Flip Side

Chapter 4: Dark Side

Warnings: Drinking, violence, drug use, mentions of trauma.

Date-Night Masses comes out next week 20 March, which means I'll begin updating more frequently on other fics soon! Thank you everyone for being so patient these long months, and cool guy support Date-Night Masses.

Song of the chapter is Dark Side by Blind Channel.

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  Selever threw the glass across the room and buried his head in his hands as he slumped to the floor, back against the foot of his bed. His penthouse was a mess, pillows slashed with his claws and feathers littering the carpeting and polished marble. His couch was littered with broken glass and spilled liquor, his bar swept completely clean by his own hand. A sob wracked his frame.

He was too deep now. Too deep in the pitch black paradise of his own making. He wasn't sure when he'd dug himself into this hole, but he knew he was spiralling and it would be a matter of time before he hit rock bottom.

He fumbled with the box under his bed and cleared off his antique coffee table, and used a mirror and razor blade to cut two neat lines. He inhaled, and felt the shakes leave his body and his entire being calm. He surveyed the mess, pricked his thumb with his teeth until a bead of blood welled, and snapped his fingers.

He watched the pillows knit themselves back together, the glasses reform, and finally all that was left was just the spilled liquor soaking his carpet and seeping into the mortar of the marble flooring. He shook himself and his glamour rippled over him, before he straightened his cufflinks and walked into his elevator and descended into his own personal pit of sin.

Drugs made the darkness ebb away. Drugs kept the terror locked up in its drawer in his mind. As long as he had the drugs, he would be fine. He had to be.

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Julius was silent as he watched his queen stare at her phone with her brow furrowed, scrolling through what had to be Selever's social feeds. Her gaze was hardened, resolute. If he didn't know her as well as he did, he'd think she was disgusted. But he knew that Rasazy was deeply concerned under the glittering perfection she cloaked herself with.

He breathed out a sigh as he pushed himself off the wall and onto his feet properly. It had to have been what, a year since she last talked to her brother? Julius wasn't entirely sure. Time was essentially meaningless to demons, so for him it was all just so much noise. She sighed as she locked the phone and slipped it into the cleverly hidden pocket in the seam of her sparkling black dress, and she turned to him.

"Lead me out?"

He held out a hand. "It would be my honor, my liege."

As they entered the party in celebration of the anniversary of her victory, Julius surveyed the room with sharp red eyes. He'd advised her in the appointment of her new Princes, but that didn't prevent their demonic nature at all. He knew, even if she didn't, that they would turn on her at the first sniff of weakness. Hence why he had her gussied up in this slinky sparkling confection of a dress, dripping in white sapphires; her polished appearance would be her armor in the cutthroat politics of the court.

They paused before entering the party proper, and Rasazy gave him a sidelong glance as he gave her a final check-over. He finished it by straightening her crown, an intricate piece of blackened steel inset with silver and a purple velvet cap. He placed both hands on her bare shoulders, and gave her a smile.

"Remember, Ras. Keep your head high. Don't let them see your emotions. You are queen, they're all beneath you."

She nodded, and lifted her chin. "Heavy is the head that wears the crown, Julius."