Sid : the Devil's secretary

16. Imperfect red

16. Imperfect red

After taking a stone barge over the lava sea to the isle, Sid found the excavation site. Coincidentally, this was the large house sized crater from where Dan initially stayed in Hell under Lucifer's watch. Terrorists had discovered the house and demolished it yet failed to harm the future lord of the heavens. The shallow crater featured cracked masonry, lumps of old junk and several intact valuables from the old beach house. 

Since Dan had vacated for a higher position as God, the house and everything left in the crater had gone up in value, worth more now than it was intact. Sid slid down into the crater and grabbed several pieces, a kettle, a wind chime, a dusty book, and a baseball bat. He took the barge back to the mainland, where the mass labyrinth of the Anubis library rested over the southwest lava sea. Parking up the barge, the troubled secretary walked around to the entrance, where a giant black man-jackal creature stood at the front desk.

"excuse me. do you know where the archives are?. I've brought some things from Dan's crater" Sid said quietly. The creature showed him through the corridors and bookshelves down into the darker depths of the library, accompanied by faint torchlight. At this level, the bookshelves had been replaced by large steel filing cabinets able to hold things as big as an elephant's foot in a single drawer. The creature left Sid to his business of piling the objects into their own alphabetized folders. After around half an hour, Sid was about to place the wind chime into its final folder, having to move a small glowing purple stone to make room in the drawer. He took a moment to look at the stone, moving it in his hand before it zapped him with a shock.

He dropped the stone on the ground, causing a shockwave all around him. As the purple dust dissipated, Sid went to pick up the stone and placed it back in its drawer. The creaking and rumbling sound of the dark became more apparent behind him. Taking down a torch, he discovered the wooden seats were plodding across the floor, papers were flying through the air and paper document folders were hopping across the dimly lit desks of the archive. Sid took one step away, but the creaking floorboards alerted the moving objects to his presence. After a moment of silence, Sid made a run for it through the stacks, chased by the objects. He lost them for a split second beside one of the outer walls of the archive, but he soon saw a stool on one side and a paper bird on the other, both hellbent on attacking him. One thing stood out in the scene. 

Out of the relative gloom came a flickering fluorescent tube light above a steel door in the wall. It was several steps to Sid's right, so he made a break for it, slamming the door behind him. Sid looked around him and saw several lattice stacks of unknown intent. He went over to take a look knowing the rampant objects could not get in. looking onto the lattices, he saw labels for contraband. He had stumbled upon the room where unwanted items are collected and stored away in the library like a security vault. Sid walked around the warm room, supported by more tube lights above him to find cigarettes, bottles of alcohol, small baggies of drugs and much more. The clattering outside ground to a halt.

 Sid could still feel himself worried, so he looked outside the door to find the objects had run off to other areas of the archive. Closing the door back on himself, Sid sat down on the hard stone ground, letting out a sigh of relief. A couple of hours passed, with the librarian Anubis monitoring the echelons of the archive to hear a sound of manic laughter, hiccups, and giggling. He opened the door to find Sid surrounded by much of the contraband, talking to himself and singing in a slurring manner. The librarian simply rolled his eyes.

"hey there doggy" Sid looked up to the librarian.

"ah come on, I wasn't finished yet" the librarian held Sid over his shoulder and took him back out to the main hall of the library.

"alright, thanks for everything" Sid tucked himself in, with hiccups and giggles, and walked back out of the library to the city. it was a miracle he made it back to the citadel in one piece.

"Sid. Feeling better after your little trip?" Lucifer walked down the hallway from his office.

"hey daddio" Sid sluggishly walked in, looming from side to side with half closed eyes and a childish grin. After several steps, he fell on the floor in broad daylight and started snoring.

"okay, not what I was expecting. You just need to lie down for a little" Lucifer grabbed onto the sleeping Sid and went into his new suite, resting him on the bed and leaving in silence so as not to disturb him.

"catching fifty winks ought to keep him occupied while I'm gone" Lucifer returned to his office.