Steel And Hellfire

chapter two

Elder kettle sat peacefully in his chair reading a book and listening to jazz on the phonograph next to him. He was waiting for the boys to get home for lunch, that was until he heard a sickening slam of the wooden front door. He sighed, figuring it was another one Cupheads and mugs fights that he would have to fix. He got up from the rocking chair expecting to see Cuphead run up the stairs and slamming the door. But to his surprise, it was Mugman who was stomping up the creaky wooden stairs and slammed the door of twos shared bedroom without even looking back. "boy, he sure is angry. What got him so riled up Cuphead?" Elder kettle said calmly as he turned to Cuphead and pointed at him with his cane. "w-we..um..i-i mean I..." Cuphead fell silent for a moment, looking down shamefully and twiddled his thumbs. "what did you do?" Elder kettle was expecting to hear that he broke a window or pranked porkrind, nothing he hadn't heard before. Cuphead took a deep breath before looking up at elder kettle with fearful eyes. "I bet our souls with the devil and lost. H-he says if we don't get all of his debtors soul contracts by m-midnght tomorrow he'll take our souls away." Well elder kettle had certainly never heard that one before. His eyes widened slightly as he quickly assessed the situation. "Well, you boys are certainly in a pickle, huh?" Elder kettle walked into the living room and shifted through a drawer in his writing dest, eventually pulling out two glass viles with bright blue liquid in them. "here, drink one of these and leave the other for Mugman. This way you two won't get hung out to dry." He then gave one of the viles to Cuphead. "Thank you elder kettle" Cuphead spoke with determination before sighing and chugging the bright blue contents of the vile. "now you just got to wait for Mugman to come down and you two can get going." Elder kettle nodded as he spoke, tapping his cane against the wooden floor.  Cuphead shook his head "no I'm goin' on my own. I said I was fixin this myself and that's what I'm doin'" Cuphead looked at elder kettle with finality as he clutched the list of the devil's debtors. "Cuphead, that's not a good idea. You could get real hurt." Elder kettle looked at Cuphead with great concern as he made his way back to his rocking chair. "I'm sorry kettle but I gotta do this, I can't drag mugs into my problems again" elder kettle sighed at Cupheads words. "Understood. you do what you must, I'll tell Mugman when he comes out." Elder kettle gave a soft smile and sat in his rocking chair. Cuphead smiled as small tears filled his eyes. "thank you elder kettle. Say, tell mugs I love em, won't you?" Cuphead said as he made his way towards the front door. Kettle gave a silent nod. Cuphead nodded assuredly before walking out to start his journey