The Pleasures of Hell

Chapter 01.004

~~Mia~~

The twisting path between the mountains and rocks erupted into chaos. Screams, blood, figures in dark red cloaks, wielding big black swords and axes.

Humans. Humans with demon weapons, wearing demon armor. Humans with wide, crazy eyes. Humans screaming with... not rage. Hunger. Screaming with hunger, and grimacing with effort to lift the heavy weapons.

Mia, Hannah, the two men, and the two sex demons Diogo had brought with him all pressed against each other, back to back, as they watched the humans run at them. Whoever these other humans were with dark red cloaks, they weren't looking to talk, or negotiate, or anything. They ran at Mia with all the subtlety of a raging lion.

It was dark. The sky of fire still burned, but it looked more like dying embers high above, and the amber veins in the mountain had grown dim. Bright enough to see, not bright enough to see things hiding behind rocks, and the demons were already dark red and black, like the stones. Natural camouflage. It was probably why the humans wore those leathery cloaks, but they'd exposed themselves first. Because Mia and the others were bait.

Diogo and the other demons jumped down from the cliff overhead. And the ambush became a maelstrom of violence and blood in seconds. Five of the humans died instantly as Diogo and his two brutes each landed on a different human, and the two tigers did the same. The snap of bone was louder than the battle cries of the other seven, and the humans turned around.

Mistake. Adron and the other vrat jumped down near Mia, and rushed the humans in the back, and they had their own swords. Loria swooped down from above, wings spread, grabbed one of the humans by the shoulders, and lifted them up. The human had an axe, but they couldn't hold onto it with the gargoyle's claws sinking into their flesh. It landed hard enough to make sparks, and bounced toward Mia's feet.

She tried to pick it up, failed, and almost laughed. It was really heavy. No human could go around wielding weapons like these unless they were on steroids, and ridiculously big and tall to begin with. And she could see it in the way the humans moved. They weren't looking to fence, or fight with any expectation of surviving. They put their whole body into every swing of the weapons, leaving themselves open every time, fully expecting to either get the kill with the swing, or to die right after.

They all died, right after. It wasn't a battle. Caught off guard, the humans didn't stand a chance against Diogo. Two of them did manage to hit Diogo with the weapons, but he was the last target they should have gone for. One of them managed to draw blood from the giant brute, but it was barely more than a paper cut, and the other might as well have hit Diogo with a wiffle bat for all the damage they did.

Ten seconds. That was all it took for the bait plan to work, and for twelve humans to lie dead. Blood soaked into the stones, and most of it disappeared, flowing away into the cracks and crevices, some of it soaking straight through the ground like Hell itself... herself, wanted it.

It only got worse. The succubus and incubus joined the other demons, and eventually so did Hannah and the two men, in collecting their bounty. For the three brutes and two tigers, ripping open rib cages looked easy. The two vrats and gargoyle had a little more trouble, but not much, no more than someone cracking lobster claws with their bare hands.

The succubus and incubus split a heart among themselves. The other demons each took one except Diogo, who took two of course. What Mia didn't expect to see, was Adron handing a heart to Hannah and the two men, and for the three of them to split it into chunks using one of the axes. Watching demons eat human hearts was enough to make Mia sick, but some part of her accepted it as normal. Absurd, but normal.

Seeing humans eat a human heart, made her feel like dying.

She stepped back, dropped the axe, and looked away as she covered her mouth. The old urge to vomit came up, like she was sick, but whatever strange rules the afterlife followed didn't include a normal, working digestive system. You didn't really eat or drink, or shit or piss, or any of the normal, grimy crap that came with life. No vomiting, no matter how much she wanted to.