Grey (Part 8 - Alone, But Not For Long)

"Hey stupid, wake up!"1

Grey's eyes shot open, but he couldn't figure out where he was, or why he was lying on a very uncomfortable stone floor.2

"Yeah, that's polite of ya, look everywhere but at the person talking to you. And here I thought I had to brush up on my manners."3

This time the somewhat shrill voice got through to him, and he turned over to face the person speaking. The first thing he saw was a very long, skin-tight leather boot, one that traveled halfway up the rather slender, feminine leg it was attached to.4

"Yes, my legs Are nice, but I'm up here Romeo," she said, directing his dazed attention to her face. She had blond hair that ran down just past her shoulders, and the black lacy top she wore didn't leave too much to the imagination. Once he saw her eyes though, his cursory scan of her appearance abruptly stopped; they were bright red.5

"You're a demon," Grey said, and felt dumb at the scornful laugh she shot his way. 6

"My name is Dyla thank you very much," she said, giggling, "but Brand didn't tell me you were such a smart cookie! Must have been my vindictive nature that gave me away."7

Getting up off of the floor, he looked at her face to face, finding her annoying. "Okay, so why am I worth another demon's time then?"8

"Well," she said with a predatory smile, "you are pretty cute, especially all covered in blood like that."9

Confused, he looked down at himself to see that she was right. His shirt had once been white, but was soaked through almost everywhere with dark red blotches.10

"What happened?! Why can't I remember this?" Grey's voice was getting a little hysterical, but he didn't notice or care just then.11

"I thought that was a regular thing for you," Dyla commented, smirking, "the whole amnesia bit anyways. You don't remember coming to this place with that scary-sexy friend of yours?"12

It started to come back to him then. He remembered coming to the monastery with Bane, and the faceless priest torturing him. The last thing he could recall was Bane stopping their ritual, and then the priest's strange pendant had done something to Bane. He'd looked like he'd lost his mind when he ran out of there, and after that Grey passed out. Or so he'd thought.13

"Where is he?" Grey hoped Bane was still around somewhere; he always had some answer to Grey's questions.14

"Bolted like a bat out of hell," she told him, still with that infuriating smirk on her otherwise pretty face.15

"How did I escape? Did they let me go?" he asked her, knowing he probably wouldn't like the answer anyways.16

"Escape? Honey you did a lot better than escape! You tore them all to shreds! I'll admit, I was a little pissed when Brand asked me to watch out for you, I thought it would be boring. But damn, you do know how to keep a girl on her toes after all!"17

Grey walked away from the demon, towards the only door.18

"Fine then, you can see for yourself," Dyla said, laughing again.19

He opened the door, but just stood there, stunned for a minute or two. Dyla just laughed even harder.20

It smelled like burnt flesh, but that was nothing compared to what it looked like in there. Thankfully Grey couldn't even begin to identify the pieces of people strewn all over the room, but it was still a sickening sight.21

Coming up behind him, Dyla clapped a hand on his shoulder. "Those were finished in the first five minutes," she said, sounding impressed, "come see your real masterpiece." With that, she slid past him and took his hand, dragging him towards the chair at the center of the room. 22

A robed figure was sitting, tied down to the chair by the various straps left on it. At first he didn't see what was so brutal about this compared to the rest, but then Dyla reached over and pulled the man's hood off.23

Before, when Grey had looked at Father Real, he'd been bothered that no matter how he looked, the man's face was just blurred out of his sight. That wouldn't be a problem anymore.24

His face was pretty much burnt off. 25

"He didn't stop screaming for almost two hours," Dyla said in a teasing voice, enjoying the nauseous look on Grey's face. When he pulled away from her and left through the hole in the wall, her laugh followed him.26

He just walked numbly, following the sound of water until he found a tiny creek. Stripping off his soiled shirt, he threw it away and started scrubbing at his skin, trying to get clean again. 27

"Ooh, nice view," Dyla crooned, catching up. "Come to think of it, your pants should probably come off next."28

That had actually been his next move, but not anymore with Shrieky the succubus around. Grey almost felt self conscious for a minute, but then he remembered who he was talking to. "Just shut up," he said, sitting down on a nearby rock, "and go away while you're at it, I don't need a babysitter."29

To her credit, Dyla kept quiet for almost a full minute before she spoke again. "I'm the one he's always come to when he needs something done properly," she said in a hushed, serious tone, "and now I'm the one stuck playing babysitter to some self-righteous pity case! Either I've displeased him and this is my punishment, or you're somehow important to him, but either way I can't afford to fuck things up, so I'm not going anywhere anytime soon!"30

He wondered if he should try and abandon her anyways, but even though she was a demon, not to mention very annoying, Grey just didn't have the heart to do it. And now that Bane was gone, he'd need someone to be his guide, so he could at least get some use out of her.31

"Alright, come with me then," Grey told her with a sigh, "but could you at least hide the color of your eyes when we're around other people?"32

"You mean you really didn't know?" Dyla giggled and shook her head, "Normal people don't see my eyes as red, Brand told me you have an unusual ability that lets you see peoples' true natures, so that's why they're red to you - you're seeing my evil nature." 33

There was silence for a while while he finished cleaning up, and Dyla at least had the good grace to keep her mouth shut until he was done. 34

"So, do you know where any of the big cities are from here, or do I get to choose?" She said this with a big, toothy grin that made Grey suspicious in an instant.35

He rummaged around in his bag, which was by now quite filthy, until he found what he was looking for. Turning with a triumphant air, he showed her the map he'd found in his useless journal.36

"You can show me on there where the closest ones are from here, and I'll do the choosing," he told her, not even sure why he was bothering. It wasn't like she could guide him somewhere dangerous, if Brand had sent her to watch out for him. If he had, anyways. 37

She just smirked as he tried to figure out exactly where they were until, growing bored, she fidgeted with her top and withdrew a slim blade (Grey couldn't figure out where it could have fit - the shirt was skintight!). She pricked the tip of her finger, and smeared the drop of blood on Grey's map.38

"Why'd you do that?!" he yelled at her, watching the red smear spread and stain into the paper, "you're ruining it!"39

"Fuck, relax kid, there's a little known fact about demon's blood you might like to know: Demon's blood disappears after a few hours of being spilled. Your cheap little map will be fine, and in the meantime, that's where we are."40

"That can't be true," Grey said slowly, thinking back to something Bane had told him, "don't most demons sign their contracts for human souls with their own blood, to prove that you'll give them what you promised?"41

"That's right," Dyla replied, covering her mouth while she giggled, "and about six hours after the person signs their soul away, the blood disappears, and that greedy mortal is left with nothing!"42

"Wouldn't that void the contract, then, since the demon's signature is gone?" 43

"Nope, our blood may fade away, but human blood stains forever," she said, grinning, "It's genius, no?"44

"Kind of," he said, looking down at the map and hoping that she would drop the subject. Maybe Brand had some easy way to screw him over too, if the chatty little sadist he was stuck with was any indication of demonkind in general. Picking a nearby city at random, he asked her to tell him about it.45

"Ooh," she moaned, her eyes lighting up, "I like that one, very morbid place. It's called Haleria, and the people are just delightfully insane! Apparently the settling families cared about nobody but their own families, so somebody put a curse on them so that every generation, one of each family's children will become a monster, who can't resist the urge to slaughter his or her own family. Totally cute, am I right?!"46

"I think I hate you a little more every time you open your mouth," Grey said, filing Haleria away as one more thing to avoid, in an ever-growing list.47

"Nice, and I left out the best part," she said, winking at him, "If the family kills the monster child, another family member will replace it, so each family keeps their 'black sheep' locked in the cellar, for their entire lives. Safest for everyone that way."48

"How about this one?" he asked, pointing at another city and gritting his teeth. 49

"Oooooh, now there's a real winner! Let me tell you about it.."50

Grey closed his eyes while she rambled, seriously wondering if suicide was a viable option at this point.