Hell's Army

Chapter Sixteen- True Love

"This area is out of bounds," the ringmaster said, his glasses glinting dangerously.

"Right you are," Ingleseid said. "Sorry. I was just admiring your...tent. Very good sewing going on."

"Here at the Lectis' Circus, we don't like folks sticking their noses where they don't belong."

"I understand completely," he said. "This nose is pointed firmly towards the exit."

He started to move around him, and a hand whipped out and grabbed his arm.

"I wouldn't come back here if I were you," he murmured.

"Why's that, then?"

"Bad things may happen."

Ingleseid grinned. "Bad things seem to happen to me no matter what I do." He patted him on the shoulder and made his way out, went down the street as his phone buzzed in his pocket. He picked it up, and a cheerful bubble popped into view informing him he had a message from Holly.

"There is a half naked teenager in your apartment-" her voice hissed over the speakers, and his heart jumped in his chest. Oh, no.

****

Ingleseid tentatively opened the door to his apartment, expecting the full horrors of Hell to rain down upon him. Holly was sitting on his chair, her mouth set in a grim line. Chloe and Samael were on the couch, whispering in each other's ears.

"Sit," Holly said dangerously.

He did.

"Hi, Ingleseid," Chloe grinned.

Holly's head snapped towards her with fire in her eyes. "Get out."

"But I-"

"Now."

Chloe looked between them and decided, quite rightly so, that the most sensible thing to do would be to leave.

Holly looked at Samael. "That goes for you, too, Hell baby."

"But I like it here," Samael said.

"Do I look like I give a crap?"

He frowned. "I'm the Antichrist."

Fire ignited in her hands and her eyes crackled electric blue. "Get the hell out."

Slowly, he picked up his bag and followed Chloe.

Her head snapped to Ingleseid. "Explain."

"Now," he began, "before you go off getting angry-"

"Oh, we are so past that stage."

"That night the floor opened up, the Devil didn't summon me to check up on us. He wanted me to look after Samael."

"And you chose to keep this from me why?" she demanded.

"You seemed stressed," he said.

"I'm going to set you on fire."

"I'm serious," he insisted. "You had the agency to deal with, and after what happened with the angels and then Figley, I thought this would just be too much."

She glared. "And you get to decide what's too much for me, do you?"

"That's not what I said."

She let out a deep breath. "This isn't the sort of friendship where you can keep secrets, Abner. It's not the sort of friendship where you can hide things and decide what I do and don't need to know."

He looked down. "I'm sorry."

"Oh, you better be. Don't do it again. Felix may not know how to turn people into toads, but I sure as heck do. Now, next problem- what are we going to do about Chloe?"

"I've tried to make Samael break it off with her," he said. "He won't. I don't know what to do."

"I do," she said suddenly. "We tell her the truth."

****

Chloe lived in a neat little flat on a neat little street with neat little people.

It didn't suit her at all.

They knocked on the door, and a balding man with a permanent looking worried expression answered.

"H-Hello?" he said.

"We're looking for Chloe?" Holly asked.

"Oh, God. What has she done?"

"Nothing," Ingleseid cut in. "Just checking in, making sure she's on the right track with her schoolwork."

He didn't look like he entirely believed him, but said, "Okay..." He led them down a cramped hall, to a door with a sign bearing the words 'Stay the hell out,' in angry black letters.

"Chloe?" the man mumbled, knocking on the door. "Visitors." Then he scurried down the hall as if worried she were about to reach out the door and bite him.

Chloe was sitting on her bed, eating skittles. Posters of various shirtless men bearing fangs or horns or some combination thereof littered the walls, and metal skulls glared at them from her bedside table.

"Are you going to shout at me again?" she asked quietly.

"No," Ingleseid said. "No shouting. We just want to talk."

She nodded, popped a red skittle into her mouth.

"It's about Louis," he continued. "We think you should stop seeing him."

"But I love him."

Holly rolled her eyes. "You met him, like, a week ago."

"True love knows no time boundaries," she insisted.

"I'm pretty sure it does."

"Chloe," Ingleseid said. "The reason we think you should stay away from Louis is because he's not who you think he is. He's dangerous. He's-" He paused. "-The Antichrist."

Chloe stared at them. "Well, duh."

There were many ways to react to finding out your one true love was the Antichrist, and 'Well, duh,' was not one of them.

"Sorry?" Holly said.

"He told me." She smiled. "He doesn't keep secrets from me."

Holly shot Ingleseid a glare. "Good for him."

"Chloe," Ingleseid said before she could say anything else, "you don't see this whole Antichrist thing as being a problem at all?"

"No. Why should I?"

"Maybe because he kills people for laughs?" Holly suggested helpfully.

She shrugged. "No one's perfect."

"Listen, Chloe. You're a sweet girl. You need to find yourself a nice, normal guy who isn't planning on destroying the world."

Chloe's smile disappeared in a flash. "My mum was normal," she said quietly. Dangerously. "She left when I was three. Nolan Wiggs is normal. He calls me a freak everyday. You know what I really, really hate? Normal people. You're right. Samael will destroy the world. And will be at his side, his queen." Her eyes lit up with something Ingleseid had never seen in a teenage girl. "And then everyone who has ever laid a finger on me will burn." She grinned, held her packet out. "Skittle?"

****

"Okay, she's crazy," Holly mumbled as they made their way down the street.

"We're not going to get through to her," Ingleseid said.

"Yeah, no kidding. So what now?"

"Well," he said. "I don't know about Samael and Chloe, but I think it's time Mansfield and I had a little talk."