13. 13

13

Epilogue

“ H oney, I’m home,” Kassel deadpanned from the door, not really sure why, but the phrase made Beau stupidly happy so he tried to say it every day. He made sure to lift the sound barriers on their room so the screaming couldn’t reach them.

All for Beau’s comfort.

He was rewarded with a ball of black knitwear slamming into him, wrapping legs around his hips and arms around his neck.

“HI!” Beau said, raining kisses all over Kassel’s face, making him have to blink random eyes to avoid being poked.

“Missed you,” Kassel said, holding Beau by the ass and making sure to rub him up and down a bit just to show him how much he really had missed him.

“Did you have a nice day at work?” Beau asked, a small frown on his face. Kassel was once again floored by how someone as pure as Beau could be so accepting of where he was, how he got there, and where he had to spend the rest of eternity, even when Kassel knew he felt immense sadness at the pain and torture Hell was plagued with.

“Fine,” Kassel said, refusing to go into detail, walking them inside his—their—room, and sitting down on a small green sofa.

That hadn’t been there when he left for work that morning.

And it looked strangely familiar.

“Ask me how my day was!” Beau said, bouncing up and down on Kassel’s lap in excitement, only managing to be completely unhelpful to Kassel’s thought process.

“How was your day?” Kassel asked dutifully.

“Zorun took me topside to get some more of my stuff,” he said with a sunny smile. “I have clothes and all of my books and Christmas stuff, and I also got like a calendar thingy to keep track of time so we know when to celebrate. I don’t think I have enough to decorate the whole place, but Oren said to leave that to him. Zorun also helped me bring my sofa! And all of my knitting stuff. I’m gonna make outfits for the hatchlings. OH! And I got a job.”

Kassel’s head was spinning.

Clothes were good. Beau needed those. Books too, to keep him entertained. The knitting was a given, since Beau had been talking about making clothes for the hatchlings since he first saw one. Also he’d made Kassel more hats after returning his original one, which was now sitting on the purple fair duck’s head. The sofa made sense; Kassel liked it, and it was comfy, if a little bit small.

“Wait, you got a job?”

Beau nodded. “My file was completed and sent down and Oren came bursting through the door when he saw I used to work in HR. He was ecstatic and all ‘I always wanted to set up an HR department down here, I’m so happy I could cry’ and I didn’t want to make him sad so I said yes. I have ideas too.”

“You do?” Kassel asked, titling his head.

“Yes,” he said. “No disrespect, but I feel like you guys are a little bit unforgiving. Sure, people make mistakes and there are some very evil ones, but, like… sometimes the mistakes are just that. Mistakes.”

“They still deserve to be punished,” Kassel said slowly, and Beau tilted his head back.

“Not for the rest of eternity though,” he said. “So here’s what I thought. We could set up a sort of a… a rehab, I guess you could call it. Where we could send those who messed up but only a smidge. They can stay there until they learn what they did was wrong and are truly sorry for it.”

“And then what?” Kassel asked.

Beau shrugged. “If they get better they can move Upstairs. And if not they can come here.”

“Huh,” Kassel said because, in a weird way, it did make sense.

“It’s beneficial in various ways, I think,” Beau said, looking for approval but still having a hint of self-confidence. “One, it gives people a second chance, which everyone deserves. Two, it eases up the burden on you guys since you’re seriously overcrowded and understaffed.”

“That doesn’t sound bad,” Kassel said. “And did you get the higher-ups to agree?”

“Oh, G was super pleased. He said it was the best idea he’s heard since Oren made him get Wi-Fi. He’s setting up the space, like… somewhere in between here and there and recruiting angels and demons who wanna work there. I think I might apply.”

“You don’t need to work, Beau,” Kassel said, even though he felt like the new position would be perfect for Beau. Some more time away from the grime and darkness than his weekly trips. A chance to see real change and know he’d contributed to it. A soul like Beau would thrive there.

“I know but…” He shrank into himself a bit. “I figured maybe I could… you know… make friends at work. Gossip by the pile of skulls or a heavenly fountain or whatever they end up installing there and all that.”

“You want friends?” Kassel asked.

“I’ve always wanted to have a friend. I asked for you and got more than a friend which was perfect, but…it would still be nice,” he said, shy and blushing.

Kassel felt himself gearing up to go harvest the best friend he could find. “Wait here.”

He made to stand up, but Beau giggled and placed a palm on Kassel’s chest to settle him.

“You can’t force someone to be my friend,” he said.

“Yes I can.”

“Well, okay I guess you could, but I don’t want that. I want to try on my own. Maybe here people will like me.”

Kassel stared at him, because was Beau actually blind?

“Um… Cookie, I think people literally worship you here,” Kassel said.

Beau stared, wide-eyed, mouth slack.

“What?” Kassel asked.

“You called me Cookie,” Beau said, and Kassel realized he had. “You don’t usually use that.”

“You like it?”

Beau bit his bottom lip, squirming on Kassel’s lap.

“Love it,” he whispered, and well… if the stiffness between his legs was anything to go by, he really did.

Kassel spread his palms over Beau’s ass and pulled him closer.

“Interesting,” he said, leaning in to lick a trail up Beau’s neck. “I’ll have to call you that more often.”

“Please do,” Beau said, breathy and pliant in his arms. Kassel made swift work of vanishing their clothes so they were pressed together, naked and hot.

“My Cookie,” he whispered into Beau’s ear before biting the lobe, and Beau keened, fingers going up and around Kassel’s horns on instinct.

“Have me?” Beau begged.

“I always want you,” Kassel said. “Forever.”

“Forever,” Beau said, lifting up on his knees so Kassel could sit him on his cock, but before he could, a loud wail could be heard, followed by an ungodly sound that pierced eardrums and would have frozen the blood in their veins… if they’d had any.

Beau jumped, detaching himself from Kassel and gaping at the door to their room where the sound was coming from.

“What is that?” he asked, panic audible.

Kassel frowned for a second before it dawned on him.

“Surprise!” he said, voice flat, but to his credit he tried doing the wiggly finger thing Beau called jazz hands. He said they made things more exciting, so he figured he’d try it out.

“What?” Beau asked.

Kassel rushed to the door, grabbing for the handle.

“KASSEL, WE’RE NAKED!” Beau screeched but the door was already open wide, leaving Beau scrambling to wrap his blanket around his body and Kassel to flash his dick at about five thousand souls gathered in front of their room.

They all fell dead silent at the sight and Kassel rolled all of his eyes before conjuring some clothes onto his body.

A disappointed sigh rippled through the crowd, but he ignored it.

“Sing!” he boomed at them, and they broke out into the most hellishly horrendous rendition of “Oh Come All Ye Faithful” the world had ever heard.

None of them could sing, the fact that they had been tortured for eons was clearly affecting them, and the screeching of a group of hatchlings in the background was helping nothing.

Still, Kassel turned to look at Beau and gave him his rare smile.

“For you,” he said, and Beau stared, clutching the blanket in his hands with an iron grip.

“What?” he asked in shock.

“They made you sad on Earth,” he said. “So they’re making it better here.”

“Kassel…” Beau said, voice wobbly as he threw himself into his arms.

“For you,” Kassel said again. “Carolers.”