Chapter 6
Personality Meeting
When Charlie, Vaggie and Alastor finally returned to the hotel from their outing, they were surprised to see a collection of extermination spears propped up against the front desk.
"What the Hell is all this!?" Vaggie asked in surprise, silently counting them all. There were 9 in total.
Husk opened a drunken eyeball. "Ask your therapist," was all he grumbled before slipping back into a drunken stupor.
"She collected these?" Charlie couldn't deny being rather impressed. "Where is she now?" This time, however, Husk didn't reply, instead continuing to snore loudly.
"Probably walking through the streets of chaos, hunting for more," Alastor guessed matter-of-factly. "Perhaps I should find our wayward treasure hunter before she finds herself in peril!"
"I hope she's at least carrying one around with her," Vaggie said, her tone laced with concern. "Still, why decide to collect them? Does she even know what they do?"
"She's a logical sort," Alastor mused, mostly to himself. "If she saw other demons hunting them down, perhaps she came to the conclusion that they held value! She does know about the hotel's financial dilemma, after all. I will go search for our new resident and return her safe and sound, fear not!" With that, he twirled his microphone and vanished as a shadow.
"I hate it when he does that," Vaggie growled.
"Should we go look for her, too?" Charlie asked. "It might be better to spread out the search a bit." Vaggie stared thoughtfully out the front door, which was left ajar.
"Let's go around in the limo," she decided. "We'll do a quick search around the area and see if we find her."
Eliza had been tired upon her first return to the hotel, but Husk's information had renewed her wanderlust with interest. She always has been one for treasure hunting, but to think that something like these spears existed! Still, hunting for them would be tough, and she already knew she wasn't the only one looking, so she brought the broken spear with her for ease of carrying. It still had enough of a handle to fit comfortably in her hand, she would simply use it if her dodging wasn't enough. It's a bit hard to rely on her wings, since she still couldn't get them to obey her conscious demands.
She had to dodge the assault of a stupidly brave gorilla demon, who tried to grab her two new spears from behind. She had never been more grateful for her dance and mixed martial arts classes. It had been many years since she had taken them, but her body still remembered some of the steps and movements. Slashing at him with the broken spear got him to back up, but he simply changed tactics and attacked from different angles. It was all she could do to keep herself at a safe distance.
Not far away, a shadow watched her curiously. The real Alastor wasn't far behind, as the dark being was an extension of his master, but in the meantime the shadow took the opportunity to watch her fight. Her movements were a little slow, but they were meticulous, as if only the rust of time kept her from seamlessly dancing circles around her enemy. However, she did not strike at him. Was she exhausting her opponent for an opportunity, or waiting for him to give up and leave? The latter option would be infuriating, but it seemed the more likely to happen given her patient and understanding disposition.
The shadow took on a three-dimensional form and burst into red and black as Alastor finally arrived in person to watch the spectacle. He watched as the surrounding demons fled the onslaught of the angry beast, abandoning the fair woman to fend for herself. Such is the typical reaction of these spineless sinners. Normally he would come to a woman's defense, but he wanted to see if her calm mannerisms would last. Her reaction to his changing her contract told him there was more to her than this.
He watched a little longer until he couldn't just wait anymore. She clearly was not intending to kill her attacker, and the beast wasn't slowing down quickly enough. She would be overcome soon. He started to take a step toward the action, ready to intervene, when a wild punch came very close to her face. He watched as two enormous black wings came crashing down on the ground, sending her high into the air and spreading out, catching the wind upon her descent. The surprise on her face was clear, but she was too focused on the gorilla demon to react. Also as he watched, the shadowy appendages started to shimmer, and they gave a single flap to deposit the poor girl on a nearby rooftop before retracting into her back. Now he decided to stroll forward, the air around him crackling with radio static.
"Excuse me, my lady," he called out, pleased at the startled look of the large brute she had been sparring with. "Is this beast bothering you?"
"N-no," he stuttered, backing away with his grotesquely large hands in the air. "I'm not bothering her, not any-"
"I was talking to the lady." Alastor's eyes became glowing red radio dials, and his antlers spread about a foot out. There was no response, and he grew angrier every silent second. He snapped his finger, and his shadow moved to the rooftop to check on her. What he saw did not make him happy.
"I didn't touch her," the gorilla demon defended. "She was too fast-"
"Silence!" Now in his full demon form, even the large beast was inferior in height, and Alastor was no longer feeling merciful.
SLASH! The gorilla's screams sent everyone on the street running. No one was getting involved in anything in the area until the Radio Demon was finished with his carnage.
When it was all over, a small shadow appeared to take a large bag of meat to its master's home. Never let it be said that Alastor was a wasteful man.
Pain. All she could think about was the pain. While Eliza was in the air, she could only envision her wings tearing the offending ape apart. She tried to quell the temptation towards violence, choosing instead to evade her attacker by flying away. At that moment, her entire back had seized. The wings had recoiled, and she felt like something in the back of her mind had snapped at her in anger. When they threw her out of the air, she could only brace herself for a hard landing as the muscles spasmed along her spine, causing the nerves to burn throughout her entire body. Her eyes were shut tight, and the only thing she could bring herself to focus on was her need to breathe. Breathe…
She heard Alastor's voice, though it sounded impossibly distant. Is this beast bothering you? As if the answer wasn't obvious. Maybe he was giving her a chance to defend the beast, saying that everything was OK.
Maybe it was a rhetorical question.
Whatever it was, she was in no position to answer as another spasm made her want to scream. She had never felt this much pain in her life. She was so focused on trying to breathe that she didn't notice the shadow keeping watch over her, studying her. It knelt down and lifted her head slightly to put a pillow underneath, but the motion was enough to make her whimper and gasp, her eyes opening wide from the pain. Once her head was comfortably placed, the dark figure backed away once more. Raising her head may have hurt, but the new position caused the pain to subside ever so slightly. She looked over at the shadow-man with a slight smile, unable to vocalize her thanks.
Then she heard sounds from below; hideous screams of agonizing pain. It didn't sound like Alastor's voice, so she could only assume he was making short work of the beast. She felt a familiar, pleasant sensation as she listened to her opponent's agonizing cries. It made her own pain feel so much better. After all, in a certain frame of mind, pain becomes pleasure very quickly. She grimaced, but not from the pain. Her getting turned on by such sadistic pleasure was a side she kept buried. It was an annoying distraction if she allowed herself to dwell on it.
The shadow-man shimmered, changing into normal Alastor. He stood there with his usual grin, though his teeth were no longer showing.
"My dear, I must say that you look quite dreadful," he teased half-heartedly. A small shadow came and took her spears, whisking them away to the hotel. "I fear Charlie will be very cross with me. I promised to bring you back safely, but I was so fascinated by your little dance that I played the spectator. I hope you can forgive me." He very carefully put an arm under her back, and the other under her knees, lifting her up bridal-style so that her head was against his chest. Suddenly he broke out into his trademark toothy grin. "Now, enough of this monkey business!"
Eliza winced slightly, though she wasn't sure if it was because of the pain or the pun.
"Speaking of," he said, impishly. "What do you call a monkey in a minefield?"
Oh God, no…
"A ba-boom!" Her cringe was all the incentive he needed to keep right on going. "What did the monkey say when someone cut off its tail? It won't be long now!"
Even at her most polite she should have been groaning at the terrible jokes. He took a step off of the roof, landed gracefully on the concrete below, and continued on without missing a beat.
"Now, now, relax my dear. Just remember the lesson of the day: One should never fight a monkey. They use gorilla warfare!"
It was painful, but damn it she actually started giggling. At puns. She must be coming down hard off an adrenaline rush to actually laugh at puns.
"I came because I heard it from the ape vine that you were monkeying around!"
She immediately regretted giggling. Two puns in one sentence was just too much. Alastor, however, was on a roll.
Alastor was surprised to find only Niffty and an unconscious Husk holding down the fort upon his return. "Niffty, dear, where is Charlie and her little moth doll?"
"I saw them leave in the limo!" she squeaked in answer. "Vaggie and Charlie rushed off and left me with all the work! The nerve of those ladies." Fuming, she went back to dusting and sorting smaller objects.
"Seems they thought to aid in the search for you," he said, looking down at Eliza. "Unnecessary, but it can't be helped now. Hopefully they will return soon. Now, my dear…" he put her down on the couch so that she was sitting up comfortably, "You seem to have chosen a very dangerous adventure for your second day of damnation! Do you know what those are?" He pointed to the spears and she gave a tired sigh.
"Husk… told me," she rasped. The nerve-wracking pain from before made her entire body sore, including her throat. "He said they kill souls. Permanently."
"And you thought going out to collect them was wise?"
"Profitable."
"Ah, so I was correct!" Stock applause congratulated him. "Are they, by chance, for the hotel?"
"Yes. Except for one. The broken one I'd like to keep."
"Fair enough!" he agreed, snapping his finger. It appeared in his hand, and he flipped it, holding the point of the blade. "Might not sell for as much, anyways. You have no idea the valuable opportunity you've presented to us by collecting these! Black market sales for an angel's spear result in some impressive figures. Perfect for getting Charlie's little fairytale project off the ground!"
Eliza smiled weakly, her eyes barely open slits as she held her head up carefully. "Good."
He looked down at her as if watching something adorable. "Perhaps you should get some sleep, my dear. I don't think you took my advice this morning, did you?" She shook her head, wincing from the painful movement. He sighed and snapped his fingers. For a brief moment, she felt as though she was swallowed by darkness. "Get some sleep," the Radio Demon's voice echoed in her mind before she sank into her bed. The shock of the teleportation wasn't enough to counter the sheer suffocation from the tiredness that came over her, and she passed out almost immediately.
A lifetime of nightmares can't prepare you for everything. She was accustomed to chaos; shifting images, sounds that don't match. She could even taste, smell and feel in her dreams, not just see and hear. Her subconscious shaped the world around her, but she could edit the script when needed. Flying, ghosting through walls, controlling dangerous creatures, make people fall in love with her… She was once even able to stop everything entirely when she was a child, breaking down into a crying fit and being comforted by everything that meant to attack her. Years of haunted dreams, and she was not one to idly ride them out. It even got to the point where, despite the dreams, she didn't really make noise or move much in her sleep.
But this time, things didn't feel the same. Not at all.
She sat in a black office chair, clipboard in hand, in an empty room. It was entirely greyscale, with a black glass-top table between her and a large black leather sofa. She didn't know what was going on, but she could not get up to explore the room. She closed her eyes, imagining falling through the floor, but when she opened them again she was still firmly planted in that chair. She raised her right hand, trying to pull the table towards her, but it didn't move. No, in this room, nothing obeyed her commands. Something was wrong.
"You honestly think that's going to work?" called an arrogant, feminine voice. Eliza's voice. "This isn't your time to shine, bitch. It's mine." A shadowy form appeared on the couch before her, smiling wickedly. She recognized the black wings on her back, but everything else about her felt wrong somehow. Her skin was a dark grey, and her eyes had black sclera with white slitted pupils; the inverted colors of her own. The rose, normally bright red and vibrant, was now dark red with black-ended petals, and was dripping with blood. The face held the same general appearance, except that her brow was larger and ridged, with two large, draconic horns protruding out the side along her now black hair, hugging the crown of her head and twisting around, coming to a point just past the back of the head. Her hands were bigger, ending in large, sharp claws that appeared larger than the fingers themselves. Her feet had no shoes, not that they could wear them anyway, for the three toes were flared out and the talons larger than her own, and the ankle was raised like that of an animal.
Eliza merely smiled and cocked her head. "Who are you?"
"You fucking kidding me?" the other woman said. "You know who the fuck I am."
Eliza's smile turned into a smirk as she clicked her pen, writing on her clipboard. "Defensive introduction."
"Really?" The dragon raised an irritated eyebrow.
"You say it's your time to shine, but the room looks more like my domain," Eliza answered somewhat snarkily. "Since we seem to be at a standoff, may as well get to work."
"You're such a self-repressive bitch," the other girl mocked. "I'm here to lay down the law and you still just want to work? The fuck, girl!"
It suddenly dawned on Eliza what was happening, and she looked down at her clipboard. Above her previous notation she wrote "Id", as the woman she was speaking with seemed to represent her darker side, most likely representing all the undesirable traits that she repressed every day. Then, thinking once more on it, she flipped to the next page and labeled it "Ego." This page was to represent herself, as she is the personality Id helps to shape. But there was still something missing. Id was not alone in shaping the Ego. There were the morals and understandings developed early in life that seemed conspicuously absent.
Eliza, now going by Ego just to fit the theme, looked up again and cocked an eyebrow. "Where's Superego? This feels incomplete without that."
"That would require you to HAVE one," the draconic demoness spat. "And who has time for that, anyways?"
"Everyone has a superego," Ego countered. "It develops during the ages 3-5-"
"Don't talk down to me," Id growled. "I'm you, dumbass. I know this shit. Don't deign to explain it to me. Superego shit the bed and left years ago. You know, when you decided 'fuck morality' and went cold."
"Where did it go?"
"Fuck if I know; haven't seen it in years."
She still opened up to the third page. She labeled it "SUPEREGO", but wrote underneath "missing."
"So," she said, flipping back to the first page. "You said it's your time to shine. What do you mean?"
"Don't play coy," Id taunted. "I'm the one calling the shots now. You can't just control me here like on Earth. Here, if I want to let us get fucked in the ass, I can allow it." She mimicked the bird demon from before, lifting two fingers and licking between them with half-lidded eyes. Ego recoiled slightly from the memory. "She's such a pretty thing, wouldn't you agree? Not like that big red bastard." Her wing reached out to the side and closed its hand, and a familiar squish was heard in the empty space.
Ego's eyes widened in understanding. "So you control the black wings?"
"Damn straight," she growled. "I kept you safe. Your fear compelled me to protect our pretty little ass. But that's not all I can do. I can act on all the little temptations you so carefully ignore."
Shit.
"It was tempting to grab that tall glass of red wine's neck. Being so close to it… I know you wanted to touch him. Coming to your rescue like that? You were hot for it, especially with the way he made that ape bastard scream..."
"Then why didn't you?" Ego countered.
"Because you constantly holding me back almost tore our body apart!" Id shouted. "You didn't want me to hurt that fuckin' gorilla bastard, and you weren't thrilled about me crumpling that lizard dickwad. Funny as fuck though when those cannibal bitches carried him off." She gave a harsh laugh.
"So why are we here, exactly? I doubt I'd summon you for pleasurable company."
"My company could be plenty pleasurable, if given the chance."
"Not to me."
"Well boo-frickety-hoo," Id droned. "I'm here because now we get to directly deal with each other. Honestly, I thought this was a conscious space, but you're just as trapped as I am, aren't you?
"Wait… you didn't set this up? Even with that bravado you started with?"
"Nope." Suddenly, Id and Ego leveled a look with each other. "Guess that leaves one other option." She smirked mischievously.
Ego opened to the third page labeled 'SUPEREGO' and crossed out "Missing." Still, she wasn't sure what it was planning by having Ego and ID sit in a room and chat. What could that accomplish? Superego and ID were supposed to clash to form Ego.
Right?
FINALLY! Sheesh, a lot can happen in two in-story days, can't it? Sweet mercy, it'll be nice to speed things up a bit now. I guess I could have just made the chapters longer, but once they reach a certain length I tend to want to end one and go into another. Between character interactions, general plot and Hell's naturally chaotic state, a lot happens in a short amount of time.
