Santos and Deceit ran through the Valley of Decadence as an angry mob of monsters and demons chased them through the fourth circle of Hell.
They were angry over the death of Carl, The Forgettable.
Santos was exhausted, he hadn't eaten, and strangely, he started to feel that he needed to sleep. This was alarming, as the last time he fell asleep he died, and he knew there wasn't a Super Hell, so he knew he needed food and fast.
The demons hated to admit the truth: that they were stuck in there, along with the meatsuits, and wanted to leave. Their misplaced rage was now focused on Santos and Deceit, and they hid behind a tower made of golden and silver ingots.
Deceit sat on the cold desert floor, peppered with golden flakes, and gazed up at the naked man with pure, unbridled, hatred.
"Can't you just leave," Deceit screamed. "The other one left the first chance she got!"
"Savannah just left, " Santos shouted.
"Who? The woman?"
"Yes! Where is she?"
"Up above with the meatsuits. You should be smart enough to follow."
Santos crouched down on the ground, hearing shouts nearby. He tried to make himself as small as possible waiting for the angry mob to move by. He could smell their sulfuric sweat, lingering heavily in the air.
His eyes scanned the golden valley, and he noticed his half-eaten meal a few yards over. Deceit saw the look on his face, and bolted, grabbing the corpse and gripping it towards her half-naked body.
"You want this," she whispered. "What's so special about it?"
Santos glared at her, and drool slipped out of his pursed lips. Deceit licked Beelzebub's finger, and her eyes went wide open, tasting the most wonderful meal. Santos's red eyes pulsed, his curse making him more preoccupied with food than leaving, or frankly staying alive.
"Don't worry. I only like the fingers."
Methodically tearing off all of them, snapping them at the knuckles, she took her part of the meal and rolled her eyes as Santos tried to drink whatever was left in the corpse that had long bled out.
Munching on his greyed fingers, spitting out his black nails, Deceit looked him up and down, and chastised herself for ever having lost to someone more consumed by Hell than she was.
The deeper they went, the worse it got, their passions amplified the closer they got towards the center. Santos, forever tired of the obsession of his children, was now obsessed just as they were, crying heavy red tears as his food was dried up.
On her third finger, Deceit paused. Slowly everything clicked into place, the world uneven, and it slowly turned, creaking, everything coming into view. The smell of sulfur became stronger, her small body became bigger, and her black blood boiled, hell flames heating it up.
She had a new passion inside of her. Her paradigm brand new, she wondered why she did the same thing as before. Chasing after another man that would never want her. No longer afraid of the mob, she stood up and announced her new plan.
"I'm coming with you. Let's fuck Him up."
Santos, still groveling on the desert floor, golden fluid smeared over his face, looked at her like she was the crazy one.
"Fuck you, no! At least Savannah is safe, I'm not-"
"You have no idea where you're going, or what you're doing," Deceit screamed. "You can work with me and we can kill Him together, or you can die before even getting there!"
Before Santos could argue back, the angry mob had found them.
Nino, the green-haired incubus, was leading the pack. Emboldened by numbers, the lesser demons believed they could defeat a general of Hell and a cursed angel. Deceit strolled over to them, her All Seeing Eye emanating a red light, and spoke.
"Leave or become one with me."
Her voice echoed, hollow and depraved, bouncing off of the golden valleys. She coughed up a black fingernail, and flared her nostrils, and grinned, feeling powerful once more.
"She thinks she's hot shit, just because He let her go upstairs for a bit," Nino shouted. "Let's put her in her place!"
Loud jeers came out of the crowd, and Deceit let out a giggle. It echoed in the air, and Santos looked around, wondering what the blood had done to him , if that's what it had done to her, and she had taken in a lot less.
She held out her hand, and Beezlebub's corpse came flying towards her. In one swift movement, she tore out his spine, and with a loud thoom , the bones calcified and hardened, creating another whip for her to torture her victims.
The force of the corpse flying, its muscles separating through the strength covered the right side of her body in his glittering blood and she turned to look back at them.
The crowd wasn't afraid, because the opportunity of leaving was too good to pass up. With her left foot, she took a step forward, steadying herself, a loud boom echoing through the valley.
The ground cracked underneath her power and anger, the air itself swirled into a frenzy as she brought her right arm up. Fear and panic flashed in the crowd's grotesque and dead eyes but it was too late.
"No man puts me anywhere," she screamed.
Bringing her arm back down, the air pushed the crowd, all two dozen of them up into the air, her whip slicing through five of them. The calcified whip tore into their skin, shredding it like a tornado tearing across a landscape.
Bits of red and green flesh fell on top of her and Santos, their black blood splattering against the dusty ground. The survivors wouldn't survive for long as with another swift movement of her arm, they were pushed back down to the ground, their bodies smashing against each other, the force pushing their blood upwards into the air.
The sudden act of violence brought Santos back down from his high, and he looked around nervously, realizing that she was right. He had no idea what he was doing, and if he wanted to find those he cared about and leave, Santos had to smarten up.
He flinched as an arm hit him on top of the head and humbled himself.
"I think we should work together," he lied.
"I think you're a little bitch, but I know he wants you. Your usefulness runs out once he doesn't," she replied.
"Like you can kill me."
Covered head to toe in tar, she approached him, the last of black blood raining down on them. She looked down at him like the roach he was and knew that once again, she was around a man that thought he was in charge.
This time she wouldn't believe the lie.
"I don't need help from you, and I don't need you to get what I want," Deceit said. "I wanted him to hurt, but physical pain seems so much better than heartbreak."
"I don't give a shit about your redemption arc, I just want to find my friends and my wife," Santos shouted. "You're an idiot if you think you can kill Him!"
Deceit rubbed the tar off her face, and shook her head in a bad attempt to get it out of her All-Seeing Eye, the tar making it tear up. Even with her vision cloudy, he spoke the truth, but that didn't mean he couldn't turn on her at any other time.
"If you leave me, I'll kill you," Deceit said.
" What the fuck?"
"Sorry. Bad habit."
Santos's body felt waves of disgust wash over him as Deceit held out her hand. He took her hand, and she helped him up, and he looked away, her All Seeing Eye seeing his fears and desires.
"You really care that much about some fucking meatsuit, that you would pass up leaving here early," Deceit asked.
"If it weren't for me, my wife wouldn't be here," Santos whispered. "I can't pass up never seeing her again."
Deceit rolled her eyes and started walking, Santos trailing behind.
"I used to think I was in love too, but I wasn't," she told him. "Don't lie to yourself."
"I never have."
She grinned her devilish grin and snickered because he was lying to himself without even knowing.