With Or Without You
Part Three
-Meanwhile, Elsewhere-
Balthazar was in a completely malicious mood, the mood he found himself in quite often. As he walked along the halls of the BZR building, he let out a maniacal laugh. "Mwahahaha!" he let out and he cackled again. Balthazar had remembered that technique he had learned from the bestselling book in Hell, "How to Be a Malicious Overlord and Take over Humanity," by A. Demon. He had learned that laughing like a mad-man could inspire terrible and dreadful things, things he aspired to and hoped to accomplish before the first cup of coffee in the morning. He wanted time for other things, such as shopping, getting his nails done and redesigning his lush, luxury, penthouse apartment. As he strolled, he hoped that his copy of "House Beautiful" would be in his mail-box when he got home.
When he got to the bookcase that sat quite conspicuously in the hallway, in the front lobby. His fingers ran along side the antique books that sat upright in the shelves. He had found the one that he had wanted and pulled it back, opening a secret passage that he had put in last month. Balthazar had awoken one morning and had thought of this most nefarious plot and he had felt oh so optimistic about it. He lived for making John and Chas' life miserable and he knew that this plot would do so and any plot that featured an underground lair was icing on the cake.
He walked down the staircase and he looked over to his side, his shadow had elongated into a hunched over, cackling figure, rubbing his hands oh-so-maliciously. Balthazar had thought it was the perfectly evil accessory and remembered that he should send fruit baskets to the men that built this lair for him. It looked like a cave, a cave that had been there since the stone-age and was accented with torches. There was nothing in here, save for the chair. The chair was something that Balthazar had wanted so badly, nothing said evil, evil man like a big, high-backed, leather chair. It could swivel too, due to the built in joy-stick and in case of the good guy showing up, there was an ejection button to help him get away. He had wanted to put in bizarre large computer systems where henchmen could look like they are pushing buttons and accomplishing something sinister but his interior decorator had said that they were so 1997. Balthazar was a demon of the times. He pranced down the stairs and walked over to his captive.
His hands were bound by rope and there was a white handkerchief tied tightly around his mouth. Balthazar was a smart one, knowing that John would have screamed and got help. Balthazar couldn't have had his new boy-toy get away from him. He leered at him and smirked, the lederhosen was a nice touch. As a young demon, Balthazar had seen the Disney film, "Pinocchio" and ever since then, he had a fetish for dark haired men in lederhosen. There was always the chance that in time, John would learn to sing and dance for him: "I've Got No Strings."
"Hello, Johnny boy," Balthazar said as he took off the gag.
"Ah treacherous fiend!" John cried out.
"Now, now, there's no need for such words, John," Balthazar cackled and then launched into another fit of MWAHAHAHA! He felt like such an evil, evil demon. He watched as John's eyes got big and he quivered, launching himself back into the fetal position. Oh no, what was he to do?
"Leave me alone, foul creature. My hero shall come, bearing the banner of our love and defeat thee," John whispered before breaking into tears again.
"Oh yes, Mr. Kramer," Balthazar's gaze turned dark and he pulled his fingers together, fiddling and going into plot mode. "My arch-nemesis and biggest foe. He has thwarted many of my plans but I highly doubt he will this time. I have my hench-woman out looking for him and not to mention," his eyes took on a really malicious light. "My secret plan!" then followed by MWAHAHAHA!
"OH NOES! What are we to do now?" John cried aloud, knowing that things were to get really ugly.
"I know what you are going to do now," Balthazar said as he rubbed John's chest, only covered by the straps of his lederhosen. He liked the feeling of those overwhelming muscles, muscles that belonged to a Greek god, to Fabio, to a model in an International Male catalogue. He squealed like a little girl and clapped his hands, preening as he walked away from John. John looked on in horror as he watched the mastermind at work.
Balthazar did have one nifty gadget, a button. He clicked this button that was mounted into the wall and two things appeared from behind the wall. One was a bed, a bed covered in kitschy magenta velvet bedspread and rotated, going in a complete 360 motion. Then, there was the library that Balthazar kept. No, this didn't house books but rather, a massive CD collection with a state-of-the-art stereo and a gigantic DVD collection, complete with a plasma television with a built-in DVD player. Balthazar was a connoisseur of such items. His music collection hosted such greats as Cher, Madonna, ABBA, Barbra, Liza and many other chanteuses he had felt was perfect to get his groove on. Then with film, he had such titles as "Dude, Where's My Dildo," "Shaving Ryan's Privates, "Naked Sword," and his favorite: "Bulging Jockstraps." Balthazar had spent his time on earth collecting such items and he knew. He just knew that these things would make John a willing love monkey.
He pulled out a copy of "It's Raining Men" and smirked at John. "Dance, my little wooden puppet, dance!" he called out and then yet again, launched into maniacal laughter.
John started shaking his booty and yet, he bit back the tears. He knew that Chas was coming, that this would all come to an end. But as he danced, he muttered to himself, "I'll huff and I'll puff…"