the First
For those who enter the glistening hall of the demogorgon, there is no hope. At the razor’s edge of existence, frigid air wafts from leagues below, carrying the stench of piss, shit, and vomit. Wide is the way for the poor souls headed to their destruction.
This path is where Vitalia and her escort, Huela, saunter quietly.
Bold stripes of purple and black decorated the granite tiled hallway. They shine brightly under the gas lamps peppering the walls between blue-lit TV screens and animated photographs. Looming at the end of the hall is the only entrance and exit to the demogorgon’s lair.
“Are you ready for this?” Huela asked, disturbing the quiet.
Tally raised an eyebrow, glancing in her direction. “I think the better question is: are you?”
Scoffing, her escort crossed her arms and scowled. “This isn’t a game, Tally. Demi is a monster, through and through, and if you aren’t careful, he’ll gobble you up. Then you’ll be another pile of demogorgon shit, waiting to be mopped up from the floors, walls and ceiling.”
“I doubt it.”
Huela’s words didn’t scare Tally. How could they? She and Demi were old friends. She’d been singing him to sleep for the last 150 years. There wasn’t another soul floating in the suspended cosmos able to claim the same, except Mel.
“Look,” Huela stopped, grasping Tally’s arm with pointed, manicured nails, “I don’t know why Mel thinks you can calm Demi down, and I really don’t care, but I suggest you fix your attitude before I have you dropped in the void.”
Unimpressed, Tally simply dropped her gaze to the nails sinking into her tender flesh. Vehemently, she yanked away. Huela snatched her own hand back like she’d burned her, still wearing her resting bitch face.
The Void. An empty pit of never-ending blackness. To be tossed inside with no hope of return is a death sentence. You’ll fall forever.
“Mel won’t drop me in the void because you want to exercise power you don’t have. It’s a figment of your imagination, vampire. Get over it.” Rubbing a hand down her arm, Tally healed herself with a flourish. “Can we go now or are you still interested in a pissing contest?”
“Fine.” Huela shrugged. “Your funeral.”
“Is that supposed to scare me? I’m already dead.”
“You’re only halfway there, darlin’, and the monster lurking at the bottom of this hotel can you send the rest of the way. Respect where you’re going or you’ll meet an unpleasant end.” Huela’s eyes turned suspiciously cold. “I’ve seen it far too many times to count. You’d do well to heed my advice.”
Tipping her head to the side, Tally studied Huela. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were afraid.”
“I’m not the one going into the cage with Demi, and besides, Mel swore to protect me.”
Tally scoffed. Mel protect her? He didn’t protect the last two assistants who met the jagged, judging jaws of the demogorgon. Why did she think she was different? A whore spends a little time on her knees and she thinks she becomes queen.
“Yeah… right…”
Tally stepped away from her to continue down the hallway. Waiting near the black and silver elevator doors were two pairs of rain boots. Quickly, the women slipped them over their stilettos and waited patiently as the elevator car crawled from the bowels of the building.
“Now, when we get down there, don’t show any fear, or Demi will devour you. Mel is waiting to greet you.” The doors slid open with a ding and they stepped inside. “I won’t be able to help if something happens to you, darlin’. Don’t scream my name for help.”
“Demi and I go way back, darlin’.” Tally threw the silly nickname back. “I’m perfectly safe going in and out of the lair, but you, on the other hand, “she sniffed Huela, “smell like freshly delivered demogorgon dessert right after lunch. You’re just another assistant in a long line of women Demi will play with before he swallows you whole.”
White-faced, Huela reached to press the only button inside of the elevator. With a snap, the doors shut. Darkness reigns supreme, but a dull glow hummed from the top right-hand corner of the car, displaying the bottom floor. Without warning, the car dropped.
Shrieking, Huela clamped a hand onto the banister in fright, passing tear streaked eyes to Tally. Rapidly, a sequence of nonsensical numbers and letters flashed across the screen as they barreled downward. In the center of the car, Tally stood stock still with her arms crossed behind her back. A slow, tempting smile curled her face, this descent was her favorite part.
Finally, the car lurched to a stop. Huela rocked back and forth, howling under her breath. As soon as the door flickered open, she hurriedly stepped off the car, only to vomit all over the wall. Sighing, Tally ambled past.
“Do—” Huela vomited a second time, splashing crimson all over the shiny, black sludge covering the widened corridor. “Do you know what this stuff is?”
Shiny as a gold coin and black as pitch, the sludge coated every inch of what they could see. It leeched across the marble floors, languished on the cement walls, and dripped down the curved wrought iron staircase leading down to the depths. Despite its strange appearance, outside of the minty tint of the cold air, the sludge gave off no stench. But destroyed souls rarely do.
Tally shrugged. “It helps if you keep moving. I’m sure someone will come to clean this up soon.”
Her feet sank through the substance to the polished marble floor beneath. If the janitor didn’t move fast enough, it would stick to the floors. Then, they’d be forced to scrub them with a sharpened razor. Wrinkling her nose, Tally waded through the mess pooling around her feet.
Together, they moved down the worn, winding, wrought iron staircase, careful to avoid the muck-covered banister. A dead-eyed omega werewolf with a shock of blue hair and a wide nose clutched a long stick edged with a thin razor as he passed, eyeing them with interest. Neither of them spoke. On the last stair, they paused to wipe the remains off of their shoes.
“Tally!” She jerked, twisting to find the voice’s owner.
“Mel!”
“It’s so good to see you, again!” He gushed as he raised her from the ground and spun around, closing lean, muscled arms around her waist until she couldn’t breathe. “I’m so glad you’ve come. Demi missed you, as did I.”
“Mel,” she panted, pressing her hands against his chest to give her lungs room to breathe, “It’s so good to see you, too.”
Wearing a smile bright enough to light the cosmos was Demi’s owner, Mephistopheles. Infamous as he was handsome, Mel preferred the company of his pet creature to the living and dead upstairs. Rarely was he caught above the demogorgon level unless it was absolutely necessary. Eons taming and befriending the most powerful beast within these walls was a full-time job.
Surprisingly, their lives didn’t intertwine until Demi heard her singing upstairs. For days the creature pounded and howled in a furious tantrum, demanding she be brought down. She’d sang Demi to sleep almost every night since.
“He’s in quite the mood. I’m hoping you can help brighten him back up or make him sleep.”
She nodded. “I’ll do my best.”
“Huela, open the gates.”
Surprised, Tally frowned. “Have my credentials been revoked?”
“No.” He shook his head, lowering his voice as he leaned down. “I just like to scare the new ones. Besides, Demi said she was rude to you.”
Cackling, Tally stepped away, following the trembling assistant to the massive double gates lording over them, barring the way to Demi’s lair. Made from wrought iron twisted with Elvish magic, they kept those who’d wish to harm the demogorgon at bay. Though, Tally often wondered who’d be stupid enough to harm the docile creature?
“I’ll leave you here.” Huela breathed, her face still green and feverish. Tally blinked back tears as Huela’s vomit fueled breath washed over her. “Once those doors open, I’m gone. I won’t look back and I won’t return should you need help.” Her hand lifted and rested on the panel until it turned green. “Only the goddess can help you now.”
Rolling her eyes, Tally prepared herself to face Demi. The Goddess? What goddess could stand the might of the demogorgon? Mel had explained Demi’s lack of control when damned souls made their appearance. Even the gods feared for their lives in his presence and they created him.
Under the steamed hissing and groaning drawl of the gears, the gates flung themselves free of their grave. Swinging inward, they allowed Tally’s confident footsteps to clear the threshold before coming to life a second time. The aged hinges shrieked and squealed so loud, she slammed her hands over her ears until they found their home. Booming like a gong, the lock latched shut.
“Demi?”
When her plea went unanswered, Tally ventured deeper. Crushing blackness set in, challenging her night vision. From memory, she recalled the labyrinth-style space.
Keeping straight meant finding Demi’s living space. To her right was a cluster of half walls set to trap and confuse a frightened escaping soul. No one ever made it out of those walls alive. On the left was an impossibly dark portal, shimmering in a kaleidoscope of colors. According to Mel, it led to Demi’s true home among the stars.
Humming a happy tune under her breath, Tally stalked deeper. Each step was a challenge in trust as she put one in front of the other. Squinting, she searched for Demi’s familiar shape in the haze.
“Demi?” A shadow swept across the floor in the distance. “There you are!”
A happy chuff preceded the appearance of eight eerily green glowing eyes suspended in the deep. Slowly, they rose from Tally’s height upward. He reached to touch her face with a clawed hand.
Smiling, she pressed cold fingers to his knuckles. “Mel said you missed me.”
Eagerly, he nodded, sounding a second chuff from his throat. Her joy never wavered as he smiled at her, exposing the alternating rows of serrated, yellow teeth buried in his mouth and throat. They used to frightened Tally, but now, she understands they were simply a part of him. And the sweetness he showed only to her, warmed her heart.
“Mel said you were feeling poorly. Are you alright?”
Moaning sadly, the demogorgon stepped closer. Dark purple skin stretched over a taunt muscle frame, swaying on two trunk-like legs. He squatted, stretching the loincloth covering his pelvis and backside.
“You missed me?” He nodded. “Would you like me to sing for you?”
As it were possible, Demi smiled wider while nodding his head. Shifting to sit, his waist-length black hair slapped against his back. Each braid dripped with sludge, running down his frame to the ground.
“How much did you eat today?”
No one besides Mel made it out of his pet’s cell alive until Tally. And to this day, the number of individuals allowed inside without the expectation of certain death hadn’t changed.
Unlike Mel, Tally couldn’t speak the monstrous tongue from the gorgon world. In their time together, she taught him sign language. Demi fisted his right hand and raised his thumb to stroke from his throat to his chin. He dropped the fist and opened it, roughly rubbing his palm against his other now fisted hand.
“Not enough.”
“Are you sure you aren’t being greedy?”
He paused, tipping his head to the side. Slowly, he lifted his hands again, palms open and fingers flat, seesawing them back and forth. “Maybe.”
“Any requests for tonight?”
“Sing.” He sighed, clawed hands rising in the darkness.
“Sleep?”
“Yes.”
“I can do that.”
Demi grinned wickedly.
“Settle in then…” She paused, watching him shift. “Under the covers…”
He chuffed, annoyed, but did as instructed. A moment later, Mel’s dark, boisterous laugh echoed. Startled, Tally pivoted to find the powerful demon ambling through the darkness casually. Offering a satisfied grin, he patted her on the head.
“Party crashing again, Mel?”
He shook his head. “No, I just love to hear you sing, little bird.”
“I don’t remember saying you were invited.”
“I don’t think Demi minds, do you?”
Flashing his index and middle finger, Demi pressed them against his thumb. Tally pouted. “No.”
“See? He loves me.”
Tally fixed a dramatic glare on her face at Demi. “Traitor.”
He laughed.
Thrusting a hand through his jet black hair, Mel materialized near a stool and sat, planting his booted feet apart. Another smile pushed through his lips, exposing two rows of ultra-white teeth beneath his plush pink lips, dimpled cheeks, straight nose, and vermillion eyes. He was the only demon Tally had ever met, and he was hot as sin.
“Something wrong?”
Blinking owlishly, Tally jerked as blood flamed her cheeks. He had caught her staring. Again.
“Mic, please?” Mel lifted a hand and snapped his fingers. In her hand, a microphone appeared from nothing, and behind her, a karaoke system. A ghosted hand chose the song and music engulfed their ears. “I’m singing his favorite tune.”
Shrugging, the demon simply smiled at her. “His favorite is mine.”
Tally opened her mouth and belted out of the lyrics of Demi’s favorite song, swishing her hips to the hypnotic beat. Floors above her, music pulsed in the club. But even the blaring bass couldn’t hide the angelic voice calling from below. A dragon shifter froze where he stood and cast a wary eye around him.
Shaking it off, he left the hotel behind. There was no way the woman was alive. He’d watched her die in his arms 150 years ago.
