Sorry this is so short! Just wanted to post a little something to let you guys know that I'm still writing for this story. Please stop asking me to update, I've been very busy lately trying to rewrite DIMBFF so that I can publish it, and I'm trying to best to upload for everything else.

Please be patient, you're driving me insane and demotivating me by asking me all the time to upload!!!!!! You're lucky I love you guys so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! x) <3

P.S- This chapter is up to everyone's interpretation as usual. ;)

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              " You haven't had any time to grieve. This is a virtual suicide."

            "Not when you're existence is endless, cupcake," I wanted to remind her over the phone, but instead I held my tongue because nothing would get through to her. To Faith Williams, I was going against the odds by going to the D & S Tower because all of hell had literally broken lose, and I was only one being against many.

            I landed on the roof of the D & S Towers, twirling my scythe in my hand once out of habit and then clenching the shaft tightly with my black leather glove. I had decided I was going to work  my way down from the top floor of the tower in my conquest to find the button that would suck every single revolting creature that had escaped Hell's gates when Devin had been destroyed.

            Devin was the one person who constantly stood by me and took me in under his wing when I felt the most vulnerable and betrayed by the Elders. I could have sat Faith down and spoken with her for ten years straight about Devin's involvement in my life and she wouldn't have even known half of what we had been through together. The pure marvel of being in the constant presence of such a prevailing being had always comforted me in ways that I had never experienced. Devin had been more than a fatherly figure to me, he had been my best friend, and people like me didn't really have many friends because, well, we were huge d*cks most of the time...

            Alright, alright! Maybe I was a d*ck all of the time but I was hot and had nice biceps. Not to mention, chicks had wanted to stuff their faces into my lusciously soft hair since 100 A.D. Also, I was fairly funny-- if I do say so myself, plus I owned a motorcycle, as stated a few books back, so that's that.

            Anyways, my iniquitous nature and Devin's supremacy over the hell had united from the start to create the most elite, dangerous, and virtually indestructible building known to supernatural beings on the planet. We had created something that was simply ingenious: a normal looking office building with normal looking workers, covering up a perfectly assembled and prearranged system of the deceased, soon to be deceased, the sick, the elderly, and admittedly, a few bastards I threw into the system just so I could kill them off.

            Faith was scared for me, and that was perfectly understandable because she had only recently been introduced to my world. The Devil stood for a powerful evil entity, and for her to have realized that even he could be destroyed,  meant that I was no longer a permanent aspect of the world....

            To Faith Williams, I was a broken man with nothing left to lose because of Devin's passing. She was desperate to get me in one place, where in her mind, I would be safe from harm, but did she no concept of what I was anymore? Had her affection for me blinded her from the truth about the species that I belonged to?  I was a Fallen.

            She truly didn't know how rotten I was.       

            And how much of a bitch I was to kill.

            Wow, I was seriously depressing sometimes.

            Must have been because I was cutting down on the whole cigarette thing.

            Speaking of cigarettes....

            I took one out of my pocket and lit up. Yes, it was probably a bad time to start smoking when there was a building full of reckless demons probably preparing for war against the human relm. Yada-yada-yada...

            I finished the cigarette and then decided it was time to show those demons who was the boss.

            Demons were territorial, which meant that only a few species of demons would mark off each floor. When I had transported myself into the building, I inhaled sharply, processed the scents on the floor, and cursed loudly. Definitely Rukurokabi demons and  possibly a few Puck demons. Rukurokabi and Puck demons were never a good combination because they both fed off of Fallen's flesh because of their implausible power and ability to regenerate. Needless to say, if a Fallen was ever somehow weakened by a Rukurokabi or a Puck demons either demonic class would have had a feast because Fallen can just grow back whatever limb or flesh they lose. And if they're not hungry for flesh, they'll feed off of a Fallen's misery like a leech.

            The trick to uncovering an illusion is to find its faults. No illusion is perfect, it always has its faults, and once you find that fault, the illusion is no longer real and the creature creating the illusion is now venerable.

            This was definitely going to be a really fucked up version of Where's Waldo?

            I threw open Devin's office door and ignored the abnormal, crushing sensation within me as I scanned the familiar room and the artificial thoughts that followed, telling me that he was still alive and his death was a practical joke. Devin's scent still lingered there, absorbed into every surface and every paper that I felt down quickly with my hands. I could sense the presence of other demons watching me, but none of them had taken a solid shape so they weren't technically a threat yet.

            Where they analyzing me? Were they in my head? It would take a lot of effort on their part, but it sure as hell could happen. That was why I had to slice first and ask questions later on the top floor. I couldn't trust anything.

            Puck demons tended to group together and extract information from their prey to use it against them.  Rukurokabi were the perfect choice--a higher class group of demons that were capable of taking the shape of practically anything and creating illusions that look real but aren't. Their powerful influence on the brain fit together perfectly.

            I had similar abilities as the Rukurokabi and Puck demons, so I thought I had known exactly what I was getting into. I thought I would be able to slice first, ask questions later.

            I was so wrong.

            Minutes passed. I had torn apart every book shelf and every filing cabinet in the office. Even though Devin was destroyed, his life was only a miniscule shift in the balance compared to what had escaped hell following his death. I could taste the evil in the air like a bitter candy. Every moment I couldn't find that button meant that more creatures were leaving the D & S Tower and the Balance was shifting in the human world.

            Where the hell does someone keep a button to suck in once imprisoned, excessive creatures back into Hell? Now I was pissed, shifting the shaft of my scythe in my hand, pacing the room. I wanted something to fight.

            Suddenly a realization hit me and I felt like a goddamn idiot for ever entering the room. I had walked into a virtual trap. Devin's office had been spotless when I had walked in. Spotless. I knew better than to think that was possible when thousands upon thousands of demons were probably set on tearing up everything Lucifer had ever touched out of spitefulness. I knew better.

            Maybe Faith was right. Maybe I wasn't in the right state of mind.

            Because I had walked right into the middle of an illusion and trusted it. I had therefore opened my mind to the illusion and its creators. I had let them in. I shut my eyes, telling myself over and over again that what I was looking at wasn't real.

            Opening them again, I slowly looked at every aspect of the room. I found that everything I had torn down, and every piece of paper I had moved around was now back to its original place. The illusion of the office was well-built and had only reset itself back to its original image, which meant that I had been looking for the button a lot longer than I thought I had, giving more and more advantage to the enemy as they crept into my mind and uncovered everything about me.

            I had been tricked.

            I cursed loudly. "Damn tricksters! You're all a bunch of cowards!"

            "Yeah, cowards!" a deep voice chuckled from behind me.

            I turned sharply around towards my own voice, meeting emerald eyes that were identical to mine. An illusion. It was like I was standing in front of a mirror, except this mirrored image had freedom to move and speak. They wore a different shirt than mine that was tight and revealed the markings on my arms.

            I had to find a fault in the illusion to break it.

            "Tricksters." The illusion snorted, tracing the black markings on its arm with a finger tip. "They're so...ugly from the inside out. Aren't they? Rotten to the core..."

             "I see what you did there. Calling me ugly. I truly applaud your detail, but if you weren't already aware, I don't give a flying piece of shit about some irrelevant, replica, leach-demon's opinion of me," I drawled out nastily.

            "Then kill me already if you're so certain I'm fake because I'm getting bored," the Trickster taunted, reaching its hand into its pocket and making a show of lighting up a cigarette and inhaling. "Unless," it began in a inquisitive tone., "I'm not fake and you're fake? My, my, I think we definitely have a problem here!"

            I lifted my lip up in a snarl. "We don't have a problem here. You're the fake."

            The Trickster threw its head back laughing, then grew completely serious. "Prove it. Try and kill me."

            It was then I realized my scythe was no longer in my hands.

            The Trickster slowly smiled. "Well? Come on. I'm waiting--"

            I moved faster than lighting, gripping the Trickster by the throat, trying to fight the instinct to stop strangling myself and squeezing their neck harder and harder the more they struggled. "WHERE IS IT?" I roared over the demon's cackling laughter. "WHERE IS MY SCYTHE?"

            "Maybe Daddy took it. Daddy always finds a way to take everything from us!" the Trickster wheezed out. "He's going to take Faith from you just like he took Anonna. I wonder, will he make you watch when he takes your girlfriend's virginity twenty different ways?"  

            "Shut your damn mouth! I'm the only one who can touch my scythe, where is it?" I was wringing the illusion's neck out like a towel but it wasn't affecting it at all as it continued to taunt me with loud sexual moans.

            "I bet Faith Wiliams is feisty in bed," the Trickster added, lickings its lips. "Don't you think? Must be torturous to be around her all of the time. Those luscious curves alone are enough to make a man drop to his knees. Or maybe she'll drop to her knees..."

            "Shut your mouth or I'll sew it shut!" I let go of the Trickster's neck, letting it thump to the ground as I backed away. "You're not real!"

            "You keep telling yourself that." The Trickster reappeared at my side, fully recovered. " That darn Faith.... always being so stupid. But she's smart enough to know we're no good for her. She would never want someone like us to take her virginity. We're just an ugly, rotten, monster. There's nothing attractive about being rotten." The Trickster slung an arm over my shoulder and leaned into my ear to whisper, "Rotten."

            I blinked slowly, locking eyes with the demon. "She.. doesn't think I'm rotten."

            "Oh, but she does," the Trickster insisted. "She always has, but she just feels bad for us. We're a hopeless cause to her. We both know any feelings she has towards us is because we've kept her with us for so long. What's that called again? Stockholm Syndrome?"

            I shook my head, fighting the Trickster's words, but slowly and surely they sunk deep and anchored within me until I could no longer fight the urge to believe them. "She doesn't really love me."

            "But her opinion of us doesn't matter because she's temporary."

            "Temporary..."

            "She'll be gone in no time when you kill her."

            "No..." I fought to remove my eyes from identical, phony one's of the Trickster's but it was impossible. "I know the vision I had was wrong. I know it. I can't bring myself to kill her."

            "This isn't about the girl, it's about us!" Trickster shouted. "Nobody is everlasting, and we know that more than anyone. We shatter the illusion that we're all immortal by stripping people of something or someone they love and putting a veil over the space in-between the human realm and wherever the deceased go. We need to stop this cycle, Death. On and on this cycle of collecting souls goes, and there's nothing we can do to stop it. Who cares where that dead-as-a-doornail little bitch ends up in life, some demon will pick her off soon anyways! She can barely handle the world without us. She's a pet. She's a hassle that's in the way, and she doesn't listen. We both know how we feel about that." The Trickster leaned in again, whispering, "As long as you live, your life is controlled by her. Everything in your life is controlled by someone else."

            "It is," I said numbly, feeling a building pressure behind my eyes.

            "You're life revolves around short relations and fatality, don't let Faith Williams ruin you, because the moment your heart beats like hers, she will destroy you for everything you have done for her. Don't you believe deep down that she'll ruin you?"

            "She'll ruin me," I agreed.

            "We both know what we have to do. It's something you haven't thought about because of her. We both know it has to be done. It's the only true solution to our problem. Ruin yourself first. Prove that you run your own miserable life."

            I looked down in my hands to find the shaft of my scythe once again in my grip. "Miserable..."

            The Trickster moved away from me, lighting another cigarette. "We both know there's only one way to truly kill yourself. You say you've tried before, but we both know you didn't follow through. You couldn't bring yourself to do it. You're weak. She makes you weak. The Elder's make you weak. You're tired of it. We're tired of it."

            I clenched my scythe in my hands and watched a droplet of water fall onto my pants. I stared, fixated at that droplet as it rolled off of the leather surface of my pants and fell onto the floor. "I'm so... tired..."

            "You know what you have to do, friend," the Trickster said, handing me its cigarette. I inhaled the vapors without hesitation. "We can't let anyone get in the way of your true fate. You can't live like this any longer..."

            Suddenly, I smirked. Breaking from my pretend stupor, I threw out my hand and the demon went flying across the room, pinned to the wall. "If you were trying to make me suicidal or crazy, you're a couple thousand years too late. This was fun, I wanted to know what you had to say to me.  I think you've really opened my eyes about one thing. My biceps look fantastic in that t-shirt."

            "What?" the Trickster said, taken aback as I approached it. "But you...you were--"

            "Yeah, no I wasn't entirely under your influence, I just kept repeating what you said, but if you want a golden star for trying, I could look in one of Devin's drawers. Drop the illusion so I can look for a sticker, would ya?"

            The Trickster snarled a little.

            "P.S, my piercing is on the other eyebrow," I continued, "I caught onto your fault a few minutes ago, moron. Should have just eaten me and skipped the depressing shit. Hell is a lot better than where you're going. Nowhere." I brought back my scythe and sliced the head right off of the Trickster, watching its body transform into an ugly, grey, wrinkly creature.

            I spat on the dead body, then watched as the  body of the Trickster burst into flames, leaving nothing behind. The illusion around the room slowly dropped until a disheveled, torn apart, and bloody office filled with demons was revealed. The demons had been standing around watching what had just occurred like it had been a game and they were rooting for the Trickster.

            I twirled my scythe, growling at them, "Next."

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Ta da! Sorry it was so short! I'll be uploading again soon! Please vote and leave feedback!!! <3

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