hell-bound-stories

[hell-bound-stories]

Max and the forest spirit

https://www.wattpad.com/story/243260618-max-and-the-forest-spirit

This story had alot of parts, so it was easier to put on wattpad, sorry

#max

[hell-bound-stories]

The voice

The heavy door flew open into an empty hall followed by a small student. They frantically looked around though watery eyes and ran down the corridor. Just as quickly they found their way into another room. It was a small simple computer room with no one inside. Leaving the lights off the student wasted no time getting to the furthest corner. Sitting on the ground with their head in their knees, arms wrapped tightly around shaking, they tried their best but ultimately struggled to breathe. A million and one panicked thoughts raced through their head at impossible speed as they failed to hold back tears. 

What felt like a thousand years later someone opened the door to the dark room. The stranger looked around and quickly spotted the mass in the corner, now frozen in even more fear. The stranger made their way carefully through the dark room to the student, finding a spot on the floor near them. The student didn’t move, not even daring to look up to see who the stranger was. They could hear them taking deep slow breaths, but they didn’t speak. Together they sat in a less than comfortable silence, the student slowly, slowly regaining themselves over time. Right now they wanted nothing more than to be alone, for the stranger to just leave. It seemed like for a moment they’d get their wish. The stranger checked their phone, noting the time they quickly left the room.

Not for long however.

A minute later they had returned. Relief washed over the student as the stranger sat back in the same spot as before but this time placing a bag on the ground with them as well. The students backpack. Together they sat again in the stale dark silence, til the bell rang. Time for next period. 

The student slowly began to move, shakiness ever present in their hands. Their head still in their knees as a voice broke the silence. 

“You’re ok” She said, “There’s not another class in here till after lunch”

Her voice was soft and welcoming, almost warm in a way, like the voice of an angle. Those words began to echo through the students' mind. ‘You’re ok’

They shifted back into their original position, still choosing not to look at the girl accompanying them. Tears continued to fall from their eyes, and their breathing was still heavy and desperate . They wanted to be alone but didn’t want the stranger to leave.

The girl looked around the dark room, eyes eventually landing on the backpack she had picked up before. It was a simple black bag with a few colourful buttons on it. She immediately recognized one of the characters on a button.

“Hey” she softly spoke, “you hear Miku turned 13?” she asked, trying to strike up familiar conversation. The student shifted in place, their mind began to think of miku of all things. They didn’t understand why she was talking about this now, but knew exactly what she was going on about. They didn’t say anything, keeping their head down. 

“Yeah, she gets to have a teenage photo shoot, not a pre-teen anymore” She laughed quietly. This also garnered a laugh from the student. A small, almost non existent laugh, but a laugh nonetheless. The girl went on, talking and joking about the fictional singer. Though the student never said anything, it didn’t feel like a one sided conversation. 

As she spoke, breathing slowly became easier, and the shaky hands stopped shaking, eye’s cleared from tears and a once fear riddled mind was now just thinking about the blue haired fictional pop star. They still haven’t moved, choosing to keep looking down at the ground.

With a pause in the conversation the girl checked her phone again.

“Oh fourth period is gonna start in a bit, doing some math should help keep your mind off things” She stood up, stretching “well I need to run, it was nice talkin to you” 

With that simple goodbye she was gone, out the door she came through only an hour ago. Only when the door was fully closed did the student look up. They took off their glasses and whipped them off on their hoodie. They began to wonder who that girl was, and how she knew they had math next. Before they could think too hard about it the bell rang, abruptly cutting off their thoughts.

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They knew it.

They fucking knew it.

They knew this would happen, they knew going out was a mistake, they knew they shouldn’t have listened to their friend.

“It will be fun” she said, “I’ll be with you the whole time, you need to get out more, learn to have fun” It was all bullshit. 

Now here they were, hiding in some random rich person's closet with muffled music and shouting seeping through the walls as a random summer party went on in the floors below. The few sips of beer in their stomach did little to help the situation. 

A million voices screamed in their head as they sat in the corner shaking, tears escaping as they desperately tried to get any air they could. Everything felt too loud and the closet felt too big. Fearing they could pass out at any minute, they just wanted to go home. 

They didn’t notice when the door opened, and someone walked in. Gently the stranger sat down next to them. They could sense that someone was there next to them, but didn’t look up to see and didn’t dare say a word, not that they could have anyway between choked sobbs. However this stranger felt familiar in a way. 

They both sat in silence, only noise slicing through was heavy breathing and the muffled music from the floors below. They never wanted to be so alone, but again didn’t want the stranger to leave. They helped make the room feel smaller, the walls quieter. They sat together for well over two hours, her presents continuing to calm them as time went on. It was still some time before the stranger decided to talk.

“Parties suck” she said in a soft familiar voice.

“Mhmm” They nodded, keeping their head down.

“Maybe I should go beat your friend up” she casually suggested. 

“What?!” They looked up quickly, snapped out of their haze at the thought. Finally meeting eyes with the stranger. They both stared at each other for a moment, neither expecting what they thought they might see.

The huddled teen had messy semi short brown hair, like they had cut it themselves. A part of it covering their messy tear stained glasses. Dark circles clearly present under their soft brown eyes. They wore a simple oversized hoodie.

The girl was far more interesting to say the least. She had long two toned hair, half pure white, and the other half a soft sky blue. It looked natural as well, not dyed like you think it would be. She had stark unearthly yellow golden eyes, but were nonetheless warm and inviting. She wore an expensive looking varsity type jacket. She looked 100x too cool to just be seen next to them, let alone talk to. 

She broke the sudden silence again, “well why not? She’s the reason you're here isn’t she?”

“Yeah but that doesn’t mean you should beat her up” They rubbed their temple, headaches starting to set in. “you seem” they paused, “familiar” 

“Oh” she seemed kinda flustered and taken back, “what do you mean?”

“Your voice, I remember it from somewhere” They thought for a moment, “you’re that girl, you got my bag for me and we talked in that computer room a few months ago”

��Yeah” she confessed, “that’s me”

“Do you even go to Faraday?” They questioned, “I don’t think I’ve seen you around”

“Oh I tend to blend in,” she explained awkwardly. 

“With hair like that?” they gestured to the brightly coloured hair on her shoulders, “I think I would have noticed you in the halls” 

“Yeah well….” She trailed off, not knowing how to explain that.

“Heather” she held out her hand with a warm but awkward smile

They looked at their hand, choosing not to reach out, “---------” 

“Nice to meet you” She put her hand down, however the soft smile stayed.

“Wait,” they began to think, “how do you know that I came here with my friend?” 

“Well………….”

#wyatt and heather #sad boy hours #first time meeting

[hell-bound-stories]

A girl

Max followed Diana as they made their way down the sidewalk. It wasn’t the first time Max had been to the town that rested next to her forest, but it was the first time she had seen it so busy. Even though it felt like one of the hottest days of the year the townsfolk filled the streets with some sort of celebration. Red, white, and blue was plastered everywhere in something Diana said was “I don't know red white and blue day?? I don't know anything human’s arbitrary celebrations”. So far all Max could gather was that hotdogs were the food of the day and no one here would sell fireworks to an unattended 10 year old. Diana did little to help in the pursuit of  the fun colourfilled bombs. “We didn’t come for fireworks, besides you’re already a fire hazard as is”, and with that they sadly left the fun filled stand. 

If she wasn’t allowed to have fun with consumer legal dynamite Max was at least going to have some fun messing with the townspeople. Though none of the humans could see Max’s demon-ness, redskin, horns and tail, that doesn't mean they couldn't feel it in a way. Diana and Max both didn’t know what the humans saw when they looked at Max, but so far they didn’t raise suspicion, allowing them to roam the town as they pleased. 

Max began to walk a little slower, allowing Diana to get ahead, creating the perfect time for some fun. She lowered her tail down to the ground and angled it just off to the side of her, right at ankle level. It didn’t take long for someone to fall.

“Ow!” A youngish girl hit the ground with a thud, “god watch where you’re going kid!”

“Hey I didn’t touch you lady” Max said as innocently as she could, trying to hide a laugh.

“Ugh” the girl ground, standing up fixing her ponytail and brushing off her skirt, “you absolutely did, I felt you trip me!”

“I was like a foot away from you” Max protested back, “I didn’t touch you at all”

“Rrggh” The girls short temper was nothing short of amusing, “if it wasn’t you what did I fall on?”

“I dunno, maybe those tacky boots” Max smirked. Before the girl had a chance to open her mouth another adult walked upon the scene in a rush.

“Sydney, oh god please don't tell me you're fighting another child” the older woman rubbed her eyes.

“But mom she started-” before she could finish she fell to the ground again with another thud, “see!!!!!” she pleaded pointing at Max, who was standing by acting like an innocent angle.

“That young girl didn’t touch you, come on I have errands to finish, just apologize to her so we can be on our way” Max was trying her best to hide her snickers, but the girl heard every one of them.

“Mmm” it was basically a growl followed by a very pissy eye roll, “imsorry” It was barely audible and hardly genuine.

“Oh it's alright,” Max said with a shit eating grin on her face.

“Ok now come on, I’ve got stuff to do '' with that the pissy teen took off with her mom and Max began to make her way to Diana, who was waiting up ahead, having seen everything. 

“I can’t let you out of my site for 5 seconds” The witch rubbed her eyes.

“What? I didn’t set anything on fire” Max smiled.

“Don’t make me hold your hand again” Diana threatened.

“You wouldn’t”

“Try me”

---------------------------

“Mom I'm telling you” The teen pleaded, “there was something off about that girl, I dont think i’ve ever seen her around here before”

“Dear you hardly see anyone, it's why I made you run errands with me today, it's good to get out of the house every once and awhile” Her mom said, not really taking anything her daughter had to say seriously. 

“Ugh” the girl rolled her eyes. Taking another look back she saw the young girl she had bumped into before standing next to a much taller woman wearing an out of season hat. However this time the girl was remarkably more red, with a noticeable long pointed tail.

“What the” she rubbed her eyes in a panic, opening them again the girl was back to normal.

“Did you say something dear?”

“No” she quietly said, deciding to keep that to herself, chalking it up to a lack of sleep.

#max being a shit

[hell-bound-stories]

Nightmare

The young girl eagerly hopped off the school bus and into the large building ahead, too young to hate Mondays and loath school. Her pink dress flowing and long sandy blond hair bouncing as she skipped along to her classroom through the halls. The girl paid no attention to the teacher and staff gasps and shocked faces as she went by. A few students were also shocked, chiming in with comments like “cool” and “sick”. It wasn’t til she made it to her classroom that a teacher finally stopped her. Her teacher in fact, Ms.Kelley.

“Penny can we talk in the office please?” She asked in a rather worried tone.

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 Even sitting in the principals office with three other teachers couldn’t dampen the young students' mood. Nothing could, not even her massive black eye.

“Penny dear, are you sure you got that from running into a door?” The principal asked, extremely concerned and doubtful.

“Mhm yup, I was running around the house real fast and ran right into the door handle” Penney happily replied, smile never fading as she spoke.

“Penny that's the same story you told us last time you had a bad bruise on your leg” Ms.Kelley interjected.

“Ok well I got that bad one because I fell off the swings at home” She clarified, smile unwavering, kicking her legs back and forth in her seat.

“Honey that's not really the point” Another teacher cut in, Penny didn’t know her name. They all looked at each other with worry painted strongly on their faces. They were unsure of what to do now. Penny’s injuries got worse every week, raising suspicion, making the teachers all starting to fear the worst.

“Maybe we should just call your parents, to make sure that’s what happened” The principal suggested, slowly picking up the phone on her desk.

“Oh no” Penny’s smile fell, “My dads at work and mom is on a a trip, no one is home, it's why I took the bus this morning dad couldn’t drive me in he didn’t have time” Penny said, maybe too fast, fearing the worst of a call home.

It wouldn’t be the first time she’d been here.

“Oh” The principal set the phone down, giving even more concerned glances to the other teachers in the room, if that were even possible, “Ok well does it hurt? We can get you an ice pack”

“Oh” Penny thought for a moment, “No it doesn’t hurt, I'm a strong boy!” she proclaimed, smile returning effortlessly. She was stronger than they’d ever know.

“Ok well, school is about to start, you and Ms.Kelley should be heading to your class” The principal motioned to the teacher, trying her best to end this sad, awkward meeting.

“Oh yes, come on Penny” Ms.Kelley stood up, leading the small girl out of the office and back down to the classroom as the bell rang. A wonderful start to Monday.

“We are calling the Turner’s after school” The principal stated coldly.

“Agreed” The other teachers nodded.

“That poor girl”

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Penny went about her busy third grader school day. Doing activities with nothing short of a smile and a laugh until lunch came around. After lunch came the favorite part of any 8 year olds' school day, recess.

She finished her homemade sandwich as fast as she could so she could make her way quickly outside to the playground. More particularly the swings, her favorite. Before Penny could make her way there she was stopped by one kid, then two, then three, then four. Eventually the group grew to around 10 kids, all asking a million questions like Penny was the latest pop-star. Which by third grade standards is kinda true.

This happened every time she came to school with a new injury. Penny made her way through the small crowd, climbing to the top of the playground to stand above the rest.

“Ok you guys want to know what happened?” Penny started, “I’ll tell you what happened!” She stood proudly, ready to regale her tale.

“There I was playing in my backyard minding my own business, when all a sudden a huge pink lion came charging out of the forest behind my house!!!”

The kids all gasped, waiting with anticipation to hear what happened next. ‘He was right’ Penny thought to herself, ‘they love it so far!’ with that she continued her story, not missing a beat.

“The lion roared right in my face, exposing its horrible sharp teeth, before grabbing my favorite stuffed animal!!”

“No!” The kids were on the edge of their seats.

“Yes! The pink beast took my best friend and escaped into the forest! I knew what I had to do. I ran after the four legged beast deep into the woods. I followed it all the way to its den, an old fallen tree. It was asleep, surround by the stuffed remains of its other victims”

“Ew gross” One girl went off gagging

“Why was it pink?”

“So when do you get the black eye?” another boy asked

“I'm getting there” Penny protested

“Actually” A teacher interrupted the story telling session, Ms.Kelley, “Im sorry but it's about time we get back to class, we still have so much to learn today”

“Aww” The group went, almost in unison, before dispersing, making their ways to the doors back inside.

“I’ll finish the story tomorrow!” Penny shouted as the kids walked away.

“That also means you too Penny” Ms.Kelley tacked on.

“I know, I'm coming”

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The school day went on rather uneventful til it was finally time for the bus ride home. Penny hopped off at her respective stop and began walking down the road before. It didn’t take her long to come up to the messy yard she called her own. Using her special key, she unlocked the door and went inside.

Quietly she maneuvered around the small house, taking note of the loud snoring she heard from behind a closed door. Finally she came across her own room, going inside before closing the door silently behind her. A calming voice began to fill the void.

“Hi Penny!!” how was school?!” It was very exciting, like a young boy, “Did they all like my story?!”

“Ssshhh” Penny said in a small panic, “mom is asleep”

“Oh right” the voice said much quieter, “but did they like the story? I just have to know!”

“Well I didn’t have time to finish it” She said, putting her bag down before making her way to her small bed.

“Awwe”

“But they all loved it so far!” Penny said, picking up the source of the voice. A simple stuffed floppy lion with basic lion colours. It had no mouth and showed no emotion, but non the less it spoke.

“Really?!” It sounded overjoyed with the news.

“Yeah, they totally loved it!” She said, sitting on the bed with the toy in her hands, “they always love the stories you come up with, but I have to ask, why is the lion pink? That's not very menacing”

“I thought pink was a nice a colour”

“That's fair, do you” she paused, “know if dad is home?”

“Oh….. no I don't think so” it answered, motionless as always, “you herd him, he said he would be home late tonight remember”

“Right” Penny said, smile beginning to fade.

“We can still have some fun! Quiet fun!”

“Yeah” she pipped up again “we can-”

Just as fast as her cherry mood returned, it disappeared. Out in the hall the home phone began to ring. Loudly.

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Max jolted awake, practically jumping out of her nest of blankets and pillows, hitting her head on the top bunk above. Ignoring the pain she began to look around the dark room in a panic, eyes quickly adjusting to the darkness, all while taking deep shaky breaths. She slowly rubbed her head, taking note of the gross sweat all over her body. She didn’t notice the tears streaming down her face. The moment they left her eyes and hit her skin they steamed away.

She tried her best to whip her face with a shaky hand. Without even thinking about it she carefully got out of her bed and made her way down the hall, all while scratching at her arms, legs shaking along the way. Quietly, Max opened the door to the other room.

Diana sat up, rubbing her eyes, seeing the young demon in the doorway.

“Max? Are you alright? What happened?” she asked worried.

“I-” Max paused, looking down at the ground, sheepishly.

“Bad dream?”

Max nodded, still scratching her upper arms.

“Oh come here” Diana said, gesturing to the bed in front of her. Max happily and carefully made her way over, climbing on top of the bed in front of Diana.

“Do you want to talk about it?” she offered, trying her best to comfort Max, which in all honestly she didn’t really know how to do. Doesn't mean she wasn’t going to try.

“I don't know if I can,” Max said, not even looking up to see Diana.

“Its ok, it can-”

“No” Max cut her off, “I don't remember it”

#bad dreams

[hell-bound-stories]

Curraway wods- The nights

Max jolted awake, jumping up on her pile of old blankets and pillows, knocking her head on the top bunk above. She quickly looked around the dark room, eyes quickly adjusting to the darkness, all while taking deep panicked breaths. She rubbed her tired eyes, taking note of the sweat covering her body.

"Ugh gross" Max said quietly. She climbed out of bed, and began shaking herself off like a wet dog. She walked over to the window on the far end of the room to take a look at the dark sky outside. She sighed, "still night"

Max paced around her room, biting her nails, unsure of what to do next. This was the 4 time this happened this week, and it was only Thursday. She knew at this rate she wouldn't be able to go back to sleep in her own bed. While she loved having her own space, she wasn't used to sleeping alone yet, at least that is what she was blaming this on. Max rubbed her eyes again and began making her way to the door. She knew what she needed to do if she wanted to sleep again tonight.

She walked quietly down the dark hall. Carefully and quietly she opened the door. To Max's surprise Diana was already awake, sitting up in bed with the lamp on the nightstand on.

"Good morning Max" Diana spoke quietly, tiredness ever present in her voice.

"Oh, is it morning?" Max always felt guilty doing this.

"No it's" She glanced at the clock on the nightstand, "about 2:30 am" she finished with a yawn.

"Oh" Max looked down at the ground.

"Hey it's alright, I woke myself up" Diana tried to lift the mood, even if that was a lie. This had been the nightly routine for almost a month now. It was easy to expect Max at her door around this hour. Diana patted the end of the bed in front of her, "Come on" she said with a reassuring smile.

Max looked up, giving a small soft smile back. She closed the door and made her way over to the bed, trying not to feel bad. She jumped on the foot of the large bed. It was big enough for both of them to lay side by side no problem, but Max always curled up at the bottom like a dog or cat. Diana found that trying to get her into the bed properly was a futile effort, So she gave up trying a while ago, content with the small demon sleeping by her feet.

"Ok" Diana yawned, reaching for the lamp, "Good night Max"

"Good night," Max said quietly. With that Diana turned the light off.

Max quickly fell back asleep, clearly aided by the presents of the witch, as she was almost every night for a month now. Diana however didn't fall back asleep as fast, instead laying awake for a small bit thinking about Max. Her presents at the end of the bed didn't bother her at all, no, she was thinking about why Max was there in the first place.

She knew Max was having nightmares every night, that much was clear from the scream she could hear followed shortly after by Max appearing at her door. Diana didn't even begin to know why she might be having them or what they were about, but they seemed like the worst kind of nightmare. Worst of all Diana didn't even begin to know how to help. Every time she asked Max about the dreams she always said the same thing, "I don't remember".

'Maybe it's just a demon thing' Diana thought before drifting off to a worried sleep. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Really?" Jamack asked, puzzled.

"Yup," Diana said, pouring coffee into a mug and taking a sip, while Jamack just sat atop his Lectern on the table.

"Every night?" He asked again

"Pretty much"

"Hmmm" He paused, "well where is she now?"

"Still asleep upstairs, I think it's starting to get to her," Diana said with a worried tone, leaning against the counter looking at Jamack.

"Well nightmares every night for a month straight would get to anyone, demon or not" He stated matter of factly. Diana sighed in defeat.

"I just don't know what to do, I don't want her to keep going on like this" She took another sip from the mug.

"Oh I get it" Jamack started, "I wouldn't want a demon sleeping in my bed either"

"Hey its not that" She was quick to defend "Nightmares aren't fun for anyone to have, especially so frequently" It was hard not to feel bad for Max. Diana could tell Max had already been through alot already, she didn't deserve these restless nights. As for the bed thing Diana didn't much care. She only worried about accidentally kicking Max off the bed in the middle of the night.

"Mmhmm yeah" Jamack said in a judgmental tone.

Diana looked around the small kitchen, wondering what to do, eyes eventually landing on the fridge. She walked over and pulled a small business card off that had been held on by a magnet. It was a simple card, with just a phone number and a name, The Doctor. The one she got the day she met Max in the field. "Maybe I should call him" she pondered out loud.

"Oh for the love of Satan do not call that man!!" Jamack quickly and loudly protested jumping up and down on the lectern as he did so.

"Ugh why not? He seemed like a trustworthy guy, and if he's a doctor maybe he can help Max" Diana was willing to try anything.

"That guy is only as trustworthy as far as you can Hex him"

"That doesn't even-"

"Besides I can help just as much as that joke can"

"Oh yeah? What do you suppose I do?" Diana scoffed, very much doubtful of Jamack in every way. Jamack was barely reliable enough to read his own pages correctly.

"Simple" he started, "What's the one thing that keeps Max from having nightmares?"

Diana thought for a second, "I don't know, what?"

"You," Jamack answered.

"Me?" Diana was confused, "what do you mean?"

"Well she's not coming to me in the middle of the night looking for comfort is she?"

"True" Diana nodded along

"And she doesn't wake up again once asleep with you"

"Hmm also true" Diana agreed once more, taking a sip from her mug.

"Exactly!" Jamack sounded so proud of himself, "If there's anything you need to know about demons, it's that they are very emotional, you are clearly some type of emotional anchor"

"Ok now you lost me"

"Ugh" Jamack groaned, "you make the bad feelings go away and stay away, she feels safe around you"

"Ooooh, that makes sense"

"I know it does, try to keep up D" if he could he'd be rolling his eyes right now.

"Ok well what do I do about it? She can't sleep with me forever" Diana wondered.

"Exactly, give her something of yours, this isn't hard come on common sense" jamack was clearly getting more and more irritated.

"Something like what?"

"I dunno what do you think?"

"You know you don't have to be so-"

"Something that means a lot to you, brings happy memories, bonus points if it smells like you" He stated, cutting Diana off.

"Smells like me?" Now that really confused Diana.

"What? Demons have a strong sense of smell, it would only help"

"Huh" Diana paused thinking it all over, "You demons are weird, but that actually all makes sense"

"Rude- wait it does??" Jamack seemed surprised.

"Yeah, and I think I know just the thing to give her" Diana said confidently.

"Well i'm sure if it works she'll be sleeping good again in no time" he said happily.

"Yeah" diana paused, "since when do you care about Max?"

"I don't!!" Jamack quickly protested, "I just don't want anyone else sleeping in your bed"

"What?"

"Good morning" Max yawned as she walked into the kitchen, dark rings present around her eyes. It wasn't hard to tell she didn't sleep well.

"Oh wow look it's Max!!!! Let's pay attention to her-" He was cut off by a pink hand placed on his cover, followed by a deep growl and a sharp glare.

"Wow someone's grumpy- ok what are you doing?" Max picked Jamack up off the table, and walked over to the far side of the kitchen. Jamack watched helplessly as Max opened the window, "oh wow what is it? Not even 10 yet? That's a new record-" Max quickly lobbed the large leather back book out the window, effortlessly tossing it over the trees, across the forest out of site.

“its to early in the morning for this” 

Diana took another sip from her mug, trying her best not to laugh, "well looks like im not doing magic today" she smirked.

"Oh" Max closed the window, looking over at Diana with a sting of guilt on her tired face, "im sorry, I didn't-"

"Im joking" Diana cut her off with a light hearted smile, "He was being a bi-" she stopped herself.

"A bitch" Max finished for her.

"Hey, language!" Diana lightly snapped.

"Hey at least I didn't break the window this time"

Diana laughed finishing off her coffee, "true"

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The day was nothing but slow. The month of restless nights had finally all caught up with Max, leaving her groggy and grumpy all day up until the night. She spent most the day inside which was a first, opting to just lay on the ground while the tv went on instead of exploring the forest like usual. Max was just too tired to do much of anything, while Diana went about her usual business, without the aid of jamack of course, checking in on Max every now and then until eventually it was nearing bed time.

Diana went digging through her closet looking for one specific box. "Ah ha!" She said to herself, locating the box under a pile of old laundry and pulling it out onto the bed. She began looking through its contents, reminiscing about all the things inside til eventually she found exactly what she was looking for. The items in question being a simple black cat stuffed animal and a matching hand stitched blanket with various black cats embroidered on it. She took a long look at both items, unclear about which she should give to Max while also wondering out loud to herself  "Why was it always black cats?"

She shrugged it off and decided it wouldn't hurt to just give both of them over, but the real question now was how was she going to give them. It wasn't going to be nearly as easy as just handing them over, no, Max tended to turn down rather "kiddy" stuff when offered, always protesting with "ew gross i'm not a baby". Diana began to think that maybe she could just place them on her bed and Max wouldn't notice. Giving it to her without giving it to her. Perfect.

Diana looked down the hall and saw the closed bathroom door. Max was still inside getting ready for bed, the perfect opportunity to sneak and just place the things on the top bunk of Max's bed. Which is exactly what she did. She was about to leave before she ran into Max.

"Oh hi Diana" Max groggily said walking into her room, "whatcha doing?" she asked, rubbing her eyes.

"Oh, just wanted to say goodnight to my favorite demon!" She smiled, technically the truth.

"I'm your only demon" Max flatly replied.

"Hey not true, Jamack is a demon" Diana replied

"He's not here"

"Well sadly he'll be back tomm- you know that doesnt matter, your still my favorite!" Diana proclaimed, scooping Max up in her arms into a hug.

"Ugh gross" Max protested, but did little to get out of the situation

"Good night"

"Meh goodnight"

"Sleep good," Diana said, placing Max back down.

Max groaned, "yeah".

"I know you will" Diana reassured her, even if she didn't know for sure, she was praying that maybe just having the items near the bed would help. She made her way out of the room closing the door behind her before making her way down the hall to her own bed.

Now on her own Max immediately climbed up the bed to find whatever Diana had placed there. She quickly found the out of place blanket and stuffed animal, tossing them on the ground below before following shortly after. Taking a closer look at the stuffed cat and blanket she wondered out loud to herself "what's with witches and cats? Especially black ones?"

She began to wonder why Diana would give these to her. Max knew Diana knew she didn't like this kid stuff. She was about to toss the things aside to the other side of the room, however something kept her from tossing them. She didn't know what. She took another look at the items in her hands.

"Mmmm"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Diana woke up later in the night, however not to the usual scream that would, no she woke up on her own this time. As if her body was expecting to be woken up anyway. She checked her clock, 2:15. This would normally be around the time Max would wake up and come into her room.

"Hmm" she began wondering what to do while rubbing her eyes, deciding to go check on Max instead of just waiting this time. She made her way down the hall and carefully and quietly opened max's door. She didn't know what she expected but it wasn't what she saw.

Max was sleeping on her usual nest of blankets and pillows, however now with the old cat blanket draped over the top of the pile. In Max's arms was the simple stuffed cat toy. It was clutched tightly in her grip noticeable near her face, close to her nose. She was perfectly nested and for the first time in weeks getting uninterrupted sleep.

Diana tried her best not to make any noise at the adorable site all the while thinking 'wow that joke of a book was actually right'. More importantly she was happy Max actually took to the old toys instead of just tossing them aside, and that they were actually helping. With relief washed over her body Diana made her way back to her own room to get back to bed.

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Diana walked downstairs to the kitchen to get her usual cup of morning coffee, however before she could even think about it a familiar voice had to pipe up.

"Hey!!!" The voice practically shouted, "Did you miss me?" he sounded a little more than pissy.

"Ugh hardly" Diana coldly replied, still heading for the kitchen, "how was your day?"

"Oh you know it was just great" Jamack started, "after being thrown by that sentient rat with thumbs I landed in a tree where a hawk picked me up then eventually dropped me into the river, where I tumbled til my corners started to round all the while getting nibbled on by fish and some beavers who tried to use me for a damn but tossed me because I didn't have the right shape. After floating along a little more a bear picked me up and took me to its den to try to feed me to its cubs"

"Oh is that all?" Diana pretended to sound interested in the story as she went about making a pot of coffee. This didn't surprise her at all, no matter what you did to Jamack the next day he would always be back on his lectern brand new. Part of the curse she guessed.

"Oh that's just what happened before noon" Jamack went off, "but we can talk about that later, how's the sentient rat with thumbs? Did you try what I suggested?"

"You know I actually did" Diana said leaning against the counter waiting for her coffee to finish brewing, "She didn't come into my room at all and actually took to the items I gave her"

"Really?" he sounded so surprised, "what did you give her?"

"Just some old childhood toys, they were my favorite back in the day" Diana smiled, remembering all the good times she had with them when she was younger.

"Wow that's so sweet, I might just shed a tear, oh wait I can't-"

Diana cut him off, placing a hand on his over, "its to early in the morning for this"

"Hey wait a second" Jamack began thinking, "I was right!! HAHA take that doctor my ass I was right!!!!"

"Mmhmm"

"Wait what are you doing?" Jamack asked in a panic.

Diana had picked him up again, taking him to the open window.

"Oh really? really??" He pleaded

Diana rolled her eyes saying "baby" before dropping him on the ground outside under the window.

"Oh, oh this isn't that bad oh wait no here come the raccoons"

Diana walked back to the fresh pot of coffee pouring herself a mug as Max walked downstairs, "good morning"

"Good morning!" Max happily replied. She looked around noticing the lack of back talking books, "where's Jamack?"

"Oh he's out running a marathon with his super strong legs"

"I can still hear you!!!-ow careful with the pages you overgrown rat pigeons!!" He screamed back at the racoons, before being carried off into the forest by the gaze, "I'll get you for this when I get back!!!"

"yeah Im sure you will" Diana laughed looking out the window.

"Well he'll have a fun day" Max laughed, watching it all unfold from the window as well.

"Yup, yesterday he met a bear," Diana said, taking a drink from her mug.

"What! No fair!" Max protested, "I want to meet a bear"

#Max and Diana #Fuck Jamack

[hell-bound-stories]

Curraway woods- The room

Diana walked Max threw the small cabin, which consisted only of a few rooms. Right when you walked in was the living room, with a small set of stairs to the left. To the right not separated by any walls was a small kitchen. It had everything you needed, nothing more, nothing less. Adjacent to the kitchen as a small dining area with a large table and some chairs surrounded by bookshelves. The table had Jamack’s small lectern on top, along with other witchy items. 

They walked through the living room to the set of stairs, making their way upstairs. Upstairs was a small hallway with three doors, two leading to small rooms, and one leading to a bathroom. 

“Wow” Max exclaimed, “I didn’t think this place was so big”

“Big?” Diana questioned, “what on surface are you talking about?”

“It's got like layers and so many rooms!!!” Max explained, clearly in awe of the cabin.

Diana shrugged, “I guess” she half agreed. To her this cabin was tiny. That wasn’t bad at all, far from it actually. She enjoyed the simpler home compared to the ones she had lived in before. 

Diana walked up to one of the doors in the hallway, “anyway this can be your room!” she said, opening the door.

“WOW!!” Max was overjoyed at the sight.

Inside the small room were piles of junk and boxes, much like a storage room. It was dusty with some cobwebs scattered about. At the far wall was a window, with the moon's light now flowing in. In the state it is right now there wasn’t much room for anything, which wasn’t good because it was missing one important thing. A bed.

“You are easily impressed” Diana said quietly to herself while watching Max explore the messy space, “I know it’s not much and it’s full of my junk but tomorrow we can clean it up and make it yours” She cheerfully said. 

“Wait, mine?” Max asked, running back to Diana in the doorway, “like all mine?”

“Yes?” She said, confused.

“Wow, I’ve never had my own room before” Max said, looking around the space, taking it all in.

“Really? Didn’t you have a room back in Hell?” Diana asked.

“I did but I had to share it with like 15 billion others” Max explained, while starting to dig through some boxes, like she was looking for something.

“Oh that must have sucked”

“It did!! No one ever listened to me!!” She said, pulling a couple of old soft looking coats out of a box and tossing it on the floor, then she moved on to another box. 

“Huh, well come tomorrow we’ll have this cleaned out and it will be all yours!” Diana excitedly said. 

Max yawned, “That sounds great!” sleepiness clearly present in her voice. She was getting more and more tired with each passing minute. She kept pulling soft things like pillow cases, old blankets, some stuffed animals, old bed sheets, and old clothes out of boxes and tossing them all into a pile. Diana found it strange, but didn’t question it. She didn’t care about any of the things she was tossing around. 

“Oh” it dawned on Diana how late it had gotten, “Here I’ll go get you some pillows and blankets and you can sleep here”

“Ok” Max groggily replied, again throwing something else into the growing pile, as if on auto pilot.

Diana left to grab a pillow and blanket from her room next door. Not even being gone a minute she returned to find Max sleeping comfortably on the pile of soft things she had made. It was almost like a nest and Max was right in the middle, resting peacefully like a cat. 

“Ooooooooh my coven you’re so cute” Diana quietly said, but very much internally screaming at the sight. She walked over and carefully placed the blanket and pillow on the pile. She felt bad having Max sleep in a room full of junk but in her defense she didn’t know someone would be moving in today, even if some of these boxes are from when she moved in a couple of years ago. It's ok, tomorrow they’ll clean it out and make it an actual living space. 

“Good night Max” She smiled, turning the light off and softly closing the door. Just then her own wave of tiredness washed over her. It wasn’t that late, 10 o’clock at the latest, but today felt so long with everything that had happened before.

She made her way downstairs with full intent of just switching off the lights, however her simple plan was foiled from that awful familiar voice. 

“Ugh why are you letting her stay?” Jamack whined, “it's already crowded enough with you around” 

“Ok first, ouch” Diana spoke, walking over to the table, “and second, she has no were else to go. She was being hunted down by some other demons in the woods” 

“Eh the Hell guard will chase down anyone that goes to the surface unauthorized” Jamack explained.

“Well she was still running for a reason, besides aren’t you the least bit happy we have some new company?” She asked.

Jamack scoffed, “I was perfectly happy with the company I already had” 

“Aww does somebody actually tolerate me?” Diana teased.

“No” He said flatly, “besides you don’t know anything about demons, how do you expect to take care of a child one?”

“Uh” Diana hadn’t actually thought about that, “I'm sure it will all be fine, and if I need help I can call this guy” She held up the small business card she had gotten from the letter earlier that night. 

“God no, don’t call him, just ask me your demon questions instead” Jamack quickly said.

“Why? What’s wrong with him?” “Nothing. I just hate him.” 

“Oooooookay not going to touch that, i'm going to bed” She walked over picking Jamack up from his lectern.

“Wait it’s not even that late, I had so many more insults to-” He was cut off by Diana sliding him into the bookshelf, effectively putting him to sleep. After that she went around switching off the lights before finding her way to her room.

She quickly got into her nightly routine, changing into her pajamas and going into the bathroom to brush her teeth. Once done she walked back into her room to find Max sleeping in the corner on top of her soft pile of things, like she had pushed the whole thing in here just to sleep again. 

“Oh coven your adorable” Diana didn’t think anything of it, getting into her own bed and turning off the lights. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The morning air was everything she had dreamed it would be. It felt cool on her skin and fresh to breathe. Max loved it. She sat on the roof taking in every single moment of the morning. The birds sounded beautiful, the morning dew gave everything a brilliant shine, and the sun rise was just awe inspiring. She watched as the rays of the sun turned everything they touched into a soft golden colour as it consumed all in its path. She loved how the clouds danced in pink tones and how the sky’s dark blue slowly washed away to a lighter shade with every passing second, til the sun had finally fully risen. 

Max could stay here all day, watching the sun do its daily walk across the sky, but she had things to do today.

“Max!” She heard someone shout from inside the house. She quickly got up and climbed back through the open window into Diana's empty room. She walked downstairs to find Diana leaning at the kitchen counter in a simple robe and slippers with a cup of coffee in hand.

“Ugh” jamack groaned, already back out on his lectern for the day.

“See I told you she didn’t run away” Diana declared, in a proud ‘I told you so’ way, “where have you been?” She asked, taking a sip from her mug.

“Uhh” Max panicked in fear of getting in trouble, “around” she stammered, trying not to sound suspicious. 

“Well how long have you been awake?” Diana couldn’t really care what Max was up to, just as long as she didn’t get hurt. 

“Uuh” she had to think again, “I dunno, it was still kinda dark out”

“Oh wow” Diana said, clearly surprised “I didn’t think you’d wake up early”

“Yeah” Jamack chimed in, “I’ve never seen a demon wake up before noon” 

“Yeah well” Max was starting to get embarrassed, “It's just what I do” 

“It's ok, however I can not drag myself out of bed earlier than like 9:30, so you’ll probably have most mornings to yourself” Diana explained. 

“Oh it's ok, I'm used to that,” Max replied.

“I used to have every day alone” Jamack started, “those were the days”

“Well i'm going to go get dressed” Diana said, completely ignoring Jamacks comment, “Then we can get started cleaning up your room”

“ok!!!”

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The two girls soon went to work, going through and sorting the contents of the boxes and the other various things around the room. Deciding what to keep in storage, what to take out of storage, and what to throw away. Though Diana was the one doing most of this sorting. Max was more or less in charge of taking out the trash, and over all just cleaning up. Cleaning out the cobwebs and relocating their inhabitants. However that didn’t mean Max wasn’t periodically looking through some boxes too, and one box in particular caught her eye.

“What’s this stuff?” She asked, digging through the contents.

“Oh” Diana walked over, “It’s a bunch of old toys of mine” She said, reminiscing about all the old stuff in the box.

The box was full of old toys such as wooden building blocks, a black stuffed cat and owl, and a small fake wand with a matching small broom, along with some high quality pieces to a doll house. With some other various toys sprinkled it, overall it was very unremarkable.

“You can have them if you want,” Diana offered.

Max’s eyes lit up, “Really?!” 

“Yeah, I’m not using them anymore” she smiled

“Cool!!!” Max moved the box to the corner of the room away from everything else before the both of them went back to work.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By the time they were done it was around 4 in the afternoon. While it had taken most of the day, and a few breaks, they had succeeded in cleaning out the room. The leftover stuff was now in Diana's closet or somewhere else in the house as decoration and the trash was gone. The only things left in the room now was Max’s nest of soft things, a simple rug, and the box of toys. However it was still clearly missing something. 

“You need a bed” Diana flatly stated. 

“What’cha mean, I got a bed!” Max said, pointing over to her nest pile. 

“No like a real bed, hmm” Diana began thinking, then it hit her. She walked over to the box of toys and began digging through it before pulling out a small wooden bunk bed a moment later.

“Uhh” Max was confused, “I know i'm not that big but even I think that's a little small”

“I know I know, hold on” Diana left, going down stairs, then returned a moment later, now with her wand and a bottle of some orange potion.

She walked over and placed the small bed on the ground against the wall, then dipped her wand in the potion bottle and began drawing some sort of symbol around the toy with the liquid. Once she was done she backed up next to Max, “Ok now watch”

A moment later the liquid on the ground began glowing, a second later the bed instantly grew in size, becoming a full usable bunk bed. Max ran over in excitement, and Diana was just relieved that it had worked first try. 

“That's so cool, how did you do that!?!?!”  Max questioned in awe while climbing all over the bed.

“Oh you know, just comes with being a witch” Diana said trying to seem cool as she wiped off her wand, but ended up dropping it on the floor instead. “Here” she said while picking her wand back up, “I’ll go get some bed sheets” 

Diana returned a moment later with the item in question only to find Max once again sleeping on her nest of soft things that she had now moved onto the lower bunk.

“Ooooohhh sweet Salem, why are you so cute” She quietly said to herself. She placed the sheets on the top bunk with intent to put them on later, so Max could rest. She made her way downstairs to watch TV and relax for a bit. Before she could even find the remote that annoying voice just had to speak.

“Where’s Max?” Jamack asked, “oh wait don't tell me, she ran away!!”

“Ugh no” Diana rolled her eyes, “She’s upstairs taking a nap”

“Really?” I’ve never seen a demon that needs naps”

“Yeah well she’s also a kid and kids need sleep” Diana said, sitting down on the couch and switching on the TV.

“Ooh whatcha watching?” Jamack asked.

“Real housewives of none of your business” Diana snapped back.

“Oh! Is it the new season? Can I watch?” 

“UGH” Diana got back up, grabbed Jamack, and set him on the couch next to her.

“Aww wow does someone actually tolerate me?” jamack was quick to tease.

“No,” Diana said while shoving the book off the couch onto the ground.

“HEY” 

Diana burst out laughing. 

#curraway woods #max and diana

[hell-bound-stories]

Curraway woods- The book

“Bye friends!” Max tossed the last frog threw the portal. The portal quickly closed as the last frog went through. All the frogs were gone, much to Diana’s relief. Max bent down, picking up the same teal frog from before, “and hello new friend!” she said. A moment later the frog jumped out of her hands and into her large hair, disappearing. 

“Cool!” “So” Diana started, walking over to Max in the yard, “what are you going to do now?”

Max stood back up, “what do you mean?”

“Well there’s no more frogs here, so there’s no reason for you to stay” Diana said, trying to seem cool and calm.

“Oh” Max’s happiness faded slightly, “right”

“Unless you decided you wanted to stay anyway” Diana quickly tacked on.

“Hmm no, i'm good” Max began walking away into the woods, “Bye lady!” 

“Oh” that hurt more than she expected it to.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Diana walked inside, kicking off her boots while placing her cloak and hat on the nearby coat rack. She sighed, feeling a little defeated inside.

“So did you get rid of those little buggers?” 

“Yep” she sighed, “did you get rid of that awful coffee stain?” 

“Aww those little guys actually kinda made me less angry at the world”

“Really?” Diana said, semi surprised as she made her way toward the table, towards the voice.

“Nope!!!” The book laughed.

“Ugh” she rolled her eyes, “why did I even come over here”.

“Because you’re lonely” If the book had a mouth it would have a stupid cocky grin on it, “The demon girl left didn’t she?” 

Diana was taken back, “How do you know that?” she said as she began to fill a pot with water, and placed it on the stove. She leaned against the counter, looking back at the book. 

It was a large leather back brown book resting on a lectern. There were 5 eyes on the cover, one in each corner and a large eye in the middle. It had metal fixing around the sides. It had no title, just a name written along the spine. Jamack.

“Well before I could sense a demon around here, and now I can’t, put two and two together annnd?”

“Yeah” Diana admitted, “she left” 

“Well I was going to say four but cripplingly loneliness works too!” He cackled, pages simi flapping around before settling again. 

“Hey, I'm not lonely!” she protested.

“Diana you’re talking to me” Jamack said coldly. He was taken back by the lack of snarky response from Diana. Instead Diana was just watching the teapot slowly boil, tiredness and sorrow washed over her eyes. Jamack sighed. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” 

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Max ran around, chasing butterflies and other insects. She crouched down behind a large rock, getting ready to jump on the butterfly landed on top. Before she could do so a frog jumped out of her hair, eating the butterfly and landing on top of the rock. 

“HEY! Oh you!” Max said joyfully, picking the slimy animal up, “hmm you need a name HEY!” without waiting another second the frog hopped out of her hands, and began making its way back through the trees, “where are you going?” She asked following it.

It didn't take Max long to realize where the frog was headed. “Oooo no no” she quickly picked the frog up, “we don’t need to go back there” she placed the frog in her large pocket on the front of her overalls, while beginning to walk away. A moment later the frog hopped back out, again heading back towards Diana's cabin. 

“Hey no!” She picked it back up, “why do you want to go back?” She placed it back in her pocket,“It's just a boring witch and a boring house” She stated making their way away from the cabin. “Croak” 

“Yeah so, adults still suck”

“Ribbit”

“I can have fun on my own!!”

“Ribbit” 

“I do not like her!!” Max stomped the ground, determined to win this one sided argument, fighting every feeling inside her.

Max walked up to a large tree in what felt like the middle of the forest, “here I’ll show you all the places we can go without her!” She said as she began climbing up the large tree. As she made her way up her mind wandered back to the witch. She didn’t like her. Not at all. Even if she was the first person who didn’t automatically hate her for just being around. Just because she’s nice doesn’t make her ok. Even if she trusted her alone and didn’t yell at her. That was something no one had ever given Max. Trust. And even if being with Diana felt right. That didn’t matter. Not at all. 

Max made her way to the top of the tall pine in minutes. At the top of the tree she found a black card lodged between the small branches. It was the size of a normal note card, completely black on both sides. She picked it up, “huh”.

Max looked around the lush forest, taking note of the setting sun. In the far far distance she could see a sizable town. Other than that it was just pure forest in every other direction. It felt like it went on forever. “See look, we have so much to explore” Max said, though she didn’t seem very happy about it. She looked back down at the black card in her hand. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Ok Ok slow down I didn’t sign up to be a therapist!”

“Well I didn’t sign up to be outcast with the worlds loudest spell book but not everyone gets what they want Jamack!” Diana shouted.

“Well it’s not like being around you is a piece of paper either Diana!”

“That's not even how the saying goes!!!” 

They both stopped bickering, hearing a scratching at the front door.

“Oh, I’d get that but I don't have legs”

“Be grateful you don’t or I’d break your knee caps” Diana snapped while getting the door. She opened the door to see a small white creature waiting patiently. In its mouth was an envelope. It dropped the letter, and took off into the bushes without giving Diana a chance to say anything. She picked up the letter and sure enough it was addressed to her, ‘Witch Diana Ruby’, “huh” Diana said closing the door and walking back to the table.

“Oh is it for me? I ordered an automatic knife launcher” Jamack said as Diana set the letter on the table, fully walking in front of Jamack. 

“What do you have on small white creatures?” Diana asked.

“Ugh” Jamack opened up, flipping through pages, “You’re gonna have to be more specific than that”

“All white, including small horns and tail, all fours, no bigger than a fox, black eyes” She described.

“Ah” Jamack landed on a page with an image of the creature, “A Demar, common demon pet, their spit is very useful for fire protection charms and potions, native to Hell”

Diana looked over the page, “A demon pet?” she asked again puzzled.

“Yeah, just said that-” He was cut off from a knock at the door, “ok that better by my knife launcher, I ordered two day shipping” 

“Ugh shut up” Diana said, getting the door again, opening it.

“Oh”

“Hi” Max said. 

“What are-”

“I want to stay here” Max said quickly, cutting Diana off, “I want to stay here, with you” She was uncharacteristically shy and quiet.

“Oh” Diana smiled, “Well if you really want to stay I do have a small spare room up-” She was cut off again by Max.

“Really?!” She bounced, her usual smile and enthusiasm returned.

“Of course” Diana was beyond happy to have Max return.

“Thank you!” Max ran up, hugging Diana the best she could with her short stature, catching the witch completely off guard, “thank you” she said quieter. 

Diana wrapped her arms around Max the best she could, “You’re welcome”.

They stayed like that for a minute, enjoying each other's simple embrace before a brash voice rudely interrupted, “sooooooo im going to take it that it’s not my knife launcher”.

“No, sorry” Diana said, laughing a bit.

Max backed up, breaking the warm embrace, “ooo who’s that?!” 

“Oh don't tell me that demon girl came back” Jamack said in a dreaded voice.

They walked fully inside, Diana closing the door as Max made her way to the source of the voice. “WHOA A TALKING BOOK!” she shouted, amazed.

“AAH A CHILD YOU DIDN’T SAY SHE WAS A CHILD” Jamack panicked. 

“No I'm sure I mentioned that, you’re just an awful therapist” She laughed walking over to see Jamack jumping up and down on the lectern, freaking out in the presents of Max.

“What are you? Who are you? How can you talk?” Max went off asking Jamack a million questions. As she did so Diana walked back over to the letter she put on the table before, now feeling compelled to open it. 

Inside was a simple folded piece of paper, and a loose black card. She opened the paper reading, “She’s alot, just be patient. If you need anything or run into trouble just call, Have fun - The doctor” Though the signature was almost unreadable. Taped to the paper was a simple business card with a number on it, “p.s I think this was sent to the wrong place” Diana assumed this was in reference to the black card. She set down the letter in favor of looking at the card. It was just a simple unremarkable card with no marking, black on both sides.

“Oh hey you already have one?” Max said, pulling away from Jamack noticing the card in Diana's hands, “I was gonna give this to you but you already got one” Max pulled out her own black card from her large pocket. Diana's eyes widened.

“Where did you get that?” 

“Found it on top of a tree, WHOA yours is so much cooler, mine doesn’t have anything cool like a pointy hat on it!” Max grabbed the card Diana had, looking it over. Diana picked up Max’s card.

“Huh” She looked at the card which had a simple set of demon wings on it, “weird”

“God both of you are blind! They are both black” Jamack angrily chimed in. “You don't even have eyes!!” Max quickly snapped back.

“I have like 6 eyes, eyes are all I have!!!” Jamack bounced. “Wow must suck not having hands” Max said sarcastically.

“OK listen here you little-”

“OOOKKAAY Max lets go set up your room upstairs!” Diana intercepted quickly, not wanting things to escalate between the two. 

“Ok!!!” Max said excitedly. They both placed the cards down on the table, then made their ways upstairs chatting along the way.

“When my knife launcher gets here she’s getting it first!!” 

“I canceled your order” Diana shouted back”

“DAMN IT” Jamack screamed back. 

Once the girls were upstairs the cards glowed their respective symbols, a pink witch hat, and purple demon wings, then disappeared without a trace. 

“Now how am I going to launch knifes?”

#curraway woods #max and diana

[hell-bound-stories]

Curraway woods- The witch

Max was running around her own personal heaven, chasing and carrying around as many frogs as she could. Diana was sitting on the porch, scratching her head with her wand while flipping through a large old book, not paying attention to Max at all. 

“Hehe why are there so many?!” Max giggled as she ran past.

“Uh” Diana started.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Earlier that day

Diana looked through the book on the lectern, adding bits and pieces of different herbs to a small cauldron sitting on the table.

“Ok that should do it” She said triumphantly. She grabbed a small bottle and scooped some of the liquid into it, before closing the top and shaking it. She pulled over a small frog sitting on a plate, “Ok now hold still” she said to the amphibian as she carefully poured a small drop of the potion on its head. The frog croaked and slightly changed colour to an unearthly green.

“Hhmm” Diana pulled out a large hammer and crushed the frog without hesitation. The frog flattened, then popped back up like nothing had happened, completely unharmed. 

“Yes!! It worked!!” She rejoiced.

After a moment the single frog split into two, then four, then eight.

“Oh shit” 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“That doesn't matter” Diana said firmly, shutting the large leather back book, standing up “Lets just gather them all up so we can get rid of them”

“WHat?” Max dropped her arm full of frogs, running over to Diana.

“humanely” Diana tacked on, “We’ll do it humanely”

“Mm ok, but I don’t know why you’d want to get rid of them” Max said picking up a nearby frog to pet, “They are so nice” 

“I guess” Diana started, “why don't you gather all the frogs in one place, you can even pick out one frog to keep, while I go work on a way to humanely get rid of them”

“Why don’t we just toss' em all in the lake?” Max asked, pointing to the nearby body of water.

“That would completely destroy the ecosystem” 

“Oh…..right” Max agreed, “welp frog hunting time!!” With that Max went back over to her original arm full of frogs and gathered them up again.

“Ok, be safe” Diana said, taking her book and basket of plants inside the cabin.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Diana closed the door behind her, leaning against it taking a deep tired breath. She opened her eyes to the site of the amphibians hopping around. They were all over the furniture, jumping around as if they owned the place. Diana groaned, slowly making her way to the other room, trying to avoid the frogs as she went. To her surprise there were frogs in the kitchen as well, climbing in and out of the cabinets and swimming in the sink. 

“Why am I surprised?” She said to herself. She walked over to the dining room table, which was reworked into a crafting table for all her witch needs. She shooed the frogs off the table and set her basket down, placing the large book on the small lectern next to it. As Diana grabbed her wand from her hat the book flew open to seemingly a random page speaking as it did so, “You really messed up this time D”.

“Shut up” She quickly snapped, “Just show me how to undo this”. She looked down at the open page and groaned.  She bent down to pick up the small table cauldron, hoisting it on the table.

“Let's get this over with”

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Max couldn’t remember a day that had been even close to as fun as this one. First she escaped the monsters, and now she got as many frogs as her still heart could desire. No one in Hell ever let her have fun, but this wasn’t Hell. This was heaven. This was the surface. 

From the day Max arrived in Hell, something called her to the surface world. She always felt that the grey cold rock and gravel under her feet wasn’t right. She tried more times than she could count to escape, and she finally did. She was finally free. 

As she chased the frogs she finally felt happy where she was. She felt like she belonged here. She wanted to stay here. With her pink skin under the sun and bare feet in the dirt, everything about this felt right. It wasn’t just that she was outside, but she also had a good feeling about this place. This small cabin in the woods, and the witch that lived in it. Something told her she belonged here. Though all these thoughts were pushed to the side in favor of hunting and catching all the frogs. 

Max jumped and leaped, catching all the frogs she could, without breaking a sweat. She dropped her last arm full of frogs into a large plastic bucket, counting as she did so, “245, 246, 247, 248, 249, 250!” She stated proudly, placing the last frog down. “I wonder if-'' she was cut off by the sounds of ribbits and croaks from above. She turned around looking up, and sure enough there were at least two more arms full of frogs hopping on the roof.

“Oh HECK YEAH!!” Her eyes lit up in excitement, “but how do I get up there?” she quickly began to wonder. She looked around the area. There wasn’t a ladder or any easy way to climb up the wall. She couldn’t fly, maybe jump? Nah, the lion was too big and would crush the cabin. Her teal eyes landed on a tall tree, with a branch kinda hanging close to the house.

“Yes.” 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Diana heard a loud thud on the ceiling above her, “huh” she shrugged it off and continued stirring the pot with her wand. She grabbed some grass from her basket, pinched in between her fingers and sprinkled in as she stirred, while also reading over the book. 

“Flip,” she said.

“Why don’t you flip, you have hands” The book said sternly.

“My hands have been around a demon all day” 

“So”

“A demon child”

“OH GROSS DON’T TOUCH ME” The book quickly flipped the page without hesitation. 

Diana looked over the page, “Oh thank coven, almost done”, she rubbed her eyes and kept stirring. As she worked she couldn’t stop her mind from drifting to Max. Diana didn't quite know what to make of her. 

She didn’t even know someone so young could get sent to hell, or what they even had to do to qualify. However outside of her being a demon, Max was just like any other child with a love for the outdoors.  Even though she couldn’t see Max right now Diana could tell that having her around was just better, even if it had only been a short time, things around here felt more complete. She wanted Max to stay here. Outside of her maternal side saying take care of the 8 year old lost in the woods, it just felt right. It was a hard feeling to put a name on.

She looked back over the book and breathed a sigh of relief, “oh thank coven this is the right fur”. She picked up the lock of fur she had cut off of Max’s main an hour before. She stopped, taking a moment to look at it. Its colour shined vibrantly, and it was soft to the touch. She took a smaller pinch in her other hand.

“Just a little bit of this and-” BANG, another crash coming from the roof above startled Diana, causing her to drop all the fur into the pot. She looked down at the pot as the fur sunk away, stirring, “I wanted to save some of that”.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Max fell on the roof with a hard thud, “Yes!!! I'm a genius!” she jumped up on her feet. She managed to successfully climb up the tree and jump over to the roof with no effort. Did it hurt? Heck no. “Come here lil hoppers” She began walking around picking up as many frogs as she could. Her arms were quickly full of the strange animal.

“Uh” she looked at the bucket of frogs below, “i'm sure you’ll be fine” she said before she started tossing the frogs down. Each one landed perfectly in the bucket, unharmed. She did this a few more times, clearing the roof of any and all frogs. 

“I think that’s all of em” She said proudly, “Diana’s gonna be-” Max turned around and spotted one lone frog sitting on the other side of the roof. This one was different, it had an otherworldly green colour to it, and its eyes felt off, like it knew something. 

“Ooooo come here!” She said, quickly pouncing across the roof towards the small animal. Landing with another even louder thud, she looked at her hands. Empty?

“Wha” she quickly looked around, then felt a small movement on her head.

“Ribbit” The frog sat patiently on her head. She tried grabbing it but it avoided her hands with every hop. 

“......I like you” she said, giving up on the effort. 

“Max!!” a voice shouted from below.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Annnnd done!” Diana said as she finished pouring the newly made potion into a small bottle, topping it off with a cork lid. She whipped her wand down, glancing at a frog, “Soon you will be gone”.

She went around the small house gathering all the frogs she could find, putting them in a sack. Once she was done she made her way outside. She walked off the porch and was met with a large plastic bucket of frogs. Diana was stunned. She didn't own a bucket like this.

She shrugged it off, adding her own bag of frogs to the large tub. She looked around but didn’t see any trace of Max. She got worried, fearing she had run off on her own. Diana didn’t doubt Max could take care of herself in the forest. She was a demon, it wasn't like she was going to freeze to death or starve, but her being alone still didn’t sit right with Diana. 

“Max!” she shouted, looking every which way.

“Oh, hey Diana!” 

Diana looked up to find Max looking over the edge of the roof. She was so relieved. “Oh there you-” She paused, “how did you get up there?” 

“I climbed a tree” She said fear starting to grow in her voice slightly, “i'm sorry” 

“It's ok” She said, she wasn’t mad at all, just curious, “Now come down here so we can humanely get rid of these guys” she smiled.

Max effortlessly jumped down, landing on her bear feet, “what are we gonna do?”

“Well with this” Diana held up a bottle of purple glowing liquid, “We will simple make them, disappear”

“Oooo, what is that?” Max said, entranced by the mysterious liquid.

“This is a potion made from the rarest ingredients in the land stirred by stick made from pure magic in such a delicate processes that-”

Before she could finish, the frog on Max’s head hopped off, knocking the bottle out of Diana's hand onto the ground, shattering, spilling the liquid in the dirt. Diana didn’t even look down as Max tired to hold back a laugh, picking the frog back up.

“Ok you know what”  

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The elderly witch sat comfortably in her chair. The afternoon couldn’t have been more perfect for a cup of tea and a nice book, so she seized the opportunity to do just that. As she took a sip from her tea a large portal opened above her.

“Huh?” Before she could finish thinking, frogs frantically started pouring out of the portal, covering her and the surrounding room almost instantly. Just as fast as it happened, it stopped, the portal above her disappearing. 

“DIANA!!!!!!!!!!” 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“So where does this portal go?” Max asked as she casually dumped the frogs threw.

“Oh it goes to a perfect swamp land, a frog paradise, they’ll love it!” Diana laughed.

“Ok!!”

#curraway woods #Max and Diana

[hell-bound-stories]

Curraway woods- The girl

Diana took a sigh of relief the moment the doctor had left. She pulled the sword out of the manticores burgundy main, using it to block the sun from her eyes as she looked up at the sky (yes she has a hat shut up). 

“Ok, they’re gone” She said, lowering the sword to her side.

The beast lifted its head, looking around before fully standing up. The large gash on its side healed instantly as it did so. While the manticore was otherworldly it was still the size of a normal adult lion, so Diana was actually taller than it.

‘Strange’ Diana thought to herself. She’d seen many monsters like this before, but this one was so abnormally small, even if it was the size of a lion. She could tell it was young, but not how young.

While the beast was taking note of the sky Diana walked over and cut a piece of its furry main with her sword. The beast pulled back in protest but it was too late, she already had a lock of its fur. 

“That is for getting those guys off your tail” She said, placing the fur in her basket next to the other plants. She waved the sword in the air, and in a flash it turned into a simple wooden wand, with that she placed it in her hat. 

“Hey that's not fair!! I coulda taken em on my own!!!” 

Diana looked back to find a small girl where the beast once stood. She was completely taken back, speechless.

The girl wore simple overalls with a messy somewhat torn t-shirt underneath with no shoes. She had scrapes and bruises dotted around her red/pink skin. Her large bull like horns had a red hue at the tip along with her tail that had a normal triangle tip. Her horns seemed small in comparison to her hair. Her dark pink/purple hair was almost the size of her. It was curly, covered in sticks and leaves. However her most stand out feature was how small she was. She was barely half the height of Diana.

Diana expected this demon to be young, but not this young. She looked no older than 10, maybe even younger. Diana immediately began to feel sorry for her.

‘How does a kid so young end up in Hell?’ 

“What” the girl snapped, she didn’t like that Diana had been staring for so long.

“So” Diana started, “what are you going to do now?” She was genuinely curious.

The girl looked around, “I don't really know, anything I guess I’ve never gotten this far” She said truthfully, “Imma go look for frogs!!”. The girl began walking away towards the forest, but was stopped by a sudden hand grabbing her arm.

“Wait” Diana said

The girl jumped back instinctively, hissing loudly as she did so, pulling her arm away from the grip. Diana quickly noticed her mistake, taking steps backwards to put some distance between them. The last thing she wanted to do was scare her.

“Im sorry” She said honestly, trying to remain calm, “Why don't you come hang out with me?”

“EWW” The girl said quickly, “Why would I want to spend another minute with adults, all of you suck butt” She hissed.

“Well I helped you get away from those guys didn’t I?” Diana pointed out, hoping to gain any trust she could. She knew that was going to be hard, but she wasn’t going to give up on her and leave her here alone. That wasn’t fair.

“Yeah so?” She clearly wasn’t impressed, “Like I said I coulda taken them all on my own!!!” She puffed out her chest, trying to appear strong. Diana very much doubted that, but she wasn’t going to crush her facade.

“Well why don't you spend just one night with me?” Diana offered, “I'm sure you're tired from out running them all morning” She was trying her best to sound inviting.

“Nu-uh” She shook her head, “I don’t need adults, adults are stupid”. She began walking away again.

“Hmm” Diana had to think for a moment, “Oh well, I guess I’ll just go home and play with all my frogs by myself”

This caught the demon girls attention, stopping her march away. She looked back at Diana, “you have frogs?!” Her voice was filled with excitement for the first time. 

“Yep” Diana went on, “the lake nearby is full of them, and they are all over my property. It comes in handy for all my magical needs”

“NO!” The girl yelled in protest, running up to the witch, “You don’t kill them do you?” 

“Oh no no” Diana explained, “I just need their slime and spit and eye juice” 

“Oh gross!!” The girl said, full of excitement, giving a full smile as she did.

“Oh it's so gross” Diana agreed with just as much excitement, “Do you want to see?”

“Hecky yes I want to see!!” She said bouncing up and down. Any opposition to being with the adult witch had been cast aside in favor of frogs.

While it wasn’t exactly trust Diana would take it. As long as this young girl wouldn’t be alone in the woods tonight it worked. Demon or not, it wasn’t right to just leave her here. 

“Great my cabin is-”

“I’ll beat you there!!!” With that the girl transformed back into the manticore from before, and took off in a random direction towards the trees. Flying past Diana without hesitation. 

Diana smiled, “other way” 

The beast ran by again, this time going the other direction

“Still wrong” She laughed. Demon or not, kids are kids.

The beast walked back over and sat down in front of Diana in defeat. 

“Come on, I’ll show the way” She smiled.

The beast gave up, turning back into the same girl from before, “I totally would have found it on my own” She boasted as they both began to walk into the woods.

“Oh I know you could” She paused, “huh I don't know your name” 

“Oh my name is Max!” Max said triumphantly. 

“Max? What a great name” Diana said, agreeing in a way. It fit her perfectly. 

“I know!!!” Max exclaimed following closely along, “I thought of it all on my own!!!” 

They walked out of the grassy field into the forest. Diana led the way to a small elephant path that she knew well. The cabin was a short 10 minute walk from the field, the perfect amount of time to get to know Max. Diana had questions, and Max had her own special answers.

“You know” Diana started, “I’ve never seen a demon quite like you before”

“I know aren't I cool!!!” Max stated, “Not every demon is a cool colour like me!!!” 

“Really?” Diana knew basic things about demons, but had never heard of ones with pink skin.

“Yeah! Im super special, one in a quatrillion!” She proudly explained. As they walked Max jumped on every log she could walk along on, before jumping down to find another rock or log to walk on next. Diana just stuck to the trail, keeping an eye on Max, just to make sure she didn’t wonder the wrong way. 

“Is your cool monster form a part of you being super special?” Diana had seen many mythical beasts before, but she’d never seen a demon with a form like that. Most demons had a generic monster as their beasts form, not something specific like a manticore. 

“Yeah isn’t it awesome!!” she bounced along the path, “It such a cool lion thing, its super big and strong” 

“Can you do anything else that’s special?” 

“Uh” this was the only question that stumped Max. She took a moment thinking hard, “Not now, no one ever told me how to use stuff like fire, but I don't need them. I'll learn on my own!!” Her confidence returned without effort.

“Oh, well how old are you?” Finally Diana got to ask the question that had been burning in her mind since she first met her minutes ago.

“I think I'm 7? I never kept count” Max happily replied, unfazed by the question or the response. Diana however was not. How does a 7 year old end up in Hell? She knew the answer but she still wanted to ask, “Do you know how you died?”. 

“Yeah!!”

“Really?” Now this was surprising.

“Totally” Max climbed on top of a large rock, “I went out fighting a pack of wolves, trying to save a family of small bunnies!!” She stated without hesitation, raising her firsts to the sky. Diana couldn’t help but give her a smile, a soft warm smile. There was nothing like childlike innocence. 

Max put her arms down, “I think” she admitted, “I'm sure it was super epic and cool and it definitely happened in a forest”. The fact she was dead didn’t bother her one bit. She jumped off the rock and continued on the way. 

Diana didn’t know what to say. She knew Max wouldn’t remember, no demon remembers how they die, but she didn’t expect Max to be so ok with it. Let alone talk about how “epic” it could have been. 

“Holy heck!!” Max shouted, running in front of Diana down the rest path. They had finally reached their destination. 

The path ended at a small clearing, in the middle of which had a simple cozy house. There was another small path off to the side that led to a nearby lake. The only thing unusual about the cabin at first glance was the fact the house and surrounding area was covered in frogs, hoping and croaking about. 

Max was in awe at the site, and Diana was reminded of how bad it was.

“There are so many FROGS!!!” She screamed, running to grab as many as she could.

Diana sighed, letting out an extremely un enthused, “yep”

#curraway woods #Max and Diana

[hell-bound-stories]

curraway woods- The beast

It ran.

It ran as fast as it could.

It didn’t know where it was running, but it knew from what.

The beast danced its way around the trees, leaping over every obstacle in its way with no effort. It’s large furry main picked up sticks and leaves as it bounced through the thick brush. Its lungs burned, begging for a rest, but it had no time. It could still tell the hunters where on its tail, getting closer with every second. Stopping wasn’t an option. It didn’t want to go back. It wasn’t going back. 

The beast jumped from the top of a small hill. Majestically it spread its large black bat like wings. It began desperately flapping them, trying its best to take off with no avail. It fell back down to the earth below with a large thud. It growled in frustration, angry with itself for not knowing how to fly. Without wasting another second the beast took off running again. It had no time to waste.

The woods were massive, well over 100 acres, maybe even bigger. The beast was running threw the thick of it. It was filled with rocks, trees, bushes, caves, leaves, sticks, dirt, grass, ponds, lakes, and most importantly life. Everywhere you looked you could see some sort of animal. Big or small, predator or prey, this forest was full of life. It was exactly where the beast longed to be. It wanted nothing more than to stay here forever, but first it had to run. 

The monsters that were hunting it were just that, monsters. Their wings, horns, and tails were the least scary thing about them. Their matching uniforms and big gun like weapons made them the scary men they were. It knew their shared goal. Catch it and bring it back. While the men were fast, making use of their powerful wings, the beast was faster. 

Though it didn’t know these woods, it knew the woods, and how to effortlessly maneuver around them. Even if it didn’t have eyes it didn’t need them to know where to go. This wasn’t the first time it ran through a patch of forest in fear. 

This was maybe the beast's six escape attempt. The early attempts were short lived, getting caught almost immediately, but every attempt got more promising. Getting out for longer and longer building up to now. This was the longest it had gotten out, almost a full day, and it wasn’t stopping now. 

Without thinking beast skidded to a sudden stop. Its large ears poked up from behind it's even larger horns. It heard something, something strange. Without knowing better it began to run towards the sound. As it got closer it stopped again, picking up a new unfamiliar but incredibly interesting scent. It forgot about running as curiosity completely took over. It bent its head down, its large nose now sniffing the dirt. It began following the scent. The beast didn’t notice when it had begun to wander into a grassy field, leaving the safety of the trees behind. 

It kept its head down, sniffing its way through the short grass, completely distracted from its original threat. It ran into something stopping it in the middle of the field, breaking it from its fixation. It took a moment for the beat to realize it had run into a pair of boots. It glanced up to find a rather annoyed looking lady looking down at it. 

The beast jumped back from fear. The owner of the boots was a tall old adult lady. She wore a black cloak around her shoulders with a matching pointy hat on her head. In her arms was a basket of grass with some other plants.

“Watch where you're going” She snapped, completely unfazed by the beast or its appearance, just merely annoyed it as it bumped into her, interrupting her work.

She looked at the pink beast which was now recoiled back, its poisonous scorpion tail up, ready to attack if needed. The beast tried it’s best to look fierce, baring its teeth. The lady was taken back, not because it was scary, but because it wasn’t.

Though the beast had no eyes, she could tell that it was terrified, and something about it felt young. Much younger than she expected it to be. She began to feel bad for it. Their standoff was interrupted by a man shouting in the distance. They both quickly looked back at the woods, towards the direction of the shout. 

“Oh” 

                               -----------------------------------------------------

“Guys over here!!!” One of the men shouted.

The four of them had been chasing after this girl for almost a day now, and all of them were sick of it. Three of the men wore a typical matching uniform, all carrying a crossbow-like weapon loaded with a dart. The other man was taller than the rest, he wore a white lab coat and carried no weapon. All of them had horns, wings, and a tail, all in various sizes and colours. They immediately made their way out the woods towards the field.

Once they arrived at the center of the field they found the beast fallen on its side with a large sword sticking out its middle next to a large bloody gash. All the men were taken back, disgusted at the site, but the tallest of them wore a small smile, amused.

“What the-”

“A WITCH” One of the men shouted, he seemed to be in charge. They all aimed their crossbows at the lady standing next to the slane beast.

“Whoa calm down boys, not even an introduction?” She raised her hands up lazily, already tired of the group of men.

“We are members of the Hell Guard” another man spoke up, “Who are you?” 

“Witch Diana Ruby, member of the nothing” She rolled her eyes, putting her hands back down on her sides.

“Well Ms.Ruby” The leader took charge again, “We’ll just take her and be on our way” He gestured to the pink manticore laying still on the ground.

“Oh no you’re not!” Diana interjected, pissed, “I killed it, I keep it” 

“What?” The leader asked sharply.

“Yeah” She doubled down, “It attacked me, so I killed it, besides” she bent down and stroked its large main, “Its fur is just what I need for a potion” 

The leader looked over at the stand out man in the white lab coat, “Doctor she can't be serious” 

The doctor said nothing, face emotionless, walking over to the beast. He looked over it, assessing its large wound. He nodded, “Yes, she’s dead, no point in bringing her back now” He stood back up, walking back over to the group, “Besides I have much more pressing matters to take care of back down in Hell as I’m sure you all know” 

The men were all visibly confused, but no one dared question the doctor, they took his word as truth.

“Ok then” The leader spoke, uncertainty in his voice, “lets go boys”

“Oh thank god” another member said in relief, “That brat’s been the bane of my existence for a year” They all took off in the sky, back towards the woods, except the doctor.

The doctor looked back at Diana, the small amused smile had come back on his face, “Take good care of her, the fur I mean, it can be a lot and quite” He paused for a moment thinking, “messy”.

Diana could tell he knew what was up, but she was still slightly confused by the comment, “Oh uhh yeah, I’ll take good care of her” she said with a equally warm but awkward smile

The doctor gave them both a nod before taking off after the group of guards. It was just Diana and the still beast in the grass. 

#curraway woods #Max and Diana

[hell-bound-stories]

Some days

Sydney hated summer. Sophomore year had ended a month ago, and junior year couldn't be coming sooner. It felt like summer had just begun and Sydney hated everything about it. The hot stale air made every day drag, and the sun setting at 8:30 every night didn’t help the days move faster. Every day felt like an awful eternity she couldn’t escape from, and they all blended together. 

‘What day even is it?’

Sydney would wake up every day around 9 after going to bed around midnight the night before. That sounds like a good amount of sleep. It's everything but. She will get into bed and lie awake for hours, unable to actually fall asleep. During that time her mind is flooded with awful thoughts and memories, unable to escape the plague that is the past, making her more tired. This did nothing but make the lack of sleep more frustrating, there was no escape from herself. If she did manage to fall asleep it was only for a couple of hours before waking back up again into the endless cycle. Napping during the day wasn’t any better.

‘Maybe tomorrow’

Sydney was never not tired. If it wasn’t from a lack of sleep the night before it was from an invisible weight placed on her shoulders by an even more invisible foe. She was always wrapped up in a blanket of exhaustion. The most she could do during that time was lie in bed, sometimes for hours, desperately trying to sleep. No matter how tired, physically or emotionally, she is never able to fall asleep. This did nothing but feed an ever growing anger. Sometimes in acts of frustration she’d hit the wall or punch a pillow, not knowing what else to do. She had no one to talk to after all.

‘Not that anyone would want to listen to me’ 

Sydney didn’t have friends. Well, no, she had “friends” but they were nothing more than kids who knew her name, and she didn’t know anything about them other than their names, so it was mutual in that way. She had peoples numbers, and that had hers, but no one ever texted her, and she never texted them. Sydney was never invited to hang out or anything remotely like that by any of her “friends” once. Outside of their shared classes it felt like she didn’t exist. She didn’t even think about dating, and no one ever showed interest in her either. Some days this got to her more than others. She never dwells on it long, but she had to admit, she wasn’t completely innocent on her end. She focused more on school than trying to make friends. 

‘If they wanted to talk to me, they would, I shouldn’t bother them’

Since freshman year school was the only thing Sydney could bring herself to care about. In middle school things fell. Hard. She was in the seat, but she was lost somewhere else entirely, but it was ok. Everyone understood, but time passed. After 8th grade the only thing she was told was “You really need to try harder, high school is when things get serious, without good grades you’ll never get into a good college” and more notably “GPA is forever, pain is temporary” That one stuck with her. Sydney took it to heart, focusing solely on school. It was the only thing that mattered, right? She signed up for AP classes just to push herself. When she got home from school she’d immediately do all her work, not stopping for breaks or for food til she was done, which most of the time wasn’t until it was dark out. So far she hasn't gone to any type of school event or dances, and she wasn’t planning on it. This worked. The teachers and other staff congratulated her on being such a good student, and her mom was proud of her too. The only problem was summer, but right now everyone was happy, right?

‘Im happy, just a slow day’

While every kid always looked forward to the end of the year, counting the days and talking about summer plans, Sydney loathed it. Her mom never let her sign up for summer college courses, saying “Summer is a break, you should enjoy it”. The last thing Sydney could do was enjoy it. Without the schedule and work of school she felt useless. She had nothing outside of school and now she was left with 104 days of what felt like wasted time. Wasted potential. She felt miserable every dragging day of the hot season. Everyday she didn’t do something productive she got more and more pissed at herself, but there was nothing productive to do. She’d watch the same youtube videos and Netflix shows over and over again, while endlessly scrolling through social media, watching the world fall apart. The only thing keeping her going was the promise of school in the fall. Summer just left Sydney feeling awful and she didn’t know what to do about it.

‘It's fine…….it’ll be better tomorrow’

She never left her room. The only times she did was to use the bathroom, get water, or grab some food. Sydney was home alone almost every day, her mom opting to get every work shift she could, so she had free rein over the house, but she chose the safety of her room over any other place. Without school her room fell into disarray, a mess was putting it lightly. Eating was rare. At most she’d grab one small thing to have once a day. It always felt like ignoring the hunger was easier than doing something about it. Sometimes her mom would order take out or pizza, and that would be the snack for the week, still not grabbing some as often as she should. Sydney did however drink plenty of water. She always had her water bottle by her side on her desk. Whenever it was empty she would immediately get up to refill it, an interesting habit she developed long ago. She ate food and drank water, she was healthy enough, right?

‘psh I’m healthy’

Sydney wore the same clothes every day. Simple dark blue skirt, with a matching blue tee, and a striped long sleeve underneath, and she’d never be caught without her long hair in a ponytail. While this look was cute that's not exactly why she wore it so often. Those clothes were the closest thing to her on the floor when she woke up in the morning, sometimes she’d even go to bed with them on, just not caring. Her ponytail easily hid the fact she hadn’t showered in a week. She had a hard time being motivated to get a fresh set of clothes, or take a shower, but that didn’t matter. No one was ever going to see her anyway, so what?

‘I’m clean, enough’

Sydney never went outside. Other than grabbing the mail there was no point. Besides she didn’t to be seen outside alone. Everyone around here was always on a walk with someone, even if it was a dog, no one was ever alone. So even if she wanted to go out, which she definitely didn’t, she didn’t want to be that freak loner kid on the street. She decided long ago that her room was better than the outside anyways. Watching the clouds float past through her window was just as good as being outside, definitely.

‘Why is the sky so blue?’

There was nothing wrong with Sydney, and she knew that. The school rewarded her for working like this, and her mom didn’t notice anything wrong with it. She was finally the girl they all wanted her to be. Sure sometimes she’d get really frustrated over some small insignificant thing, but she never cried over it. She didn’t allow herself to. Everyone gets upset from time to time. 

‘I'm just a stupid teenager with stupid teenage emotions’ 

In her eyes, all she had to do was make it to junior year, then everything will be fine again. No more boring days. No more feeling completely fucking useless because she hasn’t done anything in weeks. The school will go back to praising her and she’ll pass all her classes with flying colours. Just what everyone wanted. Just a few more weeks til the start of a new year. 

Sydney just has to make sure nothing and no one got in her way, and she’d be fine,

‘right?’

#hellbound #Sydney

[hell-bound-stories]

two years: working title

“Mmhhmm”, try again” The doctor said, looking closely at Azz’s hands.

“Ugh ok ok” Azz closed their eyes, trying to focus, but nothing happened. Azz growled, standing up in frustration, “See, I can’t do this!!”

Azz had been trying to summon their soulfire for the better part of an hour, with no success. The rest of their first check up went fine, the doctor didn’t expect Azz to struggle with this. Showing your soulfire was something every demon could do at will. This did nothing but raise more concern with him about Azz. 

“Ok” the doctor sighed, “we’ll try again tomorrow” He said walking over to his desk to set his clipboard down. 

“Oh thank stars” Azz said, laying down on the floor. So far they found being dead very very tiring. 

Without warning some stranger burst threw the door into the office, “HELLLLOOOOOO DARLINGSSS”

“Oh for fucksake” The doctor said quietly, rubbing his eyes.

Azz was more startled by the weird white round creature that had scampered over his body, quickly running over to the stranger. It had a small bark even though it had no mouth, and its tail was wagging at a million miles an hour. 

The stranger bent down, picking up the creature, “oh yes hello sweetheart” They said while coddling it, rubbing its belly, “I missed you so much, yes I did”. The creature clearly loved the stranger.

“You didn’t call” The doctor groaned.

“I never call!” The stranger happily replied. 

The man was slightly taller than the doctor. He had dark red horns with the typical red hue at the tip. Unlike the doctor's horns, which curved upwards, his horns curved backwards. Both of them had a gold band on their left horn. His skin was more grey than the doctors, his wings were a rich deep blue, and his tail was long and thin. While the doctor's voice was deep and gruff, the stranger's voice was smooth, almost seductive. He wore what looked like a traditional white chef's coat, simple dark blue pants, and black boots.He also had a holster on his belt that had a knife in it.

He was the chef.

Azz was still on the floor, not caring about the stranger. They’ve had a long day and all they wanted to do was nap.

“Besides” The chef said, “I brought you lunch!” He placed the creature back on the ground and walked over to the desk, setting down a simple brown paper bag. This grabbed Azz’s attention.

“Food?” Azz sprung up and ran over to the desk joining the other two men. Azz completely forgot about their hunger, “Can I have some? I haven’t eaten all day”

“Of course” the chef said smiling, completely unfazed by Azz’s presents. He pulled out a simple sandwich from the bag and handed it to them. Azz snatched the food and quickly ran back to his spot on the floor, starting to devour the sandwich. It tasted like the best thing they’d ever eaten. 

“Hey” The doctor protested.

“Oh don't worry Mr.grumpy, I brought two” He said, pulling another sandwich out of the bag.

“Thanks, but how-” The doctor started

“How did I know about them?” The chef finished, gesturing to Azz, who was now fighting over the sandwich with the white creature from before, “You thought we wouldn’t notice when they woke up too?” 

The doctor took a bite of his food sitting down in his desk chair, “I suppose not”

They both looked over at Azz, who wasn’t paying attention to either men, busy fighting the round white creature over their food on the ground. The chef leaned against the desk in front of the doctor.

“So” He started, “That's the angel boy?”

“Yep”

“I expected more, they don’t look like an angel at all” The chef was slightly disappointed.

“Yes, but looks aren't everything” The doctor looked at the chef, “I know you can feel it”

“Yeah” the chef scoffed, “The whole block can feel it, everyone is avoiding this place”

The doctor sighed, “You should have seen us walking threw the city” 

“Oh jeez” The chef knew that probably wasn’t fun for either of them. They both knew that life for Azz down here wasn’t going to be fun. They both looked back over at Azz, who had, for now, won the battle and was sitting down on top of the creature eating their sandwich in victory. 

“What’s wrong with them?” The chef could tell a lot of things about them when off. The doctor silently handed him the clipboard, taking another bite of his sandwich. The chef looked over it, his eyes widened, “........wow” 

“Mmhm” The doctor nodded. 

“That is” The chef paused, flipping threw the papers, “so much” 

“Yep, and it's still day one, who knows what else might happen over time”

The chef was shocked. Everything about Azz was unheard of. Their small size, their weak fire, their abnormally pale skin and bright red eyes, topped off with the lack of horns and a tail. The only normal thing about them was their strength, but even that felt wrong because of their small size. Without a doubt the strangest thing about Azz was their arrival in Hell.

Azz showed up in the facilities just like any other soul, however it didn’t take long for the staff to notice something was up with them. The strong angel aurora surrounding them was impossible to ignore. Everyone agreed that keeping them around could only end badly, thinking that they were a bad omen. That's when the doctor was called to look over the situation. The doctor always had the most trusted medical opinion, being among the oldest demons in Hell had its benefits, however his actions would cause the loss of his respect, but he couldn't care less. Unlike everyone else, the doctor had a good feeling about Azz. The feeling of promise and a bright future. Against everyone's wants and wishes he brought Azz to a cave outside the city, and near the surface. It would be another week before they actually woke up.

The chef looked back over the clipboard, “ wait, this say’s their horns and tail are powered by emotion”

“Yep” The doctor said nonchalantly.

“What does that mean?” 

“Watch” The doctor did a small whistle, calling over his around white companion. The creature quickly stood up and ran over to him, causing Azz to fall over onto their face, making a mess of their sandwich. Azz growled, very much done with all the creatures shit, horns and a tail quickly appeared out of nowhere. They lept after the creature, tackling it once more to the ground before it could reach its destination, starting another fight.

“Whoa” The chef was speechless.

“Yeah” the doctor said, finishing the last bite of his sandwich.

“How does that even-” The chef was so amazed by everything Azz did. They were the most interesting thing to happen to both of the men in thousands of years. 

“I have no idea” The doctor cut him off, “ok you two, break it up”

They both stopped mid-fight, and looked at the doctor, “He started it” Azz quickly said. The creature quickly growled back at them.

“I dont care” the doctor said rubbing his eyes, “Azz go upstairs to your room and get some rest, Crouton go lay down”

They both groaned, slowly making their way over to the back door. The creature laid down in its small bed as Azz unlocked the door and made their way upstairs.

The door closed behind Azz, and the chef immediately burst out laughing.

“What?” the doctor was so tired.

“Nothing, you just have all the elegance of a dad” He said, smirking. 

The doctor scoffed, “yeah well a better dad than you’d ever be”

“Oh? Wanna bet?”

#hellbound #the doctor and the chef #and azz #Azz is their too

[hell-bound-stories]

Azz says non binary rights!!! 

They will throw hands for anyone, everyone is valid!!!!!

#hellbound #nonbinary #art #Azz

[hell-bound-stories]

Red hair: Black glasses

The ride home was painfully quiet. The radio was turned down, barely audible, and Heather kept her mouth shut. Her eyes locked on the road and hands literally iced to the wheel. She knew what happened, she was there, but she didn’t understand any of it, or how to begin to process it. All Heather really wanted to do was scream and punch something. They only lived about 10 minutes away from the school, but the drive home felt like hours.

Spencer also kept quiet, not even thinking of saying anything in fear of making Heather more upset. His black glasses glued out the window, watching the world pass by as a million and one thoughts raced through his mind. At the forefront of his thoughts was Sydney. Was she ok? What was she thinking? Was Azz ok? Did she hate him? Would he see her tomorrow? All those questions and more plagued his mind. Spencer had been picking and scratching at the skin on his hands since they got in the truck. An awful uncontrollable habit. Spencer was suddenly snapped out of his thoughts temporarily, realizing they had pulled up to the drive way of their shared home.

It was a nice sizable home inside an equally nice and sizable neighborhood. It was the local “rich” neighborhood, and Spencer really didn’t like it. It had a simple grassy front yard, clearly taken care of weekly by landscapers. The house itself matched the style of the houses around it, simple wood paneling with bricks/rocks. Heather's old beat up truck felt so out of place parked in the nice driveway. They were both sure the neighbors hated them just based off her truck.

The both silently grabbed their bags and got out of the car. Heather unlocked the front door, held it open for Spencer, and closed it behind him. Once the door was closed Spencer didn’t even have time to set his bag down before he was thrown into a forced, but welcome hug. 

“I'm sorry” Heather said, her voice laid with grief. Spencer didn’t know what he expected, but this wasn’t it.

“Its o-” He started

“No it's not, it's not ok” Heather cut him off quickly, “I scared you, I know I did. I got so angry, I started a fight, I froze some dude's car” every word was spoken with full sorrow.

“Its okay” Spencer finished, pulling away from the warm hug, “though I think that was the principles car”

“Shit” They both shared a small laugh, making their way to the dining room table to set their things down and start to unwind. Spencer didn’t like prying into other business, but he had to know this time.

“What happened?” He was scared of every possible answer.

“I don’t know” Heather seemed ashamed of herself, “Something about that demon just….rubbed me the wrong way, lets just say that” She struggled to find the right words to explain what she was thinking. She didn’t even understand what she felt about him.

Spencer didn’t understand. He didn’t know Azz well, but from what he’d seen they seemed practically harmless, and Azz was good friends with Sydney. That had to mean something, right?

“Something about him just makes me mad”, Heather continued.

“Ahem..” Spencer chimed in.

“What?” Heather hadn’t caught on.

“Them” 

“........Something about them just makes me mad” She corrected, “really mad” 

“But why?” Spencer really didn’t understand. How could anyone be mad at a snail loving dork? By now Spencer had pulled out books from his bag needed for tonight's homework, and set them on the table. 

“I don’t know, I just hate them”

“Hate them??” This wouldn’t fly, “You don’t even know them!” 

“I don’t need to know them to know I hate them” Heather said matter of factly. 

“You don’t even know their name!” Spencer protested.

“Yes I do” She had to think for a second, “Sam” 

“Azz” Spencer groaned, “and what about Sydney? Azz is her guardian”

“Ugh her” Heather scoffed, “What’s a girl like her doing with a demon like that?” 

“Oh? A girl like her?” Spencer lightly teased.

“Shut up” The smallest blush creeped on her face.

“Either way Azz is hers, they can’t be that bad if they are a guardian” Spencer knew Azz wasn’t bad, and he wasn’t going to let Heather judge Azz based on basically nothing. That wasn’t fair.

“Mmm well..” Heather paused, She knew Spencer was right, kind of. Guardian demons weren’t the newest thing. Satan has been trying to give Hell a new image for a while. Everyone knew that the qualifications were tight. They didn’t let any demon on the surface, you had to pass a strict set of rules and tests. The process was long, ruling out any demon that was “too dangerous” for the surface. If Azz was one of the lucky few, then technically they weren’t bad, but technically not evil wasn’t good enough for Heather.

“I still don’t like them” Every fiber of Heather’s being told her not to trust Azz. Something told her Azz was dangerous and she didn’t know what, but she felt the need to trust it. Seeing them just made her uncontrollably pissed.

By now both of them had their shoes off, and Spencer started work on tonight's homework. Heather looked at her phone, checking the time.

“Oh shit”

“What?” 

“Go change!” 

“Uuuuggggggghhh” Spencer though she had forgotten, “do I really have to?”

“Yes” She gave him a soft pat on the back, “It's been too long, you need a break”

“Mmm fine” He knew she was right. Spencer went upstairs to his room to change into something more breathable. While alone in his room he drifted back into his thoughts.

Spencer had never seen Heather so mad. He knew she had ice powers, and that she’s a decent fighter. Heather can stand her own against a couple guys bigger than her, even without her powers. However Spencer had this lingering feeling that what he saw threw his helpless black glasses wasn’t Heather. He saw an angry, scary, person, who wanted nothing more than to hurt Azz, who wasn’t even fighting back. Spencer didn’t know who he saw, and he definitely didn’t like it.

Spencer made his way back downstairs, now wearing a large oversized hoodie. Breathable? Yes. Five sizes too big? Definitely. Comfortable? Debatable. He found Heather sitting on the couch, watching tv.

“Hey don't you have homework?”

Heather gave him a look, “.....i'm an angle” 

Spencer rolled his eyes, “You’re such a bad role model” he joked. 

“Hey i'm not supposed to be a role model” she laughed, “besides, school is the last thing I need to ‘model’ for you” 

“True, true” They both knew Spencer easily stood his own when it came to school work.

Spencer went back to work at the dining room table. He always preferred to do his school work down stairs. His room was small, and while sometimes that was nice, it wasn’t needed when working.

Heather was left alone with her own thoughts while watching tv, tossing a small snow ball between her hands. She couldn’t stop thinking about the fight. She didn’t understand what she felt. She didn’t feel like herself at that moment. Heather was the most taken back by the sheer power she had. Most she’d ever been able to make before with her power was a simple snow ball and freezing some things. She was always told she’d never have strong powers, but today clearly proved otherwise. The outburst was completely uncontrolled, and that scared her. Heather didn’t even know if she would be able to do that again. Seeing Azz brought out the most primal rage inside her, and she didn’t know why or how she felt about that. 

About an hour later Spencer was done with his work. He joined her on the couch, watching some stupid show about a depressed horse. After a while Heather piped up.

“What do you want for dinner?”

“Uuuhhh” Spencer hated questions like this, “I don't know, you pick”

“Well I don't really care, so you pick” She responded.

It took them over 50 minutes to decide on pizza.

Once the pizza came Spencer was reminded with a harsh reality. The reality that tomorrow would eventually come, and one question began to burn in his mind. 

He was hesitant, but he had to ask,“Hey Heather?”

“Yeah?” She grabbed a slice

“What are you going to do at school tomorrow?”

“Uuuhh” Her pizza slice froze instantly. 

#hellbound #red hair pt 3 #Heather and Spencer

[hell-bound-stories]

two years

The body jolted awake, coughing up a black tar like liquid, gasping for breath, waking up into a forced existence. They looked around frantically, trying to grasp where they were.

It felt like a small cave, the walls being nothing but various shades of grey. The stalagmites clinging to the ceiling were the only thing in there with them. There was a small tunnel, a way out, but something told them to stay.

The body was small. Red hair and eyes complemented by a pale skin, covered in a brown shaggy cloak. The cloak had a pin of an emblem they didn't recognize holding both sides together. The body knew three things.

They are cold.

They have a headache.

They are dead.

A moment later a stranger walked into the cave, “you’re awake” He seemed so relieved, “you’re actually awake, this is amazing!”

The man pulled a clipboard out from his white coat. The paper attached seemed to be some kind of form, and with a pen in hand he was ready to fill it out. He sat down next to the body.

“What’s your name?”

The body had to think, hard, but something inside of them knew, “Azz”

“Azz?” He wrote down the name, “Interesting” 

It was the first name they thought of, like someone else had given it to them. The name felt right, and they didn’t know why.

“Ok, how old are you”

“15” they knew without hesitation, again not quite knowing why.

“Oh” the man paused, a look of sadness washing over him, “so young” he said under his breath. He quickly changed the subject.

“How do you feel?” sadness had left his voice, in favor of curiosity.

“I'm cold, and my head hurts”

The man nodded, jotting those things down on this paper, “The headache is normal, it will go away in a bit, and i'm sorry about the cold, I tired getting you as close to the surface as possible in hopes it would be warmer” He paused, “I guess it didn’t work” 

The man scrapped one of his long black claw like fingers against the ground, sparking a flame, a placed it in front of Azz, “This should help for now”

“Whoa” Azz was amazed, looking at their own hands, “When do I get to do that?” 

The man chuckled, “in a bit, for now just stay by the fire”

The man was thousands of years old, but next to Azz’s child-like wonder and amazement he somehow felt young again. He went back to his clipboard, looking through the next few lines.

“How did you die?”

“I” Azz paused, starting to panic, “I dont know”

“Good” the man said without hesitation

“Good?” How could that be good?

“Yes” he said happily, “No one remembers how they die, the past can’t touch you now, it's nothing but a fresh start.”

“Oh” That was somewhat nice to hear, but Azz had this lingering feeling that their death was awful and painful. They didn’t know why. They sighed, looking around the cave once more.

“Where am I?” 

“You’re in Hell”

They looked around again, “I thought Hell was a city, and bigger”

“It is, but I had to bring you here”

“To…….a cave?” Azz was confused

“It’s a long story” The man kept writing things down as they spoke

“Who are you?”

“The doctor”

“What's your name?”

“The doctor” He began getting up, “Now stand up, I need to get a better look at you”

Azz did as told without hesitation. Once standing they both realized just how small Azz actually was. They were at least two feet smaller than the doctor.

“Oh my, you’re even smaller than I thought” He walked a circle around Azz, “Just barely six feet”

“Hey, i'm not small!”

“I’ve never seen a demon so small before, I didn’t know this was possible” He was truly amazed. Azz however was not.

“I. am. Not. SMALL” Azz stomped the ground, causing the whole cave to shake, some rocks coming loose from the ceiling, falling to the floor below. Such a simple comment had made them uncontrollably upset. The doctor was taken back.

“But you’re still just as strong as you're supposed to be! And your horns and tail seemed to be controlled by emotion, this is incredible!” The doctor was ecstatic, taking notes on his clipboard as fast as possible.

Azz hadn’t even noticed the two small horns that came out of his head, and the long tail coming from his back. The doctor got closer to get a better look at both.

“The end of your tail is normal, but its so thin, and your horns” He didn’t know what to think, “They are so small as well, and the wrong colour” He was truly amazed.

“A thousand years in Hell and you are the strangest demon I’ve ever seen”

“Mm” Azz didn’t like hearing any of this, “Why don’t you just make a list of everything wrong with me!” So far Azz hated being dead, and they were only 30 minutes old.

“Oh dear boy I already am!” 

“I'm not a boy” Azz growled under his breath.

“To start it's a miracle you’re even dead! With fire as weak as yours you should have been nothing but the husk of a hollow!” The doctor's happiness was really starting to piss Azz off, “Everyone got mad at me for believing in you, keeping you around, no one thought you were going to make it but here you are!”

“Wait” Azz’s anger turned to sorrow, “I wasn’t even here, and people already knew they didn’t want me?” This feeling felt too familiar, and Azz didn’t like it.

“Well” The doctor paused, thinking, “that doesn’t matter now, what matters is that you are here, and the universe has big plans for you I know it. Satan will be more than happy to hear about you.” This did little to make Azz feel better.

“Come on, I want to examine you more at my office in the city, here” He lifted the fire off the floor, and placed it in Azz’s hands.

“OOOOOO” Azz’s eyes lit up like stars, “im holding FIRE” now this made Azz feel better.

The doctor chuckled, “yes, yes you are, no come on” He led Azz out of the cave towards the city. The walk was only a few minutes, but the cold made it feel like a lifetime. The fire did little to heat Azz up.

“I thought Hell was hot”

“That's what everyone says”

The walk through the city was the worst time in Azz’s 45 minute life. Everyone in the city avoided them like the plague. Azz had no idea why, but the Doctor knew. Like an invisible force pushing everyone away, no one got close to them. People gave Azz awful, disgusting looks as they went by. No one knew them, but they didn’t need to know they didn’t like them. Azz kept their head down, following the doctor's tail as they went.

“Why is everyone avoiding us?” Azz wanted to know, but deeply feared the answer.

“People..” the doctor paused, thinking of the best way to word it, “They can tell you’re special”

Azz hated that word, “I'm not special” they said to them self.

They approached a simple white building in what felt like the center of the city. It was slightly smaller than the buildings surrounding it, but it still towered over Azz. It had two windows near the top, and a simple door.

“This is my office” The doctor said, unlocking the door and leading the way inside.

Inside was a white sterile room. In the middle against the wall was a simple one person medical bed. With various tools on the wall surrounding it. The other side of the room housed a small desk, covered in papers. Behind the desk were come cabinets with counter space and a sink, with cabinets above them too. In the far back of the room was a door with a lock, next to it on the wall was various old plague masks. In the corner by the door was what looked like a dog bed, with some white round creature sleeping peacefully on top. The room was warmer, but not as warm as Azz would have liked.

“This is a small doctors office” Azz said, looking around the room, taking note of the jar of lollipops on the desk, and grabbing one to have.

“I like simplicity” The doctor said as he also walked over to the desk, looking through one of the drawers, “I have a living space upstairs with an extra room, you will stay there” He handed Azz a key.

“Ugh, I have to live with you?” This was the only demon Azz knew, but that didn’t mean they liked him.

“Yes well you don't have a choice” He walked over to the bed in the middle of the room, “now sit”

“Why do I need to sit?”

“So we can begin your first check up”

#hellbound #Azz and the doctor

[hell-bound-stories]

Check up

Azz hated coming here. Compared to the surface Hell was, well like Hell. Azz could never understand why any demon would want to spend their after life here. They didn't have a choice but still. The surface had fresh air, blue skies, and most importantly, it was warm.

Hell was always what felt like a million degrees below freezing. The dark grey cavern didn’t have seasons, and ashy snow was always on the ground. Without fire even demons wouldn’t be able to survive the freezing temperatures. With no sun, life here was miserable. Azz couldn’t believe they used to live like this. They were only two years dead but every day here felt like a lifetime on the surface.

Azz shivered rubbing his arms, “I should have brought a jacket”,was always their first thought once arriving. They never did as they never planned on staying longer than they had to. 

No matter where on the surface you entered from, you always came out at the same spot, the Hell Gate just outside of the city. This always pissed Azz off, “why not put it in the city, or at least closer to it, not like anyone is going anywhere else” This walk was one of Azz’s least favorite parts of this process. Inside the city was slightly warmer, but out here it was a barren wasteland, the coldest Hell could get. Azz heated up the palm of their hands, rubbing them on their arms as they walked to the city. Azz hated the cold.

Once in the city Azz made their way to a building they knew far too well, and walked inside. It was warmer, but still not as warm has they would have liked.

“You’re late” A voice immediately barked at them.

“Hey its still Sunday!” Azz defended them self.

“Its one AM, Monday morning” The man sighed, “just sit down so we can get started”

The man in charge was almost two feet taller than Azz, wearing a basic lab coat and shirt. He had four horns, two curved like goat horns, and two pointing straight up. They were black with a red hue at the tips. He was missing one eye, but wore no eye patch, the other eye was a bright red, and his skin was a dark blue grey and the colour faded to black as it reached its way down to his hands and feet, which were both sharp claws respectively. He had a simple tail and a set of wings to match. He was one of the oldest and smartest demons around. Some say he was here with Satan to help build Hell thousands of years ago.

He was the doctor. 

“Look im fine, i'm still breathing so-”

“Sit.”

Azz sat down on the medical table in the middle of the room, taking off their shoes. Nothing made Azz more upset than sitting through this weekly check up. The doctor walked over to his desk and picked up a clipboard, flipping through the papers attached to it. He walked back over to Azz

“Open your mouth”

Azz obliged, knowing they didn't have much of a choice. They opened their mouth, exposing four large sharp k-9s, surrounded by rows of razor blade teeth, with a forked tongue. “Hmm” The doctor looked around the space, poking some of the teeth as he went, “seems normal”, He took a note on the clipboard, as Azz closed their mouth. 

“Yeah, normal so-” Azz was cut off by a bright light being flashed directly into their eye. The doctor held their eye open, taking a look around it before doing the same with the other.

“OW, hey warning next time would be great” Azz snapped.

“Vision seems normal” The doctor took note, ignoring them, “Do you still see in colour?” 

“Yup, eye sight is still as good as the day I first arrived here, could be better if you didn’t flash stupid lights at in them!” Azz rubbed his eyes.

“Interesting” The doctor reached up, grabbing one of Azz’s horns pulling down slightly to get a better look.

“OW HEY, A SIMPLE HEADS UP, ALL IM ASKING FOR DUDE”

The doctor looked at both horns. They were a deep dark red, with a slight curve. “Still smaller than average, and still missing the red hue at the tips” He took note of that, letting go of their horns. Azz’s horns were tiny on the surface, and still considered tiny in Hell.

“Ugh, no need to remind me” Azz had always been told that their horns were small and weird from day one. No one knew why they came out like that. In fact that's how everyone down here saw Azz, small and weird. 

“Mhm, Hands” The doctor demanded.

Azz rolled their eyes, holding both hands out for the doctor to see. Both hands were black, with a gradient running up his arms til it reached their normal pale skin colour again. Their fingers were longer, more claw-like, and ended in a sharp point. The doctor looked at both hands, stretching and bending each finger. 

“Hands are normal” Again taking a note on the clipboard, “Ok, tail”

“Really?”

“Tail.”

Azz groaned, standing up from the table and turning around, their long thin tail now facing the doctor. It was the same deep red as their horns, also with a black gradient at the end. At the tip was a simple pointed triangle, nothing special. The doctor ran their hand over the tail, examining it and the tip at the end. 

“Mhm” the doctor let go of their tail, returning to his clipboard, “shirt” 

“Fucking seriously??” Azz was getting real impatient, as they always did during their check ups.

“Shirt. Come on im almost done” 

Azz growled in frustration, taking off their flannel hoodie followed by their white and purple shirt, leaving their bare back exposed to the doctor. He ran his hand over a spot at the top of their back.

“Hm, you haven’t been picking at it have you?”

“No, it hasn’t been itchy in a while”

The area in question was a small marking, right between Azz’s shoulder blades. The marking was of a set of dark purple demon wings, not coloured in. Every demon had this mark, but Azz was the only demon to have it in purple, not the standard black or red.

“That's good” The doctor pulled his hand away, and took even more notes on the clipboard, “you can put your shirt back on”

“Oh thank stars” Azz quickly put his shirt and flannel back on, “I'm done right?” 

“Not yet”

“Oh com ON, I have things to do!!” Azz just wanted to get back to Syd. They always came for their check up once Syd was asleep on Sunday night, and Azz had to make sure they were back before she woke up for school that Monday morning. 

“Yes, yes” The doctor waved them off, “important guardian work with your girl i'm aware, but you can’t leave til I get a look at your fire” He pointed back to the medical table, “so sit.” 

Azz sat back down, like an angry five year old who didn’t get the toy they wanted with their happy meal. 

“Now, show me”

“Ugh fine” Azz held out both their hands and closed their eyes. A second later a small flame ignited in the space above their hands. Everything about it seemed normal to an untrained eye, but the doctor could immediately tell, “It’s still not as bright as it should be”, He stuck a thermometer into the flame, taking its temperature, “and still not as hot”, he jotted down the number on the board. Azz blew the fire out.

“Yes, yes I know i'm a freak of nature and a biological mystery, can I go now??” Azz was already starting to slip their shoes back on. These were things they had been told since they died two years ago, and Azz was getting sick and tired of hearing it over and over again.

The doctor glanced back over his notes, flipping threw some of the other paper on the clipboard, “mmhm, yes you have finished the check up”

“Sick, bye!” Azz tried sprinting out the door, but was stopped by the doctor grabbing their tail.

“Hold on Azz” “Mmmm what now??” 

“You need to be on time for your check ups. You can’t keep pushing yourself til the last minute, you know what-”

“Yes, yes second death, look I promise I will be on time next week” Azz just wanted to get away from here, and back to Syd as fast as possible.

The doctor gave them a look, “Ok, see you next week”, with that he let go of their tail and Azz disappeared into the city, heading for the nearest portal back to the surface.

The doctor turned around going back to his desk. Setting the clipboard down he immediately noticed a large empty spot on the corner of the space.

“I really have to bolt that lollipop jar down”

#hellbound #just Azz

[hell-bound-stories]

Red hair: Golden eyes

Azz had finally sat down in their chair, pure shock starting to turn to pure terror.

“Who is that?” Azz quietly barked at Syd, panicking

“How should I know?!” Syd barked back, “I should be asking you!” She was just as confused as Azz.

“Hey just because we’re both mystics doesn’t mean we know each other!” Azz was really starting to panic.

Syd kept trying to get a good look at the girl without being obvious. She was barely taller than Syd, sporting a white, blue and gold school cheer uniform with a matching varsity jacket. Her real stand out features were her snow white hair, with half of it being ice blue. Syd could tell the colour was natural. To top it off she had eyes as golden as her soft glowing halo. She seemed to be having a casual conversation with Spencer. 

“I’ve never seen Spencer hang out with a girl like her before, I would definitely have noticed that” She said to Azz, who was now hiding under the large desk.

“What are you doing?” Syd asked, genuinely confused.

“Hiding, duh, I don't want her to notice me” Azz pulled his grey hood over their head.

“Wait, why can I see her?” This question had been eating away at Syd since she learned Spencer could see Azz’s red hair, so about 10 minutes.

“Oh that’s just because you have guardian vision” Azz said, slightly peeking up from under the desk.

“Whoa!!!”

“Oh shut up, it's not as special as it sounds” Azz rolled their eyes.

“Oh, no need to ruin it” Syd mumbled to herself.

“It's like, when a human gets a guardian, angel or demon, they get guardian vision. It allows you to see angels and demons in our true colours, like my hair and eyes. Other people can’t see that on me” Azz said. This was the first time Syd had ever heard of this.

“Why didn’t you tell me that before?” Syd said, a little annoyed.

“It wasn’t important before” 

“Wait” Syd looked back over at Spencer, who was still chatting away with the angel, “Spencer can see your red hair”

“He can?!?!” Azz said, shock fighting over panic in their voice, “why didn’t you tell me before?!?!” 

“Oh, it wasn’t important before” Syd said with a sly grin on her face, Azz couldn’t be less amused, “besides, you where looking at those stupid snails”

“Hey, don’t you dare call Milo and CJ stupid!!” Azz snapped. 

Syd rolled her eyes, “You named them?”

“Of course I did” Azz said crossing their arms, “Those names just felt right”

Syd sighed, “Fair enough I guess, but back to the literal angel in the room”

“Oh right”

Spencer and the girl were working on today's assignment, completely contempt in each other's company, not really paying attention to the other students working around them. 

“She has to be his guardian angel, if he can see you he can surely see her”

“It has to be, we can’t give guardian vision to anyone who’s not our human” Azz looked at Spencer the best they could from under the desk, “what do you know about Spencer?” 

Syd had to think for a second, “Not much, I'm lucky I know his name. He’s smart, in a lot of AP classes, mostly keeps to himself” Before their talk at the start of class Sydney had never spoken to him before. They shared some classes together but Spencer never talked to anyone during class. 

Azz gave out a low growl, fear turning to frustration for a minute, “mm, I can’t get a read on either of them. That angel is fucking weird”

“What do you mean?” Syd really had no idea what Azz was going on about.

“I don’t know, she just” Azz paused, fear taking back over their voice, “She gives off small demon vibes. I’ve never felt anything like it”

“Oh now you're  just being dramatic” Syd joked, lightly kicking Azz in the side with her foot.

“I mean it Sydney, something’s not right here” Every second in the room with the strange angel made Azz more and more anxious and paranoid. Azz quietly turned into a black rat and ran inside of Syds bag. 

“Now what are you doing?” Syd was starting to lose patience with them.

“Immmmm just going to hang in here for a bit or the rest they day whichever comes first”

“Oh no you're not! I am not carrying your shit around!!” Syd barked at her bag.

“And I'm not hanging out in sight of that angel!” Azz squeaked, sliding away into Syd’s books.

“Ugh” Syd groaned, “She doesn’t seem that bad”. She seemed to be good friends with Spencer, and that meant something, didn’t it? 

At the end of class Syd dropped Azz’s bag off in her locker, “oh come on!” Azz protested from Syd’s bag. 

“No! I am not carrying around your elephant sack all day!” Syd declared, “you can grab it at the end of school if you’re really going to hide in my bag all day” she slammed her locker shut.

“hrmp, fine” Azz surrendered. 

Syd went about her day as normal, going to her classes, doing her assignments as they came, as Azz napped in her bag all day. She had two more classes with Spencer that day, the angel girl joining him in both. During the classes Syd tried not to stare at her, but it was hard. Syd had never even thought about angels before, and here one was sitting in high school classes with her. 

When Syd wasn’t staring at the girl, she noticed the girl staring back. She seemed confused, like she was expecting to see something else but couldn’t find it. Syd also saw her talking to Spencer, like she was asking a question about her. Syd pretended not to notice.

The bell had rung, it was finally the end of the day. Azz had finally come out of Syds bag, just to grab their own from her locker.

“Fine, since you don't love my bag, I’ll carry it! It's not even that heavy”

“It's like 50 pounds!!” 

They both argued back and forth as they made their way to the front doors of the school to walk home. Azz was snapped out of the stupid fight the moment they stepped threw the doors. Panic washed back over them, their eyes darting all over the place while trying to hide behind Syd. Their tall stature made it near impossible, but they still tried. 

“What on earth are you doing now?” Syd was really starting to get annoyed with Azz at this point

“She’s out here, I can sense it” Azz said, panic stricken in their voice.

“What are yo-” Syd turned her head and sure enough she saw the girl in question with Spencer standing outside the school, in a small grass patch off to the side. 

They were semi surrounded by a small group of boys, all paying attention to the girl. It was obvious that she couldn’t care less about the teenagers. She was only interested in Spencer, who was starting to get freaked out with all the attention he was suddenly getting. Syd could’ve sworn she heard her say something like “fuck off, leave us alone” before they both started making their way away from the group. 

“Ok bye” Azz said hastily as they ran to hide behind a trash can. 

“You know what, fine! I’ll go talk to them on my own!!” Syd shouted at Azz as they dashed away. It was going to be easier than she thought, as Spencer and the girl were already making their way over to her. 

“Hey Sydney!” Spencer said walking over with the angel close behind. They both seemed relieved to be away from that group of guys, but Spencer seemed relieved to see a familiar face. The girl gave Syd a look up and down. She seemed slightly unimpressed with her, like she was expecting more, but she still gave off a warm welcoming feeling. 

Now that they were so close, her halo was impossible not to stare at.

“Hey Spencer, who’s this?” Syd was never good with introductions, “I’ve never seen her around here before”

“Oh, this is-”

“Im Heather” She said with a warm, inviting smile, holding her hand out, “It's nice to meet you!”

Syd took her hand, ‘it's so warm’, she was surprised, ‘it's like the opposite of Azz’. In Fact Heather's whole body radiated warmth. She let go and her hand instantly felt cold again, even though it was 80 degrees outside.

“Ok, you can stop staring at it now” Heather said, still with a soft, almost innocent smile on her face.

Syd was snapped back to the moment from this sudden request, “what?”

Heather gave her a small laugh, “oh come on, I know you can see it” she said gesturing to the halo floating above her head.

“Wait you can see it too!” Spencer seemed so surprised, “I thought I was the only one again….wait” Spencer drifted off into his own thoughts.

“Umm yeah, sorry, I'm just not used to seeing one, especially this close” Syd said, she wasn’t lying.

“Oh don’t worry about it” Heather said, Her golden eyes looked gently upon Syd, “They do take a little while to get used to” The soft warm smile hadn’t left her face.  

“So, where’s your angel?” She asked casually. Syd was taken back, not knowing what to say.

“Oh come on, I know you have one, I can sense it on you, you don’t need to hide it”

“Wait” Syd was taken back even further, “You can sense angel on me?” 

Heather laughed a bit more, “of course I can, your angel didn’t explain anything did he?”

Syd sighed, getting even more annoyed at Azz even though they weren’t here, “Nope, I guess they didn’t”

“Huh, well when you're around your angel their sense rubs off on you, it's not a big deal, it's just a thing other angels can sense. Helps us keep track of humans who have guardians”

“Oh” Syd didn’t know any of this, she wished she kept the stupid pamphlet Azz gave her when they first met, “Makes sense I guess”

Spencer suddenly snapped back to attention, “Hey Heather can Sydney and I talk….in private?”

This grabbed both girls by surprise.

“Oh, yeah sure go ahead” Heather still seemed a little worried.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be ok,” Spencer reassured her as he and Syd walked across the yard, out of Heather's earshot. She was quickly surrounded by another small group of boys. Spencer and Syd both heard her give out a loud groan from across the yard. ‘I wonder how they see her’ syd thought as they walked away. Heather was like a boy magnate and she clearly wasn't happy with it.

“Azz is your angel, aren’t they?” Spencer cut right to the chase 

Syd but a hand on the back of her neck, “wellllllllllllllll” 

“They aren’t an angel…...aren’t they?” Spencer started rubbing his eyes under his glasses.

‘Well shit’ syd thought, “what gave it away?”, ‘no point in hiding that anymore’.

Spencer started pacing in a small circle, “Oh where to start, the bright red hair, the sharp teeth, the pointed ears, the red eyes, the abnormally pale skin and oh yeah the small horns on their head!!!” Spencer was trying not to shout, but the yard was slowly clearing out of students as they headed home for the day.

“Hey you said you didn’t see anything on their head when I asked this morning!” Syd snapped back.

“I didn’t want to sound insane this morning! People already thought I was crazy for saying they had red hair, I didn’t want to push my luck saying I also saw horns from time to time!” Spencer took a breath, “Look just, where is Azz now?” 

“Hiding behind that trash can” Syd pointed across the school yard, to a bin that Azz was now hiding inside of, “well….in that trash can I guess. They’ve been hiding from Heather all day, they said they get demon vibes from her” 

“They do?” Spencer seemed just as confused as Syd now, “Heather said she got angel vibes off you. I don't know about you but Azz is the opposite of an angel”

“And Heather is the opposite of a demon” Something about them didn’t add up.

“Ok well, that doesn’t matter” Spencer was starting to panic, “We need to make sure they never see each other”

Syd rolled her eyes, “ugh you’re being dramatic too. Why would we need to-”

Syd was cut off by a loud bang. They both frantically turned around to find an empty school yard, and the trash bin Azz was hiding inside of frozen completely solid, like a huge ice cube.

“That's why” Spencer's voice was full of fear, dreading the worst of what’s to come.

Heather was standing there, her arms outstretched like she had just fired the frozen shot herself. Her fists were frozen, a solid unearthly blue, with a trail of ice climbing up her forearm, stopping around her elbow. Her halo seemed somehow bigger, if that where possible, and her once inviting warm golden eyes where now glowing at bright has her halo, filled with nothing but pure hatred.

“Angels have ICE POWERS???” Syd screamed, “why didn’t you tell me before!!!!” 

“It wasn’t important before!!” 

They both turned their attention back to Heather.

“Where the FUCK are you, you BASTARD” she didn’t sound at all like the same girl Syd had just had a nice conversation with a few minutes ago, rage seeping from every inch of her voice.

As if on cue Azz fell out of the sky, landing on all fours like a cat that had just fallen out of a tree, their hands and feet leaving scorch marks on the grass below. Syd’s attention was taken away from their perfect landing and drawn immediately to the two large horns coming out of Azz’s head. His horns were always tiny, usually never even seen above their hair. This was the first time she’d ever seen them like this. They where a deep dark red with an elegant curve. 

“Hey, I didn’t even say anything, can’t we at least talk?” Azz’s voice was filled with terror, trying their best to be their usual witty self. They stood up, slowly trying to back up from Heather, leaving scorch marks in the grass with every step they took. Heather threw something in front of Azz, dangerously close to their feet. Whatever it was it instantly froze the grass solid, covering it in that sheer unearthly blue. Ice. 

“Ok, ummm, I’ll start, im Azz” With every word Azz spoke Heather somehow got more and more pissed, her once soft smile was nothing but a harsh scowl. She continued to throw the frozen objects at Azz, each one getting closer and closer to hitting Azz, freezing everything they touched. With each throw Azz got more and more panicked. Azz knew exactly what she was aiming for.

“She’s aiming for their head” Syd said to herself, she instantly started to run after Azz.

“Sydney!!” Spencer reached out of her, trying to stop her, fearing the worst from the encounter.

Syd ran in front of Azz, spreading her arms out trying to cover them the best she could, Azz ducked behind her. Heather was charging another shot. “Syd, what are you doing??” Azz asked, fear still stricken in their voice.

“HEY” syd shouted, “THIS IS MY GUARDIAN” she wasn’t going to back down.

Heather took a step back, lowering her arm. Taking another step back she closed her eyes, angrily running her frozen hands threw her hair. She looked back up at them with her golden glowing eyes. 

“He’s…”

Her anger turned to frustration and confusion. She turned around, quickly throwing the shot at a car all the way across the parking lot. She hit it dead on, instantly covering the whole thing in ice. 

She stood there for a second, “Fine” she finally snapped. She shook her arms. The thick ice once covering them fell effortlessly onto the ground, returning her fists and arms to the normal colour. Her halos glow had dimmed back down as well. She turned her head to the side to see Spencer, her golden eyes no longer glowing, “We’re going home”. The deep scowl never left her face.

She started making her way to an old beat up truck in the parking lot, leaving frozen footsteps as she walked. Spencer followed after her, mouthing a silent “I’m sorry” towards Syd as he walked past. They both climbed into the beater, and made their way down the road, out of sight from the school, leaving Azz and Syd in the frozen and scorched grass.

Syd took a desperate breath, she didn’t realize she was holding it this whole time.

“Well………...that could have gone better” 

#Hell bound stories #the gangs all here #and one of em is trying to kill the other #syd and Azz #Heather and Spencer