The Ineffable Omens | A 'Good Omens' FanFic

4 | Hell Sweet Hell

About an hour earlier

    "Why hello, Crowley. How nice it is to see you, awake," said the demon who had once taken Crowleys place, and was now a Duke of hell herself.
    "Shax! How's- how's it going up- or down there? Became the grand Duke of Hell yet?" Crowley stuttered, now moving his body weight to lean on the door frame instead of his cane. Shax rolled her eyes, unamused with the serpent, attempting to push past him. Crowley moved to the side a bit, welcoming the demon into the flat. Shax looks around, her face unchanged from her very unemotional stature.
    "Hmm," she scoffed, now seeing the desk and throne. "It's... barren." Crowley growled a bit, closing the front door. He remembered what the flat looked like when he was able to come back. Every surface was covered with the most narcissistic and pointless stuff. Him and Shax were clearly complete opposites when it came to interior design, with Crowley being very minimalist, and Shax being a major maximalist. She turns to the demon, and then at the cane.
    "What on Hell is that?" Staring at the stick he's leaned himself on. "Hmm? Oh this, this is so I can beat things." He sarcastically spat. She shrugs her shoulders, sighing and looking back at his face. She was about to say something else, but opted for another question.
    "And are the glasses necessary? What's even the point of wearing them indoors and in front of another demon?" Crowley rolled his eyes, clearly not visible with the lenses. "Because I can, now, is there a reason you're here?" He spat again, getting quite annoyed and wanting the other demon to leave already.

    "Yes, there is in fact," Shax turned away from him, going to sit on his throne, and look back up at him. "It's Satan, he has asked me to deliver, a message." Crowley scoffed.
    "And? He couldn't have sent it in a letter or something? That's what he's done before." He recalled the letters the dark lord would send him to do specific tasks before, specifically, making the once prince of hell Beelzebub do.
    "That's the thing, you see," Shax stood back up, going to stand directly in front of him. "With the dark lords old lackey gone, he's in need of new management..." Shax pulled out a mirror and a blending sponge, touching up a spot on her cheek that had slightly smeared off from the rain. She closed the mirror and put them both away again, sighing and looking back into the lenses of Crowley glasses. Crowley had raised an eyebrow, not having a clue as to what Shax was trying to hint at.
    "I think it'll be better for him to explain," Shax paused, raising her hand up and snapping, causing the floor to go out under them. Crowley yelled, not prepared for the sudden fall. After about a minute of  flailing, yelling, and falling, Crowley felt his shins and knees hit the hard ground, causing him to scream in pain. He hunched his back over, grabbing his knees and trying to massage his legs. He hissed at the lasting pain, muttering every curse possible towards Shax. He felt the ground tremor as something moved toward the two demons. A low(ish) voice boomed, making Crowley look up in shock.

    "Crowley, the traitor, how nice it is to see you finally kneeling down to me" it was Satan himself, calling down to serpent, moving out of the shadows and looming over him. Crowley was now trying to hastily stand up, struggling from the enormous amounts of pain the fall had caused.
    "Satan! My lord! What a pleasure it is to be in your presence," Crowley hated sucking up, especially to him, but as he said before, he's just gotta go along, as much as he can. After finally getting himself standing up, he slightly bowed towards the giant ruler of Hell, and immediately stood back up straight, as much as he could anyway, with having to use his cane as support.
    "Indeed," the dark lord shut hit eyes, snarling at his comment. Crowley looked around the room they all stood in, a giant cavern with lights and shingles sprawled throughout. He had never been to this portion of hell before, and had only seen Satan a handful of times, one of them being after stopping Armageddon. Crowley went to look at him again, only to find the empty space towards the top of the cavern once again. He furrowed his eyebrows together, then heard a clearing throat in front of him. Crowley looked lower, now seeing the demon around the same height, but still tall enough to tower over the already tall serpent. Satan nodded towards Shax, and she bowed, swiftly leaving him and Crowley by themselves. Once they were completely alone, the devil started to speak.
    "So, I've gone through your files, your reports," his voice was still deep and loud, despite not taking up so much space. He started to circle Crowley, like a predator eyeing his prey. Crowley gulped, unsure of what to do but stand there, and try to look unbothered.
    "Some interesting things you've accomplished up above," he sounded genuine, but still frightening.
    "Thank you, Dark lord," that was all Crowley could muster without stuttering. Crowley was usually pretty good about keeping his cool, unless he was angry, but something about talking to the ruler of Hell drove Crowley insane, making it very difficult to focus on anything except wanting to run away. He never looked the devil in his eyes, keeping his focus to the ground. Satan gently pulled the sunglasses off of the serpents face, crushing them in his grip and dropping the pieces to the ground.
    "Eyes on me, snake," he growled at Crowley, wanting his undivided attention.
    "My apologies, your lord ship," moving his eyes toward him now, struggling even more to keep himself standing from the fear that has been put into him in addition to the pain from falling.