Abocu
Madness had a price and they paid it with their soul. I watched from the back as the humans flocked to receive if not, just one drop of the drug, extracted from a low-ranking two headed serpent demon. Ways in which humans fall, not even the littlest of them all survived the greed.
They desired for the drop, the surrender then the smile. The epic fall from sanity to a place with their loved one, perhaps a dream left unfulfilled, wherever it took them.
I threw my cigarette and put it out with my feet before hitting the back of the club, engulfing a lungful of fresh air that didn't smell like sweat or the pungent stench of alcohol mixed with something much rancid. Away from the grating music that vibrated the entire place.
Tonight, I strived to stay away from the excitement that the people inside shared. My shift was over and I had no business here yet I stayed. I heard him before he stood beside me. Smelled the scent of rot and death before I saw him.
"Want a smoke?"
He said nothing except for stare me down like he was assessing me. I hated it. I lit another cigarette and leaned on the grimy wall, waiting for the impending doom. I didn't even fight it when he lifted his hand covered in steel at my face.
I closed my eyes and I heard him huff, before stealing the cigarette in between my lips and taking a drag himself. It did nothing to demons like him. He was covered in metal from head to toe, his usual attire with the skin of Cerberus as the hooded cloak with a signet engraved on the middle and his eyes, if you looked at his eyes then you looked at the void itself.
"Speak for yourself"
I looked up at him, motherfucker was an inch or two taller than me. His name was Yth, one of the higher-ranking demons, the general of the Keepers called Kur, the prison in the realm of the death called Erodorld.
I scoffed and faced him, bringing his hand holding the bud of the cigarette up my lips and taking a drag. I watched the smoke curl in between us and disperse mid-air. I felt warm from the inside though the temperature dropped significantly lower as compared to the inside.
I gasped.
"Your kind cares?"
He gripped my throat, though without any pressure. I grinned, ear to ear.
"I want all the details about this place. Get me?"
I shook my head, playing with fire. Risks were what made life interesting and I wasn't going to bail out on that.
"I'm serious. No body knows who runs this chain of supply. And even if they do, nobody dares claim it"
His hold tightened on my throat.
"Then I'll make sure the ears on this place hears about your true identity. How pathetic you had been"
There it goes, ever the party pooper. I held onto his arm and leaned a bit closer to him.
"So damn uptight. Want a lap dance?"
On the next second, my face was smashed on the bricked wall which was as hot as fire, melting off my skin. I hissed and shoved him aside with my shoulder. Shit! The heat melted through my human skin into my real flesh.
His whip came next, wrapping around my neck to my ankle.
"Don't you look pretty like this? O great leader of Ejur"
I saw the mocking smile on his face beneath that mask which I attempted to throw, strip his face bare and behold the ugliness. My flesh had healed by the time he loosened his hold on me. I grew taller than him, my horns the size of his sword. As the human skin shredded into pieces I hovered over him, my vision going all red, picking up the heat signature.
A thousand year ago, in the Golajtzai festival, an ordination ceremony, I was cursed to not be the next King in line of the Ejurs meaning 'of the wild'. We were the second Descendant of Dryunporfa, the deity who first walked on Earth. Since then, I had been roaming in this world as a human.
"Don't you dare cross the line"
My voice rumbled like thunder. He leaned on the wall and watched me lose my mind over a title, over everything I should've been instead of tilly tallying in this place as the lowest of the low, a human.
"Fuck!"
I took out another stick and lit the bud. I heard footsteps before I saw the man. I quickly got back to my human self. His eyes never strayed away from mine.
"Ah, King!"
Sir Teals, the owner of this club walked towards me, unknowing of the danger that lurked around him. He was a jolly man and sure to his act of kindness, it held a darkness to sell off little children as a side hustling, drug dealing and this, this piece of work he indulged himself with.
"Ye alone, eh"
I had a mind to throw his hand off my shoulder. But I held back. The demon's eyes glanced at the dirty hands rubbing my shoulder then at me. I forced a smile and received my pay check.
"Thanks, kind sir"
He blushed and cleared his throat, his round belly moving with the action as the buttons fought with themselves to pop open. Too bad, his kindness was tainted by the side hustling he does, selling of young children to the rich for slaves. See, if I was a lesser jenu' meaning man in my language, I would've been a part of that.
He flinched when he felt the touch of a demon on the back of his neck. He quickly retracted his hand from my shoulder. Surely, his life was on the line after running away from death all too many times. His eyes were opened and saw Yth, standing behind him. His knees touched the ground.
It wasn't lawful for a demon to touch the humans directly without special permission from the court, but, oh well. I took another drag.
"Let me go!!!! Please! I beg"
I saw the desperation in his eyes like the ones did who craved for the drops. I watched as his hands slowly turned to ashes till he gave up his soul to the darkness himself.