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Hugs and Knives,

Death?

[Please play the music on side before reading!!]

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                        "I'm standing up here, ladies and gentlemen," Devin Star continued into the microphone, "not as the man you define from advertisements and tabloids, but as a man in a position where I can reach out to millions and get a message across. The crime rate in downtown Chicago has increased 66.6% over the past ten years alone. That percentage is unheard of..."

                        "Why aren't we trying to find David?" I asked Ace. Once again, I was aware of the coldness of the dagger under my dress. I felt like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, except the Angel of Death was the one with fangs aimed at my throat.

                        "Because that's exactly what he wants," Ace replied softly, his attention still honed in the stage and his expression impenetrable. "Before we do anything, we need to wait until people start walking around, or for the entertainment to begin. Concentrating, I estimate I can remain in tact for three more hours. Entertainment should be in about thirty minutes, after people eat a little bit. We'll leave the room and draw him out. I don't want to start a huge theatrical scene in the ballroom."

                        "Makes sense." I played with the ends of my dress. "So, entertainment, huh? What exactly is this event?"

                         He beamed. "Oh, you'll see."

                        "That percentage is overlooked," I tuned back into Devin Star's speech, "and when that percentage is overlooked, our children are overlooked. Disciplinary educational laws are essential in order to stunt the growth of adolescent crime in our city and no action is being made to put those laws in place. The crime in Chicago defines us. It defines us as irresponsible, for letting our own city weaken from the inside out, and it defines us as too tolerant, for letting these crimes worsen. So, with that all being said, it's time to make a change. I thank you all for your generous contributions. It is going towards a great cause, believe me."

                        Instead of clarifying the cause further, Devin grinned; a beautiful display of straight white teeth and sparkling sapphire eyes, and it was then that half of the audience burst into unbelievably loud laughter. It was if the other half of the audience, which I was a part of, had missed some hidden punch line. Looking around, I assumed that the ones, who weren't laughing, were humans.

                        "Devil's horns! This one is funnier than last year's event! Look at all the brainwashed air-breathers," one of the neatly dressed 'men' at our table snorted out between laughter. He was one of the ugly, fanged creatures I had seen earlier without an illusion. Nausea built up in my belly at the memory of that vile thing.

                        "Do you think he's doing one of those satanic sacrifices this year?" a woman asked at our table, excited. When I really concentrated on her, I saw a flicker of discoloration in her face, almost purple. "It was so captivating last year."

                        "I don't know," the first 'man' answered, "but I still have that vid on my phone from last year of Death chopping that chick's head off and throwing it into the crowd! I was so close to catching it! Hilarious!"

                        "You got to love Death and Satan," another man at the table said. "Those two really know how entertain the Underworld." Death and Satan. The Underworld...

                        "D & S," I said numbly. "Death and Satan..."

                        I looked over at Ace to find him awkwardly scratching his head. "We couldn't think of anything creative to name the building," he said. "I wanted to name it Hell's R' Us, but Devin said that was grammatically incorrect and too obvious. Then again, he also said that 'Devin' wasn't an obvious name for himself, the Devil, so who was I to even consider his opinion?"

                        At first, I had thought the D & S Towers were named after David and Devin Star's first and last names, but now, once I had said it out loud, it was clear that it was meant to be Death and Satan all along.

                         It was as if this was the last puzzle piece that completed the whole puzzle that was the Star family. Devin Star was Satan. Death was David Star. The David is Death part took me some time to realize, but the Satan part took me a millennium. Why hadn't Devin's identity been so obvious to me before this event? Were my bizarre powers truly impelling me to see the world for what it really was: one big lie?

                        I looked back at Devin Star, analyzing him as he wrapped up his speech. Devin was dazzling and beautiful, like an angel...

                        No, he wasn't an angel. He was a monster with a beautiful veneer over his real skin. The longer I stared at Devin; my vision became tunneled until it was just he and I in the room...

                        Horror gripped me by the throat as the man's skin began to get an impossible red and scaly, and his graceful fingers, resting on the top of the podium, began to lengthen and sharpen into talons.

                        "Ten out of ten would not fück with that guy," Ace said. "Even when I'm feeling playful, I poke him with a stick from a great distance."

                        I tore my attention away from Devin's direction and locked onto the warlock's violet gaze. He was grinning like a piranha at my obvious terror. An extremely Death-like expression, I decided. It was still hard to believe the Angel of Death currently had a face, even if it wasn't currently his own. Inception.

                         "It feels so obvious now that he's Satan. I mean, look at him. Even the way he presents himself! He's so..."

                        "Evil?" Ace offered. "Scary? Intimidating? Scaly? Red? Did you see the horns?"

                        "I was going to say he's cool."

                        "I thought you were Catholic, not satanic."

                        "I am, he's just, I don't know. Laid-back looking. Cool."

                        "You think that the leader of the Underworld is cool?"

                        "That's what I said."

                        "The guy literally lights himself on fire or lights other people on fire when he's angry. So cool! If you say so." Ace slowly sipped his water, acting as if he didn't have anything else to say. "Am I--?"

                        "You are not cool. Not even slightly."

                        Ace's mouth was now a flat line. Annoyed with me, his gaze flickered to the side, as he observed the others socializing at our table. None of them seemed to bother with our conversation. Their loss, it was a pretty engaging conversation.

                        "You can see what Devin is now because your soul is maturing and the illusions around you are no longer your reality. I definitely explained this. You're lucky you have a nice wrack, or else I don't think I would even bother conversing with you. I don't even know why I'm even bothering answering your questions, when I'm way above you on the food chain and intelligence scale. It's pointless, really. Feels like I'm talking intellectually with my hamburger, and for some odd reason, I actually expect a brainy response in return."

                         "Death," I hissed under my breath.

                        "I think that was, like, a quadruple burn. I tell my manager all the time that I deserve an Oscar for my brilliant one-liners and insults. He doesn't listen to me."

                        "You are seriously messed up in the head."

                        "Lighten up, Hope. Most of those burns were just jokes." That purple gaze then dropped to my cleavage, and his tongue poked against his cheek. "Mostly," he quickly added, and then looked away from me again. "You really have no idea how malleable a brain is to an ancient being. Devin and I manipulate human's minds so that they see what we want them to see. We can do this through the television and even through written text. The obviousness of our disguise doesn't really matter, when you're the ruler of the Underworld and the distributer of souls to Heaven and Hell. With just a simple thought, both of us can make a human think they're a banana."

                        "Why would you do that to people?" I asked. "Why pretend to be two men who don't really exist?"

                        "Now that, little strawberry treat of mine," Ace said and altered his tone as if he was talking to a baby, "I cannot tell you." He even had the audacity to poke my nose. Believe me, I wanted it to bite that stupid finger off.

                        I didn't press any further this time because I knew prying into the subject of Death's alter ego or his plans regarding my abilities, was usually as successful as interrogating a brick wall.

                        "So what exactly are we waiting for?" I asked.

                        "For Devin to stop socializing with every damn woman with big tits he sees. I need to tell him what's going on. He might help us."

                        "Might?"

                        "He's worse than I am with deals. Can't even take a piece of gum from the guy. But, he seems to have a liking towards you, so he might make an exception if you are with me."

                        "And what about my dagger?"

                        "That's to paralyze Ahrimad if he doesn't cooperate. For now, I need to eat and fuel Ace's body so that I can continue fighting against him. This is very draining."

                        The room was chaotic with chatter and laughter and our waiter placed food in front of us that I couldn't even pronounce.

                        "I don't remember ordering this."

                        "I ordered for you, while you were ogling Devin up there. You planning on kissing him, too?"

                        I glared at him. After my stomach growled, I stabbed my fork into whatever food the waiter had brought us. It looked pretty good and tasted even better. Kind of reminded me of lobster.

                        "What is this?" I asked Ace.

                         He was already polishing off the last bit of food on his plate. "It's not what you think it is, I can tell you that."

                        Well, alrighty then. I pushed my plate away from me. The ugly creatures wearing illusions at our table, I noticed, had not been given any plates and was only drinking from their glasses.

                        "That dress looks really nice on you," Ace said. I couldn't tell if he was being serious or not. "I have great taste, you should thank me."

                        "Thank you, Angel of Fashion, for your illusory dress. And thank you for coercing me into helping you get your walking cloak back." I flashed him a huge, fake smile. "At least these heels aren't too painful. Then again," I said, mostly to myself, "I'm not standing..."

                        "Pain is outlined by the person who is victimized by it." Ace wiped his mouth with his napkin, setting it on the table. "You feel pain, as you want to feel pain. It's a particular flavor for every person. It can be absolutely delicious, or it can be absolutely appalling. It's all about your mind set."

                        "How do you feel pain?"

                         "Why? Do you want to know how I would feel pain, if I was the one who you stabbed tonight with that dagger of yours?"

                        "That's not what I was asking at all."

                        "If you want to stab me, just say it."

                        "I don't want to stab you."

                        "Liar."

                        "You two should get married already," one of the disguised men said at our table. The only man at our table, actually, considering everyone else had apparently gotten up and left.

                        Ace's whipped his attention so quickly towards that man that I thought his head would snap off. "F off, blood-sucker. Go bite on someone's neck in the lobby."

                        Appalled, the man threw his napkin onto the table and left.

                        "It's true," I continued, once the man was gone. "I don't know the consequences of stabbing you. I don't know if your reapers would come after me, or Satan. Malphas, your ex boyfriend, also never told me what he would do to you once you were paralyzed. I don't think my good conscious would be able to live with the ambiguity of what he would do to you." I looked away from him. "And that's not because I like you, because I don't anymore."

                        Ace briefly held my hand. "I'm touched," he said. "If we were the last two on this planet, I'd give you a five second heads start." Despite the insignificance of that statement, when he pulled his fingers away, I still felt his fingers wrapped around mine. It reminded me of the aftermath of kissing me for the first time. It was as if lips had left an impression on mine, like a cigarette butt engraving a burn into someone's bare skin.

                        "I think I could bet one million dollars right now-oh, hell yes!" He stole a stuffed mushroom off a tray from a waiter walking by and swallowed it whole. I hadn't realized how zoned out I was until that moment.

                        "One million dollars for what?"

                         "That despite that necklace around your neck keeping me from your thoughts, I know exactly what you were just thinking about." There was a heat in those violet eyes that certainly did not belong to Ace himself, but the beast caged within him. "You know, we have two remarkable things in common, cupcake. I tend to leave a distinct mark when I kiss, and I claim to see a little bit deeper than what's beneath people's skin."

                        "Except you have those two abilities because you're cursed, and I have them because I'm talented."

                        "Let's not pretend I wasn't your first kiss, virgin thighs."

                        "You're a pig."

                        "Oooh," he purred. "That one stung a little."

                        "You brainwashed my parents, separated me from my best friend, and stole all of my underwear. There's a lot more where that came from, believe me."

                        "There's more?" His lip lifted in a crooked smile. "Cupcake, please don't overwhelm me with insults. I'd prefer not to get an awkward bøner while in another man's body tonight, thank you."

                        Furiously blushing at this point and fidgety, I forced myself to change the subject. "Do you think Malphas knows that you're in Ace's body right now?" I wondered and tried to free away the butterflies in my belly. "Maybe he predicted this would happen."

                        "Inconceivable," Ace said. I couldn't ignore the obvious Princess Bride reference. It was one of my favorite movies. But Death? The fact that I knew he had piercings all over his face and a Mohawk (even if I hadn't actually seen the piercings yet) added to the incredulity that he had actually watched the movie.

                        "This isn't my first rodeo. I've been in a powerful man's body before," Ace continued, and then backtracked once I started to laugh. "That came out wrong. So did that. I don't mean that I've been inside a man. I mean-" He sighed heavily and gestured with his hands for me to relax. "I'm good at possessing others and covering my tracks, is what I meant," he reiterated between tight teeth.

                        "You're just good at everything aren't cha'?" My smirk made a muscle in Ace's face twitch. "Where's your body again?"

                        "Pumpkin, you got brainwashed by a talking raven and a magical, mystical metronome. Your insults are actually irrelevant, dweeb."

                        "But I snapped out of it of the hypnosis-" I started superciliously.

                        "Congratulations!" he talked over me. "You're still a dweeb." I started to talk, when he swished his finger in the air. "Still a dweeb."

                        "I'm about to call on Malphas again," I snapped.

                        "Careful, cupcake." At the M word, Ace's expression could have wilted a flower. "I don't take threats like that lightly, and you'd be smart to remember that."

                        "So...is Malphas an ex boyfriend of yours? Seems pretty heated between the two of you."

                        We were silent for a long amount of time.

                         "In all seriousness, I was just wondering if there's anything human about you," I said, but we both knew I was somewhat serious about the stabbing him in the throat bit.

                        "Someone in your position would normally be plotting against me right now. Instead, you want to know more about my emotions? Stop watching Nickelodeon, Faith Williams. It's truly frying your teeny little dweeb brain."

                        "I don't watch Nickelodeon." My skin felt like it was aflame; he was making me so enraged. "And stabbing you would be actually pointless, considering you don't have a heart or any ability to sympathize with people."

                        He snickered. "There's no stopping you once you get going, is there?"

                        I crossed my arms over my chest, irritated. It was like I was at prom with an awful date, and I just wanted to go home and watch Netflix already.

                        "I don't appreciate you patronizing me twenty-four seven," I said. "I might not be 2000 years old, but I'm old enough to understand when someone is being a jackass to me for no good reason."

                        Ace's jaw tightened.

                        "When I asked you if you felt emotions," I began after letting my words sink in a little for him, "I just wanted a yes and no answer. I didn't need details. I just wanted to know if you truly..." I shook my head. "You know what? Never mind. It's not even worth it."

                        He side-eyed me. "If I, what?"

                        "Pretended all this time," I blurted, turning back towards him. "Pretended to care for me when I was little girl. Pretended that you liked me during that fake interview and at the carnival. Pretended that you wanted to get to know me. It all seems ridiculous now, doesn't it? Just one big laugh. But when you look back at the things you said to me, can you honestly say that you never felt anything towards me? You didn't have to kiss me. You didn't have to win me a penguin at that game."

                         "Here's the thing, sweetheart," Ace leaned in, lowering his voice to a husky level. "You're going to get yourself worked up about me and you, then you're going to make a scene in this ballroom. If you make a scene, I'm going to blow a fuse." He picked up his butter knife, twirling it once around his fingers before putting it back down. "And if I blow a fuse, I lose my chance of getting back to my body tonight. If you are the reason I don't get back to my body tonight, and if you are the reason my body begins to break down in Limbo..." He let out a harsh laugh, too enraged to finish the rest.

                        "I could lose everything after tonight. And if my calculations are correct, that's something you and I have in common right now. You know everything about me, but I barely know anything about you."

                        "I've done that on purpose," he said. "You don't want to know anything about me."

                        "Yes, I do. I'm the one selling my soul to you. I'm the one who has to give up because I have no other option. I'm stuck with you. You're stuck with me. I'm basically yours already. You got what you wanted, now what I want is to understand this all. I want to understand you. "

                        He just stared at me.

                        "You're stripping me of what makes me unique. Your words, not mine. At least explain to me, in detail, why I'm losing everything, and what you're gaining from my loss. That's what a contract is, right? Details. Explanations. A contract. That's what I'll be signing isn't it? A contract? Just tell me something. Tell me anything."

                        Ace continued to look at me in silence, until I was forced to give up, lean on the table, and put my hands over my face. Pointless.

                        "Since I was a child," the beast surprisingly began, "I've known how to wield dark magic because of my mother." His pause was so slight that it almost went unnoticed. "She helped me through simple spells, enchantments, hexes and illusions. When I said 'dark magic', I'm sure you immediately thought of human sacrifices and voodoo dolls. Back when I was a child, people perceived it in similar ways. But in reality, dark magic isn't necessarily a bad entity. It's simply favored more often by evil, and has fewer rules and fewer morals than white magic and consequences.

                        "Dark magic is more powerful, dangerous, and harder to learn. It's channeled through a realm that nobody dares enter, or tries to make portal into. The realm is called the Unknown, and the name says it all. It's an endless world of darkness, parallel to ours, where night creatures are rumored to have originated from. Demons and demi-gods, flesh eaters and bloodsuckers, monsters that you can sometimes feel in the dark, but when you turn towards them, they're gone. They all come from the Unknown. So you can see how dark magic got its bad rep. It doesn't exactly originate from a place of unicorns of rainbows.

                        "Now, this brings me to you," Ace continued, and at that moment, he analyzed my features in a way that made me self-conscious. "These flashbacks you've been getting, and your ability to access a person's memories, is theoretically conducted through the realm of lost souls and memories, just like dark magic is conducted through the Unknown. Your abilities are channeled through Limbo, where my body currently is. I can count with one hand how many people can access Limbo without getting lost, and I'm obviously not one of them. I can count with even less fingers who can access Limbo without knowingly being there. And I can count with zero, for people who can access it without dying from lack of oxygen."

                        The room seemed to slowly shatter until it was just he and I and cruel silence. "I don't understand," I whispered.

                         "When I've said on numerous occasions that you aren't human, I've said it with more confidence each time, and that's because I know it to be true."

                        "Your soul is as pure as it is for a reason, Faith. You had a fate in heaven as an angel. And when I brought you back from the dead, as small as the fall might have been, your soul fell back to earth to your body. And when it fell, you should have turned into a Fallen. That's how it works. But you didn't. You didn't turn into something evil, either, like the rest of us Fallen. And you didn't die. You breathed, and you existed, like you never even died in that market, in the first place. I shadowed you as a child. You pulled me in like a magnet from the beginning. It was odd. You started to pull in other evil creatures, too. And you rarely got sick. When you did, it was short-lived. When you got a cut, you could heal yourself in an instant. An instant."

                        Unable to control my perception of my world, I could once again see those exotic, mismatched green eyes melting through Ace's violet gaze. And this time, I was too enraptured by the monster's words to be afraid.

                        "I've known what you are from the first moment I first saw you in that market twelve years ago," Ace said, "but I'm too greedy to admit it out loud because I, and Lucifer, want whatever you are, all to ourselves, until a spotlight is held to your existence and a price tag is stapled to your ass." He then looked away from me and sipped his glass of water, wetting his throat. "I told you not to pry, cupcake. Ignorance is always bliss, when you're sitting next to the Grim Reaper."

                        That was when the entertainment finally began.

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