Epilogue

Epilogue 2.16

---Comma---

     I sit naked on the demon's bed. He paces back and forth, glancing my way every couple of seconds. Scrutinizing every inch of my exposed body. I shudder. My head's pounding something awful. And with all the phlegm clogging up my respiratory system, I somehow doubt he finds me the least bit attractive. Then again, he's a demon. Who knows what kinds of twisted fetishes he's got?

     The room is cold. I get goose bumps all over my skin. I feel an intense desire to crawl under the fuzzy red sheets, not just to cover myself, but to warm myself from the cold. I wonder if he'll put me out of my misery if I try and protest. I can't just sit here while this monstrosity violates me.

     "No wardings," he mutters to himself. "But your aura..."

     "I'm not sure what you were expecting to see. Other than the obvious."

     "Lie down."

     "Make me."

     "And touch you when I don't have to?" Dante grimaces. "You disgust me, alpen. Don't think for a moment that I lust after the likes of you. Now do as I say, or I'll get Mutt to do it for you. And restraint isn't one of his virtues."

     I do as he says.

     "Your aura," says Dante, his eyes alight. "It's tainted."

     "Sorry to disappoint," I wheeze, before breaking out into another wet fit of coughing. "I'm far from pure, if that's what you were looking for."

     "On the contrary, that bodes well," says the demon. "The dark gods favour corruption."

     I brace myself. "Can we get this over with?"

     "Not yet," mutters the demon, glaring at me with his big bug eyes. "In order for the prophecy to be fulfilled, certain... conditions must be met. The Sentients have not been clear as to what those conditions are. I thought that your aura might be incompatible with the ancient magics we'll be resurrecting, but that doesn't appear to be the case. Nor is your flesh warded against the forces of darkness. Nevertheless, we won't be doing anything until I have their assurance that our union will bring about the promised one."

     I gag. "Then, if you're just about done shuddering at my repulsiveness, can I go?"

     Dante nods.

     I put my night slip back on and wander out into the hallway. I stagger back to my room, or at least to the room in which I'm being kept a prisoner, and bury myself under the blanket. I fall into a light sleep, dreaming of nothingness. Not the nothing sort of nothingness, but the mystically suspended in time without a consciousness sort of nothingness. How I long to return to that.

     Rex wakes me up when he barges into the room, uninvited as usual. "Thought you might be feelin' a little peckish, so I brought you a scone. Bertha may be a daft cow, but she knows how to bake a biscuit."

     I draw back the covers, propping myself up against the pillow. "I don't have much of an appetite these days." He sets the plate down on the night table, giving me that sympathetic look that utterly repulses me. I sigh and tear a tiny piece off of the scone and chew on it. The buttery taste makes me want to hurl. Not that I need to want to hurl these days in order to do so. I glance up and notice that Rex is still lurking around. "Can I help you?"

     He scratches the back of his scaly head. "Did uh... Did you and the boss..."

     "Not yet." Against my better judgment, I tear off another piece of the scone. "Apparently the planets have to be aligned first, or something like that."