I slip back into my body like an old pair of jeans. I stretch. It feels good.

"How dare you!" I grin. The voice is inside my head now, it sounds like him.

"Oh it's so good to hear your voice again. I never thought I'd miss it, but I did." My whole body lurches forward as he wrestles me for control. "Chill. I literally want to do one thing." He calms, curious.

"I hope it's worth the pain I'll put you through for this."

"Probably not, but it's why I'm doing one thing and not fucking leaving."

"If you mess up this plan..." I pause.

"Can an angel sense when you do that snap summoning thing?"

"No."

"Great." I have no idea how this would work, but I had a theory. And I wasn't about to ask him. That wouldn't do me any good.

"You're right."

I concentrate on what I want and how much I want it here, and snap my fingers.

"Really?"

I grin. In my hand is an ordinary plain red rock.

"Really Chew Toy? Anything in the world you could summon, and that's what you want?"

"C'mon. A rock from Hell is gonna sit front and center in my collection."

"And you did it on the first try. Congratulations. Now-"

"I have the king of fucking Hell with me. I think you'd be insulted if I couldn't do it on the first try. Ok. I'm done."

"Count of three for a startling shock."

"You're gonna do it on two I k-" The pain is excruciating and unexpected. I feel myself falling back, then pushed down.

Crowley sighs as he straightens the suit jacket, but I notice he humors me and drops the rock in the suitcase.

"That was entirely foolish, pig headed, and utterly stupid." Small revenge for Fucking my husband. Show you I'm still capable of playing that game, messing shit up.

"I never said I fucked your stupid boy toy. I said we had a lovely night. Big difference. Also...wait for it." He stands in front of the mirror, sucking his… my tongue. "We never discussed how long your 'punishment' in Hell lasts if you mess with the machinations of Hell. I'd say going directly against my orders counts. At least I say so, and that's what matters. So...disobey me Once..." He pauses and I feel a chill. A feeling that I was never going to come back from this.

Ever.

"That first little trick you played with the salt...wasn't actually disobeying, but right after you made me choke today... I said…'don't you dare fight me." He says as he checks the safety on the gun, that it's loaded, and straps on the belt under the jacket. I feel an odd slight sinking feeling, a feeling I had just damned myself in a way I hadn't thought possible. "Your finite stint as a Chew Toy...just became an eternal one." Our stomach drops. Crowley sighs, allowing it, enjoying it. "There, now that's the emotional torment I like to feel. Wonderful seeing a plan come to fruition." And that's when I knew, he had yet again beaten me.

He had thought of this not long after I made him trip… I knew it, felt it. He had shown me that book deal to rile me up so he could give the order to not retaliate, but in relation to something so it wouldn't seem out of the blue...wouldn't seem like something to pay attention to and worry about….Then he needled and played me into thinking he fucked my husband. And I fell for it.

"Hook line and sinker darling. You're lucky sex isn't one of my main vices. I saw a lovely young couple today that I would have eaten up." He was trying to distract me from my anxiety, my overwhelming fear. Why?

"I have had eons of dealing with that emotion, I'd like something new. Or at least that I haven't tried in a while. Actually...to put you through cheating on your husband. That might be a wonderful feeling." I shudder. "Just to experience love, or even sex, with a human soul touching mine so closely? Now that, I might get addicted to. While you were asleep, boring, but now? Well, I think we might just have time."

The taunt has no teeth to it. He may have charm, but he has no status, and he looks like a 45 year old woman. An ok looking one, but not alluring by any means.

"The suit helps." Yeah. But not enough. "You really have quite the self esteem issue. I promise I could get someone back to this room in fifteen mi-"

Without paying them? Yeah, no.

"...in an hour!" I chuckle. He looks at the clock and shakes his head.

"Speaking of time." Go time? "Just waiting for the signal." What's the signal?

As soon as I ask there is a loud crash from outside. The sound of screeching tires. Shouting, and the words "You're fucking innocent angelic face is pissing me off! This is your goddamn fault!"

"Go time."

He walks up the stairs toward the top floor. Penthouse. Why was it always in one of these?

"Because I like comfort and that's where I died."

And why do you want this body so much? It's Just a body.

"I'm partial to it. And all the suits I've bought are in its size. Also, it has a family. MY family. And I'm not done with them yet." I shudder. A demon with a family. If anyone touched them...claimed them, tried to replace him. They were his, and he didn't like people touching His things. I couldn't imagine what he'd do to anyone who messed with them.

"I can. I did. The angels found me, that's why I'm here. They will Never touch them." How can he possibly ensure that? He, I… so confusing, my body smiles. "Runes; in the walls, on their clothes, on jewelry, on the car. Also… I made it very clear before they killed me, as clear as I possibly could, that if they went within a mile of my family they would be dragged down to Hell and I would Find Out if I could turn an angel into a demon. And they know I didn't die." Wow. He really cared about this family. The blood must have fucked him up worse- "No. They are mine. Mine to experience." Ah...got it.

Before I can ponder the validity of the statement we push open the door to the top floor. He sticks my head out and looks both ways. No one. We exit and begin circling around the outer hall. The carpet is red with gold flowers...and some burns. Matches the drape to our left, which is scorched and torn. Housekeeping had not been up here to fix it after the fight. I do however glance at the only window visible, due to said burned drapes, and see a tell-tail bit of red spray paint. Crowley sees it too and nods. The warding was indeed up.

We start to circle the halls but not seconds into our stroll and we twitch as a man rounds the corner. He stops when he sees me.

Angel.

An Asian man with fine features, a black suit and a posture that exudes a 'holier than thou' feeling. Crowley keeps walking forward.

"Hey. I'm looking for a friend?" He says, infuriatingly in my voice.

"This floor is off limits."

"Yeah but she said she rented this suite?" We are close to him now.

"Then she lied."

"That doesn't sound like her. I had a really important message for her. Perhaps you could take it to her."

"She's not here."

"Please?" We stop right next to him and look up at the man who is a good 3 inches taller.

"Fine, but it will do no good… wait...you're that woman with the grey soul." He...we… grin. It was too cinematic not to. A slight wave and a thought brings the blade into our hand as he lunges into the chest of the angel.

"The king's back." I sigh in relief as he whispers in his normal voice. Weird as it is coming from my body, it was still better than that weird mixture.

Crowley stretches his neck as the corpse slides from the blade, and with a big smile I've never seen on his own face, we round the corner.

Three more angels later and he is wiping the dripping blade on one of their suits. It was time to go in.

"Right through the front doors darling. Big entrance." We push open the door waving the blade back and forth.

"Pardon but-"

"Hello Castiel." The angel stands guard in front of the circle. It's obvious and bright red on the ceiling. The circle that is holding, protecting, and preserving Crowley's body. The angel pauses at Crowley's voice coming from my body. He looks at me, confused.

"How long have you been torturing this woman with whatever twisted plot you have now?" I laugh silently. Crowley smiles.

"Truly? Not even four hours. She fell asleep after the first fifteen minutes and just woke up today."

"So you've…"

"Been in here since the start? You are always two steps behind giraffe." The gun is out and has shot two rounds before I even know that Crowley was thinking of doing it. Castiel yells in pain but gathers himself and rushes forward. I panic, but Crowley just stands there. We have to move! Smiting power of god! Move! I gasp as the hand touches our head and I tense waiting for the pain.

It's brief. Just barely starts. And we stand.

"Having a little potency problem Cas? I hear there is medicine for that." The angel looks at us, backing away.

"How?" He says in a demanding voice, one that just barely covers the confusion and fear.

Crowley just smiles.

"If I tell you how the magic trick works then it's not magic anymore is it?"

"But-"

"Get over yourself! You. Lost. This. Round."

"Why are you here Crowley?" We both blink.

"You have my body dickhead." And with that I feel a weight lift from me as a red smoke with a slight shimmer and a point of light fills the room. It rushes through the air and into the body lying on the floor. There is one deep intake of breath, and many from me as I fall to the floor panting, then Crowley sits up. He looks around a moment, tucks a phone back into his pocket and stands. He dusts himself off and smiles, leaning forward in a slightly eager way.

"Miss me?" The words are basically a trademark by now and very infuriating. Castiel walks toward him, angel blade out, pointing at his chest.

"No way out Crowley. You Will lose this time, everything."

"We'll see, the funny thing about that is even when I lose, I win." He says with a glance in my direction. I chuckle at the deleted line from the show, but before I can ponder its inaccuracy in this situation Castiel rushes Crowley. I have no time to even think before he runs the blade through the demon's gut.

The effect is instantaneous. Light flashes through his corpse, and he fizzles, falling to the ground. Cas, whether that is the angel's real name or an insult from Crowley, pulls out the blade and turns to me.

"You're free now. You can go as-" I just shake my head and point at the body. Cas looks back as the red smoke with the slightest glitter to it and a single point of white light rushes out and fills the ceiling.

"But…" The smoke circles and dives toward me, I brace for what's coming, but it doesn't make much difference. I'm pushed down internally as the smoke fills my every atom. The pain is far far less than the first time, but I still feel like I'm being crushed, even if it's by a feather bed.

"Really skeleton wings? It didn't work before, why would it work now? Are you daft?" Says Crowley in his own voice as he raises my brows at the angel. Cas once again rushes over and I gasp as the blade sinks into me. It's excruciating.

Darkness falls. I fade into a feeling of flying, a wonderful weightlessness fills my stomach; and then I sink, like a roller coaster just after it's peaked. As if a stone is tied to my foot. As if I'm damned.

And then there is light. I blink. I try to move but can't. I'm in Crowley. I watch from within as he gets up and looks at the trapping circle, and steps out it. As he looks up I see the bullet hole he had shot in the outer rim. Crowley grins. At Castiel's anger, at my confusion.

"I love our little play dates, but this is getting repetitive."

"You will die." The anger in the angel's voice is guttural and cold as he stalks toward us. Crowley is as calm as ever.

"Ah...no." We are once again impaled by the blade. The pain courses through Crowley, and fades slowly. He bursts out, dragging me with him, and flies in a circle, a miasma of red with white dots, and a white sphere trapped in the eye of the storm. I know that if Cas could grab me, if that was possible, Crowley would die finally...but wrapped in him I can't do a thing; and with his will near supplanting my own right now, I don't want to.

I feel a tug in some unnamed direction, then in another, and they equal out...vanishing into nothing. We fall back into the body below us and I'm pushed down. Crowley sighs as he straightens himself once again, still impaled on the blade, glaring at the confused angel in front of him.

"Really? Couldn't you have at least aimed For The Same Spot! I have Three holes in my suit now!" Cas stares at the blade and lets go, stepping back.

"I don't...this is impossible."

"No. Very. I'm here. I'm immortal. And I'm the King of Fucking Hell!" Castiel backs away as Crowley looks at the blade in his gut and pulls it out. It hurts so much, I can't stand another dose of this extreme pain and I almost pass out; but a mental slap from my bunkmate keeps me awake.

"Look, skeleton wings. I really think there's only one option here..." And Crowley throws the angel just outside the door with a gesture. "Fuck. Off." And with a flick of the wrist the door slams shut.

Crowley sighs and puts his hands in his pockets. Looking around the room.

"Well that was fun."

...Ow. I forgot a soul could actually hurt. Fuck.

"Ah. Right." Crowley walks over to my body, a hole in the gut that's bleeding out my soulless husk. He stares at it. Not saving me. Voiding our contract.

"Contract never mentions unnatural death at the hands of my enemies voiding anything darling." Fuck. Balls. He was right. I thought I was ok at the game, but he...

"You were acceptable for a human, I'm just out of your league." He stands over my body, spilling red and gasping as it dies. He stands and watches as breath leaves it, and its heart stops. I cringe. I am dead. An unnatural death by angel.

Angels aren't exactly 'natural' but Supernatural. Crowley pauses, I can feel his mind working. He thinks and then nods.

He snaps and I see my chest lurch. He snaps again, and my chest lurches again, and breath returns to the body. He is reviving it… He kneels and waves his hand over the hole, and it disappears.

"Right. Off you go." I feel a push as he opens his mouth. I float away and an unmeasurable feeling of vulnerability surrounds me. It is awful, but I feel a familiar tug, then a push, and I race towards something that feels like home.

I blink. Move my wrist. Good. Move my arms. Goodish. Sit up. Not good.

"Fuck I'm sore."

"But alive. See. I keep my promises."

"Great. Thanks. It means so much. Can you help me up?" Crowley looks at me and snaps his fingers.

We are both sitting in a bar. I don't know where, but the second after we arrive every head turns to look at us. I freeze. I look around, and as I look, every pair of eyes turns black.

"Hello boys. Miss me?" There is a slight murmur, and then scared whispers and quiet happy exclamations fill the air. "Go spread the word, the king is back. Rewards and punishments will be dealt out shortly." There is silence. "Now!" Every seat shifts and the demons start to leave. "Not you. I'd like you to make...my secondary. Two." The bartender pauses and nods.

I'm shaken. Confused. I'm Tired, physically, mentally, emotionally, and in my very soul. I feel like I'm missing more than just a tiny bit. I look at him, the king, my contract holder, the demon I had helped make immortal so I wouldn't die...and realize what I've done in my selfishness, my paranoia, my eagerness to create, to please anyone.

I always did move too fast. Not think about my ideas...I don't even want to imagine my pain if I had become a demon and had this idea...had tried it myself...and he found out. I shudder.

"Good thoughts?" I look at him as he speaks.

"How...how did we survive that? The first attack? I understand the flitting back and forth but… the first and last attacks should have killed us. If we survived that...how did you kill the other demon?"

Crowley smirks.

"Why should I tell you? If you know you could tell someone."

"And void my contract?"

"For the greater good? I've seen people do it for less." He wasn't wrong. I was considering it. "If you tell, and I don't die, I will not put you through what I have planned for you. But I will force you to watch as I do it to countless others. For eternity." I look at him. Too tired to argue. Too tired to fight. Just curious and afraid. If curiosity killed the cat, and satisfaction brought him back, I was Schrodinger's.

"So. How did we survive the first attack? Can I at least know that?" He sits in silence, tension rising for an eternity in what is obviously only three or four seconds.

"We are greater than the sum of our parts. Two souls sharing a body, are just two souls, individuals that can be killed or expelled by the same wave of light. Combine those two souls…" he raises his glass and toasts me.

So wait, if he had just pushed a bit harder we'd both be gone?"

"No. Probably not. It'd render that meat suit uninhabitable though."

"So how-"

"I'll tell you when you come home."

"Home?" He chuckles.

"Chew Toy. I've been inside you for two months, you've been my home away from home. I will return the favor someday, eternally." I shudder.

"What about the demon you killed? When you tested this? How'd he die?"

"Because he was an idiot who panicked when he went back into his body and let the complete human soul float to Hell."

"And you held on?"

"Darling, I couldn't have let you go if I wanted to."

The bartender comes back with two drinks, pink. I immediately grab it and take a sip... and stare at Crowley. Grapefruit gins, heavier on the tonic. Crowley toasts me and sips his own. The bartender looks at me, then Crowley. Crowley pauses and nods permission to ask a question.

"Who's the human boss?" Crowley sips from the drink and looks at me, with a gaze I haven't seen before. Hunger? Pride? Eagerness?

"A snack. Now, get out."

Shit.

The demon hurries away, none too eager to be around the king who was obviously about to enjoy some play time, lest he become part of that fun. I look at Crowley; king, demon, mastermind, addict...who knows what else. I try my best to continue on as if he hadn't just declared I was nothing more than food, and in a capacity I didn't know.

"So I've been promoted from Chew Toy?" I say as I sip at the tangy drink. Crowley just swirls his and smiles a moment.

"Didn't you ever wonder why my speech patterns started mixing with yours? It was not intentional...at first."

"I mean...Yeah."

"Well… a demon is a human soul tempered in fire. You are untouched, full of strength you can't tap into, I am the opposite." He regards the empty bar for a moment before returning his gaze to me, completely assured of his victory. "The same thing always happens when you put something strong next to something weak." I swallow, and sip my drink before answering, scared for my life. I had died for a second, my vessel was technically his. Maybe more.

"The weak one dies?" Crowley shakes his head at my guess.

"No. The weak get used up, devoured, and thrown to the side." I blink. Not completely sure where he was going, and not wanting to delve into those thoughts myself. Too tired and sore to postulate, I just take another sip. Crowley sets his drink down. "How can I put this the best way... for you...Ah." He leans forward and puts his hands on the table in front of him.

"I was having you, for lunch." I blink, terrified and confused, a now regular state of mine.

"But the contract."

"Is in regards to torture, and the line, after you are dead. Nothing else." Fuck. Balls. Cunt.

I shoot my drink. I breathe. It doesn't help. I am gonna die in the one way I hadn't anticipated from him.

Full Cthulhu.

He interrupts my panic with complete calm.

"So we have a momentous occasion today Chew Toy." I shiver. I do not like the sound of 'lunch with Crowley'. I don't like the sound of 'momentous occasion' either. I am gonna fucking die.

"We fought the angels and got your body?"

"No. That's a common every other Tuesday type of thing. No today," he snaps his fingers and my glass fills up with something amber. "Today I let you drink With me."

(And there's the first big arc done! Hope you enjoyed it, it just gets Worse and weirder from here!)