This chapter didn't come out exactly how I wanted it to. It seemed lacking at the end but maybe that's just me.

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Hateful Love

Chapter 7: Forms of Evil

Written by: Juggalomalice

Mandy was quiet as she walked to school, too quiet to be planning anything good or even bad. It had to be horrifically evil to make her this serious. Either way it had Grim concerned as he trailed behind her as he did everyday. She had been in this dredge-like mood since she arrived home late last night. With a tattered uniform, disheveled hair, and a cut lip Grim was nothing short of shocked at the sight. The thought of Mandy wounded just didn't make rational sense. When he asked about what happened she merely said, "A grim reminder that I'm still human." Grim didn't understand what it meant at the time and he still didn't after a night of contemplation. Had someone attacked her last night? Threatened her? Or worse raped her? His mind was a flurry of possible scenarios, but none of the hundreds of scenes he thought of seemed possible, especially to a girl like Mandy.

Attacked her? Unlikely since Mandy was a black belt in several forms of martial arts. Threatened her? Not even the Devil himself could scare that girl. Raped her? Now who in their right minds would want to do that? The girl was positively hideous. Well that was unfair to say. It wasn't that she was hideous. Just that scowl she always has on was very unappealing. Maybe if she just frowned or something. She didn't have to smile just not scowl. Grim was sure that would make her seem easier on the eyes for any guy would agree that if not for her facial expressions she was very attractive. Yes, she was indeed beautiful and she was only going to become more striking as timed passed. Grim smacked himself on the face to scatter such thoughts. It wasn't the first time he caught himself entranced by the girl's looks and as he silently cursed himself he knew it would not be the last.

"Hey Grim what you thinking about? Billy asked sticking his big nose where it didn't belong as always.

Grim sighed in aggravation and though he knew there was no point to asking Billy anything he still had to try to figure out what was wrong with Mandy. "Billy," He began, "Do you think Mandy is acting differently today?"

"Differently?" Billy echoed as he tried hard to think with his small brain. Or lack of. "I'll go check." The innocent idiot offered before Grim could protest. "Hey Mandy," He started cautiously, "Are you feeling ok!" Billy practically shouted in the small blonde's ear. His reply was nothing short of getting pushed into the street as he was run over by an oncoming bus. Grim watched as the boy literally peeled himself off the asphalt. "She seems ok to me." Billy concluded as he observed his new flat body. "This is so cool. Grim come here!" he shouted as he jumped on the Reaper's shoulder and began to whisper something in his ear or skeletal equivalent.

Grim harshly pushed the boy off him. "I won't say that. It's stupid."

"Come on Grim! Please!"

"NO!"

"Please Please Please!" Billy pleaded over and over again.

"Fine I'll say it!" Grim screamed, "Geez, Billy you sure look good. Have you lost weight?" Grim recited the lines with pure annoyance and hatred.

"Why yes I have?" Billy cheerfully replied as he wiggled his new flat body before he suddenly popped back to his original form like a balloon.

When the three arrived at the middle school Billy was the first one to run inside as usual. Without Billy to muck things up Grim took it as the ideal time to speak with Mandy personally. "Mandy are you feeling well?" He asked. He knew he was starting to sound like a broken record, but he had little choice in the matter.

Mandy looked at him over her shoulder. A cold and piercing blue eye held his gaze. "That's the 5th time you've asked me that this morning." She complained, "Why the hell are you so concerned?"

Grim stammered for a moment unsure how to answer, "It's just…"

"Just what!" Mandy cut in.

"It's just I've never seen you like this is all." Grim finally said after what seemed like an eternity.

"You've never seen me like this?" Mandy repeated as she rolled the words over in her mind. "Do you know why you've never seen me like this?"

Grim merely shook his head.

"Because I've never felt like this before. In other words, I'm in a good mood today." Mandy explained only to receive a confused look from the Reaper. "I'll try to put it in an analogy that even you can understand bonehead. Imagine you were a hunter. A hunter so feared that everything you hunted simply rolled over and died for you. Accepting its fate. Would hunting be any fun then?"

Grim thought for a moment. "No I would suppose not. With no challenge or struggle it hardly seems worth the effort."

"Exactly, but what if one day you stumbled on a prey that didn't die at the sight of you. A prey that fought back, that defiled you that fought not out of instinct or fear but out of a twisted desire to see you dead. Can you imagine hunting something like that? Something like nothing else you've ever met." Mandy explained with an excitement in her voice Grim had never heard before.

"It sounds suicidal to me to hunt a beast that 'wants' you dead." Grim mused.

Mandy snorted in disdain at Grim's answer. "What would you know about it Grim? You rolled over just like everything else."

Grim was shocked as the reality of the conversation sank into him. "Why you arrogant evil little bit..."

"Just be here at lunch time and make sure to bring some take out with you." Mandy ordered before she walked into the school building leaving a furious and unspoken Grim Reaper behind.

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Lunch arrived much sooner than Mandy had expected. Outside a few mild rumors about Nik's head and her own split lip the day was relatively uneventful. Nothing exciting yet so she was not surprised when she found a young man in a blue uniform with his legs propped up sitting at her table in the lunch room. She silently stood behind the overly aggressive boy wondering how long it would take him to notice her presence there. Or acknowledge it if he already knew.

She didn't have to wait long for at the moment Nik leaned back on his chair and looked at her in a display that many would consider childish for one so… extreme. His expression carried his trademark grin and that insane gleam that seemed to appear in his eyes whenever he saw her. A medical bandage was wrapped around his head as specks of dried blood stained the headdress around his wound. Before any further exchanges could be made a seat directly across from him was pushed, or kicked to be more precise, forward as if being offered to her.

"At least he has manners." Mandy thought as she took the seat while keeping at least one eye on Nik at all times. She had learned that turning your back on him was like letting a scorpion loose in your bed. You'll never know exactly where it'll pop up or when it'll strike.

"Not eating today?" He asked in an unconcerned voice not even bothering to look at her.

"I'm having delivery. Now if only that 'delivery boy' wasn't so damn slow." Mandy answered matching his tone.

"Hey Mandy." Billy greeted as he sat down and placed a tray of what looked like mud mixed with peas in front of him. He stared at the tray in front of him before he slammed his face into the brown organic substance of questionable origin. He looked up from the tray, covered in the brown slop and released an almost orgasmic moan of pleasure.

"That is… disturbing. Is he always like this?" Nik asked with a raised brow.

"No" Mandy answered, "Usually he's worse."

At that instant a huge swirling portal opened up and out stepped with a somewhat angry visage. He sat down next to Nik in somewhat of a huff not really paying attention to what was around him as he shoved a bag of food towards Mandy.

"There's your cursed lunch. You wouldn't believe the line at that place man." He said as he allowed himself to relax a bit. Mandy opened the undisclosed bag as she peaked in at whatever was inside it. She made a slight sneer at whatever it was.

"I hate Beuno Nacho." Mandy said in a strangely low voice.

"What?" Grim asked as he strained to listen to her. Perhaps he was imagining things but he could have sworn he heard a hint of disappointment in Mandy's voice.

"I hate Beuno Nacho." Mandy repeated in a more level voice as she glared at Grim.

"I must have forgotten." Grim said with a nervous laugh only to have a taco thrown at his face as a reply. The small packaged of meat and vegetable wrapped in a soft flour tortilla splattered on contact with his skull covering him with its contents.

"Don't forget next time."

Grim was silent. Unsure what to say else he anger Mandy again. The girl still had two burritos for ammunition. Grim muttered some curses under his breath which sounded like incomprehensible gibberish to anyone close enough to hear as he wiped the mess off his face.

"Watch where you're spraying that. I like this outfit and Iya would throw a fit if I came home covered in cheese stains." Nik said as he shielded himself from several bits of flying cheese and meat sauce.

"What's 'HE' doing here?" Grim spat out as he looked towards Mandy for an explanation.

"Nik and I have come to a certain… understanding if you will. That's not to say I agree to his presence here, but so long as he doesn't step out of line I see no reason why he can't be here either." Mandy explained.

Grim was confused if nothing else. Weren't these two at each other's necks just yesterday?

"See Grim. Though I'm not sure what you hold against me, but I'm sure we can put what ever it is in the past for now right?" Nik asked as he looked up to the taller entity next to him. A small grin plastered on his face.

Grim regarded the young boy sitting next to him. There was something that just wasn't right about him and that grin of his. If a viper could grin Grim imagined it would look like Nik, but it wasn't just his expression that felt wrong. His very being felt wrong.

Grim glanced back at Mandy. Mandy was pure evil and hate in a cute compact form, but Grim never felt this much unease in her presence. Maybe he simply had become use to Mandy's form of evil, but no that couldn't be the whole of it. Mandy's evil was like a steady river or being of light. Focused and always on target. An evil that you couldn't really feel unless it was directed at you. Only then could you feel her scorn for the world. Ripping you apart from the inside. The invisible tendrils of her being peeling your soul away as she absorbed your very being. That's what Mandy was.

Nik was another matter. Merely sitting next to him was like sitting next to a roaring fire. His form of evil and hate radiated off him like an illness. It flickered at your soul looking for any chink in your armor and once found threatened to consume you whole. The evil crackled like it was a living separate entity. Lacking control. Lacking purpose. Lacking anything that made it human. Merely consuming that which was around him. Consuming and destroying for the sake of destruction and for him that was all the reason it needed. That's what Nik was.

"I rather shake hands with a scorpion's stinger." Grim coolly replied. Nik's grin simply grew larger almost to a psychotic level. A shiver ran down Grim's spine. Mandy was better then this guy any day.

"Well I'll guess I'll take my leave then. I'm sure we'll meet sooner than you think Grim." Nik said as he left the table ignoring the Billy and Mandy.

"And you have to deal with him on a daily basis Mandy? I much rather be stuck with Billy all day." Grim said as he looked at Billy who had shoved the two burritos up his nose.

"I am the Walrus. Co Co achoooo!" Billy said sneezing so hard at the end the burritos shot out his nose like cannon balls.

"Well maybe not Billy." Grim corrected.

"We have an understanding you could say. He hates the world almost as much as I hate it." Mandy explained.

"Hmm, an alliance forged by hate is a fragile thing Mandy." Grim warned.

"I know Bonehead, but that's not all of it. He's capable. Talented almost. He's just too independent. He's too useful to kill but to dangerous to let out on his own. I just need to find a way to control him."

"Mandy there are many forms of hate in this world. Nik's hate is very different from yours. Not even he can control it! What makes you think you can?"

"Because I'm Mandy. That's why. This world and everything in it is already mine. They just don't realize it yet. Nik will one day fall in line like the rest of them."

Grim smiled weakly. "Well her pride hasn't suffered at least." "Mandy I don't think you understand what I'm telling you though. Nik doesn't think like you."

"What the hell suddenly makes you the expert in his actions anyway?" Mandy coldly asked.

"Trust me child. I know my evil. Yours is the kind that controls worlds."

Mandy approved of this. It was good to know that Grim recognized her abilities. "And what kind is Nik oh great Sage of Evil?" Mandy asked with a strong hint of sarcasm lacing her words.

"His is the kind that destroys them."

End Chapter 7

I can't seem to get to get the bars I always use to work. Don't know why. I swear computers hate me.