Part 24

As Alex made his way down the elevator, he began to change as he cried. Somewhere between the studio and the ground floor, the sounds that escaped from him stopped, and he was simply in a haze. The lizard did up the buttons on his shirt, his fingers numb, and rolled his sleeves down over the wrappings on his forearms and wrists. He pulled on his jacket and zipped it up, needing the tightness of it to keep himself from breaking apart.

By the time he hit the bottom floor, Alex felt nothing inside of him. He hurt all over, and the numbness spread across his fingers, face, and chest. But the worst of it was the stabbing pain and the pressure between his legs.

With each step, his face tensed. He gritted his teeth, hoping beyond hope that the pain would go away if he just walked it off. He was so lost in his thoughts that he hadn't noticed he stepped outside into the hellish morning, his blank stare turning only slightly to see Alastor waiting as the red-suited monstrosity said he would be.

The demon's bright smile brought no comfort and only reminded him of Valentino's look for the last hour and a half. The demon looked him over. "My dear boy, you look like someone who has finally had the gravity of his situation, and all his life choices become apparent to him."

The lizard slowly drew his eyes to the tall creature.

The eyes are the windows to the soul.

A single drop escaped the side of his eye, and he wanted nothing more than to disappear from everything. But Alastor looked at him differently and cocked his head a little. There was no spark behind those eyes now. Alastor straightened Alex's jacket and fixed his hair by slipping his staff beneath his arm. "There we are. All ready for a night on the town."

Alex couldn't hear him anymore as he shoved his hands back into his pockets, turned on a heel, and walked away from Alastor. Leaving him there, the lizard's head low and his shoulders squared. "I think...I'm going to go for a walk, Alastor, if it's all the same to you." Alex felt like he would break at the next word spoken, and if someone reached out to comfort him or ask him another question, he wasn't sure he could stop crying. He tried to keep it in his mind, including the reasons and emotions, but that did nothing to make him feel anything other than hollow.

"Alex..." The lizard didn't turn to look at the Radio Demon, "I do hope to see you again. If nothing else, you have been a great source of entertainment."

There was a moment of silence between them as Alex turned back. What could he have to say to make things better possibly? To make things go backward just a little bit. Again, he said the first thing that came to mind. "I'm going to kill him." And the tears began, his voice steady, his lips tight.

The demon's smile stretched wider on his face, and he approached Alex with a gentle muse, lifting the head of his staff to Alex's mouth. A small loop of feedback was rolling around in the lizard's ears. "Once more, dear boy, into the microphone." He bowed forward, tilting the mic closer as Alex's hands came from his pocket and cupped over the staff's tip as if praying. "I'M GOING TO KILL THAT MONSTER!"

The screech of feedback was the most delicious thing he could have given Alastor as the demon's eyes widened in glee, and he withdrew his staff, "But of course you are, dear boy." He bowed his head ever so slightly to the lizard. "Alex." The young demon turned to walk away from him and started back down the road. He had no idea where to go, and his tail was stiff and rigid and stuck straight out with only the tip curled downward.

He waited for the boy to turn a corner and leave his sight before looking up at the building he was standing in front of. He fixed his tie, straightened his jacket, and began to hum as he pushed open the doors and headed toward the elevator.

This would not do, not at all. Alex might lose his sense of humor because of the angst and drama inside his body. And to put a real damper on things, what good would any of it be if the demon were dead already?

He tapped his staff against the bottom of the elevator as he went up towards the studio. The elevator looked clean, especially since he had slaughtered Bolt inside it. A grin crossed his lips. A murder every so often wasn't a terrible thing.

Stepping out of the elevator, Alastor walked with pride down the hallway. The janitor was already back to work cleaning as Alastor opened the final set of doors to the studio space.

The smell hit him first. Not the narcotics or the warmth of sex but that certain something in the air when something foul took place. Lights were knocked over, cameras all focused on the bed that Alex had been violated on, and bullet holes in furniture. So they had a scuffle. Well done.

Valentino was lying on the mattress, smoking a cigarette and watching the monitors. Each showed the same view, a small screen off the side. A laptop was also open to the side, and Valentino watched the video from earlier. He looked up momentarily, did a double take, and took the cigarette out of his mouth. "What the hell are you doing here?"

He tapped on a monitor, and the film paused when Valentino flipped Alex onto his back, both his hands around the lizard's neck. "You can't get a damn phone? Couldn't get rid of the boy that fast? Pfft." Alastor chuckled, walked to the other end of the room, and looked out the large window. "Keep your hands...off the boy. I said that to you, Valentino." He turned to look at him. "Didn't I say that? I remember myself saying it."

He tsked as the pimp blew a large cloud of smoke into the air and set the cigarette down on a table, flexing his neck, two extra pairs of arms sprouting up from under his wings to rub it. "Some things broke when he showed up. That's all. I needed to do something to replace them."

A gust of wind erupted from within the studio as a thick and wet black tentacle slithered out of Alastor's long shadow and smashed itself against one of the cameras, the metal and plastic shattering and cascading across the floor. The radio demon stood there, smiling as he looked out the window. "Do I have your full attention now, Valentino?"

Two more tentacles followed, whipping one way and another, breaking equipment. Valentino sneered. "Fucking hell! Alright, alright, alright! I'm listening, for fuck sake." The tentacles returned to the demon's shadow as he approached Valentino, leaning over to speak with him.

"You did something foolish today, Valentino, and I wanted you to hear me say it directly rather than hear it in the third person." His voice was calm but stern and demanding. Valentino growled in response, his teeth grating together. He didn't like that. "So I fucked him. So what? He's not a threat."

The demon leaned back from the moth, resting his hands on his staff. "All you had to do was leave him alone, as was our deal. He comes up, you talk, and he returns to the hotel—one, two, three-step plan. Instead, you were thinking with your little brain again, and now you've done something." He banged his staff on the ground, "and you lit a spark in that boy. You pushed the little lizard into a corner and gave him HOPE!" The air around Alastor seemed to spark when he said that, and for just a moment, the large antlers of the radio demon cast a shadow upon Valentino, the scream of a great deer in his ears, Alastor's large body swinging terrifying red claws at him before he was back to normal. "Hope, my good friend, is a powerful tool, especially with holy weapons and a grudge. And now you have started something. But even worse than that, and most disappointing, you broke your deal with me."

Reaching into his pocket, Alastor pulled out the cell phone that had started the whole ordeal, the one Alex had first made contact with Angel on and the one he had gotten from Angel from killing Bolt. This cellphone was the connection to the human world, and he crushed it in his claws, the pieces bursting into a green flame. Valentino stood up quickly, the claws of his right hand forming a fist. "You fucking-!" The moth reached for him only to have the tentacle slither out again, smacking his hand away. "I don't like being touched, my good chum..."

Alastor pulled down on his jacket. "I could have helped you take the world, Valentino, and you threw it all away for a fffffucking...boy. For little...bitty...Angel. I don't know who the bigger fool is: Alex for coming down here for him or you for throwing away everything for him." He stared down at Valentino, "Did you think I wouldn't know you talked to Vox after I left?"

Valentino did his best to contain his anger but couldn't. "And you're no different! You threw him away!"

Alastorgave a laugh that echoed through the room. "I didn't throw Alex away, sport. He's far too angry to walk away now. I came to warn you-" he spun his staff up and began to speak into the microphone at the end of it, "Don't touch that dial, dear listeners! We'll return to another night of our favorite game: What else do lizards eat?!" He lifted his chin from the mic and laughed loudly, wiping a tear from his eyes, "What a laugh!"

It was then that a dark force pressed down around the entire room as Alastor leaned into Valentino, staring into his bright red eyes, every inch of skin on Valentino's body getting goosebumps and an unfamiliar feeling of fear crept up his spine, "...stay tuned..."