He certainly collected blood in a bowl and poured it down his throat now and then. He didn't even blink when pieces of flesh and bone fell with it.
"Yes ma'am."
"Oh, so prison was not so bad…"
"No ma'am." It was only bad for others.
The hottie Raeva loved so much stood beside the lady and directed a steady threatening glance at Raeva. Naturally, all the right answers fell out of his mouth without being asked.
After the interrogation, Raeva was given a pair of shorts and thrown into the trunk. He was told people might see them with a prisoner. But what people?
There isn't an ant or a fly for thousands of miles. Just say you didn't like the smell of urine!
Not that he would dream of sharing a car with the Hell King. Trunk is so much more comfortable.
The car was very large and the trunk was also very large. The couple are luckily not the Hell King. They not only opened air vents, they even made the trunk walls transparent!
What a high level feature. Families of great wealth customise this feature for showing off gifts and trousseau during weddings.
Timekeepers also customise this feature to show off spoils from their mission in folded space. One cannot run a car in folded space, but they can park it in the folded parking lot and make it into a disgusting museum of trophies.
Not that Nate had any time credits to customise a car. This was bought second hand from a friend. He threw in the extra feature for a bad engine.
Thus the car stopped five times before reaching folded space. The thief shivered as he heard that horrifying, but very soft voice. Because of his horror, he didn't understand that the engine was broken. The two men fixed it before it broke again, for a total of five times.
Eventually, Aniket gave up. He told Nate to open the pod.
Anita was vehemently against this suggestion. "Nikki, you don't understand the dangers of shedding. This is just a broken engine. Let's fix it. Or let's hitch a ride with other people."
"Niti…the only people coming this way will come after the shadow storms. And they still won't give us a ride."
"Why not?!"
They'll be too scared to.
"Because they're criminals, Niti…they're bad people," said the unassuming monster who'd been called the king of hell.
"Oh…"
After a lot of discussion, the men gave it one last try. However, the car broke down a sixth time. This time, it would not move at all.
This is how Raeva found himself squealing and dying as he was pulled out of the trunk by the Hell King. He was thrown in front of the engine with a pointed look.
Did he mean to fry Raeva on the engine? But the heat and surface area doesn't seem to be enough?
Raeva had never been so close to the Hell King. But he had learned that everything is impermanent, even fear. The world itself is an illusion. Jesus is the messiah.
Raeva started working. His hands were very swift. They were magical. A getaway vehicle is the bullet and weapon of a thief. He was very good at fixing cars.
Perhaps because he was doing something he was very good at, Raeva grew confident. He yelled, "Who connected this dot here? Have y'all never heard of subatomic leverage and semi-conductor kinetics?"
What dot? This is an engine. Why is he talking about dots?
Aniket and Nate hovered on the small man. They learned there was a circuit board where they were having trouble. It was full of dots.
They thought it was decoration.
They removed themselves from the area. But the small moment nearly gave Raeva a heart attack.
Thanks to his service, Raeva was given a ride to a mythical place. It is called folded space.
Although Raeva didn't understand what was special about it. They went to an address in Dignified Realm. As usually, there was nothing in all directions. Except a single, nondescript house. The three people called it a pod. Having parked the car in the driveway, they opened the door, they went inside. Nothing happened.
At this point, no one paid attention to the bonafide thief in the house full of antiques. They were too concerned about T.K and giving him a bath or whatever.
Raeva was not in a hurry. He sat and observed. Two people were helping the Hell King undress and letting him enter the bath.
This was probably the strangest sight Raeva had ever seen with his own eyes. The Hell King himself was either in a trance or was drunk. He was not responding to their commands. He had to be moved physically like a patient.
When did this guy get so high?
If the world inmate even saw the Hell King be so vulnerable, he would immediately bring his shank and assassinate him. But Raeva had known the impermanence of life. He will not do such things.
He watched the couple put the Hell King on some kind of apparatus. It was like a hospital bed, but small. The naked Hell King was curled into a foetal position and was covered with a thin sheet of unknown material. It moved with waves of its own like a plastic sheet on the ocean.
Raeva knew his moment had arrived. Exactly how rich are these people? Every item here is a treasure trove. Every item is at least five hundred years old! Even a spoon here was a priceless antique.
Even though Raeva wouldn't steal from the Hell King if he had a thousand testicles, life is impermanent. Everything is illusion.
He was not the one stealing. It was providence that is making him steal.
Ultimately, the thief put a lot of exquisite antiques in his trousers and his jacket. He stole the car keys and dove to the door.
Except…
The thief was hanging to the threshold and there was no driveway. There was no car. There was no road. There was no ground. There was no sky.
Everything was a silvery mass of particles that can be called light. Can be called cloud. Can be called path. Can be called chaos.
"So this is folded space…I was just curious."
Raeva's casual tone of voice lowered the anger in Nate. He reached over the short man and closed the door.
"Put those things inside and don't make any noise. Nikki is shedding."
Raeva shivered. He thought he managed his reaction well, but Nate still knew. He clearly didn't see anything!
"What…happened to T.K?"
Dare I ask the wellbeing of the eternal demon?
"Nothing happened. He froze the pod for twenty years. The pod will demand him to return to pod time. So he needs to shed."
"Shed…like a snake…?"
"More like quantum particles in relative space and time, but yeah…snake too."
"Is it painful?"
Nate appreciated the concern of this time servant, without knowing that he very much wished for dear T.K's pain.
He slapped the man on the shoulder and said, "Come. Prepare dinner. From today on, you're the time servant of this pod. Be proud."
Of course, Raeva was proud to have survived a car ride with the Hell King. He ran into the kitchen and removed the articles from his clothing. He hid them in an obscure place and got to work.
Whatever it means being a time servant, Raeva quickly prepared both lunch and dinner. It was a little late for lunch and a little early for dinner. But he was hungry. So he ate first.
While he was eating, he took a critical look at the kitchen. Even the kitchen's design and utensils were antique. Only the stove and some other implements were of the latest models. But they were not very expensive. They can be called cheap.
Why are they so rich and so poor at the same time? What is this obsession with antiques? It was as if Raeva walked into a movie set of a period drama.
Unless…the entire house and everything in it was built five hundred years ago?
Raeva laughed and filled his belly with fresh food. He was directed to a guest room with a gesture of silence, but please, tell a thief to be silent? How superfluous.
He slunk into the cosy antique room with antique sheets and antique windows. He took a bath and put on the spare clothes in the closet.
One can say after they get over their fright and their terror, there's no one with nerves of steel as a thief. Raeva was sleeping right above the room T.K was. And he was thinking of taking out the crystals from the chandelier.
It was the view outside the window that subdued him. He fell on the bed.
Life is impermanent. All future, present and past belong in the same moment. The thief stopped thinking and fell asleep.