o:-:-:-:-: Prologue :-:-:-:-:o
Blitzo looked ahead in astonishment. Despite the dumb situation the tall imp had gotten himself into, he couldn't help but be impressed.
His back was pinned against the sidewalk, and right in front of him, a smaller imp in their early 20s had a huge bowie knife against his throat.
The small imp looked to be about half a head shorter than even Moxxie, and somehow appearing to be even more lanky. They were wearing a black hoodie that looked about a size too big for their tiny frame, and cargo shorts.
The imp's face looked quite enraged, growling as he bared his sharp, black teeth. Their white hair was tied back in a very messy man-bun, and their pupils were thin slits, seeming to stare right through Blitzo…
The truth was, all this had happened because Blitzo was late to the headquarters, it was a full moon yesterday, so he had to make it all the way back from Stolas' place. He had carelessly bumped into the small imp while speed-walking, causing Blitzo to spill his drink. Blitzo was pissed, thought the imp would be easy pickings, and tried to start a fight, however things had… obviously not gone in his favor.
Blitzo had a gun on him, of course, he easily could have just shot this random imp dead before ending up like this. However, at the same time he had quickly started to see potential in this guy, just like he had with Moxxie way back when.
Recognizing all this, Blitzo slowly put his hands in the air, and chuckled. "Alright, alright, you win, short stuff. There's no reason for us to escalate this any further, none of us need to fuckin' die or anything. Though, you've got me thinking…"
The small imp slowly backed off of Blitzo, though kept his eyes narrowed in suspicion. "I'm listening…"
"Well, I can see you've got potential, pipsqueak. You managed to take down someone twice your damn height, at least. You could be pretty useful to my crew and I," Blitzo explained, a smirk starting to grow on his face. "Do you want a job?"
The smaller imp seemed to take a few moments to mull it over in their head, tapping the end of their pointed snout with one of their claws…
o:-:-:-:-: 1 :-:-:-:-:o
It was a quiet morning at the I.M.P. headquarters–in fairness, Blitzo still hadn't shown up, so not a lot could really be done. However, at the very least, no new clients had appeared.
Moxxie was busy polishing his sniper rifle, making sure it was absolutely as clean as possible. He also checked and made sure it was in perfect working order. Millie was sharpening her axe, the scraping sound that was created being the only thing heard inside the office at this point. And, as per usual, Loona laid on the couch not too far away, scrolling through her phone.
"There, it looks good as new!" Moxxie exclaimed proudly, showing off his shiny, perfectly polished and clean rifle to Millie. "What do you think, Millie?"
Millie looked over and gave Moxxie a toothy grin. "Well, I think it looks mighty fine, Mox, like the day ya bought it! I like to keep the grime on my weapons, but you do a real great job cleanin' yours!"
"Eheh, thank you, Millie!" Moxxie chuckled, before running a hand over one of the sharpened edges of Millie's axe. "I have to say, you do a good job sharpening your axe, too–"
Moxxie was cut off by the office door suddenly bursting open, startling him a little. Everyone looked over to see that Blitzo had finally arrived, a… surprisingly happy grin plastered on his face. Everyone thought they could also see someone behind the tall imp…
"What's up fuckers, I'm back!" Blitzo announced confidently, holding the Grimoire.
Loona looked up, seemingly disinterested in Blitzo's arrival. "Enjoy your little stint at your boyfriend's house?"a
Blitzo instantly looked disgusted, dismissing Loona's comment. "Wha-No! Ew, what the hell! Can we not discuss that during work hours? Thanks."
Loona rolled her eyes, before looking back down at her phone. "…Whatever you say."
" Anyways, what I was going to say…" Blitzo said, somewhat irritated, before pushing a small imp into the room, showing them off to everyone inside the office. "…Is that we've got a new employee!"
Everyone looked at the small imp with a bit of disbelief. Of course, another employee would make things easier, but the others seemed to not really think this tiny thing could be useful.
Millie, on the other hand, seemed starstruck, her large axe dropping to the floor with a clatter as she gasped. "Oh my Satan, he's adorable, especially with that big knife there! What's his name, Blitzo?"
"Well, at least someone is enthusiastic about our new guy…" Blitzo sighed, and looked down at the tiny, messy-haired imp. "His name is… It's, uh… Hmm… Jane? Jason? Janet?"
The imp looked back at Blitzo, somewhat annoyed. "Janus. I told you that like, 10 seconds before we got here."
"Ah, yeah, yeah, Janus, I was close enough. Kind of a sissy name if you ask me, but whatever," Blitzo shrugged nonchalantly. "Anyways, I'll let you idiots all get acquainted or whatever, if you need me I'll be in my office."
As Blitzo walked off, Millie got up and walked over to Janus, before reaching under his arms and picking him up. She then rushed back over to Moxxie, and excitedly exclaimed, "Look at this lil' guy, Mox, ain't he just the cutest lil' thing? Look at his baggy clothes, and those adorable little horns!"
Moxxie was practically face-to-face with Janus, and could see the small imp's annoyed scowl clear as day. "Eheh, I… don't think he likes being picked up like that."
"Yeah, I would really appreciate being put down," Janus replied, wriggling his way out of Millie's grasp and backing up slightly to get a bit of personal space. "I don't want to be treated like a damn pet."
"Aww, alright then," Millie replied, chuckling heartily.
Moxxie then studied Janus a little, looking him over. Indeed, owing to his small stature, very thin body, clothing style, and his short, straight horns, Janus just didn't really look all that threatening. "I just don't get why Blitz would hire someone so… small? I mean, I was the shortest one here, and you're still a good half a head shorter than me."
"That's… fair, I guess," Janus replied, letting out a sigh as he calmed himself down. "Basically, Blitz made an ass of himself in public, I ended up getting the upper hand, and now here I am with a job."
"That's all it took? Huh," Moxxie seemed a little surprised, but thought about it some more and just shrugged. "Eh, Blitz is weird sometimes, I guess. Oh, and how could I forget! I'm Moxxie, and this is my wife, Millie! It's nice to meet you."
Moxxie gestured to himself, and then to Millie, before reaching out to shake Janus' hand. Janus smiled, showing off his black teeth as he shook both Moxxie and Millie's hands. "It's, uh, nice to meet you too, I guess… Sorry about being all annoyed, rough day yesterday. You guys, uh, happen to have any alcohol?
"Yeah, we got a buncha cans in the fridge, lil' guy!" Millie grinned pointing to a minifridge in the back of the office. "Make sure to save some for everybody else, though, haha!"
As Janus walked in the direction of the fridge, pulling out a few cans of beer, Millie turned to Moxxie, and whispered, "gosh he's adorable, just wanna squish his little cheeks and give 'im a lil' pat on the head!"
Moxxie chuckled, fiddling with his bright red bowtie. "Knowing you, you'd probably end up squeezing the life out of him too, eheh! Though keep in mind, he doesn't seem to like being treated like that."
"D'aww, I know, but the urge is just so mighty strong, I mean look at the lil' fella!" Millie grinned happily.
"Speak of the devil…" Moxxie replied as Janus returned, holding 3 cans of beer. He decided to sit next to the imp couple again, feeling a little awkward about trying to introduce himself to Loona.
Millie looked over at Janus excitedly. "Ya got some for us too? Aww, you're so thoughtful, lil' guy!"
Janus looked down at the beer and back at Millie a few times, before slowly giving two of the cans to Millie and Moxxie. "…Sure, I did. You're welcome."
o:-:-:-:-: 2 :-:-:-:-:o
It had been a few days since Janus got his job at I.M.P. The gang, minus Janus, had already gone on a few missions. Blitzo had previously elected to not have Janus come, or if he did come, he was only to watch what everyone else did. This time, Blitzo allowed Janus to come along and actually do something.
Blitzo had gathered everyone in the main room, including Janus, who stood in front of everyone else with Blitzo. Despite his annoyance during his first day, Janus had calmed down over the past few days, and was actually starting to look forward to the job he'd be doing with the others. It was the first time he would be doing something like this–Janus had been well-trained with melee weapons, but he had never really found a use for it outside of self-protection, until now.
"Alright asswipes, eyes up here," Blitzo announced, and everyone in the room turned to face him. "This mission should be pretty simple–just take out some old guy who's living by himself."
"Wait, why are we killing, just, a random old guy, sir?" Moxxie asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh, yeah, so apparently he pushed his wife down the stairs to collect insurance money. Guy fuckin' sucks, but he's old so there's not exactly a lot he can do against us." Blitzo replied nonchalantly, shrugging his shoulders, before turning to face Loona. "Alright, open up the portal, sweetie!"
Loona sighed, and a few seconds later, a portal opened up. Janus stepped in first, eager to see what the human world looked like for the first time.
He stepped out into a large, grassy field surrounded by forest. It was late at night, the stars were out, and the moon's pale light illuminated the grass as it swayed in the faint wind.
The sights and smells were like nothing Janus had ever experienced before back in Hell, and he loved it. The night sky looked especially incredible, with all those hundreds of stars hanging in the night sky... However, Janus knew he couldn't get too carried away, he still had a job to do after all. He scanned the area, and noticed a small house in the center of the field, set in a shallow valley between two hills.
I'm guessing that's where the target lives, Janus thought, and he began to casually walk forward, not really needing to care about stealth just yet, with the house being so far away. Seems like a nice place to get away, I'd kill to live out here…
However, just as the small imp began to walk forward, he heard a sound behind him, and turned around to reveal Blitzo, Moxxie, and Millie, who had all just stepped out of the portal. Janus looked confused, as he had already been out here for about a minute, and had figured the other 3 were behind him.
"Damn kid, I appreciate how eager you are to kill this guy, but wait up!" Blitzo said, sounding slightly annoyed. "We need to stick together, plus I sort of need to evaluate you. This is the first mission where you get to be useful, after all."
Janus shrugged it off, waiting for the other 3 to make their way to him before continuing. "Oh, sorry then, I guess. I didn't know I'd gotten so far ahead of you."
"Whatever, it's fine... Just keep going over to that house," Blitzo responded as he and the other 2 caught up.
Eventually, after a few more minutes of walking, Janus had made it to the small wooden house, and crouched beside the front door to make sure he wouldn't be visible through any windows. He turned behind him to look at the others, but noticed they weren't behind him. He quickly looked all over, but indeed Blitzo and the others were gone.
Janus even waited a few extra minutes to see if they'd show up, but still nothing. He growled in frustration, and got up to physically check all over the outside of the house, and in the surrounding field, but still turned up empty-handed.
Eventually, Janus just gave up, and went back to his position near the front door, a look of both annoyance and worry on his face. Fucking idiots, how do you get lost in an open field? Whatever, hopefully they'll turn up soon…
Being extra cautious now that he was all by himself, Janus slowly but surely unlatched the front door, opening it quietly before slipping inside, not bothering to close the door behind him.
However, as just he began to nimbly make his way through the house's living room, Janus heard the front door close and latch itself, locking the small imp inside.
This caused Janus to freak out a little, his breathing and heartrate growing a little faster as he continued, feeling more and more like he was fucked. After all, doors don't exactly lock themselves, unless you live in a fancy pants rich person's palace. Janus then started to take things even more slowly and cautiously, not wanting to make a single sound to alert whoever was inside.
Of course, this person likely already knew Janus was inside, but still, keeping quite made Janus feel slightly better about his situation. He continued forward, into a dark and narrow hallway, which in his current position seemed creepy as hell. At least it's not that long, but like… This is exactly where people get murdered in horror movies… Janus thought.
As he passed a set of doors, Janus could start to hear faint clawing sounds behind one of them, which only freaked him out more. Who the hell is this guy? I thought humans weren't able to use magic like this!
He then made sure to check inside the two rooms, one was a bathroom, and the other, where the clawing sounds came from, was a guest bedroom. He made sure to check every nook and cranny in the room, but nobody was in there. Just then, that same faint clawing sound came from the bathroom Janus had just checked.
Eventually, after checking the bathroom and not finding anything, an even more freaked out Janus made his way to the door at the end of the hallway. He figured this must be the master bedroom, where whoever the fuck this was must be.
The small imp's hands shook slightly as he reached into one of his shorts pockets, pulling out his huge bowie knife, and then reached for the doorknob. Just as he began turning the knob though, Janus heard the faint sound of pots and pans rattling from the kitchen. However, he steeled himself, and opened the door, quickly making sure to close it behind him. And then…
…Nothing. All the sounds from the other parts of the house stopped. It felt like Janus had been transported into another universe or something. He slowly crept towards the bed, seeing a sleeping figure inside.
Janus came closer, and closer, expecting something to happen, but nothing did. He stood right next to the sleeping old man for a few minutes, but still, nothing happened.
Eventually, Janus brought his bowie knife up to the man's neck, and cut it as quickly and deeply as he could. The man quickly woke up, trying to shout for help as red blood spilled from his throat, but in under a minute, he had fallen back into the bloodstained bed, lying still.
Janus was trembling the whole time. However, the sight of the old man being dead somewhat helped his fear. He rubbed his eyes with his hands, processing everything that had just happened. After another minute or two, Janus put the bowie knife back into his pocket, and was just about to turn to leave the room, when he noticed something on the man's nightstand.
A tape recorder, with a tape already inside. Janus looked around the room quickly, trying to see if someone had placed it there, but nobody was inside. He tried to listen for outside sounds, but nothing came from outside the room either.
Once again shaking, Janus pressed play, nervously awaiting what he would hear…
…
" …Behind you~"
Janus quickly turned around, eyes wide as he heard the door to the bedroom slowly creak open, seeing a tall, dark figure step inside the room. Janus held his hands up, shaking intensely. "H-Hey now, we don't need to fight! I've already done my job, I can leave if you want, just don't hurt me!"
However, the figure continued to come closer, and closer. Eventually, it stopped, standing right in front of where Janus was huddled. It then slowly squatted until it was about eye-level with Janus.
Janus whimpered slightly, reaching down again for his knife, before the figure suddenly lunged at him, causing the small imp to scream loud enough for it to be heard miles away…
o:-:-:-:-: 3 :-:-:-:-:o
Janus stood in the corner, looking absolutely furious. His small hands were balled up into fists, and he was grinding his teeth as he looked at the scene in front of him.
Blitzo was laughing his ass off, laughing so hard he even had a small coughing fit, all this from trying to explain what happened during the mission to Loona.
"A-And then… hahahaha!! I fucking jumped on him, he screamed so fucking loud! Heheheh, you should have been there to see it! And-And then when he realized it was me, oh it was priceless!" Blitzo explained to Loona through laughs and wheezes, clutching his stomach as he looked up at the hellhound, who actually appeared to be pretty amused, chuckling as she heard Blitzo's story.
"You know, sir, that was… Pretty mean of you. I mean the original plan was to just disappear to see how well he could do on his own, not to scare the living crumbs out of him!" Moxxie chided, seeming annoyed with Blitzo.
"Oh… Oh shut the fuck up, Moxxie!" Blitzo said between laughs. "I saw your tiny dick ass laughing once that happened!"
Moxxie looked away, rubbing his arm in shame. "Well, you see, sir, I, uh…"
"Right as usual, ahahaha!!" Blitzo said, before continuing to laugh, now pounding his fists on the floor.
"I'll, uh… Just go tell the client that the job is done, I guess," Moxxie said, looking awkwardly at everyone before shuffling away.
Millie had been looking sympathetically, and decided to get up to try and comfort Janus before a fight broke out. She walked over, and put a hand on the small imp's shoulder. "Hey there lil' guy, let's… go to a different room, huh?"
"…Yeah. Better than being right in the line of fire. I guess," Janus spoke through gritted teeth, still furious.
Millie led Janus to the meeting room, somewhere the small imp hadn't been yet. They sat across from each other, with Janus grumbling as he looked over at Millie, only barely tall enough for his head to peek over the table.
Once both of them had gotten as comfortable as possible, Millie sighed. "I know that was, sorta mean of us, and I'm sorry. But don't worry too much 'bout it. Blitz and the rest of us can… be like that sometimes. Just know that we mean it in good fun, never intend to harm anyone."
"I mean, sure… still though, it's a really shitty prank. I thought I was about to die, alright, I thought my life was over, Millie," Janus looked up at Millie, clearly still angry about the situation, before pointing in the direction of Blitzo, whose muffled laughter could still be heard in the background. "And there he is, laughing up a storm like it's the funniest fucking thing in the world. Even Moxxie laughed at me, and he's like the nicest person here."
"I can see that. Mox.. well, he's been in this same situation as you lots of times before, and he knows what it's like," Millie explained. "He damn well knows it hurts, but he also knows at the end of the day, it's all in good fun. As much as Blitz loves scarin' him or pesterin' him, Mox knows the big lug wouldn't actually hurt him. Though, I guess me bein' around helps–Blitz knows I'd castrate his ass if he ever tried anything."
Janus sighed deeply, and rested his small head on the edge of the table. "I can see your point, Millie... That's fair, I guess I don't really blame him, it's still just… frustrating."
"Hey now, frustration ain't always a bad thing! In fact, in a situation like this, you can use that frustration…" Millie suddenly leaned in, and gave Janus a devious grin. "…To get 'im back."
Janus lifted his head up suddenly, looking right at Millie. "…Holy fuck, why did I not think of that. I'm gonna get that son of a bitch back, and I'm gonna get him worse than he's ever been gotten before."
"Atta boy! Now go get him!" Millie cheered as Janus rushed out of the room, a sinister grin on his face to replace his former fury.
However, as he left, Millie couldn't help but notice that despite Janus' enthusiasm, his thin tail was still dragging on the ground, just like it had when she brought him to the meeting room. She was curious for a few moments, but decided to dismiss it.
o:-:-:-:-: Epilogue :-:-:-:-:o
Janus was laying in bed, defeated, with his sweater on the floor, and his hair looking disheveled. He tried so hard to find something when he got home, he looked everywhere.
And yet it was nowhere to be seen.
He sighed, beginning to feel slightly cold. Janus had forgiven Blitzo already, he didn't care that much anymore. Plus, the face Blitzo made after seeing that mango... priceless, it more than made up for Janus' anger earlier that day. But still...
Janus looked over at his digital alarm clock. 1:20 AM. He always had trouble sleeping, but this night was particularily bad.
It was a good faith prank, sure, but that imagery... The fear he felt in the bedroom upon seeing Blitzo approach, getting closer, and closer, not relenting even with Janus' plea to back off, it was palpable.
Janus felt like he could still hear the scratching sounds he had heard from the bathroom and guest bedroom. It was all so vivid in his mind, even hours later.
Janus pondered. Maybe it would have helped right about now. It always does, but Janus had never quite used it for this purpose before.
No, that probably wouldn't have helped anyways... Whatever. I'll look again tomorrow. Janus thought, trying to dismiss the thought. He then shut off the lamp on his nightstand, and rolled over in bed, trying to get comfortable and fall asleep.
o:-:-:-:-: End of Chapter 1 :-:-:-:-:o
I was inspired by Assassinace45's story "The New Employee," I felt like the story had a lot of drawbacks, but also had quite a few interesting concepts, and so I wanted to give the idea a try myself. I hope this first chapter was alright, but I'm not exactly confident in my writing at the moment, considering this is like the first story I've published in, what, 5 or 6 years? If you like it, great, if not I'd love to hear why, because I really want to make this story as good as it can be. Either way, thank you for giving me your time!