I am eternal [Danti]

1. About drains, credit cards and unanswered questions

It was raining like hell. Dark normally would have never went out, but he had almost nothing to eat in the house and his mortal body was slowly beginning to get weaker and weaker. He had been in his current host's body for a few years now, but he still would sometimes forget to keep it in a good shape. Eating was especially easy to forget, but he managed.

His life was mostly calm these days. A few years back he chose a fairly quiet neighborhood on the outskirts of LA and bought a small house. Nothing like the constantly-running-away-from-some-enemies lifestyle he had going for the past few hundred years. Even though he would never openly admit it, he was tired. Living a domestic life wasn't bad at all. He was still in touch with a few friends who still did crossroad deals with people wanting to trade their souls for ten years of wealthy life or some jazz like that. He had been a crossroad demon for over 2000 years and demanding, arrogant humans really started to get on his nerves. He wanted to get away from all of that and inspired by one of his closest friends, Felix, he went on to live a normal life. And it was nice for quite some time.

He walked up to his car and reached to his back pocket to get his keys. A quiet splash of water made him immediately turn around, only to see his credit card float down the street with the flowing stream of water. Before he could even move, it fell down into the drain. Shit.

He doubted anyone would find the card in the network of LA pipes, so about that he didn't care, but he had almost no cash on him. Getting a new card and deactivating the old one would probably take him at least a few days, so he was going to be out of money for quite some time. Dark sighed, getting down on his knees in front on the drain and peeking into the depths of pipes. Maybe the card lodged on something and he would be able to take it out...

A pair of glowing eyes sparked right in front of his face. Dark let out a short scream and immediately moved back, falling with his hands on the wet pavement. He felt his clothes get drenched in a deep puddle, but the cold water didn't make the acidic green eyeballs disappear. So it was not his imagination or hallucinations from the lack of food. Dark and the creature stared at each other for more than a good ten seconds. One of its eyes was glowing green, the other had vivid blue undertones. There were set on a human face, but it seemed a little weird, almost like it was constantly twitching. Dark sighed with relief when he noticed that.

- Why would a glitch feel the need to jumpscare people from the pipes? Bored much?

The creature creeped closer to the light coming from the street lamp. Dark saw its green hair and pale face with a short messy beard. He was bleeding from a wound on his neck, but even though some of the blood looked fresh, most of it was dark and dry. This must have been an old cut, but another one on his head seemed much fresher. Red was bleeding into his neon hair. The creature smiled creepily.

- Why the fuck would a demon throw credit cards on my head?

His voice sounded like played through an old broken radio. He stuttered a bit and his voice rose up at the end of the sentence, like he was screeching in pain. That was weird. According to Dark's knowledge glitches usually didn't feel the pain endured by the bodies they possessed.

Dark got back onto his knees.

- I asked you first, green boy. You don't look like you're in good enough shape to be avoiding my questions. I want to be sure you won't murder someone in the middle of the day. The police can be problematic and I like living here, so you better tell me what the hell are you doing in my sewers.

Dark's voice went low and a bit raspy. His silhouette started glowing a bit of a reddish blue. He didn't want his true form to show up, but he has been keeping it hidden for a long time and he was not as stable as usual. Also, he was simply intrigued by the glitch. Finally something interesting was happening.

The creature grinned again.

- You don't have to be interested in me. My body is weak. I will probably perish soon enough for you not to worry. Leave me alone.

Dark raised his eyebrows in doubt.

- Glitches don't die with the bodies they possess. You are bullshitting me.

- Would I look like this if I was lying to you? I will die soon - his voice was still trembling, even though he smiled ironically, his eyes were empty and emotionless - I will die soon so leave me the fuck alone.

Dark sighed and got up. He shouldn't be doing that, but fuck it. He was probably much older than the glitch bitch and in a much better shape if it came to an actual fight. He grabbed the opening of the drain and pulled it up effortlessly.

- You're coming with me, green boy. I don't trust you enough even to leave you to die. I've had enough shit with glitches throughout my life.

The green haired man hissed and backed into the darkness, covering his eyes with a hand to protect them from the warm street light. Dark said nothing, just reached out to him with his free hand. They stood like that for a few seconds, just staring at each other. Finally, the glitch sighed and grabbed the demon's hand. Dark pulled him out of the sewer and inspected him once again.

He looked atrocious. If he were human, he would have been dead. His dark t-shirt and ripped jeans were soaked in blood, mostly from the huge cut on his right arm, bandaged sloppily with another torn t-shirt. He smelled dreadfully of old blood and rotten flesh. The glowing eyes were set deep on his pale face. His body was very skinny, like he hadn't eaten for days. Dark felt disgusted, but also weirded out. Glitches were born when different realities contradicted with one another. Because there existed other powerful creatures, like very old demons or aliens, who could create gates through different worlds, sometimes some of them would malfunction, creating small portions of loose energy, which after some time could become an sentient being. Glitches could possess human beings, but they usually didn't hold onto them for long periods of time. When their host died or got sick, they were able to leave their body and find another one. This one seemed almost like it couldn't.

Dark decided not to debate that right now. Without thinking more about it he grabbed the man's healthy hand and put it over his own shoulders. With one of his feet he pushed the drain cover back into its place and then started walking towards his house.

- You are a fucking idiot. What the fuck is wrong with you?

The green haired man didn't protest against Dark dragging him into the unknown, but he surely had a lot of passionate things to say. Dark decided to ignore this question. He didn't know what he was doing, but frankly, he didn't care right now. He had already forgotten about the lost card. More interesting things were about to happen very soon.