I heard soft footsteps echo down the alley to my right, and I felt a small smile creep onto my face. I peered into the darkness and saw Crowley emerge from the shadows, his customary smirk hovering on his lips. Pushing myself off of the brick wall I had been leaning against, I strode over to him with my hands in my pockets, and as I approached I saw him reach into one of the pockets of his greatcoat.
"You're late," I teased, stopping a couple of feet away and shifting my weight onto one leg. Crowley let out a little snort of amusement, pulling out a small cardboard box and flipping up the lid. I raised an eyebrow. "You smoke flavored cigarillos?"
He raised the Black and Mild to his lips with a halfhearted glare, snapping his fingers beneath the end and lighting it with the small flame that sprang from his thumb. Once it was lit he took a deep breath in and blew a cloud of scented smoke toward me, smirking when I blinked and narrowed my gaze at him. "I like the taste. Not all of the pleasures in life come with designer labels, darling."
I crossed my arms over my chest. "I guess it helps that you don't have to worry about cancer."
This time Crowley let out a harsh laugh, holding the cigarillo off to the side and tapping away some loose ash. "Don't tell me you've never had a smoke, love. You're gonna ruin my reputation." I leaned against the wall, trying to hide the flush rising in my cheeks.
"So what if I haven't? You don't come to see me for my smoking habits, do you?" Crowley took another pull on the cigarillo, stepping forward and blowing the smoke out his nostrils like a dragon. My stomach twisted pleasantly as I watched him, meeting his dark gaze with my own, and I twitched when he pulled the pack of Black and Milds back out of his pocket. He slid one slim roll out of the package, and held it out to me with a crooked smile.
"Come on, darling. You're with the King of Hell; you might as well enjoy life while you're still living." I stared at the cigarillo he was holding out to me, looking from it to Crowley's face and back, and felt suddenly rebellious. I felt my inhibitions slip away, replaced by a strange rush of confidence, and reached out to take it from him. However, as soon as I had it in my hand I began to feel foolish, unsure of how to hold it and suddenly aware of the fact that I had no way to light it myself. I drew it toward my body, turning it between my fingers with an embarrassed blush, and Crowley chuckled.
"Need a little help, love?" I shot him a resentful look, but he seemed to find my anger amusing and stepped closer. His designer shoes made almost no sound as he stepped between the discarded food wrappers and cigarette butts that littered the dark alley, and my cheeks heated further when he took my hand in his. He held his own cigar between his teeth and quirked one side of his mouth up in a teasing smirk. "Don't worry, I'll start slow. It is your first time." At his words I nearly choked, and the expression on my face made Crowley burst out laughing.
"I can't believe it's taken me this long to find a human of my own," he said, and while he was distracted I tugged my hand out of his and adjusted my grip on the cigar. Trying to play it cool, I stepped away from the wall and crossed my arms. "I see why Castiel hangs around with Dean and his moose. Escaping my pesky responsibilities is so refreshing."
I rolled my eyes, so done with hearing about the Winchesters and their pet angel. Some nights it was all Crowley talked about, and I preferred listening to the deals he had made or the newest recruits in the ranks of demons. Secretly, I suspected that was why Crowley had first approached me in the bar that first night, dressed in a black suit and red silk tie. He had chatted me up for an hour or so, and by the look in his eyes I could tell he just wanted to forget who he was for a night.
He had intrigued me, made me want to know more, so I had followed him when he left. Of course he had been furious, and had pinned me against the wall of this same alley demanding to know what I wanted with him. I told him I wanted to know more about him, and said that I just wanted to talk. That was true, but even then I could tell there was something different about him; something dangerous that I craved to know more about. He had looked surprised at first, as if unsure how to deal with someone who was genuinely interested in what he had to say, but the next second his mouth had twisted into a devilish smile and he had released me. "Suit yourself, love. If you want to crawl into the pit of your own free will, who am I to stop you?"
At that point I hadn't gotten the joke, but before long I had learned almost everything there was to know about heaven and hell. What I heard made my skin tingle with excitement. Finally I found that darkness I had been looking for my whole life. The King of Hell chose me, of all the people in the bar that night, as his distraction, and I was determined to distract him as long as I could.
Suddenly the sound of Crowley snapping his fingers brought me back to the present, and I looked up to see him holding out a dancing flame at the end of his thumb. His eyelids lowered slightly, and I felt another shiver run down my spine at the expression on his face. "Go ahead. How often can you say you were tempted by the devil himself?"
I leaned forward slightly and held the end of the cigar in the flame, following his instructions and taking a few puffs to light the tip. When I finally got my first lungful of hot, sweet smoke I choked on it, my eyes watering, and Crowley looked like it was taking all of his will to keep from snickering. I glared at him through the haze of tears, and straightened with as much dignity as I could muster. I brought the cigar back up to my lips and took an experimental pull on it, feeling it go down more easily this time, and held the smoke in my mouth and on my tongue before letting it stream from between my lips.
Crowley's smile seemed to soften a little, becoming less mocking, and I popped one hip out as I studied him. This little act of rebellion had given me a surge of confidence, and that made me ask the first question that popped into my mind. "What happens when we die?"
Crowley's face immediately clouded over, and I cringed. I hadn't meant to say that, knew he came to talk to me because he wanted a moment where he didn't have to be the King of Hell, but I also wasn't going to take it back. I had been wondering ever since I learned who he really was, but it was only now that we had met a dozen or so times that I felt I might have a chance of getting an answer.
So I stood my ground, staying outwardly calm even though I could see Crowley glaring at me from the darkness. Only the glowing tip of his cigar was clearly visible, and it was as though the night had come down to gather around him like a cloak as he considered my question. He waited so long that I began to get nervous, and suddenly the faint smell of sulfur that always followed Crowley seemed more pronounced than ever before. I wanted to step back, to run the other direction, because I knew exactly how dangerous he could be, but I knew that if I did that there would be no coming back. I would never see Crowley again, and if he didn't follow me and kill me just for fun, he would disappear from my life for good this time. I didn't think I could stand that.
Finally he moved, shifting slightly forward on the balls of his feet, and I heard him let out a little groan. "It's always the same with you humans, isn't it? Can't keep the darkness dark, can you? You just have to shine a light down at those beasties you don't want to see." He started moving toward me, taking another deep pull of his cigar as he did, and the smoke followed behind him like a cape of twisting snakes. I made myself hold still as he approached, and saw his expression shift from annoyance to something a little more contemplative. His dark eyes were fixed on me, not wavering, not blinking, and I flinched when he crossed his arms in front of his chest.
"You lasted longer than those bloody Winchesters, I'll give you that. As soon as the moose found out there were angels, he just had to know about God and Heaven and all the rest of that crap. So," he said, leaning forward until our noses were nearly touching, "why do you want to know now?"
I wasn't sure what he wanted to hear, but staring into his face told me that the only thing he would accept was the truth. For the short time we'd been having these impromptu meetings, all he had ever wanted was some meaningless conversation, and after I learned what exactly he was he would unload some of his frustrations on me. But he had never asked me anything about myself before, never showed interest in my thoughts, and the fact that he was now told me to tread very carefully. I cleared my throat, taking another drag on the cigar to give myself time to think.
"Well..." I began, looking down at the ground so that I wouldn't have to acknowledge Crowley standing so close to me, though his broad shoulders nearly filled my field of vision and all I could smell was the fruity smoke surrounding us both tinged with hints of sulfur and scotch from his coat. Being so close to him, knowing how easily he could rip me apart, knowing how long he had been alive and how much he had seen throughout his life, made me vividly aware of how fragile my own existence was. I gulped. "I always wondered, but now that I know there's something- after- I want to know what might happen to me."
Crowley snorted, finally finishing his cigar and throwing the wooden tip down to the ground. "Well, love, I can't say where you'll end up. That's all decided by the big man, or so I hear." I notice the heavy sarcasm in his voice, but he resumes before I have a chance to ask about it. "But honestly, quality of death all depends on who you know in the end." He leans in closer, snatching the cigar from my hand and bringing it to his lips before I can protest. "When it comes to afterlife connections, I'm a tough man to beat. Hell is whatever I make it, after all." He holds the cigar between his teeth absently, looking off at some point over my shoulder, and I wait for him to explain.
Crowley took a step beck, giving me space to relax and regain my breath, and looked me over. "For the right price, Hell can be just as nice as Heaven. I do enjoy our chats, and I would hate to lose my new confidant to those bloody angels." My heart stuttered as I processed his words.
"Wait- so I could go to Hell and just... live forever? The same way I'm living now? Just because you say so?" Crowley rolled his eyes, but I could see a smirk tugging at the corners of his lips.
"I am the King of Hell, darling. Of course, your only company would be my demons, and they're unbelievably moronic at the best of times." He bared his teeth in a sick parody of a smile, and I just knew there was going to be a catch. "And also," he said, "you'd have to sell your soul to me first. Part and parcel, you know."
Even though I had known it was coming, I still felt a shiver of fear steal through me at the thought of losing my immortal soul. I had never been all that religious, but the soul was the one thing I knew I believed in. It was the light that all humans had within them, the thing that tied them to the Earth and then departed when they died to go who knows where. Well, now I knew where, and I was being given a choice. Somehow I knew that no one else had ever gotten this option, most likely because anyone else would have chosen heaven without question.
I wrapped my arms around myself, suddenly feeling the chill wind blowing around us, and wondered why I wasn't making the same choice. What would I be risking? What could I possibly gain from going to Hell? Wasn't a mortal life on Earth enough darkness for one person? My thoughts were tumbling together, bouncing off each other and getting tangled in knots, but at the center of all that mess was a fact that I couldn't deny. For whatever reason, I wanted to say yes. I wanted to spend life and death on a razor's edge, dancing between right and wrong, good and evil, and place the source of my light in the hands of the darkest demon.
I couldn't explain it, not even to myself, but I trusted Crowley. He wasn't- complicated. Humans always had their own agendas, their own problems, their own desires, and most of the time they tangled up with each other and became too complicated to decipher. But with him, I could always count on him to be self-serving. I wouldn't have thought of that as a positive quality before, but now I just appreciated how simple it was to figure out Crowley's motivations. He came to me to gain some respite from the demons he dealt with every day, so when he said that wanted me in Hell, I could trust his word.
I raised my gaze slowly to meet his, swallowing and taking a deep breath to steady my nerves, and saw his lips quirk upwards. He tossed his cigar on the ground again, scuffing it out without once taking his eyes off of me.
"Made your choice already, love?" I frowned, uncomfortable that he could see through me so easily, and felt suddenly awkward. Go on, I thought angrily. It's not like you're professing your love, just think of it as signing a contract. I squared my shoulders, put on my best serious face, and looked him dead in the eyes.
"Fine, I'll make the deal. How long will I have on Earth before you collect?" I didn't have much tying me to this world besides my apartment and the possessions it held, but I didn't want to be surprised by a hellhound on my doorstep. Crowley looked me over once again, and this time his expression had gone beyond contemplative into something closer to admiration.
"Well I'll be damned," he murmured, and pulled his hands out of his pockets. "That all depends on you, darling. How long do you need? These trips to Earth are taxing, and the sooner you're in my kingdom the easier it will be for me to chat." I bit my lip, knowing that my next words would damn me for good.
"I have nothing to wait for. I'll leave right now." Crowley chuckled, taking a step closer to me. He crooked one finger, beckoning me nearer.
"Come on now, you know how this works. You're not getting shy, are you?" I blushed at his suggestive tone but moved closer, finding myself toe-to-toe with the King of Hell. He reached out to take hold of my chin, lifting my face until I was staring straight into his dark brown eyes, and I felt my heart speed up a bit. He lowered his face to mine, and when our lips met I felt some small part of me gripped tight by a burning hand. I could feel a tenuous connection tying me to Crowley, and I instinctively knew it was because of his claim on my soul.
We broke apart after a moment, and Crowley's face broke into a grin. "Well then, love. It's off to Hell we go." He laid a hand on my shoulder, gripping it tight as he prepared to drag me to perdition, and I felt a strange lightness fill me.
My new life begins.
Hey guys, this was just a little drabble that I got from a dream I had, but I would still really appreciate any feedback or criticism you can give me :) I always like getting advice from others or even just hearing your reception of my stories! I hope you all liked reading this, shoot me a message or submit a review :) Thanks!