A Mad Demon

Asmodeus.

"So this is what humans call pornography."

Interesting tastes.

"Asmodeus!" Life shrieks.

I frown in confusion.

"What's going on?" I ask. "Isn't that pornography?"

Several humans look at us strangely, confusing me even more. You're the ones watching this!

"Can you stop saying that word so loudly?" she whispers in frustration.

"Pornography?"

"Shut up!"

I raise my hands in a gesture of innocence. Apparently being curious is now a sin too, and I thought I knew them all.

"Very well, I will not say anything, I just want to clarify that I find it strange that the subject is so delicate, in Hell There is the temple of fornication, and believe me, it is much better than this." I look at the magazine I found lying around.

Life rolls her eyes in exasperation.

"You know that humans are more delicate when talking about certain subjects." she reminds me.

"Apparently they are uncomfortable talking about things that are in their nature, sex, dying, it's just normal."

"You'll make him realize we're following him!" she shakes her head in the direction of the unusual human standing a short distance away.

Everette decided that I would go with Life and Death would accompany Shameena, since that way none of us will do things we are not supposed to do, the main mission is to return with our beast home. I insisted a lot and promised Everette that I would keep my hands away from Shameena, an obvious lie, and Diablo being his father, Everette knows very well how to detect them, so he did not give in to let me accompany her.

Shameena is afraid of Death, I can't even imagine how tense her situation is now.

In my case, I had never been with Life alone, she is a bit controlling, but in all realms, I assume it is normal for women.

We managed to track a demonic presence coming from the human we followed, its trail is quite strong, so we must wait a long while for it to move away from the other humans.

I suggested Life to throw ourselves on him and have the most sadistic and bloody fight humans have ever witnessed. I still ache from the blow to the head I received from her. The human walks until he enters a building, when I get ready to imitate him, Life holds my arm, I look at her with surprise while she has her eyes fixed on the place.

"What's going on?" I ask impatiently.

"It's a school." she indicates.

How many of these do humans need? I swear we walk by many schools, it seems a bit exaggerated to me, however I ignore that fact since it doesn't interest me.

"All right, we have to go in."

She denies.

"I really don't think it's a good idea for you to go in..." she smiles nervously.

I chuckle under my breath.

"Why do you think that?" I ask with an involuntary flirtatious tone.

"This school is for little humans, they are very delicate and you are usually very..." she tries to find the right adjective.

"Perfect?" I ask obviously.

"Yes!" she exclaims, analyzes the answer for a few seconds and then frowns irritated. "Wait, no!"

My naughty laugh comes out and she rolls her eyes. It's so easy to irritate Life when I act this way.

"What do you suggest we do?"

"We should wait out here."

"Life, as a celestial your patience is almost inexhaustible, I being a demon barely know the meaning of patience. I really want to go home soon, let's go inside and take that demon disguised as a human at once."

She denies pleadingly.

"We could chat for a while, so the wait won't be so long."

I snort and deny.

"Chatting is not my thing."

"Oh come on, you never shut up, we should just talk about any random topic until that creature comes out, then we catch it and everyone goes on with their own thing."

I sigh tiredly but just sit and wait.

"I don't even know why I'm trying to object." I mutter irritated.

Life smiles broadly and takes a seat next to me.

"All right, now tell me something about yourself." she asks.

Something about me? What kind of mind game is this?

"There's not much to know." I shrug.

"Oh, come on. Tell me something you really like."

"Eating." I answer simply.

She opens her eyes in surprise and grimaces, I smile arrogantly.

Celestials don't usually eat either, actually very few supernatural creatures do, it's considered something unclean.

"Do you eat...?" she asks, unable to hide her repulsion.

"That's right." I wink at her. "I can even eat human food."

"Better tell me a less disgusting fact." she asks desperately.

I laugh and think for a second.

"I told you there wasn't much about me. I'm Asmodeus, at home I'm also known as the Lord of destruction, a few centuries ago Lucifer entrusted me with the superintendence of the great playhouse of Hell and all those of the human world, I really like to take care of them, I met Everette when we were both a couple of little creatures of evil, since then we are like brothers."

"What about Shameena?" she really seems interested in knowing things about me. That's so...

Nice.

She's weird.

"For some reason, there has always been something about her that drives me crazy. She is too irritating and incredibly capricious, yet she takes her task of seducing and stealing souls very seriously, she is one of the most powerful demons that has ever existed. I know she has a strange obsession with collecting human hearts, she has a whole room with each of the mortal hearts she has managed to make her own, she rips them out and keeps them as a kind of trophy. I smile remembering the room full of hearts and there really are too many of them.

This is not as strange as I thought, however the fact that Life is staring at me while I speak is a bit uncomfortable. Is there something on my face?

"I always thought Shameena and Everette would end up together."

I grimace but nod.

"There was a time when I thought the same thing, however Everette has always been aware of the obsession I have with Shameena, that's why he didn't go any further."

"Well, I'm not really clear on the concept of what demons consider, further".

"He just didn't give her his mark." I smile sideways.

"What is it that you like so much about her? "

I analyze the question a bit before answering.

"Her moodiness."

She looks at me confused.

"Her bad mood?" she asks doubtfully.

"She is very grumpy, it would be very stupid to say that she got me obsessed by her tender smile, since Shameena always smiles with evil, she is very easy to irritate so she is in a constant bad mood, that or she never takes anything seriously, that's why I decided to look for who she really is."

Just before Life has a chance to ask another question, the scent of blood floods my nose.

What a delight.

But apparently Life thinks otherwise, as her face fills with panic and she quickly gets up and then starts running towards the human class building, I sigh lazily and follow her slowly.

If someone is already dead, there is nothing to do, I don't see why she is in such a hurry.

However, the sensitivity of the celestials has always been very confusing to me, I have never been able to understand the empathy and pity they feel towards humans. Unlike Everette, I don't feel any aversion for their race, they are simply irrelevant to me, I devour some souls and that's it, I don't need any more, however the Celestials insist on watching over their safety.

If they care so much about them, I don't understand why they created them so fragile, they can literally die for any little thing, many even die accidentally.

It's no surprise that most of the demons consider them mere puppets with which they can amuse themselves from time to time.

"Asmodeus!" Life's shout startles me.

I walk at a faster pace towards the interior of the place. I follow Life's scent until I find her in one of the many rooms, my eyes widen in astonishment to see who she is with.

"What the hell?" I mutter in disbelief.

Azael curses under his breath when his gaze collides with mine. What the hell is the leader of the Infernal armies doing here? He is kneeling with a tiny cut on his finger.

"Asmodeus..." Life tries to intervene.

Ignoring her, I walk towards him and grab him by the collar of his shirt, pulling him towards me threateningly.

"You have two seconds to tell me what you are doing here. You better not try to sabotage Everette's mission, I never trusted you, you little licker." I say in a restrained voice.

I feel a light touch on my side, I look at that place and see a small human hitting me with all her strength.

"Let him go!" she shrieks as she throws punches.

I narrow my eyes, analyzing her, and then I open them exaggeratedly when I see the pendant she is wearing.

"Azael..." I ask in a whisper. "Why does she have your mark?"

(...)

Everette stares at him in a way that would make any demon jump into the river of lost souls without a second thought. Azael has his head down and I smile sideways.

Ha, someone's in trouble...

"So you decided to give your mark to a human." Everette says, breaking the silence.

What I wouldn't give to have a cup of blood to enjoy the spectacle.

"I can explain." Azael quickly assures him.

"You are the leader of my armies, you are also one of the demon leaders chosen by my father, now I come on a mission to this world to realize that a human has your mark, never in the history of darkness has a demon done something as reckless as you." says my friend with a hard voice.

"I want her, she owes me."

Both Everette and I are immobile.

Owes him?

What could a human possibly owe a demon?

"Very well, I will give you a chance to repent." Everette's voice sounds shaky.

"You must give me a chance to explain." Azael begs.

He only sighs and looks at him with disgust.

"Speak." he orders.

"It happened a human year ago , I met her when I was on the verge of death, I had never seen a human up close, Diablo had ordered me to recruit the demons that were scattered in this world, I was walking through one of the alleys when I heard her crying, she was lying on the ground, she was bleeding and her life energy was decreasing every second, she looked at me scared and asked me to save her."

"Why did you care about saving a human?" I interrupted.

"There was something different about her scent, it drove me crazy" he explains.

I grimace.

"This human would probably be a Celestial when she died, but you bound her to Hell." Everette speaks.

"She owes me, I have the right to posses her."

"By the darkness that corrupts my existence! listen to you!" I blurt out in disgust. "You don't even deserve to be called a demon."

"I want to be the one who corrupts her soul, I want her to desire and need me to the point of madness, there is something in her purity that delights and tortures me, I can't explain it, son of Lucifer, I don't know what happened to me when I meet that human." I find his way of expressing his instability towards her presence interesting. "I never wanted to break the rules of Hell, but her weak existence drives me crazy."

Everette stares at him without saying a word.

I really have no idea what he will do, I've never seen a demon attached to a human before, I don't even know what will happen to her when she dies.

"Do you know how old she is?" he asks after a few seconds.

"Eight human years old." he answers.

"Do you feel guilty for possessing her soul and not giving her a chance of finding peace in the Realm of Celestials?

"No."

"I just don't understand what this is all about." he runs his hand through his hair and pulls it lightly. "She is not even useful for you. A simple human that known nothing about good or bad and yet you insist in taking her before time. We are not suppose to interfere with the existence of newborn humans."

"Humans grow up, then that will change, perhaps he can still get away with it..." I comment, trying to find some common sense in all of this.

"I just want her soul to be mine, I think I have the right to take away the goodness in her."

"She's already yours, she has your mark." Everette says it's obvious. "Does she understand what you are?"

"She is still too young to understand what that means." he looks away into the window and I know his eyes are on the creature, she is outside playing with Life.

"Very well, it is evident that you are condemned to be by her side for all eternity, I do not think it is necessary to make a scandal in Hell, no one will know, we already have enough with having lost our beast. You will take care of her, at the moment of her death her soul will go to Hell and become a demon, you will take care of her training. Celestials must never find out."

I looked at Everette in surprise, I never thought his reaction would be so condescending.

"I really appreciate it." says Azael visibly encouraged while bowing.

"I don't want to hear that you are neglecting the training of my armies because of your little incident. For now, I have more important matters to take care of." he joins in. "One more thing..."

"What is it about?" he asks.

"What is her name?

Azael presses his lips into a thin line before answering.

"Heaven..." he finally blurts out.

Unable to help myself any longer, I burst out laughing at the devilish irony.

Heaven will go to Hell!

Sometimes the misfortune of others is delicious. Everette rolls her eyes in annoyance.

"May darkness be in your path." he says evading the subject.

"And guide my destiny." he mutters in response.

Still laughing, I walk out with Everette, leaving Azael in that filthy place that smells like dreams and hopes. We watch Life once again while she plays with the human, she has almost golden hair and big brown eyes, her laughter sounds so pure that it makes me uncomfortable.

I try inhaling to feel the sense he mention before, but I can only smell her huma esense.

What a taste Azael...

We walk in the opposite direction with the intention of getting away from them.

"I still can't believe you haven't destroyed that human, you know she was the one who hurt Azael, once someone carries the demonic mark she has the power to hurt her giver physically, despite being a human that was accomplished." I comment with a distracted air.

"You also saw his madness towards that creature, I never thought that a demon could feel any kind of attachment towards humans, for a moment it seemed pathetic, but if her desire is to lead her into darkness, I guess it's tolerable."

"What will you do if Diablo finds out?" I question.

"I will remind him that he was the one who insisted that I must not destroy too many humans in my time here." he laughs lightly.

"I really want to go home soon, humans are too stressful, they get worse as the centuries go by. "

"We will find the beast soon."