Darned to Heck

The Library

It had been almost a week now since the dinner party fiasco. Apparently the Devil had decided that the only way for me to realise some of my true potential was to set his son, 'Satan the Prince of Wrath' on me and back me into a corner till I bit back. And although this pissed me off I had remained at the palace as was the Devil's wish. Even if I had wanted to leave, there was no such thing as disobeying him, it simply did not exist.

And so I found myself wandering the endless halls alone. As was my condition for staying, no more babysitters for me...yay. And this time I could be trusted to stay because like I said, I wasn't going anywhere until the Devil decided I could. Something told me that was more likely to be centuries than days, I was his new favourite, and he called upon me almost daily for displays of my powers. I didn't mind doing it much, it was actually pretty fun, but one thing I was certain of was that I did not like the look he got in his eyes when he watched me do it.

I was so lost in my thoughts I nearly bumped into the doors in front of me, which was no easy task. Like everything in here they were absolutely enormous for one, and so extravagantly decorated that missing them would be like not noticing a polar bear wandering down the freezer section at your local store. I missed normal things like going to the store, even just normal sized things. They seemed to have a ridiculous obsession with insanely large rooms here, rooms that could fit whole houses in but could never feel like a home.

I pushed down the handle and heaved the door open. What lay inside was like nothing I had ever seen before and my mouth gaped open like a fish as I looked around. I walked fully into the room and breathed in the full force of a million pages. The library was ginormous, even for demon standards this room was ridiculous. I couldn't work out how it was even possible for what I was seeing to be real. What seemed to me to be every book in the world ever to be printed, written, scribbled, jotted or even dreamt of covered the room in a great sweeping cape of knowledge. It was the best thing I had ever seen and I could hardly be described as a book worm.

Bridget Jones would deffo have some competition in here. I thought as I marvelled at my surroundings, the smell of old books filled my lungs with an intoxicatingly warm vanillary dust. Who knew that books could be so exciting?

I stretched out my arms and wandered between the endless bookcases, I didn't really know what I was looking for. Nothing really, but there was something so satisfying about the perfect organisation of the place.

Every book was ordered by height, colour, volume, subject and pretty much any other thing you could think of, it was OCD paradise. I let my fingertips trail across the old leather spines of some ancient demon books that I would never be able to read and then picked one out at random.

I grunted at the unexpected weight as I lugged it over to the nearby table. It gave a pleasing thud as it hit the old polished wood. I pulled up one of the green velvet chairs and flipped the book open to somewhere in the middle.

"Noow then..." I ran a finger along the fading ink, staring at the symbols for a moment. "Yep, no, I have no idea what this says." It was almost funny now, it made me realise that I really wasn't in Kansas anymore, and even funnier than that, I was actually starting to miss being able to read books, which wasn't very 'me' at all.

"I could help...if you would like?" a quiet voice drifted over to me from a bookcase to my left.
I turned my head and hissed lowly at the demon stood across from me, my muscles tensed instinctively, ready to fight.

"I- I'm not here for that. I'm truly sorry about what I did, I didn't want to hurt you, at all. My Father he, insisted that I do it..."

"I know..." I said, returning to a more normal sitting position. "Don't sneak up on me like that ok? Sorry for uh, cutting your arm off." I added, wondering if that phrase would ever sound normal.

He smiled briefly and then walked over to me. "It's fine now, actually it was quite refreshing to be beaten for once, it was certainly unexpected. What's this?" he said, flipping through a few pages. "Medicine, are you ill?"

I rolled my eyes. "No I'm fine, I just can't read."

He looked at me in shock.

"The schooling system in the human world, were you not...educated?" He sounded a little horrified.

"Yes I was educated! I'm not an idiot stupid. I can read, just not this." I jabbed a finger at the swirly demon script.

"I see, my apologies."

Yeah, yeah. Stupid demons instantly assuming I'm illiterate or something. I gave him evils as he returned his focus to the book. It was weird just how different all of the brothers looked to each other,  they must've had different mothers.

Satan's hair was just a regular human brown, cut quite short but a little messy around the edges. He was of course, drop dead gorgeous like the rest of them, but his features were a little broader. His nose was wider and his jaw was squarer. He was smaller than his brothers but well-built and stocky, the guy you would put money on in a fight. And he stood with a kind of small dog tenacity that would make you think twice about starting shit with him. His eyes were the classic demon red, but I think brown would've suited him better. And there was a warmth and transparency about him; all his emotions were on his sleeve, including his anger, which was why they called him the Prince of Wrath I guess. But I liked him, even if he did beat the shit out of me a couple days ago.

"Would you like me to teach you?" he asked suddenly, snapping me out of my trance.

"Umm, you could try. I'm not exactly the best student though."

"Hopefully I can be a better teacher than your previous ones." He chuckled as he read through the memories of school that were flickering through my mind.