ACEDIA: Love in Hell

6 - STUPID DEVIL

RUTHIE

I woke up angry.

I followed Lamia to the baths angry.

I sat down at a long table in the barracks angry.

And I stared, angrily, as Lamia called for what I assume was the head cook to bring me breakfast.

She doesn't seem to notice or care much about my sour mood, plopping down next to me on the bench and polishing my gold wrist cuffs as she talks. She's a babbler, this creepy spider lady. I feel a little bad that I'm not chatting with her, but yesterday is still fresh in my mind.

Running through the events, it feels like it's been longer than it really has. The night before I was sacrificed to a demon. The next morning I woke up on a sad beach. Then I was captured by little 'collector imps' as Lamia calls them and taken on a long, uncomfortable caged ride to the city of Somnus Gate; capital of Sloth. I was washed and prepped and in a round-about way, found the demon to whom I was sacrificed, who's a jerk.

A stupid, sexy jerk.

"Pardon?" Lamia asks, holding up a pair of earrings to the side of my head.

Oh. I must have said that last part out loud.

"Nothing," I mutter and let her continue to treat me like her personal doll. At least she's a nice handler and isn't tugging me around on a leash like an animal.

"Well as I was saying, I have only taken you here because there are too many courtiers at the keep right now giving tribute to his Majesty. He prefers you meet them all at once so that they know who you are and no future incidents can occur like what happened with the lords of Palati. These are the soldier barracks though, and you should not venture here alone otherwise. Not yet, I mean. Maybe one day you will be safe enough but you're far too new and weak and human."

A sigh escapes me, and I curl my fingers in the dress I've been given today. It's royal blue and utterly beautiful with Grecian shoulders like I'm some sort of goddess. I glance to Lamia in her red and white kimono. There's no real fashion cohesion here and it bothers me for some reason. I guess I shouldn't be annoyed; Valefar couldn't dress like Lamia. Their bodies are far too different, as is mine.

"Ah, you are upset." Lamia leans over to look me in the eyes. "This is all a lot to process and a few days will not ease the confusion. I can assure you, Ruth Hutchinson, in time you will—"

"I want to see Valefar." I interrupt. "I want to see him now. If I'm potential royalty I can insist on that, right?" So I can yell at him about biting me and sucking me dry before I could have my first orgasm by another person, I think to myself.

I feel stupid that out of all the shit that's happened to me the past few days; that is what I'm upset about.

"Eat first, girl." Lamia insists, though she looks pleased I seem eager to see the king again. I look down at my food. Truth be told it's pretty appetizing. Sausages, boiled potatoes, and this weird bread bow thing with gravy inside of it.

I pick up a sausage and go to take a bite out of it, then pause and eye Lamia.

"Uhm, is this like... made from humans or anything?" I squeak out.

She gives me that creepy grin of hers and shakes her straight white locks. "No. Humans are not treated that way in Sloth. They serve their lords as any demon does just the same. You are not cattle to us anymore."

"Anymore?"

"The previous king, Malthus, had nothing but disdain for sinners. He saw them as squandering the one gift from God he no longer had – His favor. So he tortured and punished his human charges. He starved them and let them aimlessly wander his lands. He let his demons do whatever they wished to them. The only way they could gain his approval was to turn into demons themselves."