Runaway Devil
22

"Sleep well?"

"Why are you still here?"

"That's a rude question to ask someone who bought you breakfast." He lifted one of the plastic grocery bags in his hands. He was wearing a flannel I had laying around the house, covering his torn and bloodstained shirt. He had rolled up the sleeves, exposing healing cuts from yesterday. The new coffee began brewing, the sound of the machine interrupted my thoughts.

"I don't– you– what are you doing?" I had never met a person, much less an angel, like him before. He started opening all of my cabinets, every single one. He finally found a skillet and proceeded to prepare breakfast. I stared at him and slowly reeled in my agitation. I wanted him gone, and I needed to leave and to get as far away as possible. But, something told me that no matter where I went, this angel would find me. And I was curious. He was the first angel I've seen in years, he tried to kill me and now he's making me breakfast. Some could even argue that he's being polite.

Balan sat by my side on the perimeter of the yellowed kitchen tiles, watching the angel with a sharp eye. The popping of frying eggs and the smell of bacon filled my apartment.

After we had wallowed in comfortable silence, he placed two plates on my dinky kitchen table, with a fresh cup of coffee next to mine. He sat expectantly, looking up at me with a raised brow. He attempted an inviting look in his eyes, but it read as a trap rather than an innocent request.

I slowly sat and made no move to eat the food. The angel began eating, cleaning his plate as if he hadn't eaten in days. "This human food is so different than ours back home," He said. He shook his head, leaving me unable to tell if it was a good thing or a bad thing.

"So you do speak English."

"How do you think I got the food? I strictly used demon tongue because I could always use the practice." He looked at my full plate and back at me. "Why aren't you eating?"

"I don't eat human food." I grabbed my cigarettes from my jacket and tapped them on my palm. I let one hang from my lips and lit it.

"Won't that set off fire the fire alarms?" He got up and set his plate in my sink, turning around and leaning against it. "Don't humans care about that kind of stuff?"

I chuckled and gestured towards the ceiling with my cigarette. "There aren't any in this building."

"That is incredibly dangerous," He thought for an extra second. "And illegal, I believe."

I nodded and gave him a wry smile. "That's not an invitation for you to burn down the building."

"Nah, I wouldn't do that. Waste of energy, that's not why I'm here."

"Let's unpack that a bit, huh? You are here to take me to your employer." He nodded and crossed his arms across his broad chest. "You were supposed to bring me back alive, but tried to kill me yesterday... and then... put me to sleep?"

"Admittedly, I lost my tempter. I don't take too kindly to people trying to kill me." His eyebrow rose in casual judgment.

"Now hold on, you're remembering it wrong—"

"Fine, we both tried to kill each other, let's just leave it at that." I sneered at him with trying patience.

"Fair enough. You said you wanted me to tell you a story," I said. He nodded and looked at Balan sitting at my side.

"Is he okay, by the way?"

"Don't look at him, he's fine. It'll take more than a mediocre angel blade to put him down. And don't change the subject, you wanted a story. What story?"

He didn't show any signs of offense at the jeer. "The story of how you escaped Hell. I wanted to know how you did it, why you did it, what happened. To see if the legends were true." He shrugged as if he didn't just drop a bomb on my head. My heart skipped a beat and I felt the color drain from my face.

"Legends?" All the moisture was sucked out of my mouth and my tongue suddenly felt like a lump of cotton threatening to choke me if I breathed the wrong way.

"That's right, I guess you would have no idea, huh?" He looked at me with mild amusement in his piercing eyes. I clenched my jaw and stood from my chair, the scrape of the legs on the tile seemed to echo in my head.

"I have tolerated your presence in my home, angel. Cut the shit and tell me what you know."

"In exchange for what you know, demon." As we spat the words at each other, there was a silent, mutual agreement. A truce, if you will, for a short time.

"Sit." When we were both seated, and the energy calmed, I started. "What exactly are you looking for me to tell you?"

"I want you to take me through that day. The day you left Hell."

I was careful in my phrasing. There was no need to put any fellow demon in danger, I was already toeing the line of what was appropriate to share with an angel. "I was sent for, by the council. Their personal guard showed up on my training grounds. I resisted and slipped through the cracks. I've been topside ever since."

"How long ago was that, exactly?" He slouched in his chair, all of his attention on me.

I took a drag from my cigarette and sipped from my coffee, swallowing before I exhaled. "A couple of years. Balan and I have been moving from town to town until you caught up with us here." He nodded and put the timeline together in his head. "Your turn."

"Well, your name is well known in both realms. Karau is known as the runaway devil, the only demon in existence to have escaped hell and lived." His use of my real name was jarring, it brought me back to when my commanders would bark it at me, or a fellow soldier would yell it from across the battlefield. "The day that you started the rebellion was the start of a new era in your realm. Soldiers refused to fight a war that they had no stake in, civilians were tired of the council's oppressive rule. You know, the basic reasons for a widespread rebellion."

"And how do you know all of this? The conditions in hell are... well, hellish for angels. Your people can't stay down there for more than a few days at a time."

He nodded and looked away from me for the first time since the start of that conversation. He rubbed the back of his neck and stifled a cringe. "Yeah, about that, the wars and battles didn't stop just because you made the news. And with war comes prisoners of war, and information follows."

I sat stone still. I knew this, but having been away from the savagery for so long, it was like opening an old wound that still ached. I took another slow drag from my cigarette, and let the smoke curl out of my mouth like a lazy dragon.

"You are considered a prize in Heaven. My boss wants me to bring you to him, so he can say that he captured the famous runaway she-devil." His voice had taken on a gruffness that I found comforting, even if the words he was saying were anything but.

"That's the catch though, isn't it?" I said without emotion, "You have to capture me first." My dark smirk was reflected on the angel's face across the table from me.

"Right you are."

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