WARNING: THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS SOME VIOLENCE. DON'T READ IF YOU CAN'T HANDLE STUFF LIKE GUNSHOTS.
~Pip's P.O.V~
I watch in total fear as Ruby speaks sternly to Kyle about something that I know involves my step brother. It's no surprise, since Leopold just had a complete breakdown and ran away into the woods. Kyle finally nods at Ruby and looks at Eric & Stanley.
"You two, we need to go. Let's go look for Leopold. Come on." He grabs Eric's arm and drags him off, whilst Stanley just follows obediently. It takes me some time, but I eventually gather up all my courage and grabs Ruby's arm pleadingly.
"Wh-What's happened to Leopold?" I ask timidly, not wanting her to hurt me. She looks at me indifferently, as if she didn't know I existed. But when she realizes who I am, she smiles shyly. After looking closely, I can see that she's bewildered by me, though she's doing a fairy good job of hiding it.
"Say, how can ya see me? I went into my invisible form as soon as I came outta the tent." She says while smiling gently, as if she's exhausted from all her earlier shouting.
"I don't know, but-
"Leopold'll be alright. Kenny's gone off to find him." Ruby fiddles with her fringe, trying to distract herself from something.
"But for me, that's precisely the problem. And why are you so comfortable with it? You just yelled at him. And you did the same with Tweek's fairy."
"Well, 'Tweek's fairy' is a total douche, and I have plenty of reason to yell at him. But Kenny… I was just real annoyed at him for somethin'. He was being a little selfish; and I finally said somethin' about it. Oh sorry, I started to speak in a modern way. Did you still understand?" I nod, though I didn't actually understand that well. I don't even know what a 'douche' is.
"I understand…"
"Oh, thank goodness. Hey, come to think of it, is Damien here?" It takes me a few seconds to understand what she means.
"No, he isn't." I tell her miserably. I'm definitely the last person Damien would ever want to be with. Ruby reads my expression without any effort.
"Don't worry about him. He's never nice to anyone. Even Craig, uh, Tweek's fairy, who's friends with him, he doesn't particularly like. It's nothing personal." I know Ruby is lying about the personal part, but I'll play along.
"But… I want to have the same relationship with him as Tweek does with his fairy."
"Well, you'll have to somehow teach him to be kind. Because he sure as friggin' hell isn't right now. I mean, he wants to kill you, his own hum-
Ruby stops speaking abruptly in mid-sentence as I take in what she said. Damien plans to kill me? Kill me? I frantically grab Ruby by her shoulders.
"What are you talking about? He hates me that severely? Is it true? Is it really, honestly, true?"
"I-I'm sorry, Phillip. It's true. I didn't mean to tell you. I'm so sorry." Ruby looks dismayed at herself, but what's done is done.
"How many?"
"What?"
"How many times has he tried to…?"
"Oh! I didn't see either of the attempts, but according to Kenny, er, Kenneth he attempted to stab you while you were sleepin', and he also attempted to poison you." I remember Eric throwing his tea all over me. Was he trying to save me? Did he really mean to save my life? Ruby suddenly gasps, looking upwards to a bush resting on the steep hill of the mountain.
"What is it? What's wrong?" I ask in confusion, leaning towards her and trying to see what she's seeing. She notices what I'm doing and pushes me away with her small hand, not wanting me to catch a glimpse of what she saw. The fairy is surprisingly strong.
"Don't fret about what I saw. But listen to me, I want ya to go to that exorcist dude," She points to the exorcist that the teacher hired (who's busy speaking to the teacher, no doubt about what to do about Leopold). "And I want you to stay by his side, okay? Seriously, don't go anywhere. I gotta take care of some dangerous people. Stupid fucking Damien…" She mutters the last part to herself, but I hear her anyway. I stand there, not sure what to do since I barely understood a word she just said, apart from the last part. Ruby sees that I don't know what to do and ushers me to the man, before quickly scampering off and flying into the air upwards, towards the top of the sloped hill. I come back to my senses and cling to the exorcist urgently.
"Sir! There's something dangerous lurking around!" The man looks me at seriously.
"What is it? Where did you hear this from?"
"A young fairy told me! She said there's something dangerous lurking around, and went off to-
"YOU SPOKE TO A FAIRY?!" My teacher screams at me, looking surprisingly frightened. All the children in my class stop their conversations and peek outside their tents, wanting to witness the apparently interesting commotion.
"Y-Yes."
"WHY!? HOW COULD YOU!? I HAVE TAUGHT YOU ALL FROM A YOUNG AGE TO STAY AWAY FROM THEM!"
"But, she was-
"SHE!? IT ISN'T A HUMAN; DON'T REFER TO IT AS A 'SHE', EVEN IF IT HAS A FEMALE FORM!" I realize I've been referring to the fairies I know as 'she' and 'he' without even noticing when I started to do it.
"It warned me! It told me to come to you!" I look at the exorcist in distress. "Please, sir! Protect me from it! It's dangerous here!"
"Dangerous? What do you mean 'dangerous'?"
"I think my fairy is trying to kill me! Please, just- AH!"
I'm interrupted by the exorcist, who pulls out his personal pistol and plants it against my forehead.
"Your fairy?" He hisses, suddenly changing from a man that was concerned for my well-being to a man that's read to kill me in seconds.
"Please, please don't kill me! It wasn't my decision to have a fairy, I swear…" I look at my teacher desperately. "Tell him! Tell him it isn't my fault for such a thing to occur!" The teacher doesn't, merely shaking his head. Unbelievable, a man I've known since I was three is treating me like this. I'm about to beg even more for the other man to spare my life, but shut my mouth when I hear the distinct click of the revolver. It's so unfamiliar to me. Something I only ever read in books. But to actually be faced with a fate such as this…
"You should know well, boy. A person caught having such acquaintances with a fairy… for all of our sakes, needs to DIE!" I hear the sound of a gunshot, but in a flash, something appears in front of me and blocks the bullet. At the same time, someone has tackled me to the ground to dodge the shot. I open my eyes and see a sight that would shock anyone.
~Damien's P.O.V~
"That's it, him there." I tell Christophe, the 'Assassin' fairy I've hired. He's a professional shooter, and I'm well acquainted with him. So I'm luckily free of charge. Phillip is speaking to Craig's sister, and has his back to us. A perfect target.
"Vere at?" Christophe asks, in his ridiculous French accent. I asked him why a French fairy is in England, he just said 'my-e awn matters'.
"The back of his head." I tell him, narrowing my eyes when Craig's sister catches a glimpse of us hiding behind this bush. She visibly gasps, making Christophe and I quickly spin around and hunch down. I wish fairies didn't have such good eyesight.
"Sheet (Shit)." Christophe mutters, clinging to his rifle. After a little while, I turn around and peek through the leaves at Phillip and Craig's sister. Ruby or something like that. She's ushering him towards an exorcist. You can tell he's an exorcist because he dresses like a complete freak. I curse when I see her running to the bottom of the hill, at which point she starts to fly up to us. She quickly lands and approaches the bush we're hiding behind. I sigh, giving Christophe an exasperated look.
"What in the hell are you two doing?" Ruby demands, waving her fists like a small child.
"What do you think?" I ask her sarcastically; irritated that she interrupted the killing.
"You're trying to kill Phillip again? Damien! That boy loves you! If you do this, then you're not only going to hurt him, you're gonna hurt yourself! Don't be such an idiot!"
"…Did you say that he loves me? Don't be so stupid. He just wants a friend out of me. Like everyone did when I was a human!"
"What!? Are you blind? He obviously feels for you romantically. Oh, whatever! Either way, you're getting this thing on you." Ruby pulls out that golden bangle she used on me a few days ago, but before she can put it on me, she's interrupted by Phillip's scream.
"AH!"Ruby and I both look at Phillip. That exorcist has him at a gunpoint. Ruby's look turns murderous; she immediately turns and flies into the air to save him. Before I can even think, my body is jumping out of the bush and tumbling down the hill towards the humans. I land with a large thud, but I don't have time to brood about my unfortunate landing. I see Ruby clamp the bangle around her own wrist and put her hand on the end of the gun to block the bullet; meanwhile, I tackle Phillip down to dodge the bullet. The bullet goes off as we simultaneously succeed in our tasks.
The bullet appears to go right through Ruby's hand and drops in mid-air (just before it hits her chest) to the ground, making a small clink as it lands. I stare at the ground next to Phillip's head, unable to believe what I just did. Only a few minutes ago, I was basically doing the opposite. Ruby pulls her hand away from the barrel of the gun and lets it fall to her side, dripping blood everywhere. How she's able to live with such pain (in a human form) without even acknowledging it, I'll never know. I edge off of Phillip, not wanting to embarrass myself any further.
"What are you thinking, girl? Getting in the way like that!" The exorcist shrieks, dropping his gun and tending to her hand without hesitation. The child has a dark look in her eyes, as if she's dead. She looks at the exorcist vaguely and dully, before violently punching him in the stomach. It instantly knocks him out, and he drops to the ground like a rag doll. The teacher freezes. Without one word, Ruby takes off the golden bangle and clasps it onto my wrist. Phillip watches in astonishment as my wings vanish and my eyes turn brown once again, like they were when I was still human. I glare daggers at Ruby.
"You deserve it." She tells me in a monotone voice. It's almost as if she's the female counterpart of Craig. Phillip clearly notices she has her wings back, and that the wound on her hand has automatically healed, what with her going back to fairy form. She's still visible to humans, by the looks of it. Ruby picks up the gun and points it at the teacher. "Gather every child in this camp and line them up horizontally facing me." She tells him hardly. The teacher nods and looks around himself.
"Y-YOU HEARD IT! LINE UP!" All the children, including Craig's human, creep out of their tents and line up. It seems that Ruby is getting ready to erase all their memories.
"You line up too." Ruby commands the teacher, gesturing to the line of children with the gun. The teacher complies, looking angry as to why Phillip doesn't have to line up as well. Once she sees everyone lined up, Ruby grabs Phillip's hand and leads him away from the clearing, behind a bush. I discreetly follow. There could be some trouble if I'm seen. Ruby then swipes her hand through the air, which makes everyone blink for a few seconds, before asking each other what's going on. None of them seem to remember what happened in the last few minutes.
I shake my head and start to make my leave, but, unsurprisingly, Phillip stops me.
"Wait a second! I… thank you so much Damien. You saved my life."
"Correction: Craig's sister saved your life. I didn't do anything."
"But, if she wasn't there, then you would have saved me anyway. Thank you so, so much, Damien. I'm so touched."
"Don't be so stupid. I'd never save the likes of you." I tell him, backing away. He looks disappointed at my response.
"You're going to kill me soon, aren't you?" My mouth drops open and I look at Ruby furiously.
"You little motherfucker. You told him?" Ruby shrugs smugly, making me want to rip her apart, even if Craig and Kenneth would most likely never forgive me. Phillip looks appalled at my cursing. "Listen to me, Phillip. I want to die. And no matter what I do, the Elder fairy, for some fucking reason, will not allow me to be executed. The only way for me to die is for you to die. Not to mention you pissed me off mighty good the first time we met. I have plenty reason to end your life, and nothing is going to stop me. So don't even try to convince me otherwise." I'm soon taken aback by Phillip smiling calmly.
"I already know that. You're my fairy after all." I watch Phillip for a while in disbelief, before shaking my head and running away, back to Christophe. He's just relaxing, smoking a cigar, and drifting off into his own twisted, fucked up world.
"Christophe, it's off. You no longer need to shoot that human."
"Huh? Are zu goin' to du it yorezelf? And vat happened to yu?"
"I'll see. And I'm like this because Craig's younger sister is a little shit."
"Vait… yore considering letting heem leeve?"
"Consider letting him live? No! Of course not. I'm just not sure how to kill him without… hesitating."
"Iz zat why you hired me? Because you coold not du it yourzelf?" I snap my head towards him defensively.
"Is there a problem with that? It's your job." Christophe shakes his head and continues smoking.
~Butters' P.O.V~
"Well this… this is fun." I say sarcastically, looking into the distance. It's almost morning, judging from the small rays of light peeking over the horizon. Kenneth looks at me tiredly.
"Being sarcastic isn't going to help. And I cannot believe you climbed all the way up here without knowing how to get down. Heh, did you expect me to come and find you? And then carry you down?"
"No! I… I wasn't expecting anything." Kenneth and I both slump at being reminded of how we were previously treating each other.
"Leopold, I really do lov-
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TWO DOING!?" A familiar voice yells, sounding puzzled.
"Clyde, what…?"
"Are you two alright? Huh? Where are your wings? Oh, so this is Leopold? Such a cutie! You hit the jackpot, Kenny, you-
"Will you be quiet? God… you never cease to amaze me with your irritating habits." Kenny face palms, but 'Clyde' takes no notice.
"So why are you two up here?"
"Leopold had a bit of a breakdown and ran away. Craig and I found him up here, and then, suddenly, some 'Authority' fairy appeared out of nowhere and clamped these strange bangles on us." Kenneth shows Clyde the bangle. "And now I'm stuck as a human."
"So where's Craig?"
"Oh, he fell down a while ago. I have no idea what he's doing."
"A great friend you are, Kenny. Anyways, do you want me to help you down?" Clyde snickers, which makes me even more agitated.
"If you're able to. What with those puny arms." Clyde's smirk ceases to exist. Nevertheless, he nods to me in greeting and puts his arms around me.
"This is going to scare the absolute crap out of you, but you'll have to live with it." Clyde lets us drop to the ground. I scream all the way down. Just before we smash onto the ground, Clyde slows us down with his wings. I drop down onto a patch of grass, shaking. Clyde laughs at my cowardice.
"Where's Kenny?" I hear Craig ask, and turn around to see him leaning against the huge tree I was just on. Unbelievable, he stayed here all this time. As Clyde flies back up to fetch Kenneth, Craig comes up to me and gives me an encouraging pat on the shoulder.
"I'm glad you're alright, kid." Craig realizes what he sounds like when I look at him with my most questionable expression. "I'm sorry. It seems that I've been spending too much time around my sister and her newly modern ways."
~Kenny's P.O.V~
"Pity you aren't a girl." Clyde mutters as he puts an arm around me.
"Well, I'm sorry for being born a male. But for your information, if I was a girl, I think I would be smart enough to see through a person such as you, which is in love with a different girl every day."
"Shut up, Kenny. It's my job."
"Mmhm. Say, how is it going with your human?"
"He's great. A person that actually understands me."
"Interesting. So does he like you?"
"Kenny, he's my human. Of course he does."
"Just because he's your human doesn't necessarily mean he likes you."
"What, doesn't Leopold like you?"
"Not in particular, but he's getting better." Clyde and I stop our conversation as we land on the ground. Leopold and Craig are standing there, shuffling uncomfortably.
"Craig? You actually stayed?" I ask, stunned.
"Yes. You owe me one. Now, can we get back to the camp? I left Tweek alone much too long for my liking."
~Damien's P.O.V~
I'm still debating on the 'Phillip issue'. Part of me wants to kill him as quickly as possible so I can go back to hell and prove myself to my father, but the other part obviously doesn't want that. Refusing to harm Phillip and tackling him to the ground in order to protect him is proof enough. There's just one question.
"Which part of myself do I listen to?" I ask myself quietly. I suppose the crueler side would be the best option. What would I possibly benefit by letting Phillip live? If I kill him, then I would at least go back to hell. But then again, why do I exactly want to go back to hell? Is it to get revenge on my father? Is it to somehow make him proud? Is it just to live undercover there?
…I suppose it's because it's the only place I truly know. I only spent fifteen years living as a human, and three years as a fairy. And now, this is only my tenth year as a fairy here. That means I spent over two thousand years in hell. Hell, whether I like it or not, is my home. I've never considered the Roman Republic my home. I liked neither my mother or my father, and I had no siblings. Or friends.
Age 4:
"Damien! Where do you think you're off to?" I turned around and saw my mother glaring at me, outraged.
"I thought I would go and play with the children over there…" I answered quietly, pointing to a group of children around my age playing across the road.
"Don't be ridiculous! That will do nothing but waste time."
"But… But I want to make a friend-
"A friend? How will a friend ever benefit you? All they do is entertain you for ten, maybe twenty years, and then they move on with their lives and forget all about you." I was intelligent, even as a small child, so I knew my mother wasn't a very social person.
"But you don't know what having a friend would be like…" I didn't mean for her to hear, but she did. I expected her to hit me straight away, and hunched up. She was much meaner than that.
"Don't fool yourself into thinking someone would ever want to be friends with you." She said nastily, looking me up and down as if I was some sort of disgusting monster. She left then, most likely to complain to my father about my 'attitude problem'. I took the short opportunity to have a short cry. But unfortunately, my father came soon after, and even though I'd stopped crying, he saw the tear stains on my cheeks and banished me to my room for the rest of the day.
Age 10:
"Damien, how are you're studies coming along?" My father asked solemnly, drinking some wine leisurely.
"I wouldn't know, sir."
"Do you think you're making some progress?"
"I hope so. I wouldn't want to taint your precious pride, sir." My mother looked back and forth between the two of us nervously. She was always extremely afraid of my father, and his short temper.
"A wise choice. Now, back to the subject of your engagement." I stiffened. "I'll need you to decide on one of the fiancées I've chosen for you. By the end of the day."
"Father, I really don't want to think about marriage at this point. Shouldn't I focus more on…" I was interrupted by my father throwing his wine on me. It was red.
"What did you say?" He didn't give me an opportunity to answer. "ARE YOU TRYING TO MAKE A FOOL OUT OF ME? IS THAT WHAT YOU TAKE ME FOR? A FOOL? YOU THINK YOU CAN SPEAK TO ME IN THIS WAY? LIKE YOU ACTUALLY HAVE A CHOICE? YOU WILL GET MARRIED, AND THAT'S FINAL!"
"…" Since I was too frightened to say anything, my father assumed I was ignoring him. He tipped the whole fucking table over, which spilled a good amount of fod on the floor. My mother jumped up immediately, shaking like a leaf, but I stayed seated where I was. My father stormed off after that, presumably to work. My mother told me to go and wash my face. I did as I was told.
When I came back, passing the dining hall to my room, I glanced in and saw a group of female servants cleaning everything up. They were gossiping among themselves, buzzing their words to each other like a swarm of bees. One sentence caught my attention, and made me stop walking in mid step.
"I think it's ridiculous how we have to clean all of this up."
"I know! Why shouldn't Damien have to do it?"
"He should. He made his father lose his temper, so he should be the one to do this."
"Talking back to him like that. The nerve of that child."
"That boy should atone for what he did. Helping us would be the least he could do." I lost my temper.
"FINE THEN! I FUCKING WILL!" I screamed at them, storming into the room furiously. They all jumped and looked at me, frightened.
"S-Sir-
"GET THE HELL OUT! IF YOU WANT ME TO CLEAN THIS UP, THEN I WILL! I'M NOT ONE TO DISAPPOINT!" They all stared at me, shocked at my angry side. "WELL?! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!? GET OUT AND LET ME DO WHAT YOU ASKED!" They all scurried out immediately, leaving me alone in the partly destroyed room. I actually planned to clean up like I said, but in reality, I just made everything worse by smashing things. Almost everything in the room was destroyed by the time a couple of male servants came and restrained me.
Age 15:
I had this cousin. He was a year older than me, but nowhere near as intelligent or respected. I was wanted by all the ladies, all the nobles, all the senators. Everyone liked me. He was obviously jealous of both my looks and popularity, not to mention talent for academic accomplishments.
He visited one day, along with my uncle. I was allowed wine for the first time that night, and it was red. A perfect liquid to hide poison in. of course, he'd purchased a bottle of Mercury and put it in my drink. One sip was enough.
I died very quickly, after suffering for about an hour. No one was particularly worried about my death. I remember the last thing I thought as I died.
'I'm all alone. No one loves me enough to stay by my death bed.'
When I awoke, I expected to be in my room, where I was when I died. I was instead in the middle of the woods, staring up at a person with wings that looked about thirty. I've forgotten what his name was, but I didn't like him from the start. He was the one that revealed to me that I was now a 'Curse' fairy and my purpose was to plant curses on the sinful. My job was what is now known as 'karma'.
I refused to do my job outright. I never spoke to anyone, and spent most of my time stalking my cousin and watching how great his life had become after my death. I hated him more than anyone, but I was also partly thankful for him ending my terrible life. Nevertheless, I made sure to appear in my human form and plant a powerful curse on him. I made sure he saw me, to scare him.
He was the only assignment I completed as my first time being a fairy. I was finally executed after three years of doing almost nothing to fulfill my new purpose.
The next thing I knew, I was dropping down, down into hell. It was like dropping through a large black hole, and it getting hotter and hotter the further you fall. The only moment I was truly scared was when I got to the bottom of the hole, which was the gates to hell. Though, to me, it looked like a large fire that I was going to roast in. But I just feel through the fire, and dropped onto the rough, rocky ground. It was so hot that any human would've receive a fourth degree burn from merely touching the ground for a second.
I liked hell as soon as I saw it. I was part of a large crowd of people being ushered through the 'gates' (really just being a large fire). Everyone that was around me had red eyes, and I presumed I was given a pair of my own. Satan came to greet all the new arrivals, and warned us that he was keeping an eye out for the someday-to-be Satan. I spent all of my time glowering at him. I'd been taught growing up that he was the most absolute enemy of humanity. He made eye contact with me and smiled evilly, knowingly. He saw the hate inside me.
"I'VE CHOSEN!" He declared loudly. "THAT BOY," He pointed directly at me, and even through that, I remained impassive. "WILL BE MY HEIR!" Everyone pitied me for my new status as the devil's heir, but I wasn't even fazed. I'd already been a famous noble, and I didn't want to experience it again.
I was taken aback at how Satan treated me. He explained that I was now his son, and that I could do anything I wanted. I told him I didn't care about doing anything, so he took advantage of that and made me assist in him torturing particularly evil people that have now gone down in history.
I soon changed, became the evil person that I am today. When Craig's sister first saw me, she openly described me as 'psychotic, merciless, and hate's physical form'. I recall once (around a decade ago) having a vision about a boy (that I suspect was Phillip). It was a montage of various times I will most likely spend with Phillip, and they were fairly happy looking. It surprised me, and I couldn't understand why I would have a vision of a human.
I hesitated in stabbing a person that was a vicious serial killer. I was afraid that he was somehow the human I envisioned, and wanted to make sure he wasn't. My 'father' was unfortunately watching.
"What was that? You hesitated."
"…Father, I had a vision. I was distracted."
"A vision? What of?"
"I was with a human boy. I was… happy."
"AHAHAHA! What bullshit did you dream up, Damien? You're good at lying. Great quality."
"I'm not lying. It happened."
"Then… then that means you're thinking about a boy you saw. Is that it? are you softening up to a boy you've met?"
"No, I'd never seen him before."
"Nonsense. This is a sign, my son. You're starting to let your emotions get the better of you. You're starting to like humans."
"Like humans? Father, that's absolute bull-
"Damien, you need to remember what those creatures are like. How weak and pathetic they are."
"What are you going to do?"
"You're going to be a fairy. Again."
"WHAT!? NO WAY, YOU CAN'T BE FUCKING SERIOUS!" But alas, my father shook his head disgustedly and grabbed my arm, forcing me to the gates of hell. He made a guard hold me in place, while he spoke to another guard about what to do with me. The other guard nodded at Satan and looked at me. I grimaced at him; father came over and took off my collar (everyone in hell receives a collar with a large spike lodged on the inside; so that when you put it on it basically sticks into your throat. The poison in it is supposed to sedate you so that you don't struggle or cause too much trouble). When it came off, leaving a hole about the size of a marble in my throat, I felt so light, so free, so pure, that it almost made me sick right there and then.
My 'father' then grabbed me by the wrist and flung me through the gates, but instead of going down, down, I was going up, up. The sensation was too cold for my liking. I don't remember what happened after that, but when I opened my eyes, I was kneeling in front of that Elder fairy, feeling lost and unsure what to do. I noticed that I once again had wings. Craig helped me up out of boredom as the Elder explained what my job was, and that in about a decade I would be given a human. I didn't really listen though. All I thought about was how much I hated Satan for doing this to me, and wonder how long I would have to be here for.
Craig was the only one who didn't care who I was, or fear me for it. He stayed by me regardless of what others said to him about how dangerous I was, and is the only person I would ever consider calling a 'friend.'
But other than that, I have no one, and nothing to exist for. All thanks to my lovely 'father', Satan. He made me like this. I was previously similar to Craig, impassive, uncaring. But Satan has made me into an even worse being. Evil, merciless, cruel. And there's no going back. I'm staying like this. One cannot change after two generations of acting a certain way.
It's decided. I'll need to kill Phillip. Going back to hell in my only option. A person of my sort belongs there, and there's nothing anyone can do to change that. Phillip is merely a pawn to get me there.