The Devil's Playmate

NINE

   "You look awful. What happened?"

Benjamin looked like utter hell in front of his sister. Lucy was concerned and thought he was really sick, but Benjamin told her he was perfectly fine. He was just afraid to go back in his room.

After Eligos dropped him off back in his room, the demon disappeared. He didn't even say anything, yet Benjamin knew he was still in pain. And when he tried to go to sleep, he was woken up very early in the morning by a burning smell in his room. He thought a fire happened until he saw a letter placed on his desk, the very ends of it being singed, but not burnt.

It was an invitation to one of the kings of hell's personal court. Beelzebub was serious about him coming to the council as an official member.

Benjamin chose to ignore it and quietly threw it away. He was about to go to sleep when something landed on his desk with a small thud. So, he looked back and was surprised to see another invitation appear with a box of buttercups.

He was honestly tempted to go.

"I didn't get much sleep," Benjamin answered. It wasn't a lie. He doesn't sleep much.

Lucy frowned. "Today's a Sunday. You can go back and sleep a bit more. I have to go to work though, but you can text me if you need anything!"

"Okay..."

Lucy was hesitant to leave but seeing Benjamin stalk to his bedroom without another word made her even more worried. He's never been this quiet before. She wondered if anything happened at school. She shook those thoughts out of her head and left, thinking to ask more later.

But inside of his room, Benjamin snatched the invitation and almost tripped over the boxes of buttercups. It seems Beelzebub gave him more while he wasn't in here. There were also more invitations, though he ignored those and walked through his mirror. Benjamin had gotten used to the whole concept of using a magic object to get into Hell, but it always felt weird when he entered Lucifer's palace. It'd leave him shivering and sort of cold.

As expected, Eligos was lazily on the bed Lucifer had specifically prepared just for Benjamin. The human walked on up to him, smiling unsurely. "Hello..."

Eligos looked over to him, grinning widely. He was about to ask how Benjamin was doing until his features hardened at the sight of the invitation in the human's hands. He quickly snagged it away, wanting to burn it.

"He's already begun to pester you, huh?" Eligos sighed.

"I was going to ask what to do."

"Should've thrown it away."

"I tried to, b-but more kept appearing. Isn't there another meeting today? Won't I get in trouble if I don't show up?"

Eligos didn't seem to care all that much. "Don't go if you don't want to. I'll just deal with it myself, so don't worry about anything."

Benjamin didn't know if he liked the sound of that. "What if you get in trouble?"

"Sweet thing, I've been alive a lot longer than even your own ancestors. It's expected for demons, no matter what class we're in, to clash with one another. So, what if I get hurt? Don't worry your pretty little head, okay? Just let me deal with Beelzebub."

Eligos has been hurt plenty of times before. Even back in the days of ancient, he's been through too many battles against demons and angels that he's lost count. This little bout with Beelzebub wasn't anything to be concerned of, but the look on Benjamin's face made him falter. He looked pretty worried for him. Eligos didn't know if he should be grateful for his concern or feel bad for Benjamin.