Page 22 of Hell of a Thing

Standing, I walked slowly over to the demon, knowing the steadiness of my approach would heighten her fear. Her eyes remained lowered even as I stood in front of her.

With a hand firmly holding her jaw, I tilted her face up and met her eyes.

Mmm, yes. There was a fire there, and a desire to prove herself. Which meant the clothes were a front. A high demon wearing rags trying to appear lesser so others would lower their guard.

She’d do.

“What did you see, Talsine?” I waited, before watching her jaw work and realizing I held it too tightly. I released the pressure, but not my hold on her.

“I saw a traitorous beast who dared to cross her master get put down like she deserved.” A note of anger danced on the edge of her otherwise flat voice.

“Good girl.” I purred, flickering my tongue across her cheek to taste her essence. She stood still as I explored her face, my tongue dipping into her mouth. Talsine shuddered at the bitter taste of my venom, but she didn’t pull away.

Slowly, I turned away before speaking to her over my shoulder.

“You’re in charge of my carnival now, Talsine. My shelves have been restocked. You have one hundred years before I visit again.”

“Yes, my King.”

“And Talsine?”

“Yes.”

My mouth was dry, the taste unpleasant.

“Bring me the soul of a child. A plump one who has never known a day of suffering. I need something sweet to wash down the demon.”

“Yes, my King.”

With a sigh, I waited until I heard the click of Talsine closing the double doors before stabbing at the fabric of the realm with my nail and tearing open a hole through which I could view my domain.

Between the jagged edges of reality, a flat stone pathway stretched before me. Familiar obsidian pieces, broken apart by the reddish glow of fire beneath, led into darkness. One has to step through to see the true beauty of my home. The colors were impossibly deep for this world, and I hated how muted everything looked through the window I’d created. Fire and brimstone, as the humans liked to call it, but the description did very little to represent the wicked beauty bound in chains and flame. A true reprieve from the fleshy world of Earth.

The screams of the damned soothed my irritation.

I left the portal open so I could hear them as I went to Isra’s corpse and plucked out an eye. Onyx rimmed storms of red, orange, and yellow. Intelligence and a quest for glory still gleamed, even with her acidic soul no longer residing behind them, her last look frozen forever in the still-dead eyes. More than anything, I admired the way she looked up to me with absolute desire even as I’d prepared to consume her.

She did have beautiful eyes, I’d give her that, and now they belonged to me. They would look good on my mantle.

Another hundred years before I would visit this place again, and I couldn’t wait to see what Talsine did with it. What new essences she would secure. What new ways she would find to please me.

This carnival really was ahell of a thing.

The End

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