A/N: Apologies for the delay, my friends. Life had some seriously hard moments for me, but after slow progress I am finally happy to present the longest chapter of the sequel! It'll probably stay that way. Apologies for any errors that I may have missed.

Just a heads up, it gets saucy towards the end. Nothing too spicy, but a lotta feelings happen.You've been warned. Enjoy!

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Ch 13: Around The World

The late night air danced into a cold embrace. Held by the imp's hand, Styx followed their partner through the barren streets where ghosts took the place of people. The calloused glares of unknown eyes projected through looking down back alleys caused them to look forward for the entire escapade, fixating their stare next to them at Blitz, who was fighting through the little sleep he had gotten. Styx softly squeezed their partners hand, and Blitz smiled.

"You sure you don't want to try going back to sleep?" Styx asked. "You're gonna be tired in the morning."

Blitz scoffed humorously as the two went further down the sidewalk. "I'll be fine. I'm always up this late."

"Not with me, you're not." Styx responded with a smile.

"Old habits fuck hard, right?"

Styx laughed. "Old habits DIE hard, you little shit."

"Only a little one?" Blitz asked with a smug grin.

Styx scoffed in return. "Nevermind. A big one."

"That's more like it." Blitz said.

The two fell into silence. They continued down to the end of the crossing. Styx looked both ways, whereas Blitz rolled his eyes and immediately dragged them by the hand across a red light and to the other side. Styx looked at his parter with mild disappointment but soon brushed it off once they found the amber glow of a street light to rest under. Blitzs leaned against the wall, arms crossed, and Styx joined the imp while resting their head on his shoulder, their hands stil together. Blitz produced a lit cigar with one hand, handing it to Styx who turned it away with a shake of their head, however remained impressed with how much Blitz could do with one hand.

"Are you sure no one will fuck with Stan?" Blitz asked worriedly.

"I'm sure." Styx said. "Gosh. I feel like I'm in the rust belt in this place."

Blitz stared, confused. "The fucking what? That some kind of club or some shit where you're from?"

"No, it's a place." Styx said. "More like a whole area. Never grew up around there but I did do a few gigs in the parts that were further in."

"Heh." Blitz said. "Further in."

"Really sad sight, honestly." Styx said, their contempt face forming into a frown. "You see all these old places like this - Used to be in their prime but got fucked over when the economy changed. All these perfectly good houses just fell apart. Nobody cared, and we all watched it happened. I wished I could have done more than just overcharge people to see us at some music venue but, hey, we all have bills at some point."

"Doesn't sound like the kinda shit you need to worry about." Blitz retorted. "I see shit like that every fucking day of my life. The more you pay attention to it, the more you notice how many assholes there are who are perfectly fucking dandy as shit to let it keep on happening. Let them fuck themselves."

"That's not very neighborly of you." Styx said.

"My dick is my neighbor." Blitz answered. "Nobody gives a shit about you here. You see some drugged up bitch dying on the side of the road? Don't even fucking look at them."

"What if you're the only one who can help?" Styx asked worriedly.

"Yeah, not gonna happen. Nobody wants me to be their first for anything."

"What if it's you that needed help?"

Blitz paused, standing from against the wall as he let go of Styx's hand to walk further out to the edge of the sidewalk. There he dispelled the glow of his cigar, twisting it into the ground before letting out a sigh. "Then I guess I'd have to suck my own dick."

Styx met Blitz on the edge of the sidewalk, sensually tracing a hand up the imp's coat onto his neck. "Or you could just admit that I'm right."

Blitz returned a smirk. "Oh, but where's the fun in that?"

As the two indulge iin their own fantasies within their minds, eyes giving signs of desire swirling before their tongues touched, a noise brought them out of their trance. A disgruntled passerby emerging from the shadows and eyeing the duo with a look of disdain, as if their existence had disturbed their solemn existence. A glass bottle of mysterious liquid waved around across Styx's face as the stranger stepped between the two before Blitz shot them a snarling glare.

"Hey!" The stranger shouted. "The fuck are you doing?"

"What does it look like, fancy shit?" Blitz retorted, frowning inches from the face of his nuisance. "I'm having a moment with my bitch?"

"There's literally a club right down the street and to the right. Finagle your tongues over there, why don't you?"

"Why don't you just go back to your fucking hobbit asshole and leave us alone?" Blitz retorted.

"Blitz!" Styx exclaimed as he gave his partner a glance, returning to the eyes of the stranger with a sheepish smile in the form of regret. Sorry, uh, down the street and to the right, you said? Thanks. We'll get out of your hair."

The stranger glared back dumbfounded. "Uh, shit. Wow. Didn't think you'd actually listen. Thanks, I guess."

Styx nodded. As the duo of sinner and imp quickly made their way out of the spotlights of the night, the latter gave an irritable gaze to Styx, who gave a dumbfounded look as if to say they had no idea what Blitz was mad at.

"The fuck was that?" The imp asked.

"What?" Styx asked in return.

"Why didn't you just let me handle that bitch?"

The sinner frowned. "You don't need to attack everyone you meet."

Blitz almost formed a look of disgust at the claim. "Why not?"

"Because they don't like it if you do." Styx said.

"I like it when they don't." Blitz smiled. "Boosts my self esteem."

"There are other ways to do that, y'know." Styx said.

"Like what?" Blitz asked.

Styx shrugged. "Like just believing in yourself, or completing tasks."

Blitz placed his hand over his puffed out chest. "I believe in myself to complete the task of bothering others."

"That's not what I -" Styx began.

"Good talk, Dicks. I'm feeling better already." Blitz said.

The front of the club came into view: A neon-covered hubris of adult display, giving no thoughts left to the imagination as to what was contained within. The duo stood beside the entrance as Blitz stuck a thumb at the front door with a wink.

"See if we can find a place for a threesome, eh?" The imp said in his soft flirtatious tone, almost appearing to sound like genuine enjoyment.

A little shade of crimson flooded Styx's face as he was pulled by Blitz into the mists of unknown desires. The glow of pink and blue lights curled around the establishment, giving way to colorful silhouettes of late night partygoers desperate to remain drowning in their own indulgence, rather than escape the reality that the sinner and imp duo currently found themselves trying to combat. The wall of wooden panels reminded Styx of the bar as a sharp reminder of recent events stung into their chest. They passed table after table and found themselves turning right before the descent of a small set of stairs. A bar stood built into the corner of what was once an old room, the counter extending beyond the wall. They made themselves comfortable adjacent the counter, leaning against the railing as Blitz scoured the surroundings.

"Who do you think looks the most DTF down there?" Blitz asked as he unceremoniously began pointing at unsuspecting patrons.

Styx rolled their eyes. "Probably you."

"What about the four-armed freak in the corner?" Blitz asked. "He seems pretty lonely."

"Who's got it worse?" Styx responded. "The judge or the judged?"

"Eh, probably my dick." The imp answered.

Styx gave a halfhearted laugh, humoring the imp through joining the search for an unknown subject. Their eyes rested on the four armed freak in question - An arachnid with darker fur resting against the benches curved around a table in the corner, looking oddly solemn against the contrasting bright atmosphere.

The sinner shook their head. "I don't think so."

"Why not?" Blitz asked curiously.

"He looks like he's got just as much shit going on as we do." Styx said.

Blitz frowned as he almost looked offended, suddenly staring straight on. The two grew silent as the music blared on.

"Sorry." Styx apologized.

"Don't worry about it." Blitz said. "Wasn't really interested in him anyway."

"Ah, come on. I'm just trying to lighten the mood. We've been through a lot."

Blitz looked around. The denizens merged together in a blur of swirling lights and fog machines cranked to their maximum. The arachnid disappeared from sight, as did most of everything else. The imp looked at his partner, who was silently staring back with a smile.

"Hey." Styx said.

"Yeah?" Blitz asked softly.

"How about you go talk to him and I'll find a room? In my college days, we called that multitasking."

Blitz scoffed with a smile. "What, trying to suck up to me now that I'm vulnerable?"

"Maybe a little." Styx said jokingly.

"Yeah, alright. Get one of those rooms with the dicks that come out of the wall. They're fun to watch."

With a peck on the cheek and a quick hug, Styx departed. Blitz watched them disappear into the crowd as the imp made a detour to the other side of the room. He found a staircase closer to the arachnid and made his way down, slowly observing his surroundings with one hand coasting on the wooden railing. At the bottom, he put on his signature smile and walked confidently to his subject, who turned to look at Blitz with a mixture of disappointment and intrigue.

"What's a big dick bitch like you doing all alone down here?" Blitz asked as he took a seat, making sure to present himself with a sensual position and half-lidded eyes towards the arachnid.

"Not much." The spider said in a heavy Bostonian accent. "Just waiting for my partner to be done getting another drink, y'know? What's a guy like you doing all about your lonesome?"

Blitz shrugged, resting against the seat. "Eh, y'know. Here with my own bitch, looking to do some stuff, y'know."

"Well, I'd offer, my red friend, but me and Tony have a little bit of a dog and cat situation. Reptile and cat, actually."

Blitz blinked, his face forming to suspicion with a raised eyebrow. He leaned further into the table, elbows resting. "Reptilian and cat, eh?"

The spider nodded. "Name's Craig, by the way. Good to meet you."

"Blitz." The imp said. "The O is silent."

"Fair enough." Craig said. "Anyhow, yeah, here we are just minding our own business as goons, yeah? Me and Tony are talking about life and whatnot, guarding the back door of our boss, who actually wasn't even our boss anymore, y'know?"

"Wait, wait, wait." Blitz interrupted. "The fuck you mean your boss wasn't your boss?"

"It's a complicated situation." Craig answered. "Our boss got overthrown by some bird freak, but he let our boss stay in charge."

Blitz eyes widened, however he maintained his composure. "A bird freak, eh?"

"Yeah!" Craig exclaimed. "Called himself Sivah. Never heard of him but he's got some serious powers for a sinner."

"A fucking what?"

"A sinner. Look, I get that your kind might not look highly on us dead guys, but I've met a few people down here with some freaky glowing eyes and powerful shit that'd make hellborn folks run, y'know? No disrespect."

"Yeah, no, I get that shit." Blitz waved off with a hand. "You people are so fucking desperate to be the most powerful that your manic depression kinda turns into a self fulfilling prophecy, but that bird bitch is a sinner?"

"You know that bird?" Craig asked, taking his turn to be surprised.

"I'll put it nicely." Blitz said. "If our murders were a fetish, he'd have the goddamn mother of all erections."

"Fancy meeting you here, then." Craig said as he gave a halfhearted smile. "Who's this 'our' you mentioned?"

"What, Styx?" Blitz said.

"Like the river?" Craig asked.

Blitz nodded. "Yeah. River Styx. They're my, uh… bitch."

"You're dating a body of water?" Craig asked.

"The fuck did I just walk back to?" Another voice chimed up. Tony returned to the table with two drinks for him and the other arachnid. His fur was lighter than Craig's, with darker patterns across his arms. Blitz turned to him, and the imp recognized a kind of friendly hostility he was familiar with in close encounters. He opened his mouth to speak.

"Get this, Tony." Craig interrupted before the imp began. "Was sitting here waiting for you, all of a sudden this imp comes by looking to have sex with me. Turns out he knows about Sivah, and he's here with his partner, who also knows about him too, because - and get this - the bird tried to murder them!"

"Well call me a millionaire with an all access pass to the other rings." Tony declared. "Guess this bird's club has more members than I thought."

"Apparently." Blitz said. "What was that about the cat and shit?"

"Oh, the crocodile and the black cat?" Tony began, looking towards Craig. "Sounds like the beginning of a storybook tale, but I tell you, it's anything but."

"Right." Blitz nodded. "Get a good look at them or their names or anything?"

"Sorry, pal." Tony said. "I ain't got that kind of depth perception when it comes to my senses."

"I think the reptile was named Penis." Craig suddenly piped up, turning the heads of his arachnid accomplice and the adjacent imp.

"Beg your pardon, Craig?" Tony asked.

"Sorry, Tony." Craig said. "Pardon the crude language, but I could have sworn that's what her jumpsuit said. That's what you call them, right? The things mechanics wear? Had her name right on it, started with a P, I know that much."

"Wouldn't have looked like Polter or some shit, would've it?" Blitz asked.

Craig snapped his fingers on one of his four arms. "Hey! I think that was it! Yeah, that was it!"

Blitz nodded, intrigued as he stared towards the duo across from him. He suddenly turned before looking past them at a back hallway which appeared to extend into the building into the misty abyss. His face shifted to that of an uneasy nature, like an animal looking for an escape from the kennel.

Blitz suddenly stood from the seat, making his way beside the two spiders. "Hey, good talking to you both, but I got a threesome to figure out."

Toby and Craig smiled. "Good luck with your bird problem." they said unanimously together.

Blitz sighed before hastily trekking towards the back hallway. He was unable to tell if the two conversation pieces he just got done talking to were being sincere or not about their last comment. He stopped and checked his phone, resting on Styx's contact and attempting to dial the sinner. The imp swore at the multiple attempts and lack of response, and observed where he found himself. The hallway split into two, both immediately turning to the left and right. The saturated lights turned into warm, sacrilegious candles radiating through the dark silhouettes of the doors to different rooms. The imp skulked across the floral wallpaper before checking through the cracks of all that were pried open. Growing irritated at the lack of success, he gave a sigh and rolled his eyes towards the ceiling before suddenly hearing what amounted to loneliness and fascination emanating from the closed door at the end that sounded like the sinner he was hastily looking for. With a concerning lack of empathy, the imp pushed opened the door and found Styx lying on the bed. The sinner looked at Blitz with faded eyes and a suspicious smile, and the scent from the room explained the reasons why. The imp was about to become a babysitter to a stoner in the midst of a life threatening situation.

"Hey, you're not supposed to be back here." Styx happily declared. "Neither am I, haha!"

"Didn't take you long to get high off your ass." Blitz sighed as he sat on the edge of the bed, looking away towards the tattered walls of faded pink. "Didn't you see me trying to call you?"

"I did." Styx said, very interested in the ceiling fan and the blades spinning slowly. "I was, uh… trying to call back but I can't read the numbers. They're zooming in and shit. Ugh, I can't even turn my fucking head anymore. You have some serious shit down here."

Blitz blinked in response. He produced a smoke from his jacket and gave it a glow before blowing a puff of smoke. It was the calmest thing he had done in the past year. "I don't think we need to go back. To the motel, I mean."

"That's cool!" Styx said, albeit slowly and without understanding their own words. "I'm down to chill here with you. Me and my Blitz. Or is it My Blitz and I? I don't remember anything."

Silence grew plentiful. Blitz stood and walked halfway across the room. "Y'know, I've been thinking about that mustache-faced dick and his prancing green-haired pony, and I don't think they're as innocent as they seem. Fucking cucks got rid of you faster than than I get rid of promises."

"Is that what this anger is about?" Styx asked disapprovingly. "Leroy and Gresha and promises? Come-on, Gresha may be clumsy and dysfunctional but she's a good person!"

"Only Gresha?" Blitz asked.

Styx blinked slowly. "Well, fuckin, okay, maybe Leroy is a bit of those sticks in the mud, y'know ? A big ass stick, but he's not evil! Not entirely! Sticks don't have to be the bad guys."

"Babe, he's not a stick in the mud, he's the entire fucking forest." Blitz said. "Who's to say that he didn't orchestrate this shit from the beginning? You know how he talked to me when I first got there?"

"Stereo, uh… stereo… typing?" Styx stuttered.

"…Yeah, how'd you know?"

"He does that. Did it. Might still do it, I dunno. Said it's his way of, uh… sorting out the clientele." Styx said. The sinner extended their hands as if to show how big something was. "Said it just like that too, used those big fuckin words. I don't understand as much as I act like I do."

"Same shit, different dick." Blitz said.

Styx threw a hand in the air as a sign of being unconcerned. "Ah, whatever. He was just trying to look after himself. Not his fault we angered a giant uncooked rotisserie chicken with magic powers and shit. Honestly I think it was fine, kicking us out and all. Have you ever thought about that? Self preservation and all? You like to think about self preservation?"

Blitz paused, walking over to the bed. "Yeah. What I don't like to think about is the fact that we were supposed to go with Erosa and Polter to a fucking abandoned mall to scare the tits off of some spider cucks."

Styx's eyes widened. They looked at the imp. "Woah, you said their actual names. Shit. Where'd you hear all that?"

"Some two guys." Blitz said. They, uh… were the guards or some shit. Described them exactly - Black cat and big lizard bimbo. They went and did the fucking job without us."

Styx's widened eyes fell, turning into a sign of disbelief and amusement. "Ah, yeah. Right. The guards. The guards that met Erosa and Polter. Polter and Erosa meeting the guards. The guards of the place they specifically went to. That place's guards. Those guards?"

Blitz grunted angrily through his pointed teeth, rubbing the bridge of his nose with two fingers. "Fucking dicks, Styx, are you that dense? They said it was tomorrow, they lied so they could make us look bad! What fucking else it could be?!"

Styx looked at Blitz, and suddenly dropped their bewilderment at the sight of the demon's glowing eyes of irritability. It struck a nerve deep in the sinner's stomach, as if to scream at his formerly mortal soul to run from the imps, despite being one of the lowest denominators of hell, for they were still scarier than the most dangerous human.

"Shit." Styx swore as they clumsily sat up in the bed before falling over, now laying on their side. "This is serious."

"Yeah. Didn't take a genius to know that." Blitz declared while his fists curled into a growing impatience. His frustrations were displayed in their entirety alongside his rising voice and slow walk. "That's the fucking point I'm trying to make! If you'd just fucking listen to me, you'd fucking know that!"

Styx noticed his tail, and how it flicked itself like a cat in distress. A genuine fear began to arise in their body, and the pain of fear lodged itself in their throat at the full morbid admiration of what citizens of Hell could muster. The simplest frustrations, the easiest displays of what could only be considered adjacent to anger and not even anger itself, was the towering castle of horror looming over the innocence of human emotion. A quiet stare from an unstable human was terrifying enough while alive, so how scary would true anger from a hellborn be? The sinner did not want to find out, and in the midst of the psychedelic haze brought on by bad choices and desires to be rid of the grueling situation as of late, formed a complex array of indescribable dread within Styx's heart as they hurriedly stood up once more and being taken over by the confusion of the sudden change from calamity to urgency, pressing themselves against the front of the bed.

Blitz watched on, his demeanor dropping somewhat in awe at what he would consider a common decency in Hell, now striking untold fear into what he forgot was once alive: A human. The simplest and weakest form or life, doomed to mortality and the servitude of the afterlife. To Blitz, the punishment of eternal damnation was just a Tuesday, but to Styx, it was an entirely new life after their old one, and it was being spent in suffering against the foundation of brimstone which leaked drops of hatred into the mouths of every hellborn. Even if they were used to such aggression, they were in no state to accept it. In a moment of what felt irrational to his nature, Blitz uncurled his hands and calmly stepped towards his partner before taking a seat on the bed alongside them. The imp glanced at Styx awkwardly with a weak smile as if to apologize. After a moment of labored breathing from the sinner, they began to calmly inhale, then exhale, and lower their sense of impending doom. Despite the flood of indecision, Styx moved from their place to one next to the imp, with the sinner sliding a hand over the demon's own, and the two intertwined as a reminder to what they had.

Blitz sighed. "I've fucked around enough to find out for the rest of my life. Not that I'm complaining, but it gives you some insight into this shit. People down here don't just take off unless they're running from something, or plan on coming back to fucking kill you . Sorry, but I'm not going to be okay."

"Nobody knows we're here." Styx reassured softly.

"Please take this seriously." Blitz returned. His voice was weak, like all of his strength had dropped.

"I AM being serious." Styx said, tugging on the imp's sleeves in angst. "I don't wanna run away. We just got here, and you're worried about people that aren't even here? Come-on, you know what I wanna do? Come on, ask me what I wanna do?"

"Ugh…" Blitz moaned. "What do you wanna do?"

"You." Styx whispered next to the imp. Blitz could feel the spikes on his back begin to grow restless, as well as a certain something else growing even more restless. He turned his head to look at the sinner, and the two found themselves mere inches away from each other's lips, with Blitz's mouth partway open in confusion and surprise and Styx showing a seductive and proud smirk that clearly told Blitz that it was not his head that was making decisions… at least not the head with their brain in it.

"I wanna spend time getting to know you." Styx cooed. "Then, I wanna lay down and hold you like they do in the movies. Doesn't that sound… so much better than running away all the time?"

Blitz remained quiet.

"I'm sure we're just used to being paranoid and shit, y'know?" The sinner continued as they nudged themselves into Blitz neck, and the imp happily obliged as Styx continued: "Always wondering if our next day will be the last, constantly turning away help because we don't feel like we need it. I'd like to run towards the fire for once instead of away from it."

Ever persistent, Styx gently lifted Blitz into their lap, the two now having eyes locked on each other once more. The demon stared in confusion, fighting internally about whether to push away and run like he had always done. The sinner gave a hazy gaze in admiration, eyes giving off a sense of desire. Blood began to rush to Blitz face, and he looked away once the pink hue gave Styx a giggle. They caressed the demon's face and guided it back, looking slightly upward at what Styx considered an adorable imp currently using his partner as a seat. The entire situation was oddly enjoyable to Styx despite the brush with fear just minutes prior. The two sat for what felt like a lifetime, closing their eyes and meeting their lips together to break the silence. Their hearts ached, and finally, they were both smiling. They were contempt.

"Who knows, Blitz?" Styx began, opening their eyes. Their partner did the same to look at them. "Maybe we can be the fire. Maybe we are the fire. Maybe… we can spread ourselves all over this room like fire."

Blitz looked onwards, his smile curving into a frown after being reminded of the situation at hand. He said nothing, but his eyes asked for help. Styx drew a finger down the side of one of Blitz spikes, receiving a heavy sigh from the demon as the sinner felt a twitch of satisfaction course through the veins of Blitz's body.

"Don't act like you don't want that." Styx said. "You're upset, you're stressed… you're scared. Like me. That's okay. Don't you want an escape? Don't you want that, Blitz?"

Blitz closed his eyes a final time, facing downward. He felt his heart race, but from what? The past few years of his life had never been as eventful as the past week. Surviving the purge, only to find himself in the makeshift crossfire's of a false demigod bird with marriage problems, a bartender with a dick-shaped caterpillar for a mustache, and enough destruction of literal and metaphorical wood to make the local abandoned church spring to life in hopes of a miracle to escape from it all. He was normally the one running off of temporary desire, begging those around him to solve those same desires. The imp's brash nature and hostility to friendliness was left useless now, in this moment, being given genuine affection. Here he was, yearning for anything even close to this moment, being given it for one of the rare times in his recent lift, but no grasp on how to handle it. Reality met fiction as his wildest dream turned him numb. The imp looked at Styx, fully submitting to the tension of the moment.

"Yeah." Blitz grinned feverishly. "Daddy would like that."

"Yeah?" Styx asked. "What else would Daddy like from me?"

"To fuck your brains out."

"You'll have to do it somewhere else." A voice suddenly broke the chains of passion, tugging the duo's heart strings out of their own chests and back to reality. Blitz stood quickly as he was met with the towering form of a hellhound in charge of security. Styx failed miserably at standing on their own power and met the floor at an alarming pace.

"We're having an existential crisis here, fuckboy." Blitz declared with a coarse tone. "Can't cut us a break for hiding back here?"

The guard leaned down to face the hostile imp at eye level. The two gave a staredown of the ages and seemingly allowed the encounter to go on forever. "We got a client lined up for this room and you're not on the list."

Blitz prodded a finger into the guard's chest. "Yeah? Well you might wanna have another check at that list, because my name is always on there. It's the giant fucking dick drawn on the corner."

His response was met with the guard grabbing the imp by the back of his shirt, followed by a helpless Styx being lifted by the other hand. The two were quickly and quietly dragged down the hallway and shoved out the back entrance as the door closed behind them. Blitz brushed himself off while shouting unique horse-related expletives at empty ears as Styx made attempts to stand, before failing to do so and cycling through the process once more.

"Fucking bitch." A borderline incoherent Styx said.

"Couldn't have said it better myself." Blitz said as he lifted the sinner on their feet, tossing their arm over the imp for support. "Let's just hope that we don't have a dick waiting to go up our ass at the hotel."

"I thought it was a motel?" Styx asked.

"Might as well be a hotel." Blitz answered. "Gonna be the nicest shit we'll ever get for a while."

The glow of the street lights returned to their faces. In the shadows Blitz almost saw silhouettes dancing in the dark, staring back at him, judging with their ink-blot eyes. In reality, no one, and no soul, had ever been there, but the paranoia had begun to settle. As the imp looked to his mess of a partner, he felt a side of his brain begin to think - A part of himself that had been suppressed and trapped for longer than he could remember. The rationality of his situation struck his mind like a knife through the chest, and it felt just as shocking to him. Nothing was right, and as he willfully helped his partner out of the alley and back onto the brighter street corners towards their motel room, uncertain of what awaited them, he knew time was running out.

He hoped Stan was okay.