going to give me a headache here soon.

Maybe if this kept up.

“So I have been told.”

I sighed, my arm falling to my side as he gave me that stupid smile. Yet I didn’t feel as annoyed as I knew I should be. After all, this demon had more the answers to the questions I had been looking for since I left New Orleans then he would care to admit but it… Didn’t bother me.

Nor was that all...

It was strange but, standing before him this close... I had the urge to reach out and touch him. I shouldn’t but it… It was like it was magnetic. Like something in me wanted to assure myself he was there, that this had happened. I could have ignored it like I had been this whole time but…

I didn’t.

Later I would blame the strange demonic face I saw earlier, and I just wanted to be sure what I was seeing was real. Later I would blame the whole fact I was getting stir crazy being stuck in a foxhole with a demon. Later I would blame the fact that… Compared to all of the demons I had met he seemed to be the most human. That pain and sadness reflecting in  his eyes that hid just beneath the surface. Something I could understand as easily as I could the need to breath. But…

I didn’t even realize I had lifted a hand and was reaching out for him. Not until suddenly...

A hand was grabbed my wrist.

His grip firm but like iron, his touch a lot warmer than I expected but it was like being doused by cold water as I realized what was happening. I shook my head trying to shake the strange feeling I had like coming up for air.

Reality hit me hard an- almost instantly- a shock of panic ran up my body. I tried to jerk my arm back but he had my wrist locked in his ringed fingers. I could try to shake it off but I could sense my own strength would be like punching a stone wall compared to his.

… I had my arm in a devil’s trap with a very powerful demon…

A demon who probably could do more then just rip my arm off...

Shit shit shit!

I was so dead.

I closed my eyes and, braced myself for more pain then any human or witch could take, for the encroaching blackness. The only thought running through my head being that Cordelia would probably sew me up and bring me back if only to kill me again for everything when they sent was left of me back to New Orleans.

But once more…

This demon surprised me.

“I had wondered how much the blood affected you.” Langdon spoke, with a chuckle.

I swallowed hard and opened my eyes, preparing to face my very very gruesome death. But I hadn’t expected that slight boyish smile Langdon was wearing.

“As much as I enjoy the look on your face, I really recommend you don’t given into it like that especially with a demon you trap yourself unless you truly do have a death wish.” He told me conversationally, like he wasn’t holding my life in his hands.

“Oh sure I do this all the time,” I replied sarcastically.

And then something hit me.

“Wait did you make me do that?”

“No,” He said simply. “I have as much control over you as any demon does the others of our kind. However…”

His thumb ran across my pulse point on my wrist. As it did something… Shifted in me. It was like the strange tension I had with him being in the room with me started to fade away. I didn’t feel so pulled to him as I had before, rather it was more a small tug as opposed to a bodily jerk.

“How… How did-?” I asked as it washed over me like waves on the beach.

“It appears Azazel’s Gift is drawn to me.” Langdon told me. “It seemed only natural I could cool it.”

“Yeah that’s not weird as hell.” I told him. “But… thanks I guess.”

“It’s no trouble.”

He wasn’t letting go of my wrist. That should have bothered me. But… It didn’t. I wondered why that was.

“It’s never done this before.” I told him. “I don’t understand, why now and… Why you? Who are you, exactly?”

It was the closest I could get to the question I really wanted to ask the image of the strange pale face still vivid in my memory from just a few moments ago. Now this…

What are you?

Meanwhile Langdon was giving me the beginnings of a smile. I could swear for a moment I saw the pale face he had flickered before. Even the hand on my wrist felt different for a moment but before I could focus it was gone.

“I’m someone who’s coming was foretold a long time ago,” Langdon told me. “I’m sure have many names but you, hunter... You can call me Michael.”

Michael...

Michael Langdon… I let the name roll around in my head. There was a strange musical quality to it. One I hadn’t expected but….Guess after ‘Azazel’ I was expecting something equally ridiculous but…  

I felt a real smile cross my face.

“It suits you.” I told him.

For the first time, he smiled, and it wasn’t that wicked grin or that smug smirk. It was an actual smile that reached his too blue eyes and once again I wondered things that were probably dangerous. He still had my wrist in his hand, and was running a finger over that pulse point but… I didn’t have the urge I did before to jerk away. Nor did I get the feeling he was doing it to cool the blood. Not any more.

It was then we both heard it. A sound that seemed to echo in the chamber like thunder.

The sound of a car pulling up.

I turned to look at the window behind me, waiting on bated breath as I heard a car door open and close…

And another.

And another.

And then… The sound of another car pulling up, rang out. As it did my heart sank. I could feel a slight squeeze at my wrist as though Lang-No Michael… His name was Michael- seemed to come to the conclusion I did: I had only called one hunter after all. So that meant one thing… I reached over to touch the gun on my hip.

I don’t know how many where up there but I wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

And then a voice rang out, echoing in the chamber.

“Ash?!”

That voice… It was calling out my name.

“Ash are you out here?!”

Stu.

I must have breathed his name as Michael suddenly spoke.

“So your cavalry has come after all.”

I turned as it was then, oh so gently, he let go of my wrist and I would be lying if I said suddenly I felt just a little colder than before. I turned to see him looking up at the grate, but it was as if he were looking something far far away. I was tempted to say something to him but I wasn’t sure what, when suddenly Stu was calling once more, his voice a lot louder and a lot closer.

“Hey you alive?!”

I had to tear myself from where I stood before the trap and ran to the bench to climb up to reach up to the grate.

“Over here!” I called between the bars.

I could hear someone I didn’t recognize curse in surprise and there was the sound of boots hitting gravel as someone ran over to the window. I never thought I would be happy to see Stu’s slightly scruffy, warm face and goofy grin through that damn iron grate but I guess I could still be surprised.

“You’re late, you dick!” I told him with a grin despite the war I could feel in my chest. “I hope it was a good date at least.”

He chuckled.

“And here I was worried you were on the edge of death!” He said. “It sounds like you are having too much fun down there.”

“Oh you missed the party I have been having. It’s been a wild ride.”

Stu grinned. He glanced over his shoulder.

“She’s over here!” He called out.

That surprised me. It had just been us on this hunt or so I had thought.

“You make a few friends while I was stuck?” I asked him when he turned over to me.

“Just made a call to Singer’s, you know how Bobby almost knows everyone. Luckily there were a few hunter’s nearby.”

“Has she exorcised that demon yet?” A woman's voice called out, one I didn’t recognise, I could hear shoes on gravel as she got closer.

“Don’t think so!” He called over to her before he turned me. “What, did you get the Latin wrong again?”

“Seriously it was one time and no, idiot, he torched it.”

“Wow, seriously?” He asked, he looked half fearful and half impressed.

“That’s not surprising.” The women’s voice said suddenly, closer than before.

Stu moved to the side as an the women knelt down. She had long brown hair with a few hints of gray that fell past her shoulder, she had a few wrinkles but a kind face.

“I had guessed he was a strong one,” She told me. “I’m Madelyn by the way and I was thinking that Stu’s problem was a demon I was actually looking into this one when I got the call.”  

Stu gave me a grin as he examined the window from the outside.

“Think these grates can be popped open.” He told us. “What do you think?”

The women examined them carefully before she nodded.

“Maybe a crow bar. I don’t think the screws are iron too. But if not Phil does have a Reciprocating Saw,” Madelyn said getting to her feet. “I’ll tell him to get it ready.”

She seemed to walk away as Stu turned back to me with a grin.

"Guess I was right about the whole paranormal magnet thing eh?" He told me.

I shook my head with a laugh.

“You could say that agian.” I said.

"Well no worries, we're going to exorcise that sucker and that will be two birds with one stone!" I could feel a twinge in my chest at that, I glanced over at Michael whose face was unreadable. I didn’t tell Stu but... had a gut feeling it wouldn't work after seeing that pale face Michael bore. He may be demonic but… This was a whole new brand of demonic that I doubted a simple Latin exorcism would work. If that was his own body then could it be possible he was… Something else more than demonic? And besides...

Did I even want to exorcise him? I found myself wondering. He had made sure that demon I was hunting was taken care of, that child murderer wouldn’t be bothering anyone anymore. One more monster put down for good. Plus, maybe it was the whole "foxhole" thing we had here but I...

I...actually liked him.  I could sense…Something different from him now that I knew for sure he wasn’t the monster I thought. A monster, yes, but a different flavor of monster...Like me. And he seriously looked as pissed as I had been with the demons who walked this world…

Maybe…

“Just hurry up Stu!” I shouted. “We’ve got a lot to talk about.”

“On it!” I could hear him say suddenly.

I could hear a shuffle making me think he must have moved away from the grate. I was just about to try to think of the next step when something caught my ears.

“You know it’s not true right?” Michael said behind me breaking the silence.

I swung around to see him standing up rimrod straight, proudly just as he had when he took me down here, his hands behind his back as he looked to me.

“What do you mean?” I asked slowly, trying to ignore that feeling of dread in my gut.

Something was wrong... "Those people he’s with,” Michael told me evenly, as though he were talking about the weather. “They are plenty of things but they certainly aren't... Hunters like yourself and your friend. Madelyn especially...” At first I was confused and then it hit me.

He said he didn't kill the demon in the back room. He said there were others, had mentioned Satanists... I had thought he was lying but now I knew he didn’t really had any reason to lie. Not really.

So that meant... Oh god no.

In a panic I swung around up to the grate.

“STU GET BACK OVER HERE!” I screamed as I almost leapt back on the bench. “STU!”

Silence, I could hear voices in the distance but I had the feeling they didn’t hear me, or maybe they were making it so he couldn’t hear me. I tried to shake the bars to no avail.

Stu was trained like me of course. Monsters were one thing, people who worshipped demons and hellspawn though... Were something else.  Stu wouldn’t expect it if he wasn’t warned. Bobby Singer’s seal of approval was something you worked your ass off for. Even the Coven treasured it.  

Those Satanists probably killed the real hunters Bobby Singer had mentioned to him. Maybe even killed the ones who had gone missing in the area. It would explain why this place had seemed untouched before Stu and I even with all the signs saying otherwise.

"They are going to kill him aren't they?" I breathed in horror, turning back to Michael. His blue eyes didn't move from my face as he gave a slight nod. "Would it pain you if they did?" He asked. “Be honest now, he left you here for hours with me after all. He could have come running sooner... But he didn’t.” "Would it-?! He doesn’t specialize in demons like I do! He probably needed the help! He's an asshole but that doesn't mean he deserves a death like… That!."

I motioned to the black altar, even hours later I could still smell the coppery sulfuric blood.

"Is that what you think?" Michael asked. He wasn't being condescending, or cold, I could hear it in his voice and see it in his eyes. He was truly curious. Perhaps it was because I had been nothing but honest to him. Maybe it was because that whole “Wayward Daughter” crap... But... Michael wanted to know what I think. Truly. "No, that is what I know," I told him honestly. "Just as you know you demons are supposed to be something different then the ones I’ve been hunting!" At that he tilted his head, examining me with that piercing gaze that made me feel once more like I was being put under an x-ray.

“And what would you be willing to do to defend him if it came to it?” He asked. “What could you do save for... One thing?”

I could feel a lump in my throat forming. Was he proposing…

A deal?

I could feel myself shaking as I actually found myself considering... Could I do that?  As much of an idiot Stu was I couldn’t let him die.

But could I sell my soul for it?

Would he forgive me if I did? Would the Coven?

Would 10 years be enough?

No.

No, it wouldn’t… I had seen enough people after the ten years were up before the hellhounds came. Seen the deep regret, the fear as their short respite was just that… And too short compared to eternity.  I’d rather die now and get it over with then live with a expiration date the rest of my life. Unless..

It was then another idea came to me. It was risky. But at the same time… Michael,had said Azazel had chosen “special children” for a reason, part of their Grand Plan. And I had been set aside for a reason. Neither of us know it but… It must be important for them.

It was crazy but… It just might work.

I raised the gun and pointed it…

At my own temple.

The curious look on Michael’s face was replaced with utter horror and shock as he gasped. I could swear he breathed out the word, No, under his breath but I must have imagined it.

“This answer enough for you?” I told the demon,  trying to ignore the scent of gun oil and the cold metal against the skin of temple.

It was then I clicked the safety off, the sound seemingly echoing in the chamber. This seemed to smack Michael awake from his stupor. He took a few purposeful steps toward me until the Key caught him once again. Like a pull of an invisible leash he was jerked back. He tried to fight it but it pulled him back once more.

“Don’t-!” Michael started almost desperately.

I smiled.

Gotcha.

“Call off your friends and I’ll lower the gun.” I calmly. “After all my dying puts a wrench in this Grand Plan doesn’t it? You may not be willing to tell me what it is but I know this much...”

I leaned forward.

“... Azazel was saving me for something... That much is obvious. So either call off your goons or say goodbye to your Wayward Daughter. Your choice Michael.”

I could see the demon’s jaw tighten, his lips becoming a tight line and then...

...Suddenly Michael broke out into a wide smile.

“You’re a fighter to the very end I see. No wonder why Azazel liked you.” He said.

Michael leaned forward conspiratorially.

"You have my word but… I recommend you and your friend don’t do anything to terribly stupid when they go to take you. And they will try."

I swallowed but I nodded. I know… The word of a demon but like Michael had said a few times before:

He wasn’t like any normal demon.

I shouldn’t trust him… But I did. God forgive me I did.

“Hey you still alive in there!” Stu shouted down.

I lowered the gun and swung around, going back to the bench.

“Where are the others?” I all but demanded when I got back to the grate.

“They are going to check out this cave in of yours. See how bad it is on the other side, meanwhile Mad’s and I are going to check out this thing.” He told me. “We’re going to get you out of there one way or another. Now we just need Madelyn to come with that saw-.”

It was then I saw it… A shadow shift behind him over his shoulder. "Stu behind you!" I shouted.

It was barely a warning when he turned only to get smacked rather hard.

“Damn you!” I shouted, smacking the iron grate with an open palm as Stu slumped before the window, out cold.

“Oh sweetie, don’t you know?” That voice said, sickly sweet. “I’m damned already. So I may as well enjoy the ride all the way to hell.”

I glared at her as Madelyn as she stepped from the shadows and took Stu’s pulse.

“Huh… Looks like you hunter’s are tougher then you look.” She said.

I raised the gun to point outside the bars of the grate.

“Leave him alone or so help me-.” I started.

“Oh I’d be more worried about yourself if I were you, sweetheart,” Madelyn told me. “After all… That demon you have trapped taught us a few tricks too.”

Before I could ask what she meant there was a loud boom like a bomb going off behind me. The force of it all but knocked me off the bench, my gun flying from my hands (I was lucky it didn’t discharge) I could hear the metal as it clattered to some far end of the chamber.

My ears were ringing, I could taste the wave of magic that spell left behind. I hadn’t been done by a magic user but it was one of those spells that I could tell didn’t need one…

Guess selling your soul to Satan had a few perks.

I scrambled to my feet looking to to the direction of the sound as my ear’s rang with an ungodly screaming. The rubble that I had been digging through hours ago was now mostly cleared away now and clear enough for a woman to step through wearing red robes. Her curly dirty blond hair just reaching her shoulders, her pouty lips in a scowl when she caught sight of me, a severe look crossing her face. My stomach sinking as I recognized the golden symbol embroidered across her chest: An Inverse Pentagram.

She was the High Priestess.

Oh hell.

I quickly started to look around for the gun. When suddenly a hiss caught my ear. I looked over to Michael. He was seemingly untouched by the dust and dirt that had exploded all over the room either by magic or by some other force that protected him. He was giving me a pointed look from where he stood unfazed in the trap.

Don’t do anything terribly stupid, He had advised. I could tell he was thinking that again as he shook his head so slightly.

I bit my bottom lip and glared at him but… I stopped. I swallowing hard.

Here’s hoping your word is worth something, I thought, as I raised my hands up as if in surrender.

“Well well, it looks like we have a hunter with a brain after all!” I could hear Madelyn pipe from the grate behind me.

“Yes small wonders do exist do they?” The other women said suddenly before approaching where Michael stood trapped.

As she did a strange mouse faced man (Phil? I guessed), wearing red robe walked through the hole punched through the rubble nor was he the only one. It looked like there were a few others behind him.

“My lord,” The first women said before bowing lowly before Michael along with the other Satanists. “Are you alright?”

“As well as can be expected.” He told them coldly.

I could almost see that persona he had earlier- Langdon- click into place. I wasn’t sure who he was to them but I could tell he was some sort of leader… Did he have like a cult? No, he just said they were Satanists. But…

Most demons didn’t care about humans didn’t they?

Maybe so, or so I thought as he turned to the small congregation.

“Help Madelyn bring our little unconscious hunter inside, it’s far too cold for him to be asleep inside. He will not be that way for long.” He told them before turning to me. “And kindly restrain my captor, I want them both here as I pronounce their sentence for disrupting our unholy cause.”

I would have preferred him to punch me in the gut. You fucking liar! I wanted to snap as my heart sank. Ignoring the pain in my chest that had erupted suddenly (you stupid idiot! You should have known better). Quickly I went to look for the gun when suddenly two Satanists appeared before me in their red robes.

Oh no you don’t.

I knew I was dealing with people who probably hadn’t fought someone like me a day in their life when One tried lunged forward to grab me. I  dodged it and took the opening I had with him learning forward, kicked out in a perfect snap kick right under his jaw. The top of my combat boots snapping his jaw shut. He head jerked back as he stumbled falling on his ass.

I swung around to the other one, a women who was angrily swinging a punch at me so stupidly wide that I ducked easily. As I did I quickly aimed a few sharp snap punch right across the ribs, each hitting hard enough to hurt like a bitch as she cried out. I feel the start of a few bruises on my knuckles but no time for that. I shuffled closer, grabbing her from her robed back and jerking her so my raised knee met her gut. I let go of her to let her hit the marbled floor, hearing her wheezing hard.

I was about to turn to whoever was next when suddenly I was bodily thrown back against the wall. The force just hard enough to knock the wind out of me but not hard enough to crack my skull. I struggled, trying to get my breath back and looked up to see Michael holding his hand out a tell tale smile on his face.

Shit.

I tried to jerk forward but it was like I was being held back by iron shackles to the wall. I could feel his power crash against me like a wave against the rocks. It was then I saw a Satanist near where the rug had been pulled up stand up, a knife on his hand. A knife I was betting had just scraped a bit of spray paint off the floor.

The seal was well and truly broken then.

“I had a feeling you wouldn’t go without a little bit of a fight in the end,” The demon said with a quirk of lips as though it amused him.

I wanted to scream at him, I wanted to kick myself for thinking I could trust him for letting myself be played by a damn demon, I wanted to punch a few more of these assholes and maybe him a few times. But I just kept my mouth shut, my jaw straining from clenching it as a few people emerged from the entrance holding up an unconscious Stu between them. They all but dragged him to where I was against the wall and threw him before me like a pile of dirty laundry before stepping back.

The two Satanists who I had smacked around getting to their feet as well, looking at me with so much hate you’d think they were the real demons and I had cried out “Cristo.”

I could hear excited whispers and voices from the small congregation of Satanists as the High Priestess spoke up suddenly.

“These two have not only come here to attack our way of life...” She said to the congregation before us.

She spoke a politician before a rally as she stepped forward to where I was pinned. I could hear a few members of the congregation all but cheer her on, latching on to her words like they were the starved masses being given bread for the first time in a long time.

The high priestess stopped when she was standing before me. Hate twisting her features to something ugly, but I looked her dead in the face all the same. Just to piss her off I gave her a grin.

“...But they have entrapped our lord, our savior before us. Where this any other circumstance we would strip them of their worldly finery and give their so called righteous hearts to Lucifer in the Black Mass. However...”  

She turned to Michael, taking a few steps before him and before kneeling.

“We leave it to you to judge them and condemn them as you see fit my lord, it was you that they have wronged the most after all.”

The congregation of Satanists followed their high priestess, kneeling before him, all around him like a small sea of red. I could see the quirk of his lips as I could tell he was enjoying this.

“I accept your choice to leave their fate’s in my hands, Miss Milton.” He told her, letting his hand fall almost gracefully to his side yet the force was still there holding me up against the wall.

It was then he stepped form the broken trap, and I could swear I felt the the earth itself shift as he did but I must have imagined it. He closed his cerulean eyes, a pleased smirk crossing his face as he relished stepping from the trap. When his eyes opened he looked right at me, that damn look still on his face as she started to step forward. Each footstep echoed in the stone chamber like the bells of doom.

Once again I wondered if I was looking into my death but… I tossed that thought aside. I was supposed to play a part in this grand plan right? No, it was Stu I was mostly worried about. Stu who was groaning awake, as Michael stepped over him until he was standing in between us both.

His eyes breaking eye contact if only to examine Stu. I couldn’t see his face but I could tell he was thinking carefully. I watched him on bated breath when suddenly he spoke.

“Let them go.” Michael decreed.

It was a good thing his power still pinned me against the wall I would have fallen over in relief. But I think I was the only who was happy about it. Almost instantly a flurry of hush whispers erupted. But it was the High Priestess in particular that spoke up

“My lord?” She said agast, I could see her looking up in shock

“You heard me,” He said. “Let them go. Or do you question my judgement now, Hannah? Shall I remind you the state his congregation was in when I found you?”

Almost instantly the whispers were silenced. The high priestess lowered her eyes in respect, in fear.

“No… Never my lord.”

“Good.” Michael said. “After all… One should not kill the messengers sent by Lucifer himself even though they may be unwitting messengers after all.”

What? I wanted to gasp. Nor was I the only one, I could hear gasps and whispers once more around the room.

“Mich-My lord?” A voice called from the back.

I looked over to see Madelyn red robes over her clothes now,  she looked to Michael as confused as I felt. I could see him smile fondly as though to calm her. I wondered who she was to him as she seemed to know his name like I did.

“Remember the tales I’ve told you Madelyn when you found me, lost in the wilderness. The stories of the Wayward Daughter.”

There was a slew of gasps. Nor where they the only ones. I was tempted to snap at him that he wasn’t sure of this “Wayward Daughter” at all but something in me told me that wouldn't’ be a good idea. Don’t do anything stupid, he had said. I had a feeling speaking out against him while he spoke to them was one of those “stupid” ideas.

“She has made it clear to me there are some of Satan’s army who have rebelled against his wishes. They have defied their father… Their god.” He said, addressing them as confidently as king would to his army.

His voice may not have been talking to them loudly yet it still echoed off the chamber walls,  I could see them drink up every word of his like water.  

“These demons are not tempting people to his side, they are killing them, consuming them. Turning them into martys for the side we desperately wish to destroy. Betraying the Great Plan.” He told them heatedly, I could hear the anger dripping off every word in his silky voice.

“This is merely making our enemies even stronger, forcing mankind off the path to it’s own destruction. How can the Dark Messiah and cleanse this world if we have so many trator’s in our midst?”

I had to try not to let my jaw drop. Holy shit… Was he-?

“My lord, please! Let us find them for you!” No fucking way… Was this demon-?

Michael smiled at them.

“Very well my dear believers, tell all those that walk the different path. Tell them to hunt these monsters down, bind their black souls to the bodies of those they possess. Carve out the smoke that fills their hearts in the Black Mass and send them to hell to face the wrath of their leader. I shall tell Him to expect those traitors to punish as he sees fit and you shall be rewarded by the hellfires when the chosen son finally rises and this world burns.”

The red robed men and women bowed lowly over and over again. I could hear chorus’ of “Hail Satan” and “Ave Satanas” as they did so. I just couldn’t help but look at Michael in shock.

He had somehow convinced a group of Satanists to hunt the very demons they worship and from what I can tell others soon would follow. What the hell kind of demon was he? Who was he that they were so willing to do this?

But I before I could wonder any more than that. He turned to me, stepping closer so he was once again so close I could touch... if I could move that is. I was hit with the scent of amber, leather and something else… Something that wasn’t sulfur like most demons but it had a strange spice and musk to it. Something that had me feeling it was like a taste of the deeper circles of hell. One we had yet to discover anything from.

Once more he spoke yet his voice was low. Something that I know he was making it so only I would hear.

“You’ve done very well. You’re friend will live to die another day. However…” He trailed off.

He reached over to gently trace my jaw with the backs of his fingers, his skin felt warm and making my face burn but I refused to jerk away. I just glared him dead in the eye.

Just do what he said. Do what he said and we will get out of here alive.

I tried not to notice how my heart hammered in my chest, or how body started to heat up once more when he stepped closer or how that pull was tugging me towards him once more despite the enchantment that all but nailed me to the wall. I could smell amber, leather, incense, and something else I couldn’t name- something like mulling spices yet deeper. Something intoxicating that rolled over me like a spell.

“You can run from it all you like, in fact I encourage you to do so as it’s rather amusing. But it doesn’t change anything. One day, perhaps tomorrow, perhaps many years from now... You will come to know the part you were chosen to play all those years ago.”

What?

I almost gasped. Did he know more then he let on...? Or was that guess he claimed to have more or less confirmed? I had so many questions but I couldn’t find the words to ask as his hand pulled away from my skin.

“Until then… I will keep in touch.” He told me.

That was the only warning I had when suddenly his hand jerked and my vision suddenly went black.

---

“Hey wake up! Wake up!” I could hear a familiar voice say suddenly pulling me into reality with a pounding headache.

“What?”I groaned.

“Was kinda hoping you’d tell me here?” I could hear that familiar voice say.

I opened my eyes to see Stu kneeling next to where I lay. Wait.. was I laying on something? What-? But wasn’t I-? Suddenly everything came rushing back, the cave in, the Satanic cult…

Michael.  

I sat up with a gasp and winced as my head pounded even more. I cursed under my breath.

“Whoa easy!” Stu said suddenly almost urging me to lay back down.

He didn’t have to do much convincing as I lay down carefully once more. I rubbed my temple.

“You okay?” Stu asked me carefully.

“Think so… head’s pounding.”

“Did they knock you out too?”

“The demon did,” I replied.

“Ouch.”

I lay on the bench, hoping the pounding would fade away. Slowly I opened my eyes to see the familiar ceiling of our hotel room. How we ended up here I wasn’t sure but I had a feeling a certain someone was behind it.

We’d have to head back to the underground church but I would bet everything was wiped clean. Michael was probably gone to the wind as well as those Satanists.

I’m going to find him though, I thought. Bastard owes me a hell of ton of answers.

“Guessing you don’t have any idea how the hell we survived that do you?” He asked.

“You’re not going to believe me if I told you.”

“Try me.”

Part 2- TBA

[stonedandstudying]

Solo: A Movie Review

Ya know, Solo ended up being a little more of an interesting experience than I thought it would.  There were highs, and lows, and hidden Easter Eggs for fans; John Powell's score was pretty solid, and the action sequences were fun.  When it comes down to it for me, I am never going to see Harrison Ford in Alden Ehrenreich's, and you may call that nit-picking, but whatever.  Aside from that you can tell Ehrenreich spent the time trying to bring Han's mannerisms, wit, smirks, and self-confidence into the role, and I can appreciate that effort.

The way Han and Chewy meet should be pleasing to fans as the premise didn't change from what has long been known about these characters' histories.  Han, a member of the Imperial Navy, deserts with an enslaved Wookie, and up until now we only had comics and Extended Universe novels to see that play out.  It was great seeing Chewy get so physical, but it should be no surprise either.  If we're going to get chronological with this, the last time we have seen Chewy prior to Solo: A Star Wars Story was on the shoreline on Kashyyyk, at the end of Episode III.  So not only do we know that he has no love for the Empire, but he's a proficient warrior as well. 

I'll go into these two a little more if we talk about it on the show, but overall, I think the relationship between Han and Chewy developed in a believable and genuine way.

The other thing about Star Wars has always been the ability to personify inanimate objects, making them essential characters in the process.  Anakin's Lightsaber, for example, which was tossed around, and anticlimactically destroyed in The Last Jedi —many Star Wars themes were destroyed in The Last Jedi— had been an important relic of in the franchise, since 1977.  The Millennium Falcon is no different. 

It is always great to see the Falcon because it never disappoints. It's always going to be that same nocked-coin shape; it's propulsion systems are always going to rev up with a familiar high squeal, resulting in a blast of bright blue plasma; and, like our favorite droids, will always be back at the end of the film, in good working order, no matter how beat up it gets along the way.

Which brings me to some of my lows:

L3, Lando's droid that won't shut up about Equal Rights for Robots.   

Whoever programmed this droid to be such a stick in the mud was a sadistic son of a bitch.  It's one thing to listen to an alien creature complain about being low man on the social totem pole; it's another thing to listen to a droid, whose personality was programmed into them, complain about droids being made to fight each other in cage combat.  I was GIDDY when this thing got blown to bits, but nothing compared to watching Lando struggle to drag the torso of L3 across the battlefront as if it were a scene from Platoon —it read more like Tropic Thunder.  And this is why C-3P0 and R2 were always kept firmly within the realm of comic relief—they're droids! 

How many times as 3PO been torn limb from limb, only to return at the end of every episode, reassembled and shined up like new?  As L3 and Lando had their Forrest Gump/Bubba  Vietnam moment, was anyone else thinking to themselves...uh, just keep L3's head and you'll be able to get her all fixed up.  I'm sitting there saying to myself, "What the fuck am I watching right now?"  The kids sitting next to us were laughing, too.  

Which brings me to my last point, for now—and it's not even really a "low":

Lando.  Donald Glover did a fine job. I had always envisioned what those games of Sabacc between Lando and Han were like— the card games that lead to the Han and Chewy winning the Falcon.  Lando's still the same style-obsession, self-assured swindler, and I loved it.  But you now what?  Aside from coming on to the gorgeous Emilia Clarke, Glover's character never showed more sexual interest in anything or anyone in the way he was interested in money and status.

Which leaves me to a new recurring Star Wars/Disney point:

Why on earth did Jonathan Kasdan say what he said about Lando's "pan-sexuality"?  Why can't these people help themselves? 

Before the release of Rogue One, writer, Chris Weitz, felt the need to get onto Twitter and draw lines of comparison between the Empire and White Supremacy and our newly election President, Donald Trump.  He wanted people to go into the theaters paying special attention to how the Rebellion was a multicultural force, lead by strong womynz.  So, naturally, people get pissed off and wary of the release, which is unfortunate because Solo wasn't anywhere near the cinematic disaster that was The Last Jedi.  So, why are any of these Social Justice public service announcements necessary, or allowed?  Why do they do this?  It's a huge part of the reason why the franchise is going to continue to drop off and wither on the vine—the numbers on Solo and the mum reviews should be a telling sign in itself. 

The reviews aren't even that bad, but there's just no juice for it... Perhaps if Disney had more than half of the people who gave life to Star Wars in the first place still on board, this would be a much different outcome?

To me, It's one thing to accept that Star Wars is controlled by Disney, which is controlled by a gaggle of progressives who can't allow themselves to create something for all people to enjoy.  It comes through in their plot-lines, their characters arcs, their casting, and the promotion therein.  It brings the conversation to a whole other level when they actually do a decent job (Solo & Rogue One) for fans and these freak-show writers still can't control themselves enough as to refrain from giving people viewing instructions when they watch the film.  

Alright. Rant over. There's more to say but maybe we'll talk about this to close out a broadcast this week.

[damonsbitchx]

Redeem Me - Part 1

Pairings/Characters: Reader, Sam Winchester, Dean Winchester, brief mention of Bobby

Warnings: Angst, mentions of blood and violence

Word count: 1583

Part 1/?

A/N: This is a request by @karlilarki - (I thought of a supernatural fanfic that would be interesting, but I don't write spn... Any chance you would want to? The premise is simple, Sam & Dean exorcise a demon from a woman like they did Meg, but the woman lives. To make up for the wrongs she committed, she joins them as hunters...? Maybe eventually pair her with one of the brothers? Please? 😂 😘) - This will be a series, I’m not sure how long. I guess it will stop when I feel satisfied with the story. Enjoy!

Part 2

If you would like to be added to my Forever Tag list, a list for a specific character tag list, or have a request please send me an ask!

The last thing I remember was a glimpse of two very tall, broad men and black smoke. Everything after that is blank aside from some spotty images of my hands cutting into innocent strangers. It was spotty like that for a long time, until I found myself tied to a chair in the middle of a cluttered room in an unfamiliar house.

The shorter Winchester, whom I now know as Dean, was pacing a few feet in front of me. Sam was stalking around my possessed body with a book in hand that he started chanting words in Latin from. The demon inside of me shrieked, but it came out of my lips and my body was involuntarily thrashing around. I could hear the demon’s screams growing louder and louder in my head, but I was becoming less fuzzy. While my self-awareness began to return, I realized there was excruciating pain shooting up every nerve of my body. Suddenly, the shrieking wasn’t only the demon struggling to hang onto me and I think Dean could tell because he winced and turned away.

“Audi nos!” Sam shouted and I felt the demon being ripped from my body in the form of black smoke by an invisible force.

Then the smoke went up in flames at my feet, my screams were replaced by a peaceful silence for a brief moment.

My head lolled and my vision began fading as the pain throughout my body grew stronger. I could faintly hear the boys talking to me while I think they worked to untie me before the pain consumed my consciousness.

I woke up lying on the floor near the chair I was just tied up in, groaning weakly. Sam was leaning over me telling me it would be okay over and over again while I could see Dean and an older, angry looking man frantically yelling about something on the phone. It was hard to focus on anything while my vision became fuzzier and fuzzier. I’m bleeding, I think. I tried to move my arm to wipe the warm blood from my cheek, but it wouldn’t obey and I cried out in pain, startling Sam.

“Don’t move,” he said gently. I couldn’t hear him that well anymore as consciousness slipped away with each passing second.

The last thing I saw before I cut out again was Dean struggling to pull Sam away as paramedics rushed to my side.

And that was it.

I came to, very disoriented and groggy. My entire body hurt like I had been sandwiched between two semi-trucks and my head was pounding. I winced both at the bright light shining through the window and the pain that even the small task of swallowing caused. Then, I noticed Sam, asleep in a small chair next to the bed. I wonder how long he’d been there… or how long I’d been out.

I sighed quietly, inspecting all the wires and tubes connected to different parts of my body and Sam’s eyes fluttered open. I watched him rub the sleep from them and they grew wide as they caught mine and I conjured a weak smile. Relief washed his face with a smile as he instinctively reached for me, but he consciously stopped himself.

“Hi,” he breathed.

“Hey,” I croaked softly.

“Oh, uh I'll-I’ll go get a nurse.”

I watched him rush off to find a nurse and bring her back to check on me.

Apparently, I’d been out for almost three weeks. All the nurses and doctors were surprised that I even pulled through. They said I had suffered a lot of major injuries and that it would take months to recover, maybe even years, but it was a miracle I had even survived them, not to mention that I woke up.

The nurse gave me a once over to assess my condition and dose me up some painkillers, which I was very grateful for. It only took about 20 minutes, then she left saying she’d be back in a while to check on me again. The entire time, Sam had stood in a corner out of the way with a concerned, focused expression and crossed arms, hanging on every word the nurse said, but for completely different reasons than one would think. The moment she left, everything about Sam changed. His features became softer and he cautiously approached his chair again.

“You should ask for a more comfortable chair if you’re gonna live by my side,” I mumbled, my eyes fluttering. It was only 20 minutes, but I was tired out nonetheless.

“Oh, I uh..” he mindlessly ran his fingers through his hair,” I haven’t been here the whole time.”

“He’s right,” another voice interrupted, deeper and gruffer than Sam’s. It was Dean. “He’s left to go to the bathroom at least once a day,” he mocked.

Sam cleared his throat loudly, clearly irritated by his brother’s joking, but it made me chuckle weakly.

“Sam, you should go home and get some rest. I’m okay, neither of you boys really need to stay here.”

“C’mon Y/N, we can’t just leave you here after what we did to you,” Sam said, sitting back down in his chair.

“No, really, I’m okay. As soon as they release me, I’m going back home and we can pretend none of this ever happened. We’ll never have to see each other again, I want you both to go.”

Dean shrugged at Sam and Sam clenched his jaw at Dean, it was almost like they were having a conversation consisting solely of facial expressions.

“I’ll wait in the car,” Dean spoke softly, turning to me,“take care of yourself, Y/N.”

I shot him a small smile, glancing at Sam after Dean disappeared.

“Call us if you ever need anything,” Sam tried to smile, pressing a piece of folded paper to my palm and squeezing my hand gently.

Then, they were gone, and it was better this way.

I was kept in the hospital about a month after I woke up that day, just to make sure everything was healing correctly and no surprise issues showed up. After I was released, I found my way back to my small hometown of Reno, Nevada. All I wanted was to get back to my family, but it never occurred to me that I might not have anything to come back to. My house was no longer my house and my family was no longer a family.

After the injuries I suffered, and the new hair-do that demon bitch gave me, I was barely recognizable. Not to mention, I had been gone for a year and a half, no one would expect to see me, I was deemed dead. So, I asked around and what I found was exactly what I was afraid I would find. After I disappeared, my sister killed herself which caused my parents to divorce. My mother had moved to Washington to start a new family, my father turned into a drunk, and I was left with nothing. It seemed like I found less than I started with and I had no idea what to do, so I got in my car and started driving.

I drove at night and slept the through the day, whether it was at a shady motel I found along the way or just parking my car somewhere and sleeping the daylight away. I went on like this for nearly two months. Being possessed had come with a few perks, like picking up on credit card fraud and hustling pool. So, I always had more than enough money, but something about this new life I was living felt cold and empty. I would hop through town after town, meeting and leaving people each time. It was all fine and dandy, or at least it seemed that way from the outside.

Starting out, I didn’t use to sleep through the day and burn rubber while it was dark. I’m not sure if it was the darkness itself or just the mindset I lived in at night that brought on the unbearable nightmares. Sleeping during the daytime didn’t ward them away, but they became easier to handle. At least when I was jolted awake by the images of my bloodied hands strangling an innocent stranger in the darkness of his own home, I would open my eyes to light and that was the only comfort I’d ever known from the dreams that now haunted me.

I decided after almost seven weeks that I couldn’t do it anymore. I had seen everything that was worth seeing and had had more time to think, process, and grieve than I’d ever wanted. I was going crazy and I couldn’t shake these nightmares. I had tried and tried to figure out why, but each time I tried, I came to only one conclusion.

Guilt.

Every time I closed my eyes, all I could see was my hands committing horrifying murders and I needed to find a way to redeem myself, but what do you prescribe to someone who’s seen what I’d seen and done what I’d done? There is nothing, except for dedicating your life to ridding the world of as many of those horrors as you could.

So, I picked up my phone, fished through my bag for the folded piece of paper, and dialed the number.

“Hello?” a gruff voice came through the line.

“Dean?” I breathed.

There was a short silence.

“Y/N?”

Forever Tags: @assbutt-still-in-hell, @shotgunintheimpala, @wishedworld, @aquabrie, @pie-not-cake-you-assbutt

Redeem Me Tags: @karlilarki

[nurseyleafs]

Tattoos And Other Art forms

Chapter 1

Read it on ao3: here 

Derek pushes open the glass door, bells chiming. Larissa whips her head up from her sketchbook with a bright smile in his direction. "Hey hon! How's it healing?" Derek marches over to her desk and plops down next to her, pulling up the sleeve of his flannel. "It's going alright, I think? The scabs have completely fallen off," he says, poking at it curiously. Larissa slapped his hand away out of habit. "That's a good thing. Actually by this point, most would define that as healed. You're going to have to come up with a new excuse to keep dropping by my place of business. Maybe get another piece on the opposite arm..?" He makes a face at her, and pulls his sleeve back down. He isn't planning on getting anything new anytime soon. Despite the niceties of his best friend, this tattoo hurt like a bitch. Derek is happy to stick with just the armband. Although he isn't happy to head back home just yet.

"Can I convince you to come get lunch with me? My treat. I'm hungry and bored." "Nurse, the sentiment was sweet the first 20 times but I actually have to work. My next client booked me for 6 hours for a piece he described as, 'An Asian Explosion, with like, kanji and tigers and katanas and shit.' He sounded white. I'm excited," she emphasises her last statement with a dramatic slash against her sketch. "I sincerely hope Shitty drops by soon." "Oh, you think I can't fend for myself against the dumbasses who come in here? You think I need my big, strong, white boyfriend to protect me? I frankly find that offensive." She turns back to her sketch and shoos Derek away. He stand up and backs away defensively with hands raised, but eyes the back room. "Is it cool if I chill at the empty desk? I mean, unless the spot has been filled since we last spoke," Derek jokes. "Well I assume the chair is already being occupied by a certain droopy-eyed hockey player fawning over his boyfriend, but you're welcome to head back there anyways. I am in no way forcing you to leave the premises. Yet. Get some work done." Derek half waves goodbye to her and wanders down the hall. The back room is empty of humans but full of boxes, just the way he likes it. He isn't in the mood to deal with Jack Zimmermann scrutinizing his every move. He swears, if it weren't for how obviously in love with Bits he is, he'd think the man was a robot. Or at least, that's Derek's experience of him. He's sure Jack's a perfectly nice guy once you get to know him, and once the season starts. That's what Bitty assures him. He plops down on the musty green couch, and pulls his netbook out of his shoulderbag. He might as well try and get some work done and not annoy his publisher, Chris, any more than he already does. The outline for his book rests on the left side of his screen and a barely there second draft on the right. He thumbs at the keyboard, urging the words to flow out of him without having to think them and realises that isn't working. With a huff, he pulls out his journal for a different approach. An approach where he doesn't work at all. He scribbles on his favourite page, one simply filled with words and incompleted phrases. Since landing his second book deal he hasn't been able to write poetry like he used to, and finds himself only stringing together half sentences, desperately trying to write something eloquent. This is the third time this week he's sat in this back room looking for inspiration, and all he has to show for it is 6 lines written about the dingy sofa and the repetitive scratching of a tattoo pen being equally irritating to the skin. It's absolute garbage. Still, he's thankful to have a space to write garbage in. Although it would be unconventional, Derek thinks he could afford to rent this room out to be his actual office. It isn't being used as anything but storage and an extra space for hanging out, which wouldn't change if he got to set up his own writing area in the corner. He could really use an excuse to not work from home. "Fancy seein' you back here, darlin. I'm starting to think you work here too," Bitty teases, carrying in empty cartons and still in his winter jacket. With both his full sleeves covered he looks out of place in his own tattoo shop, all sweet and southern and innocent looking. "Funny you would say that actually, I was wondering if I could work back here. Writing, I mean," He stumbles over his words. Bitty's face crinkles with concern. "Did Larissa not tell you we're filling the empty spots?" Derek shakes his head. "She put together some interviews, I'm meeting with a couple of guys this morning." Bitty looks sheepish. Realization dawns, and he starts clearing up the mess he somehow has already made. "Of course you're doing interviews back here, shit, sorry. I'll be out of your hair. I should probably be leaving anyways." He shoves his crap hazhardly away. Bitty clasps closed Derek's shoulderbag in his need to help. He gestures out front to the two empty desks. "I'm not kicking you out of the parlour, only the back room. You can set up shop at Mandy or Jenny's old spot." Derek smiles tight-lipped. "If you want darlin, you can play secretary. Larissa won't play nice with the people comin' in, especially when she's working hard. Take over for her." Derek beams this time. More excuses to not work, and this time it's fun. He sets himself up at Mandy's desk once more, adjusting every so often to really look the part. He takes off his flannel and flexes a little, figuring his only tattoo should be on display. The door chimes and a handsome young man walks in, and Derek forgets common decency. "Are you Asian Explosion?" Lardo glares at Derek, then at the patron, and repeats the question. "Um, no? My name is...Tony? I called yesterday? About an interview?" He looks nervous. "BITTY," Derek shouts, getting glares from Larissa again. He emerges from the back room fresh faced and rosy cheeked, equally confused looking as Tony. "You're not supposed to here," he says, wiping his hands. "Wait, what? Okay," Tony starts and Bitty cuts him off. "No, darlin', i meant, you're not supposed to be here yet. I have you booked for an interview in two hours." Bitty is standing there. Tony is justifiably embarassed, and Derek thinks the guy might just run out. "Wanna get a tattoo while you wait," Derek offers as a joke. He's not checking but he's sure he is receiving twice as many glares as before. Tony sputters and awkwardly leaves. "Oh my god that was so awful I'm firing both of you," Larissa hisses, face emotionless. He doesn't point out that he isn't getting paid to do this, nor was he instructed to do so by her. "Alright, I'm hiding back here and pretending that didn't happen. Derek, mind letting me know when a William Poindexter arrives?" "No problem man, It's my job," he calls back. Sufficient time passes that he actually gets some work done on the second chapter. A goblin is in the middle of launching itself at the hero's wife when the door chimes. "Welcome to the Hockey Puck Tattoo Parlour! What can I do for you to today," He singsongs to a lanky redheaded boy who looks passably young enough that he's considering carding him. Although the visible muscles negate the baby face. "Will. Uh, William Poindexter," says a deep voice, and Derek feels a little smitten. It sounds like caramel poured over gravel, if that even makes sense to him. He likes the messy analogy regardless as he's not sure how else to describe it. Smooth and rough at the same time. He points to the back room and watches Will walk, his converse scuffing the floor. When he's sure that Will is situated, he flips open his journal and pens in the words, 'caramel over gravel.'

[dramallamadingdang]

It’s a been a long few days, and I’m getting all my administrative stuff done tonight. Can you tell? :) 

For @criquette-was-here, @kittythesnowcat, @holleyberry, @eulaliasims, @esotheria-sims, @penig, and @raindropdrinkwater...

criquette-was-here replied to your post “For statistics nerds only!”

This is the scale I always wanted to actually play on! I mean, all those clans and population and statistics and stuff. So good! I should quit making hood decos and play the damn thing for once (lol, bad joke) XD

No, you are not allowed to quit making hood decos! Ever! Now that you’re back, we’re keeping you. ;) Nah, I kid. It’s fun to play the game sometimes, though. I go through phases when I just want to build, just want to play, or just want to make stuff. I can’t stick with just one thing.

But anyway...Yeah, this is a fun scale to play on, especially in this game, because its premise lends itself well to repopulation scenarios. I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to keep up with documenting it, though, because its population is going to get large quickly, but I’m figuring if I just stick mostly with the current adult population plus the teens, maybe it’ll work... But playing-wise, it’s really fun on this scale.

kittythesnowcat replied to your photoset “OMG, I went back to work yesterday, and it was a long and very boring...”

wow you played Isla Paradiso and did not throw your computer against a wall?

No, it’s actually running pretty well, even though it’s a completely vanilla game running on my old dinosaur Simming machine that’s perfectly optimized to run TS2 but definitely not TS3. :) I think it helps that I’m only using a few of the EPs for this save (although I have all of them installed). I’m not experiencing the crashing that I have before. Also, I cranked the graphics settings down a lot and didn’t experience a single crash. I’m slowly inching the settings up now, to see where the “break point” is. Haven’t hit it yet, though. So, yeah, playing it is kind of fun in a change-of-pace way. I started a new game and extended the life span so that I can try all the things I’ve never done in the game.

holleyberry replied to your post “Age-ups!”

They are all cute, but Jada is beautiful! ♥

I agree! :) I really like her and am hoping she’ll grow up to have lots of babies to pass those BruCarbo genes around. <3

eulaliasims replied to your post “I surrender, I surrender!”

I missed a couple of days and I'm not even going to try to catch up with my dash, heh. The beach is way better than Tumblr anyway!

Technically, I can do both because I can be on the beach and still be in the range of our WiFi. Like, I’ll be out there and surf the Internet or read stuff on AO3 on my Kindle tablet. Thing is, the Tumblr app for Kindle hasn’t been updated in like three years and while I can see the likes/comments on my account, the dashboard no long works. Otherwise, I could be out there AND liking posts and stuff, but to do that I’d have to take a laptop out there and that’s a bit harder to lug around than a Kindle and it’s a lot harder to use a laptop outside because of the glare and stuff. :) (The Kindle automatically adjusts to compensate for glare; it’s nice.) So in this case...Yeah, the beach is more important. At least until the novelty of it wears off again. :)

esotheria-sims replied to your photo “One of these days I will make a decent GIF of something, but…For now,...”

:D How'd I miss this one??

I thought it might amuse you. He’s so good-looking, but he’s suuuuuuuuch a dork in my game. :)

esotheria-sims replied to your post “I surrender, I surrender!”

A half-empty beach on a cloudy day sounds delightful, tbh. Can't blame you for prefering that over having to catch up on thousands of Tumblr posts! X)

I love cloudy days on the beach! I have a skintone that’s only a step away from albino, so I burn very easily. Yeah, you can still burn on cloudy days, but not as quickly as on sunny days, so I don’t have to wrap myself up like a mummy to be out there. :) And the less-crowded part is a bonus, too, although the place here doesn’t get quite as many crowds as a little further south, anyway. But still...

penig replied to your photo “Peter LeTourneau, wearer of the World’s Stabbiest Hair, doing what...”

I don't think he likes being watched while he's reading.

Peter just doesn’t like anything. He’s kind of a grouch. :P 

But yeah, you gotta feel for Sims, huh? Big Brother IS always watching them and all. :)

raindropdrinkwater replied to your photoset “Inevitably, Nicholas became a toddler. And he’s boring! Yay!  But I...”

Ah, penig, I had the same thought! Those 8 active points might be his saving grace.

Maybe. Although from what I’ve seen, the only effect extreme activeness has is making them run instead of walk. And maybe they’ll be a bit less likely to sit of their ass, which is a plus. I guess we’ll see. :)

penig replied to your photoset “Inevitably, Nicholas became a toddler. And he’s boring! Yay!  But I...”

That active's in the extreme range. Much may depend on the aspiration he gets. I have a lot of fun with Geminis.

Oh, yeah, it’s all in how you play them, of course. I’m just pretty hands-off when playing, so I rely on the pixels themselves to tell their “story.” The ones with middle-of-the-road personalities just don’t seem to do that as well. You learn more about them by how others interact with them as opposed to what they do themselves. Which is why I’m hoping this kid will have at least two siblings, but since Dad Daniel is going to elderize soon and might not live long after that, there probably won’t be as many as I’d like. Although La Shawn could re-marry, of course, so there’d be half-siblings. Maybe. She might not be young enough any longer by the time Daniel croaks...

penig replied to your photoset “HOMG! I PLAYED TS2!!!! I totally did! And I totally even played...”

But is any cat picture truly gratuitous on the internet?

Well, since the internet is for cats and porn...Probably not. :)

penig replied to your photoset “Geez, Zoey. You know you’re a total bitch when you manage to make an...”

Hmm...let's hope she gets along better with aliens.

Here’s hoping! Heck, maybe she’ll like them better. Maybe her whole problem is that she got a bigger dose of alien than human and just doesn’t know how to relate to humans. Or half-humans, as the case may be. Maybe she’ll go up and never come back one day. :)

[mchenryjd]

2017 in Review

Necessarily incomplete, mostly for my personal record. I will probably regret this.

MOVIES

10.  mother!

Got to a screening late, had to sit in the third show, could barely tell what was happening and spent most of the movie staring at J. Law’s flared nostrils. An ideal viewing experience.

9.     Personal Shopper

Nothing captures the purposeful emptiness of spending time online like Kristen Stewart texting a ghost.

8.     Get Out

I kept telling my dad this movie was funny to get him to see it, not realizing he didn’t already know it was a horror movie. Afterwards, he texted me, “that was not a comedy!” Feels like that’s enough a metaphor. Daniel Kaluuya for best actor.

7.     Star Wars: The Last Jedi

A Star Wars movie about loving Star Wars movies, which means loving the epic, silly struggle between good and epic, loving the spiral staircase that is John Williams’s force theme, loving it when character always do the coolest possible thing followed by the next coolest possible thing, loving dumb furry creatures and sarcastic slimy ones, loving it when characters kiss when you want them to kiss, loving the hundred-million-dollar sandbox of it all. After the constricted dance steps of The Force Awakens and Rogue One, give me this bleeding freestyle any day.

6.     Phantom Thread

Finally, proof that everyone in a serious relationship has lost it.

5.     Call Me By Your Name

I refuse to believe that being stuck in rural Italy would be anything other than deadly boring and if my father insisted on turning everything into a lecture on classical art, I would run away. Also, there’s a contrast between the book (vague on the details of place and time, vividly specific on matters of sex) and the film (more contextually specific, sexier, but less horny than the original). Also, who am I kidding, I was moved and unsettled by the force of the thing. *Michael Stuhlbarg voice* Pray you get a chance to fall in love like this.

4.     Dunkirk

Having your tense, churning, clanking, thrumming, score transform into Elgar right when the beautiful, imperiled young heroes are reading a stirring speech (and Tom Hardy is heroically sacrificing himself in what looks like the middle of a Turner painting) is a level of craft so deft if feels like cheating, but it works.

3.     BPM

A film about a community in danger that acts as both a memorial to and rallying cry for that community. Uncompromising, accommodating, queer in the best way, BPM makes you want to cry and go dancing at the same time.

2.     Columbus

The kind of movie that makes you want to get in a car and keep driving until you find something beautiful, it has stuck and expanded in my memory ever since I saw it over the summer. Like the architecture that looms large in the setting, the plot can feel uncomfortably schematic – John Cho wants to leave and gets  stuck, Haley Lu Richardson is stuck and gets to leave. The question is how people live within, and blur the edges of, those confines. John Cho has a winning, curdled decency; Haley Lu Richardson gives the hardest kind of performance, in that she often seems unaware of her character’s own wants. I’d watch her quietly assemble dinner for hours on end.

1.     Lady Bird  

A movie that feels less plotted and more prefigured – every fight between Lady Bird has happened before, every high school landmark lumbers by with inevitability, every boy disappoints in the way you expect. What redeems all this? Paying attention, which is also love, in this movie’s pseudo-religious sense. Between Lady Bird and Marion, between Lady Bird and Julie, between Lady Bird and Sacramento. Watch people closely, as Greta Gerwig does, and they reveal glimmers of themselves (I know so little, and yet everything, about Stephen McKinley Henderson’s drama teacher from a few moments that feel perfect, in the sense of contained, past-tense completeness). It’ll all so ordinary. Fall in love with it.

Honorable mentions: Regina Hall’s speech about friendship in Girls Trip, Sally Hawkins tracing a droplet with her finger in The Shape of Water, Meryl Streep on the phone in The Post, Cara Delevingne in Valerian, Rihanna in Valerian, the part where the ghost jumped off the building in A Ghost Story, the fact that Power Rangers was surprisingly good, the soldier who gasps as Diana whips out her hair in the trenches in Wonder Woman, Ansel Elgort’s jacket in Baby Driver, whenever anyone tried to explain anything in Alien: Covenant, Elisabeth Moss in The Square, Anh Seo-hyun feeding Okja in Okja, Lois Smith being in movies, the kids eating ice cream in The Florida Project, the Game of Thrones joke in Logan Lucky, Vella Lovell in The Big Sick, and finally, most preciously, the moment in Home Again where Reese Witherspoon kissed Michael Sheen and someone in my theater shouted “she’s not feeling it!”

TELEVISION

10.  The Good Doctor

Listen, he’s a good doctor.

9.     Riverdale

They’re hot. They’re angsty. They do drugs that look like Pixy-Stix. They never seem to do homework. They love to hook-up in weird locations. They have terrible taste in karaoke songs. They love hair dye, and a well-defined eyebrow. They have really hot parents. They’re TV teens! I love it.

8.     Insecure

This is just to say that I am far too invested in Molly’s happiness as a person. I would also like to view a full season of Due North.

7.     American Vandal

From Alex Trimboli to Christa Carlyle, the best names on TV are on this show. Also the best reenactments, and somehow the most incisive take on what fuels, and results from TV’s true-crime obsession. Jimmy Tatro mumbling!

6.     Crazy Ex-Girlfriend

More shows should take the opportunity to explode in their third seasons, rocket forward at full speed, diagnose their main characters, and give Josh Groban wonderful, unexplainable cameos.

5.     Alias Grace

A show that conjured a performance for the ages out of Sarah Gadon and somehow made Zachary Levi palatable as a dramatic actor, this miracle of collaboration between Mary Harron and Sarah Polley is all the better for being binged. Down it in an afternoon, think of Grace under her black veil, daring you to disbelieve her, for years to come.

4.     Twin Peaks: The Return

A show that drove nostalgia into itself like a knife to the chest. Totally absurd. The best revival/exorcism yet on TV.

3.     Please Like Me

“Sorry about your life.” “I’m sorry about your life.” In a time when things tend to peter out, what a final season, in which everything goes to shit and then some. Maybe TV’s most prickly comedy, Please Like Me’s heart is of the “stumble along and keep going” sort and never does it test itself as much as it did with this bleak, pastel final statement.

2.     The Leftovers

Do you believe Nora Durst’s story? Sometimes I do. Sometimes I think it sounds ridiculous. Sometimes I relax in the comfortable, academic premise that it only matters that Kevin does. It’s a haunting idea, though, this image of world even emptier than The Leftovers’s own, where it’s possible to wander for untold time in darkness. Carrie Coon’s description of it is a kind of journey to the underworld – we’re there with her, maybe, and then we make it back, maybe. The trick of The Leftovers is the wound’s never fully healed.

1.     Halt and Catch Fire

The world changes. People sorta don’t.

Honorable mentions: the twist in The Good Place, the Taylor Swift demon character in Neo Yokio, Claire Foy on The Crown, Vanessa Kirby on The Crown, the stand-up in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Cristin Milioti in Black Mirror, the televised Academy Awards ceremony, the weeks when Netflix didn’t release new TV shows I had to watch, Girls’s “American Bitch,” the fact that Adam Driver is both in Girls and Star Wars, Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys performances on The Americans (and life in Brooklyn), the moments in Game of Thrones that were good enough to make me stop thinking about what people would write about Game of Thrones, season 2 of The Magicians’s resistance to any sort of plot logic, Jane the Virgin’s narrator, Nicole Kidman at therapy on Big Little Lies, Reese Witherspoon’s production of Avenue Q in Big Little Lies, Alexis Bledel holding things in The Handmaid’s Tale, Maggie Gyllenhaal directing porn in The Deuce, Alison Brie’s terrible Russian accent in Glow, Maya Rudolph in Big Mouth, Cush Jumbo miming oral sex with a pen in court in The Good Fight, the calming experience of watching new episodes of Superstore and Great News on Fridays, Eden Sher in The Middle, the fake books they make up for Younger, and Rihanna livestreaming herself watching Bates Motel.

THEATER

10.  Indecent

History, identity, community all mangled together in something that’s both excavation and revivification. I’m so mad I didn’t get to see it with my mom.

9.     Mary Jane

A nightmare that goes from bad to worse, which Carrie Coon performed with the endurance of a saint.

8.     SpongeBob SquarePants

Highlights: The tap number, the Fiddler on the Roof joke, the many uses of pool noodles, David Zinn’s design in general, the arms, the volcano setpiece, the fact that somehow I kept laughing for two-and-a-half hours at something SpongeBob SquarePants. Tina Landau, you’re a hero.

7.     Hello, Dolly!

I had a wonderful viewing experience like this, in that I sat alone on an aisle next to an older gay man who turned to me right when the curtain came down on the first act and said, “man, we love Bette.” (Shout out to any and all gags involving the whale.)

6.     Groundhog Day

Proof you can dig deeper into the material you’re adapting and still find more. Sometimes, the funniest gags come out of old-fashioned repetition. Andy Karl has the Rolex-like ability to make it all speed by without revealing any of the ticks, and then wallop you in the second act.  

5.     The Glass Menagerie

A lot of unconventional ideas piled onto each other that go so far into strange territory that they loop back around to being immediate. Maybe distant to some, but enough to unsettle me. I can still smell the onstage rain.

4.     The Wolves

A sign of a good play is probably that you remain invested in the characters long after you see it, and I’m going to spend so much time worrying about all the girls on the soccer team in The Wolves for the rest of my life.

3.     The Band’s Visit

Katrina Lenk has a gorgeous voice. Tony Shalhoub is restrained to the point that he could move his baton with nanometer accuracy. The songs are transporting. But most of all, The Band’s Visit manages to capture loneliness better than nearly any musical I’ve seen. Everyone, audience included, experiences something together, and then it all, slowly, both lingers and drifts apart.

2.     A Doll’s House, Part 2

What, you think I wasn’t going to include a play with a Laurie Metcalf performance? ADHP2 is perhaps clever to a fault in its set-up, but in the right hands, it turns into something both funny and moving – a story about what it takes to become a complete person, in or outside the influence of other people. Nora’s monologue about living in silence near the end is the full of the kind of simple statements that are so hard to act, and so brilliant when done just right.

1.     The Antipodes

Both an extended meditation on what it means to run out of stories and a brutal subtweet of Los Angeles, The Antipodes is my kind of play, in that it’s mostly people talking, Josh Charles is involved and very disgruntled, and everyone eats a lot of take out.

Honorable mentions: the music in Sunday in the Park With George, the pies in Sweeney Todd, the ensemble of Come From Away, seeing Dave Malloy in The Great Comet of 1812, Alex Newell’s “Mama Will Provide” in Once on This Island, Cate Blanchet having fun in The Present, Imelda Staunton in the NTLive Follies, Michael Urie in Torch Song, Patti LuPone’s accent(s) in War Paint, Ashley Park in KPOP, and Gleb.

[tiny-ruby-seeds]

Sinister Kid (Author’s Revised Version)

Hunter!Reader x Michael Langdon fic

This is also a Supernatural × AHS: Apocalypse crossover AU of sorts but don't worry, you don't need to be 100% knowledgeable in both as I’m doing a bit of lore blending anyway

Premise- A simple exorcism case for you goes terribly wrong when the demon burns your exorcism... And traps you both underground. Forced to wait until help arrives you grudgingly strike up a conversation with the monster you've been hunting since Lawrence... Only to discover this demon- called Langdon- maybe something else entirely…

Loosely inspired by the events of Supernatural Season 3 Episode 4- “Sin City” to a point

Warnings -Mentions of multiple gruesome murders, mentions of (what can possibly be seen as) cannibalism, demonic/paranormal stuff, Sass, language, possible UST, blasphemy & heresy 

Lyrics from “Outside the Rain” By Stevie Nicks 

Word Count- 21,477 (yeah... I may have gone a little overboard with this one... Next time I will break these down a little more I promise!) 

Pictures from the graphic above can be found here with credit to their owners

“... A sinister kid is a kid who

Runs to meet his maker

A drop dead sprint from the day he’s born

Straight into his maker’s arms

That’s me, that’s me

The boy with the broken halo

That’s me, that’s me

The Devil won’t let me be...”

-The Black Keys, Sinister Kid

Now I’ve been on some bad jobs since I started hunting.

It happens!

Hell, I’d even say it’s in the job description of hunting in general. Right next to crappy hotel rooms, more bumps and bruises then you’d want to deal with, and the metric tons of salt you have to run around with. Not everything is a simple case or as cut and dry, some of it is even life and death as I had learned on the job. Bad things happen, it’s Murphy’s Law after all.

But this hunt…

This hunt was already turning out to be one of the top ten worst I’ve been on.

Or that’s what I was thinking as I cleared another stone. My arms starting to get strained and sore from tossing a few already, trying to clear out the rubble before me. I really gotta do some strength training, don’t I? I thought.

I could feel the dirt and dust that puffed from each stone I moved, starting to cake itself on my skin thanks to the sweat. I also really didn’t want to think of the state of my clothes only that my black tank top and jeans would probably have to go through the wash at least a few times along with everything else I had on.

All of it left me feeling disgusting, and that didn’t help my mood as I breathed in the stale air that came from being underground. I could smell earth and stone, tinged with the echoes of incense and something… Heavy and sickeningly metallic smelling that I made my stomach turn coldly. I quickly tried to put my mind on something else.

Luckily, or maybe not so luckily,  it came in the form of another sharp twinge up my arm as I reached for another bit of rubble. I tried not to hiss or whimper as I picked it up. Tossing the brick behind me blindly.

Okay, maybe not so blindly as I was half aiming for a certain target standing behind me...

“You missed, Hunter,” I could hear a silky voice say proudly behind my back after I heard the tell-tale smack as it hit the floor.

I could feel a few curses bubbling under my breath. I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of snapping at him (I was enjoying how annoyed he was as I tried to ignore him) but I could hear the smile in his voice. I didn’t want to look back and see it but my rebellious brain decided to imagine it anyway. That slight gleam of teeth crossing his face making him look even more handsome than-.

Okay. Stop. That. Train. Of. Thought. Right. There, I thought wanting to kick myself for the umpteenth time since I saw him, hating I couldn’t get it out of my mind no matter how hard I tried.

That was probably my biggest bitch with this whole thing. I was in this situation with a demon who got under my skin in more ways than one, but that wasn’t the worst of it. Oh No... I had the gut feeling he fucking knew he was getting under my skin too with every stupid smirk and boy was he playing on it.

I grabbed another stone and threw it- hopefully- a bit closer in the direction of his voice (not gonna look back dammit!). I could, sadly, hear the clap as the stone hit the floor once again and but the annoyed huff from behind me made me smile to myself.

Getting closer am I, your highness? Good. I thought stretching out my back.

“Must you keep tossing those around like that?” I could hear him say in that haughty tone like he was a prince talking to a peasant.

That smooth voice of his both made my heart thrum and annoyed the holy hell out of me at the same time. Luckily the annoyance was winning over as I had been listening to him whining for a bit now and I just about had it.

So much for trying to ignore him, I thought swinging around to face him. I could swear he smirked but it was so brief I must have imagined it.

“Oh trust me, Sir,” I hissed. “This was not how I planned on spending my Friday night either. But some black-eyed ass decided ‘let’s throw a temper tantrum’-”

I jerked a thumb at the rubble behind me that I had just cleared enough to make a dent in. Did I mention that it was the only easy entrance to this place and just a few minutes ago? Oh sure, it had been particularly less dirt and rock filled then until a certain someone decided I wasn’t going back anytime soon to that stupid car I had to borrow while my ride was in the shop (god I missed that car).

Yeah, say what you want about me throwing rocks at him but I think I was in the right for being pissed off.

“- ‘Cause the mean hunter trapped my dumbass in a devil’ trap and tried to exorcise me’. So pardon me, your highness, if I make a mess of your wannabe Satanic Vampire Lair.”

I motioned the great underground chamber around us as my voice echoed off the golden colored stone.  

From what info I could gather before I let this demon “talk me into coming here” this was originally built in the cold war by some really rich, really paranoid holy man with a small congregation under his lavish mansion. There had been a few updates like the small windows that lined the left wall when you walked in (they were probably lined with bulletproof glass back in the day or something), but other than that… It still really screamed church.

This main room was the was the size of smaller chapel sanctuary, with enough horribly uncomfortable dark wooden benches to support it (they didn’t have that pew look so I’m calling them benches). It was even complete with an arched gothic ceiling above us and lined in alabaster that glowed. Along the left side were painting, like stained glass windows below the actual grated windows themselves. It you probably wouldn’t even know it was underground and would have thought it was just some random chapel somewhere. I would probably even find the place pretty too.

Shame that the room also boasted the skulls of goat heads and skeletons of snakes on pedestals along the walls. Above them in highly suspected paint (okay I’m betting it was dried blood but.. ew) were symbols. Some inverted pentagrams, some Sigils of Lucifer, and some Leviathan Crosses. Complete with a black alter that wafted that metallic sickly perfume of blood, sulfur, and death.

You know all signs that point to umm… Evil Yahtzee as it were. The same evil I was here to take down.

The demon, Langdon -or so I had heard him called at the bar I had met him at (the meatsuit’s last name maybe?)- let out a long low exhale in response, like he was dealing with a particularly stupid child (Dick… Wait... Don’t think about that, you horny idiot!). Rolling his eyes as he leaned back, arms crossing in front of his chest. He gave me a scathing look from where he stood on a deep wine-colored rug. A corner of that same rug was still lifted to show just a small part of a vivid angry red Devil’s Trap painted on the marble floor below him. A little bit of handy work I had started when I broke in a few days back after I suspected him and had just finished with a line from a spray can I had tossed in some far corner of the room.

I couldn’t be too proud of my handiwork right then as he looked annoyed. I hated that him annoyed made him look little just a bit hotter if possible. Oh, who was I kidding? He just had to be one of the hottest guys I had ever seen! Dressed all in black, he was fairly tall and lithely muscled like a jungle cat with the presence of a rock star. I could see why he passed as a pretty successful server at the local upscale place nearby (think high-end mobster/ politician/ vampire feel and you’re pretty damn close).  

His eyes were a startling cerulean that was breathtaking to see and hard look away from. His ginger gold hair, fell in waves and curls across his brow but a few inches short of his strong shoulders, catching the candlelight like a halo. Those locks framed a face that you would have sworn an artist cut and sculpted for a statue. That square jaw that you’d want to trace with your fingertips, that proud nose, and those soft lips that would probably tempt an angel if such a thing were possible.

Now, I wasn’t one to go crazy over guys like this but I utterly hated he was so damn attractive. It figures that a guy like him would be possessed by one of the worst demons I’ve come across. One I had been hunting for weeks now. One whom I had been having one hell of a time tracking until recently.

I had thought I had him on the ropes before but I guess should have known better. He had all but vanished... Until now. I half wondered if that was his game in this town (as he seemed to change with each new one)- possessing attractive men before feeding his victims their own intestines. If so I guess I can give that monster points. Even I would be pretty tempted tell him a few places he could put that tongue of his if he wanted if I hadn’t known…

Uggh, I really need to stop asking Madison how she was doing when I called for Zoe. She’s giving me terrible ideas and I don’t like it, I thought, ignoring the familiar pang of missing home that I was still trying to get used to even now. Thankfully (or probably not thankfully seeing where it came from) that train of thought was stopped when he spoke.

“Yes, because you were so keen to free me when I politely, kindly, asked to be released and to stop with that pitiful excuse of an exorcism,” Langdon quipped as he propped one of his hands under his chin.

The demon was looking at me in a way that reminded me of the way a cat did when watching a mildly interesting mouse. Debating if would be worth the effort to kill it or not. I gave him one of my patent you-gotta-be-shitting-me looks that I had learned from the best.

“Well, when you find a dead body in the back room you tell me if I should be so keen,” I snapped, getting pretty fed up with his bullshit.

He rolled his eyes with an almighty sigh. As if I were testing his patience like he wasn’t already testing mine… The asshole.

“Once again I told you,” Langdon said, almost groaning aloud (I had the feeling he was very tempted to groan but didn’t want to make it seem like I was getting to him) “I didn’t kill that... Man back there.”

He tilted his head to motion over to the closed door to the back room where the corpse was. Last I looked it was a few hours old, still stinking of sulfur, still pretty bloody seeing as his chest was carved open.

“So... What? He just fell on the knife and accidentally carved his own heart out just in time for your little Black Mass?” I said pointing to the altar on the far wall.

Last I looked blood was starting to congeal in that black stone bowl (yeah… ew), the ritual athames nearby not yet clean from it as well. Blood that wasn’t there I broke in a day or so ago to paint most of the seal. Now, I had done the research in the lore all seemed to say the same thing: A stone bowl, plus a black Satanic altar, with ritual knives, equals...

A heart had been in that bowl a few mere hours ago.

Probably from the poor bastard in that back room that I had been too late to save.  

Just another name to add to this bastard’s kill list.

The thought made my blood run cold from the guilt. Once again, I was glad he was stuck on that cheap ass rug thanks to the trap. Not so glad that the fucker had torched my damn exorcism earlier though, the bits of ash that were once my leatherbound book were still right before the altar. You know, the exorcism I had done all of that research on and had spent hours trying to make sure I got the damn Latin right (Gods, I hate Latin).

Fucking demons.

“Odd…” Langdon said, the ghost of a smirk crossing his face, I could swear his pretty blue eyes flickered black for a moment. “...I don’t recall ever saying his death was an accident.”

I snorted. Yeah rude, but a pretty, killer demon with a sassy sense of humor? Must be Christmas. I restrained myself from cursing at him, going back to the stones, grabbing another and tossing it- hopefully more in his direction.

“Missed once more, Hunter,” He said in a singsong tone that I promptly ignored (asshole) as I grabbed another.

I started to tune out his chiming in every now and then on my aim (I wasn’t aiming at him, per se... But I wouldn’t be upset if I did hit him) as the only thing I wanted to think about was getting out of here. Getting this asshole exorcized, getting his meatsuit somewhere safe if he was still alive (I hoped he was cause -gods- that would suck out loud. I’d have no chance at all with a guy like that seeing as I’m a bit of a hot mess right now, but still...), and maybe crashing for a week or two after a long hot shower.

I don’t know how much rubble I had cleared when suddenly the demon’s voice caught my attention. For some reason, he sounded rather insistent.

“-Should really start taking them from the top,” Langdon advised suddenly. “You keep taking the stones from the bottom and it will eventually cave in on you.”

So I got a pretty, killer, sassy, know-it-all demon on my hands. I thought sarcastically. Oh, happy day!

“Look, why don’t you just shove it, you-.” I was snapping at him when I heard a telltale shift of stone above me.

Oh crap-!

I just managed to get away from the small landslide of debris. Instinct from years of training helped me tuck and roll out of the way as a load of stones, brick, and dirt started to tumble down where I had been. A terrible jolt had me wincing as I could feel the tell-tale pain of rolling on my spine on a stone floor would have me even sorer than before. But I wasn’t under that rubble so there was that.

Although I kinda wished I was when I looked back. The past hour of work was gone. Buried under stone and earth. I was back where I started.

Fuck.

“God Dammit!” I cursed heatedly, kicking a small rock at the pile

“I told you-.” I could hear the demon start with that superior tone but I wasn’t having any more of that crap.

I rounded on Langdon half wishing I had one of those rocks in my hand, there was no way I would miss facing him now.

“Oh just fuck off already, your highness! That would have happened even if I had grabbed them from the top! We’re mostly underground in case you haven’t noticed! Or did you forget when you buried us here?!” I snapped.

He gave me one of those looks I was used to getting from demons, that cool impassive look that left me with the feeling that he would happily rip my tongue out if he had the chance. I had probably annoyed him enough.

Good, I thought. That makes two of us.

I stared at the new pile of rubble and sighed. Yeah there was no damn way I was gonna clear it in just a few hours. Maybe if I had my spells but some of my useful ones where among those ashes or back in my car. Yeah pretty useless right now. I could try transmutation but… I really wasn’t sure if trying one of the “Wonders” was a good idea. I hadn’t tried any of them- save for my personal gift- since…

… Well since.

I glanced over to one of the high windows that I had propped a bench under a few moments ago, the dim light of a nearby street lamp shining through the barred grate. I could try one of those again as I hadn’t tried the other two but seeing as those grates were made of iron and I didn’t really have a strength spell at my disposal (do we have one of those? I’ll have to bug Zoe as I think we should), I had the feeling it would be nothing more than really yanking at already pretty strained muscles.

It looked like my best option was to wait for backup. So here I was in the romantic candlelight…

With one of the biggest pain in the ass demon’s I’ve hunted yet.

Yeah, this hunt was slowly way up the list to the “top 5 worst hunts I’ve been on.”

Just my luck.

I trudged over with a sigh to my favorite deep burgundy leather jacket I had on a nearby bench, leaving it there to keep it (mostly) clean as it had been a gift from my friends when I started with this life (they had said I had to look the part after all).  Quickly I grabbed it and started fishing through the pockets both on the outside and the trick pockets a certain someone (I suspected Nan as she always agreed when I bitched- both verbally and not- about not having enough pockets before... Well before...) had sewn for my phone and the other odds an ends.

Finally finding it, I clicked it on and was met with a weak service sign. I shouldn’t be surprised, it was just as it had been a minutes earlier. I thought about trying to call Stu, my backup for this hunt, once more but the last time I had just managed to get through I had been met with the voicemail instantly.

Either Stu’s phone had died or he was holed up somewhere with that hot waiter he was eyeing...

God, I hoped the phone died. Stu’s flirting made me sigh and headdesk on a normal basis, he was kinda like a brother I didn’t want but got stuck with. Has been ever since I met him on that old Miller job back when I started. So the last thing I needed was to even think of him having sex cause… Yeah no, hot guy or not- ew.  If I was going to be trapped here with a demon I wanted to be on my guard, not puking my guts up.

I let out a low groan in frustration and had to keep from running my hand over my face as it would probably feel disgusting. Well more so than I already did.

“I suppose this is where we both wait and see who comes first then: The cavalry... Or the Indians,” The demon I had trapped lilted suddenly, obviously putting two and two together.

I glanced over to see Langdon watching me curiously with a tilt of his head. Guess he knew he didn’t need to ask about the cell service. Well, he probably already knew about it, it had probably been part of his plan when he brought me here…

The asshole.

“Or…” I started, seeing an opening. “You could, you know, wave your hand and clear it all up like you did when you made it all fall down.”

Yeah... It was a long shot, I know, but you bet your butt I was gonna try to annoy him enough for it. Telekinesis was not one of my stronger gifts compared to a few other things. Besides, it was barely a push compared to what he had shown he could do even stuck in that trap that bound him at his powers on the spot.

And besides, stubbornly annoying people was something I knew I was good at. Hell, a certain teacher of mine once said it was one of my gifts, witchcraft not included.

“That would be up to you, Hunter. Perhaps I would consider if you took care of my little problem here,” Langdon insisted, tapping the rug below him with his boot.

I snorted. Yeah right, like I’m going to let your ass out.

“Aww, what’s wrong? Can’t use your right hand for that? Don’t know what to tell you, sweetheart...” I told the demon with a grin.

Okay… Not my best comeback and I get the feeling I’d hate myself later (cause, ugh, really? Didn’t we already say we’re not going to go there with him? The hell is with your brain today?) but it was so worth it for his reaction.

He gave me a disgusted look, eyes narrowing, his lips tightened into a line. I have to admit I was a bit gleeful to see it (oh did I make you feel uncomfortable? Good. Cause you’re doing the same for me with your cheap trick demon pheromones, bastard)- but I continued.

“...Besides, I’m not stupid. Don’t insult us both by pretending you wouldn’t skin me alive right after I got you out of there, Demon.”

Just like you did the others.

The words were on the tip of my tongue but for some reason, I didn’t say it. Probably because he knew exactly what he did, hell he knew it the second he introduced himself to me. I had been so damn close before he had run last time. Have to admit I was impressed it took him so long to take the bait though. Usually, I snag quite a few demons with the whole “Hitchhiking newly Grad Student” bit and I was that age it worked for me. But that’s neither here nor there. He was finally in that damn trap. I finally got him.

I couldn’t help but take a step back and almost fall against the wall behind me. I slid down to the floor letting myself breath for a bit.

Not sure if it was pure relief from finally trapping that asshole or from the earlier adrenaline burst- We had a small little tiff before I trapped him, I had a few bruises forming but the asshole barely looked like I touched him, there were a few bullet holes in the far wall that show I sure as hell tried- but I was exhausted. My body was starting to feel heavier, and heavier each moment.

Yeah, not good. Not good at all.

I tried to keep myself awake by trying to review my very few options. I could keep calling but what good would a full voicemail do Stu or myself if it even went through? The best way for him to find me would be by leaving my phone on for the GPS signal. He knew I always had my phone and he was a genius with his computer after all. Plus he knew I was working this lead after some curious bits of info came from the most recent found body by the police as well as a little bit of spellwork.

He’d come. I knew he would.

All I could do was wait.

On the floor, I was fishing through my jacket again, this time for my earbuds. If I was going to have to sit here and play the waiting game then the least I could do was listen to music until I needed to use the spare battery. With any luck, it would wake me up. If Stu didn’t show up quickly and if my demonic friend here did have back up show up before him…

Well...  There was a gun on my left hip holster and a few bullets left in my clip with their names on it. Not like a phone would help me then either.

“And if I were to promise to slit your throat as opposed to skinning you?”  Langdon asked after a bit, an eyebrow raised as he looked down at me appraisingly on the floor.  “It would be faster than the other ways I could kill you with and less painful than what the others would most likely propose.”

I shook my head. Nice try, I thought. But you’re going to have to do better, you bastard.

“Oooh so tempting, let me think… Hmmm, that’s gonna be a hell no.” I said, finally finding my blue earbuds.

Yes!

I went right to the music app on my phone, going right to the playlist that I had saved on there per the insistence of a... Close friend (God, I missed her). I made a show of putting in the earbuds as the demon watched. I could see him starting to glare at me coldly as I clicked on the playlist. I was even nice enough to flash a winning smile as I flipped him off, grabbing my jacket and threw it on myself like a small blanket. Yeah I know, will probably need to clean that jacket too but I’d worry more about it later.

Before you ask, no, I normally don’t rest in the room with a demon. That’s like hunting common sense with the use of salt and to always click the safety off before firing a gun. But this demon was locked tightly in the strongest Devil’s Trap I could find, he couldn’t leave that unless the seal was broken either. And that would take me or someone outside the trap scraping the paint off or by cracking the marble floor and I sure as hell wasn’t going to do it. Plus, I seriously doubted he had as many friends he claimed.

A low-level black-eyed demon like him?

Yeah, right.

Besides the adrenaline crash was really starting to creep in and kick me hard, it was becoming a fight to keep my eyes open, and my vision was blurring. If I pushed it would make things worse or so experience and a few earned scars had taught me.

Meditation, that’s what I can do, I decided. A certain red-haired witch had once said it would help in situations like this. It would be restful but I wouldn’t be sleeping. I tried to clear my mind, ignoring how sticky and dirty I felt and the demon’s cold gaze. It wasn’t easy but slowly I tried to sink into the lyrics from the melodic tones of Stevie Nicks singing the chorus of the last song I was listening to…

“...Maybe it’s only a dream

I don’t want to feel that

Well it’s one more link- in the chain

I don’t believe that…”

***

Guess I really need to practice the whole meditation thing as the next time I opened my eyes I was curled in a ball on my right side on the cold stone floor. My phone was utterly dead, and the earbud on my right side was starting to press against my inner ear painfully. I must have dozed off, the songs of playlist lulling me like a lullaby. Yeah, I could almost hear the shaded lecture and the well placed smack up the head from a certain witch if she were here.

I ached from sleeping on the floor but it was an ache I had grown used to since I started hunting. So the pain was familiar at least even if the place I was in wasn’t. I pulled the earbuds out of my ear carefully, trying not to yawn as I reached up slowly, feeling my black tank top creep up my stomach as I stretched out sore muscles. As I did, I gave a bit of a moan that probably sounded pretty pornographic. I would be a little embarrassed by it if I wasn’t alone but it felt so damn good.

Too bad my half-awake brain completely forgot I wasn’t alone in the least...

“I must admit I’m almost astonished that you don’t snore,” A now familiar velvety voice lilted around me, snapping me awake faster then any cup of coffee could. “You’re a woman full of... Surprises, aren’t you?”

I swung over to see Langdon, lounging on the rug like a cat on a lavish throne. There was a devilish smirk on his (already) far too handsome face that made my cheeks burn. His blazing blue eyes running over my form as though I had invited him to take all the time the world to do so. A pink tongue suddenly running over his top teeth as though he saw something he was half tempted to bite into...

Oh fucking hell…I thought as I all but clapped my arms to my sides, feeling my face burn and a part of me start to thrum hungrily, start to ache in a way that I really really didn’t need right now. There was that strange pull to him again, starting to kick into overdrive. Beckoning me to his side.

Just kill me now, please.

“Were you watching me sleep this whole time, you asshole?!” I almost screeched, wishing my cheeks would stop burning already.

Use it, get angry, I thought. Anger was good, not lust for a damn demon… That’s bad! Seriously, his meatsuit is a snack, I get it! But he’s possessed by a douchebag whose using every damn trick in the book to get under your skin, so...

Let’s not, please.

“Yes, because there is oh so much to do when in a Devil’s Trap.” He replied sarcastically, blue eyes looking away (thank god, I could start breathing again, seriously I’ve dealt with other demons before. Why was this stupid trick getting to me? Don’t blame his looks on this one, I’ve kicked the ass of a few attractive werewolves in the past) as he leaned up to examine his fingernails.

The rings on his hand caught the dim light, onyx and ruby gem’s glinting as I huffed.

“Couldn’t you speak in tongues, twist your head around and spew out pea soup, or find some other way to amuse yourself?” I grumped, trying to fish through my jacket for my spare phone battery.  

Thankfully, my heart rate was starting to go back to normal and my body was cooling down. But the pull to him was still there but I was trying not to be bothered by it or at least trying to not draw attention to it…

Although later I would notice I had inched closer. I was leaning more against the bench then the wall then, slowly drawing closer and closer to him. An unconscious decision I would wonder about later but there was something else that had caught my immediate attention then.

My phone hadn’t gone off yet.

I knew it hadn’t, the ringtone would have cut through the music and woken me up automatically if it had. I had the most annoying one I could think of for Stu after all. I started to go through another pocket as I quickly calculated in my head, it had been more or less fully charged when I turned it on for the music so... I must have been out for a few hours.

Instantly, I wanted to smack myself. Did I seriously leave myself venerable for that long in a room with a demon? What the hell was wrong with me?! Just when I was about to bang my head on the nearby bench when the demon in the room spoke up.

“Oh, I did after a bit,” Langdon told me, getting my attention once more. “In particular I examined the trap you have me in.”

I couldn’t help but shake my head at him, doubtful.

“Cause you know all about Devil’s Traps now do you?” I said snidely as I tore through another pocket.

Not there either. Don’t tell me I left it at the hotel? I felt a jolt of panic that I tried to keep hidden. Crap...

“A bit here and there. I know there are different kinds, of course, befitting the demons of different cultures, religions, and pantheons,” I could hear him drawl on as I searched, cursing the gods if I did leave it behind.

There it is! I thought. Finding the small white battery case next to a spare bullet clip. I put the clip in one of my front pockets (just in case) and I was just about to pop off the back of my cell and change the battery when he continued.

“But I know far more about sigils, seals and.. Keys. Certainly more than most of my kind anyway,” Langdon piped up suddenly.  

I froze, catching his words right away.

How did he-?

...Oh hell.

I looked over to him to see him turn to me fully, a cat-that-caught-the-canary smile forming on his face for a minute before he spoke.

“A normal Devil’s Trap wouldn’t be able to fully... Contain me,” He said confidently. “But the Key of Solomon is something else entirely. This one, in particular, has been used to bind and control both the demonic and the dead after all. Not many know of it of course only religious scholars or…”

That smile that crossed his face suddenly became a hint darker and that made my blood run cold.

“Those who practice and study magic.”

Oh shit...

“Is that so?” I said trying to sound nonchalant, putting the phone and battery in my jacket pocket, slowly reaching for the gun on my hip.

The bullets in that clip were all carved with the standard Devil’s Trap, but they would do in a pinch; plus “can’t fully contain him” my foot, I’d like to see him dig a few of those out of his ass.

“Very smart of you to wait until we were both here alone to finish the Key. I would have noticed it earlier during the Black Mass. So tell me, my dear Witch,” He almost spat out that last word as though it were a curse. “Did someone from your Coven tell you to use the Key or was it just a lucky guess on your part?”

The gun on my hip felt cold in my hand but its weight was comforting all the same. But I didn’t draw it out. Not yet.

“Just thought a son of a bitch that was as sick and as evil as you deserved a bit of heavy-duty work,” I told him cooly.

It was a lie… I had called Bobby Singer a few times, and even made a slew of quick calls home to get the lettering of the trap right (Thank gods for Zoe, seriously). I had a feeling he would know I was bullshitting but I was hoping to distract him from the question. I wasn’t going to tell him I had help from the Coven, no matter what.

I had left for a reason. If he thought I was going to spill the beans on my family, my sisters, he had another thing coming

“Oh did you now?” He lilted in mock interest, eyebrow raised as if to ask me to go on.

I could tell he was ready to call me on the fib, but I was ready with the slight curve I would need to throw him off. Or so I hoped…

Demon’s loved to brag after all...

The sick bastards.

“Most monsters kill for food, or because someone pissed them off.” I told him icily. “It takes a special kind of sick son of a bitch though to carve up and eat a few kids like you did, just for kicks.”

It looked like it worked, that caught his attention. But what happened next kind of threw me off as well.

As opposed to that stupid disgusting prideful look I had expected, the superiority faded away from his face and he turned to me fully, he looked…

Was he... Stunned?

“Pardon?” Langdon asked, voice suddenly so very different.

Did he sound surprised?

Huh? I wasn’t sure but he had lost that mocking edge entirely. But that wasn’t all, he had a look on his face like I had told him the sky was anything other than blue. That careful cool of his shaken a bit, not a lot but enough to make him look something a bit more touchable than the high and mighty creature he seemed to portray himself as.

Instantly, I wanted to throw something very sharp and heavy at him.

Was he fucking with me? Did he think he could just pretend it didn’t happen?! All those corpses he left behind. Even normal people were taking notice! They were saying it was the work of a serial killer but those who really knew.. Knew better. He was one hell of an actor. I’ll give him that.  But it didn’t stop me from seeing red.

Getting caught by my own curveball, yeah, later I would appreciate the irony.

“Don’t play dumb with me!” I snapped at him heatedly, unable to stop myself now. “Margaret was eight and Jason was barely three! You remember them now?! They lived just past fucking Lawrence, and you butchered them! Innocent children, you sick fuck! I can even give you the goddamn list of the others!”

I remember the police reports, I remember speaking to the coroners over small mutilated bodies that almost made me vomit.

This demon...

He always started from their feet, their wrists bound, their little voices screaming...

There was a fucking trail of these kinds of bodies to this fucking place as he kept it up, learning more…

Perfecting it.

All of which I would be sure to add onto my list of nightmares the legions of hell spewed out on a daily basis. I could hear the names of the lost echoing in my mind like a sick, pitchy song you couldn’t get out of your head. Enraged and shaking, I yanked the gun out of my hip holster, clicking off the safety aiming it right at him. Muzzled pointed right at his forehead, not seeing anything but the monster in front of me I couldn’t see the man he possessed… Not any more.

“I tracked the demon who did this, here to this shithole town. There’s only been one demon I’ve come across, three guesses but you only need one on who that is, asshole.”

Suddenly a dark look crossed the demon’s face.

“I see now,” He said evenly suddenly glancing over to the door that led to the back room before he spoke once more.

“Of course that disgusting insolent coward would try to appeal to me for help... He was running from you.”

Wait...

What?

Did he just…?

“Shame,” Langdon continued. “If I had known that, things would have been interesting earlier.”

Interesting? What the fuck?

“What the hell are you going on about?” I finally said, not quite understanding as my brain was whirring like a hamster in a wheel.

Was he saying-?

“Our little friend in the back room.” He said suddenly, I could swear I heard a low growl in his voice at the word ‘friend’.

 “He had deviated from the plan and then had the gall to come to me for help thinking he could appeal to my hatred for... Your kind. Unfortunately, he underestimated the weight of his own crimes in my eyes. I felt a suitable punishment was needed. So I let the Satanist’s use him for their Mass to Lucifer earlier. Suppose that Black Mass satisfied more than just one hunger...”

He glanced over to me, the ghost of that terrible smile crossing his face, eyes shining as though he were talking about… I don’t know, lollipops and rainbows or something other then cutting out the heart of a demon.

For some reason that was more terrifying than the normal demonic cole-black eyes.

“I carved the binding link in his arm myself. He was trapped in - what do you hunters call them so eloquently? Ah yes.- His ‘meatsuit’ when they carved out his heart so he would feel every bit of it. No harm no foul, the meatsuit was already dead after all, he had made sure of that.”

Langdon tilted his head as he examined me once more before he spoke. I suddenly felt my throat tighten as it was like I was under a microscope with how his too blue eyes looked at me. Like he wasn’t just looking at me but…

Into me, through me.

“If I had known that you were here for him I would have insisted we kept him alive,” He said. “It would have been fascinating to see what you would have done in that circumstance.”

I lowered my gun slightly. Was he serious?

“And I’m supposed to believe this bullshit... Why?” I asked him.

The demon shrugged, I had the feeling he frankly didn’t care if I believed him or not.

“You can call it bullshit all you’d like but know this, Hunter: I’ve never been a fan of getting my hand’s dirty, Learned that from my father. Besides...”

A slow wicked smile crossed Langdon’s face, it was terrifying and oddly sexy in a way that made me wonder, what the hell was wrong with me today?  

“... Always more fun to entice men and women to dirty deeds. I’m surprised though, I had thought you and your friend understood that from visiting my sleepy -as you put it- shithole town above.”

I raised an eyebrow, “sleepy” was most certainly not what I would describe this particular town we were in. Between a growing number of drug busts, illegal brothels, and the fact it was slowly creeping up the list for murder capital… Yeah I think “shithole” was probably a bit more accurate. Although that wasn’t all. In the course of barely few months, this place had gone from barely being a blip on the GPS to being almost infamous for crazy shit, almost on par with Las- Freaking-Vegas. It was like… Something was drawing it all here. And that’s disregarding the supernatural signs that had cropped up in the area.

There had been a few freak storms of stones (yeah, it rained stones), a few strang bird patterns. But the big one was an odd number of snakes that had appeared. Some which weren’t native to the area much less the US. Seriously, how the hell do the locals explain a freaking Egyptian Asp in someone’s backyard? Muggles are weird yo.

In fact, that was why Stu had been here in the first place when I ran into him. He had suspected some crazy stuff was the cause, but...

“So the whole thing with the town, that’s all you?” I asked.

That smile was still on his face as he shrugged so nonchalantly you’d think we were talking about something other than an entire town going dark side.

“I can’t claim credit for all of it.” He said sitting up straighter as he addressed me. “The ideas were already in their simple little heads. I just merely made a suggestion to the owner of a bar or two and… applied the right pressure and stimulus and the God-fearing men and women of this little tiny town came to sin in droves like moths to the flame. However that discredits your theory that I was ripping children apart in Lawrence though I suppose, doesn’t it?”

I paused, trying to think, my finger still on the trigger of the gun. He could be lying. Demons did that but… What he was saying made a hella ton of sense.

Whispers of this place had cropped up long before Lawrence. Hell, we had even heard stories of a few hunters disappearing near here too. But I hadn’t paid them any mind as most hunters took what pleasure they could when they could. Never knew when something would gut you after all.

Besides, that stiff in the back room... He did smell a lot of sulfur, a lot more than normal demonic victims did. I had been enough cases to know demons only left traces of it on their victims, they didn’t reek of it. I hadn’t heard of a binding link before but, I wouldn’t put it past a hellspawn to come up with some way to do it. Trapping a fellow demon in their meatsuit while they tortured them… Yeah, I could buy it. Plus, Stu had said something had turned this place into a paranormal magnet, it’s another reason why everyone was so ramped up.  

Right pressure and stimulus.

Oh yeah, demonic energy would do just that. So maybe he wasn’t bullshitting me.

Well… Shit.

I lowered the gun, clicking the safety back on and cursing venomously under my breath. As much as I hated to admit it (and, boy, did I hate to admit it), he had a point.

Plus... Tracking Langdon had felt different. In fact, all the way up until he invited me here, it had felt like he was… Curious. Like a kid poking a passed out animal with a stick, a bit different from the whole “come and get me” crap the demon from Lawrence had laid at my feet with the last body that was found. I had thought it was strange but just chalked it up to the demon trying to throw me for a loop like it had a few times before.

But if it was true then… I had trapped a very different demon.

So I was pretty much shooting blind here.  Stuck in an underground room with a monster who had almost convinced an entire town to give in to it’s darker impulses. Yeah, it was not something I liked. Not at all.

I reached for my phone in my pocket once more, about to change the battery in a hurry to maybe make another call to Stu. I was really hoping he was on his way right about then when suddenly Langdon broke the silence between us.

"Have there been others?" He asked suddenly, lowly.

I raised an eyebrow turning back to him. He wasn’t giving me that, haughty look as he had before, rather there was something oddly even in his gaze. It’s strange but… I had a feeling I wasn’t talking to the pompous demon he had been a few moments ago.  

"Others?" I said questioningly with an eyebrow raised, trying to understand what he was meaning. 

"Other demons like him-.” -He motioned curtly with nod of the head to the back room with the body “-On your hunts.”

I stared at him as it took me a bit for his question to sink in. If you want to know the god’s honest truth, I couldn’t believe it at first. Was he really asking if I had encountered demonic kinds of demons? You know, the ones that you had only dreamed of in your nightmares.

For fucking real?

And when it finally did hit me what he was asking I couldn't help but laugh loudly, sarcastically. He had to be joking right?

"Wait wait wait! Are you trying to tell me not all you demons are like him?" I snorted.

He gave me a dirty look and I couldn’t help but crack up. Was he really giving me a “Not All Demons” speech here? Seriously!? And here I thought his kind didn’t have a sense of humor! The lights flickered which cut my laughter off. That should have been my warning to tread cautiously before he spoke once more.

"Answer my fucking question, Hunter," He demanded, his silky voice icy cold, a dangerous edge in his tone that reminded me what he was.

I could see barely restrained anger on his face and any humor I had dropped as I leaned forward. So the pretty boy demon wanted the truth? Fine then…

“You want to know? Okay…  You’re worse than the fucking monsters I’ve dealt with. I've seen demons like you tear people apart for just existing.” I said coolly.

“Most monsters do it because they are hungry or just to survive in this damn world. But you demons… I’ve seen your kind kill for kicks either cause you could or get your sadistic rocks off. Plane crashes, subway accidents, mass shooters all of it is just a day in the office for you, isn’t it? But no… You all aren’t satisfied with that shit, are you? You think we haven’t noticed all the disappearances? The deals cashed in early? The murders? The rapes? As far as I’m concerned you can stick your ‘Not All Demons’ bullshit so far up your ass you can choke on it cause as far as I can tell all you fucking demons are the same twisted-.”

I stopped my rant as… I felt it then.

The air was... Charged. Like the atmosphere before a terrible storm ready to finally crack the sky itself apart. In fact, when I noticed, it didn’t stop rather it was only getting heavier and hotter. Until was so stifling that I was starting to have trouble breathing. I could feel sweat started to bead on my skin like I was sitting out on the blacktop in summer. The candles lit around the room were flickering and fluttering in the still air in a way that made my hunter instincts kick into overdrive. The scent of sulfur was becoming stronger then I had ever smelled it before, it was like sitting in the middle of mine or some biblical brimstone scene. I looked over to where Langdon sat once more and...

I admit I gasped and stumbled back almost into the bench behind me.  I had to blink, had to convince myself that was I was seeing was real as it was like the reality I knew was bending and cracking apart before my eyes. With each flicker of the light around us, it was like Langdon’s appearance seemed to... Flicker with it.

He was starting to look like something... 

Other.

I couldn’t really see it very well from the distance but... I could tell his skin was changing from sun-kissed gold to something pale. No, he was even more pallid than a corpse. In fact, I’d dare say his skin was… Stark lifeless white with veins like cracks of gray or black on his skin like it barely kept the darkness back. But that wasn’t all each time his appearance flickered to this… This form he seemed to pull all light out of the darkness and leaving nothing but an empty void devoid of all life, color, and form. An empty void that was only matched by those familiar fathomless demonic black eyes he bore.  He looked something beyond human, something...Very much not from this realm. In fact, he looked…

Like a damn demon, not one in hiding.

Holy shit.

Was this just peek at what of the real demon inside?! But… All of the lore and stories from other hunters said that only those marked for hell could see it’s minions through the meatsuits. I sure as hell hadn’t made any deals! So how could I-? Wait…

Was he doing that?

Could he be...

Altering his physical form?!

No… My mind and body all but shuddered at the thought. That’s impossible. Demon’s take the bodies of humans because they can’t take their true forms up here. They couldn’t alter their meatsuits to look like their real demonic selves save for the black eyes because it wasn’t their body in the first place!

That was the deal! It couldn’t be done!

But what I was seeing.  It shouldn’t be happening...  

Unless…  

Unless he wasn’t in a meatsuit at all.

If so that meant that body he was in right now was…

No fucking way.

The hair on the back of my neck was standing up, my blood was starting to run cold, I started shaking despite the heat around me. I could taste my heart beating in the back of my throat along with the bile as the sulfur made my stomach turn.

I grabbed the gun in my holster when it hit me. He said a normal Devil's Trap wouldn't work on him. God, what if he wasn't just bullshitting me? After seeing… this, I think I was a little more inclined to believe him.

This demon wasn’t like the normal black eyes level of demon…

This was almost like… Like…

… A pair of sickly golden yellow eyes shining in the dark as they looked at me seemingly through space and time itself, a terrible grin on the demon’s as they held a bleeding wrist above the small rosy mouth of a tiny baby who was wearing a very very familiar pink onesie...

… My mind was screaming, no no no no no! As I willed myself to raise the gun. Yet... I was frozen. I… I couldn’t move, I could barely breathe, I was starting to shake uncontrollably. I wasn’t sure I could hold the gun steady. And then…   

Abruptly, as if he just realized what was happening Langdon let out a long low exhale. It was... As though he were trying to get a reign on himself. As he did the temperature slowly, carefully started to cool and steady itself to normal. The heaviness in the air... Faded, the flickering stopped, and he once again looked like the handsome man he was before. But I had a gut feeling that appearances were deceiving, and in his case- terribly so. 

"My apologies," he said suddenly looking up, cerulean eyes (as they were once again) finally meeting mine, the ghost of a wry almost sheepish smile on his face. "It appears my temper almost got the better of me."

I had to think a bit before I spoke, the air between us was pregnant with shock and horror. I could feel the echo of tremors still in my body yet they were starting to calm down as I was trying to find the words. My brain still trying to comprehend the creature I had seen just a few mere moments ago, wearing a very very similar face to him yet so very very different. Maybe that was why I decided need to dance around the subject a little as I was trying to understand what I had seen had been real and not some fever dream.

"That happened to cause you were pissed?" I was able to breathe.

He gave something akin to a shrug before he spoke.

"It can, on occasion," Langdon admitted. “I have done far worse when I was angry in the past. You’re lucky I want you alive, Hunter. You wouldn’t have been the first I burst into flame with my temper if I hadn’t.”

I snorted but I didn't take my grip off the gun. Although he said that so offhandedly… I had a feeling he wasn’t entirely joking.

Memo to self: Let’s not piss off the demon anymore than we already have because that scared the hell out of me. Speaking of…

Just what the hell kind of demon was he?  

"I see you are on your guard once more," Langdon noted, he glanced telling at the gun still in my hand before he spoke once more. “I am sorry if I alarmed you but I do appreciate you telling me all the same…”

He let out a tired sigh that surprised me as it seemed… rather honest and rather real for a fake, lying, cold-blooded demon.

“The other demon’s… They would have me believe otherwise, perhaps I should have known better than to fully trust them. I had been warned that some didn’t have the true faith in the plan. We are supposed to be better than your kind but… It appears some of us are worse than the mindless monsters of this world. As much as I hate to say it, you are in the right in hunting those demons.”

I admit-I half thought he was mocking me and was half tempted to raise the gun and point it at him for all the good it would do me but…  Something kept it at my side. Maybe because he seemed to mean it when he said sorry? I don’t know...

This demon was already proving to be… Odd compared to the others. And that was... Well, one part curious and one part troubling.  I wasn’t sure still that he wasn’t being polite because he was trying to earn my trust before gutting me or if it was because he actually was this way. It was the flip of the coin to be honest although I bet it was more heads than tails. Yet… I found myself even more drawn to him.

The pull was strong enough that I found myself taking a few more steps closer to the trap. Maybe to see if I could see him do that again or to see if maybe there was some track of that pale face on him. Either way, he terrified me… And I was always oddly fascinated with things that terrified me, even as a kid. 

"Could you blame me?" I asked him, finally sitting down once more on the marble floor, 5 feet before him in the trap.

"Before this, the craziest thing I had seen was when I found a demon with yellow eyes. I thought they were high tier but this… Well, they didn't do whatever it was you did to their face."

He chuckled, it was a rich sound that filled the chamber and… It was strange but I found myself rather liking it when it wasn’t terribly sarcastic.

"No other demon will, besides me." Langdon said to me almost proudly

I rolled my eyes. Pompous much?

“Right," I said sarcastically. "Like I haven't heard that line before."

But I was sure to note that in my mind right away. Cause if he wasn’t a normal black-eyed demon then… What was he exactly? I would need to grab as much information on him as I could. Maybe play an angle and see what he would spill? We were stuck here after all.

It was worth a try.

Langdon meanwhile flashed a grin that seemed to light up his face. It was strange but I would have almost called it charming if it weren’t for the fact I could see just a trace of darkness in those eyes, like storm clouds in an otherwise clear sky.

“I can assure you it’s true, just as I can assure you no harm when I’m trapped here. Burning your exorcism and the cave in is the most I will want to do while being bound to the Key. Anything else would be rather petty and lead me nowhere in the long run anyway.”

“And if you get out?” I asked him. “What will you do then?”

“Well…” He started, that smile still on his face. “... Possibly a little maiming. You did trap me after all and your terrible Latin burned my ears. I cannot let that go unpunished after all, mild annoyance or no.”

I rolled my eyes at the insult of my Latin (I’m working on it, okay!). Figures, you can take the demon out of hell but you can’t take the demonic out of the demon. I thought before he continued on and I admit… He surprised me for the second time.

“But -I confess- I find you... Intriguing, perhaps a little more so than when I took you here. A Witch turned hunter is curious enough, but not many humans alive can say they have Azazel.”

Intriguing? Me? My thoughts spun before I could stop them

And...Azazel?  The name didn’t ring any bells. Who the hell was that?

“Uhh pardon but, who?” I asked confused, really trying not to get caught on the fact he found me… Intriguing (He’s a demon dammit! Don’t you start feeling all fluttery, you weirdo!).

I released hold of the gun in my holster but kept my hand close by if I need it.

“Oh, the ‘yellow-eyed demon’ you mentioned. If it is who I suspect, his name was Azazel.” He told me.

I rolled the name around in my head a bit. Guess I shouldn’t be surprised, I doubt demon’s like to be named “Mark” or something. But… Wasn’t Azazel mentioned in a demonology book I had picked up some time ago? I’d have to look it up later.

“That was his name?” I asked him incredulously, raising an eyebrow. “Really?”

Langdon gave a bit of a chuckle.

“He can’t really be called ‘Yellow Eyes’ to his peers, you know.” He told me knowingly.

Too knowingly, so much I almost gasped. No freaking way.

“Wait… Did you know him?” I asked, leaning forward interested.

Have to admit I was disappointed when Langdon shook his head.

“Only from correspondence.” He told me. “He was of the rank that ruled over the demons in hell and on earth. And he ruled with an iron fist, so of course, I’ve heard of him. You’ll be hard pressed to find a demon who doesn’t.”

Disappointment bit me, hard. I shouldn’t have hoped. My luck wouldn’t let me find the answers I had been running for after a bit of a fuck up like this. But still…

This was new info.

Yellow Eyes was one of the higher ranks…He had led them. No wonder we had been dealing with crazier demons than usual, My thoughts spun.

A part of me instantly thought of two brothers I had met before I started. Who had had told me they were hunting that same Yellow-Eyed demon sometime back. I didn’t really remember their names for the life of me but the tall one had urged me to stay at the Coven… But then Hell Gate had been kicked open by someone who was... Like me. And I saw other things when looking in the black mirror…

Things that I made me know I couldn’t stay any at the Coven longer…

As much as it hurt…

I couldn’t.

I wondered if I could find the number the brothers had left. I didn’t know if they were alive as I had heard rumors… But if they were and they didn’t know their quarry had been a high-rank freaking demon, plus if the younger of the two was… Like me and didn’t know the truth of what the demon had done to him… Well, we may have a slew of problems here soon enough if we didn’t already. But before I could dwell on this any longer, Langdon interrupted my thoughts once more.

“However that begs the question: how did you know him?” He asked.

My eyes snapped up to Langdon’s face. There wasn’t that mocking look or that superior look on his features, he seemed genuinely curious when he tilted his head to look at me.  Like he was actually interested.

I wondered if it was maybe because he was utterly bored or because he hadn’t been stuck in a room with a hunter like this. Then again… I had to admit if it was the latter I couldn’t blame him. I was curious about him as well even though I shouldn’t be. He was already showing to be a strange exception to the rule and I wanted to know why that was.

Maybe he saw the same in me?

Maybe...

I bit my bottom lip, thinking about what to say. I was stuck in a room with him for who knows for how long now and who knew how much longer I would be stuck here. May as well see if I could get more information, more answers. He thus far had been the most informative than most I had spoken to (or interrogated I suppose). And besides…

I needed to play this angle, lemonade out of lemons or something right? Or that’s what I was telling myself then. But what could I say to maybe move this along?

There was only one thought that ran through my head and- as I was want to do on occasion- that thought, of course, ran right out of my stupid mouth.

“Well, a man with yellow eyes killed my family when I was one so you could say I might know him a little. Unless there’s another yellow-eyed bastard running around,” I told Langdon bluntly.

Okay…

Maybe not like that but… Okay, I thought with a mental smack. Why the hell had I told him that? It was true of course but… still. He didn’t need to know that!  

I was bracing for the usual demonic bullshit when I swear I had heard someone’s breath catch. I glanced over to see Langdon’s eyes drop to the floor,  a look on his face like he was just reeling after getting smacked. I could see his thought racing through the windows of too blue eyes.

“I see,” He said, suddenly. “I didn’t know he had… That you... I apologize for that.”

His face was now unreadable, yet there was a glint in his cerulean eyes that left me with the feeling that he was anything but emotionless at this. No, I had a feeling in my gut he… Somehow understood. It was strange, I think he actually meant it once again (two in a row for a demon… Shocking right?). But, he looked almost awkward, as if he couldn’t meet my eyes then as he looked to the plush red carpet he sat on.

“Don‘t be,” I told him with a shrug. “There’s nothing to be sorry for. It was... So long ago. Besides, I was lucky enough to be adopted by my godmother. Growing up sucked- sure- but it wasn’t too bad all things considering.”

I didn’t dare tell him my godmother was currently in the Coven of New Orleans, even though I hadn’t spoken to her since… Since the day I crossed the threshold of the Academy and struck out on my own. No need to tell the demon any more than I already had. Besides… I needed to protect my family, even though most of them probably hated me being here.

If they didn’t hate my guts in general.

“That makes you one of the lucky ones then,” Langdon said suddenly almost making me jump. “Not many can claim that after... Losing a family.”

It was his tone that had me looking to him that strange… Knowing he had that caught me off guard. I guess I turned expecting to see a lie all over his face but instead there was a strange look on his features that startled me.

It was as though he were thinking of something else. Something terrible but long ago and far away,  a memory that had come from the darkness of the past to stab him in the back once more.  I almost lost my breath at how utterly... Human he looked then. Hell, maybe even more human than most humans I had dealt with. Most demons wouldn’t dare look like that in front of anyone. It was a weakness, or so I had learned while hunting them. But what was even stranger was…

I could feel my heart ache for him.

“Speaking from experience?” I asked softly, my voice probably a bit more gentle then advised but I didn’t have the heart to kick myself for it.

He looked up to give gave an empty and blank expression that spoke as many volumes as it hid so much. I wondered what his history was. A history I had a feeling he was kicking himself for just hinting at as much as I was kicking myself for saying what little I had said.

Was he one of those who sold their soul as a human and became a demon? Did he…  Still, remember being human? Was that why he was able to change his appearance because it was his own body before?

No, didn’t make sense. Why hadn’t other demons done the same? Besides I think you had to be a certain rank to leave hell and by the time most did their bodies were long rotten, but I couldn’t say that for sure. My demonology was spotty at best save for the whole warding and exorcism part and the best books were days away. I wouldn’t probably have to hit them as I still had more questions than answers

“... Maybe,” Langdon answered with a shrug, his tone may show he didn’t care and I could visibly see his walls start to go back up but for a brief moment his eyes…

There was a deep pain there,  a deep hurt in his too blue eyes that I could understand. That I could sympathize with. Yeah, a hunter with “Sympathy for the Devil”… An irony of ironies. But it didn’t make it any less true.

“I’m sorry,” I told him gently, meaning it so honestly that it startled me…

And yet I meant it with everything I was.

Langdon looked to at me in surprise, eyes not moving from mine suddenly. I felt something strange then… A strange feeling like I was being x-rayed in some way or another. But… I must have imagined it. But I could see he was looking at me carefully. Like he was examining me for any kind of bullshit, any trace of a lie. It left me with the feeling he didn’t really experience things like sympathy often. If my guess was right, demons must not reach out like this to each other with their own kind.

It was... Kinda sad if you thought of it. He must have always been alone.

Suddenly Langdon tore his eyes away with a sigh, long and tired.

“There’s nothing to be sorry for,” He said dismissively, yet there was something in the way he wouldn’t look me in the eyes now.

I had a feeling he was uncomfortable, he wasn’t the only one either. I was… Actually starting to like him.

Not good, not good at all. Should probably draw the line in the sand… Any more and it could be a problem for us both. As much as I didn’t want to do it- something told me that he didn’t experience kindness often, before or after becoming a demon was hard to say- It didn’t change the fact he was a demon and I was a hunter. I would have to try to exorcize him if Stu showed up. And then… If it worked, if he didn’t put on that binding link or whatever…

He would be gone.

I wasn’t sure why that stung a little but it did.

No, it didn’t just sting… I hated it, more than I really wanted to get into.

Yeah, better to stop this now before something stupid happened.

“Whatever you say, Black Eyed Asshole,” I relented with a sigh, I had meant that to be a bit more forceful but I could hear that fond edge that I wouldn’t let myself even begin to examine.

Fuck.

I could swear I saw the corners of the demon’s mouth draw up at that. I wonder if he had caught that poorly hidden edge. Or if maybe he was relieved that I was drawing the line again, thinking the same thing or if it was just me.

It probably was just me…

Lord, I hope it was.

It would be easy to go back to before then. Didn’t need two idiots in this situation.

“Still? Just because we are on different sides doesn’t mean we can’t be civil while we’re trapped, Hunter,” Langdon pointed out, yet there wasn’t a snide edge in his tone there.

Rather, He almost sounded almost teasing.

Seriously, you are supposed to hate my guts. Remember?

“Did you say you were going to maim me if you got out first?” I pointed out with a smirk.

He gave me a smirk in return.

“... I may have.”  Langdon admitted.

“Guess it’s just in my nature but can’t really be civil to people who want to maim me and not in a fun way.”

Fun way? I thought to myself, What the hell is going on with my mouth?

“I suppose I should count myself lucky you have been polite for as long as you have then.”

I shrugged

“I am curious, did you ever discover why Azazel was at your home all those years ago?” Langdon asked me.

I thought a bit before I answered, leaning back.

“Think either my folks made a deal and he came for payment and one neglected to tell the other,” I said flatly. “Can’t say I know other than that.”

I glanced over to him.

“Am I warm?” I asked

“Perhaps. He had a plan he was enacting involving the children of men.” Langdon told me.

This I knew. This I knew all too well.

“You mean the Hell Gate and the Demonic Army?” I asked him.

Langdon raised an eyebrow but nodded in agreement before he spoke.

“Not just that, they were just small parts of the grand plan.” He told me.

Now...

This I didn’t know.

“Grand plan?” I repeated, leaning forward once more.

Langdon nodded, I could swear I saw the smirk growing.

I was just about to ask what he met when suddenly he held his hand up.

“That’s classified,” He told me cooly, that regal demon making a come back from before.

I must have given him a look as he all but chuckled before he continued.

“It would spoil the surprise. Although... Those idiots you spoke of earlier may be doing that already.”

I raised an eyebrow as he all but spat out the word idiots. He was pretty pissed at the demonic demons, wasn’t he? Huh... Wasn’t sure what to think of this. But, yep, I was really starting to like him. As stupid as it was for doing so.

“What are demons suppose to do then?” I asked him flatly. “You keep saying they are supposed to be doing something for this grand plan. You’d think they were supposed to be… I don’t know, demonic.”

He turned to me, I could see the annoyance in every line of his face. But I don’t think it was directed at me this time.

“There are various form of demonic energy as I’m sure you know,” He told me with a look. “Most must be given the expressed permission of hell to use this earth as … The garden for their carnal pleasures. And even those who do so serve a purpose, chaotic as it may be, it’s a purpose nonetheless.”

I could see his ringed fingers clenched into fists when he spoke

“The leaders of hell don’t care much for unpredictability unless they are responsible.” He said.

Hmm… You sure do seem to know a bit about them. I thought but I kept that thought to myself.

“So, that’s going to spoil the surprise somehow? That’s what got you pissed?” I asked.

“Something like that,” Langdon replied. “It also answers the question I’ve had of what I need to do next for the plan to come to fruition...”

For some reason that didn’t sound all that encouraging. I was half tempted to ask but I had a feeling that he wouldn’t answer anyway.

“Either way, that explains why you caught my attention when I first saw you,” Langdon said suddenly.

That was so out of left field I wasn’t sure if he knew he had said that.

“What do you mean?” I asked

For a moment I could see an odd look cross his face. I could see him thinking carefully about what he was going to say next.

“Let’s just simply say I have a talent, a certain ‘night vision of the soul’. I can see into the dark places that most try to keep hidden It’s a gift that has served me well. But you… There’s something about you, in particular, caught my eye and I wanted to understand what it was.”

Huh? Not sure what to make of that. I thought but I filed the information away for later.

“So… What? Do I have a beacon that only animals and pain in the ass demon’s can hear and I not know of it or are you just special?” I asked.

Now this time I could definitely see he was trying hard not to smile. Not sure why I felt a little disappointed for a minute that he didn’t.

“To a point, perhaps,” He confessed. “Only certain demon’s will sense it. However, most of the rabble won’t.”

“There a reason for that one?”

“...Quite possibly.”

“But you’re not going to tell me are you? Has something to with the ‘Grand Plan’ anyway?” I said with air quotes around two certain words.

“And here they say you hunters aren’t an intelligent lot,” Langdon said with the shadow of a smirk.

I shook my head, I could feel a slight smile on my own face that I was careful to hide. Or I at least tried to when a thought came to me.

“But don’t I screw over that over anyway?” I asked.

Langdon looked at me curiously.

“Why do you say that?” He asked.

He was going to make me say it wasn’t he? Say what I knew. What little I knew.

I took a deep breath, about to admit something I didn’t want to but… He may be the best lead I had. A simple question that- I confess- I may have also left home to find answers for.

“You don’t have to tiptoe around with me, Langdon, I know,” I told him. “I saw it. You all had a Battle Royale for all of us freaks with demon blood so you could find the one that was supposed to survive and lead the demon army.”

I could swear I heard his breath catch, shock written all over his features. This time I didn’t hide my smile, although it was probably pretty forced.

“You all seemed to forget about there was a witch with the demon blood too,” I told him. “I may have been with the Coven when it happened but… You can’t tell me a few Aura Shields hid me from you guys entirely.”

Don’t think I’m that stupid, I thought. Meanwhile, Langdon was looking at me like I was something else.

“I see you have quite the talent yourself in that case.” Langdon reasoned. “Isn’t the Sight or Divination one of the Seven Wonders?”

“Divination is yes. But I wouldn’t call it that,” I shrugged. “I never see anything good much less a wonder but... Don’t change the subject, Langdon.”

The demon sighed long and low. I had a feeling it was taking a bit for him to say what he was about to say. I would wonder why later.

“I know very little as to why they spared you from the Battle Royale. Perhaps you were already present where they needed you to be for the time?”

That… Wasn’t reassuring. What were they doing that they were keeping in the wings for another day?

And those hunting brothers urged me to stay at the Coven? Should I have told those brothers of what I saw in the black mirror? Did they already know? Wait… The young brother. He was like me, a boy with demon blood…  

Oh God, were they okay?!

These thoughts ran through my head dizzily, I had to push them aside for now. I would try to answer them when I got out of here. When... I wasn’t going to let myself think of an if in this situation.

“You really believe that?” I asked him.

“Truthfully, I’m not entirely sure myself. Azazel… Made a point to not tell me all of the particulars of that part of the plan in our correspondence. In case they could be overheard.” Langdon told me rather honestly. “There were rumors of a ‘Wayward Daughter’ of course, but I had thought them nothing but just rumors… Until now that is.”

Wayward Daughter? I thought. Hmm… I kind of liked the ring of that. Wonder if I could embroider that on the back of a jacket or something.

“So demons have a rumor mill?” I said giving him a surprised look. “Aren’t you supposed to be better than us or something?”

“May I remind you of your kind has racked up a body count in the past century that surprised even us?” Langdon said giving me a look.  

I winced.

“Touche,” I replied.

Langdon shook his head a ghost of a smile, a real smile not a smug smirk or grin,  on his face. I found myself wondering if he would look even more stunning if he smiled but I only let myself think it for a brief moment. Just a moment.

“I am curious though,” Langdon said suddenly.

“Oh?” I said. “What now?”

“How much you have seen of our plan in your black mirror.”

I shook my head.

“Obviously not enough if I’m asking you,” I pointed out.

“Indeed, you’re here after all. As opposed to being with them.”

Them?

Suddenly I felt a wave of cold dread at those words sunk in. Was he going to ask me about the Coven? Oh no.

“What do you mean?” I asked him.

I was trying to keep my voice steady, even. But I could feel my throat tightening in the face of those fathomless blue eyes. Langdon meanwhile didn’t seem to notice. At least not yet as he looked to me, curiosity written all over his features.

“Is that not the reason you are here?” He asked, with a raised eyebrow. “You want answers, you want to know why Azazel chose you. Why you were singled out with a different role to play.”

Before I could answer he suddenly spoke, a look on his face like he had just noticed something.

“No… It’s not just that isn’t it?”

Out of nowhere, I was frozen. Unable to move under the laser focus of his too cerulean eyes. This time I knew it wasn’t my mind playing tricks on me. He was… He was doing something. Wasn’t he? But what-?

Suddenly something he had said came back to me.

...“Let’s just simply say I have a talent, a certain ‘night vision of the soul’. I can see into the dark places that most try to keep hidden…”...

Did that mean…?

Oh…

Oh shit.

I wanted to yell at him then, to jerk away from the terrible feeling like my insides were suddenly being scrutinized. At the same time, I wanted to run into the trap and beat the holy hell out of him for looking into something I didn’t want anyone to look into. I was alone for a reason damn it! But… I couldn’t move. Fear or maybe something else made it so I could barely breathe.

All I could do was sit there as a demon was examining my damn soul.

No… No please don’t!

“It’s more than that.” Langdon breathed as I could feel him start to see what I didn’t want anyone seeing. “It’s one of the reasons you are here but it’s not the true reason you are here. Not the only reason you do this…”

Stop! I screamed in my head as if he could hear me. Shut up and stop! 

I’ll… 

I’ll let you out just, please!

DON’T!

“You’re here for them.” Langdon breathed, leaning forward as he seemed to see something else. 

Something that I couldn’t see as opposed to feel.

Stop...I could hear my heartbeat before he spoke once more.

“The pain you feel, the loneliness in your soul... You think doing this will keep them safe. That if you stay away you will protect them and you don’t care if they hate you for it. In fact… It makes things easier for you doesn’t it? Because… The truth is you fear what you are. What you can do. What the demon blood has helped you to do… The power you have with it. That power unlike any witch has ever had… Save for one that only comes with each new generation. Hunting and being alone is your penance… Your absolution...”

Suddenly the strange laser focus, the feeling of being examined from the inside out was gone but I was still frozen. I still could barely breathe as I felt my heart pound. I couldn’t meet his eyes. I didn’t dare.

Just like that a demon had cut my soul open and dissected it it. Peeling back layer upon layer of armor I had built to protect myself.

I pretended I was okay with this life. That this was a choice I had made.

… But it wasn’t.

Not really.

No one really chooses to be a hunter. That’s what the hunting brother’s had told me. No, this life chooses you.

And what other life could I live with this… This thing!?

I had thought my growing powers to be a gift, that with our Supreme lost or dead, that maybe... In fact when we were taking the test of Seven Wonders I had thought…

Maybe it was supposed to be me?

I wasn’t much of a leader but I had those around me. I could try to do the things that they wanted. Maybe save the Coven from the darkness. After all… I had all but convinced Bobby Singer that we witches weren’t the monsters that they all hunted hadn’t I? But then when I went to perform Concilium… I had felt it.

I had pretended I was having trouble with it but that wasn’t true. I could do it but… It had wanted more. More than just Madison. It had wanted Kyle, it had wanted Zoe. It had wanted Queenie, Myrtle, Misty…

It had wanted Cordelia.  

And the urge it had. What it wanted me to make them do to themselves… To each other...

This wasn’t the power of the Supreme. It couldn’t be. This was something else.

It had been fate the brothers had come that night. And it was that very night… I discovered I couldn’t stay. Not after that. Even now I was terrified to use magic as I could feel it still, in the background. Waiting… Begging.

And now… The Demon… Langdon…

He knew.

I could feel it in how he was looking at me but I didn’t dare look him in the eye.  I felt hollowed out,  aching, empty, and alone. So very very alone. And angry…

So very very angry.

“I bet you think I’m pathetic don’t you?” I said suddenly, my voice surprising even me even as I refused to look Langdon in the face.

I all but jumped to my feet, glaring at the marble floor as I finally jerked on my jacket. I ignored the feeling of the fabric of the lining rubbing against the caked dirt and dust as well as the guilt that I had done the one thing I was trying to protect this jacket from but… I needed the feeling it gave me.

Myrtle had joked it was my armor when she and the girls gave it to me during better days. And I needed all the armor I could get right now.

“Maybe I am pathetic.” I continued. “A stupid little witch bitch for protecting a group of women who aren’t even my blood when I could have ruled them all. But they are my family and what this shit in my veins was wanting me to do to them… I wouldn’t expect you to understand and- personally- I think you can go straight to hell or whatever festering pit you crawled out of, fucker, cause I can assure you, I’m going to make it my damn mission to make sure you won’t go anywhere else.”  

I didn’t dare look at his face as the bastard all but pinned me to a wall and I didn’t dare try punching him across his damn handsome jaw as I wanted as all bets were off if I crossed into the Devil’s Trap. Shooting him was out of the question… I may need the bullets here soon enough. Instead, I stepped on the bench I had set under the high barred window, reaching for the iron bars and looking up at the moonlight.

Seriously where the fuck was Stu?

“... I don’t.” Langdon breathed suddenly.

I felt a flash of anger at his voice and I took everything in me to not scream at him.

“What?!” I snapped at him instead, over my shoulder.

And then he said a few words that cooled my anger like throwing a candle in a pond.

“I don’t find you pathetic.”

I took a deep breath, my hand starting to clench on the iron bar above me as I slowly turned to look at him behind me. I could feel any words I was about to say stop at my throat.

Langdon looked… Different now.

He was still the haughty demon but… There was something in his face that was strangely bare as he looked up at me from the floor. Something as bare and as naked as I felt before him.

“You want to keep them safe,” He told me knowingly. “Even though everything in you wants to be with them… You choose not to. You make a point to try to make the best of your situation, even though a part of you hates it, you do it anyway. How can I see that as pathetic? Stupidly selfless perhaps but… I must admit I admire you for doing it. Not most can do such a thing… Run away from a family that accepts them for the sake of that family.”

I couldn’t help but turn to him fully now. I was baffled, stunned. And yet… Something in his voice. Something in the way he looked up at me… It caused my heart to stop for a moment.

It was as if he knew how I felt…

“I… I don’t know what to say to that,” I admitted.

It was true. I really didn’t know what to say. What could I say?

“Take it how you wish… Perhaps Azazel was wrong and should have named you to be the one to lead the army. You certainly have the qualities of a leader But he had…  Other plans for you.”

I stepped off the bench and strode over to the trap.

“I thought you said you didn’t know what he wanted me for or why they didn’t come for me.” I pointed out, a slight smirk on my face.

“I don’t, but... I have my suspicions.” Langdon admitted getting to his feet. “Just as I have my suspicions of mine own role.”

“And they are?” I gave him a look.

Come on share with the class here. You had to do your Soul X-ray on me.

You owe me this Langdon.

But of course, Langdon had to remind me he was a damn demon.

“Also classified,” Langdon said with that damn smile.

I couldn’t decide if I wanted to smack him for or… Do something else. It’s strange but I wasn’t kicking myself as hard on that now as I don’t think it was just demon pheromones this time. At least I didn’t think so.

I still made a show of sighing loudly.

“You’re a damn tease, do you know that?” I told him, rubbing my temple, half wondering if this strange switch he kept pulling on me was going to give me a headache here soon.

Maybe if this kept up.

“So I have been told.”

I sighed, my arm falling to my side as he gave me that stupid smile. Yet I didn’t feel as annoyed as I knew I should be. After all, this demon had more the answers to the questions I had been looking for since I left New Orleans then he would care to admit but it… Didn’t bother me.

Nor was that all...

It was strange but, standing before him this close... I had the urge to reach out and touch him. I shouldn’t but it… It was like it was magnetic. Like something in me wanted to assure myself he was there, that this had happened. I could have ignored it like I had been this whole time but…

I didn’t.

Later I would blame the strange demonic face I saw earlier, and I just wanted to be sure what I was seeing was real. Later I would blame the whole fact I was getting stir crazy being stuck in a foxhole with a demon. Later I would blame the fact that… Compared to all of the demons I had met he seemed to be the most human. That pain and sadness reflecting in his eyes that hid just beneath the surface. Something I could understand as easily as I could the need to breathe.

But…

I didn’t even realize I had lifted a hand and was reaching out for him. Not until suddenly...

A hand was grabbing my wrist.

His grip firm but like iron, his touch a lot warmer than I expected but it was like being doused by cold water as I realized what was happening. I shook my head trying to shake the strange feeling I had like coming up for air.

Reality hit me hard an- almost instantly- a shock of panic ran up my body. I tried to jerk my arm back but he had my wrist locked in his ringed fingers. I could try to shake it off but I could sense my own strength would be like punching a stone wall compared to his.

… I had my arm in a devil’s trap with a very powerful demon…

A demon who probably could do more than just rip my arm off...

Shit shit shit!

I was so dead.

I closed my eyes and, braced myself for more pain than any human or witch could take, for the encroaching blackness. The only thought running through my head is that Cordelia would probably sew me up and bring me back if only to kill me again for everything when they sent was left of me back to New Orleans.

But once more…

This demon surprised me.

“I had wondered how much the blood affected you,” Langdon spoke, with a chuckle.

I swallowed hard and opened my eyes, preparing to face my very very gruesome death. But I hadn’t expected that slight boyish smile Langdon was wearing.

“As much as I enjoy the look on your face, I really recommend you don’t give into it like that especially with a demon you trap yourself unless you truly do have a death wish.” He told me conversationally like he wasn’t holding my life in his hands.

“Oh sure I do this all the time,” I replied sarcastically.

And then something hit me.

“Wait, did you make me do that?”

“No,” He said simply. “I have as much control over you as any demon does the others of our kind. However…”

His thumb ran across my pulse point on my wrist. As it did something… Shifted in me. It was like the strange tension I had with him being in the room with me started to fade away. I didn’t feel so pulled to him as I had before, rather it was more a small tug as opposed to a bodily jerk.

“How… How did-?” I asked as it washed over me like waves on the beach.

“It appears Azazel’s Gift is drawn to me,” Langdon told me. “It seemed only natural I could cool it.”

“Yeah, that’s not weird as hell,” I told him. “But thanks, I guess.”

“It’s no trouble.”

He wasn’t letting go of my wrist. That should have bothered me. But… It didn’t. I wondered why that was.

“It’s never done this before,” I told him. “I don’t understand, why now and… Why you? Who are you, exactly?”

It was the closest I could get to the question I really wanted to ask the image of the strange pale face still vivid in my memory from just a few moments ago. Now this…

What are you?

Meanwhile, Langdon was giving me the beginnings of a smile. I could swear for a moment I saw the pale face he had flickered before. Even the hand on my wrist felt different for a moment but before I could focus it was gone.

“I’m someone who’s coming was foretold a long time ago,” Langdon told me. “I’m sure I have many names but you, hunter... You can call me Michael.”

Michael...

Michael Langdon… 

I let the name roll around in my head. There was a strange musical quality to it. One I hadn’t expected but….Guess after ‘Azazel’ I was expecting something equally ridiculous but…  

I felt a real smile cross my face.

“It suits you.” I told him.

For the first time, he smiled, and it wasn’t that wicked grin or that smug smirk. It was an actual smile that reached his too blue eyes and once again I wondered things that were probably dangerous. He still had my wrist in his hand, and was running a finger over that pulse point but… I didn’t have the urge I did before to jerk away. Nor did I get the feeling he was doing it to cool the blood. Not any more.

It was then we both heard it. A sound that seemed to echo in the chamber like thunder.

The sound of a car pulling up.

I turned to look at the window behind me, waiting on bated breath as I heard a car door open and close…

And another.

And another.

And then… The sound of another car pulling up, rang out. As it did my heart sank. I could feel a slight squeeze at my wrist as though Lang-No Michael… His name was Michael- seemed to come to the conclusion I did: I had only called one hunter after all. 

So that meant one thing… 

I reached over to touch the gun on my hip. I don’t know how many were up there but I wasn’t going to go down without a fight. And then a voice rang out, echoing in the chamber.

“Ash?!”

That voice… It was calling out my name.

“Ash are you out here?!”

Stu.

I must have breathed his name as Michael suddenly spoke.

“So your cavalry has come after all.”

I turned as it was then, oh so gently, he let go of my wrist and I would be lying if I said suddenly I felt just a little colder than before. I turned to see him looking up at the grate, but it was as if he were looking something far far away. I was tempted to say something to him but I wasn’t sure what, when suddenly Stu was calling once more, his voice a lot louder and a lot closer.

“Hey, you alive?!”

I had to tear myself from where I stood before the trap and ran to the bench to climb up to reach up to the grate.

“Over here!” I called between the bars.

I could hear someone I didn’t recognize curse in surprise and there was the sound of boots hitting gravel as someone ran over to the window. I never thought I would be happy to see Stu’s slightly scruffy, warm face and goofy grin through that damn iron grate but I guess I could still be surprised.

“You’re late, you dick!” I told him with a grin despite the war I could feel in my chest. “I hope it was a good date at least.”

He chuckled.

“And here I was worried you were on the edge of death!” He said. “It sounds like you are having too much fun down there.”

“Oh you missed the party I have been having. It’s been a wild ride.”

Stu grinned. He glanced over his shoulder.

“She’s over here!” He called out.

That surprised me. It had just been us on this hunt or so I had thought.

“You make a few friends while I was stuck?” I asked him when he turned over to me.

“Just made a call to Singer’s, you know how Bobby almost knows everyone. Luckily there were a few hunters’s nearby.”

“Has she exorcized that demon yet?” A woman's voice called out, one I didn’t recognize, I could hear shoes on gravel as she got closer.

“Don’t think so!” He called over to her before he turned me. “What, did you get the Latin wrong again?”

“Seriously it was one time and no, idiot, he torched it.”

“Wow, seriously?” He asked he looked half fearful and half impressed.

“That’s not surprising.” The women’s voice said suddenly, closer than before.

Stu moved to the side as the women knelt down. She had long brown hair with a few hints of gray that fell past her shoulder, she had a few wrinkles but a kind face.

“I had guessed he was a strong one,” She told me. “I’m Madelyn by the way and I was thinking that Stu’s problem was a demon I was actually looking into this one when I got the call.”  

Stu gave me a grin as he examined the window from the outside.

“Think these grates can be popped open.” He told us. “What do you think?”

The women examined them carefully before she nodded.

“Maybe a crowbar. I don’t think the screws are iron too. But if not Phil does have a Reciprocating Saw,” Madelyn said getting to her feet. “I’ll tell him to get it ready.”

She seemed to walk away as Stu turned back to me with a grin.

"Guess I was right about the whole paranormal magnet thing eh?" He told me.

I shook my head with a laugh.

“You could say that again,” I said.

"Well no worries, we're going to exorcize that sucker and that will be two birds with one stone!"

I could feel a twinge in my chest at that, I glanced over at Michael whose face was unreadable. I didn’t tell Stu but... had a gut feeling it wouldn't work after seeing that pale face Michael bore. He may be demonic but… This was a whole new brand of demonic that I doubted a simple Latin exorcism would work. If that was his own body then could it be possible he was… Something else more than demonic? And besides...

Did I even want to exorcize him? I found myself wondering. He had made sure that demon I was hunting was taken care of, that child murderer wouldn’t be bothering anyone anymore. One more monster put down for good. Plus, maybe it was the whole "foxhole" thing we had here but I...

I actually liked him.  I could sense…Something different from him now that I knew for sure he wasn’t the monster I thought. A monster, yes, but a different flavor of monster...Like me. And he seriously looked as pissed as I had been with the demons who walked this world…

Maybe…

“Just hurry up Stu!” I shouted. “We’ve got a lot to talk about.”

“On it!” I could hear him say suddenly.

I could hear a shuffle making me think he must have moved away from the grate. I was just about to try to think of the next step when something caught my ears.

“You know it’s not true right?” Michael said behind me breaking the silence.

I swung around to see him standing up ramrod straight, proudly just as he had when he took me down here, his hands behind his back as he looked to me.

“What do you mean?” I asked slowly, trying to ignore that feeling of dread in my gut.

Something was wrong...

"Those people he’s with,” Michael told me evenly, as though he were talking about the weather. “They are plenty of things but they certainly aren't... Hunters like yourself and your friend. Madelyn especially...” 

At first, I was confused and then it hit me.

He said he didn't kill the demon in the back room. He said there were others, had mentioned Satanists... I had thought he was lying but now I knew he didn’t really have any reason to lie. Not really.

So that meant...

Oh god no.

In a panic, I swung around up to the grate.

“STU GET BACK OVER HERE!” I screamed as I almost leaped back on the bench. “STU!”

Silence, I could hear voices in the distance but I had the feeling they didn’t hear me, or maybe they were making it so he couldn’t hear me. I tried to shake the bars to no avail.

Stu was trained like me of course. Monsters were one thing, people who worshipped demons and hellspawn though... Were something else.  Stu wouldn’t expect it if he wasn’t warned. Bobby Singer’s seal of approval was something you worked your ass off for. Even the Coven treasured it as Bobby helped protected us in the only way he could.  

Those Satanists probably killed the real hunters Bobby Singer had mentioned to him. Maybe even killed the ones who had gone missing in the area. It would explain why this place had seemed untouched before Stu and I even with all the signs saying otherwise.

"They are going to kill him aren't they?" I breathed in horror, turning back to Michael. 

His blue eyes didn't move from my face as he gave a slight nod.

"Would it pain you if they did?" He asked. “Be honest now, he left you here for hours with me after all. He could have come running sooner... But he didn’t.”

"Would it-?! He doesn’t specialize in demons like I do! He probably needed the help! He's an asshole but that doesn't mean he deserves a death like… That!."

I motioned to the black altar, even hours later I could still smell the coppery sulfuric blood.

"Is that what you think?" Michael asked. 

He wasn't condescending, or cold, I could hear it in his voice and see it in his eyes. He was truly curious. Perhaps it was because I had been nothing but honest to him. Maybe it was because of that whole “Wayward Daughter” crap... 

But...

Michael wanted to know what I think. Truly.

"No, that is what I know," I told him honestly. "Just as you know you demons are supposed to be something different then the ones I’ve been hunting!"

At that he tilted his head, examining me with that piercing gaze that made me feel once more like I was being put under an x-ray.

“And what would you be willing to do to defend him if it came to it?” He asked. “What could you do save for... One thing?”

I could feel a lump in my throat forming. Was he proposing…

A deal?

I could feel myself shaking as I actually found myself considering... Could I do that?  As much of an idiot Stu was I couldn’t let him die.

But could I sell my soul for it?

Would he forgive me if I did? Would the Coven?

Would 10 years be enough?

No.

No, it wouldn’t… I had seen enough people after the ten years were up before the hellhounds came. Seen the deep regret, the fear as their short respite was just that… And too short compared to eternity.  I’d rather die now and get it over with then live with an expiration date the rest of my life. Unless..

It was then another idea came to me. It was risky. But at the same time… Michael had said Azazel had chosen “special children” for a reason, part of their Grand Plan. And I had been set aside rather pointedly. Neither of us know it but… It must be important for them.

It was crazy but… It just might work.

I raised the gun and pointed it…

At my own temple.

The curious look on Michael’s face was replaced with utter horror and shock as he gasped. I could swear he breathed out the word, No, under his breath but I must have imagined it.

“This answer enough for you?” I told the demon,  trying to ignore the scent of gun oil and the cold metal against my skin.

It was then I clicked the safety off, the sound seemingly echoing in the chamber. This seemed to smack Michael awake from his stupor. He took a few purposeful steps toward me until the Key caught him once again. Like a pull of an invisible leash, he was jerked back. He tried to fight it but it pulled him back once more.

“Don’t-!” Michael started almost desperately.

I smiled.

Gotcha.

“Call off your friends and I’ll lower the gun.” I calmly. “After all my dying puts a wrench in this Grand Plan doesn’t it? You may not be willing to tell me what it is but I know this much...”

I leaned forward.

“... Azazel was saving me for something... That much is obvious. So either call off your goons or say goodbye to the Wayward Daughter. Your choice Michael.”

I could see the demon’s jaw tighten, his lips becoming a tight line and then...

...Suddenly Michael broke out into a wide smile.

“You’re a fighter to the very end I see. No wonder why Azazel liked you.” He said.

Michael leaned forward conspiratorially.

"You have my word but… I recommend you and your friend don’t do anything to terribly stupid when they go to take you. And they will try."

I swallowed but I nodded. I know… The word of a demon but like Michael had said a few times before:

He wasn’t like any normal demon. I shouldn’t trust him… But I did. 

God forgive me I did.

“Hey you still alive in there!” Stu shouted down.

I lowered the gun and swung around, going back to the bench.

“Where are the others?” I all but demanded when I got back to the grate.

“They are going to check out this cave in of yours. See how bad it is on the other side, meanwhile Mad’s and I are going to check out this thing.” He told me. 

“We’re going to get you out of there one way or another. Now we just need Madelyn to come with that saw-.”

It was then I saw it… A shadow shift behind him over his shoulder.

"Stu behind you!" I shouted.

It was barely a warning when he turned only to get smacked rather hard.

“Damn you!” I shouted, smacking the iron grate with an open palm as Stu slumped before the window, out cold.

“Oh sweetie, don’t you know?” That voice said, sickly sweet. “I’m damned already. So I may as well enjoy the ride all the way to hell.”

I glared at her as Madelyn as she stepped from the shadows and took Stu’s pulse.

“Huh… Looks like you hunter’s are tougher then you look.” She said.

I raised the gun to point outside the bars of the grate.

“Leave him alone or so help me-.” I started.

“Oh I’d be more worried about yourself if I were you, sweetheart,” Madelyn told me. “After all… That demon you have trapped taught us a few tricks too.”

Before I could ask what she meant there was a loud boom like a bomb going off behind me. The force of it all but knocked me off the bench, my gun flying from my hands (I was lucky it didn’t discharge) I could hear the metal as it clattered to some far end of the chamber.

My ears were ringing, I could taste the wave of magic that the spells left behind. I hadn’t been done by a magic user but it was one of those spells that I could tell didn’t need one…

Guess selling your soul to Satan had a few perks.

I scrambled to my feet looking in the direction of the sound as my ears rang with an ungodly screaming. The rubble that I had been digging through hours ago was now mostly cleared away now and clear enough for a woman to step through wearing red robes. Her curly dirty blond hair just reaching her shoulders, her pouty lips in a scowl when she caught sight of me, a severe look crossing her face. My stomach sinking as I recognized the golden symbol embroidered across her chest: An Inverse Pentagram.

She was the High Priestess.

Oh hell.

I quickly started to look around for the gun. When suddenly a hiss caught my ear. I looked over to Michael. He was seemingly untouched by the dust and dirt that had exploded all over the room either by magic or by some other force that protected him. He was giving me a pointed look from where he stood unfazed in the trap.

Don’t do anything terribly stupid, He had advised. I could tell he was thinking that again as he shook his head so slightly.

I bit my bottom lip and glared at him but… 

I stopped. I swallowing hard.

Here’s hoping your word is worth something, I thought, as I raised my hands up as if in surrender.

“Well well, it looks like we have a hunter with a brain after all!” I could hear Madelyn pipe from the grate behind me.

“Yes, small wonders do exist do they?” The other women said suddenly before approaching where Michael stood trapped.

As she did a strange mouse faced man (Phil? I guessed), wearing red robe walked through the hole punched through the rubble nor was he the only one. It looked like there were a few others behind him.

“My lord,” The first women said before bowing lowly before Michael along with the other Satanists. “Are you alright?”

“As well as can be expected.” He told them coldly.

I could almost see that persona he had earlier- Langdon- click into place. I wasn’t sure who he was to them but I could tell he was some sort of leader… Did he have like a cult? No, he just said they were Satanists. But…

Most demons didn’t care about humans didn’t they?

Maybe so, or so I thought as he turned to the small congregation.

“Help Madelyn bring our little unconscious hunter inside, it’s far too cold for him to be asleep inside. He will not be that way for long.” He told them before turning to me. “And kindly restrain my captor, I want them both here as I pronounce their sentence for disrupting our unholy cause.”

I would have preferred him to punch me in the gut. You fucking liar! I wanted to snap as my heart sank. Ignoring the pain in my chest that had erupted suddenly (you stupid idiot! You should have known better). Quickly I went to look for the gun when suddenly two Satanists appeared before me in their red robes.

Oh no, you don’t.

I knew I was dealing with people who probably hadn’t fought someone like me a day in their life when One tried lunged forward to grab me. I  dodged it and took the opening I had with him leaning forward, kicked out in a perfect snap kick right under his jaw. The top of my combat boots snapping his jaw shut. He head jerked back as he stumbled falling on his ass.

I swung around to the other one, a woman who was angrily swinging a punch at me so stupidly wide that I ducked easily. As I did I quickly aimed a few sharp snap punch right across the ribs, each hitting hard enough to hurt like a bitch as she cried out. I feel the start of a few bruises on my knuckles but no time for that. I shuffled closer, grabbing her from her robed back and jerking her so my raised knee met her gut. I let go of her to let her hit the marble floor, hearing her wheezing hard.

I was about to turn to whoever was next when suddenly I was bodily thrown back against the wall. The force just hard enough to knock the wind out of me but not hard enough to crack my skull. I struggled, trying to get my breath back and looked up to see Michael holding his hand out a telltale smile on his face.

Shit.

I tried to jerk forward but it was like I was being held back by iron shackles to the wall. I could feel his power crash against me like a wave against the rocks. It was then I saw a Satanist near where the rug had been pulled up stand up, a knife on his hand. A knife I was betting had just scraped a bit of spray paint off the floor.

The seal was well and truly broken then.

“I had a feeling you wouldn’t go without a little bit of a fight in the end,” The demon said with a quirk of lips as though it amused him.

I wanted to scream at him, I wanted to kick myself for thinking I could trust him for letting myself be played by a damn demon, I wanted to punch a few more of these assholes and maybe him a few times. But I just kept my mouth shut, my jaw straining from clenching it as a few people emerged from the entrance holding up an unconscious Stu between them. They all but dragged him to where I was against the wall and threw him before me like a pile of dirty laundry before stepping back.

The two Satanists who I had smacked around getting to their feet as well, looking at me with so much hate, you’d think they were the real demons and I had cried out “Cristo.”

I could hear excited whispers and voices from the small congregation of Satanists as the High Priestess spoke up suddenly.

“These two have not only come here to attack our way of life...” She said to the congregation before us.

She spoke a politician before a rally as she stepped forward to where I was pinned. I could hear a few members of the congregation all but cheer her on, latching on to her words like they were the starving masses being given bread for the first time in a long time.

The High Priestess stopped when she was standing before me. Hate twisting her features to something ugly, but I looked her dead in the face all the same. Just to piss her off I gave her a grin.

“...But they have entrapped our lord before us. Where this any other circumstance we would strip them of their worldly finery and give their so-called righteous hearts to Lucifer in the Black Mass. However...”  

She turned to Michael, taking a few steps before him and before kneeling.

“We leave it to you to judge them and condemn them as you see fit my lord, it was you that they have wronged the most after all.”

The congregation of Satanists followed their high priestess, kneeling before him, all around him like a small sea of red. I could see the quirk of his lips as I could tell he was enjoying this.

“I accept your choice to leave their fate’s in my hands, Miss Milton.” He told her, letting his hand fall almost gracefully to his side yet the force was still there holding me up against the wall.

It was then he stepped from the broken trap, and I could swear I felt the earth itself shift as he did but I must have imagined it. He closed his cerulean eyes, a pleased smirk crossing his face as he relished stepping from the trap. When his eyes opened he looked right at me, that damn look still on his face as she started to step forward. Each footstep echoed in the stone chamber like the bells of doom.

Once again I wondered if I was looking into my death but… I tossed that thought aside. I was supposed to play a part in this grand plan right? No, it was Stu I was mostly worried about. Stu who was groaning awake, as Michael stepped over him until he was standing in between us both.

His eyes breaking eye contact if only to examine Stu. I couldn’t see his face but I could tell he was thinking carefully. I watched him on bated breath when suddenly he spoke.

“Let them go.” Michael decreed.

It was a good thing his power still pinned me against the wall I would have fallen over in relief. But I think I was the only who was happy about it. Almost instantly a flurry of hush whispers erupted. But it was the High Priestess in particular that spoke up

“My lord?” She said aghast, I could see her looking up in shock

“You heard me,” He said. “Let them go. Or do you question my judgment now, Hannah? Shall I remind you the state his congregation was in when I found you?”

Almost instantly the whispers were silenced. The high priestess lowered her eyes in respect, in fear.

“No… Never my lord.”

“Good.” Michael said. “After all… One should not kill the messengers sent by Lucifer himself even though they may be unwitting messengers after all.”

What? I wanted to gasp. Nor was I the only one, I could hear gasps and whispers once more around the room.

“Mich-My lord?” A voice called from the back.

I looked over to see Madelyn red robes over her clothes now,  she looked to Michael as confused as I felt. I could see him smile fondly as though to calm her. I wondered who she was to him as she seemed to know his name like I did.

“Remember the tales I’ve told you, Madelyn, when you found me. The stories of the Wayward Daughter.”

There was a slew of gasps. Nor were they the only ones. I was tempted to snap at him that he wasn’t sure of this “Wayward Daughter” at all but something in me told me that wouldn't’ be a good idea. Don’t do anything stupid, he had said. I had a feeling speaking out against him while he spoke to them was one of those “stupid” ideas.

“She has made it clear to me there are some of Satan’s army who have rebelled against his wishes. They have defied their father… Their god.” He said, addressing them as confidently as a king would to his army.

His voice may not have been talking to them loudly yet it still echoed off the chamber walls,  I could see them drink up every word of his like water.  

“These demons are not tempting people to his side, they are killing them, consuming them. Turning them into martyrs for the side we desperately wish to destroy. Betraying the Great Plan.” He told them heatedly, I could hear the anger dripping off every word in his silky voice.

“This is merely making our enemies even stronger, forcing mankind off the path to its own destruction. How can the Dark Messiah and cleanse this world if we have so many traitors in our midst?”

I had to try not to let my jaw drop. Holy shit… Was he-?

“My lord, please! Let us find them for you!”

No fucking way… Was this demon-?

Michael smiled at them.

“Very well my dear believers, tell all those that walk the different path. Tell them to hunt these monsters down, bind their black souls to the bodies of those they possess. Carve out the smoke that fills their hearts in the Black Mass and send them to hell to face the wrath of their leader. I shall tell Him to expect those traitors to punish as he sees fit and you shall be rewarded by the hellfires when the chosen son finally rises and this world burns.”

The red-robed men and women bowed lowly over and over again. I could hear chorus’ of “Hail Satan” and “Ave Satanas” as they did so. I just couldn’t help but look at Michael in shock.

He had somehow convinced a group of Satanists to hunt the very demons they worship and from what I can tell others soon would follow. What the hell kind of demon was he? 

Who was he that they were so willing to do this?

But I before I could wonder any more than that. He turned to me, stepping closer so he was once again so close I could touch... if I could move that is. I was hit with the scent of amber, leather and something else… Something that wasn’t sulfur like most demons but it had a strange spice and musk to it. Something that had me feeling it was like a taste of the deeper circles of hell. One we had yet to discover anything from.

Once more he spoke yet his voice was low. Something that I know he was making it so only I would hear.

“You’ve done very well. Your friend will live to die another day. However…” He trailed off.

He reached over to gently trace my jaw with the backs of his fingers, his skin felt warm and making my face burn but I refused to jerk away. I just glared him dead in the eye.

Just do what he said. Do what he said and we will get out of here alive.

I tried not to notice how my heart hammered in my chest, or how body started to heat up once more when he stepped closer or how that pull was tugging me towards him once more despite the enchantment that all but nailed me to the wall. That scent of his intoxicating, rolling over me like a spell.

“You can run from it all you like, in fact, I encourage you to do so as it’s rather amusing. But it doesn’t change anything. One day, perhaps tomorrow, perhaps many years from now... You will come to know the part you were chosen to play all those years ago.”

What?

I almost gasped. Did he know more then he let on...? Or was that guess he claimed to have more or less confirmed? I had so many questions but I couldn’t find the words to ask as his hand pulled away from my skin.

“Until then… I will keep in touch.” He told me.

That was the only warning I had when suddenly his hand jerked and my vision suddenly went black.

---

“Hey wake up! Wake up!” I could hear a familiar voice say suddenly pulling me into reality with a pounding headache.

“What?”I groaned.

“Was kinda hoping you’d tell me here?” I could hear that familiar voice say.

I opened my eyes to see Stu kneeling next to where I lay. Wait.. was I laying on something? What-? But wasn’t I-? Suddenly everything came rushing back, the cave in, the Satanic cult…

Michael.  

I sat up with a gasp and winced as my head pounded even more. I cursed under my breath.

“Whoa easy!” Stu said suddenly almost urging me to lay back down.

He didn’t have to do much convincing as I lay down carefully once more on the bed. I rubbed my temple.

“You okay?” Stu asked me carefully.

“Think so… head’s pounding.”

“Did they knock you out too?”

“The demon did,” I replied.

“Ouch.”

I lay on the bed, hoping the pounding would fade away. Slowly I opened my eyes to see the familiar ceiling of our hotel room. How we ended up here I wasn’t sure but I had a feeling a certain someone was behind it.

We’d have to head back to the underground church but I would bet everything was wiped clean. Michael was probably gone to the wind as well as those Satanists.

I’m going to find him though, I thought. Bastard owes me a hell of ton of answers.

“Guessing you don’t have any idea how the hell we survived that do you?” He asked.

“You’re not going to believe me if I told you.”

“Try me...”