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“I don’t know. It’s strange…”
“Better get used to it, because the Violent Reapers get a lot of jobs in Hell,” Paz said.
“Why?”
“Too many demons, too little room.”
“Are you kidding me? Hell is way bigger than Heaven.”
“And demons make babies like crazy,” GC laughed. “Seriously, dude, haven’t you heard of condoms?”
“I have five in my back pocket,” Paz growled.
“Five? Why five?” I giggled. “That’s all I get? Five fucks?”
He leaned in to whisper in my ear. “You get as many fucks as you want, love.” He licked the shell of my ear, and I shuddered. A pleasant warmth rushed through my veins, and my blood carried it through my entire body.
“You know we don’t use condoms anymore,” I whispered.
“I have them in case you want to try… backdoor activities.”
I jumped away from him, blushing like mad. We hadn’t done it that way yet, and to say that I was nervous about it would have been an understatement. Both GC and Paz were just too big to go in there, so I had mixed feelings about ever letting them.
“This is making me uncomfortable,” Corri fidgeted on my shoulder. “Mistress, how about you send me away for a while?”
“No! You’re not going anywhere.”
“I really don’t want to be around for these conversations,” she whined.
These days, when GC and Paz spent the night in my room, Corri went to one of their rooms. For how tiny she was, either GC’s or Paz’s dorm was like a palace. She even had snacks and drinks. I would have thought she’d be more enthusiastic about her new life, given that I didn’t ask her to do many things for me, treated her like a friend, and did everything I could to make her feel comfortable. Instead, she usually just kept going on and on about how she could help me, and if I didn’t need her, how about sending her away to the Blank? For the life of me, I couldn’t understand her logic. The Blank was horrible! Why would she want to be trapped in a cage, surrounded by nothingness, when she could have a huge room for herself? Hell! I hadn’t had a huge room for myself when I first arrived at the Academy! But I knew she wasn’t acting like this because she was ungrateful. It simply was the only life she knew and asking her to step out of her comfort zone and be free was too much, too soon.
Professor Maat ushered the group to the bus that was supposed to take us back to the canyon, but GC, Paz, Sariel, Francis, and I didn’t get in. A car was waiting for us. It was more of a limousine, which was silly because we could have probably walked to Paz’s house. Lamia had outdone herself. She wanted to make an impression on Sariel. She knew his parents would call him the minute he was back at the Academy and pester him to tell them everything about Hell and Lamia’s house. Knowing how much Sariel liked his parents – insert sarcasm – he was going to make it sound like he’d had the trip of his life. And, for sure, he was going to tell them that food was way better in Hell than in Heaven. He wouldn’t be lying to them, either.
* * *
Lamia Eremus invited us into her home as her demon servants took our uniform jackets, our backpacks, and our masks. Since her son had left for the Academy, she lived alone in a house that was too big and empty for her. It was decorated tastefully, though, in warm colors of red, orange, burgundy, and terra cotta, with massive furniture, and plush pillows all over the floor. To my surprise, we weren’t going to eat at a normal dinner table. She invited us to sit on floor pillows and soft divans spread all over the room. The servants brought plates filled with fruits, meats, vegetables cooked in various ways, fish, and seafood. Bottles of wine, fruit nectar, and beer were brought in, and demons filled the glasses with our drinks of choice. My head was spinning. There was so much decadence, and what shocked me the most was that… I liked it. No. I loved it.
“I’ve never been to such a party before,” Corri whispered shyly. A servant girl had brought a small plate for her, the smallest she could find, and the pixie was working on a shrimp now. Corri with a shrimp was like a normal-sized person with a cod.
“I agree with you on this one.”
“I don’t know what to do.”
“Just be yourself.” I looked over at Lamia, who raised her glass and smiled warmly at me. “The mistress of the house seems to like pixies.”
“Yes, she doesn’t treat me like a servant at all…”
“I cannot treat you like a servant, dear Corri, because you’re not one,” Lamia said in her beautiful voice. She’d overheard us. “Do I pay you?”
“N-no…” Corri was beyond lost.
“Then you’re not a servant.”
My pixie was blushing so hard that I thought she’d explode if I didn’t take over.
“So, you don’t agree to pixie slavery. You believe all creatures should be paid for their services.”
“Indeed. That is the right way in Hell. Money is the root of all evil, they say. They got that all upside down. Yes, we invented money, but only because we thought it would help organize the rest of the world like it had helped us. We’re big on bureaucracy here in Hell, but the right kind of bureaucracy, the kind that makes things simpler and more logical, not the deviation humans have dug themselves into.”
