Hell Hath No Fury
19
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Hell Hath No Fury Chapter Nineteen
Disclaimers Apply
A/N Goddess Foxfeather is a wondermous Uberbeta!
Kitty
winced as she cut her finger on another stone.
“You know… I technically shouldn’t be here.”
“Neither
should I,” Liz muttered, shoving her hair back from her eyes.
vignettes Azazel had set up, she could just manage to not be sick.
“No, I mean…
I’m Jewish. We don’t ‘do’ Hell,” Kitty
replied, debating whether or not to suck on the cut to stop the bleeding.
should. “I guess I should tell Rabbi
Green she’s wrong.”
“No,” Liz
smiled faintly, trying to stay calm. “She
was right in a sense. Hell isn’t like
they teach in Sunday school. It’s a
dimension in and of itself, like…”
“
Kitty sighed.
Liz
snorted. “Yeah, but with less traffic and more brimstone.
unbaptized babies and people who cheat on their wives go to swim in a lake of
fire until the end times…” She stood on
her toes and peered into the seeming distance.
“It’s a world in and of itself.
Parts of it, I hear, are very nice.
Which is why it’s so appealing to some people,
theirs, most times.”
“You mean
they tell each other ‘Go to Earth!’ when they’re mad?” Kitty asked
incredulously, rising stiffly to her feet to follow Liz, who had set off
determinedly in the direction from which they came, retracing their steps.
“Something
like that,” Liz muttered, stopping after only a few yards.
Her voice echoed off of the high ceilings of finely carved stone,
startling a flock of some sort of dark bird out of their roosts, sending them
reeling and screeching before vanishing into the reddish black maw of a hallway
to their left. The entire chamber was
like one massive throne room, a richly carved silver chair at the far end and
the rest of the space stretching so far and wide that it was almost impossible
to see the end of it all. “We just CAME
from this direction!”
“Yeah… I was
wondering why we were heading back…”
Kitty turned a slow circle and saw why Liz was so upset.
Everything shifts when we move!”
The archway that had been behind them was gone now, the throne was
facing the wall, and the pyres of smoldering coal were rearranged along the
opposite wall from where they had been when they first found themselves in the
room after leaving the torture chambers.
“God, it’s like being in the Boschhref="#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title="">
painting from Hell… no pun intended.”
“Follow me,”
Liz said suddenly. “Hold my hand,” she
grabbed Kitty’s wrist and began walking steadily towards the throne.
you’re called! Come on!”
Kitty
pulled frantically. “What’re you
doing? Are you insane?”
“No, shut
up!” Liz snapped, tugging harder. “ Azazel!
Let’s make a deal. You’re a demon…
I know how you love deals…”
“You have
my confused with folklore, m’dear,” he said softly, appearing in the
throne. He sprawled elegantly, reminiscent
of a Borgia prince, dressed entirely in black silk with red accents, his
demonic air strangely compelling. “Demons
don’t have to come when called. Just
your precious Hellboy,” he spat. “Hellboy
who is more human than demon, your little lap dog.”
“We’ll give
you what you want if you let us go,” Liz said, her voice thick and hand shaking
where it grasped Kitty’s wrist.
“What? No!”
Kitty yelped, twisting free. “We’re not giving him Kurt!”
Azazel
smiled and leaned forward. “Maybe Kitty
has a Persephone complex and would like to remain to be Queen of Hell,
hmmm? Kurt’s due, one day, to be ruler
of all this…” He swept his hand to encompass a rapidly shifting landscape of
fire and ice, green and black and red and orange and every color imaginable, a
scene ranging from breathtaking beauty to gut wrenching despair.
“I’m not a
brood mare,” Kitty sniped.
Azazel
yawned theatrically. “I know, I know,
your friends are going to stop me and blah blah blah.
What? You think Kurt is my only offspring?
No, he’s just my favorite. Do you know why?
darlings.”
Liz
recoiled as Azazel stood and walked slowly towards them.
did not turn to see what it was. Kitty’s
startled cry of fear told her all she needed to know.
Azazel
clucked his tongue. “You know it doesn’t
work like that. He needs to *want* to do
it. He needs to *have* to do it.
will be answered.” He stepped back and a
window seemed to open before them, looking directly into the old lab Liz
recognized from the only place she could truly call home.
Hellboy was kneeling, blocking
their view. Liz nearly called to him
before she realized what he was looking at.
Her body lay next to Kitty’s on the floor, both of them appearing to be
asleep or dead. “What did you do?” she
rasped. “What happened to us?”
“Your souls will be returned to
your bodies when Kurt is returned to me.”
Kurt blinked and coughed once, then
promptly vomited. The teleporting had
been brutal on his weak system, the lack of food and rest taking it’s
toll. It had not been hard to do, he thought,
staring around the dark space. All he
had to do was follow Hellboy. The rest
took care of itself. “Hello?” he said
softly. The portal had taken long enough
to close that he could cross, entering this dark world all on his own.
“So,” a voice purred, “am I…”
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painted Hellscapes that give some folks the
willies.