...
Chauncey sped through the dark streets, far faster than what was safe, and found himself thankful for Caster's suggestion at every turn- not having to worry about traffic or the laws of the road in what would otherwise be a bustling metropolis.
Next to him, Cheval stared at his master with waiting eyes, sadistic glee burning behind the crimson exterior. Chauncey had never been in such peril before, and his familiar was very satisfied with the result.
"Enough of that!" Chauncey nipped before whipping out his phone and throwing it on the passenger seat, "Call that bastard's bitch of a wife, we're gonna go pick her up!"
The dog glared at its owner, taunting him.
"I know what I said, Cheval! Just do it! I can't stomach leaving those girls in this hellhole."
The hound rolled his shoulders as if it were a shrug, and the phone suddenly became alight with Filza's name as the call started. Cheval, being a devil, had limited abilities largely under the umbrella of 'paranormal'. This included limited telekinesis, but, more broadly, it allowed him to perform minor miracles, such as unlocking and subsequently starting a stranger's car without the keys.
After the second ring, the screen changed as if to signal a pickup, but it wasn't Filza's voice on the line, "Sorry, this number isn't available right now, please try again later."
It was hard for him to keep his eyes on the road, "What the Hell!? Try it again!"
Cheval called again, but with the same result. The hell-beast snarled at the dysfunctional device before pawing it away onto the floor of the vehicle in frustration.
"Ugh! Damn that Caster! It must be him right?"
He could feel the hound grant a knowing smirk as he drank up his master's distress.
"Fuck you, Cheval. I'll get them myself, and then we're out of here!"
Though the hound couldn't speak under normal circumstances, it was nonetheless a rare moment where Cheval had no sort of retort for his master. There was no such thing as a devil's love, but that didn't change the fact that Cheval was still Chauncey's familiar, and so was still reliant on the mage for his continued existence in this plane. Though the devil found glee in his master's suffering, he had everything to gain by preserving his life, and the danger was far from over- the night was yet still young.
Chauncey winded through the labyrinthine streets, his mind rushing to calculate the most optimal route back to the hotel, all the while doing his best to estimate how long it would take to get back. Turning onto another thin street- he found it blocked by an odd crowd. He instinctively slammed on the brakes, and, struggling to control the vehicle, swerved, the car doing a complete spin before landing nearly parallel with the sidewalk, the front of the car slamming into a lamppost and taking out the front light.
The street was thin, the buildings close together with no space between them. He could only go forward or back. Looking at the crowd in front of him, he almost thought they were zombies, but they weren't- or didn't seem to be. There were people of various ages and backgrounds, laughing with vacant eyes- but closer inspection showed that, indeed, there were undead scattered among them, blending in with the crowd. In front of them, a woman with short-cut brown hair stood hands-crossed. She wore a baggy tank with her bra showing, and cutoffs that may as well have been denim underwear with fishnets and high heels: a prostitute if he'd ever seen one, or, perhaps more likely, a woman so whorish that she wouldn't ask for money at all.
He was in no mood for nonsense, and prepared to hit the accelerator again- before noticing something else. Behind the crowd, too far away to see if they were dead or alive, figures in uniform stretched something across the pavement. They were most likely tire strips, or something that fulfilled the same purpose at least.
Forward was a no-go. He quickly shifted into reverse- and saw more figures crowding the street behind him. Even if he slammed the accelerator, there wasn't enough room to gain speed, and he wouldn't clear the crowd- he'd only make himself a more vulnerable target. Turning his twitching, crimson eyes back to the woman, he found her pointing at him with two fingers, before gesturing for him to approach.
Exchanging cautious glances with Cheval, Chauncey slowly, as non-threateningly as he could with his rising fear and frustration, exited the car and approached, being sure to remain a solid ten paces away, equidistant between her and the vehicle. The clacking of his shoes against the pavement echoed through the streets like the ticking of a clock.
"So, what's all this, then?"
She giggled girlishly with a vapid smile, "I just wanted to talk... that's all."
"Ah, is that all? Sorry, but, you see, I'm rather introverted, and I've done quite enough talking for today- so why don't I work you into my schedule for another time, eh?"
"Oh!" She clicked her tongue, "I didn't realize you were the sensitive type... I like that in a man, but, unfortunately, this is pretty important."
"Don't worry," he gestured to the car behind him, "That's not my car, so I won't bother about any insurance, so how about you let me through?"
"Not even life insurance?"
Seeing that they were going in circles, Chauncey finally allowed the attempts at levity to fall away, "Understand, Caster or whoever you are, I want nothing to do with you. I'm going to go back to my hotel room, gather my friends, and then we'll leave, you see? I'll even sign a geass of secrecy, I only want to get out of here."
She turned her head, "But why would you want to leave? Everything you want is right here."
The corner of his lips twitched, " 'Everything I want'?"
She smirked devilishly while allowing one of her hands to wander down her bra-strap, pulling down and away, just barely exposing the nipple, before letting it snap back against her bare chest, "Everything."
Here, something in his heart was let free, and he broke into cackling laughter, not even sure of the joke, "Oh, please! You really are no better than a whore, aren't you!? You play temptress without even knowing your clientele! You're a charlatan!"
Her face seemed to twitch ever-so-slightly before returning to its façade, "You want what all men want, to have his desires fulfilled. We have men too if that's what you fancy, but I get the sense that isn't what you meant. No, you are a greater man than most, and I feel ashamed that I blinded myself to that. How could I not have noticed before that we were birds of a feather, men-persons I suppose- of the same mold?"
Caster, once feared by the devil mage, was brought low in his eyes, becoming more pathetic by the moment, "And who am I even speaking to? The man, Caster, or the woman, the whore?"
Her chin rose in mock offense, her hand clutching at make-believe pearls, "And what if there's no difference?"
He smirked confidently, "-Then I'd resent being called a whore, naturally."
She laughed uproariously, though it was more a man's laugh than a woman's, "Fair enough, though can one who buys her services then turn to condemn her, to seize the moral high ground?"
"What high ground? Last I checked we were all damned bastards."
"Exactly, my friend- no, my brother. You and I- and her- we all desire the same: to be free and to be happy. I daresay all people desire this, but you, I, her, we are honest with ourselves. Honest enough to break and deny their stupid, arbitrary rules that only hold us down- to grab happiness with both hands no matter what depths are required- to know that 'wisdom' is for those too weak to make mistakes."
He couldn't see anything she'd said that he disagreed with, "And? What's that to do with me?"
She began to strut towards him, slowly, turning her body as she moved to expose all angles to him- before Cheval began to growl and snarl at her, warning not to approach any further.
It disrupted her seductive routine, but she collected herself and continued, "Isn't it obvious? We want the same thing: to be free. To break the mold and seize what we want from the jaws of that which holds us back, all of us. I've come to break the rules; to make a home for rulebreakers like yourself and mine, a home where all wishes come true. It's already yours," she reached towards him, "You only need to reach out and take it. Then you- and everyone else- will have life, life free of suffering."
He chuckled, the joke becoming all the clearer, "Ah, and life is to be found among the undead, is it?"
She dejectedly lowered her hand, sensing him starting to escape the clutches of her persuasion, "You'd be surprised, the dead often know life better than the living. Why, I once knew a man who could make the dead dance with music alone- no mystics required." Her eyes flicked to the devil familiar, "A man such as yourself ought to understand that there's a sort of light that can only be found in the darkness."
He and his devil laughed in unison, "So, allow me to clarify, your plan is to bring life by killing your enemies and raising the dead, to make wishes come true by controlling minds, and to bring light by shrouding the world in darkness? Hah!" He beamed with all the charisma of a true devil, "You call yourself a rulebreaker? You don't want to break the rules, you want to make them! You're a tyrant, is what you are!"
All masquerade fell from her face as it fell into the same sort of seriousness the mercenary possessed not long ago.
He continued his cackling, finding no end to the joy of Caster's comedic irony, "You called me a 'greater man than most'? Of course I am! Look at me, whore! I'm certainly a greater man than you, if you haven't already noticed!" He snapped his fingers, "You're not enough of a man to be a real rulebreaker."
Then, gesturing to himself, his crooked smile shined brighter than the moon under the fire of his hellish eyes, "You haven't got the guts to be a grifter... you're just an everyday asshole."
She stood quietly for some time, before slowly reaching up to take the sunglasses from her face, crushing them in her seemingly frail hands. From above, the creaking of metal could be heard, and Chauncey turned around to see a large, square trash bin flung off the roof of a nearby building, falling down and crushing the black car in a moment. Glass scattered across the road and sidewalk as the windshield collapsed in on itself, its shards gathering around his feet.
It occurred to him suddenly that there were no other cars on this road.
The woman opened her eyes, a gleaming violet hue, "Some people are so difficult, aren't they? Too stubborn to accept the world when it's handed to them on a silver platter... perhaps their minds could be changed if they understood that there was no alternative?"
But the mage was unshaken, "Well, would you look at that? For a 'rulebreaker' you seem awfully fond of constructing false binaries."
"I really could give you everything, you know. The fact that I played the temptress doesn't make it a lie."
"Oh, hon, I understand exactly what you're capable of. I'm sure those people behind you, and the woman you're possessing, really do believe that they have 'everything'. What you fail to realize is that I don't want 'everything'. It's much more fun to have nothing at all. The novelty of nothing is far more exciting than the substance of something. You'd understand that if you were a rulebreaker."
The crowd began to move in, coming closer and closer, "I've met enough fools like you to know that I can't change your mind-" A cruel smile reached her painted lips, "-But I can always be more persuasive."
-Unfortunately for her, the devil mage was already past paying any attention to her ramblings, instead talking to his devil with a sort of confidence he'd grown to miss over the night, "So, Cheval, how much to get me out of this mess?"
He could feel the devil's evil laugh as he explained the terms of his contract.
"Hah! Is that all? I'd call that a bargain!"
The devil's glee shone brightly through his red eyes.
Chauncey turned to meet the woman's glance for the final time, with nothing more than a smile in his eyes, "See you in Hell."
Red fire burst from his body, enshrouding it in a visage of hellish flame where only his shadow was visible- his devil nowhere to be seen. She began to stumble back, sensing danger, but he lunged forward with ungodly speed, a clawed hand firmly around her throat as her body turned to cinder in his grasp- his crimson eyes were the last things she saw-
...
"Gaaaah!"
In the Alghul Villa, Caster, standing by the window-wall, suddenly became alight with flames from nowhere, burning him alive as he crumbled to the floor- the fire disappearing as quickly as it appeared.
From upstairs, Aisha Alghul slammed open the door, "Caster! What's going on!?"
He gripped at his throat, discolored from the burns, his eyes locking on a small red dot from the distant city, "This...
"This is why I hate devils."
....