Deformed

by Crystalteen

Ciel Phantomhive summons two demons to help him get revenge on those who made his life a living hell. Sebastian Michaelis and his sister, Elise, make an agreement to serve Ciel as his Butler and Nanny, as long as they get to devour his soul in the end. However, along the way, they'll have to assist Ciel in his duties as the Queen's Watchdog. And Elise is a demon with many secrets.

3. His Butler & Nanny, Able (Part II)

A/N: Greetings, my wonderful viewers! How are you all doing today? Great, I hope! :D

The time has come for the second part of "His Butler & Nanny, Able" to take place, so I'm also hoping that you're all ready for it!

Nevertheless, before we begin, I would like to take the time to thank all of you for reading up to this point and I would also like to thank those who have already added this story to their favorites/follows. Seriously, there are no words that could possibly begin to describe how much that means to me and I'm really looking forward to more that's going to come in the future with this story. Once again, thank you all. :D

Also, let's keep in mind that I usually take 1-2 weeks off between every update in order to take the time to plan out the next chapter and give my brain a chance to relax. With that being said, please understand that my updates will require time and patience. I thank you all for understanding. :)

Furthermore, I absolutely adore feedback and I look forward to all of it very much. Please don't hesitate to share your opinions on this story in the reviews or you can PM them to me at anytime. Make sure to review! :)

Warning: This chapter will include some sexual comments/conversations/activity (no smut), as well as detailed descriptions of violence, bloodshed, and abuse. If any of these things trigger you, I highly suggest proceeding with caution.

Note: If anybody is curious as to what "Blind Man's Buff" is, it's a game that's similar to "Marco Polo." Except, it's on land.

Well, I believe that's all I wanted to say for now. It's time for you all to sit back, relax, and enjoy the second part of "His Butler & Nanny, Able." Here we go!

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Elise's POV

Normally, I paid full attention during all of my Young Master's appointments. As his loyal nanny, I would always stay at his side and listen carefully to every word that came out of the guest's mouth in order to help prevent anything from going over the Little Lord's head, such as any abrupt changes in stories, shifts in tones, or little details that simply came off as suspicious—such as Mr. Damiano's request for an additional twelve thousand pounds in order to expand the East India Factory. It was Bocchan's job to carry on the conversation responsibly, while it was my duty to gather all of the information, sort through it, and provide feedback in order to assist the Puny Earl in choosing how he should handle the issue that was being discussed.

However, at the moment, I couldn't get myself to look away from the latest box that Mr. Damiano's character piece had landed on.

"'Your body is burnt by raging flames.'"

Its words echoed softly inside my head and with every passing second, my gaze seemed to grow more distant. As I stared at the horrified face of the fictional man that was tied to the stake, everything that was going on around me started feeling like it was melting away. Complete silence filled my eardrums, despite Mr. Damiano's next attempt to continue the business-related conversation and Master Ciel cutting him off once more in order to spin the top-shaped die again. As this happened, my attention was dragged to the flames that were detailed into the image and my pupils slowly began to dilate as a specific memory was triggered in my brain.

I pressed my lips together, recalling all of the details of that day.

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His Butler & Nanny, Able (Part II)

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The setting is dim, only being illuminated by blazing flames, boiling magma, and burning torches. The land is nothing but endless stretches of cracked, molten rock and vibrant pools of lava. It also consisted of towering high mountains that were oozing with thick waterfalls of more magma, volcanoes that were filling the "sky" with heavy black clouds, and ash-covered pedestals that were arranged to indicate different paths to take. Not only that, but patches of jagged stalagmites that perfectly resembled the thorns that would be attached to a rose covered parts of the ground. Pointy stalactites were suspending from above as well, but the roof of the cave-like atmosphere was so far from the ground to the point where they looked like nothing more than just tiny dots.

There were hundreds of eerie mansions and other buildings in the distance, completely surrounded by flames and iron gates in order to prevent specific beings from sneaking in or sneaking out. Rundown bridges, uneven stairs, cliffsides, and drop-offs were also incorporated into the environment, hovering over bottomless pits and raging rivers of even more lava. Also, a majority of the lava just so happened to be overflowing with millions of skulls and other damaged bones. These represented the tortured remains of the many animals that were put through religious and demonic sacrifices back in the human world—excluding those from the Bible. Lastly, the rocky walls were covered in a mixture of more ash, dried splatters of blood, and fingernail marks that had been formed from some creatures attempting to desperately climb out of this place.

This ... was the deepest pit of Hell.

A woman with long, unruly, jet-black hair and ghostly white skin was running frantically and breathing hard. Accompanied by the sounds of flames crackling and magma bubbling, she was also filling the air with the sound of her bare feet pitter-pattering across the blackened ground. She was completely covered in horrific injuries. From head to toe, there was nothing but a a disgusting mixture of fresh bruises, bloody lacerations, intense burns, violent bite marks, and tiny pricks. Plus, her wrists and ankles were completely red and inflamed, no doubt being the result of being brutally tied up. Unfortunately, the injuries didn't stop there. Her bottom lip was busted, one of her eyes were swollen halfway, and a symbol had been deeply carved into the back of her left shoulder blade. It was a circle with what looked like a crescent moon lying on top of it, resembling horns. It stood for the Horn God ... or, as he was often addressed in the human world, Lucifer.

Furthermore, the only piece of clothing that this woman had on was an oversized, tattered, dark brown dress that perfectly resembled a burlap sack. It was covered in a blend of ash and blood, which was just as appealing as it sounded. This woman was me, outside of my creature form, and I was trying my hardest to ignore the pain that was electrocuting through nearly every inch of my body as I ran.

I gritted my teeth, keeping my hand pressed over a gaping wound that had been stabbed directly over my spleen. Eventually, after running for what felt like a century, I started to cough to the point where it felt like I was seconds away from vomiting and I had to stop running.

"Shit ... oh, shit..." I panted as I swapped hands, placing my bloodied one against the rough wall for support.

With a gag, I bent forward and spat out a mixture of bile and rust-colored drool. Then, with my stinging lips still dripping with the long strings of mucus and saliva, I worked urgently to catch my breath.

"Ah, dammit..." I squeaked out, cringing from the burning sensation that was now attacking the back of my throat. "I don't know how much longer I can keep this up in a condition like this..."

Suddenly, a new voice—one that was awfully scratchy and maniacal—punctured the air from somewhere in the direction that I had been running away from. It hollered out through mischievous chuckles, "You can run, but you can't hide, sweetheart!"

Within seconds after that, another voice—this one being deeper and more malicious—called out, "There's no escaping your fate! You're trapped here! You're his property!"

My unharmed eye grew to be the size of a saucer and an anxious gasp escaped from my mouth as I took a quick glance over my shoulder. Further back, not even a full mile away, I saw two shadows—one that had a shimmery mist evaporating from them—starting to emerge from around a corner. With no hesitation, I gathered up all of the stamina that I had left in my damaged state and, while continuing to breathe heavily, forced myself to keep running. As this happened, I ended up leaving behind a bloody handprint on the wall.

"There she is! Over there!" bellowed the deeper voice. "She's still running!"

The owner of the other voice snickered evilly again. "We're coming for you, you little bitch! No matter where you go, we'll always find you!"

By this point, my heart rate was out of control and my feet felt like they were sprinting across the sharpest knives in all of existence with every step that I took. Nonetheless, I refused to slow down, nearly tripping over my own legs almost every ten seconds. Along the way, while zig-zagging down multiple paths and hurrying up a variety of damaged stairs, I made sure to dodge a series of obstacles—such as puddles of lava, collapsed pedestals, broken glass, and clutters of extra bones that looked like they had recently been chewed on.

"Shit, shit, shit!" I cursed under my breath, panicking as I quickly seated myself on the edge of a horribly rundown platform. "Why can't they just leave me be?!"

I pushed myself off the edge and fell the short distance, making sure to bend my knees in order to prevent a rough landing. I successfully landed in a squatting position, only to end up clenching the area over my spleen and releasing a strained yelp from the enormous amount of agonizing discomfort. Nevertheless, while continuing to curse a little under my breath, I pursued my getaway.

I refused to look back, easily detecting the sound of two more pairs of footsteps trampling in my exact direction from not that far back. The apprehension on my battered face kept increasing more and more with every passing second. My mind was filled with a whirlpool of god-awful thoughts, each one relating to the many different forms of torture and abuse that I had been subjected to for an unbelievable amount of centuries. This actually wasn't my first time trying to escape ... and I definitely didn't want to relive the punishments that would surely occur again if I was captured once more.

"Crap, crap, oh crap!" Through my anxious wheezing, I paid no mind to the bloody saliva that was still dripping from my cracked lips while stumbling up an incline. "Come on, come on! Why can't I move faster?! ... They're getting closer, dammit!"

Regardless of how exhausted I felt and how much my body was literally begging me to stop running, I kept forcing myself to concentrate on getting the hell away from those two other beings. Unfortunately, after stumbling across another platform, I made the foolish decision of not checking the surface below ... and on top of that, I ended up jumping down this time in order to avoid the risk of wasting time. It turns out, there was a group of pointy stalagmites sitting beneath the drop-off. On impact, my right foot was penetrated directly in the middle by a single, blackened, razor sharp stalagmite. Although, by some miracle—and that's saying something while being in Hell of all places—it somehow didn't end up going all the way through.

A piercing shriek of pure agony almost immediately lurched out of my throat, causing me to fling my hand up to my face in an attempt to smother it. Of course, that was much easier said than done. The scream continued to seep through my bloody fingers and practically echo throughout the entire cave-like atmosphere.

Afterwards, while clenching my teeth to the point where my jaws started to ache, I stared in distress at my new injury and tried my hardest not to start hyperventilating from the indescribable amount of pain. Even more scarlet liquid was already starting to gush from the underside of my foot and trickle down the sides of the stalagmite like individual waterfalls. Ironically, this didn't even compare to the variety of other wounds that I've seen and received in the past ... but that didn't make it any less bearable.

"Shit ... oh, shit, this can't be happening!" I squeaked.

For a moment, my hands trembled in disbelief. Then, I was able to get them to reach down and hook together around my reddened ankle, grimacing while doing so.

"Ahh, son of a bitch!" I hissed through my gritting teeth.

The stalagmite was buried deeply into my flesh and refused to release me so easily. With that being said, I had no choice but to wiggle my foot back and forth a couple of times, guiding it by my ankle like it was a handle. The jagged tip of the stalagmite made it feel like liquid fire was entering my body and traveling through every inch of my foot. It also decided to continue its way up my right leg, but it only managed to make it to the area that was directly below my knee because that's when I managed to remove my foot from the stalagmite. However, in the process, I ended up losing my balance from the very tip of the rock abruptly breaking off and remaining embedded in my skin like an enlarged splinter.

I let out a startled gasp, landing on the side that was accompanied by the fresh wound over my spleen. As a result of this, my face ended up twisting in even more anguish and I felt this unexplained—but very familiar—wetness start to curl up in the corners of my eyes. Apparently, this strange phenomenon happened to me quite often. Whenever I was put through such a strong amount of pain, whether it was internal or external ... my eyes filled with what were like tears—but that was impossible since creatures like me weren't supposed to cry or feel anything that could result in such a thing. Plus, it wasn't water that poured down from my eyes during situations like this. It was blood—actual blood.

I'll admit, I did get into the habit of describing this activity as "crying," but I didn't believe that's what it actually was. I simply didn't know how else to describe it and nobody else among my kind did either. All that I knew for sure about these "blood tears" was that here in Hell ... I was the only one who seemed to be able to produce them.

More strings of bile filled the bottom half of my mouth shortly after the impact, so I spat them out. Some specks of ash then infiltrated the inside of my throat, causing me to cough a little sloppily. As this happened, I felt a couple of crimson drops already beginning to leak down my cheeks and, with some terror-induced reluctance, I glanced back over my shoulder to examine the piece of the stalagmite that was officially stuck in the direct center of my foot. To be quite frank, I couldn't tell whether it looked or felt more gruesome.

I stared at my punctured limb like I had just witnessed it sprout an extra set of toes out of nowhere. Then, when I attempted to twitch it in order to check to see if I could still move it, I ended up receiving a sensation that what was like a gallon of salt being poured directly on the wound. After releasing a small wail of agony, my breathing started to heighten from the realization hitting me that I would no longer able to run.

"No, no, no, no! Oh, shit ... oh, damn..." I sniveled, also incorporating a variety of other explicit words as I shakily pushed myself up onto my hands and knees. "Why did this have to happen now?!"

After overcoming the shock that was triggered by the damn stalagmite, I started to frantically crawl like a wolf across the charred surface. Along the way, I breathed violently and ash swept across my hands, knees, and shins, irritating my damaged skin—especially the raw parts that surrounded the bite marks, burns, and lacerations. I zig-zagged down a couple of more paths, grunting while unintentionally ramming the sides of my body into some more rocky structures. This happened during every couple of turns since I was in a huge rush and I didn't have time to slow down while twisting around hardly any abrupt corners.

However, just as I was starting to believe that this situation couldn't possibly get any worse, I was proven wrong when I ended up arriving at a humongous abyss. My jaw dropped and a gasp shot out of my mouth, just as I quickly started sliding my body back against the stony ground like a desperate dog and skidded to a halt. With just a split second left to spare, I stopped with my hands directly on the edge of the drop-off and felt an intense wave of heat immediately slam me in the face as I looked down. The abyss was about a twenty-story drop and occupied by a thick, never-ending, bubbling river of molten lava that was flowing at a rapid speed.

I gasped, pulling my hands back as a piece of crumbled rock broke off from beneath one of them and plummeted all the way down. As soon as it fell into the magma, a burst of fire exploded from where the piece of rock struck and it disappeared forever.

Creatures like me couldn't perish from lava or fire, but we could feel discomfort from coming in contact with them. It mostly depended on how long we were being exposed to the flames or scorching liquid ... but pain, overall, was a rather difficult thing to explain when describing my kind.

Despite all of the myths and legends that were told about supernatural beings like me, my kind truly was capable of feeling pain. Not only that, but depending on the problem—such as being stabbed or shot—it was actually a hundred times more excruciating for us compared to humans. That was just one of our many punishments for siding with Hell. It was no different than when God increased the labor pains for women when Eve first sinned in the Garden of Eden—except, our pain was far more torturous and not to mention eternal.

Although, my kind also had much higher pain tolerance and—once again, depending on the predicament—could actually hold out for a long time while being harmed. This was why specific rituals, particularly exorcisms, weren't exactly easy to accomplish. Nevertheless, this didn't mean that we enjoyed getting ourselves tangled in situations that could result in us getting hurt—because we sure as hell didn't. It just meant that when we did get hurt, we were far better at working through the pain and actually preferred doing that.

Unfortunately, in the horrible condition that I was in, I knew for a fact that I wouldn't be able to put up a strong fight against something like a river of burning magma. I also wasn't able to climb the wall or jump across to the other side of the humongous abyss because of all of my injuries—particularly the ones that left my feet looking like two nasty pieces of bruised roadkill. It took a lot to damage a creature like me to that extent ... yet, here I was, completely vulnerable and looking like the world's most mistreated rag doll. For the time being, it would be impossible for me to work through any extra pain that would definitely be inflicted on me by the lava if I touched it.

"Shitty hell! I can't get across this damn pit in such a damaged state!" I panted heavily between every few words, desperate to refill my aching lungs with oxygen as I felt a tingling sensation around my eyebrows from the severe heat. "Dammit, I have to find another way around! ... Fast!"

With yet another grimace, I quickly backed myself up from the direct edge of the abyss and felt another tear of blood leak down from my left eye as I tried my hardest to ignore the burning sensation that was circulating a lot more intensely throughout my penetrated foot. By this point, I couldn't tell whether the drops of sweat that were beginning to drizzle down from my hairline were caused by the extremity of my anxiety, my pain, or just the overall heat that engulfed all of Hell.

I sucked in a pained breath, placing one hand back over the gaping wound that was over my spleen. Then, with my other hand, I started to crawl urgently back in the direction that I had already came. However, before I could even manage making it five paces ... I had no choice but to come to a sharp stop when the two figures that had been yelling out to me just a couple of minutes earlier suddenly jumped down from a forty foot wall of dirty, pointy, slightly lopsided rocks and revealed their presence to me.

My maroon eyes practically bulged out of their sockets at the sight of them, overflowing with a mixture of nervousness, terror, and crimson tears. As this happened, a sharp gasp lurched out of my throat and I jumped back onto my knees so quickly to the point where I ended up falling backwards and landing on my back.

Like me, these figures had themselves disguised in their human forms. They were a pair of gentlemen that looked like they were in their late twenties or early thirties. Both of them possessed slender physiques that still had muscles incorporated into them and perfectly chiseled faces that could easily make any female mortal swoon. Those, along with the same black fingernails that every being among our kind had, were the only similarities that they shared.

The owner of the raspy voice that sounded like it was on the verge of insanity was as pale as snow. His fringe reached down to the very bottom of his neck, combed back in a remarkably sleek style in order to keep his face exposed. It was such a vibrant shade of red, putting a ruby to shame while looking like its ends would start flickering with tiny flames at any moment. He also had upturned, lime-colored eyes that were accompanied by long lashes and a small beauty mark that was just to the side of his right one.

Aside from his physical features, the Redheaded Monster had a bronze dagger strapped to the front of his left thigh and he had given himself a close-fitted suit that looked like it belonged to a successful nobleman. It was the color of charcoal, incorporating tiny grey buttons, silver epaulets, and dark green ruffles along the rear of the jacket. The same, unsettling shade of green was also detailed into the suit's lapel and cuffs, while a black undershirt that had even more ruffles positioned neatly over the chest rested beneath the other layers of elegant clothing.

However, the sleeves failed to cover the symbol that was printed on the lime-eyed creature's left wrist—an olive-colored octagon that was pierced with what looked like dozens of curled fangs, containing a ravenous beast that possessed multiple, long, serpent-like heads with wide-open mouths and thin, twisted tongues. It was his Faustian mark.

The other figure with the deeper and more spiteful voice had an entirely different appearance. He had a light tan complexion, along with perfectly round eyes that were the color of two polished topazes and chestnut-colored hair that was tied back in a small ponytail. It rested against the nape of his neck, exposing multiple silver earrings that he had lined up along the rim of his right ear and his own Faustian print. It was branded on the right side of his throat, a couple of inches below his earlobe—a dark brown, upside-down, fiery triangle that held a wide, abnormal, eerie-looking eye with wings sprouting from it in its direct center.

His outfit, on the other hand, also looked like it came from a high-class background. It consisted of an embroidered overcoat that was the color of sand, a solid white button-down, a vest that was a vibrant shade of scarlet, chocolate-colored trousers, and matching platform shoes with buckles. Lastly, in his hand, he was holding a leather whip that had multiple poppers attached to the thong. I knew from experience that every time those poppers were flogged, they produced fiery sparks from their tips that felt like scorching hot rocks being pressed against your skin.

A sinister smile was spread practically ear-to-ear across the Redheaded Creature's face, revealing plenty of his teeth. The Chestnut-haired Monster, on the other hand, looked far more irritated and displeased. The unimpressed, hateful look in his eyes gave it away that he was tired of having to keep tracking me down with his accomplice whenever I tried to "escape my fate." He definitely wasn't planning on letting me get away with this attempt either.

Just seeing their expressions made my heart feel like it had transformed into a boulder and dropped all the way down into the pit of my stomach. At the same time, my whole body automatically started to tremble like a leaf and even though we were in Hell, I could've sworn that my breath could be seen at least a little bit as I shakily breathed.

"Well, well, well ... lookie-lookie at what we have here~" the Redheaded Monster said, suddenly possessing an Englishman's accent with a mischievous sing-song note inserted in as well. "Trying to flee from the inevitable again, aren't we?"

I felt a few droplets of sweat begin to race nervously down my forehead as I tried desperately to prevent myself from hyperventilating. At the same time, with my teeth being clenched so tightly to the point where I could already feel my jaws beginning to hurt, I glanced from left to right in an attempt to locate another route that I could take in order to get away from these men. However, there was nowhere else that I could go ... and even if there was, I knew that it would be impossible for me to escape in the condition that I was in. For the billionth time ... I was trapped.

"N-no!" I barked tearfully, immediately sliding myself back a single time across the stone ground when the two gentlemen took a step towards me. "S-stay the hell away from me!"

The Chestnut-haired Creature remained silent for a moment. Then, he raised an eyebrow so quickly to the point where it made my entire body jerk and he coldly observed the several rivers of scarlet that were pouring down from my eyes. As he spoke, I noticed how he had also given himself an accent—a Londoner one—and right now would also be a good time to mention that nobody else among my kind addressed this unexplained habit of mine as "crying." I was the only one that did that, only because I felt incredibly desperate to give it some type of description—even if it was one that I didn't agree with.

"Her eyes are doing that ridiculous blood-spewing thing again. Tch ... I can't believe this barbaric bullshit. It's beyond pathetic." The Chestnut-haired Creature grumbled a couple of more explicit words under his breath, right before he bitterly rolled his eyes and let out a heavy sigh. "Ugh! ... Due to all of these events, I can already tell that we're going to have no choice but to write out even more reports for the Horned One. To be quite frank, I'm getting sick and tired of being expected to track down this little slut whenever she decides to convince her worthless ass to try running away."

The Redheaded Monster examined his nails, still grinning like a maniac at the sight of my blood on his fingertips. "Well, I just so happen to enjoy these little 'Cat and Mouse' games from time to time." He declared with a creepy chuckle, right before he stuck the tip of his tongue out and licked a drop of blood away from his index finger. "They make things more ... entertaining."

The Chestnut-haired Monster sneered, shooting his accomplice a pointed stare from the corner of his eye. "Oh, shut up. I don't like having to spend anymore time with you than I'm already required to, Serpent." He increased the scorn in his voice as he said his final word, addressing the other creature as the beast that his pest form revolved around. "Tch ... you would think that after Lucifer disguised himself as one of your members in the Garden of Eden, you would be at least the tiniest bit interesting to be around and not to mention useful."

The Serpent stopped sucking on the tip of his middle finger and for the faintest second, as he sent an annoyed look over to the other creature, I witnessed his pupils become slits. His eyes glowed like two lime-colored balls of fire, but transformed back into normal, human-like eyes almost immediately.

"I wouldn't be so quick to judge if I were you ... dear Locust." A wild, insulting grin stretched abruptly across the Serpent's face, making him resemble a Cheshire Cat. "Correct me if I'm wrong, but in the human world, your pest form is described as an omen. It's known for warning someone about an upcoming situation that could possibly jeopardize their entire belief system or even their lives. Yet, you can't seem to stop complaining about something that revolves specifically around warning somebody—a no-good, helpless skank, to be exact—about what will all continue to happen to her if she keeps attempting to escape from her eternal punishments. To be honest, I do admire the irony."

The Locust snarled, turning his head quickly over to his snickering associate. His lips parted, revealing his clenched teeth as a blush that was triggered by both anger and embarrassment spread across his cheeks like a wildfire.

"D-don't call me that!" I stammered in a weak attempt to sound brave, forcing my face to morph into a slight glare. However, when the two gentlemen redirected their attention back over to me, my stomach felt like it had preformed a somersault and my faint scowl crumbled away to reveal the pleading terror that was still there.

"Mmm ... little kitty..." The Serpent lowered his eyelids halfway, sounding creepily enticing and sadistic at the same time. "You just won't stop being naughty, will you?"

He started to walk towards me again, scaring me further by just barely grazing the handle of his dagger with his bloody fingertips. The Locust walked alongside him, still gripping his whip at his side with that same, blank, heartless expression returning to his face.

With a yelp, I began to drag myself back across the blackened surface again, kicking at small chunks of charcoal and ignoring the ash that was being powdered across my tattered dress in the process.

"G-get back!" I proclaimed, still wincing and grinding my teeth from the agonizing wound that was over my spleen. "L-leave me alone!"

The Serpent's face suddenly twisted into a terrifying glare that would make any normal human's heart stop. Once again, his eyes lit up like vibrant green embers, resulting in chills starting to ricochet up and down my spine.

"I'm warning you, sweetheart, you better keep that pretty, battered mouth of yours shut." He hissed. After a moment, his orbs stopped glowing and his insane, ear-to-ear, perverted smirk made a return. "Or ... how about my partner and I jog your memory of some other specific activities that it could be used for?"

As soon as I heard those words, unpleasant memories that related to those "activities" filled my brain like a tsunami. My wine-colored orbs expanded once again and I fought the urge to gag as even more crimson drops started to fall down my cheeks. They felt as sticky as maple syrup and my tongue kept twitching in disgust from the obscene flashbacks. The entire time, I couldn't help but put up with the sound of my heartbeat practically ringing in my ears.

"You..." I whispered, scraping my damaged knuckles even more against the rocky ground as I curled my hands into incredibly tight fists. "Vile ... disgusting bastards!"

"Now, now." The Locust spoke up, looking bored and sounding nonchalant all over again. "You should take the time to remember exactly who you're talking to, bitch."

I sucked in a sharp, nervous breath and immediately started hauling myself backwards once more. This, by the way, was much harder and even more painful to do with a pointy piece of stalagmite lodged deeply into one of my feet. Every little move that I made caused an intense stinging sensation to shoot up my leg and explode through the rest of my aching body like a firework.

Meanwhile, the Locust started to take one, slow, exaggerated step after another, heading in my direction with the Serpent eventually following his example.

My pouting lips trembled and fearful whimpers fell from my lips as my eyes flickered back and forth from the whip to the dagger. One by one, small embers fell at a delicate, yet menacing, pace from the poppers and the handle of the dagger gleamed as little drops of my blood continued to leak down from it.

"Please ... no..." I found myself whispering those words over and over again, squeaking in desperation. It literally felt like I had lost the ability to say any other possible word in existence and was reduced to only being able to stifle out those two petrified words.

I almost choked on my sobs repeatedly, making the inside of my throat feel like it was having a fist shoved roughly down it with every breath that I sucked in.

Suddenly, I felt the radiating heat of the boiling magma nipping at the back of my neck and I let out a gasp as I instantly stopped crab walking. Then, upon looking over my shoulder, I could've sworn that I felt my eyebrows nearly begin to burn off. I was directly back on the edge of the abyss, witnessing a few tiny pebbles dropping into the lava after having the nearby weight of my hand press down onto the crumbling rock. Mini explosions occurred as soon as the pebbles landed in the molten substance, causing it to splatter a little against the walls and lighten embers that had been lodged together in some cracks.

"Well, would you look at that, darling? There's nowhere to run~" The Serpent taunted, matching his demented smile with his sinister eyes and provocative chuckles perfectly. "Now ... how about you do all of Hell a favor and put these little Hide and Seek shenanigans aside for the time being? Be a good little tramp and let us play with you until we get bored!"

That last sentence rang in my ears, triggering something inside of me. Without warning, I stopped sniffling.

Despite how I had been paralyzed with fear just a moment before ... it literally felt like I had lost the purpose of crying. I started drawing in deeper, slower breaths ... and every time I exhaled, it sounded like an inhuman growl was being dragged out of my throat. There were still scarlet-colored drops leaking down from the rims of my puffy eyes, adding even more bloody streaks to my battered face ... but they no longer felt like they were being caused by pain or fear. Underneath all of the terror that was piled up inside of me, I felt the return of this indescribable fiery sensation that seemed to come to me only when I felt like I couldn't take anymore fear or anxiety. It was like an intense inferno that was blazing in my bones—it was rage.

"So vulgar..." I sneered under my breath through grinding teeth.

The Locust rolled his eyes and peeked over at his partner in annoyance as he said, "Let's focus on the task at hand before we do anything else, moron. You know what the Horned One expects with runaways ... especially this one in particular."

The Serpent smacked his arms down at his sides and allowed his head to fall back in an overdramatic manner.

"Ughhh!" He groaned loudly, right before he stared at the Locust with an expression that made it seem like he hadn't been offered an invitation to a gathering. "What is it with Locusts like you always being such buzzkills?! There's always going to be errands to run and reports to write out! I'll also admit that my patience isn't at its greatest peak, considering how I haven't been summoned in over a decade!"

With every word that the Serpent spoke, the angrier his voice got and the more obvious it became that he was using every last ounce of his willpower to prevent his true form from coming out.

"I'm starving and since I'm unable to get my hands on any succulent souls right now, the least you can do is allow me to have a quickie with this little whore before we take her back to the Horned One!"

With a heavy sigh, the Locust pinched the bridge of his nose and massaged it with his fingertips. "How many times must I go over this with you? You know the rules." He retaliated in a surprisingly calm and uninterested voice. "According to the Horned One, we are meant to..."

While the two other creatures went into a brief conversation that incorporated some explicit language, childish complaints, and the detailed guidelines of what was expected from Lucifer's henchmen, I glanced from left to right in an attempt to locate something. I wasn't necessarily one hundred percent sure of what that "something" was yet, but I just knew that I had to find something. My teeth were still clenched, my face still felt sticky from the streaks of crimson tears, and at that moment ... I was being controlled entirely by the fury that had been ignited out of nowhere inside of me.

Just then, I noticed a couple of tiny, dented pebbles that were lying in a spewed mess a couple of feet away from me. The only reason that I was able to see them against the blackened surface was because they were literally glowing. Each of the pebbles were red-hot and had orange embers flicking off of them like sparks, showing that they had recently been exposed to lava.

The next part happened so fast. As if the pain had vanished from my body, I twisted myself over in the direction of the smoldering pebbles and stretched my arm out as far as I could. Then, I tightly screwed my eyes shut and hissed from the scorching sensation of the puny stones coming in contact with my wounded skin. Nonetheless, I forced myself to keep them clutched in the palm of my hand and I chose to ignore how they felt like they were seconds away from melting through my flesh as I repositioned myself yet again.

"Enough! This isn't the time for lollygagging!" declared the Locust, now sounding authoritative. "It's time for us to—"

He turned his head to look at me again ... and that's when it happened. With a furious battle cry, I flung my arm back as far as it could go and threw the inflamed pebbles in the direction of the Locust. They soared at such an unnatural speed to the point where they perfectly resembled mini, blurry meteors ... and while some of them just bounced off against the Locust's face, a couple actually managed to hit where I had been aiming. They flew directly into his topaz-colored eyes.

The results of my abrupt action were immediate.

"AGHHHH!" The Locust yelled at the top of his lungs, dropping the whip as he flew his hands up to his face and rubbed it in agony. "MY EYES! DAMMIT!"

The Serpent stared with his eyes suddenly resembling two massive globes and his jaw had dropped. Needless to say, he looked absolutely dumbfounded as he reached his arms out to his distressed partner. Although, he never touched him, giving it away that he was debating on whether or not he should risk grabbing the other creature.

"L-Locust!" The Serpent exclaimed as he watched the other monster accidentally fall backwards on his ass. "Are you okay?!"

While keeping a hand over one of his eyes, the Locust cracked open his other eye and looked up at his accomplice in a mixture of disbelief and fury. His teeth were clenched so tightly to the point where it was a miracle that they weren't breaking, and it was easy to spot one of the glowing pebbles lodged in the corner of his exposed eye.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK?!" snapped the distressed creature, as if steam was seconds away from pouring out of his ears. "THERE ARE BURNING PIECES OF SHARP ROCK IN MY EYES!"

The exact second after the Locust let out his first scream, all of the anger vanished from my system as abruptly as it had appeared. I stared at him like a puny child, both stunned and horrified as I hastily replayed what I just did in my head a couple of times. I had only made this whole predicament even worse.

"Oh, no ... oh, shit ... what did I just do?!" I whispered to myself in an evident panic.

The honey-eyed monster then screamed in absolute hatred, "DAMN WHORE!"

With reluctance, the Serpent placed his hands against the Locust's shoulders in some pointless attempt to provide him with some comfort. As this happened, I quickly scrambled up onto my feet and began hobbling at a surprising speed in the direction that I had previously came from. I didn't have the slightest clue as to where this new batch of stamina had come from, but I wasn't planning on letting it go to waste. Although, while making my next getaway, I had no choice but to either drag my right foot or keep it positioned on its side in order to prevent the sharp tip of the stalagmite from digging itself even further into my flesh.

"HEY!" The Serpent bellowed. "GET BACK HERE!"

I couldn't tell whether he sounded more shocked or angry towards the fact that I had actually managed to get away from him and his partner for a second time in one day. Either way, he attempted to snatch a hold of my arm as I bolted past him, but ended up missing by just a couple of inches.

"DON'T THINK FOR A SECOND THAT WE'RE GOING TO LET YOU GET AWAY WITH THIS, SWEETHEART!" The Serpent went on, now sounding like he was beginning to have a difficult time with containing his true self again. "YOU'RE SURE AS HELL IN FOR IT NOW! WE'RE COMING FOR YOU!"

The Locust snapped out just a mere second later, "HELP ME UP FIRST, YOU NITWIT!"

No matter how much distance I managed to put between the two of them and myself, each of their words managed to reach me so well to the point where it sounded like they were directly behind me.

I never dared to look back, practically feeling my heart throbbing in my throat as I quickly hobbled down a variety of random twists and turns. I had no idea where I was going, nor did I really even care. All that mattered to me was getting away and staying away from those bastards that were still after me.

While limping, I kept my teeth clenched and continued to suck in hasty, agonizing breaths. Along the way, due to how I wasn't trying to follow any particular routes, I tried my hardest to even out following paths that were lined with lopsided torches and paths that were often neglected—as shown by them having nothing at their sides. There were even some choices that were so last minute to the point where I had to force myself to skid to a halt and prevent my body from bashing into any of the walls, torches, or stalagmites. Pebbles went soaring across the rough ground almost every time that I stopped and ash was kicked up in clouds around my inflamed ankles.

The sounds of my frantic footsteps and rapid heartbeat filled my eardrums like powerful screams. Not only that, but every single vein in my body was practically overflowing with pain and all of my injuries were being even more tormented by the trickles were sweat that were starting to form all over myself. However, I knew that I couldn't afford to give up. Especially now.

"Oh, shit!" I panted, spotting something coming up ahead.

After staggering for about a full minute and curving down yet another random trail, I saw that there were a variety of filthy, fallen, broken-down pedestals and mostly knee-high walls of damaged rock spread out all across the path. I didn't have much time to react and my brain was already spinning from everything that was going on. So, I treated the crumbling walls and old pedestals like hurdles, practically flinging myself over them and grunting almost every time that I did so from the circulating pain.

Once again, it didn't matter how far I ran. It always felt like the Serpent and the Locust were right behind me. Their voices were starting to linger through the hot air again ... but this time, they had with what sounded like hundreds of raspy, devilish breaths and psychotic, dark cackles incorporated into them. Also, instead of possessing British accents, the Serpent's voice was awfully hoarse and insane again. The Locust's voice, on the other hand, was abnormally deep and filled with an indescribable amount of vengeance once more. They were speaking with their true voices, as well as using their unworldly powers to include the nonexistent breathing and demonic laughter. They were trying—and unfortunately managing—to terrify me even further.

The Serpent's voice called out to me in a sing-song fashion, "Faster, honey~! We're catching up~!"

An anxious whimper escaped from my lips as I quickly climbed over yet another obstacle and kept hobbling down the trail.

The Locust hollered out next, also sounding like he was taunting me with a song, "Hurry, darling~! Right behind you!"

Despite how I knew that the hissing breaths weren't real, it still felt like they were nipping at the tips of my ears and at the back of my neck. I still refused to stop hobbling ... but in that moment, I could no longer ignore the urge to look back. I just wanted to make sure that the Locust and the Serpent weren't actually behind me. So, I peered over my shoulder and, for the briefest second, felt the tiniest spark of relief shoot through my system after I concluded that there was no one directly on my heels.

However, shortly after that, I felt all of the weight in my body topple forward and I let out an agitated gasp as I tripped over a large piece of yet another decaying pedestal. I had accidentally ran into it while looking behind me and only had a split second to spare before I managed to save myself from landing directly on my face. Unfortunately, the impact was still rough and unpleasant. It caused a couple of new gashes to appear almost out of nowhere on my shins and knees, which was as pleasant as it sounded.

I coughed as a mixture of ash and dust flew around my face, automatically feeling the hotness of bile starting to threaten the back of my throat.

"Ah, dammit! My spleen!" I wheezed, shortly before I forced myself to swallow a small splash of vomit and grimaced from the nasty, toxic taste.

With the injury over my spleen almost feeling like it was pulsating, I achingly pushed myself up onto my knees and immediately covered it with one of my hands again.

"Her presence is near! I can sense it!" The Locust's voice growled from somewhere in the near distance. "This way!"

For the thousandth time, my eyes expanded to be the size of boulders and my swollen one was just now starting to throb again. My heart felt like it was trying to explode out of my chest as I hurriedly tried to clamber back up onto my feet. Unfortunately, within seconds after I managed to stand, my knees buckled and I gritted my teeth as I ended up collapsing onto my hands and shins again. A long, low, sore moan dragged itself out of my throat.

It felt like all of my organs were just seconds away from bursting. All of my muscles were throbbing to the point where they felt like they were at war with each other, trying to gather up as much of my blood as possible to keep them going. However, after going through everything that I had so far, I had finally reached the point where my human form was in desperate need of a break. If I kept running, it would only be a matter of time before I fell unconscious from pushing myself too hard in such a damaged condition. That meant that if I wanted to avoid getting caught by those assholes, I was going to have to hide for at least a couple of minutes so my energy could recharge.

"Shit ... shit, I can't believe this..."

I began looking in any possible direction for someplace to hide, trying to fight the urge to start shedding bloody teardrops all over again due to the indescribable amount of agony that I was in. Fortunately, it didn't take long before I noticed something. Behind a couple of broad stalagmites, there was a crack in the towering high wall. It bent from left to right a couple of times, but eventually split into a narrow opening that entered a cave. There were literally millions of caverns here in Hell, but since I had recently went down one of the commonly neglected paths, it was clear that this one wasn't going to be occupied by any other possible threats.

While grimacing and mumbling many explicit words through my clenched teeth, I positioned my bloodied hand back over the injury that was over my spleen and picked myself back up from the rocky ground as quickly as possible. Still dragging my penetrated foot along after me, I trudged over to the crack and positioned my human form as flat against the right side of the opening as I could. The opening was so slim to the point where I could feel the coldness of the uneven surface easily slipping through the tattered fabric of my dress. With every careful move that I made to possibly avoid getting snagged or trapped, I felt some protruding parts of both sides of the wall trace along my ribs and back. It was uncomfortable the entire time, only because I knew that if I did so much as draw in a deep breath, I would face the risk of pressing my injured body against the rocks. Luckily, after a couple of hasty baby steps, I managed to slip into the dim shadows of the cavern.

It wasn't exactly large or small, possessing only one or two paths—which, I believe, showed that this cave didn't hold many places to possibly hide even further. The paths led in opposite directions through dozens of sections of even more stalagmites that were placed in coincidental patterns. Some of them were so tall to the point where their sharp tips were inches away from touching the ceiling. Although, the shortest stalagmites that were in this specific cavern still managed to reach up to a person's waist. Aside from that, there were a variety of dirty, decaying bones from both humans and animals just lying around in random piles and the only source of light that was provided in the cave came from a couple of flickering torches that were on the ash-covered walls.

As soon as I made it in, I rested my back against the wall and my body dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes from exhaustion. Gasping for breath, I laid my head back and took a moment to rest my maroon eyes shut. I stayed like that for about fifteen seconds, just breathing, sweating, and cringing.

Then, as I sluggishly cracked my eyes back open, my attention immediately fell on my right foot and I decided to pull it back in order to examine the piece of stalagmite. A squeak flew out of my mouth as I did this, considering every little move that I made caused my foot to feel like it was getting violently poked with billions of needles. Nonetheless, I managed to bend my leg and rest my pierced limb on my knee.

By no surprise, the bloodied stalagmite tip was still buried deeply into my flesh. Luckily, it hadn't been shoved even deeper into my sole; but it was still making it easier to expose my body to even more anguish and even more difficult for me to move around.

"Oh, dammit..." I whimpered, not even being able to twitch my toes without feeling a fiery sensation explode throughout my foot. "I need to get this freaking thing out..."

With reluctance, I reached my battered hand out and carefully pinched the end of the stalagmite with the very tips of my fingers. Not even a split second after I did that, I regretted it. The pain was like a bolt of electricity, shooting through practically all of my veins in the blink of an eye. It literally made it feel like I was dealing with trying to remove a butcher knife from my foot instead of a jagged piece of rock.

I screwed my eyes shut as tightly as possible and pressed my teeth together so hard to the point where it was a miracle that I wasn't causing them to shatter. As this happened, I nearly jerked my hand back and I could feel the newest beads of sweat starting to trickle down from my hairline. I had to force myself to keep my fingers where they were ... and after a couple of seconds of even more reluctance, I started to carefully wiggle the piece of stalagmite back and forth. It made disgusting, squishy sounds beneath my flesh with every left to right movement ... but no matter how many times I fiddled around with it, the stalagmite tip wouldn't budge.

"Gah!" I gasped, feeling the wetness of blood starting to pour down the bottom of my stinging foot and violate my fingertips. "Shit, this damn thing is really lodged in there! ... I-I can't get it!"

Eventually, after cringing and hissing in agony for what felt like a century, I gave up and withdrew my hand from the stalagmite with an exasperated huff. My head rolled back against the cold wall of the cave again, and I tried to ignore how humiliating this situation actually was. I was a beast from Hell, a creature from plenty of scary stories that was known for stalking humans, forming contracts, and devouring souls ... and here I was, being tortured by the broken head of a stalagmite. Although, despite the current results, I actually was perfectly capable of being able remove it ... but there was no doubt in my mind that if I just ripped it out of my sole, I was going to face the risk of screaming and giving away my whereabouts.

Regardless of how staying calm wasn't really an option, I tried doing so. I continued to draw in one deep breath after another, trying to hold each one in for a couple of seconds in order to give my lungs a chance to fully appreciate the oxygen. While I did this, my face continued to contort into agonized expressions ... and as I moved my hand to wipe the sweat away from my bruised forehead, I was in too much pain to bother holding myself back from letting out another quiet, inhuman, bone-chilling growl. In the process, I ended up smearing some of the blood from my fingertips across my forehead.

Then, I looked down at the most recent injury that I had received—the laceration that was directly over my spleen. Within seconds after I did that, my mind wandered back to how I got it in the first place. My eyes became glassy like two wine-colored marbles as my mind spun in a static-like mess, bringing back the traumatizing events that I had gone through before getting pierced. I was as still as a statue, continuing to sweat, bleed, and breathe a little harshly ... but as quickly as the memories had started playing in my head, they immediately stopped when I felt something that snapped me out of it.

"H-huh?" I breathed.

Still a little anxious from the unpleasant thoughts, I reached my marked hand up to my cheek and touched it like a curious child. After that, I checked my fingers and realized that the "something" that I had felt was a brand new flood of bloody teardrops. They were slipping down my cheeks in a sticky mess and I could only imagine how awful my eyes must've looked by this point. After all, one of them was swollen halfway and their rims were probably covered in the crispy, clotted remains of my previous batch of tears.

Suddenly, I heard something that made my blood shiver. It was the sound of two pairs of feet trampling down the path that I had just been on, accompanied by the extra sounds of breathing and pebbles being kicked across the uneven ground. I had no doubt that those noises were being caused by the Locust and the Serpent.

Once again, my entire body grew tense and I didn't think twice before covering my mouth with both of my hands in order to muffle my harsh breathing. Then, after a heavy moment of hesitation, I dared myself to just barely poke my head out from around the corner of the wall so I could peer down in the direction of the cavern's entrance. Even with the scarlet teardrops dripping down my face and managing to compromise my vision every few seconds, I managed to spot the Serpent and the Locust. They had stopped running and were now standing right outside the cave.

The Serpent had his hands on his knees and was working hard to catch his breath. The Locust, on the other hand, was standing perfectly straight and staring at his accomplice with an impatient, judgmental stare on his face and his arms crossed. Also, it didn't go unnoticed that the white parts of the Locust's topaz-colored eyes had been severely damaged by the inflamed pebbles. Some parts looked like they had been horribly cut, while other parts were just covered in blotches of pure redness. It was obvious that if we had been actual humans, the Locust would've been blinded by what I did to him.

"What in the hell is wrong with you, Serpent?! Look alive! This isn't the time for wheezing!" The Locust sneered, once again possessing the voice of an irritated Englishman. "Ugghh! I still can't believe that you allowed yourself to get outsmarted by that little slut in the first place! I hope that you realize by now that it's your fault that we got into this predicament to begin with!"

The Serpent peeked up at him, still panting and evidently not pleased. "You know something, Locust? I never get tired of your team spirit." His British accent had also returned, completely drenched in sarcasm. "We are both Lucifer's henchmen. According to him, we are partners—"

The Locust scoffed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he grumbled, "Don't remind me."

"—So, why don't we both take responsibility for this?!" inquired the Serpent, who continued to speak like his accomplice had never spoke up to begin with.

"Because I wasn't the one on guard duty, idiot! You were supposed to be keeping an eye on her!"

For a moment, all the Serpent did was stare. He still looked annoyed, but there was something new in his lime-colored eyes that gave it away that he knew that his partner had a good point. Eventually, the Serpent sighed heavily and straightened himself back up, choosing not to say anything back.

The Locust ran a hand through his hair with an exasperated huff, right before he turned his attention down in the direction of where the trail continued.

"Come on, let's keep moving and get that bitch! She's going to pay for what she did with those molten rocks! I can sense that she's near!"

After that, the Locust continued down the path at an unbelievably fast pace, disappearing from my viewpoint. However, before the Serpent could start to follow him ... I noticed how he had narrowed his eyes in a concerned manner and suddenly lifted his head a little more. It was similiar to a reaction that a dog would give upon hearing a strange noise.

"Yeah! I can sense that she's..." The Serpent stopped calling out to his partner, only to end up dropping his voice into a watchful mutter, "...really near, too."

I quickly dunked back out of sight, almost releasing a startled gasp. Luckily, I managed to stop it before it could fly out of my mouth and I still had both of my hands folded on top of each other over my lips. From the corner of my eye, before hiding myself back in the dim shadows of the cave, I had seen the Serpent beginning to turn his head in the direction of the entrance. Now, despite how he hadn't seen me, I could just feel him staring intently in the direction of the cavern.

Just then, the Locust's voice punctured through the air, "Oi, Serpent! What's the hold up?!"

"Uhh ... I'm going to check something out over here! You go on ahead and I'll catch up!"

"Well, you better make it fast! We need to find that damn tramp and report back to the Horned One as soon as possible!"

"I know, I know! Just keep searching down the path!"

I could've sworn that I felt my heart plummet all the way down to my toes. There were no words that could possibly describe how much I wanted to squeeze my eyes shut and convince myself that I hadn't heard what I just heard ... but at the sound of the Serpent's boots starting to slowly stalk towards the cave's entrance, I knew that there was absolutely no point in continuing to do that.

My breathing was out of control. It took plenty, if not all of my willpower to prevent myself from breathing too loudly. Every breath was quick and shallow, making my throat feel like it was being violated by a sore lump that was growing bigger and bigger with every passing second. There were even a couple of times in which I felt like I was about to choke on the louder breaths that I was forcing to keep locked up inside of me. Nonetheless, despite how much it hurt my chest and throat, I managed to keep my shaky breathing quieter than a mouse.

Thinking fast, I flung my body as close to the ground as I could and crawled frantically along the side of the cavern. Then, just as I made a beeline down a slim opening that was between two sections of stalagmites and hid behind the one that was just an inch or so taller than the other ... I heard the sound of the Serpent's footsteps sidestepping through the narrow crack.

Once again, I pressed one hand firmly over my mouth and placed the over one back over the injury to my spleen. After that, while fighting the urge to yelp from the pain, I rose myself just slightly onto my knees in order to peek between two of the stalagmites. As a result, I witnessed the Serpent finish slipping his slender frame through the crack with a grunt. Then, after flipping some of his red fringe out of his pale face and scowling at the cave's entrance like it had done something to him, the Serpent started to slowly drag his eyes around the dim atmosphere. That's when I dunked back down behind the stalagmites, sticking as close to the ground as possible.

The next part made the tips of my ears feel as if they had become numb right on the spot. It was the sound of the Serpent slowly withdrawing his dagger. It sent a shiver through my bones, causing me to not know whether I had flinched because of the unsettling noise or because of the sudden chill. Either way, I was anxious as hell.

For a moment, aside from the sound of tiny stones cracking beneath the Serpent's boots with every watchful step that he took, everything was silent. Then, he chuckled creepily.

"Oh, darling~ ... Come out, come out, wherever you are~"

Despite how I had one hand still placed securely over my mouth, I forced myself to bite down on my bottom lip in order to ensure even further that no whimpers or loud breaths would escape from my throat. My teeth chattered a little against my bottom lip and I was biting down so hard to the point where it was actually surprising that I wasn't drawing any blood. There was even a tiny piece of me that was so traumatized to the point where it was tempted to have me close my eyes, cover my ears, curl up into a ball, and just hope for the best. However, I refused to believe that giving up and surrendering was on the list of options.

Suddenly, the Serpent began to do something that made a tight knot form in the deepest part of my gut in less than a second. He was kicking his taunting up a notch by beginning to tap the razor-sharp tip of his bronze dagger against the wall. Every sequence held three hair-raising taps and there was a tiny pause that lasted about two seconds between each one.

Tap ... tap ... tap...

"Come on, sweetie. There's no point in hiding~" The Serpent's voice was haunting, still dripping with unsettling snickers that one would expect from somebody in a loony-bin. "If you're really in here, I'm going to find you one way or the other. You're never going to escape."

With my enhanced hearing, I listened very carefully to his footsteps in order to figure out where he was. After that, with my muscles constantly growing more and more tense and my heart practically exploding through my chest, I started to hastily—but even more quietly—crawl again. Every time I raised either of my hands from the ground, I internally cringed and grinded my teeth from the thought of being caught since there were plenty of pebbles and bones that I had to try avoiding.

Tap ... tap ... tap...

I kept dragging myself like a dog across the blackened surface until I made it back around the same section of stalagmites that I was previously dunked behind. Then, with the footsteps of the Serpent rounding the corner of another group of stalagmites, I didn't think twice before crawling down one of the skinny paths and making a random turn. Along the way, I had no choice but to sometimes contort my aching body and slowly lift my legs over a couple of skulls and other decaying bones in order to prevent them from being knocked across the cave floor. The Serpent had only missed me by probably three or so seconds before I made my beeline to the opposite side of the cavern, where I immediately dove behind another group of stalagmites. Even though these ones wasn't as tall as the ones that I had just been hiding behind, I managed to stick close to the ground to avoid being spotted.

I took a hasty moment to pay attention to my breathing again, still listening closely for the Serpent's footsteps as I made sure that my breaths weren't getting too loud or out of control again. Then, just to get a better idea of where the Serpent actually was, I convinced myself to spy on him between two of the new stalagmites. He was just now walking past the cluster of stalagmites that I had been hiding behind previously, still cautiously checking in every possible direction while dragging the tip of his dagger across the wall. A nearby torch illuminated the left side of his face and made his eyes look like they were on fire as this happened.

Sccrrraatttcchhh...

"Tsk, tsk, tsk..." The Serpent shook his head in phony disappointment, right before he had another one of his cunning smirks appear on his face. "First, it was Tag. Now, it's Hide and Seek again, eh? ... Well, little kitten, since you just love playing games so much, how about we play another one? ... Blind Man's Buff."

I quickly got down again, literally feeling that bastard's eyes jump over in my direction and stay where they were for about five seconds. The entire time, I found myself with my eyes clenched shut and more scarlet teardrops pouring down my cheeks like individual rivers. Nevertheless, I made sure to focus entirely on my breathing and tried my absolute hardest to ignore the prickly numbness that wouldn't stop attacking my spine from me sensing the Serpent's gaze. Eventually, after about an additional five seconds, I felt the other creature's eyes continue their search around the cavern and my chest slowly deflated.

Then, at the sound of the Serpent beginning to continue his course again, I took another brief peek through the stalagmites just to give my frantic self a brief reminder of where he currently was. I witnessed him run the tip of his index finger along the side of his dagger, watching the blood—my blood—that was dripping from it with heavy, sadistic satisfaction.

"Blind Man's~" He sang, still wearing that crooked grin while rubbing the crimson liquid between two of his fingers with pure nonchalance.

My thoughts were like a tornado that was spinning at an incomprehensible speed, but I was still able to piece together a plan. I was going to crawl in the opposite direction of the Serpent and keep going until I finished making it all the way back to the cavern's entrance. Along the way, I would continue to dunk behind stalagmites and remain as quiet as possible. Then, when I made it back to the crack in the wall, I would be able to get the hell out of this cave.

Tap ... tap ... tap...

I heard the sound of the Serpent's lips smacking, proving that he must've just got done licking the blood off from his fingers. After that, he chuckled.

"Don't hold out on me like that, honey~ I'm sure that you know the rules to Blind Man's Buff. After all, it's quite a popular game. That's why I picked it out for us to play right now. So, how about cooperating with me for a change?"

I could never tell if the Serpent was the type to taunt like that or the type to just wrongly assume that others were dumb enough to fall into his words after going through as much shit as I have. Either way, I never had the desire to find out.

Sccrrraatttcchhh...

It was time to start crawling again, so I did. I positioned myself back on my hands and knees and skittered like a cockroach across the ground. The entire time, I kept my head down and made sure that I was being cautious with every move. I hid behind the cluster of stalagmites that was near the group that I had previously been using as a hiding spot. Then, after poking my head out for a split second to check and make sure that the Serpent hadn't changed his course or anything, I scurried behind the the next group of stalagmites.

However, almost immediately after I made it behind that next group, I felt something sharp puncture me in the palm of my right hand.

My jaw dropped like it had transformed into cement and a yelp almost lunged right out of my throat. Luckily, I managed to throw my other hand over my mouth before it could escape and I knew that there was no chance that I could've possibly alerted the Serpent.

"Blind Man's~" His voice hauntingly called out again, at which I carefully lifted my right hand up from the ground and turned it over.

Tap ... tap ... tap...

Upon first glance, I realized that my palm had been pricked by what looked like a slightly curved, broken piece of a femur bone. It was about five inches long and judging by how it wasn't as decayed as a majority of the other bones in the cavern were, it was easy to assume that it represented the offering of a very recent sacrifice or ritual that took place back in the human world.

I bit down on my bottom lip, wincing slightly as I pinched the opposite end of the bone between two of my nails and removed it from my palm. After doing so, I couldn't help but notice how sharp the tip was. It almost seemed to captivate me, causing me to stare like a little child that was mesmerized by a new toy through a shop's window. I couldn't exactly put my finger on the reason why, but ... I was incredibly fascinated by pointy objects.

Sccrrraatttcchhh...

If it wasn't for the sound of the Serpent's dagger scraping much more harshly across the wall, I could've sworn that I would've melted away into my own little world for at least a couple of seconds. Instead, after redirecting my focus entirely on the current situation, I lifted the part of my filthy dress that covered my right shoulder and slipped the piece of bone securely behind a couple of pieces of thread. When that was finished, I gave it a quick pat to ensure that it wouldn't slip out and I decided to peek through two more stalagmites in order to spot the Serpent again.

Now, he looked like he was starting to get more and more exasperated with every passing second. He looked from left to right, not even glancing in my direction. His lime-colored eyes were swarming with bitterness and he used the bloodied tip of his dagger to push away a couple of stray strands of his red hair from his face. Shortly after that, he smacked his arms down at his sides and let out an impatient groan.

His voice gave it away that he was no longer enjoying this 'game.' In a much more stubborn and irritated tone, he proclaimed, "Blind Man's!"

It felt like his words bounced off and ricocheted between multiple stalagmites, darting through the cave like a soaring bullet. They made me flinch to the point where I practically raised my shoulders all the way up to my ears, but I made sure to remain as quiet as possible while keeping my eyes on the Serpent.

After looking around in a variety of more directions and spinning around in a couple of circle, he did something that I didn't see coming. He squeezed his eyes shut and curled his fists into ridiculously tight fists, surprisingly not breaking his dagger in the process. And then...

"UUGGGHHH!"

...with an infuriated battle scream, he shot his arm back as far as it could go and threw his dagger. I could tell that it wasn't even maximum strength, but that didn't change how the dagger soared all the way across the cave and ended up crashing into a pile of dirty, broken bones that looked like they used to belong to the ribs and legs of multiple humans. They soared in every which direction, clanking against the ground, and a couple of decaying skulls went rolling. It was a miracle that none of them seemed to be damaged even further from the impact.

CRASH! CLANK! CLUNK!

This time, I couldn't help but throw my trembling hands up in order to press them as firmly as possible over my ears. The sounds were so loud to the point where it felt like knives were being plunged directly into them, reaching all the way to my brain. At the same time, I released a startled gasp that had—with the tiniest shred of luck in a situation like this—been drowned out by the noises and I didn't think twice before dunking back behind the stalagmites.

My heart was skipping to the point where my entire body felt like it was pulsating with every pump that occurred.

I stayed like that for what felt like an eternity, hands positioned over my ears, eyes screwed shut, and whole body leaning forward to the point where my face was literally inches away from the ground. However, after counting about five bloody teardrops that had managed to leak out from my clenched eyelids and fall from my chin, I forced myself to take control again. If I didn't, I was bound to get caught. So, after quietly lowering my battered hands from my sore ears, I carefully lifted myself back up and peeked through the stalagmites to see that bastard again.

He was massaging the bridge of his nose with his eyes closed, obviously flustered.

"What did I say about cooperating with me?! You're supposed to be calling back to me! Surely, you can't be that much of a dumb bimbo! Ugh! ... Don't you realize how rude it is to not participate in a game after being asked to play?! In case you haven't noticed, I'm actually trying to give you a chance to make this easier on yourself! And you're blowing it!" He started grinding his teeth, having a brief pause in his blowout before he slowly peeled his eyes back open. "Dammit, princess ... you're really starting to test my patience..."

I watched him drop his arms back down to his sides and run his thumbs over his knuckles as he let out a heavy sigh. Then, just as I was about to dunk down again, I saw something that made my wine-colored eyes widen. The Serpent was beginning to walk in the direction of where he had thrown his dagger to retrieve it—the direction of where I was needing to crawl in order to get back around to the entrance of the cave. That meant that, in order for me to avoid getting caught, I was going to have to immediately turn back around and scurry back in the opposite direction that I had already come.

The raw skin that was covering my knees stung like hundreds of sharp bee stings as I spun my body back around as quickly as I could without producing hardly any noise. As this happened, my jaw dropped from the pain, more crimson tears started racing down my face, and I had no choice but to bite down on my knuckles for a couple of seconds in order to prevent myself from releasing any yelps or gasps.

The Serpent was mumbling to himself, helping me to have a good idea as to where he was. So, while listening carefully and being as quiet as possible, I began to frantically crawl back in the other direction. Along the way, I had to make sure that I continued to avoid the bones and pebbles that were cluttered along the route.

No matter how far I got, the cavern felt like it was expanding and everything kept feeling like it was happening in slow motion. There was a piece of me that even felt like it was on the verge of making me vomit again, courtesy of all of the pressure that I was under and all of the work that I was putting my battered condition through.

"Come on ... come on..." I whispered to myself in the tiniest, most strained voice in all of existence. "Gotta keep going..."

My hands were beginning to feel awfully chapped against the stone ground and I couldn't even curl my toes or twitch my fingers without feeling sparks of pain being shot through the rest of my body.

However, after a couple of more seconds, I noticed something that made my blood feel like it became colder than a blizzard and I ended up skidding to a halt like I had just saved myself from slamming into a wall. Then, I waited for a couple of seconds to pass by in order to confirm my realization. The cave was absolutely silent. There were no more footsteps, no more taps or scrapes on the wall from the Serpent's dagger, and no more "Blind Man's Bluff." That also meant that I could no longer figure out where the Serpent was by listening to the sound of him complaining under his breath. Everything was quiet.

The hairs stood up on the back of my neck and I could feel cold drops of sweat starting to trickle down from my hairline. In that very moment, it literally felt like I had the whole world being pressed down on my shoulders. My muscles felt heavy, my skin felt tingly, my heartbeat almost felt numb ... and it felt like somebody was staring intently at me.

My magenta orbs grew to be the size of quarters as I remained where I was on my hands and knees, hidden behind yet another cluster of stalagmites. Then, while taking in shallow breaths, I started to slowly turn my head to glance over my shoulder in order to check behind me. Every passing second felt agonizing, as if my lungs were slowly becoming deflated ... but when I finished turning my head around as far as it could go, it came to my realization that there was no one behind me.

I let out a deep, quiet, somewhat shaky breath and relaxed my eyes shut for a moment. My entire face felt cold, courtesy of the freezing drops of sweat that were mixing together with my sticky, crimson tears. I ignored it as much as I could, pushing some of my messy, dirty, oily hair out of my face ... but as soon as I turned back around and opened my eyes again, I could've sworn that I was on the verge of a heart attack.

I was now staring directly into the eyes of the Serpent. He had appeared literally out of nowhere and was kneeling down on one knee in front of me, blocking my path and holding the sharp tip of his dagger just a couple of mere inches away from the bottom of my chin. Not only that, but his eyes weren't human anymore. Instead, they had become glassy like marbles. The white portions were entirely lime green with little specks of yellow and his pupils were very narrow, pitch-black slits. Those ... were the eyes of a serpent.

My eyes nearly popped out of my skull and I gasped so loudly to the point where it felt like I had been roughly punched in the chest. Shortly after that, I watched as a large, creepy grin spread practically ear-to-ear across the Serpent's face.

"Surprise, sweetie pie~" He sang, sounding like some ravenous animal that was eager to devour its prey. "My, my~ I have to admit, you did much better at hiding than I thought you would while being in such an awful condition like this ... but you didn't actually think that you were going to get away with officially escaping from me and Locust, did you? Because if that's the case ... well, to be honest, there just might be a teeny-weeny piece of me that has pity for you..."

I felt him lift the point of his blade so it was now resting directly against the bottom of my chin. The feeling of the cold metal being pressed against my skin automatically sent a jolt through my bones and triggered more bloody tears in my bulging eyes. By this point, they were on the verge of overflowing ... but just as I began to make the mistake of assuming that this situation couldn't possibly get any worse, I was proven wrong when I witnessed the Serpent's freaky smile crumble away like it was never there. It was instantly replaced by a scolding glare, as if I was a puppy that had just used the restroom on a rug.

"But then again, why should there be any pity for you at all?" He inquired hatefully. "After all, you can't seem to do anything right."

I felt a couple of more crimson teardrops begin to leak down my cheeks as I had no choice but to continue looking directly at the bastard that was holding a dagger dangerously close to my throat.

"I-if that were the case..." I said after a brief moment of silence, stuttering a little from my anxiousness. "...t-then I wouldn't have been able to devour a-all of the souls of my p-prior summoners. E-e-everyone knows t-that we are unable t-to feed on humans i-if we're unable to succeed at our end of the bargains w-with them in the first place."

Just then, shortly after the end of my statement, I felt a small twinge of something inside of me that made me narrow my eyes a little at the Serpent.

"H-how many souls have you recently eaten again?" I inquired, already knowing the answer and almost catching myself off guard by how taunting my voice sounded all of the sudden.

However, my fear made a sharp return as soon as I felt the Serpent grab my arm with a solid grip and yank me straight up onto my knees so fast to the point where it was a miracle that my spine didn't snap. A startled yelp immediately shot out of my mouth and the entire time, the dagger remained terrifyingly close to my skin.

The Serpent's slit pupils expanded a little before narrowing again, repeating that pattern a numerous amount of times. Meanwhile, his lips slowly peeled back, transforming into a dark smile, and chuckles that sounded like they belonged to a mentally unstable person started to pour out of his mouth.

"Oh, princess ... I wouldn't flaunt my appetite around if I were you." He spoke with an ominous note in his voice, sending even more chills through my body. "I believe that you remember how I had reminded Locust not that long ago that I haven't been so fortunate with being summoned for a little over a decade. If you're not careful, the lack of nourishment just might get to me while I'm in this human form ... and maybe it'll make my hands start to tremble."

As he spoke, I felt him slowly stroke my neck with the side of his dagger and I could've sworn that my heart was seconds away from bursting out of my chest. The whole time, while drawing in shaky breaths through my nose, I tried to stay as still as possible in order to prevent myself from getting cut. However, shortly after the Serpent finished his final sentence, I felt him press the tip of the blade against the middle of my jaw with a noticeable increase in pressure ... and before I had the chance to react, it was too late.

"Aghhh!" I gasped, feeling even more scarlet teardrops beginning to rain down my face as I clenched my eyes shut.

After that, I whimpered like a helpless puppy and pressed my lips together as firmly as possible in order to keep the rest of my cries contained. The Serpent dragged his dagger along the side of my face, slitting my bruised skin and leaving behind yet another brutal cut that made me feel like I was being attacked with liquid fire. It began at the middle of my right jawline and stretched all the way to the back of my ear, which was at pleasant as it sounded. While receiving it, I could feel even more blood beginning to leak out from my battered body and trickle down the side of my neck.

The cut was given to me in just a couple of seconds, but the pain was so extreme to the point where it felt like it had lasted years. This was Hell, after all.

The Serpent withdrew his dagger, which now had its blade covered in even more of my blood. While cutting me, his smile had grown even darker and he hadn't taken his evil eyes away from my face.

"Oh, dear, would you look at that? It looks like my hand did start to feel the urge to slip. Whoopsie!"

Another small flicker of that mysterious feeling from before made an abrupt return inside of me, causing my face to darken a little.

"B-bastard!" I hissed, almost entirely under my breath. My voice had even been on the verge of altering ... but not even a full second after that word left my mouth, I ended up yelping again from the Serpent increasing his grip on my arm and my terror shot through me like a billion volts of electricity. I could practically feel brand new bruises from that asshole's nasty fingers beginning to form on my sensitive skin.

"Oh, I'm sorry, dearie! Are you in pain? ... Well, I wouldn't worry about that if I were you. And do you know why? ... Shh, wipe those drops of blood away from your face~"

He dropped his voice into a whisper as he said that last sentence and just as I thought that he was about to cut off the circulation in my arm, he released it. Then, I nearly flinched when I felt him place his cold fingertips against the side of my face. He traced them down my uncut jawline and cuffed my chin like a dog. After that, he lifted his dagger, placed its cold metal flat against my skin, and used it to wipe away the crimson teardrops from my face without cutting me. However, I was still filled with intimidation and I was pretty sure that all he was managing to do was smear the streaks of blood even more across my face. I was, without a doubt, an absolute mess.

Eventually, after the Serpent slowly lowered his dagger from my face, he leaned in close to my ear. His cheek was inches away from mine, nearly causing me to choke on my own shallow breaths, and I could feel his hot breath tickling my ear as he spoke. His voice was quiet, yet scary ... and I didn't need to see his face to know that his sinister grin had made an unnerving return.

"I'm going take your pain away and replace it once again with waves of intense pleasure~ Who cares if it's just for a little while~? After all ... you should be used to being a whore by now~ You're nothing but a dirty, little curse that wasn't even allowed be known as Lucifer's property like the rest of us until recently ... and everybody knows it~" The Serpent snickered insultingly and began to drag his other hand up my arm, still holding his weapon in the process. "Whether you like it or not, sweetie ... I won't stop having my way with you until you're screaming loud enough for all of Hell to hear you. Even if you struggle, I'll hold you down and force you to take every single second that I wish to have with you, you hear? ... No matter how much you kick, squirm, and try to escape, nothing will prevent me from—AGH! SHIT!"

His fingertips had just poked underneath the sleeve of my burlap-like dress and began to try pulling it down my shoulder when I reacted. Desperate to get the hell away, I had reached my arm out as far as it could go and grabbed the first thing that I felt. It turned out to be the deteriorating skull of some unlucky human, but I didn't really take the time to look at it. Instead, I ended up smashing it as hard as I could upside the Serpent's head, causing the skull to shatter almost completely. Not only that, but my strength was so strong to the point where it caused the Serpent to also hit his head against the cluster of stalagmites that we had been behind.

Not even a full second later, I clambered back up onto my feet as quickly as I could and started darting away from the Serpent. Along the way, I had no choice but to mostly drag my punctured foot behind me and I sometimes had to prevent myself from tripping by using the cavern's wall or some stalagmites for support.

I limped through the slim opening that was between two other groups of stalagmites, still too near that redheaded bastard for my liking. After that, when I managed to press my hand against the cave's wall and save myself from stumbling, I ended up looking back to make sure that the Serpent hadn't appeared behind me. Fortunately, he hadn't. He was just now picking himself up from the ground, clenching his teeth and holding a new gash on the side of his forehead in his hand. He was also still grasping his dagger in his opposite hand and he didn't seem to notice—or care about—the few flakes of bone that had stuck to his hair after I had slammed and broke the skull upside his head.

The Serpent was furious as he hollered out at the top of his lungs, "YOU STUPID BITCH!"

By this point, I had become even more desperate. I knew that there was no way of backing out now and that if I wanted to escape this cavern, I had to keep defending myself in any possible way that I could. So, while breathing hard and cringing every few seconds from the pain in my human form, I pushed myself away from the wall and frantically began to snatch up a variety of other decaying skulls that were randomly spewed across the floor of the cave. Then, with audible grunts escaping from my mouth, I flung my arm back as far as it could and threw the skulls one at a time in the direction of the Serpent. I never took the time to aim, so some of the skulls missed him completely—but only by a couple of inches.

"AGHH!" He yelled again, stumbling back a small step and firmly clenching his teeth when one of the skulls struck him directly in the gut. It practically exploded into millions of pieces on impact, making it almost look like it had disappeared in some magic trick.

CRACK!

"HOW DARE YOU! AGH!"

The Serpent through his arm up to his face, guarding it as another semi-broken skull flew by his head, missed it by just a mere inch, and shattered completely against the wall. Shortly after that, there was another skull that had smashed completely against the ground, also missing that asshole by the tiniest hair. If he hadn't moved his foot back while staggering backwards again, I knew that skull definitely would've greeted his toes.

I sent about seven more skulls in the Serpent's direction, still breathing hard and maintaining a hectic speed. While this occurred, I witnessed each skull practically explode into nothing but dust and dirty flakes after striking against the wall, the ground, or that bastard's upper body.

CRASH! CRACK! SHATTER!

Every time he was hit, the Serpent grunted in a mixture of fury and discomfort; but he stood his ground, refusing to be defeated as he kept his arm positioned where it was over his face. At the same time, he shouted angrily at me, practically rattling nearly all of the stalagmites as he filled the cavern with plenty of explicit words. Although, they weren't in English. They were in some type of voodoo language that was associated with Lucifer—and for creatures like us, it was actually no different than how humans would start cussing after accidentally stubbing their toe or hitting their hip against a doorknob.

With every throw I made, the heavier my stomach felt and the more my heart raced ... but, at the same time, there was something else. In that very moment, I could feel it suddenly starting to poke somewhere deep, deep down inside of me. Beyond all of the sweat, filth, bruises, scratches, blood, and overall terror ... it almost felt like there was a spark of pleasure beginning to expose itself to me—as if a jewel had been discovered in a bottomless rut. Despite how frantic and fearful I still looked looked and felt, the thought of inflicting harm on the Serpent and possibly others like him ... actually satisfied me. Not in a sexual way, but ... certainly in some way. Actually, now that I was taking the time to think about it, I had also felt this similar trace of pleasure when I had thrown those hot pebbles into the Locust's eyes. I hadn't noticed it at the time, but ... I really did enjoy the thought of hurting these bastards.

Once I made it down to the final skull in my arms, I narrowed my eyes a little and I found the corners of my lips curling back a little in order to release a small, displeased sound. Although, I couldn't necessarily tell if it was a snarl, a scoff, or even a snivel since my nose was stuffy and there were still bloody teardrops raining down my face. Regardless of the abrupt shift in my expression, I flung my arm back and roughly chucked the last skull in the direction of the Serpent—who was still protecting his head and cursing vulgarly at me.

This time, I received a much bigger reaction. The skull had struck the Serpent directly in the kneecap, causing his leg to immediately bend and his upper body to arch forward like an elderly man from the strong impact. As this happened, the corners of his lips tore back, revealing that his teeth were now grinding even harder than before, and his serpent-like eyes practically burst into lime-colored sparklers.

"AGHH! MY KNEE! DAMMIT!" He bellowed as he threw his arm away from his face and grasped the knee that had been hit, no longer using that Satanic language.

Shortly after that, the Serpent lifted his head again and stared at me with some of his fringe hanging dangerously in front of his face. His gaze was so piercing and vengeful to the point where it was very easy to tell that he was wishing that holes would start burning through me right then and there.

"UGHHH!" He yelled like a ferocious beast, making it almost unbelievable that he wasn't bursting into his creature form. "SCREW YOU, YOU DAMN TART! DO YOU HEAR ME?! SCREW! YOU!"

Everything was still happening so fast. By the time that those two final words had left the Serpent's mouth, I had flipped what was left of my oily hair out of my face, wiped a sticky layer of sweat away from my forehead, and snatched up another rotting skull that just so happened to be lying on the ground nearby. Then, when I threw it roughly towards the other creature without aiming once again, the skull ended up hitting him in the hand that was clutching his dagger. The impact must've been highly unexpected, because the Serpent's glowing orbs instantly widened and his jaw dropped in surprise as he watched his weapon fly out of his hand before he had the chance to increase his grip on it. The dagger then soared through the air and eventually landed with a loud CLANK somewhere else in the cavern, leaving that redheaded bastard unarmed.

With my chest rising and falling at a rapid speed, I began to glance around frantically for any other skulls that I could possibly use to defend myself. However, before I could manage to locate anymore, the Serpent ended up snapping his attention back over to me and he let out a long, terrifying, inhumane HISS that was so piercing to the point where it automatically made my eardrums begin to madly throb. As a result, I ended up flinging my hands up to my ears and I pressed them there as hard as I could, trying to ignore the sharp pain that was shooting through their canals like long needles. At the same time, I let out a mild, somewhat strained groan and I squeezed my blood-rimmed eyes shut as tightly as I could.

Then, after a couple of seconds, I detected some type of thumping pattern beneath my bare feet ... and when I opened my eyes again, I could've sworn that I felt my heart drop all the way down to the tips of my toes at what I saw. The Serpent was trampling towards me like a wild boar, letting out a battle cry and jumping a little with every step since I must've given him a limp after striking him in the knee.

My maroon orbs shot gigantic, swarming with horror as a stunned gasp lurched out of my mouth. A freezing, prickly sensation jolted through my entire body and I shot my arms out in an attempt to shove the Serpent away. However, despite how I had managed to grasp him by his biceps, he was still able to knock me off my feet and send us both tumbling to the ground.

The landing was rough, consisting of me slamming my wounded back against the cavern's floor with that asshole's additional weight lying on top of me. The air was immediately knocked out of my lungs and not even a full three seconds after being tackled to the ground, the Serpent nailed me directly in the face with his fist. His knuckles had hit me so firmly to the point where my head was forced to jerk in the exact direction of the punch, sending a sharp, cramping sensation down the side of my neck. At the same time, an agonizing cry of pain shot out of my mouth in the form of a breathless gasp, along with a small spurt of blood that was mixed with saliva. It literally felt like I had just been slammed in the head with a giant block of cobblestone.

Not long after that, the Serpent grabbed me harshly by my chin once again and he forced me to look up at him, as if I was a stubborn child that wasn't obeying its parent. As soon as I saw his face, I could've sworn that I felt the color rush out of my skin and my terrified eyes remained huge. Now, not only were the Serpent's slit eyes glowing even more intensely like burning coals, but his canine teeth had completely transformed into larger versions of the long, horrifying, slightly curved fangs of a serpent.

The Serpent stared directly into my blood-rimmed eyes, breathing ferociously and ignoring the fringe that was hanging in his face.

"BITCH!" He snapped, nearly spitting on me as he kept holding my chin with one hand and flew his other hand all the way back.

Before I had the chance to react, that bastard backhanded me on my opposite cheek so hard to the point where the whole cave practically filled with an echoing SMACK. I immediately released another wail of misery and increased my grip on the Serpent's biceps, nearly having my head roll in the same direction as the slap. The only thing that stopped me was the redheaded creature's opposite hand, which was still cuffing my chin. He yanked my head back so I would be staring up at him again, practically making my brain spin to the point where it was a miracle that it wasn't mush.

"Who in the hell do you think you are?! Did you actually think that I would allow you to get away with pelting me with freakin' skulls?! What exactly is going on in that insane head of yours, dearie?! You're even more messed up than all of Hell claims you to be! Is that mutated brain of yours even processing my words correctly right now?! Or do you need me to smack you around some more until it decides to start functioning properly?!" With every word that the Serpent bellowed, he violently shook me around like a rag doll by my head and even banged the back of it a couple of times against the solid ground. "I can't believe you were actually stupid enough to believe that throwing things at me was the better choice instead of just surrendering! Hasn't it even occurred to you yet, sweetheart?! I refuse to be taken down, especially by a pathetic, worthless, low-life of a whore like YOU!"

Within seconds after that, while overhearing the Serpent's scornful words repeating themselves in my head, I felt that blazing inferno make a sudden return inside of me. The intense anger from earlier had reappeared, overpowering me in the blink of an eye and causing me to do something that I almost didn't expect—especially in that moment.

With my magenta eyes now narrowed venomously, I released one of the Serpent's arms and the next thing happened so fast. I curled my hand into a tight fist, swung it back as far as it could go, and collided my knuckles with that redheaded bastard's cheek so hard to the point where his whole body swung to the side, almost flying off of me. As this happened, a heavy sneer that sounded like it was mixed together with a short, yet rough, battle cry fled from my mouth and the Serpent had even released a strong, bewildered gasp while receiving the firm punch.

There were a variety of mixed sensations shooting through my body. Like before, when I had thrown the molten pebbles into the Locust's eyes, I felt a strong burst of shock shoot through each of my veins. Plus, despite how the anger had fled from my eyes, I could still feel the fiery rage burning through some parts in my chest ... and lastly, there was that tiny spark of non-sexual pleasure that was very deep down inside of me. As soon as I delivered that punch to the Serpent's face, I could actually feel the pleasure flaring through my human form like a quick, tingling wave of electricity. It probably would've been more incredible if I knew what it actually was and if it wasn't mixing with the fear and irritation.

With a few drops of blood trickling down from the gash on his forehead, along with a hand now resting on the cheek that had been whacked, the Serpent slowly turned his attention back to me. When he did, I immediately noticed that his snake-like eyes and fangs had completely transformed back into his human ones, as if I had literally knocked the evil out of him.

His breathing started to tremble in an unsettling manner and he stared at me with a wild look in his eyes. At the same time, the Serpent clenched his teeth and tightened his other hand on me to the point where I could feel his fingernails digging firmly into my skin.

"Oh, princess ... now you're in for it!"

The parts of my chest that were filled with fury flared up even more, practically bursting like separate wildfires and blending together with my fear. In that moment, I couldn't even tell if my face was decorated with anger, terror, or pain. Regardless, the situation escalated even further almost instantly after that bastard's latest remark. With a violent glare plastered on his face, the Serpent pulled his hand away from his reddened cheek, balled it up into another tight fist, and flew it back. However, when he attempted to nail me in the face again ... I ended up moving my head at the very last second, resulting in the Serpent slamming his hand roughly against the ground. Quite frankly, it was a miracle that there wasn't the sound of bones shattering.

The Serpent's eyes practically exploded out of their sockets before clenching shut. Then, while letting out a roaring scream that was filled with pain and unspeakable swear words, he yanked his hand back in order to securely place his other one over it—as if that would rewind what just happened. Due to the impact against the rock surface, his knuckles had been mostly skinned and some drops of blood were beginning to take their time to drip down his long fingers.

That was when I took action, gripping both of the Serpent's arms again before I brought my knee up and socked him directly in the pelvic region with a mild battle cry. Then, as he clutched his jaws and let out a blaring grunt that immediately filled my eardrums, I jerked him to the side by his biceps and rolled my own body over so the tables would be turned. After that, with me straddling his waist and him staring up at me in a blend of discomfort, rage, and bewilderment, I flung a fist back and started to punch him as many times in the face as I could. With every punch, I felt the teeny spark of delight seem to grow stronger inside of me and continue to electrocute throughout the rest of my body. Despite how my expression still made me look like a deer that was caught off guard by an incoming carriage ... I was slowly beginning to realize that I really did find inflicting pain to be thrilling.

Suddenly, after delivering what felt like a million punches, the Serpent retaliated by shooting one of his hands up, grabbing a fistful of my hair, and spatting plenty of obscenities at me. Then, with blood now dotting the left corner of his mouth and beginning to trickle down from his right nostril, he nailed me directly in the chin with his opposite fist and used his grip on my hair to yank me to the side like I had done to him previously. Surprisingly, no strands had been ripped out of my scalp and after that redheaded bastard had managed to regain his spot on top of me, I had attempted placing a trembling hand over the area on my head that was now throbbing.

The Serpent spat a mixture of saliva and blood in my face, right before he started shaking me like a rag doll and backhanding me all over again. Although, it didn't take long before I had kneed him off of me and rolled my aching self up on top of him again. It was an endless cycle, containing terrified sniffles, puppy-like whimpers, anxious pleads, strained grunts, vicious snarls, explicit insults, and violent threats. It was very simple to identity which noises came from who as that asshole and I rolled like a pair of tumbleweeds all over the cavern, punching, kicking, shaking, spitting, and kneeing at each other. On some occasions, we had even rolled into the sides of some stalagmites before bouncing back off, also receiving some minor scratches from rolling over pointy pebbles.

Eventually, the Serpent ended up on top of me again with his teeth clenched and eyes narrowed in a flustered manner. While panting hard, I attempted to ignore my many throbbing injuries and frantically slapped at that bastard's hands while wriggling around like a desperate worm on a hook beneath him. However, no matter how hard I struggled, the Serpent managed to keep me pinned against the ground and he blocked himself from all of my swings with his own hands. Then, with my wine-colored eyes still overflowing with scarlet tears, I ended up letting out another strained yelp when the Serpent ended up delivering the sharpest backhand across my face yet.

"UGH! You might've made the huge mistake of toying around with fire in the past, sweetheart, but this ... oh, this goes beyond anything that you've ever done before! STOP your squirming and come here!"

The Serpent snatched my wrists with a fierce grip, pulling and pushing against my resisting arms for what felt like an eternity.

"N-no! L-let me go!" I exclaimed in an attempt to sound brave, and I probably would've if my accent hadn't been so shaky.

"Shut up!"

The struggle was actually very brief, lasting no longer than ten seconds. Despite being in my human form, I definitely would've been able to put up a much better fight if I hadn't been in such a ruthless condition—and not to mention in Hell. Unfortunately, my arms began to quiver and no matter how much I tried to keep resisting that asshole's strength, he ended up pinning my arms above my head and he kept them held there by continuing to firmly hold my wrists in one hand.

The Serpent breathed ferociously and stared directly into my eyes, as if he were imagining what it would be like to drill right through them. I had no choice but to stare back up at him, eyes still overflowing with terror and crimson tears. At the same time, my mind raced with hundreds of traumatizing scenarios that could be seconds away from taking place.

"You ... still have plenty to learn about obedience, little bitch. Listen to me and listen good!"

The Serpent rammed me roughly in the side with his knee, just a little below my lower ribs. I could tell that it must've been because I had started trying to escape from underneath him by rocking my sore body from side to side and pulling at my wrists.

"A-ACH!" I cried out like a hopeless, high-pitched, wounded animal, feeling even more bloody teardrops beginning to spill from my eyes as the sharp pain shot through my side.

Once again, the Serpent cuffed my chin like I was a mutt and continued to scowl directly at me. The whole time, he paid no attention to the blood that was taking its time to continue leaking down from his right nostril, the left corner of his mouth, and the gash on his forehead.

"Just because you sometimes get referred to as a 'special case,' doesn't mean that you're actually special! Don't you even understand something as simple as that, tart?! I'm pretty sure that a five-year-old mortal would've already been able to understand a sarcastic saying like that! In case you have forgotten, you're supposed to do exactly everything that you are told! You come when you're called, you preform when you're told to preform, you allow yourself to be tied up when you're supposed to, and you never try to put up such a violent fight! It's that easy, yet you make the dumb choice of refusing to cooperate most of the time ... and this time, you really made sure to go out of your way to be disrespectful. With that being said, punishment is definitely required."

As soon as he finished that final sentence, he bent my burned wrists further back in an unpleasant position until there was a small crackling noise. Nothing broke, but I could still feel discomfort prodding at my bones. It caused me to clench my teeth to the point where my jaws automatically ached, and a strained groan was dragged out from my throat.

At the same time, the Serpent's lime-colored eyes started to faintly glow and one of the corners of his mouth twisted upward, forming a smirk that looked mistakenly calm.

"I'm sure that you know how I am by now, sweetie pie ... I don't mind it at all when a little bit of force and roughness is needed in order to prove a good point."

There was a slight hiss at the end of the words "force" and "roughness," blending together with the mischief that was in that bastard's accent as he removed his hand from my chin in order to drag an unruly lock of my jet-black hair through two of his bloody fingers. After that, with my squirming wrists still being held firmly above my head, the Serpent began to slowly lower his face close to mine. For a moment, I thought that he was going to try kissing me and I ended up sucking my chapped, somewhat quivering lips into my mouth to prevent him from doing so. Although, instead of pressing his own lips anywhere against my body or forcing his tongue down my throat like he'd done a billion times before, the Serpent stopped when the tips of our noses were literally an inch apart ... and a new, vengeful glare appeared on his face.

"Perhaps, this will teach you to never engage in any of these arrogant decisions ever again!"

After that, the Serpent leaned back and positioned three of his fingers at the entrance of the fresh wound that was located directly over my spleen. Upon noticing, my breathing automatically picked up the pace and my jaw nearly dropped from suddenly feeling heavy. However, before I even had the chance to fully comprehend what was about to happen, that asshole had already shoved his fingers deeply into the wound and began to wiggle them around. The sound of my bloody, torn, inflamed skin was disturbing, squishing on the inside with every little movement that the Serpent made.

The pain that shot through my body was indescribable, causing my wine-colored orbs to grow to be the size of two globes. At the same time, I tossed my head back and my back jerked upward into as much of an arched position as it could while I was being straddled. It was like I was getting filled with molten lava while it was getting shocked with endless, tense, stinging bolts of electricity.

"AHHHHHH!" I shrieked so loudly to the point where I could feel my lungs literally vibrating in despair.

I could've sworn that the cavern had started shaking, but I couldn't necessarily tell if it really did or if I was just screaming to the point where it felt like an earthquake had just broke out of nowhere.

The Serpent chuckled cruelly, continuing to slowly finger my gruesome injury with a menacing look in his upturned eyes and a cold grin covering his face yet again. Obviously, he was taking pleasure and amusement in observing me as I screeched like an agonized banshee and tugged desperately at my wrists. My arms whacked against the ground with every pull that I made, stinging and aching. Unfortunately, that elegantly-dressed asshole kept his grip as strong as stone, almost making my wrists feel like they were seconds away from becoming dislocated.

Between every scream, high-pitched cries fell from my lips and I could feel the wetness of even more scarlet teardrops curling up in the corners of my eyes. I clenched them shut so tightly to the point where it was a miracle that they weren't popping, feeling my chest rising and falling at a rapid speed at the same time. Then, with every single second feeling like a century ... I felt something else. The fiery sensations that were spread throughout different parts of my chest seemed to flicker and crackle like actual embers ... right before they completely exploded into that uncontrollable inferno again. It had returned to me again—the seething rage.

Suddenly, with the whole new boatload of tears beginning to pour down the sides of my head and unite with my hair ... I felt the inner wildfire take complete control of me again. My teeth became clenched even harder than before and the corners of my lips practically tore back like the mouth of a starving wolf, exposing nearly all of them. Then, as I cracked my maroon eyes open and allowed them to expose the fury that was burning violently inside of me, I ended up letting out a noise that sounded like the mixture of a breathless whimper and an abnormal growl.

As this happen, I kept pulling a lot more roughly at my trapped wrists. It still took a couple of tugs, but I finally managed to yank one free ... and as soon as I did, I ended up shooting my hand up to the Serpent's face. Finally, with all of this taking place in no more than ten seconds ... I placed my thumb directly over that bastard's right eye and started pressing it as hard as I could. I even made sure to curl my thumb like a hook while digging it deeply into the corner of the socket, despite how I wasn't necessarily trying to scoop out the Serpent's eye. Nonetheless, regardless of that, I had almost instantly caused vibrant blood to begin gushing out and flowing down that asshole's face from the entire outline of his targeted eye.

"AGGHHHHHH!"

The Serpent screamed just as loudly as I had, practically making some stalagmites tremble. His grip on my other wrist remained tight, but noticeably began to waver from him trying to debate on whether or not he should let go in order to protect his eye.

"MY EYE! UGGHH! BITCH!"

Eventually, with his strained voice drilling its way entirely into my head and his teeth grinding in agony, the Serpent caved and jerked his opposite hand away from my wrist with a grunt. At the same time, he tore his three fingers back out of my inflamed wound, making me sharply cringe in the process, and he flew his arm back to take a swipe at me with his nails like a wild animal. Although, before he could, I ended up withdrawing my hand from his eye and, while ignoring the blood that was now drenching my thumb, I curled my leg up and—despite all of the pain that was traveling through every inch of my body—delivered a powerful kick right in the center of the Serpent's ribs. Again, this entire scenario took place very quickly.

With an angry, startled, pained yell, the Redhead Creature flew off of me and soared all the way to the other side of the cave. However, instead of slamming against the wall or skidding across the ground, he ended up flying into a group of stalagmites instead. Upon impact, almost all of the stalagmites broke from how strong my kick had been and collapsed loudly to the blackened floor. The Serpent coughed while lying across some of the fallen stalagmites in an unpleasant position, fanning dust and ash away from him with one hand while covering his bloody eye with the other. Blood was still dripping from his nose, mouth, and forehead, too.

I immediately sat up, groaning as I placed a hand firmly over my swollen spleen injury. Unfortunately, not long after that, I felt the fury from within me somehow disappear in the blink of an eye all over again, as if it was purposely trying to make this whole predicament even more difficult for me to handle. The burning sensation in my bones was gone once again, leaving me with the annoying, unsolved mystery as to what exactly was going on inside of me to cause all of these abrupt changes in my behavior. Nonetheless, instead of taking the time to just sit there and go through the endless list of possibilities, my fear made a sharp return as I reminded myself that I needed to get the hell out of this cave.

I attempted to stand, but immediately collapsed back down to my knees from three things. One, I had tried getting up too fast. Two, the wound over my spleen felt like it was getting licked by fire after getting treated like a freaking toy. And three, after getting straddled and knocked around so much, I must've received hundreds of more bruises all over my upper body, making it that much harder for me to even stand fully. So, I had no choice but to resort to crawling all over again.

"S-shit ... shit, shit!" I cursed under my breath, whimpering and feeling scarlet tears continuing to rain down my face in a sticky storm as I forced myself to—yet again—push my agony to the very back of my mind.

I then threw myself onto my hands and knees and started to hastily crawl across the cold ground, no longer taking the time to be cautious of any nearby bones or pebbles. My palms stung, my eyes were like two magenta pools of despair, and my heart was charging to the point where it made my chest feel like it was seconds away from popping open. Nevertheless, I kept going, staying alert and looking in every possible direction in order to make sure that the Serpent wasn't trying to pop back up.

However, speak of the devil...

The Serpent hollered out from somewhere behind me, "WHY YOU LITTLE...!"

He finished that sentence with a thick, diabolical growl that sounded like it belonged to an unidentified animal of some sort. Within seconds after that, I let out another scream and almost fell to my face when I felt a hand grab my bruised calf with a fierce grip. It was none other than the Serpent, who jerked me back so my body dropped heavily against the rock surface. I didn't think twice before clawing at the ground in an attempt to escape, only to have my aching fingers tremble and long nails leave behind crevices. Then, I felt that bastard take the opportunity to roam his other perverted hand over my ass before he pressed it down just inches above my tailbone, obviously to prevent me from being able to squirm away. After that, he released my leg, threw that arm around my neck, and yanked me back while wrapping his other arm around the one that was already tightened around my throat.

Now, I was sitting up on my knees again with my back pressed against that asshole's athletic chest. My eyes had grown to be the size of plates and I was trying my hardest to gasp for oxygen, only to end up releasing choking sounds whenever I opened my mouth. I even grabbed the Serpent's arms and tried desperately to untangle them from me, but he kept his muscles secured where they were.

I didn't need to see the Serpent's face to know that he was wearing his most bitter scowl yet, releasing grunts almost every time that I plowed my body into his. Unfortunately, no matter how much or how hard I fought to regain my freedom, that asshole refused to release me from his stranglehold.

"You've left me with no choice, sweetheart! All of this could've been avoided, but you just had to act up like the attention whore that you are! You've force my hand! Now, stop your squirming and allow yourself to slip away into an unconscious state so we can return to the Horned One!"

I could already feel a painful dizziness starting to swirl around in the center of my brain, as well as my lungs beginning to throb from the lack of oxygen. When it came to creatures like me, we could hold our breaths for long periods of time and didn't necessarily need oxygen as much or as often as humans did. However, that little advantage only came in handy for my kind whenever we were roaming the real world. Being in Hell, on the other hand, resulted in plenty of limitations to our powers, abilities, and benefits. Even our true forms didn't hold as much strength as they did in the human realm, despite how they were still our strongest go-to advantage here.

In the end, I really could fall unconscious from getting strangled ... and if that happened, I would find myself trapped in the clutches of Lucifer and hundreds of other lustful beasts like the Serpent all over again.

My chest started to feel sick and my stomach began to feel like a deflated balloon. Everything inside of me was beginning to tingle, begging me to draw in some air. My blood-rimmed eyes darted from left to right as sounds of strangulation continued to lurch out of my throat. I kept trying to wiggle the fingers of one of my hands between my neck and the Serpent's arms, while I began using my other hand to feel around the ground for something—anything—in desperation.

Suddenly, I felt my fingertips graze across something cold ... and as soon as I noticed what it was from the very corner of my eye, I could've sworn that I felt my heart take a leap of actual joy. It was that asshole's dagger, lying where it must've landed after I had hit it out of the Serpent's hand. A nearby torch was flickering, helping to illuminate the sharp blade that was still covered in my slowly drying blood.

I smacked my hand against the ground numerous times, trying to reach for the weapon without alerting that redheaded bastard and without applying even more pressure to my throat. Meanwhile, with desperate gasps of air still escaping from my system, saliva beginning to drip a little from my lips, and my body beginning to feel like it was just seconds away from imploding, I finally managed to snatch a hold of the dagger. I gripped its handle so hard to the point where it was a miracle that my fingers weren't snapping. Then, with my almond-shaped eyes flickering like burning coals for a brief moment, I lifted the blade, positioned it backwards, folded my one hand on top of the other, and incorporated as much strength as possible as I drove the dagger directly into the part of the Serpent's outer arm that was below his elbow. This whole thing happened at the speed of lightning, followed by me ripping the dagger back out before stabbing the exact same place a couple of more times.

In less than a second, the Serpent let out a piercing howl that instantaneously rattled my eardrums. I still didn't need to see his face to know that his eyes must've been bulging out of his skull, showing that he didn't know whether he was more stunned or more in pain by what I just did.

With every stab that I delivered, the more blood began to stain the cave's floor and the more that bastard's slightly quivering arms started to loosen around my throat. So, after piercing him about seven times in the arm and even rotating the dagger around at least once to pay him back for fingering my wound, I decided to quickly lower the weapon down near my midsection and take a backwards jab there. As soon as I did, the Serpent's body ended up jolting away in the opposite direction and he let out a strong grimace that was mixed together with another loud shriek. At the same time, his arms had finally unraveled from around my neck and I found myself immediately drawing in a massive breath of air. The color automatically felt like it had returned to my creamy complexion and I could literally feel each of my organs beginning to revive themselves from their prior lack of oxygen.

My mind was doing somersaults, playing back every single bewildering choice that I'd made that was bound to only make this whole predicament even harder to deal with. For a moment, after I stabbed that asshole and was released, I almost found myself remaining as still as a statue with my eyes nearly bugging out of my head. However, while hearing the sounds of the Serpent loudly groaning, growling, and cursing from his new wounds, I found myself snapping back into it and I didn't think twice before beginning to hobble as quickly as I could in order to get out. I kept gasping for breath in the process, working hard to refill my body with the oxygen that I hadn't been able to take in beforehand.

Regrettably, within seconds after I had began to hastily limp away, I ended up feeling all of the air getting knocked out of me again when the Serpent snatched a hold of the back of my burlap dress and guided me harshly into the wall. I let out a noise that sounded like a mixture of a strained gasp and a horrified scream, feeling my ribs and forehead getting pressed helplessly against the cold wall. Not only that, but the shove was so abrupt to the point where I—much to my dismay—ended up loosing my grip entirely on the dagger and it dropped to the ground with a CLANK.

Meanwhile, as soft cries escaped raggedly from my throat and the scarlet tears continued to flow down my cheeks, the Serpent stood directly behind me. I could literally feel his towering frame right behind me, leaving just a crack between the two of us. He was keeping me pinned by holding the back of my neck like a human would typically do to a pet in order to punish them for using the restroom indoors ... and while he did that, he used his other hand to swipe his dagger back up from the ground.

I squeezed my eyes shut, expecting so many different things to happen to me in that moment to the point where I genuinely didn't know what to expect at all. There was a very brief pause before I felt the cold steel of the dagger get placed against the side of my neck, directly below my jawline ... and I suddenly heard the Serpent begin to let out very specific chuckles that were all too familiar. He dragged the blade lightly over my arteries, not nicking me, and used it to just push aside some of my hair. After that, I felt the very tip of the dagger get traced along the shell of me ear, still not cutting ... and the Serpent's hot breath appeared on my earlobe just seconds later, slowly exhaling.

An unpleasant chill ran down my spine as I kept my magenta orbs screwed shut so tightly to the point where the sides of my head were already beginning to hurt. I didn't need to see that bastard to know that his glistening, snake-like eyes and long fangs had made a reappearance. He tightened his fingers a little more around the back of my neck, making me let out a slightly louder cry.

"Well, aren't you being quite the feisty troublemaker lately~? I must say ... this fierce, uncontrollable attitude of yours is almost a full turn-on for me. However ... just because I like it rough, honey-bunch ... doesn't mean that I appreciate being on the receiving end of a stab. Just the thought of you getting away with something that drastic is infuriating to me. With that being said ... I see no problem whatsoever with giving you a quick preview of what I can already tell your upcoming punishment will be~"

My chest felt like it shriveled up as soon as I heard that. My fingers trembled as I curled them up underneath the rest of my hand, feeling the coldness of the cave wall torment them. At the same time, my shoulders grew tense and my bottom lip started to quiver a little.

"No ... n-no..." I whimpered, shaking my head as much as I could while having my forehead being pressed against the wall.

"Sh, sh, sh..."

While hushing me, the Serpent loosened his fingers around my neck and began to gradually drag his hand down my back. It continued down my waist and as this happened, he held the dagger horrendously close to my cheek. Then, I felt him begin to rub his hand directly over my ass, also taking the opportunity to squeeze it as hard as he could. As soon as that happened, everything inside of me felt completely empty. I clenched my eyes shut all over again, letting out another small and devastated cry as I felt the tears of blood continue to flow freely down my face. Some even dripped off and landed against my dress, while others plummeted all the way down to the ground. My whole body started to tremble like a leaf and my stomach was a mess, swirling with so many sensations to the point where I couldn't exactly tell what was going on.

The Serpent exhaled lustfully against my ear again, right before he whispered, "Now, be a good little toy~ The more you relax, the more fun it will be. We've done this enough times for you to know how everything goes ... so, stop your sniveling ... and be grateful to have somebody like me with you in this moment."

After that, a tearful yelp escaped from my mouth when I felt the Serpent do something else. He removed his hand from my butt and placed it gently against my battered leg, beginning to slowly drag it up in order to get underneath my dress. Not only that, but he stuck his tongue out and trailed it along the rim of my ear, leaving behind a slimy path of saliva. Not only that, but it felt just like the tongue of a sneak instead of a human.

"Mmm~ I've been yearning to get my hands back on this succulent, curvy form of yours~"

I clenched my teeth so hard to the point where my gums automatically started to ache and I cracked my eyes open once again. By this point, I was starting to taste the scarlet teardrops after they were managing to slip into my mouth while flooding down my face. Once again, I could feel that seething inferno beginning to return to multiple parts of my chest ... but this time, it was different. The jumbled sensations in my stomach felt like they were sending millions of different thoughts through my brain—none of them, in which, were the slightest bit pleasant. Instead, they were dark ... and hopeless ... and most definitely, traumatizing.

I felt completely numb ... yet, it also felt like there was a whirlpool inside of me. I didn't have the slightest clue as to what was going on. My heart was beating at its fastest rate than ever before, echoing in my eardrums with every pump, and I couldn't tell if my blood felt like it was on the verge of boiling or freezing over. In fact, I couldn't exactly figure out if both halves of my body were different temperatures or if I was just thinking too much about it. Either way, my mind felt like it was being attacked by a violent storm ... and in the very pit of my stomach, as I felt the Serpent's fingertips just begin to slither underneath my dress, I felt all of those unexplained sensations squeeze together to form a heavy, tight ball. In that moment, while being unable to fight off that bastard again, all I wanted to do ... was let out a scream.

... What happened next was something that I definitely didn't expect at all.

I pulled my trembling hand away from the wall, keeping it held in a tight fist as my scarlet teardrops continued to pour. Then, as I released a loud scream was filled with so much pain to the point where a new word just had to be invented to even describe it, I hit my hand back against the wall with no more force than a mere mortal would while striking something ... and that's when it happened.

As if it was happening in slow motion, every single torch that was in the cave had its flames immediately grow to be at least ten times their average size. It was like they exploded, filling the whole cave up with a blazing heat that made it almost perfectly resemble an oven. I could've sworn that I felt one of the bursts of fire come just a few hairs away from caressing my cheek, and for just a split second, the freezing sweat that was drenching my human form became hot. Each torch had their scorching flames reach all the way up to the roof of the cave before shrinking back down to their normal size ... but a nearby torch ended up surprising me by having its raging flames slap the Serpent in the left side of his face like a wave. It couldn't have stayed long enough against his skin to leave major scars, but there would definitely be burn marks that would probably end up transforming into nasty, pinkish blemishes sooner or later.

"AAAGGGGHHHHH!" wailed the Serpent during the whole catastrophe. He jerked his hands away from me in order to cover the part of his face that had been greeted by the flames and cursed venomously between tightly clenched teeth, still holding on tightly to his weapon. Not only that, but as if the spurt of fire had somehow managed to shove him, he ended up collapsing to the ground.

After that, everything felt like it was playing at its normal pace again. With wide eyes, I glanced over my shoulder at that redheaded bastard and noticed that instead of piercing him in the side like I thought that I had while possessing his dagger shortly before, I had only managed to cut him by slicing through his jacket and other pieces of noble clothing. Then, I quickly glanced back at the wall like a dumbfounded child, staring at it like it would suddenly sprout a mouth and begin breaking down what just happened.

"What the hell...?!" I muttered to myself, replaying the unexplained event with the torches in my head.

After about three seconds, I decided to push it to the far back of my mind and agreed that there would be plenty of time to get to the bottom of this abrupt mystery later. Then, with my heart already feeling like it was hundreds of pumps ahead of me, I started hopping and hobbling at an impressive speed in the direction of the cave's entrance, still wincing and breathing raggedly along the way.

"HEY!" hollered the Serpent, in which he attempted to take a swing at the back of one of my ankles with the dagger. He missed, snarling in displeasure afterwards. "LOCUST! LOCUST, GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE AS FAST AS YOU CAN! LOCUST!"

After what felt like a century, I finally made it back over to the cavern's entrance and I didn't think twice before arching myself into the correct position so I could slide out without harming myself even further. The whole time, I refused to look back, just knowing that the Serpent was starting to pick himself up from the ground. I don't think that I've ever been so glad to make it back out onto one of the pathways of Hell, but as soon as I finished wiggling my way back out through the narrow crack, I didn't think twice before beginning to hastily limp back in the direction that I had raced down beforehand. Along the way, I found myself having no choice but to jump and climb back over dozens of collapsed pedestals and knee-high walls of demolished rock. Not only that, but I could still faintly hear the Serpent calling out at the top of his lungs for the Locust ... and despite how far I managed to get, I was still able to detect the sound of the Locust's voice, eventually hollering out at the Serpent, "WHAT IN THE HELL HAPPENED TO YOU?!" Nonetheless, I kept staggering and never dared to glance back.

I kept my hand pressed firmly over the throbbing injury that was directly over my spleen, trampling across the ashy ground as fast as I could while putting up with my excruciating form. The pain that I was feeling was so extreme to the point where if I had been a mere mortal, I would have just thrown myself in the street and hoped to death that I would have been struck by an incoming carriage to end it all. In fact, I didn't pay attention to how long I had been running. I just raced down a variety of random paths, cringing, yelping, spitting, crying, and panting with every step that I took. The whole time, I didn't care about where I was going—as long as it was away. I caught myself from stumbling up inclines, I jumped down from rickety platforms, I slid down from declines, I practically tossed myself from left to right, and the list of obstacles could go on for miles.

Suddenly, I found myself jerking to a halt from stumbling across something that I didn't expect. At the same time, out of reflex, my blood-rimmed eyes grew to be the size of plates and almost all of the air lurched out of my lungs in the form of a gasp. Right ahead of me, there was another deep abyss that was completely filled with glowing, molten rock and bubbling lava—except, this one was at least five times bigger than the other pit that I had found myself nearly trapped at earlier. Not only that, but unlike the other abyss, this one had a long bridge that led from one side to the other. However, it was constructed entirely out of dirty, frayed, horribly knotted ropes that were hanging awfully loose in some places and uneven, rotten floorboards that weren't lined up equally for the most part.

I could've sworn that I felt my heart drill its way all the down into the deepest part of my gut. At first glance, it was more than obvious that it would be nearly impossible for that bridge to support hardly any weight without having the decaying floorboards break and send whatever—or whoever—was there plummeting all the way down into the boiling magma.

A groan that sounded like it was mixed with a mild, somewhat squeaky whimper escaped from my mouth, just as I placed one of my bloodied hands against a nearby stalagmite to prevent myself from collapsing to the ground. My other hand remained where it was, positioned over my wounded spleen, and I couldn't resist leaning over as some gags threatened to leave my mouth. I was incredibly nauseous, as well as exhausted ... but I knew that turning back wasn't an option. Even with this horrendous bridge, I couldn't allow myself to just give up and risk changing my route again. If I did, I was bound to run back into the Serpent and the Locust ... and after all of the damage that I had managed to inflict on the Serpent, especially in the god-awful condition that I was in ... I really didn't want to see either of them again.

My legs shook a little as I forced myself to gather my balance back, no longer using the nearby stalagmite for support. At the same time, I traded hands so my other hand was back over the gaping hole that was worn across the area over my spleen. I tried to ignore the feeling of my stomach doing somersaults and my head pumping like it had just been slammed with a hammer. The hotness of bile started to tease the very back of my throat again, but I took down a large gulp to help get rid of it, regardless of the toxic taste that it left behind. Then, at last, I raised my head and rested my drained gaze back on the unpromising bridge. However ... just as I drew in a deep breath through my nose and was about to take my first, limping step towards my next obstacle...

"Hey!"

The sound of somebody else's voice called out to me, causing me to feel my heart practically burst out of my chest and soar all the way over to the other side of Hell. I nearly choked on my next intake of oxygen and I felt almost all of the color wash out of my bruised skin as I spun my body around so fast to the point where it was a surprise that I hadn't transformed into a tornado. Not even a split second later, my wine-colored hues landed on the source of the voice. It was him—another member of my kind that was currently disguised as an appealing gentleman with a lean figure, ghostly pale skin, vibrant red eyes that perfectly resembled priceless rubies, and jet-black hair that automatically made me think about the feathers of a raven. I had seen this exact fella on numerous occasions ... but I didn't know anything about him because he was the only male creature that I could think of from the top of my head that had never used me to "fulfill his desires" like all of the other male members of our species had.

He was staring directly at me, leaning his head in one hand with a smirk that looked awfully amused plastered practically ear to ear across his face. His nails were long, looking more like the fingernails of a woman instead of a man. They were perfectly visible, courtesy of how his leather gloves that reached all the way up to the bottoms of his elbows were completely fingerless to leave all ten of the thin limbs exposed.

Aside from that, this familiar gentleman was wearing a pair of distinct, high-heeled, stiletto boots that were created out of the same black material as the rest of his outfit. Then, there was the pair of skintight, leather trousers that seemed to become a very dark shade of blue whenever they were exposed to the illumination of light. The shirt was the same, having the sleeves torn right off to expose the dark-haired fella's shoulders and some of the fabric was purposely ripped around the abdomen to show off narrow slits of muscle. Lastly, excluding the series of belts, buckles, and laces that were incorporated into the assemble, there was a necklace that almost perfectly resembled a collar connected around the gentleman's neck. On it, there was a pendant shaped like a pentagram. Needless to say, despite how he was in a human form, he had covered himself in attire that a creature would wear.

The familiar gentleman might as well have appeared out of thin air, suddenly sitting with pure nonchalance on a medium-sized rock and observing me with that same, dark grin still decorating his pale face.

"Unless you're curious to know what it's like to be drenched in smoldering lava, I wouldn't suggest using that bridge if I were you!" He cautioned, also possessing a British accent that had cold snickers dripping from it. "My, my ... you don't look like somebody that I've seen around these parts before ... and I soar through this part of Hell quite frequently. I've certainly never seen someone attempt to cross this pathetic excuse of a bridge either ... so, is it safe for me to assume that you're just a colossal idiot? Or do you have some sort of reasoning behind this ridiculous decision of yours?"

I curled my toes as much as I could, feeling that fella's piercing eyes studying me from the very bottom of my feet to the top of my head in a judgmental fashion. It took plenty of courage—courage that I'm not even sure that I actually had to begin with—but after a brief moment of hesitation that went by feeling like an eternity, I slowly lifted my head in order to expose my anxious, battered face to this familiar gentleman. While I was at it, instead of giving a damn about the blood that was completely drenching my hands, I used one to assist in pushing my scraggly hair out of the way so I could see better.

As soon as my face was revealed, the crimson-eyed fella's face completely twisted in a mixture of disbelief and seriousness, as if he had never been smirking just seconds before. His eyes expanded to be the size of plates and his jaw nearly dropped all the way down to his feet. Meanwhile, he began to rise to his feet and, regardless of how there was plenty of space that remained between us, I didn't think twice before taking a step back. Saliva was curling up in the corners of my mouth from how hard I was breathing, and my aching knees were still wobbling around.

"Oh my devil..." The familiar gentleman whispered, sounding like he didn't know whether to be more stunned or more fierce. "It's you ... the Deformed One."

---

Suddenly, I found myself snapping out of it when I detected the sound of something growling. My whole body felt like it almost jolted and my focus, which had been so heavily engulfed in that memory, fell back on the pastel-colored board game that I had been requested to find hours before. One of the gargoyle-shaped pieces were still placed on top of the box that contained the imagine of that unfortunate man that was about to be burned to death at the stake, but the other piece was now being held in the hand of my Young Master.

I blinked a numerous amount of times, almost finding myself making a stunned expression since I honestly couldn't believe that I had allowed myself to drift off into the past like that. Fortunately, as I delicately lifted one of my gloved hands up to my face to recall how there were no crimson tears or violent injuries, I managed to maintain my nonchalance. As the Phantomhive nanny, it was highly inconvenient of me to get caught up in recalling something from my past at a time like this. I was supposed to be supervising the Small Lord's current meeting ... but in that moment, as I overheard the growling sound that I now understood came from a stomach, everything about Mr. Damiano's visit came rushing back to me like a tsunami.

"Young Master?" I said, furrowing my brow in a curious manner before I dropped my gaze down to stare at him.

Master Ciel was glancing down at his own stomach, clenching the opposite game piece in his hand with an embarrassed blush dusted across his cheeks.

Mr. Damiano, who had appeared to be concerned for a moment, repositioned himself in his seat so his hands were now neatly folded and one of his legs were properly crossed over the other. Then, a bright smile swept across his face and he began to freely laugh, bringing back all of the questions and suspicions that I had about him since he had requested for the Puny Earl to donate plenty of more money for one of his businesses.

"Oh, ho, ho! It appears that you're-a beginning to feel rather hungry! Isn't that right, Young Lord?"

The Little Lord pressed his lips together in a somewhat stubborn manner, just as he peeked up at me from the corner of his uncovered eye.

"Yes, well ... I was warned earlier by my butler and nanny that I shouldn't risk eating anything before our appointment." Master Ciel remarked, still holding one of the game pieces in his hand as he began reaching for the top-shaped dice again with his other hand. "Elise, go check on the dinner preparations."

As soon as I heard that, my maroon orbs widened for a split second before returning back to their normal size. After all, with all of these unsolved questions that I was getting from just being in Mr. Damiano's presence, I didn't necessarily admire the thought of leaving the Small Earl alone with him.

"Are you certain, My Lord?" I asked as I bent myself slightly at the waist in order to prevent him from having to crank his head up to look at me.

"Yes." Master Ciel answered without even returning my gaze, as he was more focused on the top-shaped dice since he had just spun it again. His voice was bland, but at the same time, I could easily detect something that was hidden in his accent, assuring me that he could also tell that something wasn't right with our guest. Of course, I still didn't wish to abandon my Young Master during one of his appointments ... but as one of his loyal servants, I knew that I couldn't turn down an order.

"Very well. I shall do so immediately." I declared, in which I straightened myself back up, bowed my head, and preformed a respectful curtsy. "I will return as soon as I can."

"Oh, there's certainly no need to rush, Miss Michaelis!" Mr. Damiano chimed in again, staring directly at me with his dark blue eyes shimmering with something that was hiding itself beneath what I could tell was phony kindness by this point. "Please, take as much time as you need in completing your tasks! A lovely, one of a kind woman like yourself mustn't stress herself out, no? I'll-a keep a good eye on your Young Lord for you. There's certainly no-a need to worry about him!"

I took a moment to drink in the sight of that Italian gentleman's large, charming smile ... but the longer that I stared at it, the higher my suspicions raised and the more dark I began to feel. Nonetheless, while raising an eyebrow at Mr. Damiano, I returned his fake grin with a wide, pretty, realistic grin of my own.

"Oh, believe me, Mr. Damiano ... he's not the one that I'm worried about." I said in a wise, yet ominous tone. "Now, I hope that the two of you enjoy the continuation of your game."

After that, I turned my back on my Young Master and on Mr. Damiano, easily managing to sense him staring at me as I headed towards the door to fulfill Master Ciel's latest order.

---

A/N: Phew! That was definitely the busiest chapter yet! XD

Now, I'm sure that you're all wondering about where I've been for the past four months. Well, I have multiple reasons behind why this chapter took me literally so long to write. In case you truly are wondering about what has been happening with me, here's the list:

1) The end of my summer got really hectic, especially with my job and I had to focus on other responsibilities.

2) There were so many things in this chapter that kept getting added in, taken out, and swapped around. Every time that I thought that the chapter was officially planned, I had to go back and rethink a variety of details. So, planning was a huge task in this chapter—as I'm sure you all can tell by all of the action that has occurred in it.

3) My family and I went on a vacation towards the end of summer as well. I had no WiFi while on the road and clearly, I couldn't spend every single second of the trip on my laptop.

4) Since my immune system picks and chooses its moments on when it wants to be strong or weak, I ended up falling ill a numerous amount of times and I couldn't get myself to focus on writing while recovering.

5) There were times where the WiFi was just horrible and I couldn't connect no matter what.

6) The site was down at times and I was unable to write for obvious reasons then.

7) When I'm genuinely not in the mood to write, I can't force it. Otherwise, the chapters will come out sloppy and rushed. With that being said, please remain patient with me. I'm currently back in school, getting ready to head into my second semester of my second year at college. I'm handling a lot of homework and studying, so please understand that I can't just sit down and type full-length chapters just by the snap of my fingers. Seriously, I wish that I could do that, but that's just not the way that the human mind/body works.

Now, with my excuses out of the way, I would like to clarify a few things about this chapter:

1) The reason why the ending of the flashback may seem a little quick is because there's multiple parts to the flashback. They're supposed to be shown throughout the story, so more of Elise's past will be revealed through the form of flashbacks here and there. Plus, this chapter is already over 27,000 words and 30,000 words is my limit for simple episodes.

2) That "familiar gentleman" at the end of the flashback is supposed to be Sebastian—I don't think that's really a surprise.

3) Elise wasn't dating the Serpent or the Locust. Whenever she's addressed as "honey," "sweetheart," "princess," and so on, they're saying it to mock her and to sexualize her.

4) When Elise says she feels pleasure from inflicting pain, she's not referring to anything sexual.

5) We will be getting back to the official episode in the next chapter. I didn't think that this flashback would be this long at first. XD

Anyway, I would like to apologize for taking so long to update. I've just been busy a lot with school, as well as with juggling a variety of other responsibilities and trying to plot out more of this story. Nonetheless, keep in mind that no matter how long I seem to be away, I'm not abandoning my writing. This stuff just takes time, so please remember that. :)

There's still plenty to learn about Elise, so stay tuned for the next chapter! Make sure to share your thoughts in the reviews or you can PM them to me at anytime!

You've been one hell of an audience! Until the next update, everybody! :D

Crystalteen, out!