Darned to Heck

Lassie

It had been two weeks to the day now since I had spoken with the youngest prince of hell in the cavernous library of the royal palace. I had bumped into all the other princes and a butt load of regular demons since then.

I'd had lunch with Leviathan, who was behaving himself for the time being, walked around the palace grounds with Asmodeus, had a tour of the palace with Beelzebub (who was coincidentally hilarious) and Mammon (who put up with Beelzebub admirably). I had even spoken with Lucifer on several occasions, who seemed to be so unbreakably calm at all times that I felt like I could've stripped down completely naked and danced in front of him and he would have simply regarded me with a cool gaze and informed me of the temperature of the room, suggesting that I put my clothes back on in order to avoid a chill. And of course I was still having my questionably successful lessons with Satan on Tuesdays.

But the one demon that I had not crossed paths with once, was the one demon that I could not stop thinking about, Belphegor.

~"Because there are things I could tell you, little mouse, that you would very much like to hear."~

"What the hell does he mean by that anyway?" I mumbled irritably as I walked through the hallways again. I sighed and rubbed my thumb over the small chunk of rock that I had nicked from a wall and kept in my pocket. It was like the world's best stress ball. It quivered and folded like putty in my hand as I squished it. I had grown rather attached to the little guy and I petted it now like a small dog. It ran across my fingers in delight and I smiled at how happy it was from such a simple action.

I took it out of my pocket and watched it, it really was alive. I found myself wondering why exactly I hadn't gone to see him, if I wanted to talk to him so much. And I came to the conclusion, much to my dismay that I was more than a little attracted to and also somewhat intimidated by him.

You're attracted to all of them though you horny bitch. Since when has that been a problem? My inner me piped up snidely.

I don't know, I guess its cause I know where I stand with the others, I can chat all the shit I want if they piss me off. But him... he seems smarter than the rest, like he knows something we don't. And what's that saying? 'Knowledge is power'. Yeah, he's a darn sight more dangerous than he looks that one.

Sneaky fuck's willing to share that information with you though, and you'd be a darn sight stupider than you look if you didn't take him up on that offer.

You're right.

Always am.

I nodded determinedly. I was going to find out what the 'things' that he knew were, whether he made me nervous or not.

"But how the hell do I find him?"

The rock in my hands began to tug at me insistently. "What? What is it?" it kept tugging me forwards, I put it down on the floor in front of me and it promptly rolled speedily along the carpet before disappearing around the corner.

"Hey, wait up!" I yelled, running after it.

I'm going to call him Lassie. My inner me laughed at me as I ran down the hallways after the speeding blob of rock. You know it doesn't really seem possible that he can move this fast, he doesn't even have any legs.

I laughed with myself at the situation and nearly tripped over the damn thing when it stopped suddenly outside of a large wooden door at the end of a hallway. I'd lost my bearings about thirty turns ago, Lassie had brought me to a really obscure part of the palace, and I never would've found it without him.

"Good rock." I whispered to the blob, kneeling down so that it could climb back into my hand, it rubbed up against my fingers happily.

"What's a little mouse like you doing so far away from home?" I looked up to the tall man smirking from the doorway above me.