From Dusk Till Dawn

Blade, Slash, and Render were their names. The best of the best, the toughest of them all, nobody dared to cross them. There they all sat, in Rustle’s little bar, all sitting in the darkest of corners. Rustle’s bar was always a great hangout. It always had a thick lair of gray smoke in the air, hovering just slightly above the heads of the other denizens of Pandemonium, the capitol city of Hell. Blade waved his cigar around carelessly, throwing ashes from it onto the table and ground.1

Blade was the smallest of the three, but naturally skilled in his own ways. He was short, rough looking, and covered in tons of tiny scars, making it look more like he had tripped and fallen into a really sharp thorn bush than been in really real scrap. He had short, spiky black hair, sticking straight up from his pale gray bandanna that covered a third eye on his forehead, which you would imagine would lower his depth perception, but he seemed to function just fine with only two eyes. Blade never wore much in the way of clothing, then again, most creatures that lived within the scorching walls of Hell didn’t. Since Blade he was more humanoid than most in Hell, he chose to appear more human as well. He wore a tattered, gray vest to match his bandanna and long baggy black pants with an assortment of pockets and strands hanging off of them. Slash asked him one time where he got the pants, and he said, quite bluntly in the most uncaring of tones: “From some chick on earth.”2

Sitting across the rustic table from Blade, was Slash. He was a little bigger than Blade, but not so much that it would make any real difference if they came down to a fight, but neither were nearly as big as Render. Slash still looked human, for the most part, but it was obvious that he wasn’t entirely so. His skin had a pale red hue to it, almost making him look like he was an Indian as opposed to a demon. Out of his forehead, covered by long raven black hair, were horns, small horns, but horns nonetheless. Slash rarely worse shirts, since he preferred to show off his demonic physique, but, however, he wore pants, long black pants, much like Blade’s but without the multitude of pockets and strands. There were shiny brass caps over his knees and he assured everyone that he only wore pants as more of a protective shield to certain regions than to hide his “stuff”. Swirling around behind the half-demon was a tail; a long red tail with what looked like a biological knife was grafted to the tip of it. Slash’s eyes glowed in a shade of deep red, showing no pupils or irises.3

Render was a monster. There was no other way to describe him in one word. He was an enormous, titan of a creature, obviously a full-blooded demon from some deep sphere of Hell. His eyes were little more than slits cut into his leathery, blood-crusted face. For a mouth, there were six slits running down his cheeks, where excess skin overlapped and flapped as he took in air or exhaled. Render couldn’t really talk, per say, but he could make very intimidating noises, the sounds and just general sight of the flaps of flesh covering his “face slits” made almost anyone, even others in Hell, want to crawl back into whatever hole they crawled out from. Across the titan’s back were six bat-like wings that were wrapped around his shoulders.4

Blade grinned and put out his cigar. “Well, mates,” he said in his usual cocky tone, chuckling slightly, “Today was a good day for myself, I say.” Slash snorted and rolled his eyes.5

“Oh Lucifer, we aren’t going to go into this again, are we?” Blade said and sighed, calling one of the succubi waitresses over to refill his glass. Render groaned and shook his head, leaning heavily into his custom made marble chair. 6

“Ahh... Come-on lads, you guys surely have something interesting that happened today. I’ll go first,” Blade said and cleared his throat, downing a shot of hard liquor before continuing, “Well it all started...”7

“Come on, worthless humans!” Blade hollered and slashed his arm through the air. Blade was standing at the head of a large mass of humans who of which were barely wearing more than rags. Some were lucky enough to have shoes, but most were forced to go across the barren, black sand wasteland barefoot. Their feet sizzled as they stepped, causing them to wince in pain and moan out, as if it would somehow help them. They were all chained together, and in so, if one fell, most likely, they all would fall, which would be a bad thing, especially for the very short fused Blade. Most of the people were weak from traveling, all scared and injured from the days of abuse that they took. A large black ‘x’ was branded on either the shoulder or the head of each human. It was clear that these marks were made fairly recent, and it could also be told that these humans had been through this before, for their ribs were all visible through their skin, and it looked like most of them were walking skeletons. A loud rumbling sounded from the distance, and the demon guards all stopped, causing the entire mass of people to quit moving and sit to take a rest.8

Blade twitched and peered over his shoulder, as he smelt the humans’ skin sizzling as they rested. He quickly turned around and screamed, “What in the name of the dark one, is going on here!? Did I say you could rest!?” Blade crossed his arms, as a loud roar filled the musty air, followed by another rattling rumble. The humans began to tremble, resembling wild animals as they huddled close to each other out of primal instinct despite the burning heat. The demon guards looked around, almost showing a little bit of concern.9

“Sir,” one of the demons yelled and pointed off into the distance ahead, “an Abyssal Worm!”10

“Why now…?” Blade said and sighed while he turned and gazed off into the distance where the demon guard had pointed. Indeed, there was something. Over several dunes of black sand, something approached the large group from under ground. As it arrived, thirty feet or so away from Blade, it rose from the sand, letting out a loud scream as it gazed down at Blade. Abyssal worms are considered one of the most hideous creatures in Hell. Large, putrid smelling, black creatures, resembling more of a faceless snake than an actual worm, aside from the gaping mouth that is. Undigested flesh and lingering disease seemed to drip from its six rows of jagged teeth that became visible as it roared.11

The worm raised its head high, as it roared, diving headfirst for Blade. Blade was lighting a cigar at the same moment and he placed his hands in his pockets as the massive worm drew near. In an instant, just before the creature landed, Blade’s body seemed to blur, and with inhuman speed, he was above the worm, hovering quietly in the air. Slowly, his ribcage parted and his flesh tore, revealing a hole in his stomach, which he withdrew several throwing knives from, holding them between each finger. He flung his arms out, throwing the mass of knives into the back of the creature as it sank into the ground. Blade snorted in disbelief as he landed on the ground next to the hole the worm had created. Suddenly, the flesh on the bottom of his upper arms began to stretch. His skin ripped, revealing two long blades jutting from his wrists. He took another leap, floating a little in mid air as he watched the ground for the vermin as it pulled out, heading straight towards him. Blade learnt his body forward, flying toward the creature as it opened its mouth, showing the sharp rows of teeth with the intent on devouring the demon. At the last possibly moment, Blade moved up in the air, as if he could fly and held his arms in such a way that the blades were pointing downward. The force of the creature pulled the blade through its body as if kept following through its leap, nearly slicing it in half. There was a final roar and death gurgle from the fowl smelling worm as it flew through the air, slamming into the ground moments later with a silent crash. It coiled up involuntarily and vanished into a hail of black smog, leaving nothing but ash and sulfur behind.12

“And that, is how I herded the slaves to Xianxol.” Blade said triumphantly and nodded, crossing his arms and closing his eyes as he did so. Slash sighed and rolled his eyes, saying calmly.13

“Well, as all of you know, I didn’t work today because somebody left too early,” Slash shot a cold glance at the oblivious Blade, “So I got to stay here in Rustle’s and chat with the beautiful waitresses.” Slash finished and grinned, waving to one of the succubi. She giggled and her tail swished around shyly as she returned the wave.14

“Hahaha!” Blade erupted and sat up, placing an elbow on the table and leaning in, only one of his three eyes remaining open as he continued, “well, what about that one?” he said with a chuckle and pointed to what seemed to be a female version of Render. It waved to Slash as the small half-demon shuddered in disgust.15

“I would rather not discuss that...”16

Then, suddenly, Render began to roar and growl, the flaps of skin on his cheeks moving and making loud noises. Most of the people stared in terror, but Slash and Blade stared with indifference. This went on for several minutes before Blade shook his head, grumbling and muttering quietly to himself:17

“I hate this guy...”18